The Achaemeneh - the Saga of the Byzantine Kings (Achaemenid Megacampaign Part 2)

[Killcrazy13]

The Early History of the House of Mihran (706 AD – 857 AD)

The House of Mihran or the Mihranids were founded by Mihran, bastard-born second son of King Daeva of Jerusalem and Hadrametum. The family will continue the legacy of their father – feuding with their legitimate brothers and cousins in House Daeva and against the larger clan Achaemenid.

Mihran the Wolf (706 AD – 742 AD)

• Granted significant holdings in Egypt by his brother, Darius and establishes Alexandria as his capital, claiming vice-king status to the Emperor of Hadrametum
• After Darius’s death by illness, he fights for independence against his brother’s son, Emperor Rostam
• Founds the first Coptic holy order, the Order of the Chalice

• Rostam dies mid-campaign mysteriously and Mihran is honour bound to end the war based on existing blood-pacts with the new Emperor, Rostam’s brother, Anastasios
• With a large army prepared, he turns them around and conquers half of Greece from the Achaemenids.
• Dies in 668 AD after living 73 years

Zartosht (742 AD – 746 AD)

• Zartosht was a famed warrior and his ability with the sword was legendary. Despite his martial flair, he was cruel to his people and hated as a bully and a sadist.
• His brothers, Zia and Zeletios, had become independent in Greece, answering only to the Emperor. Zartosht subjugates them and unifies his father’s holdings once again.
• He takes the throne of Egypt and raises war against his cousin Anastasios for independence
• Attempts to capture Crete from the Achaemenids. His armies are evenly matched by Dastan Achaemenid, reaching a stalemate when he died at the Battle of Iraklio in 746, aged 57

Eustratios the Wolf Reborn (746 AD – 781 AD)

• Zartosht had earned independence for the Mihranids but they still sought Jerusalem as their holy city and where the Achaemenids sheltered during the time of the Argeads.
• The Daevas of Jerusalem and Hadrametum had converted to Islam and this sacrilege triggered a holy war as Eustratios took the city and Palestine
• Expands holdings in Macedonia, bringing Rhodopes and Philippopolis under Mihranid control
• With the separation from the Achaemenid heartlands, the Mihranids became increasingly Hellenised by their surroundings, the legacy of Ptolemaic Egypt and their Coptic Christian faith. Eventually, the dynasty and most of Egypt and Jerusalem would be recognised as one people – the Copts unified by culture and religion.
• In 762, in response to the fall of Achaemeniyya, Eustratios would attempt to recapture it for Christianity. He would march on the Caliph’s capital in Medina, hoping to take the royal family hostage while the Caliph’s armies were still in Anatolia. Unfortunately, his intelligence was wrong and he was caught by a large Arab host outside the walls of Medina.

• Traumatised by defeat, he became a lunatic and soon given to eccentric and rash acts including witchcraft, murder and disinheriting his oldest son as he sought increasingly esoteric ways for an advantage against the Muslims

• In order to end the war, Eustratios was forced to pay 10 years’ worth of revenue to the Caliph. 20,000 tons of gold was to be delivered, crippling Jerusalem-Egypt for the foreseeable future

• Despite this setback, Eustratios would strike again in 779 AD looking to capture Upper Egypt. He found initial success as he defeated the Caliphate armies multiple time including most famously at Faws where 30,000 Copts smashed a 50,000-strong Arab force
• Despite the victory, he suffered a grievous head wound in the battle and he would only live on for a few more weeks before passing on from a brain aneurysm

Nikolaos the Fox (781 AD – 785 AD)

• By the end of Eustratios’ life, the Mihranids had looked to be successors to the Achaemenids, holding much of Greece and Macedonia while the Achaemenid Empire had been reduced to a rump state high up in the mountains of Macedonia but upon his death, the thrones were divided between his three younger sons. Nikolaos took Egypt and Jerusalem, the Mihranid core while Isaakios took Greece and young Leontios inherited Macedonia
• The Holy War was taken up by his 2nd son, Nikolaos. The young King struggles initially, losing battles but continues inflicting great casualties on the Muslims and it seemed the Muslims were slowly losing the war of attrition as they struggled to replenish the ghazi warriors they lost.

