Well, I was going to continue the life of Empress Farah, but when I hit backspace it took me to the prior page and I lost all of my work. So, I shall continue with her heir, her third daughter Empress Azadeh (the only one that produced sons). She also gave me the Empressive achievement(play as three consecutive generations of Empresses)


The elderly Empress Farah was once again visited by the Venetian Polo family. The Polo's, grateful for the Empress Farah's help, shared their tales from their journey to the East, as well as a portion of the profits. Shortly after their visit Empress Farah died a natural death and was succeeded by her third daughter Azadeh.



Empress Azadeh's rule was quickly challenged. Unlike her mother, Azadeh had no desire to lead troops. Instead, she was a capable administrator that started handling the affairs of the Empire as her mother's health began to dwindle.



The Shah of Afghanistan instantly launched an independence campaign against Empress Azadeh beginning the fifth Bavandidd Independence Revolt. (Un)Fortunately, Shah Fereedun of Afghanistan would die of poor health just three months of beginning the war. With his death, the independence revolt collapsed, but it was not the end of Empress Azadeh's problems.



The sixty-four year old Sat-rap Farrukhzad of Hamadan gathered enough support to pressure the Empress into passing seniority succession. (Un)Fortunately, Farrukhzad would share the same fate as the Shah of Afghanistan and would die shortly after launching the war. His young son, Morteza, would continue the war, but the revolts armies were no match for the full might of the Light Bringers. The Light Bringers were led by Empress Azadeh's firstborn son and heir Shazada Zand, and his expert leadership led to the defeat of the rebellion.



Within months of the defeat of the Seniority succession revolt, Shah Pujman of Mesopotamia launched yet another independence revolt. (Un)Fortunately, the revolt would end the same way as the last one, with the death of the revolts leader. Shortly after this final threat the Moabaden-Moabad called for a great holy war for Greece on the Iconoclast Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines, supported by the full might of the Empire of Francia (which at this point controls everything except for Italy and Britannia), the Byzantines put up a stalwart defense of their homeland defeating army after army of the Zoroastrian forces. Confident in the Byzantine victory, Empress Azadeh committed only a small fraction of her troops towards the great holy war. Her focus remained entirely on holding the Persian Empire together, not on gaining more territory...




Overcome with a sudden wave of depression, Empress Azadeh drank a vial of poison to end her life. Her son would be crowned Shahanshah Zand, the second of his name, and he would instantly start to expand the borders of the Persian Empire. The Ummayad Caliph had called for a jihad on Anatolia, and quickly took advantage of it. While the Caliph's armies were busy fighting the Byzantines, Zand launched a surprise assault on the Sat-rapy of Cyrenacia. The only resistance were a few thousand Bektashi defenders, and the Sat-rapy quickly fell to Zand's forces. As for the jihad, the Byzantines crushed the Caliph's armies, but Basileus Isaakios 'The Apostle' Kourkous was slain in the fighting. As Zand turned his attention on seizing more of India, the Byzantine Empire fell into a state of rebellion against Isaakios' heir Isaias 'The Accursed'. The rebellions won causing the Empire to be split into smaller independent realms. As Shahanshah Zand's armies returned from their Indian campaign the stage was set for a full out invasion of Armenia and Anatolia...


These just shows the state of the current game world:



Francia dominates most of Europe, and they're still in a stalemate with Scotland over who will control Britannia. The Mongol Empire arrived, but they didn't really conquer anything outside of a small portion of Mongolia. For whatever reason, Ghenghis Khan instantly converted to Iconoclasim (which is no logner a heresy) instead of remaining Tengri, and so far his heirs have kept it that way. The Sunni Caliph lost control over the Sultanate of Maurentia, but he still holds an emirate somewhere within the Ummayad territory.

Saoshyant is someone like Jesus the savior.

Who thought its a good idea to remove Hellenic from the RD anyway?

Well, I'm once again thinking of restarting my Bavandid campaign. 

