Hey guys. Remember how I was updating you about my game and then I just stopped? Wasn't that awesome? No? OK! Well, here is the rest! I finished the game quite a while ago, though, so my memory is a bit foggy, so this is mostly just the highlights. But a lot of highlights.
So, I had worried that Onaedo might try and snag the title of King of Wales from Kam. I NEEDED NOT WORRY. Onaedo and some of the other dudes who held territory in Wales decided to beat the crap out of each other for territory. I tried to have Kam join the war on Ona's side, but... yeah. Can't do that. SORRY ONA.
And Onaedo is pretty much immediately killed in battle, leaving all his territory to his 6-year old daughter, Lann.
And Kam becomes a drunk. If I was maimed and my brother had been killed, I think I'd be a drunk too.
Surprisingly, Lann wins her father's war. Last I'd checked it had been going pretty badly. So that's nice! The lady in the picture is NOT Lann, because Lann was only a child. I don't remember who she was. Why she was pictured is beyond me.
Kamau nails peoples hats to their heads for fun.
At this point, Kamau had several sons and a daughter. His sons were pretty forgettable, but his daughter Saibh had the "attractive" trait. It's not much, but I decided I wanted her to be heir. UNFORTUNATELY, as she was (at the time) the youngest AND a girl, she.. wasn't in the picture to inherit. So some stabbin' needed to be done. So....
Stabbity.
That's how you deal with neighbors.
The King of Scotland with the Awful Beard declares war on us for some of Wales.
Kam loses because Scotland is WAY more powerful than us at this point.
So most of Wales is lost (all that brown area).
Onaedo's daughter, now all growed up, still has that little bit of green land in Wales, and she decided she wanted to be Queen of Wales and went to war with poor Kam.
Kamau died in the middle of this war, leaving his daughter Saibh in charge. THE THING IS... given the time period of this game (1066-1453) women aren't given much respect in terms of leadership, which is represented in-game with a relationship penalty with all your vassals. In Saibh's case, because she only had a single child at the time - a daughter - she not only got a penalty for being female herself, but also for having a female heir. So, I was expecting a lot of trouble.
Luckily, the war with Onaedo's daughter had been going well, so when this dude back in Ireland rebelled, it wasn't too taxing. The war with Onaedo's daughter was swiftly ended and she was thrown in prison, and the same with this dude and his co-conspirator (a distant cousin). After that, things... actually went amazingly smooth for Saibh, which surprised me. Everyone loved her!
Random aside: in Saibh's time, the King of Burgandy was named Poppo. King Poppo. #EasilyAmused
We hadn't actually won back that part of Wales yet, and this dude decided to snatch Saibh's Queen of Wales title away. RUDE. So, despite my plan to have Saibh not partake in any wars during her reign, I decided she couldn't just let some stupid dude take her title. Off to war! When the war was won, all that land in Wales we lost came back under Ireland's rule. Awesome.
I haven't actually played a ton of female rulers, so I haven't gotten many of these events. I thought this one was cute. C: Saibh has a true friend!
Aw, someone wants to paint a portrait of Kam. <3
EVERYONE FREAKING LOVED SAIBH.
Saibh's son and heir was Mviko, who had a glorious beard.
Saibh earned the title Queen Saibh the Great.
And then she died.
Mviko... didn't last very long. He got sick and just never fought it off. So his young son Mguuyasiku took over.
The green is all Ireland when Mguu comes of age. Mviko had won that little bit to the south there during his short reign. I have no clue in hell who won that stuff to the east, because I never had any of the rulers go for it. But, all for the glory of Ireland and whatnot!
This is Mguu's brother, Nishati, who I liked just because he had a glorious red beard.
Mguu is a ladies man.
Yep.
Somewhere in there, Mguuyasiku died. I can't remember how... I want to say it was from illness or in battle. His son, Sodawi, takes over. And is also a ladies man. That is not Onaedo's daughter Lann, by the by. The game just really loves to reuse names.
Scotland finally begins to lose some power, so Soda makes moves to start chipping away at their land.
Soda falls in and out of love with different ladies all the time, and fathers a bastard (or two, I forget).
Elimnyama was Soda's heir, but Soda ruled a long time and Elim he died young so he never got to rule. Luckily, he had a single son before he died.
Seriously, Soda. You're not getting any younger REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO XIAN IN THAT ALTERNATE TIMELINE?
And somewhere in there Sodawi also died, leaving his grandson Mael-Martin as the fabulous Gay King of Ireland. A character with the homosexual trait gets lowered fertility (frustrating when you're trying to get them to have an heir) and a small negative relations penalty with other characters (unless they're also gay, in which case you get a positive relation boost). One of Mael's vassals also happens to be gay, so I figured they must be getting it on when no one was looking. Mael has no problem having kids, though. I married him off to a woman with the "lustful" trait, which boosts HER fertility and it kinda balances out (also, this popup gave Mael the Lustful trait, which boosts HIS fertility as well). Nothing very interesting happened during his reign, though, due to various truces that were in place at the time, preventing war.
