The next player is Least Original User Name Ever. Maybe you should PM him.
ETA : pictures of the current state of affairs, please.
I dunno, I suspect Jaime. I could not get that guy to stop trying to assassinate pretty much everyone around him. Mead is a hell of a drug.
It’s more or less identical to the beginning of my turn - I only ruled for six years.
My successor is going to start in a war with Soria, which may be a problem since the king there is really good friends with King Garcia of Leon. The troops are almost completely consolidated, so it’s just a matter of winning the siege before Garcia decides to get involved. Mercenaries may not be a bad idea.
Time to kick some ass and do something different from most folks, then!
I’ve found that it’s really tough to follow up a long-reigning king. A whole lot of my successors to old monarchs get themselves whacked in the first five years. I’ve even reloaded back as far as seven years to get a handle on it, which is borderline cheating, I guess, but when I’ve got the perfect monarch with great traits taking the throne at 22, I want to get some use out of him, you know?
After a long reign, I’ve found that vassals all start thinking they can jump in and be that person.
The situation as I see it:
So, the old king is dead as of 1161. Good. The next huge problem (aside from eradicating the Kingdom of Castille; a war we started before my reign) is trying to figure out succession rules. I elected my heir to get the crown of Aragon, but he isn’t even in the top three for the succession for the Kingdom of Castille. Aside from killing the top three in succession through assassination, I don’t see a way to get it done. This may get very messy for my poor, poor heir, but I’ll be dead anyways.
I also got betrothed to a beautiful 2 year old (:dubious:), Duchess Ermegarda of Toledo. The way I see it, I’m buying low. Don’t hate.
I handed my heir a few landed titles to get under the desmene size (side note: I wish it would tell you where your desmene size will be after handing those titles out, too. I handed out a Duchy title to him just now that didn’t move it at all).
I just got excommunicated days later after this, at the behest of the King of Leon. This is about to get very messy very quick.
During the siege, the King of Castile dies unexpectedly.
I sent my chancellor into a nearby Muslim area to sow dissent, and he immediately got caught. You jerk. Learn to chancell better in jail, butthole.
So, I sent another chancellor into there to do the same thing. He also got caught. Now you two can commiserate in prison.
Oh, after that? We’ve got a rebellion. Here goes our treasury to pay for mercenaries. We just won the battle for the Kingdom of Castille, who abdicated to me (naturally), so that’s one fewer pain in my ass. Also, it was a really small rebellion, so it got put down pretty quickly as well. Mercenaries weren’t even really even needed, so it is time to do some construction and building up to declare war on the Moops.
1165: I declare a Holy War for Murcia. Let’s start taking that land back.
1167: Murcia is now mine. So, let’s roll the dice and declare a Holy War for Seville. Suck it, Fatmid Sultanate!
1169: Okay, that was a bad idea. We’ll try that again later, though. Best two out of three, Sultan.
1169: Now the King of Leon wants to hop over and take a run at me. This should be fun.
1173: I fended off the King of Leon’s advances. I find that, after a nice, tough battle that I win, if I keep chasing around that group of troops that I just defeated and stay on them until their morale goes to zero, and finally, chasing them from province to province until their troop numbers get to zero, that’s a pretty solid tactic. It worked for me this time, for sure.
1174: I have to wait until 1777 to declare another Holy War in Granda. Grr. I want that now. My chancellor is going to go and fabricate claims on the Kingdom of Leon. I feel they’re sufficiently weakened by our most recent scuffle.
1181: We won the war for Burgos. With the ransom monies, I created two duchies, but delayed in creating another kingdom, because who needs another king, right? Time to sit back and lick our wounds and get stronger. During this war with Leon, I noticed the ceasefire expired with the Muslim ruler in Spain, so it may be time to pounce back on Granda.
1181: I see that the last holding of the Abbadid Emirate is under siege in Spain. Time to pounce on that to see if I can steal it.
1181: Rats. The Fatmid Sultanate stole it. Now there are three powers in the Iberian Peninsula: the Fatmid Scrotumate, the Leonese Douchebags and me, Supreme Leader of Fuckin’ Spain (I’m trying out that new title. I think I like it.)
1181: My heir died. Time to elect a new one, then. I’m behind Duke Mendo. That’s close enough to “menudo” for me. Of course, I did just recently remarry after my wife died, so maybe she’ll pop out a sprog for me. That’ll fix that, then.
I hope that was a year typo? 600+ years? 
You demesne only includes actual land that you hold, so it will only count county-level titles and lower. Giving away duchy and kingdom titles doesn’t work unless you include the counties that are attached to them.
1182: Well. I’ve got a son now. I fuckin’ rule. I favor him. Good thing that, at the age of 0, he’s a fuckin’ genius. Aaaaand now someone wants to overthrow me. Man, you don’t know when you have it good, do you, Count Tiflwit? That kid is going to have a loooooooong reign, I tell you.
I also got excommunicated by the request of the King of Leon. Man, I’m gonna stomp you so bad, about a thousand years from now, some shitty musical band is going to take your title as their band name.
1183: Welp. That was fast. Count Tiflwit accepted a quick peace. You loser. Also, I have my chancellor over in Leon to fabricate a claim on it. Surely nobody would notice if I suddenly got a claim to that…would they? Later in the year, he asked that a lower ranked vassal answer to him, than to me. Because i’m such a diplomatic stud, I’ll have Bishop Menendo get a claim to the Count’s area. Suck it, Tiflwit.
1184: Vassal fight! Some vassals are going at it. Maybe I should change the laws some more to stop that. There. Done. No sooner the ink dries on that, the King of Leon decides to step up and start a war. Later in the year, Count Tiflwit starts the “Independence Faction”. When I beat you again, I’m going to kill you.
I usually do give away the lower titles too. When I give them away, I give them to the folks that I lose them to if I died. Like, for example, there’s that alert that says that if you die, you lose x amount of titles. It lists the title(s) and who gets them. I just give them when I’m alive.
1185: My claim on the title for Leon came in. Fuck yeah I’m using it.
France wants to come at me now. Well, shit. The Pope doesn’t want to lift the excommunication yet. I suppose I could throw a lot of assassins at him and try to force it. If I don’t figure something out soon, France is going to fuck me up special good. Ah! I found it. I can petition the Pope through the Intrigue tag to have it lifted. My excommunication is lifted and things are…wait. France. What are you doing, France? Stahp. I gave over Navarra and Rosello to stop the war. I’ll have to keep my eyes on France and wait until they’re weak. Fuck those guys.
I imprisoned Tiflwit and executed him to make me feel better. That did help, actually. It makes me feel good enough to…take over that claim I have on Leon!
As your designated successor, I’m quite interested in the titles you have. Specifically, what kingdoms do you have and what are their succession laws? Also, pics!
Derp. Forgot to put up the picture. You’ve got the Kingdom of Aragon. I think the King of Leon usurped the Crown of Castille, so that’s not a problem (I don’t think). You have no family tree, because you’re 7 and hereis the dynasty. Hereare your laws. I didn’t have the time/forgot to change the city levies/taxation to “normal”.
The demesne size is caluclated based on the landed areas you control: counties and baronies. Duchies are titles, groups of counties.
If you create a Duke out of an unlanded courtier, you have to give him at least one landed holding, so your demesne size will go down, although it won’t be because of the Duchy you just handed out, but the (usually) county that you gave along with it. If the courtier already has a holding ,giving them a Duchy (or a Kingdom) without a specific spot of land to go along with it won’t affect the demesne size.