[MOD] Pharaohs & Consuls

[olupien]

Salve Citizens,

I am attempting to provide a central location for Pharaohs & Consuls development progress, so I will be using this post as well as an associated discord channel (listed below) as the communication methods for mod progress from now on. I will be updating the old moddb page soon with the relevant information as well. I'm not sure how or if I am able to have a Mod sub-forum for Pharaohs & Consuls but I am currently enquiring about it and will update here once I have figured that out.

To those who have followed Pharaohs & Consuls development over the past few years, and provided feedback from the early alpha, I thank you.

Development has been slow over the last few years as I am a one-man team, and although I have had several contributors for some historical data and cultural titles/name-lists, it is difficult for me to coordinate a team as well as work on the mod itself.

That being said, the last few months have seen a huge amount of work done on the mod, including a complete map overhaul, graphics reworks on many portrait sets, titles and region reworks, general improvements and almost the full completion of the 1st playable bookmark, as well as huge progress on the remaining bookmarks, and also minor bookmarks as well.

A complete UI overhaul is almost finished, there are still several parts which require work as well as religion/culturally based UI additions for flavour (such as Egyptian, Persian, Barbarian etc) as the base UI model right now is developed along a Hellenic/Roman flavour...the additional cultures flavour will be added in time.


There are still many features which I have not yet implemented but are planned. Currently there are only a handful of societies which are properly integrated into their respective faiths and the time-period. Secret-Faith societies have yet to be properly implemented, in addition there is a large amount of localization which is yet to be done.

Several Government Models have been partially implemented which include a Mesopotamian/Persian model, a partial tribal-monarchy, and a roman republic/Imperial system, these are still WIP and prone to change, with possible future models being added as required.

Much of Britain, Scandinavia, India, Eastern Europe, West Africa (Ghana/Mali) have had little work done so far as historical information is sparse. Much of what is present is fictional characters ruling over a historical tribal/ethnic kingdom which is mentioned in a historical text at some point....but become more fleshed out in later bookmarks as more information is available.

I chose the year 653 BC as it was quite a “Pivotal” year according to the research I’ve done. Pharaoh Psamtek had just finished pushing the last Nubian and Kushite allied elements from upper Egypt and consolidated his rule over the twin lands as a puppet pharaoh under Assyrian influence. Cimmerian and Scythians are a growing threat to the Medes, Assyrians, and especially the Lydian Kingdom. Elam has just finished another war with Assyria and is at a critical point which will soon see the Kingdom disintegrate or become a vassal to either the Assyrians or Medes.

The mod has been developed and tested with ALL of the major DLC and the latest patches. It was an early design choice and has been adhered to throughout development, my apologies to those who prefer being able to play without major DLC. It might run while missing certain DLCs, I can’t say as I haven’t tested this functionality. (Cosmetic/Unit pack DLC being present or not shouldn’t cause any issues) The mod will not work on earlier versions of the game or versions of the game without all major DLC/Expansions.

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I will be using this Thread to post Dev Diaries and showcase work being done, as well as post Alpha Builds as they are completed. More to come here....

I am creating a Discord server to try and coordinate feedback on features and work as I develop it, it's a new experience for me but might help in getting positive feedback and allow me to showcase more work.

Link: Will be provided soon





Current Internal Build is running on CKII 3.2.1.0 (AZCE)



I have maintained a record of my permissions for asset use from the paradox forums, PM's, and steam conversations, if there are any discrepancies or issues, please let me know and I will adjust accordingly, if I have overlooked a contribution or forget to list it here please let me know so I can rectify that asap.

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Contributions and Thanks:

This Project should be understood to be the combined work of many different contributors from many different CKII, EUIV, and total war mod teams.
I myself cannot draw almost at all, so a huge amount if not all of, the art assets come from a variety of sources and generous contributors.

The UI work has been inspired and modeled after the amazing work of Arko's UI overhaul and also the 'Marble look' of Imperator Rome.

I have been inspired by many different script/event mods and designed certain elements of the gameplay after them, some code has been integrated where possible when permitted by the original coder/creator.

All of the music and sounds come from a variety of sources, I didn't create any of them and they are mostly used for ambiance and immersion in this recreational project.



Put into Spoiler format as the List is quite long, please take a look:

Spoiler: Credits & Contributors

Thanks especially to Galle (Paradox Forums) for a ton of advice and his amazing assistance in the modding process.

Thanks to UMCenturion and Causeless of the Ancient Empires Total War mod for their UI asset usage; the majority of the ingame UI design is developed from his work.

Special thanks to Witcher (Paradox Forums) for historical advice and guidance.

