The English and the French arrive in the Levant to contest the rule of the Holy Land with the Ayyubid Sultanate.  The Third Crusade sees some of the most vicious fighting and brilliant generalship of all of the Crusades, resulting in a stalemate.  But though Richard the Lionheart and Saladin part on terms of deep mutual admiration and respect, the results of the Third Crusade are unsatisfying to all sides.  In Europe, the Pope declares a new Crusade.  But this Fourth Crusade is strapped for cash and, under the influence of the Venetians, takes a detour leading to Constantinople...

After being driven from Konya, Keyhüsrev flees to Constantinople.  The once and future Roman Sultan bides his time in the New Rome, marrying and fathering a child, while a great fleet sets sail in the West bound for the Queen of Cities...

The first reign of Keyhüsrev begins. But while the young Sultan struggles to hold Western Anatolia, his half-brother Sulayman II seizes the initiative in the East, driving Keyhüsrev from Konya. Sulayman then sets out to invade Georgia and reunify Anatolia... Ambitions whose rewards others will ultimately reap.

In the aftermath of the disaster of the march of the Third Crusade across Anatolia, the Sultanate of Rum falls apart.  The elderly Sultan of Rum is forced to wander across Anatolia seeking aid to return to the throne.  And we say goodbye to the Limping Lion, and bring to the throne the next Roman Sultan - the Sultan who will come to inaugurate the golden age of the Seljuks of Rum. 

The Holy Roman Emperor crosses the Dardanelles into Anatolia expecting to find a friend on the throne in Konya.  But while Sultan Kılıç Arslan II desires peace and alliance, the wild tribes and certain of his sons have other ideas...

Saladin consolidates power throughout Syria and northern Iraq, becoming the greatest power in the Muslim world and strangling Outremer.  After a crusader provocation, he assembles a great army and marches it into the Levant, ultimately crushing the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin.  Jerusalem itself soon falls to the Ayyubid Sultan.  And the shocking news of the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem causes fear and guilt to spread across Europe, leading the Third Crusade.  Soon, the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, is leading a great crusading army to the Holy Land by way of Anatolia...

After the battle of Myriokephalon, Kılıç Arslan II consolidates Seljuk rule of Anatolia.  The Sultan of Rum negotiates with the rising power of Saladin, and conquers further in the West after the death of Manuel Komnenos.  But as the elderly Sultan continues to cling to life, and as great invasion is summoned from the West, the future claimants to the throne in Konya start sharpening their knives...  

With Kılıç Arslan II consolidating his power over Anatolia, Emperor Manuel Komnenos sets out to reverse the verdict of Manzikert.  The Imperial Armies move on to the plateau to rebuild Dorylaeum, and expeditionary forces are sent off to northern Anatolia.  And a great Roman army is assembled and set on the road to Konya - a road that will, along the way to Konya, take them to an abandoned fortress guarding a steep mountain pass.  A fortress named Myriokephalon and a pass named Tzivitzre...

As the Danishmend Beylik falls into crisis, Kılıç Arslan II sets out to conquer Anatolia.  But fearful of the growing power of the Sultan of Rum, Nüreddin Zengi, the greatest force in the Muslim world, sets out to oppose him.  An alliance is constructed against Konya - an alliance that will stand for so long as Nüreddin lives...  And in Constantinople, Emperor Manuel Komnenos watches the events in Anatolia with growing trepidation, and decides to take a gamble on reversing the verdict of Manzikert. 

In Anatolia, Kılıç Arslan II rides East to confront Yağıbasan and begin the reconquest of Anatolia.  He makes an alliance with the Saltukid Bey İzzeddin, whose beylik has been raiding Georgia since Manzikert.  And in Syria, Nureddin Zengi dispatches to Egypt two obscure Kurdish commanders...