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The Land of the AARyans: A Zoroastrian Persia AAR (MMU)

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Fantastic stuff! It's the first time I've seen the War of Religion to happen to a player; so that's how it works! What's the aftermath? Have the Muslims lost majority in some areas? Or did you get some modifier aside from 'Religious intolerance'?
The wording of youe update evokes the tolerant spirit towards the Muslims, but from the course of action Khosrow and his administration took it hardly seems to be the case. Well, that doesn't stop it being a great propaganda tool. :)
 
I have a sensitive issue... I cannot go past the year 1428 without a CTD. I would appreciate it if someone took a look at my savegame and could tell me what is causing this. If you can help, contact me by PM.

edit: I ruled out my custom game mechanic alterations. I haven't tested my cosmetic alterations (Native Persian names, etc.), but I cannot conceive how they would cause a crash. I will test my manual edits to the save file next.

P.S., none of my manual edits to the game files made my game any easier in any respect. They are either cosmetic or resolve some issues with MMU.
 
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Yeah, great news! I just discovered this AAR and I find it very interesting, original and, especially, well written.
 
The Khorasanian War

It has been twelve years since we obtained victory over Timur and his successors. Since the Muslim rebellions, this realm has had a decade of peace. It would have been tempting to lay down our guard, but war still rages unabated outside our frontiers. Most of Iran still lies outside our control, still suffering the ravages of war and rebellion. Other kingdoms are arising in what once was the realm of Timur. To our west, the kingdom of Iraq has established itself in the lands between the Zagros range and Asuristan. To our east, the Durrani tribes have started a rebellion in Sistan, and are making their way east, through Afghanistan. The so-called kingdom of Khorasan has also split off, though it is only a rival group of Turkmen based in the lands to the north of Khorasan proper. Nevertheless, they are growing more dangerous by the day. They are now in firm control of eastern Persia and have also made inroads into Tajikistan. They are a clear threat and an obstacle to our rule over the whole of Persia. We must strike before it is too late.

Khosrow resolved to strike preemptively against Khorasan. Chief among his reasons to go to war was the unification of Persia, and particularly obtaining control over his native province of Khorasan.

Immediately after sending out his declaration of war against Khorasan, Khosrow marched his army to Gurgan. There, he easily defeated an army led by Anwar Khan.

Realizing that just one army would not be able to defeat all the Khorasanian forces, Khosrow raised another army of 5,000 infantry troops, with orders to rendezvous at Tehran.

The Shah summoned Maziar Karimi to his headquarters. A distinguished warrior, he had fought under Khosrow since the start of the Persian uprising in Mazandaran nearly twenty years before. As was customary, he bowed in front of the king when he entered.

Maziar, you are a brave and faithful warrior. I saw those qualities in you when you were but a youth. I have asked much of you over the years, and I have more to ask of you now. As you know, we shall go to war against Khorasan in the coming months. Though I may be the Shah, I am but one man, and I shall need a loyal soldier to aid me in this fight. Arise, Maziar, for you are no longer Savar-Framandar. I hereby confer upon you the rank of Iran-Spahbod, commander of all the Persian forces, answerable only to me. Take command of the new army and led our forces to victory.

Khosrow retained personal command over the original army of 9,000, while Maziar led the 5,000-man force. Leading his army into the province of Khorasan, Maziar remained near Tehran, maintaining his forces ready to strike at any invading army.

Khosrow defeated two enemy armies, chasing them as far as Marv, but the Khorasanians sent other armies to take control of Mazandaran and Fars. Maziar, facing two enemy armies in different locations, chose to march to Fars, as the trade ports there were critical to the war effort due to the revenue they provided. Easily defeating the enemy there, he pursued them as far as Hormuz, after which the opposing army disintegrated as a viable fighting force.

In the meantime, however, Anwar Khan had his revenge. In a lightning campaign, he took all the major fortifications in Mazandaran, including Sari, which was the site of the great victory against Hussain Khalil. Marching south to Tehran, he intended to take the capital.

