I have been playing EU4 for about 2 years or so and it has always bothered me that there is no Slovenian culture in the game. More than that, it's just Austrian, which makes it even worse. Don't get me started about how dumb the culture groups in the game are, but this is such a drastic inaccuracy to say a Slavic people group is Germanic. The whole concept of deciding cultures in 1444 is pretty ridiculous, as a result a lot of cultures are just copy pasted from the modern day. If you look at the culture of Austria one would think that Slovenians just simply popped into existence some time after the 19th century which is far from the truth. The reality is quite opposite since most of modern day Austria was once populated by Slavic peoples, the ones who got assimilated, forcefully germanized or became modern day Slovenians. Austria was multicultural, but the Germanic influence won. There is even evidence that it's name could be connected to native Slavic name for the mountain Ostravica. Slavic languages took a while to get very distinct one from another, but in the oldest writing in Slovene or any Slavic language for that matter there are already signs of a regional dialect, which would split them from other Slavic people groups. The documents are called the Freising manuscripts and were written between 972 and 1039. The period during which the subjugated Slavic peoples were being converted to catholicism. The Salzburgian archdiocese forced it's Germanic culture very strongly.
Yellow is the Salzburgian archdiocese, red are the modern borders
Before subjugation there were 2 Slavic principalities that we know of, 1 being Carantania and the other Carniola. Carantania came into being after Samo's Tribal Union disintegrated following his death. It had unique features regarding it's functionalities. One of these being Ustoličevanje karantanskih knezov, translated to Inauguration of the Carantian princes, prince (knez) being the ruler. This tradition was kept for hundreds of years after Carantania lost it's external and internal independence. The kosezi (a class kind of resembling nobility) would elect a knez and have this ceremony on the Prince's Stone in Slovene to confirm he would do well for the people. After subjugation the tradition remained with Germanic rulers or dukes continuing the tradition (formally), many of them completed the tradition in Slovene, until one simply responded that he didn't understand the peasant asking him questions as part of the procedure. The prince's stone got replaced with the Duke's Chair in 1414 and the tradition loosely lived on until 1728, still in Slovene. The tradition was important because it gave legal power to the ruler aswell and it was meant to assure rights to the people as it symbolized the handing of power from the farmer to the ruler. It first took place in Gosposvetsko polje (Zollfeld) and later in Celovec (Klagenfurt). The Duke's Chair was moved into the town hall in 1660 and stopped being used as a symbol of lawfulness and right to rule by Maria Theresa in 1740 because of the pragmatic sanction.
Krn Castle was the center of Carantania and it covered most of modern day Austria
You might be thinking, but what does this have to do with 1444. Well here is a map of the "inner provinces", which were Slovenian with Germanic peoples represented by the gray stripes. This was in the 16th century. (The tiny island of Germans in the very south is Kočevski Rog, the locals were either assimilated or forced out after WW2, some still remain)
As you see that the capital of the province Koroška (Kärnten) - Celovec (Klagenfurt) was still Slovenian, aswell as atleast half of the province and this is in the 16th century. The entirety of the ingame province Graz (štajerska) is Slovenian with the exception of Gradec (Graz) itself, which was also part Slovenian.
On the image bellow you can see the proportions between Slovene (blue) and Austrian (red) in Štajerska (Styria).
Mid 16th century
On the image below you can see Slovenians as red in 1910.
1910
Germanic culture and their language was being enforced more aggressively during and after the reign of Maria Theresa and Franz Joseph II during the 2nd period of germanization. More and more Slovenians just decided that it is for the best to accept a Germanic identity, this is even happening today with the Slovenians that got stuck in Austria after WW2. Most Slovenians were farmers and were very devoted to the emperor. Whenever they would get taxed to heavily and they revolted in a Slovenian exclusive peasant revolts, once with Croatian peasants. The irony is that they though they emperor would send reinforcements to help them in their rightful cause, instead he obviously sent troops to stop the revolts. There were many separatist movements, one as an example is the one during the spring of nations of 1848 and it was based in Celovec (Klagenfurt).
There is no excuse to not have Slovenian culture be in the game. Slovaks, Maltese, Samis etc. to list a few that have their own cultures in the game. Nitra didn't even exist between 1444 and 1821, it stopped existing between 833 and 870 and yet it's a releasable nation and the Slovakian separatists will revolt to Nitra . The names Slovenia and Slovakia were meant to emphasize how the nations were different to their foreign rulers, many of the other cultures in EU4 didn't even exist at 1444, yet Slovenian is excluded? You can't argue it's too small, just look at Albanian, Basque, Maltese, Galician etc. Slovenian culture should have Krain (Kranjska, capital Ljubljana), Graz (Štajerska, capital Gradec), Kärnten (Koroška, capital Celovec), Gőrz (Goriška, capital Gorica) and the northern part of Istra (Istria), afterall Trieste (Trst) was Slovenian and is the capital province of Istra. Cornwall is a tag in the game, so clearly being different to the primary country is enough, yet Slovenian is excluded? Trst (Triste) was a majure trading port of Austria and it was populated with Slovenians. We have our own names for Venice (Benetke), Vienna (Dunaj) that differ hugely from the Croatian Mljeci and Beč. The closest thing to Slovenian regional names is controlling Austrian land as Croatia and Štajerska (Steiermark is upper Štajerska and Graz is lower) isn't even capitalized, it's simply shtajerska. Meanwhile the capitals of the Slovenian provinces remain in their german variant.
