Dev diary 47 - The Hwarang + WIP 1127.4.20
It's been a while, but it's finally time for another dev diary, covering a new society and also giving you a look at the current state of the new bookmark we're adding in the 13.0.0 version. Things are a bit WIP, meaning the screenshots might contain missing localization or the like, and might also change a bit before release.
The Hwarang:
The Hwarang are an upcoming society loosely inspired by
the historical group with the same name. It will be available to Koreanic Buddhists, Koreanic Taoists, and both unreformed and reformed Muists (regardless of reformation picks) that are not nomads (none are scripted as nomads, so that shouldn't normally matter). The society is not based on any vanilla society, meaning it's available regardless of DLCs, though you'll need one or more of tOG, RoI, JD, or HF to play any eligible characters, which presumably won't be a problem since nearly all of our characters require one of those DLCs anyway.
Unlike the historical Hwarang, the society in Tianxia is open to both men and women (though unless they belong to an Equal or Enatic religion AI women are relatively unlikely to join). Furthermore, it's not only a society for youths (even if characters as young as 12 can join), though characters over the age of 30 will gain less and less influence (-1 at age 30, -2 at age 35, etc. up to -15 at age 100), meaning you're sooner or later going to get to the point where the society isn't giving you anything more than flavour events and static modifiers (since you can't afford the powers unless you just got a reward for completing a mission), with the intent being that you either accept having an essentially honorary position or that you leave the society.
Ranks and powers:
As with all societies (at least in Tianxia and vanilla), there are four ranks in the Hwarang: Nangdo, Hwarang/Wonhwa, Pung-wolju, and Gukseon, with the last one only being available to one character at a time and with children restricted to the first rank.
The powers are fairly mixed, with some being of a religious nature, some having to do with managing a realm, and some having military applications.
A Nangdo has access to the following powers:
Become Groomed - Spend some Devotion to gain the Groomed trait (and lose Uncouth, if relevant). Since Uncouth makes you gain less Devotion while Groomed makes you gain more, this tends to pay for itself over time, and even though the Hwarang might frown on such activities Groomed would of course be helpful for seduction or opinion-boosting from anyone attracted to your gender.
Seek Spiritual Guidance - Spend Devotion to ask a suitable person to help you become a more virtuous/better Hwarang. It is possible the person you ask might ask for something in return (e.g. a Favour or a charitable donation) or that they'll turn you down. If a deal is reached, they'll pick something to teach you (partially based on their traits) and hopefully help you towards that trait... or they might see fit to teach you that virtues and the like are overrated (which potentially could be beneficial if you want to lose a certain virtue). Some attempts to help you (whether towards a virtue or not) might also have side-effects (e.g. a character being taught to be more diligent might decide that if they should work hard they should also have grand ambitions, meaning they move towards Ambitious).
Cash Out - As previously mentioned, you'll sooner or later get to a point where you're not really going to be getting any Devotion and where you might even be losing what you have over time. Because of this, characters over the age of 30 can opt to leave the society, immediately trading all Devotion for prestige and piety (currently at a 10:1 ratio, though that might be increased). Doing this will
permanently disqualify you from rejoining, though an AI-controlled character that's left but then ends up being player-controlled can rejoin
once (to avoid having the AI screw you over).
In addition to the powers of a Nangdo, a Hwarang (or Wonhwa, if female) has access to the following powers:
Inspire Loyalty - You can spend Devotion to make a courtier (that's not a prisoner) or vassal like you more, and it might potentially have good side-effects (e.g. the vassal might offer to end a rivalry with you, abandon a claim, or move closer to a virtue you have).
Organize Patrols - You can spend Devotion to lower the revolt risk in the target province. While a bit situational, it could be useful if you get hit with some nasty modifier in an event.
Reflect on Traits - You can spend Devotion to reflect on traits, potentially moving towards something Hwarang-approved. This is less prone to side-effects than Spiritual Guidance and it lets you decide which trait you want to go for, but unless you're willing to invest further Devotion or have a friend to help you in the right direction isn't also somewhat less likely to work.
In addition to the powers of a Hwarang/Wonhwa, a Pung-wolju has access to the following powers:
Suggest Non-Aggression Pact - You can spend Devotion to suggest that a vassal or fellow Hwarang enters into an NAP (lasting 10 years) with you. Potentially useful if you have NAPs set to block factions in the game rules or if another Hwarang has a claim on you and you're not feeling confident in your chances to fight them off.
Select Hwarang lifestye - Allows you to spend Devotion to pick one of nine Hwarang-approved lifestyles (Administrator, Architect, Duelist, Gamer, Hunter, Scholar, Socializer, Strategist, and Theologian).
Demand Leadership - Allows you to spend Devotion to demand that the current Gukseon steps aside and allows a younger and more capable leader to take their place, which of course happens to be you. Can only be used if you are younger than the current Gukseon and only if you are ten years younger than them or if no other Pung-wolju is younger than you. The current Gukseon might take it personally (potentially becoming your rival) and can spend 1000 Devotion to prevent the takeover, though as they'll be older than you they'll likely find it hard to continuously defeat attempted takeovers.
In addition to the powers mentioned before (excluding Demand Leadership, for reasons that should be obvious), the Gukseon has access to the following powers:
Raise Righteous Army - You can spend Devotion to raise a large number of irregular (and thus mostly low-quality) troops while at war. Unlike other such decisions, these troops do not disband when you are at peace.
Discourage Factions - You can spend Devotion to discourage all of your vassals from joining factions, lowering their willingness to start or join factions by a factor of four for the next two years. Potentially useful if you intend to do something unpopular (e.g. go against your council or tyrannically execute someone) or if you've already got a lot of uppity vassals.
