Not that big a deal in this case, since we kinda want to lose a lot of the territory anyway. Would just be nice to know when stuff I want to keep is leaving the empire
At last, after many years of struggle, fortune appears to be with us. For the time being at least. The isle of Sicily recognizes the error if its ways and returns to the fold.
Any many of the ills which have beset our realm subside, allowing our subjects to prosper once more.
Alas, some of our vassals still chafe under our benevolent rule, and we must part company. We hold out hope that they will one day return, as so many have. Still, we cannot but feel that fates hand is at work, freeing us from the burden of some of our further territories which are but a distraction from our beloved homeland.
We feel it is time to inject some young blood into the nobility of our realm, and a promising young lad of our own family is raised to prominence in our Iberian holdings. A new Duke of Navarre is created, long may he prosper.
A scandal rears its ugly head in our court as accusations of vile heresy and sorcery are raised, but our confidence in our loyal Marshal are vindicated as he is cleared of all suspicion.
Further justifying our anti-expansionist position, one of our far flung holdings starts a war with Poland on the flimsiest of excuses. We leave them to suffer for their follies, they can expect no help from house Vermandois.
Petty squabbles arise from time to time in our court. We stand by our appointees and will brook no dissent, to question our authority is to question the realm, such people must be exiled before they cause greater strife.
This time of peace was too good to last. We have been stricken by a most fearful malady, and must needs take to our bed.
Thinking weakness of body will lead to weakness of spirit, the villainous King of Poland strikes while we are weakened. We will fight them to our last breath, such treachery must be answered!
My strength fades... Young Ioannes will need to take up the fight for our glorious realm... God bless you my son, may your star shine brighter than mine...
I'm guessing that his Mom was Greek, and he inherited it that way.
You get your nationality based on an unevenly-weighted random roll between Dad's nationality, Mom's nationality, or your capital province's nationality, favoring Dad's.
So many Kings in our bloodline! Maps are largely boring at the moment. We have France, SW Iberia, Ireland, and England/Wales, basically. Time for a purge!
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
A History of the House of Charlemagne by Andre de Bumme
Chapter 27: The Magna Carta (1377 - 1390)
Upon the death of his father Frigyes, Ioannes I of Burgundian France inherited the most powerful throne in Europe. Stretching from the shores of Portugal to the Alps and across the English Channel to control much of Southern England the island of Ireland, along with scattered territories on the Baltic Coast and in the Holy Land, no foreign power dared challenge the might of the House of Vermandois. However, Ioannes also inherited a realm beset by civil wars of one variety or another for nearly a century and barely recovering from the great plagues that devastated Europe in the 14th century. The peasants were merely trying to survive while the nobles had begun to believe that some of the King's political power should rightly belong to them.
Inheriting the throne at the age of 15, Ioannes was a talented warrior and fair in the other courtly arts. Vitally, he took after his father Michael who had been largely ignored by King Frigyes. Instead, Michael was raised as a Greek by Queen Zoe and passed those traditions along to his firstborn son. The powerful French nobles of the Paris region decided that the reason for the plagues and civil wars was that the Frankish people could not abide being ruled by non-Frankish Kings. Frigyes had considered himself Hungarian and his reign had been, at best, stuck in neutral. They decided they would first try to assert their authority when it came time for young Ioannes to marry.
Collectively, the nobles demanded that the young King marry a noblewoman who considered herself to be a Frank. A shy man by nature, Ioannes decided to avoid a confrontation, something which would become a pattern in the first decade of his rule. So he searched far and wide and in the court of the Count of Penthieve he found a young woman to be his bride. Isabeau wasn't particularly notable, but wasn't going to be an albatross around the neck of the King, as many of her predecessors had been. The two were reasonably happy together, though there were rumors the King had at least one mistress stashed away in a neighboring realm. These reports were never conclusively proven either way and no bastards emerged claiming Ioannes as their father.
The nobles of Paris further exerted their authority the next year. Xenophobia among the nobles had taken full effect and they felt that any relations with foreign lands had to be ended. In particular, the nobles felt that the Italians were unworthy of Frankish rule. Once again, Ioannes failed to stand up to the nobles around him and was bullied into giving the Italian crown to the Duke of Gloucester, who held court in Southern Italy and was a distant cousin of the Vermandois family. This was the failure of resolve the nobles needed.
In 1378, the nobles threatened a full scale civil war unless certain rights and privileges were given to them. Most important among these were a larger say in the policies of France. Additionally, they demanded that all taxes on the nobles be cut to 0. So the King of France, heir to Charlemagne, and most powerful man in the world signed the Magna Carta (it's Latin, and didn't happen in this timeline, as England blew up - bum). Several of the more powerful or far flung vassals just declared independence entirely, knowing Ioannes would almost certainly forgive them.
