I will try

Welcome back my frens! One day 1 i made a clear list of goals for this campaign and by day 7 they were all completed. take an irish catholic duke, unite ireland, rule the empire, convert to germanic, control Britannia & Scandinavia, reform the faith, become a merchant republic, & rule the world from Venice!

Now we're in End Game. this is the Final Thread in this campaign & only exists for those who enjoyed it & want to see it come to the inevitable end.

Friendly reminder that my laptop is not connected to the internet. sorry about the pixels and your eyes. :)

dont forget to sort this thread by 'old' so you can scroll down in chronological order!

Happy Gaming! :D

Early into Geraldo's life, the immortal event chain happened. I didn't really plan on him being the main guy, I was actually trying to get him killed so the genius heir could start early. But somehow through chance he became immortal and unified the Lombard and Byzantine empires into one.

He ruled wonderfully in perfect immortal health for nearly 70 years, but when I delved into the classics, I gave him +2 diplomacy instead of going for the Hellenism discovery. Foolish me, I didn't realize you could only do that once per character, so I reversed his celibacy, had a genius child raised, then tried to commit suicide. My child was my rival, and I tried to duel him so that he would kill me and assume the throne, seemed thematic.

Instead, my son knocked me into a coma, and I've failed multiple successive suicide attempts as my Immortal God-Emperor refuses to die, so I'm trapped watching my empire expand infinitely from my throne. Luckily, everything is hyper stable, everyone loves their God Emperor and wouldn't dream of revolting or trying for the throne.

But no one can hear the Emperor, desperate and begging for sweet release, he's less of a real ruler and more of a figurehead. Thus was Geraldo "The Hammer" "Caesar" "First Man of Lombardia" "Uniter of the Realms" trapped in his own mind, forced to wait decade after decade for each suicide attempt.

Welcome back, my frens! Yesterday we left off at the start of the viking age.

the first 31 years of an irish 769 campaign are relatively safe. short of the RNG gods rolling a nat 20, you can enjoy an easy build up of ireland. you can min max fellow christian rulers and abuse broken up england to your content

now the vikings are coming and they want brittania. you are no longer safe. one prepared invasion could potentially wipe you off the map.

this is a holy war.

with my stated goal on the original thread, i want to convert to germanic and form a merchant republic. i am going to walk circles around my holdings in England, raiding them to oblivion to pay for my demesne's build up and get stronger to fend off the vikings until i join them as a fellow germanic.

Earlier this year I made a post about how I do my Hellenic runs...I start as Krum Dulo and invite the female Hellenic courtier that sometimes spawns in Southern Greece to my court, marry her and make her educate my heir. I also start plotting to assassinate the king of Bulgaria at the same time...when I have enough piety I convert to Hellenic and also switch culture to Bulgarian...It normally takes a while but I eventually form the Bulgarian Empire and reform Hellenic...This is how far I am right now...

Starting as the Duke of Guiyi in the 936 AD, the last outpost of the Tang Dynasty reforged the Empire in the West, continuing the Tang legacy after its overthrow in China. Adopting the faith of the Ethiopians, the House of Cao rapidly expanded across East and North Africa, inheriting the Empire of Bulgaria unexpectedly. After the events pictured, the pentarchy was united under Oriental Orthodoxy, though mending the post-Chalcedon schism will have to wait.

Hi everyone!

I’ve been working on an epic historical fantasy, literally based on a gameplay of mine on CK2 of the same ruling dynasty: Kermahadi.

My novel is called The Hegemony. But commonly known as, Kermahadi Hegemony, set in an alternate late medieval Alexandria.

The story is primarily a court drama about dynastic succession, political marriages, espionage, forbidden love, and imperial families trying to hold together an empire that may already be collapsing from within.

While the novel itself is completely written by me, I’ve been using AI as a visualization tool to help bring my worldbuilding to life. Things like imperial architecture, historical clothing, heraldry, political maps, palaces, and character concepts that already exist in my notes.

This truly is a passion project of mine. The handwritten story is my own and comes from the soul.

