CK2: Broken Kingdoms - Shattered World

In the olden times I made a LP for the recently released Crusader Kings 2 with my own custom-made culture mod that injected BF personalities into the game.

How Lum the Mad became Lum the Conqueror

It was the story of how Duke Lum the Mad launched an ambitious invasion from his Norman fief and ended up rising to become king of the English. Mad King Lum succumbed to old age not long after his triumph however and his young daughter and sole heir Linn was widely believed to be possessed by demons. She died shortly after gaining her maturity under suspicious circumstances and with her the line of Lum the Mad was ended.

But what if there was an alternate world, a world where there are no kingdoms or dukes. A world filled with counts scrabbling to consolidate or be consumed by circumstance. How would Lum the Mad fare in such a world.



The popular CK2+ mod includes a Shattered World scenario where the world is filled with one-province counts. For this Let's Play I will play that scenario. With my custom culture mod, of course. Lum the Mad will start off a count and I'll make him a kingdom.

The CK2+ mod is getting frequent bug fixes and whatnot so I've been holding off a bit, I also need to update my own culture mod and merge it into CK2+, but in the meantime I figured I could ask where people want to see Count Lum start out.

I figured I'd just start him in Rouen in Normandie again as that gives options for expanding into France or just conquering England but I am open to all suggestions with two exceptions. One, I'm not going to make Lum a muslim. Not because racism, but because I have no idea how my culture mod works with islamic rulers and I don't want to get sidetracked by ironing out culture issues. Two, it needs to be someplace reasonable central. No count of the far Hebrides or Lappland, because having no money and no prospects is no fun to play.

On the topic of my culture mod, the way it works is that I'll replace whatever culture in the county we take over with a custom BF culture. Then that will give characters of the shared culture BF first names (which I've culled from the forum, plus a bunch of generic english ones) and BF dynasty names (which I've invented)

The house Dungsroman is a dynasty, as is the house of Pie. So characters will be born and named Guy Dungsroman and Angie of Pie and the like.

I intend no offense to anyone whose BF name I've borrowed for this little mod but if you're uncomfortable or for any reason don't like seeing it appear in this LP then I will of course remove it.

I've always seen Lum as more of the Russian border Prince type than a snooty french noble so I vote for sticking him in one of the eastern most provinces that could reasonably seen as Slavic.

Bavaria.. works for Lum the Mad :)

Admit it, you just want me to get eaten by mongols.

I think the obvious choice is to stick Lum into Transylvannia. Maybe he can get the Impaler trait.

Hmm, I just realised that Nubia is an option. Nubia, along with most of Egypt, is miaphysite christian and with the big muslim sultanates broken up no one is going to make them convert.

Lum the Mad, king of Africa has a nice ring to it.

There are relatively few Russian tractors in Nubia.

I just installed this mod and am now the proud Count of Constantinople....

I vote for Byzantium.

Middle of Germany.

I hope my name is in the culture.

Constantinople. He can gouge out the eyes of his enemies.

Likewise mod nearby counts after posters.

Seconding the vote for Byzantium. Go forth and conquer! :D

A byzantine game it is then.



The Broken culture displaced a bunch of Bulgarians but is technically a Byzantine culture, related to Greek. I still have a few bugs to iron out but with no more school assignments due for another month I think I'll have the first installment of this LP up this week.

I am in 1185...

I have reconstituted the Byzantine Empire and own a large chunk of the map.....

Its a great mod for the most part. I hate the costs associated with fabricating claims.. but love that its a wide open world.

Just in case you were checking on me. 10 years later I have taken Armenia, Serbia, more of Italy and most of the Levant. I am declaring Holy War for Jerusalem and Sinai now. If things go as expected I will have reconstituted Rome within the next 10 years.

How good is the AI at putting together other kingdoms?

Pretty good, though small kingdoms seem to be a lot easier to form than large ones.

How odd, I was sure I'd posted in this thread - anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing how this shakes out!

Very good actually Navarre is my largest competitor and holds most of Iberia and France. There were the usual Russian empires as well.

While waiting on the real LP :)

I love this add on. I just halted the Horde 60k death stack in its tracks in Cumania. It was such a victory they threw me a triumph in the hippodrome. When Croatia falls I will have reconstituted Rome!




