The Rise of Socotra - a Crusader Kings 3 Story

[Bobchillingworth]

Aw, I'm kind of happy that this randomly-generated fictional character was able to make peace with his AI-controlled brother before the RNG decided he was dead.

[Gustaran]

This is the same Jamal whose physician said he was mortally wounded in the first battle of Ta'izz back in the time of the rebelling vassals, and said to perish any moment.  Yet here he is, alive and plotting decades later.  The man is a cockroach.

[pindicator]

Yeah, I find myself getting attached to these characters too often. Or sometimes just really loathing some of my vassals. Like Emir Jamal II. Can you believe he outlived Yaqub?

Working on a family tree update for the interregnum report. I'm interested to see what the different branches of Diskarkha are up to!

[pindicator]

Malik Kafa II, Interregnum Report:  The Diskarkha Family Tree




With 69* living family members, there's a lot of ground to cover.

Let's start with a recap of Ya'qub's children.

Ya'qub




In order of age:

Princess Rafiqa did not marry into land but did marry matrilineal so that her children are still in the family.  She has three children:  boys Dioskoros and Leon (her husband is of Greek culture), and daughter Eustephanou.  Eustephanou did marry into land, and her husband is Sheikh Reza of Showa.  Showa is one of the newly conquered lands of Abyssinia, which Emira Saaman brought into the kingdom before her demise.

Princess Shola was originally married to Emir Abad of Baqlin, back when there was a Baqlin.  But her boys have inherited more than her Slow trait: they hold on to the remnants of their father's lands.  Nazir holds the county of Suakin and Sheib has Bazin; both are young and unmarried.  The middle child is Shaykhah Badeea, wife of Sheikh Liban of Qalaafe.

Princess Asiya, the third daughter, is married to the Emir of Mogadishu, Gerad Hamalmal.  But wait, wasn't there some kind of grand plan to bring Diskarkha back onto the rule of Mogadishu and didn't that succeed?  Sadly Kafa Mogadishu was but a boy when he came to the throne, and he was still a boy when he died of mysterious circumstances.  The Jilib Dynasty is back in power in Mogadishu, and while we are tied by blood, the children and heirs are all of Jilib patronage.

Malik Kafa II is us.  Boring.

Prince Halil has been covered fairly well before also.  He has inherited the Emirate of Medina and the Sheikhdom of Ganale.

Zooming out a bit, let's look at the brothers and sisters of Malik Ya'qub and their descendants




Malik Ya'qub was the 2nd child of Malik Kafa I.  His older sister, Sheeftah, had been Queen of Syria, married to King Etienne before he died of old age in 1170.  They only had 1 child, Queen Berengere, who ruled Syria as its queen for 7 years before dying too young.  At 25 she died giving birth to her daughter, Princess Kinga.  Berengere married the oldest son of King Peter III of Hungary, and Peter IV now rules Hungary and has remarried (twice; the man goes through Queens quite rapidly it seems).  Berengere's oldest, King Istvan, now rules Syria, and stands to inherit Hungary when his father dies.




Back to the Diskarkha family, we already know of Prince Ibrahim and his failed rebellion followed by dying in battle in the defeat at Baqlin, and how his oldest son Sulayman now rules in San'a.  Ibrahim had 3 other children, and they are all intertwined in Diskarkha Sheikhdoms and Emirates.  His second child, Sahba, married Emir Isa.  Isa himself is a distant Diskarkha branch, though has created his own Cadet Branch under the name of House Nizwid.  More on him later.  The third child, Setara, is married to Shamir Diskarkha, the landless younger brother of Emir Reza II of Mecca.  Ibrahim's youngest is his son Shujah, Sheikh of Tihamat al-Yamani and vassal under Sulayman.

Ya'qub's younger sister was Princess Nishan, who was central to the plot which briefly saw Mogadishu return to Diskarkha rule.  However her son, Kafa, inherited too young and with too little support, and so the Emirate was only his for 5 months before he was assassinated.  Nishan has gone on to marry Emir Sulayman of San'a' (yes, she is both his husband and his aunt), and has gone on to have 2 more children with Sulayman.

