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Mr.Morgenstern
Sep 14, 2012

CommissarMega posted:

Such are the rewards of sin :colbert:

EDIT: So this wouldn't be a completely useless post, what do Muslims get in exchange for piety being a necessary component for war? I mean, personally I'm genuinely pleased that in CK Islam doesn't allow for the minions of Iblis to screw around, but from a gameplay perspective losing such a competent commander can really put a crimp in your conquest that Christians don't have to suffer*.

*At least, not this side of the afterlife :unsmigghh:

Muslims get a bunch of cool stuff. While piety is necessary for Muslims to access that stuff, it's not particular hard to come by if you know what you're doing. Going on Hajj gets you a lot of piety and just for having done so you get a permanent piety boost, iirc. Hashim was roleplaying when he decided to not do it, but in so doing so he locked himself out of some necessary piety. Joining the Ashari school of Islam also gets you piety, as well as a permanent boost to piety.

Also, while piety for most religions only impresses your church vassals, Muslims don't have vassals and instead it impresses all of your vassals. Having 1000 piety (a very large amount) gives access to a very powerful casus belli - Invasion. Most casus belli target only a county or a duchy, but the Muslim Invasion CB targets an entire kingdom. Getting the Child of Satan event isn't as powerful for Muslims as it is for Christians as Christians aren't as reliant on piety as Muslims are. (Catholics only really need piety to bug the Pope for favors and cash, for other Christians piety is kind of unless besides impressing your clergy). One last thing on CBs: Muslims only need 50 piety for the county conquest CB, which targets a county without needing to fabricate a claim and only has a five-year truce instead of a ten-year truce.

However, our dear child of Iblis could have wreaked havoc if his true father had turned him to a heresy of Islam, thus giving him the Holy War CB on everyone. (The flipside of that is that everyone can declare war on him.) There's other stuff, but basically, because our character had low piety due to his traits and roleplaying, he wasn't able to use Islam's power to the fullest.

tl;dr: Muslims are powerful but Hashim chose not to get easy piety, which is fine.

Mr.Morgenstern fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Jan 8, 2017

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Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011
I would disagree with that being fine and would maybe even have cheated to get it because then having it crash and burn around him would have been funny, but different strokes~

Oh yeah and another thing; you need piety to change laws as a muslim; which meant that he couldn't do that either and to try and straighten up decadent relatives. It's something that the muslims absolutely need to function on every level really.

Veryslightlymad
Jun 3, 2007

I fight with
my brain
and with an
underlying
hatred of the
Erebonian
Noble Faction
The Satan event is fun, but I vastly prefer the Joan of Arc event. That one let me press the "Claim Holy Roman Empire" button. (Thanks for the claim, Mom!)

The last time I had the event fire, I had a genius heir that I wanted nothing untoward to happen to, so I shipped the child off to Byzantium.

Rody One Half
Feb 18, 2011

I've never seen the Joan of Arc event, what's it entail?

AfroSquirrel
Sep 3, 2011

Veryslightlymad posted:

The last time I had the event fire, I had a genius heir that I wanted nothing untoward to happen to, so I shipped the child off to Byzantium.

That... is an interesting solution. Can you really trust Greeks with someone of such importance?

Veryslightlymad
Jun 3, 2007

I fight with
my brain
and with an
underlying
hatred of the
Erebonian
Noble Faction
Less actual getting stuff, but the flipside is, Joan won't kill the rest of your family/anyone in their way like a Satanspawn will.

Basically you just get a 30+ Martial woman who is totally loyal to you and is capable of leading armies. Then there's a lot of flavor decisions.

But having a Martial that good and sitting on the mountains between Spain and France is a pretty acceptable way to slaughter an army much, much larger than your own.

Herr Tog
Jun 18, 2011

Grimey Drawer
Truly suffering for integrity of the art of LP

CommissarMega
Nov 18, 2008

THUNDERDOME LOSER
Two questions:
1: Is it possible to reform the Son of Satan, especially as a Muslim? Like say, you send him on the Haj, pick all the most religious options etc.?
2: If I use console fuckery to give a Muslim ruler the Joan of Arc event, would she still fight for Christianity or does she convert?

CommissarMega fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Jan 9, 2017

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!

Mr.Morgenstern posted:

However, our dear child of Iblis could have wreaked havoc if his true father had turned him to a heresy of Islam, thus giving him the Holy War CB on everyone. (The flipside of that is that everyone can declare war on him.) There's other stuff, but basically, because our character had low piety due to his traits and roleplaying, he wasn't able to use Islam's power to the fullest.

Oh man, I would've loved it if a heresy showed up. It likely would've turned all our neighbours against us though, making the Sheikhdom of Cadiz very short-lived, but I'm guessing Az'ar burning his own domain down with him is the way a Son of Satan would want to go out.

