Ancient Religions, Reborn!

[secretfire]

Sure, count me in.

 

[KaiserRichter]

I'd love to test.

 

[theStormWeaver]

v0.37.0 "Vulcan"
Vulcan was the god of fire, metalworking, and the forge. Known to the Greeks as Hephaestus, this crippled deity was the spawn of Hera. He frequently sided with his mother in her feuds with the king of the gods.
​

This release is a long time coming, and hopefully the length and content of the change log will help make up for that. I'm releasing it so close before Conclave in the hopes that any remaining issues can be found before CKII 2.5 drops. I'm pretty confident this release is stable, but if my software development career has told me anything, it's that the ones you think are fine that give you the most trouble.

Anticipate v0.37.1 Cecrops on Feb 3rd or 5th with 2.5 compatibility.

Change Log

General:

• - Nearly every kingdom in the game now has a Crusade weight for all of the added religions, including the heresies.
  • This means your religious heads will intelligently call Great Holy Wars.
• - Added Chronicle entries for many events.
• - Modified Lets. Get. PAGAN! to include heresies.
  • Georgians and Armenians become Promethian.
  • Alanians become Titan.
  • East Africans become Atenic.
  • Duke of Galilee gets his stones back if the world goes pagan. Surely a blessing from Dionysus...
• New Minor Titles: Champion (copy of vanilla title that only my religions can use), Master of Arms (pagan group).
• Holy Orders re-balanced (again) to bring them more in line with Vanilla HOs.

Celtic:

• Tweaked St Kilda event chain to be more likely.
• Court Wizard conversion chain now cascades through the entire realm, increasing likelihood that vassals will convert with you.
• Fixed issue in the event where a son or brother asks to join the red dragons where the buttons would be labeled backwards.
• Galloway is no longer a holy site. Dijon takes its place. This is to represent the Fountains of Sequana, a major place of worship for the Continental Celts. Also to make reformation a little harder. It was way too easy to start as Gwynned and take Dublin and Galloway and do some raiding to get up MA.
• Fixed an issue caused by a Druidic training event calling a Sons of Gwydion event.
• The Wolf Tails will still form if you somehow manage to Reform Celtic before converting even a single province.
  • In this case, they will be Druidic to start.
• In the mercenary spirit of their ancient forebears, The Wolf Tails can be hired by anyone who has the coin.
• Fixed broken Headhunter events. It should be possible to become a Living Legend again.
• New Minor Titles: Chariot Master, Headsmen, Warden of the Wilds.
• New decision to invite a bard to your court.
• A random event may have a Bard and their troupe arrive at your estate seeking lodging. Allow them to stay, and you will have the opportunity to invite the bard to join your court.
• Improved Religion UI, from CK2Plus.

Hellenic:

• New Hellenic revival event chain inspired by Michael Psellos and Plethon.
  • Byzantine or Roman Empire must be at 100 or fewer realm holdings, be held by a non-pagan, cannot already have the philosopher in their court, and the current ruler must not have had the event happen to them already.
  • A Philosopher from the University of Constantinople will seek to join your court and provide you with his advice.
  • Over the course of several years, the Philosophos will cause controversy and will require your support. This will come with a price.
  • Three traits; Stoic, Skeptic, and Epicurean have been added. The Philosopher will come with the Stoic trait, but it is otherwise only available with Ruler Designer (for now). Skeptic and Epicurean do not yet have icons.
• Added a Hellenic revival event chain if the Mani Peninsula (Monemvasia) is in the realm, as an homage to the 30 pages thread about it on the forum.
• Tweaked Studied the classics event chain:
  • Made it more likely to be taken by an AI courtier of the player.
  • Added low possibility for Hellenic heresies.
  • Added opportunity for host to convert, if specific traits.
  • Increased valid cultures to the entire Latin and Byzantine culture groups.
• Sacred Band Holy Order from CK2Plus has been included (thanks guys!).
• Added the "Hellenic Legion" holy order, created by Mbites.
  • It appears when Rome or Constantinople is held by a Hellenic Pagan, *or* when the Roman Emperor or Basilius is Hellenic Pagan, and it is Roman cultured.
• New Minor Titles: Fylakasminos (Keeper of the Flock), Chiliarch, Proxenos, Hellanodikos.

