The Rise of Socotra - a Crusader Kings 3 Story

[pindicator]

Eliya, Interregnum

We start with the conquests of Abraham II divided among his 2 sons and 2 grandsons




In the east, Mahra has an alliance with Mogadishu. Mogadishu also holds onto their alliance to Alodia, which is through Emir Samir's wife. Socotra is ill-named, but the game insisted on splitting off the Emirate title. This was why I moved the capital to Ta'izz as I feared only being left with the island if I had not. Instead it is Mukhtar who has the Emirate of Socotra while not holding the island itself. He is my ally.

Apart from Eliya, all the other Diskarkhans are very weak militarily. Mukhtar may not survive even if I answer a call to his aid. Samir should be okay as long as they hold onto their alliance with Alodia. And Mahra only has the threat of the Akinids to the west. However, I do not think i want to try to fight my cousin or uncles to unite Yemen. Better to eliminate the threat of the Akinids to the north and expand through them.

Let's look closer at Mesfin (duke) Eliya




Eliya has the following traits:

• Arrogant - +1 Prestige per month, -5 Opinion of Liege and Vassals, -10% Scheme Secrecy, -15 Opinion of Humble
  
• Compassionate - +2 Diplomacy, -2 Intrigue, -15 Natural Dread, +100% Dread Decay, +5 Attraction, -15 Opinion of Callous and Sadistic. Compassionate is also a Virtue to Copts. Yes, he converted to Coptic and identifies culturally as Ethiopian!
  
• Deceitful - -2 Diplomacy, +4 Intrigue, -10 Opinion of Honest
  
• Fortune Builder - the second best education trait for Stewardship, giving +6 to the stat and +30% monthly Lifestyle experience.
  
• Unyielding Defender - the Commander Trait grants Friendly Fatal Casualty rate of -25%

Eliya is already married and has a son and player heir. Let's look at our player heir next:




Kafa is too young for personality traits, but he already has the congenital trait of Sterile, which gives -50% Fertility. Why is he sterile? Because he is also my cousin. Marrying too close of a relation in this game significantly ups your risk of getting bad congenital traits and Kafa hit the genetic jackpot. You may now ask (as I did), "Why is Eliya's son also his cousin?" And after digging around the family trees a bit I discovered that is because AI Eliya decided to marry his mother's sister.




Berta is our wife and the youngest daughter of Mesfin Bekele of Damot. If you recall, Mesfin Bekele ruled Damot at the start of the game and was Abraham II's friend up until his death during the conquest of the Emirate of Yemen. Bekele's second daughter, Zauditu, was the same woman that Abraham II betrothed his son Eliya too, way back at the start of this campaign.

So we obviously have an issue here. Not just the ethical and moral quagmire, but also one of succession. With our current player heir having little chance of siring an heir himself, how is Eliya going to secure his bloodline going forward, even should he unite the Kingdom of Yemen?

Also, we are going to have to expand just to get some access to some fresh blood to marry into, otherwise this may become the norm out of necessity going forward.

We are also Coptic. Somewhere along the lines Ras Eliya, our father, converted - probably at the behest of our mother/sister-in-law. This I will not abide for this playthrough




I immediately spend the 250 Piety it costs to convert. Eliya will honor the faith of his grandfather and continue Abraham II's work in spreading the faith.

Speaking of faith:




Nestorianism has taken hold in Mogadishu and we are only starting to spread it to the Arabian peninsula. Our new Bishop immediately begins the work of converting the county of Ta'izz, which will take him 8 years.

Coptic has taken over most of Nubia with the strongest names already known: Alodia and Abyssinia. Makuria in the far north is also Coptic, and surprisingly Baqlin has converted. The two Ash'ari kingdoms left in the Horn of Africa are the Emirate of Shirazid and the High Chiefdom of Sanaag.

Diskarkha lands are mostly Isma'ili with Ibadi being practiced in Mahra and the far east. Ash'ari is the faith of our neighbors, however.




Regionally, the largest changes we have not touched on during Abraham's reporting are in Egypt and in the western Arabian peninsula. The Fatimids have split into two with Mustali taking the Nile Delta and the eastern half of their empire. The Seljuks have also lost land in Bahrain to the High Chiefdom of Yamama.

And of course, the Crusader State of Jerusalem is now in existance. Currently they are attacking their eastern neighbor Amman, and losing.

Side note: The southern-most piece of Jerusalem is now directly controlled by Kaiser Magnus of the HRE. It appears Negev was inherited directly by the Emperor in 1103 and since he had a high rank than the Queen of Jerusalem, the county split off.