The muslims are done.. I will cleanse Morocco and Mali next. In the east there are 2 remaining provinces. I have already won my first round with the Ilkhanate. Mecklenburg is pagan and is the next target after Africa.

I'm doing a somewhat similar LP, except that my ruler is Jewish.

... also Immortal, because seriously, how else am I going to conquer the world as a Jew.

Just wait for my next shot! The Romans are back and they are partying!

Immortal???



it is the reign of Basilieous Artemios the Glorious... Long may he reign over the refounded Roman Empire!

I have been hammering the Romuvan lands of the steppes for the last 10 years. I have pounded Mecklenberg, Scalovia, Lithuania, Finland, and most of Russia under the mailed fist of the empire. I am going to take one more swing to the north to finish off Slupsk, and that brown thing in the north and another chunk of Vitebsk.. then its Morocco and Mali...

Kiev is Orthodox and Kuyavia Catholic... Need to finish poaching on the edges so my kings get de jure access. My daughter is married to the King of Wessex. I love retinues.. I have a 10k private army I just move around now.

Your frequent updates will not shame me into starting this LP before I'm done with the mod. ;)

An exciting teaser for all my fans.

I hope Elyscape is well liked.

Episode 1: Meet the new boss

It has been a year since Lum the Mad led his tribe to the lands of Macedonia and the shores of the Aegean sea. Where they came from is a mystery, they do not speak of it, but the tribes call themselves the Broken. They displaced the natives and made their homes in the hills and woods but Lum the Mad has loftier ambitions. This is a shattered world but he dreams to rule all of it. A little bird told him he would.



Count Lum counts himself as the first of house de Broken and his heraldry is the star, the tower, and the sacred fatbird. He is a legitimate bastard, though his actual parentage is unknown, and during the exodus he has made himself known as a grey eminence amongst the tribes. His ambition is legendary, his judgement arbitrary, his cynicism matched by patience and temperance. Oh, and he is quite mad. The sacred fatbird speaks to him in dreams.



The lands he rule are rich. Or could be, if anyone thought about civilizing the place. Lum's "castle" doesn't even have a palisade, the local town is just a bunch of huts along a single road, and the church, well, the less said the better. No wonder, then, that Bogomilist heretics run rampant. Supposedly they were exiled here from Constantinople in the east years and years ago.

His fellow tribesmen rule the lands to the west and the north. Their leaders are Count Quatoria in Strymon, Count Abilio in Serdica, Count Troy in Naissus, Count Bill in Nikopolis, and Countess Angie in Tyrnovo. None of them will acknowledge any other as their overlord. Yet. Lum is going to see about changing their minds once he has a sizeable army. But for now there is peace, and Lum's ambitions are more towards marriage than conquest.



Lum's Council is headed by his chancellor and closest vassal, Baron Elyscape Elper. They have grown close in the exile and he is the one man who seems to bear any tolerance for Lum's madness. Karen heads Lum's ragtag militia of an army. A peasant girl of no real heritage she nevertheless seemed to have a remarkable grasp on what it takes to lead in combat. And Lum is not one to discriminate, he'll take talent where he can find it. The Steward is an unremarkable man, as is Mayor Bob, the Spymaster. Bishop Charles on the other hand positively hates his count and the feeling is mutual. But what can you do, it's not like you can just have him beheaded for no reason... Well, maybe you can. But not right now.

Episode 2: Love is warfare by other means.

If Lum is to rule the world then first he needs allies, and the easiest way to gain one is to marry them. This is why Lum sends out a marriage proposal to the Countess of Ephesos on the coast of Asia Minor. Her lands are rich, she's close enough to give aid in war, and she will bear heirs to carry on the line of house de Broken. That sounds like love to me.

While waiting for a reply from the Countess it's time to put the councellors to work. Chancellor Elyscape is tasked with fabricating a claim on the Chalkidike to the west. Lum has always liked the look of peninsulas and he wants one of his own.

[The rest of the chancellors were replaced when an unfortunate bug forced me to restart. It turns out that the game doesn't like it when one character resides in two separate courts. But life, and Lum, moves on]

Barely two days later Baron Elyscape returns with the news that he can create a claim on the Chalkidike if Count Lum has 100 ducats to spare. With 40 ducats in our vaults and a yearly profit of around 8 ducats the plan to fabricate a claim is put on hold for now. Even the 25 ducat dowry from the countess isn't going to be enough. And besides, it's not lands Lum wants as much as it is titles and recognition so he can lord over others. He orders Elyscape to hold off and instead sets his sights on claiming the Duchy of Adrianopolis. Once he is duke then other counts will bow down before him. Claiming a ducal crown requires 200 ducats so it's a long-term goal, good thing Lum plans to live forever.



