Prussian Amazons: Part 55: 1157-1167: Weslikan III, Syria and Egypt

War for Egypt ended inconclusively as Sunni sultan died of syphilis. Egypt got inherited by a 3 year old, who was tutored by his Buddhist mother.

Of course I had zero interest in trusting the RNG, especially since AI loves randomly flipping guardians. Unfortunately my best claimant was hin 40 year old aunt, and if she doesn't have babies soon we'll just delaying same problem for next generation.

She ended up having last minute baby, so line of succession ended up link this:

• daughter Souzan (Buddhist)
• nephew Najib (Sunni), former sultan
• niece Sholah (Sunni)
• nephew king of Greece (Greek Buddhist)
• various relatives of king of Greece

To ensure Egypt's safety I had to remove those two obstacles.

I wish there were more ways to intervene in foreign realms. Best I could do was bribe everybody in Najib's court and plot assassination.

I tried seducing spymaster, but due to distance it wouldn't trigger. So I thought I'd hop on a boat and sail to Egypt to seduce him, but event is completely blocked when leading troops, so that plan failed as well. Even after I managed to seduce him, 100 relations wasn't enough - apparently relations with target count for a lot more than relations with plotter, so his +48 protected against my +100, and with a good margin. Eventually other plotters managed to get the boy.

That left his sister as next in line. She refused her aunt's revocation, so they got into a war, and Sholah got executed for treason - just as I was about to get her killed anyway. Problem finally solved.

Sultana of Egypt created second title of Arabia, making future interventions even messier. If Greek king managed to inherit, this would be the most successful AI Byzantine restoration I've ever seen. All of them gavelkind.

Sultan of Syria got into fight with his vassal caliph. That was way more urgent than my tributary wars, as caliph was nearly as strong as his liege, not to mention still 5th in order of succession.

Both Syrian and Egyptian problems merged when caliph declared jihad for Arabia against sultana of Egypt. Nobody seemed interested in joining on Sunni side, but Buddhist side had decent support. If CK2 had troops summary it would be 235k to 10k.

Eventually some Sunni minors joined the caliph, but war was at 90% by that time.

I was so distracted by the Middle East that I forgot to even reestablish tributaries for a few years.

Indian religions have kingdom-tier subjugation CB on people of same culture group, which I used for the first time ever to clean up Burgundy's holdings in Saxony. Weirdly he asked me to become my vassal instead of giving the land. First time I see this. But no, what I want is clean borders, and what I don't want is hereditary vassal kings.

I managed to acidentally kill my husband by overly vigorous sex. Then another one died soon after. So I married third time at 26.

My son turned out to be reincarnation of my grandfather Temujin the Bold of the Mongol Empire. (no relation to the original Temujin, that whole dynasty is dead)

Andhra became Buddhist somehow. Delhi and 2 duchies are the only Hindu realms remaining, and even peasants are slowly abandoning that silly superstition.

The Shia put their last fight, sending a 20k host against France.

There was minor recurring outbreak of Black Death, but at this point nobody really cares.

I like joining other people's wars just to see what's going on.

I have no idea if reincarnation mechanic even does anything

I regret nothing 

This was not the battle I wanted, but I won

Heavy infantry is awful at skirmish, but then wreck in melee. Here center meleed opponent's center and then their line fell apart. Also AI didn't bother assigning any commanders.

This girl was so close to inheriting Egypt and destroying my century long plans.

Fortunately sultana hanged her as traitor.

Sultana's nephew is Greek Buddhist king of Greece, 2nd in line, so there's a big chance of 500 AD Byzantium sized lob here.

The textless event where Burgundy offered to be my vassal to save his Saxon holdings

All I wanted were clean borders, so nope.

Jihads and crusades are not a big deal, but I still want to remove the caliphate

Prussian Amazons: Part 54: 1151-1157: Saving Egypt

I changed Prussia's inheritance laws to absolute cognatic to help my vassals gavelkind faster.

I made some small interventions in Middle East, defending Baghdad and helping a vassal overthrow ruler of Tigris. Intervening that far was tedious, but actually quite often Egypt or Nubia protect Buddhist minors from Sunni attacks.

