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Mithraism mod v1.0

Pied-Noir

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Sep 6, 2011
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D847E1F63D94C171C7DFB226FB9F9C16E937D0C3


This mod adds four new Greco-Roman faiths to the game: Mithraism, Bacchism, Orphism and Pythagoreanism. They are all dead religions that must be revived, and have not been assigned to any historical characters.

This mod will be compatible with other mods so long as they do not change or add any Greco-Roman (Hellenic) faiths.

Steam Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2262422195

Mithraism: "A dualist warrior cult once popular among Roman legionaries and viewed as a serious rival to Christianity, its initiates worship the Zoroastrian entity Mithras in underground temples."

Bacchism: "Bacchics venerate Dionysus (Bacchus) by taking part in debauched secret rituals including feasting, flagellation, group sex and animal sacrifice - though it is whispered humans have also been forced to the altar."

Orphism: "Orphism is in some ways a reconstructed form of the Bacchanalia - its adherents worship both Dionysus and the mythical poet Orpheus, and place emphasis on wisdom, nature and purity of the soul."

Pythagoreanism: "The disciples of the philosopher Pythagoras place great stock in numerical links to the universe. They value honesty, knowledge, restraint, selflessness and rational inquiry."

I hope it's of use/enjoyment to some of you.
 
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There is one religion, that I think was pretty important, but it's not included on the list and that being Sol-Invicta :)
Thanks - that's one I never thought of.

To be honest I had no intention to add Mithraism and knew very little about it. A friend mentioned it after trying my Arianism mod and so I got reading about it, then got onto reading about other Hellenic cults and religions. There are definitely recurring themes and overlapping ideas between some of these, such as both Bacchics and Orphics worshipping Dionysus, and Orphics and Pythagoreans being strict vegetarians. Mithraism does in fact feature Sol and has dualist elements regarding darkness and light, but the focus is obviously on Mithras himself. I suppose in a future update I could add Sol as one of the god names for it.

I may also consider adding some trait (virtue/sin) changes to these - for example, Mithraism could have Brave/Craven, and Pythagoreanism Quick/Slow.
 
Thanks - that's one I never thought of.

To be honest I had no intention to add Mithraism and knew very little about it. A friend mentioned it after trying my Arianism mod and so I got reading about it, then got onto reading about other Hellenic cults and religions. There are definitely recurring themes and overlapping ideas between some of these, such as both Bacchics and Orphics worshipping Dionysus, and Orphics and Pythagoreans being strict vegetarians. Mithraism does in fact feature Sol and has dualist elements regarding darkness and light, but the focus is obviously on Mithras himself. I suppose in a future update I could add Sol as one of the god names for it.

I may also consider adding some trait (virtue/sin) changes to these - for example, Mithraism could have Brave/Craven, and Pythagoreanism Quick/Slow.
Mithraism and Sol Invictus are not the same thing. It's true that Cult of Sol Invictus contained some of the elements of Mithraism, but it was Syncretic faith.
Another important late Roman cult was Cult of Isis :)
Late Roman cults is actually pretty interesting topic ^^ They were widespread all over Empire and had comparable or even, in some cases, more believers than early days Christianity. If not Constantine the Great, who knows if Christianity would become as dominant as it is now ;)
 
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Mithraism and Sol Invictus are not the same thing. It's true that Cult of Sol Invictus contained some of the elements of Mithraism, but it was Syncretic faith.
Another important late Roman cult was Cult of Isis :)
Late Roman cults is actually pretty interesting topic ^^ They were widespread all over Empire and had comparable or even, in some cases, more believers than early days Christianity. If not Constantine the Great, who knows if Christianity would become as dominant as it is now ;)
Constantine the Great just saw the inevitable domination of Christianity. Moreover, he was baptized a Christian at his deathbed:))
 
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The Cult of Sol Invictus (good luck finding an -ism for it, I've seen Solism, Invictism... none of them make much sense or have ever been used) is an interesting addition.
 
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The Cult of Sol Invictus (good luck finding an -ism for it, I've seen Solism, Invictism... none of them make much sense or have ever been used) is an interesting addition.
Yeah, I'll certainly consider it for a future version, although I may need to edit some tenets for it - for example, Sun Worship is currently restricted to Zunist faiths.

Also, I see there's been a small hotfix today to fix DLC clothing - does this mod still work okay for everyone, or do I need to update it for the version?
 
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Hi mate I have a Dionysian religion mod on my backlog that I've been working on, happy for you to borrow any of the ideas.

