Character Spotlight Announcement: Helena Dragaš Wins the Vote!
Added 2025-06-19 13:10:54 +0000 UTCThank you to everyone who voted and shared such sharp, compelling suggestions for our next Empire Rewritten side story POV!
The results are in, and the clear winner is Helena Dragaš!
No passive widow, no faded regent, Helena remains a presence to be reckoned with. What regrets haunt her, and what ambitions survive? A woman forged by empire, loss, and power, now sidelined, but not silenced.
To those who voted for other options: your choices were fantastic, and I’m genuinely excited to explore many of them down the road. From the icy corridors of Trebizond to the shadowed halls of Burgundy, there are stories waiting, and we’ll get to them, one by one.
Thank you again for helping shape this world.
Sersor
Comments
Glad Helena won, can't wait to see what the old girl can do to the fratricidal usurper? Byzantine court was synonymous with conspiracies, plots, intrigue, and death. Another reason classical Western historian claimed it fell was due to its immoral in-fighting that they allude to the late Roman Empire. However, whether it's the courts of England, France, Moscovy, Ottoman Turkey, or Ming China at this time, these kinds of things weren't abnormal, they were just covered better with either pretense or ruthlessness. Helena still has contacts within the Orthodox Church (she's nominally in monastic service since her husband's death in our timeline). Getting some elders and believers to sabotage things such as grain shipments, docks, and forges would explain why Andronicus hasn't joined Murad II's campaign in the Balkans. If he can't arm, ship, or even feed an army, it's incredibly helpful for Constantine. Furthermore, if Helena could get in contact with Constantine's allies behind the lines, she could play the role as the leader of a fifth column, obtaining intelligence on Ottoman troop and naval deployments from an erstwhile ally. I love underground resistance fighters, there's something romantic about the behind the lines fighters working clandestinely.
Wen L.
2025-06-19 14:37:34 +0000 UTC
