Blood and Empire: A Clash of Civilisations

[diskoerekto]

Quiver. The word you seek is 'quiver'.

oh thanks a lot! I knew that I knew it, from dnd background if not anything else, but it just evaded me.

 

[HistoryDude]

Ottarr's audacity in agreeing to stop his affair and then taking a bunch of concubines is great...

When will individual realms realize that attacking Russia is a fool's errand?

The Muslims are still destroying their realms over decadence? Did the successor realms join the anti-Russian Defensive Pacts, at least?

 

[jak7139]

Blóð eða Gørsimi

I pasted this in Google to see what this means. I couldn't find anything there, but this AAR was listed as the top result.

The picture was very nice, despite the horns and Ottarr's shield decapitating his own arm.

As usual, Russian magnates filled in the gaps

Spain is being gobbled quickly.

The improved opinion of his chief vassals more than made up in troop numbers those he had allocated out.

If nothing else, Ottarr has improved the bureaucracy of the realm.

Who Ottarr disliked almost as much (for similar reasons) and who was not nearly so enamoured of his new overlord.

Oh well...

a war they started to throw the Teutonic Knights out of Krain was launched in September 1175 and would ultimately prove successful just over a year later, bringing the whole surrounding area under unified Swedish control.

Where are the Knights now located?

The Affatid dynasty succeeded to the now even more splintered Emirate.

The vassals are going to have a field day.

 

[Bullfilter]

I pasted this in Google to see what this means. I couldn't find anything there, but this AAR was listed as the top result.

Quick reply: looked up the words individually in an Old Norse dictionary online (the
English–Old Norse Dictionary from York University)
then combined them to make the phrase “Blood and Treasure”. Not sure if the syntax is correct!

PS: various choices were available in that and other dictionaries for both and & treasure, just tried to guess the right ones.

 

[Bullfilter]

Great update, glad to see that whatever problems were plaguing the boards have been rectified! The current emperor sounds a bit like some current politicians I could name who have similar issues with their self-image.

Thanks! Yes, some glitch that went after a couple of days. Good observation re 'don't call me weak' Ottarr

Great to see this return with your safe travels behind you. Well done. Seems like Ottarr's Saga will be an interesting one.

Yes, getting back on track again. Let's hope Ottarr can have a reasonable reign and improve himself over time.

As I have written about elsewhere, Bing insists on putting horns on Viking helmets. Too bad they have discontinued the eraser in Designer. That usually helps to get rid of the horns (and fix six-fingered Vikings too). Still an impressive image.

Yes, saw that: those horns are so persistent! Despite the imperfections, that was the best of the ones I tried along the way (some of which came out looking like biker tattoos! )

Love this description. Maybe the AI just drew her that way?

Haha, yes, that's a bit of an arcane Australian expression I thought I'd throw in

Love this portrait. His beard is filling out nicely.

That was actually a web searched image but one that happened to suit. Some more AI generated stuff in the next chapter.

can you also put the de jure maps as well to compare against de facto borders and see which kingdoms are ripe for a GHW?

Here you go (as at 11 Dec 1178, the end of the session this and the next chapter are based on). Have concentrated on North Africa, the Balkans and Middle East. Not looking any further a-field than that.

the true faith has spread all the way to homelands of the Kirghiz

It's really being propagated by the monolithic Rurikid expansion: the sword cuts the path for the Godis to travel.

Ottarr's audacity in agreeing to stop his affair and then taking a bunch of concubines is great...

When will individual realms realize that attacking Russia is a fool's errand?

The Muslims are still destroying their realms over decadence? Did the successor realms join the anti-Russian Defensive Pacts, at least?

I did think that was quite amusing - glad you picked it up! Those one-off attacks are little more than flea-bites. At some point maybe we'll have another GHW against the whole pact system, before the Mongols and Aztecs start up their invasions.

The picture was very nice, despite the horns and Ottarr's shield decapitating his own arm.

Thanks! It was the best of a very hit-and-miss bunch.

Spain is being gobbled quickly.

The vassals have been very diligent in between Imperial conquests.

If nothing else, Ottarr has improved the bureaucracy of the realm.

Yes, gradually. As he keeps his demesne and vassal spans in control and his reign lengthens, the troop capacity should gradually increase.

Where are the Knights now located?

