The face of Europe is ever-changing; the facts, not so much so. A peninsula jutting out from the great mass of Eurasia–a peninsula of peninsulas, connected by flat land along the central corridor–a peninsula of forests, of fields, of barren lands that don’t quite reach the level of desert for the most part…it’s a beautiful place. Much sought-after real estate on this side of the Black Sea, that’s for sure.
But the onset of the Blessed Cold (so called as a euphemism, because “Icy Talons of Hell” offended too many clergymen) around 400–on account of a volcano, of all things, exploding in Indonesia–left the lands that were once the Roman Empire in serious disarray, attacked from all sides by barbarians. Storms bashed against the northern coast of the continent, drowning raider and farmer alike. For a time there were three Roman Emperors, each with their own capitals–Llynnin, Rome, and Constantinople. Later on came a terrible, terrible famine, one that unfairly targeted the northern portions and left the south–the lands still governed and protected by the Eastern Roman Empire–relatively unscathed, only to be picked apart by fleeing companies of warriors from the Sassanid Empire who settled on the North African Coast and proceeded to wreak all hell in the Mediterranean. The Catholic Church is largely confined to Italy (and for some reason Libya); the main churches in the area are Celtic Orthodoxy, Greek Orthodoxy, and Arianism, in strict competition with each other and with Zoroastrianism. The Catholics mostly act as traders in the Mediterranean now, moving from port to port. The Jews have largely been kicked out…on the other hand, the Sulaymanad Murshidate is completely Jewish (or Abrahamite, which is the next best thing). Thank God the African Plague hasn’t come around again…
BRIDAWNN: one of four remnants of the Roman Empire.
Midnight Sun 