The first child born at the court in Philippopolis



Baron Elyscape's diplomatic overtures in Serdica are unsuccessful. Count Abilio was not friendly to begin with and now I fear he'll be openly hostile.

The world otherwise remains peaceful. No one has, yet, the claims or the money to successfully wage war. For now Count Lum has to enough on his mind trying to convince his wife to travel across the sea for a conjugal visit so he can get on with the whole producing-heirs business.

[Note: I'm using the Gender Equality CK2 mod. Meaning women inherit on the same grounds as men and all council positions are open to women. As we saw with Marshal Karen, earlier.]



Our bishop has done a remarkable job rooting out the Bogomilist heresy. If only there was some way to reward him without actually giving up anything of value. I guess we can always send him to Constantinople and the court of the Ecumenical Patriarch. It never hurts to be in the good graces of the church.




In the year of our lord 1069 tragedy strikes young Baron Elyscape. His young wife Mirriam dies during childbirth, as does his firstborn child Aaron. The Baron retires to his castle to mourn, not to be seen in public again for many months.

Kalle, now that you have the mod in working order, you're going to make it available for people to use, right? :D

I can do that. :)

Episode 3: Won't someone think of the children

A caravan arrives. Count Lum is eager to trade for exotic goods and foreign liqour.





Do Hindustani merchants offer up eunuchs to everyone I wonder? They must go through a lot of eunuchs in that case. Regardless, young Ezana seems like a capable fellow.


Count Lum's attempts to extract more taxes from his subjects backfire. He still needs over 70 ducats to throw his ducal coronation feast, can't they understand that their money is needed to fuel his greatness?




However, the grumbling of the barons is soon forgotten when the news breaks that Count Lum has an heir at last. On 13th of July in the year of our lord 1071 Aurora was born. Let all men rejoice!



With young Aurora a year old Count Lum starts planning for playdates. It's never too early for a young princess to make friends. Not with peasants though, never. Lets see how the lesser Broken counts up north are doing. Maybe they will have children that make for acceptable playmates.



Count Quatoria already has four children. The eldest, Kalle, is probably too old to make a good playmate for young Aurora, and his other son Csl was born deformed. His daughters Lilly and Juliana would probably be suitable however.



Count Troy's eldest, Edmund, is also too old I think. His daughter Alligator seems suitable though. And she's rather small, making it easier for young Aurora to assert her natural dominance.



Count Abilio's eldest daughter Cecilia is rather lethargic for a toddler. His eldest son Brian is unremarkable, and the two infant twins Jenn and Matt will probably conspire against Aurora if they're brought out for a playdate. If Jenn can make it through the winter that is, the poor child suffers terribly from pneumonia.



Henry and Angie Jr. Horrible taste in names, I say.



Count Bill's boys look like the best bet. Little Dave has his fathers' dashing looks and infant Hunty looks to be much too bright for a child his age.

While poring over the genealogical records of the broken dynasties Count Lum is interrupted as one of the courts young hotheads bursts in and demands to know why he's not fit to be the Count's spymaster.


Young Tiohn needs to learn his place! I rule here. Besides, his hatred for birds is well-known, only a fool would make an enemy their spymaster.

Episode 4: The first step towards world domination

You can find all sorts of things when looking through ancestry records while planning for your daughter's play dates.

Like irrefutable proof that Count Abilio's real father was a goatherd, and thus he has no claim to any titles at all. By right his county should be ours.



We'll have a war but it has to wait until summer. We can't interrupt planting season.



Garden business keeps us occupied until july, when we finally make a formal proclamation of Count Abilio's ignoble heritage and gather our army to liberate his subjects from his illegitimate rule. An envoy is send out to Countess Eupraxia to ask her to aid her husband but...



Not only will the faithless woman not honour her alliance, she is plotting the murder of our dear Count Lum! We will have to see what can be done about her when the war is over.

With our levies raised we can muster 570 armed men, Count Abilio can raise 510. We have a slight advantage but Abilio is a renowned tactician, having spent many hours in his castle playing out ancient battles with tiny soldier figurines. Count Lum decides that he is too important to command the army in the field, and that his dreams of duke-dom are too important to justify hiring mercenaries. We will have to make do with what we have.

