The next few years are uneventful, unless you count beating up a couple of New World minors for cash and spending it on temples. I also get government tech 10 and switch to Noble Republic. I hate being unable to choose my rulers.
1500 roles around, and with it an update on the State of the Prester:
The most immediate concern is Persia. They have around 24k infantry and 12k cavalry, and they'll declare war on me as soon as they WP out with their Caucasian minors, which should be soon. As the old saying I just made up goes, you cannot eat half a tiger.
I have a force limit of 32, which, thanks to the influx of cash from the Bank of Maya, I've reached. Due to the lack of good cored provinces, though, I'm hemorrhaging gold (-150 per year), and I'll need to invest in workshops in a couple of years. I have 7k tied down rebel busting in the south, 5k beating up minors for cash, 10k in the Levant (also on rebel duty, but close enough to Persia to head there if necessary), and 10k watching Persia. A straight-up fight will be tough, but I do have a good general, so it might be winnable. Otherwise, I can fall back on Arabia and let them eat attrition.
To the north, the Ottomans wait beyond a thin cordon of Mamluk territory. They tend to be a pain in the neck later in the game, as they tech like Holland in spite of being a Muslim power. Facing them will not be easy, and I hope to do it once I have more of Persia to provide force limits and manpower, and hopefully also once my revolt risk is lower. If I can delay it until the ex-Mamluk provinces core, which I probably can't, then I might be able to attain Mediterranean naval superiority and trap their forces somewhere they don't want to be trapped. That would make life vastly easier.
Further north are the Golden Horde. Unless I decide I want Astrakhan, they're neither an immediate target nor an immediate threat.
To the west, Morocco is huge in this game. They have some nice land, including a COT near me in Cyrenaica; but taking them on at the moment would require advancing through a lot of Moroccan-held desert before reaching the juicy core. One long-term plan might involve advancing from the south through Mali.
And then there's Europe. No superpowers in the east, which is good for me. Venice has unified most of Italy, which isn't, but somebody usually does it. I'll need either naval superiority or access through the Balkans to do much against them; both are in the distant future.
France has been slower to expand than usual, due to some stiff resistance from Burgundy, but they've reached the Rhine now. With the Reformation coming soon, I expect them to be a difficult end boss, but it could be a lot worse.
Castille, on the other hand, has unified the Iberian peninsula. That's always bad news. On the other hand, they still don't have QftNW. I think I have a real chance of getting some good colonies. In the late game, if I can keep their colonization down, they should go down like a wounded duck to superior naval power.
England has basically unified their islands, and does have QftNW, but has spent the last ten years getting clobbered by Castille and (of all countries) Morocco. Morocco is in fact occupying Ireland at the moment. I'm getting The Sea Hawk flashbacks.
But first things first, and the first thing is Persia.