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Well, I'm just as shocked as the people of Persia right now. For the past I-don't-know-how-many updates I've only heard of Azar...and now she's gone. It will be very interesting to see what happens now. Much of the power of Persia was directly tied to the wide variety of abilities that she possessed. Now, with a new and less capable ruler, all manner of long-suppressed issues are likely to pop up.
On a gaming note, I'm surprised that she lived this long. It's possible that this is different in MMU, but in my EU III games the general tendency was for good rulers to die very very fast.
On a gaming note, I'm surprised that she lived this long. It's possible that this is different in MMU, but in my EU III games the general tendency was for good rulers to die very very fast.
The new ruler of Persia and his heir are very different people. This will certainly be interesting.
THat's the way it goes--after such a long time getting used to "Blessed by God" stats, even a passable ruler like Bahram feels like crap. And in some ways Bahram is limiting--his low MIL score will make it impossible to build advanced military buildings that you should probably be building on the Turkish border, and his low DIP will make it tough especially aas the only country that's your religion. But! His high ADMIN score will make it easy to continue doing some domestic decisions (like the one to shift to Absolutism), and I like the 'philosopher-king' character type, as (as a bookish type as most of us likely are), they're really easy/fun to write.
Also! You're playing MMU, so it's time to cultivate that Cultural Tradition and get yourself some advisers worth of an empire!
Also! You're playing MMU, so it's time to cultivate that Cultural Tradition and get yourself some advisers worth of an empire!
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MMU severely limits cultural tradition. You cannot build it up, and you can only get it through events or decisions and it quickly attrites away. I used the cultural tradition from the University event for the artist to build the monument.
Hm. Well that seems legit. Advisers are a lot more powerful in MM, and I felt that the CT mechanic was OP anyway
Bahram and Daryush (1591-1602)
Shahanshah Bahram “the Old” was many things. He was a scholar, a philosopher, an astronomer, but a military man he was not. When he assumed the throne at the age of 65, he resolved to prove himself as a martial leader. While he was not an abysmal leader, Bahram was not particularly talented, either. Bahram showered praise and honor on his pet cavalry regiments, increasing resentment among the army units. Bahram's main failing was that he insisted on leading from the front without delegating command to a skilled general. At least nobody could doubt his courage.
A pretender to the throne revolted upon Bahram's accession, but he was quickly dispatched.
Lacking Azar's strong will, Bahram lost control of the bureaucracy, which quickly grew out of control and became a sluggish morass. The gap between Europe and Iran widened as Iran stagnated in the face of Europe's overwhelming strides in technology and increase in wealth.
During his rule as Shah, Bahram established constabularies in more satrapies as a way of increasing enforcement of taxation. He also fortified the central Asian satrapies in response to Turkmen raids. His appeal to the Khorasanian Sultan to put an end to the raids went unheeded.
In Europe, Brittany revolted away from Spanish rule. Spain still remained in control of a vast region of central France.
The great general Balash Suren-Pahlav died in 1595, leaving a huge void in the army leadership.
The Ottomans took notice, and the great Sultan Mustafa II declared war on the following spring.
Bahram placed himself at the head of an army and led an assault into Erserum, but he was held back by an inferior force led by the skilled Kamar Sokullu.
The warrior-king Gagik IV of Armenia invaded and occupied Imeretia by December of 1596, while Alania was occupied by Persian forces in the following months.
Bahram got his revenge against Kamar Sokullu, pushing him back into the Turkish interior in 1597.
Mustafa II suddenly died in July of 1597. Bahram perished soon afterward, due to his old age. The new monarchs, Abdullah and Daryush, had little interest in continuing the war, so they concluded a peace treaty in August of the same year.
Though the young Shahanshah Daryush quickly made peace with the Turks, he was not a peaceful man. Daryush was brash, arrogant, proud, and violent, contemptuous of anything not having to do with the military. He was brusque and uncouth among the high officials and bureaucrats, hardly endearing himself to them, but he was loved by the army.