As a final term of the Magna Carta, Ioannes was forced to relinquish all of his crowns except for those of France and Burgundy, the two Frankish thrones in his possession. Ioannes tried to keep the Crowns at least in the House of Vermandois, with limited success. The Duke of Deheubarth, a minor Vermandois, was made the King of Wales. The loyal Duke of Meath was given the Irish Crown. The powerful Duchy of Badajoz was crowned King of Leon. And finally a man who had personally sworn fealty to Ioannes was given the title of King of England.
Finally, for the first time in 50 years, the realm had calmed down and the threat of a civil war launched by the French nobles had passed. Ioannes celebrated by launching a massive construction program, spending the massive treasury he had inherited from his father. This made Ioannes a much happier King, though the realm had shrunken significantly. At this point only mainland France and a few outlying territories remained.
We know that Ioannes was a devoted diarist and spent much of his time in the royal library. This made him somewhat non-confrontational and many of the hundreds of claims that he had inherited faded into obscurity as he refused to fight to uphold them.
However, in the mid 1780s, Ioannes decided that he should live up to the reputation that the heirs of Charlemagne had built up in their stunning rise to prominence over the preceding 250 years. At the very least, he should enforce the family claim on their ancestral homeland of Vermandois. Ioannes ordered his marshal to ready the Paris regiment and ride out to crush his next door neighbor in a brutal three month war. Once again Vermandois itself was in the direct demesnes of the House of Vermandois.
Noting this aggressive move and impressed by the piety Ioannes had shown in relinquishing several of his crowns, the Pope crowned him Emperor. Almost immediately, the Pope demanded further authority in France. Ioannes decided to negotiate a compromise rather than stand up to the extremely weak Papacy.
Noting Ioannes' unwillingness to come to any kind of confrontation, the Duke of Champagne and his three provinces that neighbored the King's demesnes rebelled in 1386. Surprisingly, Ioannes actually decided to fight and personally took control of the Duke's lands. The Shy King was actually building a fairly sizable personal territory around Paris.
Which he further expanded when the Count of Brugge rebelled. Brugge had developed into a thriving center of trade and was the richest province in France by the late 1380s. Ioannes also took it into his personal territory and for a time moved the court there.
Meanwhile, in the Holy Land, the Muslim King of Zenata had been expanding his territory in Babylon. After a long war, he finally had pushed back the Christians and retaken Jerusalem itself. The Pope immediately called for yet another Crusade to the region.
Fig 27.1 A map of the rapidly expanding Kingdom of Zenata. (Not pictured: Zenatan Morocco)
The new Sultan of Zenata was a 14 year old boy, much of the expansion of the Kingdom had been done by his father. This boy was talented though, and looked likely to continue the expansion and potentially reconquer the entire Holy Land for the Muslims.
However of more interest to the Greek Ioannes was that the Arabs had, at some point, claimed the title of Emperor of Byzantium. He strongly believed that this could not stand. So he came to the nobles with a request: Ioannes wanted to go on Crusade. His arguments in favor were to once again liberate Jerusalem for Christ, but his ulterior motive was to restore the title of Eastern Roman Emperor to a Greek. He also thought by re-unifying the titles of Eastern Roman and Western Roman Emperor in the name of France he would be remembered forever. He was, after all, shy not unambitious.
To the nobles (you guys):
Do you approve Ioannes' request for a Crusade? The Franks outnumber the Arabs about 380k to 150k, and Zenata himself has 20 provinces. War goals would be the County of Jerusalem (which we would immediately give away to a cousin) and the title of Emperor of Byzantium (we have a claim, conveniently).
Everybody reading the thread can vote.
So two reasons I did this:
1) Obviously, we need to lose a bunch of territory before we start EU3
2) There's going to be more viewer participation in EU3, so I wanted to set that up narratively.
Then the Crusade just dovetailed nicely with the whole idea that he's Greek.
Next time: The Sixth Crusade OR Ioannes Insults Orkney and Dauphine
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
Do we have any land to actually give to a "Emperor of Byzantium"? Isn't most of the land over there already held by a greek principality I can't remember the name of?
I'll vote in favour of a crusade anyway, can't let the heathens keep Jerusalem
Do we have any land to actually give to a "Emperor of Byzantium"? Isn't most of the land over there already held by a greek principality I can't remember the name of?
I'll vote in favour of a crusade anyway, can't let the heathens keep Jerusalem
I have... things planned for it.
