Sakartvelo - Rose Jewel of the Caucasus

I'll probably be doing an update for this soon. I got dragged into an EU3 AAR and I've partially written my Piety update over lunch, so depending on what I'm in the mood for, I could work on any one of the three.

Enewald: That's the idea. I hope to raise the Caucasian Empire into the limelight over here.

forodrova: Thanks, my pictures are always nice. That's the tradeoff for spending 75% of my AAR time working on them.

RGB: The alliance with Moscow is going to be crucial. It will give me a weapon to use against the OMGMASSIVE parchmenty blob to my north. Derbent is a bit underpowered, I agree, but the lack of forts did give me a quick landgrab opportunity. Buying off Timur was pretty easy, but I did get lucky. I was afraid they'd smash through, but they got pulled away by a big Ottoman stack moving across the border while rebels were popping up simultaneously in Sharizhor.

TelcontarElessa: Trade secrets. Actually, I just duplicated it in photoshop and then tinted it completely black before reducing opacity on the outline of the shadow.

Teep: Thanks, I try to please one of my #1 fans. :3 This AAR will probably be a lot shorter than my CK one as time will advance much more quickly.

Beamed: Thanks, I'll try to keep your eye interested.

Ilyavania: Thank you, m'dear. :3

asd21593: Good to be back! I hope the next one is as good.

Quintus Sertori: Short term plans are to try and become the dominant power of the Black Sea (expanding into the southern Rus and Anatolia where I can, although I might aim to aid the Byzantine Empire in restoring its former glory if I get a chance.)

I also hope to gain colonies overseas - I'm a big fan of taking ahistorical nations and turning them into real, legitimate colonial powers. That's one reason I love WWM (though I didn't have it working when I started this game), is seeing countries like Naples, Norway and even Japan starting to grow and colonize beyond their homelands.

I admit, I'm a massive stickler for completely alternate history, especially where non-Latin countries grow powerful and keep up.

aldriq: Thank you - I like trying to choose relatively uncommon countries, though I did note that Georgia has had another AAR before. I hope mine stands out enough to distinguish itself. Thanks for the wishes of good luck - I had to restart this game once to survive the Goldilocks terror...


Having recently allied with the Rus' Grand Duke, the Georgian Kingdom was finally in a position to exert some power. Having ousted the Timurids successfully and defeated its neighbours, Giorgi's prestige amongst the Black Sea provinces and Near East had grown considerably. Soon, many powers had their eye on the Caucasus for many reasons - both a blessing and a curse for the inept King.

On the 9th of June, the Orthodox pact expanded once more; Georgian territorial dominance in the Caucasus was a vital lynch pin of all Orthodox peoples' hopes and dreams - the defensible mountains gave them a good opportunity to resist invasions from any of the three major Islamic powers, and Trebizond hoped that an alliance could secure the country's future from the Ottoman Turks' aggressive expansionism. King Giorgi VII was at first reluctant to agree to the alliance, fearing the long-term impact upon his country for little real gain.


Giorgi eventually went to visit the country personally, in hope of creating a better bond. Eventually it was agreed that the daughter of Emperor Manuel III Megas Komemnos would marry Giorgi in return for protection from Timur and the Ottoman Sultan. A pact in royal blood, and one which would hopefully contribute to the guaranteed future of Georgia in the East. They wouldn't give up easily.


The news of this development would spread like wildfire throughout the Caucasian states - celebrations in honour of this new Royal Marriage would be held from Trebizond to Derbent (varying in festivity from high to low, respectively). The people felt that the threat of Timur Khan and the Sunni Turks and Tartars was at last fading. Confidence in the country was starting to be restored, and by February of 1401, Georgia was achieving relative stability for the first time in decades.


With this newfound stability, Georgia's prosperity grew - a new army of horsemen was being trained to counter the Mongol Hordes which had struck them twice now, funded by Alanian gold mines. The King of Georgia commanded one of the most impressive forces left in the orthodox world - his people were united and he was beginning to restore the quality of Georgian education and culture through the aid of his advisors.


Georgia's unity was not complete, however, and soon the relative success began to fade. Although Georgia's stability would continue to increase throughout the years, it would not last forever. Soon, Giorgi's own incompetence began to shine through the heroism of the War against the Timurids. This embarrassment would culminate in a major faux pas, as the King was caught engaging an adulterous affair with a peasant wench sometime late in the year 1402.


Though the King claimed he had never known her, the witnesses were adamant and there was talk of dissolution of the alliance between the two Orthodox powers. Eventually Giorgi narrowly managed to talk his way out of it, but relations between the two would be irreparably damaged; it would also shake the faith of the people in the Caucasus, and worries of outright rebellion along the Caspian Sea were rising.

In hopes of shaking this, the coffers of the Kingdom were shifted from the creation of a new army to more practical affairs. In the early days of 1407, the majority of the King's armies were sent east to the territories around the west coast of the Caspian Sea. There they would oversee the construction of a new series of modern fortifications, a mighty network of castles which would keep the locals in check. With these in place, any rebellion would take months or years to seize control of the land - the Georgians would have more than enough time to muster an appropriate response.


The improvements to Derbent's existing fortifications along with the increasing prosperity of cities like Tbilisi were having a great long-term effect on the country's population. Thousands of peasants flocked to the cities, lured by dreams of prosperity and success - the great defensive works of Derbent created more work than even this influx of labourers could fill. This would mark the beginning of a gradual trend towards increasing urbanization in not just Georgia, but all of the Near East.


But no project was without hiccups, and soon tensions would rise in eastern Georgia. The regions of Shirvan and Dagestan would become the focal points of this dissent, and it seemed clear that rebellion might soon erupt amongst the Islamic majority, who chafed under Christian rule. Giorgi's inability to suppress this sentiment would prove to be a great flaw, and combined with his more recent diplomatic 'failures' concerning his marriage, people only continued to lose faith in his ability to rule.


Dissent was growing, and soon zealous firebrands preached open rebellion. Although the winter of 1407 was upon them, the Georgian nobility knew that their fortifications were far from functional still and the labourers working on them were on the verge of outright rebellion. Unable to resist both a revolution from below and the expansionist Islamic powers, it seemed that Georgia was placed in a rock and a hard spot. Faced with overwhelming odds, the Georgians would soon lose access to the Caspian Sea if something dramatic was not done to cool tempers in the Shi'ite lands.