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!

CommissarMega posted:

Two questions:
1: Is it possible to reform the Son of Satan, especially as a Muslim? Like say, you send him on the Haj, pick all the most religious options etc.?
2: If I use console fuckery to give a Muslim ruler the Joan of Arc event, would she still fight for Christianity or does she convert?

Just did a short search through the event files, but nothing came up. It might be possible, but why would you want to reform him anyways?

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011
Hahaha, yeah, no. It doesn't work; the moment you start getting virtue traits, you start getting events turning them into their opposite trait.

Satan is not going to stand for shenanigans of that sort son

CommissarMega
Nov 18, 2008

THUNDERDOME LOSER
aw man

Welp, there goes that idea then :smith:

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011
There is a voice of Jesus modifier, but I don't think it interacts with being the kid from Omen any

Mr.Morgenstern
Sep 14, 2012

As a matter of fact, the Voice of Jesus modifier does interact with the Child of Satan event, or at least it did for me.

To quote a poster whose name I cannot recall, Jesus and Satan must have some sort of time share agreement when it comes to the child of destiny.

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!
Chapter 5 – Unfurling the Golden Banner – 1123 to 1144


The world of twelfth century is a fast changing one.

After being defeated yet again by the Byzantine Empire, the Fatimid Caliphate collapsed into sectarian infighting and civil war, with Sunni lords throughout the Levant and Hejaz throwing off the yoke of the Fatimids and seizing their independence.



In Europe, four consecutive Italian Holy Roman Emperors has marked the transition of power from Germany to the Italian peninsula, allowing the distant Norwegians to break away in an uprising. The dominance of the Empire is quickly beginning to slip, with France fast recovering from its defeat and a new power on the rise in the East.



On the Iberian peninsula, meanwhile, the two fast-growing powers of Aragon and the Aftasids are on a collision course, with war between the two rivals quickly becoming inevitable.

In the Sheikhdom of Cádiz, however, the most pressing concern in the recent transition of power. The tyrannical Sheikh Az’ar, aptly nicknamed the ‘Son of Iblis’, has died under suspicious circumstances, and the newly-formed Regency Council is quick to restore order by naming his nephew as his heir and successor.



That won’t be enough to calm the wazirs and walis of the Sheikhdom, however, with many still bitter over Azar’s treatment of their families, their estates and their noble rights.



To try and shore up some support, the Regency Council agree to the demands of the Court Imam and leave the rearing of young Masud to the clergy, who were determined to avoid another disaster like Az’ar.



As unrest bubbles in Cádiz, however, outright conflict has finally erupted between the Aftasid Sultanate and the Kingdom of Aragorn. A new sultan had risen to rule the Muslim kingdom, with the young Sultan Lubb declaring his intention to seize all of Granada from the Christians, calling on all Muslims to join him under the banner of Allah.



The recently-crowned King Manrique of Aragorn was no stranger to war, however, and he had been preparing for the eventual Aftasid invasion for years now. Upon the declaration of war, Manrique ordered his prepared forces to quickly cross the border and put the strategic city of Cordoba under siege, and with Aftasid forces slow to respond, he managed to breach and sack the city within weeks.

Sultan Lubb didn't retaliate for months, but in the height of the blistering summer of 1124, he finally attacked King Manrique with almost 12000 men - only to be crushed in the ensuing battle. With thousands dead and his army destroyed, Sultan Lubb was forced to sue for peace, which Manrique granted under humiliating terms.



The Andalusi Muslims seem to have lost the favour of Allah, because this disastrous loss was quickly followed by the scourge that is typhus. Without the resources to combat plague, Camp Fever rapidly spread through southern Iberia, sending tens of thousands of peasants to pox-ridden graves in a matter of weeks.



Sultan Lubb, who was looking for some way to regain the influence and prestige lost in his war with Aragon, chose this moment to pounce. Under the guise of ‘security against the Christians’, the Aftasid army stormed into Jizrunid territories with the intention of conquering Malaga, outraging many of the nearby taifas.



The Regency Council, who had not expected a war against their Muslim brethren, were slow to respond. Eventually, after taking out several loans from the Jewish communities, a mercenary army numbering 2500 was thrown together and sent to halt the advance of the Aftasids.

Stopping the advance of 8000 men is easier said than done, however.



With that, the humiliated Regency Council were forced to acquiesce to Aftasid demands, and the rich city of Malaga was lost.



It was in the midst of this war that the young Sheikh Masud finally came of age, and was confirmed as ruler of Cádiz, Algeciras and Malaga. His education with the clergy had turned him into a very different ruler than Az’ar, almost the complete opposite, with Masud earning a reputation for being honest and trustworthy, not prone to sin.



