LotR:RiE – Variag Invasion
A submod for Lotr: Realms in Exile.
In Realms canon following the defeat of Sauron, the Variags unite and become the last major threat to middle-earth in the fourth age. This mod replicates/greatly exaggerates this by giving the Variags new buffs and features if Sauron is destroyed.
This all can be tweaked via Game Rules, see below.
After Sauron is destroyed, most Variags with the ambitious trait will gain the conqueror trait regardless of rank along with a large host of special soldiers. These conquerors will be immune to populist factions and gain new casus bellis to conqueror a large amount of territory quickly.
Any Varaigs that unite Khand after Sauron is defeated will gain a decision to get the Khudriag-Ata of Khand trait. This is similar to vanilla’s Greatest of Khan’s trait and the same decision will give Variags a large amount of special soldiers.
All Variags now have a mechanic similar to vanilla’s mongol empire looting events. Any non-Variag controlled county that is raided, occupied or conquered now has a chance to have it’s development reduced bu 10%.
Although the Variags are powerful they are balanced with Variag Succession causing large realms to collapse chaotically allowing new ambitious Variags to become conquerors.
Tumrakhi now has a special doctrine called "Tumrakhi’s Chosen" that will prevent Variags from converting non-Variag counties and vassals. Lore-wise this is because Variags consider themselves as the "chosen people" and will not allow the very people they enslave to revere him the same way they do. Gameplay-wise this causes a much more chaotic Variag sucession with populist revolts happening everywhere resulting in a more entertaining game.
Variags themselves can still convert to other religions but as a consequence no longer gain access to their buffs. Variag succession has also been changed allowing for non-Tumrakhi variags to convert to local culture.
You can customize your experience with game rules that buff Variag Conquerors further or disable the effects of Tumrakhi’s chosen.
There is also a Game rule that allows these buffs to occur on game start with an alive Sauron. Doing this will most likely result in Vangaris conquering half the world and may also trigger an early Valinor Invasion which can be interesting.
if Sauron is alive any Variag conqueror will become his tributary to prevent immersion breaking Variag vs Sauron conflicts. This does make Sauron much more powerful though so there is a Game rule for this.
