The Emperors without the purple - A Komnenos AAR

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Prelude​

On December 5th, 1059, news reached Ioannes I of Armeniacon of his brother Isaac's abdication of the Imperial Seat to Konstantinos I Doukas. Seeing this as the ultimate betrayal to the Doukas name, Ionnes drafted a secret document - the Komnenos Manifest, decreeing his family and all of its descendants as the true Emperors. The Manifest creates the familial title of Sebastokrator, or Emperor without the purple. With this action, Ioannes I began his rebellion against the empire, whether it will succeed or not, only time will tell.


The former Komnenos Emperor Isaac, a man content to let his own dynasty slip through the cracks of history

Ioannes began to plant the first seeds of his rebellion as soon as possible - installing his second oldest son as the Doux of Antioch, his third as the Doux of Paphagonia and keeping his eldest by his side to take over as the Doux of Armeniacon, all by January 1060. The education of his sons began - later in the year, his eldest had returned. Ioannes had hoped that he would become a master of deception, but the fool instead idolized his brother Isaac, attempting to imitate his monastical prowess. Instead, he became a useless heir to the dynasty, not quite the material Ioannes needed to forge an empire out of.

Determined to not make the same mistake, Ioannes bought the best martial education there was available for his second son, creating a brilliant tactician to rival the emperor's Marshal himself.

As for Ioannes himself, he was a deadly mix of patience and deception, able to turn the other cheek as he stabbed you in the back. His one weakness was his lust for all sorts of women, which through sheer luck rather than careful planning resulting in nine children all from the same woman.

*Rules : I will play as any member of the Komnenos dynasty throughout history. In addition to my liege (the Byzantine emperor), every Komnenos member will also be under the "Emperor without the purple", or the Sebastokrator. His sole purpose is to keep the Komnenoi line strong and eventually take out the ruling Doukas family. He has a few tricks up his sleeve, such as:
- The ability to exile unruly dynasty members. Exiling can only be used on dynasty members who have unjustly assaulted their fellow family, through assassinations or war. It is up to the Sebastokrator to decide what is unjust and what is necessary to preserve the dynasty. An exile war will be a private affair, as discreet from the Emperor as possible, with false reasons for the war, such as ducal claims or succession claims. The exiled member must be executed at the end of the war.
- The Sebastokrator can invite other dynasty members into his plot, sharing with them the Manifest and his ambitions. This makes those he invites much more loyal and willing to scheme against other dynasties, but he must be careful! If anyone who knows of the Manifest revolts or goes against the family, the grand plot is revealed and I must fight a war for independence against the Byzantine Empire. If I lose, all of my dynasty under direct control of the Emperor is executed and replaced with people loyal to the Emperor himself.
- If the current Sebastokrator dies without inviting anyone into his plot, it is also game over.
- I am Greek Orthodox! If any of my family converts to any other religion/culture and stays that way for three generations, they will be disowned and their dynasty will be changed to a cadet branch. (For example, if a Spanish Komnenos branch arises from marrying into the Jimena line and stays Spainish Catholic, they will be modded to become Komnenos-Jimena and all ties will be cut)
- The current Sebastokrator can add more rules depending on how the game goes
- I am running Rise of Empires mod, which allows an empire to be created if you hold 4 kingdom titles, and a kingdom to be created if you hold 3 duchy titles, which is why you might see some strange kingdoms form.

 

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Table of Contents:

Prelude
Doux Isaakios I, Part 1​

 

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I will be following this closely. The rules you have set up are interesting and I am excited to see how your game turns out.

 

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Doux Issakios I was a strange conundrum. One one hand, he was an ambitious brilliant strategist, yet he was was craven, never leading his troops directly or putting himself in any sort of danger. Like his father before him, he was also deceitful, hiding his true intentions both on the battlefield and in the court meetings. At the age of 13, he had an affair with a young lady, resulting in a child and also the reason why he was sent to Antioch, the outskirts of the empire instead of taking what his younger brother now controls, the Duchy of Paphlagonia. Such a placement on the outskirts of the empire did avoid scandal, but also allowed him to scheme ways to gain power.

