The chaos here in southern Europe should allow for a lot of opportunities for a canny leader, imo.
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Do you plan to modify the conversion at all once you get to that point, either through the console or the save file?
Attalus was lucky no ambitious Bulgar chiefs challenged him for the throne. He's brought things back from the brink.
Does anybody in Anatolia or the Balkans recognize that the Achaemenids are now in Kyiv?
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Where would such a canny leader arise from?
For most of the 9th century, no, most were not aware of the Achaemenids. The Bulgarians were not large in number and Kyiv did not develop its reputation until after it had been built up by the Achaemenids. The distance from the core of old Achaemenid territory to Kyiv was great and blocked by many natural and social barriers including the great rivers and the mountains of what will become Bulgaria. In this timeline, the Rus failed to penetrate deep into Russia and did not become the great seafarers of OTL. Trade and communication went across the great grass sea, and often was in danger of being disrupted by aggressive horse tribes and raiding parties. Over time, they would hear rumours, especially in the time of Aleksii and Nikola as the Achaemenids grow more confident and aggressive in their actions but it had been nearly a century since they were in power and a half-century more since the fall of Achaemeniyya. Most would consider them inconsequential, playing at being tribal lords in the barbaric north while the real business of kings and lords is conducted down in the south.
For the conversion to EU4, yes, I massaging parts of the map but it's relatively minor - fixing the cultures in some regions to break up the uniformity that 800 years of cultural spread does or breaking up a few of the mega empires that had been created. Most of those do not directly impact the main narrative but it's done in the interest of creating a more dynamic world. I'll also be running with Responsible Blobbing and a few other throttle mods in EU4 to keep it diverse if/when we reach Vic3 (which I am super hopeful we do).
Thank you and very happy to have you along as a reader. Feel free to comment or ask anything that you're curious about.
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Growing Pains in Bulgaria (872 AD – 921 AD)
Growing Pains in Bulgaria (872 AD – 910 AD)
Marzopan Nikola (872 AD – 885 AD)
Nikola, oldest son of Attalus, was the new ruler of Kyiv. A stern, stubborn and righteous man, he was more feared than loved by his adopted Bulgarian people. Within the Sarmatian confederation, he was renowned for his knowledge of strategy and ability to drill his men to the highest standards, albeit within an inch of mutiny. A hard man, he was trusted by the Sarmatian Khatun whom he owed allegiance to with the armies of the horde. Together, he and Khatun Yvresibil claimed many victories in the east against invading Muslims from the tribes of the Magyar and Pechenegs.
But a hard man develops fierce enemies. In 885 AD while touring his land in search of a bandit group that had been waylaying merchants on their way to Korsun, his own men turned on him. The tale goes that when he ordered several of his outriders flogged for failing to find the bandits, the men collectively tired of his tyranny and tied him to a post. There, they flogged him relentlessly until he expired from the loss of blood.
Satrap Aleksii (885 AD – 893 AD)
Power would pass to his oldest son, Aleksii, a boy of nine. While young, Aleksii was considered a prodigy, inheriting much of his father’s talent at war and exhibited a phenomenal ability to learn subjects that old learned priests struggled with. One of his passions was religion, taking after his grandfather. He penned the famed treatise “On Allah and God” while only 12 to highlight the similarities between the two faiths. When he presented it to the bishop of Kyiv, the man was shocked that a boy could write on such scholarly matters and provide such cutting insight.
Aleksii simply said to him:
Learning is in the heart, it is not in books.
Do not immerse yourself in frivolities and games.
If you write knowledge down, it is like putting it in a basket;
If you don’t learn it by heart, you will never succeed.
The only one who triumphs is he who commits it to memory,
After hearing it, and so guards against error.
Many expected great things for the boy, perhaps he would be the prince that would bring the Achaemenids home. Anush, his chancellor would begin to spread the word among the horse tribes that the Achaemenid sought bannermen to ride with him, promising eternal glory and rich rewards. As a boy of 14, he forced his neighbouring lords to recognise him as overlord of Greater Kyiv and he was formally recognised by Khatun Yvresibil as Satrap of Kyiv and its tributaries at his coming-of-age ceremony.
Unfortunately, he was not the prince that was promised. In a horrific hunting incident, he was gored by the boar he was hunting. Insisting on taking it down alone, he slipped just as he was preparing his thrust and the boar’s tusk ripped him from groin to chest. Aleksii was dead by the time his men could get him back to the city of Kyiv.
Satrap Nikola II (893 – 955 AD)
His younger half-brother, Nikola II, would take the seat of Kyiv. Another boy, just eleven, it seemed the Achaemenid line’s curse followed them into the steppe. He too was gifted but was more measured in his approach, doing little other than letting his regent-mother manage matters for him until he came of age.
Once he reached his maturity, he would take up the sword of Christ just like his father and half-brother. Generalship seemed to come easy to the descendants of Attalus and he would expand his holdings even further, subjugating the region of Halych and Pereyaslavl in his early 20s. He became known as the Blood Father for his orgies of destruction on the cities that refused to open their gates to his armies and for his cruel streak to those within Kyiv who crossed him. Over time, his influence would grow greatly within the Khanate of Hypania and it would rival the Khatun herself.
Nikola was more patient and ruthless than his golden sibling and he bided his time before striking the killing blow. With the Khatun old and not in full control of her faculties, he raised the banner of independence and pulled several other vassal lords with him. The war was quick as he quickly marched on the capital of Korsun, capturing it and the ailing Khatun. He forced her to accept the terms and stripped the palace of wealth before departing.
Now free to do as he pleased with no liege lord to worry about, he would reshape the Followers of Paul into a more militarised faith and integrate much of his brother’s writings into the tenets of the faith. Calling themselves the Khodadin or Believers in God, they would integrate much of the Orthodox canon and practices while preaching a more accommodating stance on Islam. He knew without any changes within Orthodoxy or Paulicanism, he would struggle to raise enough warriors for the crusade his grandfather had set for him. It’s important to understand that the Khodadin was not viewed as a heresy within the Bulgarian people, simply a new development within the church of Orthodoxy. Nikola had no intent to break with Christianity and he consciously sought clergy who could gently massage the updates in by wrapping it within the Middle Persian language of old to add legitimacy and tradition. This would give rise to longstanding issues in the future as two Patriarchs would compete for the faithful, one supported by the Achaemenids while the other claimed to uphold the traditional faith.
Nikola would continue to husband his strength over the next decade and it proved fortuitous for another outbreak of the great plague, last seen nearly 150 years ago exploded like God’s Wrath. Once again, city gates closed, the people prayed for succour and the dead piled up high like little hills outside every town and village. The Bubonic Plague would last for five years and Nikola made his plans for conquest during this time.
