National Ideas for Ethiopian Minors

[salvameelito]

So ever since Coptic mechanics got introduced, Ethiopia has been one of the most fun nations I've ever played, but I've noticed all the little new nations surrounding it have only generic set of ideas. So, considering they all had pretty important relations with Ethiopia, I thought why not group them in a set of group national ideas. I couldn't find a decent umbrella term for these nations, so I thought Ethiopia Minor? Or maybe something like Horn of Africa ideas/Ethiopianese ideas/or Cushitic ideas (considering their language group).

Checking across Wikipedia and some other articles and sources, I've come up with these ideas:
Starting traditions:

• +10% Goods produced modifier - Wikipedia specifically mentions that Hadiya Sultanate was "fertile with fruit and cereals". It might also help lowers the inflation from some of the gold mines.
• -10% Cavalry cost - Later Wikipedia states "it could raise an army of 40,000 cavalry". Pretty impressive if you ask me, so the employment of cavalry would need to be really practical.

Ideas: (I've created names and descriptions for these ideas in the post below)

• +5% Discipline - This article mentions the Damot kingdom and a "Sultan of Ifat that submitted to Damot", which indicates Damot must have been a powerful "entity". I think basically any military boost would work actually, +10% morale, +0.5 army tradition, even something like +1 prestige, altho I do think something like that does not represent the force that the Damot represented.
• -10% Land attrition - Wikipedia mentions how the rulers of Damot were forced to resettle north under pressure of Oromo attacks. Migration could be represented in many ways in EU4, with boosted movement speed or even reduced Core Creation Cost (which I think would be awesome), but I thought why not pack it up with lowered land attrition since Ethiopia has the same bonus as well.
• +10% Trade efficiency - This article had more information about the kingdoms. In regard to trade efficiency it states how "Enarya was a major supplier of the slave trade whose origins are very old". That's why I figured to put it in third place. Basically any other trade modifier would work, +10% domestic trade power or maybe even 10% production efficiency, but I think trade efficiency is more appropriate.
• +10% National manpower modifier - In almost the same sentence, the article references how "the region was thickly populated". So idk, I took this as there being a lot of people to serve the army, especially when you consider they mentioned having an army of 40k cavalry. It could also be reduced Development cost I guess, but the region doesn't appear to be very well known for being well developed or modern.
• + 1 Diplomatic reputation - What Hadiya is probably most known for is it's queen Eleni, which was a consort of a sort for Ethiopia during many years and was highly influencial in the Coptic empire during and after the rule of Zara Yaqob. So I thought having such an important figure stem from your own country must impress other countries.
• +10% Institution spread - First off, this is a modifier I think we don't see much of and it would be a very fun addition in the Ethiopian region I believe. What made me put it here is the statement of the article mentioned above, that states how the kingdoms "had relations with the north and were subject to Christian influence". So it's kind of like this more advanced Empire is helping us advance as well.
• + 1 Tolerance of heathens - Since most of these little kingdoms are either Sunni or Fetishist even in faith, and considering their strong connection with the christian Ethiopian kingdom, I thought why not give them some kind of mutual tolerance - it only makes sense.

Ambition:

• -10% Diplomatic technology cost - Mainly for the same reason that they were under huge influence of the stronger Ethiopian empire. Also diplomatic technology cost reduction is not a very common modifier, so I thought why not give these little kingdoms some flavor and give them this rare idea. I guess anything else connected with being under the influence of someone bigger could work, such as Improve Relations modifier, even reduced Development cost or Caravan power, but I think these two, especially the latter one, are pretty underwhelming, especially considering the Ethiopia trade node is the only inland node close to them. I'm again pointing out how awesome would it be for these states to have reduced diplomatic technology cost.

So, that's that. If anyone has any other suggestions or ideas feel free to comment and fix me perhaps. Hopefully the developers will take notice of this thread and, at least if not implement exactly my ideas, do something with this group of nations that are unfortunately stuck with generic ideas (which is literally the only reason stopping me from trying to play them), especially cause I know they mentioned a few times their goal is for every country to get their set of ideas and are accepting suggestions with open hands. Hopefully this gets implemented with Mandate of Heaven already!
Thank you for reading!

 

[Rhomaioi]

Seems pretty balanced and well thought-out.

