You might want to try my alhistorical NES set in the year 730 AD (link in sig). It updates every week, and all you really have to read to know what's going on is the introduction, the rules, and the last update. All of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East in the NES are in the middle of a massive two on two religious war, and in Asia, Mongolia is climbing to power, having just destroyed China, so I doubt the NES will get boring anytime soon.
One NPC nation you could take is Srivijava (a quiet nation on Sumatra that could be interesting to build up). There are many other NPCs to choose from, but they all come with various strings attached, which you might or might not want to deal with.