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When you search for scheming vassals, are you looking for intrigue focus, member of faction, active plot, or something else? Thanks for updating.
I'm looking through adult ruler vassals for Intrigue focus. Members of factions never were a problem in this playthrough (thanks to us keeping nice and clean de jure division of power and all vassals being of the same culture and religion). Active plots also remain as a valuable source for arrest reasons.
Permo-Siberia was experimenting with church nepotism... at least the failure of that means that they won't have issues with the Orthodox Church hierarchy?

Let's hope that the ERE can take advantage of your raiding efforts...

Catholicism is certainly making a comeback. Croatia is doing well, and we have a Holy Roman Empire. Will that become annoying? Could Croatia attack the ERE due to wanting control of the Balkans?
Well Orthodox Church is like gambling mechanics of loot boxes - we will keep opening new ones as long as it takes to get something decent.

When it comes to Croatia and ERE they are both Catholics so the only opportunity to holy war each other is when one of them is counted as heresy. Currently Catholicism is. But they still have other tengri small counties to feast on.
 
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Part XXXIX (1084-1092)

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Part XXXIX (1084-1092)


Year 1084
======================

It's time again to continue our economic efforts. What better way to start but by converting last Sunni province in realm to Orthodoxy? Probably not many. So Yuryev tribe in Vladimir duchy (inside our character's nephew demense) flips religion for fair price of 1.000 devotion currency. I also send for investors but before that we have to deal with Muhallabid Sultanate army trying to chase off our raiders in Syria. Well we will not let that happen and happily take advantage of local mountains. On 11th of January our 5.520 raiders in Taron county defends against 3.372 attackers. We need just 3 days to route enemy center. But new problem arrives - another 12.000 strong Sultanate force starts moving onto Edessa where our 6.500 army resides. I try reinforcing it at once but it might be tricky. So I consolidate all forces into center under Mountain expert.
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Sunni forces trying to throw us out. Good luck with winning when we are camping mountains :)

First battle goes well so there isn't much to be worried about. Second battle is more dicey. Thankfully we get that narrow flank modifier so we should survive till another 8.100 men reinforce our left flank. By 3rd of February we win, losing 210 men to kill 1.500. Three thousand of reinforcements send into 1st battle start marching back to help. We also catch some emir, which gives us +145g in ransom. Fight progresses to melee but enemy has only 1 out of his 3 flanks and soon it turns into his 3.000 men assaulting our 17.000 men in mountains. Somehow enemy deals no damage. But he still throws more into it. But it is too late and the battle is decided. So any more troops are just fed into our man slaughtering machine. The whole ordeal ends with our side losing 706 men but killing... 8,980 of local levies :). Which actually put's a dent on their manpower, lowering it from 28.000 down to 25.000. We also did receive interesting news from China while our warriors were busy fighting:
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Did little digging and it seems that Chinese Golden age lasts for 50 years. So it will persist till 1136. That's plenty of time to Feudalize and use those doubled bonuses to construction speed and cost :) Seems thing worked out!

We lose some few thousand troops thanks to being over the supply limit in Edessa, leaving us with 20.000 raiders. I decide to ambush another 1.800 local defenders and preferably wipe them out with one of ours 8.000 strong forces. Also our prestige is bleeding again. Soon we get attacked as expected - 4.818 locals try to defeat our 7.358 men in mountains, so on 17th April we start the dance again. Initially we are killing twice as many enemies, as they are killing us. Soon both sides will be reinforced, us by another 5.300 men from Edessa and them by another 6.400 men. Thanks to enemy reinforcements we have to rout their center twice before our left flanks shows (on narrow flank) and we enter the melee with great advantage. Those fights are weird because we just manage to mangle enemies so badly that even though they should (as feudal) have advantage in melee we still are killing like 10 times more than they are. So once again we inflict a stinging loss on Egyptians. Exchange of 452 of Permio-Siberian levies for 6.274 locals. That once again diminishes their armies down to 20.360 men. It is kind of amazing how quickly we are slaughtering them. Not everyday you can out pace CK2 replenishment rate of big realms.

In June after reassembling our forces to continue with sieges of 3 counties at once, we get new volunteers to be killed - some Emir from soutern Italy is eager to have a go with his 3.800 troops at our 7.000 raiders in Teluch - Cilicia. For some novelty it is plains we are defending on, but we still get at least river penalty on enemies to help us (as well as 5.000 troops from Edessa). So it ends badly for Sunni armies - they manage to kill 107 of our troops but lose 2.000. We are on good track to bleed them dry and maybe cause a collapse. For reference Orthodoxy just achieved 99,5% Moral Authority (with +37% from infidel temples looted), Sunni (whose lands we are now bullying) is at 30.5% and Zikri at 80%. Interesting development occurs back home - our cousin-wife empress Potyava usurped title of Kingdom of Nenetsia from our Nephew. Huh. Didn't see that coming.

With Autumn we encounter another "Strange Chest" so here comes our Syrian lootbox. I wonder how lucky will we be this time - maybe another +500g? Eastern Roman Empire concludes it's holy war for Armenia Duchy (taking eastern half of that de jure kingdom) and our victim get's declared war by rival muslim sultanate of Tunis (that now rivals their military strenght thanks to our bravery). Meanwhile we get another mission and for once it isn't penance - rather we have to donate to charity. So it is easy and quick devotion. Also our oldest son came out of age, and turned rather well. Wouldn't be bad to play him with Midas Touched, Ambitious, Temperate, Kind, Brave, Zealous resulting in 21 Stewardship but only 11 learning. But instead he is excommunicated, arrested and ordered to take vows. As we previously researched, he goes to temple in Bjarnia (so we will have to invite him again to empty it).

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And with that our genius Vokan is now our heir. Will have to sort out his younger brother. Maybe he will be our another attempt at giving away kingdom of Nenetsia?

We fulfill our ambitious to "Groom an heir". We can once again see the realm prosper but I think we won't for time being as there is 1-2 extraction I want to perform. Also another problem is spotted. Because our wife is a ruler, she took away with her our genius heir. This is not the end of world but she also just assigned him really bad education focus... And we have no say over that matter >.>. Perhaps I might need to go into civil war just to take away all of her tribes? If it even will work cause we have non-aggresion pact due to being husband and wife. Yup just checked - can't revoke titles from someone we have NAP. Well game really screwed me with this timing, as Vokan turned 6 just on 25th July this year and our wife became king of Nenetsia on 8th the same month. Not assigning focus earlier also bite me in the rear (was wanting more childhood traits probability). Additionaly he can no longer be our cupbearer, cutting into his prestige gain - that's around 280 less prestige by the time he turns 16. At least theology focus gives back and removes stressed trait, as our 70 years old Master of Horse dies, putting our gold at new record - 36.917 coins.

Year 1085
======================

We get raided in Vladimir by some small 500 strong Russian host. Nothing to react with as I took Burtasy guards with me into Middle-East. We replenished to over 21.000 troops there, which is really nice number as it is slightly more than what defenders can muster. During all initial winter months of this year there was some flavour drama with our character - he found a friend for whom he as Falconer trained his hunting bird. Then that friend started bragging how great HE is at training animals, taking all the credits. We could throw him into prison bu confront him instead. Meanwhile our forces in Syria move to start demolishing another Muhallabid vassal force.

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Another great battle. Sadly doesn't produce enough body bags for enemies to make difference in their overall military might.

After winning, one of local rulers in Syria (that is defending against another other vassal) hired 4.200 mercenaries thus new 8.000+ force arrived unexpectedly. They are parked in Mountains so I'm not too keen on attacking them. But if we could bait them into attacking us on mountains - that's different story.

Soon April starts and we get informed that at the same time Estonia baptised into Paulicianism and our county of Tver was converted to Orthodoxy by one of our vassals. That's one less Slavic province. Chinese emperor Li Kangzong dies and is succeeded by Li Zhizong, who likes concubines but dislike Tibeto-Burman cultures. More importantly the Golden Age continues.

May complicates things as my 5.000+ detachmend on other side of mountains in Levant becomes the taged of 15.000 strong Muhallabid force. We luckily can escape by just 1 day difference and consolidate all of our forces in Archa county mountains. Unlucky - their almost all cavalry mercenary forces secures narrow flanks. We win but with big losses - 3.300 of our men for 2.476 enemies. Big top liege army doesn't pursue us. We also manage to disperse troops before supplies cut us down even more. We still have almost 19.000 troops. Would be nice if somehow we managed to bait Muhallabids onto attacking us in Mountains to bleed them dry.

In Summer we bait by accident those previous troops that costed us dearly, into attacking us and we manage to take revenge - 655 our men for 4.337 enemies (mostly mercenaries). With that our kill/death ratio might look somewhat better. Turgay tribe reaches 2nd prosperity level and county of Or get's fully replaced when it comes to leadership with capable (16 stewardship) new chief. Another of our freshly invited investors also dies.

With start of October we finally get what we were waiting for - opportunity to bleed out the Muhallabid army. They march onto our 14.000 troops in Mountains of Halab county.

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Big battle! I really hope we can finally put down their armies so they no longer can oppose our raiding.

That narrow flanks somewhat helps. We don't inflict as much casualties as I would like due to not rolling Feint but at least we manage to damage enemies enough in skirmish to quickly conclude melee and roll through most of it with flanking advantage. The whole bloody battle ends with 1.871 losses but 7.924 casualties inflicted. Which is not bad, not great. Once again created dip in their army size (down to 17.000).

For the rest of year we once again disperse to start finally besieging Antioch, Halab and Iskandarum counties. Having watched as our nephew lost Kingdom, he isn't able to depose our intrigue focus High Chief from Veliky-Ustug. It's high time to start some assasination as I'm no longer willing to play odds with rng.

Year 1086
======================

Finally I have a moment when I can focus little more on this gameplay. Previous 2 years were kind of "scatter brain" result while keeping tabs on raiders. Did looked through vassal list, and beside our current target there are no more intrigue focused direct vassals in our realm. Well that's at least something. Noticed that Dvina (county under Bjarnia) converted culture from Nenets to Komi. That's always nice. While I was not telling you we were cracking open quite a feq Mosques in Syria, so our current positive looted temples modifiers is +43%. I also tried (but failed) to procure decadent prince from Muhallabid dynasty. Costed us 400g. Wanted to start breeding them to make them implode due to decadence in generation or two. Instead of that Another substantial army tries to beat us but this time we have big number advantage:

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They are persistent. Sadly in killing their own men. I wonder if AI will "wise up" due all those losses.

Battle goes better than expected - we almost route them in skirmish. In single day of melee engagment they can't endure our morale damage and break. Thus great hunting begins as I assigned "Hunter" commanders on both flanks. Battle ends with us losing 627 but killing 3.790. That further reduces Muhallabid sultanate to 14.000 troops. We once again capture some Emir from deep withing Africa. Thats 145 gold well earned.

March is spend on greeting Uyghur raiders (1.750) in North-eastern Cumania. Well it is still not built enough so they keep visiting us. Notice how many years it was since last time I had raiders for example in Bolgharia or near Kazakh duchy. Most likely due to big garrison sizes there. We also have to replace Marshal and our Jewish Steward. One of previously generated commanders takes over military while our economy awaits favour invited 40 year Jew from middle east to take over. By the time clicks are made - our border guard from Silkroad defeats Uyghurs - 120 losses, 630 casualties :).

May is marked by another investor dying and our treasury climbing up all the way to 38.807 coins. Only 2 investor remain with over 1.200 gold between them. Somehow they cleared rather rapidly in this part. We also get discovered with our plot (412% Plot power btw) so we embark on penance for Community of Saint Basil. Which reminds me that once again we have devotion to religion convert something. Finnish tribe of Chlisselbourg is the target and thus another Suomenusko province is eradicated. We really are making gains - with +444 devotion a year and mission every 2 years (at least it feels that way) we are basically progressing 1 county every 2 years :).

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Finally found moment to show you who I invited at the start of this part. Not bad haul overall.

Halfway through summer we finally get another chance to try Setyamka's hand in interpreting the bible. As you probably remember we really have mixed track record on that activity even with 60-75% success chance. Raiders are siegeing out Syrian holdings at pace of 21-35% per tick. Muhallabids are somewhere around Acre but reinforced only toward 15.000 troops. I wish they would attack us again. After yet another trashing it would be safe to divide into 3-4.000 strong siegeing crews to smooth things up.On other hand our Byzantine friends started eating into Balkans again. With not so obvious ducal war to reclaim previously lost lands. They are also holy warring last remaining counties between them and Croatia.

Our prestige hovers around 1.200-1.300 since few years ago. We are somewhat replenishing in Levant so we still field above 18.000 troops. New Steward ain't slouch either with his 29 stewardship, which adds +2.9 prestige per month. Perhaps our Permo-Siberian Patriarch heard that, as on 2nd of September he converted whole Finnish Zaozerye's tribe into Orthodoxy. Leaving single Suomenusko province within borders. Which he will focus at once with 35% yearly chance of success :).

Months go by as we keep looting. It does even give us some gold - between 15-30g per holding. With 3 armies looting at the same time and taking around month to sack most holdings it surely adds up. Which would explain our 39.000 gold that was just achieved. But soon we run out of holdings to safely loot so we relocate somewhat deeper into desert.

By December we conclude another mission (for +200 devotion and +100 piety from succesful Bible interpretation) leaving us few months short of religion converting yet another county. I was able to de-age Emperor Setyamka but decided against it. Upon investigation into "Forging Bloodlines" we will need 5.000 prestige on Vokan Permyakid (probably our next character) to pick ambition. We want to pick ambition before feudalising, as it will count towards meeting objective for bloodline I have in mind. He at the moment is at 1.000 out of 5.000 prestige. So he will need to rule for quite a bit. Because of that Setyamka can't prolong his reign too much. For now we plan to keep Setyamka on throne for another 8 years, which will make him 60 years old and our heir 16 years old. Probably doable, as we got rid of stressed.

Year 1087
======================

We keep sacking and taking prisoners. They also add up.

In February our Patriarch again converts tribe. This zero'es number of Suomenusko counties within realm. Few days later he dies. Hope he felt fulfilled. We replace him with 20 Learning Bishop in Perm. Thats goes around re-assigning councillor cooldown. So he is sent to Tengri province in the west. His chance is only 24% though. Unlucky our Heir misses his 2nd monastic ward event to increase his stats. Instead it lands on his slightly younger (by few months) brother Velmayka for the 2nd time.

For some reason we keep not getting any assasination chances. With over 300% I woud expect it rather quickly. Yet here we are. I split our raiding forces that replenished to almost 20.000 into 4 seperate armies instead of 3. Our MA is at 100% with +46% from looted temples.

By Summer I decide to pick "see the realm prosper" ambition to make sure we are able to conclude those 5 year duration of peace. Not that I need it tremendously but it always helps my vassals as well. Also just noticed but at the end of previous year one of penalties to stewardship timed out ("Out of Patience from intervention as guardian") and we no longer are over the demense limit. We have still 4.100 levies in Syria, 11.000 unraised back home and 16.000 max total. We almost fully replenished our retinues and are getting more than 300 prestige each year. That's good news for future. We can expect to get 3.000 prestige from passive gain in a decade :).

At some point just before autumn it seems like we might have another fight near Palmyra on our hands. But local vassals that are all in war with each other chicken out, thus we can continue raiding at piece. But then two months later they reconsider and push into remnants of my levies. Another opportunity to delete some vassal armies is presented on silver platter:

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Finno-Ugric models fighting on the deserts near Iraq! That definetely an unexpected sight.

Battle goes somewhat poorly due to me not micromanaging army composition in advance. We lose 950 men but kill 2.980. So 3:1 k/d ratio and we had bigger ratios in the past. At least we end the year by splitting our raiders into 5 groups.

Year 1088
======================

Year begins with our new chancellor procuring finally last missing claim on county of Tao (under Muhallabid sultanate). With that if their vassal takes over Trapezus, we can clean sweep them for 3 counties at once. After our "see the realm prosper" ambition times out of course. That's definetely worth 150 prestige and 57 gold.

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Our latest scheme to help Orthodoxy slowly comes into fruition.

With that Chancellor work is done in Middle East and can finally start generating claims on Bishoprics inside Perm Duchy. We need them to organize our realm in such a way that characters ordered to take vows will end up in our temples. Incresing their income preferably :) To kill time I look how our Mercenary Boios are doing. They are healthy and doing contracts, nearing 15.000 gold coins in their coffers. It will be worth to scoop it up in the future.

Spymasters reports in February that he "gained" another 50 cultural technology points. Good. Keep bringing them to me. Setyamkas is also at 1.300 out of 1.000 monastic currency needed to county convert. Thus last Zikri province is no more ;). Only 4 counties of wrong religion remain (1 iconoclast, 1 tengri and 2 slavic). There is real chance that Setyamka completely finishes religion unification of our trans-urallic empire before croaking.

To not make things boring our Egyptian host once again throws over 7.200 strong army at us. That's a good number to possibly kill them to the last man.

