Double post for ease of writing, sorry.
The Diary Sheb Dodecakoplos, Byzantine Emperor*
So today mark my first day as Emperor. My predecessor, has an unfortunate incident. Apparently he was so drunk he tried to eat the dagger I had in my hand and choked on it. At least he won't be banging my wife while offering me his nun sister anymore.**
Look how cool I look in a crown! Now, some might say that my coming to power wasn't exactly... Pious, so Patriarch EuchreJack gave me an holy mission to make the count of Severin King.
I think the old cunt is getting a bit weak in the head. I mean, this is not King material at all... I at least sent the count a courtier to marry, hopefully keeping the House of Carasova alive.
I also grew a Beard (with a capital B) out of sheer willpower, because no one can rule efficiently without a Beard. The two points symbolize the two pillars of my power: God, and knifing drunk perverts in their sleep.
Since my knifing skill is so good, and so many Doux seems to lack heir, I launched an ambitious "Stability through knifing pervs in their sleep" program. The extra holdings were offered to family members.
Meet my brother's new Duchy. Or Douxy. Or whatever. And my Dad's Now, I needed to get going on that assignment of mine. Now, there are a few Kingdoms I could form for that dude to rule.
Look! I'm in the bottom-right corner! Looking at the map, the choices are Bulgaria, Wallachia and Serbia. Since you must apparently be able to pronounce a Kingdom's name to form it, and that only the Vlach seems able to pronounce Wallachia (Vallaschia? Wallakia? WTFistan?), this leave me the choice of either grabbing the Kingdom of Bulgaria or forming Serbia. The second option seems much easier, so I decide to annex the Duchy of Rashka. In order not to piss the nobles, I decide not to raise their levies, and I borrow cash from the Jewish merchants to hire...
VIKINGS!Vikings, bitch. The fight goes quickly. Now, all I need is to get control of that count to give him his Kingdom. I send my Magisteros to fabricate claims.
Dude is good, I hope he doesn't die. At this point, old EuchreJack die. Sadly, I checked with my chaplain, and divine mandate still need to be fullfilled even when their messenger died. Too bad.
I swear it wasn't me! I'm starting to think there is something in the water at the Hagia Sofia, because his successor is apparently nuts too. He barged into my throne hall today, claiming he had discovered Orthodoxy and demanded I convert to it. I went along with him to please, him, but it make me shuddder to know that those guys are deciding Imperial policy...
Or maybe it's in the communion wine? Luckily, I had a brilliant idea to get rid of the man. With the Magyar settling to our northern border, having those barbarians adopt the Orthodox religion would be great. I sent the Patriarch to evangelize them, expecting to have his head sent back.
...
Damn! You know what? I need a break. I'm off to the parties of the Holy Land beaches. Call me back when you've got a claim on the duchy of wallathever.
Holy Land Resorts: You'll party like it's 33AD!
I wasn't really inspired for the style, so I don't know if you'll like it. What about the pictures (too many? too big? too few?)? Also, am I free to expand while I wait for the claims, or do I need to accomplish that mandate first? I could go Holy Waring left and right, but that would make for a gigantic blob for the next player.
* I edited the save to change my name, the Patriarch's, and changed the Dynasty name, but that's all.
** Authentic. Here is a copypaste from Wikipedia:
Michael III's marriage with Eudokia Dekapolitissa was childless, but the emperor did not want to risk a scandal by attempting to marry his mistress Eudokia Ingerina, daughter of the Varangian (Danish) imperial guard Inger. The solution he chose was to have Ingerina marry his favorite courtier and chamberlain Basil the Macedonian. While Michael carried out his relationship with Ingerina, Basil was kept satisfied with the emperor's sister Thekla, whom her brother retrieved from a monastery.
Game of Thrones had nothing on that guy.