Not long after coming into his majority, and at the behest of the clergy, the new Sheikh decided to go on Hajj before assuming his political responsibilities. He set off from Cádiz early in 1137, and though he would be gone for no longer than a few months, Masud came back a changed man.



More specifically, on the route back from Mecca, Masud’s caravan party fell under attack by a band of brigands. They were eventually repulsed, but during the bloody struggle, the young Sheikh was dealt a tremendous blow from which he would never recover.



This, upon Masud’s return to Cádiz, quickly brought to memory the crippling injury that his uncle Az’ar had suffered, along with the miraculous recovery shortly thereafter. Sheikh Masud himself had never believed these fantastical rumours, and refused to lower himself to the level of court gossip by entertaining such thoughts.

He knew that he would have to find a way to walk without crutches, however - a cripple could not lead men into battle. So he employed the talents of his court physicians, who moulded him a prosthetic leg out of iron, with adjustable harnesses and sockets. His movement was still heavily restricted, but with it, Masud would be able to walk without crutches, he would be able to hold a sword and shield, and he would be able to guide a horse. That was enough for him.



With that, Masud could finally begin focusing on state emergencies, of which there were many. Firstly, hoping to ward off another Aftasid attack, Masud decided to approach the Almoravid Sultanate in the hopes of forming an alliance. After a few weeks of negotiation, and a match between Masud’s aunt and the Moroccan king, Sultan Umar finally agreed to come to the aid of Cádiz in war.



And war was certainly coming, Masud had no doubts about that. If Cádiz was to survive the onslaught of Aftasids and Christians, then it would have to expand soon, before all of Iberia was carved between the two great powers.

But to do that, the Sheikh knew he had to have the clergy on his side, they had proven an insurmountable foe to his predecessor. So at every given opportunity, Masud tried to solidify his relations with the Court Imam, donating large sums of money in sadaqah, building several mosques and madrasahs through Cádiz, and even giving the ulema full authority on all religious matters within the Sheikhdom.



Eventually, his efforts paid off and Sheikh Masud was able to convince his vassals to contribute more troops to the Cádizian army, a feat which Az’ar had never been able to achieve.



Shorty thereafter, Masud began implementing the new laws and expanding his army, financing the construction of barracks and militia grounds throughout Cádiz to aid in the recruitment and training of youths.




Before his plans could come into full fruition, however, a golden opportunity arrived. Early in 1140, the small but powerful Abbadid Emirate declared war on the Kingdom of Aragon, sending 7000 men to siege and occupy the Baleares.



Pretty much everyone, Masud included, expected Aragon to easily crush the Abbadids in battle, as they had done the Aftasids. After launching a naval invasion into Mallorca with 14000 troops, however, King Manrique suffered a devastating defeat and lost more than 4000 men, with the smaller Abbadid force emerging victorious.



This was an opportunity Sheikh Masud didn’t dare pass on. So, after briefly consulting his council, the Sheikh raised his small army and declared war on the vast Kingdom of Aragon, citing his divine favour in a sermon to his vassals.



Divine favour was all well and good, but it was men and steel that won battles, so after his speech Masud sent envoys to his allies in Morocco. Sultan Umar was quick to reply, eager to bloody his Mediterranean rivals, and raised his own considerable armies in solidarity with Cádiz.



King Manrique had allies of his own, however, and the Christian principalities banded together in opposition of Muslim aggression. Both the Duchy of Toledo and the Kingdom of Navarra rushed to join Aragon in yet another clash of Islam and Christendom.



After delaying his first incursion for a few weeks, to give the Almoravids time to join up with him, Sheikh Masud began the invasion into Aragon early in 1141.



The 12000-strong Muslim force lay siege to Granada, but the castle was powerful and well-defended, the Jimena Kings had spared no expense in fortifying their borders. After a few weeks of surrounding the city, however, the defenders gradually began starving and turning on each other. Eventually, one of the guardsmen was bribed into leaving a side-door ajar, and Sheikh Masud conducted a night raid to seize the tower, before opening the gates to the rest of his army.



The short skirmish that followed was thick and bloody, with many Christian faithful laying down their lives rather than surrender, and Masud had to wade through streets of blood before the citadel finally capitulated. The day ended with a crushing Muslim victory, however, and any dissent was suppressed shortly after.



With Granada firmly under his control, Sheikh Masud then led the combined Jizrunid-Almoravid force further north, putting the fortress of Almeria under siege. Much more lightly defended, it didn’t take long to scale the walls and put the garrison to the sword, and the rest of the castle quickly followed.



