Preview: At the heart and ends of Catholic Europe: a journey through the Kingdoms of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland

[Landil]

We have not chosen factions on the basis of complete autonomy, because that would be too restrictive a system to properly simulate the complex factional structures of 11th century Eurasia, instead we have gone for de facto autonomy. Bohemia, Tuscany and Lombardy all recognised the Holy Roman Emperor as their de jure overlord, but were all considered simply autonomies bodies within a larger body. Indeed, by the end and especially after the end of this mod's time-line, the various factions within the HRE became more and more de facto autonomous. Historians today are still perplexed by the fact that somehow the system actually functioned. Those three factions I mentioned, were by the start of our mod almost fully autonomous however, and were starting to become major players in their own right with their theatres and remained such for a long period with our mod's time frame. That is why we have chosen those three to be specific factions separate from the larger body of the HRE that they belonged to de jure: they were very important players within their theatres (Eastern Europe and Italy), and without them those theatres would have, in our opinion, a great void, there would be too little competition, too little division of power. The choices as such have been made both to accommodate historical accuracy (i.e. the factions being de facto autonomous historically) as well as interesting gameplay.

[Toxin12]

I understand your view but I just wanted to present my opinion, that is that in this particular time period all of those factions were just about at their height of loyalty to the emperor. Yes though I see your point and will rest my case.

[Landil]

I understand your view but I just wanted to present my opinion, that is that in this particular time period all of those factions were just about at their height of loyalty to the emperor. Yes though I see your point and will rest my case.

Height of loyalty? In 1080 AD? The Emperor was at that point in the midst of dealing with a fullfledged rebellion (The Great Saxon Revolt, part of the Investure Controversy) in which many of the Italian cities participated, mostly on the side of the rebels and as such the Pope. Tuscany was part of this rebellion, indeed, it and its Countess, Matilde di Canossa, played a central part in the revolt.

[Toxin12]

I realize that there was a rebellion led by Saxony and Bavaria. In this I was speaking about Bohemia specifically. Also when I say "All of those factions" in "This particular time" I mean in the general time not in 1080 itself.