Edit: In the meantime, here's a screenshot from my Rurikid campaign.



We begin our tale with Tsar Ivar 'the Bold' Rurikid. Tsar Ivar was the grandson of the viking conqueror Rurik, and the son of Rurik's third son Sølvi, Chief of Vitebsk. Besides King Helgi and High Chief Valdemar, most of Rurik's sons died in battle. His second son Ottar died a maimed cripple after losing his right arm in battle against the High Chief of Bryansk. Sølvi was slain in personal combat by Jarl Hauker of Kiev, due to Sølvi's seduction of Jarl Jauker's wife. Rurik's youngest son, Jarl Valdemar of Pskov, would engage in a brutal election battle with King Helgi twice during Helgi's lifetime. Valdemar, though still a child, was the choice of the few Slavic pagan chiefs under Rurik, utlimately their choice became irrelevant when they lost their titles. Rurik would go on to form the kingdom of Rus (I refuse to use the name Norse characters get for the title), and would manage to conquer a large part of the kingdom of Ruthenia as well. Helgi's rule was ultimately uneventful, so uneventful that he would be known more for his great age than for conquering most of the kingdom of Perm.

Tragedy would once strike the Rurikid family when King Helgi the Old's son, Baldr, was slain in battle against the High Chief Bogdan of Turov. Jarl Valdemar of Pskov is said to have held a feast when he heard the news since he believed that with Baldr's death would cement his victory in the election. After Baldr's death their were two main candidates to succeed Helgi, High Chief Valdemar of Pskov and Rurik, the only son of Ottar. Rurik, besides sharing his grandfather's name, was a rather ambitious cruel man. Valdemar quickly denounced Rurik with the intent of drawing the support of the other Jarl's, but instead of voting for him they voted for Ivar Sølvison. The young Ivar seemed to have little to no chance of winning the election. He was known for being a very withdrawn man, as well as not being ambitious. It was because of this that the other Jarl's put forth his name. They believed that they would be electing a man that would be easily manipulated, but while they were correct they would not be the ones to influence him.  Since Ivar had little to no chance of becoming king he had fallen in love and married a young Russian woman named Xenia, and she would be the one to successfully manipulate him. 

Upon taking the throne, Xenia convinced Ivar that if he wanted to rule over the people of Rus he should adopt their culture which he did. This upset many of the Jarl's under his command, particularly Valdemar who would instantly put plans into motion to seize the throne. Valdemar would continue to attempt to scheme his way to the throne, but he would eventually die of pneumonia before any of his plans came to fruition.
Xenia then managed to convince Ivar that it would be in his best interests to subdue the High Chiefs in Perm which would lead to ten long years of war. With Perm all but secured, Ivar formed the Empire of Russia and would turn to raiding the Karling Kings in Europe as well as the Basileus. It was during one of these raids where the beautiful daughter of the count of Malta was brought before him. In order to save his demesne, the count offered his youngest daughter, Anna, as a concubine which Ivar accepted. Anna would later convince Ivar to renounce his pagan Gods and embrace Orthodox Christianity...

I've also started a Byzantium game in EUIV on ironman.

So far so good, I allied Poland and Serbia and they helped me turn the Ottomans back entirely after their fist invasion and I retook all of Greece (not Bulgaria) from them

You haven't played HoI until you do a Tanvu Tuva mini WC.

Is that Tuva Republic?
How's you research going?

Well Eirene II died putting Theodora III on the throne, her 50year reign saw a mixed bag. For the first time in centuries the Imperial standard flew from the shores of Asia, but land in the Balkans had to be abandoned following a coalition of the Renegade Patriarch of Rome, the Hungarians, Neapolitans, and Spanish.

Isaakios III now takes the throne.

Well, I started an Isauros Roman Restoration game finally, but I'm way behind on my screenshots, so I'll have to come up with some extreme backstory for some of my rulers.