Now also with proper norse names for Norwegian counties and barronies!(will hopefully in time be expanded to Denmark and Sweden)
Download link
http://www.mediafire.com/?adxj0pqayl0c3yb
This mod has four purposes
1 improve the overall historical correctness of de jure duchies, kingdoms and empires composition (Eastern Europe and Germany has had the biggest overhaul currently as I found those areas to be the most screwed up in vanilla)( also no grand kingdom of Brythonia…..)
2 reduce the amount of 2 counties de jure duchies (I personally find them annoying game play wise)
3 to add a few careful chosen de jure duchies (more than a few of those), kingdoms and empires, which fit the timeline.
4 nerf BYZ and HRE a bit de jure wise, but in a way that doesn’t break too much with history
Following is a list of the major changes (the composition of duchies which in some areas has been greatly altered won’t be described in detail)
Included empires:
Nordmannia
The term used in the 700-1150 period at the court of the HRE, to describe Scandinavia/the influence sphere of the Danish king (people from Rus(meaning Novgorod in this case), Denmark, Uppland etc. was all seen as coming from Nordmannia(and hence they were viewed with suspension as the emperor suspected that they might be spying for the Danish king…..) Only real map change is that Holstein(without bremen that never should have been there in the first place) is back where it belongs.
Britannia
The British Isles (only change from John Foresti’s mod apart from the name is that: Ireland is included in the empire, kingdom of Northumberland has met its maker (god, not John Foresti), as has the duchies of Lindsey, Cumberland and Oxford(why on earth did they include that one in vanilla?))
Etelköz
Or greater Hungary if one prefers, described the area around Moldavia that the Hungarians originally settled (around 822-836), but was driven from in 889 by the Pechengs(the same Turkish tribal people that you find next to the BYZ at the start of the game) the scope used on the de jure empire in the mod should fit rather closely with the borders of the kingdom of Hungary at its peak(excluding the time when Poland and Hungary was under one king)
Poland-Lithuania
Yes I know, the commonwealth wasn’t established until 1574, but since Władysław II Jagiełło(king of Poland from 1386-1434) was also grand duke of Lithuania(1377-1434) I think it ought to be in the game.
Iberia
Not much change from John Foresti’s mod. One note though, Navarre has gained a duchy (Bearn to be specific (yes I created a two county duchy and I am not happy about it)) as it was part of Navarre for a big part of the game’s timeline, beside a one duchy kingdom is a bid sad. Navarre is now also formable if your culture isn’t Basque, since the French might have an interest in forming/usurping it (see below)
France
Maybe a bit historical ambivalent but the idea was to allow France to rise to equality with HRE, Britannia and Iberia, however since France starts with quite a lot of the territories required to form the empire I have increased the requirements(looking a bit towards Louis the 14th). Hence you need to hold the titles as: king of France, king of Burgundy, king of Navarre, duke of Brittany and duke of Flanders in order to form France as an empire(note neither Navarre or Flanders is in the de jure) note that savoy has been split in two(savoy and piemonte(purely for cosmetics)and only savoy is de jure burgundy
Rus
As an empire (makes a bit more sense) composed of the kingdoms of Novgorod, Gardarige and Krimea(doesn’t fit the Rus theme, since it’s more of a Tatar entity but I liked the way John Forresti had made it, and the area had to be included in Rus anyway due to historical reasons(would have been part of Gardarige) besides game play wise I feel that a two kingdom empire would be a bit off, and having one based on Moscow would mess up Gardarige and Novgorod beyond repair, beside wouldn’t fit the timeline.
Included kingdoms:
Galichia-volhynia
A principality/kingdom from 1199 until 1366 when it was incorporated into Poland, now part of the de jure Poland-Lithuania. Duchies: Galichia, Volhyna and Podlaies
Gardarige
Old east Norse(the ruling class was varreger(norsemen)) for the Kievian kingdom that Ruriks cousin Oleg(he was regent for Rurik’s son) built up in the years after Ruriks death(he seized Kiev from two norse warlords who had taken it from the Chazar empire some years earlier) . Oleg (Oleg is the Slavic form of his name, he would be called Heilgio in old norse) moved the court from Holmgaard(Novgorod) too Keanugaard(Kiev). During the following years Novgorod became sort of a semi independent principality (later a merchant republic), however it was still required to pay taxes once a year to the court in Kiev(and did so for over a hundred and fifty years). “Gardarige” roughly translates into “the kingdom of fortified cities”( apparently Oleg was quite busy building forts all along the waterways in order to cement the power of Rurik’s dynasty(he had to contend with the declining Chazar empire which had ruled the area before))
Novgorod
See Gardarige .
