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Purple Phoenix Reborn (Constantinople ISOT)

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Chapter 32
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    • Chapter 32
    The Shaken Crescent
    ​
    From its humble origins in Anatolia to its conquest of much of the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire seemed ascendant. First conquering rival Turkish states in Anatolia, then taking the scraps of Roman controlled land as well. This foundation would allow the Sultans to expand further across the Bosporus, taking more Roman land. Eventually, their armies would march through Greece, bringing most of that ancient land under their rule. Victorious men would turn North, shattering Bulgarian armies and directly ruling the lands of Eastern Rome's enemy. It was not enough. The Ottomans would secure the Serbians as vassals and crush the Crusade of Varna, making it clear they were a threat that Europe could not just wish away.

    When the Sultan Mehmed marched on Constantinople, his armies seemed endless and unstoppable. He would take the City, turn his men on the remaining Beyliks in Anatolia and Roman lands in Greece, and secure his Empire for centuries to come. It would take the Lord himself intervening to save Constantinople and stop the Ottoman Empire from rising to replace Rome. Mehmed would certainly have felt such, looking upon the end of his enemy's rule.

    It was, at this point, that God himself did intervene. Or so it would certainly have seemed at the time.

    Constantinople would be whisked away to, as it would turn out, safety and prosperity. Mehmed would be left with the ashes of his God turning on him. The unstoppable Ottomans faltered. They would take Greece, yes, though the hold on the Morea would prove tenuous. They would rule all of Anatolia. But the loss of Constantinople, and Mehmed's resultant fall against Vlad the Great [1], would see the Ottoman advance halted. Their rise would continue, in fits and starts, yet the air of inevitability- of invincibility -was lost.

    When word would arrive, nearly a century after Mehmed's prize was taken, of Constantinople's survival? Of how the City had thrived and built a new Empire in a new Eden?
    Suffice it to say that, were any man but Suleiman ruling the Ottoman throne, the Empire may have fractured at the seams.

    - The Fading Crescent: The Ottoman Empire in the Age of Discovery, University of Venice, 2025


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    The Ottoman Empire in 1530 was a state only beginning to recover from years of deprivation and chaos. The great Civil War between the sons of Bayezid was in the past, and the armies that Selim had worn down against Persians and Egyptians had begun to strengthen from the fragile shell they had become. Money once more flowed into the coffers of Istanbul[2] from both taxes and trade with places as far flung as India or Crimea. Relations had even normalized with Venice to the point of trade opening up into the wider European market, though Genoa- still well remembering the fate of Galata -refused Ottoman merchants at every turn.

    True enough, the Empire was a shadow of what it once was. Nowhere near where it might have been, had Mehmed not fallen to Vlad. Had Selim managed to dethrone the Mamlukes and take the grand prize that was Egypt.

    Yet, nonetheless, the Empire was returning to normalcy. The deft hand of Suleiman, only twenty-six years old upon his ascension to the throne, had proven just and able. He had restored relations with those outside of the Empire. The Sultan had warmed relations with Persia through trade of border lands and agreements on the sharing of trade in Mesopotamia. He had fortified the borders in the Holy Land, grand castles rising from the sands. Old Crusader holds and new construction, both giving a watchful gaze towards Egypt. This investment continued as Jerusalem was rebuilt and rendered grander than it had been for many, many years. Even the Jewish Diaspora was treated well, continuing the policies of his wise grandfather, Bayezid.

    Now thirty-six, Suleiman was approaching his middle-age and settling into his rule. He was secure from revolts, the powerful nobility sated with the increase in gold flowing through the Empire. The army was loyal to him in a way it had not been to his father, as he husbanded his resources and built a professional core the envy of any European King or Prince. His trade and income allowed for rebuilding the Ottoman Fleet, long left to languish as the successors of Mehmed poured resources into costly land campaigns in the East.

    It should come as little surprise that, in spite of his growing reputation as a 'peace maker', Suleiman began to turn his thoughts to his legacy.[3]
    His eyes drifted from the shining minarets and gleaming palaces of his capital towards the frontiers of his Empire. The Persians remained, friendly for the moment yet always a potential foe. The Egyptians constantly probed at the border, as did his own armies, looking for any sign of weakness. His friendly relations with Venice mattered little when Suleiman desired to bring the Morea back to the fold and secure the final conquest of the troublesome Greeks. Even the Knights of Rhodes, secure on their petty island, were a potential avenue of expansion.

    And then there was Wallachia. Proud, arrogant, Wallachia!

    The sons of Vlad had long been a thorn to the Ottoman throne. Their rule over northern Bulgaria, less and less 'Bulgarian' by the day, irked the Sultan. As did their pretentions to glory, considering themselves heirs to the Roman throne. As if Suleiman were not, himself, the ruler of the Roman throne by right of conquest. His grandfather and father had been content to focus in the East, but as the third decade of the 16th Century began, Suleiman began to look towards the West. He would finish what his great-grandfather had started, by smashing the Wallachians and Hungarians.

