(Part 2) Top products from r/CrusaderKings

That's a poor excuse and you know it. Hellenism, asides from the very minor Epicureans (who were long dead even by Late Antiquity), never held this view in any way. Infact, as stated, it would directly go against the ancient theory of sacrifice (do ut des) common among Indo-European groups. I can even go further and say that not only was this immanent view completely integral to ancient Graeco-Roman religion, but it was a basis of the real life attempt at reforming the religion by Emperor Julian. Must I repeat the thing I already posted from Emperor Julian's "A Letter to a Priest"? Or do I need to talk about theophanies, manifestations of the divine, in the Ancient World? The divine Emperor Julian experienced a theophany on the spring of 363 CE when taking the route to Mount Kasios to bear witness to the early dawn and give worship and provide a sacrifice to Zeus. The sun rose, and in broad daylight, Julian received an epiphanic vision from Zeus, and “saw the God and after seeing him… received advice” (Libanius, Or.18.172). It is here that Zeus, “[as] one of the immortals descended from heaven, took [Julian] by the hair, spoke to him, and after listening to [Zeus’] answer [Julian] departed” (Libanius, Or.18.172).

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Want a book about how the divine would directly engage with humans? Here, have one on miracles in the ancient world. Better yet, I think you should read primary resources. Go read Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Collection of Ancient Texts by Georg Luck, it has a great many collections of primary resources translated, many of which involve how Ancient Hellenes understood theophany and their interactions with the divine. None of which involved "non-caring Gods."

Aha! but Zoroastrianism was far from the de facto religion of the Middle East. The Persian Empire was far from Persian in its demographics. That's why many modern Historians have begun to call it either the Iranian Empire or name the empire by its current Dynasty (Sassanid in Khosrow's case).

I bring this up because Zoroastrianism wasn't proselytized. Only a true-blooded Persian could be Zoroastrian. While converts were more or less accepted they were treated as an in-between class. Large groups of non-Persian Iranians practiced Christianity and Judaism. In fact, the Nestorian Church (an "Orthodox heresy") was based in Iran!

CK2 misses this when it allows the conversion of provinces to Zoroastrianism when the culture is not Persian. A big nono in my opinion!

But unlike Islam, Zoroastrians didn't tax non-Zoroastrians any more than normal (re. the Jizya tax).


If we're in the realm of alternate histories, had Khosrow II not squandered his grandfather's army like he did the Muslims would not have been able to expand like they did. Only a decade before the Muslim conquests began Khosrow II had, for the first time, truly won against the Graeco-Romans and taken not only the oft-traded Armenia, but most of Anatolia, all of Syira and the Levant, and even Egypt.

A counter-offensive by the Romans had devastated Khosrow's I masterpiece army and Khosrow II wouldn't surrender. The protracted war of attrition that followed put the Persian Empire is such a downward spiral that Khosrow II is often considered the last of the non-Muslim kings of Persia. Those that followed ruled briefly and were assassinated more often than not. Rome itself had very little defenses left in their regained holdings. (Borders went back to normal after the Perso-Roman war ended.)

Sidenote The story goes that during the peace negotiations between Emperor Heraclius (who REALLY deserves a story on his own, such a badass) and the General-King Shahrbahz (who REALLY deserves a story on his own, such a badass)...anyway, during the peace negotiations between the badasses they got a letter from some nobody self-proclaimed prophet from Mecca insisting they convert to some new faith. (Hee hee)

Had these wars gone differently, Islam would not have spread to dramatically, if at all, throughout Africa or Asias minor and major. Now THAT is some alternate history. :)

I made a thread a while back saying that paradox should make a game based on all this good stuff. At the very least they should make it a bookmark in EU: Rome 2 if i ever comes out. I would be SO happy.

Do you want to know more?

I actually have the reverse of all these "did well on history tests" experiences. I was already a history buff, but most histories lack a sense of comprehension that the Crusader Kings II start map does (despite occasional inaccuracies). But it's great to watch the rise and fall of the Plantagenet Empire in France while at the same time watching what's going on in the Byzantine Empire, in Italy, with the hordes in the east, etc. Not only that, but you can also look at the vassals of the Kings and Emperors, the religions, etc. so it helps balance out my understanding of European history and make it more holistic for the time period.

For example, I picked up the book "Four Queens" (see below) and while I loved the history, I was appalled at the map inside that listed only the local Cathar conflict, Provence, and named the big three powers as the Pope, the HRE, and Rome. No one else mattered or was listed. I put the book down, ran home, and immediately logged on to CK2 to check out the world map at that time and immediately had a better understanding of Europe at the start of the book. (I still haven't gone out and bought it though...)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0670038431/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=5PW1PAVSSXEQ&coliid=I3JPBPIUDWX5NF

Also as an aspiring novelist, CK2 has given me tons of great stories to work with. I already have a ridiculous alternate history based on the Magyar conquest of Constantinople and establishment of Carpathia, the Shaoshyant Khan, a powerful Fylkirate, and a reformed Mali that replaces Islamic al-Andalus with their own West African variety.

Other stories I've been outlining/writing didn't follow CK2 so explicitly, but the family relationships served as the basis for other stories. There's some good articles about these facets of the game. One of my favorites being "Like Worms in the Belly of Some Great Beast."

http://ruthlessculture.com/2013/05/07/like-worms-in-the-belly-of-some-great-beast-family-values-and-crusader-kings-ii/

I re-edited this. Here's some other cool stuff everyone might like or want to check out:

• Byzantium, The Lost Empire - YT playlist, it's a documentary series sort of along the lines of the civilization by Ken Clark (Which is awsome in itself).
  