• Just as the tide is looking to turn, he is grievously injured at the Battle of Qusayr and dies from his wounds.

Matthaios the Spawn of Satan (785 AD – 828 AD)

​

• His young son, Matthaios, only six, succeeds him and his grandmother Eirene as regent forces a surrender to the Caliph. Another ruinous round of tribute is paid out.
• Eirene seeks to take advantage of her role and abuses her power. She has the young king to give her many claims against his nobles and treats the royal treasury as her private bank
• In a well-planned coup, several nobles, led by Baron Petros Gallian capture the boy King and Eirene is forced to flee, last seen seeking favours among the Muslim Emirs of Central Asia.

• Baron Petros trains the boy in the arts of war and when Matthaios reaches his majority, he sets his mind and resources against the Caliphate. Matthaios inflicted the first major defeat on the Caliphate, defeating their Jihad for Ammon in Cyrenaica, and even sacked their holy city of Mecca.

• He retakes Macedonia and Greece from his uncles through dynastic feuds and murders, unifying his grandfather’s holdings
• Matthaios stamps out the last embers of the Achaemenid rule in the Balkans and the empire finally falls. The last of the Achaemenids had already converted to Islam by this point and Matthaios would reclaim multiple Christian artifacts in his sacking of their holdings, including the priceless Ark of the Covenant.

The Achaemenid Empire last holdings before Matthaios exterminated the empire​

• Despite his Christian faith and his efforts against the infidels, Matthaios would earn his epithet as the Spawn of Satan for his cruel and tyrannical ways. He would squeeze every last drop he could out of Jerusalem to feed his warmongering.

• After decades of warfare, the soldiers of Mihran were well versed with Muslim tactics and Matthaios would begin to push them back, even capturing Achaemeniyya, the ancient and great citadel-city and forcing the Caliph to provide his son as a hostage to ensure peace.
• Perhaps, cursed by god, his first son was accidentally castrated during a failed medical procedure and he would die before his 2nd son was born.
• On campaign on behalf of a cousin in Italy, he would die of an infected wound, aged only 48 years old, succeeded by his oldest daughter, Katayoun.

Katayoun (828 AD – 842 AD)

• Katayoun was 15 years old when she took the throne and was everything her father was not. Fair, just and in control, she seemed ready to rule despite her gender.
• Many of her nobles in Greece disagreed, launching a war for independence that fizzled out as their leader died prematurely.
• She marries the Caliph’s son, Matthaios hostage after falling in love with him during his long guardianship in Jerusalem. Their marriage is fruitful with five daughter and their last child a boy. This marriage will have momentous impact on the House of Mihran in the future.

• She is ably supported by her older brother, the castrati, Matthaios who is her regent and vizier and strategos
• Together Katayoun and Matthaios continue the wars against the Muslims, capturing the Upper Nile and expanding Mihranid rule in the Balkans, seating her half-sister on the throne of Krajina that controls Danube and Dacian plains.

• Killed by a crazed courtier in her own throne room while only 29 years old.

Darius V (842 – 857 AD)

• Katayoun’s youngest child and only son, born with albinism, succeeds to the throne as a one-year-old. Matthaios the Castrati holds the regency but just as he reaches his majority, the boy is afflicted by smallpox and passes on.

