In this mod, we've replaced the vanilla "African paganism" with three new real religions in their own religion group, with new mechanics: Bori in Central Africa, A Tat Roog in West Africa, and Amazigh for Berbers.
So get ready to get possessed by weird spirits, enforce the caste system just to flex on 'em casteless and restore the Carthaginian Empire to its full glory so you can burn the Pope’s house and salt the land.
(I am the one who did the technical modding, so I can answer questions about mechanics and fix bugs, but if you want to know more about the history and the religions you should ask @Atimo3. Also, if you want to help out and can make icons, let me know!)
Bori
The term bori generally refers to a form of animism practiced among the Hausa people, although similar cults have been noted among peoples of the Lake Chad region like the Zaghawa. In short it is a religion centered on possession, in which the faithful directly seek to channel old spirits for their power. Unlike Abrahamic religions who pray to a distant god, to the believers of bori, the spirits are a part of everyday life that can be interacted with directly. The faith is traditionally organized around a hierarchized all-female priestly class with a religious head known as the Inna.
Bori is a fully organized religion with a religious head and autocephaly/pentarchy mechanics (albeit, there are only two “pentarchs”: the religious head, who has jurisdiction over Hausaland and Kanem-Bornu, and a second “pentarch” who has jurisdiction over Kanem), but it still has some paganish mechanics, such as concubines, conversion resistance, and defensive attrition. The clergy is all female, and characters with the religion effectively have all the benefits of the status of women laws at game start, including access to all gender laws (including the enatic ones). Additionally, all 769 Hausaland starts have Enatic succession. Neither kind of gavelkind is available to Bori rulers; instead, Eldership is your default succession law. Kanuri rulers have a special honorary title called Chiroma, which they can give to their intended heir, which will cause Elders to gain 40 points towards them for voting purposes, and Eldership is additionally also available (and default) for Kanuri Muslims, based on the historical succession law of Kanem. In this mod, Elders are also slightly more likely to be Pleased and less likely to be Ecstatic, so hopefully the honorary title should be more useful. There are six patron boris, which work like patron deities. There is a festival in October or later, which involves a parade and a horse race.
There are two important decisions available to Bori rulers: first, an emperor-tier Bori with a good relationship with the (king-tier) religious head can vassalize her, and second is the “Exalt the Inna” decision, which turns the Inna into a Pope-like religious head, gives her more powers, and unlocks Bori Great Holy Wars. (Known issue: the religous head UI will still look like the autocephaly UI after this decision, but there will only be the religious head and she will behave like the Pope.) We are looking at adding more bonuses following this decision in the future. There is a Bori holy order which unlocks when Kano or Djimi fall to non-Africans, when jihads unlock, or at the latest in 1066. Bori have access to county conquest and holy war CBs.
Additionally, we have fixed the history files in the 769 Hausaland starts, and created a new historical bloodline that is present in 769 Kanem. The existing historical bloodline belonging to the Chieftess of Daura in 867 (whose name was corrected to Daurama from Magajiva) has been split into two: one for her husband, Bayajidda, with the PCS, Hausa opinion, and prestige, and one for herself, with church opinion, piety, and access to Enatic-Cognatic succession. Both bloodlines are patrilineal. The result is that a) Bayajidda’s son and heir, whose mother was not Daurama, actually gets his bloodline, and b) both bloodlines survive into later start dates. Bayajidda and Daurama also both have Wikipedia links. There are also new localizations for central African councillors.
West Sahelian
The Western Sahel is home of a wide variety of religious traditions, this faith is meant to work as an umbrella for all these cults, letting the player choose which specific branch they want to focus on. It includes all the common elements of the West Sahelian religions: Fixation on the Sirius star, strict caste system and some weird myths about hermaphrodite jackals.
West Sahelian is a reformable religion in west Africa. It mostly has the qualities of a defensive pagan religion, except that vassals and councillors are not averse to higher levels of tribal organization, and it allows raiding. It uses castes, and A Tat Roog characters have caste opinions similar to Hindu rulers. (Known issue: Hindus will have opinions on A Tat Roog castes and vice versa.) Like Bori, no form of gavelkind is available and Eldership succession is the default. The A Tat Roog reformation doctrine has Eldership, Haruspicy (also with its synergies with Astrology and Bloodthirsty Gods, if either of those are chosen), Polygamy, and the unit modifiers of the Unrelenting doctrine. If you reform the religion without choosing a doctrine that allows Eldership, your succession law will default to Seniority, which is available even as tribal (and you will still have access to the other non-gavelkind successions after feudalizing). There is an A Tat Roog holy order which unlocks when Gao, Timbuktu or Wagadou fall to non-Africans, when jihads are unlocked, or at the latest in 1066. A Tat Roog have access to the county conquest CB, as well as subjugation while unreformed, and holy war after reformation. There are four branches: Serer, Dogon, Malinke, and Sarakole. There is a festival in the summer that involves sacrificing a female character to a snake god - this is mostly associated with Sarakole branch but is available to all West Sahelian characters.