Thanks to Kryo (steam) for the integration of his transparent map mod +borders and his amazing embossed font mod.

Thanks to Diadochi Kings mod team for usage of all assets etc

Thanks to AGOT mod team for the use of several art assets and code examples with integration of ambitions and traits.

Thanks to Illathid and the Geheimnisnacht mod team for several coding examples, general inspirations and hopefully more integration of several gameplay/ui assets in the future.

Thanks to the Magnate lords (apg?) for the concept and idea, I built my own WIP resource system using his as inspiration, also used a few gfx province pics (temporary placeholders as the system is still being integrated fully in the game -> will mostly be a reduced version of Magnate lords itself.

Thanks to Lord of Pain for his LTM Terrain and Map tweaks made to it to represent a different visual approach to the world map for the setting of Antiquity.
and
-Special thanks to In Heaven(steam) for his IN Heavens map graphical overhaul which I've integrated elements of, especially the water effect.

-Special thanks to Korbah and the Elder Kings mod team for some asset usage.

Thanks to DaMonkey (Steam username) for potential usage of his “Send Courtier” mod.

Special Thanks to my playtesting mates and contributing Devs, and anyone else who may have slipped my mind at the moment.

Special thanks to DerGroseKA and other members of the Imperium Universalis mod for the usage of a few UI and flag artwork.

-Special thanks to Solo(steam) for his Patrum Scuta work

-Special thanks to Causeless & UMC Centurion for their UI work and other assets from the Ancient Empires total war mod.

-Special thanks to EthicallyChallenged of Deviantart, and many more for the loadingscreen art used, all of that work is the property of it's respective owners and I have simply used it to showcase Art set in Antiquity versus the regular CKII loading screens.

The mod is in an ALPHA state and is still heavily in development.


>Thanks for following the mod's development so far and for your input and contributions.

 

[Silva]

Praise Inanna!

A quick question if you don't mind. During this period, under the reign of Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian worship of Ishtar eclipsed the worship of the national god Ashur in importance. Given the start date 653 B.C. is into the second decade of Ashurbanipal's historic reign, will we get a decision to make that change in religious priorities official and possibly shift the religion's High God from Ashur to Ishtar?

Also, will there be any mechanics to represent the Mesopotamian tradition of the divine election (i.e. royal inheritance largely being determined or at least heavily influenced by the reading of omens and oracular activities to determine the will of the gods on who would be the next king)?

 

[Chef Boyardee]

Can't wait, keep it up, Olupien.

 

[olupien]

Praise Inanna!

A quick question if you don't mind. During this period, under the reign of Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian worship of Ishtar eclipsed the worship of the national god Ashur in importance. Given the start date 653 B.C. is into the second decade of Ashurbanipal's historic reign, will we get a decision to make that change in religious priorities official and possibly shift the religion's High God from Ashur to Ishtar?

Also, will there be any mechanics to represent the Mesopotamian tradition of the divine election (i.e. royal inheritance largely being determined or at least heavily influenced by the reading of omens and oracular activities to determine the will of the gods on who would be the next king)?

Thanks Silva, I wasn't aware of that but I'll definitely consider adding that, the mechanics regarding mutazilite vs. ashari as "schools" within islam would be the most basic way to approach this, via making a choice between Ashur & Ishtar within the Assyrian religious tradition. I have localized the assyrian faith ingame as "ashurism" but I'm open to correction on a more appropriate name as I couldn't find one at the time of my research.

As for the Mesopotamian tradition of divine election, I have a basic Mesopotamian government system set up which is similar but more centralized than, the vanilla Feudal monarchy government, I'm open to suggestions but so far I'm not sure how a random or reading of omens could be represented in-game to choose a successor....both Ashurbanipal and his successor son, Aššur-etel-ilāni, seem to have gained the throne after brief struggles within the royal family for the succession?

 

[Darkgamma]

Nice job on the sig

 

[olupien]

Thanks DarkGamma

 

[olupien]

will we get a decision to make that change in religious priorities official and possibly shift the religion's High God from Ashur to Ishtar?

I put together a few decisions quickly and their associated traits, which "oppose" each other, but in terms of an official god I'm not sure short of making the faith 'reformable' etc you can change the actual head deity...unless I'm mistaken and a few localisation or flavour changes can be made to a religion through events/triggers? perhaps I could emulate the iconoclast heresy system from vanilla and represent Ishtar vs. Ashur as a heresy of 'Ashurism'?

