Katha

A woman successfully escapes from a group of tribal warriors with her new husband on the Mongolian Steppe. This woman does not know it, but the child they will bear is a replacement for one who, in another world, would conquer much of the known world and herald the end of the Islamic Golden Age, Song China, and Kievan Rus. Without a Chinggis Khan, there will be no Mongol Empire.

This timeline takes a similar POD from the legendary Chaos timeline, but taking it in a different direction resulting in a decidedly less Euro-centric world. Without a Mongol Empire, this world is far less unprepared for the outward explosion of the Western colonial empires.

Summary and Goals of Katha
In this timeline, there is no Genghis Khan. In his place, a Khorasani Empire rises to the occasion, claims the title of Caliphate, and for a time unites most of the Muslim World under an unapologetically Persian dynasty and ruling structure, destroying opponents as great as the Delhi Sultanate and Mamluks of Egypt and even forming a treaty with the Byzantine Empire to encircle the Seljuk Turks, who the Khorasanis try and fail time and again to conquer. In the East, the destruction of the Delhi Sultanate brings forward the rise of the Kakatiya Dynasty of Southern India, which systematically conquers and subjugates its way to dominating all of India south of the Vindhya mountains. In China, the Jin Dynasty is weakened by the invader Jamukha Khan, who ultimately fails but allows for the reunification of the nation under the Song dynasty. Unfortunately, this lasts only a short while before the complete collapse of China for another century. And in Europe, the Kingdom of Poland unites successfully and becomes the preeminent power in Eastern Europe, competing with the Byzantines and Holy Roman Empire and exerting influence over their fractured Slavic brothers in the Kievan Rus.

This timeline was the result of a long development over a few years and was inspired by Easternized World and Chaos, and morphed from an India-wank in my original middle school version into a project to resurrect that idea and hopefully turn it into something good.