In 911, with the worst of the plague over, Nikola was ready. His forces had been mostly unscathed by the effects of the plague and his spies in the south reported on the poor condition of the defences in the Moesian plain. It was time to bring his adopted people into the promised land.
Nikola, oldest son of Attalus, was the new ruler of Kyiv. A stern, stubborn and righteous man, he was more feared than loved by his adopted Bulgarian people. Within the Sarmatian confederation, he was renowned for his knowledge of strategy and ability to drill his men to the highest standards, albeit within an inch of mutiny. A hard man, he was trusted by the Sarmatian Khatun whom he owed allegiance to with the armies of the horde. Together, he and Khatun Yvresibil claimed many victories in the east against invading Muslims from the tribes of the Magyar and Pechenegs.
But a hard man develops fierce enemies. In 885 AD while touring his land in search of a bandit group that had been waylaying merchants on their way to Korsun, his own men turned on him. The tale goes that when he ordered several of his outriders flogged for failing to find the bandits, the men collectively tired of his tyranny and tied him to a post. There, they flogged him relentlessly until he expired from the loss of blood.
Power would pass to his oldest son, Aleksii, a boy of nine. While young, Aleksii was considered a prodigy, inheriting much of his father’s talent at war and exhibited a phenomenal ability to learn subjects that old learned priests struggled with. One of his passions was religion, taking after his grandfather. He penned the famed treatise “On Allah and God” while only 12 to highlight the similarities between the two faiths. When he presented it to the bishop of Kyiv, the man was shocked that a boy could write on such scholarly matters and provide such cutting insight.
Aleksii simply said to him:
Learning is in the heart, it is not in books.
Do not immerse yourself in frivolities and games.
If you write knowledge down, it is like putting it in a basket;
If you don’t learn it by heart, you will never succeed.
The only one who triumphs is he who commits it to memory,
After hearing it, and so guards against error.
Many expected great things for the boy, perhaps he would be the prince that would bring the Achaemenids home. Anush, his chancellor would begin to spread the word among the horse tribes that the Achaemenid sought bannermen to ride with him, promising eternal glory and rich rewards. As a boy of 14, he forced his neighbouring lords to recognise him as overlord of Greater Kyiv and he was formally recognised by Khatun Yvresibil as Satrap of Kyiv and its tributaries at his coming-of-age ceremony.
Unfortunately, he was not the prince that was promised. In a horrific hunting incident, he was gored by the boar he was hunting. Insisting on taking it down alone, he slipped just as he was preparing his thrust and the boar’s tusk ripped him from groin to chest. Aleksii was dead by the time his men could get him back to the city of Kyiv.
Satrap Nikola II (893 – 955 AD)
His younger half-brother, Nikola II, would take the seat of Kyiv. Another boy, just eleven, it seemed the Achaemenid line’s curse followed them into the steppe. He too was gifted but was more measured in his approach, doing little other than letting his regent-mother manage matters for him until he came of age.
Once he reached his maturity, he would take up the sword of Christ just like his father and half-brother. Generalship seemed to come easy to the descendants of Attalus and he would expand his holdings even further, subjugating the region of Halych and Pereyaslavl in his early 20s. He became known as the Blood Father for his orgies of destruction on the cities that refused to open their gates to his armies and for his cruel streak to those within Kyiv who crossed him. Over time, his influence would grow greatly within the Khanate of Hypania and it would rival the Khatun herself.
Nikola was more patient and ruthless than his golden sibling and he bided his time before striking the killing blow. With the Khatun old and not in full control of her faculties, he raised the banner of independence and pulled several other vassal lords with him. The war was quick as he quickly marched on the capital of Korsun, capturing it and the ailing Khatun. He forced her to accept the terms and stripped the palace of wealth before departing.
Now free to do as he pleased with no liege lord to worry about, he would reshape the Followers of Paul into a more militarised faith and integrate much of his brother’s writings into the tenets of the faith. Calling themselves the Khodadin or Believers in God, they would integrate much of the Orthodox canon and practices while preaching a more accommodating stance on Islam. He knew without any changes within Orthodoxy or Paulicanism, he would struggle to raise enough warriors for the crusade his grandfather had set for him. It’s important to understand that the Khodadin was not viewed as a heresy within the Bulgarian people, simply a new development within the church of Orthodoxy. Nikola had no intent to break with Christianity and he consciously sought clergy who could gently massage the updates in by wrapping it within the Middle Persian language of old to add legitimacy and tradition. This would give rise to longstanding issues in the future as two Patriarchs would compete for the faithful, one supported by the Achaemenids while the other claimed to uphold the traditional faith.
Nikola would continue to husband his strength over the next decade and it proved fortuitous for another outbreak of the great plague, last seen nearly 150 years ago exploded like God’s Wrath. Once again, city gates closed, the people prayed for succour and the dead piled up high like little hills outside every town and village. The Bubonic Plague would last for five years and Nikola made his plans for conquest during this time.
In 911, with the worst of the plague over, Nikola was ready. His forces had been mostly unscathed by the effects of the plague and his spies in the south reported on the poor condition of the defences in the Moesian plain. It was time to bring his adopted people into the promised land.
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This new religion isn't going to be looked on kindly by the Patriarch, Pope, and Caliph. Has Nikola II painted a target on his back?
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If he succeeds rapidly enough, perhaps it won't matter. But yes, he is - so far - a small fish in a big pond.
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Killcrazy13 can you show the tenets of this new religion, just out of curiosity how militaristic it is?
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Where others see problems, Nikola sees the opportunity.
It's an interesting situation to consider. Will the Pope consider it a new faith or just another schism among those damn schismatics? Why, if they only accepted the supremacy of Rome, none of this would be an issue. As a general note, I'm treating the Khodadin faith as a doctrinal and authority difference within Orthodoxy and not a separate church. The Achaemenids prefer a more pliable patriarch who will accommodate the geo-political challenges of their rulers especially regarding Islam.
Lucky note, there's no Caliphate after the Rashidun fell apart. The Patriarch? How many legions does he have?
Sure, here you go. The general idea I wanted was the ability to go crusading and be more tolerant of Islam to represent the difficulties of converting lands long held by Muslims, creating more inter-faith marriages and alliances that would occur in the real world and a more confrontational relationship with the West/Catholicism.