Promethean:

• Promethean holy sites have been moved around to better reflect the lore and to differentiate them from Hellenism and the Titans.
  • Alexandria; A center of advanced learning for over 1000 years.
  • Consenza; Former site of a Pythagorean Academy, and must be rebuilt (via decision, like the Restore Luxor chain, but different).
  • Kartli; Kartli covers the southern slopes of Mt Kazbek, the legendary peak where Prometheus was chained on the orders of Zeus.
  • Thessalonike; Common holy site for Hellenic and Promethean, to create conflict.
  • Athens; Site of the First Academy and point of conflict between Titan Cultists and Hellenes.
• Prometheans may now Restore the First Academy via decision, making the Philosophos of Piraeus the Scholarch of the First Academy.
• Prometheans can Rebuild the Academy of Crotone, the site of an ancient Pythagorean academy.
  • +20% MA for Prometheanism for 30 years.
• Prometheans can Organize the Men of Steel, a Holy Order of the faith. The culture of the holy order matches the organizer.
• There is now an Unbinding Festival decision and event chain that Prometheans can do once a year. It is a celebration of the Unbinding of Prometheus from his prison on Mt Kazbek.
  • The event chain includes lots of small random events inspired by vanilla and VIET.
  • If you're lucky you may get a skilled courtier. If you are unlucky, you may be injured, or even die!
• Prometheans now have access to an invasion CB called Expansion. It is inspired partially by Plato's Republic.
  • Conquered provinces suffer from a "Depopulated" modifier for 30 years after the invasion, making it difficult to hold but more likely to convert culture and religion to the top liege.
  • It targets Kingdoms and is based on the tribal invasion cb.
  • It can only be used if you are independent and do not have Depopulated provinces in your realm.
• New Minor Titles: Proxenos, Hellanodikos, Archopapyri (Master of Scrolls), Archothisavrous (Master of Treasures), Fylakasflogas (Keeper of the Flame).

Titan Cult:

• Titan holy sites have been moved around to differentiate them from Hellenism and Prometheanism and better reflect locations that would actually be holy to them.
  • Rome; because of the large temple to Saturn/Kronos.
  • Antioch; because of a mosaic of/dedicated to Tethys. Also it spreads the sites out.
  • Athens; Location of the Kronia festival and point of conflict with Prometheans and Hellenes.
  • Thessalia; location of Mt Othrys, the Titan capitol during the Titanomachy (basically the Titan Olympus).
  • Rhodes; Once held the Colossus, a massive statue to the titan Helios.
• The Sickles are a new holy order that can be created by Titan Cultists. The culture of the holy order matches the organizer.
• New Minor Titles: Fylakasminos (Keeper of the Flock), Hellanodikos, Konistrachos (Master of the Arena).

Kemetic:

• Added Nile Flooding events, courtesy of retired modder cybrxkhan.
  • Every year the Nile river will flood, sometimes good, sometimes bad.
• Numerous flavor events for Egyptian and Aten pagans, also courtesy of cybrxkhan.
  • Events involving cat worship, palm trees, and keeping the principle of Ma'at in your heart.
• Sed Festival back to requiring a 30 year reign to use.
  • This is more historical and matches the fairly significant boons rewarded. The previous reduction to 10 years was to counteract the lack of flavorful events and decisions available to Kemetic and Atenic characters.
• Coptic culture is available through ruler designer and the console.
  • Coptics have access to a Khopesh wielding heavy infantry/horse archer retinue called the Anhuri.
  • Coptics also can build a Temple of Anhur building to enhance your heavy infantry troops.
• New Minor Titles: Gods Wife, Divine Adoratrice, Master of Palms, Fanbearer on the Right Hand of the King, Iry-pat, Haty-a, Khetemty.

Atenic:

• Faithful followers of Aten can now restore Akhetaten, the ancient city we call Amarna today.
  • This decision is almost a carbon copy of the Restore Luxor decision. It may receive more love in the future.
• Atenism now has a religious head, the Meryaten, which is a King tier Fylkir style title held by the reformer.
  • The Meryaten is created by decision, and requires that Akhetaten is restored.
• The Burning Blades are a new holy order for Atenism that can be created via decision and are immediately vassalized by the organizer.
• Atenic now uses Decadence. If the representitive of the divine on Earth behaves in a manner unworthy of the divine, the people will rise up to overthrow the unworthy in the name of Aten.
• New Minor Titles: Gods Wife, Divine Adoratrice, Master of Palms, Fanbearer on the Right Hand of the King, Iry-pat, Haty-a, Khetemty.

