From the Crucible:
The Emperors of Edessa;
An Armenian AAR
A crucible is a container in which material is heated, stressed, broken, and remade into a stronger form, at times unrecognizable from its previous state. As an literary device it stands as a test for a character to pass, in the realm of historical narrative crucibles destroy as much as they create. This story's crucible begins in the Cilician highlands, also known as Armenia Minor. This story's first character is the Patre Familias of the Rubenids, the first in the line that would become the Emperors of Edessa. Great men have been called a great many things, wise, learned, strong, implacable, devout, divine, it all depends on who you ask. Though sometimes such people try to hard and such great men require little definition, this is one of those times, this one of those men. This man was not wise or learned, was not the strongest, nor was he implacable, devout perhaps, divine absolutely not. In the end this man was simply tough, tough enough to weather the storm, strong enough to lead his people thru the crucible that was the 11th Century Near East.
Roupen was perhaps great because he was commanded, for a time, by the not so great. In the turmoil of his times he followed his king, Gagik II, into lions den of a Babylonian Captivity in Constantinople when his Kingdom was captured by the Romans in 1045. He was seized and forced to abdicate his throne for holdings in Cappadocia upon entering the city. A king made a pawn to the Roman Emperor and thrown away just as easily. When King Gagik II was murdered by the Byzantines in early 1066 Roupen took his family and what was left of the Royal Routine and fled to the Tarsus Mountains and took refuge among its difficult and dangerous passes and ranges becoming King of the Armenians of Cilicia in all but name. Lords flocked to his cause including the influential Arcruni and Lambron families. Suzerain to no man, king of a shadow kingdom, he but waited for the right time to show his hand. He weathered the coming storm.
The time would soon be upon him, for in the year 1066 the Alp Arslan and the Seljuk Turks marched to war.
Arrayed against this feral man who had fought for everything he possessed were men who connived, whispered, and bargained their way into the most powerful position in Europe and the Near East. Men who undermined the very state they endeavored to run.
The lame
and the slow
These men would lead the empire down a path that would lead to its slow and inexorable destruction and set the stage for the rise of another.
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Starting out as the Rubenid family of Armenia Minor. Normal AI Agressiveness and Very Hard Difficulty.
Reconstructing much of the history from memory and save games. My first CK AAR and AAR period for several years(EUII). Had so much fun with this one I had to share.
