In the Shadow of Certain, Painful Doom: Abyssinia
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The end of murdering! Can it be 
?
Btw, I am really surprised you managed to gain so many people to plot against your target.
?Btw, I am really surprised you managed to gain so many people to plot against your target.
Well done. Now you just need to find the One Knucklebone of Power and the world will be yours
Wait, was Tesfaye just... semi-capable? :blink: Of course, I guess it did depend upon the total idiocy of someone recording their own murderous activities...
Now, about this:
...
No comment.
Now, about this:
...
No comment.
Indeed, the thought alone of the Zagwe dynasty advancing somewhere is revolting and unthinkable.
Thankfully, even Tesfaye seems to have learned the futility of Sennarian wars. Although he will very soon increase his levees...
Yes, and once everyone else dies of natural causes there won't be anyone left to conspire.
A bit off topic, but I'm not even really sure what this "natural causes" really is. It's not illness, which gets its own mention. Can't be old age, as lots of young folk die of it. Given its completely generic nature I take the liberty of providing the real cause of death, whether baboon injuries, choking to death on a date, or breaking one's neck by falling off a horse.
The end of murdering! Can it be
Btw, I am really surprised you managed to gain so many people to plot against your target.
As was I. I think it was more of a function of everyone's greater hatred of Anatolios than of Tasfaye.
Well done. Now you just need to find the One Knucklebone of Power and the world will be yours
Yes, the One True Knuckle Bone.
*Strategic* surrender, mind you.
Sennar dose bring out the best in everyone, doesn't it?
LOL. You'd better steel yourself, then. The unthinkable will be happening soon.
Chapter 35
“Misguided warrior.” Why say it like it’s a bad thing?
My grandson has come of age. You might have thought that with his amazing father he might inherit some of that potential greatness. You would have thought wrong. He is a misguided warrior, just like his grandfather. To be honest, his abilities are not horrible—he is competent at martial and intrigue—but as long as I can marry him to someone worthwhile, I really don’t care how good or bad he is at ruling. My goal is to keep the dynasty alive for the next generation; it’s their problem what they do with it from there. Plus our standards are not that high here in Sennar.
My Basileus is still going strong at 70. I am always amazed to study his abilities and wonder how someone could be so poor in almost everything needed to rule. His martial ability has actually gone down since I swore allegiance to him. How does that happened? He has also become craven. Yet his state abilities have gone up, obviously the influence of some amazing counselors and his new, very young wife. His heir is also behind bars somewhere. My dynasty is an embarrassment, but at least I’m not the emperor of the eastern Roman empire.
Anyway, while it would be nice if he remembered his lonely Anthypatos down here and gave me a county, I’m not going to sit around waiting.
Kaleb is just happy he's still alive.
With the steward position open, I decide to shift things around. Stephanos Branas wants to become Marshal, so I make him the marshal. That will stretch him a little and make him an even better warrior. Nikephorus is getting a little stale as marshal anyway, so I make him steward to see what he can do in that role. At the very least, he won’t murder my spymasters, which will be progress from our recent track record.
Hey! Who are you calling "fat"?
The year 1121 rolls around and only now everyone suspects I’m a coward. They “suspect” it? Even I admit that I’m craven to the core and have openly been so since I assumed rule in Sennar. What’s to suspect?
In response to all this “suspecting” about my lack of bravery, I push for and enact harsh city taxes. I wasn’t too cowardly about that, was I? I follow this up by very cowardly revoking the bishopric title. My incompetence at church fiscal matters is a travesty, though—I can’t account for 75% of the revenue I should be receiving. But when you compare the puny amount the miserly bishops were giving to me, I’m not really losing out financially. And my raiseable levees get a huge boost.
One should never surprise the baboons.
The only really interesting thing that happens in year 1122 is that Ioulia dies of injuries that she sustained years previously. Those baboon injuries will always get you in the end.
“Misguided warrior.” Why say it like it’s a bad thing?
My grandson has come of age. You might have thought that with his amazing father he might inherit some of that potential greatness. You would have thought wrong. He is a misguided warrior, just like his grandfather. To be honest, his abilities are not horrible—he is competent at martial and intrigue—but as long as I can marry him to someone worthwhile, I really don’t care how good or bad he is at ruling. My goal is to keep the dynasty alive for the next generation; it’s their problem what they do with it from there. Plus our standards are not that high here in Sennar.
My Basileus is still going strong at 70. I am always amazed to study his abilities and wonder how someone could be so poor in almost everything needed to rule. His martial ability has actually gone down since I swore allegiance to him. How does that happened? He has also become craven. Yet his state abilities have gone up, obviously the influence of some amazing counselors and his new, very young wife. His heir is also behind bars somewhere. My dynasty is an embarrassment, but at least I’m not the emperor of the eastern Roman empire.
Anyway, while it would be nice if he remembered his lonely Anthypatos down here and gave me a county, I’m not going to sit around waiting.
Kaleb is just happy he's still alive.
With the steward position open, I decide to shift things around. Stephanos Branas wants to become Marshal, so I make him the marshal. That will stretch him a little and make him an even better warrior. Nikephorus is getting a little stale as marshal anyway, so I make him steward to see what he can do in that role. At the very least, he won’t murder my spymasters, which will be progress from our recent track record.
Hey! Who are you calling "fat"?
