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Ooh, a return to the Arabian sands. Your position is not ideal though, squeezed inbetween Nubia and the Husamids, both of whom seem stronger than you are. Maybe you can kick the Saudids out of Oman. It would be awesome if you could form the Kingdom of Arabia and create a strong muslim state to stop the collapse of Islam against the Catholics and soon the Mongols.
 
I definitely think it could be interesting, since you have some options from where you are currently.

Wait for your opportunities and you might just form a muslim Arabia that could survive the hordes!
 
I can see this conversation right now, almost like I could picture her yanking Sume's chain in the previous update.

"What do you mean you aren't feeling ambitious?"

"I'm locked in your dungeon, oh fearful Ice Queen."

"Well chin up, lad, you can at least strive towards being the bestest prisoner ever!"

"#$%! that!"

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing..."

The Ice Queen angry with her Muslim prisoner's lack of drive, decides to fix the problem once and for all.

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I'd expect the Ice Queen to deliver a nice 1980s action flick quip. Something like this:

The prisoner is slumping on his knees, held up by his arms, which are in manacles dropping down from the roof.

The Ice Queen is pacing around him, twirling her royal scepter like a truncheon: "Where is you ambition, your drive? What is your goal in life, Abdul?!"

Abdul answers in a cowed tone: "My only ambition is to be set free from this hellhole of a prison, your fearsome Iciness."

The Ice Queen sputters: "Set free? Set free?!? What kind of attitude is that?! You young ones have such a sense of entitlement! If you were a goal-oriented person such as myself, you would already have persuaded your liege to buy your freedom, or better yet, you would have plotted, implemented and executed an implausible and daring escape!"

Abdul groans in his chains: "Your Frigidity, I have tried that. My liege lord has disavowed me, while your guards have foiled all my escape attempts. The last time, they broke my legs to make sure I stayed put." Abdul tries to gesture at his crippled legs, but the chains restrain his arms.

The Ice Queen roars with rage: "Enough with your excuses, already! You are nothing but a slacker! I bet you lived in your parents' house right up to the day I captured you!" She steps behind Abdul's back, and hisses in his ear: "I will show you some drive and execution!" as she rams her scepter through his back and out his chest, severing his spine and sending a spray of blood in all directions.

Oh and just to let you all know, this is our next place we will be visiting.

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The emir of Yemen, Muhammad III Idrisid, should be fun...maybe...making a return to Arabia though so that might be a bit old.

I see your emir is making the world more poetic. A nice contrast with the Ice Queen and I look forward to seeing how the Yemeni forces spread beautiful poetry at spearpoint throughout the Arabian Peninsula. :)
 
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Ooh, a return to the Arabian sands. Your position is not ideal though, squeezed inbetween Nubia and the Husamids, both of whom seem stronger than you are. Maybe you can kick the Saudids out of Oman. It would be awesome if you could form the Kingdom of Arabia and create a strong muslim state to stop the collapse of Islam against the Catholics and soon the Mongols.

Forming the Sultanate of Arabia is definitely the goal, especially since it has yet to be formed! As far as the Saudids, they're part of the Caliphate just rebelling at the moment so may be hard to take them on. So I'm going to have to gamble and go toe to toe with the Husamids if I want to snag the Kingdom.

I definitely think it could be interesting, since you have some options from where you are currently.

Wait for your opportunities and you might just form a muslim Arabia that could survive the hordes!

There are quite a few options and I will have to wait for a little while, due to claims issues. But as far as strength goes, I am sitting on a stockpile of gold! 5.5K worth, so that will be vital in multiplying Idrisid strength.

I'd expect the Ice Queen to deliver a nice 1980s action flick quip. Something like this:

The prisoner is slumping on his knees, held up by his arms, which are in manacles dropping down from the roof.

The Ice Queen is pacing around him, twirling her royal scepter like a truncheon: "Where is you ambition, your drive? What is your goal in life, Abdul?!"

Abdul answers in a cowed tone: "My only ambition is to be set free from this hellhole of a prison, your fearsome Iciness."

