Rebuilding Great Armenia - Bagratid AAR
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Hello,
I've been reading your AAR, it is an interesting tale, although I don't know the mod you use(I mostly play vanilla, I know
o)
I'd say go for the Pechenegs, it probably ties more with the story, with the familiriaty with the Pecheneg mercenaries. Plus I don't think unreformed pagans can go above limited crown authority so you don't risk revocation of your titles..
Looking forward to an Armenian Tengri twist? Who knows, good luck!
I've been reading your AAR, it is an interesting tale, although I don't know the mod you use(I mostly play vanilla, I know
o)I'd say go for the Pechenegs, it probably ties more with the story, with the familiriaty with the Pecheneg mercenaries. Plus I don't think unreformed pagans can go above limited crown authority so you don't risk revocation of your titles..
Looking forward to an Armenian Tengri twist? Who knows, good luck!
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Armenian Tengri would indeed be great!
Pechenegs makes for the most doable anyways. (Claim fabricating in a strong, yet decentralized realm? Ideal!)
Pechenegs makes for the most doable anyways. (Claim fabricating in a strong, yet decentralized realm? Ideal!)
The Emperor or the Caliph will probably both revoke your titles, so probably the Leper Khan.
More importantly, who is Siran going to marry? I vote for her nephew.
More importantly, who is Siran going to marry? I vote for her nephew
.
From gameplay standpoint they are too weak and too distant. From roleplay standpoint it's just crazy, my Armenians at best know that Abyssinia exists, but there are no ways of communicating and no reason to communicate.
And from religious standpoint Armenian and Coptic/Ethiopian churches are united only in that they don't accept Chalcedonian Dyophysite Christology. Between them there are vast differences, Armenian church considers Severus of Antioch, saint of Coptic church and author of Coptic creed, heretic. Armenians having Coptic pope as a leader of faith is a terrible oversight, they should at least have autocephalous patriarch, or be separate branch entirely.
Hello,
I've been reading your AAR, it is an interesting tale, although I don't know the mod you use(I mostly play vanilla, I know
I'd say go for the Pechenegs, it probably ties more with the story, with the familiriaty with the Pecheneg mercenaries. Plus I don't think unreformed pagans can go above limited crown authority so you don't risk revocation of your titles..
Looking forward to an Armenian Tengri twist? Who knows, good luck!
Thank you! I use HIP mod with all modules, you can find it in mod subforum. It's [fanboy mode] best CK2 mod in existance [/fm]
The Emperor or the Caliph will probably both revoke your titles, so probably the Leper Khan.
More importantly, who is Siran going to marry? I vote for her nephew
Wow, this AAR got popular indeed! Thank you all for your comments. Whom Siran will swear fealty to? Who will she marry? Find out in the next episode of
What if I told you, that Siran's mother Bertha is a bastard daughter of Karling king of Lotharingia?Please, no Karlings.
Chapter 6
Travel to Crimea – overview of Pecheneg Khanate – Kortan-Khan – How Siran met Kwassaana – Story of Kwassaana
The exempt from the “History of Princess Siran”, written by court eunuch Boghos Arranshahik:Travel to Crimea – overview of Pecheneg Khanate – Kortan-Khan – How Siran met Kwassaana – Story of Kwassaana
“In the year 350 by Armenian count (901 AD) I was ordered to follow the great and illustrious princess Siran to the land of Pechenegs, to ask for protection of their king. And with rich gifts and tribute and an escort, for the roads of Armenia were not safe, we began our journey.
At first we came to the city of Tbilisi, capital of Georgian kings, which was said to rival Ani of forty gates and one thousand and one churches itself, before Pechenegs sacked it and reduced it to rabble. Nowadays Georgian people were permitted to return to the city and begun rebuilding it. The ruler of the city was out in the hills, for he is Pecheneg, and they despise cities.
And from Tbilisi we came to the city of Batumi by the sea. Georgian prince rules here, and the city was spared the desolation, for their prince betrayed queen of Georgia and defected to Pechenegs. In other places of Georgian kingdom his name is cursed by all, but people of Batumi calls him Dimitri the Saviour and loves him for he delivered them from evil of Pecheneg sword.
Batumi is noisy and dirty town, and is no match to Ani, but has busy port and merchants from all corners of Earth come here. Here we employed a ship to get us to Crimea across the sea.
And in Crimea we came to the city of Theodosia, which is populated by Greeks, and pays tribute to Pechenegs.