Finally, the youngest son is Prince Malik, whom Ya'qub made peace with shortly before his death.  Malik's oldest is his daughter Faghira, and she continues the proud Diskarkha tradition of marrying her close (but not too close) kin.  Faghira is married to Sheikh Shujah, her cousin and Ibrahim's youngest son.  Together they rule in Tihamat al-Yamani and have 4 children.  Prince Malik rules 2 Sheikhdoms in northern Medina.

Anyway, let's go up another level and look at Kafa I's siblings and what branches they led off to




Malik Eliya had 10 children, so this part is going to be broken up a bit.

After Malik Kafa I, there was Queen Makda of Gujarat.  If you remember, Queen Makda was a dwarf who was married to King Karnadeva II of Gujarat in hopes of expanding our influence into India, but she died in battle (and while pregnant!), and that alliance dissolved as quickly as our aspirations to get into India.  Makda had 3 daughters before her untimely death.  The first two met death on the battlefield like their mother, and the third lived to be the ripe old age of 53 before having a heart attack.  Makda does have many grandchildren, but the only ones of note are through her middle daughter, Thakurani Suhava of Sonda.  Her oldest daughter is also named Suhava and currently holds the Thakurani (count-level) title in Sonda like her mother before her.  There is one other Thakurani, Suhava's youngest daughter who rules in Dhamalpur.  So there are still some in Gujarat who can trace their lines back to Diskarkha.




Shola was Eliya's third child, and she married Petty King Athanasios of Nobatia.  Shola is the mother of current Queen Mother Eudosia of Nobatia, mother of our current ruler Kafa II.  Shola's second daughter, Pelagia Azim, married Emir Reza II of Meca.  And then Shola had 2 more children with a second husband, Prince Kuno von Waldenstein of Jerusalem.  The two sons she gave birth to with Kuno did not inherit any lands, though they both have claims on all of Diskarkha!

Prince Eliya II was the fourth child, and he was one of my favorite characters from our Kafa I playthrough.  Or rather, it was his daughter that I enjoyed following.  Prince Eliya was given Hadramawt after its conquest and then after he was murdered by Reza Rezaid over the love of his wife Theoktitste, the rule of Hadramawt fell on his daughter and only child, Saaman.  Emira Saaman we should be familiar from our last playthrough: she expanded into Abyssinia and had 4 children of her own.  Her oldest, daughter Taliba, is married to the Count of South Korodfan, a county in the far east of Darfur.  Her second child and oldest son is Emir Eliya III, who rules Hadramawt currently.  And her youngest son, Reza, is the Sheikh of Showa, in conquered Abyssinia.

Eliya then had 3 daughters, Souzan, Shokouh, and Sabba.  Princess Souzan married Count Narses of Isauria and had one son who is now Count of Karia, a county in southwest Anatolia.  Princess Shokouh had 3 children.  The daughters have married well, becoming the Emira of Mecca and the Duchess of Homs.  The son did not; he became Princess Souzan's second husband and she died without giving him any children.  Princess Sabba married a courtier from India and some of their children hold lands in India.  Thakur Keerti-Verma of Dhamalpur and so the family tree branches back in on itself again there.

Princess Maka comes next, and her branch of the Diskarkha line is where our current rulers in Mecca are descended from.  She married Reza Rezaid (before he killed her older brother, Eliya), and their oldest son is the current ruler of Mecca, Emir Reza II.  Her second son, Shamir, was Emira Saaman second husband before she died, and together their son Sheikh Reza rules in Showa.

Princess Sheeftah is next.  She married Gerad Talib II of Lasta and was the source of our alliances with Lasta and really one of the beginnings of how Nestorianism started to spread into Ethiopia.  However, their children have all died from the battlefield, and Talib has gone on to remarry.