They haven't found a new holding yet after their recent eviction from Krain. Not sure if that also means their Holy Order army is zeroed out too.

The vassals are going to have a field day.

They really do a good job grabbing chunks for themselves and the Empire. More to come!

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter 60: An Unexpected Journey (January 1177 to December 1178)

Fylkir Ottarr at around 20 years of age. [Playground AI, using the CK2 portrait as a reference image]

ᚔ ᚱᚢᚱᛁᚲᛁᛞ ᚔ​

Spanish Campaigns

Sigtrygg’s larger raiding army finished its year-long raid of Navarra on 5 January 1177 and then began heading across to their next raiding target in Zamora, where they would arrive in March.

The disjointed war to conquer Valladolid finally got going properly in February 1177 when the secondary army of Ulfhildr (the previous emperor’s concubine and shieldmaiden) arrived again in Valladolid and was actually ‘permitted’ to begin a siege. The first holding in Valladolid would fall by 2 June and the second on 21 July.

[Viking image made in Playground]​

At the same time, the newly crowned and now adult King Dyre of Wallachia would attempt to take León, but this came to nothing later that year when a change of liege rendered the holy war redundant.

Warchief Sverker took over the Jomsvikings on 23 February after Ottarr’s kinsman, Prince Tryggve of Skotland, died rather early in his term.

​

He soon launched his bid to expand the lands of the Jomsvikings in early July, aiming for the recently ravaged Navarra. This conquest would succeed in slightly less than a year.

​

By September that year, the three available holdings to take in Valladolid had been occupied, but that alone was not enough to make the Suhailid rebel leader Emir Yassir capitulate. His two mosques in Egypt allowed him to hold out for now.

​

With Sigtrygg still raiding in Zamora (near Valladolid, to ensure it was not retaken), Ulfhildr’s mainly Jomsvikings force was ordered to the east coast of Spain, where the Sardinian vassal levy fleet would meet her. By 20 October she was boarding the ships and would arrive in the Nile Delta two months later, disembarking to make for Fustat and the first of Yassir’s Egyptian mosques.

​

She arrived four weeks later, but by then attrition from lack of supply was beginning to sap the army’s strength little by little.

Jomsviking holy warriors besieging the Mosque of Heliopolis, January 1178. [Playground AI]​

Two months later, in March 1178, attrition from the desert conditions and lack of supply had risen to around 13% and 183 troops had been lost in the siege, reducing Ulfhild’s strength by almost 2,000 to 6,672. The Fylkir had been impatient to end the war quickly, but the exercise was now cost more troops than had ever been anticipated.

The siege of the Mosque of Helipolis was completed on 26 March and by 1 April Yassir had given up. But Valladolid was under a separate attack from Count Ali of Salamanca, allied with Zamora, who now transferred that claim against Ottarr. More work remained to be done.

​

The same day, Sigtrygg finished his raid in Zamora and was initially ordered to Salamanca, but that order was quickly countermanded after a small Zamoran army began an opportunistic siege of Valladolid. Meanwhile, to the south King Gnupa the Great of Irland was making good progress now in his holy war for Badajoz, while a Livonian army of 13,000 men was also in play, seeking to enforce their invasion of what was left of Andalusia.

In Egypt, with her job done Ulfhildr immediately began heading back for the safety of the ships after the gruelling conditions killed more troops than the recruiters could replace.

​

She made quick time and was back on the ships by 18 April and heading for the Russian outpost of Athens for rest and recuperation. She would arrive there just a few weeks later, with 6,539 of her army’s establishment of 9,200 men.

While she sailed back, Sigtrygg fell upon the Zamorans in Valladolid, wiping out their entire force for just ten men lost in as many days. This put a big dent in the enemy’s morale for virtually no loss.

[Image from Bing DALL-e]​

At this point, still burdened by ‘excess’ holdings, Ottarr was able only to offload the city of Tordesillas to Warchief Sverker on 26 April. The county of Valladolid itself could not be granted as it was still subject to the Salamancan claim war.

Sigtrygg arrived in Salamanca on 28 May to begin taking down its holdings but had committed the rookie error of not de-toggling from raiding mode. The first holding fell for gold only rather than occupation on 21 June, alerting the embarrassed Sigtrygg to this oversight.