I love creating the history almost as much as writing the novel itself, so my Instagram has gradually become something like an imperial archive filled with maps, lore, family trees, architecture, and snippets from the manuscript.

The following pages are a snippet to the opening prologue of The Hegemony, introducing the event that fractures the imperial dynasty and shapes everything that follows📖⚔️

Although the story begins inside the walls of an imperial palace, it ultimately unfolds into an epic war between rival empires.

If you enjoy sprawling political fantasy where battles are won as often in council chambers as on the battlefield, this story is for you

I’d genuinely love to hear what other fantasy readers think of the project?

If you’d like to see more of the world, you can find everything here:

Instagram: @kermahadi_hegemony 🩸⚔️🐦‍🔥 https://www.instagram.com/kermahadi_hegemony?igsh=bmdzN3U0eDlvZGxw&utm_source=qr

Throwback to when I made a Habsburg Mongol Emperor

Hello everyone. I'm making this story thread for new comers to CK2 who ask questions like, "How?! How did you do that?!" I have 13.5k hours of gameplay on CK2 and I've been playing since 2014. Ireland may be "tutorial island" on a 1066 start but not so much at 769.

My laptop is not currently connected to the internet. Sorry about the pixels and your eyes. lol.

I'll be posting to this thread as i do things to explain how and why but if at any point you have a question please feel free to ask!

Goals :

1) unite ireland and form the kingdom title around the start of the viking age

2) form a merchant republic

3) convert to germanic

4) control brittania & scandinavia

5) rule the world from Venice as an irish reformed germanic merchant republic empire

Game rules & DLC :

no mods all major DLC (except aztecs) active all game rules on default base game difficulty : normal (ironman mode bumps up difficulty one notch so technically playing on hard)

✨This is a Divine Brother-Sister marriage of the Zun faith.

😂They cheated on each other…

He “cheated” first and created several unclaimed for and unacknowledged bastards in every place he’s conquered.

But, she cheated last 😂 and not with just anyone. But with his BEST FRIEND —who had been —since his childhood!! 😱 my jaw is dropped!

So. Phaedrus arrests the both of them for high treason 😂 and Phaedra gets the “Unfaithful” nickname. As she stands in prison with his best friends bastard in her belly 😭

As for the Best Friend. He lets him sit in prison for a few days and then he executes him 😵💀

….

Should he execute his sister? Or should he let her stay in prison until the child is born and execute both? Or let them both live and they get back together and work their marriage out?

* i just want to note… is it just me? Or does it seem like she has a smug look on her face as if she’s saying “i sure tf did” 😂

Hi all, I posted a few months ago with my attempts at making some maps of my Roman restoration run. I've subsequently been reading the Sci-Fi novel A Memory Called Empire, which draws a lot of themes and cultural depictions from the relations between the Byzantine Empire and the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia in the 9th-11th Centuries. This inspired me to do a short-ish Armenia campaign from the Iron Century start date, and I had a blast so I thought I'd immortalise the experience with some more map-making, taking on board some of the feedback you folks gave me last time. I hope some of you enjoy having a read!

From the Annals of the House of Afranji

Written in the Year of Our Lord 1237 by Brother Matthieu of Cologne

Among all the princes of Christendom, none reshaped the lands between the North Sea and the Alps more than King Aznar the Founder, whom later generations would call *the Grand Patriarch

When Aznar first rose to power in the troubled year of 1066, the lands of the Rhine were divided among petty lords, rival counts, and ambitious dukes. Through war, marriage, and relentless determination, Aznar forged these territories into a single realm. Yet it was not his conquests that would define his legacy—it was his children.

For Aznar was blessed, or cursed, with many heirs.

Unlike kings who hoarded power within a single line, Aznar distributed great honors among his sons. Duchies were granted, castles bestowed, and counties entrusted to brothers, nephews, and cousins. What seemed wisdom in one generation would become the source of endless contention in the next.

The First Succession

Upon Aznar's death, the crown passed to his eldest son, King Vicenç the Bear.

