Lets make some money shall we?

[Colruth]

(lol yeah, getting there)

Grand Prince Maurikios the Saint's rule lasted 34 years, he died of natural causes on September 9th 1138.

Following him was Grand Prince Baitzas I, who's reign lasted little under 2 years, dying of severe stress on June 29th, 1140.

Continuing House Konstantios rule of the republic, elected in Baitzas' stead was Grand Prince Suru I.

The beginning years of his reign were not the best. Inheriting a very demanding independance league from a few kings and Serene Doge his predecessor had made in hopes to placate them, Suru's Pecheneg culture made things worse. Pecheneg blood was known to be present in Konstantios's line, and while those of that descent tended to carry the great traits of their ancestral mother, the majority of the realm, made up of italians and greeks, did not like being ruled by what they called a barbarian of the steppes.

Still Suru tried a new approach at taming the would-be rebels. Instead of giving away the power of the crown, he started taking away duchies from the doge and dukes who had joined the league. Redistributing those titles to mayors friendly to the crown, he hoped to get more levies from these allies, to an enough extent to make the rebels think twice before declaring war.

It worked for a bit until one revokation did not work. Forcing a rebellion, the empire was thrown at war. Luckily enough, the empire's enemy neighbors, mainly the Arabs, were in civil war as well, the decadence of the crown finally catching up to them.

Taming this rebellion was going well, but the remains of the independence league decided to bring it to the field. With two revolts at hand, spiced up with peasant revolts popping here and there, Suru thought the golden age of the republic was coming to an alt.

Focusing on crushing the first rebel, so to bring him back under the influence of the crown and use his levies against the league, he instead was forced to accept a white peace from him, as rebel forces were winning battles down in Tunis as well as mainland Anatolia. Still, this peace brought in some 20,000 troops he didn't have before while closing a front in Aragon. Raising these new troops, Suru sent his dread cavalry to Anatolia to lift the sieges there while sending the levies of the former rebel down in Tunis.

After 3 years of back and forth sieging and lifting of sieges, The Imperial army gained the momentum and crushed the rebel main force of 30,000 troops in Anatolia when the cavalry finally catched up to them. From there, peace was showing up around the corner.

With a decisive surrender from the rebelling forces, 2 kings a serene doge and 3 dukes, Suru managed to bring back most of the Serene Republics into the imperial crown, as well as all the republics and duchies the rebels held, distributing them back to allies of the crown. Adding to the insult, he then freed the rebels and gifted them as vassals to those holding their former titles.

The Empire now stable again, with a potential army of 250,000 troops and the Arabs still in disarray, Suru, now 65 years old, turns toward the two final things he needs to bring into the imperial hegemony before the world is stable again: A county in Antioch and the duchy of Ferrara.

The Duke of Ferrara currently rebelling against his king, the choice of target was easy. Delivering a speech for adventure and conquest, Suru brought the imperial cavalry to Italy, where the Ferraran levies were emptied, fighting somewhere else in Italy. The conquest meeting no resistance, Ferrara was added to the Imperial realm before winter came.

Now for Antioch...

 

[Colruth]

Oh and hmm, you must be Orthodox to mend the schism.

 

[Colruth]

Figured it would be time for a map update.

Beyond civil war, that threatens every time the Grand Prince dies, nothing is really left to bother us. The Arabs tries, but they never succeeded in over 10 attempts. Keep in mind though that as a Republic we are stuck with Seniority Elective succesion laws. The Elective part isn't that relevant anymore, with 250 gold profit per month, we can outspend anyone with a 16 years old heir if we want. But the Seniority part tends to make our heirs very old, and so new grand princes don't have much time to establish stability, unless they live longer than expected.

Mending the schism did more damage to the Holy Roman Empire than was expected. The ruling dynasty, the Wilhelmiden, are clinging to their catholic heresy while more than 70% of their population as well as nobility is now orthodox. They've been in a permanent state of civil war since 50 years now.

