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House Constantine - NEW

House Constantine is a massive Italian House located inside the city of Constantinople and dominating nearly completely the Byzantine Empire.

House Constantine first came to prominence during the foundation of the city of Constantinople where they became the dominent fixtures of the town.

History[]

Early History[]

Second Roman Civil War[]

Main Article : Second Roman Civil War

Turkish Night of Tears[]

The Turkish Night of Tears
You Children of Constantine are not freedom fighters. Your just monsters. Uneducated Monsters.
Natashia Constantine Cover Amazing
She was the cause of all this. She poisoned his mind. Turned him into a monster.
Theodora Constantine
One of the moments that the Sons of Constantine had been waiting for in order to move forward on their plans was the departure of several prominent Generals in Constantinople of whom were very loyal to the Emperor, but through manipulation they were sent alongside Mella Constantine when she traveled to Greece on official business. It would be Antonio Constantine IV. who would travel through the Palace Grounds of House Constantine accompanied by his friends Theodosius Leonid,and Phocus Justinian of whom together with several knights of the Sons of Constantine arrive in the Gardens north of the Palace where they meet with David Bagrationi the Georgian King of whom has come to assist in the Turkish Night of Tears. Joining up with the rest of the Sons of Constantine command structure they begin lighting fires at the peaks of prominent buildings including the Hagia Sophia where the Orthodox Priests there side with the Sons of Constantine for the massacre to follow. Personally leading the Georgian troops alongside his friend David they go to the estate of House Saglik a prominent Turkish household he joins his forces in going house to house at the estate anihilating the noble family. As he leads the Sons of Constantine in a city wide attack on the Turks leading to the Night of Turkish Tears the killing continues throughout the night with only the screams and brutality of it alerting the non-Sons of Constantine Guards of whom alert the Emperor of Byzantine in the form of Julian Constantine III. of whom intervenes stopping the massacre from being complete. Tony is brought before his father and the entire Court of Constantinople where he is forced to anwser for his actions, but instead of apologizing or make excuses for what happened he plays to the crowd and gains influence amongst the court by continueing to argue for the killing of the Turks. When several Turks of the court (most noteably Akkin Ilhan of whom would yell out at Tony causing Tony's father to end the meeting.) would react angrily to this the fighting in the court begin eventually leading to the end of the meeting and Tony becoming the most popular member of the Italian Nationalist movement in Constantinople.
Natashia Constantine Gif Large
Following the confrontation in the palace grounds it was Julian Constantine that would make the decision to turn against his son Antonio believing that now Antonio was no longer fit to rule in his stead and he would make the unfortunate mistake of making this decision known to his wife Mella Constantine of whom supported him but was accompanied by several handmaidens of which most critically Natashia Constantine was among. With Julian, and Mella unaware of the relationship between Antonio and Natashia they were unaware of the consequences and fearing for her lover Antonio Natashia would poison the cup of Julian which led to him becoming very sick and unable to call for the arrest of Antonio as he had been planning. Julian would find himself on his deathbed nearly dying from this poison but through the work of the High Priest of Constantinople he would survive the poison but was left near comatose at his bedside where he was cared to by Mella and her handmaidens including Natashia. With Julian lying in this near comatose state the violence of the massacre of the Sons of Constantine were left to fester with no reprisals or punishment and this led to many violent street riots between Ostrogothic citizens, and Turkish Citizens of which the army of Constantinople stayed out of allowing the near two days of lawlessness in the streets before on the third day the return of Antonio to the palace would push things into an entirely new direction.

With the sickness of the emperor several prominent members of the Byzantine Empire would be recalled back to the capital with Julian having his son Phillipicus Constantine III. recalled to the capital and he planned to name him the new heir of the empire, while he also recalled his brother Damian Constantine of whom he had always appreciated the advise of and realizing the situation he was in he knew his brothers advise would be very important. While this was happening it was Antonio that spent time with the brothers of his lover Natashia and the three of them alongside David Bagrationi would join the rioting and during this Antonio would witness the violence of Natashia's brothers when they raped the daughters of a Turkish family, and this would be a shocking moment for Antonio of whom could not stand the violence against women.