As far as vassals, Eliya only has 2 that are relevant:




Ras Mahdi of Ahqaf is my Chancellor and manages to tolerate me enough. But Ras Shamir ibn Ahmad of Zabid hates me considerably. I would say most of this is due to him still practicing Isma'ili. So I will demand he convert right away.

The other two positions went to the 2 best people in the realm. I'm not so worried about "Powerful Vassals" who are barons as they can just be deposed without any Tyranny penalty.

Finally, the larger world




It is not too easy to see, but there is a Vidilist Kingdom of Lithuania to the north of Poland. As well as a High Chiefdom of Lithuania. Two Lithuanias!

[Mjmd]

I really like that the maps have deserts and mountains as blank patches instead of the usual "shaded like surrounding territory even though very few people live here"

[pindicator]

I really like that the maps have deserts and mountains as blank patches instead of the usual "shaded like surrounding territory even though very few people live here"

Yes and no. It will shade the borders if a country has most of the land surrounding the desert.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Kafa is too young for personality traits, but he already has the congenital trait of Sterile, which gives -50% Fertility.  Why is he sterile?  Because he is also my cousin.  Marrying too close of a relation in this game significantly ups your risk of getting bad congenital traits and Kafa hit the genetic jackpot.  You may now ask (as I did), "Why is Eliya's son also his cousin?"  And after digging around the family trees a bit I discovered that is because AI Eliya decided to marry his mother's sister.

Shouldn't "Sterile" be -100% Fertility?  That's what the word suggests to me.


Your dynasty is secretly the Spanish Habsburgs based on the marriage.  How long before you end up with a Charles II?

[Commodore]

Grandson/Nephew-in-Law heir there seems like a treat. Make more cousinsons and hope? Convert to Catholicism long enough to dissolve the marriage due to consanguinity?

It's not quite as bad as the Motherwifedaughter you managed last game.

[pindicator]

Eliya, Part One: Family Matters

Since we are playing to Eliya's strengths, I decide to set us up for making money.  We set his Lifestyle focus to Wealth for +10% monthly gold income, and will continue down the Architect branch of the Stewadship tree.  Ideally this will help us generate enough gold for building some infrastructure, but I'm going to wait until Eliya fills out the tree and gains the Architect trait at the end before spending on anything: it will give us a 10% discount on all buildings.

The second thing I want to do is to create the Kingdom of Yemen without invading any other Diskarkha family members.  This means Eliya's Uncle Zulfiqar who is Emir of Mahra is going to be off limits.  Besides, as Dynasty Head I can join in wars and defend my relatives and I'd like to see them all expand if possible.

So it leaves us with only one way to get the 2 needed counties:




Emir Jalil ibn Akin has no alliances and only 1100 men.  He does have 2 sons, one of whom is close to marrying age, and so will likely forge alliances in the future.  But for now he seems the best path for expansion.  In addition, I do not want him to invade Mahra and grow into a more powerful threat to our north.

Only issue is that Eliya has no piety for a Holy War casus belli.  At least Ethiopian culture -- why did the first Eliya decide to change culture and religion? -- has Chronicle Writing tech, which allows us to use the De Jure Duchy casus belli to take counties already in duchies we own.  And since we have the Petty Kingdom of Hadramawt title (likely due to succession rules as I never created it as Abraham II) we can go to war for the county of Hadramawt as that is the last county I do not have within that de jure area.




Tragedy in warfare is no stranger to Diskarkha and here it strikes again.  Within the first days of the enemy coming to Rada', my brother Abraham is killed in the siege!  Eliya has a younger sister now, but with his heir being Sterile I wonder if we also are setting ourselves up for a succession crisis.

Speaking of our heir, Kafa turns 3 and earns the Rowdy childhood trait.  He'll be more suited towards Martial or Intrigue education and I will turn him into a warrior.

As head of the Diskarkha dynasty I can request dynastic members join my wars as well as join into theirs.  So although I do not have an alliance with Mahra I do ask Emir Zulfiqar to join in, as this is as much for his safety as mine.  He agrees and sends his army of just over 400.  Joined with my 1800 we double Akinid's forces.  We move to take Hadramawt and Emir Jalil invades at Rada'.

Our forts are stronger, and so after Hadramawt falls we are able to rally to Rada's defense.




We captured one of Emir Jalil's knights in this battle and he was forgotten about in my prisons after.  The war was a formality after this battle.  We catch Emir Jalil's forces again at his capital, but he will not admit defeat until we finish taking his palace at Ma'in the following January.