One important thing though, Estonia is now included in this part of Rus. Originally it was emissaries from Cud(Estonians), Slovener(Russian people from around Pskov and Vitbesk), Krivcer(Russian people from around Smolensk) and Vepser(a Finnsh people from the area just west of Novgorod) that offered Rurik the throne(a least according to the saga). Pskov has also becomed a duchy(vanialla actualy had the flag in the gfx files but for some reason paradox didn't make the duchy)
Wallachia
Now comes in kingdom flavor. Sort of makes sense from a historical perspective (Bulgarians might not agree considering what it has done too their de jure kingdom) and was needed in order to make Etelköz. The duchies of Belgorod, Moldovia and Wallachia now equals kingdom of Wallachia
Note the four following kingdoms is for game play reasons more than historic ( you can’t put a grand duchy in the system hence it has to be kingdom), 3 of them is modified versions of The Valkyrier’s mod(Brandenburg had to be reworked to Franconia)
Kingdom of Saxony
Taken from The Valkyrier's mod but heavily modified to better fit into a historic perspective
Now made up off: Oldenburg, Brunswick,and Saxony(Brandenburg both as duchy and kingdom is dead and buried since it only gives remotely sense to have it at the very end of the timeline)
Kingdom of Franconia
Franconia, Thüringen, Köln and Meissen(composition of duchies has been changed)
Kingdom of Swabia
Straight out of The Valkyrier’s mod
Kingdom of Bavaria
From The Valkyrier’s mod but changed the composition a bit on the basis that if grand duchies is to be understood as kingdoms HRE wise, then Bayern ought to be split in two. Now includes Niederbayern, Oberbayern, Tirol and Österriech. Also the bohemian county has been transferred to Moravia.
Kingdom of Pomerania
Again borrowed from The Valkyrier, Rugen has been put in Pomerania (one less two county duchy, and shouldn’t make a difference from a historic perspective (if one was really anal about it, Pomerania should be split between the Vends(mecklenburg and vorpommern) and the Pomeranians(hinter pommern) but I have no plans on that account)(note Pommernia is not in any empire de jure since it would have three equally qualified contenders)))Like the previous four it probably ought to have been a grand duchy.
Kingdom of Netherlands
I might take some flak for this one. The reason behind this kingdom is threefold.
1 the majority of Frisian territory was de facto not in control of the emperor or his vassals for long spaces of time during the early period of the game due to Viking warlords deciding they liked the place
2 the emperor was often in less control of his vassals in that region (they were what you could call “unreliable”, when dealing with Vikings (changing sides, turning blind eye to pillaging in order to get a cut of the action, intermarrying with the families of Viking warlords etc.)
3 The duke of Flanders was often what you could call ambitious, and like the duke of Normandy acted more independently than the usual French duke or count.(Intermarried with the Vikings, assisted the Danes with their defense of the Norman sovereignty against the French king(happened twice) ,who really would like to have his land back. Assisted William when he attacked Harold Godwinson and was going to assist Knud the holy(the second bastard son of Sven Estridsen to become king of Denmark) when he was going to try to grab the English throne from William(Knud was killed by an angry mob(high war taxes…)in a church before he could set off, hence the name)
Given the above and the little scrap with the Hapsburgs I felt I had to put a costal entity in the game that wasn’t de jure HRE or France, as for the name I couldn’t figure out a better one (suggestions would be much appreciated) kingdom includes Flanders, Gelre and Holland(Brabant have been left in Lotharingen)
Kingdom of Lotharingia
Taken from John Forestis mod who was inspired by Darrigans mod(obviously nerfd a bit due to the Netherlands, but criticaly have been left with a port county(breda)) only other change is that the duchy of julich has ceased to exists.