  
• 12 Byzantine Rulers by Lars Brownworth. I've only listened through it once (maybe it's time to again?) but it's absolutely amazing.
  
  
• Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization Also by Mr. Brownsworth. I've only listened to the Audiobook (Got it through Audible awhile back), but it's pretty cool.
  
  I'm sure I'll remember some other cool stuff. The Roman/Early Middle Ages are one of my favorite time periods, and I've seen a lot of documentaries, read a lot of books, and such on this era.

I just finished reading Lost to the West, and it was a very fascinating and in-depth look at the broad history of the ERE as well as all the number of colorful and interesting people who sat on the throne. Although it does do some time skips, and glosses over some of the less important or less interesting emperors, I still enjoyed it none the less.

Enguerrand I, Lord of Coucy

I have been reading "A Distant Mirror" an amazing book about medieval history, and decided to play as , the first royal ancestor of the main character in the book.

To play him the start date has to be January 1, 1077, and choose the County of Amiens in the Kingdom of France.

Me and my friend have had a back and forth succession game as his line and it has been a blast. You are constantly caught in the middle of France exploding into revolutions, the English, Flemish, and HRE, among others, all trying to encroach on your position. It is a constant defensive battle, but very rewarding when you manage to snag an extra county or two.

If you're interested in the opposite perspective on things, I sincerely recommend The Book of Contemplation by Usama ibn Munqidh, a Syrian muslim soldier, diplomat and adventurer who lived in 1100s.

Court intrigue in Fatimid Egypt, taking on the Crusaders, fighting the Hashashin in personal combat, participating in many battles and sieges described in detail, all told in the form of short stories he recounts from his own memory or relays from other people. Most stories are told from grassroots level and some stories go so deep as to tell the stories of individual soldiers who Usama knew.

Despite its age it's a very easy read thanks to the quality of Penguin Classics translation and footnotes.

If Nestorian Christianity/ Christianity in Asia interest you, the two best books I have found about it are Phillip Jenkins' The Lost History of Christianity , which is aimed toward a more popular audience, and Samuel Moffet's History of Christianity in Asia before 1500 , which is a more academic text.

The Alexiad very understandable source material written by the Princess Anna during her father Alexios I Komnenos reign.

Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe this is a tale that every CK2 player would enjoy reading. Published 2007 both well written and well researched. It's the story of one count of Provence who each rose to be influential queens of England, France, Germany and Sicily. There's also more than a bit on when some of them accompanied their husbands on crusade.

Yea it's not even kind of comparable to a laptop. More of a 'hey this works nice for lan parties', which are pretty rare these days anyway.

They make some slim monitors and, some wireless keyboards are pretty compact, but no matter what you're making compromises to make it work.

Plus for true mobility you need one of those portable cells with a 110 outlet on them, unless you feel like engineering your own battery pack.

The Accursed Kings series is amazing imo.

Ah! When I was 13, I bought a historical atlas with maps by that cartographer, including that one. It's what got first got me really interested in history. And now I'm halfway through an MA the subject :p.

Nostalgia! :D.

Collision at Cajamarca from Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs and Steel. Contains a contemporary account of the decisive battle between Francisco Pizarro's band of conquistidores and Atahualpa and the entire Incan empire.

Fascinating read.

It takes real work to get a score like this.

Occasional Allied shittery does not equal, excuse, or justify chronic Axis shittery as a matter of policy.

Sorry, I kind of simplified - i both read them in a book and read accounts in the library at the museum where i work and don't remember the author of those/i was reading those because they were getting moved to storage.

The book i originally read is The Last Apocalypse which is about how in about a 50 year timespan around the first millennium christendom went from almost getting wiped off the map (vikings, muslims, magyars) to converting scandinavia, forming christian kingdoms in poland and hungary, converting much of russia under vladimir the great, pushing the muslims out of italy and the fall of the biggest enemy, the umayyad caliphate in spain.

its quite a good read and focuses on not being completely accurate history but telling both what we know and what legends say to provide a full picture of not only the events but the people involved. The author calls it an apocalypse because not only the writers of the time thought it was but because this survival and expansion of Christendom was such a dramatic change in history.

> how much would you have to spend to keep a dirt road serviceable?

You're kind of underthinking it. Keeping a road serviceable for regular traffic, especially when taking into accounts vehicles like wagons, is a lot of work. Some decent rain will turn that road into mud when there's heavy traffic, and suddenly you barely have a road anymore.

If you have nothing better to do with your time, I could actually recommend The Pursuit of Glory, which points out proper road maintenance as one of the core pillars of Europe entering the modern age.

About $9.
https://www.amazon.com/Vinci-Code-Robert-Langdon/dp/0307474275

It's been said (and here's a source, such as it is) that Vikings drew no distinction between the two.

If anybody is interested in some first-hand accounts of the Crusades I'd recommend the translations of Villehardouin and Joinville, which focuses on the Fourth, Seventh, and Eight Crusades, Robert of Clari, which is a soldier's account of the Fourth Crusade, and if you can find it Virginia Gingerick Berry has translated Odo of Deuil's account of the Second Crusade. If you are in higher education it may be available through humanitiesebook if your institution is subscribed. It details Louis VII disastrous attempt to crusade as told by his chaplain. Lots of theories on why it was written and when. This list is mainly to do with French history and is in no way exhaustive.