Just a heads-up, though - if you want to improve the chances of these ideas being implemented, you'll need to write the quips for each of them. Funnily enough, the little descriptions are actually the part of implementing new ideas that takes the longest. If you do those, the chances of these ideas being implemented improve quite a bit.

 

[salvameelito]

Oh really? I thought the producers just kind of wanted some ideas, sources, guidelines and then they base what they actually implement around that. I'm gonna try doing what you suggested - honestly I didn't think the producers would take into consideration idea descriptions from the fans, guess I was wrong.

 

[salvameelito]

Alright, here it is then:

Traditions:

• +10% Goods Produced Modifier
• -10% Cavalry Cost

Ideas:

• A Powerful Entity: -1% Army Tradition Decay/+5% Discipline - Ibn Haldun, a great Muslim scholar, evokes one of our Kingdoms as a powerful entity, ever since the Sultanate of Ifat submitted to Damot in the 13th century. Ever since, we have been a force to reckon with in the region.
• Resettling in Southern Gojjam: -10% Land Attrition - Under pressure of the vicious Oromo attacks, our people have been forced to a migration to the north. This, however, only made us stronger, as we are now used to all the hostility of the Abyssinian mountains.
• Slave Trading: +10% Trade Efficiency - The regions of Enarya and Welayta have long been known for impressive trading in slaves. It has been a practice since the very old times and it has enabled us a steady income.
• Military Expeditions: +10% National Manpower Modifier - Dagna Jan, one of the Aksumite rulers, was one of the first to introduce military expeditions to our region. The expeditions found our regions to already be thickly populated, nevertheless some of the northern warriors chose to settle with us and join our own, already great-numbered soldiers.
• Queen Eleni: + 1 Diplomatic Reputation, +10% Improve Relations - Queen Eleni, daughter of the king of Hadiya, the great Empress of Ethiopia, married to the Prester John, co-regent and advisor to multiple emperors after the death of her own great husband, her influences expand far beyond the borders of the glorious Coptic Empire. After the death of the emperor Zara Yaqob, she was for sure the one person with the most power in her hands. Her impact is unforgettable and it helps us greatly.
• Christian Influence: +10% Institution Spread - Our kingdoms lay just next to the great christian empire of Ethiopia. For the longest time we have kept very good relations with the empire that considers us it's own kin. However, we have also kept great relation with the Islamic empires to the north and this confluence of ideas has kept the scientific spirit up and running.
• Abyssinian Tolerance: +1 Tolerance of Heathens - We are brothers with our christian neighbors and some slight difference in followed faith will not be source for unrest! We must maintain high respect among each other if we want our culture to blossom.

Ambition:

• -10% Diplomatic Technology Cost

There it is. After thinking it through for a while, I came up with the idea of decreased army tradition decay in regards to the submission of the Sultanate of Ifat to Damot. It makes more sense than the discipline boost I guess, since the event occurred in the 13th century and is now supposed to be kind of lingering. Altho the Discipline boost is still nice.
Then I revamped the Queen Eleni idea - I believe the most important entity that this idea group resolves around. So I thought to give that slight boost in Improving relations, altho that bonus could be replaced with either -5% Administrative Tech Cost or -5% Diplomatic Tech Cost and if so, then the Ambition should be something like +20% Improve Relations. Just brainstorming here, but I think that keeping good relations and good diplomacy could be reinterpreted in many different ways and I feel like this should be something very important for these nation.

 

[Santos Valorion]

You should edit your post to say that you have writen the quips in the comments below, just in case they miss it. Otherwise nice Nl's.

 

[PyroTech11]

If these get implemented Hadiya will be my next campaign due to their unit colours

 

[AirikrStrife]

Instead of Ethiopia minor, they could be called Gibe ideas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibe_region

You might also find some inspiration for ideas in that article or in this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furra

 

[Grand Historian]

If you could add in some localization to this, I'd happily put it up on the NI Suggestion Thread.

 

[salvameelito]

If you could add in some localization to this, I'd happily put it up on the NI Suggestion Thread.

You mean descriptions and idea names? I did so in the post above.

 

[Grand Historian]

You mean descriptions and idea names? I did so in the post above.

Oh, thank you, my bad.

 

[Promanco]

This is exactly what the Devs needed to see, good job y'll I like this