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I remember to micromanage and by tinkering with flank composition we get that Feint tactic on our killer center flank :)

Fight goes well. We lose 332 men but kill 2.520 enemies. Somehow after those few years here we are still at around 19.000 men. Which rivals what locals can throw at us :). But enemies don't have enough so they throw another 6.500 at us. Well they truly don't want us here. But I'm vigilant so I arrange this battle to be advantageous for our side. Thus they fight against 13.000 raiders with another 6.000 on route. Soon battle concludes with us sustaining 100 casualties and enemy - 3.130. That put's Muhallabids slightly under 14.000 trops.

We celebrate recent successes in June with spending some gold on charity under Orthodox Monastic society (which once again puts us at 700/1000 devotion).

Our MA falls slightly as we weren't keeping up with sacking but we now can focus on remeding the situation. Byzantines sadly only took single county from Moesia. Our levies are almost fully replenished but we need to "replenish" chancellor. Previous died to cancer. So another sorry sod is sent to get us claim on temples within demense.

Year 1089
======================

Another army march towards us in late February. Will have to repel them on desert sands once again. I match our levies to meet the enemy after his army locks it's movement. We are about to fight with over 14.000 troops against their 4.300. Not bad. Back home our Empress is scheming and we can take advantage of it. She plots to get the claim on Kargopol county. Currently held by one of our vassals thus it splitted from being under kingdom of Nenetsia. If she succeeds it will clean up our internal borders (and her heir is also our heir). So we will happily help her by joining her plot. A bit of an update - we are still performing our own scheme of killing Great High Chief of Veliky-Ustug (534% Plot power). Most likely due to him being hidden, we can't progress though. At least we vacuumed bunch of vassals.

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This is why raiding huge realms is annoying. You have to keep watching out for defenders getting any victory against you.

Our center (after being tinkered) rolls "Feint Tactic" thus does most of killing and breaking of opposing flanks. Thus we end with 60 dead but 1.800 killed. Pretty fantastic ratio. During all that face smashing, our youngest son Velmayka got his 3rd Monastic ward event. Such a shame it didn't go towards our heir. I'm on top of my game so I remember to click "Convert the County" button and thus last Tengri Russian province is now Orthodox. We are only 3 counties short of having 100% Orthodox realm. It will definetely add towards legend of potential Saint Emperor Setyamka.

By Spring our "host" (on whose lands we are raiding on) is reduced down to 12.000 army strenght out of 30.000. He is also bankrupt (-389 gold). He also rocks not small 48% of Decadence (and rising :)). Soon we get informed that someone is up to no good in our realm. We luckily caught some of our vassals red handed and thus can take care of him. Probably. I still have "see the realm prosper" ambition for 3 more years and I don't know how long will this revocation reason be eligible for use.

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I like every instance when we can get rid of unruly vassals without spending piety on excommunications :)

As Spring turns into Summer, Muhallabid troops once again try their luck in repelling us. They gathered quite numerous army from vassal's forces but time them poorly thus they commit 10.000 troops into whats seem to be a slaughter. Thus we lose 160 men but kill 3.000 enemies. Somehow that doesn't put dent into their manpower (probably troops were from local vassals mobilizng and thus not counted through crown laws). Sadly our MA is falling even though our contribution hovers at around +45-+46% from looting other faiths temples. We are down to 85%... Not good. Let's pray it is not the sign of things to come.

August (or rather end of it) is marked by another visit by some Nomads from Silkroad. Slightly over 1.300 of them, so our border guard next door (3.000 strong) won't have issues. Enemies once again rush against us in small chunks one at the time. But they got clever this time - they sacrificed some scraps to prolong the battle till melee phase that they entered with cavalry mercenary force hired by locals. Thus the battle turns bloody. We lose 2.400 men (we are down to 14.000 after all the battle this year) to kill "only" 3.200 of them.

Year 1090
======================

After restless year in middle east I have to combine remaining forces into just 2 armies, that will slow down the speed of siegeing out targeted counties. Wife of our emperor also starts the year with the bang - Holy war for duchy of Moskva. She has slightly more troops that Vladimir (200 more to be exact) and now there aren't many slavic allies that could help the defenders. So maybe?

Meanwhile we have to repel Muhallabid troops once more. Another bloody battle occurs though it looked better. The 3rd battle of Homs county cost me 560 warriors to kill 3.168 enemies. That finally put's Egyptians under 10.000 men milestone (8.877 remaining to be exact). Kind of crazy that between "Out of Funds" (-25% morale of levies) and Decadence of 49% (-16.1% morale) they still made it till melee phase with us.

By May we achieve something for our efforts - Muhallabid vassals rise up in order to increase Council Power :). So now our dear Egyptian friends with less than 9.000 troops have to contend with 21.000 men strong rebels :). Yet their first course of action is to rush another 4.000 men towards our raiders in Homs. I disbanded my levies (around 1.500 men) but it was too soon. Wanted to declare war for those claims on Anatolia but we still have to wait for our ambition peace timer. So now I will defend with 11.000 men against 4.000 Sunni warriors.

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Highlighted in red are Muhallabid rebels. That war won't conclude soon. Seems we weakened them quite enough.

Unlucky for us it was a trap. Soon Muhallabids and friend throw another 8.000 troops at us, grinding my retinues especially bad in melee with those nomadic cavalry mercenaries. Well 4th battle of Homs did us in :<. We suffer tremendous losses - our force shrinked from 11.000 to 4.300. Ouch. That's a lot of prestige :< And end of our raiding in middle east. What's worse we still will have to take attrition while returning home, even bigger cause our forces retreated into Iraq and Synai.

At least during all that another meditation from Theology focus occured, giving us another 100 piety (to put Setyamka at over 4.500) and soon Monastic society issued another penance for us. While our character pursues divine matters, our main chunk of retinues gets attacked while traveling through Levant in Archa by Muhallabid rebels. They have 3:1 number advantage on us but we are defending in Mountain. Thus with great difficulty but we do repel them and don't loose more than 400 men. Thus we travel towards Anatolia before onset of winter.

At least our steward generates event troops with which we can finally patrol our western borders. Our firstborn son asks us to bestow a nickname upon him, so he becomes known as Dove (don't want to spend prestige on him). Then some intervention in education occur and we get informed that Tynea county finally maxes out it's prosperity. Only Perm and Pilva remain at 2nd prosperity level in our main duchy. Also our penalty from "Hard Diet" finally left us.

Year 1091
======================

We start the year by helping Empress in her fight against Vladimir troops with our Steward event troops. Extra 6.000 warriors truly help break the stalemate among 1.000 men strong opposing sides. As our Emperor finishes his interpretation of bible, he develops some Rash. Not good. Also probably due to being in seclusion, our Court Physician doesn't react to it.

Our retinues moves towards height of Crimea in their journey home. There is 4.160/15.600 of them and they are not reinforcing due to attrition. Currently at -12 prestige/month. Not the end of world. We also get to teach our heir - Vokan Permyakid something during seclusion (sadly won't make his shrewd as he is Genius already). Spotted, that the mother decided on Learning education focus for him. Not the worst not the best - it will be really difficult to improve. But hey once we feudalise there is tiny chance. Might make holding over 10 holdings tricky due to lower Stewardship. Right now he is Genius, Ambitious,Brooding (can develop into Just, Wroth or Envious), Rowdy (can become Brawny, Honest or lower Genius to Quick) and Idolizer.

Soon we click another Slavic province to make it 133rd Orthodox county within realm. Leaving just 2 more provinces (unless more conquest happens). Quickly after dealing with that we get informed that another Orthodox character was canonized:

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Saint Varaka no longer is a lone Saint figure in Orthodoxy. Also AI likes creating Myrrh-Streaming saints as most religions have one currently.

Interestingely enough most of his bloodline holders are Slavic. Seeing that I start thinking about preserving this bloodline and adding it to our family in the future. Our youngest son Velmyaka sadly doesn't have any bloodline thus complicating our succession doesn't bring much benefit. But I do have some vassal kid in our court that is quick and he could matrilineary bethroth one of two Orthodox girl from that dynasty. So in generation or two we will probably arrange for combining all Orthodox Saint Bloodlines into single family :). It is lucky as most of those Polish descendants are outside our diplomatic interaction range but it just happened that girl we bethrothed to is being tutored nearby.

By June our retinues returned home and one of our vassals dealt with schemer from Veliky-Ustug. We still don't get treated and I investigate. Turns out our doctor office is empty! No wonder we did not heard from him :D. Thus our Patriarch get's promotion (though he aint great besides 19 Learning and lvl 4 learning Education). Soon he diagnoses us and proceeds with treatment but "Ohhhhh boooooi":

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More health complications. We dealt with chest pains so now we game might treat us with some terrible sickness >.>

Rest of year is spend on recuperating our retinues (they replenish 390 men per month) as well as checking on our Muhallabid guest. He became father of 2 more daughters and I make sure to start educating them into worst characters possible. Especially as our Muhallabid adversary just imprisoned his decadent brother thus decadence stopped growing at that 49%.

Year 1092
======================

Another year starts - during it our ambition will come to an end. Interesting race against time begins - our son and his brother are both 13 years old. We are rumoured to be developing a Bubonic plague and we still have to excommunicate younger son. Then those claims on Anatolia wait to cash in to not waste all resources invested into them. And well while we still have around 700 prestige it would be great to spent them on rebuilding Permian retinues. So right now while I don't use de-aging from Fountain of Youth I still want to live for those 3-4 extra years. Our Character is 57 years old at the time. Let's see how it goes.

Our 3rd child comes of age in March - Putyayka. She is mediocre and ugly so I decide to marry her off to young king (15 y.o.) of Catholic Croatia - Andreas. Then month later the rash goes away. We no longer fear Bubonic plague mr Court Physician, eh? ;) Scarred me greatly for no reason. Then our spymaster steals 50 cultural techpoints from Thrace. Didn't see that in quite a while.

Sadly as we watch over our growing childrean, Orthodox Moral Authority fumbles down to 69,3%. Think the problem is in -25% from Infidel Rebel Victories, as well as -45% from lost Holy Wars. Well that definetely stings. Well we will probably finish our county conversion thanks to Monastic society, but despite our valiant work on raiding in Syria it doesn't look good. On other hand it could be 30% worse without us.

Finally in July our peace timer runs out - now we can advance and take over vassal holy wars. We want to clean up a border gore a little.

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Last holy wars to "even out" future Kingdom of Nenetsia. Also will safeguard some of our counties in the future.

We leave original light-infantry+cavalry mix in Burtasy (2.100 out of 3.600 already replenished) and advance with rest. Thanks to really long reign we have currently 4 loyalist in council so waging 2 wars at the same time isn't the problem. I call all of my vassals and take over fighting our vassal failing holy wars.

By September I learn that our Nephew Kezhay III (previous king of Nenetsia, before our wife took over this role) finally got his first son. Thus Saint Varaka bloodline is spreading. Armies of both Vladimir and Murom are already in our borders so I push into them with reitnues, having more than twice the men each of them has.

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Once again we bully our neighbours. Let's hope this time we quickly conclude those wars.

As we defeat those pagans, Community of Saint Basil asks us to part with some of our wordly riches. No problem - 100g for +200 devotion, putting us exactly at 1.000 and allowing us to get rid of Iconoclasts in Serpukhov tribe, which is good deal. That leaves us with single slavic province before we win current wars. Soon Murom allies from Novgorod arrive. That peaks my curiosity. Turns out that previous Tengri Russian high chief of Novgorod got replaced with his Slavic descendant. Not a problem we still roll them the same. Even better - he is reinforcing with another 2.500 troops before battle ends thus we lose 450 men but kill 2.400.

It took all the time up to December though. At least we are at 75% warscore with Vladimir for Moskva duchy. We rapidly take over Moskva tribe to establish some better supplies for winter and start besieging. Winter turns out to be of average severity. We also siege at pace of 45% progress every 12 days. Our levies also start pouring into Vladimir high chiefdom from which we can think about sending them to start the sieges of Murom tribes. But that will have to wait for another part as this just run out of time ;).
 
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Despite the endeavor ended, those raids into the Middle East seem to have weakened Islam, so that's good.

Should we worry about a potential war between Byzantium and Croatia in the Balkans soon?
 
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Despite the endeavor ended, those raids into the Middle East seem to have weakened Islam, so that's good.

Should we worry about a potential war between Byzantium and Croatia in the Balkans soon?
Given border gore - a result of Bulgharia Khaganate collapse I think we are clear for next 20-30 years. After that both can expand towards Pontic-Steppe.
Sometimes your best laid plans suffer from too much planning. Wife replacing nephew. Genius son not so great. Thanks for updating.
I don't think there even is "too much planning". For the rest - well it is Crusader Kings 2 ;). Which explains what happens to even best laid plans after encountering real life. I could play it extra safe and delay some things till next generation but it could also result in our Saintly bloodline being extinquished. Still makes for nice change of pace and I'm curious how much can I patch things up. Will make for great reference for anyone curious.
At least Sennar is prospering. Long live the gelada baboons
For some reason they weren't vassalized by next door Ethiopan super power. Currently they are in retreat cause those Jihads finally chewed through event troops.
 
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Part XL (1093-1100)

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Part XL (1093-1100)


Year 1093
======================

We proceed with the war started in the last years of previous part. Even though winter is severe, somehow we don't get completely cut down by supply issues while in enemy lands. Perhaps it is just "south enough" to no longer suffer from our arctic climate? Still had to move my troops onto another pagan county, while searching for investors (more of that later!).

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The state of war. We won some battles, time to bring it home with occupation!

By 17th of January one of our courtiers - Ercole dies at the age of 80. Not sure, if he was an investor as I'm of the middle of replenishing them so vacant court office might not explain his status. But our treasury accumulated 41.249 gold coins. That's so much! I must admit - was getting nervous previously as with constant development of Great Constructions my finances were looking rather bleak. But now relatively quick before feudalising we managed to accumulated respectful amount of capital for rapid urbanization. What's more it made me think - perhaps staying tribal for so long (given our circumstances) wasn't as bad? Without technology, the passive income from taxes might not be so great and we would lose the ability to raid (which also remedied some of our religious issues). The cheerry on the cake - is that by waiting we accumulated various "-construction cost modifiers" (technology, books&artifacts, chinese modifiers). Effectively multiplying our gold worth tremendously. Started tinkering on the side with one of vassals of our vassal - Orthodox Khazar High Chieftess of Merya. Want her son to be of Komi culture, so we swapped his educator with no opposition :). Before the end of month Tver tribe gets captured... by our character wife forces, who arrived there day sooner >.> Which definetely doesn't help us to conclude this conflict sooner, as it slowly ticks for Empress Potyava seperate holy war.

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Another profitable fishing for characters. I wonder how much gold did we inherit so far even without cheeseing it maximaly.

After spending February on chasing (what I thought were) Moskva forces, we fight some less than 3.000 enemies in Zubstov tribe (easy win with minimal losses). It hardly gives any warscore but upon further inspection seems we will win this holy war before Empress Potyava does her. So everything seems A-ok. Warscore at 93% and ticking, while our levies are halfway done with "unboxing" first Tver tribes.

Permo-Siberian Burtasy and Osha tribes finally reach final prosperity level on 14th March, while Tura climbs to 2nd out of 3 levels. Few days later young King Andreas of Croatia becomes old enough to ask our daughter for her hand (all according to previous agreement). We also intervene in education of our remaining 2 sons - we make Vokan diligent (for better chances of high education result) at the cost of making Emperor stressed and his younger brother Velmayka has to do without our intervention (won't make him ambitious or suffer -2 modifier to stats for making him patient).

Finally in May we finish holy war for Moskva high chiefdom. That's 2 more Menschera culture provinces to collection (one Slavic and one Tengri). Then around week later we conclude other holy war as well (another 2 Menschera and 2 Khazarian culture provinces; 3 Slavic and 1 Sunni total). There was a decision to made on what to do with those counties. Can't hold them myself and don't even want to. Could give them to my 3rd son, if I tried to arrange for clear cut with Nenetsia during this generation. Probably won't happen as Empress Potyava (current holder of Kingdom title) is only 39 years old, so I don't expect her to die in time for clean succession. So I will give it to skilled stewards for time being. On the topic of assimilation - our religion Moral Authority after those 2 won holy wars stays at 68%... I think mostly thanks to -45% from lost holy wars and -25% from Infidel victories :/. Tough times ahead even with our effort (+37% MA from Infidel Temples looted).

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Finally we even out bordergore! Now our realm has nice for eye shape :) This also fully conclude what Nenetsia might to be succesful.

During giving out lands by accident I pass Burtasy tribe to newly geneated character. Oops! Will have to assasinate him quickly (and we can with 4900% plot power) to retrieve it. Levies are also dismissed (thus I avoid taking losses due to Great Wall extra levies bug from reloading game). Soon in June we organise first attempt but it ends in failure. After excommunicating one of my scheming vassals (currently 3 such in Permo-Siberia) my attention goes toward middle east. Muhallabids are still in the civil war we ignited. That's good. But I'm more concerned with pressing on claims we so tirelessly accumulated during many years of Setyamka reign. Turns out Khazars lost Armenacion duchy in Anatolia to Byzantine Empire. Almost perfect but they somehow snatched back Trapezous from the Zikris. So will have to fight them for it now, as no longer can I take everything with single war. Which adds single war needed to clean that up.

