Greetings readers!
It’s about time we brought you a new developer diary. Though we have been relatively quiet in public since our last diary, we have made immense progress in all sorts of fields. We realised while we were compiling this dev diary that there is so much new stuff to say that we will have to spread it out into several diaries! We have far too much to say about this topic alone, so prepare for a few more on different subjects to follow in the near future.
Today time we’re focusing on another region - one that is all part of a single empire. This diary was supposed to come out a couple of days ago but we just had a lot of new relevant information come in from an excellent new volunteer to have joined our team, Prince | ܒܪ ܡܠܟܐ ܕܒܒܠ, so kudos!
You’ll remember our first dev diary, where we showed an early development version of the Ottoman Empire
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/mod-imperatrix-victoria.1410441/post-26831612.
The political map has changed significantly since its baby form that we showed earlier, with much more detail to the internal borders of the empire and many more provinces added.
We’ve striven to represent in detail the feudal states that existed within the Empire that posed a threat to its cohesion and, both in history and for the player of Imperatrix: Victoria, must be reckoned with by the emperor or pursue their own goals of autonomous rule. Playing as the Ottomans or as one of their ambitious vassal states will prove to be an interesting challenge, with heavy internal diplomatic wrangling right from the early game.
As part of this detail we have so far implemented the major historical figures ruling these countries. First and foremost is of course Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire. You might also notice something different about the UI in this picture...
We will show more new characters below as we go through the nations that they rule.
In the diplomatic mapmode you can see the core territories ruled from Constantinople in green, and those of its vassals in blue.
Imperatrix: Victoria includes a number of new vassal types which have been used, among other places, to reflect the complexities of the Ottoman Empire.
Tributaries - these pay taxes to the Empire but are not bound to join their wars.
These North African states are technically parts of the Empire but are largely undefended by the central government of Constantinople. Their rulers enjoy relative freedom over their domains.
Mahmud Husainid rules the Beylik of Tunis
Feudatories - their allegiance is primarily military and they will support the Empire in wars
- Muntafiq, a tribal state in southern Iraq ruled by its Emir.
Client states - These owe taxes and military support to the Empire.
- Egypt
- Tripoli
- Kuwait
- Massawa - a Red Sea coastal kingdom
Yusuf Karamanli rules the Elayet of Tripoli.
Major governorships - regions of the Empire with appointed local rulers that may have their own laws, these are closely bound to the central state and have very restricted diplomacy
Protectorates - states that are bound to the Ottoman Empire militarily and contribute manpower
- Zeila - another Red Sea coastal kingdom
Nominal vassals - a major part of the Ottoman Empire’s representation in Imperatrix is its inefficient decentralisation: many of the regional governors rule de-facto independently and have carved out their own feudal dominions within the borders of the Empire. Contending with these, and bringing their territories under central control will be a central struggle of the Empire throughout the early and mid game.
This may be done through diplomatic negotiations, economic strong-arming, or even open military conflicts against the Ottoman’s own territories. The Ottoman player will be offered a variety of missions to tackle these relationships in their own way. They may even wish to embrace the decentralisation and try to reform the Empire into a fully feudal state.
Subsidiary allies - Semi-colonial relationships where the dependency is limited in diplomacy and pays taxes to the Empire.
- Harar in Ethiopia
- The Sumatran kingdom of Aceh.
The Ottomans’ most far-flung dependency, Aceh all the way off in Indonesia, had been supported navally by the Ottoman Empire since the 16th century and the kingdom was a base of Ottoman trade in the Far East. This relationship would last until 1873 when the Dutch invasion of Aceh tested the Ottomans’ willingness to support their protectorate; in history, the Empire backed down and did not send its fleet, but this might not always happen in Imperatrix… Perhaps a player could build an Ottoman colonial empire in Indonesia to rival the Europeans.
Pictured: Aceh in the Bottom Right, with a view of the Ottoman Empire
The demographics of the Empire have also been fully modelled in excruciating detail. Here is a population map of the Mediterranean:
We will examine the demographics of the mod in more detail in a future dev diary. As an overview for this region though, here are the demographic pie charts of the Ottoman Empire tag:
The Empire’s pops are mostly Sunni Muslims by a slim majority, but a huge number of other religions exist within its borders and in its vassal states; multicultural metropolises dot the Empire and set it out as a region where rulers will need to contend with the complexities of dozens of interacting cultures.
The Ottoman Empire in 1815 has not gone untouched by the conflicts of the Napoleonic wars, though they mostly occurred in its border territories, including incursions by France and Britain into its vassal state of Egypt, where the previous Mamluk government has been overthrown by its now governor, the Albanian Mehmet Ali Pasha.
