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[Culise]

The presence of one claim does not invalidate any others; only the Byzantines' legitimacy really rested on their official Roman^tm Empire status, largely because they were the last Empire people called the Roman Empire. I don't know how seriously the Russian Empire staked its Roman^tm status but I also doubt it was as significant as its status as the protector of the Orthodox faith.

The Russian Empire not as much as the Russian Orthodox Church, which found it critical to bolster its power in a time of spiritual uncertainty due to not only the Council of Florence (in which the patrimony of Constantine "fell into apostasy" by reuniting the Eastern and Western Churches) and the subsequent fall of Constantinople to the "Mahomet" hordes, but also growing millenarianist movements (dated from the reputed foundation of the world, 1492 AD corresponded to 7000 AM) and the emergence of other heretical groups such as the strigolniki and Judaizers.  It also enjoyed a certain legitimacy among the populace as a unifying factor, again through the Church, but the government and especially the grand princes of Muscowy tended to view it with a certain ambivalence, not the least of which because of the fact that to embrace it, and specifically its legitimization of the state through the Church, would only further empower an already-powerful Orthodox Church and the monasteries.  This political ambivalence is part of the reason it took so long for the title "tsar" to take root in Russia after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and why it was such a gradual process (that is, not becoming definitive until 1547 and the coronation of Ivan IV).

At least, that's the impression I got from my own reading on the matter.

[scriver]

Remember that the Ottoman Empire based it's legitimacy partly on the idea that they were a continuation of the Roman Empire, just like the Byzantine Romans had been. I see no reason a large pagan power couldn't, alt-historically speaking, see that whole Roman Empire thing and decide it wants itself a slice of that pizza pie.

Pretty much every single Empire in the European continent based its legitimacy off of being the successor to the Roman Empire, doesn't mean anyone actually considered them to be so. Hell, the Russian Empire with its cold wastes that were entirely untouched by the Roman Empire were one such Empire carrying the eagle onwards.
The only European Empires I can recall that weren't toting any claim to the Roman Empire are the Napoleonic French Empire and the British Empire, since the latter claimed its Imperial status through India and the former through being good conquerors. And the former were still fond of eagles... Heh. Also dat sultanate of Rum

Since it looks like you're putting the Sultanate of Rum together with British and Napoleonic above:

Sultanate of Rum, man.

[Karnewarrior]

Why is the Rum always gone? The byzablob ate it

[silverskull39]

Why is the Rum always gone? The byzablob ate it

Damn visigoths.

[a1s]

nevermind. Apparently I need to learn to read.

[Grim Portent]

I recently decided to try a mod that puts (fairly well fleshed out) Celtic paganism, Egyptian paganism and Hellenic paganism into the game, and I'm having quite a bit of fun playing as the king of Pictland this way.

Since the only place in the Charlemagne start date that's naturally Celtic is just two counties large I elected to start as a custom Celtic King of Pictland. No Celtic vassals that way, but I thought I could handle a few Catholic grumblers.

After revoking the sole ducal title in my realm after a civil war and handing it off to one of the other catholics who had previously been vassals of the duchy, I was lucky enough that the chiefs with a claim on the title waged a civil war over it while I was conquering bits of Scotland that weren't under my control, which was a little tricky as my tribal vassals wouldn't help me fight other Catholics.

When the civil war ended all my Catholic vassals had run their armies ragged and I was able to revoke every Catholic title in the land without a single peep of rebellion and replace them all with Celtic chiefs and high chiefs. Cue unstoppable pagan influx into the individual counties of Ireland, and a precision strike to seize a third holy site from the Welsh allowing me to reform the faith. Sadly my initial king perished in the fight against the welsh, leaving his 15 year old son in charge of his lands.

Lacking sufficient moral authority to reform the faith at the time I waged a long series of conquests against the Welsh, Irish and the petty kings of England, slowly raising my authority until at last I was able to reform the faith and install a leader among the Druids.

Ruling from my tribe in Fib I was able to set the Picts onto the Feudal system, cementing my rule over the tribes once and for all. By this point Ireland was conquered, Wales all but assimilated and England a series of Petty Kings fighting among themselves as my armies ground into them in Holy War after Holy War for each separate Duchy as I slowly gathered enough counties to create the Empire of Britain, making me the de jure lord of the British Isles.

Then I died.

This left my 14 year old son in charge. As I hadn't had time to change the Empire's succession laws he was left with my personal Duchy in Pictland, and the Empire title itself, but lost the Duchy of Essex to his brother. Stupid Gavelkind. The Kingdoms of Ireland and Wales had been delegated to an Uncle and a vassal lord by his father already, and fortunately didn't try to break off during the regime change.

