The Roman Empire has been reborn and now continues its reckless expansion, taking beachheads in Spain and the northwestern HRE and reducing the Shia caliphate to a shadow of its former glory. Thanks to some clever marriages and a bit of intrigue, the kings of Leon and the united kingdoms of Rus and Ruthenia are both of my dynasty. The two mongol hordes have been fighting each other with the Golden Horde being reduced to a few worthless tribes and no event troops at one point. They've somewhat recovered with the arrival of reinforcements but are unlikely to ever pose a credible threat to the empire. Meanwhile the Ilkhanate has utterly obliterated the once-mighty Seljulks, taking nearly all their land from Persia to India.
On the religious side of things, Catholicism continues to persist in a few strongholds including France, England and Aragon, but it is quickly being swept away by the tidal wave of Orthodoxy. The Lollard heresy, however, poses a much larger threat. With its tight grip on the HRE and Castille, largest of the Iberian kingdoms, Lollardy is now the greatest threat to Orthodoxy in Europe. The HRE has taken advantage of the situation, waging holy wars in France, England, and even threatening my family in Leon which prompted me to initiate a counter-invasion and destroy their armies, at a heavy cost to my own forces. As for the Islamic world, Sunni no longer exists except in a few scattered provinces, with all the Sunni leaders converting to the heresies of Zikri in the west and Yazidi in the east. If things go my way, I intend to abolish the caliphate by the turn of the century, removing the last power capable of waging great holy wars.
However, even in their weakened state the caliphate is still a threat. While I was preoccupied with the HRE, the caliph called a new jihad. Strangely it wasn't against me, but the Ilkhanate, with the goal of capturing Persia. Considering the size of Persia, if the caliph gets his hands on it over a century's effort to diminish his power will be nullified. The Ilkhanate is already engaged in a war with the newly-reinforced Golden Horde and probably won't be able to effectively defend against the jihad. As strange as it seems, I may have to bail the mongols out on this one.
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Topic: Crusader Kings 2 is released. (Read 2120589 times)