So, I have found approximately the greatest character ever. I'm playing in India, teaching everyone to be pacifist and lovely OR DIE.
And I think, if you'll bear witness for a moment, I have pieced together this characters story.
Say hello to the county of sursdaler and it's current owner
Sursdaler is a minor, unimportant county in the middle of Russia. The most remarkable thing about it is that it has been utterly unimportant-the biggest change occured a century ago, when the rulers changed from Suomesko to Slavic paganism.
Anyway, in this unremarkable county lived an unremakable woman
Ylva never married or did much notable with her life. Her family had only come out of obscurity a generation ago, and looked sure to fade make into obscurity again later. The only notable incident she experienced was a quick tumble with the local count, which resulted in a young bastard named Olafr.
Olafr was a notably quick child-a trait which marked him as exceptional, by the standards of the backwood he was raised in. His natural brightness was only enhanced by his keen ambition and drive, which attracted him many, many followers from near and far.
Olafr's experience with leadership only whetted his appetite, and drove him to aim for high goals-far, far higher then than anyone from Sursdaler had ever reached. His search for power, and natural leadership abilities, made him a master of diplomacy-which more than compensated for the fact that he preferred studying overseas maps to actually talking to others. And if he was a tad proud, well, why not? By comparison to the local backwaters, he was head and shoulders above everyone else.
Olafr's experience with maps and talking to traders did teach him one important lesson though-no one cared about Sursdaler, or indeed any of the Slavic lands. If he wanted to be remembered, and etched in history books and on monuments for all time, he would have to leave Sursdaler, and even Russia. Thanks to his masterful speaking skills, he convinced men young and old from all over Russia to join him. For Olafr had no intention of going doing in history as just another bastard. Olafr would show the snivelling disciples of the dead god the folly of their ways. Olafr would show the proud and haughty follows of the so called 'Prophet' the weakness of their 'Caliph' and his unworthiness as a true leader of men. Olafr would put the Holy City to the sword, an only stop until all temples and mosques were ash.
And that's how I checked to see why jihads had just triggered in 972, and fell off my chair laughing.
On a unrelated note: Don't drink underage, kids!