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Crusader Kings: A Byzantium Quest

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theauthor said:
She also write a bit about Bohemond, our rival norman prince :V

Now [Bohemond] was such as, to put it briefly, had never before been seen in the land of the Romans [that is, Greeks], be he either of the barbarians or of the Greeks (for he was a marvel for the eyes to behold, and his reputation was terrifying). Let me describe the barbarian's appearance more particularly – he was so tall in stature that he overtopped the tallest by nearly one cubit, narrow in the waist and loins, with broad shoulders and a deep chest and powerful arms. And in the whole build of the body he was neither too slender nor overweighted with flesh, but perfectly proportioned and, one might say, built in conformity with the canon of Polycleitus... His skin all over his body was very white, and in his face the white was tempered with red. His hair was yellowish, but did not hang down to his waist like that of the other barbarians; for the man was not inordinately vain of his hair, but had it cut short to the ears. Whether his beard was reddish, or any other colour I cannot say, for the razor had passed over it very closely and left a surface smoother than chalk... His blue eyes indicated both a high spirit and dignity; and his nose and nostrils breathed in the air freely; his chest corresponded to his nostrils and by his nostrils...the breadth of his chest. For by his nostrils nature had given free passage for the high spirit which bubbled up from his heart. A certain charm hung about this man but was partly marred by a general air of the horrible... He was so made in mind and body that both courage and passion reared their crests within him and both inclined to war. His wit was manifold and crafty and able to find a way of escape in every emergency. In conversation he was well informed, and the answers he gave were quite irrefutable. This man who was of such a size and such a character was inferior to the Emperor alone in fortune and eloquence and in other gifts of nature.
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Yes, Anna very much wanted to climb Bohemond like a tree. Alexios was spinning in his grave so quickly that the Byzantines probably could've harnessed his corpse and invented electricity a century or six early.
 
Telamon said:
Yes, Anna very much wanted to climb Bohemond like a tree. Alexios was spinning in his grave so quickly that the Byzantines probably could've harnessed his corpse and invented electricity a century or six early.
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I dispute this absurd notion that the glorious Roman Empire didn't posses electiricy. If the damn Parthians had it, then the Roman Empire did too.

Baghdad Battery - Wikipedia

Some believe that wine, lemon juice, grape juice, or vinegar was used as an acidic electrolyte solution to generate an electric current from the difference between the electrode potentials of the copper and iron electrodes.[3]​[4]​
König had observed a number of very fine silver objects from ancient Iraq, plated with very thin layers of gold, and speculated that they were electroplated using batteries with these as the cells.
 
I wonder why is people choosing Tatikios as our Magos Domestikos because quite frankly it wouldn't be a great decision. Duee to the fact that not only would it offend the Doukas's which is one of our main support pillars to maintain our rule. It would also alienate the rural Dynatoi's which would then align themselves against our rule and if the both of them are aligned against us then it's just the perfect recipe for a civil war.
 
HanEmpire said:
The Ubermensch stat, mostly. If he's a match for the Emperor, his martial must be ~30. That's superhuman.
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That doesn't mean he can take on the empire with few troops himself, nor does it mean that he or the emperor are any good at cleaning up the mess afterwards, repairing broken infrastructure, paying for the costs of the civil war, and preventing an invasion from a foreign power should we start a civil war!
 
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HanEmpire said:
The Ubermensch stat, mostly. If he's a match for the Emperor, his martial must be ~30. That's superhuman.
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Yeah but if we choose him it would be like us kicking the Doukas's in the face and then spitting on them. Because elevating a slave over a noble isn't really done especially in a situation like ours where the dynasty is brand new and still relying heavily on the Doukas dynatoi elevating our mother's family is heck of a lot better than choosing a former slave. It doesn't mean that we sideline him completely, he can be the commander of the Varangians or the Scholai which necessitates martial skill and absolute loyalty to us.
 
Inserted tally
Adhoc vote count started by PyrrosWarrior on Sep 26, 2017 at 12:09 AM, finished with 166 posts and 30 votes.
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As another interesting note (read: I'm showing off my research), Tatikios was a real figure who lived during the reign of Alexios Komnenos. While he was never Domestikos ton Scholai, he was a powerful and capable figure in the court of Alexios. He really was one of the Emperor's closest friends, and the two often played polo together while campaigning. During the First Crusade, he was commander of the Byzantine attachment to the Crusader armies, and sought to rein in the excesses of the Crusaders. His descendants, the Tatikioi, appear in the Imperial records as a noble house of some renown and prestige up until the late 12th century.

Also, he had a bitchin nose of solid gold because his real one got lopped off in battle.
 
[X] Plan Imperial Future
-[X] The Turks
-[X] The Varangians
-[X] Micheal Doukas
-[X] The Silk Quarter
-[X] The Norman Lords
-[X] The Army
 
It's not like the example of bureaucracy - China - wasn't quite feudal in some ways de-facto (more or less in various periods; it's ancient and big and populous and diverse), although it's history is huge as all fuck and I am only passingly familiar with it.
I think that presenting bureaucracy+meritocracy and feudalism as mutually exclusive is not how any of it works.
 
@Telamo Shouldn't it be the Megas domestikos now rather than the Domestikos ton Scholai

@HanEmpire Yeah he's pretty badass still isn't convinced he's the best choice though.
 
[X] Plan Imperial Future
-[X] The Turks
-[X] The Varangians
-[X] Micheal Doukas
-[X] The Silk Quarter
-[X] The Norman Lords
-[X] The Army
 
[X] Plan: Calculated Obligations
Adhoc vote count started by Blonddude42 on Sep 26, 2017 at 2:45 AM, finished with 178 posts and 35 votes.
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Guilliman said:
@Telamo Shouldn't it be the Megas domestikos now rather than the Domestikos ton Scholai

@HanEmpire Yeah he's pretty badass still isn't convinced he's the best choice though.
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The titles coexisted and were used interchangeably for a short time before Donestikos ton Scholai faded out of relevance in the early 12th century. In particular, Alexios' father, John Komnenos, was Domestic of the Schools in his day.
 
Guilliman said:
I wonder why is people choosing Tatikios as our Magos Domestikos because quite frankly it wouldn't be a great decision. Duee to the fact that not only would it offend the Doukas's which is one of our main support pillars to maintain our rule. It would also alienate the rural Dynatoi's which would then align themselves against our rule and if the both of them are aligned against us then it's just the perfect recipe for a civil war.
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Guilliman said:
Yeah but if we choose him it would be like us kicking the Doukas's in the face and then spitting on them. Because elevating a slave over a noble isn't really done especially in a situation like ours where the dynasty is brand new and still relying heavily on the Doukas dynatoi elevating our mother's family is heck of a lot better than choosing a former slave. It doesn't mean that we sideline him completely, he can be the commander of the Varangians or the Scholai which necessitates martial skill and absolute loyalty to us.
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Tatikios is the "not playing favourites for this position" option. As Michael would offend Dalessenos and Constantine would offend the Doukas more because our mother's family have been the rivals of the Doukas.
Choosing one would be viable if we appeased the other. And unfortunately, only the Magos Domestikos has an option that favours the Dalassenos. And the Doukai already have the seat of Co-Emperor.
Banking on our +5 vassal opinion(a good insult tends to vary between -10 and -15 in CK2), our decent prestige and our actively working to win the love of our wife to tide us over. We can try to placate them next turn. As I doubt either faction is likely to go into open revolt(yet).

We should have some pull in Bononia and Athens thanks to our sisters anyway, which theoretically gives us the support of 3,963 Themata with loyalties to our dynasty.
 
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