The Ice Queen sputters: "Set free? Set free?!? What kind of attitude is that?! You young ones have such a sense of entitlement! If you were a goal-oriented person such as myself, you would already have persuaded your liege to buy your freedom, or better yet, you would have plotted, implemented and executed an implausible and daring escape!"

Abdul groans in his chains: "Your Frigidity, I have tried that. My liege lord has disavowed me, while your guards have foiled all my escape attempts. The last time, they broke my legs to make sure I stayed put." Abdul tries to gesture at his crippled legs, but the chains restrain his arms.

The Ice Queen roars with rage: "Enough with your excuses, already! You are nothing but a slacker! I bet you lived in your parents' house right up to the day I captured you!" She steps behind Abdul's back, and hisses in his ear: "I will show you some drive and execution!" as she rams her scepter through his back and out his chest, severing his spine and sending a spray of blood in all directions.

Lol I like your version better :) I wonder how the AI Ice Queen will fare.

I see your emir is making the world more poetic. A nice contrast with the Ice Queen and I look forward to seeing how the Yemeni forces spread beautiful poetry at spearpoint throughout the Arabian Peninsula. :)

Yes he is most definitely a poet...and because of that I may have to attempt to deal with wonderful decadence in a more poetic fashion than recreating Baghdad Correctional.

In a fun note, we had a run in with this dynasty long ago during our Abbasid turn. Caliph Najib delightfully imprisoned one of the Idrisid sheikhs, so it's great getting a chance to raise a historical dynasty from the dustbin of this history. Although if I were to restore them to their historical homeland I'd have to invade the Shaibans in far away Mauretania and that probably won't be doable in 50 years lol.
 
Part 8.0 - Sana'a (Yemen)

Part 8.0 - Sana'a (Yemen)


Our return to the sands of Arabia. It has been a long long time since we've visited this place. 203 years had passed since we left the sands, and the place has changed quite a bit since then. There have been multiple changes in the Sunni Caliphate. The Empire of Arabia which is still held by the Caliph, has lost quite a bit of its lands, although at the current moment in time it is looking like it may recover some of those eventually.

But down here in modern day Yemen in the Emirate of Sana'a(sp?) we are a small independent duchy. At first I didn't know I could cross into Ethiopia from this spot, so I was a little surprised when Nubian troops magically appeared, so I never really planned to make any moves into Africa at the beginning of this turn. Although it could happen if progress in the Middle East is halted.

As far as our current state of affairs for the Idrisid is looking promising. The Saudids (former Caliphal family) of Oman are revolting, however we have no casus belli that will allow us to take advantage of this. And our other neighbor is the large and in charge Husamids. They are large enough to where if they snag another three or four counties they could elevate themselves to the Sultanate of Arabia. Which just so happens to be my one and only goal at the moment, so looks like we're going to have slap the giant in our backyard.

In a way I feel like this turn is set up sort of like the Shaiban turn was. A lot of options and with a little good luck I'll be able to be successful, although truth be told with over 5k in the Idrisid bank I probably won't need any good luck. As money can almost buy the world.

But anyway time to get down to business, and enough rambling on and on about our successes with the Shaiban.

I start by calling for a Ramadan celebration, because well we need to lower decadence a few hairs.

But the Sultan of Nubia calls us into war, which effectively ends our Ramadan observances.

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I share my council screen with the reader because everyone loves our poetic Emir, everyone save our Court Imam. He obviously detests poetry and thinks all poets should be stoned or something. We'll have to deal with him eventually, probably whenever we have a kid with decent stats to fill his office of Imam.

Which is when we manage to have two more children, two boys, Muhammad and Hussayn.

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This is the way CKII always works. When I'm dying to have a lot of boys, to secure the successions like in the Shaiban Sultanate or as the Ice Queen, it doesn't happen. But now that I am a Muslim and decadence is against me, I'll probably have a shit ton of little brats running about. I think Hussayn is boy number 6 or 7 so looks like we may have re-institute the Abbasid's Baghdad Correctional.

Speaking of decadence the Sheikh of Aden, a relative of mine sadly, has a son who is causing decadence gain. This son's name is Ubayd, so I send him some gold and invite him to court, and then name him Chancellor, because he really is the best chancellor in the Emirate anyway. One decadent taken care of.

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We then lose the Deceitful trait.