Quick Shots of Trait-based Devotees:

the decisions lead to either gainable trait:

or

Also, Aššurbanipal was apparently Multilingual and Literate (both traits are represented here) as he was schooled in Aramean, Akkadian, and Sumerian if I remember correctly... His family including parents and all of his siblings and children I can find in the historical records are also present at the 1st Bookmark.
(The most in-depth family I've done so far is the Achaemenids...and a few of their associated dynasties like the Pharnacids... I believe the Achaemenids might have 85+ chars alone in their family tree at the moment)

 

[Darkgamma]

I've been toying with the idea of a Multilingual trait as well. For example, have you perhaps considered giving it a small gold income bonus (on the level of +0.2 or thereabout) to represent the character having no need to hire a (team of) translators?

 

[Silva]

Thanks Silva, I wasn't aware of that but I'll definitely consider adding that, the mechanics regarding mutazilite vs. ashari as "schools" within islam would be the most basic way to approach this, via making a choice between Ashur & Ishtar within the Assyrian religious tradition. I have localized the assyrian faith ingame as "ashurism" but I'm open to correction on a more appropriate name as I couldn't find one at the time of my research.

Hm. Would I be correct in assuming Ashurism is meant to include the other Mesopotamian religious traditions (i.e. the Babylonian, Akkadian, and legacy Sumerian traditions), or just the Assyrian variant?

As for the Mesopotamian tradition of divine election, I have a basic Mesopotamian government system set up which is similar but more centralized than, the vanilla Feudal monarchy government,

This certainly makes sense. Even with the Neo-Assyrian Kings leaning more on their religious role than was typical of Post-Sumer Mesopotamian Kings (who generally still had rather large roles as religious figures in their own right) were expected to be fairly active in governance both on the larger, national scale and in the minutia of the royal bureaucratic and legal systems.

I'm open to suggestions but so far I'm not sure how a random or reading of omens could be represented in-game to choose a successor....

If it was to be implemented, perhaps an event or two with a chance to fire on the birth and achievement of adulthood for the ruler's children that gives a 'born in the purple'-esque trait?

both Ashurbanipal and his successor son, Aššur-etel-ilāni, seem to have gained the throne after brief struggles within the royal family for the succession?

On that subject, I have a source:

B. The Ascension
The Mesopotamian king derived his authority from divine election, but we do not know how the choice of the gods was recognized. We do know that in Assyrian times the death of a king more often than not called forth several pretenders to the throne who did not even require the qualification of royal descent. The most that could be said for it was this: the gods in assigning hegemony to a particular city-to start under a king whom they chose and to last through several generations-might be credited with the intention of appointing that king's descendants to succeed him. The argument was not conclusive, and its weakness is proved by the disturbances that occurred at the beginning of almost every new reign. Once more the contrast with Egypt is illuminating; there the inflexible rule of an established order became operative at the death of Pharaoh and supplied the country with its next king. In Mesopotamia each succession was essentially an ad hoc solution.

The Late Assyrian kings attempted to smooth the transition from their reigns to those of their successors by an equivalent of the Egyptian institution of coregency.* In Assyria the king inquired of the gods whether they desired one of his sons to succeed him; 4 and if they answered favorably', the heir apparent was installed. The crown prince was not always the eldest son, and the solemn oath of allegiance sworn at his investiture did not prevent his brothers from contesting the succession at their father's death. But officially the problem of the succes- sion was solved once a prince had been inducted in the "House of Succession" or "Palace of the Crown Prince," 46 hence Assurbanipal adored the Ishtars, saying: "From the House of Succession (they) have magnified my kingship." 47 Esarhaddon's account of his installation as crown prince is characteristic:

I was the younger brother of my adult brothers. (Yet) my father who begat me ex- alted me in the assembly of my brothers at the command of Assur, Shamash, Marduk, Nebo, Ishtar of Nineveh, and Ishtar of Arbela, saying: "This one is my successor." He questioned Shamash and Adad through oracles. They replied to him in the affirmative: "It is he who should be thy successor." Honoring this important pronouncement, he called together the people of Assyria, great and small, as well as my brothers born in the paternal house. Before the gods Assur, Sin, Shamash, Nebo, Marduk, the gods of Assyria, the gods who inhabit Heaven and Earth, he made them swear to respect my primacy. In the month of Nisan, on a propitious day, according to the august will of the gods, I entered gladly in the House of Succession, the awesome place of royal destinies. 48

Frankfurt, Henri. Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society & Nature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948/1978), Pg. 243-244

So, take that as you will, I suppose. Hopefully it's of some help.

 

[Gurkhal]

Looks very interesting. I'll try to keep an eye on this mod and be ready when the next version is released.

EDITED: But on question though. Do you accept suggestions for additions and/or improvements to the mod from the public or do you feel that team you've got cover your needs?

