[img]http://i.imgur.com/jHF8NBp.png[/img] [h1]APPENDICES[/h1] Here is where I will post extra info. Mostly it'll just be explanations that are given in the OOC when people ask for them. [b]THE WORLD MAP![/b] [img]http://i.imgur.com/ngeiPEJ.png[/img] [h3]THE APPENDICES[/h3] [hider=The State of Religion (Vilageidiotx)] [img]http://i.imgur.com/7Vq7IB2.png[/img] The big schism, the division between the Catholic west and Orthodox east, would not happen. That evolves out of head-butting politics between the Papal sphere of influence and the Imperial sphere, but in this world the two spheres would be more or less one and the same. You would probably get uppity Popes from time to time trying to insist their word comes before the other patriarchs, but with Imperial power present in the west it is unlikely any Germanic kingdoms would accept Papal primacy since it would do them no good. Remember, accepting Papal primacy was how Charlemagne got made an Emperor. That means that the worlds "Catholic" and "Orthodox" will be interchangeable words for the Chalcedonian dogma. However, as Aaron said, there was a Monophysite split between Alexandria and the Orthodoxy that would have happened regardless, and they became very popular on the eastern fringes. You'd see it entrenched in Egypt and East-Africa, popular in Armenia, and influential in Syria. Also in Syria, particularly deeper in Christian parts of the otherwise Zoroastrian Persian Empire, you would have the Nestorians. Historically many of the Germans were Arian as well, though whether or not Arianism would have lasted in this situation is hard to tell. Miaphysitism happens later, and represents the moderation of the Monophysites. Now, the meaning of these terms seems really petty to me and probably most modern people, but it was important to people in this time period. I will try to explain them though. The Orthodox position is that Jesus was both divine and human at the same time, and that this divinity and humanity were distinct but acting in tandem. The Monophysites held that Jesus was divine and that was that. One nature, not two. The Miaphysites who later evolve from the Monophysites and represented by the modern Coptic churches held that Jesus had one nature, but that this one nature was some sort of mix between divinity and humanity. The Nestorians, who are the Syriac christians of the modern day, believed that Christ was bother divine and human but that these two aspects were completely separate. They are different from the Orthodox because the Orthodoxy saw the humanity and divinity as being equally present, the Nestorians saw Jesus as a human with divinity inserted post-production. The Arians believed that Jesus was the son of god, but that he was not divine, but was a separate subordinate human son kind of like a Greek demi-god. There is also the Donatists, who you will see mentioned if you research this stuff. They probably would not be present in the RP, as they were mostly worried about the nature of apostasy, which wouldn't be common in the 7th century. They were popular when large parts of the western world were still hostile to Christianity, and they represented the faction that believed that anybody who renounced Jesus, even under duress, could never be forgiven or allowed to receive the Eucharist. It is possible this idea might resurge in the face of Islam. Now, if there is anybody better at theology than me, please speak up, because the theological divides make very little sense to me and I don't understand why anybody could ever have cared. This was shit that nearly brought the Empire to civil war several times, and it would have divided everything from rival street gangs to aristocratic families. And that I truly don't get. [/hider] [hider=Arians (Dinh AaronMk)] [img]http://i.imgur.com/cm3smwJ.png[/img] Aesthetically as well: Arians were probably much more "humble" than their Catholic/Orthodox counterparts. I think the big effect of preaching Jesus as being more human than he was spiritual didn't mean there was a lot of emphasis on trying to present some maddening image of heaven you'd get in richer Orthodox and Catholic churches/cathedral (especially later period, but Arianism was also dead by the time the romantic image of the "gothic" cathedral arose). Arian aesthetic would be more about the approach-ability of Jesus and possibility the divine as being human in many respects, and not some major divine hand of God and he needed to be that much. Though Jesus WAS created according to Arius, he is not the son of God in the same way the mainstream church viewed him. This kind of falls into line that God is one and only, and any attempt at shoe-horning a trinity into God's nature is a half-assed attempt at being polytheistic while claiming it's still monotheistic by claiming the Son, the Father, and the Holy Ghost is one the same. So that might be the focus of the theological debate. Aesthetic argument might boil down to, "That church is too rich, you could have spent the money you got on alms for the poor"; but not as extreme as the Lollards (whoever thought it was amazing to be poor) or whatever. [/hider] [hider=Recommended Reading (Vilageidiotx)] [img]http://i.imgur.com/9SjX1GB.png[/img] [url=http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/]The History of Rome[/url] This played a part in why I wanted to do a Roman RP in the first place. Back last fall, I started to listen to these while I was at work. It's an amazing overview that everybody should listen to if they call themselves history fans, and covers everything up to the fall of the Western Empire. There is a continuation of it done by somebody else about the Byzantines, but I haven't listened to it so I cannot say anything about it. [url=http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Count-Belisarius-Audiobook/B00CAWQ0Q4/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1438233243&sr=1-1]Count Belisarius[/url] This is what I am reading right now (albeit in text format, so I didn't spend no twenty bucks =p. If you can find this at the library, that would be great). Pretty good overview, the narrator explains a lot of the small cultural details of the time, like the religious differences. [url=http://www.audible.com/pd/History/In-Gods-Path-Audiobook/B00QMP102O/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1438233533&sr=1-1]In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire[/url] Admittedly, this one forms the foundation of what I know about the rise of Islam. It wasn't a subject I had much knowledge in at all until this year. Pretty good overview of the events that caused it all to happen. [/hider] [img]http://i.imgur.com/bvwS0zk.jpg[/img]