I am very happy to see the Caucasian culture family is being added to the game. But I noticed that there is still a lack of cultural diversity in the Caucasus despite the region being very culturally diverse. So I decided to do a dive into the history of the region to find out more about what it looked like in the ancient era. These are my suggested new culture given my research while keeping game balance in mind (aka merging smaller cultures together and splitting larger one).
Note while I definitely think all the Caucasian cultures should be in a single culture family in I:R. For the purpose of adding some structure, I’ll present my proposal broken into the 3 Language families that the Caucasian culture group contains.
Khartvelian:
So I’d keep the Colchian and Ibero cultures that are already in the game, represented by green and white on my map respectively.
I’d add to these a new culture, Khaldian (Taochian is another possible name), shown in red on my map. This culture represent a combination of the southern Kartvelian people that were once independent but by the start of I:R have now been conquered. Note that this culture is also used to expand the Khartvelians further southwest into Anatolia as seems to be their historic range. Note it could have been stretched even further south, but I was working under an assumption that some of the Khartvelians had already been assimilated by the Armenians.
Another Khartvelian culture is the Suans (ancestors of the modern day Svans). These are the most linguistically distinct Khartvelian people and diverged from the rest of the Khartvelians around a 1,000 years before the start of I:R. They could be added if their area in the mountains was added to the I:R map. If added they should also be given a tag, Suania, that's a tributary of Colchis. The new Suania tag would control all the territory of the Suans culture except for the 2 west most teritories which aren't connected to the main Suans area. If this culture is not large enough for the devs to add (especially if the new territories are not added), then it can be left as Colchis as that's the closest related culture. Below you can see @Samitte's proposal for add new territories to the Caucus region.
So in the map above, Suans would be added to territories 3-8 and the pass including territory 1. 9 would be the Nakhamatean (see below)
Northeast Caucasian
This group is currently represent by the Albanians in game (orange on my map). As per @Samitte advise I'd expand them north a bit. I’d also split the Caspians from them (more on the Caspians below).
A new Northeast Caucasian culture is Nakhamatean (alternatively Durjuk/Dzurdzuk), marked with blue on my map. These are the historical ancestors of the Nakh people. While adding this culture would add some cultural diversity to the Legia, I think a new tag, Durjurkia, could be added. Durjurkia would control the 5 (or 6) territories of Nakhamatean culture in Legia and would be a tributary of Legia.
Also I'd recommend Dido (alternatively Didoian), marked with purple on my map. These are the historical ancestors of the Tsez people. Adding Dido would require carving into the impassible terrain (indicated by the purple dots) to nestle this culture in the Caucasus Mountains. Additionally I think new Tag, Didoya, should be added as the controller of these new territories. This tag could be left independent or as a tributary of Legia. The one purple territory already on the map is were I believe the ancestors of the Avars are during this period (this is definitely a bit tenuous) and since they are closely related to the Dido, I thought they could be represented with Dido culture in that area. Lastly, because the Dido culture is really small, especially if the new Mountain territories are not included, the Dido and Nakhmatean cultures could be combined. Either name could work, but I'd personally recommend Dido, as the term was in use during the I:R period and it is already a name that can be used to refer to a whole sub-branch of Northeast Caucasian.
I think both of these new tags would be good additions to the game as they add some more possibilities for game play in the region.
Northwest Caucasian
This entire language family currently has no representative culture on the map despite being present and in power in the region during this era. To rectify this, I’d add the Cercetae and Heniochi cultures.
The Cercetaeans (or alternatively Zikian), coloured magenta on my map, are thought to be the ancestors of the Circassian people. I propose that the dominant culture of the Zygia tag become Cercetaean. Zygia is thought to have spoken a Northwest Caucasian language, most likely the precursor to Circassian, thus making Cercetaean, instead of Sindi, the dominant culture would better reflect this (I think Sindi and Bosporean should still be present in the tag to show the influence of Scythian and Hellenic culture). Additionally, this culture would help represent how Northwest Caucasian was thought to have extend much further north than its present distribution (there is some debate about whether the Maeotians and Sindi are Northwest Caucasian themselves, I decide to be conservative and leave those two cultures as Scythian in I:R). I think Cercetaean could be extended even further northward (the magenta dots), but that might create problems for Sindi as there would not be much of that culture left on the map. But that can be resolved by moving the Sindi. See below a proposal by @Samitte for how to redristribute the Sindi and Maeotian (or possibly combine them).