The Abortive Effort to Resurrect the Empire

• His oldest sister, Kyriake takes the throne and attempts to reform the Achaemenid Empire but refuses to move the seat from Jerusalem.
• With control so distant, the Empire struggles to hold together and once against dissolves after five years as Kyriake focuses on the Coptic heartlands and leaves Europe to its own devices

The Slow Decline and Dissolution of the Caliphate

The wars with the House of Mihran though initially advantageous for the Caliphs had drained their resources. Succeeding Caliphs had squandered the tribute and wealth of empire for their own aggrandisement instead of securing their rule. The ghazis had expanded Muslim rule into three continents, even reaching into Roman Spain but with every new conquest, the Caliphate became increasingly unwieldy.

The conquest of Achaemeniyya seemed to have been their high point and from then onwards, with the Red Apple conquered, the Muslims lost focus. Armies still marched and cities fell but increasingly the old mujahideen gave way to paid mercenaries and opportunistic warlords looking to carve their own territories. With the prophet slowly relegated to the past, the bloodline and right to rule of the Caliphs became increasingly irrelevant. What does a divinely appointed ruler sitting in his desert city of Medina mean to the Sheikhs of Morocco or Turan except as a taker of tribute and demander of zakat.

With the continual losses of territory against the Mihrans, the Caliphs lost much of their prestige and respect from their followers as Defenders of the Faithful. This would lead to calls for rebellion and independence in 847 AD and the 2nd Fitna would begin. The civil war would see the Hashemids virtually alone against all of their subjects and by the end of it, Islam would no longer be unified and serving a single master. The Hashemids would struggle to be recognised as even the spiritual leader of Islam over the next few decades and their title as Caliphs would be abandoned by the end of the 9th century.

In the place of a single monolithic religious empire, Islam would fracture into different sect and face a resurgence of Shia believers as many felt that the direct line had lost their way and hearken to the message that the Prophet had chosen his son-in-law as his successor. Others would break away into sects as different schools of jurisprudence and religious authority grew in the void that Caliphal rule used to provide.


The Ironic Fate of the Mihrans

As the House of Mihran is not the focus of this narrative, I feel comfortable jumping ahead to reveal the future for this great splinter house of the Achaemenids. After the rule of Queen Kyriake, the Shia Muslims would rise in the far west in the deserts of the Magreb and march on Jerusalem and Egypt, intent on claiming the birthright of their founder, Ali, after the Hashimid collapse. Their Jihad would see the Mihrans ousted from Jerusalem and Egypt and retreat into the Arabian desert.

There, they would find a new spiritual awakening and revert to Islam, renouncing the Coptic faith that their forebears had fought so hard to defend. With the marriage of Katayoun to Keyumars of the Hashimid dynasty, they too now could claim descent from the prophet. With no spiritual authority to lead the fightback against the Fatimid Shias of Egypt and Jerusalem, the Mihranids took up the mantle as Defenders of the Faith for Sunni Islam as those in opposition began to term themselves. The ultimate irony that the ones who destroyed the Caliphate would become its inheritors.

The Mihranids would hold the title of Caliphs from the 10th century onwards, passing from father to son in an unbroken line.

 

[HistoryDude]

The different course of the Muslim conquests was interesting to read about. How will the different course of the First Fitna affect the Sunni-Shia split?

I liked the Zoroastrian reaction to the Muslim Conquests. I hope that continues - a successful Mazdaki faith could be fun (especially once the Europeans get involved later...).

The Achaemenid infighting definitely didn't help in the war against the Muslims...

Was that a jihad a jihad in the game, or is it just being called that?

What is the Zoroastrian view on Daeva?

The New Kava seems inspired by the Theme System. It's a shame that it didn't work as well for these Byzantines as it did for OTL's.

I appreciated the update on the Mihranids! Their ultimate fate is rather ironic.

What happened to the Greek lands after the Mihranids lost control over them?

 

[Midnite Duke]

Coptic to Sunni Caliph! Thanks

 

[Nikolai]

That is an amazing tale of rise and fall!

 

[Killcrazy13]

The different course of the Muslim conquests was interesting to read about. How will the different course of the First Fitna affect the Sunni-Shia split?