And it's like Cibarryyeat.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
Your desire to unseat the Heathen in the Holy City is admirable, but we cannot afford the disturbance after the years of war we have faced. We would be crass to deny you the use of your own sworn men and do not desire to do so, but we do request that you not use our troops to prosecute your own desires. To that end, we send our blessing, but wish to reserve the men for the defense of the Empire as they have been sworn to do under your compact with the various barons and greater nobility.
[OCC: No vassal troops but otherwise yes I too want a Latin ME.]
Duke of Badajoz becomes King of Leon? Awesome! Thanks for allowing that little scheme of mine to come to fruition, eb.
I recall, in days long past, that the greater Carolingian Empire made war against two great nations of the unbelievers - the Kingdom of Zenata and the Al Murabatids. I believe it was always your ancestor's, Centule's, goal to drive those two realms into ruin, but he was prevented from doing so by rebellion and plague.
The Al Murabatids are, in large part, finished, but the Zenatans are still on the rise. Accordingly, for the greater glory of all Christendom, I heartily support your goal of retaking Jerusalem in His name.
[Presumably, I don't know about your sneaky, underhanded, awesome plan of being both Roman and Byzantine Emperor. Also, the Cybarrheots have always been polite. ]
I really wouldn't do that as it creates historical imbalances. China for example becomes way too large too fast. There's a reason despite being the Asian super-power they never made it anywhere (and for the record I think "Guns, Germs, and Steel" fails to make the case that it was all luck of the draw see: Decline And Fall).
You're probably better off gimping our nation than buffing other nations then. Making changes to basic mechanics like research speed can have drastic effects.
EU3's AI is decent enough that the AI can usually adapt to global variable changes (e.g. if you lower the BB limit the AI does well enough not going over it - tending towards less quick expansion). But that doesn't mean the result will be balanced or fun. Balancing research speeds would be a huge pain, since you won't be able to gauge how it will affect gameplay 200 years down the line (without repeatedly testing it).
And I would prefer historical accuracy within the boundaries of the world we've created for ourselves (i.e. what have we done that would make China less xenophobic and devoid of civil war that they're able to research and explore so well?). I can see the argument for the Muslim (and possibly eastern tech groups), but the period and geography of CK don't lend much interaction with Asia (or much of Africa).
Muslim and Ottoman (or if you want to sit the Zenatans or Muratibids with Ottoman tech (or a new level)...depending on who's around) should probably be closer to 90% and Eastern at 85 or 90% (most of Russia has still been covered with vestiges of Mongol hordes and disparate tribes - despite Italian, French and Norwegian intervention in the Baltic area.
Hypothetically our European society would likely be more open and accepting - not only because of our numerous heretic rulers - due to the multitude of interaction our forces have had in Muslim-controlled Spain, Africa and Outremer). Based on that ridiculous acceptance you may want to increase the tech level of the New World to match our decreased likelihood of converting them and taking their land. Then again, we've gone crusading quite a bit more than our historical counterparts as well, so you could just as easily argue our ruling class wants to wipe out all the non-Christians we come across.
Posts
Any many of the ills which have beset our realm subside, allowing our subjects to prosper once more.
Alas, some of our vassals still chafe under our benevolent rule, and we must part company. We hold out hope that they will one day return, as so many have. Still, we cannot but feel that fates hand is at work, freeing us from the burden of some of our further territories which are but a distraction from our beloved homeland.
We feel it is time to inject some young blood into the nobility of our realm, and a promising young lad of our own family is raised to prominence in our Iberian holdings. A new Duke of Navarre is created, long may he prosper.
A scandal rears its ugly head in our court as accusations of vile heresy and sorcery are raised, but our confidence in our loyal Marshal are vindicated as he is cleared of all suspicion.
Further justifying our anti-expansionist position, one of our far flung holdings starts a war with Poland on the flimsiest of excuses. We leave them to suffer for their follies, they can expect no help from house Vermandois.
Petty squabbles arise from time to time in our court. We stand by our appointees and will brook no dissent, to question our authority is to question the realm, such people must be exiled before they cause greater strife.
This time of peace was too good to last. We have been stricken by a most fearful malady, and must needs take to our bed.
Thinking weakness of body will lead to weakness of spirit, the villainous King of Poland strikes while we are weakened. We will fight them to our last breath, such treachery must be answered!
My strength fades... Young Ioannes will need to take up the fight for our glorious realm... God bless you my son, may your star shine brighter than mine...
Savefile is up at http://www.zedar.org/ck/Ioannes.zip for whoever is next.