Killing of Toygar Ilhan[]

Theodora Constantine Cover
I remember the quiet boy who used to show his sister how to sail. How did you fall so far brother?
Theodora Constantine

It was days following the confrontation at the Imperial Senate when Antonio finally returned to the Imperial Palace and upon his arrival he found his father was extremely sick, but refusing to see him despite his mother pleading with Antonio to see his father, and thus ignoring his father he was confronted by his two sisters Nella Constantine, and Theodora Constantine of whom verbally attacked him for his racism. During this argument his sister Theodora would reveal to her brother that she was romantic with Toygar Ilhan of which led to him storming out of the Palace Grounds and then accompanied by several Palace Guards, and several of his close friends he went to the Turkish Market where he would find Toygar Ilhan working one of his fathers stores. Confronting Toygar on this there was little conversation as once Toygar admitted to the relationship it would be Antonio of whom would kill Toygar decapitating him in front of his mother and then leaving him dead in the street, and this caused fighting at the market which led to the deaths of nearly a dozen people in the market as they were cut down by the Palace Guard trying to protect the heir. Fighting there way out killed well over a dozen more but they got out of the Turkish market where fighting then broke out between the Turkish people following Antonio and Ostrogothic citizens who begin fighting in the streets. The fighting would burn down much of the western section of the Turkish Market and killed hundreds by its end, with the army of Constantinople forced to move in and seperate the two rioting factions.

Do you wait for me to say I am sorry father. I shall not apologize. I am going to cleanse this city of the mistakes your reign has allowed to grow within it.
Antonio Constantine IV.

The rioting went on for three days with even the Constantinople army unable to stop it from spreading, and during this time the now increasingly popular Sons of Constantine were responsible for nearly a thousand more deaths just on their own with the rioting killing twice that number of citizens with Turks bearing the supreme brunt of these deaths.

As the fighting continued it would be Natashia's brothers Vitiges Ermanaric, and Mitiges Dermaric that would continue the works of their sister when they led their own personal force which they had been expanding for years through the assistance of their sister and they targeted Turkish politicians, and generals throughout the city in targeted assassinations leading to a serious loss of both Turkish intellectuals in the city but also Turkish military strategists in the city.

Marriage[]

Nella Constantine Cover2
I do not agree with your decisions brother. I do not think the road you are going down leads anywhere but death. But. You trusted me when no one elce did. You believed in me when no one else did. I will follow you now. I will trust you now.
Nella Constantine

Antonio avoids the calls of his father to see him at the Palace as the hooks of Natashia have gone so far that the two are now planning a wedding and with the Byzantine Orthodox Church supportive of the Sons of Constantine the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in the form of Photius Corelius I. would invite him to pray with him at the Saint Sophia and accepting this he went there with Natashia and the top tier of the Sons of Constantine providing them a safe place while the rioting died down in the streets. Before the wedding Antonio would attempt to involve his family and after his mother agreed to come to the wedding he would meet with his sister Nella of whom he had always been very close with, but he was quite conserned that she had been turned against him by his sister Theodora. Arriving at Nella's room he would find her staring out the window at the boats in the dock and taking her back to their childhood he was able to push through the recent events and bring Nella back to his side convincing her that everything he had done and planned to do was for the betterment of the people of Byzantine, and trusting the brother who had been her best friend for years she would also agree to go to the wedding and also agreed to support his brother in all things. Photius would bless the marriage of Natashia and Antonio despite the Emperor himself being the one who should bless the marriage, and thus with a blessing Natashia and Antonio were married in the Saint Sophia. Antonio following a blissful night with Natashia falls asleep knowing that things are going very well for him, but despite this a tears runs down his cheek as he thinks on all the violence, and also the distance between himself and his family.

Byzantine Expansion[]

The Expansion of Byzantine
It was of vital importance to the long term strength of the Empire that we controlled the coast lines. The Empire of Nehekhara may be unaproachable on the ground, but it would be interesting to see long term how they did if we cut them off at every one of their ports, and starved off their trade routes.
Byzantine Empire Pre Greek Expansion

The Byzantine Empire had once stretched across all of Greece and into parts of Croatia, but over the years revolts, and rebellions had led to all of Greece falling out of the hands of Byzantine.

My father was a great man. He should be remembered as a great emperor. His legacy will be this moment right now. I owe him everything and I will make sure everything I do from this point forward only adds to his legacy.
Antonio Constantine IV.

Having crushed the Turkish Rebellion and been crowned the emperor of the Byzantine Empire the control of the empire and all that meant was firmly at the palm of Antonio Constantine IV. When Constantine IV took power there was a general sense that this man was someone who was very expansionist, and almost an extreme nationalist in his leanings. For the powers in Constantinople this was great, as they always wanted more. But when he did come to power and was in place for good, the nobles of Constantinople begin to realize that they were dealing with a very calculating leader, who was extremely charismatic, and intelligent. In his early days he begin several high profile meetings with the power bases in the Empire in an attempt to galvanize support for the campaigns he was planning to undertake. For thos being met with it became clear that you were either with him, or very much against him. He proved this point when he had the third most powerful house in Constantinople completely destroyed after they were involved in a plot against him. With this action it became clear what he was capable of and the rest of the nobles fell quickly into line. With his powerbase under control, he went about planning for his expansion into the surrounding regions. Constantines desire to expand the Empire led him to many expansionary strategies, of which the first stage of which was the control of the eastern Mederateranian.

