You know I haven't really continued by Byzantine campaign in a while, but honestly the most fun parts of it were the weird-ass things that happened outside my glorious domain. England, for example, was formed by Pictish Cathars (On English neck a Pictish yoke!). The Cathars were fairly successful in converting, but faced both rebellion from their anglo-saxon and/or Catholic vassals, as well as the external threats of the greater world of Catholic Europe. The power-balance might have shifted to the Catholics, but my restoration of the Pentarchy (which was NOT widely accepted in the British isles) evened the odds. But then, the leading dynasty (an entirely female dynasty it seemed, for what it was worth) converted to Judaism of all things (perhaps to be neutral between the two faiths of their subjects, like Khazaria?). Now there is this England which is ruled by a Jewish-Pictish Dynasty keeping the peace between their Cathar and Catholic subjects (who are too weak and evenly divided to either defeat the other, or overthrow the Queens of England). The chaos of the post-Pentarchy world protected them, but they face serious threats from a powerful Catholic Pictland (Scotland's name if Pictish, England's name is something unwritable like Lweaywagor or something. Actually I'll check now: It's Lloegyr) to the north, who are eager to holy war the heathens from the Isle, as well as the periodic revolts you would expect in such a situation.
You know, writing all that up makes me want to do a more general write-up of my game where I left it (around the 900s I believe? 950s maybe? After Jihads are supposed to unlock I know, because that scares me, but before 1000). There was a lot of really interesting stuff that was happening, both within my realm and without. The Arabian Empire tanked badly, and while they've been able to pick up the pieces somewhat they've had a much harder job with me at their borders, which has prevented them from uniting the region. They've been hampered by the appearance of the Shiite Caliphate in Persia. Muslims elsewhere did quite well though: Andalusia formed Hispania after pacifying Asturias, and it was only around the time that I gained a border with them through Italy that they started coming apart. There aren't many Christians left in Iberia though, so I'm doing the hard work of the Reconquista myself before Andalusian culture takes over everything and prevents Castilian and stuff from spawning (managed to seize most of what is Aragon by now). On the Steppes the Muslims are dominant, with Khazaria by far the largest, while Christianity (by which I mean Orthodoxy) takes its slow time bringing the Slavic Rus into the fold. Meanwhile, with Charlemagne a dismal failure (and there was a big reason for why that was, but I'd need to look it up) the Germanics did fantastically. The damn Vikings all got together under Sweden finally after Saxony fell apart and the fuckers managed to reform the faith. I really do want to write it up now, do you guys think there would there be any interest?
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Topic: Crusader Kings 2 is released. (Read 2125963 times)