The Creating of Order

[vaniver]

The world of Cowl is much like ours; verdant fields, cerulean oceans, brilliant sunlight. The first difference one would notice if transported from Earth is the moon, a tumultuous red-orange circle that looms massive in the sky, for Cowl is the moon of a gas giant instead of a planet in its own right. But at this stage of their history, that sort of distinction would be lost upon the learned scholars of Cowl.

While smaller than Earth, its inhabitants are just as quarrelsome, and their history is suspiciously similar to ours; up to a point. Rome, at the center of the Mediterranean, conquered the known world, ushered in an era of peace and prosperity, and then collapsed, due to an unfortunate combination of institutional decay, poor harvests, and widespread plague. During the dark ages, few polities survived, and it was the rare warlord who extended their authority beyond how far a man could ride in a day. The Pope went from being supreme spiritual authority to little more than the bishop of Rome.

But in 1000 AD, things began to change. A series of young warlords, ambitions and diligent, rose in the old capitals of the minor provinces of Christendom. It would not be apparent to the people of the time that the Dark Ages were coming to an end, but in retrospect, the Creating of Order began then.

---

This is the newest installment of the Great Game; you might have read previous AARs from this group in To Pierce The Heavens, or To Build in Chaos, or The Widow's Party, or We Must Feed Our Sea, or God of Our Fathers, or many others not linked here (we've been at this for a while!). Like To Build In Chaos, we're using a procedurally created map, and here's the code used to make the map. It's currently not turnkey--I ended up doing a bunch of work by hand as well, and we have pretty extensive customization beyond what the generator does, but it will be in a state where people besides me can successfully use it soon (I hope). We'll be converting to EU4, and then V3, and then finally finishing in HOI4.

The initial culture map of Christendom​

This world is designed for multiplayer first; everyone is starting in basically equal kingdoms, with basically equal interstitial provinces to fight over. We've customized starting cultures and faiths--I was expecting lots of people to pick Catholic, and instead there's a huge mixture of heresies.

The northern continent, Francia, takes inspiration from historical France, stretching south into Spain as well, rotated from our world's history. Paris is now a Mediterranean port and balmy Provence is the most equatorial of the starting kingdoms. South of it is Germania, taking inspiration from central Europe, with wintry Hungary stretching deep into the polar regions. The eastern continent, Britannia, is basically all of historical Britain, remixed into one triangular blob. The central Italian island is little more than the surroundings of Rome. [This is roughly equivalent to limiting a vanilla game to three empires; there are 290 counties in this world.] Crete and Cyprus--Mediterranean islands in our world--are instead coastal islands, and Iceland, once again living up to its name as a wintry place, is close instead of distant.

 

[vaniver]

In the year 1000, little sets the house of Gray apart from the previous warlords of London. Petty King Alfraed dies and his son Matthew takes the throne, ambitious, diligent, and patient, he represents a new level of focus, looking beyond the plains of Essex into the hills and mountains of northern and western England. Once, before the dark ages, it was an imperial province; now it could be a kingdom yet again.

Starting character in 1000​

We left the starting faiths with their vanilla stats, drafting them from the full set of Christian options, but customized the cultures. Here's English at the end of the first session:

Monks, knights, and philosophy.​

The fifty years of the first session are tumultuous, but ultimately kind to Matthew. His first sons, twins, are unimpressive, but his third son Baldrick is a genius; Robert takes the vows while Paul insists on maintaining his claims, and so is disinherited, sent off to become a Bogomolist and father children for the Lazuli dynasty. Baldrick dies in battle in 1043, with an unimpressive son now set to inherit England and a genius daughter, who will be passed over unless her brother Martin inherits.

Matthew laboriously fabricates claims on all of Hwicce, the center duchy that borders Scotland and Lancaster as well (Old Saxon, on the culture map), only to lose the war, the claims, and hundreds of gold atop what he spent on bribes. He later wins a holy war for it--only to lose it again in a holy war, to the original holder with the Knights Templar on his side this time.