Expansion[]

The control of the Empire of Nehekhara had gone unchallenged for far too long, and I was going to make sure that they understood this wasn't their land.
Antonio Constantine IV.

Tony Constantines desire to expand the Empire led him to many expansionary strategies, of which the first stage of which was the control of the eastern Mederateranian. In this regard he pushed his internal allies very hard to build up their strength, and he built up a large navy which he knew would allow him to gain the initiative in the area. His other goal during this period was the growth of the Ostrogoths in Anatolia of whom he was preparig for his eventual movement into the lands of the Empire of Nehekhara. In order to do this he sent in a large number of his intellectuals into the region of Anatolia where they proceeded to even further advance the urban growth of the Ostrogoths, and in this way also increased their industrial properties allowing them to make their military forces stronger then what they were at the time. So as the expansion prepared to move forward it was with complete shock that the surrounding kingdoms had no idea that any of this was even going on.

Western Expansion[]

The Greeks were so foolishly devided that you told one of them the other one hated him and they just killed eachother without even checking.
Antonio Constantine IV.

In order to do this he went about campaigns against the Greeks and the Bulgarians. Moving large forces to these borders he used a strategy of infiltrating the goverments of these areas to turn their own forces against themselves, to the point that they were fighting themselves more then they were fighting the encroachment of the Byzantines. In only 2 years he pacified greece and expanded his holdings in Bulgaria to the point that he was heralded in the streets for the largest expansion of the Empire since the Civil War.

The Island Wars
Greece fell two years quicker then I would have thought. Seeing their failure gave me increasingly bravery towards the islands of the eastern Mediterranean.

Fall of the Mediterranean[]

Nella Constantine Cover1
You caused all of this brother. Once father gets better there will be consequences for all of this violence.
Nella Constantine

His next step was to get Cyprus and Crete into his realm of control along with Rhodes. Constantine sent his greatest servent Basil Arygros to Cyprus in the hopes of creating the annexation without any bloodshed. When Basil arrived on the island he was greeted by the entire nobility of Cyprus, and before he had a chance to even offer terms the King bid Basil to tell his Emperor that he would be coming to Constantinople to discuss things. The Kingdom of Cyprus was already close with Byzantine and greatly feared the Nehekhara so it agreed to an alliance that made them a nearly independent nation. During these negotiations Tony became very close with the King of Cyprus at the time, and this relationship would become a very important one for Tony in later days. Crete quickly as well saw an advantage to joining up with Byzantine after the quick fall of Greece left them very exposed.

"We needed an oppurtunity to show the islands of the south that resistance was futile. Rhodes gave us the perfect excuse to show our power in the region."

-Basil Arygros

Rhodes held onto its independance and for its resistence the Byzantines launched a massive armada to the small island and quickly overwhelmed them. With their defeat the Byzantines brought in Houses from there expansion territores who would rule over rhodes. In this way they rewarded their allies and at the same time destroyed the Rhodes Elite. Crete quickly as well saw an advantage to joining up with Byzantine after the quick fall of Greece left them very exposed. Crete would resist to some extent but Alberto had already been given assurances that their main military force would be placed in the wrong places thus assuring a swift victory. Being forced to use force for the first time the Byzantine fleet would utterly decimate the defences surrounding the capital of Crete, and then land within the capital where they sacked the parliment, and killed much of the rebellion's leadership. With the resisting members of the Cretian leadership dead, the sympathisers would be placed in key positions while themain force of leadership was handed over to Ostrogoths, and Italians brought in from the mainland.

Moving Eastword[]

"All the previous movements had been preperation for the attack on the east. In the end what we had done before had led us to this moment, and the Nehekhara forces were wholefully unprepared for the forces I was willing to bring to bear against them."
-Tony Constantine

The Empire of Nehekhara is without a doubt one of the largest empires in the entire world, and its size provides it one significant weakness. Because of its size it has such long borders that it can be easy to miss when one border is getting hot. On top of this their conflict with Ind, and their allies has led to the need for a massive build up on their eastern border, and the constant need for a massive force against Lahmia means that they are stretched thin on a lot of different borders. The border with Byzantine was basically the responsibility of the Armenians to defend, and they had been doing this against the rampaging hordes of Arabs and Turks that had in the past moved against the western border of Nehekhara. This time though the Armenians were caught in a massive trap as the Byzantines had placed a huge force of Ostrogoths directly in front of their border, while the main Byzantine army split in half with one half moving as well against the Armenians and the other against the lightly defended center of the border.

Noteable Members[]

Family Members[]

Other Noteables[]

Vassal Houses[]

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