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The holy Swedish month of July is over and our workforce has been steadily trickling back into the office, resigned to the fact that sunlight is a luxury we won't be seeing for another 11 months. With that lovely thought in mind, let's return to our weekly dev diaries and talk about a new feature for our upcoming yet unrevealed expansion for Europa Universalis IV: Coptic Holy Sites.

Copts have had a rough time. Way back in EU's history they were simply represented as the Orthodox faith before getting their own religion within the Christian group, but even then they lacked their own flavour, destined to be left in the Horn of Africa and Armenia with hungry neighbours and their Patriarch being locked up and bullied in Mamluk-held Alexandria.

Well no longer! A feature in the upcoming DLC is a Holy Sites system unique for Coptic nations. Any nation which follows the Coptic faith will have access to a screen showing their Holy Sites. There are 5 in total, detailed with who is currently controlling them and the faith followed by the province. It is the Copts' holy mission to see these restored to Coptic control.

Armenia.jpg

As shown above, Armenia (Who I released&played as from QQ) can open their Coptic menu and see the state of their Holy Sites. If a Holy Site is held by any Coptic nation and the province itself follows the One True Faith™ then all Coptic nations will be granted a blessing from the Patriarch. You are able to pick from the 5 available blessings but be sure that you or your Coptic friends hold onto your possessions tightly, as losing ownership of a Holy Site to a nation of another faith will lose you the blessing until it is returned to Coptic hands.

Ethiopia blessings.jpg


In 1444 the only Holy site in control of the Copts is Aksum, in the far north of Ethiopia. This will allow all existing Coptic nations to pick one blessing of their choice from the above list.

Legitimize Government: +0.5 Legitimacy
Encourage Wariors of the Faith: +10% manpower recovery
Send Monks to Establish Monasteries: +1.5% missionary strength
Promote Territorial Rights: -10% Core creation Cost
Will of the Martyrs: +5% discipline

Unlike other religious mechanics, the Coptic Holy Sites will collectively make all followers of that religion stronger. It makes no difference in the available Blessings if your nation or another Coptic nation holds the Holy Sites. Should the Copts fight back from their perilous position in 1444 and secure their Holy Sites, they will be that much stronger. Co-operate with other Coptic nations and share the Patriarch's blessings

Coptic Playground.jpg


Alongside the Holy sites and Patriarch Blessings, Copts will have a healthy dose of unique flavour events and missions to drive their liberation of the Holy Sites. Coptic Holy Sites will be a paid feature in the upcoming DLC, which will be released alongside the free 1.18 patch.

Next week I'll pass the reins back to Johan, as we return to see what changes have been going on in the Throne Room
 
Coptic faith will retain it's current modifiers or are they changed in 1.18?

(In addition to Patriarch Blessings)
 
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What no love for the Orthodox?The orthodox faith literally has nothing just a slider....

A lot of events and a slider*

Also Orthodox slider is vanilla afaik so free rework if they would decide to to this.

There are many faiths in europa without ANY cool things. The animist, fetishist, sikh, Totemist, Shinto Confucian etc.
 
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Copts have had a rough time. Way back in EU's history they were simply represented as the Orthodox faith before getting their own religion within the Christian group, but even then they lacked their own flavour, destined to be left in the Horn of Africa and Armenia with hungry neighbours and their Patriarch being locked up and bullied in Mamluk-held Alexandria.
Nice. Here's hoping this prods the CK2 team to give the African branches of Christianity some love too. :p
 
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Finally Coptic gets some love! I would love if orthodox would get some too... they are a big religion but have only a slider with like 5 events to increase/decrease PA
 
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Coptic faith will retain it's current modifiers or are they changed in 1.18?

+2 Tolerance of True Faith and +10% fort Defense remain in addition to the Blessings

Is legitimize government also RT/Devotion/Horde unity?

Yes.

Looking good Jake! Will go for the Prester John in 1.18 :)

Good luck.

If all five holy sites are controlled by copts, will all coptic nations be able to choose all five blessings?

Correct. If Coptic Alodia holds Alexandria (and converts it) Then Coptic Ethiopia would get +1 blessings too.
 
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I can't but feel that the Orthodox should also have this feature (though maybe with smaller blessings). I'm pretty sure they'd be as happy as these Copts if they saved the Pentarchy.
 
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Nice!
 
Will all blessings be possible to choose even if you only have one blessing at your disposal? Can the blessings be changed? For instance if I picked the missionary boost, and then I convert all my provinces to coptic, and I'd like another blessing, can I then change it after a while or is it just locked? If the holy site is lost, will my blessing still be linked to that particular site? Will every coptic choose their own blessings, or does the site's holder do that?
 
Good to have some more flavour!
 
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