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The Kingdom of Bulgaria (921 AD – 1000 AD)
The Kingdom of Bulgaria (921 AD – 1000 AD)
Nikola II the Blood Father (893 AD – 955 AD)
Beyond the deep-seated ambition of the Achaemenids, there were several other factors contributing to the Bulgarian migration. The plague would continue ravaging the steppe and even affected livestock. Many herds of horses and cattle had to be culled once they started showing signs of disease. In the pastoral lands of the steppe, this meant a large reduction in the available food supply. The rivers and farmlands of Moesia promised other staple foods such as fish and large-scale farmed vegetables, and closer proximity to raiding targets in the rich lands of Greece and Byzantium.
There was also the issue of overpopulation or congestion on the steppe. The Black Death exacerbated it unexpectedly as people fought over fewer resources or migrated from their homes to avoid the plague destroying their families. This meant that many tribes would be moving and running into each other, causing conflict as they argued about who had the right to the lands they stood on. Beyond that, the steppe had always been a world of continuous war – with no natural borders and most cultures being nomadic in nature, the ebb and tide of migration generated storms of conflict across its endless grass sea.
So when Nikola marched south in 927 AD, he took not just an army, but his entire people. All the women and children followed the men in their wagons or on foot. Kyiv was abandoned, stripped of any kind of movable wealth including the much cherished Image of Edessa from the Church of the Golden Gate. It was a slow moving procession as the army had to ensure the entire entourage was protected, especially at river crossings or narrow passes of the mountains protecting Moesia.
As we covered in our prologue, Nikola won a legendary victory on the plains of Silistra against the Muslims who held it and Dioskourias was handed over to the Bulgarian people to settle. The land itself would be renamed after its people becoming the Kingdom of Bulgaria with 931 commonly accepted as its founding year.
Nikola would spend the next decade solidifying his rule over the new lands and helping the Bulgarians lay roots deep into the soil of Moesia. Another great migration would occur now as Muslims, Copts and Orthodox were displaced by the new arrivals and forced to flee South with the name Achaemenid on their lips. The old rulers had become the word for terror and barbaric invasion. Initially, the formidable barriers of the lands provided a reprieve for the Bulgars from plague and immediate counter-attack and they enjoyed a semi-return to their old way of life. Some would take up farming, using enslaved Muslims and Byzantines as labour to work the fields while others explored the ruins of the cities, marvelling at the ancient wonders that their King said his ancestors had built. They would return with artefacts or precious materials scavenged from these cities alongside valuable building materials. The latter would help build new homes of stones but the former would contribute to a growing trade with the South and the West who were eager to lay their hands on forgotten Christian relics, Byzantine jewellery or Greek-Perso texts from a millennia ago. This trade would bring home gold to support the slowly increasing prosperity of Bulgaria.
Nikola himself would set forth on the task of restoring the Achaemenid inheritance, marching his armies to far-off lands to reclaim pieces of the imperial regalia. He would visit great punishment on those who failed to turn over property he viewed as his by right. However, the worst example of Nikola’s cruelty is the fate of Prasamnake, a lord who held lands in distant Voronezh, just beyond the Sea of Azov. His son, Attalus, had travelled to the court to attend the man’s wedding when he was arrested and executed after being accused of a crime in the city. Nikola would torture, castrate and blind the man for his misdeeds and ensured that every member of his dynasty was murdered so that Prasamnake would live out his last days in misery knowing that his line ended with him.
Expanding southward, he would subjugate the old kingdom of Odessos and merge it and Dioskourias into the new state of Bulgaria. He would choose to raise his capital high in the Balkan Mountains at the castle of Tarnovo, renaming Veliko Tarnovgrad, the Great Thorny City. From there, he would often look South and dream of conquering all the old territories of the empire.
Revenge Against Mihran and the Fall of Jerusalem
Nearing the end of his life, he set forth on his last war – he hired a fleet of Muslim ships from the Emirs of Al-Anatolia who were all to happy to let the warlord take on his new target, the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem and their ruler, the Mihrans. In their capture of Achaemeniya, they had shipped the many treasures of the Achaemenid throne back to Jerusalem including the Armor of Alexander and the Ark of the Covenant. Nikola wanted it all back.
The Mihrans were already hard pressed against a foe from the African desert – Shia Muslims had gathered around Abdullah, a descendant of Ali and the Prophet’s daughter, and claimed to be the rightful Caliph of Islam. For centuries, they had laid low in the drylands of Africa, far from Rashiduni control but with loss of authority in Medina, they found that their moment had come. A great Jihad arose around Kairouan in old Carthage and they subjugated the Christians and Muslims of North Africa under their banner. The Daevas of Hadrametum had already been reduced to a sliver of territory around the City of Carthage, unable to face down the religious fervour sweeping over their subjects.
Now Abdullah of the House of Hashemid wanted Jerusalem. His armies had been battling the Mihrans for two years, capturing much of western Egypt when the sails of Nikola came into view from the harbour of Jaffa. Caught between two forces, the Mihranid forces were unable to resist as Nikola ravaged the lands of northern Palestine before sacking Jerusalem. The teenage Queen Navvaba was forced to flee her capital and Nikola took everything he deemed was rightfully his from the usurping Mihrans.
With Palestine in ruins, the Mihrans lacked the tax base to keep their armies in the field and what followed was the loss of the last bastion of Christianity in the Middle East as the fortress that stood strong during three centuries of Muslim invasions finally was breached. The Shia would establish their capital in the new city of Cairo in the Nile Delta and would begin a new era within Muslim politics as believers were increasingly forced to choose sides in the growing rift within the religion.
Nikola would die during the return trip to Bulgaria and be succeeded by his grandson, Nikola II, son of the murdered Attalus.
Nikola II the Universal Spider (955 AD – 994 AD)
Tasked with continuing his grandfather’s work, the young Nikola was thrust into a difficult position. The initial rush of spoils in Bulgaria had dried up and the large force of soldiers his grandfather had built up needed to be paid. The treasury of Tarnovgrad had run dry and as Nikola came into the fullness of his royal powers, he was forced to take increasingly desperate measures to keep the realm afloat. He would first turn to selling off crownlands while reviewing the performance of the territories he held on to – the cash injections from selling off castles and farmlands fended off the worse initially while his stewardship saw a slow but gradual improvement in the annual taxation from the crown.
The autocracy of the Achaemenid Empire is a stark contrast to the more collegial or feudal nature within Achaemenid Bulgaria. The Bulgarian people had grown up on the steppe where the kings were chosen by their gods and their power was reliant on ensuring the prosperity of their people. If not, the gods (and the people) would strike down the king who lost the favour of the gods or God as it was in this Christian time. This meant more favour trading between the King and his nobles who held lands in trust for their people and a King who had to be seen supporting his lords in their goals. This meant continual shows of largesse and favour – especially as the Achaemenids had brought the Bulgars into the infinitely rich lands of the Old Empire. Nikola II would strip the churches of their wealth to keep the nobles happy – the Achaemenid Patriarch was a mere puppet to the crown in the system established by Nikola I.
