Dev Diary 69: Illyric, Agamic, Vedic and Ajivik
Salvete!
Today Izn will be presenting his first Dev Diary, but it’s a big one, it includes 3 new religions, Illyric, Agamic and Ajivika and plenty of new deities. First though, an announcement, the Bronze Age reborn 2.5 version of the mod is out containing a lot of new content, go check it out:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2448788091 (patch notes can be found in the Steam changelogs)
Now onto the map changes as presented by Izn.
Hi hi! I’m Izn, also known as LinkLuver. I’m only 2 months into modding in general. I made a mod adding deities and immediately got told it could be useful in Invictus and was invited to the team. It’s been an incredible honor to join the Invictus team and I hope you’ll enjoy all the stuff I’ve worked on. Speaking of the stuff I’ve worked on, let me tell you about some of my latest work.
From the ports of Istria in the north, past the mountains into Pannonia in the east, straddling the rugged coastline of the Adriatic in the west, and clashing with the Hellenic world in Macedonia to the south, the Illyric religion flourishes.
What a pretty color if I do say so myself! Very distinct from Druidic, very distinct from Hellenic, man, it’d be nice if the culture’s color was as distinct as the relig-oh wait it is.
Anyways, with that aside, let me tell you about what Illyric is. Illyric is based on the beliefs of the Illyrians (go figure). While the religion itself has very little centralization and even lacks a shared cosmology, the Illyrians still had a distinct pantheon and religion from Hellenic. To reflect this, decentralization though, Illyrics will have the option of one of three cults to follow.
Historically, the Northern Illyrians were famous for their Cult of the Sun. The Southern Illyrians were instead associated most with the Cult of the Serpent. Finally, across Illyrian lands, there was widespread worship of a newer cult, the Cult of the Thracian Horseman. In game, this will be represented by a choice of one of these cults with a system very similar to the Hindu personal deity decision. Choose the Sun, and you will receive religious buffs. Choose the Serpent and you will receive fertility buffs. And choose the Thracian Horseman, and you will receive cavalry buffs. The buffs aren’t the only things to take into account when selecting a cult. Keep an eye out for both good and bad events associated with your choice of cult.
Oh dear Tadenus! I almost forgot, it’s time to talk about the deities! Deities are my specialty, so let me quickly go over all the deities available to Illyrics. I’ve notated every brand new deity with an asterisk. Any without one were previously in the game as Hellenic-Illyrian.
War
Armatus, Bindus, and Enji* will be available to all Illyric followers. Meanwhile, Melosocus and Iria* will be exclusive to Histrians and Iapodians. So, in total, 5 war deities.
Culture
The culture deities available to everyone are Tadenus, Deipatros, Sentona,* Nebres,* and Taotor.* That makes 5, plus don’t forget Dualos,* available to Paeonians; and Histria, available to Histrians (go figure) as well as Iapodians.
Fertility
Alright, next we have the deities most associated with the number of this Dev Diary. Thana, Anzotica, Dracon dhe Dracaena, Ica, Damatira,* and Eia!* Eia is limited to Histrians, Iapodians, and Dalmations too, while the rest are here for all. That’s 6 right there.
Economy
Phew, running out of breath here. Economy deities include Latra, Vidasus, Redon,* Aecorna,* Boria,* Trita,* and Andinus.* Aecorna is for Pannonians and Catarians only; Boria is exclusive to Histrians, Iapodians, Liburnians; Trita is the same as Boria but also includes Dalmatians, and Andinus is solely for Dardanians and Deraemestians! And that’s 7 deities.
So! Illyric has 23 deities available to them, you might assume. Well actually, you’re half right. Illyric has 23 deities in its religion, but Illyric will actually get access to one more brand new deity. Medaurus from the Zalmoxian faith will be available to all Illyric followers. Medaurus is a special deity for Illyric as he became synonymous with Illyrian religion after the Roman invasions. So, Medaurus will stay with the Thracian’s and their Zalmoxian faith primarily, however if you’re playing as the Illyric faith, you will still have access to him. If you were wondering, he’s also very related to the Cult of the Thracian Horseman. Now, that’s all right? No more deity talk.