We are the rightful rulers of Persia, and your outdated and misplaced faith in the fire god will only earn you destruction and contempt in this world, and everlasting torment in hell. It is the height of pride to be convinced of victory when it is not assured at all. We of Khorasan are prepared to overlook your sinful pride for a small price, the province of Tabaristan, or Mazandaran, as you call it, along with an indemnity of twenty-seven Venetian ducats.
Message of Anwar Khan to Tehran​

Upon hearing of the fall of Sari, Khosrow raced to intercept Anwar Khan. In the capital, the young prince Khosrow rallied the troops along with his mother, Queen Tahmina, as she herself did during the siege at Sari. Mother and son appeared at the ramparts to taunt the enemy and raise morale among the defenders. Various accounts also relate that they personally engaged in combat.

The Turkmen ravaged the countryside and besieged the Royal City. They tried to scale the walls of the city, but we slew the attackers with our own hands, driving them off. We led our warriors to victory over the barbarian followers of the lie, as our father, the great king, destroyed their armies in their lands. Our esteemed mother displayed her skill with the bow, undiminished since the days of her youth, and struck fear into the heart of the enemy.
Inscription found near the old northern gate of Tehran, dating from the reign of Khosrow II​

The Shah marched through the Dash-i-Kavir, easily defeating a small force that had made its way there. Arriving at Tehran in September, he immediately engaged Anwar Khan. After a few days of fighting, Anwar Khan chose to withdraw to Mazandaran, keeping his army intact.

Khosrow was amazed at the tales of his son's courage during the siege. The younger Khosrow was skilled with the bow and wielded the sword and lance with the might of the Shah's finest warriors, and he also had a forceful personality to match. Insisting on accompanying his father, Khosrow took him along. Throughout the fighting that came ahead, the younger Khosrow was always at the front lines, and he also displayed a talent for leading men. Before long, the Shah placed the prince in command of the right wing of his army.

Shah Khosrow and the prince relentlessly pursued Anwar Khan, but they paused for a few weeks to retake the fortifications in Mazandaran. Once that was finished, they marched into Gurgan, fighting Anwar Khan's forces over the course of a few months, repeatedly gaining the upper hand, but not crushing them until January, when the exhausted remnants of Anwar's army were trapped and annihilated, though Anwar Khan himself evaded capture.

Meanwhile, Maziar remained at Hormuz, besieging the port city of Gamrun, until it fell in April of 1420. Khosrow's plans to seize the Khorasanian fortifications in the north was cut short by reports of a force of Chagatai Mongols on Mazandaran. Not wanting to lose control of the province again, Khosrow attacked the Mongol force, chasing it into Gurgan and then Mashhad in Khorasan, where he crushed the Chagatai army and a Khorasanian contingent.

Leaving some troops to lay siege to the fortifications in Gurgan and Khorasan, Khosrow marched a small force of 2,000 cavalry and 1,000 infantry deeper into Khorasanian territory, though Anwar Khan, in command of a new army, stopped his advance at Marv.

Withdrawing to Khorasan province, he arrived just in time to defeat another Chagatai force that threatened his besieging army. Chagatai was torn apart by widespread rebellions and its Khan was but a mere child, so the leading nobles of the realm soon made peace with Khosrow.

By the fall of 1421, Khosrow's native city of Mashhad in Khorasan province had fallen, and Maziar Karimi had taken the main Khorasanian strongholds in Hormozgan, Laristan, and Kerman. Astarabad in Gurgan was also on the verge of being taken, though it held on until the following year. Khosrow received envoys from Khorasan and its ally, the Mamluks, offering a peace by returning to the status quo ante bellum. However, this was unacceptable to Khosrow, who had bigger ambitions.

Over the next year, the Shah, the prince, and Maziar fought a hard campaign to occupy much of Khorasanian territory. In November of 1422, Shah Khosrow finally reached the Amu Darya, known to the Greeks as the Oxus. A few weeks before, he and Maziar parted ways.

Iran-Spahbod, the time has come for us to depart for now. Take your army and go to the western frontier. We give you authority to take any action necessary to unify our nation, including authority over matters of war and peace.
Khosrow's orders to Maziar, as found in the National Archives in Tehran​
 
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Good job, have you got cores on all the Khorasani (?) provinces? Sorry, I don't know Persia very well...
 
Khosrow I is holding off on any mass conversions at this point, as he has other priorities. The war of religion resulted in larger Zoroastrian minorities in the provinces under Persian control at the time.

There's cores on all the provinces with Persian culture, as a result of the "Become the Shah of Persia" decision.
 
Great Update. Are you planning on re-conquering the middle east like the old Persian Empire or focus east?
 
