Historiae Crovanus- A Succession Megacampaign
- Thread starter Dovahkiing
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Yes, I've removed the six-author limit. Signing you up now!
Chapter I: Gudrod Haraldsson coming next week!
Chapter I: Gudrod Haraldsson coming next week!
Actually, due to my laziness and need to work on my solo AAR, I hereby put myself on the bottom of the list. Thragka is now #1.
"This is so crazy... It just might work."
I'll bite. I'm just so curious as to how this will work out...
I'll bite. I'm just so curious as to how this will work out...
Okay, I've finished Gudrod Haraldsson's life. It was what I believe to be a typically Crovan experience, by which I mean filled with murder, rebellious vassals and autocracy. I'll write it up in the next few days.
Can't wait! Don't forget to upload the savefile inside a zip for the next player to download!
Not really. If I have become lazy lately, it seems that Thragka will soon awaken this sleepy thread with his account of the life of Gudrod Haraldsson Crovan!
thragka, could you upload the save somewhere? I'd ideally like to play it within this week as my exams start next week.
Sure: https://www.dropbox.com/s/no0xgemghjno7h7/Historiae Crovanus.rar Hope that works.
Should get the first chapter posted tomorrow evening.
Should get the first chapter posted tomorrow evening.
My name is Gudrod Haraldsson Crovan, Duke of the Isles, and oh god I have no idea what I'm doing. Somehow at the ripe old age of seventeen I find myself ruling the wettest patch of rocks in Christendom. My vassals hate me, I'm dirt-poor and the political landscape is a mess what with the war in England. About the only thing positive in my life - aside from my laboriously-styled facial hair, which I'm rather proud of - is my marriage to Princess Ragnhild Maria of Norway. On the one hand she's as underhanded and roguish as I am - a perfect candidate for carrying on the noble Crovan line - and let's just say she's not shy in the marriage bed. On the other hand, this means my svigerfar is King Harald Hardrade of Norway. He insists I call him Pappa, which annoys me greatly. I might not particularly like being Duke of this miserable hellhole, but damned if that means he gets to treat me like a child.
My heir apparent is my half-brother, followed by my half-sister. I decide to make it a Royal Priority to have a son. Call me old-fashioned, but I'd prefer my inheritance to go to a full-blooded relative.
My first order of state, while Pappa goes murdering Saxons at Stamford bridge, is to send my stuttering court chaplain Tryggve off to raise religious relations with ... himself. Seriously, it's the fact that he agreed to it wholeheartedly that worries me the most. The man is clearly insane. I must ensure he spends as little time at court as possible. I split the rest of my council between Innse Gall and Argyll. Count Gilbert of Argyll is not too fond of me, so I send my chancellor to befriend his court and my spymaster to scheme there (a precursor in case he decides to kill me, or, much more likely, I get tired of diplomacy and try to kill him). I set my Marshal to training my troops in Innse Gall, alongside my Steward who attempts to raise taxes.
I feel it's prudent to arrange future marriages for my half-siblings. I betroth my half-sister Helga to the brother of the Chancellor of Breifne, who is himself heir to the earldom of Tyrone. My heir Donald gets Ethelreda, eldest daughter of the Duke of Lothian. I am most certainly not planning on murdering my dynasty's way to prominence across Albion and Hibernia. Not immediately, anyway.
"King" Malcolm III of Scotland makes some fuss about crown authority, alleging something to the effect that I ought to be a vassal of his. This threat rankles me, so I tell him where he can stuff his crown authority. Pappa asks me to help him conquer England, and I can't very well refused but I vow not to contribute a single soldier to his cause. Perhaps seeing this as a sign of weakness, my vassal Count Mac Congail of Carrick plots to revolt. I happily plan to revoke his title, but my advisors tell me that the crown authority in the kingdom of Scotland is not high enough to let me do this, which is a bit of a kick in the teeth. But Malcolm's gloating diminishes when two of his vassals start a civil war against him. I don't think Malcolm will be ruling Scotland with an iron fist any time soon.
It's not long before Mac Congail raises his troops in rebellion. My wife helps to relieve my stress.
I buy her some ruby earrings to celebrate. Unfortunately, the war is not as easy to just throw money at - the insolent Mac Congail defeats me time and again on the field of battle. What's worse, Pappa apparently "cannot join me at this time". Some ally him. While I am fighting in Carrick, I hear that Count Gilbert of Argyll is thinking of plotting against me. I assure him that if he does so, he will feel my full ducal might once I get around to crushing Mac Congail. But defeat follows defeat after defeat against the upstart Count of Carrick, and soon I learn that Gilbert seeks to overthrow me and claim the Duchy of the Isles for himself. Blackmail, threats - nothing I try to mollify him will work. The war against Mac Congail drags on. And what's worse, I get some truly awful news.
I hate Pappa. I get back at him by realising the nightmare of every concerned father and impregnating his teenage daughter, although the fact that we've been married for several years and already have a son probably means it annoys him less than I feel it should.
