600-699 (Abrittus)

In the 7th century, China (unified under the Sui Dynasty) controls East Asia, while reform-oriented Indian empires and federations pursue targeted power policies in South-East Asia.

The consolidated superpowers of Europe and Asia establish closer connections among themselves. Especially the two most powerful blocs - Sui Cháo and the Roman Republic -, separated by great geographical distance, do not yet perceive each other as rivals or enemies. Diplomacy, exchange and co-operation often still prevail over rivalry. The periphery, which has absorbed much civilizational influence, attempts to pursue its own policies more than ever before, but with even less success than in previous centuries: Turkic peoples are played against each other, Sui prevents power concentrations among its Dai, Tibetan, Korean, and Malay neighbours; Northern European actants experience manifold subtle Celtic manipulations; Arabia and the Caucasus are pacified between Romans and Sabaeans; Malay kedatuans engage in battles perceived by themselves as attempts at establishing hegemony for themselves, but orchestrated by powerful Indian kingdoms and republics as interventions aimed at maintaining a balance of power.

Science and technology blossom. With China participating in this global dialogue, too, mutual learning brings great progress for all sides. Social philosophy and economic theory make great leaps, too. Improved economic productivity and a wider availability of everything needed in daily life lead to rising population levels. In the growing cities, new professional classes increasingly develop self-confidence around the world. The political circumstances under which this happens differ greatly between, for example, Sui China and the Roman Republic, though, and so do the first outcomes of this process of social transformation. While all empires share the tendency towards dwindling powers of the aristocracy, at the periphery, aristocratic structures are just about to emerge and consolidate.

Significant differences from OTL begin to reach the Chinese, Malayan, West African, Korean etc. space. One of them is the early collapse of Islam in this timeline.

600s
In the Yamato Kingdom, Regent Shotoku copies the ministerial and administrational structures of the Sui reforms, builds roads across the kingdom and numerous Buddhist monasteries.

600
The bubonic plague devastates Arabia, East Africa, Eranshahr, Choresmia and the Southern end of the Silk Road. Across the Mediterranean, the quarantine is lifted.

Ostrogoths: The Pangothikon discusses tax raises and even confiscations to meet the tributary demands of the Göktürks. Several very important and wealthy syndicates and associations are leaving Tauris and moving their bases to the Roman Empire, in many cases to Malta. They are accompanied by another wave of refugees, this time mostly skilled craftsmen who see better working and earning opportunites in Roman civitates. As a result of this capital drain, the Pangothikon is unable to collect the required tribute. They ask for a delay. The Göktürks reply with another raid. The irrigation system and aquaeducts are still not entirely restored. The situation on Tauris worsens every day.

More than 30,000 Ostrogoths have arrived on the Nesoi Porphyroi. A polis forms on each of the two islands. The Ostrogoths recreate their political institutions in the new environment (ekklesiai and demiurgoi). They also aim at restoring their economic network, sending messengers to Tauris and Malta to communicate who has moved here. It turns out that the Nesoi Porphyroi are full of forests with excellent ship-building wood - a lucky circumstance for a seafaring nation. In the deforested areas, the thinner twigs and low shrubbery are set alight to fertilise the soil with the ashes. The first harvest yields good results in a great variety of crops, and the terrible hunger among the new colonists finds an end.

Moravia: Land conflicts between Samo's Czechs and Mojmir's Moravians can no longer be contained. Factually, they are the conflict between sedentary agriculture with crop rotation, stable villages and external trade (Moravians) and subsistence slash-and-burn agriculture with clans on the move every couple of years (Czechs). With wood prices on the rise in the neighbouring Roman civitates, where intense agriculture, house- and ship-building and complex heating systems have led to near-total deforestation of the easily accessible valleys and plains of Baiuvaria and Norica, Moravians have begun to engage as lumberjacks and wood traders, using the Morava to float the wood to Roman towns on the Danube. This endangers the Czech way of agriculture seriously. Clans and villages have rallied on both sides behind their leaders, Samo and Mojmir. The Czechs attack on several fronts at once and the first Czech-Moravian war breaks out. Both sides are similarly armed and trained, and neither side has a major numerical advantage, so the course of the war is even - and catastrophic.

601
The bubonic plague kills hundreds of thousands in Balochistan, Sindh, Sogdia, among the Turks, and in India. Amidst social chaos, various aristocratic dynasties, urban guilds, religious and popular movements fight for power.

Western Göktürks / Ostrogoths: After another devastating Göktürk sabotage of the reconstruction works at Taphros, and an ensuing famine on Tauris, the Pangothikon and the Roman Senate negotiate and organise the evacuation of Tauris. The largest commercial fleet of the world, whose ships had not returned to their home ports at Chersonesos, Kerkinitis, Theodosia or Nymphaion for several years now, gathers in the ports of Tauris, accompanied by several dozen Roman battleships. More than 600,000 people leave Tauris and the surrounding areas - some even leave the poleis on the Borysthenes (OTL Dnieper) like Chortitia and Severopolis - and resettle in the Roman Empire or elsewhere. According to rumours, many tons of gold are transported from cave vaults on Tauris to similar locations on Malta.

The Pangothikon relocates to Byzantion at the invitation of this civitas. De iure, it is the parliament of the Taurean margo in exile; de facto, it becomes a lobbying group for Ostrogothic interests within the Roman Republic, the political institution backing the Ostrogothic central bank and mint, and a supreme arbiter among various groups and associations of Ostrogothic background. Similarly, Tauris is de iure still a self-governed and autonomous margo, whereas de facto it has become a military protectorate of the Roman Republic.

About a third of the Taurean population remains on the island. They are joined by roughly 20,000 soldiers of the Classis Romana. The irrigation of the Northern two-thirds of Tauris is abandoned; agriculture only continues in the Southern mountains, which receive sufficient precipitation. The Isthmus of Taphros is heavily guarded nonetheless, since it is the only land passage to the island (or, more correctly: peninsula).

Moravia: Roman border civitates support their Moravian trade partners with superior weapons, which help them gain the upper hand over the Czechs.

602
China: A large Sui invasion army marches on Vạn Xuân. Lý Nam Đế II abdicates. Sui establishes suzerainty over OTL Northern Vietnam, as in OTL.

Celtic Empire: A group of explorers stops over at the Insulae Petraeae, then heads further North into uncharted waters. They discover a larger island (OTL Iceland), half covered in glaciers, half full of fertile meadows, and completely uninhabited. They name it Glaciana and hoist a Celtic flag, and return to the Insulae Petraeae for the winter, intending to come back next spring.

Moravia: The first Czech-Moravian war is over. Samo is killed. Mojmir becomes the king of all of OTL Slovakia, almost all Czech clans submit to him, only two clans escape Northwards to the Slezans.

603
(Western) Göktürks / China: Tardush Khagan throws the huge Western Göktürk army, including Uygurs and Tiele tribes formerly affiliated to the Eastern Göktürks, against Sui China (proclaiming to revenge the Eastern Göktürks; more realistically attempting to prevent rivalling tribes and shads from turning against each other or him). China's new Western ally, the Tuyuhun, manage to poison water wells on the passageways of the Tarim Basin and Dzungaria which Tardush's armies have to pass. Tardush must delay, regroup, endure heavy losses, then abandon his campaign without having fought a battle against the armies of Sui.

Celtic Empire: Throughout the warmer months, two explorer missions venture along the Western and the Eastern coast of Glaciana respectively. They bring sheep from the Insulae Petraeae with them to the island.

604
(Western) Göktürks: Tardush Khagan is killed by a group of influential conspirators. Ashina Daman is proclaimed the new khagan, bearing the title Heshana Khagan. He does not manage to establish control and command fealty from the Kyrgyz in the North, though, and neither that of the Uygurs and Eastern Tiele, who had only followed Tardush into the battle for revenge, and by the end of the year, it appears as though other tribes are following the Kyrgyz path out of the Ashina domination.

China: Emperor Wen returns healthily from his summer vacation at Renshou (instead of dying, as in OTL). He reforms taxation and orders the construction of new, greater reserve granaries and the planting of the extremely productive Funanese rice (which the Chinese, following their new Viet vassals, falsely attribute to the Cham, calling it "Champa rice"). He also has a great number of local magistrates replaced, condemning their arbitariness and wastefulness, and reforms the recruitment of magistrates, installing the Imperial Examinations.

Norway: Harald, the petty king of Agder, curbs the practical independence of the powerful and wealthy city of Sørstad, which has become the centre of a large alliance of city states along the Baltic Sea coasts. With a considerable army behind him and Sørstad being weakened by recurring bubonic plague epidemics, Harald manages to impose taxes and tariffs on the city and limit the city's police forces to dealing with matters only within the city's walls as well as to coerce the city to provide soldiers. (Sørstad continued to have its own mercenary military force, too, which is mostly focused on naval security.)

Moravia: The strong and magnificent royal castle at Uzhhorod is built.