Finally is Princess Taneen.  She was the one who was propped up by Emir Jamal II of Sanaag, who took over Socotra from Sheikh Reza and sent him packing to Showa.  Taneen is married but has no children and so her branch will end with her passing.




And finally we're up to where we started, Emir Abraham III.

It's a bit of a trip down memory lane, but I forgot how many of Abraham's children died young in battle.  All 5 of his sons were slain in battle, though some younger than others.  Some of them did escape that early meat grinder and started their own households - though I'm uncertain why we haven't seen more cadet branches since that initial spate.  Gerad Samir was the original ruler of Mogadishu, but sadly his sons also died young and the title of Geradad of Mogadishu went on to his second daughter, Saubhagyadevi (Indian-culture wife influenced the names here).  She married into House Jilib and her second child and only son was Gerad Aul Jilib.  House Jilib continues to rule Mogadishu to this day, though we certainly tried to get it back from them.  Perhaps we'll try again.

Abraham's fourth child, Habiba, was the wife of the King of Abyssinia, Negus Kedus.  They ruled Abyssinia until these last decades where it was taken by my spirited vassals.

Sheikh Bhima was the ruler of Baydhabo, but he only had 1 son, Gerad Mukhtar, and Mukhtar had no children of his own.

Sheikh Nasr of Socotra died before he could have any children.




Emir Zulfiqar is the only branch that really has gotten some depth to it.  He inherited the Emirate of Mahra upon Abraham's death, and founded House Shihrid. (Their house motto, "Piety over Liberty", sounds absolutely terrifying to me personally).  Mahra was passed down to Zulfiqar's oldest son, Emir Fadl II, and then to his oldest son, Faruk, but Faruk lost the lands in a war with his neighbors from House Nizwid.  Currently Faruk still holds the title of Sheikh, but only because his wife is Shaykhah of Nugaal, a county on the Horn of Africa within the Sabbid Emirate.  Mahra has passed entirely from House Shihrid, though Aram Shihrid is heir to Nugaal so they look to still carry on in Sabbid.




It is through the youngest son of Emir Zulfiqar that the line continued on the strongest.  Sheikh Abdul-Wahab was only given the small desert provine of Al-As'a', but lived to the long age of 72 so that it was only in 1186 that the lands were passed on to his second son Isa.  Isa was granted the conquered lands of Oman and added them to his empire, using the new prestige to create his own house with Diskarkha, House Nizwid.  Isa would continue on to join in the failed rebellion against Malik Ya'qub.  But he also conquered House Shihrid and took the Emirate of Mahra from the rival house.




Nizwid is now ruled by Emir Isa's second son, Khalil, and Mahra by the third son Aghlab.

And that's about all.  I'm a little disappointed that we haven't been able to extend our dynasty outside our borders.  We have a few relations in the Holy Land and India, but they are through marriage and do not have the name Diskarkha on them.  Only in the Horn of Africa do we see Diskarkha show up as a ruling house outside of our borders.  Perhaps I will try to work on that more in the upcoming playthrough.

*Nice

[pindicator]

Kafa II, Part One:  In Their Fathers' Footsteps

Let's meet the new King!




Kafa II is:

• Honest: +2 Diplo, -4 Intrigue, and Virtuous for Nestorianism giving us that +1 monthly Piety
  
• Fickle: +2 Diplo, -2 Stewardship, +1 Intrigue, +20% Hostile Scheme Resistance
  
• Trusting: +2 Diplo, -2 Intrigue, +15 Opinion for Liege and Vassals, +15% Enemy Hostile Scheme Success Chance
  (The Hostile Scheme bonuses are confusingly worded.  Are they canceling each other out or do they play off of different calculations?)
  
• Skilled Tactician: +6 Martial, +30% Martial Lifestyle Experience
  
• Reckless (Commander Trait): -4 Minimum Battle Roll, +6 Maximum Battle Roll
  

Since Kafa already has a military education we will go for the Authority branch of the Military Lifestyle tree, and try to use the Control boosts to help improve the economy.  All of Kafa's direct holdings are below 100 Control due to the various wars.

