Kanshin Smbat (Disloyal Retainer Smbat) manga set in 13th Century Armenia & Georgia

I saw on my Twitter feed that the manga artist Tomato Soup is releasing a manga series called Kanshin Smbat (in English it is called Disloyal Retainer Smbat) which is set in 13th-century Armenia, Georgia, and Mongolia.
There isn’t that much information about this manga in English yet so I hope as it comes out I will update this post since I imagine it will take time before it’s licensed in English.
Starts in Wings issue 10/2023 out August 28

You can buy the Japanese version on Amazon to support the author legally. You can also follow the author on twitter.

When I first heard of the manga I was intrigued about when exactly it is set since 13th Century Armenia is rather broad.
Fortunately, the author has published 2 chapters to view for free legally here. From the preview I was able to search up information and it led me to Wikipedia about the Orbelian Dynasty and Zakarid Armenia. I decided to do a brief summary of things that occur in the preview.. some transliterations of names/places I’m unsure of so please feel free to correct me if wrong. Also the english Wikipedia has limited information, for more information it is better to read the russian wiki page here. This (english) journal also gave some contextual information.

The first chapter shows that the manga is set in the Syunik Province in Armenia. Interestingly enough Syunik in this map is labelled part of Georgian-Armenian municipalities under the Georgian Kingdom in 1236.

Here it shows the beginning of the Mongol invasion

Elikum Orbelian (Lord of Syunik)

Smbat Orbelian – brother of Elikum

Here we see the Kingdom of Tbilisi and the Georgian Queen Rusudan and Avag Zakarian (Georgian noble/commander in chief of Armenian descent)

Chormaqan (Mongolian Commander in Chief) saying they are going to go after the city of Ani after defeating Tilibisi

Avag tells Eilkum and Smbat that Ani is important and has a deep connection to the Zakarian/Orbelian families.

Sometime later Elikum visits Smbat and suddenly dies. His final words saying that Mongolia is not the enemy and they should rely on Mongols

Here it is stated that Queen Rusudan committed suicide in 1245 without surrendering to the Mongols.

In Chapter 2 we get these information tidbits

Noravank Church in Syunik – Smbat with Eilkum’s son, Burtel.

The lady is the wife of Avag Zakarian – Gvantsa Kakhaberidze.

In this scene, Gvantsa was telling Smbat that the Mongols killed Eilkum and they should revolt against them, which would restore the honor of the House of Orbelian. She mentions he should write to others and gain help from allies.

Gvansta visiting Avag – the location states it is Kaen Castle but I’m not entirely sure if that’s the name in English/Armenian/Georgian  (transliteration of Japanese). She tells him that people are planning to revolt , he says it’s not a good idea … she responds “she’ll take care of it” by informing the Mongols about the rebellion.

Here Gvansta suddenly accuses Smbat for “plotting an uprising against the Mongols” and that as punishment he should return Syunik to the house of Zakarian.Smbat is understandably confused to which Gvansta replies “don’t act so surprised we have letters as proof” to which he responded “you’re the one who wrote them!”

Here she says she’ll leave Noravank to him since it’s church territory. The script says in 1249 the Mongol army was informed there was a rebellion amongst the Georgian princes.

Smbat realizes Gvantsa used him / to set up a trap to confiscate his territories.

A man appears, Mayor Tancrell (again I’m not sure if this is the right transliteration) of Guteni Village in Armenia

Smbat received a divine jewel to take to the Mongols. The mayor said he received from a lord who was fleeing from the Mongols. Smbat says he will return to the emperor of Mongolia.

Here Smbat says he will go to the Emperor and report all the looting and illegal tax exploitation that the Mongol army is doing in Georgia.

He travels to Mongolia and meets the emperor Mongke Khan (son of Genghis Kan), to whom he gives him the jewel. Mongke intrigued asks why he is doing this- “isn’t his loyalty to the king of Georgia?”. Smbat says his brother died fighting for the Mongols and asks to recognize his claim to Syunik. The emperor says he should visit someone else with a letter

Sorghaghtani Beki – daughter-in-law of Genghis Khan. The letter says something along the lines “Add this good Christian to your court, his territory is yours, remove it from the tax ledger”

From wiki I got more contextual information
“The Mongol arrival imposed the need for fast footwork. In 1251 and 1256, the prudent and multi-lingual Orbelian prince Smbat made arduous pilgrimages to Karakorum, armed with a splendid jewel and divine blessing, and persuaded Möngke Khan, son of Genghis, the Mongol ruler, to make Syunik and its churches a tax-exempt fiefdom under Mangu’s (or at least his Christian mother’s) direct patronage.”

This is the end of Chapter 2
The author mentions in the notes at the end that Gvantsa’s “covert action” is fictional but in a chronicle they used as a source it was mentioned there was an informant to the Mongol army in 1249 and that Gvantsa had an ambition to embezzle the territory from the Orbelian family and other lords. The author also notes that Smbat is unmarried as there is no record he was married or had kids.

Additionally, I found out that some of these characters appeared in a doujinshi the manga artist drew in 2017-  they tweeted some of their bios here.The manga artist notes their artistic representation holds subjective bias and may not be entirely accurate. Whether or not this doujinshi is the same as the manga is not currently clear for me.