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Besides poets don't lie...

By 1172, yes 2 years have already passed just like that. The Shia Jihad for Mauretania fails. I was going to post the screenshot but I'm sure we are getting a little bored with failed muslim Jihads against Sultan AQ.

In January of 1173, we have successfully increased our Stewardship skills.

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Which is when our oldest son Abdullah comes of age. At this point I wasn't sure if he was the guy I wanted to replace our current Emir. In a way I was leaning towards the two year old Muhammad. But Abdullah's stats are nice, his stewardship would be a huge lift as far as our demesne limit. He may very well be our best successor. So for now until I know who to choose I let Abdullah chill out in the palace. It will be a long wait until I make my decision so he has plenty of time to lay around and play with the palace girls and get fat and decadent.

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Although he would make a good Court Imam, hmmm....we will have to plot to kill our current Imam that hates us soon I think.

A year later in 1174, I get told that due to Muhammad's ambitions we lose some more decadence.

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Look at all that gold though!!!!

I think instead of our title as Emir, we should change it to future King of all Mercenaries.

Between 1174 and 1175 two of our sons come of age, the first being Abdul who is completely and totally worthless as a son. The second is Faruk, who isn't as worthless but still rather mediocre as far as stats go. So I imprison Abdul due to all those zeros he has.

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Meanwhile our Chancellor fabricates a claim on the little Sheikhdom to our north that is held by the Husamids. After which I send Ubayd off to Medina in an attempt to fabricate a claim on the entire Emirate of Medina. If he's successful it will give us a claim that would double our size in one fell swoop.

I could declare war right now using the Conquest CB or a de jure claims CB on the one province that the Husamids hold in the Emirate of Sana'a, but all of the mercs are currently being used which means we would get crushed if we jump right now. So we play the waiting game.

In April of 1176, Muhammad begins to lose his patience.

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Which is fitting because I was losing my patience as well.

In September I look at the merc screen and see that all of a sudden there are plenty to hire, and no longer feeling patient I pounce.

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Nubia joins our war immediately and I hire tons and tons of mercenaries.

The war starts out rather smoothly as spring of 1177 starts our sieges begin to conclude.

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During all of this I'm beginning to wonder where the Husamid Army is? They haven't appeared anywhere! What is going on here? And then I get a nasty surprise..

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They snuck around the entire peninsula marching through Oman, to strike my smaller stack. Quite the nifty stratagem oh crafty AI.

I grab the mercenary units that were sieging lands to our north and march them back into our lands to engage the Husamid stack. They meet in 1178, at the Second Battle of Qana.

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Meanwhile my wife violates all the tenants of Islam and gets drunk and blabs about my plot to kill our Court Imam. Damn women and their gossiping! And its my first wife as well, she may have to be gotten rid of next.

Our mercenary units chase the retreating camels of the Husamid Emir and catch them in July.

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With the war-score at 78, I go to the diplo screen and see if we can enforce our demands. Which, surprisingly enough we can. So I end the war, finishing off the first minor expansion of the Idrisid Emirate. We now control all of Sana'a's territories and can use our County Conquest CB against the Saudids if we so choose to in the future.

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With regards to using the Conquest CB against the Saudids in Oman, I probably won't ever do that as I don't feel like going up against the entire Arabian Empire over one measly territory. So taking Saudid Oman isn't going to be an option anytime soon. Instead it will be back to the waiting game until we get a claim on the Emirate of Medina.

With that all said and done and our future strategy more or less planned out, I go back to trying to kill our Court Imam, which happens in November of 1178.

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I appoint Abdullah, Muhammad's oldest son and current heir to the emirate as our new Court Imam (no more decadence from him) and have him go to our capital to perform charities to boost our Piety even higher yet.

This is where I will leave this update, 8 years already passed one minor easy war out of the way, hopefully our Chancellor Ubayd can accomplish a duchy claim on Medina by the end of the next update. Regardless, I have some pretty high hopes for our time here with the Idrisids.
 
Smooth start to your tenure, with a spot of murderous court reorganization thrown in for good measure. How much did your war deplete the cash reserves? Is Kathiri a sufficiently choice prize that it's worth the money?
 