    Or so he may have planned, from what few writings survive from this period. Events would overtake him, as it would turn out. For as Suleiman began to marshal forces and plan campaigns, whispers began to reach Istanbul. Whispers from Western Europe. Tales of an Empire in the far, far West. An Empire ruled from the shining City of Constantinople, taken by the Lord from the perfidious Sultan Mehmed and gifted a new Eden.

    It seemed easy enough to ignore such rumors, at first. Long had rumors spread that Constantinople had not been burned. Stories and tales that spoke of the truth, that the City had vanished in the night, spared the wrath of Mehmed the Butcher. Suleiman had known the truth from the moment he ascended the Throne. Much as it was denied to the ends of the Earth, the Sultans had preserved the truth. They maintained records that spoke of Constantinople being stolen from the Empire. Of how Mehmed had deliberately ruined his own reputation to preserve that of his line, of his Empire.

    So, yes, Suleiman knew the truth. He knew that the rumors that sometimes flared up were true, though he stamped down on them as his predecessors had done. The legacy of Mehmed destroying Constantinople remained the 'truth' in the land of the Turks, as it must to preserve the legitimacy of their rule and claims to the Roman throne.

    These new rumors, however, were nothing like the old ones. These came from France, from Spain and from Portugal. Lands where it had long been accepted that it was simply easier for all involved to pretend, they did not know how false Mehmed's claims had been. These were not discontented Greeks or Serbs, speaking in hushed whispers and quiet tones of what their grandfathers had seen. These were merchants and Princes, speaking openly of trade with strange Greeks in a land ruled by even stranger devil-worshippers. Some brave men even spoke of crossing the wet, harsh jungle to set sail.

    They had seen Constantinople with their own eyes, glittering with what seemed to be an endless wealth of gold. An Empire that had sprung up from a ruined root to become something grander, if smaller, than it had been for centuries.

    As these rumors grew ever stronger and ever wilder, Suleiman...stopped.



    Plans for conquest ground to a halt. Military preparations were canceled, and men sent home, be they soldiers or sailors. Istanbul seemed to pause to take in a breath, waiting for the Sultan's reaction. The stories continued to spread, becoming harder and harder to deny out of hand. Even the nobility began to whisper about how the Empire was founded on a grand lie. Those who had not, already, known the truth.

    Even those who had long lived with the trust of the throne looked to Suleiman with wary eyes. These men had known the truth, yet they had assumed that Constantinople was gone. Taken by the Lord to a place it could never be found again. Now the stories from the West were beginning to make clear that while the City had been 'saved'--

    Stolen, some said, when pushed on the matter.

    --it had, in fact, not been taken to another plane. It had merely been relocated halfway across the world, given a golden land to grow and cultivate. A land to reform its power and create an Empire that, by its very existence, brought the Ottoman state into question. The Sultans had spent so much blood and gold on building their throne and now it seemed as if the Lord himself had chosen the Romans over the Turks. None could deny the power of the Ottoman Empire. None could deny the legitimacy of their conquests.

    It was not the existence of the Empire in question. It was their claim to be the chosen of the Lord. It was increasingly obvious that was a lie, and the Empire began to show the cracks at the seams that one could expect from that.

    Vultures circled. Jeering, real or imagined, echoed from Egypt and even Persia. The Ottoman claim to superiority in the Islamic world had never seemed shakier and the Shīʿa rulers of Persia, especially, looked with joy at this development. And why should they have not? The rivalry between the schools of Islam remained as bitter as ever. As the truth of Constantinople's survival spread, it brought into sharp question any claims the Ottoman Sultans could make to primacy in the Islamic world. That was something that both Sunni and Shīʿa rulers would, naturally, take advantage of.

    No grand military campaigns began. Even the vultures in waiting remained such, waiting with bated breath for Suleiman's reaction. The only real area of conflict would be Greece, where the Greek people were struggling with their own realizations of what this news meant to them.

    In the halls of Yeni Saray [4], the Sultan brooded. No word came from his residence. Writings, be they from Suleiman or those close to him, are scarce. None truly know what went through the mind of the Sultan in those days. It was apparent that he had chosen to step back and decide his next move. His grand dreams of conquest in Europe ground to a halt before they could even begin as he was forced to turn his attention to, once more, stabilizing his throne and Empire.

    Suleiman, in later years, became known as a great lawmaker. This was as much out of necessity as out of an earnest desire. He had been presented with a fragile realm and had reinforced it, building a legal code from the ground up. He had taken the Ottoman Empire and reforged it in his image. Such was his work on laws that he became known as The Lawgiver in his own realm. His reformations had created the basis that allowed the Empire to survive the rumblings of Constantinople.

    Even so, he was forced to put off military adventures to continue fortifying his legal code and rule. To further strengthen it from within.

    While a famous poet and prolific writer in his own right, Suleiman wrote little of his personal thoughts and emotions in those days. By contrast, he wrote many, many legal documents. He was silent, yes, but not idle. He brooded but he did not fall into despair. None truly know what he thought in the aftermath of Constantinople's survival. What we can be certain of is that he did not sit and leave his realm to suffer. Suleiman worked to prepare for the future. He fortified his Empire and stabilized it from the throne on down.

