The Rise of Socotra - a Crusader Kings 3 Story

[pindicator]

Malik Ya'qub, Interregnum Report

Malik Ya'qub now takes over the disjointed lands of Diskarkha:




There are three main areas for Diskarkha now:

• The holdings on the Arabian Peninsula, encompassing the Kingdom of Yemen, and the Duchies of Oman, Mecca, and Asir, extending across the Bab-el-Mandeb to the counties of Tadjoura and Awssa.
  
• The holdings on the northern Horn of Africa, comprising of the Duchies of Sanaag and Shabelle and the county of Fafan.
  
• The Sheikhdom of Baydhabo in the far south
  

I'm not sure why Baydhabo survived inheritance.  It is an exclave, and I thought excalves gained their independence if there is no land or water route for them to connect to the rest of the empire at large.

Ya'qub did not get the lion's share of Kafa's holdings since Kafa died unexpectedly and did not set up his succession well.  As a result, Kafa's lands were split as follows:

• To Ya'qub: Emirate of Ta'izz, and 2 of its counties (Ta'izz and Mandab)
  
• To Ibrahim: Emirate of San'a', including all 3 of its counties (Najran, San'a', and Tiahamat al-Yamani)
  
• To Malik: Shiekhdom of Dathina, which is de jure part of the Emirate of Ta'izz
  

Both of Ya'qub's brothers are not yet of age, so should some accident befall them their lands would come back to Ya'qub.  But is Ya'qub as sadistic as his father?

In addition, Ya'qub's oldest sister Sheeftah is Queen of Syria.  His younger sister, Nishan, is still 12 and unmarried.  Interestingly, Kafa never released the secret of Nishan's heritage and so she is still part of the Diskarkha family.  Because Ya'qub doesn't "know" of her true parentage she now shows again as having Kafa as her father.

Ya'qub is not the most impressive leader, with average Martial and Stewardship stats and poor stats in Diplomacy, Intrigue, and Learning.  He has the traits of

• Fickle (+2 Diplomacy, -2 Stewardship, +1 Intrigue, Hostile Scheme Resistance +20%)
  
• Wrathful (-1 Diplomacy, +3 Martial, -1 Intrigue, +20 Natural Dread, allows me to Duel criminals)
  
• Patient (+2 Learning, +5 Liege/Vassal Opinion, Hostile Scheme Resistance +10)
  
• Thrifty Clear (+4 Stewardship, +20% Stewardship Lifestyle Experience)
  

So we have some built in hostile scheme resistance, and some minor plusses to Martial, Learning, and Diplomacy, but with how many traits have cancelling stats it's no wonder why we have such average-to-poor stats.

Ya'qub is also Coptic, which we cannot allow.  I'm not sure what is causing my heirs to continually convert, but we will have to spend our first 250 Faith to convert back to Nestorianism.  Unfortunately we only have 119 Faith right now, so we will need to earn more before we can get back to the correct faith.

Ya'qub is also married to his cousin, Eudosia, who rules the Petty Kingdom of Nobatia:




Eudosia is also first in line to inherit the county of Naqis, where her sister reigns but has not yet had any children.  In addition, she has claims on Makuria but I am not clear if those claims will transfer to her children when they come of age.

Eudosia is also clearly the brains of the relationship with far better stats in every category except Stewardship.  And she has an amazing 27 in Learning.  This will give an interesting choice as we can have her do the usual +20% of all stats for 12 over gain (+2/+2/+1/+2/+5).  Or we can have her focus on just giving 50% of her Learning stat for +13 there but no help anywhere else.  At least, we would be able to if she wasn't the ruler of her own kingdom.  Since she is away ruling her own lands, we get no help and no stats.

Speaking of children, Ya'qub and Eudosia have followed the family trend to only have daughters:

• Rafiqa, the eldest, is 11 and our player heir.  She is Fickle, Trusting, and Bossy meaning she will have either a good Steward or Martial education.
  
• Shola is 10 and is Shy (-2 Diplo, +1 Learning, -5 Attraction) and Slow (-2 All Stats, Congenital).  She is Curious, good for a Diplomacy or Learning education.
  
• Asiya is 2 and too young to tell on anything.
  

As a new ruler, our vassal situation isn't great:




It's never great, but there are a lot of big negative numbers here, and this is after I gave away court positions to all my most powerful vassals.  Emir Fadl is the only powerful vassal to not get a position, but that's just because the game is set up so there's always more powerful vassals than there are court positions.

We do have a sizeable purse, and i'm sure some of that will go towards feasting and maybe making a few titles to hide some of these ingrates behind.  But Ya'qub is not the Sadistic personality his father was, although being Wrathful will help him with some natural Dread.