Ostrogoths / Eastern Slavs: The predominantly Ostrogothic polis of Chortitia finishes its massive stone fortification of the entire island (Chornesos in Greek, Zaporizhiya in the Slavic language of the Drevlans) against a potential Göktürk attack. The new fortress provides protection for 300,000 people - more than the total number of inhabitants of the entire region, at least after the recent emigrations to the safer West.

605
China: To end Cham raids into the newly established province of Lin Yi, where the Viet live, as well as Cham piracy on the Southern Sea, a Sui army under general Liu Fang marches on Lâm Ấp and defeats the Cham. A vassal prince is installed in Lâm Ấp.

In the preparation for the big national census, Emperor Wen codifies the Four Occupations; his administration is instructed to sort everyone into one of them: Religious people (priests, monks etc.) must apply for a personal exception - the first step towards Sui state control over the religious communities.
 * The category of "shi", where hereditary titles are explicitly abolished (the end of traditional aristocracy), access to this category depends on passing the imperial examinations and becoming a magistrate, or being nobilitated by the Emperor; a long list of contraventions leads to the exclusion from this category. Military leaders belong in this category, too, and are thus also either chosen by examination or appointed by the Emperor. Civil magistrates are paid handsomely and exempt from military service, but also forbidden to engage in commercial activities.
 * The category of "nong" (farmers), who are all entitled to the same amount of (non-inheritable, non-sellable, non-rentable) land, which is checked and if needs be redistributed every six years. Male nong must serve in the army, when necessary, between the age of 21 and the age of 45. Enlistment in the army, along with the allotment of a portion of land, is also the only chance to enter this category, be it for Chinese of other occupations who seek to become nong, be it for immigrants or newly subjected people. Only severe crimes (among them desertion) lead to the exclusion from this category. Nong are moderately taxed depending on their harvests.
 * The category of "gong" (artisans and craftsmen). Under Wen of Sui, access to this category was still mostly unregulated and open, and only extreme malpractice could lead to an exclusion, enacted by a magistrate. This category is not allowed to own land, but it is exempt from military service (unless a gong wants to enlist and become a nong, or passes an examination and becomes a military shi).
 * The category of "shang" (merchants, traders). Access to this category was unregulated and open, too, and mostly the same rules as for gong applied.

Wen's definitions contain several other breaks with Confucian tradition (including military shi). Most importantly, though, the codification subjects otherwise unwritten (and very conservative) traditions to discussion and modification. It is considered the most important factor in the construction of later Sui absolutism.

Anji Bridge is finished.

(Western) Göktürks: The Western Göktürks fall apart. Two new federations - the Nǔshībì in Bactria and the Six Oghuz, in which Chigils and Yagma have leading roles, emerge. The Kyrgyz on the Yenissei and the Kimek on the Irtysh go their own separate ways again. Only Türgesh, Karluks and Basmils and a few remaining clans of the former Eastern Göktürk leadership circle remain loyal to Heshana Khagan.

In the Far West, Tamgan Shad governs over the only stable part of the former Göktürk Empire.

606
China: The First Great Sui Census is conducted. To standardise the procedure, a recently invented machinery is used for the first time on a large scale: The required categories of information are printed with wooden blocks on papers which the Ministry of Revenue distributed to the civil servants carrying out the census. This is the first major use of letterpress printing in history.

The census stirred some unrest, but produced valuable data and insights. Sui has roughly 56,000,000 subjects.

Central Asia: In fights between the (Western) Six Oghuz (Chigils, Yagma et al.) and the tribes loyal to Heshana Khagan (Türgesh, Karluks, Basmils, et al.), thousands are killed. Several tribes flee from the devastation Westwards, the largest among them being the Pechenegs. No side manages to gain the upper hand, and no major territorial shifts are achieved by either confederacy.

Silk Road trade volumes are at a new low, what with the plague, increased unsafety due to the Turks, and warfare in Northern India.

Western Göktürks / Roman Empire: Tamgan Shad attempts another raid of Sindica. This time, though, the massive Roman military presence in the region can react fast enough and confront the raiders. The Göktürks lose thousands of warriors in the losing battle against the numerically far superior Romans. After this defeat, the old Tamgan Shad is killed by those surrounding him. Bagha succeds him.

India: The 16 year-old Harshavardhana begins a legal apprenticeship and matriculates at the University of Sthanisvara at the same time. He will go on to become - not an emperor over all of Northern India, as in OTL, but the most important political leader of Northern India's city republics, who forges the Kannauj Alliance.

607
China: After the plague has subsided worldwide, a large number of envoys from non-tributary states - the Roman Republic, the Kingdom of Sheba, Eranshahr, the Gupta Empires and the Pandya Kingdom, the Yamato Kingdom, the Sogdian Federation, the Shaihr Jaari and the Xiyu city states of Kashgar, Kucha, Karanshahr and Turfan - arrives at the Sui court in Chang'an. (Vassals like the Tuyuhun, the Ashina of Dali, the Viet, the Cham, Funan and many others had a regular presence in Chang'an anyway.) The establishment of so much foreign contact changes not only Chinese history for ever. The simultaneous presence of representatives from so many different states from all across the huge continent, on which at least the Roman representatives, who are accustomed to having the ambassadors of the Celts, the Sabaeans, Armenians, Aksumite, Imaziyen and Franks in Rome, know how to draw, also sows the seeds for future multilateral international co-operation, which begins to develop in this century, mostly focusing on the subject of keeping Eurasian trade routes open and safe.

Western Göktürks: Bagha Shad pursues a policy of independence from the other Turkic tribes - and he stops the aggressive policies of his predecessor, acknowledging the superior Roman power. To prevent the Romans from tearing down the Göktürk fortifications watching over the Tanais-Ra passage, he offers his son Böri as hostage.

608
China / Tuyuhun: The Tuyuhun King Murong Fuyun visits Chang'an. Emperor Wen promises to support his kingdom, which had been badly affected by the famines of the last decades, too, with technical help in the construction of greater and more complex irrigation systems. Constructions are begun. Murong Fuyun, who in OTL is attacked by Yang Guang of Sui and has his land conquered, declares Emperor Wen of Sui "the brightest star of our age, lighting the path for all peoples."

Roman Republic: Envoys returning from Sui China report to a flabbergasted Senate about the enormous power and wealth of the empire in the East, about its omnipotent emperor and his huge army, its reserve granaries, its educated magistrates, its writing system with a myriad of symbols, about wheelbarrows and suspension bridges, horse collars and fire matches and Cuyu football.

Rome's elites need some time to digest this intelligence. The exchange of permanent ambassadors is planned.

Western Göktürks: Bagha Shad begins the construction of Atil as the new permanent capital of his polity. He appoints tuduns for all the provinces and sets moderate tributes and taxes.

609
China: In the new Chang'an, comfortable quarters are reserved for the newly established embassies of foreign countries. In exchange, Sui ambassadors are given representative homes in Rome, Ma'rib, Ctesiphon and Pataliputra.

Sheba: Sheba's navy has managed to copy fire siphons. The design is slightly different from the Roman one. Also, it is rumoured that Sabaean or Persian military chemists have come across a liquid "unextinguishable flame" in the research process.

Atlantic Ostrogoths: The two ekklesiai on the Nesoi Porphyroi acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Pangothikon and send one representative each to Byzantion, along with annual contributions / taxes, a precondition for the continued equal membership of Atlantic Ostrogoths in the diverse Ostrogothic associations and guilds. At the same time, they do not join the Roman Republic or even become a margo, and no Roman soldiers are stationed on either island. The Pangothikon acquires the complicated hybrid role of a federation within the Roman Republic which also represents non-Romans.

Ostrogoths / Eastern Slavs: In the polis of Severopolis (OTL Kiew), a massive stone fortress with reserve granaries is completed on an island in the Borysthenes (OTL Trukhaniv Island), providing Ostrogothic, Severian Slavic and other inhabitants of the region with safety in case of a Göktürk / Chasar attack.

Western Göktürks: Bagha Shad`s daughter is married to a Lasikan prince, strengthening the alliance between those Turks who are about to become the "Chasars", and the Kingdom of Lasika.

