Yet even this is quite too chaotic to observe. A more simplified version is preferable, with swathes of land divided up by which family or people largely holds sway over their respective blocs. Of course it is a coarse version, with most attention paid to the families which are a direct or future challenger to the Miroslav family, and pays little respect to minor families - but they are respectively of little import.
West Africa in the light green is currently mostly held by a regional family, House Cisse and its slightly smaller rival House Zuwa. The rivalry between House Cisse Dukes is of such a severe degree that they cannot defeat House Zuwa, and the Kingdom/Empire of Mali has yet to be founded by anyone. In the East, the brown region is mostly House Solomonid controlling the Kingdom of Abyssinia and small rivals dotted around the rest of Abyssinia. The rest of the green is the Abbasid blob and up north in Jerusalem and Syria, the rise of the Shia Caliphate.
India is currently split between 9 major houses in 3 warring regions, they don't really matter on account of territorial changes being rather slow and coalitions rare to form. There was one particularly noteworthy event, during an Abbasid invasion of India which prompted a joint response from just about all of the Indian Kings and Emperors that saw the Caliphate promptly kicked out, but it seems they have no ambition to reach far outside the river Indus. To the immediate west of India in the greyish teal is the particularly angry region composed of Zoroastrians, Zunists and Buddhists struggling to conquer each other before the Abbasid blob gets its shit back together and steamrolls over Afghanistan. To the West of that is the aforementioned Abbasid blob, to the north the Tengri blob.
In the north sea the most significant family has to be the Skjoldung family. Hailing from Denmark the Skjoldung family was quick to conquer the Svitjod and then secure its power by taking a great chunk of Britannia by invading Mercia. Despite losing some ground in England to the Yorkist house of Wuffing with the Essex house of Cerdicing and heavy resistance from the Sumoensko Finns of House Kamilainen, the Skjoldung family will continue to rise - not even two Gavelkind successions was enough to end their power. This is made all the clearer by the Skjoldung family being the first Germanic family to adopt Catholicism in order to reverse the decline of their Kingdom. In Pictish Scotland, though Scotland itself is largely inconsequential outside of the British Isles, the house of Uib can claim continuous rule over Sotland going as far back as the 3rd century, making its small family as prestigious as the Abbasid dynasty. No joke there - their prestige is at 1060 and the Abbasid dynasty at 1090. The pink is all one Danish nation, the cyan in Scandinavia a patchwork of Norse families, the blue in Scotland the prestigious house Uib, the red the various families of York, Essex, Surrey an Wales and in the green of Ireland no one family really holds any power. Of note is the little grey county of Somerset - grey because it is held by a Miroslav for some reason.
The dark purple islands in the Mediterranean stretching from Sardinia to Mallorca is all the Isauros family's territory of the Byzantine Empire. The light purple is a collection of small families that are non-Karling in nature + the huge Hugonid family, which is a young upstart rival to the Karlings. The Hugonids were largely irrelevant until King Charles 'the Great' of Karling fame died. While many of the former Karling Kingdoms swapped Karling and Miroslav hands, the Kingdom of Aquitaine fell to King Geofrey Hugonid. King Geofrey was caught up in some wars with the Karlings but nothing major, he may even have become so noticeable that the Miroslavs would have attempted a take over of their dynasty had King Geofrey not died. Upon his death the crown fell to his son Dietwin 'the Wise,' whose wisdom could unfortunately not save his Kingdom from being absorbed by the Ummayad. House Hugonid's fortunes would have ended there, and for a generation it did. One day however the first crusade was called, and called on Aquitaine - and won. With this victory the son of Dietwin regained Aquitaine and so gained the influence to spread House Hugonid from Aquitaine to Middle Francia. Unfortunately due to succession issues Aquitaine will likely be lost to whoever can marry the heiress first, and unless King Radoslav II can produce some sons it won't be a Miroslav Aquitaine. The Karlings in blue are pretty self-explanatory, being the standing champions of Catholic Europe to beat.
