Recaps

Vitus led the Eastern Roman forces and their allies against Murad II, helping defeat the Ottoman army and recover extensive Balkan territory. As the coalition fractured, Vitus secured Eastern Rome’s new borders, occupied Epirus, and reorganized his forces for the next campaign.

• Captain Cohen returned from Albania with Skanderbeg’s alliance request, while Vitus formed the Attica Legion and recruited thousands of soldiers.
• Joan of Arc won victories in France and sought support for a campaign against the Hussites, while Murad II prepared to invade Serbia.
• Vitus sailed to Durrës, joined Skanderbeg, and marched into Serbia as Murad advanced toward Belgrade.
• Vitus and Skanderbeg defeated Murad’s army in battle, and the allied commanders agreed to march south toward Thessaloniki.
• The allies captured Sofia and Thessaloniki, then defeated Murad’s forces near the Maritsa River as Vitus seized the southern hill and led a cavalry attack.
• The coalition drove Murad from the battlefield and captured Edirne, but its rulers began dividing Ottoman lands and preparing to leave.
• Vitus negotiated Eastern Roman claims to Greece, Macedonia, and Thrace, then trained militia and secured fortresses along the straits.
• Vitus captured Ioannina, occupied Epirus, reorganized his legions, and planned to use prisoners of war to mine coal for public bathhouses.

Vitus consolidated the Empire’s rule, rebuilt its institutions and forces, and secured its eastern defenses before launching a campaign to conquer Tauris-Crimea. After taking Chersonesus and Mangup, he pursued the nomads and faced Haji Giray’s much larger army, which Greek artillery forced to retreat.

• Vitus ended the quarrel between Demetrius and Thomas in Northern Thrace, then returned to Constantinople, where Manuel II made him co-emperor alongside John.
• Vitus reorganized the Empire’s provinces and army, secured a 300,000-Florin loan from Florence, and negotiated changes to taxes and estates while the council addressed the devastated population and treasury.
• Murad II captured Trebizond, and Constantine brought four thousand refugees back to the Empire as John and Vitus managed estate claims and resettlement.
• After Damien found a wrecked Venetian warship, Vitus prepared the fleet, defeated an Ottoman squadron, and established positions across the strait at Chrysopolis.
• Vitus rejected a Mamluk request for firearms, while Elion Daltino sold weapons to the Mamluks and Sigismund secured his coronation in Rome before Jeanne d’Arc resigned her command.
• Vitus persuaded the Imperial Council to fund a campaign in Tauris-Crimea, accepted Agnes’s additional contribution, and sailed with the Tuna Legion and hired ships.
• Vitus bombarded Chersonesus into surrender and took Mangup after its defenders abandoned their posts, then arranged the resettlement of prisoners and inhabitants.
• Vitus’s troops routed nomad camps and freed hundreds of slaves, while Haji Giray gathered more than twenty thousand riders and advanced on the Greeks, whose artillery forced him to fall back.

Vitus secured Crimea, defeated the Golden Horde, and captured Sarai and Astrakhan before arranging settlements for nomadic tribes along the Don. Back in Constantinople, the court celebrated his victories while Thomas began a diplomatic mission and Ratmir returned to village life.

• Vitus fortified Perekop, freed Rus slaves, and negotiated with Genoa to retain Caffa in exchange for the Kerch Peninsula and most of Crimea’s southern coast.
• Vitus established a supervised market for nomads and supported settlements in Tauris, while news of Haji Giray’s disappearance revealed the Crimean Khanate’s collapse into factional fighting.
• When Qichihe invaded Tauris, Vitus’s army defeated the Golden Horde at Perekop, and thousands of nomads swore allegiance to him.
• Vitus marched east, crossed the Don, captured Sarai, freed its slaves, and later occupied Astrakhan before withdrawing with spoils and thousands of freed people.
• Vitus invited nomadic chieftains to settle on the lower Don, and they pledged allegiance and agreed to convert before traveling with him to Constantinople.
• The Patriarch baptized Tucha and sixty-one chieftains, and Vitus appointed Tucha governor of the Don Frontier while directing him to develop its defenses and trade.
• The Imperial Council removed Thomas from his military post after his raid into Wallachia, then sent him north as chief envoy while Theodore sought Vitus’s advice about his lost investment.
• Thomas traveled toward the Rus lands and concluded Lithuania faced no immediate threat, while Ratmir returned to Thistle Village after an unprofitable trip to buy supplies.

Vitus conquered Circassian territory, seized the Darial Valley, and secured an alliance with Georgia as Rome expanded its Black Sea operations against the Ottomans. After raids devastated the Georgian coast, Vitus offered weapons and troops, while Murad II considered buying Venetian warships.

• Vitus landed in Circassia with a large army, defeated resisting forces, freed captives, and secured control of the Darial Valley through a night raid on Darial Fortress.
• Vitus negotiated a military alliance with Alexander I, then helped suppress a Georgian rebellion before returning toward Crimea.
• Ramon brought Circassian youths to Egypt and saw the Sultan’s forces, while his return voyage passed a major naval battle between Aragon and France.
• Ilya organized the Don Frontier’s first summer games, and Yaropolk later became the new leader of Herring Village and swore loyalty to the Empire.
• Cohen led a fleet and auxiliary battalions against Ottoman ports, capturing Cotyora and carrying off supplies, craftsmen, and Ottoman nobles while protecting Greek and Armenian residents.
• Murad II sent his fleet against Rome’s ships, but Kadiram’s forces retreated from Chersonesus and then attacked Georgian ports, while Cohen continued raiding Ottoman coastal towns.
• Murad II learned that Sinop had fallen and debated buying Venetian warships as Vitus offered Georgia weapons and troops to defend its ports.