Especially considering he (historically) died several months after the start of the mod. Just because he believed the promises of the Byzantine emperor and went to a meeting with him to "negotiate" (moral of the story - never trust an emperor, especially when you're at war with him).
Too bad we don't have different sizes for the characters as well (like Brytenwalda does, I think), considering both Ivanko and Kaloyan (they're cousins, after all), plus the late (as in "dead by 1200") Petar and Asen (the first tsars of the SBE, older brothers of Kaloyan and, respectively, cousins of Ivanko), were quite tall - between 1,90 and 2 metres (according to their alleged skeletons, at least). That would've made them even more badass, especially Kaloyan, who later on called himself Romanslayer, the Greeks in return called him Skiloioannos/John the Dog, while even Kaloyan itself is a nickname (from the late 1180s, when he was a teenager and hostage in Constaninople for a few years, by which time he had already received a wound from a battle-axe in his neck, which occasionally would've caused him pain and great fits of anger), meaning the Good or Handsome John (the women of Constantinople were supposedly rather fond of him). Here's a comic-book for him, btw, where he kicks some Dutch-French-Italian ass.
Anyway, in the old M&B (non-WB) version of the mod, we had Ivanko and his lands as part of the Bulgarian faction. But since we started adding other minor factions to the WB-port (Arber, Dubrovnik etc), I suggested to make him separate (in addition I found the name of his brother, Mito, as well) - he was allied with Kaloyan against the Byzantines, but, as you said, he "dreamed and already saw himself on the throne" either in Tarnovgrad or Constantinople (as Niketas Choniates writes, IIRC) and was quite ambitious and independent enough. Btw, another fact for what a "pig" he was - when he was still a favourite of the Byzantine emperor and got engaged to his underaged daughter (around 4 years old at the time), Theodora, he is said to have remarked something like "Why are you binding me to a still suckling lamb and telling me to wait, when you have at hand a grown sheep, ready for marriage and consumation?" (hinting that he prefers to marry his fiance's mother, Anna Angelina, around 22 years old at the time, widow of Isaac Komnenos who had in the meantime died in the Bulgarian dungeons).
Poor girl, that Theodora, btw - after Ivanko died in late 1200, the Byzantine emperor married her to another Bulgarian warlord, Dobromir Hris, who wasn't much better either - he was completely unloyal (switched sides between Byzantium and Bulgaria several times) and during their wedding ate and drank in excess, while she barely touched anything (in accordance to wedding customs, apparently), because of which he got pissed off and started swearing at her "in his barbaric tongue" and finally said in Greek "Pff! Don't eat and don't drink then!"
Then again, it's still better than another Bulgarian lord, Strez - when Kaloyan died in 1207 and his nephew Boril took power, Strez was one of the claimants to the trone (and he was brother of Boril). Since he failed to take it, he joined the Serbs, who gave him some lands on the Bulgarian border, where he would often convict the poor peasants to death for not-too-big crimes, while he would sit there feasting, watching them get pushed off a cliff down to the river below and sarcastically shouting to them "Be careful not to wet your coat!" (like in here). But don't worry, those are more or less the only bad lords in the Bulgarian factions in 1200. It's not like we're trying to strengthen the stereotypes for the Balkans/Middle Ages or anything...
Too bad we don't have different sizes for the characters as well (like Brytenwalda does, I think), considering both Ivanko and Kaloyan (they're cousins, after all), plus the late (as in "dead by 1200") Petar and Asen (the first tsars of the SBE, older brothers of Kaloyan and, respectively, cousins of Ivanko), were quite tall - between 1,90 and 2 metres (according to their alleged skeletons, at least). That would've made them even more badass, especially Kaloyan, who later on called himself Romanslayer, the Greeks in return called him Skiloioannos/John the Dog, while even Kaloyan itself is a nickname (from the late 1180s, when he was a teenager and hostage in Constaninople for a few years, by which time he had already received a wound from a battle-axe in his neck, which occasionally would've caused him pain and great fits of anger), meaning the Good or Handsome John (the women of Constantinople were supposedly rather fond of him). Here's a comic-book for him, btw, where he kicks some Dutch-French-Italian ass.
Anyway, in the old M&B (non-WB) version of the mod, we had Ivanko and his lands as part of the Bulgarian faction. But since we started adding other minor factions to the WB-port (Arber, Dubrovnik etc), I suggested to make him separate (in addition I found the name of his brother, Mito, as well) - he was allied with Kaloyan against the Byzantines, but, as you said, he "dreamed and already saw himself on the throne" either in Tarnovgrad or Constantinople (as Niketas Choniates writes, IIRC) and was quite ambitious and independent enough. Btw, another fact for what a "pig" he was - when he was still a favourite of the Byzantine emperor and got engaged to his underaged daughter (around 4 years old at the time), Theodora, he is said to have remarked something like "Why are you binding me to a still suckling lamb and telling me to wait, when you have at hand a grown sheep, ready for marriage and consumation?" (hinting that he prefers to marry his fiance's mother, Anna Angelina, around 22 years old at the time, widow of Isaac Komnenos who had in the meantime died in the Bulgarian dungeons).
Poor girl, that Theodora, btw - after Ivanko died in late 1200, the Byzantine emperor married her to another Bulgarian warlord, Dobromir Hris, who wasn't much better either - he was completely unloyal (switched sides between Byzantium and Bulgaria several times) and during their wedding ate and drank in excess, while she barely touched anything (in accordance to wedding customs, apparently), because of which he got pissed off and started swearing at her "in his barbaric tongue" and finally said in Greek "Pff! Don't eat and don't drink then!"
Then again, it's still better than another Bulgarian lord, Strez - when Kaloyan died in 1207 and his nephew Boril took power, Strez was one of the claimants to the trone (and he was brother of Boril). Since he failed to take it, he joined the Serbs, who gave him some lands on the Bulgarian border, where he would often convict the poor peasants to death for not-too-big crimes, while he would sit there feasting, watching them get pushed off a cliff down to the river below and sarcastically shouting to them "Be careful not to wet your coat!" (like in here). But don't worry, those are more or less the only bad lords in the Bulgarian factions in 1200. It's not like we're trying to strengthen the stereotypes for the Balkans/Middle Ages or anything...