So we advance with our border guard from Burtasy towards Khazarian holdings in Anatolia. They are shadow of their former power - just 2.300 men and like 4 provinces under they rule? Additionally tragically spread out. We call in our vassals and get informed that our plotters managed to poison the accidental chief of Burtasy (thus regain control of that title, because we were his successor). More bad news do follow though - our daughter Mels'shay who was married into Holy Roman Empire reigining dynasty, was assasinated. It is totally my fault too - cause the one behind it was our investor - Eshkan Arevmaneli (our Keeper of the tomes). Time to take action - our Marshall is asked to help with the arrest and soon the plotter is secured in our dungeon. We banish him to take his wealth as compensation. Prefer to not risk getting cruel trait on our quest for another Sainthood. That's 400g more unexpectedly inherited now gold though. Sadly our MA keeps failing (58%) because positive modifiers keep timing out.

After visiting local market, our character gets asked to spare some coin for random beggar wanting to drink in tavern. Refusing might result in losing charitable trait. So we pick the only other option "The mankind is unlovable after all" to pay and press on with the day. As our warriors, just secured Khazarian nomad capital in Azov. Gives us only 3% wascore. So we move further south to take over many feudal vassals under yellow bannes. On 20th November our freshly invited Master of the Hunt dies, and we inherit his 670 gold coins. Soon we receive news about Catholicism once again becoming main stream faith within western christianity group. They even have above 70% MA so it might be stable. Shold help current HRE emperor deal with heretics (not sure if there is difference in how likely AI is to revoke infidel titles when they are mainstream religion vs heresy).

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Maybe finally Catholics mount comeback? This might result in some juicy Crusades to milk.

Year 1094
======================

New year starts with me spotting civil war within kingdom of Nenetsia. Setyamka's wife vassals rised up demanding restoriation of our nephew Kezhay III to the throne. Can't tell who will win but there is option, that it ends how we originally wanted it to be - Nenetsia under our nephew branch of family. I also did investigate Anatolian county we are fighting for - Khazars only took over top holdings and the rest is still in the hands of Muhallabid rebels. Talk about messy AI habits :/. Our troops continue siegeing out 5 holdings in Abkhazia. Will take us a while because even with Siege Leader we are proceding at 34% max per tick pace.

For change of pace we get visited by 1.500 not seen before raiders from Mongolia proper. They park on mountain province of Buqtirma so I assign Aggresive Leader + Mountain Expert commander to lead our punishment expedition. Tribe falls before we can arrive as it is one of those holdings that has staggering 2 men as a garrison. We still will hunt them down to avoid further problems.

As we take over Abkhazia holdings I notice that one Greek army under Byzantine empire trashed Khazarian main army. Seems we aren't the only ones fighting for Trapezous. It might complicate things as if I don't hold coastal connection myself then those counties in Anatolia will secede before I can fulfill my longterm plan. I'm not optimistically disposed towards believing AI will manage on it's own the plan to secure 2 holy sites for Orthodoxy so have to put in some effort. There are some things on the home front to note - our genius daughter comes out of age. So after declining storm of offerts of possible suitors we received in previous years I send her off to... China. The amount of Imperial grace we receive in exchange is more that I was expecting! Was planning on doing it with Ashava Permyakid because she didn't inherit Saintly bloodline and I might use some Chinese powers. Now we can request Chinese Invasion on either Iraq or Egypt. I think about Egypt angle but after their civil war. Dismantling their realm will create power vacuum in region.

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Carefully creating character the Chinese emperor will like definetely pays off. Another evidence that CK2 is game about characters :)

Summer months offer us desired battle with latest raiders - by consolidating our forces in center and sacrificing some of our vassal armies on thin flanks, our commander makes sure to make nomads pay. He focuses on inflicting as much damage on routed enemy flanks as possible before attacking another. Thus we lose 130 men but kill 1.000 out of 1.500 men. Which is fantastic result. Worth to note - enemy had mountain terrain advantage x]. Soon our heir comes out of age as Scholarly Theologian. Which is 3rd highest learning education - not the best but good enough for better prosperity MTTH. With 16 stewardship and 22 learning he will reach required values. Not sure if he will be able to hold all 12 counties by himself though.

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All well that ends well. Our son turned out to be more than decent character to take over. There are already some big objectives ahead of him.

After tinkering with our vassal armies I dismantle the siege of Trapezous, which problematically was under Greek banners. Now we should be safe with regards to winning war over that county first :). Takes us up till August to take fully over Abkhazia (granting us 75% of warscore). So we now move carefully onto target of our war - Trapezous. Our retinues also fully replenished resulting in us once more having positive prestige income (+29.22 per month).

Month later our youngest son becomes adult. He also lands on tier 3 education but in hs case it is stewardship. His stats are worse overall - 17 stewardship and 11 learning. So I don't particularly want to play him. Time to resolve the succession. Turns out that we can't escape Greeks opportunistically using our armies so we move back towards steppes to conclude war before them with open battle against nomads fo last few missing % of wascore. All that because they took over holdings we are interested in thus receiving warscore passively faster (we are at 76% they at 53% atm).

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The old formula still works! With that we have clear succession without losing anything, and later we can pass Nenetsia onto our nephew Kezhay III.

Fortunetely Greeks get crushed by revolt that occured in Trapezous with sole purpose of liberating this county. There is over 22.000 of damn rebels but hey - at least they will throw out Greek crews occupying local holdings. That's lucky happenstance secures war ultimate destiny. We can wait for that and then take over like a vulture :). This task becomes even easier cause over 16.000 troops skiddadles somewhere into Caucassia so I only have to trounce 5-6.000 troops left (with our 22.000 strong force).

As I eagerly advance to win, Community of Saint Basil asks us for another donation. With that I reach 1.200 devotion again. Thus I decide to convert Moskva tribe to Orthodoxy (as there is great chance that local 21 stewardship chief might culture convert it relatively quick).

Year 1095
======================

For new year celebration we defeat Trapezous's locals. With that we reach 99% warscore and can enforce our demands. Finally we have a foothold in Anatolia to help our religion. There is little time to lose and upon realising that Muhallabid civil war is in the stalemate at around 10% warscore for one side I decide to pounce on rebels. Sadly pressing all claims does not include getting control of 3 muhallabid rebel holdings in Trapezous. We will have to get them later.

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Perhaps we will resolve more issues than succession? Getting into holy land to arrange for ERE to conquer remaining 2 Orthodox Holy Sites would be great for my mental health later in this AAR :D

I give Trapezous bishopric to some willing to join us for free greek courtier. The top holdings goes towards Polish Slavic character. Was in a hurry so I did not notice that he has 800g! I could take it over. The problem being there are few pagan characters willing to join me. My plan is to land many wrong religion characters there and then give them indepedence to feed ERE those provinces as single county realms. For time being our retinue with some 11.000 vassals still in the vicinity moves onto Theodosiopolis. One weird things that happens after apointing new chief there - the graphics for temples change. Instead of old and known Greek Temples I see something that is more akin to Hellenic temples. Just look for yourself and compare.

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Not sure what's happened. If anyone knows give me a heads up. Spotted the moment they swapped while in Province view...

During May I am suprised by our steward offer of another monument event chain. We take it and then let month pass on slowly taking over what we claim is ours in Anatolia. Emperor Setyamka visits one of Monasteries and spends time on conversation about bible with his new friend. I can de-stress him but I choose not to. Need to somehow not live forever.

Times goes rather peacefully and our men finish taking over 2 disputed counties by the time October rolls out. We also encounter Muhallabid rebel army counting some 2.000 odd men. Of course we tackle them before they can start decaping anything we just took. I manage to catch them quickly after they battled some 1.500 strong nomadic host thus their morale is low. Even with mountains and 2 narrow flanks I beat them with just 150 losses but kill every single one of them in exchange :).

In December 2.780 men strong nomadic host arrives from Silkroad into Saur. It's tricky as my force next door is just 3.000 strong. I decide to press onto them. Then our Steward generates another 8.640 event troops back in capital. I wish they were closer to Silkroad :D. Before change of date we manage to take over top holding in Karin county thus reaching 59% warscore. For reference Muhallabid revolt is winning in civil war by 10% so it seems we are safe to assume being able to snatch those counties away :). Our wife also made our son, a Senechal in her court thus increasing his prestige gain. It gives me even better plan - favour invite our son back to his daddy, so he can become Designated Regent + Cupbearer for even more prestige gain.

Year 1096
======================

My plan fails, as Vokan is already married thus won't accept our invitation. Well at least we will get those money back upon change of character. More importantly our vassals started arriving from Permo-Siberia, saturating Anatolia nicely with Finno-Ugric looking models.

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Vassal horde starts pouring into active warzone :). Greeks definetely did not expect our Komi intervention.

Luckily our brave Silkroad border guards manage on their own. Despite rolling Generic Skirmish that had only 10% chance, they kill 2 enemy army segments before melee and then trample the last one with numerical advantage. Our losses totalled 300 men but enemy losses were over 1.000. We get asked to donate to charity once more and upon fulfilling this request we reach exactly 1.000 devotion. So the other county in Moskva duchy gets converted to Orthodoxy (getting rid of Tengri religion for now).

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Still 5 counties to convert - I think this might not be doable as it would require Emperor Setyamka reigning for another 9-10 years.

In February merchant caravan visits us and presents us with nice 20 Intrigue Greek Eunuch. Might come in handy :) Then we make steady progress towards 71% of warscore in our ongoing war. I spend some time to look how the ERE is doing after current Basilea - Theodosia Strong has won another civil war. But they lost one whole duchy in south-western Anatolia to the Paulicians, as it was under the rebels who allowed this to happen. So our MA hovers around 60%. Ehh. They also did take losses in regards to their army size. But at least Caucasian vassals pounced on Khazaria to liberate Abkhazia.

By May as we reach 95% warscore, then watch the final of monument event. Turns out steward build a statue for himself. Well dang it. Still will use him, but I could use extra prestige myself. At the moment we have 1.130. Could be more.I think soon I will have to spend it all on infrastructure as we are nearing the end date of Setyamka reign.

At the start of July we are greeted by rebelion in Moskva. In which, people are disgruntled because of our use of convert province power and then... Crusader Kings 2 crashes due to unstable GFN connection >.>. Well that was out of nowhere and it will hurt my levies in Kolva as I did not expect it and didn't rise local levies to avoid Great Work bug. Let's see where the game will start us again.

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Really game? You are making 2 savefiles per year and you throw me out to the beggining of this AAR part xD?

Tried reloading but no luck. So I replay up till this point to the best of my ability in order to replicate the things that happened. Damn. And it was going well (maybe not exceptionally well but I was having fun). So once again I have to redo initial moves. Start with searching for the same investors, conclude same war. This time I don't accidentaly give away Burtasy tribe to new courtier with missclick, thus don't have to murder him too. Intervention in education of both sons goes the same but we get event in which we sell part of Hagia Epimoni for 100g. No repercussion whatsover. We also suffer peasant uprising in Serpukhov tribe during fighting both holy wars. Setyamka prevents 109% plot power assasination scheme, that killed our oldest daughter in last "run" (not really worth redoing 3 hours of gameplay but hey...). We also lose stressed within month of getting it, which is not great. I move onto Khazaria faster and we get some opening battles for 50%+ warscore. Sadly our Genius daughter turns out slightly less stellar and instead of 1.200 grace we get 860 from Tangs. War with Khazarian Khaganate is concluded half a year earlier. Then I go onto Muhallabid rebels but this time they imprisoned their overlord and are on 100% warscore. Watch them for few months but as nothing happens I decide to proceed. If they end the war - we get reseted with our progress in taking over. In this repeated 1094 I also get prosperity event - new province modifier in Kudymkar

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It somewhat feels like savescumming on ironman xD I'm not sure if we will do better or worse this time with regards to overall rng

We have to replace our spymaster and some investors don't die. By the March of 1096 we are at 61% of warscore against rebels who don't want to enforce their demands. We also suffer some rebelion in Nenetsia, while both ordered missions from monastic community turn out to be penance type. Dealt with youngest son the same way and also imprisoned and executed all 3 of schemers in Nenetsia. And thus we reach point in which we got cut-off. This time nothing happens so we continue playing!

The first thing that happens is heresy in Votyaki - Iconoclast came back. Orthodoxy MA is low (54%). But there is some hope - as in August 1094 Orthodox Persian liberation movement won a little more than kingdom worth of land. They have 30.000 troops (21.000 from event) and now unified vassal structure allowing assimilation. If only our MA wasn't abysmal they could start converting already. And they do neighbour ERE, so they can help each other :). What's more if they decide to expand east they can eat some Paulician heretics and other smaller kingdoms in Transoxiana. Finally figured out why we could snatch those Muhallabid provinces without them ending the civil war. From what I remember you can't press your demands in few instances when your overlord is not in possesion of every holding. As it turns out Muhallabids aren't - they are suffering from local uprisings on the fringes of their Sultanate. So it might take yet some more time before rebels win and game allows Muhallabid's vassals to enforce their demands. In the meantime I switch from Theology focus to Rulership to hasten death of Setyamka.

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Interesting development. Who would thought that we may see both Greeks and Persians fighting arm to arm for Orthodox faith?

I also started replacing one of remaining 3 counties in Western part of empire that need converting. Invited bunch of Greeks and assigned them baronies in conquered land and appointed Old Germanic Norse + Paulician Norse as Counts. This way (together with Polish Slavic guy from earlier) they won't help each other and are far enough from other members of their religion that could help them. Then in December Iconoclast in Votyaki rise up in strenght! We manage to replace Ubagan chief with more able person before end of year.

Year 1097
======================

Was quite some time for me since last time the year changed forward in my notes :). First thing to notice during this year - Muhallabids ended their civil war. So after current ordeal with heretics we can press with Holy war onto them. After that if Setyamka dies before 10 year ceasefire period passes, we get to attack them again sooner :). Funny enough they are still at war with Zikri Sultanate of Masudids (holders of Mecca and Medina) - for Sinai. Will take some time to recover it and well they are currently at only half strenght.

Waiting for winter snows to melt and watch as 1/4 of rebels gets done in by my vassals. They manage to take over Votyaki with remaining 9.000 but we move semi-avoiding attrition onto them with levies from Perm itself. There also is 2nd uprising in Mordva tribe (south, next to burtasy)

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Somehow based on this screenshot I don't foresee their success :)...

We catch them initially with near peer numbers, then with much thanks to reinforcements who arrive during melee. They hold in forest but they failed to inflict any significant damage in skirmish phase. So our Finno-Ugric heavy infantrymen will make short work of them. As we are killing them after routing, we get information that our troops in Mordva killed 2.000 enemies for the cost of 170 our own men. We completely annihilate heretics from Votyaki moments later. That doesn't put an end to Mordva uprising as they splitted as I wasn't watching. There is little time to lose though - I decide to declare war on Muhallabid Sultanate over Trapezous holdings.

Before end of June we finish Mordva rebels. Retinues in Trapezous start (thanks to assistance of some vassals) besieging northernmost county in Mesopotamia. Probably 4.000 troops with Mountain commanders can hold out in mountains against any relief force. I realise that cooldown timer for sending eunuch to China just finished, so I sent some Greek courtier I acquired previously in exchange for another 400 grace. With that we have once again as much as we did before unfortunate crash.

While our troops are marching towards middle east frontier (thanks God I don't have to oversee the travel of close to 60.000 vassal troops xD) Votyaki dissidents rise up again. Well they do have 27.5% revolt risk there. So once again I assemble my levies, not even recalling vassals. They will be needed against Sunnis in Syria to take brunt of damage in fighting. With my own 16-17.000 levies and some retinues if needed, the 12.000 rebels shouldn't pose much problem.

Year 1098
======================

After taking control of Karin county in Mesopotamia, Komi troops move back to winter while besieging holdings inside Trapezous county. Most of our vassals are on the way and soon they will start arriving. Votyaki rebels decided to push onto our capital to catch some vassal contingent. That was a mistake as it allowed me to hit 2/3 of their forces with all of my Permian levies.

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To be honest it could devolve into much more dangerous situation than expected. But luckily we mustered troops in time.

As we fight news arrives that the Chinese emperor died and is succedeed by his heir - Li Shaozong. Who is 40 years old and likes Indo-Aryan cultures that aren't hindu. Which is quite peculiar but we will accomodate him next time we present him with gifts. We finally beat most of rebels in February - 2.140 remains in Keltma but due to winter weather I don't want to chase them yet. Soon after taking over local tribe, they greedily move south where we will have better supplies to crush them.

Before that, in March our Emperor Setyamka once again suffers from being malnourished. This time all options seem to indicate that our health will suffer but instead of dieting (like we did previously) I decide to give up on it - loosing stressed but hoping for worsening health to kill us.. Rulership probably will give us Stressed back. At least I hope so.

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Malnourished trait from Theology strikes again. Not happy wth losing stressed but hoping it will help succession "soon".

As our men in Anatolia swiftly take over baronies in Trapezous, the world experiences the birth of Hashashins. I wonder why now. Some date? It is close to original Crusades in our timeline. Well it might be annoying but probably not for us longterm. Also our Persian Orthodox Shahdom is more of a threat that I realised - they will replenish up to 40.000 troops in some time if they don't lose their event troops rapidly. Between them and Byzantines that's close to 100.000 Orthodox troops ready to fight - Farukid Zikris in Persia with their 25.000 better watch out!

