The year is 640, and I gotta say, I fucked up somewhere in my reincarnation; I thought I'd be reborn in Europe so I could easily remake the Roman Empire after Charlamine failed but instead I'm here.
In the Middle East.
Not all too bad, but the worst part is the Islamic rise, as you see my father and I are apart of the Zoroastrianism faith.
Basically an early version of a Judaism and Christian faith. Do good and be rewarded with paradise and that's pretty much it.
I'm sure there's more than that but I'm not really a devout believer and all.
So why bring this up?
Well, in the year of 640, religion is a very big thing, basically 'if you don't believe in my god, I'll kill you and go to heaven for it!'
Real good shit there bud.
So that brings me here: the Sasanian Empire! The second grandson of Khosrow I, we rule the modern day Iraq to modern day Afghanistan and Pakistan.
And overall it's not going great.
I maybe only seven, but I can see how fucked our dynasty is, the ruler is my bigger brother; Yazdegerd who is currently only nine himself, so overall we're at the mercy of our advisors.
So that comes with the question: what can I do?
Well, let me start with how I got in this situation, you see I was given three wishes before I reincarnated into the past.
I miss the internet.
Moving on, I wished for the essentials: Perfect Memory, as I needed that to recall everything in the terms of everything a ruler needs so I got that pretty quick.
And my second wish was simple, being a beast from fate.
I may or may not have gotten a bit hog wild on that one.
So what am I the Beast of?
Religion.
Oh boy I fucked up didn't I?
I have Nega-Religion which is busted as it allows me to basically say 'Nuh Uh' and 'yuh uh' to any god and their domains.
For example if god said 'my son died on the cross for your sins' I can say 'Nuh uh' and he can't do a thing about it.
Really broken to be honest.
But then I did a little more!
I wished, like a fool, Absolute Magic Dominion.
This doesn't sound like a bad thing, anything and everything that is magic is trivial to me, casting a fireball is as easy as breathing, making a glacial ice age that encompasses the entire planet is as easy as going to the store and getting a bag of ice.
However, I, like a fool, never understood something small like 'control' It isn't like I slip up and send one of the advisors sight to hell with an accidental thought.
No, instead it's more along the lines of 'witchcraft' as religion is such a factor that anything outside the norm is looked down on.
And the fact that using it to technically erase resistance to our enemies would be so easy that I could probably conquer the world before I turn ten.
So how do I stop myself from becoming so bored that I fuck up this world and somehow start a new religion?
Watching everyone else around fuck up basic things.
No seriously.
Yesterday there was a massive two hour debate about the exact time of the lunar and solar eclipse.
Entertainment at its finest.
So what does a seven year old with the powers of a literal god do in the meantime?
Learn everything about the world, who's in charge and how to basically grow my legend after I die, I didn't choose immortality for a reason, and it's because it's boring.
So what's happening in our little world right now?
Well, besides the expanding islams we have the Byzantine empire under the rule of the aging Emperor Heraclitus who've regained Egypt at the point, and the Arabs have pretty much Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman.
Overall, there's three major players in that region, above us are mostly nomads, followers of mostly Shamanism, while to our east we have the Indians shattered into empiric states and then China with its Tang Dynasty.
So I've a lot to do.
With my appearance being in the Middle East my aspirations have also changed, and I will admit that remaking the Roman Empire sounds kinda boring, so instead I'll make something even better.
An empire that stretches from the Middle East to Japan!
I can do it, I know I can, it's just daunting in the beginning.
"Shahzadeh Afsaneh, what will you do today?" A middle aged Adviser bowed towards me as I exited my room, or rather the curtain that separated rooms.
The seventh century really isn't big on privacy unless it encompassed the entire home.
"What's the big news this week?" I spoke, the language wasn't that hard to understand, especially when you've got a perfect memory.
"The Arabs have taken several small cities from us on our southern borders, the people are getting more and more unhappy with both taxes and religious persecution"
"Who's facing persecution?" I asked, it wasn't until now that he mentioned this.
"Mostly Jews and Christian's in the east" the advisors spoke.
I nodded "I don't understand why they won't simply move to the Byzantine Empire"
"I fail to see why as well" my bait didn't work, I wanted to see if he'll explain it to me.
Guess I'm still too young in their eyes.
"I will study" I settled on as I thought about my older brother no doubt being hounded and convinced by his advisors to do something foolish once again.
Like feeding a goat a golden apple.
How'd we even get a golden apple is beyond me.
I caressed my temples as I entered the study hall, the great thing about the Persian empire in most points in history is the fact that is was a beacon of learning, not necessarily at this point in time, as the strain of everything weighing down on us has put a metaphorical halt on all production.
I could make guns.
But then again, fighting with swords sounds much more appealing.
So no victims of a shoot out in this life!
"Adviser, you can go and do your duties, I doubt much will happen here" I waved him off as I picked out one of the unread parchments about irrigation and began to read.
