German culture has been a real bugbear of discussions about culture in Interregnum. On the one hand, it's a very big and rich cultural zone, perhaps to the point of being unbalanced. On the other, we haven't been able to agree on a way to split it. As a result, there has been much argument but little clarity as to what to do. I propose an event-based solution that will answer some of the complaints of both sides.
1. We should have no qualms about giving German as a secondary culture to countries that deserve it. Anyone with a reasonable claim to the culture can have it. In particular that means the Hansa, the TO, Bavaria, Swabia and Bohemia all start with German as one of their cultures.
2. Everything is fine if you just have the odd German city, and you don't get any penalties on them. But it all changes if you start taking large chunks of Germany. At this point, you will forced to be make a decision, the exact form of which depends on which country you are playing:
- If German is your only culture and you don't ever plan to get more cultures, no problem. You will never be challenged on cultural issues.
- If you are not the Emperor and German is not your primary culture, it is assumed you have only a peripheral interest in the HRE. As such, Germans aren't happy that so much of the HRE is being ruled from outside. This will kick in when you have a fair number of German provinces. The A option is to grant independence to/hand over to the Emperor some of your German holdings and grant tax concessions to the rest in the hope of winning them over; also you pay the Emperor some money and expend some diplomats. (This could be done in a series of events, so the player can choose which places to let go of. Not one event per state, but one event per 'region' - either you keep everything in that region or you renounce it all.) The B option is to stubbornly hold onto the lot, but at this point the Germans will become upset and you'll lose German culture forever, as well as getting bad relations with the Emperor and other major players in the HRE. If you choose the A option, but then get greedy and don't release enough, you will also lose German culture, and the same will happen if you start taking provinces in regions you previously renounced.
- If you are the Emperor, or German is your primary culture, it is assumed you have a central interest in the HRE. As such, your non-German subjects are getting grumpy about the strong Germanising pressure that your state is exerting. This will kick in if you have quite a big chunk of Germany, say 15 provinces. The A option now is to accept that you are now a fully German state, and to lose all other cultures. There may be some limited opportunities for assimilation (eg if Hansa takes over the Empire, Hanseatic-culture cities in the HRE would go German), but you'll never get any more cultures. The B option is to grant wide-scale autonomy, greatly reducing centralisation. If you raise centralisation later and still control a lot of Germany, you will lose all your non-German cultures.
I've described this in generic terms, but it obviously gives us better control if we make country-specific events. Since we are talking about states with multiple cultures, we'll only have to write events for a handful of majors.
The only difficulty will be determining when a country has passed the threshhold in terms of taking chunks of Germany. Obviously these can be tailored to each country so that 'natural' provinces of that country are exempt, and we don't actually need to count the number of German provinces exactly, just get a rough idea of how much the player has taken (by region maybe?).
Incidentally, something similar (only on a smaller scale) could work for Scotland. Scotland gets Gaelic culture initially, and may use it to take the odd province off Eire, eg Ulster. But if Scotland conquers too much of Eire (say 3+ provinces), the tensions between Gaels and Scots-speakers within Scotland become overwhelming, the Gaels revolt and Scotland loses the culture. (There will be other ways for Scotland to lose Gaelic culture, but conquering Eire is sufficient if you haven't lost it already.) If Eire recovers, it has a chip on its shoulder and gets random events to undermine Scotland further (eg by sponsoring revolts in the Highlands, or sending missionaries to convert random Scottish provinces). On the other hand, Eire can conquer the Highlands without culture penalties - assuming they are still Gaelic - because Eire has a claim of lordship over all Gaels. But Eire never gets Inglis culture. The overall result is that there are incentives for both Scotland and Eire to attack each other in a limited way, but maybe not to go for all-out annexation.
1. We should have no qualms about giving German as a secondary culture to countries that deserve it. Anyone with a reasonable claim to the culture can have it. In particular that means the Hansa, the TO, Bavaria, Swabia and Bohemia all start with German as one of their cultures.
2. Everything is fine if you just have the odd German city, and you don't get any penalties on them. But it all changes if you start taking large chunks of Germany. At this point, you will forced to be make a decision, the exact form of which depends on which country you are playing:
- If German is your only culture and you don't ever plan to get more cultures, no problem. You will never be challenged on cultural issues.
- If you are not the Emperor and German is not your primary culture, it is assumed you have only a peripheral interest in the HRE. As such, Germans aren't happy that so much of the HRE is being ruled from outside. This will kick in when you have a fair number of German provinces. The A option is to grant independence to/hand over to the Emperor some of your German holdings and grant tax concessions to the rest in the hope of winning them over; also you pay the Emperor some money and expend some diplomats. (This could be done in a series of events, so the player can choose which places to let go of. Not one event per state, but one event per 'region' - either you keep everything in that region or you renounce it all.) The B option is to stubbornly hold onto the lot, but at this point the Germans will become upset and you'll lose German culture forever, as well as getting bad relations with the Emperor and other major players in the HRE. If you choose the A option, but then get greedy and don't release enough, you will also lose German culture, and the same will happen if you start taking provinces in regions you previously renounced.
- If you are the Emperor, or German is your primary culture, it is assumed you have a central interest in the HRE. As such, your non-German subjects are getting grumpy about the strong Germanising pressure that your state is exerting. This will kick in if you have quite a big chunk of Germany, say 15 provinces. The A option now is to accept that you are now a fully German state, and to lose all other cultures. There may be some limited opportunities for assimilation (eg if Hansa takes over the Empire, Hanseatic-culture cities in the HRE would go German), but you'll never get any more cultures. The B option is to grant wide-scale autonomy, greatly reducing centralisation. If you raise centralisation later and still control a lot of Germany, you will lose all your non-German cultures.
I've described this in generic terms, but it obviously gives us better control if we make country-specific events. Since we are talking about states with multiple cultures, we'll only have to write events for a handful of majors.
The only difficulty will be determining when a country has passed the threshhold in terms of taking chunks of Germany. Obviously these can be tailored to each country so that 'natural' provinces of that country are exempt, and we don't actually need to count the number of German provinces exactly, just get a rough idea of how much the player has taken (by region maybe?).
Incidentally, something similar (only on a smaller scale) could work for Scotland. Scotland gets Gaelic culture initially, and may use it to take the odd province off Eire, eg Ulster. But if Scotland conquers too much of Eire (say 3+ provinces), the tensions between Gaels and Scots-speakers within Scotland become overwhelming, the Gaels revolt and Scotland loses the culture. (There will be other ways for Scotland to lose Gaelic culture, but conquering Eire is sufficient if you haven't lost it already.) If Eire recovers, it has a chip on its shoulder and gets random events to undermine Scotland further (eg by sponsoring revolts in the Highlands, or sending missionaries to convert random Scottish provinces). On the other hand, Eire can conquer the Highlands without culture penalties - assuming they are still Gaelic - because Eire has a claim of lordship over all Gaels. But Eire never gets Inglis culture. The overall result is that there are incentives for both Scotland and Eire to attack each other in a limited way, but maybe not to go for all-out annexation.