
Embark on a Fascinating Journey: Discovering Mesoamerica's Rich History through the Mesoamerican Expansion Mod Created as part of the 2023 EU4 Modathon!
Hello Everyone, I am Minnator, one of the creators of the Mesoamerican Expansion, a mod that completely overhauls the Central American region also known as Mesoamerica. I am happy to welcome you to a mod that was created during the 2023 Modathon and thus created in a very strict time frame of two weeks. Even though time was scarce the mod is filled with secrets, flavor and a very interesting story to its creation. In this mod spotlight I not only want to show you around the content we have done, but also showcase how we did it during the Modathon and how you can take part in the next Modathon yourself. But more about that later.
Let’s start with a rough overview of what we have for you today:
- How the mod came to be
- Map changes
- Reworked Nahuatl religion
- New government reforms
- New generic mission tree
- New Aztec mission tree
- New buildings
- New government mechanics
- New disaster
- New estate privileges
- Three new music tracks
- The next Modathon
How the mod came to be
A few years ago a close friend of mine found himself playing the natives in the new world, but since they seriously lacked content, we decided to sit down and make a mod to enrich the area with gameplay mechanics we thought could make this type of gameplay more interesting, and better yet, more fun to play. This summer, Khyler messaged me about the upcoming Modathon, and the choice to participate was easily made. After some thought, we decided to revisit the concept that had once introduced us to the EU4 modding community in the first place; New World Natives. This coincided nicely with the idea of another Modder by the name of Varaan, who was searching for contributors to a Meso-American mod. And just like that, the concept and team for our mod were set, ready for the 2023 Modathon. During our team meeting, we each took on roles that played to our strengths: Varaan focused on missions, Khyler on the soundtrack, I handled map edits, government mechanics, disasters, and other smaller tasks, and Verinity Void provided historical text whenever necessary. Our aim with the mod was to give immersive, yet challenging, gameplay to the Aztec nation as well as the countries surrounding them. There were also plans to do the same for the Maya, but sadly time ran out and we had to cut it from the finished mod.Map Changes
Regarding the vanilla Map in the Mesoamerican region we quickly noticed that there were too few provinces to ensure an entertaining gameplay until the colonizers arrived. Thus we decided to add a total of 17 new provinces to the map. As there is not a lot of documentation on how this region was split up in the 15th century we decided to settle on a relatively accurate map that displayed part of the region and added provinces named and located after cities and settlements from said map. All in the image highlighted provinces where added
Reworked Nahuatl religion
In vanilla the Nahuatl faith is represented using religious reforms which are accompanied by the Doom mechanic. This usually makes for a tedious and one-dimensional gameplay forcing the player to continuously keep an eye on their doom, losing all vassals five times until the religion can be reformed. We wanted a completely different system that enhanced the existing Doom, removed the religious reforms and added fun and entertaining ways to manage the Doom. We used the now moddable government mechanics to display and visualize doom while the options to handle it are spread across the entire mod.


Tezcatlipoca
Tezcatlipoca was one of the major gods in the Aztec religion, playing a significant role in their cosmology and mythology. Often referred to as the "Smoking Mirror", Tezcatlipoca was associated with various aspects including creation, destruction, destiny, sorcery, and change. He held a complex and dual nature, embodying both light and darkness, creation and destruction.
Tlaloc
Tlaloc was the Aztec god of rain, fertility, and agriculture. He was often portrayed with goggle-like eyes and fangs. Tlaloc was crucial to agricultural success, as rain was essential for crop growth. Offerings and ceremonies were made to appease Tlaloc and secure his favor, especially during the rainy season.
Quetzacoatl
Quetzalcoatl, known as the "Feathered Serpent", was a prominent Aztec deity associated with wisdom, creation, and wind. He was depicted as a feathered serpent or a human figure with a bearded face. Quetzalcoatl was often seen as a bringer of civilization and culture, associated with arts, learning, and rulership. His rivalry with Tezcatlipoca was central to Aztec mythology, representing the balance of opposing forces in the world
Huitzilopochtli
Huitzilopochtli was the Aztec god of war and the sun, often depicted as a hummingbird or an eagle. He was a central figure in Aztec mythology and society, associated with military prowess and protection. Human sacrifices were dedicated to him to ensure victory in battle and the continuation of the sun's journey across the sky
New government reforms
With the aim to represent the culture, politics and diplomatic situation of the Mesoamerican realm back in 1444 and the following centuries until their downfall to the colonizers we created several unique government reforms. Almost all of the added reforms are deeply intertwined with our government mechanics such as the Doom, Colonial Influence and the Power Struggle. Further down in the Spotlight we will see that a disaster is also controlled and set by a government reform. Here I will present to you a few of my personal favorites:

New generic mission tree
As this mod was made during the Modathon 2023 we had a very limited timeframe of 14 days to accomplish our goals. This means that extensive mission trees for multiple countries was just not in the budget, so we decided to instead create an engaging 38 missions long generic mission tree that is accessible to all Nahuatl nations in the mesoamerican region. This generic mission tree is different from most vanilla generic missions. It not only has some basic conquest and some simple build up mission. It hosts options to improve your already existing realm, battle the colonizers, do a sunset invasion and is even going as far as to give you the chance to take revenge for what the colonizers did to you and your people by sacrificing the pope or the emperor of China.


New Aztec mission tree
Given our very limited time of only 14(!) days to produce a fully functional mod, we decided that we could only focus on one country’s unique mission tree, and with their rich history our choice obviously was to create said mission tree for the Aztecs. When Varaan proposed to make a 54-mission tree for the Aztecs in this short time I thought he was crazy! However, he surprised us all by not only delivering on that promise but also completing the additional generic mission tree within that time. This was possible only due to modding tools created by the community but more on that later. So let’s dive into the Aztec Mission tree and see what it has to offer!





New Buildings
As we reshaped the gameplay for the mesoamerican region we had the idea to introduce new buildings and modify existing ones to better fit our scope. Marked in red I highlighted the buildings we added and I also have a preview of what to expect:

Government Mechanics
When the Modathon took place and we were creating our mod the beloved government mechanics had become moddable in the then latest patch. As they are a powerful and amazing tool to represent and manage historic values of a country or disasters we promptly used them for both.Doom



Colonial Influence


Struggle for Power
The Power struggle will be announced by several events leading up to it.


Estate Privileges
I also have some new estate privileges for you that are meant to intertwine with the other mechanics we introduced and give them some more depth. Some of these privileges will be locked upon game start but will become available once certain requirements or missions are fulfilled.
Music Tracks
So, Hello there, Kyhler here (The Music guy). To top off the experience and to stand out amongst the other mods, we decided to make 3 completely new music tracks, which was a challenge in the timespan of two weeks. Something that made it harder than it was just being two weeks was that I started the creation later, since we had mentioned the idea before the project, but never really decided on if we should do the music part of it. But I decided to just do it a day or two in.The tracks in general
I won’t bore you all with the notation and theory side of it, but instead talk about how I was able to create the Mesoamerican feel and make them fit EU4 as well. To start off with all of them use ocarinas as the main instrument, all in different pitches. This was done since it after all was an instrument that the Aztecs and surrounding people had access to, but as all will notice brass and string instruments also accompany the pieces to give them a broader and more epic sort of sound. But time to take a closer look at each of the 3 pieces.