OK, I know this seems off topic as this thread seems to have strayed from faction list discussion, and this could already have been covered in a previouse thread but i have to ask...

What about bulgaria as a faction?! I obviously don't mean volga bulgaria but Bulgaria. To my knowledge (which is no where near as vast as people like dukeofserbia, so feel free to eat me alive for this ) factions like serbia seemed to alternate between being controlled by the ottomans or being protected by hungary, apart from their fourty years as the serbian empire. Meanwhile bulgaria remained militarily, economically, and politically (or royally however you wish to put it) independent far more of the time. For example, the second Bulgarian empire proved to be a major thorn in the side of the hungarians and Rus. This is just speculation... and faction proposels seem to be a dead topic, just thought i should mention it...