It had been about a century since the city of Sivas had last seen an army sweep in, the peasants were spooked. Then came the bigger one.

First was Ahmet, the Prince. He commanded a force of around five thousand, who had come to investigate the extent of tribal Shia sentiment in the region. Only a month later, came the grand Ottoman Army, complete with thousands of Janissaries and tens of thousands of Yaya, made camp outside the walls of the old town. At their head was Hadim Pasha, the general who had delivered a province in Greece in the recent war.

The night was loud, with military bands singing and shouting, sporadic musket fire as weapons are tested, and troops stealing away into the town. In the morning, they march on, south, shouting holy words and praising the Sultan in their own ways.

Ahmet stayed, but the war went south without him. The Ottoman Empire threw it's whole might south, against a boy Shah.

The rise of the Shia heresy has been explosive, and the threat upon the eastern frontier has been madenning. It is clear the Shah will not stop until there is only one unified Islamic Caliphate, and the Ottomans are finally free to throw their weight around.

The Ottoman Empire declares war on the Safavid Dynasty.

[M]: I'm disbanding ships and raising soldiers on the sheet.