Mehmet Ali (or Muhammad Ali) is recognised as the founding father of the now defunct modern Egyptian monarchy, having established himself by the start date as de-facto ruler for life. Mehmet had risen through the ranks of the Ottoman civil service and military, a career which ultimately landed him in Egypt. During the period of chaos that followed the failed French invasion, he was able to secure the support of Egypt’s pre-eminent civil servants to oust the previous governor, Hurshid Pasha, and effectively anoint himself as Wali of Egypt without needing the assent of the Sublime Porte (ie the Ottoman Empire proper).
Now Egypt turns its attention to expanding its territory, and in 1815 is in the middle of a successful campaign against the Wahhabi Emirate of Diriyah in Arabia, bolstering its status as a regional power. It would next turn its eyes to Sudan, which also happens to be the last outpost of the recently collapsed Mamluk government.
Far in the south of Egypt there is an isolated cultural group… do I see something in the far north there, too?
Yes, those are the Magyarabs - Hungarians living in the north of what is today Sudan. Hungarians lived in southern Ottoman Egypt, and their ancestors still today reside in that region. They are thought to have descended from Hungarian soldiers in the Ottoman military settled in Egypt.
Janina
Janina was already mentioned in our first ever developer diary, but now it returns with revised borders to reflect the true historical extent of Ali Pasha’s power. We have also modelled the ambitious Albanian ruler himself.
We’ll hear now from Marschall Vorwärts (krushka5), our developer for, among other things, Janina and Athos, two Ottoman-region minors.
As Janina plays an important part in the early game of the Ottoman Empire, a mission tree which allows it to play an antagonistic role within the region and simulates the late rule of Ali Pasha. When I was designing this mission tree, I planned it around a quote by Ali Pasha, which claimed that "You will see that Ali Pasha, the successor to Pyrrhus will surpass him in every enterprise". This quote (in addition to being a great analogy in contrast with the Vanilla game), outlines the bold ambition but also mirrors the struggle the Janina will have to overcome, much as Epirus fought the powerful Rome, Janina may have to fight the powerful Ottomans and victories are likely to be Pyrrhic.
The mission tree is available if Janina decides to oppose Ottoman central authority, which the AI is weighed to do. I will not go into the tree in full (on this occasion) but will highlight some of the important and interesting components of it.
(Graphics WiP)
One half of the mission tree focuses on preparing Janina for an independence war with the Ottomans.
Two of the central tasks in the early tree involve restoring Venetian and Byzantine era forts. This is to simulate one of the most important historic strategic blunders made by Ali Pasha in advance of his coming conflict with the Ottoman government, when he squandered his superior canonry by diving it among many fortifications, depleting the supply to such a point that antiquated and naval canons had to be repurposed to meet the armies demands. Both missions give a bonus to the garrison in the province, in return for a 5-year debuff which weakens your artillery (the effect stacks).
Following this, the player can confiscate Ottoman grain supply. This action depletes and negatively impacts the food production in some of the Ottoman territory surrounding Janina, whilst adding food supply to Janina. This action will greatly insult the Ottomans, who will get options to dealing with the crisis, ranging from bypassing requirements in one of its mission trees to allow it to declare war on Janina early, place sanctions on them or ignoring the action.
One of the most important missions is ‘Conspire with the Klephts’, which is a diplomatic mission where it approaches the Greek country Mani to negotiates arrangements for a potential joint strike on the Ottomans if war should occur. Mani is the primary Greek country at the mods start, an area that was functionally independent of the Ottomans, who had secured a victory against the Ottomans in 1815 (year mod starts). The results of this mission can vary greatly, with over 10 events that can lead to various outcomes based on failed historical ambitions from various factions at that time. I don’t want to spoil the outcomes but one of my favorites involved hiring a foreign army that Ali Pasha turned down in history.
The second half of the tree focuses on developing Janina’s economy, as well as Ali Pasha’s own property. This part of the mission tree can be used to shift the focus away from completing the tasks on the military side of the mission tree (perhaps while you wait for the debuffs to end). It helps give the player the option to pace how quickly they want to move towards an independence war, do they want it faster or do they want to build up even more strength.
Athos
Athos is an undeniably small and unimportant power within the mod. It is a monastic state and a significant holy site within Orthodox Christianity. We felt it was worth including in the mod due to its autonomy and potential to contribute some unique flair to the gameplay. The main way we aim to do this is through unique mechanics for Athos to contribute (and be contributed from) the broader Orthodox world.