The Heniochians (alternative name could be Abasgian, but might be more contentious) are thought to be the ancestors of the Abkhazian people (note they might actually be a Khartvelian people, but as both linguistic groups are in the Caucasian family in I:R, that debate can luckily be side stepped). This culture would be found in the Heniochia tag (same area as the yellow on my map) and as such the Heniochia tag’s dominate culture and characters should be changed over to this culture. Note at only 4 or 5 teritories with Heniochian culture it is definitely the smallest of my proposed cultures. So if that is too small for I:R, the culture could be folded into the Cercetaean culture.
Iranian
I’d also add one new culture to the Iranian culture family, the Caspians. The Caspians might not actually be Iranian, but, either are Iranian or are heavily influenced by Iranian culture. And most sources I could find put them in southern Azerbaijan along the coast of the Caspian sea. They might also be the ancestors of the Talysh, Gilaks, and Mazandaranis. Note this might currently be represented in game by Albanians with the Zoroastrian religion. This would just make it more definitive. Note a new Caspian territory should be added to the map (the cyan dot) to allow access along the coast of the Caspian Sea.
Alternatively the new Caspian culture could be made part of the Caucasian culture group, but still with Zoroastrian as the religion of the pops and with an Iranian names list. This would be to represent the alternative threory that the Caspians were a heavily Iranianized Caucasian people. While I think this theory is less likely, it might be more interesting from a gameplay perspective as it would make the pops/area a unique combination.
I think these additional cultures would make the Caucasus Mountains feel like the ethnically diverse region it is. And with the new cultural integration system to be added in the next update, this cultural diversity can have a meaningful impact of the game through multi-ethnic states.
TL;DR (cultures separated by slashes are ones that the Devs can combine if they want to add larger cultures)
New Caucasian Cultures
Khaldian (red)
Dido/Nakhamatean (purple/blue)
Cercetaean/Heniochian (magenta/yellow)
Suans (turquoise) [if not big enough, combine into Colchian]
New Iranian Culture or Caucasian Culture with Zoroastrianism religion
Caspian (cyan)
I also have attached a map showing where I’d add these new cultures (note green, white and orange are Colchian, Ibero and Albanian respectively).
edit: formatting
edited: based on feedback from @Samitte, for more details see their reply down below (including a new Durjukia tag)
Also you can check out a proposal by @Samitte to improve Armenia (plus the surrounding areas).
Note while I definitely think all the Caucasian cultures should be in a single culture family in I:R. For the purpose of adding some structure, I’ll present my proposal broken into the 3 Language families that the Caucasian culture group contains.
Khartvelian:
So I’d keep the Colchian and Ibero cultures that are already in the game, represented by green and white on my map respectively.
I’d add to these a new culture, Khaldian (Taochian is another possible name), shown in red on my map. This culture represent a combination of the southern Kartvelian people that were once independent but by the start of I:R have now been conquered. Note that this culture is also used to expand the Khartvelians further southwest into Anatolia as seems to be their historic range. Note it could have been stretched even further south, but I was working under an assumption that some of the Khartvelians had already been assimilated by the Armenians.
Another Khartvelian culture is the Suans (ancestors of the modern day Svans). These are the most linguistically distinct Khartvelian people and diverged from the rest of the Khartvelians around a 1,000 years before the start of I:R. They could be added if their area in the mountains was added to the I:R map. If added they should also be given a tag, Suania, that's a tributary of Colchis. The new Suania tag would control all the territory of the Suans culture except for the 2 west most teritories which aren't connected to the main Suans area. If this culture is not large enough for the devs to add (especially if the new territories are not added), then it can be left as Colchis as that's the closest related culture. Below you can see @Samitte's proposal for add new territories to the Caucus region.