The Arabs did go through a time of crisis, but the last decadence invasion succeeded in deposing the Abissid dynasty. Now the Arabs are ruled by the Mahdi. They are still our main target, mostly because we are missing 2 mosque in Archa (Antioch) to be able to claim the roman imperial crown. Sadly we did launch a holy war on the county some 5 years ago, while they were still in civil war. We won, but the rebel we demolished only held the capital of the county, while the other 4 holdings were held by the Caliph. We claimed 2 since then, but since we can't launch a holy war on a county we control, we have to limit ourselves to a county claim every 10 years. If only the Caliph would die, but he's 22 years old with 0% decadence.

So for now we are turning back on the Sultan of Greece. Well, in name. He doesn't hold anything anymore in Greece, not even Anatolia or Armenia anymore. As you can see on the map, he ran off to Cumania, while holding a few counties in Georgia. That's where we are headed next.

As a side note... Yes the empire is growing in Hispania, but that has noting to do with the crown's decisions. Such is the beauty of a low crown authority (I can't go any higher due to being a Republic). You must keep them happy to get any levies worth mentionning, but once they are happy while strong enough but not enough to challenge you, they just grow your borders on their own.

Italy is also being gnawed at. Ferrara was the crown's own doing, but don't know what happened in Lombardy.

 

[Colruth]

This was the most epic war for a single barony in the middle of some county, Krak des Chevaliers. 340,000 vs 180,000 and everything was raised (At least on my side)

But it is done, the Roman Empire has been reformed. Hail Caesar!

Grand Prince Suru the Conqueror did not live to see this done, but his successor, Gunnar I completed the task. When he was elected in office, 2 mosque were missing in Archa. He grabbed one first thing in office, then turned his attention on the Ruthenians, so as to give the church some credibility back, as it had been a while since holy wars had been won and without a central head, ground was starting to be lost in the slavic areas.

A year before the end of the truce with the arabs, Gunnar recalled the cavalry in Antioch, leaving behind a Ruthenia crippled with civil war. Being a genius diplomat (29), he kept all his vassals happy with gifts of gold and titles stolen from the Ruthenians. Such happy vassals being willing to give away all their armies for the crown's wishes, the entirety of the realm (Counting 993 holdings at that moment) returned to arabia to claim the Krak des Chevaliers, the last holding left to conquer, according to the scholars, to retake everything within the old empire. As the Arabs vied for peace, some 6 months later, Gunnar addressed the people in Amalfi, proclaiming himself Augustus.

Now with the Arabs bound in truce and the Ruthenians fighting among themselves, Gunnar the Glorious, shifts the empire westward, ready to reclaim the lands of Hispania, Gaul and Britannia.

The date: September 11th, 1164

(I drew the north-eastern border by hand, cause the color between me and the Sultan of Greece are pretty much the same.)

 

[Colruth]

Augustus Gunnar I dies of severe stress at the age of 65 on April 21st, 1171, in the middle of a reconquest campaign in Hispania.

Winning the election for House Konstantios for the 15th time in a row, Iouliannos II is crowned Emperor the next day.

Coming into office with a treasure overflowing more than 8000 gold, Iouliannos distributes more than half of it around his vassals, ensuring their loyalty and a steady flow of troops enough to make the Arabs think twice before launching any attack.

The inner politics secured, Iouliannos continues the conquest of Hispania and southern Gaul.

 

[Colruth]

Iouliannos III has been emperor for 13 years now. 13 years of prosperity, stability and rapid expansion.

Starting with a quick campaign for Italy against the kings of Italy and Burgundy, The Emperor then moved to Hispania, first striking at the Andalusians, sending them into civil war by weakening the ccentral power. Taking that opportunity every rebelling emirate was conquered one by one, at times in the name of Roman hegemony, at times in the name of the Christ. The weak remaining christian powers of Leon and Asturias were not left to themselves, quickly sucked into Roman borders. As a good 3/4th of Hispania back under roman rule and the Andalusians fighting among themselves for the pieces left behind in Africa, the roman legions turned toward the Gauls, held by the queen of Aquitaine, the king of Burgundy and a few dukes.

