Well, it's a couple years early but this seems like a good time to turn it over....
The 36 year of Manuel II Palaiologos was an amazing rebirth for the Roman Empire. Reduced to a pair of enclaves in Morea and the city itself when he took over, it has regained territories lost for five centuries and even driven back into the middle east, securing the cities of Jerusalem and Alexandria for Christiandom once more. The Roman Empire does not yet have a comfortable grip over it's Turkish and Bulgarian subjects, but it is once again one of the strongest nations of Europe, the rival of France or Castile. The Roman economy is still reeling from the ravages of nine centuries of religious war and the nation is still somewhat backwards but the rebuilding has begun. Roman culture, faded to little more then a memory is now coming back with gusto, with the brillient gilded iconography of the renovated Hagia Sophia being the envy of Europe and the magnificent splendor of the elaborate barracks at the Thessalian March became a symbol of renewed Roman military vigor. A fortunate as he was as emperor, Manuel was cursed to be the last of the Palaiologos lineage. Although he had six sons, three were lost in the wars, two were struck down by illness and his final son and heir was lost in a tragic accident only a few years before the fathers death. In the end, Manuel had to adopt a stranger into the family and give him the Palaiologos name so as to safeguard the future of the empire. It was said that Manuel never smiled again after that day, his face frozen in sorrow like a marble statue, thus giving birth to the legend of the "Marble Emperor". It was said that Manuel did not die, but instead God granted him rest for a time so he could forget the pain of his loss. But the Marble Emperor waited for the day when he would return to life and save the Roman Empire once more in it's hour of greatest need.
OOC: Things slowed down a bit after I was down after the first war with the Ottomans, mostly because it's hard to maintain that level of micromanagement with a large empire. I was able to reclaim all existing cores and a few more territories but it was hard slogging doing so. At one point, I was at war with the entirety of North Africa and at another point I had a whole uber Timurid empire gunning for me but fortunately, the sultan died and the succession crises weakened them. While I didn't do everything possible, for instance taking back Southern Italy or westernize, I've got the empire as one of the strongest countries in the world and not facing any dangerous neighbors. So I think odds are pretty good that they'll survive the rest of the game. Point of interest, Manuel died without an heir but the local noble who succeeded him just happened to have the same dynastic name.
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Topic: Let's re-write history! (forum game of eu3) (Read 30455 times)