[Ck2 Megacampaign] The tale of the Circinn dinasty

[Kazanov]

First, a few words.

A month ago i was on facebook when a discussion about Paradox music DLCs appeared on my feed, well, we all know that Sabaton does historic music and that Paradox have released a number of DLCs for the other games of the company so the discussion was: what themes you will include on a CK2 music DLC. Well, lot of us proposed themes and one in particular gained my attention: Blood of Bannockburn, i had never paid attention to that track and i didnt knew if it had historical relevance for CK2 so i read a bit about early Scottish history.

And then decided to start an ironman game as the Kingdom of the Picts at the charlemagne start, because i liked that song of Sabaton…and that start date is my favourite.

I really liked the fact that they were never conquered by the Romans
​

English is not my primary language and i have learned it mostly by playing Ultima Online, World of Warcraft and by watching american series, on recent years i have read the ASOIAF and Dune sagas on english so i’m a bit confident that i will not make so many mistakes writing this. If some spanish words are hidden on my text its because the autocorrect function of Microsoft Word. I decided to make this AAR on english to polish my written skills and as a challenge to myself.

This will be a Mega Campaign as i have most of the games and the converter to EU IV, i’m well into my 300ish year of gameplay so the first part will be on retrospective, i find that more fun that doing it in chronological order. I will divide my history into two parts because something terrible happened to my game and will use that as a storytelling device, i started to write this as that terrible thing happened and the game bécame the most fun of all those i haved since i started playing CK2.​

The objectives of the first part of the game were:

1.- Conquer all the petty Kingdoms of the isles and then make an Empire
2.- Roleplay as the Kings/Emperors and make desitions based on their traits
3.- Became the defender of the christian world
4.- Have fun


And i played without mods, a pure Ironman game.

Content index of the first part
:
Chapter 1: A young Duke too far from home (1083)
Chapter 2: The Origins of the Circinn Dinasty (686-770)
Chapter 3: Urguist I, the First King (770-793)
Chapter 4: The Pictish war of succession . (793-800)
Chapter 5: The story of three kings (800-851)
Chapter 6: Argentocoxos II “the Young”, king, reformer and conqueror. (851-906)
Chapter 7: The Expansion of Pictland (906-969)
Chapter 8: The Black Death (969-978)
Chapter 9: The Conquest (979-986)
Chapter 10: The Birth of an Empire (986-1020)
Chapter 11: The War against Islam (1020-1039)
Chapter 12: The European Wars (1039-1075)
Chapter 13: The Imperial Civil Wars (1075-1100)
Chapter 14: Epilogue (1100-)

 

[Kazanov]

Chapter I, A young Duke too far from home.


“The green banner of the Circinn Clan was planted on the top of the hill that dominated the view of central valley of the province of Fib, from there, if someone dared to look into the green pastures of the valley below, they were to be repulsed by their discovery as the mutilated corpses of the warriors of the defeated faction made a wondrous spectacle because they were utterly defeated on the battle that have crowned the clan of Circinn as the new rulers of the Kingdom of Pictland.

​

The Uib clan ruled over the other pictish clans at least over all the known existence of the Kingdom of Pictland and for most of that time they governed over their vassals with a strong and righteous hand, but in the last century the Uib Kings became complacent and their actions were creating more conflicto that prosperity between the diferent clans so their legitimacy as rulers were put in doubt by their vassal as they considered that their King were weaker than them and that he was unworthy of his title, so the northmen clansmen organized the revolt under the green banner of the Circinn Clan and raised the biggest army that the Pictish kingdoms had seen in centuries, the revolt was decided on a single battle, ending the period were the Uib dinasty ruled over Pictland once for all, more than 500 years of rule were ended on a single day.


Was from the time of the romans that the Adrian Wall constituted the southern border of the Kingdom of Pictland, and the internal conflicts between the pictish tribes guaranteed the tranquility of the Anglo-Saxons Kingdoms of the south, it can be said that a storm was sealed on the north behind that wall and that the Uib royal family had been taken care of maintain that as the status quo, maybe because they lacked the visión to make things otherwise, maybe because they considered themselves to be weaker than their southern neighbors, or maybe they didnt wanted to lose their power if one of the clans showed more military sucess than them. But these things were to determine the pictish peoples destiny no more, the Circinn clan had promised the other clans to expand the Kingdom borders south of the wall and unite the tribes on a single purpose for the glory of their kin once for all.

