Stories from the Chaos timeline

A castle in Denmark, 1381 AD.

The young crown prince Harald sits there, looking at the sea, and is sad.

It's not him alone; since several decades, all the royal family, one could even say, all the country is struck by sadness. Yes, since that duke of Holstein, Gerhard the Bald, started pushing his weight around, the Germans rule everything in Denmark, and the Waldemar dynasty can do only as much as the Schauenburger allow them. Harald's father, when he was younger, tried to put the mighty nobles back in their place; but he didn't succeed, and the very trial cost the king all the reserves he could tap. Yes, some decades ago, his father could at least try to take a risk; but even this time has passed. Now, there's nothing left to hope, except for a wonder. And this is the world where he, Harald, will once become king. A bleak future.
Of course, there are his two younger brothers. Erik has found the religion to bear his fate, and actually is the happiest of the three brothers. Christoffer, the youngest, is full of anger, but can't find a way to let it off. And he, Harald himself, simply wishes to be someplace else.
But where? A century ago, the bishop Christian told him, princes used to go for the Holy Land, to fight the infidels. But now, the Holy Land has been lost too, like so much, so this door is closed for him, too.
A cog sails by. The prince looks after it. Yes, going somewhere else... but where? Some of these ships have been in the far East, in the lands of those people bishop Christian calls "wrong Christians"... but somehow, that wouldn't be right.
Going to the west instead, to England or France? But they are at war now, as far as he knows... not a good idea. Although it doesn't really matter.
Anyway, he just wants to leave the country for some time. All he needs now is his father's allowance. Of course, king Henrik won't be too happy, but on the other hand, the king is a broken man and won't put up real resistance.

And so it happens. Some time, later, the prince is at the house of a friendly noble, where he receives some captains. It's not that easy, though. He has to see, that those Germans, the men of the Hanseatic League, pretty much control all the trade in his country, so he'll have to go with one of them, if he still wants. Four or five smug captains have come and gone already, angry that the prince let them come for nothing.
But the current one seems to be a different case... he's German too, but he actually speaks Danish, and his behavior isn't like that of his colleagues. He's anything but a noble, and not really the right society for a young prince, but Harald likes how he tells wild stories over his beers. And he especially likes how the captain tells about islands in the far west... islands, that noone has ever heard of...
There's not much to think about it; the two of them make a deal, and not too much later, the prince leaves the country with the captain and his fishermen. His family wished him goodbye as if he was going to die - and when he had left, it was indeed as if he was dead.

But several months later, a messenger approached the court with the news, that the prince had returned and... at first, the king and the younger princes get angry at him, because they believe the messenger got crazy, so unbelievable is what he tells. Finally, prince Erik decides to go to the harbor and welcome back his brother.

He finds his brother at the harbor in the middle of a drove of people - captains, sailors, merchants - all of them staring as if he was giving them a vision of Heaven (yes, Erik is having such blasphemous thoughts). Next to the old captain he knows, and some fishermen, stand some strange bronze-skinned people, like noone in Denmark has ever seen them, saying nothing. But the center of the drove is Harald himself, talking excitedly and full of energy, as if he couldn't stop.

Erik looks at him, full of disbelief. "Harald? Is that really you? I don't recognize you anymore..."

History tells us, that the prince would send those bronze-skinned men to various European courts, which made him many influential friends - and when he would become king later, the dukes of Holstein wouldn't dare to take a move against him, as long as he reigned.

It was a happier time for Denmark.

"The three Russias" by Ph.D. Eino Oitsalu, University of Reval, Finnish-Estonian republic, 1930.

In the 12th and 13th century, although the East Slavian realms were already split into a number of more or less independent (but connected by family lines) princedoms, there were from time to time rulers who managed become accepted as supreme ruler of them all, if only until their death, like Vsevolod "The big nest" III or Vladimir Monomakh. Only the trade republic of Novgorod stood more aside of the rest of the Rus - which it could afford thanks to the lack of a strong centralized authority elsewhere. In the 14th century, however, with the arrival of the Byzantines the princedom of Kiev (which had been without doubt the leading power in earlier times, but fell back together with the decline of Byzantium) gradually gained first cultural and later political importance. At the same time, however, the princes of Vladimir-Suzdal had control over the metropolitan of Vladimir whom they expected to be accepted as the highest religious authority in Russia. The delicate situation escalated in 1388 with the begin of the Russian schism. For a generation, the ignored Eastern half of Europe was torn apart by this struggle, leading to a split that would survive the schism itself. In some way, this has to be regarded in the same way as the split of Charlemagne's empire between his heirs in Western Europe. [...]