First the Holy Sites, drawn from myths, cults, and the Dionysiaca by Nonnus and helped by Google Maps in some cases by triangulating the closest in game site:
  • Naxos - Marriage to Ariadne and capture by the Tyrrhenian pirates, major historical cult centre - Barony of Naxos in the County of Naxos
Code:
county = c_naxos
barony = b_naxos
  • Dionysopolis/Nyssa/Nagarahara/(modern Jalalabad) - Legendary birthplace of Dionysius in India, one of the Mount Nysas, Alexander spares the city during his invasion because of its cult legend- Barony of Nagarahara in the County of Kabul
Code:
county = c_kabul
barony = b_nagarahara
  • Nicaea - Tryst with the nymph Nikaea and birth of Dionysus's daughter Telete - Barony of Nikaea in the County of Nikaea
Code:
county = c_nikaea
barony = b_nikaea
  • Pangaion Hills, Edonida/Thrace - Madness of Thracian King Lykourgos, sacrificed to Dionysus on Mount Pangaeum, historical cult centre in Thrace - Barony of Kavala in the County of Serres
Code:
county = c_serres
barony = b_kavala
  • Mount Kithairon/Thebes - Madness of Theban King Pentheus, major historical cult/orgy centre, site of Euripides' The Bacchae - City of Thebes in the County of Attica
Code:
county = c_attica
barony = b_thebeshellas
  • Zeugma (Commagene) - Legendary bridge Dionysus builds over Euphrates on the way to invade India in the Dionysiaca - Barony of Aintab in the County of Aintab
Code:
county = c_aintab
barony = b_aintab
  • Lerna in Argolis - Alkyonian Lake where Dionysus descended into the Underworld to rescue his mother Semele, site of the historical Lernaean Mysteries and noctural rites to Dionysus, Bishopric of Argos in the County of Korinthos
Code:
county = c_korinthos
barony = b_argos

Theoi is good source all the myths and excerpts from the primary sources:

Ones you've already got:
  • Athens & Brauron - Dionysia festival amongst many - Barony of Athens in the County of Attica
  • Rome - centre of the Bacchic Rites and Conspiracy - Barony of Rome in the County of Latium, Livy mentions the rites being also centred in the region of Etruria (Tuscany) North of Rome but it's hard to pin it to particular spot and the Aventine Hill cult in Rome is certain.
 
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Some of the loc I've been working on, new good gods, titles to the Bacchic priesthood etc. I made Hera the evil god because she tried to kill Dionysus and maniuplated Semele into suicide by theophany:
Code:
l_english:
 dionysusmod_religion:1 "Bacchanalia"
 dionysusmod_religion_adj:1 "Dionysian"
 dionysusmod_religion_adherent:1 "Bacchant"
 dionysusmod_religion_plural:1 "Bacchae"
 dionysusmod_high_god_name:0 "Dionysus"
 dionysusmod_high_god_name_possessive:0 "Dionysus'"
 dionysusmod_high_god_she_he:0 "He"
 dionysusmod_high_god_alternate:0 "Bacchus"
 dionysusmod_high_god_alternate_possessive:0 "Bacchus'"
 dionysusmod_religious_text:0 "Dionysiaca"
 dionsysusmod_good_god_semele:0 "Semele"
 dionsysusmod_good_god_eros:0 "Eros"
 dionsysusmod_good_god_persephone:0 "Persephone"
 dionsysusmod_good_god_priapus:0 "Priapus"
 dionsysusmod_evil_god_hera:0 "Hera"
 dionysusmod_religious_head_title:0 "Eleuthereus"
 dionysusmod_religious_head_title_name:0 "Aesymnetes"
 dionysusmod_devotee_male:0 "Bacchant"
 dionysusmod_devotee_male_plural:0 "Bacchants"
 dionysusmod_devotee_female:0 "Thyiade"
 dionysusmod_devotee_female_plural:0 "Thyiades"
 dionysusmod_devotee_neuter:0 "Bacchant"
 dionysusmod_devotee_neuter_plural:0 "Bacchae"
 dionysusmod_priest_male:0 "Euastêr"
 dionysusmod_priest_male_plural:0 "Euastêrs"
 dionysusmod_priest_female:0 "Maenad"
 dionysusmod_priest_female_plural:0 "Maenads"
 dionysusmod_priest_alternate_plural:0 "Bassarids"
 dionysusmod_bishop_male:0 "Thiasarch"
 dionysusmod_bishop_male_plural:0 "Thiasarches"
 dionysusmod_bishop_female:0 "Gerarai"
 dionysusmod_bishop_female_plural:0 "Gerarai"
 dionysusmod_pagan:0 "Bacchanalia"
 dionysusmod_pagan_adj:0 "Dionysian"
 dionysusmod_pagan_adherent:0 "Bacchant"
 dionysusmod_pagan_adherent_plural:0 "Bacchae"
 