But he manages to form England by conquest in 1020, and then convinces the duke of Wessex, the western edge of England, to become his vassal. Marrying a lowborn, eschewing feasts, only going on one hunt, and losing a series of battles, none think of Matthew as anything besides the warlord of the moment who holds his position by force of arms rather than any sort of legitimate rule. The Grays are not even considered Noteworthy yet--in 1050, the only dynasty to achieve that honor are the Piemonts of Aquitaine--but Matthew's contributions beyond politics will likely be remembered by posterity, as he has reformed the Coptic faith to the Anglican one, which swaps the pluralistic communal identity and inward-focused clergy with a more totalizing, externally focused faith. Anglicans know why they are righteous, and are willing to take up swords to defend and enforce their views. Andrew of Northall has written the first major medical text since times of antiquity, tho it remains to be seen what impact Charting the Human Body will have on the slow growth of English science.

I foolishly forgot to set clerical appointments to revocable, and was saddled with a 6 learning court chaplain who just recently bumped up to 8. At least I can holy war now.

Matthew at the end of the session. Don't worry about the imprisoned wife--she'll get freed when the 96% war finishes.​

Out of the initial 11 player characters, 7 are still alive, but all of them are pushing 70, and so likely will only have a bit of the next session. Having finished out the learning focus tree, I expect Matthew to last the longest, but long enough to complete any other meaningful accomplishments? Hard to say.

 

[King of Men]

The megacampaign called “Cultivation of Waste Lands”, or COWL for short, has now begun, and I report from its first session; the CK portion is named “The Creation of Order”, which I’m told is a reference to something.

This will be heavy on screenshots, light on narrative, as the dynasty Fox has not yet caught my imagination as Ynglings, MacRaghnalls, Aiello, and van Rijn did in their time; in any case I intend this as a relaxed, lighthearted runthrough to put the procgen engine through its paces. No libertarian-eugenics dystopias with crosstime travel, no vast dramatic betrayals, no plots spanning centuries! Just making number go up and the occasional casual assassination of crucial characters!

Consider then the island of Britannia:




I am playing the duchy - not kingdom! - of Lancaster, outlined in blue near the northeast tip of the continent; the coat of arms or, an annulet sable shows the location of my capital. My immediate goal is to unite the Lancastrians under my rule; after all the game is not called “Crusader Dukes”, and anyway “loyal vassals” is a perfectly good enumerable quantity and thus I want to make it Go Up. Additionally, being the first player to become king is one of our house-rule achievements which will give customisation points for EU4:

• Writing an AAR is worth 10 points for each AAR.
• Completing a lifestyle–getting all three end traits–is worth 10 per different lifestyle you do it with.
• Having the highest value of one of the seven traits (martial, diplomacy, stewardship, intrigue, learning, advantage, and prowess) is worth as many points as the trait. (Take a screenshot!)
• The first to make a kingdom title is worth 10 points, and the first to make an empire title is worth 20 points.
• The first to reach grandeur level 10 for a court is worth 20 points.
• The first culture with the maximum number of traits is worth 20 points.
• The first to have a fully equipped character for each artifact tier is worth 10 points; same for courts.

My starting character, Erik, has the highest Intrigue education, that being the one that was available when I got around to drafting education in our pregame setup, so I will naturally aim to max out the Intrigue tree in his lifetime, starting with the Seducer subtree (although the procgen has given me the first skill in the Schemer subtree) to ensure the dynasty doesn’t die out early for lack of reserves children.



As a hedge against the lack-of-reserves issue, the procgen starts us all with two siblings, so after some quick marriage alliances:



I’m ready to start the unification wars:



Of course this is only a small sampler of many savage little skirmishes, which I won’t show in any sort of detail. Generally, subduing a single-province count is one year’s campaign, mostly due to the lengthy siege of their capital, so I got into a rhythm: While my marshal was leading the Lancastrian army in the siege of some godforsaken county seat, my bishop was out hunting for the splendidly-provenanced legal documents that would form the casus belli for the next year’s campaign. I’d bring my army home for victory feasts in the winter, spend the holidays carefully building up my legal case, and send out the Lawyers, as the vanguard of my army came to be called, as soon as the frost broke. In this manner it was not long before the kingdom was indeed united:



But, alas, I was not the first; observe Cyprus to the west. Mark, by dint of plain forgery and barefaced mockery of the forms of law, managed to be the first to create a kingdom - a shambling caricature of the sacred bonds that bind a true king to his people, but nonetheless, it must be admitted, first in point of time. Note also that this artificial construct is spread across two continents; our player Dragoon, in Scotland, was much afflicted by an early outbreak of smallpox and was forced to the expedient of swearing fealty to a foreigner to have his dynasty survive.