Count Lum orders his armies to remain in Philippopolis, hoping to bait Abilio into fighting a battle on a field of our choosing. Abilio is obliging and takes the bait. The armies meet in the hills outside Xantheia and Abilio has some initial success in driving off the skirmishers on our left flank but when the battle is joined in melee our numbers and the slight height advantage we gave ourselves start to tell and Abilio's center breaks.



The Count himself was captured during the fighting and given the option of a lifetime in the dungeons he quickly makes peace on Lum's terms. Abilio and his family is then free to go into exile at the court of Countess Angie.

[In the beginning of this scenario no one has any claims on anyone so you have to wait a decade or so before random event claims start appearing. Once that happen people start waging war, grow larger, fight more wars, and duchies and kingdoms start appearing. Right now Count Bill has a claim on the county of Vidin, for instance, but I think he's not strong enough to press it.]



Our new vassals, Mayor Kryten of Velbazhd and Bishop Cormac of Rila take an instant dislike to us. The fools cannot see our glorious destiny.





It is the work of my faithless wife, I know it! Her conjugal visit must have been an excuse to set off the plot.



Faithless courtiers, half my council is in on it! As much as we would like to imprison the entire lot of them our position is precarious. Warning them off should suffice to break up the plot, and I'll have to replace my marshal. Then we'll see about hatching a scheme of our own. Her spymaster looks susceptible to a bribe....

And then word comes that she is pregnant.



He looks just like his papa.

I was a bit more aggressive in the early going.. funnily I also married the faithless countess. But the minute she produced an heir I murdered her and the child she produced.. Who knows who the real father was.. But Ephesos looked good in my empire

:)

Speaking of which.... I need two pictures now





I am really liking this mod. Is the trick where armies are raised for an entire realm a CK 2 patch feature or specific to this mod?

graller, with all due respect, now that Kalle has started his LP, I'd prefer it if you posted in the CK2 thread or made an LP of your own, because I was all hopeful that Kalle had updated the LP and now I'm sadfacing. :(

Sure. Sorry Aaron. Here is another tease then

I'm leaving for my christmas break tomorrow. I'll see if I can get another update during the holidays but no guarantees.

But don't despair, you can make your own fun with my mod files.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/495609/brokenmodv01.rar

Extract the archive into your mod folder. The mod is intended to run alongside the big CK2+ mod version 1.32.x with the alternative scenarios selected. The other optional parts of CK2+ are just that, optional.

I'm not going to do tech support. If anyone has suggestions I'm open to them but keep in mind that I just did the minimum work necessary to get this to work for a reason. I am lazy. :)

Thanks!

I'm starting my own game of De Broken + Shattered States + Gender Equality + Aztecs.

Episode 5: Lum waits for no man.

And we're back. I'm done with school for now and I have free time again. And the first thing I need to do is make sure the mod is compatible with the updated CK2+. The text.csv and the culture file need a bit of updating but nothing major. I'm more concerned about what will happen once 1.09 hits. Save game compatability will probably be broken for good then so I'll probably have to stick with 1.08 until the LP is done.

---

We pick up where we left off. Count Lum has just become the father of a baby boy. Sounds like the perfect time to plot the murder of his wife. She won't expect it. Especially not when she has this guy for spymaster.




With her spymaster in our pocket I doubt she'll be troubling us much longer. It will mean that young Aurora will leave our court prematurely, of course, but we have a backup heir now so it will all work out.

Our next order of business. We've diligently saved up for a coronation party. It's Duke Lum now, peasants! And since we're the Duke of Adrianopolis it's only right that the actual county of Adrianopolis be ours as well. That's right next door. When we have enough ducats for some backup mercenaries we'll get on that. The title claim isn't going anywhere, after all.

Bur right now we're gonna enjoy the party.



I had too much to driinnker. Bedbedbed wheres the besd.1




Wassthis stupid beds where is my carpenter. Fix it tomorrow.



Snaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!

the fatbird never mentioned any snakesesssss.....

Episode 6: Meet the new boss, so cute and tiny

All hail Duchess Aurora of Adrianopolis!



