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You've got a couple of good leaders there. Congrats on your conquests!
 
Jewel of the Nile - Part 3: 1724 - 1729

Less than a month after the coronation of Sultan Ishak III, his only son (named Saruhan after both the Empire and the Sultan's older brother) went on a hunting trip to celebrate his 18th birthday.

He would not come home alive.

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In frustration at the death of his son, the Sultan looked for an enemy to bear his wrath. In the south of Egypt, he found one: the people of Suakin had thrown the British out of their lands and declared themselves a new nation. The Sultan congratulated them on their disposition of the British by annexing them into the Empire.

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While celebrating this perfunctory victory, the Sultan (rather drunkenly, it must be stated) impregnated one of his wives. A new heir was born some months later, named for the previous and fallen heir.

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With the acquisition of Suakin making the Saruhani grip on the Red Sea stronger, the Sultan decided that it was time to move against the Mamluk tribes that had recently thrown off the British. War was declared upon them, which cascaded to also include the Persians in the war.

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The last several sultans had been promoting the growth of a proper navy for the Empire in preparation for the possible war with Great Britain. The construction of true ships of war paid dividends, as a major battle was fought for control in the Persian Gulf:

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This allowed troops to be landed in the Persia's eastern regions, outflanking the main thrust of the Persian advance.

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A quick thrust into Libya convinced the Tripolitans that the war was not in their best interests...

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...while a spy was caught, who revealed himself to be from a completely unexpected source. The Sultan's intelligence service were not convinced that the spy was really Irish and not a British spy attempting to manipulate the Empire into acting rashly, so no further notice was given over the incident.

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The main thrust of the Persian front was undertaken by three full armies out of Armenia, who quickly pushed forward across enemy lines, meeting a 4th army that drove north out of Arabia.

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Back in Eqypt, the Mamluks surrendered, ceding one of their three remaining provinces to the Empire.

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With the Persians remaining the only enemy still fighting in the war, five armies were steadily laying siege along the Persian border...

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...but a rare astronomical event sewed misgivings among the Saruhani soldiers.

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Still, the Persians were only able to raise one additional army, which made an attempt to dislodge the flanking force. This attack failed, after which the Persians accepted surrender under rather harsh and punitive terms.

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Saruhan is looking great!

(But you really should edit more names into the possible king name file. Though it is hilarious to have everyone named Saruhan.)
 
Jewel of the Nile (And the Tigris and Euphrates): Part 4 - 1730-1740

For all of the Empire's success militarily and economically, there was one area where they struggled: colonization. To date, the Sultans had expressed a desire that new territories would be opened up while avoiding the scattering of natives. "The Empire is its people," he had said, "and we will not destroy that in the name of bringing them civilization."

Unfortunately this policy occasionally allowed natives to retain coherent internal leadership that sometimes took offense at colonization.

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Along the coast of the Red Sea, however, the strategy for expanding Saruhan's borders was decidedly simpler: sending an army into Swahili territory to take control. This did have the effect of causing other nations to declare war upon the Empire in response, but at this point in its history, the Saruhan Empire is largely untouchable by these minor countries.

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The army moved first into the Swahili-held province, but thanks to Adal joining the war, additional territories were subsequently occupied...

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And by the end of the brief war, the Red Sea became a Saruhani Lake.

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The Sultan had originally chosen to allow the remainder of the Mamluk people to retain their small territories along the Nile in exchange for disarming and remaining peaceful. Unfortunately, armed peasants crossed the border into Imperial territory while fighting amongst themselves, and the Sultan was forced to annex the remaining territory in the name of preserving peace in the region.

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Shaking his head at a council meeting, the Sultan sadly proclaimed to his people that, as this latest episode demonstrated, there was no other nation in the region that was capable of properly protecting its people from European threats and of ensuring their prosperity. In the interests of stability, he decreed, the Empire would no longer stand by idly when its people or the people of neighboring nations were at risk.

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Fearing that this new declaration of intent by the Sultan would further tighten his hold on the reins of power within the Empire, some Arabian nobles organized a few brigades of troops and attempted to march on Mecca. This uprising was swiftly crushed, though rumblings of unrest would remain within the Empire for quite some time.

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The first test of the Sultan's policy regarding other nations came when a trading caravan traveling from Jerusalem to the Persian city of Fars was attacked by brigands and sacked. The survivors returned to the Empire, demanding recompense and retribution; the Sultan's council (at this point heavily influenced by merchants desiring control of yet another trade center) gave its support for the further expansion of the Empire to "ensure the safety of trade between nations".

