Videssos:Total war

[Matchlock]

Hi everyone.First of all,I want to let you all know that I can't mod to save my life.So I'll propose this idea for a mod.Forgive my english.

Videssos:Totalwar

This mod that I propose Is ment to bring the world created by Harry Turtledove to life,if anybody's interested of course.The world is very much like ours.There are no Orcs,trolls,Elvs,or any other fantasy race.Only men.The geography is also like ours,except the west is in the east,and the east is west! now that may sound confusing,but I'll make sense of it by describing locations in the world and there real life comparisons.
The westlands,A large Knobby peninsula(Asia Minor) that forms the western frontier of the Empire of Videssos.You get it now?
Mow I'll move on to the factions that Inhabit the world.Heres part one.

1.The Empire of Videssos.-Videssos is the name of the capital and is refered to as Videssos the City or just the city.It is analogous to Byzantium which became Constantinople and the empire as a whole.Videssos the city is located on a peninsula that nearly seperates the videssian sea(The black sea) from the sailor's sea(The Mediterranean).The Empire is actualy divided into two halves by the Cattle-crossing,a waterway which connects the two seas.Videssos the city lies on the eastern half(Balkans) which lies south of the River Astris.Below The river,lie the Paristrain MT.s(Carpathian).To the west lies the Westlands(Anatolia)that contains the bulk of the videssian Empire and it's breadbasket.The westlands border Vaspurakan(Armenia) and Videssos's eternal foe,The Kingdom of Makuran(Persia).Videssos also owns an outpost called Prista,which is located on a peninsula(The Crimean)that juts out of southern Pardraya(The vast stepps of the Ukraine and russia) into the videssian sea.Videssos,at the time of the Videssos cycle,is at least over 1,200 years old.(It could be more,I'm not sure because there never was a clear timeline.) and once stretched from the bay of Haloga to the border with Makuran.Adger,Kubrat,Thatagush,and Khatrish were all part of empire,but were lost in the Khamorth Invasion.Vaspurakan was also once part of the empire but lost to Makuran.Namdalen(Sicily) later became the independant Duchy of Namdalen(Norman sicily) after Halogai pirates took it.The Empire of Videssos's Religion is the worship Of Phos,which states that universe was created the Good god Phos,who battles his evil counterpart,Skotos.The Good who are pure of heart and soul,are able to walk the Bridge of the Separator and make it into Phos's Heaven.The wicked who fall off the bridge decend into Skotos' Ice hell.The Ecclestical Hierarchy of videssos in dominated by the Patriarch.The Videssian Emperor is called the Avtokrator.The banner of the Empire is a sunburst on a sky blue background.The Videssian army perfers to fight on horseback and are commonly fight as lancers of HAs.They have decent infantry.The most powereful of their infantry are the imperial guard,which is comosed of Halogai armed with their massive two handed axes.Despite there losses over the years,they a still a force to reckoned with.

2.The Kingdom of Makuran.-The Kingdom of Makuran is an ancient Kingdom which lies west of Videssos and is the only true rival Videssos has ever known.Videssos was once able to sack the capital of Mashiz, but it was unable to fully conquer it.Likewse,Makuran,despite it's own successes,has never been able to conquer Videssos.Mashiz,the capital,lies between the Tib and Tutub rivers(The Tigris and the Euphartes) that prouduce rich and fetile farmland called the Land of a thousand Cities.(Mesopotamia)The peopel that inhabit The the land of a thousand cities are not actual Makuraners(Persians),but Makurani,an ethnic group native there.(Arabs)Makuran is famed for it's heavy lancers,which are unstopable in a charge.The Makurani make excellent infantry and foot bowmen.Makuran belives in the God and The Prophets four.They belive that once they die,the good and faithful sevent's soul are cast into the void,but recoverd by the God.Thos that are coruupt of heart are lost in the Void forever.Makurans banner is A Golden Lion on a red banner.They are Ruled by The King of Kings

3.The Khamorth Tribes.-The Khamorth are nomadic tribes that Live on the vast stepps of Pardrya.They live a simple,nomadic life and follow their heards of sheep.They are led by Khagans shamans.The most powerful tribes are the White foxs,Spotted leopards,Leaping Goats and The Wolves.The Khamorth are fierce warriors that fight mainly on horseback.they are masters of the horse and ride their horses so much that most of them are bow-legged.This is because they learn how to ride before they can walk.500 years ago,the Khamorth lanched a massive Migration-Invasion into North-easter provinces of Of The Once Massive Videssian Empire and sacked the great city of Skopentzana.The city was the second greatest city in the Empire.They were able to do this because of a massive videssian civil war,which greatly weakend the Empire.The Videssians were helpless from the nomads,who raveged the Northeast,killing,rapeing,looting,and setteling.Khamorth were even abel to penetrate the massive Paristrain MT.s.Once the civil war was over,videssos was able to push the Khamorth into The Paristrain MT.s but was too weak to reclaim the vast swath of land tooken from them.In the course 150 years,the Khamorth established three succesor states.The Khaganates of Kubrat,Thatagush,and Khatrish.Though they can trace their ancestry the the tribes that chose to move into the empire all those years ago,they are there own states and maintain an uneasy coexistance with the various Khamorth tribes of Pardraya.NOTE:Not sure what this factions banner is.You could always split the Kamorth up into multipel factions and base thir banners on the name of the tribe.