The correct ceremony was then performed by the army’s Godi, with three holdings falling to siege and occupation from 21 June to 11 December 1178, finishing with a short assault on Béjar against scant opposition to end the war.

​

Ottarr was now granted the rest of the titles to Valladolid and passed them on to Sverker. And Russia was at peace again.

ᚔ ᚱᚢᚱᛁᚲᛁᛞ ᚔ​

Italian Raiding

The raids in Italy continued through 1177-78, with Gaeta, Interamnion and Neapolis (again, after last being raided in 1174-75) the targets. Casualties among the raiders were quite high, especially in Gaeta where almost 1,600 raiders perished from May 1175 to July 1177.

The only real change in the situation over this period was in August 1178, when Ulfhildr’s partly recovered army in Athens, resting from its short Egyptian campaign, was moved out to Italy as hostile Byzantine armies hovered nearby and to recover in a safer location. Plus be ready for an expansion of the raiding later.

​

After safely arriving in Apulia, the Sardinian levy fleet was disbanded to assuage the impatience of King Tjudmund. By 11 December, Ulfhildr’s army had recovered to over 7,600 and a detachment was hived off the raiding army in Neapolis which could join her to constitute a new second Italian raiding force.

​

Overall, it had been a fairly lucrative two years in Italy but at the cost of disproportionate casualties.

ᚔ ᚱᚢᚱᛁᚲᛁᛞ ᚔ​

Other Vassal and Foreign Affairs

In Africa, King Gnupa’s vassal Falki, the ever-expansive Jarl of Hlymrek, launched a new campaign against the Antalasid Emirate – one of the many recently splintered Muslim emirates in the region – in July 1177.

​

And shortly afterwards young King Jedvard II Rurikid of Volga Bulgaria began the latest campaign to press a claim on that wily old survivor King Gandalfr of Noregr.

​

Then the latest Swedish gambit around the Horn of Africa saw King Hjalmar take on Caliph Talib III of the Abbasids Arabian Empire once more, this time for the rich and highly developed Aden, in September 1177.

​

Next was a newly created vassal of King Dyre of Wallachia, Duchess Grima of Lesser Poland, who in January 1178 was able to raise a massive army for a prepared invasion of Africa against Emir Muammar ‘the Conqueror’ of Kabylia and Tripolitania. She was just the latest of eight (mainly Russian vassal) opportunists attacking the thoroughly beleaguered Emir Muammar.

​

King Gandalfr would not live to see off the latest Volga Bulgarian challenge for his crown: his son Sigbjörn II would have to take that fight on. And the war against King Jedvard did not prevent the renewal of Ottarr’s non-aggression pact with Noregr.

​

By December 1178, North Africa was a hotbed of land-grabs, with six out of eight aggressors second or (mainly) third tier Russian vassals, with Jarl Falki’s vassals particularly active – all squabbling over Annaba.

ᚔ ᚱᚢᚱᛁᚲᛁᛞ ᚔ​

Domestic and Dynastic Issues

On 1 February 1177, Imperial ‘talent scouts’ had discovered a promising young girl from the nobility of Périgord to become the betrothed of Crown Prince Toste, with the pledges duly exchanged.

​

With a building program currently under way after previous technical advancements in the French demesne counties, Steward Bonga was moved from supervising works in Rouen after a castle town upgrade was finished there on 4 February to Paris, where more construction work was in progress.

The stables upgrade in Melun was completed just a few weeks later, with work starting on another castle town expansion soon after.

​

A lack of specialis6t siege leaders was remedied by the recruitment of three such generals from outside the court in June 1177. In addition, the great tradition of Imperial concubine shieldmaidens was continued when Bothildr (another siege leader) was appointed the same day.

​

However, she was so pleased that the post-appointment ‘celebration’ resulted in a pregnancy being confirmed a month later … her appointment as an active commander would be deferred for now!

With the Imperial Council containing only one Loyalist as this stage, the three ‘cross-bench’ Councillors most easily bribed were given gifts of gold crowns in late June. By the end of the following year, just Steward Bonga’s factional alignment would have changed.

[Image from Playground AI]​

Shieldmaiden Bothildr gave birth to a daughter in February 1178. And despite Bothildr’s strong physique, young Aslaug instead inherited her father’s weak constitution.

