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Lysistrata

Πρωθυπουργός της Αυτοκρατορίας Ρωμαίος
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Feb 2, 2013
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So I started work on this around the time the devs released the 1043 bookmark as a minor flavour mod for Zoe and Theodora (hence the name, Google Translate-ese for "Long Live the Empresses"), since I didn't think a weak claim alone was enough to represent their importance. Since the stuff I made for them has largely been rendered obsolete by a combination of bloodlines and the imperial succession law, it branched out into a general Byzantine Empire flavour mod.

If the devs want to integrate this submod as a whole or any part of it into SWMH, EMF or whatever, just say the word. As long as I get credit, that's fine by me.

Features:

* The main feature is co-emperorship, represented by the symbasileus minor title.
** This title, if it's going to be used by players at all, should be used with caution: it isn't revocable and immediately grants a strong claim on your primary title (if the co-emperor somehow loses the title, they'll revert to whichever strength claim they had beforehand, if any).
** The conditions to grant it are fairly restrictive (mainly to stop the AI screwing itself over by handing out co-emperorships like Smarties), but historical, so you probably won't be able to grant it to (m)any people immediately after starting.
** It has double the weighting on imperial succession that the despot title has, and counts as born in the purple.
** You can create up to 3 co-emperors because (apart from in the interval between the Macedonian and Komnenos dynasties when pretty much all of Constantine X, Romanos IV, and Michael VII's sons were (largely symbolic) co-emperors at various, overlapping points) that was the most to exist at any one time during the game period (under Romanos I).
** And of course, any co-emperor and their spouse will receive snazzy new imperial finery to suit their station (although the new clothes won't show up on the same day you grant the title).
** UPDATE: Symbasileus parents will now have purple-born children.

* Since having Basil ahistorically start as emperor is no longer such a requirement for the rise of his dynasty, I've resurrected Michael III in the 867 bookmark, and added his missing mother and sisters to the game (they're all nuns, though, so not much use as successors). Also, his wife, Eudokia Dekapolitissa.

* Basil, and all other historical co-emperors from the game period, start as co-emperors. To this end, I've also added in Andronikos I Komnenos' missing second son, Ioannes, who was his chosen heir and co-emperor (surprised he wasn't in-game already tbh).

* Basil still starts married to Eudokia Ingerina (whose culture is now Greek, but is still ethnically Norse), but she's also Michael III's lover, and Basil has Michael's sister Thekla as a lover.

* Updated and standardised all Greek character names in line with the updates to the Greek name list a few patches ago.

* Finally, I've opened up the Varangian Guard not only to North Germanics, but also East Slavs, Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Norse (provided there are no independent rulers of either culture, to match history), Englishmen, and Crimean Goths (because why not?). Any kind of non-Hellenic pagan who joins the Varangians is now at risk of returning home a Christian zealot, rather than just Norse pagans. Foreigners will also stop joining up once their top liege has protected inheritance (a historical measure employed by the Scandinavian monarchies to stop so many of their men pissing off to Miklagard because joining the Varangians was that lucrative a career path).

Known issues:

* None, currently

Edit: made a separate version (Zeto e Basileios) with Basil the Macedonian starting as emperor in 867
 

Attachments

  • Zeto e Basilisses.zip
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As much as I love the idea behind the mod, the way you edited the bookmarks made playing as Basil I impossible. You can't advance individual years in the earliest bookmarks, so you are stuck playing as Michael III.

With that in mind, could you please add a custom bookmark for those of us wanting to play, for certain, with the Makedon dynasty? Even though I appreciate your history edits, for better historical accuracy is always good, I don't think there's anything wrong with allowing us to go for the full Basil experience from the start, rather than praying that CK2's sandbox aspect, and the "non-dynastic heirs" game rule, does that for you.

Amazing mod!
 
As much as I love the idea behind the mod, the way you edited the bookmarks made playing as Basil I impossible. You can't advance individual years in the earliest bookmarks, so you are stuck playing as Michael III.

With that in mind, could you please add a custom bookmark for those of us wanting to play, for certain, with the Makedon dynasty? Even though I appreciate your history edits, for better historical accuracy is always good, I don't think there's anything wrong with allowing us to go for the full Basil experience from the start, rather than praying that CK2's sandbox aspect, and the "non-dynastic heirs" game rule, does that for you.