Whilst they were busy sacking Almeria, however, a Toledo-Aragonese army led by King Manrique himself managed to circle around the Muslims and assault Granada, quickly taking the castle and executing its occupiers. With Granada retaken, Manrique led his army to meet the Muslims in battle, hoping to fully expel the invaders in a decisive pitched battle.



Sheikh Masud was able to fortify Almeria just before their arrival, however, and the dug-in Cádizian-Moroccan army easily repulsed the Christians, slaughtering them by the thousand.



Masud actually managed to distinguish himself well during the battle, his prestige rocketing as stories spread about how the Sheikh viciously cut down a warrior-bishop in the thick of the battle, about how he led a heroic charge that broke the enemy line, about how he inspired such terror that even the Dukes and commanders of the opposing army faltered, before fleeing the field. All this, despite his peg leg and hobbled gait.



With the Toledo-Aragonese force utterly crushed, Sheikh Masud led his army south and recaptured Granada, which surrendered after only a token defense.



And with that, King Manrique had no choice but to kneel, what with his army in tatters and half his kingdom under occupation. The negotiations were short and bitter, with Masud demanding Granada and its immediate environs, along with yearly tribute and a humiliating acknowledgment of Aragonese defeat.



And when Masud returned to Cádiz, the sins and crimes of his uncle seemed forgotten, with the vibrant young sheikh inspiring the imagination of the peasantry and nobility alike, uniting them behind him in a way thought impossible a few short months past. With his victory on the lips of every man, woman and child, Masud took the opportunity to declare himself "Emir of Qadis", a proclamation that was quickly recognised by his vassals and neighbours.



Scars are not so easily forgotten, and Masud's ambition is sure to ruffle some feathers, especially amongst the Aftasids. The young emir isn’t foolish enough to believe that his conflicts are at end, and as the spirited fervour following his victory begins to die down, he turns his attention to lost titles and religious betrayal: Malaga.

hashashash fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Dec 17, 2018

HannibalBarca
Sep 11, 2016

History shows, again and again, how nature points out the folly of man.
wait, was the King of Aragon ALSO possessed by Satan?

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!

HannibalBarca posted:

wait, was the King of Aragon ALSO possessed by Satan?

Nah, he was just a dick.

Mr.Morgenstern
Sep 14, 2012

No, he was not. He has the Impaler trait, which can give you the "Son of [insert evil god of your religion here]" nickname.

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!
By the way, I forgot to take a screenshot of Masud when he came of age, so here he is now:



His highest value is in martial, which is only 10, but it’s still what he’s best at. Also, because he’s had a religious education, he is more likely to avoid war with Muslims. Because he’s not a zealot and he has a legitimate claim to Malaga, however, he’ll still declare war on the Aftasid Sultanate if the opportunity arises.

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
Stuck between a blob and a hard place. Not exactly a lot of weak minors to pick on.

Lord Cyrahzax
Oct 11, 2012

Oh, this looks fun. You really do need to make Malaga your top priority though, it'll pretty up your borders nicely

Luhood
Nov 13, 2012
Things are finally starting to look up! If you fail now it is only because Allah wills it, and not because you misplaced your trust in Iblis.

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011
I still think that Ireland is a good choice, if it looks too dangerous you can just swear fealty to the muslim king~

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!
Chapter 6 – The Ironface Emir – 1144 to 1155


Not long after Emir Masud’s return to Cádiz, disaster struck once more as a smallpox epidemic swept through the region, carried across the straits of Gibraltar and into Iberia by ten thousand Moroccan soldiers.



To the irritation of his lords and retainers, the red plague quickly ground Masud's army to a halt, ending any further campaigns for the foreseeable future. And matters only worsened from there, as the Emir himself began showing the ugly pustules and sickening cysts synonymous with the dreaded pox.



His physicians were quickly summoned, but by then it was already too late, and Masud’s condition was quickly spiralling towards death. The experienced physicians concluded that the only way to save the Emir was to slice away any part of his body that was tainted, and once Masud agreed, an hours-long operation commenced.

The end result was… not pleasant, to say the least. Large chunks of flesh had been carved from his body, his face and physique became unrecognisable, every gust of wind send spasms of pain convulsing through his body - but in fairness to the physicians, the operation was technically a success, with the pox cut away from Masud one slice at a time.



All the same, these extensive deformities and his pegleg left Emir Masud looking like a bag of flesh and hair, with a few bones thrown in for good measure. Masud retreated from the public eye, refusing to show his face to either his vassals or the peasantry, and even began wearing an iron mask, which went nicely with his iron leg, to cover the more sickening parts of his face.

Spending more time away from the battlefield, and dedicating more time to his wives and harem, meant that the Emir had a crop of toddlers running around the palace before long.



