Simon Says -- Rise of The Simonids -- A Crusader Kings 2 AAR

Hello! I've decided to start an AAR on my ongoing game as the descendants of Simon The Arab, a fictional duke of Saxony. I will gloss over the first 50 years or so of gameplay, as I didn't heavily document them as I only decided to start this AAR now, so you'll have to forgive that. As an administrative note, the name proper of the dynasty will change at least once, and possibly many times, so we will refer to the descendants of Simon as Simonids. The current dynastic name is Arabischen, roughly the German word for "Arabic".

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The details of how exactly Simon I, a noteworthy knight from central Germany, and often called Arabischen or "The Arab" came to rule the Duchy of Saxony are extremely scarce. It is known that the land's prior ruler--one Duke Ordulf Billung--was somehow indisposed, and the reigning Kaiser Henry IV saw fit to pass the land on to Simon. There is much speculation that Simon may have been the illigitimate son of Ordulf and a particular mistress of his, said to be from the Fatimid Sultanate in Egypt. If this is true, it would explain how Simon came into his inheritance, and why his exact parentage would be obscured so.


_{Simon The Arab, Duke of Saxony}

Nonetheless, Simon did become the Duke of Saxony, and though the other nobles of the Holy Roman Empire were initially suspicious of the outsider, they came to accept him, and he made many allies within their midst. By the end of his 21 year reign, Simon's domain consisted of Saxony de jure, and a number of lands conquered from both the weak Duke of Brandenburg, and the pagans of Pomerania. Thus, when he finally died of an infected war wound, his young son Simon II inherited a large realm he was not nearly old enough to rule properly. In his stead, the lord mayor of Rostock, Karl von Pommern, both governed Saxony-Pomerania, and raised young Simon as his own. Karl was eventually able to convince the Kaiser to elevate Simon's realm to the status of kingdom, in order to place a check on the Kings of Bohemia, who had recently defected from the Holy Roman sphere of influence. Thus, upon his 16th birthday and ascendance to majority, Simon of Pomerania was officially crowned a king.


_{Simon The Younger, King of Pomerania}

Not long after his crowning, he was made Kaiser Heinrich's chancellor. He was wildly popular with the other nobles for his ability to often empower them while still pleasing the emperor. Simon also elevated Karl's city of Rostock to the position of a Serene Republic, modeled after Venice. The Republic of Mecklenburg would act as a primary source of income for Pomeranian monarchs for generations.

For nearly a decade, Simon followed in his father's footsteps, seizing land from the various pagan principalities of the Baltic. His greatest challenge came when he decided to face the recently turned-heretic King of Poland, Boleslaw The Bold. Through a lengthy and expensive invasion, he was able to relieve the Polish king of a near third of his territory, claiming it for true Catholicism. It was a major victory, and Simon's place as the next Kaiser seemed all but assured.

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So that's up til "present". Next update should be pretty soon, and will be more in-depth as I document what's going on more thoroughly.