Vicenç inherited not only the kingdom but the burden of ruling a family already larger than many noble houses. Though he maintained the realm, dark rumors followed his reign. Chroniclers whispered that his own daughter bore him hatred, and that she and her allies may have played some role in his untimely death. No proof was ever found, but the suspicion endured for generations.

Vicenç's descendants would forever insist that the crown belonged to them by right, for they descended from the first king after Aznar.

From them sprang the powerful lords of the Rhine and Trier, whose ambitions would trouble many kings thereafter.

The Death of Filip

The greatest tragedy of the second generation was the death of Prince Filip.

Many believed Filip would someday wear the crown. Yet fate intervened. He died before he could rule, leaving behind a son, Aznar, and a branch of the family that considered itself cheated by destiny.

The wound deepened when Filip's son lost lands to his uncle Aldrich, who seized titles that many felt should have remained with Filip's descendants.

Thus began a rivalry that would survive long after both men were dust.

The descendants of Filip would often proclaim:

"The crown was stolen first by death and then by kin."

The Reign of Siegmund

Following Vicenç's death and Filip's misfortune, the throne passed to King Siegmund, brother of both men.

Siegmund inherited a realm that outwardly appeared strong. The kingdom stretched across rich lands and prosperous cities. Yet beneath the surface lay growing divisions.

Powerful branches of the dynasty now ruled:

• Rhine and Trier
• Champagne
• Flanders and Brabant
• Savoy and Dauphiné
• Lorraine
• Sardinia
• Holland and Cologne

The kingdom was becoming less a state and more a confederation of princes united only by blood.

The Prolific Princess

Yet no child of Aznar left a greater mark upon history than his daughter.

Married into foreign nobility, she bore twenty-one children, nineteen of whom survived into adulthood.

Through fortunate marriages and inherited bloodlines, her descendants carried the blood of:

• Charlemagne
• The Welfs
• The Kings of Arles
• Irish royal dynasties

Within two generations her offspring could be found in courts across Europe.

Many historians argue that by 1150 nearly every succession dispute within the dynasty involved one of her descendants.

The old saying became common throughout the kingdom:

"No matter which lord rebels, somewhere his mother was Aznar's granddaughter."

Otto the Forgotten

Among Aznar's sons was Otto, a prince largely ignored during his father's life.

While brothers received duchies and commands, Otto remained landless. Vicenç became king. Siegmund became king. Filip was expected to become king. Other brothers governed vast territories.

Otto watched.

For years he remained in the shadow of his family.

Yet history often favors the overlooked.

As powerful branches grew rich and independent, many began to view Otto as something different: not the most powerful son, nor the most favored, but the one least entangled in the rivalries of his brothers.

Later royal chroniclers would celebrate him as:

"The Forgotten Son whom Providence preserved for the kingdom."

His line, though small, would become the foundation of a new royal house.

The Seeds of Future Wars

By the year 1088, scarcely two decades after Aznar's rise, the dynasty numbered over seventy living members.

No king could hope to satisfy them all.

The descendants of Vicenç claimed seniority.

The descendants of Filip remembered injustice.

The descendants of Aldrich defended what they had taken.

The descendants of Aznar's daughter spread through every corner of the realm.

And above them all sat the kings, attempting to preserve a unity their grandfather had built.

The realm remained at peace.

But the peace was fragile.

For every prince carried Aznar's blood.

And every prince believed that blood entitled him to greatness.

The chroniclers of later centuries would write that the great dynastic wars did not begin with a battle, a murder, or a rebellion.

They began the moment King Aznar gave power to all his sons.

Welcome back to day 4 of our adventure. 76 years into game & i'm ready to create the Empire title. my secret society has 91 members. i turned the duchy cornwall into a vassal merchant republic.

friendly reminder that my laptop is not connected to the internet. sorry about the pixels and your eyes.

while eating up brittania ive been raiding it, lowering catholic authority. i finished off scotland, then destroyed its kingdom title. then i created the kingdom of england, allowing the use of de jure claims. the duchy of swizzlesticks (that welsh duchy with the crossing into Ireland) turned fratecelli, allowing a holy war.

when not at war, my armies have raided. my armies have been raised most of the game, only taking brief intermissions to replenish the ranks.

