Jorvik - unfinished

Background

The history of Toulouse is so old that words like ancient and antique have to be used. From their roman period into the Visigoth kingdom followed into the kingdom of Aquitaine and as a leading figure in the First Crusade, Toulouse has a long and impactful history. But nothing has been as important for the current times of Toulouse, than the Albigensian Crusade. As the true faith spread across Southern France and into the Alpine region, the damned Catholics desired to see the Cathars as rivals, instead of the illuminators of God's true word. The Papacy didn’t see us for what we really are, those that truly understand the faith and the greedy and corrupt Catholic Church would rather fight to keep their riches, than to accept the truth.

In 1209, Pope “Innocent” III sought to completely destroy the Cathars in a crusade against the Catharian heartland - Toulouse. Together with the King of France, The Duke of  Burgundy, Austria and several other Pope-pleasuring puppets, they invaded us. Foolish. 

For 20 years the catholics threw in their knights and soldiers, even mercenaries to destroy us - but in vain. We won the war and several hundred of thousands of men died at our gates. The Crusade was lost 200 years ago. And what is the current situation? We still stand to this day, independent and true in the faith. The King of France is gone. The Duchy of Burgundy is torn apart in civil war and the cowardly Pope is hiding behind his high walls as the Catholic Church is crumbling across Europe. The future is open for Toulouse, we shall do whatever it takes to bring the true faith to the four corners of the world. And by whatever we know the language that has to be spoken - the language of swords and lances!

Special Rules

When playing as Toulouse you are a firm believer in the Cathar faith. Your ancestors died by the hundred of thousands in the Albigensian Crusade to defend your lands and grant the long desired freedom from the tyrannical and opressive King of France. Now with French King dead and England desires to sheep you into the fold, this must not happen - the only way to stop another tyrant from controlling Toulosue, is to become the King of France yourself!

Rules for your region:

• Like all other French cultures duchies, your goal is to 'become France' through the casus belli of retaking Paris and holding it. This will be difficult as there is lots of contestants and the task very hard. 

• You are not allowed to take provinces from other French duchies unless you have a core on their province.  The French people are strong believers in titles and it would burn your reputation to the ground if you began to take uncored provinces and making you even more illegimate to become the King of France. There will be events and missions that grants cores here and there.

• You are allowed to take other French duchies as vassals. If you are a player nation and becomes a vassal of another player, you must roleplay as loyal. Yes, you as the ruler might be ready for some independence wars, but your people and soldiers are not. However, it is strickly forbidden to integrate vassals - unless you have a mission that performs the integration. 

• Once a player has hold Paris long enough to become a potential King of France, he will be allowed to integrate vassals. 

Rules specific for Toulouse:

• You are not allowed to change religion unless your religious unity is below 20%.  If you are able to change religion through an event or mission, you can do so.

• You are allied with the Jews unless they become a direct threat to your interests or stops funding you.

• You have no desire to see another 'King of France'. You will do whatever it takes to keep anyone away from becoming France, even if it requires you to help nations you have grudges with. 

• When the time reaches year 1600, you will be able to form Occitania, a  unique formable for your nation.  Through this, you will become  immune to the subjucation of the 'King of France'  and you  will be a contestant for the regional power in the French region with your capital as its center - not Paris.

Current Relations 

After your independence 200 years ago, you have been diplomatically isolated. Any Catholic that would negotiate with you would risk excommunication and embargo, so none of them dared. For almost a hundred years were you alone, but no one really had time or ressources to attack you, everyone was already full of their own problems. So, your former rulers decided to stay low and stabilize their nation. The reputation of your castles being a place where large crusades dies did indeed help the peaceful period.

In the year of 1302 the War of Sicilian Vespers ended. The mighty Kingdom of Aragon had conquered Sicily from the Kingdom of Naples in an ambitious move to extend their influence further into the Mediterranean. But they did not know that this would turn the tide.

The Reconquista in Iberia has been slow, and the Christians has been unable to throw out the Muslims. In the year of 1333, another war between the Christians and Muslims occurred. This time in the favor of the Muslims, as the Aragonese fleet was sunk just outside of Mallorca. With no ships to protect their islands, the Sicilians broke free, but by an unusual faction. The Jewish merchant family of Raffaelli allied themselves with Barbary pirates and Jewish families across the Mediterranean and seized their independence.

The Jews are a peculiar people, and unlike the Catholics, the Sicilians opened their harbors to Toulouse and began to establish good relations. Wealth began to spread into the Languedoc region through trade.

Things started to go well. The Republic of Genoa is also dominated by Jewish people, but while you have great relations with their nation, they dare not oppose the Catholic Holy Roman Empire and make official deals with Toulouse. Unlike Sicily that is protected by its large navy, Genoa is surrounded by potential enemies and has to step more careful.

In 1428 something important happened again. A royal marriage between the heir of Aragon, Prince Enrique and the beautiful Princess Catherine of Navarra was held in the Aragonese capital, Zaragoza in the palace of Aljaferia. Just a day into the celebrations, the Kings of Leon and Castile left urgently as rumors spread, that the Muslims in the south would break the truce and take advantage of the celebrating Catholics. After they left, a terrible fire spread across the palace, leading to large amounts of death in the noble lines of East Iberia. This led to civil war as a Valencian noble declared for independence.

At this time in the Aragonese conflict, you received an interesting letter from your friends in Palermo, Sicily. Apparently, the Jewish family Suasso in Barcelona was waiting for the perfect moment to strike and declare their independence from Aragon, just like the Sicilians did a hundred years ago. And for this to happen, they needed the army of Toulouse. In exchange, we would be granted the province of Rosellón and more gold than we had seen since our independence. 

We accepted.

Alliances

Rivals

Other relations:

• You have great relations with Genoa, but they fear an open alliance would provoke their neighboors into gathering up against the you.

• Galicia dislikes you for the religious differences and partly blames instabily on their pilgrims routes through France on you.