Legacy of Rome will be released next week, so this dev diary will be the last of this cycle. Doomdark is busy hammering away at the game, so this week the honor of writing it falls to me. As he said last time, we'll finish off with some of the unique decisions, events and mechanics we've added to the Byzantine Empire in the DLC. Note that the following stuff is for the DLC, not the free 1.07 patch.

Succession in Byzantium works the same as in the rest of Europe, except for one thing. Children born to an emperor during his reign will get the ”Born in the Purple” trait, which gives them a stronger succession claim than any older siblings born before their parents ascended the throne. If you, as emperor, still want your gifted firstborn son as your heir instead of his snotnosed younger brother who had the good fortune of being born during your reign, infanticide is not your only option. Granting the Despot honorary title to your firstborn will rank him the same as if he had the Purple trait, and given his seniority in age, he will become your heir again.

View attachment LoR_02_ERE_Events.jpg

Ambitious emperors will no doubt try to reclaim some of Rome's former glory by restoring the Empire's lost territory. If they or their imperial vassals hold certain provinces, they will have the opportunity to restore the Roman Empire. This decision essentially signifies that the West has no choice but to accept the Byzantines as the true heirs of Rome's legacy. You will get a new title (complete with a new flag, of course), and the rulers of a restored Rome always get the ”Augustus” trait, which gives a slight boost to vassal relations. If you wish it, there is a decision to move your capital to Rome, though the city scarcely compares to Constantinople in this era so you will likely have to invest a lot of gold and time to rebuild it.

Another major decision, of course, is to mend the Great Schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. You will need to reunite the Pentarchy (Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Rome) under Byzantine and Orthodox rule and accumulate a great deal of piety. When this decision is taken, Catholicism will become a heresy and Catholic rulers across Europe will have to decide whether to convert or not. A few will refuse, and Europe will likely be plagued by religious unrest for some time, but the first step has now been taken to unite Christendom under a single church.

View attachment LoR_01_ERE_Events.jpg

As you have probably seen, Byzantine rulers can elect to blind or castrate their prisoners. This can be an efficient way of permanently crippling your rivals without executing them outright. Have an obnoxious brother that covets your throne? If he is blinded or castrated, he will be removed from the imperial succession, and you will have one less pretender to worry about. Just don't expect him to like you much afterwards.

Castrated rivals aside, eunuchs played an important role at the Byzantine imperial court, and from time to time one of them will distinguish himself enough to be brought to your attention. This eunuch will be very loyal to your ruler and quite skilled in his chosen field. When other lords turn their backs on you, you will usually still be able to depend on his service, whether it's as a skilled general or a gifted spymaster.

Other events you can expect to see are triumphs being held when you emerge victorious from decisive wars, unruly Varangians in the capital, Hippodrome races and much more.

View attachment LoR_03_ERE_Events.jpg

Finally, let me stress that this does not mean that we have created a supercharged Byzantine Empire that will always go on to dominate Europe as the Romans did before them. Skilled and dedicated players will be able to stage a miraculous recovery and recreate the borders of the Roman Empire and maybe even hold it all together afterwards, but we have naturally taken care not to upset the balance of the game. Just wanted to put that out there.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

We have not done any changes to this region beyond the new religious setup.

 

[mtrivundza]

What happens to any catholic heresies when the schism ends? Do they become Orthodox Heresies or stay as heresies of Catholicism which would now be a heresy of Orthodox.

 

[Orinsul]

Perhaps a "Neo-Roman" culture that is in the Greek culture group? After all, the Roman culture was pretty much dead and gone by the time the game starts. But if Byzantium were to reconquer Italy, I could see the Italians of the region starting to readopt some of those traits. Sort of like how you have the English melting pot...

Like Greek names spelt in italian to show italians adopting the fashions of the new superpower??

What happens to any catholic heresies when the schism ends? Do they become Orthodox Heresies or stay as heresies of Catholicism which would now be a heresy of Orthodox.

Thatd depend on what happens with catholicism, if its the same religion [as in religion=catholic] but changed to a heresy then they could have the heresy as their parent, as nothign would change.
So then you could easily have heresies of a heresy if parent religions can be stacked, ive never tried but itd theoretically work if the parent= is a heresy.
So if all 'ending the schism' does is make orthodoxy the parent of catholicism then everything would work as is just with another step. cathar-catholic-orthodox.
Or if catholicism is a new religion= alltogether then things could get weird when it comes to events and decisions with cathars giving up their heresy for the parent.

 

[Keinwyn]

One question: How will co-emperors be handled? For example the succession of Romanos Diogenes. It was quite common to have an older senior emperor when a young individual inherited the throne. Would giving the despot title affect nobles votes in feudal elective?