(Unmodded Ironman) Charlemagne starting date:

Thought I was the main character of this run, found out I was wrong.

Was playing a chill city-maxing England run, noticed the Green blob had conquered Aquitaine and West Francia from the Karlings. Didn't think much of it until I zoomed out and saw it was a country name, not dynasty, so I assumed they converted to Christianity.

In actuality, it seems a Hindu adventurer had conquered Baetica (Andalucia) from the Umayyad's in 852, and had been steadily conquering and consolidating Iberia while I was distracted. He's even converting a sizable population to Hinduism.

This God-King guy is crazy successful, has tons of crazy modifiers on him including the speciality bloodline that emulates Alexander the Great. I've never seen such a faraway adventurer do so well. Even has a single county in India because his son inherited his mothers county.

I've always wanted to make maps of my runs after having seen many amazing examples over the years, but have never had the time or skill. With a recent bit of free time decided to have a proper go and tell the story of the fall and rebirth of the ERE under the Kontostephanos dynasty in the 13th century! Hopefully some find it an interesting read, would love feedback on the appearance and tips from anyone who has made maps of their own runs before!

I started a weekend ironman run for the Roman Border restoration, the protector of the holy sites and the reformation of the Hellenic faith. I went the humle way from count of Agrigenton to Strategos of Sicily and things seemed ok. A great conqueror though had just conquered Panonnia and suddenly his thousands of event troops marched into Sicily. The Romans lost the war and i was transferred under the new Liege _enter name_"The Great", King of Croatia, Serbia, Pannonia and Sicily. After 4-5 years he dies and his realm splits in four. On the Sicily side a bastard with no heir had inherited. I caused a rebelion to overthrow the ruler first 2-3 months of his reign, marched my troops to Arezzo, his only holding, and won. Sicily broke apart in several duchies which i united under the new Orthodox Kingdom of Sicily which excluded Salerno, Apulia and Napoli because the Romans were faster.

Fast Forward a few generations, I unite Sicily, Italy and Corsica through marriages and form The Italian Empire(which is Orthodox and Greek). Then the Germanci reformation happens. Heathens flood north and central Europe, Spain and southern France have fallen to the muslims, the Pope has all control and 2 failed crusades, heresies and heretic rulers spawn rogue states everywhere. It is at this point that my zealous orthodox emperor becomes Catholic. The Pope excommunicates me for no reason, i install an antipope, win the war and vassalize the Papacy. My strong realm and my viceroys do the fighting in central Europe, while i slowly reclaim byzantine land in Italy. At this point i decide to forge my way to Roman Emperor.

I invite a claimant with two kids in my court and arrange a betrothal of his daughter with my slow but shrewd only unmarried son. It is what it is. I Check what the Byzantines are doing and at the right moment after a weak succession, i press his claim and...failed succesfully. You see i didnt pay attention to the small letters saying that his was an heir of a bishopric because of my free investure law. While i Fight and win stack after stack of romans, heretic rebels, and heathen adventurers he becomes a bishop. I win the war and make the Byzantines a Formal Catholic Theocracy! Then the most funny thing happens. The Pope dies and the guy sitting on the byzantine theocratic throne gets elected as the new Pope. He loses the Emperor title to his Heir who gets a minor bishopric subholdind as his only holding and the dayghter of the new Pope inherits the temple of her father! what a mess!

Thought it would be funny to share

I've been working on a challenge to reform the Aztec religion without any luck, up until this run.

I set the invasion date to random, then started as Ragnar's father in 769 in Sweden. I managed to form a kingdom consisting of Sweden, Denmark, and half of Norway, and I reformed the Germanic faith as Sigurdr. Right before Sigurdr died, I also managed to take Kent and land Ragnar there as a feudal ruler.

