With virtually all Alternative History novels there is one point in history where the outcome is different from what we know really happened and the whole story is logically derived from this. For example if a despatch rider hadn’t famously dropped Lee’s plans which were found by the Union cavalry before Gettysburg, Lee might well have gone on to win that battle and go forward to force the Union to the peace table.
I needed to achieve something similar in terms of the Roman Empire, I needed an intact Roman Empire to exist for several centuries beyond the known fall of the Western Empire so I tried to find a nexus in history from where I could follow that all important different branch. Not an easy task, given the reasons for the fall of the Western Roman Empire are many and complex and in many ways inevitable.
My focus turned to the Third Century AE where the Roman Empire had in fact already fragmented and it took one specific Emperor to pull them back together. He only ruled for five years before being assassinated and was voted the title “Restorer of The World” by a grateful and fawning senate. It was suddenly clear, this assassination was my turning point. Aurelian was a true military Emperor, who ruled from horseback far more than he did from a throne as he put down each of the usurper realms one by one. He was assassinated by his own staff officers who feared for their lives after a scribe, covering his own incompetence, forged a letter for their arrest. If just one of those men had had the courage to tell Aurelian of the plot, history may well have been very different.
In our world, Aurelian was succeeded by Diocletian, who effective ruled by setting up mini Emperors under him, one of whom was Constantius, the father of Constantine. Unwittingly Diocletian has set the seeds for the administrative breakup of the Empire, which would become political fact later on. Constantine of course turned the Empire monotheistic by forcing its citizens to embrace Christianity, arguably reducing the vibrancy of the Empire. If Aurelian, the soldier Emperor, had survived, quite possibly neither of these men would have succeeded to the throne themselves, and Aurelian's driving ambition to stabile and strengthen the Empire might have enabled it to survive the troubles and challenges presented over the next two hundred years.
I say, probably, because we, rather obviously, can’t know, but for the purposes of my story, this is my branching off point.
Fast forward six hundred years and we have problems in the Empire again.
Technology is finding its way across from the East, gunpowder has started to make an appearance, but the technology is still in its infancy and the legions are still working out what they can do with it. Other advances have occurred too, and in military terms the legions have evolved as fighting forces. Crastus has weapons of war at his disposal which were undreamt of in Julius Caesar’s time. Not least among them is a mobile observation platform which allows Crastus to quite literally take an overview of the battlefield. This particular piece of equipment is known to have been in existence in the Ninth Century AE in China. Although unwieldy and awkward to transport no Chinese general using it is recorded as ever having lost. Intelligence is key, knowing what your opponent is doing almost before he does it, wins more battles than almost any other factor. Taking the Chinese concept and applying Roman industrial engineering to it produced a device that I felt would really work and could be quickly assembled and the ndisassembled for transport. In fact I built a scale model of it, although sadly it hasn’t survived. The use of the “Sky Nest” is pivotal, especially in books one, Seven Sisters, and three, Imperator.
Politically a series of weak emperors has decreased the power of the throne and civil war looms. Enter, Valerian, the Emperor in the first book, Seven Sisters, who rebuilds the power base of the Empire by ruthless means. He is no saint, indeed is sadistic and cruel, a worthy successor to several of his predecessors stretching several hundreds of years back to Claudius and Nero. Five years before my story starts he is challenged by one of the strongest legion commanders and civil war breaks out in earnest. Crastus commands the armies defending the Emperor, against an attack by his oldest friend. Defending an increasingly paranoid emperor isn’t easy, nor is defeating the most able opponent Crastus has ever faced. After five long years of war, Crastus wins the final battle at Salerno and rather than face the wrath of the Emperor the defeated Pretender to the throne takes poison. Not wishing to perpetrate more slaughter, Crastus allows the remnants of the defeated army to escape which turns out to be a mistake when they occupy the Seven Sisters complex.
This is where our story begins.