Daryush wanted to consolidate his position before engaging in war with a foreign power. His main rival was his brother, Yazdegerd. Though still not of age, Yazdegerd was a darling of the court and much preferred by the aristocracy and bureaucracy, as he was much more easily controlled than the fiery Daryush. Daryush knew this, and grew to be intensely jealous of his brother.
Daryush sought a way to marginalize his brother to avoid him being a threat to his rule. A necessary step was to produce an heir, but Bahram and Azar had neglected to arrange a betrothal for Daryush. As he prepared to search for a suitable wife, he came down with a severe sickness. Several of the leading aristocrats took advantage of his weakened state and extorted concessions from him, but as he recovered he took back his erstwhile powers by force.
Attuned to the needs of the military, Daryush soon realized that the Persian cavalry was becoming outclassed by the Turkish cavalry. Rather than emulating military advancements in the Ottoman realm, as was the earlier trend, Daryush looked to the east. He integrated the fighting styles and armaments of the eastern Iranian cavalrymen with those of the west. The easterners specialized in light cavalry, organizing swift strikes, but then dispersing just as quickly. The western Iranians specialized in heavy cavalry, in the Turkish style. Daryush lessened the amount of armor and equipment that heavy cavalrymen would wear and he relentlessly trained them in eastern tactics, while he also recruited many eastern cavalrymen and trained them in the more direct western tactics. This resulted in a very flexible cavalry that had great offensive potential. The Turks called this cavalry the yığın süvari, meaning mass or swarm cavalry.
Wary and resentful of the increasing centralization of the Iranian government, a group of aristocrats banded together in an initiative to establish an independent university as an alternative to the University of Tehran. A new university in Khorramabad was established wholly through private financing in the year 1600. Daryush grudgingly chartered the new institution, which became nearly as prestigious as the one in Tehran.
Daryush traveled throughout the empire, purportedly to inspect the troops and the fortifications, but he was also looking for a suitable wife with whom to produce his heir. He desired a healthy, strong woman capable of bearing many children, a noble woman, but one not linked too closely with the great noble clans. He found Sudabeh Shirazi, daughter of a petty baron in Pars. Sudabeh and Daryush were quickly wed, and just as quickly she was found to be pregnant with Daryush's child.
Daryush decided that it was time to act. He invited Yazdegerd to a hunting expedition in the Hyrcanian forest of Gorgan, where he died under very suspicious circumstances. Though there were no witnesses, all were convinced that Daryush had killed his brother, Yazdegerd. For his part, Daryush did not confirm or deny anything, though his actions showed the truth when he imprisoned and executed the most vocal of his detractors.
Daryush's son, Kurosh, was born on December 11 of 1600. Kurosh was immediately named as the Crown Prince and Daryush's successor.
The Pashtun elders of the satrapy of Gazni, recognizing what had long been the reality, acknowledged Daryush and the Khorasanid house as the lawful and rightful overlords of their province.
Daryush thoroughly alienated the high aristocracy, bureaucracy, and even the priesthood during his reign. The Shahanshah had grown bloodier and bloodier in his efforts to consolidate his rule, but all his efforts only served to entrench his opponents. Daryush's actions caught up with him when he was assassinated by a palace conspiracy in 1602, leaving the infant Kurosh as the Shahanshah of Iran and Aniran.
Shahanshah Bahram “the Old” was many things. He was a scholar, a philosopher, an astronomer, but a military man he was not. When he assumed the throne at the age of 65, he resolved to prove himself as a martial leader. While he was not an abysmal leader, Bahram was not particularly talented, either. Bahram showered praise and honor on his pet cavalry regiments, increasing resentment among the army units. Bahram's main failing was that he insisted on leading from the front without delegating command to a skilled general. At least nobody could doubt his courage.
A pretender to the throne revolted upon Bahram's accession, but he was quickly dispatched.
Lacking Azar's strong will, Bahram lost control of the bureaucracy, which quickly grew out of control and became a sluggish morass. The gap between Europe and Iran widened as Iran stagnated in the face of Europe's overwhelming strides in technology and increase in wealth.
