Ave again, this time we’ll be taking a look at the last mission coming with our expansion Heirs of Alexander, a shared Diadochi mission designed by
@Trin Tragula which is available to all five Successors when they complete two specific missions from their unique set (e.g. Egypt must complete Eastern Border and Thalassocracy).
Named Diadochi Empire, this mission provides a late-game challenge and thus expects you to already be a large nation, and directs you in establishing a new kind of realm that will fulfill Alexander’s dream of a lasting empire. It also sets out to draw up what might have been if a historical, lasting, united Hellenistic Empire were to dominate the Mediterrenean instead of Rome. The end goal of the mission, apart from lasting government institutions and a strong dynasty, is a uniting common identity beyond cultural and tribal differences - an alternative to Roman citizenship in real history.
As a result of its end game nature, the tasks of the mission have steep requirements, sometimes providing a place to sink your wealth, but offering unique and powerful rewards.
The resolution of its tasks will also sometimes allow you to decide between alternative ways to shape your universal empire.
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The right hand path will first set you up with claims on Alexander’s entire empire in case they have been lost via the Epigoni event, and then ask you to conquer any core regions of Alexander’s empire which remain independent (Macedon, Mesopotamia, and/or Egypt, depending on which lands you already own) and give you a choice on how to govern them, with direct rule over such a large empire being quite taxing.
Conquering all of Persia and reclaiming the lands west of the Indus are optional objectives later on this side of the tree which will guide you in fulfilling the requirements of the Reunite Alexander’s Empire decision, which as before changes your country’s name and color - although if your ruler does not have the Blood of the Argeads trait it will be named the Macedonian Empire rather than Argead Empire.
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To live up to the empire of old you must ensure your capital has a Great Work (decision-built and starting wonders such as the Pyramids, Pharos, etc. count), ensuring it is a lasting Metropolis.
For this vast empire to function the food supply must also be organized properly; inspired by the Roman bread doles, it will be quite the undertaking to ensure the poor are fed and order is maintained, and your choices in handling this matter will have lasting consequences.
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Parallel to this, the left-hand path demands that you have the Empire government form if you are to manage such a large realm effectively, before inviting you to patronize the gods and asking you to assemble the Anthologia Philosophike - nine unique scholarly treasures scattered across the world which will be combined into one - to prove your dominant position as a center of learning and ensure the survival of the world’s knowledge for posterity.
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Further, you will be tasked to establish a bureaucracy to oversee the empire’s administration, and decide on how its candidates will be picked, as well as to patronize philosophers, inviting skilled characters from across the world to the capital. A royal school will also be established, granting all current and future members of the ruling dynasty by blood extra skills in a chosen category to ensure the empire’s leaders are up to the task.
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You may then prove you are Alexander’s true successor by honoring his memory and collecting his entire panoply - again scattered around the world - creating another combined treasure for your subjects to be inspired by and gawp at. Deification will also improve your ruler’s skills and legitimacy, the authority of the god-king lubricating the spokes of government.
After all that, you may finally achieve Alexander’s dream of a peaceful world-spanning empire, free from the cultural divisions of the past - something which your close-minded subjects will be loath to accept. The game will challenge you with a vast civil war, where you must destroy those who seek to cling to regional identity and unite the empire.
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If you survive that, you will have nothing left to prove to your subjects, or the gods, and Alexander’s ambitions will finally have been realized. A new Hellenistic culture will be adopted by the state and its elite, spreading to the capital and largest cities first, representing the mixing of cultures and the common identity shared by all subjects of the God-Kings of your Hellenistic empire.
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That’s all from me!