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Part 19: Islam Strikes Back
With the death of Deva, Kalyana II ascends to the throne. Kalyana is one of the finest rulers the Palas have seen. Quick-thinking, hard-working, brave, and patient, he will make for an excellent emperor.
Wow, we did well with Kalyana. He has Quick (+3 to all stats), Brave, Diligent, Patient, Charitable, and Gregarious. His only weakness is his stewardship and even that is decent.
While his father chose Kali as his patron, Kalyana chooses Shiva, the destroyer of evil, to be his. Kalyana still has nightmares from watching the Kali Pujas as a child. Om Namah Shivaya.
Choosing Shiva as our Patron Deity means that we get +1 martial at the cost of 1 diplomacy. We have plenty of diplomacy already, so this is a fair trade.
And for some reason I can become a Vaishnavist (the veneration of Vishnu as Supreme Deity) despite my patron being Shiva. Regardless, this means I get +5 opinion with my vassals.
After some bookkeeping lessons, Kalyana is considered to be at least a competent administrator.
Like his great-grandfather before him, Kalyana seeks to gain insight into the true nature of things. While Laks did it due to his experience with the hell hole, Kalyana does it to gain peace.
With our low piety, we can go for this ambition. Fortunately, the number of religious enemies nearby means that we can easily hit this number via Holy Wars. Hindus have a lot of problems, but when it comes to fighting heathens, there aren't a lot better.
Kalyana continues his father's work by declaring war on the Bozorgids. The Spice Marines have grown to be so large that the Palas have not had to call upon their levies for years.
Did I ever tell you how much I love holy warring? There is one downside to it, however. In regular wars, only allies of a nation can join in defending it. In holy wars, every single nation of the same religion can join it. Anyone who's stirred up the Muslim clown car knows what I'm talking about. However, there aren't a lot of Zoroastrians around, so we're fine. Even if they did call in allies, it wouldn't help.
Kavoos knows a helpless cause when he sees one and surrenders. He returns home and prays to Ahura Mazda that He will send a deliverer to save the Zoroastrians.
Returning home, Kalyana decides to go bear hunting. One of his half-brothers begs to be taken along, and Kalyana agrees, if only to stop the nagging.
So I decided to see if there were any caves (or for that matter, bears) near Laksmanavati, I was surprised to find it wasn't on Wikipedia. A little more digging showed it is now known as Gauda. Currently, the city is nothing more than ruins. The second was abandoned after an outbreak of the bubonic plague and the course change of the Ganges.
There does indeed turn out to be a bear. How it got to Laksmanavati is unknown, but it proves to be rather fierce, as bears usually are. Kalyana thrusts his spear into the side of the beast and orders his men to pour arrows into it. One of the arrows finds the heart and downs the beast. Laxmen is relived to be alive.
I choose the second option for the opinion boost, though it really doesn't matter much.
Next on the list is Satrap Bahman the Liberator. He only has a few counties, and Kalyana is about relieve him of three.
Whenever you see someone with the nickname of "the Liberator", it means they were part of a liberation revolt. I'll get more into liberation revolts later, but for now just know that they're a bit nastier than peasant revolts.
Like the previous war, this one is rather short. The Palas' successes against the heathens are being attributed to Laks' and Kalyana's spiritual power. Even in death, people say, Laks' continues to aid his people.
With this, Kalyana is known as "the Wise". We also get a huge opinion boost from our temple vassals. Oh, and we got more counties.
Not one to let grass grow under his feet, Kalyana takes the time to declare war on the Ilkhanate. Already one of their smaller armies is defeated. Curiously, despite being close by, a 17,000 man strong force of Mongols refuses to help their comrades and moves west.
This guy isn't anyone important. At this point, the Ilkhanate was dealing with the Byzantines and a liberation revolt in Egypt. That might explain why they moved away from our armies.
Meanwhile, in Kandail, religious tensions reach a breaking points and the Shia outright rebel against their Hindu masters. Kalyana sends a detachment of the Spice Marines to deal with the problem.