So, Mael eventually dies, leaving the throne to his son, Taka. King Taka continues the gradual picking apart of Scotland, which is left in a continually weakened state due to rulers dying young (helped along by the fact that I kept having them secretly stabbed).
Unlike previous kings, Taka is loyal to his wife.
And by the time he reaches old age, Taka has snagged enough of Scotland to snag the title King of Scotland, making him King of Ireland, Wales and Scotland. All that remains of Scotland is the three light blue counties to the south of Ireland's new Scottish territory, and one tiny little county down near Wales.
Just to show I DID have an Ewali! He wasn't set to inherit because he was the second son and he ended up dying at only 20 years old due to pneumonia. But! He did manage to have a son:
Feidlimid, who has a good trait: Strong. Given that Taka's heir only had a daughter, Feid' is up pretty high in the line of succession. So, the plan is for him to be the heir after Taka's son.
Poor Taka. Despite being a fantastic king and being coined as King Taka the Wise, he suffers from depression in his later years.
Taka dies soon after, leaving his son, Mael-Martain II, on the throne. He only has a daughter at this point, so I have her stabbed so that Ewali's son will be the heir. Unless Mael's wife pops out a genius son, I'm gunna have to stab any other babies he has. SUCH IS LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. Mael-Martain becomes known as King Mael-Martain the Magnanimous... and his wife starts popping out non-genius sons, so there is some stabbing going on.
You can inbreed. This dude apparently died an inbred freak.
Stabbity.
Mael-Martain the Magnanimous dies, leaving the throne to Ewali's son, Feidlimid. And man, did Feid's Uncle Horus HATE him. Horus has a lot of land in Scotland and was always pestering Mael because he wanted the Kingdom of Scotland title which I refused to give away. When Feid took over, Horus almost immediately declared war on him, but his donkey was kicked back into line and things fell back into place.
Somewhere along the line, Feid became known as King Feid the Fat.
Feid's firstborn was a pretty decent daughter with the strong trait, so I named her Msasi and figured I'd keep her for the heir. Msasi had a younger sister, Takiyah, and then a younger brother, Mheetu. Neither of them was all that great, so I figured I was going to stab Mheetu so Msasi could inherit. BUT THEN! Seif was born! After over 300 years of trying to get the genius trait to pass on to one of the kids, Seif finally gets it. With less than 40 years left in the game. Doh.
Aside from being a glutton (which I think was part of what lead to him getting called "the Fat"), Feid becomes a drunk.
Growed up Msasi.
Ewali picture time!
Training up Seif.
Growed up Seif. Wasn't sure he was going to be able to inherit at all, since the endgame was coming up.
In over 300 years, our relative who rules Iceland (I have no clue how that happened) decides to help us in our war. No one has EVER answered our call to war before. Hooray, Arnfinn the Mad! We're slowly chipping away at England here, FYI.
Buncha fat people fighting over land.
King Feid continues to be a drunk and also an embarrassment to his children.
He dies and Seif does get to rule. Huzzah! With only.. 14 years to go? I was hoping it would be easygoing from there, but I kept having to reload because people kept killing poor Seif off and launching Ireland into civil war, and I didn't want to deal with that crap so close to the end. After two last little wars (one which I wasn't sure would even end in time): it's endgame time! Here's the final shot of Ireland. We'd been slowly working south through England. That orangey-red bit up there in the middle of the green was land owned by an ally. We could have gone to war over it, but it would've cost us some prestige, and I just never got around to it (plus, at one time he was also allied with England, at a time when England could've kicked our donkey).
King Seif the Wise.
And his heir, Prince Binstari.
Kivuli was the name of our dynasty (family). Ours didn't spread very far because I suck at spreading the dynasty around outside borders. No clue how Iceland came under our control, but lulz. We'd had some family off to the east, but the line must've died out over there because I couldn't find them again.
The state of the world at the end of the game. One of Seif's nieces (Takiyah's oldest daughter) actually ended up the Empress of the Byzantine Empire. It means nothing to us, though, because her children don't count as members of our dynasty. Shame. Sweden also became a freaking powerhouse. The grey to the east of France is all that remains of the Holy Roman Empire. France was still pretty powerful. They had a claim of a smidge of England, and I wouldn't have been able to take it from them had I gotten that far south. Poor Msasi ended up possessed and also had syphilis. And her husband was in jail because he'd been the one who kept trying to kill Seif.
Our final score, and how long everyone ruled. Sodawi was easily the greatest member of the dynasty, ruling for almost 60 years!