 

[olupien]

Looks very interesting. I'll try to keep an eye on this mod and be ready when the next version is released.

EDITED: But on question though. Do you accept suggestions for additions and/or improvements to the mod from the public or do you feel that team you've got cover your needs?

Thanks Gurkhal! and yes I'm definitely open to suggestions on features/additions, I'm the mod creator and team lol, the mod has a ton of contribution in the form of art and script/code assets from other modders and projects though.

 

[Mitusonator]

You seem to be making a great mod, keep up the good work!
I am curious about one thing though, how will you make military system(s) work?
I suppose that for some governments it will be apropriate to just use vanilla levy system, but what about more centralised or mixed systems? Will you simply use retinues? vasalised mercenaries? or perhaps something similar to Winter King mod legions, where, from what I have seen, they act like event spawned troops with meintance?

 

[olupien]

Hm. Would I be correct in assuming Ashurism is meant to include the other Mesopotamian religious traditions (i.e. the Babylonian, Akkadian, and legacy Sumerian traditions), or just the Assyrian variant?


This certainly makes sense. Even with the Neo-Assyrian Kings leaning more on their religious role than was typical of Post-Sumer Mesopotamian Kings (who generally still had rather large roles as religious figures in their own right) were expected to be fairly active in governance both on the larger, national scale and in the minutia of the royal bureaucratic and legal systems.

If it was to be implemented, perhaps an event or two with a chance to fire on the birth and achievement of adulthood for the ruler's children that gives a 'born in the purple'-esque trait?

On that subject, I have a source:

So, take that as you will, I suppose. Hopefully it's of some help.

At the moment there in Mesopotamia proper, there is 'Ashurism, 'Akkadian' (which I figured would represent the general mesopotamian religious traditions of the area...so I guess the generic or mainstream faith) and then 'Babylonian'... So I've done this for several reasons, the mod's timeline begins in 653 BC and before the eventual Persian conquest of Mesopotamia you see the major powers (and their respective beliefs/religions) are firstly, the Assyrians, and then the Babylonians under Nabopolassar and his successors.

So I have represented the faiths of these respective groups, as well as a third one which I have called 'Akkadian' in-game, so as to represent the other faiths and older belief traditions not present in the Ashur or Marduk centered beliefs of the Assyrians or Babylonians...I understand that the reality of these religious traditions is far more nuanced and complex, but in terms of implementing a somewhat balanced approach to gameplay and the region ingame I have gone about it in this way, I'm open to constructive criticism though Perhaps a simpler model with a singular faith for all of these mesopotamian beliefs with personal decisions for devotion to specific gods would be another option to consider...

In regards to the priests or omens having a say in heir succession...I think the born-in-the-purple option might be better, although I don't recall if it is moddable to new religions and succession mechanics aside from the orthodox faith and byzantine empire?

The idea of random traits on a potential successor as being chosen by the gods is an interesting one...almost like the priests or Seers favor a specific/random heir instead of your actual one...this could be an interesting gameplay mechanic and I'll have to explore it further..
Although in a nutshell it sounds like the ability to select your heir as a ruler is what each king tended to do...although many other relatives or sons might object to your decision...

 

[olupien]

Quick ingame shot of Mesopotamia and North Africa in 550 BC, showing the Major powers of the time; Egypt, Babylon, Lydia, and Persia:

It's from a play-test so borders will have fluctuated a little... The Egyptian Pharaoh Ahmose II just declared a war over the southern border near Edom and ancient Judea


(I'm having a hard time balancing all of the Illyrian/Thracian and Scythian/Cimmerian tribes vs more settled states and countries...they can have such huge tribal levies)

In regards to the question about retinues and standing armies, I haven't changed too much from vanilla yet, but I'll definitely take a look at some other mod's systems if they are a big improvement over vanilla, otherwise it seems to work alright so far.

 

[DreadGrunt]

I can't wait to build a Cimmerian empire, I followed this back in the day and can't wait to play it again.

 

[Conramagne]

I think it would make more sense if you left non-Hellenic Europe and western Africa as wasteland so you can focus on the more well documented and urbanized eastern cultures.

 

[BlackEagle78]

Wouldn't it make sense to merge the Upper and Lower Egyptian kingdoms into one de jure kingdom? Under the Persians, Ptolemies and Romans, Egypt would always be treated as one united administrative unit, and no ruler within the time period of your mod would claim only Upper or Lower Egypt as their domain, but always declared themselves kings or pharaohs of a united Egypt.