With coming of spring we once again experience gardening events related to Monastic Society. This time thanks to having Gardener lifestyle trait we can choose extra option and out of curiosity I press it. We also put down Iconoclast rebelion and hang the rebel leader. Decision is made to move our Marshal from Organizing troops in capital to supress rebelions in Votyaki. That cuts Revolt risk from 28% to 5%. Don't want to suffer multiple rebelions this year :)". By August first +20% revolt risk modifier will time out and things should calm down a little.

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Here how our front against Muhallabids looks. We took over our war target - baronies in Trapezous.

Of course we can't have nice things so in May it turns out that Orthodox Persians attack Byzantine Empire for de jure claim on Azerbaijan. Somehow AI figured the only way to screw things over for our faith. I'm truly impressed. And they are even under the same Ecumenical Patriarch - ARGH! Which basically means that for time being Greeks will grind down Persian Event troops. Truly tactic for the ages...

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OK that was a little earlier that I would like. Forgot to use that 1.300 prestige we had banked x]

And it happens. Emperor Setyamka is dead, long live Emperor Vokan! Sadly some things occured that complicated succession. First of all - mother became independent. As we are her only inheriting child it isn't much of a problem. Unless she losses to the rebels. Secondly - due to being over the vassal limit some of our holdings in Anatolia got lost. Not all but some. Third - we still haven't finished the fight against Muhallabids. Which means our opportunity to rapidly holy war Muhallabids twice eluded us. Also most of our ocuncil got nuked so we need to replenish Marshal, Steward and Spymaster. Some investors as well becase reasons (even though they were part of our court officials).

We start by picking Business focus (we need to help ourselves little stewardship-wise to be able to keep 12 holdings). Then we invite 2 jewish courtiers from abroad to fill the spymaster and steward council position. Our war is at 65% warscore and I need to speed it up to be able to re-vassalize various counts that choose indepedence.

New young emperor decides to assault holdings in Khliat at the cost of his vassals troops (7.000 casualties) but rapidly increases warscore towards 96%. Soon August turns into September and we are looking at 99% warscore. Probably next month it will be finished. To my suprise Muhallabid surrenders before months is over. Holdings don't go to us but to our Polish now independent vassal. We take it. Now we can revassalize eastern parts of Permo-Siberia, as well as create alliance with our mother Queen of Nenetsia (she can muster up to 20.000 troops even though she took less that we would want - which seems like a good sign for how viable my plans are for Nenetsia to not lose against other neighbours).

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Haven't seen this in a while. Suprisingly no one west of Ural mountains broke off. Happily not a single of our eastern neigbhours decided to chomp on our previous lands.

There is no time to lose - after re-vassalization I wage 2 holy wars for our break-away counties in Anatolia - Muslims are still too close and could retake it while our autistic co-religionists in region are busy smashing their own heads against each other. On the plus side it won't revoke titles from those greek barons we already settled there, meaning less micro work.

We finally enter December and I notice that some of Byzantine vassals are pushing towards other side of Caucas mountain range - they are trying to liberate Derbent. Eastern Roman Empire is becoming big and strong. Likewise on their western side they expanded into Balkans nicely.

Year 1099
======================

We quickly begin first new year of Vokan's reign by assaulting smaller baronies in Trapezous to quickly enforce demands. Soon the whole county is in our hands. Then we move our troops toward Tao county deeper into Anatolian mountains.

Months pass, as I manually check notifications for all prestige gaining decisions. We need to farm that 4.000 missing prestige asap. After appointing new Greek barons in Trapezous, I try to find someone to take over the county. After procuring "useful idiots", orr character finally gets within 12 holdings limit. Then news about our father - late emperor Setyamka arrives:

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First step was no brainer. The question is if in few years time he becomes another Saint.

Took me until May to arrange all that. Not much currently I can do with all various negative modifiers after starting the reign. At least I can tell you what happened in Greek-Persian war. Persia one. They signed truce way before all event troops were gone, so now if they will behave they can still reach number parity with their Zikri neighbour to the south. Not sure if gaining single county was woth so much.

Out of curiosity let's calculate our Medium Time To Happen (MTTH) for Prosperity Events:

=====================================================================
Emperor Vokan MTTH: (18+ Learning, Stewardship, Genius, Level 3 Education)
=====================================================================

New Holding Slot - 27,98 years
Province Modifier - 19.37 years​

Not bad but not great. We won't be able to improve our education, we will get lifestyle and diligent though. Somehow Vokan didn't develop Diligent even though I was under impression Setyamka intervened. So it might be pretty neat. In the end, if we get those 2 holding slots and 3 province modifiers during Vokan reign I will be content :)

Takes us up to August to reclaim Tao county. Now finally we can take "See the Realm prosper ambition. And start throwing feast etc. For now I can tell you that our MA remains rather low despite our recently won holy wars (67,8%). I still count my blessings as spread of heresy stopped.

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Turns out timers are tied to character sending not the realm.

In October our Hindu investor dies, thus enriching us in gold (44.655 in the pockets!). Given relative lack of things to do I can once again send some gifts to China. As it seems to be dependent on ruler - not realm. Spended quite some time and have to check every single character in diplomatic range that matches our criteria... Finally found retired Court Guru that I could exchange for 990 Grace but then game crashed again >.> Luckily enough this time it saved so didn't lose anothe few hours of gameplay :). We redo the same gift to Emperor of China and end on the same 6.472 grace. I also realise that I forgot to drink from the fountain of youth to de-age Vokan. So we make him younger from 21 years to 19 years of age. It is done.

Year 1100
======================

Emperor spends new year invited to feast by one of his vassals. Thus we can't pick any of special decisions. Currently at 1.127 prestige with just +8.39 per month. We need to crank those numbers up. Using free time I arranged matrilineal bethrothal between Salomea Branicki (granddaughter of other Orthodox Polish Saint) and one of boys in our court. This way we finally will get them into Permo-Siberia itsel for future usage. Then we will arrange for our bloodlines to converge into single character. For now we are still waiting weather we will have 2 Saintly Bloodlines from Permyakid source or not.

Our festivities with soon to be new friend end. So we decide to organize tribal festival. After initial preparation we decide to spend some gold on more prestige gaining modifier. By March unrest in Keltma tribe passes, so our Marshall can move onto Votyaki to contain them - and he surely does. Revolt Risk decreases to 0%. With that situation is finally under control.

As more events from tribal festival chain pops up, let me tell you why I didn't take some options. First of all - why Vokan Permyakid didn't join Monastic Society. While it is the only available society (thanks for being Zealous) this doesn't seem too good. Vokan wanted to be in Warrior Lodge and then transfer to Hermetic society upon feudalisation. But now after thinking it through... Isn't it the perfect occasion to join and steal those rare quality 4/5 artifacts? If we fail we don't lose much (over 90% of Empire is already converted). Don't mind me I reconsidered my options!

So soon there will be concubines to increase our prestige gain too. We start writing the book - once again stewardship options eludes us so I pick learning topic. Vokan should live long enough to be able to write 2 books. So for now we will just do the elimination of 5th topic in this 4 option event. Still it stings as we will feudalise without that extra construction modifiers :/. We tried so hard but rng didn't gave back to us. Soon tribal festival concludes, granting "Tamer" nickname on one of or vassals. At least it is still summer season so we throw a fair.

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I think we only won once in the past or not at all? Not great luck overall. Still I like that Orthodox flavour at the end.

Since year ago the crusade could be called in but #TeamPope doesn't seem to be too keen. On topic which, Papacy has vanished from the map and remnants of France are in Frankish Waldensian Theocratic hands instead. Making him both the biggest independent Theocracy and Theocracy overall on map. Our prestige gain doubled to almost +20 prestige/month and if my estimations are right in just 3 more months we will increase it further (as our retinues in Anatolia will be fully replenished).

We also didn't go to kow-tow before Chinese Emperor as it costs 1.000 prestige and some per month prestige. Seems counter productive to our current goal of forging another bloodline. As season turns into autumn, our Orthodox MA starts slowly recovering up to 71%. Doesn't help our Mother, who suffers Monothelite heretic uprising. We can't help her so we organise our own Grand Tournament. Not often do I do this as it cost 200 gold but grants +100 prestige, which is currently worth at least 5 months of current prestige gain.

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It always amazes me how many casualties does those tournaments produce. Definetely helps the game run quicker.

Once again game shows me how some events are true meat grinder for characters. Many 2nd sons, courtiers and councillors from across the Permo-Siberian realm gets wounded, maimed or killed. Soon we have our 3 top contestants but sadly upon ending the whole event we don't get any extra prestige. On that note we end this part!
 
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It's a shame that you had to reload. Still, does that make the first part of this chapter some sort of dream?

RIP Setyamka.

What were the Orthodox Persians thinking? Is any of their de jure realm under Muslim rule? If so, why didn't they attack those states?

Catholicism has reclaimed dominance. First of all, did that survive the reload? Secondly, how much did Croatia contribute to it?
 
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Sorry about the crashes/replays. Any idea on why game is crashing or you were sent to beginning of session instead of auto-save? (My first successful game (1453 finish) had a crash that brought my character back to life and allowed me to outlive my most troublesome vassal.) Game did not wreck as many of your plans in this session. Persian Orthodox should be a plus even though they fought the ERE. When are you planning on going feudal?

General CK2 question (you are my current authority). Are Eastern (Buddhist/Hindus) for a single county instead of a duchy? When Merchant Republic uses 'coast of county' CB, are they trying to take the entire county?

Thank you for the update and the answers.
 
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It's a shame that you had to reload. Still, does that make the first part of this chapter some sort of dream?

RIP Setyamka.

What were the Orthodox Persians thinking? Is any of their de jure realm under Muslim rule? If so, why didn't they attack those states?

Catholicism has reclaimed dominance. First of all, did that survive the reload? Secondly, how much did Croatia contribute to it?
The first part was definetely a nice dream, as reality didn't quite lived up to it.
No - there was only ERE. I think Derbent (if it is within de jure Daylam) is currently fought over by some Greek vassals, so they might clash their heads again. While Orthodox Persians could attack Zikri Farukids to the south or (better idea) expand into heretic Transoxiana to accumulate more power.

After crash Catholicism still took over but with only 7 more provinces (while on the first time they had 10 province lead).
Croatia did a lot under previous Crusading queen. Current king is really young and just ascended the throne so he could not wage holy wars in previous years. Still building up realm with around 10.000 levies is a nice feat for AI :).
Sorry about the crashes/replays. Any idea on why game is crashing or you were sent to beginning of session instead of auto-save? (My first successful game (1453 finish) had a crash that brought my character back to life and allowed me to outlive my most troublesome vassal.) Game did not wreck as many of your plans in this session. Persian Orthodox should be a plus even though they fought the ERE. When are you planning on going feudal?

General CK2 question (you are my current authority). Are Eastern (Buddhist/Hindus) for a single county instead of a duchy? When Merchant Republic uses 'coast of county' CB, are they trying to take the entire county?

Thank you for the update and the answers.
I play on GeForce Now using Wi-Fi (not recommended but more than doable). I don't know what happened as I briefly lost connection and there were no warnings symptoms. Due to that it couldn't load cloud savefile thus reverted to the beggining of the session (and I have auto save set to happen every half a year).

We are feudalising within this ruler (Vokan) lifetime. We are only waiting on prestige, to pick "Forge a Bloodline" ambition. So for now we are going "full prestige acquisition mode" to reach that 5.000 prestige.

Hindus have the regular ducal level holy war. Buddhist have county level holy war that vassalizes instead of usurping the title. So it plays differently as you try to acquire claimants to bigger titles, to then press their claim for some sweet expansion. No idea about Merchants Republics.
 
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Economic Summary: Permo-Siberia Year 1100
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Economic Report: Permo-Siberia Year 1100

Realm size: 151
Yearly Income: 61,64 (mercenary band hired)
Treasury: 44.079 (+1.092 in currently held investors, +15.575 in mercenary band)
Number of Cities in Realm: 2
Number of Cities in Personal Demense: 0
Number of Prosperity Province Modifiers: 11
Number of Holding Slots Generated: 11
Number of Great Works: 4
- Far North Scriptorium in Udmurts (Great Library; Stage 2; Keeper of the Tomes, Scribe Room, Architecture collection)
- Hagia Epimoni in Tynea (Grand Cathedral; Stage 2-3; Grand Basilica, Watchtower Network)
- Primal Taiga in Pilva (Magnificent Garden, Stage 2; Hanging Gardens, Fountain of Youth, Road Tolls, Tavern,)
- Uralic Walls (Great Walls, Stage 2; Stdded Bastion, Gatehose Fortress, Watchtower Networrk,)
Global Construction Speed modifier: 68,4% (Tang Sculpture, How to Build Well, Bones of Saint Peter,)
Global Construction Cost modifier: 81% (Dragon Amulet, Bones of Saint Peter,)

5 Highest Income Realms (Yearly Income)
1. Byzantine Empire (767,17)
2. Tibet Empire (452.51)(In huge civil war)
3. Masudid Sultanate [Sultanate of Jerusalem] (392,21)
4. Muhallabid Sultanate [Sultanate of Egypt] (390)
5. Farukid Sultanate [Sultanate of Iraq] (386,53)

Honorable Mentions: Republic of Amalfi (775,22) (the richest Merchant Republic, under Byzantines), Hafezid Shahdom [Shahdom of Daylam] (379.66), Cucungid Sultanate [Sultanate of Ifriqiya] (353.2), Holy Roman Empire (339,59), Kingdom of Croatia (302.26), Republic of Venice (222.86),

5 Wealthiest Counties Worldwide (Province Wealth)
1. Venezia (345,6),
2. Cholamandalam (291)
3. Constantinopole (288,4)
4. al-Iskandriya (286)
5. Nikomedeia (272,5)

Honorable Mentions: Balharm (268), Baghdad (266.6), Noli (252.2), Navasarika 250.3, Amalfi (230,75), Muscat (230,2), Magadha (227,3), Debul (226,2), Delhi (224), Tunis (221,9), Mazar (221,6), Genoa (220,2), Hormuz (212,8), Ilam (206,5), Antioch (204,6),

Additional Comment on worldstate: First of all - Tang China entered it's golden age. While Siberian frontier remained mostly the same (we did some small territorial gains in preparation to secede western lands) there was some changes in Europe. Starting from Iberia - our Matiyid Sultanate keep slowly blobbing and is currently 3 kingdom sized Cathar entity. It might not fulfill it's dream of unifying Iberia, becase Holy Roman Empire vassalized Valencia. Which brings us to biggest event since last report - HRE formed through our Catholics Italian allies and consolidated quite a lot of lands. While Papal France disintegrated. They also slowly unify religion within empire but it is a slow process. To the north British Isles splitted among 2 descendants of previous Polish/Slavic great conqueror into Ireland and England proper. Both are still Irish Slavic but have some Cathar vassal under and are in 3 way standoff with Welsch Cathar Scotland. In Balkans Kingdom of Croata rised since Crusade becoming respectable power and together wth ERE is eating anything between them. Easten Europe split between Polish Vladimir Kingdom, Russian Novgorod and liberated Romuva Lithuaniia. Scandinavia weirdly converted into either Paulicianism or Catharism, gettiing rid of most Germanic and Suomenusko realms. Denmark gased out, Suomi is collapsing but even with that Norway seems too weak to take over. Middle east is the most exciting - beside Byzantine empire that expanded into Armenia and Balkans, we have still big Egyptian Sunni sultanate that we are chomping on, new Orthodox Persian Shahdom of Daylam and Masudid sultanate of Jerusalem togethe with Farukid sultanate of Iraq being of Zikri faith. Great Abyssinia realm never came to be and collapsed under hits from 2 Jihads. Nomads are weakening further and probably soon either of other Orthodox realms pushes into them. Some of our neighbours already adapted Orthodoxy. Then rest of map to the east is under Tibetan rule.
 
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Part XLI (1101-1108)

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Part XLI (1101-1108)


Year 1101
======================

Let's start (probably) our last fully tribal part of this AAR. Took us a long time but being Feudal is finally on the horizon. Just need to stay put and avoid any major mistakes. For now our main objective is to stockpile prestige ASAP. Given that current Business focus can present us with "Minting coin" event I might even remain on it longer. It is good prestige boost - worth even paying 100g for 100 prestige to avoid penalty. But we start with excommunicatng single scheming vassal (Chief Gazheg of Tabagatai next to Silkroad) and then start investing in characters again. Have one of most profitable batch of investors so far. Some are somewhat problematic and may need direct banishment but it will be worth the effort.

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We invited sons where needed and we even got another source of Branicki saintly bloodline :).

Forced Polish courtier to convert into Orthodoxy to activate his saintly bloodline and then marry him off to one of daughters of our kin ruling Yugra high chiefdom across Ural mountains. This should help keep the steady source of those characters even if our main project with bethrothal between court children fails. Then I also convert one of those wealthy investors, whose son is a steward in distant realm (thus won't allow himself to be invited to us).