Man, I have never seen the AI outside the Pope put together that kind of a treasury; it tends to spend as fast as possible. Are all your direct holdings fully upgraded? In any case, that's a lot of scratch.

Sana'a is actually a pretty excellent duchie. You can pawn off the two western counties to vassals, as they are pretty empty, but the counties around Aden are wealthy and have lots of room for development. So if I were you I'd revoke Aden (it looks like that's held by a vassal) pronto.

And RE: your destruction of ducal titles as the Ice Queen, you can only plot to revoke counties underneath duchies you control.
 
Part 8.1 - Idrisid Emirate (Sana'a)

@Stuyvesant: Definitely a very smooth start, and a quick 8 years or so as well. So the war for Kathiri was probably more expensive than it is worth. At one point I'd fallen to around 3100 gold. I don't remember what happened though, but I snagged another 3K somehow by the time the Court Imam was assassinated. So I'm back up to around 6.2K gold. I can't remember if I banished someone or if a relative died or something...it is an old house so I'm sure theres some rich uncles without children somewhere...

@verdas: I was shocked when I saw the size of the Idrisid bank, it makes things seem so much more promising! But as I will come to find out, there are a lot of rich Arabs in our vicinity. Maybe they discovered oil already and are refining it 800 years early lol...IDK. Sana'a is a beautiful duchy its bringing in the tax income too! Think I was bringing in 6 o 7 gold a month for a while before the war. And all the holdings are currently upgraded to my tech levels as well which is nice. Aden is actually held by Muhammad's brother or uncle or relative of some sort. I want to revoke it, and more than likely will at the first opportunity.

~~~~~
Part 8.1 - Idrisid Emirate (Sana'a)



Well, things have started off perfectly, well as perfectly as they could possibly be. Seems to be a trend lately one turn easy, next turn brick wall, next turn easy, next turn instant death (Vahid Shahdom)...

But well I guess when you're filthy rich and can hire all the mercs in the world without really worrying about anything then that just sort of makes life a pleasant easy coast down hill. We need a bigger enemy maybe. Something to make us sweat...hmmm...Oman is sitting there, under the protection of the Caliph...

hmmm...

No.

Let's kick up our heals and just wait, we have the Husamids to destroy and to do that we need a BIG claim. One of those Emirate tier claims. We want the Holy Sites of Medina and Mecca so that when our descendants want to go on the Hajj they just need to step across the street and voila! Hajj complete.

But we have a ten year truce soo time for some well deserved R&R for Emir Muhammad. Plenty of time to relax and ponder about the futures of his many sons. One of which is already relegated to the dungeons. Definitely considering resurrecting the BCF in Yemen sometime soon.

While I'm sitting around I notice the Byzantines have elected (yep they're elective now) a week family to the throne.

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Michael IV Prinkips, I think this is a typo and it was meant to be Princeps or something...or Pinklips. Definitely had to have been the Pinklips dynasty.

This is actually the only thing of note that occurred in three years of sitting around after our assassination of our Court Imam.

In March of 1181, we marry our son and new Court Imam to an older lady of 30 years because we're not quite sure if we want Abdullah to be our heir yet. I'm hoping the son Muhammad will prove a better heir before deciding though.

Then in August, Sheikh Ubayd of Aden upsets us, I can't remember what exactly it was that allowed me to imprison him, but we make the attempt anyway. Albeit half-heartedly, because I really wanted him to rebel. And rebel he does.

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He hires a mercenary order so I hire two just so the playing field is heavily weighted in our favor. See, Sheikh Ubayd is a rich old-Sheikh as well. I guess one could say us Idrisids are the Lannisters of this world with all this gold floating about our family. More on the wealth of Ubayd in a few moments...

The first week of September sees some things happen. Like our Poetic Emir deciding he should no longer be envious and perfectly happy with all he has. But then again, more gold would truly be nice.

Followed up by our Chancellor fabricating the lofty Emirate claim upon Medina and the Husamids.

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I then send our Chancellor off to the other Emirate controlled by the Husamids hoping that we can fabricate two emirate claims before the truce expires. As that would pretty much destroy the Husamid giant to our north in one fell swoop.

The last three months of the year pass by insignificantly, not even a battle, yet.

In January of 1182, Muhammad becomes depressed.