And here permit me to tell you about the land of Pechenegs. It’s a great and vast land, stretches from Crimea in the west till the end of the known world in the east. Countless peoples and tribes live under Pecheneg yoke, though one might argue that said yoke is not hard. Every faith known to man is professed in Pecheneg lands: there are, among others, those who follow Jewish faith of Khazars, who are now Pecheneg tributaries, and those who follow Mohammedan faith in the emirates that was crushed by Pechenegs. There are even those, who follow words of Mani, the false prophet whom Bahram of Iran of old skinned alive and stuffed his skin with sawdust and hanged on a tree.
"Execution of Mani", Persian miniature, 1315
As for those who profess true faith of Christ, there are Greeks and Georgians who follow Greek writes and believe in two natures of Christ, the heretics. And there are few of those who follow the one and true word of Holy Armenian Apostolic.
As for Pechenegs themselves, apart from those who are Manichean, they are mostly heathens believing in Tengri, Eternal Blue Sky.
And from the city of Theodosia we came to the place where their khan was, for Pechenegs possess no cities, and when there’s no war their khan roams in steppes with his innumerable herds, and when the summer breaks he leaves cold steppes of North and comes to Crimea, where it’s warmer.
The khan’s camp is a vast sea of tents and yurts, bigger than most cities. There are churches and smithies and merchants and their shops and everything that one may find in any city on Earth is here in khan’s camp.
And so we came seeking audience with khan and gave great gifts to the khan’s entourage to fast-track our business, as it is customary among them.
The khan’s tent is a great and remarkable structure, bigger than any palace and full of silks and golden decorations and loot taken from his many campaigns.
The khan, whose name is Kortan, hears the petitioners from beyond richly decorated cover, embroiled with pearls and precious stones, for he is punished with a terrible disease of leprosy. The punishment worthy of countless crimes he committed against Christians and churches and monasteries he looted and burned, and good Christians he enslaved.
And he heard our case and thought about, and then sent his courtiers to take our gifts and our tribute, and proclaimed that Armenia will be under his protection, from now until the all the time runs out. And he set the annual tribute for us to pay to enjoy this protection. And he avowed that if we fail to deliver our tribute, he will come in all his might and reduce us to ashes.
And here I will tell the story how Siran met Kwassaana.
Pechenegs are a warlike people, and love war. And so, when there’s no war, they play in war, and made games and shows and tournaments so everyone willing can show his military prowess.
Among those countless people who dwell in khan’s camp there was a dark-skinned warrior, who was stronger than most, and was extremely good with a spear. And princess took a liking at him, and invited him to dine with us one day. And after dinner he told his story, which I will now retell:
“The warrior, whose name was Kwassaana, was of Beja people, called Blemmyes by Greeks, who dwell beyond Egypt. He claimed, that his ancestry traces to the time of Egypt of old, that they come from priest-kings of Thebes, who ruled Egypt thousand years before Birth of our Lord. Whether or not this is true I cannot say.
Burial mask of pharaoh Psusennes I, who, according to Beja beliefs, belong to their people.
This warrior was son of king among his tribe of Bazin, one among Beja tribes. His brother was afraid of him, and so betrayed him and beat him and threw him in desert to die. But he was found by slave-traders on service of Shi’a caliph in Egypt, so he was brought to the palace of caliph and brought up as a warrior slave, customary among Mohameddans.
He, however, disliked being a slave didn’t want to give up the faith of Christ, so when send to war with Greeks he ran away and made his way through the Greek lands into the land of Pechenegs, where no one cared about him, or his faith or his previous slavery. And due to his natural strength and skills with a spear he made a decent living among Pechenegs, fighting as a mercenary infantryman, for while Pechenegs are great horsemen, they dislike fighting on foot, and rely on mercenaries and tributaries for that.”
And so he told his story and princess took liking in him and desired to marry him.
Futile were my endeavors to dissuade her. When I said that it’s not proper for princess of ancient house Bagratuni to marry a barbarian, she said that she believes in his words that his line comes from rulers of Egypt before Christ.
And when I said that I saw better matches to her, she asked whether seeing too much is bothering me, for in that case she may help by removing my eyes. And here I digressed, for princess was known to be cruel in her anger.
And thus the marriage was made between Siran of house Bagratuni and Kwassaana of house Ini.
So does Kwassaana's dynasty descend from the Phareos of ancient Egypt, that is the question.
Of course not! Everyone knows Phareos didn't rule Egypt. The REAL question is whether his family descends from the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.