Additionally, we have renamed some of the titles in west Africa, replaced the Kingdom of Mali with the Empire of Mali in the history files, and added two new historical bloodlines for the Keita dynasty (in 769 and 1234), two new bloodlines for the Cisse dynasty (in 769 and 1066) and a new bloodline in Gao in 769. We have removed the Mansa Musa bloodline, since he was not a very notable ruler to the Malians, but if you want to play Mansa Musa, he has both of the new bloodlines, and the Mari-Djata bloodline is very similar to the Mansa Musa bloodline. There are also a number of new characters added to history files related to the first bloodline, and the founder has a Wikipedia link. There are also new localizations for west African councillors.
We have other features planned for A Tat Roog in the future.
Amazigh
Amazigh is the name the Berbers give themselves. It’s a meme religion, but less of a meme religion than Zunbil. While the other religions on this mod were researched from academic text made by anthropologists or at least colonial officers pretending to be anthropologists, the Amazigh religion is a collection of the various and often confusing religious practices that the Berbers had over the centuries. As such it mixes the Phoenician-Numidian faith of old Carthage as recorded by the Roman colonizers, the Medieval practices of the last North African pagan kings as witnessed by the Arab conquerors and the last surviving forms of pure paganism as seen by the Spaniards in their conquest of the Canaries.
Amazigh is a reformable Berber religion that works very similarly to an offensive pagan religion. They are somewhat feminist - there is no female ruler/heir penalty, and women can hold council positions and be commanders, but they do not get access to all gender laws. Their succession laws work like pagan succession laws - they start out in agnatic elective gavelkind and gain more succession laws after they reform and feudalize. Their reformation doctrine has prepared invasions, seafaring, and Bloodthirsty Gods mechanics. (Known issue: you can’t read the description of the reformation doctrine from the list of doctrines, but if you select the doctrine and hover the mouse over it, you can read it.) There is an Amazigh holy order that unlocks shortly after the game begins, regardless of the date. Amazigh have access to the county conquest CB, as well as subjugation before reformation and holy war afterwards. There are five patron deities. There is a festival in Ausgust similar to a summer fair.
If you are reformed Amazigh and have the Empire of Maghreb as your primary title, you can reform the Carthaginian Empire by completely controlling the duchies of Tunis, Tripolitania, Tangiers, and Sous. This gives you a bloodline and a trait, similar to the bloodline and the Augustus trait you get from reforming Rome. Reforming Carthage also gives you access to two new CBs: Imperial Reconquest, which works like the Roman one, except it targets the kingdoms of Maghreb, Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, Valencia, Badajoz, and Andalusia and works versus Muslims. After exhausting this CB and completely controlling all of those kingdoms, you will get an SPQR-like event congratulating you. The second CB is a CB that you can use to invade whoever controls Rome and/or Constantinople, and salt the city afterwards, destroying most of the holdings and buildings there and damaging your opponent’s moral authority. It appears as “Salt <county>” in the declare war UI. It is an invasion CB, so although you are only guaranteed to take the target city (Rome or Constantinople) you also usurp every county you have sieged one holding in. The CB costs 1000 piety to use, and can only be used successfully for each city once per game. The emperor of any Roman successor states (the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the HRE, or the Latin Empire) will also be able to use this CB to target the current capital of Carthage (but only once successfully). Winning a war to salt a county also allows you to loot 2000 gold from the county you destroy.
Features of all three religions
The following features are common to all three religions:
Right now I consider the mod to be in an alpha stage, because there are many things still planned for the future, and I plan to continue to work on the mod daily. Here are the things I definitely plan to add, in more or less priority order:
Due to the way the Paradox code for a lot of the things I modified here is basically all over the place, I suspect this will not be compatible with most other religion mods (unless they for example only modify localization) and is definitely not compatible with anything that changes the map or the history files in Africa. I’d be willing to help someone else make a compatible version for other mods, but I will focus on this version.
