A look at the diplomatic map. As you can probably guess, red means I'm at war with them. Interestingly i am allied with Russia because they are at war with one of the same countries as me.
How depressing.
#
Oh snap! The fan has just been struck by a fresh wave of shit. A prominent Order Knight and landholder fosters a major armed revolt, using his wealth to arm the citizens of Constantinople. Many other revolts spring up in the heartlands, to salvage what they can out of the Empire.
Meanwhile, genocide.
The Pretender rebels win a bloody victory against the besieging Austrian forces.
Double bankruptcy!
ARABS
MUSLIMS
COWARDS
TRAITORS
Oh, hi there Tripoli.
It'd have been cool if i managed to get a Revolution. This guy would have made a pretty awesome Napoleon.
Lucky bastards.
I get a forced white peace with the Africans. This happens if there is absolutely no fighting between two countries for a few years. It's to prevent the AI from stubbornly refusing peace forever even if they have absolutely no way of reaching you.
MORE ARABS
HUNGRY PEASANTS
SLAVS
There's only one way to deal with this! Useless propaganda and needless bloodshed!
I'd use the mob emote, but I'm not sure that really applies to armed pretenders.
These are interesting events. This happens when you have a nomadic province that doesn't neighbor any other countries, but neighbors one of your provinces. It doesn't do anything to the raided province and just gives the successful raid modifier to the nomadic province. Besides the prestige hit there doesn't seem to be any reason to scold the nomads, unless you want to settle them.
The civil war finally reaches a climax. The Empires core provinces are occupied by foreign invaders or rebels and traitors. There is no way out of this collapse. The Grandmaster himself is captured in Constantinople. Revolutionaries tear down noble estates and Churches, preaching heretical dogma and dangerous ideology. Nationalists rip apart the Empire, scrounging for what territory they can gather. Foreign invaders also take what they can, only pausing for thought when they are met by hardened groups of rebels and Revolutionaries.
Is there anything more to say? The nation is dead. The Empire is gone, even despite its glorious zenith.
The Empire would be torn apart by revolt, and the oppressive theocracy would be overthrown. Many Catholic legacy states would rise up, surviving through to the 20th century. The religious intolerance of the Order would fade under a wave of secularist philosophy, but its legacy would persist in many other ways. The curious mixed Greek, Arabic and Turkic culture of the Empire, united by Catholicism would flourish, even as the provinces of the Empire wandered away from the roots of the Order.
The Knights of St. John would not be remembered too well by historians, particularly those of Islamic faith, but Byzantium's legacy is undeniable. For a while it was mighty, and then it was not. Its impact would persist, shaping the East much as the old Roman Empire shaped the West.
Ultimately, it is irrelevant how the Grandmasters are remembered and perceived by History. They did what they believed they had to, they did it well, and they triumphed for many centuries. One shouldn't judge the ancestors too harshly, for he too will one day be judged.