"Elegy of the Seljuk storm" by Konstantin Yaroslavich Manilov, University of Chernigov, 1841
After the dark days of the year of the Savior 1204, when the city of Constantinople was razed by heretical Christians, the empire of the Seljuks, who dared to name themselves after the truly great empire of Rome, raised its head, after waiting for more than a century for its hour. [...]
The Seljuks invaded the Bulgarians, and the Westerners did nothing. The Seljuks invaded the Serbians, who fought valiantly, and the Westerners did nothing. They even took the old city of Tsargrad, and the Westerners still did nothing. The Seljuks invaded the lands of Epirus, Thessalia, Athens and Achaia - and only then, when the West itself was threatened, they took the sword, but now it was too late.
They came with hundreds of thousands of soldiers. They even had armed themselves with the new cannons, to storm the western cities. Wherever they went, they caused chaos, death and destruction. For centuries, they would stay in the lands of the Westerners, and bring them all the sufferings that came with them: Children robbed from their parents and forced to change their belief, women abducted and sold into harems, Christians becoming second-class citizens in their own land. [...]

"A Comment on Manilov's 'Elegy of the Seljuk storm'", by Ph.D. Anton Wegscheider, University of Innsbruck, 1902
Manilov wails about Western civilizations abandoning the orthodox people of the Balcans, but as a matter of fact, Serbia and Bulgaria also fought among themselves. Macedonia was heavily contested between both said nations, and if the Seljuk storm had been prevented by unknown circumstances, history would've seen several more wars in that region. The breakdown of first the Roman, and later the Byzantine empire, left the area without a strong power to keep the order, and the fact that the border between the two major Christian religions ran straight through the Balcans, created the seed for many more conflicts, which would continue after the Seljuks would be expelled again from those lands. [...]

From the Welt-Enzyklopädie [1], 1932:
Glazunova, Olga Dmitrievna (* 16. 6. 1784, + 13. 12. 1850), Russian writer. Born in the city of Novopolozk as the daughter of a noble family, her works were very popular in the Tschung [2]-ophile 18th century Russia. They play during the earlier time of the Hong dynasty, either at the imperial court or describe the voyages of ship captains in the service of the emperor in Nanjing. Glazunova's novels were appreciated among her readers for their romantical stories and the descriptions (and illustrations) of the lush nature of East and South Asia. Glazunova traveled by herself to Tschung in 1810-13, after having learned Mandarin in the years before. Except for literature, she had a keen interest in gardening; the botanical garden she founded in Novopolozk in 1822 still exists today. She married count Michail of Aleksandrskoye in 1821, with whom she had two children, Andrei and Constantina. During her lifetime, she was often criticized, especially by the Russian-orthodox church for not being pious. Her last years were overshadowed by a chronic depression.

[1] Yep, it's German for "World encyclopedia".
[2] Tschung is the German transcription for Chung (or Choung?), short for Chunku'o, from Zhongguo for Middle Kingdom, i.e. China.

From the various diaries of the de Ibelin family:

Henri de Ibelin, 1496:
[...] Thank God we could escape with the ship. Our men fought valiantly, but there was no way stopping the Seljuks... they were everywhere, they outnumbered us a hundred times, and they knew no mercy. Our fields, our houses, our subjects, everything is lost. All we have left is this ship, a few servants and some bezants [1] that we'll have to live of in future. Now we have to see where we can go to. [...]

Henri de Ibelin, 1500:
[...] A great sadness has befallen us, here in our new life in Marseille. We can't forget Cyprus. It's only a few days on a galley from here, but there is no way we can return there. I wish there was a way to start a new life. [...]

Guillaume de Ibelin, 1520:
[...] Now it's two years since we arrived in the Caribbean [2]. The time was hard, but with God's help we could make this place a new home. The sugar from our fields can be sold at a good price, and will help us to regain all we have lost in the catastrophe of 1496. The French [3] try to compete with us, but they didn't learn how to plant sugar like our workers did on Cyprus. It's sad that father doesn't live anymore. He would've loved to see the family thrive, more than anything else except to return to Nikosia. [...]

Guillaume de Ibelin, 1551:
[...] I'm an old man now. The war was a hard time, but fortunately it didn't hurt our possessions, and now trade is going on better than ever. When my son takes over, he will be richer than any of his ancestors. [...]

Jocelyne de Ibelin, 1881:
[...] The Greeks on our estate and in the city are collecting money again, for their "freedom fighters" in Cyprus. It is strange how some people long to something lost even after almost four centuries. [...]

[1] Cypriot currency
[2] Yes, it's called the same way. The Caribes have become rather stronger than weaker ITTL, so it's natural to call the place "Caribbean".
[3] He's talking about French from France, making a difference to his own family.

There was two?? Saw one in the Seventies guess it then must have been the second - it was in color!