Also with empresses - is there any mechanism for them to abdicate to their husbands but have the succession remain with their family (Zoe/Theodora)

 

[Mixxer5]

Perhaps a "Neo-Roman" culture that is in the Greek culture group? After all, the Roman culture was pretty much dead and gone by the time the game starts. But if Byzantium were to reconquer Italy, I could see the Italians of the region starting to readopt some of those traits. Sort of like how you have the English melting pot...

Yay! Would be great to recover RE as Romans instead of Greeks. On the other hand CK2 have short timeline- unless mod will contain some "Romanization" events and decisions, most of empire will stay Greek or otherwise (definitively rulers inside Empire should get event or decision to become Roman).

 

[Sleight of Hand]

I doubt co-emperors will be implemented in the same way that co/junior kings haven't been in the West (such as Henry the Young King or some of the early Capetians).

 

[Sarog]

Perhaps a "Neo-Roman" culture that is in the Greek culture group? After all, the Roman culture was pretty much dead and gone by the time the game starts. But if Byzantium were to reconquer Italy, I could see the Italians of the region starting to readopt some of those traits. Sort of like how you have the English melting pot...

Better this than just a Roman culture that turns back the clock and somehow resurrects a centuries-dead linguistic culture. Historical what ifs are well and good, but time machines not so much.

A Byzantine Italian melting pot culture that emerges from Italy under Greek rule and has access to Greek culture events, representing the adoption of "Eastern" Roman values, traditions and ideology in Italy... that could be a worthwhile thing to include. But a recreation of a Latin-speaking Roman culture from hundreds of years go is absurd on a number of levels.

 

[Dr_Vile]

Perhaps a "Neo-Roman" culture that is in the Greek culture group? After all, the Roman culture was pretty much dead and gone by the time the game starts. But if Byzantium were to reconquer Italy, I could see the Italians of the region starting to readopt some of those traits. Sort of like how you have the English melting pot...

I prefer the term Nova-Roman, since it's more correct from a Latin standpoint (especially if you relocate to Rome). And there's the connotations of a 'Nova': a dying star burning brightly once more.
/Wordplay geekery

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Better this than just a Roman culture that turns back the clock and somehow resurrects a centuries-dead linguistic culture. Historical what ifs are well and good, but time machines not so much.

A Byzantine Italian melting pot culture that emerges from Italy under Greek rule and has access to Greek culture events, representing the adoption of "Eastern" Roman values, traditions and ideology in Italy... that could be a worthwhile thing to include. But a recreation of a Latin-speaking Roman culture from hundreds of years go is absurd on a number of levels.

Totally agree, and such a melting pot culture would be an ideal part of a DLC pack focusing on the possibility of a resurgent Roman Empire.

You could even call it something like Greco-Roman, signifying that it's essentially Greek but with a sort of rose-tinted, traditionalist Roman influence. A few Latin names would be good, but the majority would either be Greek or Greek versions of Italian names (obviously I know many Italian names are already versions of existing Greek names) -- the idea being that it's a strange bastard culture anyway. I think it'd be good to have something like that in the Byzantine culture group, and obviously it would only come about under very remote circumstances.

 

[Dr_Vile]

Better this than just a Roman culture that turns back the clock and somehow resurrects a centuries-dead linguistic culture. Historical what ifs are well and good, but time machines not so much.

Hey, time machines, like bowties, are cool.

A Byzantine Italian melting pot culture that emerges from Italy under Greek rule and has access to Greek culture events, representing the adoption of "Eastern" Roman values, traditions and ideology in Italy... that could be a worthwhile thing to include. But a recreation of a Latin-speaking Roman culture from hundreds of years go is absurd on a number of levels.

Was possibly thinking of creating a Roman culture group containing both a Greek-oriented and Italian-oriented culture: Neo-Roman and Nova-Roman, respectively. Although still figuring it out, since Nova Roma was the original name of Constantinople. I've literally only spent the last 10 minutes thinking about it.

 

[Keinwyn]

I doubt co-emperors will be implemented in the same way that co/junior kings haven't been in the West (such as Henry the Young King or some of the early Capetians).

I'm not talking about having two emperors at once in game, but how the game will replicate the succession situation of having a non-dynastic individual take the throne, but the heir remains the longer reigning and underage/female of the previous dynasty. ie Nikephoros and John for Basil II, Zoe's husbands, Michael VIII being Romanos IV's heir, Constantine (Michael VIII's son) being heir to Nikephoros IV and Alexios I (before John II was born).

 

[Orinsul]

Rather than a new culture, what if you just added in the chance among the paternal grandfathers part of the culture file a chance to be named after your liege or your top level liege
so italians under the empire would occasionally give their sons greek names by naming them in honour of the Emperor when he has a name there isnt an italian version of. A more subtle thing than the whole culture changing and all the stability/consistancy problems that come along with it.