I keep the prize of Hadramawt for myself, and instead grant Kinda Sakun to my best knight, Yusuf




He is a really well-rounded individual in general, so I feel putting him in a vassal role will be better than just wasting him on the battlefield.  Especially with the death rate of my knights this game.

During the war, Berta gave birth to a daughter.




Makda, like her brother, has hit the genetic lottery, and is a Dwarf.  Being a Dwarf means she has -4 Prowess, -20 Attraction, and +20 Opinion of other Dwarves.

Shortly after the war, my Spymaster came to me with a stratling discovery




You aren't seeing double.  My spymaster is telling me that she has discovered her own scheme to elope with someone.  I had to laugh here.  The woman has an Intrigue score of 20.  Were their ulterior motives?  Is the elopement really more of a kidnapping and she is so fearful of the man that she does not want to tell him no?  Is she having second thoughts?  So many questions.

But then, in the following March, she went and eloped anyway!




She married Sheikh Mahdi of Ahqaf!  Mahdi, it should be noted, had also just been outed by my Uncle Zulfiqar for trying to sell me out behind his back.  I forgave him, and then he ran off with my spymaster!  And Rasa - how does Sadistic, Craven, and Wrathful explain this?  I'm perplexed and slightly amused.  I hope they have a wonderful life together.

Speaking of marriage, Bishop Tooril had a few things to say about Eliya's marriage to his aunt:




Tooril was clearly in the wrong here: Nestorianism does allow marriage between aunts and nephews / uncles and nieces.  However, with two stunted children, I was looking for a way to produce heirs of better stock and this gave it to me.  So instead of taking the 73% chance at successfully debating him over it, I gave in and accepted the divorce.  Poor Berta was left in the wind.

There were far better prospects to be found abroad, anyway.




Somehow Hayq has converted to Nestorianism!?  Their lands are still Waaqi, but the rulers are now of the correct faith.  And because of this, we can marry into their family.  Eliya is betrothed to their 3,000-strong army 8-year-old daughter, Maka.

To celebrate, I hosted a feast.  And then used the Prestige gained from the feast to finally switch back to Yemeni culture




Yemeni culture was far better to be in anyway.  Ethiopian only was in the Low Middle Ages and Yemeni was already into the High Middle Ages, a whole tech era ahead.  If we had been playing in the upcoming patch I would have certainly looked at doing a Yemeni-Ethiopian hybrid culture.  But that will have to wait for patch 1.5 and the expansion.

Eliya continued to look inward during this time.  Not only developing his lands - he had a successful cattle venture which increased the development and wealth of Ta'izz - but also of himself.  If he was going to be successful against the Akinids he would need to make sure he was strong in his faith.  And so like his grandfather he sought to walk the Pilgrim's path:




Jerusalem seemed like a good spot to go for a couple reasons.  We did not need to get the most amount of Piety out of a longer, more expensive destination.  And with role-playing, Queen Ida was not only surviving but thriving in the holy land, expanding the Kingdom of Jerusalem in successive wars, taking advantage of the Seljuks internal strife.

Eliya would spend 4 months on pilgrimage.  He fought off bandits, a dicey affair that could have earned him a wound but instead earned him further prestige.  But the Piety from his Pilgrimage was the main draw, as now Eliya had increased his Level of Devotion and could Holy War for whole duchies at a time.

Eliya was greeted by his admirers shortly after returning:

[screnshot]https://www.dropbox.com/s/21u9sal5bxow5c6/diskarkha%20-%2002.01%20-%20popular.jpg?raw=1[/screenshot]

Reshawna had been my prisoner and was a member of the Akinid family herself, but with a Congenital trait of Quick I had released her in the hopes of finding her a suitable husband and passing that trait on within a line of a vassal or a courtier.  Instead she had shown her appreciation by trying to seduce Eliya.  He had taken the advances in stride - still being an unmarried man at this point - yet when he returned home he now found that Walia Jahaira, the mayor of Aden, was also vying for his affections!  Reshawna was also married at this point but still persisted.  Eliya chose Jahaira here, but sadly there seemed to be no more further romance as

Before the war with Akinids came up, we realized we could intervene and help our Uncle Samir in Mogadishu.  Samir had been at Holy War himself against Ras Hafun, and he had been winning with Alodia's help!  However, Sanaag jumped in and declared for the county themselves.  Realizing that Samir was losing to Sanaag I decided to jump in.