During his rule as Shah, Bahram established constabularies in more satrapies as a way of increasing enforcement of taxation. He also fortified the central Asian satrapies in response to Turkmen raids. His appeal to the Khorasanian Sultan to put an end to the raids went unheeded.
In Europe, Brittany revolted away from Spanish rule. Spain still remained in control of a vast region of central France.
The great general Balash Suren-Pahlav died in 1595, leaving a huge void in the army leadership.
The Ottomans took notice, and the great Sultan Mustafa II declared war on the following spring.
Bahram placed himself at the head of an army and led an assault into Erserum, but he was held back by an inferior force led by the skilled Kamar Sokullu.
The warrior-king Gagik IV of Armenia invaded and occupied Imeretia by December of 1596, while Alania was occupied by Persian forces in the following months.
Bahram got his revenge against Kamar Sokullu, pushing him back into the Turkish interior in 1597.
Mustafa II suddenly died in July of 1597. Bahram perished soon afterward, due to his old age. The new monarchs, Abdullah and Daryush, had little interest in continuing the war, so they concluded a peace treaty in August of the same year.
Though the young Shahanshah Daryush quickly made peace with the Turks, he was not a peaceful man. Daryush was brash, arrogant, proud, and violent, contemptuous of anything not having to do with the military. He was brusque and uncouth among the high officials and bureaucrats, hardly endearing himself to them, but he was loved by the army.
Daryush wanted to consolidate his position before engaging in war with a foreign power. His main rival was his brother, Yazdegerd. Though still not of age, Yazdegerd was a darling of the court and much preferred by the aristocracy and bureaucracy, as he was much more easily controlled than the fiery Daryush. Daryush knew this, and grew to be intensely jealous of his brother.
Daryush sought a way to marginalize his brother to avoid him being a threat to his rule. A necessary step was to produce an heir, but Bahram and Azar had neglected to arrange a betrothal for Daryush. As he prepared to search for a suitable wife, he came down with a severe sickness. Several of the leading aristocrats took advantage of his weakened state and extorted concessions from him, but as he recovered he took back his erstwhile powers by force.
Attuned to the needs of the military, Daryush soon realized that the Persian cavalry was becoming outclassed by the Turkish cavalry. Rather than emulating military advancements in the Ottoman realm, as was the earlier trend, Daryush looked to the east. He integrated the fighting styles and armaments of the eastern Iranian cavalrymen with those of the west. The easterners specialized in light cavalry, organizing swift strikes, but then dispersing just as quickly. The western Iranians specialized in heavy cavalry, in the Turkish style. Daryush lessened the amount of armor and equipment that heavy cavalrymen would wear and he relentlessly trained them in eastern tactics, while he also recruited many eastern cavalrymen and trained them in the more direct western tactics. This resulted in a very flexible cavalry that had great offensive potential. The Turks called this cavalry the yığın süvari, meaning mass or swarm cavalry.
Wary and resentful of the increasing centralization of the Iranian government, a group of aristocrats banded together in an initiative to establish an independent university as an alternative to the University of Tehran. A new university in Khorramabad was established wholly through private financing in the year 1600. Daryush grudgingly chartered the new institution, which became nearly as prestigious as the one in Tehran.
Daryush traveled throughout the empire, purportedly to inspect the troops and the fortifications, but he was also looking for a suitable wife with whom to produce his heir. He desired a healthy, strong woman capable of bearing many children, a noble woman, but one not linked too closely with the great noble clans. He found Sudabeh Shirazi, daughter of a petty baron in Pars. Sudabeh and Daryush were quickly wed, and just as quickly she was found to be pregnant with Daryush's child.
Daryush decided that it was time to act. He invited Yazdegerd to a hunting expedition in the Hyrcanian forest of Gorgan, where he died under very suspicious circumstances. Though there were no witnesses, all were convinced that Daryush had killed his brother, Yazdegerd. For his part, Daryush did not confirm or deny anything, though his actions showed the truth when he imprisoned and executed the most vocal of his detractors.