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Another idea was for a decision to either grant a claim or an invasion casus belli on the kingdom titles Dionsysus invades in the Dionysiaca by Nonnus, so the player can replicate his great invasion of the East, which would correspond to the Indus valley of Alexander's conquests.
Code:
k_kabulistan
k_punjab
k_sindh
 
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@Mhoirbheinn

This is fantastic stuff, thank you so much!

I did consider Semele (I had been reading about her as part of my research for this mod) and I have added Persephone as a god for Orphism. At some point I plan to update this mod with some trait changes, so I'll definitely take a look at adding some of this localization. I did look into god names but outside of the default Greek set (which they will all use as a base) didn't find too many, although I am distinctly lacking academic texts for this stuff at present. Of course I added the major god names (Mithras, Dionysus/Bacchus, and The Oracle for Pythagoras) and a couple of major ones, but so far I've only found scraps of information about cultist/priest names and that sort of thing, so this is very helpful.

On the subject of holy sites, I did do some research on these and tended to opt for temples, statues and even the locations of major contemporary mosaics that have survived. So an obvious example would be the Temple of Bacchus, and thankfully Baalbek is already a holy site in vanilla, and there's a statue of Orpheus in Corinth IIRC. I also added various others such as for the London and Mainz Mithraea, and Pythagoras' birth place (Samos) and the part of Magna Grecia he and his followers settled in (Cotrone).

I understand that Mithraism has Zoroastrian/Eastern elements and I was originally torn between giving them Eastern Syncretic or Gnostic as a tenet, but opted for the latter as it was a dualist faith and that seems a more useful/fitting tenet. So, whereas I appreciate that sites in Afghanistan or further afield could fit, it may be too wide a spread for the faith - generally holy sites want to be within the same continent. If you have any queries about my choices then please ask; I do have notes for them all (I added them in the file also) but don't have them at hand right now.

If you have any other suggestions or additions please let me know. Your feedback is much appreciated.
 
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On the titles I collected, I'll give the background:

I think Maenad is well known and attested for the female followers of Dionysus, same word origin as manic and maniac.

Thyiade(s) as a title for female devotees:
THYIA was the Naiad-nymph of a spring on Mount Parnassos in Phokis (central Greece). Her shrine was the site for the gathering of the Thyiades--woman celebrants of the Orgies of the god Dionysos.

Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 6. 4 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"Others maintain that Kastalios (Castalius) (of the Kastalian Spring), an aboriginal, had a daughter Thyia, who was the first to be priestess of Dionysos and celebrate orgies in honor of the god. It is said that later on men called after her Thyiades all women who rave in honor of Dionysos. At any rate they hold that Delphos (Delphus) was a son of Apollon and Thyia. Others say that his mother was Melaina (Melaena), daughter of Kephisos (Cephisus)."

Euastêr is a funny one, it's a title for the male leader of a Dionysian procession who cries out "Euoi!"
Suidas s.v. Euaster (quoting Leonidas of Tarentum, Greek Anthology 6. 154) :
"Euastêr (who cries Euoi!) : Epithet of Dionysos. From the ecstatic cry Euoi! In the Epigrams: ‘These things of the open country Arkadian Biton, when an old man, dedicated to Pan and Lyaios who cries Eoi!, that is to Lyaios and the Nymphai.’"