Additionally, other society members that are not at war with the Gukseon, independent and higher tier, lieges of the Gukseon, rivals of the Gukseon, or (if relevant) the reformed Muist rel head will be obedient if AI-controlled (meaning they pretty much always accept diplomatic proposals).
Missions:
As in the case of other societies, the Hwarang will occasionally give you missions, which can be the following
- Become Groomed
- Seek Spiritual Guidance
- Become Chaste
- Become Temperate
- Become Charitable
- Become Diligent
- Become Patient
- Become Kind
- Become Humble
- Become Brave
- Become Content
- Become Gregarious
- Become Honest
- Become Just
- Become Trusting
- Switch to the Family focus
- Switch to the War focus
- Switch to the Rulership focus
- Switch to the Theology focus
It should be noted that since all the traits related to missions can be picked up in several places, it will sometimes take a while before you complete the mission if you gain a trait outside the Hwarang-specific events/decisions.
Refounding the Hwarang:
Since the historical Hwarang were closely tied to Silla, the society is only enabled by default in the start dates where Silla is around (769 and 867; the 936 start is roughly ten months too late for Silla to be around). However, a sufficiently powerful or influential ruler that's a Koreanic Buddhist, Koreanic Taoist, or unreformed or reformed Muist could potentially refound them later on, should they live up to the conditions.
In case you can't make them out in the screenshot above, the conditions are the following:
- Must be independent.
- Must not be inaccessible/incapable/imprisoned/etc.
- Must be an adult.
- Must be at peace.
- Must not be part of any other society.
- Must have 1000 piety.
- Must be one of A) emperor-tier, B) king-tier with a royal Silla bloodline and 2000 prestige, C) king-tier and in charge of a religion (which must be reformed Muist, since no other eligible religion can have a rel head) with 2000 prestige, and D) king-tier with 10000 prestige.
The ruler that recreates the Hwarang will get a bloodline as a reward and will immediately join the society and become the first Gukseon, and many eligible characters in their realm will probably join in quick succession.
It is probably worth noting right away that as it's rather unsuitable from a flavour standpoint we'll not be giving the Muists a Warrior Lodge. Yes, vanilla gives one to all (non-Aztec) pagans, but we'd rather give our pagans something more appropriate where possible, and similar to how the Ryukyuans got access to the WotRS instead of a Warrior Lodge the Muists get access to the Hwarang instead of a Warrior Lodge.
WIP 1127.4.20:
The new bookmark is starting to look a lot better than
the last time it was shown. Let's start with the less interesting parts.
Nusantara, the Pacific Rim, Japan, Manchuria, and Korea haven't changed significantly (though Korea is likely to change to some extent as work continues). For the most part, mainland SEAsia looks the same, though I believe Dali wasn't as far along the last time (and no, they're not meant to control that chunk north of Dai Viet; that's
Ziqi).
Finally, China has been worked on quite a bit, though it's not quite done yet (for one thing, there's no war between (Jurchen) Jin and Song at the moment).
Aside from the vassal shown as "Baise" (and another vassal in Hainan that's not visible in the screenshot), the vassals of Song and (Jurchen) Jin are historical people, even if not all of them held the land they held around this time. Going by the name shown on the vassal map mode, these vassals are:
- Wanyan Nianhan, in Taiyuan.
- Wanyan Zongwang, in Kaiping.
- Zhang Bangchang, in Bianjing. He'll be given an imperial title and turned into a (Jurchen) Jin tributary prior to release.
- Zhang Jun (the chancellor, not the general), in Chengdufu.
- Li Gang, in Jinghunan.
- Yue Fei, in Jiangnanxi.
- Zhang Jun, in Huangshan.
- Liu Yu, in Jinan.
The Song emperor is Zhao Gou (Gaozong) even though he hadn't taken the throne yet. We can't have an interregnum, and given that Qinzong starts as a prisoner of (Jurchen) Jin he can't be left in charge as that'd make Song start at -100 % WS.
The two independent counties between Song and (Jurchen) Jin are counties that simply have not been properly assigned yet and thus just have auto-generated characters in them at present (they'll go to Song, but whether they'll be given to Gaozong or someone else has yet to be determined). However, you might notice that one of them has a rather different CoA, and wonder just what's going on there. Well, there's an explanation for it.
Meet Sayyid (several different names are given in different places) Burhanid, or
"Su-fei-er". Just how historical he is and when he would have been around is a bit uncertain, but we had no proper holder in the area and adding him seemed like a good idea (he holds the relevant provinces from 1070.1.1 to 1127.1.9), and though it's unlikely that the majority of the population would have been Sunni it's more interesting than just having more Taoists (that we're not certain about either) there.
That'll be all for this dev diary. The next one will probably not be very soon, seeing as I'll be spending several weeks working on localization, minor bugfixing, and history files and all of
that is work that's rather boring to show off, but there's still some flavour to be added as part of the next version that will be shown eventually.
If you have any suggestions about any of the following, now would be an
excellent time to mention them:
- Ainu flavour. As things currently stand, they'll probably get a Warrior Lodge and the Iyomante as their special feast decision, but it'd be nice to be able to give them more than that.
- Any interesting Buddhist pilgrimage destinations in Korea that are
not Bulguksa/Seokguram and that would have been relevant in the CK2 time period (preferably throughout it). Yes; you can take this as at least one unique Koreanic Buddhist pilgrimage being planned.
- Assorted Korean flavour. Muist flavour is of particular interest as Buddhists in the area will have access to general Buddhist flavour, but flavour specific to Korean Buddhism is not entirely uninteresting. We have a few ideas, but more ideas would not be unwelcome.