By March all of our prestige based retinues are fully replenished, thus I expect our income of that resource to increase soon. Then as I look through list of all plots inside Permo-Siberia I spot that our Uncle Kezhay III has an assasination against our current ruler going on. Well that's definetely not nice - we are planning to give him his own kingdoms to rule. Ungrateful and impatient creature. We let him know, that we know. He follows our directive and ceases his rogueish behaviour.

Once again with advent of May we start the dance of hosting every single Summer Fair and Feast we can. This time not for prosperity itself but that prestige. Our passive prestige income gives us little less than 300/year. With current 1.554 and needing 5.000 there is hope than in maybe less than 10 years time we will accumulate as much. Doesn't take long as week after we can pick first +5 prestige option. Then our spymaster steals some technology from Thrace. This time rng lands on military category (1511 points at the moment). Little shame it wasn't economy - we have 2.200 out of 2.700 needed to push towards final level of Constructon technology (dated fo game end).

Time passes without any summer fair's popups. Takes up to June for us to be able to excommunicate our Bedouin High Almoner (that we previously converted). Soon first summer fair situation occurs. Choice between Paranoid or +5 relation wish some courtier. Picked second due to being already at trait limit (6) but maybe I should consider improving my Intrigue for stealing artifact from monastic society? It's a gamble either way. We also get informed that our freshly wed (to Kazimierz Branicki) kinwoman from Yugra was caught cheating on her husband. Never easy ay?

Emperor Vokan get's issued penance from society. I'm torn. He has no other vices so he will probably lose Ambitious. We probably won't get diligent but can expect Erudite. I think we abort this mission to avoid problems with being over the demense limit. Hope it turns correct choice. Then some Jewish Chancellor candidate arrives with 22 Diplomacy. So it is an upgrade to current holder + he will generate cultural tech points. So Vokan's friend high Chief of Zyriane gets the boot. New chancellor Azariah of Ash Shir gets to work on generating claim on Kirs bishopric (in capital Kudymkar) at once, so we can finally arrange for desired administrative setup. He has maximum 16%+ chance per year. Then we finally get around extracting money from one of new investors. Turns out we have 100% arrest chance without even using our Marshal to help. Good as he is currently supressing rebelions of heretics nearby. Thus we imprison and then banish him for sweet reward.

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Only problematic inheritance was solved. Won''t fill his spot and we will patiently wait for others. With that our fortune rises to 46.270 gold coins.

As time goes on and Autumn arrives we get informed that one of our domestically grown Muhallabid girls fliped back to Sunni again. Great that I managed to fix that. Her oldest sister is also marriagable, so we find the best and most corrupt individual we can find to breed even more decadent Muhallabids. There is one problem though - Islam doesn't allow Matrilinear marriages. So we need to turn her into Orthodox character to create more descendants of her dynasty that will be converted to Islam after.

One of our vassal Priest informs us that Western Sayan converted back to Orthodox. I even missed that it flipped to some heresy! Oh wait. It was Western Sayan - single county vassal in question snatched from Mongolia that I do not wish to hold longterm. That explains a lot. Our religion Moral Authority is healing and right now stands at healthy 80%. As August progresses we get that minting event. I give up on acquiring Greedy and Deceitful for now to just make sure we don't lose even more prestige later. Moment later we get notified about getting first modifier on way toward lifestyle trait. Also up to almost 1.750 prestige. Then before end of month our Permo-Siberian Patriarch decides to canonise late father of Emperor Vokan. Setyamka Permyakid will from now on be known as Saint Setyamka "The Understanding". Now that's something I can understand :).

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Two out of three Orthodox Saints are characters we played. This Bloodline would come in handy earlier but it still can help our family that will rule Nenetsia.

Will have to sire many children as Emperor Vokan is the only one capable of prolonging this bloodline atm. Before I can make arrangements we get stressed trait from Business and then something not seen in ages - Orthodox Stewardship icon for +1 base stat. So it evens itself out but becomes better over long haul. Found some good Genius/Quick female candidates with even widowed Han princess among them :). All that for small price of favour inviting.

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Time to prolong the bloodline. Let's hope for another intelligent descedant to take over and rest of his brothers to become skilled Bishops.

Actions doesn't slow down as #TeamPope finally decides, who will be next victim of Catholic leading realms. Turns out he designated Waldensian Duke of France. He has 46 realm size and there is also 79 Waldensian King-Bishop Sergius II "The monk" of France to help him next door. Which took over Papal theocracy of France. I think HRE+Croatia with help of holy orders will deal with them swiftly. Turns out HRE is not taking part in this Crusade though... So it might have been prudent choice to weaken enemies first. On other hand it might limit HRE expansion towards west.

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Catholics should win this. With that they might no longer need our assistance. In time we will fight for their warchest though.

By perfectly timing the game on 1st of November I get the ability to host 2 feast per season IRC. Or was it only Great Hunt related? Well we will test it anyway. Then I inherit some tribe at the south-western reaches of my empire so new administrator is generated and tribe is given away. After that we benefit from having many Cookbooks to get +20 prestige at the cost of 10g spend on preparing the food for feast.

As feast starts in December, turns out at least Conjurers we hired paid off with extra 10 prestige. Then as I slowly watch the timer tick, turns out my initial assumption was correct. Feast ends on December 31 and thanks to pausing we can prepare another one. Also I realise thanks to us snatching that Han Princess we now have decision to raise Chinese Honor Guard (available when in war :]). What a good haul this year Permo-Siberia had.

Year 1102
======================

We start the year with over 1.950 prestige. As previous year we didn't manage to have 2 feast,s we did not got to check how much prestige is there for us to accumulate each year on average. But now we will test it :). Upon some checking turns out game had to update itself as our uncle Kezhay III also is part of double saint bloodline (Varaka+Setyamka). He actually will make great use of it as his holdings in Vladimir high chiefdom are halfway Komi'nised. Important to mention - happy father to 4 boys and 4 girls each of which is holder of all our family bloodlines :).

Feast lasts till end of March. No ability to held 3rd one I'm afraid. Still it put us at 2.040 prestige currently. We get informed our Muhallabid guest became father of his first son. Now we are talking. We assign him Pride and keep him under Sunni tutor. Our Afghan investor is Slothful, Cruel, Deceitful and Humble - perfect fit. Even if things turn out not decadent enough to my liking, he still can keep impregnating more courtiers we will deliver him in order to create decadence outside of Egypt Sultan reach.

On that topic next months are spend on questioning our Greek concubine Melissa, if Vokan is the father of recently sired children in her belly. Turns out he really is as she claims and we get 20% roll for Trusting trait but don't get it. Meanwhile some nomadic raiders appear out of silkroad (300 of them) so our border guards in Saur are put into use. We also remember about Summer Fair of 1102. Before end of May our High Almoner Afghan Sunni investors dies. So now we need a replacement for Muhallabid children at our court. But more importantly his over 2.600 ducats went to his 69 year old sister abroad (the last from siblings). We invite her asap. Did not expect it as she was 2 years older than him (69 y.o right now) and outlived his younger brother.

Getting rid of that small nomad host costed us around 13 prestige, because even with just 5 men lost we pay for whole month of reinforcement :/. Then as summer is in full swing news arrive about our kinwoman from Yugra dying under "suspicious circumstances". So her marriage with Kazimierz Branicki turns out to neither be long or happy. Well we wed him to another Permyakid daughter of our vassal-kin. Then after arrranging that (our Branicki widower went pack to his original court so I had to poach him again) and shuffling tutors for Sunni children we get this

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Usual choice. Worth it? I doubt it. We are writing about Learning anyway so we don't care.

Imagine now risking it for something not needed. I opt for safe choice as this book doesn't matter (next one will) and I would hate to ruin my plans just out of greed. Time passes. Our Concubine gives birth in October and turns out she was liar. This child isn't our afterall. Luckily we don't get a hit to our prestige and it is a girl so we were safe anyway even if she didn't confess. I'll keep her for now. Just as I say this, Vokan other concubine becomes pregnant (Pecheneg one).

Sadly I miss the timing on November as I wanted to check factions. Still will give us an estimate for this year prestige gain, as second feast would end in march anyway. We also get event from Saint Varaka Permyakid "the Apostle" bloodline giving us nice trait for free :).

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With patient we are up to 21/16/25/9/24 statline. That a lot. Now we only lack Diligent to have all +all stats traits (Genius, Ambitious, Patient)

During feast we make a new friend - chieftess Megurka of Naberezhnye. Soon also one of our advisors dies and we replace him with member of Permyakid dynasty from Ural. Nepotism at it's finest. But thanks to it we have 6 Loyalist members of council and 1 Pragmatist.

Year 1103
======================

One thing I spotted last year but didn't have a moment to bring up - our Polish Saint bloodline's holder somehow inherited Saint Setyamka bloodline. Some kind of bug I think? But he lacks Saint Varaka bloodline, so it still is 2 out of 3. He already impregnated Nezayka Permyakid and as they are in matrilinear marriage I should soon see, if my way of handling bloodline inheritance was correct.

In March Emperor newest friend dies due to cancer. That developed and claimed that 32 years old chieftess quickly. Did not expect that. Even worse she was pregnant :/. Some news from far West arrive - Catholic brethren have prevailed in their Crusade over heretics and now there are 2 kingdoms of France. One de jure and one Titular. One held by Basque Catholic Crusader Queen and other held by Waldensian French King-Bishop. Reminded myself that we can make non-aggresion pact with HRE and even alliance. The second option will have to wait as I don't want to ruin my current "peace" ambition.

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Even more mish-mash. As Germans went into both Croatia and now Iberia, so Iberians went into France. Seems fair xD

I remember to held another Summer Fair on 1st of May =]. Two weeks later first daughter to emperor is born. Young Seyamka Permyakid reveals hints of Genius so we are up to good start :). Maybe she will be used for joining all orthodox bloodlines into single genius character? Who knows. Also as I was investigating turns out most if not all of Branicki bloodline got Setyamka's bloodline as well... Something definetely bugged out. Not that it matters a lot as we still have to connect their bloodline with our older bloodline.

In June our Greek concubine once again is pregnant... Oh boy here we go again @.@. Situation repeats itself. Then we react to some blasphemer as truly virtuous and zealous ruler, which grants us our Patriarch approval. Sadly not enough to force through with excommunications of our bishops. Then young emperor visits one of mmonastiers within his monastic society activities.

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Some virtuous Deus vult'ing is always apprecieated!

After checking turns out I was right in how to transfer bloodlines - Kazimierz Branicki's daughter has both of his bloodlines yet is of our dynasty. One step closer to bloodline transfer to playable character :). We get issued another mission from society and this time it is more digestable charity to perform. It still can mess something up but hey - we have to try at some point. With that it is enough to reach 2nd rank within Community of Saint Basil.

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Uff! Wasn't sure if I got it right. But the result proves the concept. So we are looking into joining all Orthodox saintly bloodlines into one family.

During Autumn as Vokan visited monks, he made another friend with whom after spending some time he lost his stressed trait (probably this won't remain true for long but hey). Once again I'm 2 days late to squeeze extra feast this season. Will have to create a habit for myself. At least our religion is doing fine - 89% MA and rising. On topic which soonish, Vokan misses company of his male monk friend. He decides to endure it and get's positivee trait instead of stressed. So a positive overall. Soon he makes another friend on feast so it is a-ok. That should relieve his boredom. Turns out feast have irregular durations. So somehow I can still click 2nd feast on 31 of december even after starting the first on 3rd of November. Don't mind if I do :3.

Year 1104
======================

Last year we took our "See the realm prosper" ambition. For now we are looking at 2.688 prestige associated with Vokan's name. Soon another infidelity is resolved and our Greek Concubine once again proves herself guilty without any repercussion for us. At this point I don't care - I'll keep her for prestige and in few year time will replace her with younger Permian girl that just comes out of age :).

As another feast winds down by late February I think it is safe to assume to gain around 40 prestige from single one. Summer Fair's seem to bring more alonglines of 20 prestige. So all 3 decision give us extra 100 prestige a year. That's might be just enough to allow reaching 5.000 prestige within 6-7 years. Then I have an epiphany!

When starting each play session I always start with turning the notifications off. One of them is "Create the title". Why does it matter? Because creating title gives prestige. Whole +200 for single duchy. We have around 20 duchies that we held and can create titles for. That's 20x200=4.000 prestige. Which puts us at over 5.000. So we could Feudalise already! So now it is a time to start those Hillforts construction ASAP!

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Burtasy already have maxed Hillfort so those 11 are upgrading. Won't probably max all of them as there are still quite a lot buildings we can buy with prestige.

Many of my vassals are more than ready to Feudalise (more than me xD) so we will probably do this during this part. There will be some administrative cleanups but hey - that's something to do after feudalising as well :). So as our building crews have something to do for once, our Patriarch informs us that our relatively brief friend Chieftess Megurka was proclaimed to be blessed. So there is chance one of our vassals becomes another Saint (I doubt it looking at her resume but hey...). Maybe that's another bloodline to include in our "MOST HOLY SIBERIAN EMPIRE".

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Oh what a coincidence. Our friend might be saint too? That would be nice of our vassals to provide us with extra bloodlines :)

By my estimation it will or wont happen in year 1108 (4 years from now on). For now we finally finish "See the Realm Prosper" objectives on August 7th. So now I can look through vassal list once again and deal with any traitors to the interests of realm. Turns out vassals for once are behaving and instead of cloak and dagger prefer to read bible as there are quite a few that seem like promising Saint candidates :). They finally took example from our Permyakid dynasty. So there is only one schemer. So my excommunication is instead thrown at single multi-count.

In September as our level 3 hillforts are finishing we get unexpected call to arms from our mother - Queen Potyava of Nenetsia (50 y.o.). She wants to wrestle control of Novosil from Chernigov Khaganate to the south of Perm and wants our help in this task. Well I'm happy it didn't explode in my face earlier during prosperity ambition cause I completely forgot that we had military alliance xD. Good on her part to wait for her son to finish his current objectives. I will help but the fighting will done with levies to avoid prestige loss.

Once month changes to October we can order another set of hillfort upgrades in Perm itself. Calculated that with just feudalising Perm + Burtasy we can achieve what I need right now, leaving some more time to spend prestige in remaining 5 tribes (which saves us some gold in the long run and doesn't immedietely skyrockets our income meaning less gold to buy new holding slots from prosperity in near future). Then I realise nothing is preventing me from extracting Tarbagatai tribe at the same time. What's more it even allows me (being primar attacker) to raise Chinese Honor Guard that I will send against Nomads instead. Well played emperor Vokan :].

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Was expecting chinese looking models but instead we got native models. It is cool anyway - some sort "But we got Chinese honor guard at home" moments.

Before end of year we get another minting event. Once again I refrain from debasing curerncy to maximize our prestige safely. At least it still counts as success and now we have Trader modifier (+2 stewardship). Meaning soon we might get to lifestyle events. It works out even better than I expected because, if we feudalise soon we can go towards Architect event chain and try to get Quarry for even more discounts on massive buildup that will follow =D. We also reach 3.000 prestige as somehow our Tarbagatai extraction crew didn't lose single man. Not complaining about that. Of course due to wars we are not throwing any feast this year. Also I realise I was mislead. We are not fighting against Chernigov Khaganate but just 2 county High Chief of Chernigov... Well that's definetely much less difficult to overcome.

Year 1105
======================

Seems Chiernigov Khaganate joined after all. And our Mother decided to not summon her 22.000 vassal troops so she wages this war with just 1.500 personal levies. Well seems we will have to carry the day, but we still await arrival of Permo-Siberian Levies into Burtasy tribe. We at least finish Tarbagatai extraction before end of January. We take it briefly as our demense limit allows it.

Luckily targeted Chernigov has only 2 counties thus we will make them surrender before their friends manage to do the same to our Mother. As winter is (I swear this always happens) severe we have some problems with attrition. Luckily one of my Anatolian allies got succedded by quite remarkable fellow - Suomenusko Norse that was previously Varangian and now reached the Hero status within Suomenusko Warrior Lodge. Just look at this monster:

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I would hate to have to fight against him. He might know a thing or two about fighting in winter xD.

They start marching in March and arrive to greet the nomads in June. Did little tinkering around flanks - our Norse will lead Chinese Honor Guard on it's own cause with high % of Pikes and many bonuses to Defence he will shred them in melee. Our main center flank is commanded by Aggresive leader and other flank by some Cruel Commander. Overall our commanding assets are not great beside that Norse Varangian.

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Fight doesn't take long enough. Even though troops entered Melee they rolled Advance thus got countered by enemy Charge. Luckily center helped them so we ended with great results nonetheless.

After winning that battle we are looking at 57% of warscore in our favour. Mother's troops are taking over Novosil tribe (ast Chernigov holding) so we will decap those tribes nomads took over in Vladimir. Meanwhile on other side of Permo-Siberia in Zaysan some nomadic raiders arrived. During all that all Stonewall Hillforts IV finished in each of High Chiefdom of Perm counties. After that grueling work, our young ruler sets aside matters of state to spend some time with his daughter. He misses on getting Kind trait but Setyamka gets +1 martial at least. Perhaps he told her about bravery of Permo-Siberian warriors defending their realm?