I liked the Zoroastrian reaction to the Muslim Conquests. I hope that continues - a successful Mazdaki faith could be fun (especially once the Europeans get involved later...).

The Achaemenid infighting definitely didn't help in the war against the Muslims...

Was that a jihad a jihad in the game, or is it just being called that?

What is the Zoroastrian view on Daeva?

The New Kava seems inspired by the Theme System. It's a shame that it didn't work as well for these Byzantines as it did for OTL's.

I appreciated the update on the Mihranids! Their ultimate fate is rather ironic.

What happened to the Greek lands after the Mihranids lost control over them?

1) This is actually the 2nd Fitna. The first was fought right after the prophet's death between those who want the succession decided by council and those who wanted a hereditary leader. This 2nd Fitna will give the space for more diverse idealogies and factions to rise including the Shia supporters oppressed by mainstream Islam but there will be some surprising offshoots too. What it does allow is a greater spread of Islam as many of the sects are zealous prosetilyzers and will go into new lands.

2) The Zoroastrians are in a tough spot after the fall of the Caliphate. Those imans I mentioned above will be spreading across Central Asia. Other Mazdayan sects will develop to manage the situation.

3) The war doesnt use the Jihad mechanics but the Rashidun Caliphate has access to a Kingdom level CB that's called a Jihad

4) The Zoroastrians probably thought it ironic that the Christian Achaemenids were undone by someone called Daeva. To them, it was probably obvious that naming your son that was asking for trouble

5) i made a mistake, it should have been called the New Kara system, not kava. Inspired by the themes of OTL but also the ancient Achaemenid levy system that had been supplanted by the professional army of the late Neo-Achaemenid era. I'm also of the mind that the themata did not work as well as it was expected too as it fell into decay and abuse after only a century of its application.

6) We'll pan back to the Balkans to go through the aftermath of the fall of Achaemeniyya and the Mihranid conquests soon

Coptic to Sunni Caliph! Thanks

That is an amazing tale of rise and fall!

It's pretty cool. Hoping they are still in power when I convert over to EU4 though I may not be playing the Achaemenids in the next part.

 

[jak7139]

This background into the Mihranids and the Caliphate is appreciated!

Does the Daeva line still hold territories in Hadrumentum after all this? Where is the main Achaemenid line based?

 

[Killcrazy13]

This background into the Mihranids and the Caliphate is appreciated!

Does the Daeva line still hold territories in Hadrumentum after all this? Where is the main Achaemenid line based?

The Daeva line still persist in Hadrametum in the Punic heartlands of Tunisia. There's an interesting tale of Matthaios adopting one of their daughters into his house and establishing her as the ruling Queen in Ammon after bonding during her long captivity as a hostage.

The Daevas are facing their own challengers as the Followers of Ali attract more and more followers in Africa. They'll eventually abandon Africa for Sardinia and flee to the Bulgar state when its founded before eventually dying out on the 10th century.

For the main Achaemenid line, that's a longer tale we'll come to soon.

 

[Killcrazy13]

The End of the Achaemenid Empire (762 AD – 821 AD)


Haftvad Irontooth (757 AD – 797 AD)

After the fall of Achaemeniyya, Shahanshah Haftvad had evacuated his government to the island fortress of Cyprus. He would rule till 797 AD, presiding over a time of great losses for the empire as every action taken proved ineffective and every opposing action by his enemies were met with great success.

The last remaining stronghold of Achaemenid rule in Anatolia, Trabzon, rose up in rebellion to fight for its independence. The Vice-Queen of the region, Katayoun Farro of House Vivanid, sought accommodation with the Muslims and felt it was easier to do it alone then under her Shahanshah. Sorties against the Muslims would meet disastrous ends and slowly but surely, his last holdings in Asia were lost – Marash, Lazika, and the Aegean Isles fell one by one.

