One thing that is always bothering me about Prussia in Europa Universalis IV is how homogeneous it is. Cultural mapmode implies that Teutonic Order was nothing but successful in its assimilation of local population. The truth is, despite over 200 years under Teutonic rule, not all of Pruthenia got germanised... at least not in 1444. Same goes with Pomerelia, which by the start of EU4 has been under the Order for 135 years. Having that in mind, that's how cultural map of Prussia should look, more or less:
This setup introduces two new cultures and brings back another one, which for some reason used to be in Courland, and is completely removed from normal campaign as of now. The cultures are:
Kashubian
This West Slavic culture is still alive and well to this day. As you can see on this map the culture spans through all of Pomerelia and part of what is now Polish Western Pomerania(ruled by Pomerania in EU4). It is the only Pomeranian culture that managed to survive the german colonisation(ostsiedlung): as you can see from most of maps showing Ostsiedlung, the area of Pomerelia was hardly colonised, excluding Gdańsk/Danzig. Although area held by in-game Pomerania was undergoing intensive germanisation, it wouldn't be a stretch to include Kashubians in Stolp or even in Kolberg. Danzig on the other hand was being germanised with all the effort of the Teutonic Order and Thuringian settlers, though at this point its colonisation was taking place in city exclusively, as most of surrounding villages were speaking Kashubian or Polish up until XIX century. If and how spread the culture will be is all up to devs.
Pruthenian
Right now this Baltic culture belongs to the lost cultures group which, among others, includes cultures such as Spartan, Athenian and Babylonian... because Old Prussians had so much in common with Ancient Greeks and Iraqis! Yeah, no, this whole group should be trashed if you ask me, if someone plays Anglo-Saxon country, he wants to be accepted by English and Scotts, doesn't he? Anyways, let's get back on topic.
We are not certain when did this culture die out, but we can be sure that it's been doing not-incredibly-bad until second half of XVI century. According to my Book of Wisdom and All the Knowledge of Teutonic Rule over Prussia by the time of the game start, Pruthenians should still live in Sambia, scarcely inhabited area of Masurian lakes(eastern and central parts of Prussia) and probably area around Neman River(except for the Memel castle, of course). In game, Pruthenians would inhabit Ortelsburg, Osterode and Memel. The most controversial choice would be Königsberg - it held Pruthenian population for the longest time of all the provinces but at the same time there are some pretty valid reasons for keeping it Prussian (explained in one of my later posts). I'd also suggest splitting Suvalkai/Suwałki from Trakai - the new province would consist of all the former Trakai land west of Neman River and would host the Old Prussian culture. Troki would become much smaller but it still would not be the smallest province in the region. Podlasie could be split as well but... no, I don't think it's needed - I'm showing the possible split on the map anyway.
To add a bit of flavour to both the new tags(Pruthenia and... Kashubia, I guess?) and countries occupying their lands in 1444, missions could be added to encourage Pomerania to convert Kashubs and Teutonic Order/Prussia to remove Pruthenians, respectively. Similarly, Pruthenians would get missions to reconquer and culture-revert Prussia. What do you think?
But there is still one culture worth adding...
Mazovian
Even today, Mazovians differ from "regular" Poles - they have their own dialects and traditions; but the most important factor for the game would be that they were the fuel of Polish colonisation of Prussia - people who would later be known as Masurians were, in fact, the descendants of Mazovian settlers. Mazovians would inhabit the entire area of Mazovia (duh!) as well as the province of Kulm which used to belong to the duchy before Konrad of Mazovia "granted it" to the Order. The Polish decision of moving the capital to Warsaw could change the culture of that province to Polish. Oh, and the Mazovian tag wouldn't disappear that quickly which is always good!
That's it! I encourage you all to share your opinion and knowledge about this topic in the thread! Hopefully the changes will be implemented in the future.
Kashubian
This West Slavic culture is still alive and well to this day. As you can see on this map the culture spans through all of Pomerelia and part of what is now Polish Western Pomerania(ruled by Pomerania in EU4). It is the only Pomeranian culture that managed to survive the german colonisation(ostsiedlung): as you can see from most of maps showing Ostsiedlung, the area of Pomerelia was hardly colonised, excluding Gdańsk/Danzig. Although area held by in-game Pomerania was undergoing intensive germanisation, it wouldn't be a stretch to include Kashubians in Stolp or even in Kolberg. Danzig on the other hand was being germanised with all the effort of the Teutonic Order and Thuringian settlers, though at this point its colonisation was taking place in city exclusively, as most of surrounding villages were speaking Kashubian or Polish up until XIX century. If and how spread the culture will be is all up to devs.
Pruthenian
Right now this Baltic culture belongs to the lost cultures group which, among others, includes cultures such as Spartan, Athenian and Babylonian... because Old Prussians had so much in common with Ancient Greeks and Iraqis! Yeah, no, this whole group should be trashed if you ask me, if someone plays Anglo-Saxon country, he wants to be accepted by English and Scotts, doesn't he? Anyways, let's get back on topic.
We are not certain when did this culture die out, but we can be sure that it's been doing not-incredibly-bad until second half of XVI century. According to my Book of Wisdom and All the Knowledge of Teutonic Rule over Prussia by the time of the game start, Pruthenians should still live in Sambia, scarcely inhabited area of Masurian lakes(eastern and central parts of Prussia) and probably area around Neman River(except for the Memel castle, of course). In game, Pruthenians would inhabit Ortelsburg, Osterode and Memel. The most controversial choice would be Königsberg - it held Pruthenian population for the longest time of all the provinces but at the same time there are some pretty valid reasons for keeping it Prussian (explained in one of my later posts). I'd also suggest splitting Suvalkai/Suwałki from Trakai - the new province would consist of all the former Trakai land west of Neman River and would host the Old Prussian culture. Troki would become much smaller but it still would not be the smallest province in the region. Podlasie could be split as well but... no, I don't think it's needed - I'm showing the possible split on the map anyway.
To add a bit of flavour to both the new tags(Pruthenia and... Kashubia, I guess?) and countries occupying their lands in 1444, missions could be added to encourage Pomerania to convert Kashubs and Teutonic Order/Prussia to remove Pruthenians, respectively. Similarly, Pruthenians would get missions to reconquer and culture-revert Prussia. What do you think?
But there is still one culture worth adding...
Mazovian
Even today, Mazovians differ from "regular" Poles - they have their own dialects and traditions; but the most important factor for the game would be that they were the fuel of Polish colonisation of Prussia - people who would later be known as Masurians were, in fact, the descendants of Mazovian settlers. Mazovians would inhabit the entire area of Mazovia (duh!) as well as the province of Kulm which used to belong to the duchy before Konrad of Mazovia "granted it" to the Order. The Polish decision of moving the capital to Warsaw could change the culture of that province to Polish. Oh, and the Mazovian tag wouldn't disappear that quickly which is always good!
That's it! I encourage you all to share your opinion and knowledge about this topic in the thread! Hopefully the changes will be implemented in the future.
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