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Hello Eu4 Fans! This is the Gods and Kings Development Team - I’m Nitr0gue , and we’re here to have a little chat about our mod.
Origins
Gods and Kings started out as a personal project between a few friends. We wanted to create a mod featuring a more expansive and better representation of various religions around the world. In fact, the working name for the mod was More Religions until just before release. This idea expanded towards an alternate timeline which can better serve the interests of showcasing different faiths. As we developed the setting, we moved toward focusing on things that are rarely usually discussed in these alternative history mods: a directed focus on the Early Modern period, rather than calling back to earlier times. A lot of us are history buffs, and our team has knowledge that covers most of the major areas.World Creation
As the name implies, we have worked on both the secular and spiritual side of the world, as can be seen here in the map. We have a completely redone world map, politically and demographically, with few regions left untouched. Nearly every region was set up to include some kind of interesting way of playing out, either as a “narrative,” or for potential gameplay.
With over a thousand provinces added, the scope of our mod is truly global in what it seeks to change.
You can fight for the philosophical and religious destiny of China or lead the Holy Roman Empire to greatness as a Polish emperor. Reunite the nomadic tribes from the western Blue Horde to the eastern Northern Yuan, or colonize the new world of Reisland as the prosperous Mali or Japanese Empire.
The focus of our mod was to create something familiar but foreign, but with more in depth global representation, we decided to increasingly make the world of Gods and Kings less eurocentric.
This is done through the institutions, trade nodes, and colonial powers. Gameplay wise, we are more aiming for a Vanilla (But More!) experience and not aiming for any extreme overhauls.
We have added in several new institutions, which start in the east and the spread in the west. We added in new trade nodes, focusing on the rise of colonial powers outside of Europe such as Mali and Japan, and have added in new colonial regions to reference that as well.
Religions
The first and foremost aspect of our mod is the sheer amount of new religions we have added in - from the old Christian heresies to esoteric Buddhist cults and many flavors of paganism, there are many to investigate. I will showcase five of them here, with some unique mechanics.
Qizilbashi
A sect representing the form of Islam as propagated by the Safavid Order of Ardabil. Centered on the city of Ardabil, propagandists have brought the faith to large swathes of Turkic tribes in northwest Iran and eastern Anatolia, known as the Qizilbash. This religion utilizes a reworked Guru mechanic.
Shinbutsu
This religion is an amalgamation of the various schools of Buddhism in Japan, from Zen to Pure Land, that existed alongside traditional ancestor worship. It is located entirely within Japan. This religion reworks the old Isolationism to represent the syncretism of Japanese faith and local traditions.
Tengerleg Shashin
The culmination of years of interfaith dialogue & tolerance. The Divine Faith of Tengerleg Shashin seeks to bring together the various faiths of the Empire into one syncretic belief. Tengerleg Shashin is built on the central belief that there is no incorrect path to ascertaining the noble truth of God.
Maitreya
The Maitreyan faith is a branch of Buddhism centered around the millenarian Bodhisattva Maitreya, who shall appear when the world is the farthest away from the Dharma and bring it back into the light. A prominent force in the Red Turban Rebellions, the movement remained prominent throughout the 13th and 14th centuries and found its home in the southern Song state by 1444. It utilizes an entirely new mechanic - the Maitreyan Authority mechanic, granting rewards for the player to discover on their own!
Fraticelli
Fraticelli were a sectarian group that split from the Franciscans on grounds concerning apostolic poverty. They were declared heretical near the turn of the 1300's but continued to expand within the religious communities, especially the more ascetic types. In the current version of the mod they utilize fervor mechanics, but they have a new mechanic in development, the Apostlic Poverty Mechanic. Although we are showcasing it under Fraticelli, this will be a shared mechanic between Wycliffite (Lollardy), Adamites, and Waldensian as well.
Religious Schools
Eagle eyed readers will have probably noticed the religious schools in each of those shots - almost every religious group now has access to this mechanic, ranging from local catholic traditions to language or cultural practices!
Mission Trees and Content
We have a decent amount of content already in the mod. These range from mission trees to disasters and flavor events. We have large scale disasters such as the Hotoku War in Japan, a large scale rebellion against the dominant Emperor of Japan.
Meanwhile, across the pond, major battles occur during the Hungarian Civil War, rocking the heart of central europe as each faction vies for power.
In addition to these changes, we have also updated some core mechanics. Trade Goods have been expanded to include new items such as Rice, Saffron, Cheese, and many more.
Many of these trade goods are natural - some, however, must be spawned in using Goods Upgrade buildings, a new feature to improve and change trade goods.
By building a Winery building you can turn a simple Rice producing province…
…into a Rice Wine producing province!
We hope to represent a more tailored flavor in economic events and missions with these simple new additions!
Mission Trees
The tags highlighted here already have completed mission trees - each with different events, rewards, and flavorful mechanics to go along with them. The tags shaded have a unique generic mission tree shared with regional tags.
Sicily:
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Navarra:
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Song:
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Byzantium:
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Ifat:
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1.1 - Monarchs and Messiahs
Yesterday, February 29th, we launched our 1.1 Patch. Here are a few of the updates in it! Mali - The Golden Empire With the discovery of the new world just beyond the horizon by Mohammad Qu in the 14th Century, Mali is geared to expand and conquer the new world, becoming a colonial powerhouse while integrating the Farma, local officials and rulers for the region.
Balkh - The Sons of Negudar
A remnant of the Mongol Invasions, the Qara‘unas seek to unite their realm and prevent it from fracturing - before preparing their fated conquest of India.
Mae Nam - Sons of the Mother River
The faithful of Mae Nam seek to defend their great river from the prying hands of the Khmer - all while seeking to expand their religious traditions and ways.
Qurtubah - The Heirs of Al-Andalus
With the failure of the reconquista, the taifas that emerged at the end of the Almohad Empire have had time to coalesce and unite under a single banner - and with this, they seek to conquer Iberia, and bring it under their heel.
Overall, our 1.1 Patch has added dozens of new government reforms, over a hundred events, new mechanics regarding Factions and the minting of coin, and even a brand new religion mechanic.
Artwork
Gods and Kings is the product of developers who really want to add more to the experience, and we do that by contacting and working with amazing artists to help fully flesh out the mod. The mod features over 50 new religious icons, drawn by both the fantastic Nametag and Claivin.
We also have some Great Projects that have artwork done in house
The Castle of Carcassonne
The University of Oxford
The new update will change some things - for example, Mission icons will get a unique coloration.
Similarly, we will have unique Faction Art for both Mali and Egypt
We even have our own theme song, created by Utopia himself March of the Divine.
[previewyoutube=I6_6Uj2WMYY;full][/previewyoutube]
Please check out his channel!
Gods and Kings is still a very new project, so please stay tuned for new stuff - announced and unannounced. We have just released our 1.1 update and would love new players! If you want more updates:
- Join our discord
- Check out Gods and Kings on the steam workshop
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3114240232
Thanks for playing!