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Aug 30, 2005
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How the legend of Prester John came true. An Abyssinian AAR

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Ethiopia, also known as Abyssinia had been run by the Solomonic dynasty since 1270 when Yekuno Amlak overthrew the last ruler of the Zagwe dynasty. The Solominoc lineage claimed descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who gave birth to the first king Menelik I after her visit to Solomon in Jerusalem. Ever since the rise of Islam, the frontiers of Ethiopia had been under constant skirmishes with enemies. These enemies had been mostly muslims trying to expand in the name of allah. The Ethiopians had been in close contact with the orthodox bishop of Alexandria for a long time, but with the expansion of islam and the establishing of the Mameluk nation, contact had been greatly reduced. When Alexandria fell to the muslim forces in the 14th century, a piece of Jesus cross had been sent to Ethiopia, and had been taken well care of.

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The year is now 1419, and king Yeshaq rules the nation. He was seen as a strong leader, quite fearless in battle. The nobility and his personal guard feared for his life, as he was always in front of the army when there were battles. It was a great boost to the soldier morale, but history had shown it was an fast way to end the kings life. During the last 50 years, Ethiopia had lost their kings in battle and not by natural means.

King Yeshaq had ruled since 1414, and the thing he wanted most was to make contact with other orthodox nations again. He had heard the king of Aragon had been succesfull against muslim forces and he tried to find them, but with no luck. Ethiopians had been isolated for far to many years and now all they knew were the areas of Nubia and the Mameluks. There were still someone who spoke about the great byzantium. King Yeshaq decided this was where he had to reach to get allies against the muslim hordes at the border of his realm. The muslims were extremely aggressive, and Yeshaq decided to terminate this threat. He set up training of a large cavalry as he knew they would come as a surprise to the muslims.

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King Yeshaq sent diplomats to Nubia, a orthodox country still holding of the muslim hordes and managed in short time to get a very friendly relationship with them. One of the means he used was marrying one of his daughters to their king. An alliance was formed and Nubia agreed to excange maps of their known world. Among these areas were Byzants.

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This is when King Yeshaq got to know where Konstantinopel was. King Yeshaq quickly sent as many gifts and diplomats to Konstantinopel so that they could form an alliance. Emperor Konstantinos did not want to have an alliance with Ethiopia but arranged a royal marriage with one of the Ethiopian pricesses. Once the relationship had grown warm, King Yeshaq asked to excange maps and Emperor Kontantinos was happy to share. Suddenly, King Yeshaq had almost full knowledge of all of europe and the near east. A world of oppertunity opened up and Ethiopia grew alot wiser over the next year when they saw how far other nations had come in every way.

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At the same time Byzants opened the world for Ethiopia, King Yeshaq made Nubia an even closer ally by making them an vassal of Ethiopia.

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A note from the author: I have set the game on hard/aggressive. I have done some twists on the game. I have written in a new leader for ethiopia from 1434, he is a conquistador. The reason i have done this is of course to get more land and more riches, but also to simulate a search for solomos mines and the other pieces of Jesus cross. I have done some cheating. I have given Ethiopia some extra gold (800) and used robespierre to set the national setting to how i want it. I have also given Ethiopia some extra diplomats.

The idea is to create a strong Ethiopia as the homeplace of the european legend Prester John, in this timeline Ethiopia will try to save europe from the muslim hordes. Some of my goals are to try to save Byzants and establish the Kingdom of Jerusalem again. I will make a fantasy search for Solomos mines and try to take control of all of Africa. I wish i knew how to write events cause then i would create an event with the pieces of the cross united. It could be a cool thing.

I hope you will find it interesting.
 
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Interesting idea.
 
Looks inter-- I mean, amusing ;)

Also, which version of EU2 are you playing with? From the older CoA designs and the presence of "silver" shields, I'm guessing one of the older ones, perhaps straight from the box.

Reclaim Egypt for Christendom!
 
Duke of Wellington said:
Great start both in game and AAR writing. I look forward to this, a nation I'm always tempted by but never have the courage to follow through with. Looks like an old version you're using though.

Thank you so much, i needed to hear that :rolleyes:
And you are all right, it is an old version.