The Emir also took a personal interest in raising his sons, especially his firstborn, determined to groom a worthy successor. From his earliest years, the youngster was forced to attend regular council sessions, travel to meet the walis of nearby cities, afforded a place in domestic and foreign negotiations, and even rode beside his father into battle - Admer was raised to rule.



Whilst recovering from his injuries, Masud also took to reading and writing poetry, a luxury he’d never had the pleasure of experiencing before. To that end, the Emir even began learning how to speak the languages of Christendom, eager to see what other cultures had to offer in the way of written art. Under his rule, dozens of books were translated and studied in the libraries of Cádiz, books that would later become the foundation of a much greater house of learning.



Spending time with his children and indulging in his interests did a world of good to Masud, and before long, he felt strong enough to look outwards once more.



First on his agenda was the recently-conquered territory of Granada. Masud had already decided to rule the vast majority of it as his personal demesne, but the issue wasn’t so much an administrative one as a religious one. It seemed as though, within the decade that they had owned it, the Jimena Kings of Aragon had managed to expel or kill most of the Sunnis living in Granada, so that the region became heavily populated by Christians.



The clergy urged Emir Masud to fight with the same blade, and suppress the practice of Christianity within his territory. Masud, however, wasn’t interested in violence as an answer to his problems. Instead, he opted to allow both Christians and Jews to live peacefully under his rule, though a strict Jizya tax was instituted on them.



The next issue that had to be dealt with was that of security. Sultan Lubb had died whilst leading a campaign into the Cantabrian Mountains, with his vast domains passing to his grandson, Rasiq. The newly-crowned sultan didn't wait long before picking up his grandfather's sword, avenging his predecessor's death and conquering the last independent remnants of Galicia.

With his borders secure, many within Cádiz feared that the Sultan’s attention would turn to Granada next, so Emir Masud decided to court another African power. And before much longer, his efforts bore ripe fruit, with an alliance signed between Masud and the Athbejid Emir of Tunis, a powerful lord in his own right.



With the swords of north Africa behind him, Masud felt confident enough to begin tackling internal problems, with the Emir launching a campaign to stamp out corruption in the capital - the same corruption that had killed his father and that threatened him. Not only did Masud order the imprisonment of countless plotters, but he also dealt harshly with those who thought to escape the law, including the powerful Sheikh Utman, who had been extorting the Christians of Granada and forcing them pay far more than the required Jizya.



Once matters within Cádiz began to settle down, Emir Masud began looking outwards, eager to see his domain prosper. He ordered and personally financed the construction of roads binding his divided counties into one, along with outposts and guards to man them.



To actually forge his territories under a new Emirate, however, Masud would have to reconquer Malaga. Not only was the city rich and populous, but it stood at the crossroads of half-a-dozen trade routes, dividing the Jizrunid domains into two. And as long as his domains were divided, Masud would never be able to rule them effectively.

The opportunity to right this wrong arrived late in 1150, when Sultan Rasiq met his death in another’s blade, leaving the throne to his infant son.



This presented the perfect chance to strike whilst a babe wore the crown, and retake Malaga. So, without so much as a consultation with his council, Emir Masud promptly declared war on the Aftasid Sultanate.



Masud also sent envoys calling his allies into the war. The Almoravid Sultan accepted almost immediately, raising his own troops and marching them north, quickly followed by the Emir of Tunis.



The Aftasids leapt into action, throwing together an army and invading Cádiz far quicker than Emir Masud had expected. Just a month after the declaration of war, the sturdy fortress of Granada succumbed to an Aftasid army, buckling under siege weaponry and intense assaults.



Masud, despite protests from his vassals, did nothing to relieve the siege. He wouldn’t be rushed into battle only for his army to be destroyed; instead, Masud led his army to besiege Malaga, with the Almoravid army following closely behind - a combined force of 12,000 soldiers.



After a short assault, the inexperienced garrison of Malaga surrendered, and Masud opted to take the castle without sacking it. The Aftasid commanders decided against attacking the combined Jizrunid-Almoravid force, instead marching further north and seizing the lightly-defended castles dotting the northern border.



By now, after a long march from the east, the Tunisian army had arrived at the front. And with another 7000 soldiers bolstering his own army, Emir Masud adopted a more aggressive strategy, marching into the occupied territory and taking back Granada. The Tunisians pushed further north and liberated the forts dotting Jaén.



After a few weeks of careful manoeuvring, Masud managed to corner the Aftasid army, forcing them into Almeria, with nowhere to flee. It was only now, with numerical superiority and tactical advantage on his side, that Emir Masud decided to meet the enemy on the field.