Honestly, I had not been paying close attention because on paper Alodia and Mogadishu should be easily defeating Sanaag, with twice their army size.  Instead the AI must have been doing something very stupid as Sanaag had managed to siege down the territory and was now winning.  I rallied my troops and sailed straight for Sanaag's capital.




But it was too late.  Sanaag was already midway through the siege at Mogadishu, and when that capital fell 2 months later the war was lost.  Ras Hafun turned baby blue and was taken by Sanaag.

The next year I spent building up my coffers and letting the troops refill their levies.  I was waiting for my truce with Akinid to end, itching to bring in Hayq.  With one more war we would be able to create the Kingdom that Abraham had dreamed of.

Only Hayq decided they had their own ambitions first:




Needing Hayq's help, I had no choice.  We would go to war with Abyssinia.



Other Happenings

• I demanded my vassal, Ras Shamir of Zabid , convert to Nestorianism.  He refused and so after the first Akinid war he was thrown into prison and his title given to someone more affable.  This was important because he was a Clan-type ruler and because of which he would only give taxes and levies based on how much he liked me.  Since he was never going to like me, it was better to just remove him.
  
• My cousin Mukhtar destroyed the Duchy title for Socotra.  This means he is no longer Emir Mukhtar but instead just Sheikh Mukhtar.  Not clear why he chose to do so, but perhaps there are income/prestige implications I'm not remembering.
  
• I destroyed my 2 regiments of Camel Riders and have not yet replaced them.  They are good light cavalry in desert and flatlands, but get significant penalties fighting in hills and mountains.  Yemen is mostly hills and mountains.
  
• I regret not checking to see if Queen Ida of Jerusalem would have married Eliya.  Probably not, otherwise the game would have put her at the top of my list.  But she's quite the character.
  
• The Sultanate of Egypt has been formed!
  

[pindicator]

Eliya, Part Two: The Kingdom of Yemen


Bishop Tooril has died.  Aside from his questionable interpretation of Nestorian marriage law, he was not a learned man.  It took him most Eliya's reign to convert the capital at Ta'izz and it still was not completed.  He was an awful bishop and I will not miss him.




Bishop Marguz with a Learning score of 17 is a much more competent bishop.  He finished proselytizing in Ta'izz the following year and moved on to Dathina.  At only 5 years to convert Dathina he is literally 3 times better than Tooril.

But Marguz did not yet like Eliya, so he would not endorse him or provide taxes or levies to Diskarkha.  We started immediately on a scheme to sway his opinion of the Emir.

Meanwhile, the war between Abyssinia and Hayq was getting underway.




I felt bad for joining an attack on Abyssinia.  They had been instrumental in helping Eliya's grandfather get a foothold in Yemen in the first place.  But their alliance had also died with Abraham II and the alliance through Eliya's mother was now only limited to the chiefdom of Innarya where Eliya's mother reigned.

Then shortly after the war started, this happened:




Mother had been seeing a secret lover, Ras Berihun, within Abyssinia.  She was thrown into prison on those charges, but it seems clear this was retaliation for my coming into war against the Negus.  Zauditu would have her title stripped from her and stay in the prison; the game would not allow Eliya to ransom her as she had not been his vassal or of his court.

My reservations for attacking Abyssinia evaporated.

But truth be told, my involvment had little impact on the war.  Hayq defeated Abyssinia's armies well before my troops could cross the Bab-el-Mandab.  I would siege a county or two, ransomed Mefin Haeran of Showa, and then when the war was about to be over my troops went home.  It was a very dull war.



Yemeni culture finished the Hereditary Rule tech.  (We can improve wines now, yay!)  In actuality it means we have a new succession law available to us: Partition.  Here's a side-by-side comparison:




Partition is different than Confederate Partition in that the game will not create any titles for children upon the death of a ruler.  When Abraham II died, the duchy of Mogadishu was created for Emir Samir, the duchy of Mahra created for Zulfiqar, and the duchy of Hadramawt for Eliya.  These were created because the characters ended up with more than half the land in those realms after inheritance was finished and also those realm titles had not yet been created.  But it also was what made them splinter away, as they were now at the same rank as my player heir. 

If I had Partition law when Abraham died then only Mukhtar would have split off, as the game would have given him the Emirate of Socotra title upon inheritance and Eliya's uncles would only have had their Sheikhdom titles.

Switching to Partition will be a big help for keeping an empire together later on, as it would mean that if I expand into another kingdom I won't have to worry about the game giving most of that kingdom away and having it become a new nation.  I would switch the law now but it will take all my Prestige to do so and I need some of that for the upcoming war.