Daryush's son, Kurosh, was born on December 11 of 1600. Kurosh was immediately named as the Crown Prince and Daryush's successor.
The Pashtun elders of the satrapy of Gazni, recognizing what had long been the reality, acknowledged Daryush and the Khorasanid house as the lawful and rightful overlords of their province.
Daryush thoroughly alienated the high aristocracy, bureaucracy, and even the priesthood during his reign. The Shahanshah had grown bloodier and bloodier in his efforts to consolidate his rule, but all his efforts only served to entrench his opponents. Daryush's actions caught up with him when he was assassinated by a palace conspiracy in 1602, leaving the infant Kurosh as the Shahanshah of Iran and Aniran.
In my experience the Regency period is either gonna be 14 years of "YAWN!!!" or the point where all of your neighbours decide that you need to go.
Either way you continue to deliver fantastic updates as usual.
Either way you continue to deliver fantastic updates as usual.
For the aar's sake I hope for an eventful regency.
On a side note, at this point of the game a player is able to handle any outside threat; and the game, even MM, doesn't provide that much of internal trouble. Unless the 'massive noble opposition' is round the corner.
On a side note, at this point of the game a player is able to handle any outside threat; and the game, even MM, doesn't provide that much of internal trouble. Unless the 'massive noble opposition' is round the corner.
It appears there are no generals in the Regency. What are the infant heir's skills?
Sorry if this has already been addressed, but how did you get Zoroastrianism? Did you create it yourself in the files or is that a new addition with Divine Wind (HTTT is the latest I have)?
Sorry I have been MIA for a while. I got a new job and a girlfriend, so I have much less time. I have no intentions of abandoning this AAR.
The Rebellions of Mehrdad and Kurosh (1602-1606)
A power vacuum developed as the Shahanshah was an infant and there was no obvious regent to rule on his behalf. The most powerful men close to Daryush, the deceased Shah, were vain and petty men only concerned with building up their own power. Vahriz Ansari was the chief instructor of the savaran, which had grown into a powerful position rivaling that of the Iran Spahbod, the commander in chief of the armed forces, at the time a position held by Farhad Suren-Pahlav. Farhad of the house of Karen was an ascetic magus, certainly a heterodox lifestyle among the Zoroastrian clergy, since asceticism, unlike in Christianity, was discouraged. Farhad had amassed a great deal of political power under Daryush's rule, rising to be his right-hand man. Sohrab Varasteh was Vurzurg Framandar, overseer of the increasingly powerful Persian bureaucracy, though he was largely ineffectual aside from lining his own pockets.
The four men formed a sort of quadrumvirate, though it was quite unstable from the start. Vahriz and Farhad Suren-Pahlav fought for control of the army, and Farhad the Magus was shamelessly nepotistic in promoting his clan of Karen, to the consternation of the rest of the great houses.
Amid the political infighting, Mehrdad Daei, the satrap of Kandahar, claimed that he had been promised by Daryush the hand of his sister, Azar the younger, in marriage. In the spring of 1602 he rose up in revolt and proclaimed himself Mehrdad I, rightful successor to Daryush. Promising a return to the old chivalric Persian values and an end to the oppressive central bureaucracy, he obtained the support of many of the Persian magnates in the east.
Mehrdad was symbolically invested with the farr, or royal glory, and recognized as Shah by the nobles who had sworn allegiance to him at Kandahar. A member of the Suren clan on his mother's side, he appealed to his kinsman Farhad, the Iran Spahbod, for support, but Farhad remained loyal to the government in Tehran. He amassed an army of 8,000 men to face Mehrdad in battle.
In a lightning campaign, Farhad drove Mehrdad back to the Dehli frontier and utterly destoroyed Mehrdad's army. Mehrdad fell in battle leading his troops in a hopeless final charge, though his body was never identified.