Specialist290 said:
Looks inter-- I mean, amusing

Also, which version of EU2 are you playing with? From the older CoA designs and the presence of "silver" shields, I'm guessing one of the older ones, perhaps straight from the box.

Reclaim Egypt for Christendom!

Yea it is version 1.02, straight from the box. I tried to install version 1.09, but had no luck with it. The game crashed each time i loaded the game so i am sticking with the straight from the box version. I wish i had managed to install version 1.09, but i am gonna wait untill i have finished this AAR.

And thank you all for replies. It is good to see someone watching it.
 
King Yeshaq got some disturbing news from Byzants. The Ottoman turks had declared war on them and laid siege on both Morea and Konstantinopel. By 1421 Byzants agreed on a peace giving Morea to the turks. The once so great empire of Byzants had been reduced to just the great city of Konstantinopel. King Yeshaq found this alarming. The legends of old told of a huge empire streching all over the eastern mediteranean. He sent many diplomats to Byzants asking them to join an alliance with Ethiopia and Nubia and promised at least 30.000 soldiers to guard the city of Konstantinopel on a permanent basis. Emperor Manuel refused the aid, and the reasons were not told to King Yeshaq. King Yeshaq found out that it was probably because the emperor were afraid of having foreign troops in the capitol. King Yeshaq heard stories of christian crucaders on their way to the holy land having plundered the city a few hundred years ago, leaving the city of Konstantinopel in ruins. No matter how hard King Yeshaq tried to convince the emperor their motives were just to protect Konstantinopel, it gave no results.

King Yeshaq did not sit idle and wait for something to happen. He had the problem of muslim bandits all along his borders and set out on many campaigns to deal with them. When he had managed to drive away all the muslim forces in an area he sent his own people to settle there. One of the first places to grow into an new ethiopian city were Mogadishu. The people there embraced the orthodox religion and were integrated to become ethiopians.

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The next years saw muslim raiders being beaten at every site and ethiopian settlers gaining more and more land. In the end all of the gorn of africa were in ethiopian hands with no muslim forces left to oppose them. King Yeshaq had led all the attacks as head of the army, and it was as if god held an protective hand over him as no harm came to the great king. King yeshaq discovered the nation of Zanj to the south and heard tales of a great muslim nation there. the people there were called Swahili. King Yeshaq sent several diplomats to the nation of Zanj, and thus began an adventure south through a excating nation. The diplomats could tell of an advanced civilisation, but also being met by hostility from the muslim rulers.

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In 1428, King Yeshaq and Ethiopia were furious, the forces of Zanj had murdered several diplomats and raided Mogadishu. King Yeshaq saw no other option but to declare war on Zanj. Muslim raiders had a zero tollerance in his kingdom. An huge army of almost 50.000 soldiers crossed the border to Zanj. There were no real armies along the border to Ethiopia and King yeshaq laid sieges to the fortresses in this area. The main body of the army continued south and by the capitol the Ethiopian forces met Zanj armies for the first time. Having learnt much from seeing how the europeans organised their armies and conducted war, King yeshaq had a huge advantage over the Zanj armies. Battles were won and soon all fortresses in Zanj were under siege. Within a year half of Zanj were under Etiopian control, but still battles were fought in the south of Zanj were their remaining troops tried to rout the ethiopian troops.

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The 2nd of august 1429, tragedy happened. King Yeshaq (Isaac) were leading his troops in battle as usual, but was killed by an arrow through his neck. His son Endreyas (Andrew) was crowned king and continued the attack in Zanj. Although King Endreyas campaigned in Zanj and did all he could to achieve victory, he died after just after just half a year on the battlefield. A spear had pierced him and he died in short time.

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His younger brother Taqla Maryam were crowned king after Endreyas. After only 1 month, he managed to send one of his princesses to Moscowny far far to the north and had a royal marriage arranged with them, binding the northern kingdom closer to Ethiopia.

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At the same time King Taqla sent diplomats to Zanj with a offer of peace. It was harsh conditions he sent, claiming almost all of their lands. They were only allowed to have the southernmost areas. Zanj completely beaten and sacked agreed to the terms and gave in to Ethiopias terms. The victory had come at a high price though. Two kings had died in the process.