Note also the moderately-powerful duchy of Hwicce in the middle of Britannia; this wily and wicked polity proved surprisingly resistant to subjugation by either myself or Essex. Essex, played by Vaniver, attempted a straightforward conquest by force of arms, which failed partly because of a slight miscommunication with me leading to the war being declared while my armies were busy mopping up some recalcitrant counts. As for me, I managed to kidnap the cunning Odo:



…just as my peasants rose up in rebellion - something to do with the taxes, possibly? I must admit I had some difficulty paying attention through the red haze of wrath once I realised they were actually defying their rightful king - and distracted me for two crucial weeks, allowing Odo to arrange his escape before I could sit down with him and have a heart-to-heart chat about leadership, responsibility, and the importance of not defying God’s will.

Sadly, my heir Sælræd succumbed to one of the many plagues that swept the land during this time, leaving his brother Sigeræd to inherit. Now Sigeræd is a splendid child, truthfully something of an improvement upon his brother in terms of kingship; but he is also impatiently aware of his own splendour, and his father’s infirmity. The little swine, upon becoming heir, wasted not a day in forming a faction to put himself on the throne. Oh how sharper than a serpent’s tooth, is a destined child! However, being old and tired, I did not actually object, and made no resistance when the faction raised their banner in rebellion. After all, in a battle against my son, how could I be the victor? But, adding insult to injury, the faction victory seized only the royal title and none of the lands, leaving me as a powerful (and infirm) duke serving my son, the king, with a single county. When the little swine insisted on bestowing royal favour (!) upon me, it was too much, and I decided to depart this vale of humiliations forthwith. King Erik is dead; long live King Sigeræd!

 

[Hellioning]

The history of the Duchy and later Kingdom of Aquitaine is largely lost and fragmented due to me forgetting that we were going to do AARs and forgetting to take screenshots or remember much of what was going on the inadequate record keeping of the Occitan people of the time. What might be ascertained from the end save the remaining records is thus:



As of 1050, King Theutbald the Proud ruled over all of Aquitaine and was pushing into the middle areas of France. He was not quite as pious a Cathar as his court chaplain would have liked, prone to warring and far too lustful, but he had managed to be seen as a Devoted Servant of God anyway. Though much of Aquitaine itself willingly bent the knee, in order to obtain enough land to make himself a reasonable claimant to the throne he forcibly vassalized many Visigothic and Asturleonese neighbors. In his conquests, he was frequently thwarted by the Knights Templar, who joined the defense of any Catholic being invaded by 'heretics' such as the Cathars. Theutbald is currently saving the gold necessary in order to form a Cathar counter organization, as well as worrying about his succession. Both his eldest son, Josselin, and HIS eldest son, Ferrand, were slain in battle against the Heretics, leaving the heir to the throne to be his 6 year old great-granddaughter, Filipa. As a 69 year old man and already infirm, it seems likely that a regent will rule Aquitaine for quite a while...

 

[King of Men]

the inadequate record keeping of the Occitan people of the time

Well really now, this is a missed opportunity right here! Just enter into the fine tradition from such eminent historians as Thucydides, Polybius, and Churchill, and make something up!

 

[Mark0628]

(I'm Trying a character driven approach to this one let's see how it goes.)


