Unity is Strength - A Bulgaria AAR

[mrhistory2019]

My name is Alusian, of the dynasty Kometopoulos. I am the son of Ivan Vladislav, the last emperor of Bulgaria. Forty-eight years ago, my father stupidly gave up Bulgaria to the then-Basileus of the Byzantine Empire, Basil “the Bulgar Slayer.” My brother, Presian, tried to resist this, but he was unsuccessful. Bulgaria was still lost. Presian tried to fight back but that got him killed five years ago. I used deceit to work my way through the Imperial Court. I married an Armenian noblewoman and gained power. I am ‘magistros’ in the Empire now. A useless title given to my brother and one of the past Bulgarian kings. But I can use this influence to my advantage though.
For now, I am in a good position. I have a sizable treasury and I am Count of Vidin. I need to gain more power, and soon, I can hopefully rebel. But I am older now; I am 56, and I will probably die before seeing my dream, so I will instill a hope of independent, strong and united Bulgaria into my descendants. One can hope, one can hope.

 

[HistoryDude]

This looks interesting.

I wonder if this new Bulgaria will take Byzantine territories as revenge?

 

[mrhistory2019]

First things first. Every good dynasty needs some sort of marital ties. I have not been married since the death of my wife some years back. My sons hadn’t married either, so this was a good place to start, (yet my second son, Samuil, still has a son).
I ordered my chancellor, Mayor Stracimir of Zajecar, to bring a list of eligible women for my sons and myself. Now, I wasn’t looking for a young woman, somebody older probably, skilled enough to work with me. Many of the women brought to me were noblewomen from Germany or from Northern Italy; much too far away to be of any use in an alliance. I tried finding Bulgarian women, but there are no Bulgarian noblewomen, just Greeks, Serbs, and Vlachs in the area.

For my eldest son, and heir, Basileios, I found a most wonderful woman: the Princess Irene of Georgia. She was the sister to the current king, Bagrat II, and had already sired a daughter with her previous husband, the Doux of Antioch. She was excellent at scheming, and had a reputation for being lusty and angry, but I am sure that my son, being the calm person, he will deal with her.

For my second son, Samuil, I found a Hungarian woman by the name of Anna Ják. She was the daughter of a minor countess in Hungary and would provide me with a decently close alliance.

And finally, for myself, I married a Greek woman named Thomais. She was supposed to be quite skilled in many subjects.

Currently I serve as marshal on my liege’s council. It is quite a helpful position to have for I know many things. Some of my tasks include training commanders, recruiting soldiers, and scouting the surroundings.

Today was a regular council meeting, until a courier burst into the room clearly with some important information. There was a war between the Seljuk Sultan and our Basileus. Everybody gasped, even the servants who were clearly listening behind the doors! This was the first news we had heard from the eastern border in months. It was a mysterious land filled with Khans who wore their hair in braids and priests who practiced weird magics.

Apparently, the Basileus started losing the war, yet Dragos clearly wasn’t unnerved by this. He didn’t care one bit; he's probably so sure that a false conversion will get him somewhere until we get help from the west. I had heard of this Sultan before. His empire was stronger than the Abbasids who had ruled Arabia and the Fatimids who ruled Egypt. His empire was almost twice as strong as the greatest empires in the West.

We were surely doomed. I proceed to ask Dragos what we would do, just curious for his response. “We’ll wait and see. For now, I’ll do my duty to the Basileus, pay the taxes and give soldiers.” Hardly a correct answer when our lives were in danger. Some of the other council members shrugged it off too. It’s not something you can just ignore though. The council meeting ended there, for nobody wanted to talk of our troubles when there was a greater trouble brewing on the eastern front.

 

[HistoryDude]

At least the Seljuks won't do anything in Europe.

And, hey, Bulgaria can break away while Byzantium's weakened!