I don't have nearly enough money to hire mercenaries to bring Mac Congail's rebellion to a swift conclusion, and when I confront Gilbert and try to revoke his title, the count laughs in my face and flat out refuses. This does not exactly do wonders for my self-confidence. I finally levy enough troops to actually lay seige to Carrick. Since military measures are not my strong point, I decide it is time to assure the Crovan dynasty's future through other means. The Earl of Tyrone has gone and got himself a daughter, which scuppers my plans to eventually put my half-sister Helga's descendants on the throne. So I plot to kill little Deirdre. The fact that the Spymaster of Tyrone shares my eagerness for infanticide is helpful, and before long poor little Deirdre is smothered by a maid. My next target is Earl Aed himself. Again, his spymaster proves surprisingly happy about my plan.
Soon Aed has joined his daughter in the afterlife, and Helga's brother-in-law Domnall is the new Earl of Tyrone. I'm sure I'll get around to having him assassinated at some point.
In late 1069 I finally quash Mac Congail's rebellion for good and lock him away in my dungeon. I rather like the feeling of power this gives me, so I lock away another courtier for good measure - one Torgeir av Ulg who was known to make disparaging remarks about my wife. But before too long, in a show of ducal mercy, I release Mac Congail and even go as far as to make him my Master of the Horse - my vassals still by and large hate me, and I need every magmanimous show of good will I can afford. Nonetheless, Count Gilbert's been a thorn in my side for far too long, so I set about planning his untimely death. Chancellor Eilif tells me that Gilbert's actually starting to like me, but in my gut I know that that can't last.
I get a message from Tryggve. He's just as bonkers as I thought. I was right to hide him away from the rest of the court.
Chancellor Eilif keeps telling me about how well his diplomatic work in Argyll is going and how fond Count Gilbert is becoming of me. I feel it isn't right that I'm plotting the man's death and winning his good graces at the same time, so I absent-mindedly send Eilif to Ulster with instructions to bribe some locals and spread tales of my grace and majesty, et cetera et cetera. Everybody is surprised when he reports back that I now have a claim on the county of Ulster.
Well, why the hell not, eh? I invade! Within half a year the province is mine! In the meantime, the elderly Earl Godfrey of the Isle of Man is succeeded by his son Count Fingal of Galloway, who happens to be my vassal. Two new provinces are brought into my duchy with minimal fuss. Things are looking up. I arrange a celebratory assassination of the daughter of Earl Domnall of Tyrone. Once again his spymaster Mael-Martain is all too eager to help. Together we'll get a Crovan into that county yet.
It amuses me greatly to learn that Count Gilbert has been excommunicated. He's finally sunk low enough that I reckon I can get away with chucking him in the dungeon along with Mac Congail, and I'm right - nobody at court as much as raises an eyebrow. When Gilbert has the audacity to complain about his lodgings, I consign him to the oubliette. It's what he deserves after years of skulking around behind my back. Tryggve sends two more reports about how he, Tryggve, has convinced himself, Tryggve, that the Pope isn't as great as he, Tryggve, previously thought. Poor old chap, I'm starting to actually feel worried about him.
Gilbert complains from the oubliette about reports that there's a typhus outbreak in Argyll. Thinking on this keeps me chuckling for days.
I fear that letting Count Fingal control two counties is being rather too lenient when he declares a war for independence. I have clearly learned from Mac Congail's war - this time it only takes me a year and a half to crush Fingal's army and conquer his lands. Fingal joins my other two vassal counts in the dungeons of Innse Gall. Something about having all three of them stuffed away there is just neater than letting them roam about free. But as another show of ducal mercy to my minor vassals in Innse Gall and Ulster, against my better judgement I let Fingal back out. Nonetheless, he's clearly too dangerous to hold two counties, and I convince his vassals in Galloway that they'd be much better off having me as their direct liege rather than that treacherous dirtbag as a dishonourable middleman.
Scheming against my own vassal is like spearing fish in a barrel! I try again with Gilbert, but with less success. He escapes my dungeon and raises his armies against me. Truth be told, I'm rather eager to bring the fight to him, so I'm not too upset.
It takes only a month before I've conquered Argyll and sent Gilbert packing. Some Ulsterian peasants view this as unnecessarily "oppressive" and raise arms against me, but their revolt is soon put down. I assassinate another of Earl Domnall's children to take my mind off things.
In a pair of political matches made in heaven that surprise even myself, I manage to get my son and heir Finn married to the sister of the young King of Galicia, and my daughter Magrethe betrothed to the King of Rus. Surely these matches will lead to lasting peace and happiness between our families ...
... of course, I have the King of Galicia killed, making my son King-Consort.
And rather pleased with my reign, I pop my clogs in 1085, pretty sure I've kickstarted House Crovan on its way to dominance in Europe in the centuries to come.
Nice idea, dovahkiing. Is this succession system your idea, or had it been done before?
Love the update, thragka. I'm afraid though that your ruler hasn't done anything constructive apart from kicking his own vassals' asses. Ah well, civil war is war too. Now, let's see what your successor can do.
Love the update, thragka. I'm afraid though that your ruler hasn't done anything constructive apart from kicking his own vassals' asses. Ah well, civil war is war too. Now, let's see what your successor can do.
Thanks! I ever so slightly expanded the Duchy, that's got to count for something. I must admit I am an extremely inexperienced CKII player so I was just happy the state of the realm didn't decline. 
Nice work!
I should be able to play the whole of Finn Crovan's reign tomorrow, since I'm free as a bird from 2pm onwards.
I should be able to play the whole of Finn Crovan's reign tomorrow, since I'm free as a bird from 2pm onwards.