610s
The three Western Turkic federations, who have escaped from Heshana Khagan's domination, begin to consolidate as three separate states, with permanent cities as their capitals: Roman Empire / China: The Roman Senate's diplomatic convoys to China are accompanied by hundreds of missionaries for all sorts of religions, and with members of various collegia, who are conducting economic espionage. They find out the secrets of complicated waterclocks and report about simple, practical and easy-to-copy inventions like wheelbarrows, but they also notice that the Chinese are producing steel with excellent properties. Because they are not allowed to visit the government-owned blast furnaces, though, they are unable to find out and report about the puddling technique and neither about the recent Sui innovation of forging cast iron under a cold blast (OTL Bessemer technique).
 * In the Far West, the Turks under Bagha's leadership become known as the "Chasars". They build a new capital on the Ra (OTL Volga) named Atil (the Turkic name for this river), adopt the Greek script and settle down. Their new polity includes the non-Turkic Magyars and Mari, too - and, to a greater and greater degree, also Northern Caucasians like the Lezgians, the Dargwa, the Lakians and the Nakh..
 * In Bactria, the Nǔshībì build a palace for their shah in the ancient city of Balkh. This new polity absorbs Mazdakist influences from both Choresmia and Persia (along with the Pahlavi language), seizes on the Mazdakists favourable or idealising view on nomads, and assumes the role of military protectors of the Mazdakist realm.
 * In Sogdia, Suyab (formerly a small Sogdian town) becomes the capital of the Six Oghuz. This new polity experiences strong Sogdian influence (politically and linguistically, but not religiously), and the different tribes of the Six Oghuz increasingly establish themselves in Sogdian towns - as well as controlling the countryside surrounding them.

610
Norway: Harald, King of Agder, uses the money gained by the taxation of Sørstad, to modernise his kingdom. Dams with watermill-powered manufactures as well as windmills are built.

China: The woodblock printing of regular government bulletins for the provincial, district and county magistrates becomes standard.

Roman Republic / Slavs: The town councils and rural chiefs of the entire land between the Roman Republic's Dacian border and the Tyras appeal to Rome for protection; they do not want to suffer the same fate as Tauris. A fast-lane margo treaty is brought underway.

611
China: Emperor Wen of Sui dies. After a long nation-wide mourning, Wen's oldest son, Yang Yong, becomes the new Emperor Yang of Sui.

Yang redistributes the agricultural land in accordance with the census provisions. He faces massive opposition from the former aristocracy. Yang has far-reaching plans, with which he aims at continuing his father's legacy of modernising the empire, but he knows he will only be able to implement them if he achieves the same popularity and immunity against criticism that his father enjoyed, based on his military successes.

Roman Republic / Slavs: The land West of the Tyras becomes "Rei Publicae Romanae Margo Slavonica".

Celtic Empire: Within the Celtic Church, a new order order develops, the Peregrini. Beside being hardcore Pelagianists in a time when more and more simple Celtic Christians adopt the "divine grace" view, the Peregrini also stress proselytisation. They cause the establishment of hundreds of monasteries outside the Celtic Empire, mostly in Norway, Frisia, Glaciana, Western Africa and the Roman Empire.

612
China: Emperor Yang sends an army of more than a million soldiers against Gorguryeo. In contrast to his brother's campaign in OTL, Yang Yong trusts his generals, especially Yu Zhongwen, and the campaign proceeds successfully. Goguryeo's fortresses are stormed and the supply lines through OTL Manchuria are maintained. King Yeongyang appeals to Baekje for help, but Baekje fails him, fearing the evident superiority of Sui forces. After an initial defeat of the naval expedition corps of Lai Huni, Sui's army successfully conquers Goguryeo´s capital, Pyongyang, and subsequently the rest of the country. King Yeongyang is led to Chang'an as a captive, and more than 250,000 inhabitants of Goguryeo are deported to Sui as captives, too, among them most of the military leadership. Only a handful of Goguryeo aristocrats manages to escape to Silla.

Aksum: Emperor Gersem dies. His succession becomes, for the first time in centuries, a subject of heated dispute. Instead of accepting the modus operandi of nominating an heir from Gersem's Tigray clan as emperor, the Nobatian King Tokiltoeton calls for an electoral convent, similar to the ones held with the purpose of choosing a Patriarch.

Roman Empire / Tauris: The Roman army begins rebuilding the aquaeduct of Taphros.

613
China: Emperor Yang distributes fertile land in the former Goguryeo provinces to landless workers and peasants from among the Han. Using the Goguryeo prisoner work force, he begins the construction of the Grand Canal.

Aksum: The proceedings for an electoral convent must yet be negotiated. In the heated debate, Sheba does whatever it can to support a dynasty from Adulis, the "Solomonites", whose members are related to the Sabaean royal family; while Rome does the same to supports a female Makurian pretender who had grown up and attended school and university in Roman Alexandria. Tokiltoeton and the Tigray heir vie for the support of the Patriarch.

614
China: Emperor Yang orders the compilation of a "complete" encyclopedia of (medical, astrological, historical, geographical, philosophical and engineering) knowledge. He prepares to reform state exams on this basis.

Thousands of Goguryeo slaves die in the construction of the Grand Canal, while Han Chinese soldier-peasants and a well-organised administration (like everywhere else in Sui Chao) stabilise and consolidate Sui rule and settlements in the former Goguryeo lands. Provisional roads and bridges constructed for troop transportation during the war are transformed into permanent, stable ones. The peasant population of Goguryeo puts up little resistance to their integration into the Sui Empire.

But in Silla, escaped Goguryeo leaders are preparing the counter-attack.

Aksum: The electoral convent chooses Tokiltoeton as the new (and the first Cushitic, non-Habesha) Emperor of Aksum.

Roman Empire / Tauris: Rome`s Consuls declare Tauris in the Roman Senate as "officially safe". They invite the Ostrogoths to return to their lands, against the payment of a reconstruction tax per heredium of irrigable land.

But many Ostrogoths who have migrated into the Roman Empire have become integrated citizens. Craftsmen have invested in new workshops and admissions into Roman collegia. Those who have migrated beyond the Roman realm, e.g. to the Nesoi Porphyroi, see no reason to abandon their safe and fertile paradise in order to return to a place whose safety they still do not trust. The owners of large irrigated estates had often impoverished during the decade in the Roman Republic and shy at the cost of the reconstruction tax. Only every fourth Ostrogothic peasant returns in the next few years.

615
Roman Empire / Arabia: A group of refugees of a new religious movement, calling themselves "Muslims", flee from persecution in their home town Mecca, across the Red Sea and into the liberal Roman port town of Myos Hormos, where they are considered just another monotheistic, reformist or revolutionary sect. Meccan enovys appeal to the Vigintiviri of Myos Hormos to extradite the Muslims. The citizens of Myos Hormos decide in a Comitium to allow the Meccans to chase after the Muslims, but they do not allow them to wear arms in their civitas. The majority of the Muslim refugees escapes or hides successfully, but is prevented from public proselytisation for the next years.

Aksum / Sheba: Angered at Sheba's and Rome's interventions for his rivals, Tokiltoeton decides to close the Bab el-Mandeb passage for Sabaean and Roman ships. The blockade ends with a major naval defeat for Aksum, though, because Roman and Sabaean ships have fire siphons, while Aksumite ones don't.

616
Frisia / Celtic Empire: Merchants from all across Frisia form a powerful association for the common pursuit of their interests, vis-a-vis their Celtic allies as well as their Saxon and Salian neighbours and their Baltic trading partners and Scandinavian rivals. It is called the Frisian "Hanse".

617
Roman Empire: The island of Canaria (OTL Gran Canaria), where agricultural production and trade with the Roman Empire have increased greatly since the Ostrogoths have settled the Nesoi Porphyroi (OTL Madeira), joins the Roman Republic as the Civitas Canaria.

Aksum: As a conciliatory gesture to Adulis, the fief of the Solomonites, Tokiltoeton orders the construction of a magnificent, high cathedral in Adulis. Its windows are adorned, for the first time in history, with lead lights.

Sogdia / Tuyuhun: Sogdian merchants are frequently robbed by Türgesh, Karluk or Basmil nomads when travelling to and from Sui China along the Northern route of the Tarim Basin. These attacks have increased since the disintegration of the Göktürk Empire, and they are presently the most serious threat to the reviving Silk Road trade and thus to Sogdian wealth and well-being. The city states of Kucha and Karashahr, ruled by wealthy Tokharian clans, are employing frequent "Uygur" immigrants (more and more Eastern Tiele tribes come to be called or define themselves as "Uygurs") as guards, who efficiently guarantee safety within the oases' walls, but are quite powerless against attackers in the open desert. Emissaries of Sogdian merchant associations contact Murong Fuyun, King of the Tuyuhun, who guarantee a safe passage along the (drier and more drudgesome) Southern rim of the Tarim Basin through their vassal cities of Khotan and Shanshan. Against a good payment from the Sogdian merchant associations, Murong Fuyun engages in regular patrols and punitive campaigns against Karluk, Basmil and Türgesh clans. He negotiates with some success with Kucha and Karanshahr because his troops must rely on access to their oases for supplies. The city of Kashgar denies the Tuyuhun access, though, coercing them to always take the more difficult Eastern passage.

618
China: Against advice from high-ranking officials, who stress the danger of the nomadic people in the North and West and the importance of Chinese control over the Silk Road, Emperor Yang defines, for the first time, an explicit strategy for Chinese expansion. Based on the Fubing structure of the army, Sui must only expand into fertile regions where the empire's border can be defended by local yeomen soldiers, and only when Sui control over the border region is firmly established and a developed infrastructure allows unhindered military movement.