Baby brother Lum was given the county of Serdica since daddy never got around to convincing his vassals that the eldest daughter should inherit everything. But it's ok, since we're a duchy it means he can be a vassal so we don't have to invade him and put his head on a pointy stick. Unless he's naughty.

Chancellor Elyscape is being very nice to us. He's gonna teach me all about ruling and stuff, and in the meantime he'll keep her safe. He always looks so sad when we hug him. Nanny says it's because his kids got sick and went to heaven last year. Ely says that's where daddy is. In heaven. Other people say he's not, but they are mean and we don't like them. Ely says mummy is one of those people, and that mummy took daddy away from us. It's hard not to cry when thinking about daddy but we have to try.

Isn't that right, little Fatbird?

---

Baron Ely says that we have to fight the count of Adrianopolis. Because if we don't he's going to take our duchy, and then we can't rule over little Lum, and then daddy's dreams will be ruined and we can't disappoint daddy. I went down and talked to the soldiers. They seemed stupid. Marshal Greg says they're going off to die for me. I wonder what it looks like when people die?

Baron Ely says he's going to ask mummy to help us but he looks so angry when he does. I don't want him to, mummy killed daddy, it's what everyone says, but he says he has to. I wish mummy was dead.





---

Our army and mummy's army defeated the evil count's army in Adrianopolis. I'm going to be countess again. Or is that countess twice? Do Fatbirds have countesses? Some day you'll tell me, won't you?

---

A letter has arrived from mummy. It says we have a new sister. Baron Ely says this is bad, because she is going to want mummy's lands when they're really ours. Well, she can't have them! They're mine.



---

The bishop says that it's wrong to hurt people, and that god is watching us. If god was watching then why didn't he watch my daddy when he got hurt. I'm not going to church today, I'm going to go riding, no matter what Baron Ely says.

---

My stupid brother can't even speak right. What an idiot. I'm gonna go push him in the dung pile.

---

Baron Ely is building a mill in the village by the castle. He says it will make us a lot of money. I hope he's right. A Duchess needs lots and lots of money. He lets me off lessons early today to play while he's going over the plans. I like Baron Ely, he's the best man in all the lands, I know he does what daddy would have wanted.



---

Baron Ely talked to me today. He told me that a good ruler has to be kind to be loved by her subjects, even to idiots and mean people. He said that I'm growing up so fast and If I hurt people for no good reason then I'm just like mummy. It felt awful. I promised to be nicer to my brother and he looked happy. I want to make Baron Ely happy. He's a good man.



---

Daddy didn't have to follow any rules so why does it matter if I said Sparky was going to be Steward? Joan is so much better at it anyway. I'm a Duchess, people should do as I say.



---

Constance is being so mean, it's almost like she doesn't care I'm a duchess. But Baron Ely said I should try to be kind, so I will.



---



I'm glad I didn't have Constance thrown in the dungeons. She's so nice, and she showed me her daddy's sword when he was out exercising the militia. And even if she can be a bit mean sometimes I know she only wants to have fun. It's good to have a friend. I thought my only friends were Baron Ely and you, Fatbird.

---



Baron Ely says I'm almost a grown woman and it's time to plan for my marriage. He said I've been betrothed to a man named David for a long time, and that David would inherit a county from his mother and a claim on a county from his father and if we had kids then they would have claims on all of it. He said daddy was the one who wanted this marriage to happen and it would be good for me and it would mean that daddy's dream would live on. I wonder if David is nice. Baron Ely says he's brave and good with swords. But I shouldn't worry, because I'll still be duchess, and David won't get to tell me what to do. And when I'm married I'll get to rule on my own.

Baron Ely will still help me though, but I'll be duchess for real. Daddy had a dream, I know he told you about it Fatbird. Well, I'm going to make it happen. I'll rule everything and make daddy proud.

---



That's Constance's daddy!

I can't have him stealing from me, but if I punish him Constance will hate me forever. What do I do?



It's good that Baron Ely is here to help me out. He told me that since Marshal Greg was a good Marshal and Constance's daddy it was alright to act like he hadn't tried to steal from us. We just have to let him know that we know, and then he'll stop on his own. It's sneaky but it worked, and Constance is still my friend.

---

The best thing about being a duchess is that the maids all help me when I ask for cookies.



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It's my birthday today, and in a week I'm getting married. It's so exciting. I'll be in charge of everything. But I'll still make time to talk to you Fatbird. You've always been my friend.