Technically, you do not need any DLC to play this mod, but it is highly recommended that you have Holy Fury, since without it you won’t get Eldership or the reformation doctrines. This is also definitely not compatible with playing the game in an alternate start with random religions, and alternate starts in general have not been tested with it and are likely to have problems.
Known Compatible Mods (to be updated)
Because there are relatively few Amazigh starts, I am listing them all here, to help you find them.
Religion map 769
769 Amazigh starts
High Chief of Fezzan
High Chief of Adrar
High Chief of Air
Chief of Tinmallal
Chief of Sous
Chief of Anfa
Chief of Taghaza
Chief of Araouane
Chief of Canarias
Chief of Warzazat
Religion map 867
867 Amazigh starts
High Chief of Fezzan
High Chief of Adrar
High Chief of Air
Chief of Sous
Chief of Taghaza
Chief of Canarias
Religion map 936
936 Amazigh starts
High Chief of Fezzan
High Chief of Adrar
High Chief of Air
Chief of Ifni
Chief of Taghaza
Chief of Canarias
Religion map 1066
1066 Amazigh starts
High Chief of Fezzan
Sheikh of Canarias (feudal)
Chief of Tagant
In addition to the starts, there are some counties in North Africa and along the Red Sea that have Amazigh religion, which you could use to secretly convert to Amazigh.
[A Tat Roog caste icon credits: Foro Jakhanke Wangara]
So get ready to get possessed by weird spirits, enforce the caste system just to flex on 'em casteless and restore the Carthaginian Empire to its full glory so you can burn the Pope’s house and salt the land.
(I am the one who did the technical modding, so I can answer questions about mechanics and fix bugs, but if you want to know more about the history and the religions you should ask @Atimo3. Also, if you want to help out and can make icons, let me know!)
Bori
The term bori generally refers to a form of animism practiced among the Hausa people, although similar cults have been noted among peoples of the Lake Chad region like the Zaghawa. In short it is a religion centered on possession, in which the faithful directly seek to channel old spirits for their power. Unlike Abrahamic religions who pray to a distant god, to the believers of bori, the spirits are a part of everyday life that can be interacted with directly. The faith is traditionally organized around a hierarchized all-female priestly class with a religious head known as the Inna.
Bori is a fully organized religion with a religious head and autocephaly/pentarchy mechanics (albeit, there are only two “pentarchs”: the religious head, who has jurisdiction over Hausaland and Kanem-Bornu, and a second “pentarch” who has jurisdiction over Kanem), but it still has some paganish mechanics, such as concubines, conversion resistance, and defensive attrition. The clergy is all female, and characters with the religion effectively have all the benefits of the status of women laws at game start, including access to all gender laws (including the enatic ones). Additionally, all 769 Hausaland starts have Enatic succession. Neither kind of gavelkind is available to Bori rulers; instead, Eldership is your default succession law. Kanuri rulers have a special honorary title called Chiroma, which they can give to their intended heir, which will cause Elders to gain 40 points towards them for voting purposes, and Eldership is additionally also available (and default) for Kanuri Muslims, based on the historical succession law of Kanem. In this mod, Elders are also slightly more likely to be Pleased and less likely to be Ecstatic, so hopefully the honorary title should be more useful. There are six patron boris, which work like patron deities. There is a festival in October or later, which involves a parade and a horse race.
There are two important decisions available to Bori rulers: first, an emperor-tier Bori with a good relationship with the (king-tier) religious head can vassalize her, and second is the “Exalt the Inna” decision, which turns the Inna into a Pope-like religious head, gives her more powers, and unlocks Bori Great Holy Wars. (Known issue: the religous head UI will still look like the autocephaly UI after this decision, but there will only be the religious head and she will behave like the Pope.) We are looking at adding more bonuses following this decision in the future. There is a Bori holy order which unlocks when Kano or Djimi fall to non-Africans, when jihads unlock, or at the latest in 1066. Bori have access to county conquest and holy war CBs.
Additionally, we have fixed the history files in the 769 Hausaland starts, and created a new historical bloodline that is present in 769 Kanem. The existing historical bloodline belonging to the Chieftess of Daura in 867 (whose name was corrected to Daurama from Magajiva) has been split into two: one for her husband, Bayajidda, with the PCS, Hausa opinion, and prestige, and one for herself, with church opinion, piety, and access to Enatic-Cognatic succession. Both bloodlines are patrilineal. The result is that a) Bayajidda’s son and heir, whose mother was not Daurama, actually gets his bloodline, and b) both bloodlines survive into later start dates. Bayajidda and Daurama also both have Wikipedia links. There are also new localizations for central African councillors.