​

Bonga oversaw the completion of another improvement in Meaux in March 1178 and was soon supervising construction of the latest castle town expansion there.

​

Then in June, the castle town expansion in Melun was also completed, meaning all the projects that could be done in the Imperial demesne counties were again either completed or under construction.

In June Empress Skuld fell pregnant, followed by the concubine Þyra the next month. Ottarr’s family was expanding – though all the children born so far had suffered from some kind of disability or health issue.

By December, Fylkir Ottarr ‘the Glorious’ was well enough established in his position, with peace prevailing, recovering army strength, raiding in progress in Spain and Italy and a growing family.

​

The Empire continued to expand in Spain (now mainly conquered) and North Africa. In the East, the Samanid, Pala and Bengal Empires were the major powers. In North Africa and the Middle East, the Muslim realms had splintered further in recent years, with the Abbasid Arab Empire diminished but still the largest of these nations. The Byzantines continued to stand as the only real Christian power left in the world and still one of its great empires.

​

The period from mid-1174 to the end of 1178 had seen further expansion of Reformed Germanicism mainly in more recently conquered lands of Spain and North Africa. Hinduism remained the great creed in the East, mainly Sunni Islam (plus Shia and a few splinter heresies) in the centre south, with Byzantium the Orthodox bastion sitting in between them all.

A Runestone commissioned some time in the late 12th century, near Valladolid, to commemorate its incorporation into the Rurikid Empire. [Playground AI]​

 

[Wraith11B]

The march continues, unabated! What was causing the higher casualties in North Africa? Something like a change in the military tech that was giving them an edge or just simple attrition?

 

[Bullfilter]

The march continues, unabated! What was causing the higher casualties in North Africa? Something like a change in the military tech that was giving them an edge or just simple attrition?

Quick reply: attrition for being both out of supply and in the desert.

 

[Chac1]

Fylkir Ottarr's empire continues to grow. Thanks for this update. I also must note the quality of the images. I see since your last update you have mastered Playground as an image generator. In the past the images have been excellent but you have gone to a new level with this post. Well done.

For those who don't notice these flourishes I want to point them out because I know the work that must be done to create them.

The first holding fell for gold only rather than occupation on 21 June, alerting the embarrassed Sigtrygg to this oversight.

Oh, I see the holy raiding toggle ceremony had been disregarded! Yes, always a bit embarrassing when that happens.

Sverker was now granted the rest of the titles to Valladolid and passed them on to Sverker. And Russia was at peace again.

Perhaps I missed something in the narrative? Is this accurate? Or was it Sigtrygg (or someone else?) who conquered Vallodolid?

By December, Fylkir Ottarr ‘the Glorious’ was well enough established in his position, with peace prevailing, recovering army strength, raiding in progress in Spain and Italy and a growing family.

Truly his reign is glorious (and I like his new Playground portrait too... good use of the image reference). His nickname is well deserved.

Great chapter overall!

 

[Bullfilter]

Perhaps I missed something in the narrative? Is this accurate? Or was it Sigtrygg (or someone else?) who conquered Vallodolid?

Quick reply: no, just a typo! Fixed. Ottarr gained them and passed them on.

 

[Midnite Duke]

Thanks for the update. With 200K+, I think that you can fight the Aztecs/Mongols at the same time. Especially as there are still buffers for the Mongols to work through.

 

[jak7139]

By 20 October she was boarding the ships and would arrive in the Nile Delta two months later, disembarking to make for Fustat and the first of Yassir’s Egyptian mosques.

This is the second time in recent years that Russia has ventured into the Middle East, not counting vassal-led expeditions. How far your empire stretches!

Ottarr was able only to offload the city of Tordesillas to Warchief Sverker

An in-game Treaty of Tordesillas !

Overall, it had been a fairly lucrative two years in Italy but at the cost of disproportionate casualties.

Ottarr should set up a stipend for the widows and families of the soldiers with all the gold coming in.

all squabbling over Annaba

The race for Annaba!

Ottarr’s family was expanding – though all the children born so far had suffered from some kind of disability or health issue.

An ominous omen. Are the gods trying to tell Ottarr something?

 

[HistoryDude]

Russia continues to expand.

Will the fact that the vassals are now competing for the same land hamper the rate of expansion? Will the vassals fight each other over newly acquired land in Africa and Spain?