I'm guessing that his Mom was Greek, and he inherited it that way.
You get your nationality based on an unevenly-weighted random roll between Dad's nationality, Mom's nationality, or your capital province's nationality, favoring Dad's.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I'm also consolidating our actual demesnes. Taking Champagne next as they just rebelled.
EDIT: Also, I have a narrative reason for all this.
Through 1390 Update coming probably in an hour?
Chapter 27: The Magna Carta (1377 - 1390)
Inheriting the throne at the age of 15, Ioannes was a talented warrior and fair in the other courtly arts. Vitally, he took after his father Michael who had been largely ignored by King Frigyes. Instead, Michael was raised as a Greek by Queen Zoe and passed those traditions along to his firstborn son. The powerful French nobles of the Paris region decided that the reason for the plagues and civil wars was that the Frankish people could not abide being ruled by non-Frankish Kings. Frigyes had considered himself Hungarian and his reign had been, at best, stuck in neutral. They decided they would first try to assert their authority when it came time for young Ioannes to marry.
Collectively, the nobles demanded that the young King marry a noblewoman who considered herself to be a Frank. A shy man by nature, Ioannes decided to avoid a confrontation, something which would become a pattern in the first decade of his rule. So he searched far and wide and in the court of the Count of Penthieve he found a young woman to be his bride. Isabeau wasn't particularly notable, but wasn't going to be an albatross around the neck of the King, as many of her predecessors had been. The two were reasonably happy together, though there were rumors the King had at least one mistress stashed away in a neighboring realm. These reports were never conclusively proven either way and no bastards emerged claiming Ioannes as their father.
The nobles of Paris further exerted their authority the next year. Xenophobia among the nobles had taken full effect and they felt that any relations with foreign lands had to be ended. In particular, the nobles felt that the Italians were unworthy of Frankish rule. Once again, Ioannes failed to stand up to the nobles around him and was bullied into giving the Italian crown to the Duke of Gloucester, who held court in Southern Italy and was a distant cousin of the Vermandois family. This was the failure of resolve the nobles needed.
In 1378, the nobles threatened a full scale civil war unless certain rights and privileges were given to them. Most important among these were a larger say in the policies of France. Additionally, they demanded that all taxes on the nobles be cut to 0. So the King of France, heir to Charlemagne, and most powerful man in the world signed the Magna Carta (it's Latin, and didn't happen in this timeline, as England blew up - bum). Several of the more powerful or far flung vassals just declared independence entirely, knowing Ioannes would almost certainly forgive them.
As a final term of the Magna Carta, Ioannes was forced to relinquish all of his crowns except for those of France and Burgundy, the two Frankish thrones in his possession. Ioannes tried to keep the Crowns at least in the House of Vermandois, with limited success. The Duke of Deheubarth, a minor Vermandois, was made the King of Wales. The loyal Duke of Meath was given the Irish Crown. The powerful Duchy of Badajoz was crowned King of Leon. And finally a man who had personally sworn fealty to Ioannes was given the title of King of England.
Finally, for the first time in 50 years, the realm had calmed down and the threat of a civil war launched by the French nobles had passed. Ioannes celebrated by launching a massive construction program, spending the massive treasury he had inherited from his father. This made Ioannes a much happier King, though the realm had shrunken significantly. At this point only mainland France and a few outlying territories remained.
We know that Ioannes was a devoted diarist and spent much of his time in the royal library. This made him somewhat non-confrontational and many of the hundreds of claims that he had inherited faded into obscurity as he refused to fight to uphold them.
However, in the mid 1780s, Ioannes decided that he should live up to the reputation that the heirs of Charlemagne had built up in their stunning rise to prominence over the preceding 250 years. At the very least, he should enforce the family claim on their ancestral homeland of Vermandois. Ioannes ordered his marshal to ready the Paris regiment and ride out to crush his next door neighbor in a brutal three month war. Once again Vermandois itself was in the direct demesnes of the House of Vermandois.
Noting this aggressive move and impressed by the piety Ioannes had shown in relinquishing several of his crowns, the Pope crowned him Emperor. Almost immediately, the Pope demanded further authority in France. Ioannes decided to negotiate a compromise rather than stand up to the extremely weak Papacy.
Noting Ioannes' unwillingness to come to any kind of confrontation, the Duke of Champagne and his three provinces that neighbored the King's demesnes rebelled in 1386. Surprisingly, Ioannes actually decided to fight and personally took control of the Duke's lands. The Shy King was actually building a fairly sizable personal territory around Paris.
