Gather round, my friends, for I have a tale to tell you. It is a tale of the House of Curi. Yes, I can see now that some of you have heard of it. Little wonder, for the rise and fall of this once-royal house has never been forgotten and provided much for minstrels such as I to spin tales from. It is a tale of valour and of heroism, of a meteoric rise to prominence within the Isles of Albion and a far-swifter fall from grace. And whom or what, you ask, those who have not heard the legends, was the reason for this once and briefly-powerful dynasty to fall so?

King Jinx the Second: The Mad King of Albion.

---

Whoo, this was FUN to write. At the very beginning of last year, I finally took the plunge after several months of watching Let's Plays of them, one in particular pretty much swung it for me when it came to my nascent curiosity in them, and decided to give Paradox grand strategy games a try and in particular Crusader Kings II. After several months of LP-watching, I considered myself schooled enough to take the plunge and what followed in my first game of it was a campaign that I have very fond and anecdotal memories of. Like the best 'found narrative' RPG's, CKII has so much potential when it comes to those anecdotal moments that you can indeed talk to someone about. I was reminiscing yesterday with a close friend whose 'sona I've also featured in this story, revanchiset, who is a fellow CK2 player, telling her stories of just what happens in CK2 when you suddenly end up with the kind of ruler that when they take the throne, especially when they have the 'Lunatic' Trait, they just sow complete and utter chaos into your dynastic and kingdom-building plans. I've taken those anecdotal events, all of which actually happened in that first game, both good and bad, included my own 'sonas and variation on early medieval England and Europe, and woven a dramatic tale from them that I hope will be a very entertaining read.

I'll also link the LP that got me bit by the 'Paradox bug' and for those who enjoy a more role play-focused CK2 LP and not one where the player merely tries to blob outwards as quickly as possible. The LP'er is Kikoskia, one of my absolute favourite LP'ers and it's just as full of anecdotal moments as my game was, perhaps even more so. Kikoskia is one of those LP'ers that's perfect to wind down with at night and feels like a comfy pair of slippers and a mug of hot chocolate and has a wonderful sense of humour and hammy delivery that never gets annoying. No yelling into the mic and camera here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lsCxjfnXSM

Written Fiction, Jinx Curi, Sasha and Jax Valkyr © Myself

Rain ©