Kingdom of Hellas
From John Foresti’s take on Criss Cross' mod
Kingdom of Anatolia From John Foresti’s take on Criss Cross' mod
Kingdom of Octania
Just like John Foresti’s mod only changes is that two duchies has left the kingdom, Bearn has gone to Navarre and Bourbon too France
BYZ has lost De jure of croatia, Serbia and Wallachia (whish is now part of Etelköz) and Sicily, Syria and Jerusalem(which isn't in any de jure empire)
HRE is down de jure to Lotharingen, Saxony, Bavaria, Franconia, Bohemia and Schwaben.
I think that’s about it, I have tried to balance better historical compliance with a goal of optimizing game play.
Any comments will be much appreciated, and please if you find something I have made that is way out off line history wise please let me know.
Regarding mod compatibility it should work with most that doesn’t alter landed files, however I have had to change four history files so not sure if that will give problems with mods that change those files(fingers crossed)
Instalation: download the file, then unzip in to the mod directory, start CK2 and select the "some what more historic" mod in the launcher
Download link
http://www.mediafire.com/?adxj0pqayl0c3yb
Screenshots world:
Empires:
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/ck2_empires.jpg
Kingdoms:
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/ck2_kingdoms.jpg
Duchies:
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/ck2_duchies.jpg
Region screenshots:
north easterneurope duchies
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/Northeasterneuropeduchies.jpg
north easterneurope kingdoms
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/Northeasterneuropekingdoms.jpg
south easterneurope duchies
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/Southeasterneuropeduchies.jpg
south easterneurope kingdoms
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/Southeasterneuropekingdoms.jpg
westerneurope duchies
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/Westerneuropeduchies.jpg
westerneurope kingdoms
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/westerneuropekingdoms.jpg
north and central europe duchies
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/Northandcentraleuropeduchies.jpg
Modding team:
Yours truly
Hamaja
Credits
John Foresti for quite a bit of inspiration
The Valkyrier for germany divided(I started out reworking one of his mod’s that included some of John Foresti’s work and this is what it ended up as)
Criss Croos for Hellas and Anatolia
Darrigan for inspiring John Foresti in making Lotharingen
Hamja for research on norse province names
God for granting me divine inspiration to make the mod
If anybody feel I should have included them in the credits, fell free too yell at me and call me names.
Download link
http://www.mediafire.com/?adxj0pqayl0c3yb
This mod has four purposes
1 improve the overall historical correctness of de jure duchies, kingdoms and empires composition (Eastern Europe and Germany has had the biggest overhaul currently as I found those areas to be the most screwed up in vanilla)( also no grand kingdom of Brythonia…..)
2 reduce the amount of 2 counties de jure duchies (I personally find them annoying game play wise)
3 to add a few careful chosen de jure duchies (more than a few of those), kingdoms and empires, which fit the timeline.
4 nerf BYZ and HRE a bit de jure wise, but in a way that doesn’t break too much with history
Following is a list of the major changes (the composition of duchies which in some areas has been greatly altered won’t be described in detail)
Included empires:
Nordmannia
The term used in the 700-1150 period at the court of the HRE, to describe Scandinavia/the influence sphere of the Danish king (people from Rus(meaning Novgorod in this case), Denmark, Uppland etc. was all seen as coming from Nordmannia(and hence they were viewed with suspension as the emperor suspected that they might be spying for the Danish king…..) Only real map change is that Holstein(without bremen that never should have been there in the first place) is back where it belongs.
Britannia
The British Isles (only change from John Foresti’s mod apart from the name is that: Ireland is included in the empire, kingdom of Northumberland has met its maker (god, not John Foresti), as has the duchies of Lindsey, Cumberland and Oxford(why on earth did they include that one in vanilla?))
Etelköz
Or greater Hungary if one prefers, described the area around Moldavia that the Hungarians originally settled (around 822-836), but was driven from in 889 by the Pechengs(the same Turkish tribal people that you find next to the BYZ at the start of the game) the scope used on the de jure empire in the mod should fit rather closely with the borders of the kingdom of Hungary at its peak(excluding the time when Poland and Hungary was under one king)
Poland-Lithuania
Yes I know, the commonwealth wasn’t established until 1574, but since Władysław II Jagiełło(king of Poland from 1386-1434) was also grand duke of Lithuania(1377-1434) I think it ought to be in the game.