Mehrdad's younger brother, Ardavan, rallied many of the nobles of Mazandaran to his brother's cause, forming a sizable army, but he too was crushed by Persian forces under Vahriz Radpour. Vahriz marched his troops incessantly north to Mazandaran and ambushed Ardavan's camp at night, completely destroying Ardavan's army and capturing its leader. Ardavan was flayed alive on Vahriz's orders, and his skin, along with his head, was put on display in Tehran.
The quick defeat of the Daei brothers quelled the rebellion for a time, though the peace was extremely tenuous. Farhad remained in the east with his army, purging the local nobility and seizing the property for himself. This angered the nobles, but they were powerless to resist.
Envious of Farhad's dubiously-obtained riches, Vahriz Ansari began a purge of his own, accusing various nobles of disloyalty and extorting them in return for a withdrawal of his accusations. By June of 1603 the nobles had enough and revolted again, uniting under the leadership of Kurosh Barmaki, who was related to the Khorasanid royal line and claimed descent from Cyrus the Great himself.
The rebel army rose up in the satrapy of Makran. A few months later, discontented Tajik nobles from the distant satrapy of Badakhshan joined the rebellion as well. Kurosh quickly seized Makran and moved on to Laristan, where he captured the capital city of Lar but was later defeated by a loyalist army.
Though his field army was destroyed, Kurosh remained a danger to the government in Tehran. He persuaded the satrap of Pars to defect and launched a raid that overran an outpost within sight of the walls of Tehran. Kurosh's rapid advance resulted in chaos, and many people took this as a time to start settling old feuds with each other with accusations of disloyalty, duels, assassinations, and kidnapping.
After three years of rebellion, however, Kurosh's luck ran out. Farhad patiently starved out each of the rebel garrisons throughout Makran, Laristan, and Pars, and Vahriz kept order in Tehran. Kurosh's supporters fell one by one, until he found himself isolated and without supplies. Facing little other option, Kurosh surrendered to Farhad.
However venal he was, Farhad realized that any retribution now would only plunge the realm back into disorder, so he pardoned Kurosh and anybody else who took part in the rebellion, so long as they would swear an oath of loyalty to the young Shah. He even restored the property of those nobles who were still living, and persuaded Vahriz to do the same.
Farhad the Ascetic was also influential in obtaining a peaceful resolution to the rebellion, as he warned to his fellow co-regents that the Zoroastrian ruling classes needed to remain unified against the external and internal Islamic threats. Farhad banned Muslim traders from operating in the satrapy of Pars, which was a very valuable trade hub, and cracked down on Persia's Muslim subjects, bringing back and enforcing some old anti-Muslim edicts.
Farhad also sent a religious mission to Samarkand, beginning the long process of converting the Iranians of Sogdiana to the Zoroastrian faith.
Persia's conciliatory policies succeeded in Kandahar, where the elders and nobles of the previously rebellious province pledged their perpetual support to the Khorasanid monarch and his descendants.
A power vacuum developed as the Shahanshah was an infant and there was no obvious regent to rule on his behalf. The most powerful men close to Daryush, the deceased Shah, were vain and petty men only concerned with building up their own power. Vahriz Ansari was the chief instructor of the savaran, which had grown into a powerful position rivaling that of the Iran Spahbod, the commander in chief of the armed forces, at the time a position held by Farhad Suren-Pahlav. Farhad of the house of Karen was an ascetic magus, certainly a heterodox lifestyle among the Zoroastrian clergy, since asceticism, unlike in Christianity, was discouraged. Farhad had amassed a great deal of political power under Daryush's rule, rising to be his right-hand man. Sohrab Varasteh was Vurzurg Framandar, overseer of the increasingly powerful Persian bureaucracy, though he was largely ineffectual aside from lining his own pockets.
The four men formed a sort of quadrumvirate, though it was quite unstable from the start. Vahriz and Farhad Suren-Pahlav fought for control of the army, and Farhad the Magus was shamelessly nepotistic in promoting his clan of Karen, to the consternation of the rest of the great houses.