Well, you may have noticed that there’s one Illyrian culture that’s already gone through the Hellenization process.
The Messapians, the Illyrians of Italy. They will retain their unique deities within the Hellenic faith of Zis, Damater, and Aphrodite Lahona, but in addition to that, I’ve given them a few more. Athana will be available to them, and any Illyrian culture that converts to Hellenic. And too will they receive Illyrius, a rare deity with the same conditions. Illyrius is a bit special as he was the Greek god of the Illyrians, and represented the explanation to the Greeks of where the Illyrians came from. In addition to those two, Messapians will also always have access to Taotor and Damatira, two Illyric gods who were believed primarily by the Messapians.
Now, time for the other major project I’ve been working on. Keep in mind that this is much less complete than Illyric because of the complexity of this region. This region is very misunderstood by the game at the moment. While it is divided among different culture groups, it is swallowed by a catchall religion of the region for the most part. It’s the land of a thousand languages, spices, and elephants, it’s India! Here’s the before and after.
A lot to talk about here. First, let's talk about the War Elephant in the room. Hinduism is gone! Kind of. Hinduism still exists, it’s just split into two. Historically, (and in fact, to this day to an extent) Hinduism wasn’t a single religion at all. The concept of Hinduism as one religion really gained traction as a concept during Indian Independence movements in the 20th century and through centuries of rivalry with Islam. Hinduism is more so a series of religions that interacted and influenced each other rather than a single religion. In Imperator Rome’s time period, these religions were even more separate. You’ll also notice some bright green dots sprinkled in there. Let’s get into the changes you see above now.
Vedic religion represents what is most commonly thought of when you talk about Hinduism, or Vedic Hinduism. For gameplay purposes, they will pretty much be exactly the same as Hinduism from before, just with a name change and deity changes. I’ve also reworked holy sites for Vedic. While I’m here, I’ll also mention I’ve added Agni for Vedic.
Agamic represents the Dravidic religion, of course, and is by far the biggest new addition to the region. The Agamic religion used to be very widespread in pre-Indo-Aryan periods, but with the settlement of the Indo-Aryans, Agamic has been reduced to primarily the Deccan plateau and Dravidian nations. Even the island of Sri Lanka is almost entirely Vedic at this point. Yet Agamic would persevere to this day as non-Vedic Hinduism. You’ll find that many previously Hindu deities will go over to Agamic instead, especially the Dravidian exclusive ones. Despite the difference of Agamic and Vedic, by this period there were also some shared deities. This will be reflected by some deities being available to both Agamic and Vedic, with the origin of the deity being the determiner of which pantheon it belongs to.
I should also mention the second largest difference in this map, the spread of the Sramanic religions of Buddhism, Jainism, and of course, the new Ajivika.
Jainism will be spread a little more in Dravidian lands, mainly as minority pops, a province or two on the Eastern coast, and many provinces in the Indus Delta and East Magadha. While there are a lot more Jainist pops, they’re again, minority pops, so you won’t see them much in the screenshot, however, this should give Jain a better shot against its rivals than before. Here’s a screenshot of Jain spread in Dravidian lands as it’s one of the few places that’s been finished with minorities.
Buddhism will be much more thickly coated in the Delta and primarily in Kalinga and Bengal regions. As a general rule, Sramanic religions in North India are in the East or West, and Vedic remains even more dominant in the center. Notably, Buddhism will receive a nation heralding Buddhism as its state religion: Kalinga.
Now for Ajivika, the other new religion of the subcontinent. Ajivika was another Sramanic religion like Buddhism and Jainism. One of the biggest differences was the belief of Niyati, or, fate. This means that Ajivika followers did not believe in concepts such as Karma. Ajivika by this point is still very influential and relevant, but it's quickly being overtaken by Buddhism and Jainism. That said, Ajivika is still in a position to overtake Jain and Buddhism. It’s not unrealistic at all to imagine a world where it replaces Buddhism entirely. To reflect this, Ajivika will be widespread as a minority religion. It’s primarily going to be found in North India, including the Indus Delta but not downstream of the Indus. There will also be hotspots in the center of India with a new tag that embraces Ajivika as its state religion. It’s in a very precarious situation and players looking for a challenge of reinstating a niche religion have a fun choice in Vidarbha.