    And so it was that when word did exit the palace, it was by means of the Sultan himself, standing before crowds of his people. He was recorded as a haggard man, his already slim frame rendered yet thinner by the stress of the months he had spent isolated in his Palace. His face was gaunt, and his eyes rimmed with the marks of a man subsisting on little enough sleep. Later writers would make comparisons of Suleiman, in this moment, to Heraklonas of the Romans.

    A slim and worn down man, to a man who lived a life of luxury. As if Suleiman, himself, were anything but rich and prosperous in his own right.

    Nonetheless, Suleiman stood before his people and spoke of his family. He spoke of Bayezid the Just, who had welcomed the Jews with open arms and had worked tirelessly to forge an Empire out of what he had been left as a child. He spoke of his father, Selim, who had secured the throne from his arrogant and power-hungry brother, before taking his armies and battering aside those who circled hungrily at the frontiers. He spoke of his own actions, building upon those of his predecessors, to create an Empire he could be proud of. An Empire for all those within her borders, not just the Turks who had founded it.

    And, indeed, he spoke of Mehmed. The crowds listening nearly broke into riots upon this. In his time in isolation, Suleiman had not been blind, but even he had missed just how much discontent had begun to be attached to the name of his great-grandfather. Anger had been directed at the memory of a man who, no matter his reputation in other nations, had long been remembered as a hero to patriotic Ottoman citizens. It had been Mehmed, after all, who had ended the Roman Empire and conquered the final remnants of Greece. His fall from grace had been treated less as a cautionary tale and more one of pity and anger directed upon the memory of Vlad the Third.

    That view had been irrevocably shattered.

    Mehmed had become known as the man the Lord hated. A man so despised and reviled that Constantinople had been taken up and given a new world to build a new Empire upon. Even the most proud of Turks began to look at his memory as a shameful one, as it became impossible to deny the reality of the situation.

    Yet, Suleiman simply held his hand up and quieted the crowd with that single gesture. He continued to speak of Mehmed. Suleiman acknowledged that the Lord had shown no favor upon his great-grandfather. His words were pained as they pointed out that Mehmed had punished himself dearly for this fact. He brought forth records of Mehmed's decision to take all of the guilt, all of the pain, upon his own shoulders. Suleiman made no effort to deny that his family had been denied their prize. That Mehmed, in particular, had been chastised by the Lord for some reason that he could not even begin to guess at. Perhaps it was simply fate that the Ottoman Sultans were to never rule from the throne of Constantinople.

    Indeed, he even admitted that he would not have been surprised if those listening lost their faith in his family. He pointed out that Mehmed had lost faith in himself and it was that simple fact that led to his falling to Vlad's blade. All of this was true.

    Suleiman then looked out at the crowd and continued. He continued to speak of his family and how, in spite of all Mehmed's pain and suffering, they had never once stopped moving forward. Through infighting and destruction. Through death and loss so great that many families would have broken. Not once had the House of Osman given up, even with the Lord showing his lack of favor in them.

    Through Bayezid's just actions, through Selim's military conquests, through Suleiman's own crafting of a legal code.

    If he could not ask for forgiveness for the Grand Lie, if he could not claim to have the Lord's favor, Suleiman asked only for the faith of his people. He had never once lost his own faith in Allah or the teachings of the Prophet. He remained steadfast in his belief that his family had been placed in their position for a reason. Constantinople had been taken from them, but had they not built Istanbul into a shining beacon for the Islamic faithful in its place? Perhaps the Lord had chosen to punish Mehmed and the House of Osman.

    All were punished by the Lord at some point in their lives. What mattered was how they moved forward from that, yes? And Suleiman spoke at length, as the sun moved across the sky and the moon rose in its place, of how his family- and he, in particular -intended to move forward. He ended a day of speaking with his people by looking towards first Egypt, and then Persia. He simply said this, from what records survive.

    "I stand here as the holder of my family legacy. If you wish to challenge me in the name of the Lord, then come. I shall show you that we have not lost his favor, even now."

    It seems so simple, yet so important. Many have cast doubt on this entire story, claiming that it doesn't fit for a ruler of that time or any number of other such things. The story has, almost certainly, been embellished.

    The fact remains, however, that Suleiman retained the faith and loyalty of the majority of his people. At the edges of the Ottoman Empire, stress fractures opened up. Rebellions began. Skirmishes with those who wished to see it fall forever, be it to take their place or simply out of revenge for decades- centuries in some cases -of oppression and hatred.

    In the face of this, Suleiman stood as perhaps the only man who could hold his Empire together after such a strong hammer blow to its very foundations. If only we knew more of what his personal, hidden, thoughts were. What he truly thought of Constantinople's thriving Empire. Of his family's future in the face of such a rebuke from the Lord, even if he had already known the truth, to some extent. Of how he planned to move his Empire forward from this and continue the legacy of the House of Osman.

    For the 1530s would prove to be a point where the Ottoman Empire would either stand strong or break apart completely. There was no middle ground. The Empire would either survive or be relegated to the dustbin of history.

    And Sultan Suleiman, no matter what else can be said of him, was determined it would not be the latter.