Emir Reza is at least in prison and cannot stir up trouble there.  And a few vassals are underage:  the princes are both as is Sheikh Burhanaddin of Fafan.  They won't be able to rebel until they come of age.

Still, this looks like a challenging set to keep the empire together, let alone try to expand it.

[pindicator]

Malik Ya'qub, Part One:  Friends and Lovers


Ya'qub tried to get people to like him, to accept him.  He threw everybody a feast to start his reign off right.  His sister, Sheeftah, Queen of Syria, was there:




Sheeftah had been Ya'qub's closest friend and her there at the start of his ascension to the thrown gave Ya'qub a comfort and appreciation for their friendship.

He also made new friends:




Sheikh Murad of Baydhabo and Ya'qub got along splendidly during the feast, talking at length by themselves.  By the end of the night a new friendship was made.

Surely ruling was so simple if this was all there was too it, Ya'qub thought.

The day after the guests departed, Ya'qub started his pilgrimage.  He went to the Coptic shrines at Grnetti.  In a way to pay his respects, in a way to say goodbye.  For Ya'qub knew that he must take on the mantle of Nestorian if he was to rule their great kingdom.  His subjects would not accept a heretic as ruler.

When he returned, Ya'qub renounced his Coptic faith.  He pronounced he had seen that the Copts, while good people, were misguided and as he had been misguided and now reformed he hoped that they too would one day see the error of their ways and convert to the true Nestorian faith.

Surely that would be enough to appease the vassals?




Emira Saaman won the war against her revolting vassals, but lost her husband in the process.  He died from his wounds in battle.  She also lost her child, sickly at birth.  But she is young and also plotting to instill herself as the Queen of Yemen.  I think she'll be okay.
And a host of vassals also are demanding we lower Crown Authority:  Sheikh Murad of Asir, Emir Fadl II of Shihrid, Shiekh Umar ibn Umarid of Gidaya, Sheikh Siciid of Ganale.  Some of these are in Ethiopia, maybe they need their freedom...  But combined they are no threat, not even now.  Not even enough power to issue an ultimatum.




We form a plan on how to get Diskarkha-Hiraab back into our Dynasty.  Currently the leader there is the aging Geradad Saubhagyadevi and the throne will be passed to her oldest son, Aul Jilib of house Jilib.  He has no lands, but he has a son.  We arrange a matrilineal marriage between Aul's son, Barakat Jilib, and my half-sister, Nishan.  (Yes, this is the same half-sister that really isn't Kafa's daughter or any blood relation at all to Ya'qub, but Ya'qub doesn't know that yet.)

The months go by slowly.  The treasury fills slowly.  Ya'qub may be more of a steward than his father or grandfather before him, but he has lost much of their lands due to the inheritance of his brothers.  Boredom sets in.

The following March, raiders from Jubba cross into Baydhabo.  Ya'qub's new friend, Murad, immediately asks for aid and Ya'qub is there to help him rebuild.




Ya'qub is not satisfied with merely helping his friend rebuild, he is angry at the audacity of these Somali raiders.  Jubba is unallied and only has 1,700 troops.  He will teach them a lesson and bring them into the fold:




Unfortunately Eudosia, wife to Ya'qub and ruler of her own Petty Kingdom of Nobatia, also has her own ambitions.




She asks for his aid as Diskarkha's armies are gathering in Somalia.  Ya'qub being the man of modern values wants to see his wife succeed in her own endeavors.  (He also wants to pass a larger kingdom along to his heir, and this would be a fantastic way to expand into Nubia and the south of Egypt.)  This will be a simple enough task to juggle both:  Ya'qub will finish sieging down Jubba and then move north to assist his wife.  Makuria outnumbers Nobatia, so Eudosia will have to play for time until we can arrive.

Meanwhile, Prince Kuno of Jerusalem also joins in the war on Eudosia's side.  It is only a few hundred men, but every bit will help until we can come north and turn the tide against Makuria.

In December the county of Qalaafe falls.  Only Jubba to go.




Meanwhile 5,000 raiders from Samalo come from the west.  These Waaqi tribesmen are going to be an ever present thorn in our side until we can pacify the region and convert them all to Nestorianism.  For now we must keep our distance to keep things from going wrong.

They went wrong anyway.




Shiraz, a small realm of 3 counties in the south of present-day Iran, declared war for the Emirate of Oman.  They bring 2,600 troops and are the opposite corner of the kingdom.

Ya'qub finished the siege at Jubba and took over their lands




And then a decision to be made:  head north to help his wife or save the eastern lands of his kingdom?