This is such a massive change to the Indian region, and there’s so much more work to be done for the region’s religions, but what I’m showing you is from the first three days of work on it. As such, I can’t tell you much more about the deities, events, flavor, and other stuff that simply hasn’t been thought about quite yet. Nonetheless, India is definitely worth trying out if you haven’t in a while and there’s more to come! Before I move on, huge shoutouts to the amazing Dementive and Shocky, both of whom helped me immensely with figuring out the new Indian religions, supported and suggested for me to add them, and helped me map their spread. And shoutout to Omega as well, who helped me with resources and research for many of the other religions I’ve worked on.
Now then, time to talk about deities again. I will quickly mention that there is a special Greek deity for Greco-Indians only. I want to share more deities with you, but the Indian content I’ve just talked about is hardly 2 or 3 days old, and deities have not been worked on yet. With that out of the way, I will be taking you on a tour of the world and generally the deities and holy sites I’ve added!
Welcome to the lands of the Nile, my favorite region of all. The Upper Nile was home to many deities that were either never worshiped downstream, were much less relevant, or simply weren’t worshiped anymore. While it’s too much of a stretch to provide a whole new Kushitic religion, they will have access to a half dozen exclusive gods and holy sites accompanying said gods. Don’t worry if you’re prefer sailing downstream, there’s more than a dozen new deities available to all Kemetic believers, and they have new holy sites too! There’s also a small Easter egg deity somewhere here. Kudos to anyone who finds them.
Speaking of new holy sites, how about Bon? Check out the plethora of new holy sites, 7 new ones to be exact. Oh, by Tonpa Shenrab, that means every deity in Bon has a holy site… well we can’t have that! How about doubling the number of deities for them then! 8 new deities for Bon it is.
How about Anatolia and their religion of the great goddess Cybele? Yep, 7 more deities, more holy sites. If you’re a Greek culture who converts to Cybelene, you might have access to a few more deities too.
Perhaps the lands of Canaan are more your fancy? Well, here’s some new holy sites for the Levant. You’ll find plenty of new deities as well; there’s more than a dozen new deities for you to try, including some available for Canaanite follows across the Mediterranean.
Or maybe Africa? Sure, why not. 9 new deities for Megalithic, along with around 10 new holy sites, of course. Megalithic is filled with primordial origins for many gods. From Moneiba to Antinus, there’s a wide variety of gods to select from over the massive expanse Megalithic covers.
Ah, a Europe enjoyer I see. Well, here’re 2 new holy sites for Tuistic accompanied by 9 new Tuistic deities too! Hopefully those who prefer Norse will read the descriptions and learn about the Germanic origins of said Norse gods.
Perhaps you prefer the weather to the south, in the land of Iberia and their religion of Mari. That’s fine, you have the 8 new Marite deities and 3 new holy sites to play with in their unique religion.
Of course, I’ve mentioned the Illyrians plenty. Here are 7 of their holy sites, though more to come. And to the west, with two new holy sites (more to come hopefully), the lands of the mighty Zalmoxis have 5 new deities to play with too.
Let’s slide to the steppe and see the Scythians and Sakans with a small surprise! No new holy sites, but you do get 2 new deities.
Holy Ishtar! How could anyone forget the legendary pantheon of the Mesopotamians, one of the most well documented and interesting ancient religion?! Not me, that's for sure. Enjoy a dozen new holy sites, and more than 20 new deities! There might even be some more hidden deities from long gone cities to rediscover.
As you can see, this is a ton of deities. Way too many to go over individually. I hope you take notice of the minor changes like new localizations for names, new descriptions, and changed holy sites, but also some major changes like new modifiers, new types of deity conditions, and more.
Thank you for reading. I’m so excited to continue working on religion and deities in the future. I hope you’ll enjoy the more than 100 new deities across the map, 3 whole new religions, and any future content I get to be a part of!