In the heart of Paris, amidst the grandeur of the city, there stood a man whose name echoed through the halls of history—King Borel of House Martel. A man of noble stature, with the grace of the French aristocracy woven into his very being. His presence commanded attention, and his reign was marked by prosperity and prestige. Yet, even the mightiest are not immune to the cruel whims of fate. During a tumultuous time, when the streets of Paris were plagued by the relentless grip of a measles epidemic (By the way, fuck the center of the map and our constant plagues), King Borel faced a trial that would shatter his world. Within the walls of his palace, he watched helplessly as the disease claimed the lives of his three beloved children, Borel II, Issabelle, and Amelie. Each loss carved a deep wound in King Borel's soul, leaving him adrift in a sea of grief. The once-vibrant halls of his home now echo with the haunting silence of loss. But even in the darkest of nights, a flicker of hope can emerge. Amidst the shadows of sorrow, a beacon of light appeared in the form of a woman—radiant, with an ethereal beauty that seemed to transcend the bounds of mortal existence. Her name was Libuse of Behemia, whom he met on a trip to the holy site of Rome, and she was a vision of grace and compassion. With a gentle touch and soothing words, she became King Borel's solace in his hour of need. As time passed, their bond blossomed into a love that defied the tragedies of the past. In Isabelle's embrace, King Borel found the strength to face the dawn anew and rebuild what had been lost. And then, a miracle, she was with a child, a glorious day for the people of Paris. In the hushed whispers of the palace, hope bloomed once more. (The opportunity to continue playing the game.) The prospect of an heir, a symbol of rebirth and renewal, cast a radiant glow upon the kingdom. Months turned into anticipation, and on a crisp autumn morning, the palace walls echoed with the cries of a newborn princess. She was a vision of innocence, with eyes that sparkled like sapphires beneath the Parisian sky. Yet fate, it seemed, had a cruel sense of irony. As the joyous celebrations echoed through the city, tragedy struck once more. The queen, who had breathed life back into King Borel's world, died in childbirth. In the blink of an eye, she was gone, leaving behind a grieving husband and a newborn princess, destined to inherit a kingdom tainted by loss and consistent Bavarian invasions. (We fought the Bavarians three times this session and lost all three wars, so off to a great start.)

(Kingdom of France and Crete at session end)

 

[Hellioning]

King Theutbald the Proud was, indeed, proud of his accomplishments. He had conquered much of Middle Francia and had subjugated Holland. It was a quite long and successful reign, but all such reigns must end in time. In 1053, during the midst of yet another of his land grabs, Theutbald died of old age. His Heir, his great-granddaughter Filipa, was but 10 years old at the time.

Filipa was a marked contrast to her great-grandfather. Where he was loud and ambitious, she was calm and quiet. And, of course, where he was an old man, she was a young girl. Much too young, many of her vassals argued, to take control of the realm; her regent, Queen-Mother Pilihilde, was unable to prevent a rebellion from breaking out almost immediately.

The civil war lasted for many years, with neither side managing to achieve a decision advantage. In the end, gold was the deciding factor; the Queen-Mother was able to purchase the services of many mercenaries to defeat the rebels. The rebels were imprisoned for their defiance, but to everyone's surprise, Queen Filipa begged her mother to spare them. She had grown into a compassionate and forgiving young woman in her youth, and she did not want to see more blood spilled. Her mother was swayed by her plea, and therefore merely fined the rebelling vassals instead of executing them all.

The first few years of Filipa's actual reign were uneventful, for Filipa was a very different person from her predecessor. To be blunt, she was mediocre in all things but scholarship, and she dedicated her time accordingly. Though she feasted with her vassals as was expected of her, most of her spare time was spent in one tome or another. This lack of warring endeared her greatly to her clergy, who praised her virtues.

Her devotion to her faith led her to, in 1060, to spend large sums of gold and an entire city to set up the Cathar's own 'Knight's Templar', The Guardians of the Shroud. Though she claimed it was merely a precaution, citing the advancing French king, many within her realm worried that her great-grandfather's influence might still affect her.

These worries were proved well-founded when she began launching her own versions of pacification campaigns. Though she claimed to be saving the heretics' souls, many within the clergy were disappointed in her. Still, she was definitely less of a warmonger than her great-grandfather; much of her reign was spent on improving the realm, spending thousands on infrastructure improvements, and on technological developments, using her scholarly reputation to attract the finest minds in the world.

One of the many things she did was hire an Antiquarian and hire artisans to create a royal crown and regalia; though neither were particularly impressive, it was certainly a large step forward.