Then I got the inevitable crusade for Italy. Catholics are still at 74.5% authority, which is just silly. It was an easy war, but it still took 3 years.

After crusade fell emperor of Mali setup his anti-pope - but with landless pope, how can they even fight out such disagreements?

Apparently my embargo wars mean nothing, and Normandy and Damietta reestablished their trade posts in no time. Oh well, that's not worth fighting over.

Bogomilist rebels took over Dalmatia.

Sistan got inherited by a Sunni, but at least I split Baluchistan blob this way.

Weirdly just West of it some Suomenusko Mongol who also own Sibir got two counties.

Egypt got inherited by Sunni son of previous ruler. Like, why do I even bother? Since I was infirm and in regency, my council wouldn't approve of intervention. Not like I even had any quality claimants.

I have no idea how he even became Sunni - probably stupid choice of his guardian. The game makes blobbing so trivial, and everything else just so hard.

Well, I soon got an opportunity when a count of Darum refused sultan's revocation demand. It was 36k vs 1.5k war, so I had to intervene really fast (offering to join a war requires no council approval), and hope that count won't get himself captured.

All that lasted only a while longer, soon Milyuns died, suceeded by her youngest daughter Weslikan III, who inherited really difficult task at very young age of 20. With skills like 3/6/7/10/7 as stuborn craven amateurish plotter will she succeed?

 Even without any landed Catholics holy orders would be a hassle

One managed to hire 18k worth of troops

Rebellion so small you can barely see it 

Rushing the fight or I'd lose Egypt 

This is extremely inconvenient, especially since it kicks me out of war

If I understand patch notes correctly next patch I'd stay in the war

Hopefully he won't surrender before I can rejoin

Prussian Amazons: Part 53: 1151: Religious Diplomacy Interlude

As the campaign nears 400 years, here's a short break for maps of how religions of top-level rulers evolved over time. It's snapshotted about every 25 years not every 50 years like tech mapmode, as changes are much faster.

769

At start date the most unusual feature is Inonoclasts holding Byzantium. India is already overwhelmingly Hindu. There are various Muslim heresies in North Africa and Oman. Nubia is Miaphysite. Zunbils exist.

800

Byzantium flipped Orthodox. Romuva empire started spreading, but it's been still not too remarkable. Miaphysite Armenia became free of Arabian Empire.

828

Italy briefly went heretic. Germanic religion got crushed by the Romuva.

852

The Romuva all went Jain. Aztecs arrived in Ireland and Mauretania. Shia Caliphate arrived and destroyed most Miaphysites in Armenia - while those in Nubia fell to the Sunnis. Tengri are almost all gone - Suomenusko and Manichean. Slavic is nearly gone.

874

Changes are fairly slow. Shia, Sunni, Aztec, and Jain expanded a bit, Manicheans lost a lot.

900

Previous trends continue - Muslim North Africa fell to Aztec and Orthodox. Shia, Sunni, and Jain expanded taking over Suomenusko and Manichean lands.

920

Jain Scotland and Aztec Brittany.

949

This is the height of Aztec power with France falling to their invasion before crusade turned back the tide. Jains in India lost their last holdings. Tengri Mongol Empire started invasion from the East.

976

Aztecs went Catholic, leaving just one independent duchy. Tengi Mongols took enormous territory. Buddhist lost almost all their holdings worldwide, with just some scraps like Ceylon left over.

997

Bavaria went Jain, and Tengri started losing their control over steppes, to Suomenusko of all people.

1024

West Africans took over what was left over of Aztec Empire and went Catholic. Aztecs were nearly completely wiped out, with just one county in North England left.
Here's where religious diplomacy started - with Arabian Empire going Jain briefly. Ceylon is now Hindu, so there are no remaining Buddhist on the map, but Kamarupa is distant East India went Jain thanks to some dynastic politics.

1050

Here's the most drastic change - Prussia went from Jain to Buddhist and started consolidating Volga region.
Arabian Empire went back to Sunni, but Egypt and a lot of duchies became Buddhist in various interventions.

1075

Buddhists got Italy, but mosty of Middle East intervention got reverted the second time to Sunni and Shia resurgence. Orthodox Tripolitania became Sunni as well. Slavic lost its last county.

