So I started as the duke of Milan in 1066 and managed to form Italy and break away from the HRE around 1200. I formed Italia after breaking away and moved to imperial authority. So somwhere down the line the hre converted to orthodox Christianity so I used my new authority to start purging orthodox german lords from the nobility and replace them with italian Catholics. This also let me turn duchies in viceroyalties. This alsocmeant I spent the better part of 13th century in a constant state of civil war which was fine until I had a new emperor ascend to the throne. For starters the pope refused to crown me unless I gave up rome (my capital) so I had the uncrowned penalty for years. So I tried to revoke an orthodox priests county (arezzo) so I could give it to a catholic bishop and make him an antipope to crown me. This started a massive civil war and to make things worse the plague had just started. Now mind you I currently also have no heir so the heir to my throne is the polish son of my sister not of my dynasty. The plague ravishes italy in the middle of my civil war. I go on lockdown in Rome because I cannot die. My soldiers are dying of plague so badly that another faction tries to put my sister on the throne and starts another war. I'm running out of money. I press ownward though and keep fighting. My sister dies of plague so that faction disperses and the plague eventually subsides. There's also a crusade going on that I got excommunicated for not fighting in because of the civil war. I manage to get unexcommunicated by changing investiture back to the pope. Then I finally beat the rebellious orthodx priest. Shortly thereafter the plague subsides from all of my realm and I go out of lockdown and my wife immediately has a son. I breathe of huge sigh of relief and realize thay I am physically sweating and shaking. Thank you ck2 for managing to put me on the edge of my seat for hours. The end.