Now with Druidic mercenaries and Holy Orders clamouring to reclaim what little of Britain is not under my control I continue to crush the petty heathens of the Cross beneath my armies. In time the men of the Cross will return to try and steal what we have reclaimed, I just hope we're ready for them.

[Rolan7]

You are doing Gods' work.
Sounds like a neat mod though, I'll find it when I get home.  Ireland: it's not just for newbies anymore (since 867 really)

[Grim Portent]

You are doing Gods' work.
Sounds like a neat mod though, I'll find it when I get home.  Ireland: it's not just for newbies anymore (since 867 really)

The mod's called Ancient Religions Reborn. It's been fun so far, I still need to give Hellenic and Khemetic(?) paganism a try though.

It did make conquering Britain easier than normal though since I was able to wage religious/pagan wars to conquer all the little counties rather than waiting for fabricated claims or relying on de jure claims.

The only big things I'm worried about now are meeting armies that can survive the skirmish phase against my archers and light infantry and then maul me, the Frankish Empire that covers most of Europe that I need to grind through to make much progress, the Ummayads rising to rule Spain and the difficulties in trying to stop Norse raiders at the source with almost no boats. Everything else is either too far away or too weak to bother me right now.

EDIT: Speak of the devil. I decided to try and snatch some land from the Ummayads to slow them down, assuming 5k light retinue and another 5k holy order troops would be able to beat anything they could throw at me. I was right, but only barely. From 10k soldiers I was left with 800, had to recreate several units of the retinue and it'll take over a year to fully recover my lost soldiers.  Only won through moral damage done in the skirmish phase.

[Rakonas]

This mod was updated for Horse Lords? It's been several patches since I got to play it, awesome!

[Majestic7]

CK+, HiP and the GoT mod have spoiled me. I don't even play vanilla anymore, after every expansion it is the long wait till those update before playing again. The Elder Kings mod was nice too, but that has been out of date for several versions now, I think?

[Quartz_Mace]

I continued as the empire of Scandanavia and created my own Pope. Unfortunately I had lost Denmark a while ago and didn't think it was worth getting back, instead I waged a war against the papacy, installing my antipope in Rome. I then excommunicated every Catholic king in Europe (all of them! For fun!) and requested money from the pope until I drained his 9,500 gold coffers. Then I found a way to spend it all! Yeah, now that I have 7,000 troops from 5 personal holdings and 36 gold per month, I think things have gotten a little too easy, so I'm starting an ironman game and attempting to reform the faith before making the empire so the Catholics will challenge me.

[Rakonas]

CK+, HiP and the GoT mod have spoiled me. I don't even play vanilla anymore, after every expansion it is the long wait till those update before playing again. The Elder Kings mod was nice too, but that has been out of date for several versions now, I think?

Yeah, Elder Kings has been out of date unfortunately.

Also I really like the flavor in Ancient Religions Reborn, but there's stuff that's unbalanced. Celtic holy orders are ridiculously easy to get way before anyone else. The Heroic Religion bonuses also add up so much. If you can reform the religion you can conquer the world.

[Grim Portent]

CK+, HiP and the GoT mod have spoiled me. I don't even play vanilla anymore, after every expansion it is the long wait till those update before playing again. The Elder Kings mod was nice too, but that has been out of date for several versions now, I think?

Yeah, Elder Kings has been out of date unfortunately.

Also I really like the flavor in Ancient Religions Reborn, but there's stuff that's unbalanced. Celtic holy orders are ridiculously easy to get way before anyone else. The Heroic Religion bonuses also add up so much. If you can reform the religion you can conquer the world.

Yeah, I have to admit that the holy orders did the bulk of my conquest while in Britain, and are now pulling duty fighting the Franks with my retinue. I haven't used actual levies since leaving the British coast behind. Even shifted my capital to the mainland (Paris) to make it easier to deploy mercs and holy orders, rather than having to try and ship 10k troops around with 46 boats every time I want to take a duchy. It certainly seems a bit bad that I can throw a retinue and a holy order at an entire empire and win regularly.

Then again, it's not seeming much more broken than, for example, the Byzantines, save the fact that I can Holy War against Christians, which is a big time saver in global conquest.

[Mephansteras]

I think the ability to Holy War pretty much everyone is the big advantage any reformed pagan empire has. I certainly didn't have many issues with my Vanilla Suomenesko Russia game.

[Graknorke]

Does the AI cheat in this game? It seems like their levies are much higher than they should be given their holdings.