    1. While commonly called 'Vlad the Impaler' for his brutal approach to those who broke his laws, Vlad is more commonly known as 'Vlad the Great' in his homeland. Wallachia prospered under his rule in a way it never had before. It grew in strength to the point that its sister principality, Moldavia, began to drift into its orbit. The control over the northern Bulgarian lands grew so strong that it seemed as if it was a natural extension to Wallachia herself. Vlad remains, to this day, a national hero in his homeland for this reason.

    2. Istanbul, once a colloquial name for Constantinople, became the name of the successor city built in its place. Mehmed, chastised and bitter, saw no reason to claim the name of the City he had been denied. Perhaps out of a mix of both bitterness and fear that the Lord would punish him further. This would continue through his successors until, eventually, the name stuck. Istanbul it was and would remain, a shadow of the Queen of Cities...yet a shining bastion of Ottoman power in its own right.

    3. Suleiman, for all his legal efforts, dreamed of conquest. He wished to become what his predecessors had failed at. He wanted to be a conqueror akin to Alexander, to spread his rule from Egypt to Hungary. Even, in his wildest dreams, to Italy itself. He claimed the title of 'Roman Emperor' as his father and grandfather had done before him. He dearly wished to prove that by defeating all his rivals and cementing Ottoman rule. In particular, he wanted to shatter Wallachia and avenge Mehmed. It was what he truly wished his legacy to be. The legacy of a great military leader, not simply a lawmaker.

    4. Yeni Saray or Saray-ı Cedîd-i Âmire, was the name of the grand new palace built at the heart of Istanbul. It was a large complex, home to the Sultan and the organs of Ottoman government. While not the grandest palace ever built, it was certainly an impressive edifice and a sign of the power- however faded -of the Ottoman throne.



    So, this. This fought us. Hard. It was very difficult to get across how we wanted the Ottoman Empire to be here. It is a state coming out of a long period of chaos and war, finally getting back on its feet. A state with a ruler who is one of the best to ever live (also one of the last that will survive butterflies here). A state that, no matter its lesser successes compared to its OTL counterpart, remains powerful and with the potential to become even greater.

    And then Constantinople comes back onto the world stage. And the Ottomans are revealed to be sitting at the heart of the greatest lie ever told. With powerful rivals who would be all too eager to take advantage, especially in the Islamic world.

    It was difficult to do this. Kept vacillating between narrative, history book and some mix of the two. Eventually settled on this. It would be wrong to say we split this in half, since that implies a mega update that never existed, but we will be doing another part to this focused on Suleiman that will be narrative. Fun times.

    Speaking of which:

    It's funny, in a way. In our timeline, Suleiman is known as much for his military conquests- he had dreams as large, or even larger, than Mehmed in this regard -as for his political successes. Oh, certainly, he is famous for his cultural works and his reformations of the Judicial system. Somewhat akin to Alexios, in this timeline's Roman Empire. But he is equally as famous for his conquests in Hungary, of Rhodes and in the Middle East.

    Yet, this Suleiman had no chance for such glory. He inherited a broken Empire, in many ways. Bled dry by successions of civil war and other such forms of crisis. He did not inherit a well-oiled military machine that he could immediately launch into conquest.

    So, almost by default, we have a man who was forced to focus less on his dreams of glory, and more on his stabilization and investment of his own Empire. He is not a completely different man, no, but he is certainly not the Suleiman of our timeline, just as this is not the Ottoman Empire of our timeline. That was one of the most difficult parts of this update to get across, really.


    In any case, hopefully it worked out well enough. Next one will focus on Suleiman, as said, then we'll look at Eastern Europe and the Middle East- with a small bit of North Africa -and after that...well. Back to Arcadia.

    That'll be fun.

    (not going to look at most of Africa, India or China or...well, Asia in general. Not relevant yet and we're trying to focus on areas directly impacted by the Romans before covering the world as a whole)
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Sulieman was, will be, and always has been, Sulieman.

    Perhaps the greatest compliment I could give, upon reading about his legacy, is that, virtually no matter what was thrown at him, he was the right man, in the right place, at the right time.
     
    OTL Suleiman is one of those rare people who can almost make you believe the Great Man theory. Curious see where he goes in TTL.
     
    Excellent update. How fitting that Suleiman became the man his country and people needed here, rather than the man he wished to become as he did in real life. He really was the right man in the right place at the right time.
     
    Skywalker_T-65 said:
    1. While commonly called 'Vlad the Impaler' for his brutal approach to those who broke his laws, Vlad is more commonly known as 'Vlad the Great' in his homeland. Wallachia prospered under his rule in a way it never had before. It grew in strength to the point that its sister principality, Moldavia, began to drift into its orbit. The control over the northern Bulgarian lands grew so strong that it seemed as if it was a natural extension to Wallachia herself. Vlad remains, to this day, a national hero in his homeland for this reason.
    Click to expand...
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    And a certain book, if it was ever written, would not desecrate his legacy in the eyes of the world.
     