The War within Orthodoxy for Hearts and Minds
With the return of the Achaemenids, many Orthodox Christians were divided on who was the rightful spiritual authority with Christendom. The Ecumenical Patriarch in Achaemeniyya had long been co-opted by first the Muslims then the Mihranid Coptics and forced to act as their mouthpiece. With the end of their influence in the Balkans, the Patriarch had found his authority severely diminished and the legendary status of the Achaemenids burnished the credentials of their chosen Patriarch. Over the next century and a half, the Ecumenical Patriarchate would be increasingly ignored as the influence and success of the Achaemenids grew within the lands of the Orthodox.
By ratifying agreements with the Sultans of Al-Anatolia, the Khodan Patriarch and Nikola II even ensured the granting of rights and protection to Christians within these lands, greatly raising the prestige of both men. The Orthodox die-hards were finding it increasingly harder to find lords willing to accept their rites over the Khodadins. Interestingly, Nikola II and the later Achaemenids never tried to eliminate the role of the Ecumenical Patriarch, believing that an opponent standing against them helps to crystallize the tenets of their own faith. This would eventually give us the autocephalous nature of Orthodoxy in the late medieval and early modern era as each people or kingdom had the freedom to manage their own spiritual matters like the Achaemenid Khodadins.
The Life and Struggles of Nikola II
Adding to the miseries of the King was a new plague, almost as deadly as the Black Death forty years ago. The Magrehbi Boils as it came to be called, spread out from Anatolia before infecting major ports such as Achaemeniya and Thessaloniki and eventually reaching Bulgaria. Paranoid since young, Nikola would lock himself and his family alongside a few trusted confidants within the mountain fortress of Tarnovgrad, turning out any who came to him for aid or protection.
Despite this, the King saw opportunity just like his father, His strongest opponent was Shah Dastan Kashu of Europa who ruled from Achaemeniya and controlled much of Macedonia. With control of the mountain passes, Dastan ensured there was no easy path for the Achaemenids to conquer their old heartlands. Now with plague devastating garrisons, Nikola struck deep into the Balkan mountains, capturing abandoned watchposts and border fortresses. He faced his own struggles with recruitment and manpower but would find clever solutions to these issues.
In the peace agreement with Dastan, he would take the Princess Delbar as hostage and then eventually marrying her. He sought to legitimise his conquest of Europa through the marriage, especially as Dastan had no sons. Nikola and Delbar’s marriage would be both bounteous yet cold as the hostage Queen was forced to sire a brood of children for the scheming King.
Nikola himself would eventually become known as the spider as he had his hands in many, many schemes. From the framing and imprisonment of his cousin to acquire his lands in Giorgiu to his strategic focus and development as a battlefield commander, it seemed there was nothing that Nikola would not attempt. He also faced down many peasant uprisings, unhappy with the ‘modernisation’ he imposed on a people who were still settling into their new lands and the taxation he imposed to address the shortfall in the crown’s balance sheet. He was also an unabashed adulterer – it’s said he had a girl in every village from Tarnovgrad to the Danube – and his bastards would prove to be his downfall.
One of them came to his court, a young man called Kocelj, who is said to have been blessed by the Lord and often speaking in tongues. When the man presented himself and demanded recognition, Nikola rejected and banished him from the city. Angry and following the voices in his head, Kocelj snuck back into the castle and murdered the King and his latest paramour in their bed and waited till morning drenched in their blood when he was arrested by the royal guard.
King Boril (994 AD – 1000 AD)
With Nikola’s murder, his second son, Boris took the throne. Nikola had already designated Boris as his co-king, passing over the oldest Dominik as he came from a previous marriage, not the coveted pairing with Delbar. Instead, Dominik was given lands in the Rhodopes to assuage his anger while Boris took the throne, assisted by his mother Delbar.
Boris’ reign was messy and tragic in many ways. His mother was an overbearing presence in court and often directed Bulgarian policy at the expense of the Bulgarian people. When the larger Achaemenid clan forced her out, she fled to her own holdings in Illyria and denounced the whole House including her children. When word came that her own daughter was having an incestuous relationship with her half-brother Dominik, she had Ivana imprisoned and refused to let her go despite the pleas from Boris.
Dominik soon passed away, possibly from heartbreak. He had always been weak of constitution and the entire matter proved too much for him. Boris’ other brother succeeded him as Duke but he would not last long either, dying from the same consumption that afflicted Boris.
Boris would recover from this disease but perhaps the Achaemenid curse had returned. He was soon struck down by smallpox and this proved more than his body could handle. The King was dead, at only twenty years of age.
Nikola II the Blood Father (893 AD – 955 AD)
Beyond the deep-seated ambition of the Achaemenids, there were several other factors contributing to the Bulgarian migration. The plague would continue ravaging the steppe and even affected livestock. Many herds of horses and cattle had to be culled once they started showing signs of disease. In the pastoral lands of the steppe, this meant a large reduction in the available food supply. The rivers and farmlands of Moesia promised other staple foods such as fish and large-scale farmed vegetables, and closer proximity to raiding targets in the rich lands of Greece and Byzantium.
There was also the issue of overpopulation or congestion on the steppe. The Black Death exacerbated it unexpectedly as people fought over fewer resources or migrated from their homes to avoid the plague destroying their families. This meant that many tribes would be moving and running into each other, causing conflict as they argued about who had the right to the lands they stood on. Beyond that, the steppe had always been a world of continuous war – with no natural borders and most cultures being nomadic in nature, the ebb and tide of migration generated storms of conflict across its endless grass sea.
So when Nikola marched south in 927 AD, he took not just an army, but his entire people. All the women and children followed the men in their wagons or on foot. Kyiv was abandoned, stripped of any kind of movable wealth including the much cherished Image of Edessa from the Church of the Golden Gate. It was a slow moving procession as the army had to ensure the entire entourage was protected, especially at river crossings or narrow passes of the mountains protecting Moesia.
As we covered in our prologue, Nikola won a legendary victory on the plains of Silistra against the Muslims who held it and Dioskourias was handed over to the Bulgarian people to settle. The land itself would be renamed after its people becoming the Kingdom of Bulgaria with 931 commonly accepted as its founding year.