1098

Nubia, Thrace, and France/Asturias went Buddhist.

Suomenusko lost its last lands, with nice Buddhist-Tengri border.

1123

One of two blobs in India is now Buddhist, as is Burgundy, and Mongol Empire - but Mongols no longer control the steppes like they used to. In aggressive action to destroy Hashshishim and Shia Caliphate Sunnis and Buddhist together nearly crushed the Shia. Jains are no more.

Prussian accidental expansion into Africa removed it from Sunni hands for the second time.

1151

After over a century of relentless fighting, most of India and Middle East are now ruled over by Buddhists. In France, Greece, North Africa, Steppes Buddhist countries mostly cleaned up infidel minors. The Shia are nearly destroyed, leaving just one county.

Prussian Amazons: Part 52: 1138-1151: Embargo Wars

I took it a bit more slowly, but over time I intervened in a bunch of new wars:

• I pushed claimant for Fes. He lost it to previous ruler in almost no time.
• I helped host get Baghdad. Heir was Sunni kid whom I tried to assassinate without success, but he got converted by his guardian, so I stopped trying. Now heir inherited and next heir in line is Sunni.
• Tigris/Kartli/Basra became Sunni by inheritance, so I helped a host get Kartli at least. Tigris/Basra's emira is incapable with Buddhist heir so we might get it back.
• Embargo wars against France and Egypt to give my 6 vassal merchant republics some room to grow
• Claimant for kingdom of Punjab
• Claimant for emirate of Sistan, under Sunni Baluchistan

It's been much slower campaigning that before.

Egypt and Syria were blobbing quite nicely. The problem with Syria is that caliph is Syria's strongest vassal and as sultan's nephew still too high in order of succession.

The caliph even as a vassal still launched subjugation war on emirate of Mosul, so if he decided to press his claim or independence revolt, it would probably succeed.

Deccan Empire got destroyed by Maharastra - long time ago its strongest vassals.

Delhi and Andhra got lost to the Hindus, but overall Buddhist rule over India is holding.

Most notable change is the Egypt blob 

Almost no progress in India but plenty of progress elsewhere

Prussian Amazons: Part 51: 1131-1138: The Great Civil War

I took a break to do some modding.

I turned "Aztec Empire" into "Empire of Mali", as it was silly (and messes up with EU4 converter) that Mande Catholics somehow hold "Aztec Empire" title. That took surprisingly complex hacking, as regular commands don't work on special titles like Aztec Empire.

I gave Mali kingdoms of Mali (originally Mali, then Aztecs) and Meuretania (formerly Arabia) as de jure as it makes sense this way.

Then I went on and started doing some clean up, as a lot of silly things happened and I'll need to do that for converter anyway:
* two Burgundy titles merged, kings of Burgundy get real title, not titular one
* duchy of Saxony de jure Burgundy (disconnected from the rest) moved back to Saxony
* duchy of Tripolitania moved from de jure Esfahan (disconnected from the rest) back to Africa
* dead custom kingdom fo Hamadan merged back into de jure Persia
* custom Syria killed, real Syria (held by Egypt) granted to previous custom Syria
* custom Thrace merged back into Greece

Rulers affected by these changes are mostly helped as it removes old claimants (too much work migrating those) and makes their de jure realms larger - especially Greece.

Two remaining custom kingdoms are Granada (dead, but no obvious way to fix Spain de jure map) and Esfahan (active).

And I also noticed that a few game rules got reset in my save game - not sure what's going on.

It might be insane, but I had to keep trying spreading Buddhism around, first batch was:

• sultanate of Syria
• emirate of Arabia
• emirate of Coloneia
• emirate of Tabriz
• removing last Sunni county from North Africa
• helping 2 minors in their holy wars

Tabriz lost abolition war, so my claimant has one county. Mostly it went well.

Arabia got into instant revolt, and I had to save them.

Other than that, it finally worked. Even Gujarat somehow survived revolt that seemed likely to doom them.

Syria has boy caliph as a vassal. It would be nice if they unlanded the bastard, as there are somewhat fewer candidates for setting up 4th Sunni caliphate. If I'm reading files right caliph can call jihad even as vassal of a different religion ruler, but it's complex code so I'm not completely sure.