Some say that Hadrian made the picts pay for that wall, others still believe that he had tiny hands

​

Urguist of the Circinn was the King now, and he looked at the lands south of that ancient wall with ambition, he wanted to conquer every petty Kingdom of the south and then create the strongest christian kingdom that ever existed in the name of God, but things sometimes wont happen as one ruler may want because the paths of the Lord are inscrutable, and it dont matter if you are a King or a peasant, life is short and unpredictable.”


-From “Life and Glory of the Circinn dinasty” of Antoine of Fib, royal historian of the House of Circinn, 850.

300 years of gameplay and he´s the only Allcallorred that i ever saw
​

Prince Allcallorred closed his eyes and meditated the words that his ancestor wrote on the book that he was reading, he remembered that since he had learned how to read the ancient books of his late father library he had wondered how a tiny Kingdom isolated in the northern reaches of that big island that originated the Empire of Alba conquered all the lands that were under their domain, and how he, a member of a pictish clan from the coast of the “Firth of Forth” as his ancestors called the sea that bordered their lands ended living in Tarragona, on the frontier of the Christian World and so far from home. Because of that he had devoted lots of hours of every day to learn about the lives of the kings and emperors that builded the empire that he once was destined to inherit, not only he readed about their lifes, he lived in those ancient tales, he senses that his duty to his ancestors was to breathe the same air than them, at least on his imagination, and he did so.

The pictish warriors were fierce at battle
​

His father was the Emperor of the Empire of Alba, he was destined to rule after him but because a disease ended the life of his beloved progenitor before he gained the support of his father followers to be elected as Emperor and then the Imperial title was inherited by one of the Icelings, a noble family from the old Petty Kingdom of Mercia that were once rivals to his family and that now were friends and allies, the current Emperor was chosen because the empire was facing one of their biggest civil wars that ever faced and that Iceling was a tough military leader, hopefully the war were to end shortly.

His father reigned for two years and then died, bad luck Allcallorred inherithed some duchies after that.​

He then inherited the titles of Barcelona and Gascogne, two duchíes that were the current frontier of the christian world nd a shield against the muslim hordes, his father received them from the famed Emperor Ecgberht, a man that devoted his life to expel the Islam rulers from Europe, because of this his rule was a constant battle against those that he considered his enemies on the faith and of his kin, he conquered vast tracts of land, and then gived those lands to his christian followers. Allcallorred dreamed to be a holy man like Emperor Ecgberht and he thinked that if he learned the exploits of his ancestors he maybe will surpass his legacy.


As he grew, he became obsessed with the old, dusty books on his late father library, he knew that these were copies of all those books that were written about the history of his family and as they were old, they were ridden with innacuracies too, some contradicted the others or were full of details that were irrelevant or were plagued with exagerations about the deeds of his ancestors. He wanted all that history condenced in only one book as a homage to the memory of his forefathers, maybe God wanted that, as he losed the opportunity to be an Emperor with the sudden death of his father, Emperor Broichan, after all, he was still a kid and was brilliant compared to other kids of his age who were preocuped of more mundane things, his superior intelligence was a divine gift and his tutor wanted him to be a learned ruler, so he decided, at the age of 12, that the writing of the history of the Circinn Dinasty was the proyect of his life.


So he started.


“ In the second day of October of the year of our Lord, one thousand and eighty-three, i Duke Allcallorred of Barcelona, Insee Cait and Gascogne, will start to…”

 

[stnylan]

So it begins

 

[Idhrendur]

A good start so far.

 

[iisbroke]

Subbed

 

[Kazanov]

“Chapter Two: The Origins of the Circinn Dinasty“



"Urguist I is the first King of the Circinn dinasty, but before him some of his family members had ruled the Kingdom of the Picts, but they were regents as the Uib Dinasty had no proper heir for many years , because of that fact they arent counted as part of the bloodline of the current dinasty on the historical records of the family, they will be mentioned here as the “Pictish Regents of the Circinn Clan for the Uib Dinasty “ as they were important because they generated the influence that Urguist I used to convince the northern tribes to join him in his rebellion, after all, his family had practically ruled the Kingdom for 34 years


To the date of the ascension of Urguist I as King of Pictland Circinn’s clan origins were fairly recent, the clan was formed when in 686, Urguist Circinn “the elder” was granted the county of Gowrie for his services to the crown, in the year 701 Unuist I, his son, created the Duchy of Moray (title that remained in the family until 818, when was granted to the Cait Clan) and he gained influence in the court of the King until he was named the first of the regent-kings of Pictland in 729. His son, the future King Urguist I, was born at the start of the year 730, a second son, Telurg, was born on the summer of 734.