Here's the next map update proposal, this time for Colchis and Suanetia. I've also included my interpretation of what Phasis based on the sources we have, with its port in the lake, and its rather large wetland. The terrain needs some more work, though, it is really hard to follow specific valleys without the heightmap.
Next up will probably be Inner Kartli, which has seen some large changes, or the Armenian heartland, which has mainly been made more sensible.
Legend:
Red Numerals - New Provinces.
Yellow Numerals - Reused provinces.
Disclaimer, W.I.P. image, mainly for the purpose of territories, any C&C welcome!
New Provinces:
I - Kukhlor Pass, an uninhabitable Mountain pass. This province is partial guesswork due to the highmap having been leveled here, but this is the approximate area of the Klukhor pass.
II - Anaklia (Anak'lia), covering the Swamplands around the mouth of the Enguri river. (Unlike what the same copy-pasted sentence on the internet claims, this is not Heraclea which historians place near the Adler peninsula)
III - Seti, covering the upper Enguri Mountain valley, a large province settled by hardy Suanians, the town of Seti lies at the very end of the valley.
IV - Ushguli, covering the uppermost Enguri Mountain valley, and the connection to Tsageri. An important area connecting the Suanian lands.
V - Tsageri, settled on another Mountain valley. This was one of the more densely settled valleys of Suania, together with Orbeli.
VI - Orbeli, covering the Mountain valley of the upper Rioni, connecting to Tsageri via a small pass. This was the most densely settled of the mountain valleys.
VII - Gebi, the uppermost part of the Rioni valley, which also connects to the Mamison Pass. It is a Mountain province.
Note: I was mistaken in an earlier post describing a pass on the other side of this province, its been a while since I read Braund's book.
VIII - Mamison Pass, another north-south route across the mountains goes via this Mountain pass.
IX - Kaspiskari, an exonym for a fort on this side of the Mamison pass, probably built by a group of Caucasian peoples belonging to the Circassians or Chechens. A Mountain province.
Remove and Reuse Provinces:
I - Modinakhe > Dimni, covering the Forested hills behind Vardistsikhe.
All of these would probably be under Colchian control, except for IX - Kaspiskari, which would be under control of a tag to the north (though, it would suit to add in more Caucasian cultures in this area.)
So in the map above, Suans would be added to territories 3-8 and the pass including territory 1. 9 would be the Nakhamatean (see below)
Northeast Caucasian
This group is currently represent by the Albanians in game (orange on my map). As per @Samitte advise I'd expand them north a bit. I’d also split the Caspians from them (more on the Caspians below).
A new Northeast Caucasian culture is Nakhamatean (alternatively Durjuk/Dzurdzuk), marked with blue on my map. These are the historical ancestors of the Nakh people. While adding this culture would add some cultural diversity to the Legia, I think a new tag, Durjurkia, could be added. Durjurkia would control the 5 (or 6) territories of Nakhamatean culture in Legia and would be a tributary of Legia.
Also I'd recommend Dido (alternatively Didoian), marked with purple on my map. These are the historical ancestors of the Tsez people. Adding Dido would require carving into the impassible terrain (indicated by the purple dots) to nestle this culture in the Caucasus Mountains. Additionally I think new Tag, Didoya, should be added as the controller of these new territories. This tag could be left independent or as a tributary of Legia. The one purple territory already on the map is were I believe the ancestors of the Avars are during this period (this is definitely a bit tenuous) and since they are closely related to the Dido, I thought they could be represented with Dido culture in that area. Lastly, because the Dido culture is really small, especially if the new Mountain territories are not included, the Dido and Nakhmatean cultures could be combined. Either name could work, but I'd personally recommend Dido, as the term was in use during the I:R period and it is already a name that can be used to refer to a whole sub-branch of Northeast Caucasian.
I think both of these new tags would be good additions to the game as they add some more possibilities for game play in the region.