Which he further expanded when the Count of Brugge rebelled. Brugge had developed into a thriving center of trade and was the richest province in France by the late 1380s. Ioannes also took it into his personal territory and for a time moved the court there.
Meanwhile, in the Holy Land, the Muslim King of Zenata had been expanding his territory in Babylon. After a long war, he finally had pushed back the Christians and retaken Jerusalem itself. The Pope immediately called for yet another Crusade to the region.
Fig 27.1 A map of the rapidly expanding Kingdom of Zenata. (Not pictured: Zenatan Morocco)
The new Sultan of Zenata was a 14 year old boy, much of the expansion of the Kingdom had been done by his father. This boy was talented though, and looked likely to continue the expansion and potentially reconquer the entire Holy Land for the Muslims.
However of more interest to the Greek Ioannes was that the Arabs had, at some point, claimed the title of Emperor of Byzantium. He strongly believed that this could not stand. So he came to the nobles with a request: Ioannes wanted to go on Crusade. His arguments in favor were to once again liberate Jerusalem for Christ, but his ulterior motive was to restore the title of Eastern Roman Emperor to a Greek. He also thought by re-unifying the titles of Eastern Roman and Western Roman Emperor in the name of France he would be remembered forever. He was, after all, shy not unambitious.
To the nobles (you guys):
Do you approve Ioannes' request for a Crusade? The Franks outnumber the Arabs about 380k to 150k, and Zenata himself has 20 provinces. War goals would be the County of Jerusalem (which we would immediately give away to a cousin) and the title of Emperor of Byzantium (we have a claim, conveniently).
Everybody reading the thread can vote.
1) Obviously, we need to lose a bunch of territory before we start EU3
2) There's going to be more viewer participation in EU3, so I wanted to set that up narratively.
Then the Crusade just dovetailed nicely with the whole idea that he's Greek.
Next time: The Sixth Crusade OR Ioannes Insults Orkney and Dauphine
I'll vote in favour of a crusade anyway, can't let the heathens keep Jerusalem
I have... things planned for it.
And it's like Cibarryyeat.
I want to see EU3 play out with a western tech group Middle East, anyway.
This. We at least need someone who stands a chance in the late-game :P
Your desire to unseat the Heathen in the Holy City is admirable, but we cannot afford the disturbance after the years of war we have faced. We would be crass to deny you the use of your own sworn men and do not desire to do so, but we do request that you not use our troops to prosecute your own desires. To that end, we send our blessing, but wish to reserve the men for the defense of the Empire as they have been sworn to do under your compact with the various barons and greater nobility.
[OCC: No vassal troops but otherwise yes I too want a Latin ME.]
I recall, in days long past, that the greater Carolingian Empire made war against two great nations of the unbelievers - the Kingdom of Zenata and the Al Murabatids. I believe it was always your ancestor's, Centule's, goal to drive those two realms into ruin, but he was prevented from doing so by rebellion and plague.
The Al Murabatids are, in large part, finished, but the Zenatans are still on the rise. Accordingly, for the greater glory of all Christendom, I heartily support your goal of retaking Jerusalem in His name.
[Presumably, I don't know about your sneaky, underhanded, awesome plan of being both Roman and Byzantine Emperor. Also, the Cybarrheots have always been polite.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I really wouldn't do that as it creates historical imbalances. China for example becomes way too large too fast. There's a reason despite being the Asian super-power they never made it anywhere (and for the record I think "Guns, Germs, and Steel" fails to make the case that it was all luck of the draw see: Decline And Fall).
EU3's AI is decent enough that the AI can usually adapt to global variable changes (e.g. if you lower the BB limit the AI does well enough not going over it - tending towards less quick expansion). But that doesn't mean the result will be balanced or fun. Balancing research speeds would be a huge pain, since you won't be able to gauge how it will affect gameplay 200 years down the line (without repeatedly testing it).
And I would prefer historical accuracy within the boundaries of the world we've created for ourselves (i.e. what have we done that would make China less xenophobic and devoid of civil war that they're able to research and explore so well?). I can see the argument for the Muslim (and possibly eastern tech groups), but the period and geography of CK don't lend much interaction with Asia (or much of Africa).
Hypothetically our European society would likely be more open and accepting - not only because of our numerous heretic rulers - due to the multitude of interaction our forces have had in Muslim-controlled Spain, Africa and Outremer). Based on that ridiculous acceptance you may want to increase the tech level of the New World to match our decreased likelihood of converting them and taking their land. Then again, we've gone crusading quite a bit more than our historical counterparts as well, so you could just as easily argue our ruling class wants to wipe out all the non-Christians we come across.