    I have a feeling that, if the Ottoman Empire does survive this, the Removal of Constantinople in the future might end up being seen as a trial by the Lord. One to see if those who have the closest thing to a continuous line of succession from the Roman Empire which saw Christianity explode across the world can prove that they are worthy of that legacy and claim to divine right by being able to rebuild in a world where the neighbours are 'innocents' and there are 'sinners' in the distance. Whilst also one to see if the Ottomans can truly prove to be the centre of the Islamic World and thus the successor to the Umayyad Caliphate or if they would crumble and be just another Kingdom of Man.
     
    Pyro Hawk said:
    I have a feeling that, if the Ottoman Empire does survive this, the Removal of Constantinople in the future might end up being seen as a trial by the Lord. One to see if those who have the closest thing to a continuous line of succession from the Roman Empire which saw Christianity explode across the world can prove that they are worthy of that legacy and claim to divine right by being able to rebuild in a world where the neighbours are 'innocents' and there are 'sinners' in the distance. Whilst also one to see if the Ottomans can truly prove to be the centre of the Islamic World and thus the successor to the Umayyad Caliphate or if they would crumble and be just another Kingdom of Man.
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    Honestly makes me wonder how this will effect the Ottoman justice system and their thought on crime.

    They literally have to turn this into a punishment as a way for reform, rather than punishment for revenge. The "theft" of Constantinople as gods demand for reform of the Ottomans which they complied with thus justifying their rule. God didn't smite the Ottomans after all, he saw their potential and rather took their price as a way to teach humility and wisdom.
     
    Beyogi said:
    Honestly makes me wonder how this will effect the Ottoman justice system and their thought on crime.

    They literally have to turn this into a punishment as a way for reform, rather than punishment for revenge. The "theft" of Constantinople as gods demand for reform of the Ottomans which they complied with thus justifying their rule. God didn't smite the Ottomans after all, he saw their potential and rather took their price as a way to teach humility and wisdom.
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    That's definitely an interesting point. Made more interesting by the fact that when God placed down Constantinople, he placed it near enough 'True Sinners' in the Aztecs to be able to cast down their temples in the near future, whilst far enough away as to rebuild and grow strong before the true clash begins. After all, no one in this timeline can expect how fragile the Aztec Empire could have been.

    And whilst yes, this is more something that would effect the Romans in Arcadia, that doesn't mean it wouldn't provide some additional context to the thoughts on punishment and redemption that the Ottomans might be having due to this Divine Intervention as you pointed out. Basically a footnote, but still an important piece of information. I have no idea what the Islamic Code of Laws are like (Sharia Law I believe?) so I can't saw anything one way or another, but what makes this all the more interesting is that one of the Islamic Nations issues IRL tends to be the clash between the Law as written in their religious beliefs and what modern global society prefers (to a degree at least). With this act of Divine Intervention being something which could be seen as 'writing new ground' which is still acceptable to base law upon despite not coming from His Prophet Mohammed due to occurring significantly after his death.
     
    prefacing this comment with the knowledge that i am an atheist who was raised as such:

    to my understanding, in islam, the quran is the literal word of god, where as in christianity, the bible is thought of as divinely inspired yet ultimately written by mortal men.

    despite that, it seems from the outside that practitioners of islam are much more judicial/ liturgical than thier christian counterparts. like this strong tradition of debate and coexisting points of view within the sunni school.
    again from ignorance, makes me thing of judaism in that way.
    this is not to say that there are not fundamentalists or that they arent a big problem with big influence in particular places...

    yeah i can see the ottomans going in on rehabilitation as a matter of necessity and for thier rivals to likewise talk up punishment. not as the centre of all thought but as a strong colour in the tapestry.
     
    Chapter 33
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 33
    Suleiman's Struggle
    ​
    Suleiman is a man that defies description. He is a man you cannot place into a convenient box and label. Was he a great orator? Certainly. He was also a talented military leader denied the chance to put those talents to use expanding his empire. Was he a great lawmaker? Most assuredly, perhaps rivaled only by Alexios of Arcadia in that regard. Yet he was also a diplomat almost without equal, swaying the hearts and minds of European leaders circling his Empire like vultures around a broken carcass.

    Suleiman was many things, to many people, and it is almost impossible to label him as anything but 'Magnificent'. [1]

    He took his broken Empire, he rejected the idea that his family was somehow 'cursed', and he put his formidable talent to forging a new state. His laws would endure for as long as his Empire did. His military reforms fended off Egyptian and Persian attempts to chew away at his borders. His speeches to the masses of his Capital soothed angry spirits and rallied his people. Even the Greeks, bitter in their own right at their abandonment, begrudgingly admitted that Suleiman was a leader without equal. Oh, they still hated him with a passion, make no mistake, but they also respected him.

    There was truly not a better man for the moment, though we know so very little of his personal thoughts. Much of what we know can only be inferred from others, which makes judging him on a personal level far more difficult than on his achievements...