Nikola would spend the next decade solidifying his rule over the new lands and helping the Bulgarians lay roots deep into the soil of Moesia. Another great migration would occur now as Muslims, Copts and Orthodox were displaced by the new arrivals and forced to flee South with the name Achaemenid on their lips. The old rulers had become the word for terror and barbaric invasion. Initially, the formidable barriers of the lands provided a reprieve for the Bulgars from plague and immediate counter-attack and they enjoyed a semi-return to their old way of life. Some would take up farming, using enslaved Muslims and Byzantines as labour to work the fields while others explored the ruins of the cities, marvelling at the ancient wonders that their King said his ancestors had built. They would return with artefacts or precious materials scavenged from these cities alongside valuable building materials. The latter would help build new homes of stones but the former would contribute to a growing trade with the South and the West who were eager to lay their hands on forgotten Christian relics, Byzantine jewellery or Greek-Perso texts from a millennia ago. This trade would bring home gold to support the slowly increasing prosperity of Bulgaria.
Nikola himself would set forth on the task of restoring the Achaemenid inheritance, marching his armies to far-off lands to reclaim pieces of the imperial regalia. He would visit great punishment on those who failed to turn over property he viewed as his by right. However, the worst example of Nikola’s cruelty is the fate of Prasamnake, a lord who held lands in distant Voronezh, just beyond the Sea of Azov. His son, Attalus, had travelled to the court to attend the man’s wedding when he was arrested and executed after being accused of a crime in the city. Nikola would torture, castrate and blind the man for his misdeeds and ensured that every member of his dynasty was murdered so that Prasamnake would live out his last days in misery knowing that his line ended with him.
Expanding southward, he would subjugate the old kingdom of Odessos and merge it and Dioskourias into the new state of Bulgaria. He would choose to raise his capital high in the Balkan Mountains at the castle of Tarnovo, renaming Veliko Tarnovgrad, the Great Thorny City. From there, he would often look South and dream of conquering all the old territories of the empire.
Revenge Against Mihran and the Fall of Jerusalem
Nearing the end of his life, he set forth on his last war – he hired a fleet of Muslim ships from the Emirs of Al-Anatolia who were all to happy to let the warlord take on his new target, the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem and their ruler, the Mihrans. In their capture of Achaemeniya, they had shipped the many treasures of the Achaemenid throne back to Jerusalem including the Armor of Alexander and the Ark of the Covenant. Nikola wanted it all back.
The Mihrans were already hard pressed against a foe from the African desert – Shia Muslims had gathered around Abdullah, a descendant of Ali and the Prophet’s daughter, and claimed to be the rightful Caliph of Islam. For centuries, they had laid low in the drylands of Africa, far from Rashiduni control but with loss of authority in Medina, they found that their moment had come. A great Jihad arose around Kairouan in old Carthage and they subjugated the Christians and Muslims of North Africa under their banner. The Daevas of Hadrametum had already been reduced to a sliver of territory around the City of Carthage, unable to face down the religious fervour sweeping over their subjects.
Now Abdullah of the House of Hashemid wanted Jerusalem. His armies had been battling the Mihrans for two years, capturing much of western Egypt when the sails of Nikola came into view from the harbour of Jaffa. Caught between two forces, the Mihranid forces were unable to resist as Nikola ravaged the lands of northern Palestine before sacking Jerusalem. The teenage Queen Navvaba was forced to flee her capital and Nikola took everything he deemed was rightfully his from the usurping Mihrans.
With Palestine in ruins, the Mihrans lacked the tax base to keep their armies in the field and what followed was the loss of the last bastion of Christianity in the Middle East as the fortress that stood strong during three centuries of Muslim invasions finally was breached. The Shia would establish their capital in the new city of Cairo in the Nile Delta and would begin a new era within Muslim politics as believers were increasingly forced to choose sides in the growing rift within the religion.
Nikola would die during the return trip to Bulgaria and be succeeded by his grandson, Nikola II, son of the murdered Attalus.
Nikola II the Universal Spider (955 AD – 994 AD)
Tasked with continuing his grandfather’s work, the young Nikola was thrust into a difficult position. The initial rush of spoils in Bulgaria had dried up and the large force of soldiers his grandfather had built up needed to be paid. The treasury of Tarnovgrad had run dry and as Nikola came into the fullness of his royal powers, he was forced to take increasingly desperate measures to keep the realm afloat. He would first turn to selling off crownlands while reviewing the performance of the territories he held on to – the cash injections from selling off castles and farmlands fended off the worse initially while his stewardship saw a slow but gradual improvement in the annual taxation from the crown.
The autocracy of the Achaemenid Empire is a stark contrast to the more collegial or feudal nature within Achaemenid Bulgaria. The Bulgarian people had grown up on the steppe where the kings were chosen by their gods and their power was reliant on ensuring the prosperity of their people. If not, the gods (and the people) would strike down the king who lost the favour of the gods or God as it was in this Christian time. This meant more favour trading between the King and his nobles who held lands in trust for their people and a King who had to be seen supporting his lords in their goals. This meant continual shows of largesse and favour – especially as the Achaemenids had brought the Bulgars into the infinitely rich lands of the Old Empire. Nikola II would strip the churches of their wealth to keep the nobles happy – the Achaemenid Patriarch was a mere puppet to the crown in the system established by Nikola I.
The War within Orthodoxy for Hearts and Minds
With the return of the Achaemenids, many Orthodox Christians were divided on who was the rightful spiritual authority with Christendom. The Ecumenical Patriarch in Achaemeniyya had long been co-opted by first the Muslims then the Mihranid Coptics and forced to act as their mouthpiece. With the end of their influence in the Balkans, the Patriarch had found his authority severely diminished and the legendary status of the Achaemenids burnished the credentials of their chosen Patriarch. Over the next century and a half, the Ecumenical Patriarchate would be increasingly ignored as the influence and success of the Achaemenids grew within the lands of the Orthodox.
By ratifying agreements with the Sultans of Al-Anatolia, the Khodan Patriarch and Nikola II even ensured the granting of rights and protection to Christians within these lands, greatly raising the prestige of both men. The Orthodox die-hards were finding it increasingly harder to find lords willing to accept their rites over the Khodadins. Interestingly, Nikola II and the later Achaemenids never tried to eliminate the role of the Ecumenical Patriarch, believing that an opponent standing against them helps to crystallize the tenets of their own faith. This would eventually give us the autocephalous nature of Orthodoxy in the late medieval and early modern era as each people or kingdom had the freedom to manage their own spiritual matters like the Achaemenid Khodadins.
Adding to the miseries of the King was a new plague, almost as deadly as the Black Death forty years ago. The Magrehbi Boils as it came to be called, spread out from Anatolia before infecting major ports such as Achaemeniya and Thessaloniki and eventually reaching Bulgaria. Paranoid since young, Nikola would lock himself and his family alongside a few trusted confidants within the mountain fortress of Tarnovgrad, turning out any who came to him for aid or protection.