 

[unmerged(457435)]

Are only Greek & Orthodox able to recreate the Roman Empire?

 

[Jia Xu]

Is the "united" Rome a separate tag? If so, does it still get the buildings/events/whatever that has been assigned to the e_byzantium tag? If it is a new tag, does all of e_byzantium's de jure territory flip to the new tag automatically?

 

[Ciccillo Rre]

Are only Greek & Orthodox able to recreate the Roman Empire?

No, I think whoever is in charge of the Byzantine Empire can.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Is the "united" Rome a separate tag? If so, does it still get the buildings/events/whatever that has been assigned to the e_byzantium tag? If it is a new tag, does all of e_byzantium's de jure territory flip to the new tag automatically?

I'm pretty sure that's yes, yes and yes.

 

[Mixxer5]

One thing about Pentarchy- it's about conquering those 5 cities and using decision? Shouldn;t it be complicated a little more? Let's say like that:
Byz/RE captures Rome, completing Pentarchy requirements. Pope and his court flees to strongest Catholic country-let's say HRE. HRE gets some positive modifier incresing their internal relations (so Emperor don't have to worry about vassals revolt), pope gets some province inside HRE. HRE (as country- not emperor only) gets CB against Byz/RE to reclaim whole Northern Italy. Byz/RE gets CB against HRE (country which have Pope "inside"). If they win- HRE is dismantled, Catholicism becomes heresy and so on. But:
-If HRE decides to reclaim Northern Italy it's Crusade- so every catholic state will join probably.
-If Byz/RE decides to attack HRE- every single one Catholic ruler gets Call to Arms. It's all or nothing in the long run.


I think that such "final battle" (or rather war) for Europe and RE heritage would make game much more interesting.

 

[Dr_Vile]

Rather than a new culture, what if you just added in the chance among the paternal grandfathers part of the culture file a chance to be named after your liege or your top level liege
so italians under the empire would occasionally give their sons greek names by naming them in honour of the Emperor when he has a name there isnt an italian version of

Your idea is intriguing. I may have to steal it.

But I'd like some sort of culture shift. After all, it's not inconceivable that a New Roman Empire wouldn't try to re-create the glory of the Old Roman Empire - to provide a sense of continuity, authority and legitimacy. I can't help but think that a restoration of the old monuments, buildings and aqueducts would be on the cards (for a price, of course). And possibly an attempt to emulate Roman life.

This is probably well outside the scope of the DLC, but that's what mods are for.

 

[unmerged(537190)]

i like this idea !

maybe it will be modded

 

[Orinsul]

One thing about Pentarchy- it's about conquering those 5 cities and using decision? Shouldn;t it be complicated a little more? Let's say like that:
Byz/RE captures Rome, completing Pentarchy requirements. Pope and his court flees to strongest Catholic country-let's say HRE. HRE gets some positive modifier incresing their internal relations (so Emperor don't have to worry about vassals revolt), pope gets some province inside HRE. HRE (as country- not emperor only) gets CB against Byz/RE to reclaim whole Northern Italy. Byz/RE gets CB against HRE (country which have Pope "inside"). If they win- HRE is dismantled, Catholicism becomes heresy and so on. But:
-If HRE decides to reclaim Northern Italy it's Crusade- so every catholic state will join probably.
-If Byz/RE decides to attack HRE- every single one Catholic ruler gets Call to Arms. It's all or nothing in the long run.


I think that such "final battle" (or rather war) for Europe and RE heritage would make game much more interesting.

Its not meant to make sense, its there to be fun like the fictional empires that fulfill a game role not a story one and for the people who have asked for it constantly since the game came out.

Your idea is intriguing. I may have to steal it.

But I'd like some sort of culture shift. After all, it's not inconceivable that a New Roman Empire wouldn't try to re-create the glory of the Old Roman Empire - to provide a sense of continuity, authority and legitimacy. I can't help but think that a restoration of the old monuments, buildings and aqueducts would be on the cards (for a price, of course). And possibly an attempt to emulate Roman life.

This is probably well outside the scope of the DLC, but that's what mods are for.

In an international age as were talking about, that wouldnt mean stamping all cultures into one though. A small thing to show a trend in fashion towards constaninople, not fathers suddenly seeing their sons as foreignors as suddenly they change completely.
Especially given greeks are getting a graphical culture DLC, would a culture representing italians and greeks united use greek or italian graphic culture? Id say from any perspective itd be best to keep them apart. A melting pot culture for something that specific to one playthrough just seems a mod thing, to me atleast anyway.