This is our character, on the left: Zoumana Cisse, Mansa (King) of Wagadu:
http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/29608660496022350/429E16A7E21174C8EFF97FD9625379A63C397A9C/
Under his portrait is a line of stats (diplomacy, martial, stewardship, intrigue and learning). I'll explain the meaning of the stats as they become relevant. Below that is a line with one square symbol and four circular ones. The square symbol is our characters education (Fortune builder) and the circles are his traits: ambitious, gregarius, gluttonous and humble. Traits in green are virtues and traits in red are vices. Generally virtues have positive effects and vices generally positive effects. Traits that are neither are less constrained, but tend to have both up and down sides. This isn't a hard rule though, gregarious just makes everyone like you better with no down side. Since I won't explain the stats yet I won't explain the details of the traits but suffice to say that they effect how well you do different things in pretty intuitive ways.
Now that our character has been introduced we should introduce our realm. The kingdom of Wagadu, centrally placed on the map to the right. In a history book the Cisse dynasty will be mentioned as ruling the Ghana empire, but outside the central kingdom of Wagadu all where tributaries that were much more weakly controlled than anything represented in the game. So instead we're the only kingdom in the area surrounded by lesser, but independent, states.
Now, to show what exactly we are King of I'll show you one of the most important map modes of CK 2, de jure kingdoms:
http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/29608660496086691/CE53BC944DFE918CE698EE83689F4C6C262B9882/
De jure is a latin term that means something like "legally speaking". The first map shows what we actually control, while the second shows the actual extent of the kingdom we are king of, even if we don't really control all of it. As you can see there are, theoretical kingdoms of Mali and Songhay to our south and east but currently there's no king of either. If I had my way there never would be, but in all likelihood there will be.
Since I've already talked for as long as you're allowed in a strategy game let's play without showing a war, let's start one. In CK 2 you need a valid reason to go to war, but luckily holding land in your kingdom without submitting to your authority is a very valid reason. So we declare war on the farbas (duke) of Tagant to our north west, for the province of Awdaghust:
http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/29608660496114256/E41BF00CBA6E60A4E66AEC3461B05FD1A0788412/
I raise an army and send it towards the closest enemy province, trying to hit their armies before they combine. I succeed and manage to cripple their smaller army:
http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/29608660496200741/286D50D3DE1F4181F09C70B47BBE6A3A43534CBA/
They were sending the rest of their forces to reinforce this one, and their main army arrives just after the battle finishes. Luckily without the force I just crushed they're too few to beat me and I score another victory:
http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/29608660496207078/63C592E8C2C63FAEE372F6C53100477636C5F5F9/
After this I spend some time chasing their forces, doing a little damage each time I catch up before they're able to retreat. Once their army is sufficiently reduced I siege down the war goal and after a little more army chasing they're willing to throw in the towel:
http://cloud-2.steamusercontent.com/ugc/29608660496210738/7D9F3971810B2FF0DE6A81418E44CAF99E581A92/
One event of note that happened during the war, I got a son. I married my ruler at the very start, but didn't mention it because researching the rulers for all, or most, of the medival world is a huge enough task for the developers without having to research things like their extended families. That means that no one outside the rulers are people of note during the first generation of play. Having a son means we're no longer completly screwed if our ruler dies. Unfortunately our son, Konaté Cisse was born sickly. So we'd still be pretty soon. Hopefully we'll get a kid with a higher chance to survive soon.
http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/29608660496145733/FF03F62B86725B5DC65A3EC513268463A6FFDB6B/
So, this is where I leave the first update. Having expanded our realm by a province and doubled the size of our tiny dynasty.
http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/29608660496214998/729A13D7192FDF434D082C0B461D9B61526BE8D5/
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