The new Grand Canal is finished. It links the Yellow River with the Yangtse at Yangzhou. The surviving Goguryeo captives are freed and allotted land all across the Empire if they enlist in the army. A considerable part of the Goguryeans move into the growing cities instead, though, where they find work as contract labourers. They are not allowed to move back into Goguryeo, though - not for another two decades at least. Eventually, they all assimilate into the multicultural, but Han-dominated Sui society (sometimes categorised as a new tribe).

619
Aksum: Tokiltoeton begins to build up a professional administration, after the Roman model. It takes over many duties hitherto exerted by local chiefs, urban guilds, tribal associations like the Gadaa in the South, vassal kings and representatives of the clergy. The move towards a centralised monarchy increases the tensions in Aksum.

Roman Empire: Canaria's neighbouring island Ninguaria (OTL Tenerife) joins the Republic as a new civitas, too.

Norway: Harald marches his troops against Borre, but is defeated by an alliance led by the petty king Vigurd.

620s
Heavily taxed by the Kings of Agder, the trade volume of the city of Sørstad and its guilds and associations decreases. The faltering of Sørstad's economic dominance leaves a trade and power vacuum filled by the rising Frisian Hanse. Within the trade alliance, Älvsborg assumes a more important position and allegedly becomes the centre of many secret societies. Due to weakened economic power, the Älvsborg-led alliance cannot maintain its large mercenary campaigns, and Truso, Vineta and Grobiņa emancipate themselves from direct Sørstad Alliance control and monopoly.

More than a thousand settlers, mostly from the Celtic Empire, but also some Frisians and Norwegians, along with dozens of Celtic researchers, have arrived in Glaciana. The Celtic Senate declares the island a margo (thus claiming it without establishing structures).

In Norway, the petty kings of Borre (Vigurd, later Eric) unite all of Viken.

620
Roman Empire: The Slavonian margo, which has conformed to the Senate's demands in record time and built up Roman style political structures, organising the land into civitates and building up administrative structures after the model of the Republican constitution, joins the Roman Republic. Its civitates become full members of the Republic, and the Republican troops stationed along the Tyras turn from (welcome) occupation forces to (equally welcome) enforcements of the local defense guards. In the new civitates, a wild linguistic mixture of Latin, Greek and several Dacian and Slavic languages are spoken.

621
Aksum: Tokiltoeton's troops invade OTL Somalia, defeat the Kingdom of the Rahaweyn and Biyomaal and conquer the city of Merca. Aksum annexes the sparsely populated OTL Somalia, but stops short of attacking Sheba's colony at Barawa and the Roman outposts at Mosylon and Opone.

India: Harshavardhana becomes head of the Lawyers' Shreni in Sthanisvara and thus occupies a seat in the city's council.

Chasars: The construction of Atil is finished. Bagha Shad moves into a splendid palace.

Roman Empire / Tauris: With more than half of the irrigable Taurean land left fallow, the Roman Senate decides to auction off the land of Ostrogothic emigrants. Roman citizens from all across the Republic move to Tauris, changing the ethnic, cultural and linguistic nature of the island`s population thoroughly.

The Pangothikon protests against this measure, and refuses to return to Chersonesos. It decides it needs allies for strengthening the Ostrogothic position within the Roman Republic, and endows a Judaist theological school in Jerusalem with a generous foundation asset.

East Africa: The port town of Tanga is attacked and thoroughly plundered by unknown tribes from the hinterland.

622
Arabia: Muhammad Ibn abd'Allah and his followers escape from persecution in Mecca to Yathrib, where they manage to pacify the town, which has been plagued for decades by conflicts between Jews, Simonists and polytheists. The Muslims are expropriated in Mecca. Arrived in Yathrib, they must rely on plundering caravans - and they specialise on those led by Meccan Quraish.

Chasars: Bagha Shad forges an alliance with the Kingdoms of Lasika and Iberia. Claiming to protect the non-Paulicians in Armenia, they invade the country. A five year-long war ensues.

Aksum: Tokiltoeton begins major infrastructural construction projects: especially roads linking the coast and the cities, which decrease Aksum's dependence on rivers for transportation. Aksum's coastal infrastructure is also improved, with new naval bases, civil ports and lighthouses along the Horn of Africa.

India: Harshavardhana brings together the heads of law-related shrenis from all over the Gupta Empire. Common professional and educational standards are contractually defined, as well as a Mediator's Office to settle disputes. This lays the foundation of India's private legal system.

East Africa: The Shambaa of Tanga rebuild their city, with much stronger walls and fortifications.

623
Frisia: Frisian shipbuilders invent a vessel suited for shallow water as well as high seas - the cog. Members of the Hanse will buy hundreds of them over the next years, which allow them to multiply their trading volume with the Venedian and Baltic tribes living on the shallow Southern coastline of the Baltic Sea.

Xiyu traders from Kashgar, who have seen the Chinese government issue printed bulletins to its magistrates, invent the first printed information paper distribution system for news important to traders - the first newspaper worldwide.

Aksum: Tokiltoeton´s troops proceed downriver along the Juba and defeat the Bajuni state, conquering Kismayu.

India: As one of the most outspoken members of Sthanisvara's city council, Harshavardhana organises a summit of the city councils of thirteen Northern Indian city republics - ten of which nominally belong to the Gupta Empire. The summit's first results are the definition of common standards for the security of trade and the setting up of market rules.

Tuyuhun Kingdom: Murong Fuyun establishes a regular postal service (Örtöö), which reaches from the Zhangzhung to Karanshahr and from Kucha almost to Lhasa. It is a highly profitable enterprise because many Sogdian merchants rely on this method of communication, which is quicker than sending messengers along with caravans.

624
Aksum / Roman Empire: Tokiltoeton signs a contract with the half-private, half-public Roman construction trust "ENERGEIA". ENERGEIA will build a dam on the Black Nile and reap a small share of the annual profits of the mills powered by it.

Roman Empire: Among Christian communities in the Roman Republic, mutual credit networks like those of the Ostrogoths have become widespread. The Bishop of Rome, who is also custodian of the Roman Catholic synod's treasury, supports and institutionalises this by offering to integrate any Catholic mutual credit network into a meta-network backed by the considerable financial resources of the Church.

625
China: The Encyclopaedic Commission of Scholars reports that their task cannot be completed presently, since there is so much new knowledge from other countries which reaches them and needs to be processed. Emperor Yang nevertheless orders the printing of the Sui Encyclopaedia and agrees to have it rewritten in twelve years. He orders his ministery to reform the imperial examinations in accordance with the encyclopaedia, thus remvoing arbitrary criteria like appearance, calligraphy etc. Branches of the Imperial Academy will open in seventeen Chinese cities. The scholars are at once tasked with compiling new knowledge for the encyclopaedia, and teaching the current state of the art to the students who want to take the examinations. These state-run Chinese universities pay their scholars, who are examined magistrates themselves, much better than Roman academiae, Persian, Indian or Sogdian universities. Linguistic difficulties are the only barrier that prevents a global brain-drain towards China over the next centuries.

Aksum: Tokiltoeton dies without a legitimate heir. This time, Sheba is much better prepared and has long since launched a campaign to bring the Solomonite pretender to the throne, Qedma, into the pole position. But Tokiltoeton's illegitimate son, Urapyolo, gathers Nubian knights. A civil war breaks out.

Norway: Through marriages, charisma, good relations with the Celts and a couple of violent acts, petty king Augvald of Karmøy has united all of Sogn, Rogaland and Hordaland under his leadership. The capital of his kingdom is named Avaldsnes after him.

626
Roman Empire: Violence breaks out between the new settlers on Canaria and Ninguaria and the indigenous population, whose herding, hunting and gathering grounds are encroached upon by the expansion of new agriculture. The new civitates prevail militarily without any interference from the Republican government. Several hundred indigenous persons are deported to the nearby island of Iunonia (OTL Lanzarote and Fuerteventura).

Aksum: Urapyolo appears to gain the upper hand in the Aksumite Civil War, although pockets of resistance hold out in Matara and Adulis. To maintain Habesha support for him, he decides to tax the port towns heavily and fund the construction of a new cathedral and a university in Aksum with this money.

India: At another summit of the 13 city republics, which have become known as the "Kannauj Alliance" after their largest member and the meeting place of 623, the councillors of 13 republics and more than 200 shrenis (many local, but some of them already inter-urban) sign a contract concerning rules for armed convoys within city walls and outside of them, and another Mediator's Office for the settlement of disputes arising out of caravan-related troubles.

627
Sheba / Arabia: Quraish clans appeal to Sharabil, King of Sheba, for help against the troublemaker Muhammad ibn abd'Allah and his Muslim followers, who have undermined the safety of inner-Arabian trade. Sharabil agrees to help because the disturbance of trade between Sheba and the Mediterranean has affected Sabaean economy gravely. He sends not only 3,000 soldiers to join the Confederate troops, but also his capable general Wahib - and incendiary bombs with inextinguishable fire (developed by Romans).