He went north.  While Ya'qub marched north, word came from messengers congratulating him on his wife's pregnancy.  When Ya'qub arrives he questions his wife directly and she admits: in his absense, Mayor Ra'uf has taken her bed and the child is his.




Ya'qub decides to keep this a secret between them for now.  he must be patient lest he ruin his plan for his heir to inherit all of this.  And what if that son turns out to be someone else's child?




It was decided that Ra'uf should not live to see such a thing.  Even if the man is already ancient, Ya'qub is still a wrathful man.

Ya'qub also attempts to romance his wife.  Now that they are together, fighting side by side, surely their bond will only grow stronger?




Marriage is cruel.

[Amicalola]

Ya'qub also attempts to romance his wife.  Now that they are together, fighting side by side, surely their bond will only grow stronger?




Marriage is cruel.

That really is tragic. Poor Ya'qub.

Has anything particularly interesting happened in the wider world recently?

[pindicator]

Has anything particularly interesting happened in the wider world recently?

Nothin particularly crazy that I've noticed. The Seljuks' continued transformation and splintering is probably the biggest story, but this seems to be a game of many splinterings. I'll give a world overview after Ya'qub is done, but everybody seems weak and nobody seems particularly strong. There's no huge HRE like last game, for instance.

And poor Ya'qub indeed. If only this were the end of his troubles....

[sunrise089]

Mechanics question: your previous player character died and his land was split amongst three heirs. But does that mean you only CONTROL 1/3 of the land the first character did? Or do your two siblings become automatic vassals and so the empire itself is just as large? If the latter, is the main penalty that it's just harder to keep vassals in line versus controlling the land itself?

[pindicator]

Mechanics question: your previous player character died and his land was split amongst three heirs. But does that mean you only CONTROL 1/3 of the land the first character did? Or do your two siblings become automatic vassals and so the empire itself is just as large? If the latter, is the main penalty that it's just harder to keep vassals in line versus controlling the land itself?

So what happens is the latter, but there's an additional rule about vassals that's important:  you cannot have someone be a vassal of you if their title and your title are the same tier.  If you're a duke and you expand out your duchy past its de jure borders, and decide to give some land to your faithful vassal it's fine as long as you're giving him counties; he'll still be your vassal.  But if you ever make a 2nd duchy title and give it to that vassal he will automatically become independent because a duke cannot have another duke as a vassal; a king cannot have another king as their vassal, etc.

When the previous character (Kafa) died, he had a kingdom title (Malik), 2 duchy level titles (Emirates), and 6 county level titles (Sheikhdoms) to his name.  The game gave 1 Emirate to the oldest, Ya'qub, and a 2nd Emirate to the 2nd oldest, Ibrahim.  The third oldest then got a Shiekhdom from within Ya'qub's lands (which i think is wrong, it should have taken one of the counties from the 2nd oldest, because now the 2nd oldest got the most land and not the oldest).  If I had 2 kingdoms then it would have given the 2nd kingdom to Ibrahim and he would have then become independent.

This actually happened earlier in this game.  When my first character (Abraham II) died, he had not yet earned a kingdom level title.  And so all the duke-level titles split apart. 




But now because Ya'qub has a kingdom level title, all those duke-level titles are vassals under him. That's why I was pushing so hard from the start to get the Kingdom of Yemen, because it would keep the realm from splintering apart into duchies every time a leader died.

Now I "only" have to worry about disgruntled vassals. And yes, this will definitely come up in the next update.

[pindicator]

Malik Ya'qub, Part Two: The Wrathful King

Eudosia gives birth November 6, 1166 to a boy.  Ya'qub does his best to play the role of an expectant father.  A son means a stable inheritance, no longer will their 3 daughters split up the kingdom upon his death.  He tries not to let the fact that it is not his son eat at him too much during the day.




Whether a touching tribute or a turn of the knife, Eudosia offers to name the child after Ya'qub's father, Kafa.  It was well known by his death at how promiscuous the late ruler had been, a shamed adulterer.  But if the Mayor Ra'uf can be eliminated and then Ya'qub will raise the boy as his own and it won't matter who's blood runs in his veins, so long as everyone else who knows the secret is dead.

Thankfully he was not there to have to feign excitement and giddiness and all those other fatherhood feelings that he would have been expected to show.  He received word of all this as he marched west with his 4,500 men.  They had initially joined up with the Petty Queen's host, but she had her own idea on how things would go and so rather than linger and argue Ya'qub decided to just do what he thought best, and head west to stop the Makurian advance at Batn al-Hajar, just west of the capital.  Letting Makuria take the capital would be a major setback, and he had tried to tell Eudosia of this, but she wanted to take the lands south of Naqis: Wadi Amur and Atbara, and then circle west around to take the Makurian capital.

