[Minimod] Latin Empire Redux

[iron0037]

LATIN EMPIRE REDUX

This minimod makes adjustments to the game's setup following the Fourth Crusade. Most notably, the titular Latin Empire has been removed. Instead, the Latin Empire is a localisation of the Byzantine Empire. This is in keeping with the western perspective that they held the Imperium Romaniae.

Initially, the Empire of Nicaea was but one of many Byzantine rump states vying for control of Constantinople. This mod gives a kingdom with de jure claims to western Anatolia. As with a number of other contenders, Theodore Laskaris has a claim to the Byzantine throne. This gives them two generations to press their claim before it disappears. If the Latin Empire can hold on that long, it will be in a firm position to retain the title and expand.

Other changes include some law changes to various kingdoms, including Cyprus and Jerusalem. The Latin Empire now starts at war with Thessalonica and the former Byzantine Emperor Alexios III. All of this makes for a more interesting 1204 bookmark.

Full changes:

Spoiler

Latin Empire is now a localised form of Byzantine Empire
Empire of Nicaea is now k_nicaea instead of e_byzantium
Alexios V is in Alexios III's court
Alexios V has weak claim on Byzantine Empire
Alexios III has strong claim to Byzantine Empire
Duchy of Paphylogia isn't under Trebizond anymore
Kaloyan of Bulgaria has weak claim on Byzantine Empire
Kingdoms of Armenia, Cyprus, and Jerusalem have primogeniture succession
Centralization and crown authority of Byzantine Empire reduced after 1261
Fixed bug where Doux of Aegean Islands was landless after August 1204
Fixed vassalage of Naxos such that it answers to Achaia until 1280 then goes independent
Scripted a war for Thessalonica at 1204 start

This is the first mod I'm not going to post a direct download for. Instead, I've uploaded it to Steam. You can subscribe at the link below. If you have strong opinions against this, let me know. Perhaps I'll change my mind!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=496178325

 

[keynes2.0]

Good idea, efficient excecution. But did you mean to make this mod require the dejure tweaks mod?

 

[iron0037]

Good idea, efficient excecution. But did you mean to make this mod require the dejure tweaks mod?

Yes, it requires De Jure Tweaks. It's necessary to give Nicaea a de jure kingdom. I mean it's possible to make the kingdom titular or define the kingdom through province history scripting, but I like to play with DJT, so the two are merged .

 

[SBolshevik]

How did you make it so that the LE is actually the BE? Via an event?

 

[keynes2.0]

Titles can have different localizations for cultures/religions.

 

[SBolshevik]

Titles can have different localizations for cultures/religions.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't work for religions, it could though, I haven't checked in a long time.

 

[iron0037]

How did you make it so that the LE is actually the BE? Via an event?

I just moved the Latin Empire title history into the e_byzantium.txt. It's displayed on map as "Latin Empire" because the holder is Dutch. Any emperor who is culturally Dutch, French, English, German, or Italian receives that localisation.

I moved the corresponding emperors of Nicaea to a new k_nicaea.txt. This is a new de jure kingdom in the western half of Anatolia. This probably messes up the regnals for Byzantine emperors after Nicaea reconquers Constantinople. I'll look into the insert_title_history command to see if I can rectify the situation.

 

[SBolshevik]

I honestly think it might be better to use two events, because if you're Orthodox, it really makes no sense for it to be the Latin Empire, even if you are Dutch or English or French, and then, say, Catholic Russians and Poles don't get that name. The downside is that it could be clunky, but also that a Greek Catholic would start calling himself the Latin Emperor.

 

[iron0037]

Titles can have different localizations for cultures/religions.

Yes, that's exactly what I used to make the Byzantine Empire display as "Latin Empire." And that's really what the title is, a historian's title after that to denote that the Byzantine Empire was held by interlopers. The Latin's crowned themselves emperors and had some claim to the honor since they held the capital. So setting up the game as such makes sense. Making Nicaea the empire is weird and only makes sense knowing the ultimate outcome of the situation. In 1204, it was not at all apparent that they would reclaim Constantinople

In any event, back to the DJT matter. The changes this mod makes are pretty tightly intertwined with the other mod. I need to add the Latin Empire localisation to e_byzantium, which means in need to alter landed_titles.txt. I'm not all that interested in maintaining two altered landed_titles files. Even if I did, what would you do with Nicaea? Would you give them k_anatolia? That's a pretty large de jure realm that would give them rights to Trebizond. I prefer to keep their legal claims to a smaller area.