    - The Magnificent: Sultan Suleiman and the Ottoman Restoration, Istanbul, 1954

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    Sultan Suleiman stood, alone, in his expansive bedchamber. He refused entry to all who would see him and had done so ever since he had been told of the rumors spreading throughout his city. Rumors of a city saved by the Lord and whisked away from his own predecessor. The Sultan would not have blamed most for immediately denying that truth, in favor of clinging to a great lie that had been told so long, and so often, that it seemed the truth in its own right. The masses had believed it, for they had nothing else to believe. Those who spoke against it were ridiculed and tossed aside.

    'Allah stealing our great prize? Nonsense! We simply punished the Greeks for their resistance!'

    Suleiman, in the moment, could only sigh as his eyes drifted out to his bustling capital. Istanbul, a colloquial name for a long-gone city, built upon the 'ruins' of its predecessor. [2] Even the name, with all its history, destroyed as a warning to those who stood against Mehmed the Great. Mehmed the Butcher.

    Mehmed the Broken.

    I should know better, of course. I was raised with the stories, the truth, of our lineage. Suleiman mused, as he walked to stare out at his city. A slim hand, grown ever thinner with the stress of recent days, brushing over scarlet cloth. Thin lips pursed with thought, his gaze shifting from the glittering minarets of grand mosques to the shimmering waters of the Bosporus. Ah, to remember simpler times. When my only concern was rebuilding what my father and uncle had broken.

    Never let it be said that Suleiman would speak ill of his departed father. Publicly. Privately, he could only shake his head at how his father and uncle had nearly ruined the Empire in their squabble. Egyptians and Persians had taken advantage, of course. Even the Greeks in their little peninsula had broken free. He had inherited a realm teetering on the edge of collapse, with a broken army and a navy barely worth the name.

    It had taken every ounce of his formidable talent to hold it together and rebuild what had been lost. He had taken a ruined state and returned it to something resembling its golden age. In fact...

    Suleiman turned from the sight of his city, and walked instead to a large map, laid out on a table in the center of his bedchamber. A well-made map, the finest in his realm, showing the extent of the Empire. From the tense border with the Egyptians in the Holy Land, to the disputed borderlands in Mesopotamia. He couldn't help but click his tongue, in spite of himself, when his gaze locked on first the rebellious Greeks, and then the perfidious Knights on their little island. His hand ran along the latter as his mind turned to the mighty force he had begun gathering, not too long ago, to lay siege to Rhodes.

    A host that would have made many a European prince cower in their castle, as they stared at tens of thousands of men, armed to the teeth and dedicated to their cause. The Knights would have been unable to withstand such an attack.

    An attack that would not come. Not now and perhaps not in his lifetime.

    I called them all home. Because I may well require their services closer to home. Suleiman let out the softest of sighs. His hand moved from Rhodes, to rest upon Istanbul, while his eyes looked at the border with Wallachia and Hungary. His father had cowed the Egyptians and Persians in his final days, but the Christians were another matter entirely.

    He could not afford to go on adventures. He must watch his borders. He had to strengthen his realm and address the growing discontent. Rumors had a way of taking on a life of their own, and he knew that without even leaving his grand palace.

    Suleiman remained standing by the map, his tired eyes looking at what might have been, until there was a firm knock on the closed door of his chamber.

    "My lord, I have come to discuss the situation in the city."

    The Sultan looked to the sealed doorway, recognizing that voice instantly. Only one man would dare intrude upon him in such a manner. Despite himself, the tired ruler managed the smallest of smiles at the thought. He had been musing of recalling the men from Rhodes, and here came the man he trusted to lead them. The only man he trusted to do so.

    How strange, that he should trust his father's greatest general in such a way. Yet, perhaps, not so strange in the end. This man was more a father to him than his actual flesh and blood had been. Moreover, he had always been staunchly loyal to the throne. Not his own power nor prestige. [3]

    "You may enter," Suleiman spoke, his voice raw and scratchy with disuse. It had been days since he had truly spoken to another soul.

    That changed, as the door swung open, and an older man walked in. His beard, thick and bushy, was flecked with gray. His body, once powerful and capable of wielding any weapon known to man, had shrunken in on itself. His shoulders slumped and his face lined with wrinkles and scars. Here was a man who had served his Empire for decades and showed every sign of it.

    All of that hardly mattered, though, in comparison to the warm smile the man wore. A paternal smile.

    "Uncle," Suleiman walked over, gripping an outstretched arm tightly. The man was not his uncle, truly, yet it was what he had always called him.

    Mert Pasha, the most prestigious living general of the Empire, returned the gesture. "Suleiman. I see I wasn't misled when I was informed you had locked yourself in your chambers."

    Letting his arm fall away, Suleiman allowed himself a bemused smile of his own. "So it seems, yes. I had long known that Kostantiniyye had vanished, not been destroyed." The Sultan looked at his most trusted advisor with a serious expression replacing the smile, "The truth of the matter has taken even me by surprise. I had never imagined that the City had been taken by Allah and given a new land."

    The two men strode to the table, sitting on the floor on either side of it. Suleiman, slim and drawn tight by the internal struggle of the past few days. Mert Pasha, strong yet clearly showing his age. They could not have made a greater contrast with one another, even were one to ignore the difference in political stature between them. Though, in all honesty, that might well be what Suleiman needed in that moment. He was not so proud as to deny he required a second opinion.

