Part 1.8 - Wales
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Morosaurus: Oh yeah forgot the "R"...A Dutch Kingdom of England would be quite hilarious though.
But now unto our final chapter of the Welsh adventure.
Part 1.8 - Wales
So half-brother Klaoda decided to piss me off earlier and rebel. See the bad thing with a small Kingdom like Wales or Croatia or you know those little Kingdoms with 8 to 9 Counties, well when one Duke says FU player, all of sudden there goes 1/3 of your realm just pooof!
So I'm guessing when playing in these tiny places it probably would be smart to raise up midas touched rulers. That way they have a HUGE demesne limit and can just hold the whole of Wales together without any vassals, well except for some Bishops and Mayors and perhaps a baron...
But anyways I digress, our war however is once again going forward rather well.
While my armies are moving around chasing the remainder of Klaoda's men around Wales while another group starts laying siege, I get a notification that reminded me that my Chaplain was actually converting people.
In fact my Chaplain did what no other Chaplain before managed to do. Brigacos bless his heart had attempted this feat from the various prisons he was thrown in. But this Chaplain some Irishman I had appointed (not about to spell it) had somehow managed to convert the grandson of Halfdan.
So seeing that Jorvik/York is going to be ruled by a Catholic Norwegian, and with luck the populace there will convert as well. It seems Catholicism in the Isles has been almost saved. Except there is a minor Danish incursion going on in what used to be Scotland. The place has splintered and is slowly being overrun by the united Danish Vikings.
I will say this though I was more happy about seeing the conversion of Jorvik than forming Wales.
That's when I decide to send this Chaplain off to Galloway to convert the local pagan ruler there. I mean hell he converted Jorvik's King he should be able to deal with a little Count right? Wrong!
My Chaplain apparently was threatened to be defrocked by his fellow clergy for leaving the righteous path set out by Chaplain-Bishop Brigacos and his pilgrimage through the Norse dungeons.
Fighting Klaoda continues when a pop up from our friendly neighborhood Breton Kaiser appears apparently wanting me to join a few of his wars. You see being a Breton Kaiser, overlord of German and Italians, results in a constant state of Civil War. You thought the HRE had issues when it was just Germans and Italians...try seeing a Breton Kaiser over there, the result is scary.
I will admit I am happy I don't have boats. One of these wars I just joined is against some Duke of Latium that actually has the Dragon nickname. No idea how you get that one, but I have never gotten it before and anyone named the Dragon ought to be a badass. Or well hell...
Guess badass isn't the right way to call this Duke of Latium. And now my thinking the Dragon is a cool name worthy of worldwide respect has come to an end for it seems this dragon is mediocre at best.
Back now to Wales and Klaoda. For horrid horrid news that made me want to punch random shit, and laugh at the same time. All the while Klaoda was rebelling I had forgotten of that sinister plot founded by Briac, my son. Remember he wanted to kill his brother (my eldest son) Dumnarth. At the time Dumnarth was in my court chilling smokin the reefer with his old buddies you know doing what most 18 to 19 year old bastards do while living in their parents basement.
Then I gave Dumnarth his own house in Gwenydd. Which made all hell literally break lose. You see now that he was no longer in my basement, he didn't have a bunch of people around that pretended to like him. In fact he had a lot of people that hated him now. Which meant Briac was finally able to get enough plotters to join his attempt to rid the world of Dumnarth.
And rid the world of Dumnarth he did.
Let this be a lesson to all parents out there, never kick the pot smoker in your basement out, because if you do his mildly more successful brother may kill him.
The question now is who would inherit Dumnarth's lands I had given him. Well my grandson Karadeg in fact he is the second of that name to grace the Duchy of Gwenydd.
Not only does Karadeg inherit Gwenydd but I name him my heir. I know he's only 0 years old and everything and hell probably going to be killed by Briac anyway, but he is my grandson and had we have had primo he'd be my heir anyway so might as well embrace him.
Besides not like the AI will elect him anyway when we leave in a few more years.
Finally, the war against Klaoda is ended and he enters our prison.
