[MOD] Britannia 479 - The Winter King

[DC123456789]

Britannia 479 AD - The Winter King
A Dark Ages Total Conversion for CKIII, based on "The Warlord Chronicles" saga by Bernard Cornwell

The Winter King is an upcoming Dark Ages CKIII Total Conversion mod for for the "Dark Ages"/post-Roman era of Western Europe, with an initial/release scope covering sub-Roman Britain and the Anglo-Saxon invasions. It is partly based on The Warlord Chronicles trilogy by Bernard Cornwell, a historical take on the traditional Arthurian legends, and is a port of the CK2 mod.

Links
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/DzxXnyNdkv

Main Features

• A main campaign scenario starting in 479 AD and extending into the 10th century, focused on the "barbarian" invasions of the former Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity. At the start, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of 'Anglia' and Sussex are well established in the southeast while some Irish raiders have settled in on the west coast, but the rest of Britannia is still ruled by a patchwork of fragmented Briton and Romano-British kingdoms.
• A completely new map that is significantly more detailed and "zoomed in" than vanilla, customized to fit the era. Everything is approximately "scaled down" by one tier, so that counties are about the size of vanilla baronies, duchies the size of vanilla counties, and so on.
• Dynamic culture-based titles and de jure configurations. For instance, as the Anglo-Saxons expand they will sweep away the old Brythonic titles and replace them with a new set of formable duchies and kingdoms, so that e.g. Dumnonia and Powys may eventually be replaced by Wessex and Mercia. Similarly the Britons can attempt to restore the old fallen kingdoms in the east, while the Romans have their own possible configurations as well.
• Custom events and storylines, including Anglo-Saxon invasions, a high kingship system, Roman restoration events, the crisis of the 6th century, narratives from the books, and more.

Recruiting
We're always looking for more team members! If you'd like to join, just message any of us across any of our platforms and we'll be more than happy to have you.

 

[DC123456789]

Reserved

 

[DC123456789]

Dev Diary #1 - Introduction and Scope
“Once upon a time, in a land that was called Britain, these things happened.”

Welcome to the first dev diary for The Winter King - CK3! Many of you are probably familiar with the original CK2 iteration of the mod, but for those who aren’t, The Winter King is a total conversion mod that aims to cover the “Dark Ages” of Western Europe in the aftermath of the fall of the Roman Empire, with a playable timeline spanning from 479 to 962 AD. It is partly based on The Warlord Chronicles trilogy by Bernard Cornwell, a gritty, historical take on the traditional Arthurian legends. If you haven’t read it before, we would highly recommend you take a look!

The main scenario starts in the winter of 479, in the very twilight of the Roman Empire in the West. Of course, Roman authority had been withdrawn from Britannia almost 70 years before, leaving a hodgepodge of chiefs, former officials, and warlords to divide the island into a large number of small petty kingdoms. Irish raiders would establish settlements and kingdoms in the west, while Germanic warriors invited to help fight them off would eventually found their own kingdoms in the east, with the native British rulers (of varying levels of Romanization) caught in the middle. By our start date, the most powerful of these kings is the famed Uther Pendragon of Dumnonia, who along with his close ally Tewdric of Gwent rules most of the remaining Romanized territory in the southwest. Uther, however, is weak and ailing, with a newborn grandson his only legitimate heir. Though his bastard son Arthur is loyal and skilled, even a warrior of his calibre will be challenged to maintain order amid recalcitrant vassals within and a ring of potential enemies without. Chief among these is Uther’s old rival Aelle, King of ‘Anglia’, who has made significant incursions into British territory since uniting the Anglo-Saxon tribes of the east and makes no secret of his ambition to dominate the entire island as Bretwalda. Less powerful but no less dangerous is Cerdic, King of Sussex, who has recently come to dominate all the princes south of the Thames and continually schemes to expand his kingdom further. Not to be forgotten are the other British rulers to the north and west, most prominently Gorfyddyd of Powys. No reliable ally despite a common enemy in the Saxons, he is well positioned to take advantage of moments of weakness to settle old scores with Gwent or even make a play for the High Kingship itself.

The Winter King features a custom map drawn to more accurately reflect the time period (insofar as such a thing is possible). Veterans of the CK2 mod will be familiar with the scale, which is zoomed in approximately one tier from vanilla - counties are on the scale of vanilla baronies, duchies on the scale of vanilla counties, and so on, allowing for a much more granular representation of these small petty kingdoms. While the scope is intended to eventually cover all of Western Europe, encompassing the whole of the Latin and Germanic worlds, the first release will only feature Britannia.

Beyond just the new map, some of the other features and storylines that we hope to have for the first release include:

• Culture-based titles and a dynamic de jure drift system. A centrepiece of the CK2 mod, different heritages can have different sets of titles and de jure configurations that they can spread across the map, allowing for e.g. the creation of Wessex or Mercia within their historical (or alternate!) borders
• Historical events and processes such as the Anglo-Saxon invasions, the crises of the 6th century, and the spreading of Christianity
• Cultural mechanics and ambitions, such as becoming High King of the Britons or uniting Aengland as Bretwalda
• Storyline events following the narrative of the books, with both canonical and alternate paths
• And (hopefully) more!

That’s it for now! We’re always looking for more contributors and team members - if you’re interested, just message any of us and we’ll be more than happy to have you. Whether or not you join, we hope to see you around, and we’ll be back soon(ish) with more!

 

[tribnia]

Will we finally see Hispania in CK3 version?

 

[Duarte]

glad to see this absolute ck2 classic finally arriving to ck3!

 

[DC123456789]

Will we finally see Hispania in CK3 version?

Quite too early to be thinking about that I think.

 

[Duarte]

ok so a question that i know is far from the start date, but how does the dev team plan to handle pengwern of Cynddylan fame? will it the be the a capital of powys or an independent kingdom, i know that the start date is 476 and that these even are from thr 600's but i'm curious as to how it will be handled

 

[DC123456789]

Same as in CK2 - Pengwern is a duchy within the kingdom of Powys, and Cynddylan would probably be an independent duke holding the title.

 

[Duarte]

Same as in CK2 - Pengwern is a duchy within the kingdom of Powys, and Cynddylan would probably be an independent duke holding the title.

fair enough it's been an age and a half since i last played the ck2 version, one last question will Cynddylan be part of the main Powys dynasty/house or will he be of a seperate one?

 

[DC123456789]

fair enough it's been an age and a half since i last played the ck2 version, one last question will Cynddylan be part of the main Powys dynasty/house or will he be of a seperate one?

Our start dates don't go that far, but Cynddylan would probably be at the very least part of a separate house (and possibly part of a separate dynasty altogether, depending on which interpretation of the sources you believe).

 

[Duarte]

Our start dates don't go that far, but Cynddylan would probably be at the very least part of a separate house (and possibly part of a separate dynasty altogether, depending on which interpretation of the sources you believe).

fair enough, thanks for indulging my curiosity!