    He simply trusted very few people to give him that opinion, not on something so deeply entwined with his family legacy.

    "I admit, I found the rumors difficult to believe." The old general stroked his beard, deep in thought and frowning beneath the bushy hair. "I know less than you do about the history of your great-grandfather, though what I know is enough to make guesses."

    He placed his free hand on the map, landing directly on Wallachia, as his frown deepened.

    "That said, it does shed some light upon his fate. Such a man as he would not have fallen so easily, not even against a man like the Impaler."

    Suleiman merely nodded to that statement, feeling no need to dispute the point. "I would rather speak of what we shall do, moving forward, than speak of the past. What is written is set in stone, and save for making peace with the Great Lie, it is done."

    "Indeed." Mert Pasha lifted his hands up in a placating gesture, though he needn't have bothered. Sulieman was not the kind of ruler to chastise his most trusted advisor for something of that nature.

    No, he simply looked at the map. In that moment, it felt small and lacking. No finer map existed of his realm and the immediate border lands. He even possessed well-crafted maps of the European realms, as far as the island of Britain. Or maps as far as the border of India, though these lacked the finer details. Suleiman had long been fascinated with cartography, recognizing the utility for the grand military campaigns he had desired.

    Yet, in the moment, he lacked the most important map of all.

    "Regardless, I find myself wishing I possessed a map of this...Arcadian Empire." Suleiman had only seen, in passing, crude maps of the New World. Nothing fit for a Sultan and certainly nothing that could tell him of where Constantinople lay. "The distance, frankly, astounds me. I should not doubt the power of Allah, yet even so, it seems fantastical to believe."

    Mert Pasha gave a light shrug, "As fantastical as the idea Allah would punish your family so? Have you considered this may be the work of another power?"

    The way he worded it made it clear that the old man didn't think that was the case, at all. Suleiman met his gaze and made it clear that he did not, either. "No. No matter what else I may believe about this, it is incredibly clear to me that this is the work of Allah. To what end, I cannot say, yet I refuse to believe that any other being would possess the power to move a city in such a way."

    "Good." The old man nodded sharply. He slapped a hand on the table and stared his Sultan down with eyes that were not at all dulled by his advanced age. "I had worried that I would have to persuade you against such thoughts."

    Suleiman stared at him...and chuckled softly. Ah, how I missed Uncle. He is correct, though. I would have been foolish to deny the obvious reality in favor of clinging to some false hope that it wasn't true. All that lies on that path is suffering in the future and a continuation of great lies to my people. I must accept this for what it is.

    "A punishment. To what end, I cannot say." Suleiman spoke, softly, though with a shake of his head he pushed that aside. He had just said there was no point in lingering on the past, so he would not do so. "I suppose I should be thankful for the great distance. While I find it doubtful that they could be any threat to my throne, regardless, it is comforting to know that as we cannot reach them...they cannot hope to reach us." [4]

    A raised eyebrow on an aged face answered that statement, "And yet, you lock yourself in your chambers for days. You are more worried than you let on, Suleiman."

    "Not about the direct influence of our long-lost enemy." Suleiman countered, though with little bite to his words. He waved a hand in the general direction of the view of Istanbul, slowly growing darker with the setting sun. "My concern rests in what the revelation of their survival means for my Empire. For my family legacy."

    "For your own life?" Mert Pasha finished for him.

    Silence. Silence as Suleiman could not dispute the point. And had no desire to, in any event. He was aware, painfully so, of how fragile his rule remained. He was beloved by his people as a lawmaker. As the man who had restored the Empire to greatness after years upon years of conflict. No longer had brother been forced to fight brother. No longer had the people been forced to wonder of the difference between the law of the land and the law of Allah.

    Suleiman was already secure in his legacy...until the entire truth of his family line was called into question.

    "What would you have me do?" Suleiman turned the question back on his old mentor, a challenging set to his shoulders. He remained seated, however.

    Mert Pasha stared back with a flat expression. He simply sat in place for a heartbeat. For two, three, four heartbeats.

    And then he laughed. He laughed long and hard, as the flat expression was replaced with the fond expression of a man looking upon his surrogate son.

    "Suleiman, it has truly been a long time since you last asked for my advice. I had thought you were beyond that." The old man chuckled as he said that, while Suleiman had the grace to look away. He was approaching his fortieth year, and yet he still felt as if a child when looked at that way.

    Mert Pasha climbed to his feet and walked over to place a still-strong hand upon a slim shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze. "You are overthinking things, as you always do."

    Was he, truly? Suleiman looked at the map, then at where the sun was setting outside his chambers. He frowned...and nodded. Yes. Yes, he was. It was his habit to do so, in many ways. A strength in most circumstance, as he was able to look at things from every conceivable angle and come up with the best solution. It had worked for writing his laws and for his military reforms.

    In this, however, he had allowed himself to fall into a spiral of doubts. Reasonable doubts, in the face of such an earth-shattering revelation.

    Nonetheless, locking himself away was not going to solve his problem. It would only make it worse.