Her personal life was, in contrast to her lecherous father, quite boring. She married Konrad of the Scots as a teenager and had 6 children with him, two of which died as infants. She embraced celibacy after the birth of her 6th child, and when Konrad died in battle during one of her 'war to save their souls', she didn't remarry.

Instead, she replaced him with a dog, who she claimed was better company.

In February of 1092, she left from her capital to visit her greatly expanded realm on a Grand Tour. Quite fortunately for her, as the dreaded Bavarian pox was spreading towards her capital while she was half the continent away...

 

[Midnite Duke]

Writers, thank you for your wonderful work. How difficult is it to play mp CK3?

 

[vaniver]

Writers, thank you for your wonderful work. How difficult is it to play mp CK3?

There's an initial difficult transition to playing any Paradox game multiplayer; in single-player it's somewhat common to pause and think thru things and then go speed 5 (or w/e) while waiting for the next event to happen or so on. In contrast, we're not pausing, and so you can only put so much attention on various things, and it is actually difficult to both manage your armies and go on a hunt. That said, we're going at speed 2 much of the time, and have a slot open. (We play at 9am pacific time on Sundays, which is 6pm central European time); PM if you're interested for a Discord invite. We're also not a very cutthroat group; if someone murders someone else's son, it's probably because the target requested "please get this inbred halfwit out of my succession line" instead of hostile interference.

I don't have a good sense of how difficult it is to go from "played other PDox MP but not CK3" to CK3 MP.

 

[vaniver]

Player mapmode in 1093​

Only a handful of counties remain under AI control; each of the ten players holds a kingdom. (The northernmost continent has room for a fourth player, who ended up not joining us.)

King Matthew's dreams of empire come to naught; within a few years of the session's beginning, his age catches up with him, and infirm, he contemplates the end of his life. The Anglican clergy get together and decide that their founder's bloodline will be consecrated, and he begins the construction of a great burial site in London to house his remains (and that of his dynasty thereafter).

In 1057, he dies, succeeded by his grandson Martin; Martin dies under mysterious circumstances in 1059, and his sister Isabella inherits. (Brilliant Strategist he might have been, but Isabella was a fortune-touched genius, and so I was happy to have him out of the way.) While Matthew had been working towards mutual understanding with the Greek islanders, his son Aelfred, upon inheriting the duchy of Krete, revokes the counties from local Greek rule and halts progress on integration for forty years.

At this point, England is a very top-heavy structure; even now, it has nearly as many dukes as it does counts. While under the pressure of external wars, the other vassals decided to press the claim of Joanna, one of Matthew's daughters; unable to stand against the unified dukes, Isabella set aside the crown of England, while maintaining the crown lands outside of London. Six years later, in 1066, she presses her claim on England and Joanna, ruling little more than a single county, cannot stand against her.

Isabella's rule is mostly unremarkable, characterized by steady accumulation; a university education upgrades her to Midas Touched, she becomes a gardener and architect, and her rule is slowly seen as legitimate as she travels to feasts and funerals abroad. (In part because of the war and the faction, Matthew doesn't receive the grand funeral he deserved.) With four daughters and a son, the succession looked unusually secure, but not 5 years ago Prince Ralph died of his wounds during an outbreak of measles. (Another is sweeping the land in 1093; the grandson of the Bavarian king--robust, intelligent, and handsome, the best the royal breeding projects have so far produced--is currently sick with it, and we will see whether or not God favors him.)

Wales, once mostly English, is now firmly held by the Scots, but Hwicce falls to England a second time in 1090. English rule only lasted 5 years last time; we will see whether or not it is durable this time.

Development mapmode in 1093. Some of the player capitals stand out in yellow--you can tell who's using their stewards for taxes and who isn't.​

 

[Midnite Duke]

Thank you for the update.

 

[King of Men]

King Sigeræd (“Victory-oath”) is a skilled and deadly knight; King Sigeræd is a great leader of men; but above all, King Sigeræd is a cunning schemer. So strong indeed is his guile that no great victories resound to his name, no battlefield monuments proclaim his glory; for Sigeræd belongs to that school of thought which holds that the most skilled physicians treat the disease long before the symptoms are visible to laymen, and thus gain no praise for their deeds.


Sigeræd at the height of his powers.