I revoke one of his counties and hand it over to the grandson Karadeg, and than retract one of his vassals as well and hand him over to Karadeg as well turning Klaoda into a one county Duke.
Apparently King Ricat Cerneu is rather depressed about the passing of his eldest son, because this event pops up.
More on Glen later, needless to say I don't really see how anyone could be worse then Dumnarth. Dumnarth stats in game were abysmal to begin with so why Ricat would say his sons are no where near as capable is beyond me. And poor Glen probably just became Craven. Poor guy isn't even in Wales right now. Think he's in Orleans trying his best to make babies (although he is a homosexual) I'd discover that later. So he's really playing around with his French stablehands and squires rather than making babies with his Duchess wife.
Like I said more on Glen later because after we leave we will discover something about him.
My grandson Karadeg apparently has some sadness regarding Klaoda's imprisonment because the now 1 or 2 year old boy duke requests us to give Klaoda clemency.
I agree and release Klaoda slapping him on the back and telling him not to try anymore funny business like throwing my grandson from some random rooftop somewhere.
Which is when King Ricat falls ill. Yep he's sick and now we're leaving Wales behind. So much for me trying to leave a stable powerful Wales for the AI. It seems instead I'm leaving a mess.
A sick King, with elective succession who's half-brother the Duke of Deheubarth is probably all sorts of pissy at us, a little boy who has no hope for success as Duke of Gwenydd. Yep England might as well just take over Wales and be done with us.
Oh well.
So here are some maps to show what is now going on in the world come the year 917.
But first a final picture of King Ricat.
The Isles are a mess right now. Denmark seems poised to capture most of Scotland. England is in the ascendancy, the Stawell Kings are destined to unify all the de jure lands I am sure, especially now that Jorvik is Catholic. And over in Ireland it seems that Munster is in a good position to one day rule all of Ireland. Whether they succeed or not is anybody's guess but they seem to have a good position for such a thing.
In Northern Europe things seem to be going smoothly I guess. Gardiki or whatever that is has been formed (I suppose this is pagan Rus?). As well as Sweden which will probably spell the end for Norway. And Denmark seems to be the most expansionistic state at the moment in that neighborhood.
Here's the bulk of Europe. The Ummayads took Aquitaine which will spark the first Crusade. For a little while the Kingdom of Aquitaine owned almost all but a few duchies of West Francia before it splintered. I hate seeing the fighting between WF and Aquitaine, because it means the Ummayads will be able to swallow more lands soon.
The Breton ruled HRE is seeing its share of rebellions, which isn't surprising. I think it will be funny if the Breton Emperors survive and replace their rebellious lords with Breton Dukes. So we could end up seeing a Breton Germany/Italy, but we will have to wait and see how that unfolds over the next few generations.
Greater Moravia seems to be one of the more successful non Karling European Catholic states. Never seen them survive in the TOG campaign so seeing them still in existence is rather pleasing.
And well there is the Hungarians they seriously need to make their borders look prettier because its aggravating me...
See what I mean about Hungary?
Bulgaria is doing fairly well also and the ERE hasn't imploded so all is well on that front. Personally I would love to see Bulgaria grow stronger so perhaps they'll expand a bit against the ERE or pagans.
Nothing to really say about this one besides Abyssinia having lasted for 50 years which rarely happens in the 1066 start. Oh and notice Baghdad down in Oman...and remember that, it will be important in a few more minutes.
Here is our religious mapmode of the world. I don't have much to say about this besides...Pagans and Islam haven't yet taken over the heart of Catholicism!
And now for a better shot of the ERE, Bulgaria and rest of the Middle East. Apparently the Abbassids are on an invasion of Armenia and currently beating the ERE. Cilicia apparently gained independence or something a while back, no idea why or how but yeah.
Anyways about the Abbassids I don't know much about what's been going on over here all I know is that our next stop is....
Baghdad! No not the Caliph but rather the deposed Caliph, Emir Aarif the Cruel of Baghdad.
Should be an interesting time, especially since it's the first time I've ever played a Muslim!