Meanwhile the Arabs worked on conquering Persia, with the Seljuks consolidating themselves in Cumenia and the surroundings. The Talibid Sultanate mostly disappeared, still holding to the title only due to the Republican's inability to usurp it (He doesnt even have a county anymore, just 4 baronies scattered across my realm in greece.)

Ruthenia fell apart, giving place to a stabilized Poland and currently still fighting 5 succession wars at the same time.

In the west, the most powerful states in the world, after the Roman Empire and the Arabian Empire, are the Holy Roman Empire and the Alba, both still clinging to catholicism, enough that they are slowly cleansing the mended schism from their borders (Orthodoxy fell from 385 to 369 in the last 20 years, even though I've been converting a lot in Hispania from the Sunnis).

With a realm counting over 1300 holdings and mustering over 450,000 troops, the Roman Empire is by far the most powerful entity in the world. The Arabians with a real of 560 holdings and an army mustering 230,000 troops, they are safely second but would stand no chance against a stable Roman Empre, which happens to have been for the last 20 years. (64 Vassals, everyone at 100 opinion and over 12,000 gold in the treasury)

Iouliannos is now pondering a strategy to cripple the Arabs and the Sunnis in general. Already holding Jerusalem, once Alba will have been pushed away from the continent by taking Britanny from them, The Emperor is planning a massive campaign that would culminate after a few wars, in taking both Medina and the Mecca from the Arabs, in hope to take away the Caliphate's authority, in turn forcing the arabian warlords to fight among themselves. The Germans can wait next turn.

 

[Colruth]

I don't know for you guys but I feel this story has grown rather...boring. Even the Mongols, if they show up, probably won't be such a problem for long. I don't run Sunset, so the Aztecs are not an issue.

So unless there is demand that I continue it (I don't mind playing the campaign, I just feel the story is pretty much written from now on), I'll put it on hold.

Not that I had a tremendous amount of followers anyway

 

[Pentel123]

Well I am finding it interesting. The fact you went from one territory to the Emperor of a Roman Republic is pretty impressive.

 

[Colruth]

Actually, I started with 1 trade post, not even a county. The county of Amalfi was held by another family But thanks, yeah

 

[Colruth]

Alright, I continued a bit.

The campaign for Arabia started with a holy war for Sinai. At the time of declaration, only 3 out of 4 counties were held by the Abassid.

The cavalry was moved to Egypt and war was declared. As soon as it was declared the dread cavalry was separted in two collumns to siege Farama and El-Arish. Meanwhile a reserve of 40,000 men was raised to stand behind them in Egypt, which would be used to replenish the sieging cavalry as some of them were dying.

An army of 30,000 was raised in Jerusalem, mostly to deter any siege there. Same was done for Armenia, to keep an eye on the front there.

Sieges in Sinai were going well and unopposed. The Arabs sent their first army from the south, across neutral Abyssinia. With merely 20,000 troops there, The empire didn't bother. Then the first defeat came from Jerusalem. The levies there were routed by a massive arabian army of over 50,000. The remnants of the levies were disbanded and the cavalry sent on ships. The arabs stuck to Jerusalem, sieging the city. At that point the score was at 30% in the Empire's favor, but was going downward.

Both cavalry units landed, a good 35,000 mix of heavy, light and archer cavalry, led by the most prominent war leaders of the empire (29, 26 and 21). The arab army down to 35,000 due to succesfully rushed sieges and lack of food flew as they heard that the roman cavalry was moving their way.

The Imperial army hearing of those coward arabs, who were now moving south toward Sinai, sent the cavalry back to the ships to intercept them down in Sinai, while raising another army of 30,000 to lift the siege in Jerusalem. The arabs merged their army along the way with fresh levies from the south-east, while the Imperial cavalry, outnumbered due to losses in the desert and the sieges, met with Egyptian levies sent across the Strait who were occupying the besieged county of Farama. A massive battle was about to happen, between a massive arabian army and highly advanced, but outnumbered, Imperial army.