Meanwhile our borderguard deals with intruders in Zaysan, losing 28 men but claiming 506 riders. Then our Patriarch finally finishes converting heretics in Votyaki. Removing revolt risk and freeing Marshal to oversee our troops (-25% prestige upkeep will give us over +1 extra prestige/month)

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This is important as there is requirement for having converted county to organised religion and IRC it must be your current religion to feudalise.

Our Permo-Siberian Patriarch is then sent to Slavic Ryazan to do the same with monthly 22.85% chance of success. Then on 7th of September the war is concluded. Uff - that should give me a brief period of peace. Decided to spend 300 prestige on Warrior Gathering III in recently acquired Tarbagatai so we are back to 3.113 prestige. Why? Cause it was already max upgraded when it comes to Stonewall Hillforts so it will convert upon feudalising. Unique culture exclusive buildings are the best way to spend prestige as they convert their levels in 1:1 ratio unlike others that convert every 2 levels of tribal building into 1 level of feudal building. Well it also takes time so better to start sooner than later. Week later our Cupbearer dies and we inherit his funds (I think). Not long after we get prosperity event :) "Noice"!

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Well that's nice and early. Now we miss only 1 holding slot and 1 province modifier to finish another county and move on. We are only missing Centre of Worship if you wondered what is missing province modifier wise.

Takes us up to October to return our levies within our borders and disband them safely. That 19.000 tribal troops surely cost. Yearly I would need over 400g to pay them.
Good rng doesn't leave us yet as we get the nickname and quite a nice sounding at that:

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That's a good nickname to have. One we haven't had previously. I hate to have several characters with the same nicknames and well this AAR was more in risk of that than usual.

Out of curiosity I check history and it isn't the first Permyakid to be known for such a trait. Very first Emperor of Permo-Siberia (Kya in year 932) was also known for the same quality. Let's hope Vokan will do as many historic feats as his Ancestor!

Before November arrives quite a few things demand my attention at once and yet I do time my feast perfectly :]. First our Mother send letter accusing us of supporting some pirates that bully her coastal vassals so we deny those allegations to get +50 prestige (otherwise we would lose 50). Then Monastic group wants me to pay for charity and I happily do just that (putting us at 750 devotion with +228 devotion gain a year). Then well Feast starts. We also let curious Vokan to see how one of his Monastic friends achieved his botanical feats that gives us "Green Fingers" modifier (+1 Learning for next 10 years). As we receive Humble due to success in monastic mission I experience a little horror. Luckily enough it did not get rid of Ambitious (as Content is the opposite) but this is something to have in mind. It could well... also get rid of ambitious.

December starts with fury of Vokan's mother - Queen Potyava demands that we confess to being behind her recent trouble. We once again don't and our alliance is in tatters. But we can renew it at once - oh silly AI :>... We still are her only heir so in time we will re-unite all Komi lands to give away after clear administrative division. That reminds me - we can and should make alliance with Holy Roman Empire. Will help against Egypt even if our number of troops rapidly goes down (or will it go up? I can never tell given that Ally tribal vassal troops are not counted in ledger but instead upon becoming feudal you receive portion of them). Also CK2 giveths and CK2 takeths. This time even though I timed feast correctly it lasted just one day too long and we can't perform another x]. So I'm even and it is fair I guess.

Year 1106
======================

Another glorious year ahead of us. Started with another extraction war against 3 county vassal in preparation for feudalising. We still are waiting on Tarbagatai to finish it's construction (will take up to October). So for time being we might start as well our restructurisation of Permo-Siberia. I also would not loathe any claim generated Mr. Chancellor. On topic of - after so many peace years I kind of bummed out that we still didn't get books from Architecture collection in Far North Scriptorium.

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Administration never truly ends when Ruling in Permo-Siberia. Thank Christ for those Excommunications as Orthodox.

As January nears the end we lose our Patriarch. Due to lack of decent replacement I generate holy men (piety no longer is an issue) and we get really skilled character - 23 Learning Mastermind Theologian + Mystic + Erudite + Zealous. Sent to Ryazan again his estimated county conversion chance is 35.54%!

After initial victorious battle against rebel troops, we experience massive pillgrimage to Saint Setyamka's grave. His son decides to converse with Pillgrims and becomes Gregarious in the process. Ideally before 30th April we are done with that revolt and Annuy chief gets executed after being stripped down of 2 out of his 3 tribes.

May starts not only with Summer Fair but also another prosperity event. The last province modifier is collected. We still have 1 more holding slot to generate here, but as those events (province modifiers and extra holding slots) can happen at the same time It would serve me better to move onto another county. Udmurts to the south is great candidate (already level 3 prosperity with 5/7 holding slots and only 1 province modifier). It is the only forest county we have and those have one unique province modifier that can lower either the construction cost and speed up construction speed.

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Vokan proves again to be a skilled aministrator :) Even though he lacked his stewardship education

Few days later our Chinese Princess concubine becomes pregnant :). Sadly bigger nomadic incursion plagues my "over the limit" county in eastern Siberia. Over 2.200 strong host that previously helped us and chased off smaller nomads. Will have to deal with them but that will be costly in prestige (and we are at the moment at alomst 3.600).

In first week of July our Afghan sister of investor dies and our treasury baloons to 47,113 gold coins. Then one of our vassals accusess our jewish chancellor of looking at our wife with "lustful" eyes. We don't believe it. He might have plenty of enemies due to his origin and well working on generating claims as chancellor.

In October last construction finishes. We are ready to feudalise in steps. But before that I order another construction in Tarbagatai. Heard about interesting bug that let's you get extra tribal building in feudal holding if you start construction before feudalising. Let's try it ;)

After creating just 9 duchies out of 20 we break through 5.000 needed prestige. I can now take "Forge a Bloodline" ambition and we do. Then I await for month to go over and game to update just in case. Before that we are able to reach 3rd rank within Monastic Society and well we do. Then we finally Feudalise!

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Unexpectedly like 5-6 years earlier that I expected. Now we enter the final phase of this AAR! Time to start reinvesting big time into Siberian steppes

Few things happen. First of all we only get 4 free cities (Perm, Kudymkar, Udmurts and Burtasy). Second - every single tribe held by us converts :/ Meaning we are going to miss on that prestige savings. On other hand as I paused we feudalised instantly. So I can start constructions before vassals get free holdings that we will have to revoke anyway. Even though I precautiously raised levies in order to disband them, game refilled my holdings to maximum. So I can disband them now to save on gold. Also our income instantly shot up from whatever it was in last report up to +158.8! Only problem I just realised - I don't have Chinese Scholar-Bureacrat.

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All heil China gold Age which doubles bonuses from him. That's a huge chunk of our bonuses.

Luckily this decision is instant and doesn't even need unpausing. Having that extra -30% Construction cost surely will help. Then I construct City in every county within realm I wish to hold, if it has 2 holding slots. Temple if there are 3 or more (as game won't allow me to spam just cities in counties with 3+ holding slots). Temples are also crucial to make first as I can't excommunicate Bishops. I can excommunicate Counts and Mayors. So need to appoint those bishops myself. So instantly close to 15.000 gold vanishes as costs vary between 200 in vassal counties down to 90 ducats in Perm duchy itself. Then I "Hospital up" duchy of Perm itself to protect prosperity (from now on we can and will generate our own epidemics). This isn't over as I can only build single holding in each county at the time. Also my micromanagment of vassals paid off. Only one vassal had building cost increasing province modifier thanks to that (that costed 350 instead of 200g to make city).

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Now Crusade Kings 2 turns into proper "City Builder". This will have huge repercussions for Permo-Siberia in the future.

There are some problems - we are holding 7 duchies over the limit right now which isn't popular. Also after unpausing our vassals start feudalising too. They get free holdings but only of a type that isn't in construction. I didn't construct temple in every place that needed but I realised relatively quickly after few such provinces. So I should be ok. Had to give away our Tarbagatai castle because we are 17/11 demense limit. Then I created 16+ Stewardship nobles from decision and made them Mayors. From my theory crafting and consulting the wiki in the last few weeks that seems to be enough for each to hold 3 cities with room for stressed or depressed without penalty. Also high stewardship helps income tremendously.

I don't want to get rid of other counties as I still want to feed technology in farthest edges of empires quicker. There is one thing I can though - Given that right now our Vassal limit went down from 60+/38 to 9/49 I can increase the centralisation. With that we will be within demense limit.

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Probably don't want high centralisation overall but for now it is a nice bandaid while holding 8 duchies at the same time.

As frantic work and waiting continue, our Chinese conbuine gives birth to first Prince of Feudal Permo-Siberia. Kezhevat Permyakid didn't inherit any trait at all from both of his Genius parents. Well probably will make for skilled administrator of some bishoprics. Then as we go with last (for some time) feast to commemorate our change in goverment some vassals start slowly feudalising.

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How did it look in few months after fateful decision. Lightblue - feudal, darker blue - still tribal.

Year 1107
======================

After new year I realise I forgot about one little trick to help my finances - I should mass generate nobles before feudalising or before year changed. Cause game updated to our new income and cost of trying to generate decent steward went from 16.6g to 104.4g. Ughh and I went through all notes twice! Well will have to bite the bullet I suppose. At least this will jumpstart economy.

Days slowly pass as I diligently shape the empire - each city within de jure duchy of Perm and Bolgharia gets Mayor there and any cities outside are then given to those mentioned earlier. Sadly due to not insignificant -70 relationship penalty from too many duchies, my council no longer supports my decision in regard to distribution of power. My income also seems to be rapidly increasing as cost of new nobles increased once again to 148.7g! Upon checking - yea it sure did. Now Empire of Permo-Siberia is earning 596.83g a year! So we are already in top 5 wealthiest realms in the world and only some of our cities are constructed and those that are, don't have single building yet built xD.

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Holly molly this method of distributing power is far better than I expected. Not suprised that earlier Iconoclast Sardinia also was an economic giant with such realm structure oO. Do remember that we tax 80% of our cities income while others probably tax 40% or less.

So far we constructed only 12 holdings (our realm size is at 163). Enough to exhausts our "Forge a bloodline" requirement for building 10 cities. So while waiting for notification I stockpile nobles before they become even more expensive (already down to 28.135 gold in treasury) till end of January. Not sure if I mentioned but our Nenetsian mother also has civil war against our uncle Kezhay III for the crown of Nenetsia. We have to help her but like really right now is not the time for it, as I need my attention elsewhere x]. I bribe my council a little that helps me give away some cities. Turns out I will need bribes for few months of council support or otherwise I won't be able to deal with all that. Also by accident gave away Tynea county to one new administrator so will have to revoke it soon. Oh. I Forgor that each of those Mayors will need wife if I want to manage it in longterm... So that's for now another 2.200 gold on Debutantes as I don't care for their stats.

New Basileos of ERE asks for our concubine. Well that's also something I overlooked - Vokan no longer is allowed to have concubines >D. That might seriously damage the amount of children that each character is able to sire. But now I won't give her away as current empress is mediocre and soon I will replace her. Having Chinese Princess as wife might be beneficial even only if for that +2.000 Chinese troops.

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Another task fullfilled. This will increase the upper limit of what we can squeeze from those lands. Not only more % of taxes but also extra building providing inland trade modifier bonus and increasing base income of cities :).

After achieving yet another historical feat, we are ready to press our Council into working diligently. Bribes did their magic. Luckily many of councillors are just courtiers thus don't cost us much. This way we can keep giving away needed holdings as well as hand off 3 over the limit duchies out of 7 to most learning inclided vassals within their de jure lands. That drops penalty to just -40. Also have to click on auto-stop plots as currently there is just too much going on for me. Soon our steward collects first extra tithe for some extra cash (+346.1g). Soon we also get first Carpenter Guild from Business focus (it requires being feudal thus, we haven't seen it before). It decreasaes City tax by 5% but reduces build time by -20% and built cost -10%. Sadly it landed on Irtysh tribe where I don't have much to build.

Days slowly tick as every 2-4 days several more holdings are finished and have to be administered. Problem being that by May I run out of direct vassals to pass cities onto. For time being I make temporal mayors that I keep excommuncatng to adjust later. Bolgharia is really bogging it out as by summer we have fully built almost all of de jure Perm duchy with cities yet Bolgharia is barely finishing first round of holdings. We are hold back by construction speed of all things... Which is the last thing I expected to happen (damn you technology spread mechanics).

By mid of June our realm size rises to 225 and yearly income to 895,74. And thats wth bunch of random not selected mayors. We have an accident o two. First somehow have 2 temples in Ashli but one of them belongs to my vassal. That might screw things a bit. On other hand when I created my blueprints I didn't included some tribal vassals constructing temples in the previous decades (which happened). So maybe it will match up? Also our spymaster died so I had to procure a new one. Decided it's a high time to get a divorce with wife found by Vokan's AI mother and instead marry 27 years old chinese princess. She has great stats and is a genius. Sadly during wedding this happens.

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Let's hope that sudden charm passes. I really want some descendants and now as a Feudal we are severely limited with our children output.

Meanwhile war still rages in Nenetsia. My 12.000 retinues finally caught to bulk of uncle's Kezhay III forces. For the moment we have 10% warscore in our favour. I probably should speed things up, yet it took till now for most of my levies to arrive in Burtasy tribe. The more it takes, the more likely other neighbours might take a chunk of rebels land.

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As you can see my attention is stretched beyond it's capabilities. We attacked with no commanders :/ Thus because it is poorly managed, this conflict will take longer.

As our troops bravely fight a tough battle, our young Emperor chases after the skirts. He decides to try his luck and gets Brave trait, yet his love leaves him hanging for now. We win but don't kill enough of rebels. At least it will slow their progress down as our levies roll out onto scene. Soon the year ends as we reach 248 realm size and yearly income of 1.631.61. With around 19.900 gold coins left in coffers annd still waiting on some cities to finish building. But majority (over 85% by my estimation) of holdings slots are already used.

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With over 60 vassals before going Feudal we sure are getting spammed with notifications about our vassals feudalising.

Year 1108
======================

Year starts with chasing after survivors of Nenetsian rebels. Once we deal with their standing armies, we might siege them out at our leisure. There is some unexpected development in County of Perm. Using both currrent chaos and our lowered garrison sizes, some 800 strong nomadic host decided to try their luck and sack us. As I had to take a break from playing by end of previous year, Kolva levies were disbanded to be returned. So now those 1.700 men can deal wiith nomadic menace ;).

Soon we also lock ourselves onto some of Rebels in northern Nenetsia. Our troops under our most skilled Norse Hero brave the winter elements in that poorly supplied area. As they march on, I keep clicking and micromanaging. As I have mostly dealt with building now it is a time to generate even more female courtiers and marry them off to every single Mayor directly under us. Not only do they increase their stewardship for demense limit but also they might be a source of future mayor manipulations. In some cases they might even be decent to take over. There is also issue as one Bolgharian chief can't feudalise due to not having lvl 4 hillfort. So we fund him this, as we want to use that 4th province slot to build yet another city. Also being briefly over the demense limit (17/13) helped lower our income and thus get us a discount on cost of decision to generate courtiers (from 400g+ to just 80g :D").

Vokan's romantic adventurers continue. Our Protegee decided to try his hand as Poetry and I allow it. The penalty doesn't apply for us, as he is already stressed. Yet in return we get Poet trait. This is nice, as usually you will be getting it anyway and I hope by getting this early game might give us one of others desired events.

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Multitasking at it's finest. Our character could not find worse time to be love struck.

In April we fight and win 4 different battles almost at the same time (against both Nenetsian rebels and some nomads). With that our mother's war goes towards 54% warscore for our cause but another 1.800 nomadic host shows up in Qazan. Then I spent over 6.000 worth of prestige (going from over 11.000 to around 5.400) to start upgrading buildings in any remaining tribes that doesn't seem likely to transform soon. Prioritising even levels of basic troops buildings to save on some cash in the future and bulk up our military. We did lost over half of our own personal levies (shrinked from 19.000 to 9.000) and I want to fight against Muhallabids soon. On topic of which - our cease fire vanished. Seems like 9 months ago Sultan with which we had ceasefire croaked. Which is not ideal as I preferred if he lived few years more so we can swiftly beat his realm twice in succession. What's worse he is currently suffering huge (32.000) Armenian liberation uprising. Will at least weaken him yet we want those lands ourself and with other Christians taking over, holy warring will become unavaiable). Also they will be a tougher nut to crack. Can't race them as we need to retrieve Nenetsia first.

June is marked by suicide of our Patriarch and Court Physician. We have to find a replacement and generate even better 25 Learning Holy Man. He too is Mastermind Theologian, Mystic AND Scholar + Erudite. That explains his high learning stat but also will unlock "fun" treatment options. Then our Jewish steward generates +50 economic technology points through his contacts. Then Chinese Emperor dies and is replaced by Emperor Li Muzong, who likes wealth, despises hindus and is expansionist. Good timing - we might give him Mjollnir to get him onto some Muslim realms :). Vokan lovestory continues too - he gets invited for hunting trip by his beloved husband.