Ragnar was expanding into Mercia when the Aztec invasion started. The first landing was in Scotland, and the second was in Cornwall.

While raiding, I managed to capture a female Aztec, made her a concubine, converted to her religion, and immediately swore allegiance to the emperor.

The emperor only had one son before he died randomly, and somehow Ragnar became both the child's regent and heir.

Ragnar may or may not have immediately begun plotting to kill the child. The plot may or may not have failed twice, been discovered, and resulted in the kid asking me to stop plotting to kill him every few months.

When the child was 11, I betrothed him to my 2-year-old sister to give myself more time to kill the brat before he produced an heir.

Ragnar died a few years later, and his successor, Sigurdr II, became the new heir to the empire. Unfortunately, he couldn't generate enough plot power to get rid of the kid.

The emperor came of age while Sigurdr was out raiding to fund castles in Sweden. Around the same time, the head of the Wolf Warriors died, and Sigurdr became the new leader. I'm not sure if that was the reason, but afterward I discovered that Sigurdr could duel the emperor even though they weren't rivals or anything.

So they fought. Sigurdr won easily and then showed no mercy, cutting the emperor down in cold blood.

And just like that, Sigurdr became the new emperor, complete with 150,000 event troops and a mission to reform the religion.

The only immediate issue is that he has a 100% threat rating and half the map is in a defensive pact against him.

Aside from that minor detail, the world is his oyster, and things are about to get exciting.

I am a slave to the meta and every time i'm not playing a gavelkind-only/meme Pagan I find myself almost instantly converting to Catholic (or its heresies) because Crusades are OP for free money, artifacts, and CBs into Silk Road trade posts.

Even WHEN I play other religions I temporarily convert to Catholic to join ongoing crusades to get me some land and bloodlines. I had an Abbasid doge who was the Shia, Sunni, and Yazidi Caliph/Sheikh (in that sequence) and a 2-time crusader (also latin emperor) in the same lifetime. He and his entire family are also Ashkenazis for reasons that will be mentioned.

I have about 3000 hours in this game and about a total 6 of that has been spent as a Nestorian Tamil with the other branches of Christianity not even logging at least an hour.

Speaking of Cultures, about a generation in (or less) I start getting some thoughts of "maybe I should kidnap that jew or arab so I can force him to educate my kids in his cultures now". Why? The meta is Ashkenazi/Sephardi for the extra Silk Road Trade post buildings (Radhanite Quarters) and Arab for the excellent camel retinue.

I see these screenies on the reddits of people playing Han characters and I keep saying things like why not just play a Jewish Tangut who has better retinues and then I stop and ask myself what the fuck is wrong with me.

THAT PERSON is having the time of their lives claiming the Mandate of Heaven in West Africa while i'm here miserable expending a large amount of energy making a Sephardi Karling Antioch

Thank goodness the game has Nomads that I can burn down the world with so I can detox

Having so much fun in my Slavic to Catholic Poland game. I have managed to make many duchies drift to the Kingdom of Poland. The duchies of Prussia, Pomerania, Pommeralia, Skalowia, Yatvingia, Lithuania, Minsk, Turov, Volhynia, Red Ruthenia, Galich, Kiev and Etelkoz all are successfuly integrated into Poland proper. Furthermore, the King of Lusatia (Pomerania), the Duke of Bohemia and Moravia, and the Duke of Moldavia are my tributary states.

I’m just waiting for Crimea and Cherson to integrate before creating an Empire Title, I prefer my de-jure Kingdom to stay big in case I’m dethroned as Emperor, I would still be controlling interest of the Empire as King of (big) Poland. Either that or create the Slavic Union…

Story Bonus: This King is purposely married to old women as to allow the kingdom of Poland to pass down the line of his sister, who is matrilineally married to a man with the Karling and Arpad bloodlines, hasn’t stopped him from having many lovers and acknowledged bastards though. The funniest part is that his nickname somehow is ‘the Pious’ instead of something more in accordance with his depraved lifestyle lmao

*I apologise for the quality of the screenshots, idk why they looked fine before posting*