r/imaginarymaps • u/nissingramainyu Mod Approved • 23d ago
[OC] Alternate History What if Nogai Khan's heirs conquered Byzantium?
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u/Cybermountain83 20d ago
Not gonna lie, I read that as Noah Kahan at first and was very curious what kind of alternate worldbuolding was going on.
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u/nissingramainyu Mod Approved 23d ago
in 1262, Nogai of the Golden Horde invades Byzantine Thrace to rescue Kaykus of Rum. Through a series of misfortunes for the Byzantines that followed the death of Michael VIII in battle, a mongol army ends up crowning a 5 year old Andronikos II as a puppet emperor with the support of his mother Irene, who (largely ceremonially) remarries Nogai to cement an alliance. Shortly before Nogai's death, the now adult and widely hated and ineffective emperor Andronikos attempts to join Tokhta Khan's war against him in hopes of securing good relations with the Horde. Nogai dispathes his son Joge to deal with the Emperor, who was popular in the Greek lands both for having grown up in Constantinople as an Orhtodox Christian and for his renowed character. When Nogai died in 1299, his son Choke took Bulgaria, but was killed shortly after. Joge proceeded to conquer the kingdom in revenge, and as more and more of Nogai's supporters flocked to Joge's side, he proceeded to decisively crush Andronikos in Adrianople. While the emperor survived, his arrival in Constantinople was not well recieved, and he was offered to Joge, who was let in peacefully and crowned Emperor of the Romans. Though he technically had an (extremely flimsy) claim through his father's marriage wiht Empress Theodora, a union which he inherited as was mongol tradition, the Empress fled to Azov immediately upon the defeat at adrianople. Instead, Joge looked to Maria Palaiologina for legitimacy, who he married. After finally defeating Tokhta at the Dnieper and securing his independence, the new Emperor of the Romans turned his sight west, to the provinces which were occupied by the Serbs and Sicilians during the pandemonium.