I also became master seductress, so I could easily invide heirs and claimants and make them accept Buddha.

And then the second batch:

• kicking kingdom of Andhra out of Deccan Empire
• claimant for Delhi
• helping Bengal Empire fight Hindu host
• helping Syria get a county in Mosul
• helping Egypt get Mecca
• helping Coloneia defend against Khiva
• helping Socotra defend against Baluchistan / Esfahan
• helping some Mongol adventurer conquer the rest of emirate of Mosul (lost as I had to recall my troops)

I like offering to join wars, as I often have troops around there anyway, and it doesn't require disbanding levies and raising them again.

As my troops were saving the faithful worldwide my distant cousin Gulbis decided that age of 74 is great time for independence revolt. That's the first this campaign, and I didn't even do anything tyrannical in generations.

It was really awkward timing as most I could raise was 24k demesne levy and 28k retinue. In theory I had up to 49k levy from loyal vassals but it was quite depleted and I still needed to send them home from Middle East before I could either use them or disband and reraise them.

Rebels had 120k.

They didn't even have any specific grievances beyond "raised levies" and "10 year times after granting viceroyalty ran out, so now I hate you".

Rebels were viceroys of Bavaria, Great Moravia, Pannonia, Wallachia, Finland, Georgia, Volga, Catholic queen who inherited Italy/Sicily without me noticing, duchess of Leon, and 2 counts.

Against such numbers my tributaries would be just a speed bump. Fortunately I knew how to take advantage of warscore system and ships - by sniping small stacks on Baltic and Italian coast and assaulting easy holdings I was getting warscore while rebels were just wandering around aimlessly.

Rebellion started 3 July 1137, and 18 January 1138 they were already asking for white peace. 31 March 1138 they surrendered while still having 93k troops to my 83k.

After the war I revoked all holding in Italy, but I ran into bullshit "cannot revoke this granted title before 1 year" mechanic, even though it was my traitor vassal who granted the titles to various Catholics.

Reorganizing Italy after the civil war actually took longer than the war itself.

Buddhist King of Asturias recreated France and inherited Brittany - so now there's a blob there, but it's a friendly blob.

Horse-faced Master of the Horse of Italy

With council of horses  

That's the biggest revolt in recorded history

It's just way too easy to rush warscore

I tried to bait them into battles in South Italy, but they didn't take it, so I just kept sieging

Some more action on Baltic coast

The aftermath - political map

Zoom-in on India and Middle East

In India only Deccan, Malwa, and Punjab are Hindu, and they all have Buddhists 1st or 2nd in line of succession

Not sure how Syria blobbed - it might be stray inheritance from Egypt. Or I might have messed the modding.

Zoom-in on Western Europe.

France and Burgundy are Buddhist, minors are mostly Catholic.

Heir to Burgundy is some bastard in preference over my grandson. This will not do.

Prussian Amazons: Part 50: 1123-1131: The First Indian Expedition

Prussian Amazons: Part 50: 1123-1131: First Indian Expedition

Apparently viceroyalties are hardcoded to use primogeniture, ignoring duchies' succession laws. Well, that explains why I keep seeing vassals with 6 "gavelkind" duchy titles and landless siblings.

After a few generations that resulted in some horrible vassal bordergore - and AI is not bothered in any way whatsoever by "too many duchies" opinion penalty with vassals. Well, time for some modding to make it use gavelkind instead. I feel vassal succession should just be a realm-level law, per-title succession feels just silly, even though it had occasional historical precedent.

So I reset them to all use gavelkind, things should sort themselves out eventually.

I decided to crush Sunni horde of Trebizond, as I prefer Orthodox minors to another Sunni blob.

My husband Gelduin king of Burgundy died, so his son Sigismond inherited, betrothed to my daughter Better - so now my grandson is next in line.

I married heir to Mongol empire instead - and started seducing, aiming high at claimant to Aztec Empire. My lover then decided to lead host invasion against his brother, which inevitably failed.

Sunni Caliph declared jihad for Jerusalem on Egypt. I sent troops who lost huge 30k vs 30k battle for Tiberias, but second expedition captured the caliph and ended this silliness.