A bit of explaining on the marriage part, that I couldn't shoehorn into the chapter: I know you all wanted to have some aunt/nephew shenanigans, and I like some incestuous games as much as the next guy likes his sister. And from what I could gather, pre-Christianized kings of Armenia were rather fond of their sisters too, but Siran's nephew, whatshisname, is ugly. And I can't have my attractive proud cruel princess to marry some ugly boys, right? The other candidate for keeping it in the family was son of former Georgian queen, Bagrat, but he's two and all he can bring to my side of the family is a decrepit county of Tusheti and a bunch of empty duchy titles.
As for Kwassaana's descent, everything I know about Beja people comes from wikipedia and it tells us:
As for Kwassaana's descent, everything I know about Beja people comes from wikipedia and it tells us:
Chapter 7
Pilgrimage - Secession of Tayk - Kortan's death - Restoration of Borders - Scarlet Queen - Armenia from Caspian to Mediterranean - Siran's death - Partition of Armenia.
Pilgrimage - Secession of Tayk - Kortan's death - Restoration of Borders - Scarlet Queen - Armenia from Caspian to Mediterranean - Siran's death - Partition of Armenia.
After Siran’s return from Crimea and the marriage ceremony between Siran and Kwassaana in Echmiadzin, Siran embarked on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, bearing lavish gifts for Armenian St Jacob Cathedral there.
While the exact information on what happened during this trip is unavailable, something changed Siran’s view on religion. Upon returning Siran nearly abandoned participating in any church events and sever most of the ties with clergy.
While Siran was in Jerusalem, the influential Pahlavuni family petitioned khan to be made his direct vassals in the lands of Tayk, request promptly granted, as khan was worry of Bagratuni influence in Transcaucasia.
Siran, returned from Jerusalem, couldn’t go directly against khan’s orders and was forced to accept secession of Tayk. However she attacked Aba, Pecheneg ruler of the mountainous province of Hereti, incorporating it after short and near bloodless war.
In the year 903, leading his troops in a raid against Finnic tribes of the North, the great khan Kortan was slayed in personal combat. It’s said that preferring death by the sword to the slow torment of leprosy he actively sought the ablest of the enemy warriors to cross sword with, and finally met his superior in Tuure of Karelia.
His son and heir, Sol, who didn’t inherit his father’s bravery, gave Siran carte blanche to any actions beyond Caucasus in exchange for standing at his side against any pretenders, should the need arise.
Siran made use of that, retaking Suenik from Zoroastrian Justanids in 906 and subjugating Pahlavuni after obliterating their retainers at Loriberd in 908.
She kept her end of the bargain, however, and when the great uprising of 909 begun, spearheaded by Muslim emir of Derbent and supported by Jewish Khazar, Georgian, Manichean and Alan minorities, Armenian levies fought on loyalists’ side, suppressing rebellion in Transcaucasia.
For some reason, be it Siran’s suspicion towards Armenian nobility, influence of Pecheneg customs of putting personal loyalty before any conventions or just Siran’s character it was far easier to any non-beleiver to achieve position of power in Armenia than ever before. Kurdish Zoroastrian named Ayeshah was Siran’s vizier, while the coveted rank of sparapet was bestowed upon Pecheneg Tengriist Buga.
In 910 the rebellion was crushed, and seasoned Armenian warriors turned against their traditional enemies – Arabs. After the glorious victories at Aitwank and Mush the province of Taron was reconquered.
Thus, all lands lost during regency were finally recovered. By that time Siran was celebrated by all Armenians as great queen and protector, and could do pretty much anything she wanted. Surrounded by a harem of favorites and male concubines, she lived the life of ancient queen, which along with her tolerance to unbelievers made later church writers to condemn her as “Whore of Babylon” and “Scarlet Empress”. Whoever, she might get a little too enthusiastic in her exploits:
Even in later life, suffering from terrible disease, she managed to enlarge Armenian domain, conquering Shirvan, thus restoring Armenia from Mediterranean to Caspian.
After that she spent the rest of her life in Ani, while her naharars repelled with ease any attempts of other feudals to bite off a piece of Armenia.
She died in the year of 920, leaving three sons and two daughters. About sons, Manuel, Smbat and Ardashir, it was said that they inherited neither their mother’s beauty, nor their father’s strength. Armenian domain was partitioned between them: Eldest, Manuel was given most of central Armenia, youngest, Ardshir, was granted Tayk in the west and Shirvan in the east, while middle brother Smbat got Suenik.
Out of daughters, the eldest, Zmroukhd, was betrothed to the Byzantine heir.
It was back to square one for house Bagartuni and their quest to rebuild great Armenia.
The curse of rulers dying young strikes again! Siran's at least was attractive, while Manuel and his siblings are completely useless.
I actually have no idea where she contacted it. Her husband is clean and she had no lovers I'm aware of. I invented the reason in the AAR, but really it's a mistery.