West Sahelian
The Western Sahel is home of a wide variety of religious traditions, this faith is meant to work as an umbrella for all these cults, letting the player choose which specific branch they want to focus on. It includes all the common elements of the West Sahelian religions: Fixation on the Sirius star, strict caste system and some weird myths about hermaphrodite jackals.
West Sahelian is a reformable religion in west Africa. It mostly has the qualities of a defensive pagan religion, except that vassals and councillors are not averse to higher levels of tribal organization, and it allows raiding. It uses castes, and A Tat Roog characters have caste opinions similar to Hindu rulers. (Known issue: Hindus will have opinions on A Tat Roog castes and vice versa.) Like Bori, no form of gavelkind is available and Eldership succession is the default. The A Tat Roog reformation doctrine has Eldership, Haruspicy (also with its synergies with Astrology and Bloodthirsty Gods, if either of those are chosen), Polygamy, and the unit modifiers of the Unrelenting doctrine. If you reform the religion without choosing a doctrine that allows Eldership, your succession law will default to Seniority, which is available even as tribal (and you will still have access to the other non-gavelkind successions after feudalizing). There is an A Tat Roog holy order which unlocks when Gao, Timbuktu or Wagadou fall to non-Africans, when jihads are unlocked, or at the latest in 1066. A Tat Roog have access to the county conquest CB, as well as subjugation while unreformed, and holy war after reformation. There are four branches: Serer, Dogon, Malinke, and Sarakole. There is a festival in the summer that involves sacrificing a female character to a snake god - this is mostly associated with Sarakole branch but is available to all West Sahelian characters.
Additionally, we have renamed some of the titles in west Africa, replaced the Kingdom of Mali with the Empire of Mali in the history files, and added two new historical bloodlines for the Keita dynasty (in 769 and 1234), two new bloodlines for the Cisse dynasty (in 769 and 1066) and a new bloodline in Gao in 769. We have removed the Mansa Musa bloodline, since he was not a very notable ruler to the Malians, but if you want to play Mansa Musa, he has both of the new bloodlines, and the Mari-Djata bloodline is very similar to the Mansa Musa bloodline. There are also a number of new characters added to history files related to the first bloodline, and the founder has a Wikipedia link. There are also new localizations for west African councillors.
We have other features planned for A Tat Roog in the future.
Amazigh
Amazigh is the name the Berbers give themselves. It’s a meme religion, but less of a meme religion than Zunbil. While the other religions on this mod were researched from academic text made by anthropologists or at least colonial officers pretending to be anthropologists, the Amazigh religion is a collection of the various and often confusing religious practices that the Berbers had over the centuries. As such it mixes the Phoenician-Numidian faith of old Carthage as recorded by the Roman colonizers, the Medieval practices of the last North African pagan kings as witnessed by the Arab conquerors and the last surviving forms of pure paganism as seen by the Spaniards in their conquest of the Canaries.
Amazigh is a reformable Berber religion that works very similarly to an offensive pagan religion. They are somewhat feminist - there is no female ruler/heir penalty, and women can hold council positions and be commanders, but they do not get access to all gender laws. Their succession laws work like pagan succession laws - they start out in agnatic elective gavelkind and gain more succession laws after they reform and feudalize. Their reformation doctrine has prepared invasions, seafaring, and Bloodthirsty Gods mechanics. (Known issue: you can’t read the description of the reformation doctrine from the list of doctrines, but if you select the doctrine and hover the mouse over it, you can read it.) There is an Amazigh holy order that unlocks shortly after the game begins, regardless of the date. Amazigh have access to the county conquest CB, as well as subjugation before reformation and holy war afterwards. There are five patron deities. There is a festival in Ausgust similar to a summer fair.
If you are reformed Amazigh and have the Empire of Maghreb as your primary title, you can reform the Carthaginian Empire by completely controlling the duchies of Tunis, Tripolitania, Tangiers, and Sous. This gives you a bloodline and a trait, similar to the bloodline and the Augustus trait you get from reforming Rome. Reforming Carthage also gives you access to two new CBs: Imperial Reconquest, which works like the Roman one, except it targets the kingdoms of Maghreb, Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, Valencia, Badajoz, and Andalusia and works versus Muslims. After exhausting this CB and completely controlling all of those kingdoms, you will get an SPQR-like event congratulating you. The second CB is a CB that you can use to invade whoever controls Rome and/or Constantinople, and salt the city afterwards, destroying most of the holdings and buildings there and damaging your opponent’s moral authority. It appears as “Salt <county>” in the declare war UI. It is an invasion CB, so although you are only guaranteed to take the target city (Rome or Constantinople) you also usurp every county you have sieged one holding in. The CB costs 1000 piety to use, and can only be used successfully for each city once per game. The emperor of any Roman successor states (the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the HRE, or the Latin Empire) will also be able to use this CB to target the current capital of Carthage (but only once successfully). Winning a war to salt a county also allows you to loot 2000 gold from the county you destroy.
