it's the afterworld. old great bulgaria and avaria are sitting together in some yurt and chatting.
'so this here is danube bulgaria and this is volga bulgaria' he points on something like a screen that allows them to observe the mortal realm.
'hey bulgar, what about the other 2?'
'what do u mean?'
'well didn't u have 4 children?'
'huh?'
'y'know, one of them went to live in modern-day italy and the other went to live where modern-day macedonia is?'
'uuh-'
'and then they got assimilated and died?'
'that's weird, how could I have not noticed them?'
'bruh they're literally standing next to me and staring at u'
the fourth son of khan kubrat, kuber, took thousands of bulgars along with him when fleeing the khazars and settled in the avar khaganate (in pannonia, roughly where modern day hungary is) where the avar khagan let him rule a population of eastern roman prisoners of war and their christian descendants who were forced to live there 60 years ago. eventually, kuber rebelled against the avar khagan, liberated the POWs and their descendants, and moved to where modern day macedonia is (along with his bulgars). there, they came into contact with a local slavic tribe. the byzantine POWs and their descendants started to disperse and return to their homes. kuber wanted them to remain under his rule and asked the eastern roman emperor to stop them from fleeing, as well as to recognize him as their leader, but the emperor refused, as kuber had attacked thessaloniki earlier.
the fifth son, alcek, and his bulgars settled initially in bavaria, fleeing from the internal power struggles of the avar khaganate. the frankish king allowed them to settle there, while secretly plotting their death. after a massacre, only 700 of around 9000 bulgars survived and fled to the langobard kingdom, where they settled. in the 8th century, they were still noted to remember their language, which they spoke along with latin. even today, there are names of locations in italy, as well as family names that are rooted in the bulgar ethnonym.
so yeah in this crackfic, danube bulgaria is obviously the golden child. he gets the most attention but he also gets the most expectations, as well as occasional insults when he fails them ("stupid child"). volga bulgaria is the second favourite who's jealous of the attention his brother is getting. and the other two are basically forgotten. yeah this was inspired by how stuff about bulgars is taught. most of the attention goes to the bulgars that settled on the danube. the ones on the volga might get a few sentences if they're lucky. and the bulgars of kuber and the bulgars of alcek? they'll be mentioned at best