I continued pushing my claimants for countries such as

• emirate of Algrave - reverted after usurper had accident
• emirate of Arabia - failed as claimant died mid-war
• emirate of Medina - claimant installed
• what was left of Deccan Empire - claimant installed, then flipped Hindu due to educator, heir still Buddhist for now
• kingdom of Gujarat / Malwa - Gujarat taken, Malwa and Gujarat are each other's heirs; revolt to overthrow him already winning so he probably won't last
• sultanate of Syria / Caliphate - taken, then lost it to claimant before I could do anything; I helped rebellion overthrow caliph, but caliph's Sunni son is now in charge
• emirate of Mesopotamia - claimant installed

That was my first invasion of India. And with three different epidemics covering almost whole target country, there was no good place to land.

I messed up with succession of Punjab and Delhi as well, so with some luck the whole India will flip Buddhist - at least on the top.

My claimant to Medina needed immediate defense from Sunni holy war.

Overall this largest expedition ever attempted succeded in flipping 1 county Mesopotamia, 6 county Medina, and even that is rather unreliable. And the only thing I can do is to follow it up with another.

Kingdom of France ended, with mix of Buddhist and Catholic minors taking its place. Now they're fighting each other.

 Indian strategy against invaders is bad hygiene

And they say games aren't realistic

The biggest rebellion in history, somehow did not succeed 

All the meddling has very limited success

Prussian Amazons: Part 49: 1116-1123: Empress Milyuns II

I wrote a script to tell me where I can build universities and monastery schools, as game lacks such feature.

My lover failed to Deccan Empire failed to inherit, as his brother had two girls before he died of severe stress. So that failed - but Deccan Empire fell apart to independence faction. Parts are still Hindu, but I'm working on it.

And then at age of 45 Weslikan II died due to her failed attept at achieving immortality. She was succeeded by her daughter Milyuns, at fairly weak 6/4/11/5/16.

I was married to some really old kinsman, but when he husband, I married heir to kingdom of Burgundy, attacked Burgundy in tributary war, captured current king, and burned him at a stake, so my husband can get it. My husband's son from previous marriage will inherit Burgundy (as it's weirdly agnatic primogeniture), but I educated him to be a good Prussian Buddhist, and bethrothed him matrilineally to my daughter, so we'll have some influence there.

Burgundy is a horrible bordergore made out of 5 parts, 3 of which would clean up my borders nicely, while the other 2 would make them look worse. I might annex then release half I don't like maybe. Then again, CK2 is a really bad game for people who care for clean borders.

Pope declared crusade for Italy, but with so few Catholic left who aren't my tributaries he was just joined by holy orders and OPMs. Still took 3 years to win.

Claimants I installed in Persia lost again - Persia feels like just too far to be worth sending troops over.

My efforts to make Bengal Empire Buddhist paid off, and both emperor and his heir are now of true religion. Of course he got into fight with his vassals instantly, but there's only so much I can do from that far away.

Between Bengal and Burgundy even failing the long shot for Persia doesn't bother me so much.

Same like two Burgundies before, there are now two Syrias - except both are actually in use - one is held by the Caliph, another by Egypt/Syria as gavelkind. AI just loves screwing itself, whoever gets Syria will likely get swarmed by Muslims.

New event horde emerged for Sunni Bedouin count of Amisos in Anatolia.

Horse Queen of Italy sadly abandoned her horsiness and turned Lombard.

Empress Milyuns.

Of course if I get another chance to get immortal, I'll take it again.

(files suggest 10% base chance of success)

My biggest success with just politely asking foreign heirs to convert so far

(with a bit of bribery or seduction).

Deccan Empire fell apart later, but I had nothing to do with it.

Aztec Empire is the only major Catholic country left, but there's a lot of Catholic minors

Presumably next Crusade for Italy 1053, but they are more nuisance than threat nowadays

Prussian Amazons: Part 48: 1109-1116: Losing a hand for a shot at Immortality

When I tried to mod settle tribe steward action to work with any province I did it wrong, so my steward wasted last few decades, but now it's fixed and working. It's fairly slow, but it can provide some Prussian core around which regular flip events might happen.

I seduced heir to Bengal Empire, and that was enough to make him abandon his silly Hindu superstition.

