I'm proud to present my first AAR, the Fourth Persian Empire.
My AAR is inspired by first AAR I ever read all the way through from start to finish, the Serpents of the Nile - The Tales of the Egypto-Norse by Tommy4ever.
I started with the New Millennium bookmark using the second most recent version of CK2+ which I've tweaked by my own specifications, I'm not using Reapers Due as this is the last version of the game before it was released.
I make liberal use of the consol now and then to tidy up various issues that bug me such as illogical A.I behavior and annoying border-gore and it was instrumental in some of the innitial setup of the current AAR to convert Seljuk and his vassals and courtiers at the start of the game. I also made tweaks to crown authority and such for the various other kingdoms and empires to ensure a somewhat stable start although I expect the game to get fairly chaotic pretty quickly but fingers crossed. (You might notice that I purged Rhomaions ruler list for the hell of it to suit an in story narrative within the empire that comes about as result of the continued reign of the Macedonian dynasty, it's pointless headcanon and a nod to my own Dawnverse alternate history setting)
I will be trying to give a vague semi-history book/wikipedia entry style covering of each ruler until I eventually get sick of the game of feel it's reached an end point and will occasionally give updates on the rest of the world (I'm playing with India off to reduce performance issues later on which is a first for me so don't expect India to be motioned much) now and then such as the Byzantine Empire/Basileia Rhomaion and the HRE/Imperium Romanum Sacrum.
I will eventually be posting screenshots although I don't know how many as I've taken dozens of them and need to decide how many to use and if I should use by DA account or Photobucket to host them.
The Medieval History of the Fourth Persian Empire
1000 AD - ? AD
Shahanshah Seljuk "the Magnificent"
Lived: 960 AD - 1019 AD (Estimated)
Sultan/Shah of Persia: 1003 AD - 1019 AD
Sultan/Shah of Mesopotamia: 1014 AD - 1019 AD
Shahanshah of the Persian Empire: 1014 AD - 1019 AD
Head of House Seljuk: 985 AD - 1019 AD (Estimated)
Seljuk is the legendary founder of the House of Seljuk and the first Shahanshah of the Seljuk Fourth Persian Empire. Seljuk's early history is poorly documented and is inconsistently recalled in several mythologized tales written in the decades after his death by his descendants and various historians and scholars in the employ of the royal court in centered in Esfahan.
The most reliable accounts, and even these are suspect, place him as an officer in the Khazar army before he eventually struck of on his own and formed is own breakway tribe from either the Kinik or Oghuz tribes.
His original faith is unknown but is assumed to have been either Nestorian Christianity or Tengrism, irregardless some years before his invasion of the Buyid Shahdom it is clear that Seljuk and the majority of his tribe converted to a strain of Zoroastrianism after giving shelter to a traveling Mobad who was seeking shelter from persecution by the Muslim authorities who ruled Persia and Central Asia at the time.
Seljuk was radicalized by his conversion and enthusiastically embraced his new faith which he forced on his tribe who ever converted en mass or were cast out of the tribe. Several years later after on and off fighting with the declining Samanid Shahdom, Seljuk lead his people deep into the interior of the Persian Plateau, in late 1000 AD, where they settled down and promptly began a war of conquest against the Buyid Shahdom that quickly became something of a holy war.
Seljuk lead his army with great skill and repeatedly crushed the Buyid military in almost every encounter while suffering very few defeats none of which where serious. By early 1004 AD the Seljuks had driven the Buyids out of Persia and reduced them to a rump realm in Mesopotamia which was subjected to several major raids by the Turks before they finally finished it off entirely in late 1014 AD.
Seljuk embraced Persian culture and customs over a period of roughly 10 years during which he set about consolidating his realm and appointing his people and local Zoroastrian Persians, despite differences between them and his peoples Neo-Mazdaki sect, in government while subjecting the Muslim population, Shia and Sunni alike, to harsh taxation and repression by turning their own Jizya laws against them.
Before the final defeat of the rump Buyid Shahdom with the conquest of Mesopotamia, Seljuk constructed a fleet and together with his eldest son's, Arslan and Cihangir, carried a series of vicious raids target at coastal Oman and Yemen and even struck a blow at Islam itself by sailing up the Red Sea and laying siege to the holy city of Mecca which was partially sacked before the Seljuks where driven off by the forces of the Shiite Fatimid Caliphate.
