September 928 AD:
With a heavy heart I would like to report the end of my Messalian Kingdom to a full blown invasion on the Sultanate of Antioch by the Sunni Caliphate. Although our men fought to their last drop of blood; the 25 thousand Muslim warriors were just too much to deal with.
At it's zenith the Messalian Kingdom spanned from the shores of Antioch to deep within Asia minor holding the territories of the Kingdom of Armenia as well.
With the final order to be made from the Royal Palace in Antioch to be the creation of the Armenian Kingdom and the destruction of the Kingdom of Antioch.
While a sizable chunk of my once mighty Kingdom is still intact. Most of our military capabilities/facilities were focused on the counties along the Mediterranean shore. This leaves a very long road ahead if it was to be reclaimed. A road not with diminished religious authority due to our 5 or 6 holy wars against the Caliphate that always came so close to victory but ended up running into the big green wall to the south of us.
While what remains is not at all unplayable. It will be a long drawn out demise in my humble opinion with the loss of both our military war machines and buildings as well a constant threat of conversion with the loss of our holy city and extremely diminished religious authority.
Perhaps of I wasn't too greedy in trying to snag a duchy here and there every time I saw the Caliphate deep in conflict. That inadvertently increased Sunni religious authority. With the Caliph staring at 100% decadence it was either attack us or wait for the inevitable 9th decadence revolt.
Perhaps in the hand of a much more patient ruler this could have turned into a proper Messalian Empire, or maybe not. Either way ladies and gentleman it just goes to show that with a little luck and many attempts. The seemingly impossible can be done. That impossible being the foundation of a proper Messalian Kingdom that traces the historical lands of the mythical Messalians.
Looking forward to your tries at this.
REMEMBER the Messalians have a secret weapon no other religion has.....that weapon being the ability to appoint women on your council, as rulers as well as on the battle field as commanders. This as we all know is pretty valuable when you ask yourself how many times you had a female courtier with star stats but she was regulated to tutoring.
From our once mighty and very PINK uniformed men.
-Good Luck In your Playthroughs.
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