Despite this, the King saw opportunity just like his father, His strongest opponent was Shah Dastan Kashu of Europa who ruled from Achaemeniya and controlled much of Macedonia. With control of the mountain passes, Dastan ensured there was no easy path for the Achaemenids to conquer their old heartlands. Now with plague devastating garrisons, Nikola struck deep into the Balkan mountains, capturing abandoned watchposts and border fortresses. He faced his own struggles with recruitment and manpower but would find clever solutions to these issues.
In the peace agreement with Dastan, he would take the Princess Delbar as hostage and then eventually marrying her. He sought to legitimise his conquest of Europa through the marriage, especially as Dastan had no sons. Nikola and Delbar’s marriage would be both bounteous yet cold as the hostage Queen was forced to sire a brood of children for the scheming King.
Nikola himself would eventually become known as the spider as he had his hands in many, many schemes. From the framing and imprisonment of his cousin to acquire his lands in Giorgiu to his strategic focus and development as a battlefield commander, it seemed there was nothing that Nikola would not attempt. He also faced down many peasant uprisings, unhappy with the ‘modernisation’ he imposed on a people who were still settling into their new lands and the taxation he imposed to address the shortfall in the crown’s balance sheet. He was also an unabashed adulterer – it’s said he had a girl in every village from Tarnovgrad to the Danube – and his bastards would prove to be his downfall.
One of them came to his court, a young man called Kocelj, who is said to have been blessed by the Lord and often speaking in tongues. When the man presented himself and demanded recognition, Nikola rejected and banished him from the city. Angry and following the voices in his head, Kocelj snuck back into the castle and murdered the King and his latest paramour in their bed and waited till morning drenched in their blood when he was arrested by the royal guard.
King Boril (994 AD – 1000 AD)
With Nikola’s murder, his second son, Boris took the throne. Nikola had already designated Boris as his co-king, passing over the oldest Dominik as he came from a previous marriage, not the coveted pairing with Delbar. Instead, Dominik was given lands in the Rhodopes to assuage his anger while Boris took the throne, assisted by his mother Delbar.
Boris’ reign was messy and tragic in many ways. His mother was an overbearing presence in court and often directed Bulgarian policy at the expense of the Bulgarian people. When the larger Achaemenid clan forced her out, she fled to her own holdings in Illyria and denounced the whole House including her children. When word came that her own daughter was having an incestuous relationship with her half-brother Dominik, she had Ivana imprisoned and refused to let her go despite the pleas from Boris.
Dominik soon passed away, possibly from heartbreak. He had always been weak of constitution and the entire matter proved too much for him. Boris’ other brother succeeded him as Duke but he would not last long either, dying from the same consumption that afflicted Boris.
Boris would recover from this disease but perhaps the Achaemenid curse had returned. He was soon struck down by smallpox and this proved more than his body could handle. The King was dead, at only twenty years of age.
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The only way to finance such a large army is to pillage other lands.
Has the curse returned, or did it never leave?
Has the curse returned, or did it never leave?
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Hormazd the Restorer (1000 AD – 1027 AD)
Hormazd the Restorer (1000 AD – 1027 AD)
With the sons of Nikola II all meeting an early demise, a power struggle broke out within the House. The Bulgarian influence had rubbed off on the Achaemenid succession system and they refused to accept any of Nikola’s daughters as the new ruler. In the messy infighting, Hormazd the Unlikely received the most support. A shy and unprepossessing man in his middle age, Hormazd had served the kingdom loyally during Nikola’s time as regent and master of horse and acted as an able guardian for the young Boril. Grandson to Nikola I’s brother, he expected to be working towards a comfortable retirement when the crown was unexpectedly placed on his head.
As King, Hormazd was proactive in expanding Achaemenid interests. He would complete the conquests of Macedonia and Greece within the first few years of his reign to strengthen his claim and legitimacy. Bulgaria had already made inroads into the Rhodopes Mountains and deep into the Greek heartlands – within a decade all of Greece came formally under Bulgarian suzerainty. Unlike his predecessors, there was no wide scale of pillaging or confiscation of wealth here. Most of the local lords had a connection to the historic Achaemenid dynasty and Hormazd would honour their past land grants and titles as long as they recognised him as their overlord and paid their feudal dues and accepted the Khodan Patriarch as the supreme authority within Orthodoxy. With the worse of the plague over, many of Nikola the Spider’s stewarding initiatives began to bear fruit and the large Bulgarian army was well funded by an increased tax base and the tribute paid by the new feudatories in Macedon and Greece. This eased the pressure on the throne for rapacious conquests as Hormazd would focus on maximising tax income within the lands he controlled.
Now, there was just one last piece to be reclaimed – Achaemeniyya, the great capital on the Bosphorus. The House of Kashu still held it and a fragment of territory in Thrace. In 1017, Hormazd would attempt to take the city. All of Greece rallied to the banner, as a revived wave of patriotism took hold of the Byzantines to see their old nation restored. Many answered Hormazd's call for a holy purging of the corrupt holdouts of old-country Orthodoxy (as the followers of the Ecumenical Patriarch came to be called).
The Taking of Achaemeniyya
The siege of Achaemeniyya lasted for two years as Hormazd’s forces struggled to break through the Darian Walls built nearly 700 years ago by Darius who first brought the Byzantines into the light of Christianity. 80,000 men laid siege to the city against 30,000 defenders and Hormazd bought off the Muslims of Anatolia to enforce a naval blockade in the Bosphorus for the city. Despite this, Hormazd could not find a weakness in those impregnable walls.
Fortune would arise out of misfortune for the Achaemenid King. Barthus Korus, the King of Europa had called his sister, Delbar, the ex-hostage-wife of Nikola to his aid. In the intervening years, she had managed to claim the throne of Dalmatia through her own schemes and was the defender of the restored Roman Empire’s lands in Illyria. There was no love lost between her and the Achaemenids and she took great pleasure in ravaging Bulgaria’s undefended Western border. Hormazd was forced to send near half his forces to counter these attacks and ensure he still had a home to return to after the war.
Barthus would capitalise on this and hoped to break the siege with a decisive move. The Golden Gate of Achaemeniyya along with the three other major gates opened and 30,000 warriors sallied forth bearing the Icon of the Virgin Mary and chanting the lord’s name as they sought to defeat the heretics. Hormazd’s forces were deceptive in their size as he had placed many forces further back to scour supplies and reduce the logistical pressure on the frontline. The initial 35,000 Bulgarian forces were initially caught by surprise and faced small losses but their years of battle and natural hardiness told and it became a stalemate. That soon shifted as Hormazd called in his outlying forces and reserves. In great calvary charge, they arrived and broke through the Europan eastern flank and the morale of Barthus’ men broke. A defeat turned into a slaughter as every Europan soldier scrambled to get back within the great Darian Walls. With less than half the original garrison left, the city could not ensure every tower was manned adequately. Hormazd would press his advantage and launch a full assault. Within the day, they had broken through the Gate of Melantias and from there, surged throughout the city and seized King Barthus. Achaemeniyya was once again in Achaemenid hands after 250 years of exile.
