Dev Diary 12: Scythia and Sardinia (Part 1)
Today we’ll be talking about part 1 of Scythian and Sardinian content coming in the future.
Hello everyone, it's Eleran (OmegaCorps) and Hannibal_theCannibal (traced_169) back again to talk to you all about our next project. Following the good feedback we received from the 'Forgotten Children of Hellas' mission, we took the lessons learned and turned our attention to something a bit more focused and ambitious in scope, namely Scythia and her neighbours.
---Geographic and Game Start Changes---
In its base form, Scythia is an underperforming steppe tribe that is usually destined for either rapid defeat by its neighbours or, at best, relative obscurity. Scythia's lack of presence in the region and general lack of flavour is acutely felt, as any Scythian player will tell you. In addition to this, Scythia's capital is outside it's historical borders at game start and it's close relatives / rivals, the (archaeologically estimated) ‘Sarmatian’ successor tribes, the Iazyges and Roxolani, are absent from the base game - during the 3rd century, migrations stemming from eastern expansion pushed many step groups westwards, across the pontic-caspian steppe, forcing them into the originally 'Royal Scythian realm. To address this, we've undertaken a slight rework of the Taurica and Sarmatia regions of the map to estimate the general zones of habitation and control each tribe would have during this fluid period.
Before:
After:
A few changes should be immediately obvious: Scythia has been split effectively in two between Scythia proper to the west and the new tag, Iazyges, to the east. Scythia's new capital will be on the Dnieper River on the previously uncolonized province of "Ish", which will be renamed to Borysthenia in order to complement the selection of Greek names given to territories in this region. (Though we would have preferred to name the capital city in its original Scythian or even corresponding Greek name, sadly no surviving records are available to us.)
As Scythia's supposed royal residence/capital during and after the long and prosperous reign of king Ateas was a hub of both land and sea trade, we were looking into making the territory port-friendly and the adjacent river a useful trade route. The Iazyges will gain control of the port city of Tanais, which will serve as their capital.
‘Sarmatia’ has been renamed into Roxolania, as this group, along with several others, maintains materially ‘Sarmatian’ qualities but is referred to in recovered texts by a different name, having different rulers and migrating to separate parts of Dacia after the tribe has traversed the Pontic steppe. The Roxolani, and other tags with ‘Sarmatian’ as their primary culture, will have access to a decision to form "Sarmatia" and create the formidable nation which rivaled the Pontic Scythians in their rule of the Don river.
Before:
After:
In addition to the Scythians and Sarmatians, we're making some ‘slight’ changes to the territories north of the Caucasus mountains. A new tag we are inserting around the Volga river is the Aorsi tribe, a large and powerful tribe recorded by the Chinese as well as the Greeks, which has been downsized here to exist in-game but to block off colonial routes of expansion for those players who gravitate towards creating a massive tribal monster stretching across the northern border of the map.
Material evidence of the Siracians exists in a far wider range of the north caucasian land, and their presence seems to have included a much greater influence at game start than they currently maintain, matching the Sarmatians for size and controlling the valuable Kuban valley the Scythians once thrived in. Conversely, while the “Lezgi” people existed, their tribal strength and presence is poorly attested to during this period. What is known is that their group fit a caucasian-continuum style, differing from the steppe-based tribes; we have thus moved the Legian culture into the Caucasian culture group. Siracia will also be enlarged at Legia's expense. Lastly, in order to give the tough, mountain dwelling people of Albania a bit more staying power in the game’s long run, they'll also get a few territories from Legia on the west bank of the Caspian Sea.
This is what it looks like overall:
Before:
After:
Our hope with these changes is to breathe a bit more life into the western steppe region, mimicking the success Invictus has had with Southern Iberia. Speaking of which, we also plan to give many tags in this region new heritages AND some slightly revised levy templates!
---Heritages---
Many of the steppe tribes in the base game are left with standard forest / mountain / pirate / etc. heritages, which tend to make you feel like you’re playing an unappreciated nation. While we are not adding dozens of missions and flavour events to every nation in the northern Black Sea region, we felt that the least we could do to give these nations some love and some amount of variety was to provide them with a fresh heritage that will help them to stand out. Perhaps you want the full Scythian package we plan to provide, and a fresh heritage is simply the cherry on top of massive content sundae. Perhaps you think you’re better than the Scythians, and you just want to toy with them as the Roxolani, outpacing them at every step with your massive movement speed modifiers. Or perhaps you really hate all these steppe groups riding around, and you play as the Maeotians, enjoying the show as those pesky hordes dwindle in size, suffering incredible attrition to the regrettably poor quality land you live on. Whatever your preference, we hope you can better pursue it with a new heritage.
Scythian Heritage
Horse Archer Discipline: +10.00%
Enslavement Efficiency: +10.00%
Unintegrated Culture Group Happiness: -3.00%
The Scythian horse-riders come from a long line of steppe nomads ranging across the steppe-lands from Hungary to Mongolia, but this specific group has been credited with such feats as assisting the sacking of Nineveh, ruling the country of the medes, and halting Persian King Darius’ invasion of Europe. It is no wonder they say the Athenians hired Scythians as a police force.