The first problem Sigeræd chooses to address is that of having a belligerent and warlike neighbor who, worse still, is immensely skilled in war: King Martin of England. True, the English have been friends to the Lancastrians; true, the two hosts have fought several times shield-locked, and never faced each other across a stricken field - but countries have no friends, only interests; and King Sigeræd looks far ahead, and sees the stormclouds while they are still only a blot on the horizon. A young and headstrong king with a penchant for martial glory, that is a threat to all his neighbours… and, of course, to those within in his own kingdom who prefer a peaceful life. Sigeræd has only to make a few numbers written in English ledgers go up, and before the year is out, the number of his enemies has decreased by one. Martin’s sister, Isabella, is if anything even more brilliant than her brother, but her genius is for peace and productive assets, not for war; to have such a neighbour is to profit, for trade makes every number go up. And besides, cui bono? Even if Isabella suspects that her brother’s death was arranged, you may be sure she will never do anything to become certain of the culprit.


Who’s afraid of the Brilliant Strategist?

And so it goes through all the incidents of Sigeræd’s life. The rising of his vassals against his new and stricter laws, foreseen years in advance, never comes to any battlefield - for Sigeræd knew who its future leaders would be before they knew themselves, and took steps accordingly. King Odo of Hwicce did not press his spurious claim to Mercia, for Sigeræd read the forged documents before he did, and made sure Odo would not reach the mustering place.

Under Sigeræd’s rule, Lancaster prospered and grew; but such skill is not without its price. For in the end, the ancient schemer Eld, who threw Thor to his knees when they wrestled, gets the better of us all, and sons take over their fathers’ thrones - and woe betide the son whose father made kingship look easy.


King Erik at the height of his powers… such as they are.

Sigeræd had destroyed his vassals’ rising before the first banner of rebellion was raised; Erik faced them on the field of battle - and was defeated, and forced to sign charters affirming the ancient powers of dukes and earls as against the king. Sigeræd twice put King Odo in his dungeons, and laughed to scorn Hwicce’s attempts at revenge; Erik, overconfident from his father’s example and his battle-luck against Hwiccan raiding, pressed his own claim to Hwicce’s throne - and failed to interest his Scots allies, whose armies he had relied upon, in the project, and was both defeated by the Hwiccans and preempted by the English. Erik, in the end, was just not the man his father had been, and the knowledge oppressed him all his life; and the number he most made go up, was that of people who had heard of his father’s fame.

Such is the fate of the son of a Child of Destiny.

 

[Midnite Duke]

King Sig's intrigue is in the 99 percentile, but otherwise very good as opposed to exceptional. King Erik is good to very good. King Martin's martial is actually below his sister and Erik, but what a beard for twenty. Thanks for updating

 

[King of Men]

I'm a firm believer in the separation of church from state, intent from outcome, and gameplay from narrative.

 

[Mark0628]

In the heart of the French kingdom, nestled in the grand city of Paris, lived Prince Guy and Princess Denice. Born of different mothers, they shared a bond of blood under King Andrea's reign. Guy, a zealous and ambitious figure, had grown weary of his father's disregard for his desired forced conversion of the Catholics. Denice, much less cunning and much less ambitious, saw in Guy the man who should be king of France. Though their relationship began in an arranged sibling marriage, it had morphed into something much more, a love that fueled their shared desire for the prince to come to power sooner rather than later. Together, they conceived a plan to usurp the throne.

Their plot was meticulous and shrouded in secrecy. By day, they played their roles perfectly: Guy as the obedient son and Denice as the dutiful daughter. By night, they conspired in whispers within their bed chambers in the in the royal palace. Denice, learning the art of poison from her time spent in the gardens, crafted a deadly elixir that would ensure their father's demise without arousing suspicion. Guy, with his strategic mind, coordinated the plan, ensuring that loyalists to their cause were in key positions within the castle. They chose the upcoming royal banquet as the stage for their coup, knowing that the "King's" guard would be distracted by the festivities.