Bassarids, a synomyn for maenad used in Thrace for female followers of Dionysus who dressed in fox skins, the word means fox, probably also in the sense of minx.
A Thracian bacchanal; a bacchant. The word comes from Greek, literally meaning ‘fox’, probably from the traditional dress of fox-skins.
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095450592
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 22. 1 ff :
"Then sounded the womanish song of the Bassarides, making Phrygian festival for Lyaios (Lyaeus) [Dionysos] of the Night, and the hairy company of Satyroi (Satyrs) rang out with mystic voice. All the earth laughed, the rocks bellowed, the Naiades [Water-Nymphs] sang alleluia, the Nymphai (Nymphs) circled in mazes over the silent streams of the river, and sang a melody of Sikelian (Sicilian) tune like the hymns which the minstrel Seirenes (Sirens) pour from their honeytongued throats. All the woodlands rang thereat: the trees found skill to make music like the hoboy, the Hadryades [Tree-Nymphs] cried aloud, the Nymphai sang, peeping up halfseen over her leafy cluster. The fountain, though but water, turned white and poured a stream of snowy milk; in the hollow of the torrent the Naiades bathed in milky streams and drank the white milk."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 33. 348 ff :
"She [Khalkomede (Chalcomede), a leader of the Bassarides in Dionysos' War against the Indians] would have thrown herself rolling headlong into the waves [to escape the pursuit of the Indian Morrheus], but Thetis gave her help, to please Dionysos. She changed her shape, and stood before Khalkomedeia in the form of a Bakkhante (Bacchante) woman with comfortable words : ‘Courage Khalkomede! Fear not the bed of Morrheus. You have in me a lucky omen of your untouched maidenhead, bringing witness that no marriage shall come near your bed. I am Thetis, like you an enemy marriage. I love maidenhood, as Khalkomede herself . . . Be astute, and save us! For if you contrive your own death, without learning what marriage is without a bridegroom, the wild Indian will destroy the whole company of Bassarides. No, you must delude him, and you will save from death your army, which is now in flight while Dionysos is under the lash [driven mad by the Erinys] . . . Have no fear about marriage. No bedfellow shall loose the firm knot of your maidenhood: I swear it by Dionysos, who has touched my board, I swear it by your thyrsus, and by Aphrodite of the sea.’
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 24. 102 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"[The Indian river-god Hydaspes tries to drown the army of the god Dionysos :] The company of Bassarides [the god's female devotees] and the ivycrowned women were saved from the roaring turmoil of the deeps, by the daughters of Kydnos (Cydnus), the River that loved Zephryos (the West-Wind), since they knew the ways of the floating waters; these his father had given to Bakkhos )Bacchus) for victory in the Indian War, Naiades well skilled in warfare, whom Kilikian (Cilician) Typhoeus had taught battle while he was fighting against Kronion (Cronion) [Zeus]."
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 11. 113 ff :
"[Dionysos equips his companions with musical instruments :] The Panes have their cithern and their melodious tootling pipes; the Satyroi (Satyrs) have the roundrattling tomtom from your patron Dionysos; even the mountainranging Bassarides ride on the backs of lions."

A few too many quotes but the Dionysiaca is brillant.
 
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Thiasarch is the leader of a Thiasus, a society or festival for a god, in particular Dionysus although the term became generalised (even applied to early Christians) so you could use it as a priest or bishop title for your other Greek religions
THIASUS
The Greek designation of a society which had selected some god for its patron, and held sacrifices, festal processions, and banquets at stated times in his honour. Frequently the members of such societies, which took their name either from their divine patron or else from the days of festal celebration, pursued other common ends, sometimes of business, sometimes of social life. The name thiasus was specially applied to the festivals in honour of Dionysus, and, in the representations of poetry and art, to the mythical retinue of the god, which consisted of Sileni, Satyrs, Nymphs, Maenads, etc.

Gerarai (for female bishop), were the senior female priests of Dionysus who presided over the Anthesteria festival in Athens, same word origin as geratric.

gerarai.jpg
 
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Eleuthereus for religious_head_title is borrowed from one of Dionysus's epithets: The Liberater or The Deliverer. I thought it makes a nice counterpart to Saviour and Saoshyant for someone who revives or reforms a Bacchic faith.
ELEUTHEREUS (Eleuthereus), a surname of Dionysus, which he derived either from Eleuther, or the Boeotian town of Eleutherae; but it may also be regarded as equivalent to the Latin Liber, and thus describes Dionysus as the deliverer of man from care and sorrow. (Paus. i. 20. § 2, 38. § 8; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 101.) The form Eleutherius is certainly used in the sense of the deliverer, and occurs also as the surname of Zeus. (Plut. Sympos. vii. in fin.; Pind. Ol. xii. 1; Strab. ix. p. 412; Tacit. Ann. xv. 64.)