The year 1121 rolls around and only now everyone suspects I’m a coward. They “suspect” it? Even I admit that I’m craven to the core and have openly been so since I assumed rule in Sennar. What’s to suspect?
In response to all this “suspecting” about my lack of bravery, I push for and enact harsh city taxes. I wasn’t too cowardly about that, was I? I follow this up by very cowardly revoking the bishopric title. My incompetence at church fiscal matters is a travesty, though—I can’t account for 75% of the revenue I should be receiving. But when you compare the puny amount the miserly bishops were giving to me, I’m not really losing out financially. And my raiseable levees get a huge boost.
One should never surprise the baboons.
The only really interesting thing that happens in year 1122 is that Ioulia dies of injuries that she sustained years previously. Those baboon injuries will always get you in the end.
First Mencia, now Ioulia? Is the killing spree over... or is Anatolios' ghost just more subtle?
I have to be such a bad person! The sentence '.... died a maimed cripple.' made me laugh - the misfortune of others (especially of computer generated characters) is always funny.
If only the esteemed count could capture a bunch of those baboons, pack 'em in a crate and send it as a "gift" to the Caliph.
Sure, Whatever lets you sleep at night*Strategic* surrender, mind you.
I'm curious about that byzantine Emperor though. His heir (although currently imprisoned) seems to be a King in his own right. Can we expect that horrible pink Behemoth to grow even larger in the near future?
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Wow, Sennar's actually managing to get boring - the sure sign of a successful state!
I'm sure it won't last long.
I'm sure it won't last long.
What ever happened to go a plundering in Europe or the East? Joining wars to capture nobles for their ransoms, a ignoble, but perhaps profitable idea.
Just discovered this AAR. Great fun to follow the ups and downs of this underdog dynasty! I love the roleplaying aspects (guess many of us do something similar in our heads while playing, but still an inspiration), and the small tidbits of Abyssinian history and culture. Subscribing.
It's anything that doesn't fit in any other category.Philo32b said:
You don't need to be old to die of natural causes. I must mention that back in the Medieval times people died young (in our terms) and pretty fast and everybody considered it normal course of events. For example - hygiene was very low (not sure if not even lower than in the Roman Empire), medicine was bad (in fact some recipes designed to improve man's health, that I am aware of, sounded more like a magical ritual of a hag than a sensible way to cure someone), there were natural accidents, type of food (or total lack of food) could cause death, you could overwork yourself or have hidden condition we can now discover and much more.Philo32b said:
As for Ioulia I am not sure if "maimed cripple" refers to an actual event (like you die in battle as a maimed cripple and get such note) or it's just after some time because of low health AFTER surviving actual assassination attempt... Or ANY maimed cripple who dies will be noted as such when (s)he dies?
Anyone whose health is impacted by the maimed trait receives that cause of death, no matter how recent the injury is. I'm not sure how it works overlapping with other health reducing traits, such as stressed, depressed or diseases.
I had a 9 year old die of natural causes the other day.
I'll post my own thread soon but I have an Abyssinia game 100+ years into it and I have not assassinated anyone (save one king of Bohemia for role playing purposes to get my husband on the throne even if though they have seniority). I have also not replayed from any save points. I have all of Abyssinia and, I am king of Arabia as well and I have a bit of Egypt. I am not guaranteed of survival but I am fairly confident at this point as I can raise 30K troops. I am about to declare holy war on the Cairo region. The Caliphate has been intact more or less this whole time (they lost outer jordan to infighting and they have lost a number of lands to me).
Anyhow I won't hi-jack this thread anymore. I'll post a few screenies and start the story in around 12 hours.
Perhaps killing him just made him even more powerful. That's a frightening thought.
"Maimed cripple" does sound a bit over the top.
Yes, with Gelada Baboons and tej, nothing could stop Sennar.
Sure, Whatever lets you sleep at night
I'm curious about that byzantine Emperor though. His heir (although currently imprisoned) seems to be a King in his own right. Can we expect that horrible pink Behemoth to grow even larger in the near future?
No, not by much. Due to infidels eroding his lands, he is king of only one county. He is having trouble raising the 350 gold a king gets for ransom (only about a third of the way), so he will stay behind bars until his father drops over dead, I think.
After killing a zealously intolerant serial killer by pushing him off a cliff, routine matters of state are bound to seem a bit boring. Don't worry, though--you're right. It can't last.
@ Machiavellian and aldriq. Yep! Tesfaye will *try*. Unfortunately something about his situation or the latest patch has changed things so he can no longer declare Holy War against any infidels he wants. I'm not sure if it's because he is a heretic vassal or because his piety is less than 0.
Thank you!
@ Holy.Death and SaintEsteban. I just see "natural causes" so many times, and it is so flavorless. I would absolutely love it if they put in a whole bunch of causes of death, from the mundane to the absolutely whacky. It can really suck to have your ruler die, but if you learn that he died choking on a date or falling off his horse or whatever, I think it would help bring the suckiness factor down a notch. Especially if he died in some whacky way.
That is impressive. I would be interested in seeing the strategy you used to accomplish this. It just seems so difficult to do: whatever you do, the infidels can mass five times your number and just gobble you up. In your game it sounds as though the Shia Caliphate got occupied with something else (in Jordan), giving you enough of a respite to build up, and you did a great job of seizing that opportunity. Is that basically how it went, or was there something you did to give you the breathing space?
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