It would be too damned slow, and Ya'qub had said as much.  When he saw his words were falling on deaf ears he went west alone and in anger.

So he met the Makurian host alone, fighting in Serra, just east of the capital.  It was while the armies were pitching back and forth that news of "his" son's birth reached him.  After the news, he did his duty, won the day by killing off over 1,300 Makurians and their heretical Adamist commander, captured several of their counts, and drove the retreating men back to Makuria, before turning to march on their capital himself.

(Mechanics Note:  It really bothers me how long the battles take place for within this game.  Even the largest medieval battles lasted no more than a matter of hours.  In this game large battles will take weeks or sometimes even months!  I understand the desire to let the player reinforce battles with multiple stacks of units, but that kind of army coordination simply did not exist in this time period.  Even when the Mongols and Franks attempted to fight together against the Mamluks their armies would arrive weeks or months apart from each other.)

This war was also becoming costly.  Ya'qub was burning through about 8 gold per month and had burned through about half the treasury already.  He had hoped to recoup some losses with ransoming prisoners, but he had only been able to ransom a handful of counts.

From the east a message was received at the end of the year:  Shiraz had taken Julfar and was marching east to Muscat.




Ya'qub contined his march to the capital.  Surely Makuria would break when it fell.  He retook Batn al-Hajar and then in June finished the siege at Sai.  This opened up the pathway to the capital, at least.

In June we received word from Oman that the keep at Hafit fell to Shiraz.

But Ya'qub is preoccupied with matters of the family.  His oldest daughter, Princess Rafiqa, has come of age.  Rafiqa was married matrilineal to some well-statted noble with no land and no claims.  There were no good alliances and Ya'qub was eager to have more Diskarkhans to give future conquests to.  While searching for a husband for Rafiqa, he notices that the ruler of Baqlin is a 10 year old boy.  We have a 12 year old daughter who is ... less than desireable.  It is a perfect match:




Ya'qub felt rather proud of himself.  Shola's inability to grasp even the simplest lessons had always trigged his anger, and now he would be rid of her and gain an alliance to the north.

Perhaps he should have checked if Baqlin was at war first, but in his excitement he was a little hasty in agreeing to terms.  In the coming weeks the requests poured in:




Ya'qub, honor bound to agree, ended up fighting in 3 more wars.  Though he secretly decided he would not raise a finger or send a single troop to Baqlin's aid.  And so Baqlin began to lose, and the large kingdom to the north and west shrank in size.




Halwasid broke free just the following month, so there was probably nothing that could have been done in that war.  But Alwa would eventually take a county off of Baqlin and Ya'qub would not send a single troop to aid.  He was too busy in his own wars.  Besides, Halwasid now looks like an expansion opportunity, if we could ever break free from these wars.

Which means we need to finish off Makuria quickly so we can then defeat Shiraz.

Meanwhile, we get a chance to go through with our assassination attempt on the Mayor.  It's only 20% odds but really I don't want to put any more resources towards it.  Or perhaps Ya'qub's wrath has blinded him and he insists on pushing forward regardless, a la Adam Driver / Kylo Ren.




And with similar results:  The mayor not only evades the assassin but captures her and learns that we were the ones behind his death all along.  "Well, it's not like he's going to live much longer, anyway" Ya'qub rationalizes.

Which is what happened.  Although the game never saw fit to rival the mayor and I didn't think to pin his character, so I don't know exactly when he died.  Sometime before the end of this update.

In January of 1168 another holding in Oman falls to Shiraz.  We're still working on the Makurian capital.

But it happens finally on Feb 8:




Only 80%?  For all these sieges and won wars, they still will not come to the table.  Ya'qub can hear Eudosia's "I told you so" from clear across the other end of Makuria.  So he heads east.

Not to help her, she can finish this war on her own.  It's time to save Oman while he still can.  On his way out, Eudosia finishes her siege at Abwab and that gets her to 100%; the war is finished!




We're just going to ignore Alwa beating the crap out of Baqlin and continue east.

You can see the war has really put a dent in our treasury.  What was over 500g at the beginning of his reign is now less than half, and Ya'qub will lose another 100g just to buy transport for the troops to be ferried to Muscat.  (There are no boats in CK3; but you have to pay both an up-front fee and increased monthly fees to transport your troops by water.)

When our troops landed in Muscat it was November of 1168 and we were down to 120 gold.

It was never really a fair fight against Shiraz.




