The Moussa family will rue this day, mark my words...
Heheh, mission successful and much fun was had, over the course of 4 rulers. A true family feud.
My originally wronged character tried to spy on the Moussa (currently his Doge) but couldn't, so spied on his wife instead. Found evidence of foul play and released it, making them hate each other. Eventually the villain died and another family won the Dogeship. Then my character died. In a feudal system the wrong probably would have been forgotten at this point, but no! This feud was more than either patrician, it was between two great houses. Two deaths was not nearly enough.
But a third sounded lovely. My heir eagerly started plotting the death of his rival. Bandits were hired, an ambush set. And thwarted. No formal allegations were raised, but later the Moussa held a party and invited "Anyone not of House Cisse". The audacity! The feud was formalized that day, as we were bodily thrown from their stupid loser party for jerks.
This affront was properly answered in the third generation. Our court chancellor happened to find a "completely legit" deed to half the duchy of Tripolitana, their meager holding. Their protests of "Seriously?" were met with war drums. Very briefly. The loyalty of the Free Warrior retinues made it a short war indeed. At this point the feud almost seemed over... Perhaps the Moussa had suffered enough?
That's just what we *wanted* them to think. A few years later House Cisse reacquired their rightful place at the head of the Principality. And we two delightful discoveries:
1) Another forgotten deed, this one to House Moussa's last sole remaining county (Our 26-skill chancellor found it in less than a month! very lucky.)
2) That, as their liege, we were allowed to simply "revoke" their county and nobody would even mind.
Knowing the depth of their defeat, the Moussa's simply let us have the county (our ancestors
gave lent it to theirs, anyway). They now have their pitiful house, a single town, and laughably the duchy of Tripolitania... Despite holding no land anywhere near it. And just to be thorough, we threw their patrician off a balcony. Everyone pretended not to see. Surely now they rue the day they stole trade posts from House Cisse. Let them be an example!
(Checking relation modifiers, we're somehow feuding with them twice at once. I rarely murder in this game, but for this family I have made an exception. Three trade posts really don't matter this much, I'm just happy to have a goal - their extermination.
I've resolved to not expand the empire any farther, except when the High Priest calls Great Holy Wars... which is how we got all of Andalusia. I *have* been raiding a lot, though, particularly since I noticed that it can destroy trade posts of other republics. Stand aside Pisa, and... "Italian Revolt". Huh.
The Shia just tried to launch *again*, this is the third time. Interestingly they seem to have opened an opportunity for the Zoroastrians, who are actually getting some territory... Though as the Manichean
heresy)
Edit: Of *course* the feud wasn't really over. My son caught the Mousse smuggling cargo, and came up with a plan to expose them. Unfortunately he got captured... They demanded 200 gold or they'd murder him right in front of me! So I paid the gold. Then I paid another 600 gold and designated him heir. He became Grand Prince of Mali at 25 years old. He's going to have a looong reign to make them pay for what they tried to do.