In Yellow Iberia stands an assortment of various latin Kings and Dukes, ready to retake Spain and Portugal from the Umayyad family. So far they have largely been successful. One wonders which latin family will rise to the top once the Umayyad are gone from Iberia. In white Italia the Lombardy hold all of Italy bar Rome which holds all of Catholicism and Venice which holds a load of trade outposts. Italia is peculiar in that despite it being a very stable and very powerful group of nations, few families profit for long off it. Elective succession in Lombardy has ensured a change of hands every generation or so and the Papacy and Venice obviously do not hold long standing families for long either. So despite Lombardy often being the Miroslav's key to battering the Byzantines or Karlings, Lombardy itself will never be a threat until primogeniture takes root.
Back in the centre of the world: Serbia. All that earthy grey is Miroslav. The spread of Miroslavdom began with the Kingdom of Serbia and not too soon after Serbia, the Kingdom of Croatia - both formed from the subjugation of slavic pagans and partially funded by with stolen Byzantine gold. King Vojislav I subjugated pagan after pagan and attempted to capitalize on the imminent fragmentation of the Western Roman Empire with some well-placed marriages, but very few branches survived in any powerful capacity. King Radoslav I, King Vojislav II and King Radoslav II continued this work, conquering eastwards to eventually form the Kingdom of Wallachia (founded recently under Radoslav II) and also see to it that the Karling family was steadily absorbed by the Miroslav line. Saxony and Bavaria were the first to fall to Miroslavdom outside of warfare. Bavaria through persistence and assassinations three generations ago had finally resulted in Miroslavs gaining the throne. Of some distinction is that the Bavarian line contains West African blood, dating back from when the Bavarian Karling King married a Venetian who was in turn descended from a Latin and a West African. Though the current Bavarian line does not look anywhere African anymore, the Miroslav in charge looks distinctly like a grey skinned Hungarian. And I do mean grey.
The Kingdom of Saxony was won through fortune and ambition; one of the lost branches of Miroslavs that failed to take over a Karling Kingdom in the division of the Western Roman Empire had succeeded after three generations to take over the Kingdom of Saxony, doubling Saxony's size by conquering nearby pagans with aid from the Miroslav dynasty. The Queen of Saxony also holds the county of Somerset in England. Germany too is Miroslav, through marriage and patience - of all the Karling elective monarchies across three generations, Germany was the only one where the Dukes overwhelmingly voted for a Miroslav heir over a Karling one. I suspect the longevity of the German King had something to do with it, all the preferred Karling heirs died of old age until the eldest Miroslav son proved himself a capable ruler and more capable heir to the throne. Six Kingdoms of Miroslavdom, and growing.
The Byzantine family of Isauros rivaled the Abbasid blob and was for a time, undisputed global hegemon of Europe after the Abbasid blob led disastrous wars against the Empire, against India and in the first crusade. In short order the Abbasid dynasty went from commanding 50,000 soldiers down to 17,000 while the Byzantines went from 18,000 to 25,000. The Byzantines, as emboldened as they were, led a series of successful wars against the Sultans east of Armenia and Anatolia and so further expanded the Empire's borders. All the same through the centuries the Isauros family has been caught in deep conflict with the Miroslav family and Lombardy. Lombardy made some minor territorial gains in Italy after a century of fighting, and after several wars attempting to take over Sardinia has failed repeatedly. Lombardy's failures have always helped Serbia in damaging the Byzantine Empire, something the small Kingdom would otherwise be unable to do. Old grudges persist, with the Serbians wanting the county of Ohrid back whilst the Byzantines lost the city of Raugia to the Serbs during a Lombardy invasion. Miroslav Croatia has also recently lost Zachlumia and now the Byzantine Empire can only fight three targets within the de jure Byzantine Empire: The Muslim, the Miroslav and the Teutonic Knights.
The yellow Tengri blob once held large sway over much of the balkans, with the Khan of Pannonia being immensely powerful and untouchable. Given time however, the Croatians continued expanding into the Slavs until they had the choice of invading either Pannonia or the Byzantine Empire. Given the choice, they picked Pannonia. The Kingdom of Serbia joined them in their endeavour, but ultimately failed - Pannonia was still too strong. One valuable lesson however was in gauging the strength of Pannonia.