The Slovenian provinces were a very important part of Austria, therefore even the HRE. The rulers of Austria had to constantly think of our nation, we were under them for hundreds of years. Austria could have some interesting events related to this, but instead Slovenians are simply labeled as Austrian... I just wish that Paradox added Slovenian culture to the game and made Carniola or/and Carantania a releasable nation/releasable nations.
Yellow is the Salzburgian archdiocese, red are the modern borders
Before subjugation there were 2 Slavic principalities that we know of, 1 being Carantania and the other Carniola. Carantania came into being after Samo's Tribal Union disintegrated following his death. It had unique features regarding it's functionalities. One of these being Ustoličevanje karantanskih knezov, translated to Inauguration of the Carantian princes, prince (knez) being the ruler. This tradition was kept for hundreds of years after Carantania lost it's external and internal independence. The kosezi (a class kind of resembling nobility) would elect a knez and have this ceremony on the Prince's Stone in Slovene to confirm he would do well for the people. After subjugation the tradition remained with Germanic rulers or dukes continuing the tradition (formally), many of them completed the tradition in Slovene, until one simply responded that he didn't understand the peasant asking him questions as part of the procedure. The prince's stone got replaced with the Duke's Chair in 1414 and the tradition loosely lived on until 1728, still in Slovene. The tradition was important because it gave legal power to the ruler aswell and it was meant to assure rights to the people as it symbolized the handing of power from the farmer to the ruler. It first took place in Gosposvetsko polje (Zollfeld) and later in Celovec (Klagenfurt). The Duke's Chair was moved into the town hall in 1660 and stopped being used as a symbol of lawfulness and right to rule by Maria Theresa in 1740 because of the pragmatic sanction.
Krn Castle was the center of Carantania and it covered most of modern day Austria
You might be thinking, but what does this have to do with 1444. Well here is a map of the "inner provinces", which were Slovenian with Germanic peoples represented by the gray stripes. This was in the 16th century. (The tiny island of Germans in the very south is Kočevski Rog, the locals were either assimilated or forced out after WW2, some still remain)
As you see that the capital of the province Koroška (Kärnten) - Celovec (Klagenfurt) was still Slovenian, aswell as atleast half of the province and this is in the 16th century. The entirety of the ingame province Graz (štajerska) is Slovenian with the exception of Gradec (Graz) itself, which was also part Slovenian.
On the image bellow you can see the proportions between Slovene (blue) and Austrian (red) in Štajerska (Styria).
Mid 16th century
On the image below you can see Slovenians as red in 1910.
1910
Germanic culture and their language was being enforced more aggressively during and after the reign of Maria Theresa and Franz Joseph II during the 2nd period of germanization. More and more Slovenians just decided that it is for the best to accept a Germanic identity, this is even happening today with the Slovenians that got stuck in Austria after WW2. Most Slovenians were farmers and were very devoted to the emperor. Whenever they would get taxed to heavily and they revolted in a Slovenian exclusive peasant revolts, once with Croatian peasants. The irony is that they though they emperor would send reinforcements to help them in their rightful cause, instead he obviously sent troops to stop the revolts. There were many separatist movements, one as an example is the one during the spring of nations of 1848 and it was based in Celovec (Klagenfurt).
There is no excuse to not have Slovenian culture be in the game. Slovaks, Maltese, Samis etc. to list a few that have their own cultures in the game. Nitra didn't even exist between 1444 and 1821, it stopped existing between 833 and 870 and yet it's a releasable nation and the Slovakian separatists will revolt to Nitra . The names Slovenia and Slovakia were meant to emphasize how the nations were different to their foreign rulers, many of the other cultures in EU4 didn't even exist at 1444, yet Slovenian is excluded? You can't argue it's too small, just look at Albanian, Basque, Maltese, Galician etc. Slovenian culture should have Krain (Kranjska, capital Ljubljana), Graz (Štajerska, capital Gradec), Kärnten (Koroška, capital Celovec), Gőrz (Goriška, capital Gorica) and the northern part of Istra (Istria), afterall Trieste (Trst) was Slovenian and is the capital province of Istra. Cornwall is a tag in the game, so clearly being different to the primary country is enough, yet Slovenian is excluded? Trst (Triste) was a majure trading port of Austria and it was populated with Slovenians. We have our own names for Venice (Benetke), Vienna (Dunaj) that differ hugely from the Croatian Mljeci and Beč. The closest thing to Slovenian regional names is controlling Austrian land as Croatia and Štajerska (Steiermark is upper Štajerska and Graz is lower) isn't even capitalized, it's simply shtajerska. Meanwhile the capitals of the Slovenian provinces remain in their german variant.
The Slovenian provinces were a very important part of Austria, therefore even the HRE. The rulers of Austria had to constantly think of our nation, we were under them for hundreds of years. Austria could have some interesting events related to this, but instead Slovenians are simply labeled as Austrian... I just wish that Paradox added Slovenian culture to the game and made Carniola or/and Carantania a releasable nation/releasable nations.
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flag of the duchy.
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