In the West, he would face pressure from King Anicius Achaemenida of Dalmatia, a distant cousin, who sought to take advantage of the collapsing empire to grab more land in the borderlands of Illyria. Though Haftvad won the war, it was still more dead soldiers that he could ill-afford to lose. Along with the attacks by the Mihranids, Haftvad was assaulted on all quarters and the stress of it all gave rise to his nickname – grinding his teeth until they were flat like a block of iron.

In 781, he was struck down by typhus. He would survive the encounter but it left it him decrepit and bed-ridden. No longer able to command the empire effective, rulings increasingly fell to the regency of lords. His children were still young and unready to lead. Even more tragically, his only son Gudarz, died at 20 in 791 after living with multiple illnesses and general poor health. Despite Haftvad’s own poor health, he would cling to life and power till 797 AD – infirm, one-eyed, disfigured and scarred by battle and disease. His brothers had died in their 30s and 40s and their children too young to stand up to the few remaining lords of the realm. So the throne passed to Haftvad’s youngest child, Goshtasb, a boy of 11.

Goshtasb (797 AD – 802 AD)

Little is known about this young Shahanshah. The regency council made most of the decisions while he was deemed too young to adjudicate or lead the empire. In that 5 year regency, more losses would continue for the empire but more troubling is the lack of respect shown to the Shahanshah. He was locked up and placed under watch by his senior vizier, Faramarz, and upon attaining his majority, was promptly murdered before he could attempt to exercise any of his powers.

Lanassa (802 AD – 802 AD)

His older sister was then placed on the throne. At 26 years of age, she seemed better prepared to deal with the court intrigues than her poor younger brother but she was struck down with pneumonia while pregnant with the heir. The stress of pregnancy and disease proved too much and she died after only 8 months of rule.

Yazdegerd (802 AD – 810 AD)

With no others surviving from Haftvad’s line, the next in line was Yazdgerd of Rhodopes, grandson to the brother of Haftvad. A child of only 8 years old, the Court controlled the Shahanshah once again. Cyprus had been lost during the time of Lanassa and Rhodopes became the new capital of the rapidly decaying empire. Here, Rhodopian councillors vied for influence against the exiles of Achaemeniyya and it seemed that the new faction might raise a King who was prepared to fight to recover his lands. But it was not to be, Shahanshah was murdered by the Spawn of Satan, Matthaios Mihran in February of 810 AD. The Achaemenids were quickly becoming an endangered species.

Nysa (810 AD – 811 AD)

The poisoned throne of authority would officially pass to Nysa, daughter of Haftvad’s second brother, Sohrab. Sohrab had already converted to Islam in a deal with the Caliph to receive some of his families old estates in Europa and Thrace. Nysa’s older brother passed away from illness in 801 AD and so she was the reigning Emira of Europe, forced to pay obeisance to Caliph Jalil II in return for the right to rule lands that had been her family’s for centuries.

The Achaemeniyyan courtiers seeking shelter amidst the storm of religious war and civil strife, travelled to her estate in Kalliopolis and presented her with the regalia of the Achaemenid Emperors. She was however too afraid to raise the banner of rebellion against the Caliph and had converted to Islam with all her heart. Despite this meekness and desire to avoid conflict, death still found her in 811 AD after she fell mysteriously from the top floor of her observation tower.

Sohrab (811 AD – 821 AD)

Her older son would renounce the title of Shahanshah upon his mother’s death, formally ending the empire resurrected by his forebear, Orestes the Great. He was content to serve as a servant of the Caliph and hoped to outrun the curse that was striking down members of his great family. Despite his efforts, he could not outrun fate and death found him in 821 AD after a severe haemorrhagic fever. He was succeeded by his daughter, Xenokrateia, a poor girl born with a hunchback as Emira of Europa.