The Muslim defenders of Yathrib have dug a trench to stop the Quraish and Sabaean cavalry. But they are not prepared for Sheba's incendiary bombs. Yathrib burns to the ground - and inside it, almost all of its defenders, including the prophet and religious leader Muhammad ibn abd'Allah. Some men and women try to escape the inextinguishable flames and are caught in the trench they had dug earlier, where they are slain by the Confederate soldiers. Only very few people manage to escape into a wood thicket and thence, as night falls, into the desert.

The fire of Yathrib does not only extinguish Islam on the Arabian peninsula and restores the safety of Quraish trade across the desert. It also becomes a symbol of the might of Sheba. Yathrib is resettled and rebuilt by the (confederate) Jewish tribes of Banu Qaynupa and Banu Nadir and becomes a part of the Kingdom of Sheba. Mecca's independence, as the last Arabs outside Sheba's realm, becomes mere facade, as Sheba joins the Hilf al-Fudul economic alliance and the military dependence of the Quraish on Sheba has become evident for everyone.

Armenia: The war ends with the re-establishment of an Armenian kingdom, which restores the iconodule Christian confession. Paulicians are tolerated in their religious practice, but politically marginalised. Lasikans and Iberians have brought those Armenians who view them favourably into power, but at a high human cost. The Chasars withdraw with heavy losses, but also with loot. The war has driven tens of thousands of mostly Paulician Armenians into exile, many of whom do not return. They bring Paulicianism to Sheba and the Roman Republic.

Tuyuhun Kingdom: Murong Fuyun establishes five ministeries to organise the growing administrative business of his quickly developing kingdom and has administrative palaces built for them in the capital city of Fuqi, where more and more Tuyuhun settle down, giving up their nomadic lives for profitable employment in new crafts and public services. Although Murong Fuyun copies many Sui measures, his half-nomadic state still has a comparatively slender government and its citizens of different tribes enjoy greater liberties in pursuing the ways of life they prefer.

628
Aksum: All the major port towns, from Adulis in the North to Kismayu in the South, rise in rebellion against Urapyolo. They are supported by Sheba. A second civil war haunts Aksum.

India: OTL Andhra Pradesh are attacked by the Pandyan King Cezhiyan Cendan. Since Mohangupta does not manage to muster enough forces for an imperial defense, the city republics of the Kannauj Alliance decide to assist their Southernmost member, Dantapura. They hire kshatriyas from several clans. Kannauj's mercenaries defeat the Pandyans.

China: Yang Yong dies. He is succeeded by his son, Yang Zhuang, who becomes Emperor Zhuang of Sui.

Celtic Empire: A natural philosopher from Eboriacum discovers that derivatives of sulphuric acid, sprinkled on the soil, greatly improves its productivity. It takes him almost a decade to build up production capacities and convince farmers to buy his chemical fertilisers - but in the second half of the century, his invention spreads across the entire Celtic Empire and dissipates into the Roman Republic and beyond. The production of artificial fertilisers provides ample financial opportunities not only for the inventor, but also for other chemists across Europe, whose exclusive and complex knowledge turn them from meagerly paid civil servant scholars to a very well-earning, powerful and influential professional group.

Prussia: A council of Prussian chiefs negotiates with the city council of Truso: Truso will henceforth be protected by the Prussians and pay taxes for this protection, but it will be free to govern itself, give itself its own laws and judge its citizens by them. Truso`s merchants have free access to operate in the Prussian lands.

629
Frisia / Celtic Empire: After negotiations have been pushed by the Frisian Hanse, who seeks Celtic military support for their trading ventures, the treaty with which Frisia become's the first Celtic margo of the Celtic Empire is ratified in a Frisian Thing and by the Celtic Senate.

Aksum: Urapyolo is killed as Qedma's troops march into Aksum. The Solomonic dynasty begins its rule. Kismayu and Merca are rewarded for their support for Qedma with de facto independence. Qedma guarantees the safety of Barawa and the Roman emporia. Under his rule, the development of a centralised administration comes to a halt, but the university of Aksum is established nonetheless. Qedma's long reign sees improved relations with both Sheba and Rome and a relative return to the old system of decentralised rule, as well as an economic restoration and development, with modern agriculture using fertilisers and new crops reaching the South and glass production reaching new heights of craftsmanship.

India: The city republics of the Kannauj Alliance decide on a common military defense through mercenaries hired co-operatively by all members of the alliance.

630
China: After repeated Khitan raids on the new (former Goguryeo) provinces, Emperor Zhuang conducts a brutal campaign against the Khitan and allied Kumo Xi and Mohe tribes. All through the summer, tens of thousands are slaughtered, while during winter, even more nomads died of starvation as the Sui troops had killed much of their livestock. Before the end of the year, the leaders of nine tribes give themselves in to Sui commanders.

India: Harshavardhana manages to convince Bharikucha, Cochin and Revatidvipa to join the Kannauj Alliance, too.

Chasars: Bagha Shad dies. He is succeeded by his son Böri, who has been educated in Rome.

Tuyuhun Kingdom: Murong Fuyun founds and generously endows a large Buddhist monastery near Koko Nor. Some of the monks are Chinese from the Shaolin monastery.

Venedia: In their Southern Baltic colony of Vineta, local Slavic groups under the spiritual and political leadership of the Liuticians gain more and more control over the town's affairs. In this process, the Liuticians, formerly a loose alliance of slash-and-burn agriculturalist clans and fishermen clans united only around their common sacred site of Rethra, emerge as a polity with fixed boundaries and a greater degree of division of labour.

631
China: Emperor Zhuang orders the deportation of the defeated Khitan, Kumo Xi and Mohe, and their employment as forced labourers in the construction of a continuation of the Grand Canal, which would connect Beizhou with the Yellow River and the Bohai Sea, allowing the transportation of goods from China's economic centre in the South to its new provinces in the North-East. Members of those Mohe tribes who had cooperated with Sui are invited to the Imperial Academy (and many, after passing the imperial examinations, would return to govern their former home lands later). Three more provinces are established.

India: The Kannauj Alliance extends their common defense pact onto naval protection, paying the republican navy of Bharikucha to protect the alliance members' merchant ships in the Western Sea and the republican navy of Dantapura to protect them in the Eastern Sea.

Roman Empire: While hundreds of "inventors" across the Republic claim to have made original inventions, which are in fact copies of Chinese innovations, and craftsmen with more talent in sales than technical skills sell their ordinary products as imported Chinese quality products, a glass artisan from Narona makes a genuine invention which makes him and a dozen people who first copy his design rich beyond measure: eyeglasses.

632
China: The magistrate-scholar Li Qichao publishes his opus magnum of political philosophy, "On Peace and Justice". His theory is mainly a theory of the state - and a theory of "balance through power", instead of a balance of power. Its main emphasis is that, to survive and ensure the well-being of all of its citizens, the state must prevent some individuals from becoming too powerful. To do this, the idealised centre of the state (read: the emperor) must be so powerful as to keep everyone else from gaining too much power. Practically, Li Qichao provides the ideological foundation for absolutist monarchy, which is developing in Sui Chao. His philosophy is embraced by Emperor Zhuang and quickly overshadows Confucianism. Confucianists become a politically marginalised, but socially still important conservative-libertarian opposition.

Chasars: Böri calls together a Kurultai of the Chasars with the task of laying down the rules of the land, which are engraved in marble in Turkish words written in the Greek alphabet with a few additional symbols. He officially sheds the title "shad" and takes on the title of "khagan".

633
India: The Kannauj Alliance members sign a confederal contract, which establishes a permanent council. The council meets regularly, but it can only take decisions on a consensus basis. Individual members are not restrained from institutionalising further co-operation, but everything is binding only for those who have signed the agreement. Harshavardhana is elected the first spokesman of the Alliance Council.

Norway: At the invitation of King Eric of Viken, a Celtic monastery is built in Oslo.

634
China: Emperor Zhuang decrees a new comprehensive penal and civil law code, containing lighter penalties for many crimes, and clear procedural rules for trials. The most groundbreaking innovation is the abolition of private slavery, though. Zhuang also replaces dozens of old magistrates, who are deemed corrupt.

Roman Empire: A scale-maker in the service of the Cursus Publicus Romanus builds the first spring scale.

635
China / Roman Empire / India / Persian Republic / Sheba: In Chang'an, a treaty is signed by the aforementioned states (resp. alliances) concerning tssumes the tle "Kthahe mutual allowance to send armed naval convoys protecting merchant ships into each other's waters and ports.