Amazing mod!

I anticipated that some people would still rather have Basil, and honestly I'm still weighing up the options in terms of how to cater to that. A new bookmark seems a bit too much effort for one character, especially since I'm trying to make the mod in such a way that minimises maintenance from patch to patch.

The options I'm looking at are either some kind of game rule, or just a version of the mod with Basil starting as emperor. The latter would most likely be easier for me, but the former would be more flexible and less hassle for players. At the very least I'll make a separate version as a temporary measure until I can figure out whether a game rule would work for this.

Edit: done, link's in the OP
 
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Shouldn't Leon (the wise) not have the "Born in the Purple" trait? I only ask because Basil's subsequent children don't seem to get the trait.
 
Shouldn't Leon (the wise) not have the "Born in the Purple" trait? I only ask because Basil's subsequent children don't seem to get the trait.

I didn't make that change, but maybe it's because he was probably Michael III's son (and judging by Basil's abusing him, and his actions after Basil's death, was widely considered as such and considered himself as such), and even if not, he was the son of a reigning co-emperor. In fact, I might make an event to designate the children of co-emperors as born in the purple on birth.
 
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I don't think so. The only other title to do anything like that is the antipapacy and I'm pretty sure that's hardcoded.

Besides, most co-emperors aren't counted as actual emperors with regnal numbers unless they later became the senior emperor themselves, and the few weird outliers (Michael IX and Andronikos V come to mind) are too late to bother representing even if it were possible.
 
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You are right. I once tried this idea, I made a special k lier title,copy history from e_byz, give it to the symbasileios on_action, copy back its history to e_byzantium and destroy it on death. But it is very buggy and impractical, too many stuff should be taken into consideration. Then I gave up.
 
How is this mod's compatibility with other mods out there? I would suppose MTA Vice & Virtue, Imperial Court (not supported according to author yet) submods wont interfere with this submod, right?
 
Having looked up MTA Vice and Virtue, that one should be fine, maybe unless they also change the Norse character history file, but all I've changed in there is Eudokia Ingerina's culture, so if a problem does come up, just delete my version of it.

Could you link to Imperial Court? Obviously a relatively nondescript name like that doesn't make for an easy search.
 
I would suggest to make an event that gives the "born in the purple" trait to sons of co-emperors, Basil II called himself "born in the purple" and he was born during the reign of his grandfather, when his father was co-emperor.
Could you link to Imperial Court? Obviously a relatively nondescript name like that doesn't make for an easy search.
Here you go, but it should be noted that this mod has not been updated to the new release of HIP.

EDIT: Fixed the link.
 
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Uhhh, I have a small suggestion but I think it's somewhere beyond the idea of this submod. However there is no other byzantine-flavour mod like this one so I will leave it here.
You see, the lakes in Anatolia have turkish names for SWMH map. If you or somebody else could rename them to greek analogues it would be excellent.
 
Having looked up MTA Vice and Virtue, that one should be fine, maybe unless they also change the Norse character history file, but all I've changed in there is Eudokia Ingerina's culture, so if a problem does come up, just delete my version of it.

Could you link to Imperial Court? Obviously a relatively nondescript name like that doesn't make for an easy search.
Here you go, the author havent made his mod compatible with HIP yet so it may be hard to tell...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1589968896&searchtext=


EDIT: Dint read that others posted... Haha
 
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Yes, it is intentional, see the OP

You can create up to 3 co-emperors because (apart from in the interval between the Macedonian and Komnenos dynasties when pretty much all of Constantine X, Romanos IV, andMichael VII's sons were (largely symbolic) co-emperors at various, overlapping points) that was the most to exist at any one time during the game period (under Romanos I).
 
Looks pretty cool Lysistrata, i haven't quite had much time for modding lately, but when my schedule clears up, i will definetely take a look at this and perhaps discuss it's possible inclusion in Swmh or EMF with Ziji.

As for 867, i'm still more inclined to move the date forward than to fit Michael into our setup. But that's for another day, as i said earlier, i have a busy real life schedule atm ;)
 
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