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And I didn't realize it until just now but we are known as "the Quarreler" now. Not sure when that happened, but its the first time I've ever had that nickname in CKII, and in a way its fitting for Muhammad's trajectory in life.

Three days after becoming depressed our troops engage those of Ubayd's.

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With his troops soundly defeated we settle in to siege Aden. As that is the prize we desire more than anything.

While laying siege one of our wives wants to take over as our first wife. I tell her no against my better judgement, mostly because our current first wife is the mother to Muhammad's son Muhammad of whom I hope will be good enough to inherit. The bad thing is our first wife has become a wee bit possessed. So she very well may cause some issues in the future.

In October of 1182 we occupy Aden and force Ubayd to surrender.

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Upon Ubayd's arrival in our dungeon we strip him of his title as Sheikh of Aden and take it for ourselves.

A month, later after arriving home, Muhammad realizes just how great his love is for his possessed first wife Hafsa. Leave it to a poet to love a crazy woman.

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We go back to laying around and taking it easy. Which is when we notice that Norway has formed by a Norse King Anund Hede.

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I wonder how long he will last with Catholic Sweden on his doorstep.

A year and a half passes, again a big leap in time of a whole lot of nothing. We get the very sad news in January of 1184 that Sultan AQ of the Shaiban Sultanate has finally died. After a reign of 68 years, by his last days however things were obviously wearing on him as he too became possessed.

Maybe we're in an age of mass possessions as it seems to becoming more and more prevalent.

Sultan AQ is succeeded by his grandson the new and slightly unimproved Sultan AQ II. He's a homosexual, not as nice stats as his grandpa AQ the Holy, and well I got a feeling that homosexual trait will probably rip the Shaiban Sultanate asunder.

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In March of 1185, I notice a rebellion happening over in the Husamid lands. Come to find out its an Ibadi uprising. While sitting there watching them, I fall into a daze and when I snap out of it I realize the 1800 strong band of Ibadis are attacking our band of 500 merry men. But apparently the Ibadis were just passing through and hastily apologized for any inconveniences as they retreat jumping through my lands and crossing off into Nubia never to be seen again.

A few weeks later I'm informed a son of Muhammad's named Bahir has decided to have fun with a serving wench. I make him confess his sins to his oldest brother the Court Imam Abdullah, because none of us really wants some bastard child running about causing mischief in Sana'a.

In January of 1186, my son and the one I thought about making my successor, Muhammad, comes of age. His only good stat is diplomacy, while its a good one to have in a large empire, we needed a kid with more stewardship skills so it looks like Abdullah will remain our heir for the duration.

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I then notice that our truce is only a year or two away from expiring, and I need a bit of a treasury injection.

We still have a bit over 4K in gold, but remember how I said the Idrisids are swimming in gold? Well I digressed from that, but its time to revisit it. Ubayd, the relative that rebelled a while back, he has over 3K in his treasury. So what should I do about that?

Banishment of course!

Muhammad informs his cousin Ubayd that it is time for him to leave the dungeon and that the Idrisids won't be building a prison in Sana'a solely for family members like the great Abbasids had in Baghdad 200 years ago.

Our Poetic Emir gives Ubayd a camel and tells him to ride, ride off into the sunset and never ever return, and also thanks him for the 3,000 gold.

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We then mistakenly give our son Muhammad the Sheikdom of Bayda which was recently taken from Ubayd after his banishment. This makes Muhammad our current successor, which is something we will have to fix by landing Abdullah. Hopefully Muhammad won't make a shit ton of little Muhammad's during his tenure as Sheikh.

We then have another son come of age, his name is Hussayn. He has the opposite problem that Muhammad had, good stewardship but horrid diplomacy. So he's definitely not a possible successor either. But he would be a decent steward at least. We also learn that the Ice Queen's homosexual hubby Adam Mihaljevic has become King of Hungary.

While passing the time revisiting the age old question of what to do with these darn sons. The fact that First Wife Hafsa's possession comes to slap us in the face.

She has taken it upon herself to take care of Muhammad's children for him. In the form of a knife in the back.