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Ethiopia had managed to become 3 time larger then it was only 10 years before, and king Taqla had enough to work on trying to organize his kingdom. He grew paranoid as well of several princes trying to do coups. There were much unrest in his realm and much confusion. One day in august 1431 he recieved terrible news. The ottoman turks had attacked Konstantinopel and laid siege to the great city. The emperor had been killed defending the walls against the attacking forces and soon after the city fell. Konstantinopel was made the capitol of the Ottoman empire. The only good news were that the orthodox church were allowed to exist within the walls of the now muslim city.

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In 1433, King Taqla was murdered by some princes trying to take the thone. The king had been right in his paranoia. His son Amda Iyasus was crowned king after his death and made sure the usurpers to the throne were executed.

Next: The rise of Prester John and the search for Solomos mines.
 
Nice work, you're looking pretty strong although you have many poor wrongculture, sunni religion provinces. Making a fleet and capture Zanzibar should be the next move, I think. Did you take any loans, BTW?

Oh, and lastly; Who the heck is Prester John?
 
SunZyl said:
Nice work, you're looking pretty strong although you have many poor wrongculture, sunni religion provinces. Making a fleet and capture Zanzibar should be the next move, I think. Did you take any loans, BTW?

Oh, and lastly; Who the heck is Prester John?

Hi, and thank you. I have been quite strong after gradual buildup of forces for the first 10 years. There were alot of fighting against natives along the horn of africa, and i have established colonies all over the place. They are not very big yet, but i use all the settlers i have to increase them. The areas i got from the Zanj war was 3 sunni regions and 4 pagan regions. I am gonna try and convert the pagans first, as they are easiest. I had luck with the first one, it changed both the religion and culture of the area to my ones, and i thought yessss.

Oh, and yes, it did take a loan. I am repaying it now after the war. You should read the next update to see my next moves. I am doing alot of settling, as my settings give me 6 settlers a year.

Prester john :p
It is a european religious myth from the dark ages. When Islam came storming forward, the christians grew very afraid, but they heard rumours of an forgotten christian kingdom in the east ruled by prester john. Several places has been among the places they thought it were. One of these places were Ethiopia. The christians hoped this prester john would come to their aid and fight back the muslims. sometime during the 13th century Ethiopian diplomats said yes to the pope that their king was Prester John, but later when the portugese came to the horn of africa and made contact with Etiopia, the ethiopians said they had never had any such title and wanted aid from the europeans instead of giving aid(not that europe needed it anymore) against muslim powers. I intend to use this myth to create an interesting twist of ethiopia, where they actually come to aid Europe.
 
An Ethiopian aar, :D Thank you, thank you, thank you for making one, :D
 
Superb.

Of course, all proper Orthodox warmongers should end up with loads of wrong-culture Sunni provinces! :D
 
I am impressed, fine arts academy already too.

Will you continue south into Africa as well? Also what if in your effort to aid europe portugal ends up declaring war?(dont no much bout Portuguese and Ethiopian relations).
 
Most impressive. And yes, somehow having all those Sunni provinces under your belt only seems appropriate for any Orthodox state ;)

Converting pagans automatically changes both the religion and the culture if successful (and I think it's a little easier to convert pagans, though I could be wrong here). Converting other religions doesn't change the culture, though.

I should note, incidentally, that one of the advantages of playing with an older version is that you don't have to watch out for excessive "badboy" points :D I could be remembering wrong again, and I don't remember exactly which version it was introduced in, but if I'm right, you could go on a veritable Sunni African conquest spree! :D
 
Specialist290 said:
Most impressive. And yes, somehow having all those Sunni provinces under your belt only seems appropriate for any Orthodox state ;)

Converting pagans automatically changes both the religion and the culture if successful (and I think it's a little easier to convert pagans, though I could be wrong here). Converting other religions doesn't change the culture, though.

I should note, incidentally, that one of the advantages of playing with an older version is that you don't have to watch out for excessive "badboy" points :D I could be remembering wrong again, and I don't remember exactly which version it was introduced in, but if I'm right, you could go on a veritable Sunni African conquest spree! :D

Just to not feed anyone with wrong advice... Pagans is extremely easy to convert, the difference is about as much as culture. Also, BadBoy was important in 1.02 too, what was introduced was that you could hover the mouse over your reputation and see what you BadBoy were. :)