First thing is first, we put our powerful vassals on the council, all except Emir Khalil of the Nizwid Emirate.  The larger you get, the more vassals that are disgnated "powerful" you get, and at a Kingdom rank I will always have 5.  With only 4 available council slots (Nestorianism has church appointed bishops), that means someone will always be left out.  I am trying to avoid a repeat of Ya'qub where we were fighting rebellion for so long.

Council is left largely to their previous tasks, but the Chancellor is now improving Domestic opinion and the ArchBishop is asked to convert an Ash'ari county in Oman instead of fabricating claims like he had been.  I would like to solidify vassal opinion before heading off to war.

Next, we spend 200 gold to host a feast.




Unfortunately the people I was most hoping to influence are among the people who have declined the invitation.  Not attending are Emir Aghlab of Mahra, Emir Khalil of Nizwid (Oman), Emir Sulayman of San'a, Emir Qawurd II of Jawf al-Yamani, and Sheikh Gebre of Ifat.  All of those are rulers of emirates on the peninsula except for Gebre, who has 2 counties located in conquered Abyssinia.

I also start a personal scheme to influence Emir Khalil.  He seems the strongest and potentially the most dangerous.

All of this seemed to be for nothing, as the factions start forming within the month.




First was Emir Sulayman, hoping to supplant Kafa as ruler of Diskarkha.  Backing him are Emir Eliya III 'The Bully' of Hadramawt, Kafa's brother Prince Halil of Medina, Emir Aghlab, and Emir Qawurd II

Second was our old friend, Emir Jamal II of Sanaag.  He was pushing for an independence faction, and had gained follwers in Emir Khalil and Sheikh Harire of Berbera.

With ultimatums able to be pressed in 8 months, revolt was inevitable.  No more time for placating with gifts and pressing opinions, it was time for military measures.  We have no allies, but we do have 3 young daughters and it is time to find them some future husbands.




Princess Parween is our oldest daughter at 14 years of age.  For her we find a Byzantium prince, Prince Eudoxios.  Eudoxios is 2nd in line to the throne and will actually agree to a matrilineal marriage (a necessity for me with 3 daughters and no sons).  However, Eudoxios' father is currently in a war against rebels aiming to overthrow him and take the throne, so this is not as solid an alliance as it may appear.




Princess Sarah, Kafa's second daughter, is 6 years old and betrothed in a matrilineal marriage to the youngest son of the Jayasimhid Kingdom.  Again, internal divisions abound, but hopefully they will save us from ours and won't drag us into theirs.

Byzantium does ask us to join in their war, but Jayasimhid handles their affiars internally.  The Byzantine situation is far worse than I thought; they are fighting an army of almost 50,000 troops with a fraction of that force.  They call us into their war, but I will not send my troops north to be slaughtered when my own rebellion is about to kick off.

In November the first revolt comes, but it is not one that I expected:




The peasants have revolted at Dathina, demanding lower taxes.  We raise our armies and slaughter them there.  But that is just the first stone; the avalanche is coming.  Our alliances have actually made Emir Sulayman lose some of his power and backers, and he no longer has enough faction strength to issue his demand.  However, the independence movement led by Emir Jamal looks to be inevitable.

And then an opportunity came to court:




Iftiin Geledi arrived at court with claims for all of Mogadishu.  Not exactly an exceptional event; guests arrive at court all the time with this claim or that.  But Iftiin is interesting because her husband is Aram Shihrid of House Shihrid, who we mentioned briefly in the last post about the different branches of the Diskarkha Dynasty.  If I were to pay the 165 gold to recruit Iftiin to court, I could then press her claims and install her as ruler of Mogadishu, and her children - of the Diskarkha dynasty - would go on to rule Mogadishu.  They would also come under our direct rule.

But we still have a rebellion to deal with first, and so I save my gold as that would be the bulk of my treasury.