 

[NarcomancerPL]

Bulgarian restoration is only a matter of time

 

[mrhistory2019]

This business about an invasion got me worried. I’d need a solid army to do any fighting, and the top of any army is its commander. For this reason, I sent out notices looking for knights. Along with that, I sent notices looking for a physician. Then, I assigned Mayor Stracimir to negotiate an alliance between myself and the Doux of Moesia, Andronikos. He was, after all, married to my niece, Mariya.

The Doux of Moesia was a powerful ally to have. With 1600 soldiers, he was one of the most powerful dukes in the Empire. His territories would only get larger, for upon the death of his father, Ioannes, he would inherit the Duchy of Optimatoi. The alliance would break upon my death though. I should make use of it while I have it.

Soon after I sent the request for a physician, three men came. The first two, Boril and Tomislav, were both Bulgarian, and the third was a Jewish man by the name of Shabsai. The first one, Boril, told me about how he was skilled with both the sword and the scalpel, and how he had saved other people many times over. Tomislav seemed quite irrational. He kept prattling on about his 'excellent' education in diplomacy, but nothing much about medicine. Shabsai told me how he was an expert in alternate medicine, although from his quiet voice and hunched position, I couldn't tell if he was lying or not.

In the end I chose Boril because he seemed the most useful. I also screened three potential soldiers, two of whom I recruited. The two I recruited were both Bulgarian. One was named Hranimir Komnene and the other was named Balin.

After this, I retired to my chambers and found out that Thomais was pregnant with our first child. Six months later she gave birth to a boy whom we named Miroslav.

A good few months after Miroslav's birth, I went walking around the village, and I found three priests surrounding some thunderstones which they had found in Zajecar. The first priest said that the thunderstones were vestiges left over from the war in Heaven. Another said that they were remnants of the weapons used by old Slavic spirits. Whatever they actually were, I elected to use them as lucky charms, and they do seem quite lucky, for when I returned to the castle, I learned that Thomais was pregnant again.

 

[HistoryDude]

It seems like some supernatural events are going on in Bulgaria.

Gaining alliances within the empire seems like a prudent move, at least until you're ready to declare independence. It might be a good idea to look for other rulers in Byzantium that want independence, come to think of it.

 

[mrhistory2019]

It seems like some supernatural events are going on in Bulgaria.

It is the first of many. And with the thunderstones, I just remembered to mention that this event is from the mod VIET (Very Immersive Events and Tales). I also have some other mods which would be:

Battlefield Duels
Community Flavor Pack
Ethnicities and Portraits Expanded
EPE + CFP Patch
Fullscreen Barbershop
RICE
Displayed Birth and Death Dates
Succession Expanded
Less Old Wives
Romanoktonos - Bulgaria Flavor - Just to add something more to Bulgaria

 

[mrhistory2019]

After service today, my Suffragan Bishop, Dan, approached me. He told me he had been corresponding with Marko, the Suffragan Bishop to my nephew, Radomir. In this letter, it contained a song that praised my grandfather, Doux Aron of Moesia. If I used this hymn, I could spread the reputation of a chaste and humble Bulgarian doux. This would help me a lot, so I agreed.

Thomais later birthed our second child. Yet another son, whom we named Petar. I also encountered my grandson, Konstantinos, and I thought it would be good to educate him. I pushed him towards a theological education, something which I think he would be good at due to his shy nature. I had him be educated by Dan, my Suffragan Bishop.

Everything was boring for the most part, until the council meeting, when Dan arrived with many papers in his arms. He told me that he had gathered enough evidence for me to have a claim on Sumadija. I just needed to pay a bit to finalize it. I agreed, and now I have a valid claim to Sumadija.

I accepted the claim and on January 11th, we went to war for Sumadija. The war was against Count Michael, a child with no allies and very few soldiers. I ordered my armies to march south to Sumadija, with me at the head. We engaged on the 7th of February. Our army outnumbered that of Sumadija by at least 5 times.

I charged, and I saw Hranimir the knight wound an enemy soldier. Suddenly, an enemy commander jumped in front of me. His blade was ready for a duel. He was many years younger than me, but I was boosted by adrenaline. We paced in half-circles and I twirled my sword, ready to swing. The enemy commander clutched his mace tighter; only one of us would return alive, I intended that person to be me.