The new Northeast Caucasian culture I’d recommend is the Dido (or Didoian), marked with blue on my map. These are the historical ancestors of the Tsez. While adding this culture would add some cultural diversity to the Legia, I think a new tag, Didoya, could be added. This tag would be on the north side of the Caucasus Mountains and would control the dido culture area currently in Legia. Could even carve a bit into the impassible terrain (indicated by the blue dots) to more acurately nestle this tag in the Caucasus mountains.
Northwest Caucasian
This entire language family currently has no representative culture on the map despite being present and in power in the region during this era. To rectify this, I’d add the Cercetae and Heniochi cultures.
The Cercetaeans (or alternatively Zikian), coloured magenta on my map, are thought to be the ancestors of the Circassian people. I propose that the dominant culture of the Zygia tag become Cercetaean. Zygia is thought to have spoken a Northwest Caucasian language, most likely the precursor to Circassian, thus making Cercetaean, instead of Sindi, the dominant culture would better reflect this (I think Sindi and Bosporean should still be present in the tag to show the influence of Scythian and Hellenic culture). Additionally, this culture would help represent how Northwest Caucasian was thought to have extend much further north than its present distribution (there is some debate about whether the Maeotians and Sindi are Northwest Caucasian themselves, I decide to be conservative and leave those two cultures as Scythian in I:R). I think Cercetaean could be extended even further northward (the magenta dots), but that might create problems for Sindi as there would not be much of that culture left on the map. But that can be resolved by moving the Sindi. See below a proposal by @Samitte for how to redristribute the Sindi and Maeotian (or possibly combine them).
The Heniochians (alternative name could be Abasgian, but might be more contentious) are thought to be the ancestors of the Abkhazian people (note they might actually be a Khartvelian people, but as both linguistic groups are in the Caucasian family in I:R, that debate can luckily be side stepped). This culture would be found in the Heniochia tag (same area as the yellow on my map) and as such the Heniochia tag’s dominate culture and characters should be changed over to this culture. Note at only 4 or 5 teritories with Heniochian culture it is definitely the smallest of my proposed cultures. So if that is too small for I:R, the culture could be folded into the Cercetaean culture.
Iranian
I’d also add one new culture to the Iranian culture family, the Caspians. The Caspians might not actually be Iranian, but, either are Iranian or are heavily influenced by Iranian culture. And most sources I could find put them in southern Azerbaijan along the coast of the Caspian sea. They might also be the ancestors of the Talysh, Gilaks, and Mazandaranis. Note this might currently be represented in game by Albanians with the Zoroastrian religion. This would just make it more definitive. Note a new Caspian territory should be added to the map (the cyan dot) to allow access along the coast of the Caspian Sea.
Alternatively the new Caspian culture could be made part of the Caucasian culture group, but still with Zoroastrian as the religion of the pops and with an Iranian names list. This would be to represent the alternative threory that the Caspians were a heavily Iranianized Caucasian people. While I think this theory is less likely, it might be more interesting from a gameplay perspective as it would make the pops/area a unique combination.
I think these additional cultures would make the Caucasus Mountains feel like the ethnically diverse region it is. And with the new cultural integration system to be added in the next update, this cultural diversity can have a meaningful impact of the game through multi-ethnic states.
TL;DR (cultures separated by slashes are ones that the Devs can combine if they want to add larger cultures)
New Caucasian Cultures
Khaldian (red)
Dido/Nakhamatean (purple/blue)
Cercetaean/Heniochian (magenta/yellow)
Suans (turquoise) [if not big enough, combine into Colchian]
New Iranian Culture or Caucasian Culture with Zoroastrianism religion
Caspian (cyan)
I also have attached a map showing where I’d add these new cultures (note green, white and orange are Colchian, Ibero and Albanian respectively).
edit: formatting
edited: based on feedback from @Samitte, for more details see their reply down below (including a new Durjukia tag)
Also you can check out a proposal by @Samitte to improve Armenia (plus the surrounding areas).
Last edited:
- 6
- 1
Upvote
0