The situation changed when Croatia invaded once more alongside another invasion coalition composed of Miroslavs and Lombardy. In addition to that, in the north the Slavic pagans amassed a great host to take chunks out of the Tengri Empire and to eventually usurp Pannonia itself. Although in the end most territorial changes were insignificant, two developments were of great concern. The first was that for some reason the Teutonic Knights were founded in Croatia of all places. More specifically, a tribe seized from Pannonia by Croatia, given to the Teutons. The second was that the Bulgarian Khan once more gained independence, though that independence was short lived. The Bulgar Khan had his Kingdom split between the Serbians and the Byzantines, with the Byzantines taking the lion's share. The shrewd Radoslav Miroslav however, seeing the threat the Byzantine Empire had renewed (with Bulgaria gone the Byzantine attacks on Miroslavs would increase in short order), gave a most valuable county to the Teutonic order that quickly became their Fortress capital. The biggest breakthrough would have to be when a Miroslav inherited the Teutonic order, allowing the Kingdom of Serbia to use the holy order for free to break the power of the superior Pannonia permanently and establish Wallachia.
Sure enough the Byzantine Empire invaded the Teuton stronghold and were humbled by the power of the holy order, supported by the rest of the Miroslav family. Both the Isauros and Abbasid family were to meet their match during the rise of the Shia Caliphate in Jerusalem. Weakened as they were by war with one another, the Arabian Empire and the Greek Empire quickly found their lands being carved apart by the ascendent family Barrani, the current military superpower in Europe who has survived both Byzantine & Abbasid reprisals and is currently about to defeat the 2nd Crusade, has shook the Meditteranean and the Holy Land to the core. House Barrani's total demolishing of the balance of power between the Orthodox and the Sunni has made for some unusual circumstances. Currently the real power behind House Isauros is not the Empress of the Byzantine Empire, but in fact her vassal: The Queen of Greece, Queen Markia Isauros. This is largely owing to the fact that out of the Byzantine Empire, only Queen Markia's lands escaped shia wrath. Currently Queen Markia is attacking the Teutonic Knights (now no longer Miroslav, completely on their own) and Queen Markia is looking to be victorious if she can take over their strongholds - fortunately for the Knights (and unfortunately for the crusade) this defence against the Greeks has meant the full order of the Teutons has survived and is resisting Queen Markia well. It probably contributed greatly to the lack of success the Catholics are currently enjoying. At any rate, Queen Markia has successfully seized Zachlumia from the Croats - the Byzantine Empire must fall, to hesitate in their destruction merely for fear of Shias would be to doom all the Balkans to eventual destruction by the Isauros and would render all the deaths of Serbian chancellors who died sowing discord in the Byzantine court vain deaths. Christendom will stand by the Miroslavs against the Shia, they won't for the Greeks.
Priority of rivals and enemies to be destroyed:
- The Isauros of the Byzantine Empire. Of paramount importance. The Isauros must be eradicated.
- The slavic pagans. Their lands will fuel Miroslav expansion.
- The Abbasid of the Arabian Empire. They are too large to ignore.
- The Barrani. Currently the foremost military power - they are only so powerful through their event troops. They lack the full staying power of the Abbasid. They may become target priority #1 if they conquer Greece.
- The Karlings of Western Europe. For a lack of sons and daughters this is hard to complete.
- The Hugonid of Western Europe. Same as Karlings.
- The Umayyad/The Spanish Princes. Whoever survives. Long term goal.
- The tengri pagans. If the slavic pagans are gone, there'll still be somewhere to expand through.
- The Venetians. They keep spreading plague everywhere.
- Everyone else. The Scandinavian lands are currently not worth any distinct effort on Serbia's part to conquer, they maintain a status of 'meh.'
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Topic: Crusader Kings 2 is released. (Read 2124920 times)