Still playing as Mursalin the Great in my Zunist Shattered World game. The first Shahanshah of the Zuhaid Persian Empire and the fifth Dastur of the Church of Zun, he has also officially become the head of the Keepers of the Flame society. Needless to say, he's one of the best fighters around. A shame I can't build a legend with him but less than a hundred years have passed since his great grandfather Banham the Great Tiger built his own.
I'm nearly finished with the conquests of what remains of the
de-jure Persian Empire. I'm basically missing only three or four counties. The issue is that they're all owned by the Jain King of Armenia. By the way, I still don't know how the fuck Armenia became Jain... The first of its King, Dharmiya the Great, was descended from an Indian ruler and given how I turned adventurer of, I still don't get how it came to be...
Aside from conquering what he's missing of
de-jure Persia, Mursalin the Great has been busy crushing religious revolts. I'd have to check, but I probably had half of dozen of them happen: one from Nestorians or Messalians in Iraq, another from Sunnis (also in Iraq), two Zoroastrian ones and two Hindu ones. They've all been crushed: you don't fuck with Mursalin the Great, especially when you know he's got 30k troops and a proven battle commander.
Aside from that, I find the Keepers of the Flame give me strange targets at times. Might be because they're not where I'm looking to expand though... I mean, the current one I've got is in India but for the moment I'm more looking West as I want to invade/puppetize Egypt to be in control of the last Zunist Holy Sites in Heliopolis.
Anyway, one of the targets I got with Mursalin was to conquer Raffah from the Uwaysid Caliph... Basically, the Sunni Mirzids ruler of Arabia were overthrown after a Shia Caliph challenged them. He subsequently took over Arabia, while the Mirzids have basically been reduced to a three provinces rump Kingdom in Yemen (whose capital is, only enough, in the horn of Africa...).
The war with the Uwaysids was more long than a true difficulty as I had twice their troops. Attrition was tough though, especially since Raffah is still a tribal holding. Not helping was that the Nestorian/Messalian and Sunni revolts in Iraq kicked off at the same time I fought the Uwaysids.
Anyway, after the conquest of Raffah, I got a notice that Islam now could launch Jihads. My first thought was "uh oh, better watch out for that". And not too long after, the Uwaysid Caliph declared a Jihad for Iraq. The war lasted a rather long time, but I probably have the biggest army around so it didn't prove too much of a difficulty. Hell, I was basically waiting for the AI to be movement locked in Basra before attacking them there. Needles to say, it was a rather easy win. Even the Knights of the Sun that joined me didn't have to do much...
I got a ton of money from the Caliph after the war... Not that I really need it since I'm basically swimming in money thanks to the Silk Road. Hell, I've been building Castles and Cities lately.
The good news though comes from the succession. The Elders FINALLY agree on a name for Mursalin's successor and they're nearly unanimous. Yasmoon, Mursalin's eldest daughter and heiress, had never really was approved by the Elders even if they couldn't agree on a replacement (she never got more than two votes (her father and one Elder) but each all the other Elder had basically their own candidate for the throne) and she ended up dying at the age of 31. At the time though, Mursalin's only son Soban was 14... And he's been adored by the Elders. Now in his twenties, Soban is basically every bit the Warrior his father is. And personnality wise, he kind of rocks: he's brave, brawny and sociable. The latter makes me laugh though because he's also Paranoid and Cruel... Those two things normally don't go together. Soban is also in the Keepers of the Flame and he's already rank 2. And the Elders love him: only one of them refuses his ascension to the throne... But then again, he's Mursalin's Rival so it's no surprise.
Family wise, Mursalin has also lost two of his wives lately. At this point, I'm not really worried about my dynasty as even though Mursalin only has one son, the Zuhaids are a pretty large and prosperous family (The Great Tiger has over a hundred descendants). Plus, Mursalin now has the Chaste trait, so I'm not expecting him to father any more babies. Still, to not loose prestige because he would have less than four wives (not that it would change much given I'm Emperor of Persia, but also King of all the Kingdoms that make that Empire as well as King of Transoxiana and Punjab), I decided to remarry him. And I also got to remind everyone that yes, I have Divine Marriage in my reformed Zunism.
You see, the first of the two new wives Mursalin got is his third daughter. She's in her thirties, but recently lost her husband. Roleplay wise, I kind of imagine Mursalin chose to marry her so she wouldn't lose her status... Plus tradition. After all, Mursalin is chaste so I don't imagine he's gonna make babies with her for now.
The second wife Mursalin took is the daughter of his uncle Wamiq. It's only his 1st Cousin but that still counts as a Divine Marriage because same dynasty.
In regards to what's happening in the outside world:
- The first Catholic Crusade had gone for Italy because of heresies and had succeeded in establishing a Crusader Kingdom there. It's still around though it's not that big. The second Crusade's target was Middle Francia... More precisely Lower Lorraine. It was once again a success... But this time, the Pope got all the lands. Funny enough, the current Pope's name (the one who won the crusade) is Victor...
- Nearly all of what forms the de-jure Empire of Abyssinia is in the hands of the Knights of Saint Anthony. That's... kinda worrying for me. I mean, they're the coptic holy order so if I attack the Coptic King of Egypt one day...
- The biggest realms seems to be all my neighbors... Aside from Jain Armenia to my North-West and the Shia Caliphs of Arabia to my South, the province I'm asked to attack belongs to a Maharajah in India that basically owns a territory that cuts India through the Middle. I also have a rather large Kingdom of Nepal on my Eastern border. And though they're a bit more distant, Egypt and Greece are also pretty large realms.
Desperately trying to antagonzie the Emperor and the electors so they don't make me his heir.
How do I excommunicate myself?
Dumb question, but why would it be bad for you to become HRE?
) Some really strange things happened, like my Russia (briefly) having a Mande cultured Tsar (from various marriage-related shenanigans), the Timurids consuming the entire Arabian peninsula, but losing their territories in Persia, to a splinter hordes and the Norse Kingdom of England. I gave almost all the children born to my dynasty cloud names (Altocumulus, Cirrostratus, Cumulonimbus, etc.). Oh yeah, I did this playthrough with the Sunset Invasion DLC activated, just for fun. The Aztec invasion kind of petered out and by the end date, they only held onto a handful of territory in Iberia, Cornwall and part of Ireland. 