Attalus the Last Achaemenid

The line of the Achaemenids had nearly been extinguished over the last century of calamity and the last of the bloodline was Attalus, half-brother to Sohrab and Xenokrateia the huncback. He served as regent to Xenokrateia and lived through the end of the Caliphate from 847 – 849 AD when the Mihrans continued their expansion recapturing Europa and forcing his niece to flee to Bugeac at the very edge of Muslim control. As castellan of her castle on Kalliopolis, he was captured by Matthaios Mihran, that eternal scourge of the Achaemenids, and contracted measles in his dungeon. The experience had left him blind and Xenokrateia took pity on her faithful uncle and provided a stipend to live on in her much diminished holdings after his release. When she died aged 20, from a severe bear attack while riding through her woods, her lands were taken over by the King of Dioskourias, Demokritos Jamshid, the descendant of the ancient Byzantine Vivanids.

The tables had turned with the servitor House now sending the Last Achaemenid out into the wilderness of the North, blind, near penniless and addicted to hashish to numb the pain that he suffered during his time in Matthaios’ dungeon. It seemed time had come full circle on the family. After more than a millennia, the Achaemenids were forced back into a situation worse than Amastris found herself all those centuries ago.

 

[Nikolai]

A sad end. But 'tis but a speedbump, they will come back! Stronger. Better. More prepared.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

The mod seems very harsh on rulers given how many deaths there has been. Reminds me of the early version of the CK2 dlc that put big plagues in.

 

[Cora Giantkiller]

I love the sheer devastation of this chapter. Really sets up the comeback nicely.

 

[HistoryDude]

That was a disastrous end to a glorious empire. What Achaemenid escaped from this strife to go to the Bulgars? How did the court not notice? Did they notice and just not care?

I feel like the court intrigue also stymied any possible attempts to reclaim land from the Muslims...

 

[Killcrazy13]

A sad end. But 'tis but a speedbump, they will come back! Stronger. Better. More prepared.

The exile was pretty scary as a player. There were real fears the House would die out completely at times - you'll learn more when we dive into Attalus' exile in the north.

The mod seems very harsh on rulers given how many deaths there has been. Reminds me of the early version of the CK2 dlc that put big plagues in.

Technically only 2 of the 6 rulers died by disease but yes, I play with a mod (Dark Ages) that drastically increases randomness and danger to the playthrough. Base CK3 can get too predictable once you know what you're doing.

I love the sheer devastation of this chapter. Really sets up the comeback nicely.

What's a good chronicle without setbacks to enrich our hero's journey (dynasty's journey?)

That was a disastrous end to a glorious empire. What Achaemenid escaped from this strife to go to the Bulgars? How did the court not notice? Did they notice and just not care?

I feel like the court intrigue also stymied any possible attempts to reclaim land from the Muslims...

We will learn more about Attalus the Last Achaemenid in the next update but there was no court - the entire system had collapsed with Mihranid and Muslim invasions with Sohrab dissolving the empire before his death. It had been 60 years since the loss of Achaemeniyya and many of those old courtiers either died or their replacements found employment in courts that could afford to pay them (basically the Muslims). With the Achaemenid state no longer able to support the old court expenses or even exert its influence much beyond a small core territory, the leeches are going to move on to find a better host.

We can write a whole essay on the causes for the collapse of the Achaemenid Empire. Unlike the Warring States period following the end of the Argead dynasty, there is no immediate resurrection of the old entity so perhaps the empire had run its course by this point. Whether a united front could have withstood the Muslims, it's a question that many alt-history Achaeboos buffs will explore in their daydreams.

 

[jak7139]

So much death...

Looking forward to how Attalus finds the Bulgars and convinces them to help!

 

[Lord Durham]

What a painful collapse. Curious to see what happens next. I'm sure Edward Gibbon would enjoy writing about the The History of the Decline and Fall...

 

[Killcrazy13]

The Exile of Attalus and His Coming to the Bulgars (847 AD – 872 AD)


An extract from the Journal of Attalus:
“…Beyond these rivers and mountains, there is a land, several days’ journey away, where there is snow of red, white and blue and other colours . Ships are filled with it, and it is taken downriver to Bulghar. The distance from Saqsin to Bulghar by river is forty days.