After the end of the Great Raid and the conquest of Mesopotamia, Seljuk largely ceased his expansionism and with the exception of a punitive war against the Ghaznavid Sultan of Afghanistan and Balochistan ruled fairly peacefully for the remaining few years of his life before finally dying in his sleep at the age of 58 in 1019 AD after struggling with brief fever that left him weak of health.
Seljuk's character is one of strong contrast, he had enormous pride and a fiery temper which at times clouded his judgment and lead to mistakes in battle that could have easily resulted in defeat, it's a miracle they actually didn't, and was brave to the point or recklessness as he insisted on fighting alongside his men on the front lines of battle rather then commanding safely from the rear.
At the same time he was a very pious man who took his faith seriously and willing donated much of his wealth to the poor be they Turkish or Persian, provided they where Zoroastrian of course, and forced his nobles to do the same much to their protest. He went out of his way restore many of the old fire temples that had fallen into ruin or where converted into mosque due to Muslim persecution.
His efforts to reconcile his own peoples Neo-Mazdaki strain of Zoroastrianism with that of the more orthodox strain of the remaining Persian Zoroastrians did not always meet with success and his establishment of a Neo-mazdaki priesthood that he gave authority over both strains caused a good deal of tension that would last until well into his son Arslan's reign when Mazdakism was essentially forced on them.
Because he was extremely zealous, Seljuk was intolerant of his Muslim subjects and treated them harsh which provoked two major revolts that where crushed with some difficulty and were meet with brutal repression. While he is remembered in a positive light by later generations of Turks and Persians who is loathed and hated by Muslims across the world for his actions.
Seljuk came to regard himself as a Persian through and through towards the end of his life and considered his new empire a successor to the Sassanid Empire which he called the Third Persian Empire with his been the Fourth Persian Empire. This was not immediately accepted by his Persian subjects but towards the end of the 11th century as the Seljuk Turks became fully assimilated, the Dynasty and empire came to be accepted as Persian unlike the Parathian's who predated the Turks by almost a millennium and formed the Second Persian Empire.
My AAR is inspired by first AAR I ever read all the way through from start to finish, the Serpents of the Nile - The Tales of the Egypto-Norse by Tommy4ever.
I started with the New Millennium bookmark using the second most recent version of CK2+ which I've tweaked by my own specifications, I'm not using Reapers Due as this is the last version of the game before it was released.
I make liberal use of the consol now and then to tidy up various issues that bug me such as illogical A.I behavior and annoying border-gore and it was instrumental in some of the innitial setup of the current AAR to convert Seljuk and his vassals and courtiers at the start of the game. I also made tweaks to crown authority and such for the various other kingdoms and empires to ensure a somewhat stable start although I expect the game to get fairly chaotic pretty quickly but fingers crossed. (You might notice that I purged Rhomaions ruler list for the hell of it to suit an in story narrative within the empire that comes about as result of the continued reign of the Macedonian dynasty, it's pointless headcanon and a nod to my own Dawnverse alternate history setting)
I will be trying to give a vague semi-history book/wikipedia entry style covering of each ruler until I eventually get sick of the game of feel it's reached an end point and will occasionally give updates on the rest of the world (I'm playing with India off to reduce performance issues later on which is a first for me so don't expect India to be motioned much) now and then such as the Byzantine Empire/Basileia Rhomaion and the HRE/Imperium Romanum Sacrum.
I will eventually be posting screenshots although I don't know how many as I've taken dozens of them and need to decide how many to use and if I should use by DA account or Photobucket to host them.
The Medieval History of the Fourth Persian Empire
1000 AD - ? AD
Shahanshah Seljuk "the Magnificent"
Lived: 960 AD - 1019 AD (Estimated)
Sultan/Shah of Persia: 1003 AD - 1019 AD
Sultan/Shah of Mesopotamia: 1014 AD - 1019 AD
Shahanshah of the Persian Empire: 1014 AD - 1019 AD
Head of House Seljuk: 985 AD - 1019 AD (Estimated)
Seljuk is the legendary founder of the House of Seljuk and the first Shahanshah of the Seljuk Fourth Persian Empire. Seljuk's early history is poorly documented and is inconsistently recalled in several mythologized tales written in the decades after his death by his descendants and various historians and scholars in the employ of the royal court in centered in Esfahan.
