Oh, well, it only lasted for five more moderately interesting years, and I missed the good screenshots. Here is the
save. So, soon after subjugating the lands of the Rus, Pelagios II, who already though of himself as "the Great", decided he wanted to be an Emperor. But not anyone can crown himself Emperor. The Gods, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that only some pieces of lands will grant their owner the Imperial title. Two choices were open to Pelagios: Russia or Carpathia.
Russia Carpathia For a while it was unclear which direction would Pelagios choose. Carpathia was smaller, but Russia was divided into numerous small duchies that would be easier to invade. In the end, laziness won and Pelagios decided to become Emperor of Carpathia. Two short wars against small catholic Duchies brought him closer to his goal.
But now he had to grab land owned by the Kingdoms of Bulgaria and Moravia, both rather biggish realms that would offer good resistance without mercs and a bigger RNG. Both costs money that Pelagios simply didn't have. As such, he decided to fill the royal coffers in two ways: first the RNG would be sent to pillage our neighbours:
Seconds, any vassals that could legitimely be jailed would be, and the ransoms would fuel the expansion. This strategy, great on papers, backfired when a Sumensko Dukes from Rus rebelled. His small, hardened bands repelled two armies three time its size, before overthrowing Pelagios and forcing an abdication in favor of his 14-years-old son.
That guy killed off two armies of ~1300 men with a band of 450 men. Then held long enough to make me abdicate. Crazy badass he is.