Heir to kingdom of Burgundy likewise couldn't resist my charms.

I later also invited and converted heirs to Deccan Empire and kingdom of Delhi.

Such conversions are not terribly sticky, but that's how we converted got France and Thrace previously.

I tried to save Egypt from collapsing to independence revolt - which would leave all those minors exposed to kebab - but it ended up in a funny situation:

• Egypt war was -100% due to sultan getting captured, but rebels couldn't push their demands as they were also in holy war with kebab who occupied some of their holdings
• and meanwhile I was in another 99% war due to not winning any battle yet

Such warscore technicalities. Since Egypt war couldn't end, I captured their leader too - so it's the first time I see both leaders being captured by the other side. Somehow that meant we win.

At this point I wanted to help Egyptian Revolt unsiege, but I couldn't, as I wasn't hostile to Jazira/Mesopotamia and Tripoli, and I didn't even have any CBs. I invited claimant to Mesopotamia, so it allowed me to be hostile to some of them.

And then to mess things even further another vassal pressed claimant on Egypt - in name of imprisoned leader independence revolt. Of course they were all family.

Discouraged by that wargoal mess I noticed that I can press Buddhist woman's claim to Sunni Caliphate. OK, I don't even. Well, once upon a time it was possible to do silly things like grant papacy to a woman, but they fixed most of such issues since then.

That war also couln't end on a technicality - I was capped at 99% due to lack of major battles, even though I had 10% from battles (and 97% from occupations).

Well, I hoped that caliphate would be destroyed this way, but it wasn't - first time I see head of a religion not following it. So I attacked newly installed calipha to unland her. This finally destroyed the Sunni Caliphate for the second time.

And again, it was almost zero timeu before emir of Damascus and Syria proclaimed himself a caliph. Maybe that's not the way to go.

War for Egypt somehow eventually ended up with a victory - I'm not even totally sure how.

I expanded a bit further than I wanted into Persia to destroy the Hashshishim.

I got event chain to discover secrets of life and death - some Hurufi Egyptian hunchback woman named Cleopatra. She took a lot of gold, and asked me to learn pick-pocketing. It ended tragically.

We briefly lost France - Catholic host managed to usurp it. Former king still holds Asturias and about half of that territory. I wasn't worried as hosts have usually about half the troops, but sometimes AI is just really unlucky. I intervened immediately, and now France is Buddhist but separate from Asturias.

And we much more permanently lost Galicia - it was divided between Catholic Aztecs and Sunni Badajoz.

So at the last thing I pressed claimant for Persia. Overall Muslims are taking my meddling quite well. I install a claimant - they use their overpowered CBs to take over claimant's lands. I shatter their realms - they use their overpowered CBs to reassemble.

Oh and Mongols are now Buddhist, but they keep flipping all the time, so I wouldn't even woryr about that.

 Guaranteed 100% on both sides, and war can't end

(well, white peace isn't blocked, but who does that?)

Buddhist Sunni Calipha 

She supposedly knew secrets of immortality

 Turns out she was a total fraud

The Buddhist Zone we've been trying to establish is rather unstable

At least the Danube border looks nice now

Prussian Amazons: Part 47: 1101-1109: Weslikan II the Wise

I checked why there are 3 really primitive provinces, and apparently nomad provinces only get neighbour spread if they have some holdings in them - either nomad/clan camp or some temple. These 3 have just pastures with nothing, so they artificially make the rest of the world seem more advanced than it really is.

There are a few more provinces with no spread, but they presumably had some camps in the past. Mongol invasion reduced number of hordes (and so horde camps), and it really slowed down tech growth in steppes this way.

Technology map looks a lot better in quantile mode, I'll post more maps later.

Anyway, Sunni Abbassids in Italy revolted right away, so they all had to be killed. Well, actually "all Abbasids" is not really viable, as there's over 130 of them, but they could use a good culling. Sadly this culling didn't go far enough, Grasus IV died at age of 62, to badly treated camp fever. She was succeeded by Weslikan II the Wise, nice 8/10/15/7/25.

As nickname "the Wise" suggests, she dad different ideas as to foreign policy from her predecessors. Biggest wise idea being much more aggressive border cleanup.