It only takes 2 more months for the disgruntled vassals to declare themselves openly:




It's largely the same crowd as when the faction started, except it appears Emir Qawurd got cold feet and pulled out.  Good for him; he will be spared.

But Emir Jamal II avoids punishment by dying that November.  His granddaughter now rules and continues the rebellion.

For my part, I muster my troops at Zaila and plan on hitting the smaller rebelling Berbera and Sanaag on the Horn of Africa.  I leave Nizwid alone for now.




Through the end of the year the rebels fall back to the sea and we are left to siege down provinces.  We go all the way through Sanaag to Busaso.  (Remember Busaso?  That was the place Emir Abraham III first made landfall when he was first trying to break out from Socotra.  Then the tribes at Sanaag, which had come from Fafan, pushed east and kicked us back into the sea.)  But at Busaso we fell into the enemy trap:




The Nizwid army came by sea and landed at Sabbid, undetected by me.  There they met with the retreating Sanaag and Berbera armies and together their force rivaled mine.  We supposedly had the advantage, but still managed to lose the opening fight, and retreated back to Zaila.

While the enemy worked to retake the sieged holdings in Sanaag and Berbera, we moved west to Ifat and so traded one set of sieged lands for another.

And then our allies arrived.




6,300 troops from India landed in Zaila.  We patiently waited for our sieges at Ifat to finish and then our combined armies trounced the rebels in Berbera.




Somehow Byzantium comes out of their war with a white peace.  I do not know what caused them to prevail over such a large force; they must have captured the rebelling Doux in battle.  As we prevail at Berbera over 10,000 troops from Byzantium eventually arrive.  We all siege down Sanaag and the war is finished.  We did not even have to invade Nizwid to get their surrender.

All did not go so wonderfully, however.  While I was dealing with putting my vassals into their place, tragedy befell Iftiin.




Zohreh Shihrid is a damn idiot.  I was going to use Iftiin's claim on Mogadishu to let House Shihrid rule there.  Iftiin was married to her older brother, so I wonder if there was some other dynamic going on there, something that has not yet been discovered by Kafa.

So my plans to invade Mogadishu came to a crashing halt right as I was ready to capitalize on them.  That is how things go sometimes.  But we have solidified our rule over the kingdom far quicker and better than Ya'qub did, and now we have the ability to take our pick in how to grow the realm.

Oh, and one more thing happened:




But that is all the way on the far side of the map.  Certainly nothing we need to worry about.

[Miguelito]

Finally a ruler with some useful stats (if I understand that correctly, the 16 diplo/martial is pretty good, right?). How important are bad stats (like Kafa's stewardship), if you have a skilled council member for the task? While at it, could you show the council in the next update?

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

"Ruler of the Universe" is the funniest translation for the Genghis Khan title.  It makes him sound like the Evil Power Master rather than an earthly emperor.


The concept of the matrilineal marriage bothered me in Crusader Kings 2 and it still annoys me here.  Was it ever common in the real Middle Ages?   It sounds like a device contrived by Paradox to circumvent their own inheritance mechanics that don't work well for playing as queens regnant.

[pindicator]

Finally a ruler with some useful stats (if I understand that correctly, the 16 diplo/martial is pretty good,  right?). How important are bad stats  (like Kafa's stewardship), if you have a skilled council member for the task?  While at it,  could you show the council in  the next update?

I certainly have had my share of bad-stat rulers this playthrough. The stats do matter for different things, but the councillors really don't help unless you take the Learning Lifestyle tree perk of Learn on the Job. That gives your ruler 20% of the councilor's stat added to their own. But the stats also give different benefits for your ruler as compared to your councilor. We do already get 20% of our wife's stats added onto our character, or she can be set to focus on one aspect for a 50% boost in that area (and nothing in the others).

For some reason I don't have a screenshot of the council, so here is what they look like a few years ahead:




I've played farther than I've reported, but I don't remember having any turnover so it should be the same people. For councilors, each have 3 actions they can take and each of those actions have positive and negative events associated with them. For instance, here is when I hover over the chancellor's current task of Integrating the Emirate of Mecca into the Kingdom of Yemen.