4.The Kingdom of Adger-Once part of Halogaland,The Province of Adger was conquered by Videssos during the reign of Avtokrator Stavrakios.Hundreds of years later, the Khamorth invaded,cutting off the Province from the Empire.The videssian Eparch of Adger knew the Empire could not help Adger,so he declared the existance of the Kingdom of Adger,named after the province and the capital,Adger.The Kingdom was ruled by videssian peopel,though they barrowed much trapings and ways from the Haloga.Adger is located on a peninsula that juts out into the cold Northern sea and is bordered by Halogaland to the north,thatagush to the east,and Pardrya to the west.Adger is always at odds with Halogaland and constantly faces raids.The Khamorth still menace the Kingdom and sience it's founding,it has lost land to the Halogai and the Khamorth.They follow Phos,just like their imperial brothers.It units should cosist mostly of videssian units with a smatering of Haloga based ones(.Again,not sure what the banner is.Make it up.

5.Halogaland-Halogaland is the Northmost land in the known World and is known to be freezing cold.The Halogai who live in the cold,harsh land revere their own pantheon of gods and Know no bettter delight then battle.They are tall,blond haired,and have very fair skin.They perfer to battle afoot and wield giant two handed axes,considering that the only way an honorable Haloga should fight.Calvary is rare,only belonging to the most powerful Haloga cheiftans and the High chief of Halogaland have calvary of any sort in thir armies.Young Halogai who are thirsting for adventure offten join the Videssian Imperial guard,Made up of Halogai willing to fight for the empire and earn honor in combat.They are paid well,so that when they retire from the Guard,they bring home a considerable amount of gold and respect,almost granting them positon as a cheiftan.Halogai Who do not join often become traders or Pirates,raiding Adger and other nations.Currently,The High Cheif is at war with the King of Adger,fighting for control of territory.The Banner of this nation Should be very Norse looking in apperance

6.The Khaganate of Thatagush.The Khaganate of Thatagush is centered on a large peninsula that was once the province of Bratzista.The ruins of the once great videssian city of Skopentzana lies in Thatagush,Like Kubrat and Khatrish,was established by the decendants of the Khamorth invasion.It is bordred by Adger to the north,Khatrish to the south,and Pardraya to the west.It is one of the few nations that does not border the Empire of videssos.Thatagush,like Khatrish,belives in the Balance of Phos,or the Balance.VIdessos and Adger belive that Phos will eventualy triumph over skotos in the end.The Balance states that final outcome between Phos and Skotos cannot be known.Good and Evil are evenly balanced.They are ruled by A Khagan and fight much like there stepp nomad ancestors did. NOTE:Of all the factions in the Videssos universe,the least is known about thatagush.No information about banner so you'll just have to be creative with this faction.

7.The Khaganate of Khatrish-The Khaganate of Khatrish is a small nation founded after the Khamorth invasion.It lies south of Thatagush,eastward of Videssos and Kubrat and is bound by the River Astris and the sailors sea.Khatrish,moreso that any of the Khamorth founded state,Imitate Videssian ways and customs,though they are known less stodgy and more sly than videssians,with a famous sense of wit.They also belive in the Balance,which the higly religios videssians view as a heretical version of their own faith.Despite this,Videssos and Khatrish maintain trade and are on friendly tearms with videssos.Just like Thatagush and kubrat,they have a pathetic fleet that is no match compared to a Videssian Dromon.They are famed for their freewheeling light calvary that can maneuver quickly around there foes and ply them with arrows.Rulled by Kagan.No banner is known.

8.The Kaganate of Kubrat-The Kaganate of Kubrat founded by a savege Khamorth clan of the same name who were part of The Khamorth invasion.The Kubrat tribe established the Kaganate of kubrat which is located between the River Astris and The videssian City of Imbros,the northermost city of the videssian empire.In between are the Paristrain MT.s and fertile plains.Kubrat is a major threat to Videssos and has been raiding norther settelmens for over 300 years.Unlike Khatrish and Thatagush,Kubrat fiercely adheres to it's Khamorth roots and and practices Khamorth paganism,worshiping spirits. that the Kamorth tribes revere.They rely on Videssian slaves to raise crops and domesticated animals,perfering to let there flocks of sheep to graze plains of kubrat.Like The Khamorth,they ride stepp ponies into battle,which are very tough beasts that have excellent stamina.They pefer to fight as HAs and luring thir foes into traps,such as fakeing retreats and suprising them by charging their persures head on.Led by a Khagan and banner unknown.capital city is Pliskavos,Videssos and Kubrat are constantly at war,but in each war Kubrat maneges to to survive and continues to be a major foe of Videssos.

Those are the factions in the Time of Troubles.Others emerge later I'll cover them and the Magical aspects of The Videssos universe in the next post.Like i said,If you need more factions,Split The Kamorth Tribes into 5 factions.I'll also provide examples of whatt makuran and videssian armour looks like.

I'm going to attatch a map of the known world in the Time of troubles.Anything you want to know about lore,Ask me. I can only hope that this idea catchs somebodys eye.Please!

[imperator romanorum]

I've send you a pm regarding this mod.
I am very interested in this ambitious project and I think that MTW2 is the perfect game to mod in videssian world!

[Highi]

looks very interesting. Can't help you though, I can't mod (unfortunately), but good luck!

[NikeBG]

A historical-fantasy mod (I guess most of us can clearly see the real equivalents of at least half the factions)? Interesting... I've had a similar idea some years ago, but it was more history and more fantasy at the same time. Anyway, this idea would be interesting to see, if it gets realized...