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Woo! 1000th post. Not wasting this milestone. So, I'm doing something a little bit different. No magic, no sci-fi, just an surprisingly obscure but incredibly interesting time in history: The Migration Period, which lasted from around 375 AD to about 550 AD, when the Roman Empire (Or at least the western part, the eastern part would last for another 1000 years) finally fell fully and the framework of the early middle ages were laid down. More specifically, this will be set in the December of 476, a scant few months after Odoacer conquered Ravenna and banished the last roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, a mere 16 year old who had ruled for less than a year. Anyway, so you don't need to browse Wikipedia for an hour to join, here's a "short" summary of the period. The Roman Empire, at the start of the 5th century AD, had just emerged out of the Crisis of the Third Century (When a load of emperors died really, really close to each other chronologically and there was a lot of civil wars and states breaking off.) with the reforms of Diocletian and the Tetrarchy. However, this had permanently weakened the empire, and immediately after Diocletian abdicated this Tetrarchy immediately got into another civil war, which lead to the ascension of Constantine the Great, who, as you might know, was also the emperor to convert to Christianity, and later convene the Council of Nicaea. During this time, however, another threat was rising in the east, namely the Huns, which crossed the Volga in 370 and had established themselves by 430, ruling over the Carpathian basin and a large portion of modern-day Ukraine and Romania. During this, they conquered many peoples that lived there such as the Goths and the Alans, of which many started running, causing the mass exodus into the Western Roman Empire Some of these groups include: The Visigoths: The Visigoths became foederati (essentially an agreement letting the tribe settle inside the empire in exchange for defense) in 418, settling in southern Gaul. Shortly after this, however, they had either invaded Hispania because they had split off from the romans or had been ordered to do so by them, Wikipedia conflicts on this. But anyway, for whatever reason they invade Hispania and form the Kingdom of the Visigoths, which would last for another two centuries until the Islamic Invasions took over Iberia. As of 476, however, they're just chilling. The Vandals (and Alans): The Vandals and their Alan buddies came with many of the other Germanic tribes running from the Huns that ended up in Gaul. However, they quickly crossed the Pyrenees and attempted to settle there before the Visigoths invade as mentioned earlier, driving them further right into North Africa where they finally settle in what is today Tunisia and spend the next 90 years or so raiding around the Mediterranean before they were conquered by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. As of 476, they're... also just chilling. The Ostrogoths: After the Huns invaded, it's possible the Ostrogoths were one of the first tribes that were subjugated. However, once the Huns fell after the death of Attila, they establish a kingdom in what is modern-day northern Croatia, which is where they are as of 476. Later, however, they conquer Italy from Odoacer. Other peoples such as the Sciri and the Heruli, later under the rule of Odoacer: Odoacer and his foederati, including the mentioned Sciri and Heruli, politely asked Orestes, a previous general of Attila and current de facto ruler of Rome with his son, Romulus Augustulus as a puppet emperor, to give them land in Utaly to settle down. When he declines, they storm Ravenna (yes, things got so bad that the end that the capital of the Roman Empire was moved to Ravenna. Makes more sense once you realize that almost every single one of the aforementioned tribes sacked Rome multiple times each. Yikes.) and depose Romulus, exiling him to Campania with a pension. I'm not joking, Odoacer actually gave the final roman emperor a pension of 6,000 solidi and sent him packing to southern Italy where he lived with some relatives. This is regarded the end of the Western Roman Empire by modern historians, though at this point the emperor had so little power that it might as well of ceased to exist. And finally, the Franks: Unlike all the other Germanic tribes on this list, which originated in Scandinavia before migrating down into Eastern Europe and then getting chased out by the Huns, the Franks, as far as I can tell, were one of the Germanic tribes that lived in Central Europe, or more specifically modern-day Belgium and large chunks of western Germany. As of this RP, it's still sitting there, actually working with the Roman rump state in northern Gaul against the Visigoths, before conquering it later, after the start point of this RP. Some final notes: All of these people are christan, with the exception of the Franks which'll be converted in about a decade. The Goths are all Arian Christians while the Eastern Roman Empire follows the Trinitarian Christianity set up by the Council of Nicaea. Additionally, the Empire of the Huns fell after Attila's death in 453-ish, leaving behind few remnants. wow that was way longer than I expected. It was exhausting to write but surprisingly fun. I could rant about random parts of history for ages. Map: Uh... for characters... go crazy. Where are we starting? Italy, near Ravenna, probably, unless you have any better ideas. Anyway, I'm extremely tired and will be going to bed now. I shall check on this tomorrow.