Athos’s government (in the mod) is represented by some of its significant historical monasteries, simplifying them (for gameplay purposes) and having them represent major Orthodox cultures (the groups that mostly practice in them). These monasteries are as follows:
• Hilandar
• Iviron
• St Panteleimon
• Zograf
• Vatopedi
Much like, in history, various monastic communities would grow and decline in prominence, influenced by external factors. As each monastery aligns with a country/culture (e.g. St Panteleimon with Russia), if that monastic community is prominent, the home country can receive small but useful bonuses. These bonuses can influence the happiness of certain pops, ruler popularity or the loyalty of specific offices. Through decisions and events, foreign powers have a limited capacity to influence the prominence of their attached monastery and the internal affairs of Athos, representing patronage. Only the formed cultural union country gains this ability to influence Athonite monastic communities in such a way, for example Mani cannot influence it but a unified Greece can. Athos, in return for this patronage gains its own benefits, ranging from new characters, temporary modifiers and currency injections.
We can see such a country being interesting in theoretical multiplayer campaigns, with an Athos player manipulating diplomacy with other players to their favour.
Below is a teaser of a work in progress mission tree for Athos.
(Graphics WiP)
As Athos is a minor nation and it would make little sense to promote military conquest for a nation without military history (although there is nothing stopping players from engaging in conflict and there might be a planned formable for Athos if they do plan expansive), it focuses on internal development and nudging international affairs in relation to the former system.
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Greece
Last but not least, we have been sure to include a way to play as a tag that can form Greece from the beginning of the game. As Greece did not exist in 1815, we have opted to represent the de-facto independent Moreot Klephts of Maina, AKA Mani, a small federation on the southern tip of the Peloponnese, as a playable tag. This, alongside the separatism and cultural revival being fostered in Janina, is the birthplace of the Greek independence movement.
Mani is led by Petrobey Mavromichalis, a Greek general who led the Maniots in this period, and at this time the preeminent Greek politician leading the multifarious independence movement. Six years from the beginning of the game, Petrobey would be the de facto leader of the Greek military forces of the war of independence that would ultimately succeed in creating a Greek state independent of the Ottomans.
Also among the characters in Mani is Theodoros Kolokotronis, one of the highest ranking generals of the Greek war of independence.
The Greek player will have to play a diplomatic game early on, securing foreign support for its revolutionary efforts and building up the strength of their rebel armies to take down the Ottoman regional government in the Greek heartlands. Starting as a one province minor with the ambition to build a nation state makes for an exciting, but equally daunting prospect for a playthrough! This will give you the opportunity to shape your nation from scratch, including its government, foreign relations and constitution... but expect foreign powers to have no hesitation to influence every element of your state.
The Greek diaspora is spread widely across the Mediterranean and Ottoman territories in this period, including along the Levant, Anatolia, in Italian ports and in North Africa as merchants and slaves. Near the homeland, Greek populations stretch into Albania and parts of Thrace. This reflects our grander approach to development where we have striven to reflect minority pop cultures all over the world, using primary sources where possible.
Not pictured separately here are the Pontic Greek and Tsakonian cultures, which are within the same group but restricted to more localised areas.
Thank you for reading! I look forward to posting our next diaries soon, which will show off all the work we’ve been doing on the mod since you last heard from us.
Our next developer diary will contain a series of updates on regions since our last diaries, and a lot of due credit to contributors!
If you are interested in volunteering or just chatting about our mod, we are always happy to welcome new members to our Discord to talk about history, discuss features for the mod and collaborate on research: https://discord.gg/nbxgkwy
As is tradition, here are two flags to guess at:
Flag 1
Flag 2
List of references (partial):
- The wonderful brains of our many contributors.
- OTTOMAN POPULATION, 1830-1914: Demographic and Social Characteristics, Kemal H. Karpat https://www.academia.edu/27913581/O..._and_Social_Characteristics_By_KEMAL_H_KARPAT
- Ottoman Population Within the Current Borders of Turkey: A New Construction, Seda Basihos https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3250348
- The Ottoman Census System and Population, 1831-1914, Stanford J. Shaw, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Oct., 1978, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Oct., 1978), pp. 325-338
- Kul and getting cooler: The dissolution of elite collective identity and the formation of official nationalism in the ottoman empire, Dror Ze'evi, Mediterranean Historical Review Volume 11, 1996
- Populstat, https://web.archive.org/web/20200121183358/http://populstat.info/
- LATE OTTOMAN POPULATION AND ITS ETHNIC DISTRIBUTION, Servet Mutlu, Turkish Journal of Population Studies, 2003, 25, 3-38