We keep fighting and start assaulting tribes and our warscore soars toward 77%. Some Nomads are spotted early before entering north-eastern Cumania, thus our border guards from Irtysh are sent already. During hunting trip, there is accident. Vokan's love interest gets attacked by Wolf. I'm not risking him getting maimed so we try to shot the wolf before it can do damage to attacked woman but miss, thus she gets terribly mauled. Yikes! Thus Emperor's love story comes to an abrupt end and he gets depressed. Was it because he failed, or simply because he no longer feels attracked to crippled woman?

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If only he didn't get depressed I would approve of this result. Now we will need to relieve him of both stress and depression. Time to set him on this "Sigma male grind mindset" I suppose...

At least the Nenetsian civil war is reaching it's end (99% warscore and we took their war leader capital). But that's sadly will have to wait for another part, as we just run out of time for this episode. Stay tuned when in next part I finally end organising our realm and start infrastructure buildup ;). Also sadly our vassal friend did not get canonised :<.
 
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Congrats on feudalizing. I think that the first event chain that I ever got was the 'what is love'. As a lowly count in HRE, I thought that I had scored big by marrying big by marrying Emperor's daughter until I spied her stepmother. Thanks for the update.
 
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May Saint Setyamka intercede on behalf of his descendants...

Congrats on feudalizing! It looks like that generated a lot of money - over 500 gold? Sheesh. What will Permo-Siberia even do with all of that?

The love subplot was fascinating, even if it ended badly. Hopefully Vokan can focus on the realm now...
 
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Part XLII (1109-1117)

Part XLII (1109-1117)


Year 1109
======================

We continue trying to organise our Permo-Siberian empire. Before I conclude the Nenetsian civil war, I give away 1 of 3 cities currently held to get within demense limit (and get rid of 20% income penalty) and then start excommunicating some vassal in Om duchy. We currently hold way too many duchies and I will bestow it upon freshly assigned new rulers. Not only will it help with getting rid of opinion penalty but also upon installing someone with high learning - speed up technological advancement as Dukes unlike Counts generate technology points. Before end of June our mother's war reaches 100% warscore (in her favour) so we await the end of that madness, while our troops still trash red Nenetsian armies.

Takes up to March for Vokan's mother and Queen of Nenetsia to enforce her demands. Our Uncle Kezhay III ends in prison (one handed and one legged) and all is well in Komi lands. So as our warriors march back, we can finally change our focus. Given that Emperor Vokan is both stressed and depressed I think we should do something about it. Carousing seems fine as not only will it help with those traits, but also getting more friends (especially on council) seems like good way to stabilize the realm. There are plans how to utilize that extra stability. I also start building Walls in every freshly built holding, to better protect that province wealth + meet the requirements for some buildings. Damn it does take a lot of time to click on every single city and most new temples x] It takes between as little as 30g and 30 days up to 50gold and 150 days (depending on how distant from our demense target place is). I locate also few technology spread buildings and as such over 4.000 gold dissappears. Seems starting funding for my vassals will be limited to level 2 walls + level one technology spread building ^^". Also need to keep around 10.000 in bank for prosperity events that now will hurt us (they cost between 150-250% yearly income)
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Hope for not having to deal with enemy raids as our cities have no levies and no fort levels. Also note the disrepency between both windows.

Also replaced our Chancellor, that was trying to generate claims on those Bishopric in Kudymkar. Now he is moved to do the same in Pilva. Why? Because there is only 1 other holding that we don't want and Kudymkar has 4 of those. So he has way better chances to roll the correct holding claim there. Probably given bad luck on that front so far we will have to try different methods of obtaining those temples to set them up properly.

As springs nears, our Emperor invites his Patriarch to some carousing. I hope it might help me break through negative penalties towards excommunicating priests and well make it so I no longer need to bribe him. Also it is weird to see my treasury increase so rapidly - I never had so high income (even more so on so small realm size) :]". Currently at +1.860 yearly income. Sweet Jesus! I wonder how much it will be once we build those cities up. Also our Keeper of Tomes dies at age of 57. Sadly some of his siblings inherited :/. Another instances of older sibling outliving younger ones. Well happens. Not that it would do us tremendously good. As I calculated building Universities alone can cost us up to 45.000 gold x]... Turns out I was right in expecting my treasury to rapidly empty - seems like I could have 100-200.000 gold coins saved and it still would evaporate. Important things to note - I won't be replenishing my investors. We probably are past that phase of game and now I will need those prestige generating tools for my future vassal heirs (so the whole setup doesn't crumble). Also if you wondered what I was cooking in previous part here is some infographic:

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Let's push CK2 economy into overdrive. Not sure if I'm not too big to manage it. We probably will known in time if Permo-Siberia final size will be too big ;)". For the time being the gold must flow!

Another visit in some Monastic monastery, presents us with option to collect Gardener lifestyle trait. For once I won't take it. While it would be good choice for MTTH on prosperity events but I really want that Architect lifestyle for Vokan "the Architect". And it will be achieved in his old age once we start writing another book (this time definetely on stewardship).

Finally in May our levies return home and can be safely disbanded. With that we currently have 8.2k/10k personal levies. Then our 12.000 Light Infantry+Archer retinues are splitted into 3 groups and positioned in Burtasy, Bolgharia and Mari to be able to react any problems that occur. Then our Patriarch before arriving to party informs us that he converted Ryazan into Orthodoxy (from Slavic). That's what I call a healthy work-life balance :). That leaves just 2 Slavic and 1 Sunni provinces and that single muslim county next door to Ryazan will be next. Also some time age our last Khazarian culture county in Cumania got converted into Komi, so we only have 2 Pecheneg counties that need to be Komi'nised by their vassals :).

June starts with Turgay county reaching 2nd prosperity level and 2.250 nomad riders emerging from Mongolia itself. They retreat from one of our "outside of wanted" counties before border guards arrivee. We will keep them close to protect our investments as those walls still construct. Also I feel kind of cheated by game. Turns out those tooltips were right and menus confirming decision wrong as even in Perm those 30 days construction are ongoing =/. At least our protegee enjoys himself with his new friend. Getting +1 Diplomacy some diplomacy and gets rid of stressed. Turns out being friend has no influence over decision whether Patriarch will or won't excommunicate someone. Still we single another potential vassal to get rid of in a way that won't harm our setup but will allow to bestow another duchy. As my retinues are moving to extract 3 counts at once, our Patriarch once again converts the county. Well that was quick. With that we got rid of last muslim province. Soon we will be done. Too soon to move him around but in November he will go toward next Slavic county. As nomads re-apper we sent our men to deal with that. Also our last tribal vassal in Bolgharia feudalises, so we start constructing city in that last slot ASAP.

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Time to pass some of those duchies to vassals. That should make them less discontent with Emperor hoarding titles.

Before year ends we manage to extract one county and seed there a 26 learning character (generated by "Invite a Holy man" for 25 piety) as new duke. Some of cities went away while other's didn't. Well - will make do for time being. For now priority is starting that technology generation thing going.

Year 1110
======================

We continue working on Kerzhenets county, while Vokan goes towards next SPA visit in Primal Taiga for that ever precious "drinking from fountain of youth" option. Thus Vokan de-ages from 29 y.o. to 27 y.o. Well that's something.

Takes us up to February to end extraction. With that we are down to 4 duchies held (and our men are almost in position to repeat this process with another 2 counts). But before that we are out of cooldown for carousing so another Council member will be invited to party. Game progresses now really slowly as I have to check individually each province and holding. Thanks to irregular construction times it's quite the ordeal. But we push with 2nd level of walls in cities in temples and sometimes if there is lacking technology - first level of towns for more income. It drops our treasury from around 15.000 to 11.400 gold coins. Seems like soon we won't be able to continue massive constructions. Seems just level 2 walls and lvl 1 income buildings then later we will spend on Universities and Monastic Schools. Rest must be done by our vassals. Haven't even started upgrading my own castles. Then I spend around 3.200 prestige on upgrading remaining tribes. That will translate into some savings once they feudalise.

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Still quality 3 book, even without sacrifices. Was curious but that +temple vassal opinion also doesn't do anything for excommunication consideration. Well won't use it cause we have better usage of that book slot.

Thanks to finishing book early, the timer for writing another starts ticking off. That's 20 years. Vokan will be nearing 50 years old by then (but with Fountain of Youth de age to some mid 40) so this is pretty doable. We might finally get that "On Komi Architecture" that was eluding me since the beggining of this AAR. But that's in 1130. And now we have different considerations.

On 1st of June peasants rise up in Keltma (literally next door to our capital). Well that will prevent our carousing from firing >.>. Damn. Well in for a penny in for a pounding ;)... So we go on with our other 2 extractions to save time as well. Meanwhile our vassal's priest culture converted second to last wrong religion county within our borders :). We also finished that new city in Bolghar and after generating new Mayor and his wife (costed us over 1.000 gold coins =.=) we finally handed him down those few cities that we were holding in preparation for him. Then first of our recently assigned Mayors dies >.> He was 34 years old, sired only daughter but hey - probably that gigantism didn't help him.

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Damn you ruining Emperor leisure time! Well tough luck - we will commence our wars then! No reason to waste perfect occasion to press all wars at once. Would have to do it later anyway.

We once again get that saint resting site event that allows us to pay a lot (350g) for some piety (50) or get Gregarious trait. I choose and get the second. By August we seed another 2 "Holy Men" as Dukes. With 25+ Learning and some 20 years ahead of them I hope they will start accelerating our technology spread :). Also with those duchies gone, we are finally within our 2 permitted duchy titles limit (Perm+Bolgharia). So all is good. Or is it?

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Well something was going on in year 1110 as we suffer 3 revolts in quick succession. At least we clean up previous administrative mistakes and reclaim Tynea with usage of Plot mechanic giving us demand without tyranny and vassal refusing

Our nearby patrol guards are sent to deal with additional uprisers. Funny enough all uprisings were from 4%/5%/6% revolt chances and they happened almost at once. We catch first group of peasants in Vychegda and administer them sound beating. Even in skirmish we are winning. Soon peasant leader is slain in battle and we finish remaining troops. With 821 losses to their 1.885. We also enforce demands, getting "Recently Crushed Rebelion" modifier to confer -4% Revolt risk realmwide.

November is spent on chasing after rebels. So is December. Luckily soon before year ends we catch traitors that just took over Yelets tribe in south-western reaches of our realm with forces from Burtasy.

Year 1111
======================

Year starts with ongoing battle near Yelets tribe. We will win and delete yet another uprisers. Meanwhile our forces after victorious fight in Vychegda manouvered down back to Tynea. And our Norse Hero is doing pisspoor job at commanding troops against - no commanding traits 19 martial rebel leader :/. And it is during winter, which is his domain. He almost routed if it wouldn't be for one of the flanks helping him and saving the day. Not great showing. At the same time in the far east, our troops catched and easily beaten down local rebels without need for my attention. So in just few months we dealt with 3 rebelions. Now for 10 years we should have relative peace.

As over 10.000 troops amassed in Tynea I decide to assault the walls. That castle isn't build up so much that it should prove too costly and well - winter will claim way more, if I dilly-dally. It does drop our levies to 7.400 total but ends the extraction thus raising my total maximum levies from 10.000 to 11.000 men.

Had to take a few days break at this point. So it took me some time to get back into the swing of things at this "arduous" part of this AAR. Remember that first Mayor that already made a mess? His replacement is at 3/2 demense limit lowering his contributions to the crown. We can remedy it in way not utilized so far.

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Vital for this playthrough - being able to manage mistakes. Excommunicating and executing baron vassals to quicken the inheritance.

Things don't turn out the way I want. Had to keep waiting I think. What happened? Well after marrying previous wife of mayor and bethrothing her daughter we imprisoned and executed current Mayor. But as my preferred candidate was not in targeted court, game spawned new - even worse Mayor. So we are in a long wait till oldest daughter remaining there (2 years old) comes out of age. In the meantime I prepare her future husband by granting him court office so he can accumulate enough prestige to take over. After that I spend some prestige on tribal buildings in parts of realm that are still not converted.

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Time to fix that potential mess with our secession of Nenetsia kingdom in near future. Would hate to have to constantly fix it due to bonds between our vassals.

With beginning of July our first homegrown epidemic starts. Camp Fever occurs in Qazan. We have no funds currently to improve our hospitas beyond level 1 so it is what it is. We have the currency for another Chinese Master Engineer and thus Gongyang Guyan visits us and almost instantly creates blast furnace (+50% Levy Reinforcement Rate, +1 Military Technology Points) in Osha. Soon we get invitation from mount Athos to attend. We don't roll 20% for +1 Learning I picked sadly.

In September our Kazimierz Branicki dies due to food poisoning. He sired 3 children of our dynasty but with Branicki saintly bloodline. So the time we invested in him was well spent. Some small nomadic incursion from silkroad happens (730 men) and is quickly moped up.

November is marked by yet another rebelion by Slavic subject of Yelets tribe. County has +20% revolt risk modifier due to religious tensions. Well our troops from Burtasy are on the way as there are 5.400 uprisers present. Camp fever spread souths. Which is good for us as we really don't need it in Perm itself, where we are always working on prosperity thing.

As our brave border guards from Burtasy move towards Yeletsian mob, I check how feudalisation and our income is doing. Also want to point out, that ERE is doing great - they revassalised Greece and are pushing into Carpathia (currently holy warring Bessarabia). They took also Mesopotamia from Muhallabids sultanate. Our plan there is thus ended, as victorious Armenian rebelion took one county of Coloneia and full Edessa duchy (shielding muslims from us).

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Happy that not everything feudalised at once. Can still pomp those counties with prestige as well as limit somehow current construction rounds

Year 1112
======================

Luckily for our Norse commander, he will fight rebels in middle of winter :). Patiently manouvered around river to attack without penalty and concentrated all of his forces into single column.

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This commander is not worth his fame. Rolled 24.3% Inspired defence tactic while having 48.6% Tactic. Any other skirmish tactic (Volley or Shieldwall) would be better as we have no melee dedicated troops -.-. Think it might be time to feed him to Greeks by letting him go as independent ruler in Caucasia.

Battle goes somehow well. We suffer in the end only 270 losses to 1,500 enemies slain but most of it is decided in melee. Well at least something from that uninspiring ordeal. Then in February I throw another carousing party to get rid of depression. Time to start the new habit: at the start of the year I'll look through my lands for construction purposes. This time, as we already finished Castle Walls II whenever available, it's time to kickstarter those cities economy with funding of City Markers (+3 Income). Costing between 50 and 100 gold coins I click it many times across whole Permo-Siberia. How many times? Well you can figure it out as I started with 14.035 coins in treasure but ended with 8.988 ;). Three times by accident I picked building granting +45 Pikes in cities inside county of Perm :/. Well will have to catch up with them later. I expect by end of year my income will rise even higher, as we are taxing 50% of Mayor income, so half of every +income.

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Time to actually have something inside those city walls.

By March we get unexpected incursion of 2.000 strong host from southern Silkroad. Good thing some time ago I arranged some shuffling of troops and moved 3.000 cavalry retinues from south-western Cumania to join other guards by Silkroad and moved those 4.000 infantry retinues stationed there to take reinforcement post. So now I can combine 6.000 retinues of the same time to have easier time dealing with such problems. They are just about to arrive in Saur. Perfect timing!

As I look over Camp fever I notice that it does affect me economically. It grant's -40% income modifier to towns in affected provinces. Didn't know that. Well it seems that later those Hospitals might be worth their cost to shield our income from such volatility. After some consideration I move my steward onto Tura county (right in the center of our eastern half of empire) to research Economy technology. It will help spread technology from our core demense here even faster and make for source of technology spread across Siberia and Cumania. IMO it's more worthy task for Steward as he doesn't currently increases my income by much and well he also was increasing our prosperity events costs. The faster we feed those detached counties "know-how", the faster we can hand them off.

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I feel really confident with double the Nomads numbers when we have Hunting Parties :)

As we engage in battle with "visitors" in May, both wings counter their horse archers sheningans (+200% dmg). We lose 98 men but kill close to 2.000 enemies. That will teach them a lesson! Sadly almost instantly another nomad host appears in county of Perm itself =.=. Despite immediete intervention we do lose around 26% of province wealth as they besiege the fort... Damn you : <.

Camp Fever by Autumn reaches the borders of Perm itself. It made me worry - it can kill our freshly introduced Mayors that costed an arm and a leg. So far it doesn't seem to done any harm and let it remain this way. Our private feast also comes to an end, making our Jewish spymaster a friend of Emperor. Not only will it make him more difficult to bribe against us, but also as we are below 8 intrigue, so he can help us improve our base stat. Sadly depression remains. So now is good time to embark on that Pilgrimmage that Community of Saint Basil ordered us to perform ages ago.

Just as we prepare to depart, Queen Potyava of Nenetsia (mother of Emperor Vokan) calls us to help her conquer single county Slavic neighbour. Dutiful son Vokan accepts it and believes she can do this on her own. If not we can intervene with our force in Burtasy county. Select my designated regent manualy before leaving (steward) to avoid any complications due to being over the demense limit. Soon it proves prudent choice as with his high stewardships, once Vokans begins his journey the demense limit lowers to exactly 12/12. Our Marshall also meets his untimely demise and is replaced with some Greek courtier.