 

[theStormWeaver]

The update should be on the Steam Workshop momentarily.

 

[DC123456789]

Just as an aside, is the First Academy supposed to represent the Platonic Academy in Athens?

 

[theStormWeaver]

Just as an aside, is the First Academy supposed to represent the Platonic Academy in Athens?

It represents the fictional Promethean faith regarding said Academy highly enough that they center their faith near it and consider the Scholarch of said Academy to be the head of the faith.

So, yeah.

 

[Romulien]

Wiki page http://www.ckiiwiki.com/Ancient_Religions should now be mostly up-to-date with v0.37

 

[theStormWeaver]

Thanks Romulien!

 

[theStormWeaver]

Anyone have ideas about visualizing Epicureanism and Skepticism?

All I've come up with is a question mark for the Skeptic trait. I've got nothing for Epicurean. Stoic was easy, I just used the symbol for the monad (a symbolic representation of their belief in a single, universal principle).

 

[Ethan194]

How about an atom for a symbol.

 

[Lowcast]

For the Epicureans I would go for a symbol of the Tetrapharmakos symbol.

Spoiler

It was made up by contemporary Epicureans but the symbol is just a combination of τ and φ from the Greek version of the word τετραφάρμακος. The tetrapharmakos was an ancient-era drug cocktail that the Epicureans adopted as a metaphor for spiritual healing.

For Skepticism I would not use a question mark because this might be confused with the question mark used for the Slow trait. I would use a Greek question mark instead which looks exactly like a semi-colon in the Latin alphabet.

Spoiler

 

[theStormWeaver]

For the Epicureans I would go for a symbol of the Tetrapharmakos symbol.

Spoiler

It was made up by contemporary Epicureans but the symbol is just a combination of τ and φ from the Greek version of the word τετραφάρμακος. The tetrapharmakos was an ancient-era drug cocktail that the Epicureans adopted as a metaphor for spiritual healing.

For Skepticism I would not use a question mark because this might be confused with the question mark used for the Slow trait. I would use a Greek question mark instead which looks exactly like a semi-colon in the Latin alphabet.

Spoiler

Thanks for the suggestions! The three school traits will be on a gray shield background, so I think the risk of confusing it with the Slow trait is low. However, I see your point. I was able to find an ancient Greek letter that serves as an interrogative pronoun (they didn't have punctuation back then), so I'm going to use that. I think the semi-colon would look strange and out of place to most players.

Totally going to use that Tetrapharmakos for the Epicureans though!

 

[theStormWeaver]

> Cecrops was the first King of Athens. As much man as monster, Cecrops had a serpentine tail instead of legs. He ruled over the city for 40 years. According to Hyginus' Fabulae, he was one of the few sons of Vulcan.

As far as I can tell everything should be good with CK2 2.5.1, please submit bugs if you discover otherwise. I cannot upload zip files, so you'll have to use Steam Workshop or go to github (username is xirsoi).

# 2016-2-10 v0.37.1 "Cecrops"
General:
- Compatibility with CK2 2.5.1
- Adjusted opinion modifiers and honorary titles to match new vanilla balance.
- Laws adjusted to take into account ancient religions.
- Celtic Pagan, Druidic, and Promethean will make female-friendly laws easier to get.
- Titan Cultists, on the other hand, are decidely less enlightened on the subject of women.
- Minor Titles and councilor positions have been adjusted to account for ancient religions.
- Like Laws, appropriate religions will make it easier or harder to hire/appoint women.

Promethean:
- Bug fixes relating to the Unbinding Festival and Rebuilding Crotone.
- Stoic trait now grants a +5 General Opinion bonus, as intended.
- Skeptic and Epicurean traits now have icons.
- All three philosophy traits have been given potential blocks to keep random children in Scotland from getting them.

 

[Crash301]

What are your plans for the Gauls? I've got a couple ideas that I don't know if you've discussed them yet.

One approach would be to allow French, Occitan, Norman, and maybe Frankish rulers access to the Court Wizard events. Maybe have a decision to Celticize provinces when either the Celtic Rites or the religion is adopted that would transform it into Gaulish such as is done with the Hellenics to Romans.