​

But the regency of Unuist I encountered problems as a plague sended by satan himself according to the oldest books killed one third of the population and then, in 735 a terrible famine killed most of the peasants, the crown had to buy food across the sea and the taxes were raised to compensate the gold used for that. In 736 he was deposed by his brother Telurgan II Circinn on a bloodless coup supported by most of the noblemen. Unuist I was forced to flee to the Kingdom of Mercia.


In the following years Telurgan II recovered the economy of the Kingdom bringing peasants from the southern lands to work on the fields, some of them were abducted from the lands of the northumbrians on the raids that the noblemen of the Kingdom secretly conducted, noneteless, the reigning regent gived them some rights and they remained in Pictland as free men.

​

In 750 Telurgan II died of a heart attack and without sons, Unuist I was called back by the Uib clan to rule over Pictland as the new regent-king. In his second term he continued the policies of his brother and gived more privileges to the church, as they had helped to escape from the Kingdom when his brother conducted the coup that deposed him the last time. In the year 761 he died of old age and he was suceded as regent-king by Bridei V, the youngest brother of Unuist I, he was in power until 763, when he died and Ciniod II was proclaimed as the new King of the Uib dinasty.

He reigned for seven years and then he was deposed in the revolt commanded by Urguist I Circinn in 770.

Ciniod II died on the dungeons of Urguist I Circinn​

After the Battle of Fib, Urguist I united the clans under the Crown of Pictland and proclaimed laws that assured that them were compelled to do so. The lands of the Circinn clan now began to be improved as the taxes permited to do so and trade was re-established with some of the Petty Kingdoms of the south, Urguist I planned the first wars to expand his Kingdom as the gold surplus resulting of a good economy management began to fill his coffins.

- From the book "History of the Circinn Dinasty, by Allcallorred Circinn."

Tarragona, spring of the year 1085

Allcallorred was tired, he used all the light that the Lord provided during the day to do his work and now he was seeing through the window how the sun was ending its journey across the firmament, giving the sea beutiful colors, the seagulls danced on the sky and he was ready tho end his work for this day, so he put his writing tools into the box when his younger brother entered the room, saluting him on a bad pronounced castilian, the language of the peoples of the northern reaches of Hispania, still on muslim hands.

- Dear brother, i see that you had been studying under the tutor that our regent has assigned you, but you need to focus more on your lessons, you can insult a person speaking like that on court- said Allcallorred smiling, as he walked toward him and continued- I want to speak with you in Latin, as its the oficial language used in all the courts of the Empire.-


Argentocoxos was 5 years younger than him, he was a smart kid and played a lot with the sons of his servants without abandoning his studies, he had always wondered why his father named him after the legendary King Argentocoxos II of Pictland, maybe he was destined to do greater things than him?, well, he didnt cared about these things, he loved his younger brother and played with him for a while using latin as a mean to communicate to each other.


After that Allcallorred went to the garden of his castle, he rarely stepped outside his room these days but he wanted to take some fresh air, so he walked across the garden that his late father made with plants, flowers and trees from the lands of the Duchy of Alba, his family homeland, he wondered if some of these plants were on the Circinn family castle on the far reaches of the Empire. Now, as he wandered between the foreign trees he remembered that Urguist I, the first King of the dinasty had been ruling that place as a Duke when he ascended to the throne of the Kingdom of Pictland, as Allcallorred was the gobernor of the Duchy of Barcelona more than 300 years later on the other extreme of the known world, maybe there was some hope for him after all, history on his family, as he had learned, tended to repeat itself.


The next day, one of his servants came with a letter from the distant Kingdom of Ruthenia, the Suomenusko Faith had been reformed and now threatened the christian world and according to the letter, they were amassing an army to invade their kingdom, the king was asking for help from every single christian leader as the pagan menace was dangerous to all the believers if they werent defeated there.

Alcallored summoned his regent and he did the same with the council of the Duchy, they decided that they werent capable to send an army to defend their brothers in the faith, the muslim were harassing their border outposts and the ongoing civil war that continued to ravage the empire threatened the lives of every Circinn nobleman, the army and the resources were needed here, not on the other side of the christian world. The young Duke understanded those facts, but he could only feel sad for his christian brothers and sisters of the distant Kingdom.

Two months later another letter came to Allcallorred, the Kingdom of Ruthenia had fallen to the heathen army, every church was desecrated,the royal family decapitated and their bodies eaten by the Romuva priests on a great feast that was made on the castle of the fallen kingdom.

The young Duke of Barcelona promised to himself that he will never allow that to happen again to his brothers of the faith, no matter the cost.

 

[Kazanov]

Added an index of the chapters to the first post.

 

[stnylan]

A still distant threat - but for how long

 

[iisbroke]

Preemptive strike anyone?