On the night of the banquet, the grand hall was filled with the aroma of roasted meats and the sound of jovial laughter. King Andrea, in high spirits, toasted to the prosperity of his kingdom, oblivious to the treachery brewing within his own family. Denice, with a demure smile, approached the King, offering him a goblet of his favorite wine, laced with deadly poison. As the King took his first sip, Guy signaled to their loyalists, who swiftly moved to neutralize any potential threats. Within moments, King Andrea's face contorted in pain as the poison took hold. The hall fell silent, all eyes on the King as he collapsed, lifeless, onto the floor. Guy and Denice, now rulers in their own right, stood hand in hand, their dark victory complete. It was an open secret there, but all the people who opposed them were either killed or not in a position to do anything about it.

Long live the king.

Current state of The French kingdom at the end of last session with the recent conquest of the holy city of Roma. Notably Scotland is no longer part of France.

 

[Midnite Duke]

King Guy looks like a wonder-king with five double digit stats. Hopefully he will not put too much trust in the wrong person. Thanks for the update.

 

[vaniver]

Forgot to take a player mapmode screenshot again; have the realms in 1126 instead. France has formed an empire title, tho Francia is only slightly smaller as a result, and Germania is unaffected; only Cyprus, France, and Andalusia became France de jure. Krete has de jure drifted into England, and so I lost my chance to make that kingdom title; ah well.

Another is sweeping the land in 1093; the grandson of the Bavarian king--robust, intelligent, and handsome, the best the royal breeding projects have so far produced--is currently sick with it, and we will see whether or not God favors him.

Kuno von Brabant dies in August; his younger sister Eugenia is born a year later, and is comparably bred; a pretty hale genius. She is auctioned off by her grandfather, and Isabella purchases her for her grandson Robert.

This session is split into two rulers; Isabella 'the Forgetful' and Beatrice 'Moneybags'. Last session, Isabella inherited, had to give in to a faction, and then reconquered the queenship in 1066. With four daughters and a son, all geniuses, the future of the Gray family looked bright, with the inheritance concentrated and the possibility of creating alternative lines, tragically tangled by Ralph's early death. The Duke's War, begun at the end of the previous session, concludes in 1094, with several of the duchies revoked and consolidated under the crown; the Isolde duchy of east Anglia, the center of England, holds on for a bit but is revoked in 1098.

Queen Isabella Gray on the left, Duchess Blanche Isolde on the right. The first major battle of the revocation war. Both had daughters named Beatrice who would go on to be queens, of England and Lazuli (Hungary) respectively.​

Isabella is now the undisputed ruler of England, holding all six duchies (the four beginning duchies, the island of Krete, and Hwicce, the central duchy of Britain), ten counties, and a barony for good measure. While her daughter would be called 'moneybags', it was perhaps more fitting for Isabella, wealthy beyond the imagination of previous generations, and she begins widespread building projects throughout England.

In 1097, she finishes the project begun by Matthew and interrupted for decades, of merging English culture with the culture of the Greek islanders, resulting in Grenglish. Greek's contributions are on the left, and English's on the right; Warrior Priests pairs nicely with Monastic Communities and Anglicanism's Unrelenting Devotion and Recruitment clerical focus, the Byzantine heritage of Greek allows it to be hybridized with either Scots or Anglo-Saxon, and Xenophilic will help make those hybridizations happen.

Isabella's later years are marked by decline; she hosts a grand tournament in London and strives in vain to simplify her succession. She dies in 1110, and the six duchies are split between the three sisters; Beatrice the eldest, and the twins Constance and Edith. As both were betrothed while Ralph was still alive in order to secure alliances, their children are Albans and Steinfurts; itself a tolerable situation (after all, were the Isoldes not loyal vassals until they weren't?), but the greedy and ambitious Beatrice, growing up in the shadow of the Duke's Wars, is not willing to tolerate dukes in England, and after the first revolt by her sisters in 1115 revokes Krete, Kent, and Hwicce, and in 1124 revokes Wessex.

Like her mother Isabella, Beatrice favors daughters and passes on the genius trait to all of her children; Margaret is tragically murdered while pregnant, Isabella becomes queen of Lancaster and gives her husband seven children (mostly intelligent, with some merely quick, three continuing their father's tradition of wheezing), Phillipa matrilineally marries an Alban made count in northern Hwicce, and Robert marries the legendary Eugenia; in keeping with English tradition, Beatrice foolishly lets him be a knight, and in a repeat of his uncle's situation, he is wounded in battle and dies of his wounds shortly thereafter at age 19. Unlike his uncle, he at least manages to have a son first; Eugenia's first child Henry is a mere genius, not inheriting either of his mother's other traits, and stands to inherit the whole crown.