The humiliating defeat sent the arabs running and even though they still had over 100,000 levies to keep the war going, they surrendered the next day.

Sadly for the Empire though, Iouliannos III died the week after, probably satisfied of his accomplishments in Hispania and Gaul. Following him as Emperor is Kegen Konstantios, following in the Republic's traditional love for their ancestral leading family.

Dubbed Augustus at 36 years old, Kegen comes to office surrounded by demanding vassals and a young heir. After looking through the adult male Konstantios alive, Kegen resigns himself to name Lealdo, who's already Doge of Granada, his designated heir. A very promising steward, he is very young and no less than 2600 gold is made necessary to ensure the continuation of Konstantios rulership.

Luckily for him his predecessor left him with a treasury of over 12,000 gold and after funding his kin's campaign, he decides to distribute most of the rest around his vassals. Along with a reshuffle of the feudal hierarchy (transfering multiple vassals), calculated assassinations of the ambitious line of Benevento (3 in a row were Ambitious...freaks) and a grand tournament to crown it, Kegen managed, over 2 years of uncertainty, to save the empire from an impending civil war.

A few Dukes are still openly calling for independance, but their forces are nothing to speak of. Kegen is now focusing on refilling the coffers that were emptied and once they are back to an acceptable level, the rest of Hispania and Gaul shall be united. The Konstantios presence at court is becoming costly anyway, they need land to manage for themselves.

 

[Colruth]

Seriously?

Ironically the Queen Agostina of Aquitaine, whom we were preparing to invade in Gascogne, offers to join us. It's not like her puny 5,000 troops will make a difference, but at least she won't have ideas of stabbing us in the back while dealing with those lunatic arabs.

So while the cavalry is on ships back from Hispania, we raise 50,000 levies to hold the door to Egypt. We send the cavalry in Jerusalem and Antioch and from what we are able to see, the arabs aren't organized yet.

Until a 60,000 strong armada appears near Jerusalem. Our cavalry may be strong, but 20,000 will doubtly win such a battle. The levies in Egypt boards their ship and the cavalry in Antioch does the trip on horse. The cavalry in Jerusalem is forced to engage alone first, but manage to hold their ground long enough for the levies to join them, and the second cavalry column joins in to finish the arabs off.

No survivors, but another battalion of arabs, 63,000 this time, appears heading toward Adelon. Altogether matching their numbers while surpassing them in troop quality and technology, the romans move on Adelon. The Arabs bite the bait and moves in.

The Caliph mostly ready to capitulate, the levies are sent home while the imperial cavalry follows the survivors, nearly annihilating them.

A Triumph will be held in Amalfi for this stalward defense from the Muslims. Meanwhile, Kegen will realize that his cruel ways are not making anything easy for him (Gains Kind trait, losing Cruel). However, in recognition some upstart numbskull from nowhere decides to make himself an hindrance.

Yes. Khalid. Some worthless attempt to bring back the Shi'a to Greece. Or from the dead for that matter, the Shi'a being mostly instinct except for 2 counties in eastern Armenia. Foolish Khalil will die in his own blood on the next day (It took 3 attempts, 750 gold...a breeze for a republic).

With the threats taken care of, the vassals pleased with a triumph and the independence faction totally disbanded, Kegen can, hopefully, return to Aquitaine, to thank the Queen for having offered help in that silly Jihad.

 

[Colruth]

God is speaking through me! Telling me to burn those catholic heretics holding to their archaic beliefs and rituals. Like Nero, I want to see them burn, burn!

And to the catholics I go, heeding the call of my savior. That foolish emperor in Germania shall pay his continued heresy. A Holy War for Dauphiné shall serve him well. And so it did! He can call all the catholics in the world to his side if he wants, he. will. fail!

Emperor he says? And can't even send a single man to face me and God? Pah. Fine by me, I'll slaughter those he calls friends and send him their heads to ponder upon.