Restoring the Empire
With the seat of the empire secured and more than half of the lands of its old heartlands unified under an Achaemenid, the Khodan Patriarch declared the empire restored. In a grand ceremony within the City, Hormazd was crowned with the ancient regalia of the old Achaemenid Emperors – they had been kept locked away after their retrieval by Nikola I from Jerusalem nearly a century ago as the Kings of Bulgaria did not feel it proper to wear them until they completed the ancient mission Attalus the Exile had entrusted them with.
Styling himself Tsar, a Slavic corruption of Shahanshah, Hormazd would begin the long process of integration between the peoples of Bulgaria and Byzantium. One of his immediate measures was to restore Greek as the language of the court. Over time, this would bleed over to the regular citizens of the City and a hybridized form of Greek would become the lingua franca of the empire as the Greeks, Bulgarians and Byzantines mingled and traded in a slow integration process. The Bulgarians themselves felt aggrieved with the shift of power from Tarnovgrad to Achaemeniyya and the changes in court. The multicultural make-up of the empire proved a delicate balance to maintain and Hormazd would confer with the newly installed Khodan Patriarch Erastian for a solution. Erastian’s proposal was more war.
The Crusade for Asia
The idea of religious war dated all the way back to Darius III who had subjugated and forcibly converted the Dacians in the 6th century. The Papacy had built on that idea with a formal system of armed pilgrimages to reclaim back important holy sites to the Catholic faith, promising remittance for their sins in return for faithful conduct in holy war. The Khodan Patriarch would borrow these ideas and combine it with nationalistic zeal of the restored Achaemenid Empire to preach the restoration of Christian rule in Anatolia. Seeking to capture the Western coast as a base for future expansion, the Orthodox began to organise for war.
Nearly 100,000 men answered the call and they crossed the Bosphorus in 1022 AD. They found some immediate success in Lydia and Abydos but as the Muslims began to organise themselves after being caught by surprise in the initial assault, the tides turned and thousands of Christians fell in battle after battle. Even Hormazd seemed unable to stem the rout and he was forced to regroup and rebuild his forces in Achaemeniyya after a particularly chastening defeat. The irony of it all was that Al-Anatolia was still majority Byzantine in culture. The Arab invaders had never been able to implement control here and the old Byzantine houses of the Achaemenids eventually rose back to their old positions of power. With the Caliphate gone, they controlled their own lands once again but Islam had come to stay and many were fervent in their belief of the new religion. A land given more to culture and trade then warfare – a holdover from its long centuries of peace during the Pax Persica – Al-Anatolia would from this point onwards turn from the House of Peace to the House of War. The Crusade pitched descendants of the old empire against themselves, divided by religious lines that drove them to greater and greater heights of cruelty and barbarism to their enemies.
In 1023, it seemed all hope was lost but as the seemingly victorious Muslims were content to return to their homes in the Anatolian heartlands, Hormazd landed back in Abydos with new contingent of mercenaries and hurriedly trained imperial troops that launched a rapid assault of the key fortress of Asia. Within 6 months, all the border fortresses between Asia and the Cappadocian heartlands had fallen and Christians began fortifying their position to prevent Muslim egress. Shah Nikephoros of Asia was forced to flee his lands after a naval assault on his last holdout on Rhodes and the Cappadocian forces were content to surrender Asia in return for a lasting peace as long as Muslim rights were protected in the now Christian lands. Hormazd and Erastian were amenable to the terms and a Christian ruler now held the first of hopefully many more pieces of the old Empire.
Hormazd would become a living legend in his lifetime. He had restored the Achaemenid Empire, delivered one of the first notable victories against Muslim armies and fused a new cultural dynamic into the Balkans. He would pass on in 1027 AD peacefully, a quiet end for a man who had only hoped to live a quiet life before the mantle of duty was thrust onto him.
With the sons of Nikola II all meeting an early demise, a power struggle broke out within the House. The Bulgarian influence had rubbed off on the Achaemenid succession system and they refused to accept any of Nikola’s daughters as the new ruler. In the messy infighting, Hormazd the Unlikely received the most support. A shy and unprepossessing man in his middle age, Hormazd had served the kingdom loyally during Nikola’s time as regent and master of horse and acted as an able guardian for the young Boril. Grandson to Nikola I’s brother, he expected to be working towards a comfortable retirement when the crown was unexpectedly placed on his head.
As King, Hormazd was proactive in expanding Achaemenid interests. He would complete the conquests of Macedonia and Greece within the first few years of his reign to strengthen his claim and legitimacy. Bulgaria had already made inroads into the Rhodopes Mountains and deep into the Greek heartlands – within a decade all of Greece came formally under Bulgarian suzerainty. Unlike his predecessors, there was no wide scale of pillaging or confiscation of wealth here. Most of the local lords had a connection to the historic Achaemenid dynasty and Hormazd would honour their past land grants and titles as long as they recognised him as their overlord and paid their feudal dues and accepted the Khodan Patriarch as the supreme authority within Orthodoxy. With the worse of the plague over, many of Nikola the Spider’s stewarding initiatives began to bear fruit and the large Bulgarian army was well funded by an increased tax base and the tribute paid by the new feudatories in Macedon and Greece. This eased the pressure on the throne for rapacious conquests as Hormazd would focus on maximising tax income within the lands he controlled.
Now, there was just one last piece to be reclaimed – Achaemeniyya, the great capital on the Bosphorus. The House of Kashu still held it and a fragment of territory in Thrace. In 1017, Hormazd would attempt to take the city. All of Greece rallied to the banner, as a revived wave of patriotism took hold of the Byzantines to see their old nation restored. Many answered Hormazd's call for a holy purging of the corrupt holdouts of old-country Orthodoxy (as the followers of the Ecumenical Patriarch came to be called).
The Taking of Achaemeniyya
The siege of Achaemeniyya lasted for two years as Hormazd’s forces struggled to break through the Darian Walls built nearly 700 years ago by Darius who first brought the Byzantines into the light of Christianity. 80,000 men laid siege to the city against 30,000 defenders and Hormazd bought off the Muslims of Anatolia to enforce a naval blockade in the Bosphorus for the city. Despite this, Hormazd could not find a weakness in those impregnable walls.