Amid the political infighting, Mehrdad Daei, the satrap of Kandahar, claimed that he had been promised by Daryush the hand of his sister, Azar the younger, in marriage. In the spring of 1602 he rose up in revolt and proclaimed himself Mehrdad I, rightful successor to Daryush. Promising a return to the old chivalric Persian values and an end to the oppressive central bureaucracy, he obtained the support of many of the Persian magnates in the east.
Mehrdad was symbolically invested with the farr, or royal glory, and recognized as Shah by the nobles who had sworn allegiance to him at Kandahar. A member of the Suren clan on his mother's side, he appealed to his kinsman Farhad, the Iran Spahbod, for support, but Farhad remained loyal to the government in Tehran. He amassed an army of 8,000 men to face Mehrdad in battle.
In a lightning campaign, Farhad drove Mehrdad back to the Dehli frontier and utterly destoroyed Mehrdad's army. Mehrdad fell in battle leading his troops in a hopeless final charge, though his body was never identified.
Mehrdad's younger brother, Ardavan, rallied many of the nobles of Mazandaran to his brother's cause, forming a sizable army, but he too was crushed by Persian forces under Vahriz Radpour. Vahriz marched his troops incessantly north to Mazandaran and ambushed Ardavan's camp at night, completely destroying Ardavan's army and capturing its leader. Ardavan was flayed alive on Vahriz's orders, and his skin, along with his head, was put on display in Tehran.
The quick defeat of the Daei brothers quelled the rebellion for a time, though the peace was extremely tenuous. Farhad remained in the east with his army, purging the local nobility and seizing the property for himself. This angered the nobles, but they were powerless to resist.
Envious of Farhad's dubiously-obtained riches, Vahriz Ansari began a purge of his own, accusing various nobles of disloyalty and extorting them in return for a withdrawal of his accusations. By June of 1603 the nobles had enough and revolted again, uniting under the leadership of Kurosh Barmaki, who was related to the Khorasanid royal line and claimed descent from Cyrus the Great himself.
The rebel army rose up in the satrapy of Makran. A few months later, discontented Tajik nobles from the distant satrapy of Badakhshan joined the rebellion as well. Kurosh quickly seized Makran and moved on to Laristan, where he captured the capital city of Lar but was later defeated by a loyalist army.
Though his field army was destroyed, Kurosh remained a danger to the government in Tehran. He persuaded the satrap of Pars to defect and launched a raid that overran an outpost within sight of the walls of Tehran. Kurosh's rapid advance resulted in chaos, and many people took this as a time to start settling old feuds with each other with accusations of disloyalty, duels, assassinations, and kidnapping.
After three years of rebellion, however, Kurosh's luck ran out. Farhad patiently starved out each of the rebel garrisons throughout Makran, Laristan, and Pars, and Vahriz kept order in Tehran. Kurosh's supporters fell one by one, until he found himself isolated and without supplies. Facing little other option, Kurosh surrendered to Farhad.
However venal he was, Farhad realized that any retribution now would only plunge the realm back into disorder, so he pardoned Kurosh and anybody else who took part in the rebellion, so long as they would swear an oath of loyalty to the young Shah. He even restored the property of those nobles who were still living, and persuaded Vahriz to do the same.
Farhad the Ascetic was also influential in obtaining a peaceful resolution to the rebellion, as he warned to his fellow co-regents that the Zoroastrian ruling classes needed to remain unified against the external and internal Islamic threats. Farhad banned Muslim traders from operating in the satrapy of Pars, which was a very valuable trade hub, and cracked down on Persia's Muslim subjects, bringing back and enforcing some old anti-Muslim edicts.
Farhad also sent a religious mission to Samarkand, beginning the long process of converting the Iranians of Sogdiana to the Zoroastrian faith.
Persia's conciliatory policies succeeded in Kandahar, where the elders and nobles of the previously rebellious province pledged their perpetual support to the Khorasanid monarch and his descendants.
This AAR moves slowly but it's worth the wait for every update, please keep them coming 