Of course they all give up and we free Dauphiné from these heretics. We'll also take Bourbon from the child Burgundy has put on the throne to replace Konrad. We will too. When will they learn?

Meanwhile my council comes to me, telling me that scholars have gone through books and realized that we have reunited some old roman province. Illyricum they say. Whatever. But when they say its where what we nowaday call Dalmatia, I wonder why I care? That area has been under Imperial control for generations, before we even claimed the old Byzantine crown. Go away old senile men, find me targets to burn instead!

 

[Colruth]

Death to the Catholics. And why not the Slavs as well. Kegen, possessed with a burning hatred for anything not Christian (not Orthodox, the word Orthodox assumes there are alternatives) intensifies the wars of purity. Pushing further into the Gauls, he also opens another front north of the Carphatias, mostly aimed at Poland and the independent Slavic realms there.

Over the 4 years that will follow, the following realms will be turned into Republics under the banner of Rome: Austria, Normandy, Bavaria, Orleans, Eztergom, Anjou and Valois all in the name of Christ. Auvergne will follow in the name of the Roman Empire, completing the subjugation of Aquitaine back into the Roman hegemony.

In addition to multiple titles distributed among vassals, the Most Serene Republics of Bavaria and Italy (the King of Italy lost his last holdings in Poland) will be added to the Imperial Crown. As noted already, the Kingdom of Aquitaine will also be absorbed into the Empire, the title kept by the once independent House de Thouars.

However, Kegen will not see the turn of the century, contracting a pneumonia near the end of 1198 and will die from it in March 1199. Elected to succeed will be Arnolfo Konstantios:

A good diplomat, Arnolpho's transfer will still not be a smooth one. Unlike his predecessor, Arnolpho inherits a treasury of no more than 2000 gold, most of which he is forced to throw into election funds for his family, not wanting to first Konstantios to lose the seat in over 300 years. With very little gold to placate his vassals, and an Hungarian lifestyle to frustrate them, he is forced to distribute control of vassals across his Doge and Kings.

Furthermore, his inept skills at management forces him to let go of Venezia, which had been held by the crown since its acquisition a long time ago. The Imperial Desmesne is now as small as it ever have been since reforming the empire, concentrated around the mainland of Sicily (Rome, Capua, Napoli, Amalfi, Salermo and Fogglia). Luckily, it can't shrink much lower anymore.

Still, by halting the expansion wars, redirecting the war funds straight into the treasury, Arnolpho manages to evade a civil war. Now with only a few dukes talking of independance, one of which will probably fall off a cliff before the end of the month, Arnolpho wishes to restock the coffers and once that is done, the expansion will continue. With only a few counties to conquer from Burgundy to establish the Republic of France, Arnolpho is dreaming of a campaign into Britannia, to go beyond the achievements of the greatest emperor Rome has ever known.

 

[Colruth]

I figured that the turn of the century and the possible arrival of Mongols soon, called for an update on maps. So, independent realms:

The Seljuk and Arabs in the east have been fighting together for PErsia ever since the Arabs figured they couldn't win against me. As we speak, however, the Arabs are facing an upcoming civil war, as the Caliph is sitting in 100$ Decadence since over a decade and has no way to cleanse it, his only non-Sunni neighbor being me. Besides those two Muslim powers there's the Andalusians in the west, Sunni as well. They are 2nd in power in the Muslim realm but their only neighbor is me so...I wouldn't want to be them.

In the Pagan world there are only two real powers. Finnic Perm and Slavic Ruthenia. There's Poland too, but I've been slapping them around for a decade, they don't even fight back anymore.

In the christian world there is me as Orthodox and the rest are catholics. Aquitaine was Orthodox as well, but I subjugated it. The Holy roman Empire is obviously the only power to speak of for the catholics. Burgundy isn't small but they are spread all over the place and can't respond to any war I send their way. Alba has been falling apart since they lost Britanny, to the point where Ireland is regaining autonomy bit by bit.