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Four full armies were moved into position along the Persian border, and demands were sent to the religious leaders of that nation for the annexation of the trading route to Fars. Their demands were met with threats and pleas signed by the ambassadors of three other nations; these pleas would be ignored.

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The armies swiftly moved into Persia, occupying the border provinces and driving for Fars. There were few significant battles; the most memorable was when a Saruhani army was outmaneuvered; left out of position it found itself outnumbered nearly 3:1. The superior training and technology of the Imperial army allowed them to win victory.

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The war concluded in 1740 with Persia being forced to give up the demanded provinces; the trading city of Fars was now under Saruhani control, along with the entire route between it and both Jerusalem and Mecca. Unfortunately, this conquest would anger several surrounding nations, leading to a period of significant trouble for the Empire.

However, records of old Persian legends found within a mosque in Fars would reveal something of more value: a land of destiny, known only as "Gonder", that the Hand of Saruhan would soon reach out and take into its grasp.

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Everything up to this point is but a pale shadow of the conflict before us; Saruhan vs Gonder*. Now the ultimate battle for middle-east-earth can begin in earnest. Also, was that colony getting destroyed roleplaying, or unintentional?

* lame pun I'm sure everyone was prematurely sick of, but too good to ignore.
 
Also, was that colony getting destroyed roleplaying, or unintentional?

Unintentional: I really was trying to colonize without wiping out the natives. I might just not know how to move troops into an open province without them stirring up the natives and killing them all.
 
There isn't a way to do it I think. There's always a chance they will fight, based on the aggression of the natives.

Excellent updates. Persia is humbled!
 
The Conquest of Gonder: Part 1 - 1740-1753

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The recent conquest of a large portion of Persia had put the lie to the Empire's claim of simply establishing hegemony over the Turko-Arabic people of the Middle East. Perhaps seeing this as their last chance to prevent their falling to the power that was the Saruhan Empire, a number of nations declared war upon it, hoping to stem the oncoming tide.

With the recent discovery of the Ethiopian region of Gonder having captured the imagination of a number of the Sultan's councilors, explorations were made into pressing further into Africa now that the Red Sea was firmly under the Empire's control. As part of this, the war declared upon the Empire by Oman presented an opportunity.

While two armies pressed into Oman proper, the African garrisons were commanded to capture the Omani outposts along the Ethiopian border. Along with some minor reparations, the possession of these outposts became part of the peace treaty.

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While the Empire fought against the last gasps of independence throughout the region, in the British Isles a different story was unfolding. First, the island of Ireland was united under the rule of a single king, giving them the strength to finally become a single nation and forge their own destiny outside of the interference of British and Castilian invaders.

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On Britain itself, though, unity was hardly the order of the day, as the continued revolts against the British King led to the reemergence of the English people as an independent force. As the British-loyalist forces were driven from the island, the old English flag was flown over more of the island. Eventually there would be no remaining "British" presence on the island, instead becoming purely an overseas Empire.

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Across the North Sea, the Danes had performed a similar accomplishment to that of the Saruhani: uniting the Scandinavian people under a single banner.

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Back home in the Empire, the Northern border had been quiet for quite some time. The Balkanization of Bulgaria had led the region to be more concerned with internal matters than with the Empire. Migration across the border had even led to a substantial Saruhani-Greek population arising in the province of Nis. Mistreatment at the hands of the Bulgarians led to the council convincing the Sultan that it would be in the interests of the Empire to protect these people and take ownership of that province.

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In a similar move, the lone remaining province of Iraq was finally annexed, protecting those people from possible Persian encroachment.

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Unfortunately, the Bulgarians refused to accept the terms of the last peace treaty with Saruhan, and decided to make an attempt to retake their lost province.

This attempt... failed.

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One forgotten war was still ongoing at this point: hostilities still technically existed between the Empire and the province of Kaffa, which flew the flag of the old Byzantine Empire but was largely nothing more than a large trading city, dedicated to bringing goods from across the Black Sea for shipment to the south. Deciding that this city would be better served as a part of the empire, troops were finally sent to take control of it.

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With this city taking under control, that put the Empire in charge of practically the entire trade of the Eastern Mediterranean region. Only two other trade centers were left that posed a challenge to this control: the Persian city of Fars and the island of Malta.

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