Tianxia Hsenwi: Part 07: 1008-1018: Emperor of Greater Pegu

Thanks to my high rank in the monk society, I got huge discount on constructing new temple holdings, paying only about 180 instead of the usual 480, so I mass built Buddhist temples in every province without one (except for tribal, and 2-holding provinces, and such).

All that temple construction made Buddhist 100% authority religion, which is really hard since we have no religious head, and only 3/5 holy sites, so our natural authority is just 50% excluding temporary events.

Things were going well, but there was a big thorn in my side, constant pirate raids:

• Thai Hindu pirates, under Khmers, tributary of Sailendra Empire
• Sumatran Hindu pirates, under Khmers, tributary of Sailendra Empire
• Sumatran Pagan pirates, tributary of Sailendra Empire
• Java Hindu pirates, tributary of Sailendra Empire

Notice something in common here? I tried my best to be a good neighbour, but Sailendra Empire responded with just this treachery, and they never accepted our control over West Sumatra and Borobudur Temple, and so they needed to be destroyed.

Once they got destroyed, and pirates mostly subjugated, I noticed I only missed 2 counties to go empire tier, so I went North to fight some Mongol Pagans for them. I didn't even notice that they awkwardly had 10k event troops, but they charged right into my armies into mountains like they're crazy crazy, so that did them no good.

At this point I pretty much achieved what I wanted, so normally they wouldn't be much point continuing. However, I'm actually going to switch to one of feudal dukes from my family.

I have 7 choices:

• son Aroon, duke of Lavapura (current Thailand), 18 year old, 11/18/23/8/15, married to Chinese pretender princess
• son Kiet, duke of Phetchaburi (current Thailand), 20 year old, 11/14/15/11/19, married to Chinese pretender princess
• son Som, count of 2 counties in duchy of Maura Enim (Central Sumatra), 17 year old, 7/11/13/9/14, he can conquer himself rest of his duchy with ease, it's just last 2 pagan counts
• brother Som, duke of Aceh (North Sumatra), 27 year old, 15/16/11/11/12
• uncle Sunan, duke of Padang (West Sumatra), 31 year ord, 17/11/3/13/13
• cousin Kamol, duke of Karinci (Central Sumatra), 15 year old, 9/11/10/7/16
• cousin Vanida, duchess of Bhamo (North-West end of my realm), 14 year old, 4/4/4/5/9, betrothed to my nephew

There's still 2 sons and 1 uncle in the capital ready to take the republic if anything happened to me, after bribing themselves election victory.

I think of those Aroon would be the most obvious choice.

Oh and the Incas are coming, and if I let AI control Greater Pegu, it might very well get overran, not to mention the title lost to other patrician houses, so whoever I'll end up playing as will face huge challenge soon.

Buddhism is doing decently, but not amazingly. Strangely West India is overwhelmingly Hindu not Muslim this time; while most of India is Jain or Buddhist.

Greater Pegu isn't really facing any threats right now, and it's filthy rich.

I wonder how well the Incas would do here against AI. They'd probably struggle to conquer the mainland, but Java would be really difficult to defend, and Sumatra would likely eventually fall as well. But who knows really, I only saw them once, and the situation is so different this time.