I entertain the idea of letting Hafsa continue with the plot to see if she can actually kill Hussayn. It'd be hilarious if she could. But then I'd have a crazed old woman hell-bent on killing anything and everything. And that isn't something that gives a man happy dreams at night.

I try to have her arrested. However, since she is possessed of course this wouldn't work.

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Now Hafsa is off running around on her own far away and out of our reach. She's going to come back for revenge. Thus, I divorce her, might as well take matters to their ultimate conclusion. Perhaps this will keep her from trying to kill our poetic Emir, and make her someone else's problem.

Let the witch rampage in someone else's court you know. Too bad she didn't run off to the Ice Queen's court, they'd make good friends I think.

Things quiet down again, and by June of 1187, we have Bahir acting as Spymaster and Hussayn acting as Steward. I don't intend to marry either of them but at least they're not being decadent.

In December we get notified that we have a Sheikhdom claim on Hajr. Which is on the other side of the peninsula, but its another county so might as well take it. Kind of sad that our Chancellor didn't snag a claim on the Emirate again.

In February 1188, we have a new daughter named Shola. Playing as a Muslim its awesome having daughters!

Now a little while I mentioned Adam had become King of Hungary. Well Hungary didn't enjoy being ruled over by the cuckold of the Ice Queen. Thus they revolted, and the rebels won throwing Adam from his throne. Now, I only mention all this because it means the Mihaljevics have now officially lost everything I built for them. In a way its a bizarre twist of fate, because it was my run as the Ice Queen that brought Adam to Denmark, and I granted him a county title, which made him favored in the Hungarian Election.

Poor King Adam of Hungary, consort of the Ice Queen. He was doomed from the day he was born. Oh well, not like any of our other dynasties last very long after we leave them anyway.

Anyway to conclude this latest digression the new King of Hungary is a Bulgarian named Bertalan Makedonska.

We then receive word that Ubayd isn't going to heed our advice to never ever return to Sana'a.

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At least he's bankrupt now.

1189 begins and I see something that makes me chuckle.

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The Ice Queen has the pox.

Muhammad is once more getting impatient. He wants war, he wants Mecca and Medina and all of Arabia to himself. After all to make the world more poetic he has to conquer everything so he can teach his newly conquered lands how live in harmony and write poetry. Teach them things like why you shouldn't fall in love with a possessed crazy witch, as they like to kill your boys.

In the Spring of 1190, no longer wanting to wait for another claim, I declare war for the Emirate of Medina and the Sheikhdom of Hajr. Its time to conquer, and destroy the Husamids so we can focus on bigger and better things.

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We then receive word that Ubayd isn't going to heed our advice to never ever return to Sana'a.

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At least he's bankrupt now.

I hope he was bankrupt before he started recruiting his mercenaries, not because of it. Either way, he probably won't be much of a problem (though I'd love to see him return and do battle with you - a chance to put him through the wringer once more!).

You're "The Quarreler" and you're certainly living up to the moniker. I guess Muhammad needs some kind of distraction inspiration, now that Hafsa is gone and Ubayd is proving to be as challenging as wet tissue paper. Muhammad's the poetic type, after all, those folks can't just live a humdrum life of normality, they need to be dramatic and yearn for inspiration like a gap-toothed meth addict years for another hit.
 
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@mike the knight: He does need to learn some patience.

@verdas: So true! And quarrel we shall.

@ScribleScrable: Indeed! Taking the Emirate of Medina will basically double his lands, so it will definitely give him some epic poems to write during his free time.

@Stuyvesant: Ubayd was bankrupt before he started recruiting, he lost all his precious gold after my banishment, luckily! I do agree with you on the poet types, though, and Muhammad definitely is searching the world for more inspiration. So its about time he gets back upon his camel for a ride in search of more poetry in the world.
 
Part 8.2 - Idrisid Emirate (Sana'a)

Part 8.2 - Idrisid Emirate (Sana'a)



As I said it is time for Muhammad to mount his camel and head off along the coast of the Red Sea in search of more poetic inspiration. Before our impatient poet marches off he hires a bunch of mercs again. Just in case.

In April of 1190, the minor battle at Abs occurs, where the Quarreler's 16K stack of men destroy a small band of 600. Apparently the Husamid army is elsewhere or already destroyed. They haven't really raised any troops yet, which is a bit odd.