PS: SBolshevik is right. To the best of my knowledge, you can't alter a title based on the religion of the holder.

 

[iron0037]

I honestly think it might be better to use two events, because if you're Orthodox, it really makes no sense for it to be the Latin Empire, even if you are Dutch or English or French, and then, say, Catholic Russians and Poles don't get that name. The downside is that it could be clunky, but also that a Greek Catholic would start calling himself the Latin Emperor.

Yea, I've not yet come up with an elegant solution that covers all possibilities. I could create a decision that is available if you hold the imperial title. Taking it would switch the title's name to the "correct" name for the character's religion (sort of like how the k_leon decision works). But that could create even more regnal ridiculousness. So I've opted to avoid all that and am banking on the premise that the vast majority of culturally western emperors will be Catholic. I'm willing to ignore the case where a western emperor is Orthodox.

 

[omega20056]

Nicaea and Trebizond should be empires, and Epirus should be a kingdom. Later on, Epirus should also hold the Empire of Thessalonika.

 

[SBolshevik]

Nicaea and Trebizond should be empires, and Epirus should be a kingdom. Later on, Epirus should also hold the Empire of Thessalonika.

While they were technically empires, they are quite small. By that logic you ought to give the Bulgarians an empire as well.

 

[iron0037]

Nicaea and Trebizond should be empires, and Epirus should be a kingdom. Later on, Epirus should also hold the Empire of Thessalonika.

Yea, totally don't agree with that. Professing to be an empire does not make you a CK2 empire. It's gracious to give Trebizond a kingdom title. They're really more of the scale of an independent duchy.

 

[omega20056]

While they were technically empires, they are quite small. By that logic you ought to give the Bulgarians an empire as well.

You're right, Bulgaria was also legally an empire.

 

[SBolshevik]

You're right, Bulgaria was also legally an empire.

I'm not really in support of it, though, while Bulgaria was IRL an empire, its power is not really that of an empire ingame. Same with Serbia, although that one's even weaker.

 

[omega20056]

Yea, totally don't agree with that. Professing to be an empire does not make you a CK2 empire. It's gracious to give Trebizond a kingdom title. They're really more of the scale of an independent duchy.

Alexius I was Emperor of Trebizond and Theodore Komenos Doukas crowned himself Roman Emperor in Thessalonika.

 

[omega20056]

I'm not really in support of it, though, while Bulgaria was IRL an empire, its power is not really that of an empire ingame. Same with Serbia, although that one's even weaker.

That's Parardox's fault for terribly balancing the game's powers. With some defines modding (Name, reversing the levy numbers nerf), Bulgaria can can raise 20,000 men, Byzantium around the same (Including the Varangian Guard), Trebizond 10,000, Epirus 8,000, and Thessalonika 15,000. That was only the Fourth Crusade scenario, the numbers obviously grow depending on the era.

 

[Zarathustra_the]

To be honest, I am not so sold on the idea of Emperors in this game. The issue truly comes from uniting the vassal system with the title system. For instance, nominally in a legal sense, the Holy Roman Emperor claimed superiority over all Christian Kings. Henry VIII with the English Reformation claimed for himself Imperium by virtue of God. Emperor was by this point in history merely a courtesy title when actual ranks would probably be far closer to Kings. There was after the fall of the Western Empire no Emperors in Western Europe in a sense that is recognizable. Likewise after the collapse of the Byzantines, no power in the east was worthy of the title either.

 

[iron0037]

It seems as though I've struck a nerve with the Monotheism Rising crew. All I can say is that it sounds like this mod isn't for you. If you want everyone who gave themselves the title "emperor" to be an empire in the game, then you should look elsewhere. LER has one imperial title in the region; the excitement is to see who winds up with it.

 

[SBolshevik]

Kaloyan having a claim is quite nice. Too bad that he'd likely go on to stomp his ally, Stefan, after getting the title. >.<
Oh well, there's not much that we can do about that.