Iberia
Not much change from John Foresti’s mod. One note though, Navarre has gained a duchy (Bearn to be specific (yes I created a two county duchy and I am not happy about it)) as it was part of Navarre for a big part of the game’s timeline, beside a one duchy kingdom is a bid sad. Navarre is now also formable if your culture isn’t Basque, since the French might have an interest in forming/usurping it (see below)
France
Maybe a bit historical ambivalent but the idea was to allow France to rise to equality with HRE, Britannia and Iberia, however since France starts with quite a lot of the territories required to form the empire I have increased the requirements(looking a bit towards Louis the 14th). Hence you need to hold the titles as: king of France, king of Burgundy, king of Navarre, duke of Brittany and duke of Flanders in order to form France as an empire(note neither Navarre or Flanders is in the de jure) note that savoy has been split in two(savoy and piemonte(purely for cosmetics)and only savoy is de jure burgundy
Rus
As an empire (makes a bit more sense) composed of the kingdoms of Novgorod, Gardarige and Krimea(doesn’t fit the Rus theme, since it’s more of a Tatar entity but I liked the way John Forresti had made it, and the area had to be included in Rus anyway due to historical reasons(would have been part of Gardarige) besides game play wise I feel that a two kingdom empire would be a bit off, and having one based on Moscow would mess up Gardarige and Novgorod beyond repair, beside wouldn’t fit the timeline.
Included kingdoms:
Galichia-volhynia
A principality/kingdom from 1199 until 1366 when it was incorporated into Poland, now part of the de jure Poland-Lithuania. Duchies: Galichia, Volhyna and Podlaies
Gardarige
Old east Norse(the ruling class was varreger(norsemen)) for the Kievian kingdom that Ruriks cousin Oleg(he was regent for Rurik’s son) built up in the years after Ruriks death(he seized Kiev from two norse warlords who had taken it from the Chazar empire some years earlier) . Oleg (Oleg is the Slavic form of his name, he would be called Heilgio in old norse) moved the court from Holmgaard(Novgorod) too Keanugaard(Kiev). During the following years Novgorod became sort of a semi independent principality (later a merchant republic), however it was still required to pay taxes once a year to the court in Kiev(and did so for over a hundred and fifty years). “Gardarige” roughly translates into “the kingdom of fortified cities”( apparently Oleg was quite busy building forts all along the waterways in order to cement the power of Rurik’s dynasty(he had to contend with the declining Chazar empire which had ruled the area before))
Novgorod
See Gardarige .
One important thing though, Estonia is now included in this part of Rus. Originally it was emissaries from Cud(Estonians), Slovener(Russian people from around Pskov and Vitbesk), Krivcer(Russian people from around Smolensk) and Vepser(a Finnsh people from the area just west of Novgorod) that offered Rurik the throne(a least according to the saga). Pskov has also becomed a duchy(vanialla actualy had the flag in the gfx files but for some reason paradox didn't make the duchy)
Wallachia
Now comes in kingdom flavor. Sort of makes sense from a historical perspective (Bulgarians might not agree considering what it has done too their de jure kingdom) and was needed in order to make Etelköz. The duchies of Belgorod, Moldovia and Wallachia now equals kingdom of Wallachia
Note the four following kingdoms is for game play reasons more than historic ( you can’t put a grand duchy in the system hence it has to be kingdom), 3 of them is modified versions of The Valkyrier’s mod(Brandenburg had to be reworked to Franconia)
Kingdom of Saxony
Taken from The Valkyrier's mod but heavily modified to better fit into a historic perspective
Now made up off: Oldenburg, Brunswick,and Saxony(Brandenburg both as duchy and kingdom is dead and buried since it only gives remotely sense to have it at the very end of the timeline)
Kingdom of Franconia
Franconia, Thüringen, Köln and Meissen(composition of duchies has been changed)
Kingdom of Swabia
Straight out of The Valkyrier’s mod
Kingdom of Bavaria
From The Valkyrier’s mod but changed the composition a bit on the basis that if grand duchies is to be understood as kingdoms HRE wise, then Bayern ought to be split in two. Now includes Niederbayern, Oberbayern, Tirol and Österriech. Also the bohemian county has been transferred to Moravia.
