I'm writing a game!

A few so far. I have been developing a number of historical figures, and right now one of my favorites is the Colonel Olga Kovalenko, who was an intelligence officer under the Empire and is now a leader in forging a new Wallachian Republic in the former borderlands. She's the main character that introduces players to the lore/world.

It's a critical divergence point in the history of the world! Basically, the core idea is that the Roman Empire did split into East and West. It was a necessary division for the purposes of administration. However, the critical failure of central administration that happened from roughly 350AD to 476AD in the west - never happened. The Romans were able to quickly recover from the setbacks, and were able to use divisions in the Germanic tribes - as well as a general dislike for the Huns to finally achieve assimilation into the greater Roman imperial system - with a slight change: the Gauls and Visigoths became the central military force of the Empire and led a number of significant modernizations to create more flexible forces, and less dependency on centralized legions and instead focusing on regional garrisons and forces i.e. the birth of the medieval period. This would all be settled by 1100, with the Western Empire secure and suddenly growing stronger and more powerful with a cultural/political center in Rome and a military center in what is Vienna.

By this point the Eastern Empire was fully split, with the formal Orthodox split. Problems with more tribal invasions (Bulgars, Slavs, Magyars, Avars, etc) and with the Abbasaids made the growing Western Empire "not a problem, but a potential ally."

But as the Western Empire is growing in power and influence, they want everyone to turn back to Rome - both politically, religiously, and linguistically. This is not handled directly through violence, especially since the Eastern Empire is beset by challenges and threats and the Western Empire sees this as an opportunity. Instead, the two empires started to merge back together. The religious split was an absolute concern as was the political split. The political split was handled through marriage. The religious split was more complicated. By 1687, religious conflicts were increasing rapidly and destabilizing the reunification work. It was strongly suggested by the Emperor that that Pope in Rome and the various Patriarchs of the Orthodox churches get together and figure out what they have in common. These invites were delivered by Imperial Legions, so this was a "Learn how to get along or learn how to die by concentrated musket fire" kind of invitation. The Council of the Easter Lilly thus announced a new reborn Church of Christ, with a lot of compromises which made everyone happy enough to not choose the musket. The Empire was now fully reborn. East and West were no longer a thing.

This level of Imperial meddling had other consequences such as no sales of indulgences, thus no Protestant reformation. Local religious leadership were not just appointed by Rome, but by local Imperial governors. This was intentional as the Empire was very concerned with the level of meddling a Patriarch or Pope could do. So the new Primus Pontifex (pope) and College of Patriarchs would become something of a figurehead/cushy retirement program. The Empire used the Church infrastructure and capabilities to push education, establish universities, and as a pseudo-Department of Housing and Urban Development and Heatlh and Human Services. Taking care of the poor, the elderly, the homeless, etc.