In this city of the Bulghars, when the days are long, they have twenty hours and the nights four, but on the other hand in the winter, it is the nights that last twenty hours and the days but four. In summer, at midday, it is very hot, hotter than anywhere else in the world; but at sunset and throughout the night it is cold, so that one needs much clothing. I tried to fast in this city during the month of Ramadan, which fell in the summer, but I had to give up and take refuge underground in a room where there was a spring. The people of Bulghar are more resistant to the cold than anyone else, and this is because their food and drink largely consists of honey, which is very cheap there.

In the spring, I came to learn that the wife of the king and the king himself were stricken with a very serious illness. .They were treated with all the remedies known to them, but the sickness only increased, until they feared that they would die. Then some of the warriors came to learn that I was a juriconsult and learned in medicine so I was brought to the king’s tent. I spoke to the king:

‘If I were to cure you and you were to recover your health, would you accept my faith?’ ‘Yes,’ they replied. So I gave them medicines and cured them, and they, and all their people, embraced God.

I remained among them for three years, and I rode with them across the great grass sea. Their country stretches for more than forty nights. There are mountains there from which they extract gold and silver.

It came to pass that the King of the Sarmatians came to attack them with a great force and said to them: ‘Why have you embraced this religion without my permission?’

But I said to them:
‘Do not fear. Say: “God is great!”’
They said:
‘God is great! God is great! God is great! Praise be to God.’

Then they fought with the said king and defeated his army, so that the king offered them peace and gave them leave to settle in the lands of Sarmatia. And the King of the Bulghars asked me where, and I told him to look for where the soil is fertile and the cliffs overlook the river, and there it is best to build your new city.

The Sarmatian King said: ‘I know of what you describe, it is a place called Kyiv. You shall have it for the people who were there had committed a great wrong and they are not there anymore.’

Attalus Travels North

As the last Achaemenid, Attalus was a great prize. Despite his profession of the faith, he knew he could not expect the generosity of the Caliph to a fellow Muslim or any succour in the Greek lands now held by the Mihranids. His only option was to travel north into the lands of the horse and endless sky. Riding blind on his mule, he was ignored by most travellers across the lands ruled by the Sarmatians, Magyar and Pinskians until he came to the tribe of the Bulghars after nearly a year of travelling. Emaciated and suffering the effects of exposure, he was nursed back to health by these hard but kindly people.

While we have his journals as a first-hand account of his encounters with the Bulgars and of his experiences in the wild, I tend to take it with a twinge of scepticism. Attalus was a master storyteller and much of his journal paints him in a positive light. We do know that he was accepted by the Bulgar King, Pakacandre and we do have supporting reports of him treating the king’s illness with the medicinal knowledge collected from centuries of Greek and Persian expertise.

Living with the Bulgarians, he adapted to their culture and ingratiated himself with the King, proving useful with his knowledge of law, religion and the darker arts. His wife had abandoned him when the Mihranids came and he would eventually marry one of the daughters of the next King, Tarmaraksite. The King was pleased to have the bloodline of the vaunted Emperors of Byzantium intertwined with his House and it seemed that the Achaemenids would fade into irrelevance.

However, that would all change when during a great feast thrown by Tarmaraksite, his son Sonmez murdered his father. Attalus came across the scene, aided by his personal bodyguard and eyes. Perhaps without the bodyguard, Attalus might have met the same fate but Attalus was quick to the uptake. He had Sonmez arrested and revealed the vile deed to all those in attendance. Recriminations flew among the other sons and in a night of betrayal and bloodthirst, only Attalus and his princess wife Lilyana survived of the King’s family.