Aesymnetes for religious_head_title_name comes from an uncommon Greek title for lord, dictator or tyrant, meaning "just portion", i.e. "a person who gives everyone their just portion". It was also a title of Dionysus used in a regional cult:
AESYMNE′TES (Aisumnêtês), a surname of Dionysus, which signifies the Lord, or Ruler, and under which he was worshipped at Aroë in Achaia. The story about the introduction of his worship there is as follows: There was at Troy an ancient image of Dionysus, the work of Hephaestus, which Zeus had once given as a present to Dardanus. It was kept in a chest, and Cassandra, or, according to others, Aeneas, left this chest behind when she quitted the city, because she knew that it would do injury to him who possessed it. When the Greeks divided the spoils of Troy among themselves, this chest fell to the share of the Thessallian Eurypylus, who on opening it suddenly fell into a state of madness. The oracle of Delphi, when consulted about his recovery, answered, "Where thou shalt see men performing a strange sacrifice, there shalt thou dedicate the chest, and there shalt thou settle." When Eurypylus came to Aroë in Achaia, it was just the season at which its inhabitants offered every year to Artemis Triclaria a human sacrifice, consisting of the fairest youth and the fairest maiden of the place. This sacrifice was offered as an atonement for a crime which had once been committed in the temple of the goddess. But an oracle had declared to them, that they should be released from the necessity of making this sacrifice, if a foreign divinity should be brought to them by a foreign king. This oracle was now fulfilled. Eurypylus on seeing the victims led to the altar was cured of his madness and perceived that this was the place pointed out to him by the oracle; and the Aroëans also, on seeing the god in the chest, remembered the old prophecy, stopped the sacrifice, and instituted a festival of Dionysus Aesymnetes, for this was the name of the god in the chest. Nine men and nine women were appointed to attend to his worship. During one night of this festival a priest carried the chest outside the town, and all the children of the place, adorned, as formerly the victims used to be, with garlands of corn-ears, went down to the banks of the river Meilichius, which had before been called Ameilichius, hung up their garlands, purified themselves, and then put on other garlands of ivy, after which they returned to the sanctuary of Dionysus Aesymnetes. (Paus. vii. 19 and 20.) This tradition, though otherwise very obscure, evidently points to a time when human sacrifices were abolished at Aroë by the introduction of a new worship. At Patrae in Achaia there was likewise a temple dedicated to Dionysus Aesymnetes. (Paus. vii. 21. § 12.)
 
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Excellent stuff @Mhoirbheinn! I'll be sure to include some of this in v1.1, alongside some new virtues and sins.

Both Bacchism and Orphism venerate Dionysus so if you've any preferences for some of this localization do let me know which.
 
Great work! I've always been interested in Greco-Roman paganism, and in particular the various mystery religions present throughout the Roman world. It's nice to see them getting some love in CK3.

Mithraism: "A dualist warrior cult once popular among Roman legionaries and viewed as a serious rival to Christianity, its initiates worship the Zoroastrian entity Mithras in underground temples."
While it is true that the Zoroastrian Mithra was almost certainly the inspiration behind Mithras, the extent in which Persian practice influenced Roman practice is very unclear and murky, much like Mithraism itself. The famous tauroctony for example is Greco-Roman in design, but other aspects like the presence of Arimanius borrows from Zoroastrianism.

Besides that, I'd recommend these faiths to perhaps be included later-
  1. The Cult of Serapis
  2. The Cult of Cybele
  3. The Eleusinian Mysteries
Still, great work and I look forward to seeing this mod progress!
 
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@The Russian Empire

Thanks for your reply - I hope you find time to try the mod and have fun spreading the Bacchic Mysteries by the sword. :D

And yeah, I had read about the Greeks basically using a bastardized/appropriated form of Mithras, but it seems an unnecessarily convoluted bit of text to add to an otherwise short description of the religion. As a description I think it works without being deceptive or incorrect - we can always argue about the extent to which the variant they worshipped overlapped with the Persian original. :p (I could always add a word or two in v1.1, but I don't want to rephrase the entire thing)

I did get to reading about the Eleusinian Mysteries whilst researching the Bacchic ones, although I'm not clued up on Serapis or Cybele. Were they particularly well-spread? Eleusinian seems an obvious addition as it was apparently the major mystery religion, but I didn't add it in v1.0 because I hadn't researched it yet. Originally I was only going to add Mithraism (hence the mod name) but then I got reading about Dionysus and the Bacchics/Orphics, and thought Pythagoreanism was something interesting and unique to round off the mod.

Do you have any suggestions for the three faiths you've listed, such as tenets/doctrines and localization (e.g. priest/god names)? I'll do my own research of course, but I thought these may be faiths you know a bit about already.
 
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