We haven't dealt with many religious revolts before because Indian religions do not start religious revolts against other Indian religions. The Shia are not Indian, so they're happy to cause problems.
The Khan, having other problems to worry about, decides to cede Esfahan to the Indians. The loss of their capital is a huge blow, but the Khan knows he cannot fight the full might of India's army.
Esfahan has a pretty good province, which is named...Esfahan, which was the Ilkhanate's capital.
Later, the Spice Marines finally capture the leader of the Shia rebellion. The leader is banished. He won't cause anymore problems for Kalyana.
Kalyana sets his bead on Aziz, the liberator of his corner of Mesopotamia.
He easily takes the provinces and comes back around for another swing at Kavoos.
Our truce with Kavoos expired, so we can declare war on him.
Then, he ransoms the Khan's mother and releases her.
How much people will pay for a ransom depends on the rank of the person being ransomed. The Dowager Empress, being a mere courtier, can be ransomed for ten gold. Counts can be ransomed for 70, dukes for 145, and I don't know how much for kings and emperors.
One of the Ranis, caught in a plot, has decided to rebel instead of coming quietly to prison. She's desperate, but she is very much outmatched.
Caliph Yassir, in his capital in Africa, looks down from his balcony.
"Looks like the Ilkhanate is not invincible after all" says one of his advisers.
"If there was a better time to strike than now, I'd like to hear it" says another.
The Caliph continues to stare. After a long silence he says "My father sent a Jihad to reclaim Egypt for Islam. It failed miserably. The loss of Mecca, Medina, Baghdad, and all of our other holy places has caused many to lose their faith. This is our last chance. If we fail here, the word of the Prophet may cease to be heard."
"None can stop the word of God. If the tongues of the believers are cut out, the rocks themselves will preach."
"Hopefully, it won't come to that. Prepare the troops. We're heading for Egypt."
The next day, the Shia faithful gather for a strike on the Scouge of Islam. It will be a long and bloody war.
Far away in India, the Rani's rebellion is put down. She will remain in prison, thinking over her crimes for the rest of her life.
Unbeknownst to any of them, one of the largest revolts in the history of the Palas was being prepared. The Zoroastrians were undaunted by the defeat of their armies and the surviving nobles and generals have gathered a large number of followers.
Liberation revolts are nasty. Unlike peasant revolts, there's a fair chance that these guys will win if left unattended to. While peasant revolts are about 5k strong at this point, liberation revolts can have as many as 15k troops.
Of course, they aren't a match for the Spice Marines.
But the Zoroastrians, stubborn as ever, launch another liberation revolt.
However, they don't last long and neither does the Ilkhanate.
Sorry I don't have the declaration of war picture for the Ilkhanate and Fars.
Kalyana's chosen heir dies. While Keshabsen was not skilled in the art of diplomacy, he inherited Kalyana's quick mind and would have made an excellent ruler. Dhirsingha, who has not yet become a man, is next in line.
This event occurs if a fantastic heir (which Keshabsen was) dies. It has gives one of your other sons a 90% chance of getting Craven and a 10% chance of getting Brave. The first time this happened to me was when I killed my demonspawn son and one of his brother felt he would never be as good as his satanic brother.
Kalyana looks over the Republic of Baluchistan. The Kizid and Pala families have already established trade posts along the coast. One day the trade posts will stretch all the way to Mecca.
We're looking at the trade post map screen here. It's useful if you want to know how fair along your pet republic is coming along.
One day, however, Kalyana and his wife have a little too much fun in the bedroom and he dies of a heart attack. His story would continually told by ascetics warning their pupils of the evils of carnal desire.
Sometimes an event will fire where your ruler thinks about having some good sex with his young wife and there's a 10% chance he'll die during it. This is extremely high for an event-based death (most others only have a 1 or 3% chance). Well, of all the ways to go, I suppose dying while getting it on isn't bad. It's awful for the other person, though.
Next Time: State of the World, Part