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Didn't think we would remain here for so long, but no relic stealing events happened so far :/

First on his route, Emperor Vokan has to cross a bridge. We are not risking wound to save 30g. Then We have another dilemma - the thing is we are already Poet, Zealous and Depressed so this choice doesn't change anything. Still better that getting rid of Zealous for Cynical. Next event step is more interesting - 30% for either +1 Learning or +1 Martial. I try Martial (more levies is good and our Learning is already very high) but doesn't get it. Then after entering Antioch nearing end of October we get another good event step. Chances for both Intrigue and Learning. We at least get Learning :). Soon the journey is over and we are 300 devotion closer to last rank in Monastic Society (1.860/2000 with +264 devotion yearly).

Meanwhile back in Empire Camp Fever started spreading into Perm duchy itself. This started affecting our income (down to +1650.4 yearly total). Soon our Court Physician gets his qualification as renowned physician. Now he has Maximum level of Learning education + renowned physician + mystic + scholar + erudite with 27 learning :). That's quite a sight. Well turns out that's because Permo-Siberian Architect's daughter got sick. Time to shut down the gates and wait the epidemy out.

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Time to become more acustomed to many epidemics and their characteristics. Our finances are really spread thin and losing our carefully created administration will be tough to swallow.

Till the end of year we get spammed with question on what to do with infected courtiers. Well our house medic can prove his worth now. Don't want to lose Scholar-Bureacrat, Master Engineer or our Muhallabid family farming now.

Year 1113
======================

Year behind shutted down gates begins. Because we have barely above 10.000 gold coins I just resign myself to building not already constructed City Markets I in 3 cities of Perm. Not that they will give us much currently but hey - time is of an essence given limited duration of Chinese Golden age.

February arrives with the news that one of our Bolgharian Mayors died off. His replacement is at 3/2 holding limit. But his wife remains there. So we can excommunicate him, invite someone for free and make him marry that sole women in the court before forcing abdication. One good thing about my setup of many counts is that we have many courts within Permo-Siberia thus good supply of good free stewards from our vassals :). Far better source than paying 20-30% of our yearly income for single random generated steward.

By March everything is arranged and I even somehow (Matrilineal marriage) manage to force our candidate to go into targeted city court. With that we can proceed. Another investor bites the dust. The funniest part? Currently all the death are not epidemy related :D". Soon accidental mayor is arrested and executed and our setup is restored. So it is doable :). That might be small but still significant result.

I'm also reminding myself that we are still at war. Time to move out cause Nenetsian forces somehow managed to do nothing with their 4.000 who hold numerical advantage against Slavic enemies so far. Then by end of April I finally can request advancing towards the final rank in Community of Saint Basil. And we do. Maybe now those events will start happening? Cause I don't really need more converting currently. Also Pilgrimmage did claim our Ambitious trait thus lowering us to 12/12 demense limit.

As our troops in Karachev are besieging, we observe Nenetsian loosing against enemies province over. Then our Patriarch informs us of one of our Permyakid kin get beatified upon death, Huh. Thought maybe saintly bloodline is influencing this but he has no bloodline. Still that's another possible bloodline to join within our family. He had also quite a lot of children (7).

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Most Holy Siberian Empire continues :3"

While waiting observed the development of borders in middle east. Muhallabids pounced on previous rebels from Armenia because they lost most of their event army. So once again we might neighbour them soon'ish. Maybe it wasn't required of me to move Chancellor around in preparation for my next move? Well I can recall him now. Back to trying to generate claim on Bishoprics in Perm duchy.

With advent of Autumn, Camp Fever starts vanishing. We also get assaulted en masse in Karachev but barely win, almost instantly putting war effort from 0% to 92%! We also beat some smaller Slavic contingent besieging Queen Potyava's holdings to secure that 100% warscore. Our income slowly recovers yet we have still -40% modifier on majority of our core demense.

Year 1114
======================

Our Nenetsian sister Kingdom doesn't hurry with enforcing it's demands. Takes up to February to finish this. Well at least it is a win. Orthodoxy remained healthy for all those years I haven't been reporting - 100% moral authority. One thing I didn't spot was that epidemy together with severe winter was murdering supplies in Perm. Where I stationed retnues from Permo-Nenetsian border lately. As a result it sucked a lot of prestige. Well onto the constuction topic!

We have just over 12.000 coins and still suffer somewhat from epidemy. While building hospitals seems like prudent choice I have something other in mind first. We should start with Universities in far away demense counties. To feed technology into farthest edges of Permo-Siberia quicker.

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3 in Burtasy and 1 in Irgiz, Irtysh, Tura, Turgay and Osha. They will siphon technology from Perm duchy itself even quicker and start spreading it around.

That put's our coffers down to 9.593 coins. Then in April another one of our Mayors dies. We repeat the previous method and soon new owner is skilled enough to continue working for us without penalties. This is pretty doable. Especially if there are no male heirs and just daughters - we can almost instantly rectify such situations.

Sadly durring Summer due to ongoing Camp Fever still raging in duchy of Perm, Kolva and Tynea counties depopulate :/. To cheer me up, game informs me about another Permyakid that get's beatified. Ok - now I feel something is happening. The more blessed character the bigger a chance for another Saint in dynasty. And he also didn't had saintly bloodline!

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Do games attempts to create dynasty of Saints? Not that I will complain but it's the first time it happens for me.

Another mayor dies off and we are on our excommunication cooldown. Beside that nothing happens of note - our Chancellor has 0% fabrication chance as we are secluded. And Camp Fever stills rages outside.

By October epidemy winds down to just Kolva and Tynea. Some minor courtier drama happens to kill the boredom. Then our Permian band captain ask for more men. Absolutely not! We can't replace him currently due to lack of suitable replacements but will keep an eye on it. That's 16.000 gold coins are less vital that I thought but still can be used to brought us up to speed. Or for something else ;).

Finally after Kolva clears itself in November and Tynea in December we rejoin the outside world \o/. Onto private feast with our Wife we go.

Year 1115
======================

We get declined from being accompanied by our Han Princess. And by our Chancellor. I begin to understand Vokan's depression. Well at least we can excommunicate and execute the mayor of Yagoshikha. That''s should cheer up our character as his demense is now administered by skilled character. Finally one of our bigger vassals accept invitation! Several more Universities start their construction in Bolgharia. Will need high technology levels there as I plan to take over that duchy in the future. That drops us down to 8.873. We also hed new commander for our mercenaries. To make sure he doesn't break away with his boys. Decision probably too rash as I doubt it will pay for itself as he costed 400g.

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Time for slow and painful reforms. Need to create Monastical church administration, giving us option of sending skilled administrators en masse to selected counties. Chancellor did poor job so far so need to take some tyranny penalty to get it rolling.

Time to enforce my other scheme. We need to restructure church hierarchy within Permo-Siberia empire. We were not lucky enough with claims so far. I'm especially doubtful of those temples in counties with more than 1 city already. So we will suffer some tyranny short term. Plan on gradually (once every 10 years) revoking those temples within my personal demense and allow passage of time to slowly make people who remember - die off. And once I have those Bishoprics I will install members of monastic community there to make them eligible destination of characters "ordered to take vows". Not only will they make for good source of Monastic tutors but also will allow us to replace them with skilled administrators :). Well there is some rng but we already tested and discovered that the characters will keep going towards other member's courts. Then I checked opinion malus and well... I think I was worrying about nothing: just -15 opinion for 5 years. So the whole process will proceed quite quickly.

After another feast we finally lose Depression. As well as get another friend - powerful duchess of Veliky-Ustug. That was the other reason for carousing - befriending powerful vassal to remain unharmed due to tyranny. Time to change focus though. We don't need to go towards Business yet and don't need almost anything other. I think we might spend some time on Warfare - getting Organiser trait will increase chances for "On Komi Architecture" Quality 3 Book as a result of writing about stewardship in future. It was eluding me for far too long.

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Time to make bethrothal arrangments for our son&heir. With that we will have Branicki saintly bloodline together with our Permyakid 2 saintly bloodlines + Architect bloodline from Vokan's himself.

Having secured future bloodline for our empire we suffer most bizarre revolt in province with 0% revolt risk chance oO... I think this is not fair. Checked twice and province has no event modifier so... Well even if there is 7.000 of them we will deal with that no problem. It will just cost us prestige that could be spend elsewhere but will go towards replenishing pacification force. Then in the same month (November) our Jewish steward dies. Got rid of other one so for now I just pick 22 stewardship bishop. He still researches tech in Tura (+110% technology spread).

Rest of year is spend on silently marching towards bloody peasants! So I watch what happens worldwide. Byzantine Empire fights Masudid sultanate for control of Ascalon Duchy, Muhallabids not only lost their war against Armenians but also lost another full duchy due to Armienian counter war (and they are down to 5.000 troops while Sunni Muhallabids have over 12.000...). Further east our Persian Hafezid Shahdom charged the Farukids in holy war for Jibal and is predictably losing. Also you might look this ledger to have better idea how thing stand right now:

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We are basically tier 2 world power. Capable of influencing much but still can't go toe to toe with top realms. But give me another hundred years and that should change with Permo-Siberia newfound economic power.

Year 1116
======================

Year starts with using the Monastic society power to get rid of last Slavic province in the realm. That gives us finally 100% Orthodox realm. Only thing still needing adjusting are those 2 Pecheneg provinces in Cumania. On topic of which I can and do excommunicate one of those rulers to replace them with someone better suited for culture conversion chances. Also decide to finally spend some cash on our Castles - start evening them out in terms of infrastructure (especially Castle Towns).

In March our joint forces from Burtasy and Perm itself take care of unlikely rebels. We rolled 3x Feint and obliterated them swiftly. Them we start extracting Ubagan tribe that still needs to culture convert itself.

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Given occasion I still want to minimize those revolt chances :)

In spring Perm court has to say farewell to Patriarch Dokya (heart attack). Our badass Court Physician couldn't help himself. Well we find another replacement - Poet, Mastermind Theologian, Mystic+Scholar with 22 Learning. Not sure how much our Great Works contribute to such good results with "Inspire Learning" but you won't see me complaining ;).

Soon we finish Ubagan operation and assign some courtier from some vassal court in our empire as new ruler. Meanwhile I keep upgrading every few weeks basic fortification in Perm after reaching level 2 Castle towns. Then we move onto Stables that count pennies. Want to have every castle building at level 2 first. Also our wife becomes pregnant. It might be problem or not - Vokan is quite young still so 2nd son should come out of age relatively safely. But you never can be too certain in CK2.

Our Master-Engineer constructs Administrative Outpost in capital (+1 Economic Research and +1 Cultural Research). So that's not too bad. It's time to check the Technology screen that I haven't checked in a while.

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You can clearly see our detached personal demense counties spread across empire with their higher (lighter color) technological development. Those initial tech levels are going slowly cause many counties can't construct buildings that will help technology spread yet...

Decided to max Construction technology to keep lowering the costs, then improve Siege technology as I still plan some wars (and well it helps in extractions as well). Customs just to fill things up as I don't need further emancipation laws or prestige bonuses yet Noble Customs are important to offset penalty for holding de jure city of other vassals. With that our capital rises up to 28 military tech, 26 economic tech and 30 cultural tech. For comparison other notable capitals: Constantinopole (ERE) - 21/24/22, Zadar (Croatia) 18/20/17, Julich (HRE) 15/16/14, Qurtubah (Matiyid Sultanate) 15/19/18, al-Iskandariyya (Muhallabid Sultanate) 17/20/19 Jerusalem (Masudid Sultanate) 16/20/19, Kufa (Farukid Sultanate) 17/19/18, Lhasa (Tybet Empire) 20/22/23. So we are looking good! While average level of technology especially in Siberia might be lower we will catch up.

Given some time we push also to take from Council some of their power. Title revocation first of all. We have over 12 vassal limit to spare so I would like to start preparing us maybe for Imperial administration in future? It will go without problem as we are almost fully stocked with Loyalists in council. So soon we get it. Then I scout vassal list to find if anyone was up to usual no-good, as I keep getting vicious rumours about my characters. We find 3 vassals (one of whom we not so long ago created). So this is far better than I expected. We will excommunicate them from time to time if situation doesn't demands us to fix our city setup.

Before end of year our kin from Ural feudalises. Which means that his vassal soon will follow and another 4 tribal provinces will be gone. Wisely I even out building levels there so we should be getting quite a head start on construction there :). No more cities are expected due to that though.

Year 1117
======================

Year 1117 start with another construction round. With over 11.000 gold I think I can make few more universities around my holdings in Siberia/Cumania. I decide to start another 5 universities around Irgiz+Turgay and Tura+Osha. To my suprise those first 2 counties can already build second level of that building. That brings my treasury quite low to 8.415 coins. Have to keep healthy reserve to not miss on any prosperity events in quick succession. Just realised something - Queen Potyava feudalised not quite long ago :). (Didn't realise till editing this part that she already feudalised in screen from 1111 but I just haven't noticed then).

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Little look how much Tribalism and Nomadism remains in this playthrough. Kind of excited as we are now more advanced that Eastern Europe. Also you can see Byzantine expansion.

In March 2nd Vokan's son was born. Kezhedey did not inherit any genius gene either. Well we can make him a great administrator of Bishoprics or have a spare just in case. Soon our older son - Kezhevat gets monastic ward event and walks off with +2 Martial and +3 Learning. Both stats really nice to have :). One of perks to be personally tutoring just 2 characters you care about - you won't miss it.

After that educational topic - our Brother Bishop Velmayka died due to Cancer on July 7th. He was our Court Tutor and member of monastic society. More interestingely he was the last character in Bylino bishopric and got replaced with regular priest. Thus no longer do we need to get rid of that rival monastic society court that could siphon away characters we want to distribute among our demense. He is replaced as Court Tutor with our other half-brother also monk and member of Community of Saint Basil.

Month later finally War focus events fires. Was waiting for it. Throwing competition though is... less than ideal. I don't risk losing Patient as I don't have it currently. Brave is already acquired. Brawny would be good as would be any lifestyle modifier. But I would like commander traits more. What do we get for 2nd place? Wroth. This bumps Vokan's martial score up to 22. Not bad. Soon I get desired event but if offers me: defender, inspiring leader, aggresive leader and other option. We are fishing for Organiser and all of those previously mentioned are kind off bad for Feudal. So we roll again. Our spymaster offer us to increase prosperity and I mistakenly interpret it as realm/duchy wide. Cause first holding in Perm county changed name to Perym. But county is still named Perm. Thus I take it even out it isn't needed. Then I look happy as both Tynea and Kolva counties no longer suffer depopulation and congratulate myself :D". Thought it was due to my decision but upon editing it seems to be wrong conclusion.

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Huh those prosperity events sure are nice. That supply is especially nice in this part of world.

Noticed that every day we re getting few coins on the screen. Well that's a view! Never have I had such high income :). Then our duke of Yaik passes away in our dungeon. We replace him with 25 Learning Genius courtier we generated from "Invite holy men" decision. He will help that technology progress. Not sure how to feel about technology points we inherited with title. I can use more but they are needed locally as well. There is something to be said about settling high learning low fertility dukes and makes it so you inherit their technology points, but I'm not convinced it is worth the effort for me. Then our wife informs our Emperor, that she is once again pregnant. Vokans doubts being father though... We will see what comes of it but that will have to wait for another part as this has come to an end. To summarise it with our progress

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Well even with limited funds we are still climbing that income ladder. Church taxes could be much higher but we mostly don't have skilled Bishops yet.
 
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Finally managed to read through the entire AAR up to now.


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Do games attempts to create dynasty of Saints? Not that I will complain but it's the first time it happens for me.
Maybe. In my Byzantine save two of my rulers (father-in-law and son-in-law/ first cousins) were sainted and a kinsman vassal was beatified. Although with the sainted two I had used a mod to make an illegitimate son of the first ruler (the father-in-law of the second) the Ecumenical Patriarch and he quickly canonised both rulers (within a few years of their deaths)
 
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Tibet is huge! How? Thanks
Tibet was on the roll for more than a century. They actually kind of fragmented as not long ago (before civil war) they had all of Transoxiana on the Silkroad and bigger chunk of India. Not that they do great job of cultural/religious assimilation.
Finally managed to read through the entire AAR up to now.


Maybe. In my Byzantine save two of my rulers (father-in-law and son-in-law/ first cousins) were sainted and a kinsman vassal was beatified. Although with the sainted two I had used a mod to make an illegitimate son of the first ruler (the father-in-law of the second) the Ecumenical Patriarch and he quickly canonised both rulers (within a few years of their deaths)
Wow - impressive. Given that you started your own AAR not too long ago. Welcome on board of Komi'mpany. :)

I will keep tab on that Saint business but I think those Dukes will run into problems with low chance of canonisation due to low piety. Also Eastern Christianity has modifier for being a Saint that might work against us. I was initially thinking that as Orthodoxy will be lesser Christian faith in world it will be easy but right now this is the biggest religion in the game.
 
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Also Eastern Christianity has modifier for being a Saint that might work against us.
How many saints does Orthodoxy have in your save?
 
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Finally becoming feudal means the money machine goes into overdrive, and your personal demesne makes more money than a continental empire surrounding it.

Regarding saints, there seems to be some disinclination to grant two saint bloodlines for one family, but clearly it can be done, especially if you marry them together.
 
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