So we start laying siege.

By November we occupy Kamaran, and a week later we find out that our exiled ex-wife, the murderous possessed witch Hafsa has died.

We sit around watching our sieges advance. Time goes by and I'm still sitting there wondering where on Earth the formidable stacks of Husamid arms are located. Maybe this will just be a simple siege war, with no excitement and pointless to have even hired any mercenaries.

In April of 1191, we occupy Najran.

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As the summer begins, Muhammad realizes that prestige hasn't made him happy, nor has all the money in the Idrisid bank. He doesn't know what will please him in life, and grows ever more depressed.

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In August we then occupy Ta'if and Bahah (+33 war-score). Which is when a detachment of 6.5K men led by our Poet Quarreler is attacked by a 5.5K strong army from the Husamids at Yanbu.

During the battle Muhammad decides he doesn't like having sharp blades swung at him.

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As he is trying to run away from the sharp blades, he realizes this isn't something that is poetic, and becomes enraged as he turns around and rallies his men for a headlong charge led by the fierce-some Idrisid camels.

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Our dear poet seems to be a man of contradictions, no wonder why he is so depressed and unsure of himself.

The battle of Yanbu then comes to an end, with Muhammad's men proving victorious. They would pursue the routing Husamid army and meet them once more at the Battle of Sab'an, where they would kill even more Husamid men (+57 war-score).

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The Emir of the Husamids would have enough after the Battle of Sab'an, he knew his now destroyed levies stood no match against the bottomless Idrisid treasury and therefore took the wise counsel to sue for peace.

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Muhammad would then prepare to return home following the wars, and left feeling good knowing he had not had to sack the Holy Cities of Mecca or Medina themselves. A grand victory for sure.

With the realm doubled in size the next question is where too next? The only true threat is the Caliphate, and I'm not too sure I want to snap at them just yet. I'll wait for a slightly more advantageous moment before rolling the dice for that hurdle.

Instead I think its time to sit around and allow the realm to recover from the war. It didn't even really hurt our treasury to awful much, as we were sitting on 7,892 gold, and now with the war complete we are only down to 6,422 gold. So 1400 and some change spent on that war, albeit a costly affair, if only Gudrun the Ice Queen had had that kind of cash to blow! Oh the things we could have accomplished if that had been the case.

After returning to the capital of Sana'a, we take a look at our new Emirate.

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1192 begins as I sit around relaxing, pleased with the results thus far, when our Chaplain fabricates claims on the Husamid Emirate once again.

I really sit around and consider breaking the truce with the Husamids just because Muhammad is getting old and keeping that strong claim on their final remaining emirate would be huge. But, unfortunately fate has other plans for the Quarreler, for it seems Allah has had enough of him reeking havoc upon the Arabian Peninsula.

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I was growing attached to Muhammad. He did good in his brief 22 years though, and his heir Abdullah seems very promising as well.

Immediately after Abdullah comes to the throne, I set him up to go on the Hajj, and give his brother Faruk the desert sheikdom of Hajr as well as making him our cupbearer. I thought these things would make dear Faruk a happy man. Content at all the blessings his older more esteemed brother shoveled in his direction.

But, Faruk's response is classic. He basically tells Abdullah that he wants no part of ruling over some damn sand dunes out in the middle of the desert. No that won't due. There is no way to buy your brother's love and devotion off like that.

Dearest brother Faruk, dumps the glass of wine upon Abdullah's head and informs our new Emir that he'd rather see him sewn up in the belly of a dead camel (a phrase we have gotten used to when we were having a tyrannically entertaining turn as the Abbassids).

Yes, that is right, Faruk refused to be happy with his lot in life. He did not want to live in the desert amongst the nomads. Rather he wanted the palace all for himself. And this all just two days after giving him everything.

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Family, perhaps they really should all be in prison and executed.

While I'm thinking about how enjoyable it would be to have Faruk drawn and quartered, Abdullah decides to invite some people to come along with him on the Hajj. Because, you know safety in numbers and the more the merrier type of thing.