You can see there's a list of possible events, with beneficial events in green and negative events in red. The higher the councilor's stat, the more green and less red you get, and I believe if it is 15 or more then you don't get any negative events at all. In addition, the stat plays into how well the councilor does their job. Actually, this is a bad example because the tooltip doesn't show how much the stat helps towards integrating the title, but it is actually 0.035 progress per Diplomacy stat point per month.

I can find that by actually clicking on the Integrate Title button and hovering over different titles that I want to incorporate.




EDIT: If you are wondering what De Jure Drift is, I plan on explaining that in a later update.

And each councilor has different ways their primary stat helps the task: Stewards can increase taxes, encourage development, or promote your primary culture in regions; Spymasters disrupt enemy schemes, support your schemes, or find secrets; Marshalls organize levies, train commanders, or increase control in counties; and archbishops improve religious relations, convert faith in counties, and fabricate claims on counties.

With your ruler, their own stats effect all these things passively regardless of what your councilors are tasked with, and you can't really see how unless you look at the tooltips. So let's look at Kafa again (the screenshot is taken in 1209, so some of his stats have changed):




Stats will scale benefits depending on how good a leader is at them, and some stats will even give a negative. For here, I believe 12 is the "average" break even point. So with Stewardship I get -6% taxes because Kafa's stewardship stat is so poor. I won't list out everything they do, but here is a link to the CK3 wiki which has a nice chart at the top of the page.

The concept of the matrilineal marriage bothered me in Crusader Kings 2 and it still annoys me here.  Was it ever common in the real Middle Ages?   It sounds like a device contrived by Paradox to circumvent their own inheritance mechanics that don't work well for playing as queens regnant.

Yeah, there are a number of immersion breaking aspects, and they all seem to stem from the fact that birth rates in game are far lower than what you saw historically. So because there's less birth rates, they now have to tune down child mortality rates. Now there's more odds that you have all daughters and no sons since there are less "dice rolls" for children's sex. Now there are less unlanded sons running around creating problems. (I have the opposite problem; i can't find enough Diskarkha males to give out all my titles to!) And so on.

And I think I get it; the game would probably grind to a halt if you upped the birth rate and the game had to track every single character. But it does leave room for improvement in ck4 I suppose

[pindicator]

Kafa II, Part Two: As the Kingdoms Expand

With the rebelling vassals defeated, it is time for Kafa to meet out his punishment.

• From Sheikh Gebre of Ifat we take the province of Sitti and then demand he convert from Coptic to Nestorianism.  Then we spend 200 gold to create the Emirate of Showa, grant that title to our cousin Sheikh Reza (now Emir Reza) of Showa, and this makes Sheikh Gebre transfer to be his vassal and no longer my problem.
  
• From Sheikh Harire of Berbera we take his ransom of 29 gold (all he has).
  
• From Shaykhah Ubax of Socotra we take Socotra back; this must go back to Diskarkha hands.  Socotra is then gifted to our Nephew, Dioskoros Diskarkha.  Dioskoros is the oldest son of Kafa's oldest sister, Rafiqa, and even though Rafiqa has a matrilineal marriage she still did not inherit any of Ya'qub's lands due to being a woman.
  [*[From Emira bint Naleye of Sanaag, we take her ransom of 95 gold (all she has).
  
• Emir Khalil stays in my dungeons for now.  I am unlikely to take any lands from him, but instead wait for him to afford the 100 gold ransom price before I let him out.
  

With our armies strong and our internal issues largely resolved, it is time to expand the kingdom.  Kafa's first target is the remnants of Shirazid.  Once a strong Muslim emirate within Ethiopia, Shirazid is down to a handful of counties.




Kafa declares for the lands within the de Jure Emirate of Shirazid.  Shirazid is already at war with Dawaro for the county of Bali in the south, and shortly after we invade Dawaro wins their war and takes Bali for themselves.  Their armies are already defeated and all we need to do is move in, siege the fortresses, and the lands are incorporated into Diskarkha.