Part of his stay at Antioch meant that all of his realm's affairs would be taken care of by a regent appointed by the Emperor himself until Issakios was discharged from serving in the army. An almost suspicious death of this regent while his regiment was stationed near Antioch cut short the emperor's influence on the area, allowing Issakios to finally assume control of the Duchy of Antioch on September 15, 1066....


Believing himself free from foreign influence on his realm, he began searching for his childhood lover, who would be around 22 by now. Upon finding her only living relative, her sister in Byzantium, Issakios learnt that she died as disease swept through the eternal city. Blaming himself for her being put in Byzantium in the first place and seduced by her beauty, he vowed to marry Euphemia, despite her lowly rank, which his father would not approve of.

Overjoyed with the news of Issakios' assuming control of the Duchy, but irritated over his marriage, Ioannes commanded his son to send spies into the Shia caliphate and attack the Shiekh at his border. With the stifling crown laws preventing expansion inside the empire itself, the outskirts seemed to be the only way to gain power for the family.

Issakios, knowing that the inferior army of the Sheikh would not attack his army head on spread rumours in the distant lands of Damascus that he was a weak commander, and no more than 200 men would follow him. As the larger army confidantly marched toward his small force, Issakios maneuvered his ships around the sea and lay in wait for the battle to begin. Although he was a superior leader, he did not wish to risk his safety foolishly when able bodied men can do the same - instead he chose to watch the battle from the distance as his troops flanked, routed, and decimated the oncoming force.

It was a battle with overwhelming odds. With only one Greek dead for every five enemies slain, Issakios knew he did not need to resort to tactics to win these small skirmishes. Regardless, this confirmed that all those generals who lead at the front of the army were fools - one could instead shape the battle to your advantage, reducing the chance of personal injury when he was needed at the front lines. With the Arabian army routed and his army sieging the holdings, Issakios returned to much more important matters... such as spending quality time with his new wife....

A year after assuming the throne, the Sheikh surrendered, just as a pair of twins were born.

Exhilarated over his first victory and discovery of his naval tactics, Issakios began setting his ambitions even higher, hoping to one day become Exalted Among Men. Ioannes did not believe his son would have won against the Sheikh so easily, he schemed to humble his son to rely on him. Once again he commanded Issakios to attack the muslims, only this time the stronger Emir to the east. Ioannes had send his own personal spies to misinform the young Doux's scouts - giving them the illusion that the Emir only had a thousand troops - on par with Issakios own numbers. He hoped to force Issakios to lose to the Emir and be forced to call in Ioannes' army for assistance.

Instead of attacking the Emir straight away, however, Isaakios did not like the one to one odds that he would face versus the Emir. He decided to implement new laws to gain more troop levies. Annoyed by the slow bureaucracy from his single count, he gathered his entire army and demanded that the count give up his land. The count decides to revolt against such an action and raises his troops.

While seiging, news reaches the Doux from the south - Damascus has revolted against the Caliphate for independance, just as the Duchess is pregnant again.

The rebellious count surrenders his titles, as another daughter is born.

Although the rebellion has actually caused him to lose more fighting men, Isaakios decides to abide by his father's wishes and attacks the Emir of Aleppo. According to his intelligence, he believes his army of 850 is to face an army of just 1000 strong at the most. The Emir can field a total of 3,300 able bodied men. War is called, Isaakios manages to seperate a section of the Emir's army in a surprise attack over the border. The rough, unfamiliar terrain forces Issakios to lead the army personally, there is no margin of error allowed for this war.

Even before the battle is over, a larger force appears on the border. After defeating and routing the current army, Isaakios retreats and immediately sends his request for assistance to all of his allies - his pride isn't worth the risk of dying over these lands.

 

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Not bad. I like the use of all the pictures.