Features of all three religions
The following features are common to all three religions:
- Intermarriage with all other African religions and with Muslims (although A Tat Roog will have trouble with intermarriage due to castes)
- GHWs - after either A Tat Roog or Amazigh has been reformed, or a Bori has used the “Exalt the Inna” decision, an event can fire to unlock GHWs for all African religions that have reformed/exalted the Inna, similar to the event for pagans. The only other requirement for the event is that Jihads must be unlocked. The event has a MTTH of ten years. There are also crusader traits for all three religions.
- Worship the ancestors decision is available for all religions
- Each religion has a secret society and access to the vanilla African warrior lodge
Right now I consider the mod to be in an alpha stage, because there are many things still planned for the future, and I plan to continue to work on the mod daily. Here are the things I definitely plan to add, in more or less priority order:
- Branches for West Sahelian [DONE]
- Patron deities for Bori and Amazigh [DONE]
- Festivals for all three religions [DONE]
- Pilgrimage event chain for West Sahelian
- Spirit possession decision for Bori
- Wrestling tournament for Bori and West Sahelian
- Adaptation and relocalization of rite of passage events for all three religions
- Event chain for Bori in the 769 start mimicking Bayajidda’s arrival in Hausaland and the conversion to male succession
- Miscellaneous flavor events
- Adaptation of certain rare vanilla events
- Great pillar building for tribals
- Crown artifacts for temporal religious heads
- Devil worshipper societies
- Komo society for Bori
Due to the way the Paradox code for a lot of the things I modified here is basically all over the place, I suspect this will not be compatible with most other religion mods (unless they for example only modify localization) and is definitely not compatible with anything that changes the map or the history files in Africa. I’d be willing to help someone else make a compatible version for other mods, but I will focus on this version.
Technically, you do not need any DLC to play this mod, but it is highly recommended that you have Holy Fury, since without it you won’t get Eldership or the reformation doctrines. This is also definitely not compatible with playing the game in an alternate start with random religions, and alternate starts in general have not been tested with it and are likely to have problems.
Known Compatible Mods (to be updated)
- My Bloodline Inheritance Fixes Mod (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1625231466)
- Pagan Flavor mod (https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/mod-pagan-flavor.1196086/) (Our religions will override that mod’s implementation of A Tat Roog)
- The Ancestor Veneration Fixed mod on Steam that unlocks ancestor veneration bloodlines in more cases is not needed, since its changes are included in this one with the permission of the other modder.
- Patch for compatibility with Ancient Religions Reborn: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...thaginian-empire.1201989/page-5#post-25738933 (note: this was not made by me and I am not supporting it, if you encounter problems you should bring them to Omen_Kaiser)
- Patch for compatibility with Dido's Legacy: https://github.com/faiuwle/CK2CarthageCompatibilityPatch (This one is maintained by me)
Because there are relatively few Amazigh starts, I am listing them all here, to help you find them.
Religion map 769
769 Amazigh starts
High Chief of Fezzan
High Chief of Adrar
High Chief of Air
Chief of Tinmallal
Chief of Sous
Chief of Anfa
Chief of Taghaza
Chief of Araouane
Chief of Canarias
Chief of Warzazat
Religion map 867
867 Amazigh starts
High Chief of Fezzan
High Chief of Adrar
High Chief of Air
Chief of Sous
Chief of Taghaza
Chief of Canarias
Religion map 936
936 Amazigh starts
High Chief of Fezzan
High Chief of Adrar
High Chief of Air
Chief of Ifni
Chief of Taghaza
Chief of Canarias
Religion map 1066
1066 Amazigh starts
High Chief of Fezzan
Sheikh of Canarias (feudal)
Chief of Tagant
In addition to the starts, there are some counties in North Africa and along the Red Sea that have Amazigh religion, which you could use to secretly convert to Amazigh.
[A Tat Roog caste icon credits: Foro Jakhanke Wangara]
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