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As we prepare for the Hajj, we also raise our levies of hardened camel warriors to marching across the sand dunes and to strike Faruk. Hopefully by the time Abdullah returns from Mecca Faruk will be in prison.

Which is when we learn of some very very sad news in Mauretania. Apparently Sultan AQ II is having serious issues. So many issues in fact that the Rahhalid Sultanate of Andalusia is now on the upswing. As they stole the Sultanate of Mauretania, turning the borders in Northwestern Africa into a bloody mess.

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Yet again, the AI screwing up our hard work after a succession. At least the Shaiban still hold three crowns though so I guess it isn't a huge loss. But a rough one all the same.

As the band of men set out for Mecca, one man's camel has a blown tire, and asks to use Abdullah's camel. Our new Emir however is a greedy bastard and tells the man no.

We run into some old man out there as well, who teaches Abdullah a lesson that surely had to have been written by his father the Poet Emir.

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We needed that +1 to diplomacy.

After arriving in Mecca, Abdullah gains +1 to the Health stat as well, which is great, perhaps that means our new Emir will live into his 70s with countless sons so that the AI can once again dismantle all of our hard work.

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We arrive from the Hajj in January of 1193, and Faruk is still rebelling, in fact we haven't even had a battle yet.

No, instead our camels are taking their sweet time marching through the desert.

In November we win our first siege of As Salif (+49), and a month later kill 159 of Faruk's warriors (+59), and Faruk then surrenders.

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Feeling a bit vengeful over Faruk's ungracious behavior after throwing gifts and titles at him like candy, I decide to make an example out him so that all of Abdullah's brothers know exactly what will happen if they prove to be ungrateful traitorous bastards in the future.

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This is a good spot to stop the update at I feel. A family crisis ended and the future of the Idrisid Emirate still in a ponderous state. I will however leave this with two updates on the world.

Up in the steppes some changes are occurring. The Kingdom of Volga Bulgaria has decided to convert to Christianity. An odd choice considering that there are no Catholics around, but I guess VB is shooting to hit the cycle on the religion thing as they've been everything from Tengri, Suomenesko, Shia, and now Catholic.

And one other thing that made me smile, is that the Cumans have returned to grace the world with their Horde-ly presence. They've been extinct for some 260 years, however they are picking a bad time to return as the Mongols are surely about to show up on their doorstep.

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Its sad to see Muhammad go, but his final poem was definitely his best work. I hope he included a zinger about pox-ridden ice queens.

It does seem like Abdullah is a worthy successor. He's only just begun his reign and he's already murdered a brother. It seems to me like that's pretty good material for a poem. Perhaps he'll pick up his father's pen?
 
It does seem like Abdullah is a worthy successor. He's only just begun his reign and he's already murdered a brother. It seems to me like that's pretty good material for a poem. Perhaps he'll pick up his father's pen?
Yes, he will write tales of wifes' lamentations in their husbands' BLOOD!!!

<Ahem>

I agree that Abdullah seems like good ruler material. A little war, a little murder, a bit of Hajj to keep everything in balance... and that's just his first few years in office! Muhammad did well and I'm hoping Adbullah will surpass him.
 
Yes, he will write tales of wifes' lamentations in their husbands' BLOOD!!!

<Ahem>

I agree that Abdullah seems like good ruler material. A little war, a little murder, a bit of Hajj to keep everything in balance... and that's just his first few years in office! Muhammad did well and I'm hoping Adbullah will surpass him.

Well of course! Abdullah's a temperate man and ink's expensive. Mwhahahaha!
 
@LordEnglish: Yeah Suomenusko Cumans! I haven't got a clue what's going on in the steppes, but Tengri has all but disappeared for the most part. I imagine the Hordes will bring it back though. And yeah, Sultanate of Arabia is the main goal at the moment since it hasn't been formed yet. And if I got time, maybe try and shoot for Baghdad, or wander into Egypt.

@ScribleScrable: Pox riddled Ice Queen definitely does deserve a place in his poetry!

@Stuyvesant: Abdullah is definitely off to a wonderful start he won't have to worry so much about the Husamids now. The one thing I am nervous about is a subjugation by the Caliph, that would hurt, but hopefully with our cash reserves we would be able to successfully defend.