    "I see." Suleiman mused to himself, almost forgetting for a moment that he was no longer alone. His sharp mind was already going over a speech, a way to talk to his people. "If I tell them the truth, without any hesitation...if I speak of my family on a personal level..."

    As the Sultan mused and came up with what would go down in history as a legendary speech, the old general watched with a small smile. His role was done, at least in this instance. Even the greatest of men sometimes required an outside perspective to prevent them from spiraling into their own thoughts and worries.

    What was the saying, again? "No man truly rules alone?"

    In this case, while Suleiman would form his speech on his own and would save his Empire through his own formidable intellect and talent...

    Every man needs a little 'push', sometimes.


    1. Even outside of the Ottoman Empire, Suleiman is remembered as an incredibly talented man. A leader almost without equal for his ability to take the worst of circumstances and turn them to his favor. He showed a keen intellect and understanding of what it meant to be a ruler. And if he wasn't able to show his military talents like he might have desired, well, it doesn't change the fact he is still responsible for the Ottoman Empire enduring through the roughest point in its history.

    2. The city built on the straits was still an impressive sight, by all metrics. A grand capital for a grand empire that had, in many ways, surpassed what Constantinople had been in its last days in Europe. It was almost possible to forget how it had always been a replacement, in that regard.

    3. In any Empire or Kingdom, it is a rarity for a general to become as powerful and respected as Mert Pasha without the general in question making a play for the throne. Yet, that did not happen. The man seemed, by all accounts, to genuinely be loyal to first Selim, and then Suleiman. In the latter case, it seems likely that he truly did see the younger man as something of a surrogate son. With no desire to usurp the throne, recognizing that Suleiman's unique talents were best suited to rebuilding a frayed and fractured Empire.

    4. Constantinople and Istanbul were on opposite sides of the world from one another. Even were either empire to have designs on the other, the absolute most that could be done was fermenting revolt in unruly minorities. And even that was often more trouble than it was worth, in comparison to either ignoring one another or pragmatically trading with one another. The distances involved made anything else something of a moot point for many, many years.


    AN: Right. There we go. Barely managing to stick to the new plan of alternating weeks between this and more traditional fanfic writing. This wasn't quite as long as it could have been, but it seemed like a good flow and a good point to end it. Suleiman is still the one doing all the work, but there always will be someone else who stands behind even the greatest man or woman. Because no matter how smart, talented or special you may be...

    Anyone can fall into overthinking things. It's human nature.

    And it's also human nature to have that one person you trust to pull you out of it.

    ...or so the intention went, anyway. Hopefully that came across here. Not trying to downplay Suleiman himself, at all, because in the end he's the one doing all the work. He just needed a little push to get out of his own head.

    In any case, next update will cover Eastern Europe (read: everything north of Bulgaria, but east of the Holy Roman Empire. So, Hungary, Poland, Wallachia, so on). Then after that, the Middle East and North Africa.

    And then back to Arcadia, where we'll cover the Maya...and then the Inca. Fun times.
     
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    • Admiral Halsey said:
    Oh for the love of God please give me a surviving Inca Empire here.
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    This.

    Having them survive would almost certainly see 'Mexico' (as we know it) not fall into becoming a regional power at most, but very likely be an extremely strong Mid/Central-Americas counter to anything in NA or SA proper.

    Getting their teeth kicked in just enough to quit it with the ritualistic massacres - which I think this story already had take place - would likely see them realizing they can't just sit around their original 'base' of power. Thus forcing them to be poised to start their own colonizing wave to counter distant Europe and of course, the vastly closer Constantinople.
     
    That was an interesting look at what happened behind the scenes, so to speak, leading to Suleiman's speech. And a surprisimlngly touching scene that gives a welcome human touch to the historical event.

    Looking forward to the next developments!
     
    Excited that the Inka Empire appears in history, remember that when the Spanish arrived there was already a civil war between Huascar and Atahualpa, I don't know if this conflict still existed or that there were butterflies, it would be great what happens after the Arcadian Empire contact, watch out for updates
     
    Tsukimira said:
    Excited that the Inka Empire appears in history, remember that when the Spanish arrived there was already a civil war between Huascar and Atahualpa, I don't know if this conflict still existed or that there were butterflies, it would be great what happens after the Arcadian Empire contact, watch out for updates
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    Given how it's mentioned Spain decides to focus on the Caribbean longer then OTL before trying for land based colonies again if the civil war is happening* it will likely be over by the time the Inca are contacted TTL. Which points more in favor of them surviving as even OTL with everything that was going on they still nearly pulled it off despite the civil war and the old world diseases rampaging through the civilization.


    *I fully expect it is still happening. The Inca are far enough and isolated enough that butterflies shouldn't start hitting them until after what would've been the OTL contact by the Spanish has passed.
     
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    While I'm not always in the habit of reading ISOT's, this is still one of the most compelling ones I've read due to the worldbuilding, characters, and grasp on history.

    The entire thing feels extremely believable given the circumstances, and I'm quite invested.



    (Also, you just know that, in a few centuries, there's going to be all sorts of speculation about whether or not Constantinople was actually abducted by aliens.)
     
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