Like the title says. I'm preparing my first Saoshyant run soon and will try my best to record the game and post them in parts of a short story. In my preparations, I'm looking up ideal traits, marriages, starting positions and the different Zoroastrian faiths that exist in the game to see which one would make a large culturally diverse Persian Empire the most stable. All while roleplaying as my character.
I'm open to suggestions, hints, strategies and general information one should know before undertaking this task. From what I understand, the hardest part about this run is just getting established when surrounded by Ash'ari Muslim Realms and Rulers who will either try to revoke your titles or waging holy wars against you. But, I haven't played much in the region yet, so I'm looking for any information you all might provide!
I chose a Mazdayan character for Perfect circle Achievement and at first started expanding to weaken my neighbors.
Previous: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrusaderKings/comments/o8wm54/the_pishadid_empire_after_yazdigerd_iv/
Getting to throne being as young as 6 after the death of his father, Shapur IV/VI was a calm, kind and pious ruler. Under him, Pishdadid Empire thrived, he was popular both among the common people, the nobles and the clergy. He moved the capital of Iran from Yazd, where it was under his father, to Ctesiphon, the old capital of Sassanids. Yazd, the holy city with the ancient Fire Temple, was granted to Mobedan Mobed of Mazdayasna.
Despite his usual calmness, Shapur still made several war campaigns, mostly into the weakened Abbasid Empire to get lands of Syria, Mesopotamia and Armenia. He also invaded Sindh, getting Indus River region into Iranian hands as well.
Being highly pious, Shapur eventually became considered The Saoshyant of Mazdayasna, becoming considered one while being just 19.
https://preview.redd.it/s9si3mxm22871.png?width=1149&format=png&auto=webp&s=ac64f0f70aa61976feaf3d862fd1e6f47cb54488
Being a descendant of Sassanids and Achaemenids, married to the descendant of Arsacids, Shapur was considered the holiest and among the greatest of Iranian rulers ever, often compared to Kurush (Cyrus) and Dariush (Darius), but he himself discarded these claims said that "I am far from their greatness, and I never would be able to compare with them. I am not the greatest ruler of Iranshahr nor I am even close to that. I didn't do much, nearly all of the work was done up by my predecessors, who must be considered the great, not me."
Being humble was certainly one of his good sides.
Goals:
- +-
1.1. Sassanid +
1.2. Achaemenid +
1.3. Arsacid -
1.4. Bahram IV - - +
- +
- -
- -
Pishdadid Empire at 907, under Shapur IV/VI at his 19 years:
https://preview.redd.it/4o2h2ud552871.png?width=571&format=png&auto=webp&s=688ccfef728d65dba4ec092b7eee5111b7592c4b
Religions:
https://preview.redd.it/x080esx952871.png?width=959&format=png&auto=webp&s=1efbf5e03b6e13b642344830123178c4fd82af2d
Following family trees can be difficult and time consuming, and usually while it is fun to find out which characters are related to whom, it is often at the expense of what was formally stated.
Saoshyant Descendant remedies this. At a glance you can see that a random character, is related to you! This starts a search through that character's parents, and ancestors looking for the link between them and your Saoshyant. The need to trace this lineage back is reinforced by the fact that you made the Saoshyant, and you played as them. The connection between you, and this random character you normally wouldn't care about is turned upside down, as they are your great-great-great...great grandchild! While you partake in this search you find out things about how they got to where they are and finding out how did your dynasty end up leaving a mark, all the way on this side of the world?
For example, in my current game it is around the year 1325, and the Saoshyant was my 3rd played as character by the name of Shahanshah Khshayarsha (Xerxes). He had many children, however, I was used to seeing the trait when clicking on my vassals and Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, Turkic, and Mongolian neighbors (when I became the Saoshyant a number of Tengri rulers converted to Mazdayasna, even Genghis Khan himself later converted). So, naturally I was surprised to find out that the Queen of France was a Saoshyant descendant, along with the Insular Irish Empress of Alba!
I frantically began tracing their lineage and discovered a whole bunch of my descendants I had no idea about. The parents and grandparents of these two women were wanderers, with no titles to their name. Three generations before their wander great-grandparents, their ancestors were the former Adamites Slavs of varying Illyrian Slavic nations who broke free from the Roman Empire (Byzantium). Two generations before those Slavic Adamites were the rulers of the unified Spanish throne, ruling over all of the Iberian Peninsula! Which was astounding, and led me to discover the key to where my Saoshyant descendants came from. Through this tracing of their lineage, I was able to discover that the Emperor of Spain had a royal marriage with a Saoshyant descendant princess from the Catholic Kingdom of Jerusalem itself! Who was in fact, the great-granddaughter of my Saoshyant's daughter. Which made me remember that I married her to the most noble (Just, Compassionate, Honest) Catholic Catalan Knight prisoner I could find. Remember
... keep reading on reddit β‘
I just wanna share my first completed ironman Saoshyant run in CK3. I know I took some time but I didn't have enough time to spend on the game in the last months and also I had to re-learn things like the combat system to understand how to be OP like you need to defeat all that muslim blob you gotta get through in order to become the Zoro leader of Persia. I started as the Bavandids and even though the start was rocky after a while I was able to defeat the Saffarids, breed the perfect superhuman, have like 4 60 year long rules, reform the clergy and in the end after some civil wars and Greek invasions become Saoshyant and also Strenghtening the bloodline. I might get the Perfect circle achievement now since only 0.1 % people have it or something and with this dynasty it should be super easy.
Anyway, here are some screenshots I did including a rather superhuman last ruler that I got to: https://imgur.com/a/ayBHfN1
Just as the title says. I'm having trouble becoming the Saoshyant, as the Karen start in 867 I keep getting beat by the Abbasid Blob. Any help is welcome
Shouldn't Sayyid and Saoshyant be a bloodline? Even with the same benfit as the traits, I think it'd be more interesting to see the bloodline with the orininator and everything. They basically work like bloodlines anyways, except that Sayyid branches a noninheritable Mirza.
Any mods that does this?
Is this a bug of some sort? I can't even ask them to convert again because they all say they are a true believer... i don't know what to do now, or who is responsible for that.
By the way: my moral authority is 100%
And interestingly everybody still loves me and no one has the wrong religion modifier ... also very strange
Any suggestions?
