Time for the CKII update! Another five to ten years have passed. Playing as the Duchess in the Dungeon, not much was going on; I eventually gave my regent the go ahead to build a few buildings, and about the same time was thrown in the oubliette. Then the gaolers appeared, and with them the Basileus. That couldn't be good. But I survived. Minus a leg.
Thankfully, the wounds were fatal, and I succumbed to them not long thereafter. Thus my titles passed to my uncle's granddaughter, the last member of the dynasty, who had been living with her father's family on the Sea of Azov ever since her husband kicked the bucket at the age of 17.
Theodora of Achaia has pursued a path of pragmatism. Gregorios Gavros is still the Emperor, has now upped his tally to 22 victims, and is widely disliked by his subjects, noble and commoner alike. But a wise man once said that no matter how many lords turn against him, as long as he sits on the throne, he can call himself Emperor. Thus, rather than suffer the same fate as so many other dukes and duchesses, Theodora has been seeking a dual policy of rebuilding the dynasty, and establishing a power base.
To that effect, she planned to legitimize her bastard daughter, but also married the heir to the powerful but divided Kingdom of Ruthenia, which included much of Russia as well, matrilineally - a situation afforded by his mother having moved to Cumania after his father died, and the Khan of Cumania being only too happy to find an opportunity to sow trouble for his neighbors to the north. No sooner was the Duchess pregnant, than she told her spies to seek opportunities to undermine her husband's brother, the King of Ruthenia. This was only too easy - he was a Sunni king of a majority-Orthodox kingdom, and had a Suomensko spymaster! A year later, Duke Pavel of Achaia was also King of Ruthenia. The only problem was that one of the archers who murdered the king let Theodora's name slip... and it turns out Pavel was not amused by gaining the throne by virtue of his wife arranging the murder of his brother, and refuses to form an alliance with his wife.
Oh well. Theodora's son, Theodoros, is almost a year old now, lives in Greece, and is heir to Ruthenia. An alliance with Ruthenia would have been nice for overthrowing the tyrant. But the long term goal is looking good, anyway.
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OOS: I'm really glad she didn't wind up marrying someone while I was rotting in the dungeon. It would have been quite the problem if she'd remarried and had a child, especially a son. I'll credit Konstas Polkarios, son of Polkarios Polkarios and father of Polkarios Polkarios II - as well as being the likely father of Theodora's bastard daughter - for influencing that.
Ahhhh... the good old times 