Iazygian Heritage
State Religion Happiness: +5.00%
Light Cavalry Morale: +10.00%
City Build Cost: +15.00%
Westernmost of the currently classified “Sarmatian” groups, the Iazyges were the first to ride through the old land of the declining Sythians long after the golden age of their King Ateas. Riding on horses shining with armor, wielding the long, two-handed kontos spear, they eventually crossed the Tyras as the Cimmerians had once done and lived in the land of the Dacians, fighting the locals and, soon enough, the invading Roman legions.
Roxolani Heritage
Unit Movement Speed: +20.00%
Global Food Modifier: +10.00%
Fort Maintenance: +10.00%
The second ‘Sarmatian’ group to cross the Dnieper after the Iazyges, the Roxolani were similar to those before them, riding well-armored horses and dominating the plains. After failing to conquer the Bosporans alongside the Scythians in the Crimea they moved on, past the Tyras, and entered Dacia/Moesia, coming into conflict with the natives and their Roman neighbors.
Siracian Heritage
Army Morale: +5.00%
Unintegrated Culture Happiness: +6.00%
Omen Power: -5.00%
Flavour text TBD
Maeotian Heritage
Hostile Attrition: -1.0
National Pop Growth: +0.05%
Pop Assimilation Speed: -5.00%
A diaspora of marsh-dwelling tribes, the Maeotians, collectively referred to after the nearby lake Maeotis (modern sea of Azov). Little is known/recorded about these peoples, but in a conflict with the Bosporan Kingdom and the Sindi, it is written that princess Tirgitao of the Ixomatae led a war against the Sindi and Bosporans due to her mistreatment as the Sindi king Hecetaeus’ wife.
Sindi Heritage
Unintegrated Culture Group Happiness: +6.00%
Light Infantry Discipline: +10.00%
Import Value: -5.00%
Often understood to be the ruling tribe of all the Maeotian tribes, this nation originally situated itself on the side of the Cimmerian Bosporus opposite of Bosporan Pantikapaion before being pushed back by Bosporan invasions and annexations. One of their kings, Hecetaeus, caused a great war, taking advice from the Bosporan archon, Satyros, to imprison his own wife and take a new one.
Aorsi Heritage
Global Commerce Income: +5.00%
War Score Cost: -5.00%
Civic Provincial Investment Cost: +15.00%
Recorded by both eastern (China) and western (Europe/American) sources as a powerful expansionist tribe, they performed a large part in the many series of westward migrations pushing from western central asia. They supposedly originated in central asia, moving west to cause the western 2nd BCE to 200 AD migrations multiple tribes experienced.
Chersonesan Heritage
Mercenary Maintenance Cost: -10.00%
Ship Damage: +5.00%
Cohort Loyalty chance: +10.00%
Chersonesus is a Greek colony, but the lands around it in all directions are Tauri, inhabited by those scythian-like men and women who play piracy upon Greek mercahtns, sailing from Kalos Limen. These are resourceful and unforgiving. people.
---Levy Templates---
Looking at the original setup for levies of the two main cultures in the areas we’ve been altering, the realm of the Scythian and Sarmatian tribes, we felt a redo was in order. Where the raising of a great horde of cavalry is something to look forward to each time the player or AI sets off on the warpath, the original templates for these cultures didn't quite capture that feeling. With the revised levy templates, both cultures will see a significant increase in cavalry and a corresponding reduction in infantry. Now, while open combat with an enemy force on favorable terrain like ‘plains’ or farmland will offer a distinct advantage, sieging or assaulting enemy forts will prove to be much more of a challenge due to the cavalry-heavy composition these nations now possess. Nomadic warfare tactics will force the player to be faster, strategic, and cunning in order to capitalize on your strengths and punish your enemies weaknesses.
Not only will this region feature new borders, tags, heritages, and more historically accurate levy compositions, but we're also expanding the cultural content for these tags as well. New Heptadic deities, Scythian treasures, a new bloodline, and even two possible wonder decisions will add more content and choices to tags playing in this area. While all this extra content is still in development, we have a few deities that we feel comfortable showing off in this dev diary.
---Deities---
The Scythian / Sakan / Steppe groups of the period are recorded as maintaining a similar religious structure to the general Indo-Iranain concept of the major 7 deities, ordered in a system of hierarchy and fundamental importance - Tabiti/Fire at the top to represents heat, fire, and the hearth. The second tier contains Papaeus and Api, equating to the Greek Zeus and Gaia, sky and earth. The third rank contains: Targitaos, Goetosyrus, Argimpasa, and the 'Scythian Ares' (who we will be calling 'Patampasa'). These form the heptad, from which PDX gets the religious title for the goru; Heptadic. However, 7 gods (plus 1 regional god) for an entire religion that spans most of the Asian continent is not nearly enough.
We are using recounted Scythian mythology and Greek assimilations of their stories to add new gods to the game (however, this is very Scythia-centric, just like this whole DD, and we will be looking to see what other kinds of gods we can add in the future).