So, religion:

Orthodoxy all over the place, obviously. The bits in the west that are not under my control are remnants of the schism mending, which have been reconverted to catholicism over time. Not a big deal, I'm coming. As for the Orthodox blob in the east in Seljuk territory...no idea. I never been there, it has never been christian.

Muslim Sunni is the secure 2nd religion in the world. However, unlike me, they are dealing with pagans (in the west) and christians (in the east) and due to losing holy wars and jihads over and over, they lack the authority to convert.

Slavic is pretty much the only other religion worth mentioning, followed mainly in Ruthenia and Poland. It had 100% Authority not 20 years ago, but they are dwindling as of now. Still, at 77%, they are second in authority by far (Sunni has 22% right now).

Catholics are still strong though, but since they are an heresy, I have no idea of how well they are doing. I'd assume not very well since most of my conquests in the west has been as holy wars. And we, the romans, are not done.

I'm pondering between closing access to the Mediterranean sea or conquering Britannia first. This being said, if the Mongols shows up...all plans change. But I'm trying not to metagame that part and just react once they arrive.

 

[Colruth]

In 1201 the empire was stable once more without falling into civil war. To satisfy some of the still demanding vassals of the crown, Arnolpho figured he would complete the conquest of Gaul and in december, after a quick campaign against the young king of burgundy, a new most serene republic was forged by the imperial crown.

Not long after peace was signed the Emperor, wishing to demonstrate the prestige of the crown and that the imperial coffers were full again, sponsored the erection of a statue of St-Peter to be added to the Konstantios' chapel for over 500 gold.

Now with the coast of normandy back under imperial rule, the conditions for a smooth invasion of Britannia were united and in 1202, a holy war for Deheubarth was declared. In June 1203, after a campaign lacking in resistance, the Republic of Deheubarth was formed.

The campaign for Britannia then spread on multiple fronts, with the lords there being independent small duchies with the exception of england under the heretical empire's rule (we will not call them Holy nor Roman) and the north, be it Scotland and a good part of northern Ireland, under Alba's leadership. There is nothing much to say about it, compared to the arduous conquest of Britannia of old, this conquest was feeling more like a formality rather than a glorious conquest.

Meanwhile, good news came from the south.

A third rise of the Shi'a in history. Two of which served the Republic rather well. The first was Greece, which served a double purpose: First putting a wall against the Sunni's expansion westward but also giving the Republic an opportunity to expand into Greece through holy wars, giving some time to breath to a dying, as it was back then, orthodox church.

Now the church is strong and the Roman Empire is busy in the west, but had to keep an eye to the east since its strongest enemy was still that Arabian Empire. But now the Shi'a faith has claimed the Arabian heartland, along with its two most important holy sites, the Sunni faith left with only Bahgdad. But most importantly, these Muslims will fight among each other for a while, giving us time to reconquer the western empire.

The next 5 years will be relatively peaceful, the conquests in Ireland going very smoothly. With more than half of Britannia back under Roman rule, going way further than the old empire ever went, Arnolpho decides to move the war back to Hispania. The Andalusians had been at peace as well and, while far from being able to invade the empire, they have managed to properly tame the south of their reaches, giving them more hope toward lasting inner peace (Mali and Shongai are now de-jure parts of Andalusia).

In 1208, the second holy war for Cordoba is launched, aiming directly at the Andalusian capital this time. However, as the troops are moving toward the Andalusian city, meeting resistance on the way but never losing any critical battle, the Mahdi Empire takes the opportunity to strike, declaring a Claim on Cyrenaica in which they still sadly hold a barony. With a war with both Sunni nations, the clash of the decade is at hand.

The Empire decides to leave just enough troops to siege and hold the Andalusian capital, while the major bulk of the Roman army is sent east to face the Arabs. In January of 1210 the Andalusians will capitulate their capital. 6 months later, with all the battles taking place on the field and no castle nor city sieged, the Mahdi emperor surrenders and goes home.

Now, with both Sunni nations held to a truce and the whole of the imperial cavalry sitting in Egypt, the Emperor is pondering an invasion for the rich lands of the province of Arabia held by the Shi'ites.