Tuyuhun Kingdom: Murong Fuyun dies. He leaves behind a quickly developing state, which has acquired a lot of power and wealth in the shadow of their Sui overlords. His son and heir, Muron Shun, titled Gandou Khan, continues the overt submisson and loyalty and good relations to Sui as well as the modernisation of his kingdom and the extension of its power sphere.

636
China: The Northern extension of the Grand Canal is finished, too. The surviving Khitans, Kumo Xi and Mohe are scattered across the empire, similar to the Goguryeans a few years earlier, but although they will Sinicise thoroughly, too, they remain a distinct ethnic group (presently called "Nu-Zhen").

India: The Kannauj Alliance Council decides to send common diplomatic missions to Chang'an, Ctesiphon, Ma´rib, Aksum and Rome.

Tuyuhun Kingdom: The TIbetan Yarlung, led by their King Songstän Gampo, attack Tuyuhun. They reach Fuqi before the Tuyuhun have gathered their troops, many of which had been deployed to Kucha and Karanshahr. Although the Yarlung invaders cause serious devastation, Gandou Khan and his well-trained cavalry defeat them at the Battle of Koko Nor. Weakened, the Yarlung retreat.

637
Norway: More than two dozens of village communities in Trøndelag decide in a Thing to select one of their chiefs and entrust him with protecting the land against Karmøy and other potential rivals. The leader is called a "yarl", and a castle is built for his family and his elite soldiers in training, as well as to serve as a safe haven for the population in case of an attack. The name of this largest castle in all of Norway is Lade.

639
For the first time, a Roman naval convoy is forced to fend off Malay pirates in the Sunda Strait with fire siphons.

China: Crime rates have gone through the roof across China, perhaps caused by the new wealth generated and held by a few people, or perhaps caused by tens of thousands of uprooted people from the Khitan Empire being on the move across Sui Chao, looking for employment. In a campaign against prostitution, robbery and vaganbondry, Emperor Zhuang toughens censorial rules concerning the Four Occupations and their supervision: Those who do not fall into either category and are not officially exempt (like monks or priests) must hold themselves available for corvee labour service to the Imperial Government, in which case they are housed, clothed and fed by the government for the time of their service. Although the imperial administration is faced with difficulties when having to determine whether someone really is a Gong or Shang, thus very few people are affected by this measure, the long-term effects are massive. It would only take the Sui state a way to find out for sure who is really a craftsman, artisan or merchant, and who isn't, and then everyone in the grey areas of society (prostitutes, cameys, day-talers and many more) would run the risk of becoming a state slave.

640s
China: The Sui government builds a state manufacture for exporting porcelain.

In Guangzhou, the first Chinese stools and chairs are produced and used.

640
Sørstad's control has weakened so far that Holmsgarð is compelled to submit to the Svear King Yngvi to protect the town against raids (which are mostly also perpetrated by boatsmen from Svearike-Sjonarike).

Roman Empire / Tauris: In a referendum, a (non-Ostrogothic) majority of the Taureans decides to join the Roman Republic.

641
Atlantic Ostrogoths from the Nesoi Porphyroi lose their course on the high sea and strand on an island belonging to yet another uninhabited archipelago in the ocean towards their West. They survive by eating berries, fishing and hunting birds and manage to return home. Rather uncreatively, they name the archipelago they discovered "Nesoi Atlantikoi" (OTL Azores). Since they cannot exactly specify where these islands where, several missions in the next years fail to find the islands.

642
Tuyuhun Kingdom / Yarlung Kingdom / Zhangzhung: Songtsän Gampo starts another attempt to invade one of his Northern neighbours, this time Zhangzhung. Since local defenses are much too weak, Zhangzhung calls the Tuyuhun for help. Gandou Khan's army defeats the Yarlung once again. Zhangzhung accepts Tuyuhun suzerainty. Gandou Khan visits Chang'an and officially receives the title "prince of Zhangzhung" from Emperor Zhuang of Sui.

643
China: In an anti-fraud-and-slack campaign, Emperor Zhuang calls together representatives from all gong and shang professions and occupations in Chang'an. They must all form official imperial guilds and give themselves professional codes, hold examinations for admission, supervise their codes and remove malpractitioners from among their ranks, announcing each individual change of status to the Imperial Census.

644
Ostrogoths establish permanent trade contacts with the Edo Kingdom of Benin. They bring all sorts of advanced products from the Mediterranean (not the least among them brandy) and buy cotton and later also yams here.

645
The Swedish King Yngvi oversees the building of fortresses in Raivala (OTL Tallinn) and Hälsingborg (OTL Helsinki) on either side of the channel as well as Ingergarð (OTL Saint Petersburg) on the Newa to control the passage to Holmsgarð on the Lake Ilmen.

Roman Empire: The Pangothikon moves back to Chersonesos, but the bulk of Ostrogothic treasures and the seats of most associations remain scattered elsewhere around the Republic. The Pangothikon has officially changed its nature to a voluntary confederal association, which represents mostly Roman citizens, but also Ostrogoths in the Atlantic Ocean and in the poleis of Chortitia and Severopolis.

646
The Celtic Empire joins the Chang'an Naval Safety Protocol.

The Armenian mathematician and astronomer Anania Shirakatsi argues that the Earth is oval-shaped and the Milky Way is a region in space filled with stars/suns.

647
India: Harshavardhana dies. After this death, the common naval policy with Bharikucha and the other cities on the Western coast falls apart, but much of his legacy remains intact and even inspires a reform of the Gupta Empire under Kumaragupta III. in the 660s.

648
Roman Empire: Chemists at the time-honored University of Athens, who try to improve fertilisers even further, experiment with mixtures of sulphuric acid and alcohol. They are the first ones to experience the anaesthetic qualities of diethyl ether - and document it, after they've awakened again.

650s
China: The officialisation of guilds and their involvement in the Census allow the Chinese emperors to identify not officially emChinaployed citizens. Tens of thousands of them are drafted for corvee labour in canal-extension projects across the Empire. Interestingly, this measure also threatens the offspring of Shi, Gong and Shang, who have finished their education, but not yet taken up jobs. It is one reason for the increased numbers of young Chinese who pursue long studies, trainings or apprenticeships, making the Chinese the best-educated workforce in the world.

Svearike: Yngvi's Kingdom now includes Eistland (Northern OTL Estonia), Hälsingland (OTL Southern Finland) and Ingerland - and thus, for the first time, lands where the Swedish-speaking are a small minority among Finnic peoples.

651
The growing power of (predominantly Slavic) farmers vis-a-vis (predominantly Ostrogothic) landowners becomes apparent when the ekklesia of Chortitia decides to bind land ownership to use, i.e. expropriate absentee landlords. After this land reform, which is harshly criticised by Ostrogoths worldwide, the Pangothikon refuses to accept delegates sent by the Chortitian polis` ekklesia. A number of Ostrogothic associations and guilds based in Chortitia, whose members do not wish to lose their influence on the Pangothikon, nominally relocate to other poleis.

653
China: Yang Zhuang dies. He is succeeded by his son Yang Taizong, who becomes Emperor Taizong of Sui.

655
China: Emperor Taizong begins to build up the Chinese Navy and formulates sea dominance as one of Sui's most important objectives - both for a firm control over the (formerly Goguryeo) provinces of Yianbian, Yonggil and Punghae, and to secure the safety of Chinese trade through the Malay archipelago. While most other empires have professional navies - even those, like Rome, who have a predominantly conscript-based land force -, Taizong adapts the exceptionalist Sui military structure of Fubing and Jun-tian creatively and ingeniously to the naval sector: He decrees that Shang (merchants, traders) must serve three years in the navy to obtain licenses for trade with foreign countries. In exchange, they are granted favourable start-up loans upon completion of these three years. To maintain the license for foreign trade or own or hold a ship larger than a specific size or with more than three sails, they must serve two months of each year before they reach the age of 40 in the navy's department that is responsible for accompanying merchant ships and guaranteeing their safety. This policy does not only make sure that the navy, too, does not represent a power factor independent from the king. It also brings petty traders from remote towns in the continental heartland into contact with the great wide world, and thus greatly facilitates the dissemination of economic innovations and the involvement of Chinese merchants in informal international networks of trust.

656
At last, one of the well-equipped Ostrogothic expeditions lands on the Nesoi Atlantikoi again. A small village is built and named Nea Kerkinitis. The first Azoreans have brought goats, axes, saws and ploughs with them and begin to cultivate typical Mediterranean vegetables, grain and bitter oranges and to cut laurel wood, the latter two mostly for exporting them.

657
Celtic Empire: Inspired by the Sui Encyclopedia, Carolus Lignaeus, a Celtic monk and natural philosopher, whose monastery has a huge herbarium at its disposal, creates the first system for the categorisation of plant species.

658
Armed bandits, who have come in longboats downriver on the Borysthenes from the North, raid Severopolis. Presumably, they are from Svearike-Sjonarike.

659
Roman Empire: Medics at the academic hospital in Athens use diethyl ether as a controlled anaesthetic for surgeries and document necessary levels of dosage.