Unfortunately the real battle was against the treasury.  And the vassals getting more and more upset at the lack of funds.

Ya'qub could have taken white peace, but he wanted to make Shiraz pay.  And so he chased them across the Straights of Hormuz to their lands (now down to 60 gold) and laid siege to Irahistan in April of 1169.  We move on to Shiraz itself after Irahistan falls and we are broke.




And Eudosia with another child.  Is this one Ya'qub's?

Related (or rather not related), the world finds out that Nishan is not the daughter of Kafa.  Strangely nobody seems to care.  She was born of House Diskarkha and she stays of House Diskarkha.  Mogadishu could still end up ruled by her children and fall back into Diskarkhan hands again.  Funny that worked out so.  But Jilib still agrees to honor the marriage and will still even marry matrilineal.

The following year Eudosia gives birth to a second son, Prince Halil.  We ask the church for funds to get us through this rough patch:




I watched the treasury march down again as we had to chase Shiraz down.  Again, I could have just taken the white peace.  But it was another year and a half of chasing their troops until finally in October 1172 we hit 100 war score.  The 234 gold we received from Shiraz was almost worth what we spent fighting them off.

And then literally 2 days after signing peace:




Now it is my Eudosia's sister, Petty Queen Pelagia of Naqis, who asks us to help with their war!  They are at -97% and fighting a much larger Egypt.  Someone in Naqis thought it would be a good idea to take Cairo.

And Ya'qub couldn't say no.

In fact, he decided he'd go ahead and declare a war of his own before raising all his armies again.




Ta'if was just a speed bump.  One county and an ally too far away to help.  No problem at all.

Except the vassals weren't exactly seeing it that way.




Years of toying with bankruptcy and being in constant war had many of the vassals thinking a change in leadership was needed.  And the strongest voice speaking out against Ya'qub was his own brother, Ibrahim.

But if Ya'qub could just end his war with Ta'if quickly and let Naqis suffer a sure defeat then he would be fine.  All he had to do was play it safe and not go to Egypt.

[pindicator]

Sorry for the lack of movement here. I haven't had much will to play anything lately, let alone write up what I've played. I do want to continue this at some point, and I still need to write up what I've played to. Hopefully by the weekend I can at least post something on what has already been played.

[Amicalola]

I hope things begin to improve for you soon. Also, this thread has been the best content on RB for a while now. No pressure.

[pindicator]

Ya'qub, Part Three:  The Brother Behind the Throne

A short update, just to get something down.

The vassals of Diskarkha were tired of years of wars and the growing insolvancy of their kingdom.  Ya'qub had inherited a land flush with hundreds of gold and had burned through that in 10 years.  Rumblings and whispers between confidants grew louder and bolder.  WIth their king oblivious or off fighting in another foreign war, they began to turn into actions and sedition.  It began with small things, when the Sheikh of Aqiq began holding back on taxes:




Ya'qub suspected but ultimately could not prove anything.  He was too focused on fighting his wars.

Ta'if should have been a simple conquest and siege.  The enemey army was defeated, a detachment with the best siege engines left behind to take down the walls, while the remaining 4,500 troops sailed (at the cost of 50 gold) across the Red Sea to Cairo and began laying siege.  But there had been a miscalculation:




Ta'if's allies were quicker to arrive than Ya'qub had thought.  The sieging forces were able to retreat away, but the quick war was turning into a longer one.

Ya'qub's failures only caused the grumblings to grow.




This wasn't a declaration of war, but merely a claim laid to the throne.  It was the first step in a path that ended with Ya'qub in a prison cell or worse.

And the military failures continued:




It was never clear what caused the Naqis to capitulate, but with Cairo less than a month away from falling they signed peace withi Egypt and suddenly all of the expense and effort of sailing to Egypt had been for nothing.  Ya'qub had burned through his treasury again and yet had no choice to but to go further in debt in order to sail his fleet back to salvage the war for Ta'if.

6 months later they made their way to Ta'if and secured an important win:




Though a costly one.  Now they were over 120 gold in debt.  The vassals' grumblings became louder.  Plots began to be formed.  Ya'qub's own brother, the largest backer of Geradad Sheeftah, was growing his influence.




Here Ya'qub could have made swift action and imprisoned his brother, yet he did not.  He borrowed more money to pay him off.  This bought him some time, but it did not ultimately change his brother's heart.

Time he used to finish the siege at Ta'if and end the war.

But by the end of the year, his time had run out




Ibrahim brought the demands of half a dozen of the strongest vassals in Diskarkha:  abdicate the throne and let his Aunt Sheeftah take over, or else.

Socotra was about to have its first civil war.