There soon would be more of a divide between the 4 Diskarkha realms:



Creating a cadet branch is like creating his own house where he can become the Household Head and get all the benefits of being the head of a household:  extra prestige, weak hooks on all family members (as well as Eliya no longer gaining weak hooks on his household members).  He also gets the abilities of a household head such as legitimzing bastards, callign household members to war at no cost, and demanding household members convert to his faith.

Eliya still can call Zulfiqar into wars or join his because he is the Dynastic Head.  But if another House becomes stronger than Eliya then they can become the new Dynastic Head!  Dynastic Heads can Claim Titles of dynasty members, disinherit and denounce members of the dynasty, forgive the previous, and end wars between dynasty members.  They also get to pick the dynasty legacies.

Samir would create his own household cadet branch, named Diskarkha-Hiraab, the following July.

Back to the war!




Actually it's over.  At the start of 1115 Hayq has won against Abyssinia and taken the entire duchy of Lasta as their own.  Hayq would rename themselves to Lasta with the creation of that title.

I spared no time and immediately declared on the Akinid Emirate for the two counties of San'a' within their domain.




The first year of the war is limited to sieging down each other's properties.  San'a' and the palace at Al-Jawf al-Yamani are taken, but Hadramawt falls as the Akinids do their best to avoid any real entanglements.  Meanwhile, the feared alliance did come to pass: Emir Jalil married his oldest son to the Yaquti Atabegate.  They have 3,000 soldiers and are located within the Persian Empire (Seljuks be fracturing) at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Shatt al-Arab.  Their armies never made it to the war, however.




(Also, mother was released from prison.  Yay!  She is living in Lasta now.)

It was later in 1116 that we finally forced the Akinid army back to confront us.  They retook San'a' as we took Wabar and Najran, but were not able to retreat again in time and our numerical advantage carried the day.

The War Score sat at 99% after that victory, so I had to go through sieging down San'a' again before we could enforce our demands.

It was in the last days of this war that Maka came of age and Eliya and Maka were married




She was pregnant before the year was up and gave birth to a daughter, Shola, the following year.

To celebrate we put a crown on her head




With San'a' we gained enough territory to create the Kingdom of Yemen title.  For our culture that was a Malik/Malikate and so the Diskarkha Emirate is now the Diskarkha Malikate.

You may notice my armies are raised again and I'm in another war already.  That's because Uncle Zulfiqar is an idiot




Yes, you see that correctly.  My Uncle Zulfiqar may not have the Ambitious trait but Impatient and Brave seemingly mixed together to make him not want to wait to actually be stronger than the Persians before attacking them.  In response, the Persian vassal of Dhufar declared war for all of Mahra and the Emir of Oman declared war for half of his lands.

Persians? You may ask: "What about the Seljuks?"  Well, Zulfiqar may have been partially on to something as the Seljuks were starting to fracture due to internal revolting.  Oman was a relatively new Eimrate and there were several others on the scene:




Much of the Seljuk lands in their west and south had splintered off into new kingdoms.  In addition, Queen Ida in Jersusalem had taken a few counties.  (Also, check out that Egypt!  Not related to the Seljuks but still pretty cool.)  Yamama, Bahrain, Oman, Shiraz, Tustar, Ralmati, and others had splintered away.  But the Persians still had many thousands at their command and Zulfiqar only numered in the hundreds.

I was going to have to join in his wars if he was going to survive.


Other Happenings:

• Kafa has gotten the Humble, Sadistic, and Gregarious traits.  What a fine heir he'll be (if he lives)
  
• During the first siege at San'a' we came down with the flu, but our Court Physician took good care of Eliya and he was healthy by the time the winter was over
  
• Someone is trying murder my knight, Halil
  
• My mother sent my cousin to stay with us.  He is a drunkard and a hunchback.  Yeah mom, I'll find something for him to do...
  

[Commodore]

To be fair to your uncle, he learned from his old man. "Have tiny army but ally has a ton? Let's goooooo!"

[pindicator]

To be fair, it's practically the House Motto

[Amicalola]

Abraham losing the Kingdom goal was unfortunate, but it sure puts Eliya in a fun position.  

Other Happenings

• I demanded my vassal, Ras Shamir of Zabid , convert to Nestorianism.  He refused and so after the first Akinid war he was thrown into prison and his title given to someone more affable.  This was important because he was a Clan-type ruler and because of which he would only give taxes and levies based on how much he liked me.  Since he was never going to like me, it was better to just remove him.
  

How does this work? Are you punished in any significant way for removing a vassal?