Attalus was now the leader of the Bulgars but he refused to take the title of King, saying that he had not earned it. Always uppermost in his mind was reclaiming his inheritance – the Empire of Achaemenia and he had his people migrate from the Volga to the lands of Hyspania a confederation of tribes ruled by a Sarmatian King. There, he reached an accommodation with the King and was granted the lands of Kyiv to rule and for his people to settle in return for renouncing Islam and accepting Christ as his saviour. It was an easy decision for the scheming Attalus and he returned to the Christian ways of his ancestors.

As a bit of a background, the Pontic steppe and the lands further north had seen many Christian missionaries starting from the time of Darius the Strong, the great crusader and conqueror of Dacia, coming to evangelise to the people. Most had converted to Orthodoxy and accepted the Patriarch of Achaemeniyya as their spiritual leader but there were many other variations of Christianity, notably Arianism and offshoots of Orthodoxy such as Paulicanism or Followers of Paul. Alongside with these competing Christian faiths, many Muslims fleeing the 2nd Muslim Fitna and the collapsing Caliphate brought their faith into these lands creating a cauldron of religious fervor and ideas. Imam debated bishop and the men of the steppe confused their old pagan spirits for angels. These developments would feed into the Khodan revivalist movement and other Muslim theological factions such as Mutazila and Nizarism in the coming centuries.

The lands of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus after the collapse of the Caliphate and the recession of Mihranid power in Greece. With no single hegemon, wars of conquest and retaliation will give rise to unstable kingdoms and confederations over the next century.​

Culturally, much of the north had been settled or dominated by Eranian or Turkic tribes. They ruled the great Eurasian steppe from the Urals all the way into Poland and Moravia where they were finally checked by the Germanic people.

For Attalus himself, he is ascribed as a Follower of Paul and much of the Bulgars converted over to the new faith. Within Kiev, he would build his Achaemeniyya in exile and share with the noble his memories of the city and the beautiful lands of Thrace from his childhood. He would eventually commission the Golden Gate of Kyiv, an imitation of the Golden Gate of Achaemeniyya. Hiring Byzantine architects from Al-Anatolia, it would stand as a love letter from Attalus for his old lands and last for four centuries before being demolished in the Eranian-Livonian wars of the 14th century that finally broke the Eranian domination of the Eurasian plains. He had a church built next to it and consecrated the Image of Edessa, somehow recovered through unknown means, in it.

By the time of his death in 872 AD, he had established some stability within his realm and laid the groundwork for the future of his dynasty. His three surviving sons swore to fulfil his dream of reclaiming the empire. Still, it seemed impossible with the limited resources of the Bulgarian people and the impoverished status of the House of Cyrus.

 

[Midnite Duke]

The steppes appear to be a mishmash of beliefs and cultures. Attalus has made a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Thanks

 

[NarcomancerPL]

Oh so Bulgarian Achaemenids are legit :O

 

[Nikolai]

This will be hard.

 

[Killcrazy13]

So much death...

Looking forward to how Attalus finds the Bulgars and convinces them to help!

Hope you enjoyed the telling of it. I had to do some console commands to get Attalus set up and then some artful intepretations of game events to get the telling right.

What a painful collapse. Curious to see what happens next. I'm sure Edward Gibbon would enjoy writing about the The History of the Decline and Fall...

i like his disdainful quotes about the ERE. Haven't found too many chances to apply them but he and the general European historian clique would write thousands of pages about why the Christian Achaemenid empire collapsed because they lacked the strong moral fibre of the men of the West.

The steppes appear to be a mishmash of beliefs and cultures. Attalus has made a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Thanks

It's going to get even messier in the centuries to come. The EU4 world is a real mess - just started testing out the conversion in 1326 AD.

Oh so Bulgarian Achaemenids are legit :O

i wanted to model cultural shifts similar to the evolution of the ERE from Roman to Greek and adapting to the Slavic invasions and the impact it had on the character of an empire. The Byzantines are already quite removed from the Persians they are descended from - what happens when a third culture comes in to intermingle with the Greeks and Byzantines?

This will be hard.

It has to be done. Deus Vult!