 

[Midnite Duke]

Is Henry of the correct dynasty? Can a king/queen hold more than two duchies without penalty in CK3? Thanks for the update.

 

[vaniver]

Is Henry of the correct dynasty? Can a king/queen hold more than two duchies without penalty in CK3? Thanks for the update.

Yep. You get an opinion penalty with your vassals for every duchy title you hold beyond the second, but so far it's been manageable. (The player king typically has a solid retinue and other king allies, and the vassals don't.)

 

[King of Men]

The Scottish Play

The neighboring Scottish kingdom has discovered the very advanced technology of elections, and has decided to manage their successions by choosing the best qualified to be king instead of, as is traditional, assassinating or otherwise disposing of the less-qualified ones. Unfortunately for the Alban dynasty, many of their vassals are highly cultured, intelligent people who are able to identify the actually best candidate, who is (obviously) not surnamed Alban, but rather Fox:


In fact, King Salvador is the only one voting for his worthless son Sweeny. Still, the King’s choice carries weight and breaks ties, and the opposition is split: Duke Matad has the powerful support of his sister Kenna, while King Erik is favoured by the marcher lords who defend the border against his armies, and would prefer not to risk life and limb doing so. With three electoral votes for each of Sweeny, Matad, and King Erik, the ranking goes to tiebreakers: The King’s son first, then the elector before the foreigner. The obvious play, then, is to unite the anti-Alban factions behind King Erik; he swiftly rides to court Duchess Kenna.


Literally court, that is. As they say, the personal is political, especially in an elective monarchy! Kenna is no flighty flip-skirt maiden, however; stolid matrons of 54, who have survived decades of the snakepit that is the Scots court, do not give the time of day, much less their electoral votes, to any smooth-talking charmer with a large codpiece and a cunning plan. Erik finds that if he wants to be King, he will have to treat it as Serious Business, and win Kenna’s actual heart, not any other part of her body. And why not? True, she is a stolid matron, but she’s also a seasoned survivor of wars and intrigues; there is more to her than meets the eye - and really, there is quite a lot even to the eye. Erik soon finds that it is not entirely clear who is romancing whom - but what of that? If the political has become personal, why, so much the better; if his Scottish play gains him a soulmate as well as a throne, why would he quibble? And indeed, his schemes are crowned with success; Kenna gives him her heart, and her vote therewith.

…which, alas, brings the scheme to the attention of the Scots King, and more to the point, that of Dragoon the human player. Who deals with the election going against him in the time-honoured manner: He dissolves the electorate and calls a new one, revoking every elector’s title and handing them out to his fawning favourites, and crushing the resulting rebellion in the bloody field of Athenry. Shortly thereafter the worthless Sweeny is Elector Duke of somewhere-or-other and voting for himself, and anyone who believes there might be a qualification to become King of Scots other than “being of the dynasty Alban” knows to keep that opinion to themselves when the votes are cast; the Scots have not invented the secret ballot.

Shortly thereafter, Kenna is dead of the unwholesome air in a Scots dungeon, and Erik is heartbroken - alas, when you gain two good things from a scheme, you also lose both when it fails. Attempting to distract himself from his grief, he plans a Grand Tour of his sadly singular kingdom, in which he’ll assuage his broken heart with food, music, and entirely uncoerced gifts from his leal vassals. A true king of Lancaster would never dream of making number go up with anything so uncouth as taxes; don’t you know that taxation is theft, and what’s worse, interferes with capital formation?


Alas, King Erik is not so young as he was, and the excitement of bedding an energetic young flipskirt, after his romantic but sexually sedate relationship with a stolid matron, proves too much for his health. He dies on the way home, probably not directly from losing his precious bodily fluids, but the added strain on his already grieving heart could not have helped.


The tree does not grow into Heaven, and number does not go up forever.