Another alternative would be in the event a Celtic ruler conquered provinces with the aforementioned cultures, it would form a melting pot that would revive the Gaulish culture. Keep up the good work!

 

[theStormWeaver]

> Aetna was a nymp, the child of Uranus and Gaia. She arbitrated a dispute between Hephaestus and Demeter regarding dominion over Sicily, and a mountain there bares her namesake. She gave birth to The Palici by Hephaestus.

2016-2-16 v0.37.2 "Aetna"
General:
- Merge tactics from 2.5.1
- Fix bug relating to Hellenic EREmperors being unable to reform the empire.
- Fix localization overrides not being used.

 

[theStormWeaver]

What are your plans for the Gauls? I've got a couple ideas that I don't know if you've discussed them yet.

One approach would be to allow French, Occitan, Norman, and maybe Frankish rulers access to the Court Wizard events. Maybe have a decision to Celticize provinces when either the Celtic Rites or the religion is adopted that would transform it into Gaulish such as is done with the Hellenics to Romans.

Another alternative would be in the event a Celtic ruler conquered provinces with the aforementioned cultures, it would form a melting pot that would revive the Gaulish culture. Keep up the good work!

Your second idea isn't far off from what I've got planned, actually. Thanks for posting!

 

[Galleblære]

Is there a way to gain Roman culture without using the console or ruler designer?

 

[PlotVitalNPC]

Is there a way to gain Roman culture without using the console or ruler designer?

If Italian cities have hellenic mayors, they can eventually pop up an event asking for permission to revive Roman culture, which renders the burgher themself roman cultured if you say yes. Eventually, after that, more burghers will go Roman and set a flag that eventually romanizes their home counties.

 

[KaiserRichter]

Your second idea isn't far off from what I've got planned, actually. Thanks for posting!

I have to say I disagree with this. It makes more sense to let the ethnic Celts in France, namely the Bretons have the event. The very Germanic Franks, the very Mediterranean Occitans, and the Normans, who're Frankish and Norse by blood aren't connected anthropologically or genetically to the Celts whatsoever. Italians reviving Roman culture makes a lot more sense. It makes more sense to try revive Armorica or have Armorica turn into Gaul. Let Gaul to be resettled by Celts through Druidic holy war.

 

[theStormWeaver]

I have to say I disagree with this. It makes more sense to let the ethnic Celts in France, namely the Bretons have the event. The very Germanic Franks, the very Mediterranean Occitans, and the Normans, who're Frankish and Norse by blood aren't connected anthropologically or genetically to the Celts whatsoever. Italians reviving Roman culture makes a lot more sense. It makes more sense to try revive Armorica or have Armorica turn into Gaul. Let Gaul to be resettled by Celts through Druidic holy war.

You can't revive a culture with tragically little in the way of written sources. Just as modern "druidism" likely bares little resemblance to the faith practiced by the ancient Celts, Gaulish (and for that matter Roman and Coptic) in this mod is a culture created by people *associating* themselves with the old ways of their people.

City folk who read some old books and worship Jupiter are not going to be "actual" Romans just because they decided they want to speak classical Latin again. They call themselves Romans, and eventually everyone else will to. It is the same for the eventual Coptic revival event. They'll speak a mishmash of regional languages with smatterings of ancient Egyptian they've gleaned from old sources. They'll mimic the old customs and festivals to the best of their ability, but they can't hope to perfectly replicate it. The resulting "Coptic" culture will unavoidably, necessarily, be influenced by the times and by the existing culture of the people.

Gaulish, when it's revival events are implemented, will be much the same. A new Celtic (culture *and* religion) Empire of Gaul will create a new culture by it's very existence. That new culture will include as much of the language, names, and traditions of the ancient Continental Celts as can be reasonably expected. The circumstances surrounding this cultures emergence will, of course, require that either Breton or Welsh be present (as the two surviving Celtic cultures that most resemble Gaulish). Do remember that Armorica became Brittany because Britons emigrated there fleeing Saxon aggression in their homeland. Add to that strong Latin and Frankish influences over the course of the ~700 years since Gauls ruled the peninsula, and what you have left is about as Gaulish as the Welsh.