The most reliable accounts, and even these are suspect, place him as an officer in the Khazar army before he eventually struck of on his own and formed is own breakway tribe from either the Kinik or Oghuz tribes.
His original faith is unknown but is assumed to have been either Nestorian Christianity or Tengrism, irregardless some years before his invasion of the Buyid Shahdom it is clear that Seljuk and the majority of his tribe converted to a strain of Zoroastrianism after giving shelter to a traveling Mobad who was seeking shelter from persecution by the Muslim authorities who ruled Persia and Central Asia at the time.
Seljuk was radicalized by his conversion and enthusiastically embraced his new faith which he forced on his tribe who ever converted en mass or were cast out of the tribe. Several years later after on and off fighting with the declining Samanid Shahdom, Seljuk lead his people deep into the interior of the Persian Plateau, in late 1000 AD, where they settled down and promptly began a war of conquest against the Buyid Shahdom that quickly became something of a holy war.
Seljuk lead his army with great skill and repeatedly crushed the Buyid military in almost every encounter while suffering very few defeats none of which where serious. By early 1004 AD the Seljuks had driven the Buyids out of Persia and reduced them to a rump realm in Mesopotamia which was subjected to several major raids by the Turks before they finally finished it off entirely in late 1014 AD.
Seljuk embraced Persian culture and customs over a period of roughly 10 years during which he set about consolidating his realm and appointing his people and local Zoroastrian Persians, despite differences between them and his peoples Neo-Mazdaki sect, in government while subjecting the Muslim population, Shia and Sunni alike, to harsh taxation and repression by turning their own Jizya laws against them.
Before the final defeat of the rump Buyid Shahdom with the conquest of Mesopotamia, Seljuk constructed a fleet and together with his eldest son's, Arslan and Cihangir, carried a series of vicious raids target at coastal Oman and Yemen and even struck a blow at Islam itself by sailing up the Red Sea and laying siege to the holy city of Mecca which was partially sacked before the Seljuks where driven off by the forces of the Shiite Fatimid Caliphate.
After the end of the Great Raid and the conquest of Mesopotamia, Seljuk largely ceased his expansionism and with the exception of a punitive war against the Ghaznavid Sultan of Afghanistan and Balochistan ruled fairly peacefully for the remaining few years of his life before finally dying in his sleep at the age of 58 in 1019 AD after struggling with brief fever that left him weak of health.
Seljuk's character is one of strong contrast, he had enormous pride and a fiery temper which at times clouded his judgment and lead to mistakes in battle that could have easily resulted in defeat, it's a miracle they actually didn't, and was brave to the point or recklessness as he insisted on fighting alongside his men on the front lines of battle rather then commanding safely from the rear.
At the same time he was a very pious man who took his faith seriously and willing donated much of his wealth to the poor be they Turkish or Persian, provided they where Zoroastrian of course, and forced his nobles to do the same much to their protest. He went out of his way restore many of the old fire temples that had fallen into ruin or where converted into mosque due to Muslim persecution.
His efforts to reconcile his own peoples Neo-Mazdaki strain of Zoroastrianism with that of the more orthodox strain of the remaining Persian Zoroastrians did not always meet with success and his establishment of a Neo-mazdaki priesthood that he gave authority over both strains caused a good deal of tension that would last until well into his son Arslan's reign when Mazdakism was essentially forced on them.
Because he was extremely zealous, Seljuk was intolerant of his Muslim subjects and treated them harsh which provoked two major revolts that where crushed with some difficulty and were meet with brutal repression. While he is remembered in a positive light by later generations of Turks and Persians who is loathed and hated by Muslims across the world for his actions.
Seljuk came to regard himself as a Persian through and through towards the end of his life and considered his new empire a successor to the Sassanid Empire which he called the Third Persian Empire with his been the Fourth Persian Empire. This was not immediately accepted by his Persian subjects but towards the end of the 11th century as the Seljuk Turks became fully assimilated, the Dynasty and empire came to be accepted as Persian unlike the Parathian's who predated the Turks by almost a millennium and formed the Second Persian Empire.
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and it's looking more and more like I will be using Imgur now although I still have to go through which screenshots I want to use which may take a while.