Economy & Technology:

 * The development of credit systems has reached a critical point both in the Roman Empire (where public institutions like the academies, temples, infrastructural agencies or even the Cura Annonae have been the main lenders, but the owners of profitable textile manufacturers begin to participate in the game, too) and in India (where Buddhist monasteries are the main lenders). Not only occasional debt crises create unrest, but also the enormous power of the lending institutions (crossing imperial borders, etc.) harbors potential for conflicts. Christians increasingly stress their anti-interest position, which varies from violent Simonist action to the establishment of interest-free mutual credit systems sponsored/backed by the Roman Catholic Church (and which were, to a great extent, inspired by the mutual credit networks of the Jewish Ostrogothic sea merchants). In China, Buddhist monasteries are largely expropriated during a financial crisis and forced to rely on tuition fees, private and state donations.

Several drastic measures are taken to combat the bubonic plague, first in the Roman and Persian Republics, then in China, Sheba and the Celtic Empire, too, and towards the end of the century also in Aksum, Gupta India, Funan and Silla and  the cities of Dvaravati and the Pyu  and some Franconian towns:
 * Across Europe, North-Eastern Africa and Persia, separate professions of distillers, pharmacists, chemists, gaffers, medics, opticians, millers, etc. have formed.
 * In the Roman Empire, optical lenses are improved to a great extent. First primitive microscopes and telescopes are built, the latter facilitating sea navigation considerably and being used by Ostrogoths first.
 * Rome's world-leading industries (textile and other) are owned by several dozen dynasties. Most of these tycoons had been landowners under the Principate; only a handful are "new wealth". These industrial tycoons are richer than even the wealthiest patricians before the abolition of slavery; they have come to be called "fortunati". Through major donations, they dominate both political parties and most electoral campaigns. They use their influence to tweak competition in their favour and direct infrastructural investment money in ways which suit them best. The power of these oligarchs is debated very critically within the Roman Empire - it is one of the driving forces behind the Tax Reform of 683 - and it also creates negative sentiments vis-a-vis the Romans in other countries, from where they still reap their profits decades and even centuries after the initial investment.
 * In Persia, batteries are developed and used for stimulating the muscles of veteran soldiers and other long-term hospital inmates. The idea is copied in Saba, India and the Roman Empire.
 * In a town in the Roman province of Dacia Superior, wire drawing is invented. Thin gold wires and thicker copper wires are used for a very limited range of purposes at first.
 * In the Celtic Empire, syringes are invented.
 * In towns and cities, all garbage must be placed in large containers, which are collected and burned by public workers.
 * The streets of towns and cities are no longer only swept, but also endowed with water cleaning connected on the source side to the aquaeduct system and on the target side to new and improved canalisation systems leading to the urban cloacs. In smaller towns and those with less water supply, citizens are obligated to clean the streets in front of their houses themselves.
 * Urban citizens who illegally deposit garbage or do not protect their edible stock or do not clean their street are fined severely and often imprisoned.

Military:

 * In Sui China, gunpowder is invented, but not widely used for military purposes.
 * Sui´s marine strategy will suffer its first major setback, though, in a defeat dealt to the Chinese navy by Sri Vijaya.
 * A few irritations and an incompetent Chinese emperor (Yang Liao aka Liao of Sui) suffice to provoke a minor sea skirmish between Roman and Chinese ships and the end of this form of co-operation in the 670s or 680s.
 * Across the Indian subcontinent, powerful empires are increasingly replaced with federations of small, defiant republics, who pay for the military services of warriors instead of letting them rule their countries.

Philosophy / science:

 * Methodical medical observation carried out in the context of East Roman hospitals leads to the identification of rats as the most likely source / carrier of the bubonic plague. Drastic measures of public hygiene are imposed in the Empires and adopted later elsewhere, reducing infection rates by 90% over two decades.
 * In the natural sciences, several conflicting theories are developed concerning the movements of the stars, the role of organs and bodily fluids, the underlying principle behind plant and animal life, the fixed or changeable properties of substances and their internal structure, as well as concerning mass and weight. The Armenian scholar Anani of Shirak discerns planets and moons and formulates a model of the solar System.
 * In attempts to tackle anarchism, which has gathered new followers beyond staunch Simonists, sophisticated theories of democracy are elaborated at Roman universities.

Religion:

 * Catholic and other brands of Christianity show differentiating trends across the social strata. Among the educated, ever-more sophisticated theological theories and complex abstract moral philosophies circulate and regain followers as the Roman cult starts to fade away. Among the working classes, a canon of ethical principles derived from all kinds of Christian confessions starts to consolidate and shape everyday life, while in spiritual life and personal belief, countless variations of ecclesiastic pantheons and mixtures with mystic practices from all around the world are practiced. Across all strata, Christianity gains new followers through its systems of mutual credit, which are exclusively available to trustworthy members and present a very attractive alternative to high-interest loans from diverse public institutions.
 * Paulicianism finds supporters in Saba, Aksum and the Roman Empire, too. In Saba, it is outlawed.
 * Several different schools of Mazdakism develop in Persia, India, China and Europe.
 * Manichaeism loses ground to Mazdakism and new Christian and Buddhist sects.
 * New Buddhist schools develop in Gandhara, some regions of India and China due to the intense contact with Mazdakism, European philosophy and the monotheistic religions of Christianity and Judaism.
 * The Bhakti movement, in contrast to OTL originating in the North-West, where the marginalisation of Brahmins and official Zoroastrianism have relegated Hindu beliefs into the realm of the personal, now spreads across Northern India. It is adopted by urban manufacturing and commercial elites and rural population alike; its open, radical flank are the "anti-scripturalist" populists who demand a redistribution of brahma-deyas and properties of Buddhist monasteries in the Gupta lands in favour of landless Hindu peasants. Absorbing Mazdakist influences, the Bhakti movement is also closely much more tantric than in OTL.
 * The Vedic religions and even the Bhakti variants do not find resonance in Tamilakam. While Buddhists and Jainists remain active, and all sorts of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian confessions are practiced by foregin merchants in the port towns, the rural population continues to practice its cult of (mainly female) natural deities. Intellectualisations of these traditional cults are formulated in the towns, too, drawing not only on Vedic, but also on Zoroastrian, pagan-Roman and even Daoist sources.
 * Islam consolidates as a small sect around the civitas of Antinopolis in Roman Egypt, propagates and implements on a communal level similar welfare policies than the more moderate branches of Simonist Christians and the more reformist branches of Catholic Christians. Roman Egyptian Islam remains focused on Jerusalem (Muslims do not pray towards Mecca) and maintains close connections to Christian and Jewish groups. Several conflicting transcriptions of Muhammad's revelations circulate and lead to later schisms, which condemn the small religious group to relative insignificance.

Nations of Europe:

 * Roman Empire: Infrastructural projects and the increasing number of public hospitals in cities put a strain on public budgets, whereas the fortunati display their wealth in drastic ways. With land becoming a less important economic factor as more and more capital is accumulated, a tax reform pushed forward by the Populares, where "communalisti", a group with socio-economic positions derived to a great extent from Mazdakism, have temporarily gained the upper hand over the party's fortunati-backed elite, passes the Senate in 683 after decades of heated debate and fierce resistance from the fortunati. Imperial taxation is now extended onto all kinds of property, based on census information. The reform contributes to a fiscally evasive behaviour among the wealthy, who begin to hide some of their possessions in strongboxes and vaults.
 * First in Roman Slavonia, then also in the regions to its North and East, woods are cut (and sold), canals built, crop rotations improved, more powerful ploughs bought and used, and experiments with fertilisers made. The region becomes the bread basket of the Roman Republic.
 * Celtic colonisers and research expeditions discover and map Glaciana (OTL Iceland) and Polaris (OTL Greenland), where they do not encounter any indigenous population yet.
 * The thriving new port towns all along the Baltic Sea are often attacked by pirates and raiders. They are increasingly fortified against this threat.
 * Saxony / Denmark: In 669, a small Danish fleet under King Hygelac defeats the Saxon navy, which pursued putative pirates and had tried to collect tributes for the Saxon king, too. Hygelac builds a large hall in Gudme in celebration of this victory and resides there as a king whose domininion, for the first time in Danish history, encompasses several larger islands in the West of the archipelago.
 * Scandinavia (Sørstad Alliance / Norway / Frisia): The city of Sørstad regained fiscal independence after violent confrontations in 669 and managed to stabilise its position as centre of the second most important Baltic trading network. It still has to provide soldiers for the King of Agder. To stabilise and enhance its fragile autonomy, the Sørstaders invite Celtic monks to build a monastery, knowing full well that the Celtic Empire would protect its citizens.
 * Venedia / Saxony: Within the fortifications of the castle of the Obodritic king Visan, the Baltic port town of Liubice (OTL Lübeck) develops. Its initial Wagrian inhabitants quickly mix with arriving Frisians and Scandinavians. His son, Drasco, marries a Polabian princess in 640, thus uniting the kingdoms of Liubice and Sverin (OTL Schwerin). In 662, the Saxon king Heinar violates the treaties and marches on Liubice and Sverin, forcing Drasco's son, who is also named Drasco, to pay tribute and become a vassal of the Saxon king.
 * Further to the East, Vineta's mostly Pomoranian, Ranian and Lutician inhabitants manage to emancipate themselves from the rule of Sørstad's secret societies. The new Vinetan leadership establishes contacts with the Frisian Hanse, but also maintains those with Sørstad's sister towns. Vineta becomes the largest port town on the Southern Baltic shore and the largest exporter of cereals in the Baltic region. The strong influence of the Lutician Slavic priests of Rethra on the city council of Vineta in the last third of the 7th century leads to limitations on alcohol abuse. Vineta becomes the port town which exchanges its goods not so much for brandy, but for the newly invented fertilisers and tools for its craftsmen..
 * The Chasars begin to settle down, adapt Roman crafts and scripturalise their Tengrist religion. They play an important role in Caucasian politics, supporting mountain tribes in the South-East who want to gain independence from Mazdakist Eran. Eran finally reacts by sending the Nǔshībì against the Chasars. A protracted war ensues, in which towns around the Caspian Sea and in Transoxania are destroyed and Silk Road trade is severely hampered.
 * Ostrogoths are actively pushing diplomatic contact and co-operation with China, for example solutions for a military protection of Euro-Chinese sea trade through the Malay archipelago, which is both full of pirates and whose coastal towns demand enormous staple taxes.