"Enjoy your book Shahzadeh" he bowed again before he left me.
I sighed as I was left alone and began reading, as it was all I can do, and with the old knowledge combined with my 21st century knowledge I could make something out of this.
One of the few things I learned is that no one fights in the night due to being unable to make commands in the dark.
Unless you use a torch but then all it takes is either a lucky archer or a skilled one.
And I won't take that risk in my conquests!
Logistics are both the kill of empires and wars, Julius Caesar and Sun Tsu understood that, or rather mastered it to a degree to stand out.
So the men need to eat, but now they need appropriate training.
The reason why the biggest empires in the world won their wars was because they were either fast, amazingly good at improving stolen techniques, or amazing at paperwork.
So with the enhanced mind of my 21st century brain I will use all of them!
The biggest issue I will have will be among the following things: Religion, terrain, unpredictable weather, and sudden alliances.
So here's the deal, when I turn eight I will go west and start my warfare and when I do so the men I bring with me will get a lot of privileges in order to entice both loyalty and bring in more income.
"So this is where you were boy, I should've known" a female voice this time, aged like a grandma.
"Hello magi" I spoke as I looked up and met her eyes.
"Ah, still so distant even after technically raising you" the magi spoke, she was our court magician dispute not having any magic and only magecraft.
Guess I have to face the fact that I'm in the Fate universe eventually.
"My mother and father are dead, so forgive me if I'm being hostile to people that would use my brother and I for both political and power gain" I spoke as I leaned back slowly.
"Tell me of Europe, have the tribes there grown up yet?" I spoke as she walked around the table.
"Shattered and without a leader, some men have come about declaring themselves kings and rightful heirs to the Roman throne. The Franks are the biggest although they've been struggling recently with a plague"
"I understand, thank you" Europe wouldn't even be an issue for me, Charlemagne himself wouldn't exist until 768, and won't even properly form his Empire until the late 8th century as such the Byzantines have no proper allies until the Karling dynasty gets a hold of themselves.
"Do you wish to learn magecraft?" She always proposes this when every the old lady has the chance "you'd be more than accepted in th Clock Tower"
"No thank you, you magi are always so arrogant, if I stay at the clock tower I'm pretty sure there would be no clock tower" I spoke after I moved on to the next parchment.
"What's your dream?" She asked and I perked up slightly, she'd never asked this.
"Hm, to see how far and wide the world is" I answered, it seemed simple enough.
"And how do you plan to accomplish that?" She asked and I shrugged.
"Let my brother handle the Arabs, I will conquer that of our west" I spoke truthfully.
"The Indians are of nine Raja's or kingdoms that often attempt to conquer each other, not to mention after that you have the constant warring states of south east Asia" The Magi informed me of what I already know but I nodded along anyways.
"So tell me, how far west will you go?" Magi eventually asked me.
"What's beyond the Tang dynasty?" At this question she looked surprised.
"I… do not know" just what I expected!
I was expecting an ancient form of Korea or Japan to come out from her well of knowledge only for her to be blank. At least I now know how far I really do want to go.
"Then I will go through Tang and find out what's on the other side." I spoke as I grabbed an ancient version of a quill, and I looked at it's iron edge used to carve into stone.
"Another idea?" The old Magi asked me.
"Yes, a training program for the men that will no doubt join me on my conquest" I spoke as I began to write and draw.
"My, you're quite ambitious" she commented as she shook her head.
"How is it ambitious if it's what's going to happen?" I asked her.
"And prideful"
"How's it pride when I speak the truth? If I seem too bright to people then they can leave, for they never seemed to have a place next to me" I smirked as the old woman chuckled.
"I must leave, I have to report to your brother, enjoy your reading Shahzadeh" she bowed out and left me alone to plan my men's regiment.
I always liked the old magi, she never did brush me off when I had a wild idea or a strange feeling about me.
However, I could tell when an older person is feeding a delusional child. Much like when a kid said there's a king or a queen you feed into it because they're a kid.
And no one wants to make a kid feel bad.
As for the training regime it's simple, a standardized workout program for anyone that is technically malnourished, as the men and women of the world before Borden convenience could be categorized as 'malnourished' especially the lower classes with less and less to eat.
I blinked once then twice as I looked outside and realized something even grander.
What if I remade the gardens of Babylon?
After all, the city of Nineveh is quite close to me.
'Not enough money' my mind evilly supplied as I scratched my head.
I shook my head as I went back to the stone tablet and continued to write and draw diagrams of the workouts I wanted my men to do.
I have a year to train them and begin to make an army that'd make the army of 100,000 that attempted to march on Sparta look small by comparison!
A/N: had this cooking in my little noodle longer than my Warhammer one so I decided to finally bring it text.
This doesn't mean that the Warhammer Fan fic is stopping by any means it just that I couldn't help myself from starting this.
Shame