The early hours of the battle were thick and bloody, and the Aftasids proved themselves an experienced army. Once the Tunisians and Almoravids joined the fight, however, the numbers prevailed. the enemy formation was broken, and the battle was won.



After being crushed on the battlefield twice, the sheikhs and emirs of the Aftasid Sultanate were forced into abandoning Malaga, agreeing to all Jizrunid demands in return for an end to hostilities.



And with that, Emir Masud has managed to do what his father never could, and carve out a small but powerful Jizrunid emirate in southern Iberia. Masud sent messengers ahead of his army with news of his victory, and orders to prepare grand celebrations throughout Cádiz, as befitting that of a conqueror.



What Masud found at Cádiz, however, was not what he’d expected. Whilst he was battling with the Aftasids, harem intrigues seemed to have overtaken the entire court, with wives and concubines and servants and slaves all conspiring and plotting against one another. The crisis ended just as Masud crushed the enemy on the battlefield, climaxing in a gruesome nighttime raid, the death of several maids and, more importantly, one of his sons.



His firstborn, his favourite, his heir.

hashashash fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Dec 17, 2018

RabidWeasel
Aug 4, 2007

Cultures thrive on their myths and legends...and snuggles!
This poor guy cannot get a break can he? :(

Lord Cyrahzax
Oct 11, 2012

Ugh, this event. And it's always a valuable wife I that ends up doing it, too. Which alliance are you about to lose?

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

Lord Cyrahzax posted:

Ugh, this event. And it's always a valuable wife I that ends up doing it, too. Which alliance are you about to lose?
I swear, one of the greatest things about being a tribal muslim is not having to deal with that poo poo.

Tbh, tribal muslims are crazy good; you don't have to deal with the loving hassle of gavelkind and back before the laws reforms you could just revoke anyone willy nilly. Was baller as heck.

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!

Lord Cyrahzax posted:

Ugh, this event. And it's always a valuable wife I that ends up doing it, too. Which alliance are you about to lose?

Lost the one with the Emir of Tunis. It's not a significant setback though, he and the Almoravids were going to come to blows eventually, and I would've hedged my bets with the Almoravids any day.

Captain Oblivious
Oct 12, 2007

I'm not like other posters
Poor Masud. He's a tenacious fucker though. Life beats the absolute hell out of him but he keeps on kicking :unsmith:

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!
Chapter 6 – Years of Isolation and Peace – 1155 to 1164


The story of the Middle Ages is, as one might expect, a tale of both rising and falling kingdoms, of plucky and ancient dynasties alike, of ambitious men ready to take on the world and astute women who play them like puppetmasters. A recurring theme, and one that plays out again and again behind closed curtains, but no single family epitomise it as much as the old and powerful Fatimid dynasty might.

The Fatimids had once reigned supreme, but they were very nearly overthrown after series of rebellions pushed the Fatimid Caliph all the way back to Cairo, and for a brief few years, it seemed as though Shia hegemony had come to an end. That, of course, was before the young and ambitious commander Yahya deposed his cousin and usurped the Caliphate, before embarking on a remarkable campaign in an attempt to piece together his fathers' empire, quickly earning a reputation for his brutal and unforgiving demeanour.



After crushing his rivals, Yahya began consolidating and executing his political rivals. After just two years, Caliph Yahya not only managed to drag the Shia Fatimids from the precipice of ruin and back to the forefront of Middle Eastern politics, but he managed to push his frontiers outward and absorb the Hejaz and Damascus into his growing empire.

And an empire it was, once Yahya proclaimed himself Malk al-Maluk, or King of Kings, in an attempt to gain equal leverage with his chief rival, Basileus Konstantinos.



Speaking of the Basileus, the East Roman Empire was not exactly at its height. Despite defeating a wide array of foreign enemies on the field of battle, the Empire couldn’t go even a year without succumbing to infighting, a recurring plight amongst the so-called Romans.



With Islam on the rise and the Romans once again fighting one other, a unique opportunity quickly made itself apparent. The Fatimid caliph got bogged down in a war against the Christian Abyssinians, but the Sunni Caliph Bahir, backed by his overlord Sultan Hamid Seljuq, decided that the time to test Roman waters had arrived once again.



Further west, Europe was in turmoil.

The Italian Holy Roman Emperor had pushed into France with fifty thousand troops late in 1156, defeating the French forces over a series of stunning battles, which climaxed with the death of the French King Henry just outside Paris. The Emperor died not long after the war’s conclusion, however, and his chosen successor was nowhere near as popular as he had been, sparking rebellions against his rule.



In France, meanwhile, the humiliating losses in the war resulted in widespread discontent and anger. Many of the more powerful dukes had begun to believe that the Capets were simply unable to defend French borders, sparking a civil war that only ended once rebel forces marched into Paris three years later. The Capets were long gone, of course, fleeing the moment the odds turned against them.