I saw an opening and I ran at him. I was ready to swing my sword through him, but as I ran, he tripped me over for a second, but I did notice his stance was weakening. He wasn’t as strong as in the beginning. I charged in with more speed than a man of my age should have.

Strike, parry, riposte! I thought. I beat down his guard, but he still managed to stay up. He had the advantage of youthful strength, me being at least more than twice his age. I threw out more quick slashes and he did his best to ward off my attacks, but his guard was getting sloppier by the blow. I knocked his mace away, and the duel was over. I threw one final blow, and he was dead.

The battle soon finished, and we went towards the capital, Krusevac. There we started a siege, and I examined the prisoners. There were three prisoners, and my men reported that only one soldier had survived. Four enemy men survived the battle. The Mayor Ioustinos of Prokuplje, and two commanders, Slavko and Godimir. I ransomed Ioustinos for 30 gold.

The siege would take a while, more than a year, so we waited. Suddenly, as we were sieging, Hranimir informed me of a band of some 29 soldiers who were charging into our army. They were clearly trying to delay the siege in some way. I killed one of the enemy knights and then I re-captured Mayor Ioustinos. This time he wouldn’t be leaving my dungeons so easily. Ioustinos later died of his wounds.

Late in the night, a very minor guerilla force invaded our camp. It was three men who snuck in while my soldiers were distracted. Balin, my knight, was killed trying to protect me from an enemy sword. He was far too young to die, having only just reached his third decade. One of the other enemy guerilla fighters charged at me. Thankfully, I overpowered him and took him prisoner. I later had this enemy soldier executed. That man and his associates had killed Balin and tried to kill me. It was the least I could do to get them back.

Within the next two months, we captured Sumadija. That was a third county into my demesne.

 

[mrhistory2019]

After capturing a third county, I finally realized the repercussions of it. I am 62 now, and upon my death, Basileios will get Vidin, Samuil will get Braničevo, and Miroslav will get Sumadija. This is terrible, I must become a doux before my death. After a long session with the councillors, I had a realization. I realized that the bonds of loyalty only constrict us. I had known this before, but since gaining titles and power under the Empire, I guess I forgot this. For this reason, I decided to focus on “duty.” Through this “duty” I could find some way to overthrow that idiot Dragos.

I then proceeded to look over my council. Most of the members were good people, quite skilled. I liked all of my councilors, except for one, Roman, my steward. He was a Vlach, and so could not help me in convincing the people of Vidin to adopt Bulgarian culture. A large portion of my realm was Vlach or Greek and this will not do when we expand Vidin's borders. For this reason, I fired him in favor of my knight, Hranimir. I ordered Hranimir to promote Bulgarian culture in Vidin, over the Vlach one.

Good news came to me in three forms before I retired to bed. Irene, my daughter-in-law, gave birth to my fourth grandchild, and first granddaughter, a girl they named Ivet. I had forgotten she was even pregnant, for I was so busy with extra work that Dragos has been giving me (I can't tell if he's lazy or if he just wants to give me a heart attack so I'll stop bothering him)! The second thing was that my grandson, Konstantinos, had had a child with his wife, a Norman noblewoman by the name of Altruda Landolfidi. They had a son, my first great-grandchild, a boy named Romanos. Now that truly made me feel old.

The third one was even better than another grandchild or great-grandchild. Mayor Pyrros of Prizren, a very talkative man who served as chancellor to my neighbor, Count Ioannes of Niš, had acknowledged that I had a rightful claim to Niš. A claim which would allow me to declare war and take the province. This only benefitted me, although I doubted if I would have a chance to use this claim, for with all this business of me claiming the duchy, I might not even need the claim!
I also spoke with Tomislav, the new Baron of Prokuplje. He was a well-educated man and I enjoyed talking to him. We spoke a lot about administration and meritocracy, and I allowed him to undertake a few projects in Sumadija. I think it was a meeting that helped both of us.