Nicaea

Nicaea is a Greek cultured nation located in eastern Anatolia, which gained independence from Byzantium after they thought the Roman dream to be dead. It's a strong military state which seeks to expand its borders through force.

## Nicene Ideas

### Traditions

Land Force Limit Modifier: +15%Fort Maintenance on border with rival: -33%

### Battle for the Bosphorus

Galley Cost: -10% Galley Combat Ability: +10%

### Ambition

Discipline: +5%

Fleeing from Turkish encroachment upon their Chaldian homeland in the 11th and 12th Centuries, the aristocratic Gabras family had planted their roots in Byzantine Macedonia. It was here where their most well-known scion of the house, Leon Gabras, was born in AD 1235. Aspiring to be a soldier from a young age, the dukeling had demonstrated a degree of martial prowess very few possess.

Quickly rising through the ranks, much to the corrupt Angelid dynasty's ire, Leon Gabras would score a string of victories against the enemies of the Empire, becoming a household name among the Byzantine subjects in the process. His greatest accomplishment was yet to come, however, for the vast armies of the Bulgarian Empire would soon come pouring in from the north, overwhelming much of Thrace and Macedonia by the end of AD 1261.

Rallying anyone he could under the flags of the Byzantine Empire and the House of Gabras, Leon would make his stand at the ruins of Pella, where his forces would defeat and rout the Czar's army. Despite saving the realm, an act which had earnt him the epithet of Soter - Saviour - Leon Gabras was hastily exiled to a governorship in Anatolia by the Angelid court, whose jealousy and paranoia were nearing the breaking point.

In the Spring of AD 1267, when Western Anatolia found itself beset by another wave of Turkish incursions, Leon Gabras was left to fend off an overwhelming enemy force alone for a second time, scoring yet another stunning victory. When news reached the capital, the court responded by charging the Megas Strategos with High Treason against the Church and People of Rome, demanding that he fall on his sword, or to stand trial in Constantinople.

Utterly disillusioned by this crushing betrayal, Leon Gabras became convinced that the Roman dream was long dead, having morphed into a malignant rot. A grand mutiny followed in AD 1269, when Nicaea declared unilateral independence from Constantinople, followed soon thereafter by most Greek-held territories east of the Hellespont, save for several Imperial strongholds along the coast.

The ruling military governors had been longtime friends of Leon Gabras through correspondence, thus a strong martial bond forged the core of the Hellenic Kingdom of Nicaea. Reluctantly assuming the mantle of King of Asia Minor and Exarch of Nicaea, Leon Gabras would transform his state into a hereditary stratocracy, drawing inspiration from his longtime acquaintance Nizzar the Great, the ageing Sultan of Egypt.

Rarely acting outside of self-defence, the Nicene state is seen as the iron-blooded turtleback of the Greeks. Although, with the Byzantines seemingly on their last legs, talk has started to arise about a potential Greek intervention. Meanwhile, the Seljuk Turks are beginning to reconstitute themselves following a torturous period of civil strife, eagerly waiting to deliver a coup de grace to the Infidels. The year is AD 1444, and Nicaea finds itself at the crossroads of Empires. The Hour of Fate will soon be upon them, but for whom shall the bell toll?