Kingdom of Pomerania
Again borrowed from The Valkyrier, Rugen has been put in Pomerania (one less two county duchy, and shouldn’t make a difference from a historic perspective (if one was really anal about it, Pomerania should be split between the Vends(mecklenburg and vorpommern) and the Pomeranians(hinter pommern) but I have no plans on that account)(note Pommernia is not in any empire de jure since it would have three equally qualified contenders)))Like the previous four it probably ought to have been a grand duchy.
Kingdom of Netherlands
I might take some flak for this one. The reason behind this kingdom is threefold.
1 the majority of Frisian territory was de facto not in control of the emperor or his vassals for long spaces of time during the early period of the game due to Viking warlords deciding they liked the place
2 the emperor was often in less control of his vassals in that region (they were what you could call “unreliable”, when dealing with Vikings (changing sides, turning blind eye to pillaging in order to get a cut of the action, intermarrying with the families of Viking warlords etc.)
3 The duke of Flanders was often what you could call ambitious, and like the duke of Normandy acted more independently than the usual French duke or count.(Intermarried with the Vikings, assisted the Danes with their defense of the Norman sovereignty against the French king(happened twice) ,who really would like to have his land back. Assisted William when he attacked Harold Godwinson and was going to assist Knud the holy(the second bastard son of Sven Estridsen to become king of Denmark) when he was going to try to grab the English throne from William(Knud was killed by an angry mob(high war taxes…)in a church before he could set off, hence the name)
Given the above and the little scrap with the Hapsburgs I felt I had to put a costal entity in the game that wasn’t de jure HRE or France, as for the name I couldn’t figure out a better one (suggestions would be much appreciated) kingdom includes Flanders, Gelre and Holland(Brabant have been left in Lotharingen)
Kingdom of Lotharingia
Taken from John Forestis mod who was inspired by Darrigans mod(obviously nerfd a bit due to the Netherlands, but criticaly have been left with a port county(breda)) only other change is that the duchy of julich has ceased to exists.
Kingdom of Hellas
From John Foresti’s take on Criss Cross' mod
Kingdom of Anatolia From John Foresti’s take on Criss Cross' mod
Kingdom of Octania
Just like John Foresti’s mod only changes is that two duchies has left the kingdom, Bearn has gone to Navarre and Bourbon too France
BYZ has lost De jure of croatia, Serbia and Wallachia (whish is now part of Etelköz) and Sicily, Syria and Jerusalem(which isn't in any de jure empire)
HRE is down de jure to Lotharingen, Saxony, Bavaria, Franconia, Bohemia and Schwaben.
I think that’s about it, I have tried to balance better historical compliance with a goal of optimizing game play.
Any comments will be much appreciated, and please if you find something I have made that is way out off line history wise please let me know.
Regarding mod compatibility it should work with most that doesn’t alter landed files, however I have had to change four history files so not sure if that will give problems with mods that change those files(fingers crossed)
Instalation: download the file, then unzip in to the mod directory, start CK2 and select the "some what more historic" mod in the launcher
Download link
http://www.mediafire.com/?adxj0pqayl0c3yb
Screenshots world:
Empires:
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/ck2_empires.jpg
Kingdoms:
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/ck2_kingdoms.jpg
Duchies:
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/ck2_duchies.jpg
Region screenshots:
north easterneurope duchies
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/Northeasterneuropeduchies.jpg
north easterneurope kingdoms
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/Northeasterneuropekingdoms.jpg
south easterneurope duchies
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/Southeasterneuropeduchies.jpg
south easterneurope kingdoms
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/Southeasterneuropekingdoms.jpg
westerneurope duchies
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/Westerneuropeduchies.jpg
westerneurope kingdoms
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/westerneuropekingdoms.jpg
north and central europe duchies
http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t474/aasmul/Northandcentraleuropeduchies.jpg
Modding team:
Yours truly
Hamaja
Credits
John Foresti for quite a bit of inspiration
The Valkyrier for germany divided(I started out reworking one of his mod’s that included some of John Foresti’s work and this is what it ended up as)
Criss Croos for Hellas and Anatolia
Darrigan for inspiring John Foresti in making Lotharingen
Hamja for research on norse province names
God for granting me divine inspiration to make the mod
If anybody feel I should have included them in the credits, fell free too yell at me and call me names.
Last edited:
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