Also, I propose two small mechanics/changes. Firstly, to remove the pharaoh as the head of the Egyptian religion and incorporate a new mechanic for Egyptian priesthoods. Foreign pharaohs, of which there were plenty during the time period of your mod, often did not adhere primarily to the Egyptian pantheon, while they did derive legitimacy from their connections with the Egyptian priesthood and their position as pharaoh. However, Egypt had no single high priest either; instead, every cult had their own (high) priesthood. There were a few important cults and priesthoods in Egypt during this time period: the High Priesthood of Amun (popular until about 525 BCE), the Cult of Apis, the High Priesthood of Ptah (especially powerful under Saite dynasty and the Ptolemies), the cult of Isis (popular during the entire Late Period), and the oracle of Ammon in Siwa. I suggest that these three high priesthoods get represented in game, maybe by using a rework of the pentarch mechanic, so that they can compete for religious and political influence.

Secondly, any king-level ruler with at least one county in the de jure kingdom of Egypt, of any religion and culture, should be able to petition one of the leaders of these cults to receive the title of pharaoh. This would be represented as a trait with an opinion bonus with characters who adhere the Egyptian religion and gives prestige. Of course, priests should be able to ask for boons in return; maybe more financial gains in Egypt (represented by a lower tax rate, but a modifier for the priests which increases their own income), or just a straight out donation to their cult. Cults should also favor characters whose predecessors (so a parent or sibling) were appointed by the same cult, leading to this cult becoming more powerful by subsequent generations of pharaohs donating to the cult. Characters whose parent or sibling was pharaoh, but who now don't possess any counties in Egypt or who don't get approved by a priesthood should be able to still claim the title of pharaoh, and receive a version of the trait with much smaller bonuses (the Persians still claimed to rule Egypt during their Egyptian interregnum, for instance). Also, different cults should be able to support different claimants during civil wars, preferably those who were crowned by their own priesthood. The royal title of the de jure kingdom of Egypt should thus simply be king, seeing how pharaoh practically translates to that title anyway (especially during the Late Period). What do you think?

 

[Gurkhal]

At the moment there in Mesopotamia proper, there is 'Ashurism, 'Akkadian' (which I figured would represent the general mesopotamian religious traditions of the area...so I guess the generic or mainstream faith) and then 'Babylonian'... So I've done this for several reasons, the mod's timeline begins in 653 BC and before the eventual Persian conquest of Mesopotamia you see the major powers (and their respective beliefs/religions) are firstly, the Assyrians, and then the Babylonians under Nabopolassar and his successors.

So I have represented the faiths of these respective groups, as well as a third one which I have called 'Akkadian' in-game, so as to represent the other faiths and older belief traditions not present in the Ashur or Marduk centered beliefs of the Assyrians or Babylonians...I understand that the reality of these religious traditions is far more nuanced and complex, but in terms of implementing a somewhat balanced approach to gameplay and the region ingame I have gone about it in this way, I'm open to constructive criticism though Perhaps a simpler model with a singular faith for all of these mesopotamian beliefs with personal decisions for devotion to specific gods would be another option to consider...

To start with I'd say that a three-part of the Mesopotamian religion makes sense to me with the possibility for rapid conversions between these three branches, kind of like the Indian religions in Ck2 basic game. The reasons for this is after all that the idea of who is the main god can shift depending on political success by the champions of that god which is a kind of manifestation of that god's power.

To name one of the branches as "Babylonian" is however in my opinion a mistake. It would make better sense to call it Mardukism in relation to Ashurianism as what we're looking for is imply a political attempt to influence the theology and make "our" patron god the greatest of the gods and head of the pantheon. The third "Akkadian" branch would presumably allow a less politically significant god to have the main mythological position, or that every city put their patron at the top or whatever.

Also personal devotion to a god other than the head of the pantheon makes sense to me.

And finally I decided to share some stuff that may or may not be known to the developer.

These are stuff connected with the "Assyrian State Archive" project which is a massive and wonderful research project in Assyrology that may be of interest for the mod.

Some stuff from the specialist publisher "Eisenbrauns"

https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/series/book_SeriesStateArchivesofAssyria.html

https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/series/book_SeriesStateArchivesofAssyriaStudies.html

Finnish assyrological webiste, and basis for the Assyrian State Archive project - to my understanding

http://assyriologia.fi/en/

Assyrian Empire Builders - website

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/

Knowledge and Power - sister site to the above website

http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/knpp/

 

[Silva]

Also personal devotion to a god other than the head of the pantheon makes sense to me.

I'd second this. It was a fairly common phenomena in the Mesopotamian world for both rulers and person of more average to believe they had a particular god who favored them and who they in turn devoted themselves to in particular.

 

[NarcomancerPL]

Great Can't wait to play it myself! ^^