Nations of Africa:

 * Throughout the 670s and 680s, alleged fraud in calculating the profits of these manufactures leads to tensions between Rome and Aksum. After an offensive "inspection" in 690, Aksum ceases to deliver the payments altogether, which causes the Roman-Aksumite War. After Roman victory, the Senate installs a new, more Rome-friendly dynasty in Aksum.
 * Simonists emerge triumphant from civil war in the Sao cities, too. The great Simonist arc now stretches from Wagadu in the West over the Hausa, Banza and Sao to the Tubu in the East and the Garamants in the North as well as anarchic communities within the South-Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. Except for the Roman Simonists, all other Simonists are learning to read their Bible in the old Libyan alphabet of the Garamants. From a Palestinian sect, Simonism has become one of the three largest Christian confessions whose core area has moved significantly South into Africa - a fact symbolised by the increased importance of Mune as a second important Christian sanctuary and religious centre after Jerusalem.
 * The Bantu port towns of the East Coast develop into kingdoms and republics, which control large swaths of their hinterland, where coffee, tropical wood and ivory are produced, which are traded for alcohol, glass and weaponry. With some "help" from the coastal cities, several ways of increasing agricultural production per square unit are found. Persian and Indian sea merchants appear in greater numbers, along with a few Malay and Chinese.

Nations of Asia:
Christianity is the common bond uniting Southern Arabia, while the Roman-Saban co-operation for naval security in the Persian gulf is the key factor for Saban hegemony over the peninsula's East Coast.
 * Arabia: Saba emerges from the peninsular conflicts as the undisputed power no. 1: At the beginning of the 7th century, Saba is a consolidated kingdom. Himjarite and Hadamautian nobility have long since become loyal to the crown, as have the decimated tribes of the Azd and the Abd al-Qays.

Saba has also become a major trading nation. Its colonies on Africa's East Coast provide ivory, but more importantly coffee, for which there is enormous demand from the Celtic West to the Indian East, and which allows Saba to import glassware, new medicine, oil and alcohol from the Mediterranean and spices from India. Saba's new wealth is reflected in its capital city, Ma'rib, whose tall churches and palaces and lush gardens and parks do not fail to impress their fellow Arabs.

The alliance between Saba and the Quraish lasts. After aristocratic intermarriage, the Quraish officially become a part of the Kingdom of Saba, which now controls almost all of Arabia.

After trade routes are open again, Saba's wealth grows even faster than before. They learn from their Persian trade partners how to caulk their ships to transport liquids, and from their Roman trade partners how to grow and produce ailments themselves instead of importing them etc. The first Arabian university is founded in Ma'rib in 661.

In dealing with its new Central Arabian countrymen and their Northern Arabian neighbours, Saba succeeds with very cautious and balanced policies. It only deploys its military, which has developed small and more directed flamethrowers apt for equestrian use and generally enlarged its cavalry, to secure its trade routes. The Christianisation of the Quraish is undertaken slowly and cautiously, and shows considerable success towards the end of the century, when Quraish leaders in Mecca re-interpret their city's central sanctuary, the Ka'ba, in Christian terms as the altar of Ibrahim / Abraham and build a basilica around it. Towards the end of the century, Saba's wealth, international relations and scholarly advances have become a symbol of Arabian pride. Saba is an important trading partner of the Roman Empire. Its conflicts and rivalries with Aksum continue throughout the century, though. Salvador79 (talk) 15:16, March 9, 2014 (UTC)
 * Much of Northern India formally belongs to the Gupta Empire, which has turned into an extremely loose confederacy (akin to the OTL Holy Roman Empire), in which city-states, republics and petty kingdoms pursue their goals autonomously and guilds (shreni), religiously flavoured self-defense societies blossom and social conflicts between urban and rural, wealthy and poor begin to escalate. Harshavardhana unites the gana sangha city republics in a great federation, which, although formally accepting Gupta overlordship, pursues a very active foreign policy aimed at securing their share of control over the South-East Asian sea trade routes against Sui/Funanese hegemony. Among the petty kingdoms, conflicts often erupt, and are sometimes solved with judgements from the Gupta Emperor.
 * The gana sanghas, as well as city republics in the Tamil South and those of the mountainous North-West, feature an emerging middle class, a peaceful coexistence of all sorts of cultural and religious blends, and an increasingly self-confident foreign and external economic policy, based on the wealth generated by their shreni or nikamam (guilds/syndicates). Sometimes acting in unison - especially within the Kannauj Alliance forged by Harshavardhana and the Shaihr Jaari -, they pursue policies of securing resources and outlet markets.
 * Buddhist cities, led by Nalanda, also forge alliances with the Pyu of Sri Ksetra and the Malay of Palembang, to where they export their political model of gana sangha. The Buddhist city republics are more democratic and egalitarian than the Hindu-dominated ones. Together, and at times allied with the other city republics or other actants, they try to keep trade routes open and empires from taking them over.
 * During another century of peace and prosperity, disrupted only by minor socio-economic conflicts, society in the Tamil kingdoms grows more secular and absorbs technological progress quickly. Dravidian cults have syncretised with many other cults, the Vedic ones not being dominant among the latter. Buddhism and Jainism continue to flourish.
 * European telescopes find their way into India and help both astronomy and sea voyaging.
 * Imported fertilisers are used  to increase agricultural output in the artificially irrigated, arid lands of central and Southern India.
 * South-East Asia: Funan loses its maritime supremacy over Indochinese trade to Sri Vijaya. After Westward expansion is stopped by Dvaravati and Langkasuka, Funan grows closer to Sui China, copies its policies and orients itself towards the North. Along the Mekong, land is brought under control and integrated into the modern Funanese agricultural system and cities are built as far North as OTL Luang Prabang. Funan's ruling ethnic group of Indianised Khmer represents a minority here, with Tai (Shan, Lao and others) and Hmong combined outnumbering them.
 * Sui and the Tuyuhun remain closely allied and keep both the Yarlung Tibetans and various Turks at bay.
 * Influenced by Sui, Zhangzhung rebels successfully against the Yarlung Dynasty. Tibet never becomes a unified empire.
 * Turks: Chasars, Türgesh, Basmyls, Kyrgyz, Chigils, Pechenegs, Karluks, Tuwinians, Kipchaks, Chubans and Yagma fight with and against each other and with and against neighbouring kingdoms, empires, and city states in unstable and shifting alliances. Chinese, Sogdian, Persian and Ostrogothic influences deeply shape the different Turkic tribes and proto-states in different ways.
 * Nihon: The reforms of Regent Shotoku and the Taika years centralise and modernise the Yamato kingdom after the Chinese model.
 * Nihon / Korea: After Silla attacks Baekje, Yamato manages to help the rebels restore Baekje and drive off Silla's troops.
 * After continued attacks from Silla, Sui defeats, occupies, annexes and Sinicises Silla. On the Korean peninsula, only Baekje remains independent (due to its alliance with Nihon).
 * After relations between the Chasars and Caucasian kingdoms turn sour, the construction of the Great Caucasus Wall is begun.
 * Langkasuka and Kedah gain independence and Palembang (Sri Vijaya) on Sumatra takes over the leading role in protecting Indochinese trade from Cham and other pirates. Each of them have a different powerful Indian empire or federation behind them.

Abrittus