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Escalation

amudarya.jpg

Cold winds blew across the steppes. A river cut across the landscape. This was the Amu Darya, known also as the Oxus, and in an earlier age, the Wehrod. This was the edge of the world as far as many were concerned, but long ago, Persia ruled over lands even further beyond the river's banks. Past the river lay the land from which the Iranians once came. After many centuries, a Persian army was to cross the river once more.

Khosrow had crushed all Khorasanian resistance south of the river. However, Khorasan had overrun the old Timurid heartland, the region of Samarkand, before this war, and the province of Bukhara was effectively under Khorasanian administration. Khosrow had started the war in order to weaken Khorasanian power, but with victory in his grasp, he obtained a greater vision.

“My fellow warriors, we have fought and bled together for as long as we can remember. Some of you have been with me since before we began our righteous uprising against Timur in Mazandaran. You are all heroes, but now, we will become legends! For today, we cross this river into the unknown. We shall destroy the last vestiges of the Khorasanian kingdom, and we will march to Samarkand, to the very den of Timur himself, and avenge his ravaging of our land!”

The Persians commandeered local fishing vessels to ferry the army across the river. Khorasan was in disarray, so the Persians' landing was unopposed. First across was Prince Khosrow, along with his elite cavalry contingent. Once the army was on the other side, it resumed marching, with Prince Khosrow at the vanguard.

Despite the virtual chaos that Khorasan found itself in, some local nobles managed to organize an army to oppose the Persians. However, it was half the size of Khosrow's army, and it lacked any effective leadership. The two armies encountered each other half a day's march past the Amu Darya. Prince Khosrow led a cavalry charge against the enemy's left flank, causing the army to rout. The enemy cavalry attempted to cover the infantry's retreat, but it suffered heavy casualties before it retreated as well.

Though the army was thoroughly defeated, the survivors managed to stick together, and the army's remnants retreated east, and then south, across the Amu Darya. Shah Khosrow chose not to pursue, instead besieging Bukhara and leading the bulk of his army to Samarkand, in Timurid territory.

This was an act of war against the Timurids, but to Maziar, the Iran-Spahbod, this meant little. Authorized by the Shah to take any measures necessary to conquer the western regions of Persia, he marched into Khuzestan without waiting for news of Khosrow's foray into Samarkand. The region was controlled by a warlord who styled himself “Shah Rukh Bakr.” Though Bakr's army was in some respects superior to Maziar's, Maziar managed to outmaneuver Bakr and force a battle on favorable terrain. Bakr ordered a charge against Maziar's lines, but Maziar's troops held firm. Holding on for several days, Maziar's army finally emerged victorious after some of Bakr's officers mutinied and led a retreat. Bakr managed to escape, living out the rest of his days in complete obscurity.

His path now unobstructed, Maziar marched down to Ahvaz and stormed it, capturing it after a few days of fighting in the streets. All opposition in Khuzestan dispersed, and the province was now secured. Maziar then raced north to Hamadan, which was controlled by local petty warlords who had revolted against Timurid rule. Maziar was able to defeat them and capture the city of Hamadan after a short siege.

Maziar now planned for the conquest of Luristan. The region was part of the Arab kingdom of Iraq, which was based between the Tigris and the Zagros range. Iraq had seized this region during its war of independence against the Timurids, though the population was thoroughly Iranian. The issue was complicated by Iraq's alliances, which included the Jalayirid kingdom, which controlled most of Mesopotamia, and the Mamluks, which ruled over Egypt and Syria. The powerful kingdom of Delhi had proclaimed that it would come to the defense of the kingdom of Iraq, but that proclamation was so old as to be forgotten by 1423. In addition, Yemen and the Berber states of North Africa had pledged themselves to the defense of Iraq.

Maziar faced a huge risk in involving Iran in another war against so many powerful nations. Already suffering the strains of the current wars, a new war could be disastrous. Yet, Luristan was strategically critical to Iran's western border, and it was also an integral part of Iran.

Now in Kermanshah, near the border with Iraq, Maziar meditated for some time by the spring of Taq-e Bostan. Facing the spring were several reliefs carved into the rock, dating from the time of the Sassanid dynasty. The largest one depicted the last great king of that dynasty, Khosrow II Parviz, surrounded by Ahura Mazda and Anahita, and below him was a figure of a charging knight.

taqebostan.jpg

After his meditations, Maziar rose up, confident in his decision.

“We march into Luristan. All of Persia must be free.”
 
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