From here Kafa takes some time to plan his next move.  Expansion is what he wants to aim for, but the treasury is very empty and he does not want to repeat the mistakes of his father.  However, there are many weak neighbors, and a very tempting opportunity in the north:  Jerusalem is without allies and has a queen ruler who is still a child.  But we spend the rest of 1203 and 1204 at peace, gathering strength and building the treasury.  In addition, none of our counties are at 100 control, and so our Marshal is sent to help improve the Control.  With more county control we will be able to pull in more taxes and help increase our strength internally.  To that effect, when the next Martial Lifestyle perk comes up in September of 1204 we pick Serve the Crown in the Authority branch for it's bonus of 0.3 Control growth per month.

In June of 1204 the Mongols invade Liao.




Internally there are more housekeeping matters to attend to:  Kafa has picked up another Duchy title with the conquest of Shirazid and so he needs to gift one to a vassal to prevent a negative Opinion penalty.  I realize that I only gave Dioskoros the Sheikhdom title for Socotra and gift the Emirate of Socotra title to him as well now.  We gift more provinces to dynasty members:  Sulayman Shihrid gets the Sheikhdom of Sitti for his rule.  I also gift the Sheikhdom of Zaila to one of my long standing knights, Hafiz.  I also spend the 200 gold to make it an Emirate and give him that title of well, just so I don't have to deal with the Sheikh of Berbera any longer; now he falls under the Emirate of Zaila and can be Hafiz's problem.

In September, Emir Khalil has finally amassed 100 gold and I give him his freedom.  My other options were to let him rot in prison or to take one of his 5 counties and gift it to some prick of a vassal to give him trouble in the future.  But I didn't think him losing 1 of 5 counties would be that much of a thorn in his side, and I'd like to try to repair the relationship since it is still early in Kafa II's rule.

In November, Byzantium asks us to aid them in another uprising Doux.  This time it is Doux Manuel claiming to be the true ruler of the Byzantine throne.  They outnumber him greatly on their own, so I do not plan on sending any troops north.  A few month slater, the Danes join in the war to aid the Emperor.  I do not think they will have any problems here.

Instead, Kafa keeps his eye on securing his southern borders.




Again catching a neighbor while they're already in another war, this time it is Dawaro that Kafa invades for their territories within the de jure kingdom of Adal.  Dawaro is already attacking Dara to their west; the lands within the kingdom of Damot are fractured and weak.

In May the sieges of the counties end and we capture the heir of Dawaro.  This lets us finish the war without a single battle.




Dawaro would go on to win their war against Dara and rename themselves Bali, after their remaining home territory.  Kafa largely was finished with his southern expansion after this war, and next would turn his attention north.




Jerusalem has fractured!  What looked like it was a strong state, despite being led by the child Queen Heike, has now lost the Duchy of Outrejourdain and the County of Ghazza.  I am not sure what caused this break as I did not see a war.  Perhaps the Faction sent their demand and the AI Queen just accepted it?  In any case, the path to the holy land seems a lot clearer.

Kafa wastes little time and declares on the sheikhdom of Tayma' on Jerusalem's doorstep, raising 5,000 men to go against the 1,200 of Tayma'.




Prince Halil has also gotten into the spirit of expansion and is attacking the Emirate of Najd in Holy War.  Halil would go on to be thoroughly defeated and his expedition into Najd fruitless.  Meanwhile our troops would go north and slaughter the forces of Tayma'.  Splitting the forces in half, we siege both Tayma's holdings at once.

There is a little bit of worry when Tayma' suddenly allies the Abbadids, but the Abbadids are too far away and our sieges are too quick.  We capture the leader of Tayma' in the siege of the capital and the war is done.

And then the unthinkable happens:  Byzantium loses!