Patampasa - (Scythian Ares)
[War]
Passive Effect: Horse Archer Offense: +10.00%
Omen Effect: Army Experience Gain: +0.50%
Apotheosis Effect: Convert Pops --> Nobles
He is worshipped by each tribe annually when they burn a great pile of wood topped with a bloodied sword meant as a sign of tribal loyalty and commitment to the cosmological order. He is the god of conflict and ultimate victory, an analog to Iranian Verethragna.
Leipoxais -
[Culture]
Passive Effect: -10% change law change cost
Omen Effect: + global monthly civilization change value
Apotheosis Effect: +Civic Advances
The oldest son of Targitaos, he is one of the three who is unable to touch the golden gifts from the heavens without them bursting into flames, and he is relegated to the lower kingship in the tripartite royal hierarchy. The Scythians recount him as siring the Auchatae tribe. In the Greek version of the myth he is called Agathyrsus, progenitor of the Agathyrsi tribe living to the west of the Royal Scythians on the plains straddling the river Maris.
Arpoxais -
[Economy]
Passive Effect: -1 Slaves per Surplus
Omen Effect: +10% tribesman output
Apotheosis Effect: Free Province Investment
The middle son of Targitaos, he is one of the three who is unable to touch the golden gifts from the heavens without them bursting into flames, and he is relegated to the lower kingship in the tripartite royal hierarchy. The Scythians recount him as siring the Catiari and Traspian tribes. In the Greek version of the myth he is called Gelonus, progenitor of the Geloni tribe (also known as the Heloni) living to the northeast of the Royal Scythians, in the wooded hinterland east of the Borysthenes.
Colaxais -
[Fertility]
Passive Effect: +10% pop capacity
Omen Effect: +15% research points
Apotheosis Effect: +pop growth
The youngest son of Targitaos, he is the only one of the three who is able to touch the golden gifts from the heavens without them bursting into flames, and he is accepted as the high king in the tripartite royal hierarchy. The Scythians recount him as siring the paralatae tribe. In the Greek version of the myth he is called Scythes, progenitor of the Royal Scythians ruling the Pontic Steppe. Though all three groups, Agathyrsi, Geloni, and Royal Scythes, are referred to collectively as Scolotoi, Greek Scythian, they are named for and ruled by the Royal Scythian line above all.
Additionally, here are two syncretic-faith gods which we will be adding that represent the mingling of the nomads and the Hellenic world. These deities will only becoming unlocked by taking decisions to adopt more hellenic features:
Heraklean Targitaos -
[War]
Passive Effect: Morale of Armies +5.00%
Omen Effect: War Score Cost -10.00%
Apotheosis Effect: +Military Experience
A Hellenic interpretation of the god Targitaos, he represents a mixture of cultures. The combined strength of both the Greek and Scythian grandfather of the line of our kings will grant us immeasurable power in war.
Hylaian Drakaina - (shrine to be built in territory called Karkine [Greek Hylaia])
[Fertility]
Passive Effect: Slave Happiness: +10.00%
Omen Effect: Slave Output: +15.00%
Apotheosis Effect: +Slaves
A half-snake half-woman like the other Drakaina from Greek myth, the Hylaian Drakaina serves as a representation of the fertile earth. In an effort to explain the Scythian traditional origin myth from their own perspective, the Greeks used her to convey the idea of the land giving birth to the three great sons of Herakles who would go on to populate the land of Scythia.
---Treasures---
Treasures to commemorate and celebrate those deities and special festivals have been added. Unfortunately, we have scant record due to the lost oral traditions of many of these and we are forced to extrapolate what we can from obscure Greek, Latin, and Chinese passages. So when we look at the origin story of the Scythians, a tale where four holy relics made of pure gold fall from the sky, that to us serves as an inspiration. These 4 golden treasures that fell out of the sky are: plough, yoke, battleaxe, and drinking cup, in order to be used as a test of rulership. Coloaxis, the youngest son, is the only of three able to touch these items without their bursting up into flames, and so he was proclaimed the high king of the three rulers. Perhaps these golden treasures really existed and were lost due to tribal warfare or melted down by heathen Greeks or other non-Heptadics? We can't know for sure but we are comfortable including these treasures as a way to better represent the vibrant cultures of the peoples of the Steppe.
Unfortunately, these treasures are still under development and aren't ready to be shown at this time. Just know that they're on our minds and we hope.to show them off soon!
There are so many things we’d like to show you today, but if you’ve been paying attention, we clearly have a whole MISSION TREE to showcase for our Scythia Part 2, electric boogaloo, so see you soon.
---- Sardinia ----
Tudhaliya and Palando also made a change to another area, which is somewhat unrelated to the aforementioned steppes, but will have an impact on any player in Italy and Carthage. Sardinia now has several new tags and Carthage no longer controls the whole coastline, as archaeological evidence points towards Carthage only extending influence around Olbia and the southern and western coast:
Before:
After:
It would have been possible to add even more tags than that, but we decided against that because of gameplay reasons (each tag would have a fort). Out of the new five tags only Tibulatia is not Nuragic but Corsian. There will be certainly new formables and other content for the tribes of Sardinia but we will come to that in a later dev diary.