Fortune would arise out of misfortune for the Achaemenid King. Barthus Korus, the King of Europa had called his sister, Delbar, the ex-hostage-wife of Nikola to his aid. In the intervening years, she had managed to claim the throne of Dalmatia through her own schemes and was the defender of the restored Roman Empire’s lands in Illyria. There was no love lost between her and the Achaemenids and she took great pleasure in ravaging Bulgaria’s undefended Western border. Hormazd was forced to send near half his forces to counter these attacks and ensure he still had a home to return to after the war.
Barthus would capitalise on this and hoped to break the siege with a decisive move. The Golden Gate of Achaemeniyya along with the three other major gates opened and 30,000 warriors sallied forth bearing the Icon of the Virgin Mary and chanting the lord’s name as they sought to defeat the heretics. Hormazd’s forces were deceptive in their size as he had placed many forces further back to scour supplies and reduce the logistical pressure on the frontline. The initial 35,000 Bulgarian forces were initially caught by surprise and faced small losses but their years of battle and natural hardiness told and it became a stalemate. That soon shifted as Hormazd called in his outlying forces and reserves. In great calvary charge, they arrived and broke through the Europan eastern flank and the morale of Barthus’ men broke. A defeat turned into a slaughter as every Europan soldier scrambled to get back within the great Darian Walls. With less than half the original garrison left, the city could not ensure every tower was manned adequately. Hormazd would press his advantage and launch a full assault. Within the day, they had broken through the Gate of Melantias and from there, surged throughout the city and seized King Barthus. Achaemeniyya was once again in Achaemenid hands after 250 years of exile.
Restoring the Empire
With the seat of the empire secured and more than half of the lands of its old heartlands unified under an Achaemenid, the Khodan Patriarch declared the empire restored. In a grand ceremony within the City, Hormazd was crowned with the ancient regalia of the old Achaemenid Emperors – they had been kept locked away after their retrieval by Nikola I from Jerusalem nearly a century ago as the Kings of Bulgaria did not feel it proper to wear them until they completed the ancient mission Attalus the Exile had entrusted them with.
Styling himself Tsar, a Slavic corruption of Shahanshah, Hormazd would begin the long process of integration between the peoples of Bulgaria and Byzantium. One of his immediate measures was to restore Greek as the language of the court. Over time, this would bleed over to the regular citizens of the City and a hybridized form of Greek would become the lingua franca of the empire as the Greeks, Bulgarians and Byzantines mingled and traded in a slow integration process. The Bulgarians themselves felt aggrieved with the shift of power from Tarnovgrad to Achaemeniyya and the changes in court. The multicultural make-up of the empire proved a delicate balance to maintain and Hormazd would confer with the newly installed Khodan Patriarch Erastian for a solution. Erastian’s proposal was more war.
The Crusade for Asia
The idea of religious war dated all the way back to Darius III who had subjugated and forcibly converted the Dacians in the 6th century. The Papacy had built on that idea with a formal system of armed pilgrimages to reclaim back important holy sites to the Catholic faith, promising remittance for their sins in return for faithful conduct in holy war. The Khodan Patriarch would borrow these ideas and combine it with nationalistic zeal of the restored Achaemenid Empire to preach the restoration of Christian rule in Anatolia. Seeking to capture the Western coast as a base for future expansion, the Orthodox began to organise for war.
Nearly 100,000 men answered the call and they crossed the Bosphorus in 1022 AD. They found some immediate success in Lydia and Abydos but as the Muslims began to organise themselves after being caught by surprise in the initial assault, the tides turned and thousands of Christians fell in battle after battle. Even Hormazd seemed unable to stem the rout and he was forced to regroup and rebuild his forces in Achaemeniyya after a particularly chastening defeat. The irony of it all was that Al-Anatolia was still majority Byzantine in culture. The Arab invaders had never been able to implement control here and the old Byzantine houses of the Achaemenids eventually rose back to their old positions of power. With the Caliphate gone, they controlled their own lands once again but Islam had come to stay and many were fervent in their belief of the new religion. A land given more to culture and trade then warfare – a holdover from its long centuries of peace during the Pax Persica – Al-Anatolia would from this point onwards turn from the House of Peace to the House of War. The Crusade pitched descendants of the old empire against themselves, divided by religious lines that drove them to greater and greater heights of cruelty and barbarism to their enemies.
In 1023, it seemed all hope was lost but as the seemingly victorious Muslims were content to return to their homes in the Anatolian heartlands, Hormazd landed back in Abydos with new contingent of mercenaries and hurriedly trained imperial troops that launched a rapid assault of the key fortress of Asia. Within 6 months, all the border fortresses between Asia and the Cappadocian heartlands had fallen and Christians began fortifying their position to prevent Muslim egress. Shah Nikephoros of Asia was forced to flee his lands after a naval assault on his last holdout on Rhodes and the Cappadocian forces were content to surrender Asia in return for a lasting peace as long as Muslim rights were protected in the now Christian lands. Hormazd and Erastian were amenable to the terms and a Christian ruler now held the first of hopefully many more pieces of the old Empire.
Hormazd would become a living legend in his lifetime. He had restored the Achaemenid Empire, delivered one of the first notable victories against Muslim armies and fused a new cultural dynamic into the Balkans. He would pass on in 1027 AD peacefully, a quiet end for a man who had only hoped to live a quiet life before the mantle of duty was thrust onto him.
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Wow. They're like cockroaches. Or termites I suppose, since they keep rebuilding huge empires.
So the goal is at least for now restoring Asia Minor and the levant...then what?
So the goal is at least for now restoring Asia Minor and the levant...then what?
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An impressive reign! But a crusade usually results in a new kingdom in CK3, how did he manage to make it part of Achamiyya (if he did)?
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I particularly enjoyed playing him. A drunk, disfigured adulterer but reassembling an empire and winning a crusade excuses a multitude of sins and what do they say about history books and victors?
As a side note, I was toying with House Seniority here as a change of pace and that's why Hormazd got the throne and not Boril's sister. I repealed it when I realized it didnt make for a consistent story when random old Achaemenid gets the throne repeatedly. So back to High Partition it is.
SIsyphus analogy might be apt? You're right about the goal and the dream of assembling the Achaemenid Empire of Darius and Arbaces but lets see if they get there.
Yes, the crusade created a new independent kingdom. I need to check the save but I think Hormazd left it independent and he only loved for a 2-3 years after the end of the crusade. It was eventually integrated into the empire by a later ruler as the Anatatolian wars pick up in intensity to provide a more coordinated defence. (Gameplay mechanic was to use Dynasty Head power to claim the Title).
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