Especially Pannonia needed a new viceroyalty, as reestablishing tributaries over and over that deep inland was rather tedious. Other than that - infidel OPMs were easier to just incorporate than keep reminding of their duty each generation. Bigger ones were tributaries as before, except I didn't mess with Buddhist countries like France and Thrace - they don't seem very stable anyway.

I created a small one in Frisia as well - actually I was going for Saxony, but that can't be created except by Saxon/Anglo-Saxon characters. I thought they removed those restrictions ages ago.

Well, somehow 3-county Frisia was valid, and my vassal Germany got 1 of them, so I could create that one. Not like it really matters, I'm just cleaning up the borders.

Africa and Italy were both a mess - with ton of vassal revolts. I helped them with some targetted assassinations, but sadly revolt continues even if literally 15 characters of two dynasties hold it. And that was only one of three revolts I tried to assassinate.

Egypt took one of Hashshashim's two mosques, as they were silly enough to build it in his terriory.

Sunni Caliph who was reduced to just two mosques managed to inherit emirate of Baghdad.

Peasants of the world now prefer Buddhist as first religion. Spreading Prussian culture is happening far more slowly.

I had one free demesne slot, so I kept a province in Hungary for a while - it was so far behind (38 vs 82) that it was gaining crazy 0.6 tech a year.

Major border cleanup

I might end up granting independence to the most remote parts like Africa once it's safe to do so

It's bordergore, but progress definitely goes in the right direction

After 14 previous revolt leaders all died in suspicious circumstances, you'd think the 15th might get a hint

Prussian Amazons: Part 46: 1098-1101: Her Horsiness Queen of Italy

I accidentally got kingdom of Africa. I was looking for claimants, and I forgot that when I press claim of someone of my dynasty, they become my vassal even if they start unlanded. Apparently her grandfather was a caliph.

I even got it without a fight - one of my tributaries held sultan hostage, so I got 100% as soon as I called them into war. You can no longer get free 100% when you hold someone prisoner - that was a neat trick - but it still sort of works.

I'm pondering making her independent as soon as that region is sufficiently safe.

Sultan of Egypt got overthrown, but the new sultana is his also Buddhist aunt now it's not a big deal... Oh wait, she's in regular marriage to Suomenusko Nenets... Well, hopefully she won't have any babies.

And she instantly lost to a second rebellion by getting herself captured, and some Sunni is now controlling Egypt. If I can lose it so suddenly after 62 years of Buddhist rule... that really discourages all the claimant business. This is even after I modded in some code so that rulers don't just autosurrender to claimant factions like in vanilla.

Fortunately that Sunni sultan died, and his younger Buddhist son inherited somehow, not his older Sunni son. Not sure how that works exactly.

After that I checked that there are 3 Sunni and 9 Buddhist claimants to throne of Egypt. Two couldn't be helped, but one was married to a landless guy, whom I invited and then made sure she had an accident.

And then, like that's not bad enough some Sunni Abbasid inherited Italy from her mother queen.

Well, claimant search again. The only one available was a Catholic Horse. Well, if that's what we have to work with. That was too much, so I landed her, so I could protect Italy from inevitable crusade every 30 years.

She doesn't look like a horse, but when I gave her some land she sure put horses in all the important positions.

And now I have two hereditary queen vassals - Africa has both Umayyads and Abbasids in line of succesion, but next one is a good Prussian Buddhist.

Italy has horse past foal-bearing age in charge, and next two in line are both Sunni Abbasids.

I'm not sure what to do with them - I might keep Italy out of necessity, as crusades will keep crushing into it, so I guess I could turn it into a viceroyalty at some point.

Africa I'm tempted to let loose, but it probably wouldn't be safe.

I managed to get pope to be my tributary again, as my tributary bishop became elected pope. He's 50, so if he somehow survives to 70+ he might actually delay the crusade, as he can't attack me now. Or maybe he'll declare it on someone else.

Due to badly treated camp fever I'll probably die soon, even with +1 health from religion, +1 from family focus, and +1 from pet cat I barely get +1.2, which at this age basically means arrange affairs for the successor.

I couldn't allow Sunni Italy and she was my only choice

In Crusader Kings, you just can't escape incest and horses

Horses in all positions of power