A new king was crowned, with the rebel leader Duke Bernard digging up old familial ties with the Karlings in an attempt to legitimise his claims, though of course nobody argued with the man who’d sacrificed an eye and his reputation for the throne.



The daughter and heir of King Henry, Adelinde, was secreted away from Paris and taken to her last loyal holdings by sea. Her last loyal holdings, however, were not exactly… in France. Not at all, in fact.

Adelinde crowned herself as Queen of Castille, and swore to one day re-take her French inheritance, though nobody took the vows of a disgraced and overthrown queen all that seriously.



Finally, however, we return to Iberia proper. After defeating the two great powers of the peninsula – the Aftasids and Aragon – Emir Masud returned to Cádiz almost a legend in the flesh. Despite enduring a difficult childhood and a painful adulthood, Masud had proven himself a brilliant and more than capable Emir, far more than his predecessors had been.

Allah, however, seemed to be set on giving the Emir a hard time. After returning from the war with the Aftasids, he found his court in uproar. The plotting and scheming between his wives had escalated beyond control and resulted in the death of his favourite son and presumed heir. Masud, in shock upon hearing the news, almost collapsed and died right there.



The way Emir Masud dealt with the tragedy, however, speaks volumes about his character. He did isolate himself and retreat from public scrutiny, but rather than turning to alcohol to ease his pain, as his father and grandfather had done, Masud looked to the heavens to relieve his pain.



Of course, he ordered the death of several of his wives, but that was just procedure.

From that point onwards, Masud refused to meddle in the affairs of state. He lost interest in accounts and maintaining a stable currency, in stamping out provincial corruption and hereditary honours, in ensuring religious freedom and waging wars of conquest. In fact, the Emir quickly turned from a bright and colourful character to something of a white sheet, spending his days praying or reading his books.



This, unsurprisingly, quickly led to rumours taking root with Cádiz. It was whispered that the Emir was getting too soft, that he had let his favourite harem-women get away with murder, that it was all a farce to escape from his duties. When Masud refused to involve himself in the Jihad for Armenia, these whispers escalated into accusations of cowardice and religious apathy, with many of his vassals publicly denouncing him.



In wake of Masud’s recent disinterest in governance, the Cádizian Council took on greater powers and became the rulers in all but name. They built on the foundations set down by Emir Masud, expanding on his budding road system and organising an emirate-wide messenger system, which would hopefully aid in communication between different armies in times of war.



Emir Masud kept himself busy with his libraries, with his appetite for knowledge quickly growing, and he soon found himself interested in far more than just poetry. He invited countless academics from places as far-flung as Constantinople and Cairo in an attempt to stimulate a scholarly atmosphere in Cádiz, hoping to transform Cádiz into the intellectual center of Iberia, or the new Córdoba, as it were.



Funds were diverted from the military and to Masud’s ambitious new projects over the following years, angering many in the aristocracy. The Emir was determined to see his vision materialise, however, and his university quickly attracted a host of polymaths and intellectual authorities. Before long, discussion within the so-called ‘House of Wonder’ was brimming, with topics as varied as architecture to astronomy gaining traction.



Later that same year, Masud’s secondborn son came of age. He was a brawny and headstrong young man, well-versed in all the necessary histories and traditions, but he was no Admer.


Whilst Emir Masud was busy arguing about the set paths of stars or worrying about the future of his realm, there were major developments further north, in the far-flung isles of Brittania. After being ruled under Norwegians for almost a century, the Anglo-Saxon lords of England rose up in revolt late in 1163, demanding unrestricted independence.



This was the fourth Anglo-Saxon uprising, with all the previous ones having been brutally crushed. This time, however, a mere child sat the throne, making it far easier to outmanoeuvre the feeble-minded generals and finally gain a decisive victory in battle. The nobility quickly fled back to Norway, effectively surrendering their Anglo-Saxon territories.


King Gudred, the last Norwegian King of England.

By then, however, the doors had been flung wide open and there was no closing them. Revolt after revolt broke out as thousands of peasants took up arms against their Norwegian lords, driven into fury by a poor harvest and a devastating winter, and led into civil war by the brash but brave Count Leofdeg. With almost no levies to raise, the child-king Gudred was forced to follow his Norwegian vassals and flee London, leaving the rebels to storm the capital and proclaim the end of Norwegian hegemony.