Doux Manuel is now Basileus Manuel, and no longer am I allied to the eastern roman empire.  I am not at all sure how this happened; they must have captured the emperor in battle and made him force to subjugate.  In any case, this is a big blow to Kafa's expansion north as calling Byzantium in against Jerusalem was the strategy we had in mind.

Kafa decides to go to Jerusalem anyway, and do some personal scouting




When Kafa returns, bursting at the seems with Piety, he continues his holy wars northward.  Next up is the tiny Sheikhdom of Ma'an.  In October we defeat their armies and capture their heir, ending the war quick.  So Kafa continues north, and attacks Jilat.




And again captures a valuable hostage, this time capturing Emir Akab ibn Aziz.  Jilat is taken.

Shortly after this we are given an alliance offer from Luuq, a large vassal within Samalo.  Having a strong ally in our south will go a long ways, and so I agree.

Speaking of strong southern neighbors, Mogadishu declared on Sabbid and took the territory of Mareeg.




This was very agreeable for Kafa, as Mogadishu's ruler, Gerad Hamalmal, does not have any male heirs.  His oldest daughter, Mulki Jilib, is betrothed to Nasr Nizwid, son of Emir Aghlab of Mahra and heir to the Emirate of Mahra.  Mogadishu may come into our realm after all without a drop of blood being spilled (well, not by me anyway; they are spilling plenty on their own).  Further, their second oldest daughter is married to Leon Diskarkha, youngest son of Rafiqa.  It seems inevitable that Mogadishu comes back into Diskarkha hands.




All these new lands meant Kafa continued to need to find new people to oversee them.  And so it was in 1207 that he decided to legitimize the bastard children of Munya Diskarkha.  I dont' think we still know who the father was for any of them, but they all bear the name Diskarkha and if I were to grant the territory to them without being legitimized they would start a new Dyansty.  I suppose it's a silly thing, but I'm trying to spread the Diskarkha name far and wide here.  It really only means something for Renoun for more independent rulers with the Diskarkha name, however.

To her oldest, Aram Diskarkha, I grant Tabuk and Tayma' in the Emriate of Shammar.




Looking back, it seems that this was the moment where the rift between Kafa II and his cousin, Emir Sulayman of San'a began.  The feast by all accounts was a wonderful thing and the two rulers started off on very good terms with each other




But then Kafa opened the wrong door and out tumbled Sulayman with the lowborn Walia of Sa'da.  Sulayman blamed Kafa for his secret affair getting out and the embarassment he suffered from this.  I bring it up here, but we won't see the fallout of this until a few years farther down the line.

Around this time the Yemeni culture discovered Hoardings, allowing them to build the next level of fortifications in their holdings.  But our gold is being saved for another use and we have not upgraded any buildings during this time.  Next we set our Cultural Fascination to be Guilds for the +1 Domain limit.

By 1208 Kafa has banked up enough gold and decides to declare war on Outrejourdain.  They have no ally, but I was wary that other Catholics would come to their aid as it is a holy war, and so I wanted to have a large bank for mercenaries if they had to be used.




Kafa orders his armies to muster on the border, and Outrejourdain thinks they have caught us in a lapse of judgement.  But as the troops commit to attacking a stack of 1000, they find the numbers continue to swell as their movement is locked in.  Suddenly the stack is of even size and our adjoining 3,000 units are moving over to aid.




It turns into a decisive victory.  No Catholic nations come to Outrejourdain's aid, and their armies do not recover in time as we siege down Kerak and Negev.  The Duke of Outrejourdain dies of his wounds from this battle and the rule is passed on to his aunt, Duchess Luca.  Negev falls in October, but Karek holds out until I can move my siege engines over early in 1209.  By February the holding is ours and the war is won.

Also, we aren't the only ones with success expanding:




Mongolia has been impressive.  But Kafa isn't finished yet, either.

[Amicalola]

Is that 36 Martial on the Khan as absurdly high as it looks? And assuming it is, does the game gives AI Mongolians big bonuses to make them create big empires, or is that just a weird anomaly?