Concurrently, the Jihad for Armenia reached its conclusion early in 1164, with the Roman armies driven back all the way to Constantinople without surrendering. A close battle followed between some 20,000 Turks and 25,000 Byzantines, and after a few hours of thick fighting, the Romans were broken and cut down by the thousand. With blood seeping into the Bosphorus, Basileus Konstantinos was forced to agree to the proposed peace terms, and large tracts of land in Armenia and Anatolia were ceded to a Turkish dynasty.

This is only a temporary peace, however, with the Turks vowing to push ever-forward and one day burn Constantinople to the ground, as Prophet Muhammad had prophesied half a millennium past.



As new kingdoms are born and ambitious men are crowned, however, a particularly humble and spectacularly unfortunate emir passes from this world to the next. After enduring a long and difficult life, Emir Masud died in April of 1164, succeeded by his secondborn and second choice in Galind. His cause of death was determined to be infection, as his face-wounds had never truly healed, and he died as he had lived: in great pain.



Having inherited a small and weak sheikhdom, Masud had certainly gone on to earn great renown for both himself and his family. He not only defeated two of the more powerful kingdoms on the field of battle, but he had fought to turn his inheritance from a mere principality to a powerful emirate. And more importantly, some would say, his great esteem for scholarly arts and learning led to him establishing the foundation of what would later become the artistic and cultural centre of Iberia.

His achievements and deeds are numerous, overshadowing his horrendous and crippling injuries, and because of that, Emir Masud has come to be seen as the founder of House Jizrunid and the Emirate of Cádiz.




edit: It’s been almost a hundred years since the game started, so have a world map, with most of the major countries who’ve been around for a while listed:




hashashash fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Dec 17, 2018

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!
Also, not sure if anyone’s caught this, but one of the members of the Anglo-Saxon Independence Revolt was this guy, an actual Norse Viking:



edit; added world map to the update instead.

hashashash fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Jan 17, 2018

Ikasuhito
Sep 29, 2013

Haram as Fuck.

Jeez Kiev has gone mad with power.

Luhood
Nov 13, 2012
Alas, poor Norwegian England. We hardly knew ye.

Lord Cyrahzax
Oct 11, 2012

Luhood posted:

Alas, poor Norwegian England. We hardly knew ye.

Jorvik's only one prepared invasion away from a comeback

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

Lord Cyrahzax posted:

Jorvik's only one prepared invasion away from a comeback
Yeah, those never succeed after all the holy orders come into play for the Christians without the Jomsvikings, huge alliances or the player doing them/intervening. :(

Also lol, does CK+ make Iceland into 4 counties? Thank Wiz, I guess. I'm sure he did it all for me~

Actually, looking at that map, is there any part of Iceland that's independent? Could we fabricate a claim there?

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!

Deceitful Penguin posted:

Yeah, those never succeed after all the holy orders come into play for the Christians without the Jomsvikings, huge alliances or the player doing them/intervening. :(

Also lol, does CK+ make Iceland into 4 counties? Thank Wiz, I guess. I'm sure he did it all for me~

Actually, looking at that map, is there any part of Iceland that's independent? Could we fabricate a claim there?

Yeah, the number of provinces CK+ is kinda ridiculous, why'd they add so many :confused: I haven't played it in a pretty long while, but I definitely don't remember Genoa being split up into a fuckton of tiny, barely-clickable provinces, don't really like it.

Sinner Sandwich
Oct 13, 2012
Could we get more info on Kiev? I'm curious as to what happened, how they devoured so much territory, and how to properly greet our glorious Kievan overlords.

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

Hashim posted:

Yeah, the number of provinces CK+ is kinda ridiculous, why'd they add so many :confused: I haven't played it in a pretty long while, but I definitely don't remember Genoa being split up into a fuckton of tiny, barely-clickable provinces, don't really like it.
Of course, Iceland being split in 4 is a splendid idea, if only you could make each one maybe half a holding instead of a whole one.

The inflated islands are just because people love islands and a certain type of modder just always wants to make more and more.

Also you not taking the trading focus for the event is making me sad. The random friends you can make from that makes for some fab stuff, because the friendship modifier lets you do some cray stuff with them.

Mr.Morgenstern
Sep 14, 2012

Is it me or does Italy take North Africa WAY too often. I swear every Charlemagne game the Lombards take Tunis by 800AD every game.

As for Kiev, in vanilla iirc, all the Russian dukes have claims on each other, so if things are the same in CK2+, some duke might have gotten lucky.

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JT Jag
Aug 30, 2009

#1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

Hashim posted:

Yeah, the number of provinces CK+ is kinda ridiculous, why'd they add so many :confused: I haven't played it in a pretty long while, but I definitely don't remember Genoa being split up into a fuckton of tiny, barely-clickable provinces, don't really like it.
The people who succeeded Wiz in developing CK+ are the ones who really went overboard on the number of provinces

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