Assyrian Empire Reforged
I began making this mod becacuse I just didn’t like the Nestorian faith not owning the one holy site they can use but no one else can (Deccan Empire, southwest coastline). Then I noticed how small the Assyrian culture was on the map. I only noticed because the Nestorian blob in the middle east is the only place the Assyrians even are. Looking into them a bit more, I noticed how awful they were, compared to what was around them (no cultural innovations at all, no Mubarizun, nothing). It just felt odd that a seemingly arabic people would exist there with a Christian faith on top of them, ruled by an Islamic emperor, just completely surrounded and with no playable characters.
So I started reading their actual history and learned about their gods and army tactics (first ever professional army– as in a real job, first to use metal weapons/armor, first to use the four-horse chariot for war). Their empire got so massive that it literally began to fail due to their shear size. Imagine conquering what seems like half the world to you, only to collapse due to administrative issues… Once their king at the time died, everything just kind of fell apart. They lost battles, territory, capitols, and basically just got shoved into a bubble. It’s not an incredibly unique story, in that empires rise and fall, but they were the first to do so many things, and I was super impressed and interested in what they built. I was also sad to read of their more modern history, as in within this century. Thus, this mod.
Oh, no Nestorians were touched in the making of this mod, despite where it started.
This mod will provide (based generally on the neo-Assyrian culture):
BRAND NEW STUFF:
1. A new major decision, visible immediately
2. A new religion with three faiths (and a new special tolerance doctrine for them with the Christian faiths)
3. A new cultural innovation, called Assyrian Rule
4. A new cultural MAA unit, called Chariot Riders (illustration by Angus McBride, found through internet search)
5. A new economic building for heavy cavalry and knights, called War Horse Grounds
MODIFIED STUFF:
1. A modified Assyrian culture
2. A modified Sun Worship tenet, called Cresting Rebirth (since you can’t add brand new tenets without breaking stuff)
3. A preset "starter area" of three modified characters you can choose from (or just make your own)
4. A handful of small changes, like adding Lustful and Chaste to a tenet being used, nothing big
I didn’t create any new holy sites, just used the base ones. I picked them to give you an idea of exactly how far you’ll have to travel to own the empire. Kind of a "connect the dots" mini game! Any territory you have to take in the custom region for the major decision (you’ll see what I mean) will end up de jure drifting into the empire title.
The new MAA is balanced around the Horse Archer unit, using the internal, mathematical code for value to equate them. I found it ironic to use that unit, specifically, since neo-Assyrians (apparently) were really poor with riding and shooting, so they abandoned that tactic and went with chariots xD
Ok, well, that’s it! When I load this mod solo, I don’t notice any error logs and everything works as intended. Should be good to go. Took me two weeks of learning what coding is for this game, but I guess it was worth it.
Also, some words on compatibility:
I made sure to create all my own files for everything possible. As far as I can tell, I got all of them. Having said that, there are a few files I just had to override, due to the nature of the scripts and maths and such. Any mods that touch the same files will probably break some or all of this or that, based on mod load order. Also not a unique story, but important to know. For those curious, here’s the list of overridden files:
Vanilla Files Override:
common/council_tasks/00_court_chaplain_tasks
common/council_tasks/00_steward_tasks
common/governments/00_government_types
common/holdings/00_holdings
common/religion/doctrines/00_core_tenets
common/religion/doctrines/02_doctrines_special
common/script_values/00_men_at_arms_values
common/script_values/02_religion_values
common/script_values/99_court_chaplain_values
common/script_values/99_steward_values
common/scripted_modifiers/00_religion_scripted_modifiers
common/scripted_triggers/00_legal_triggers
history/characters/bedouin
history/characters/kurdish
history/characters/levantine
history/cultures/assyrian
history/provinces/k_jazira
history/provinces/k_mesopotamia
history/titles/k_jazira
localization/english/religion/religion_core_tenets_l_english
map_data/geographical_region
tools/mapeditor/nudger_progress
OTHER MODS:
Assyrian Innovations, from Assyrian Empire Reforged (included in this)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2680162681
War Horse Grounds building, from Assyrian Empire Reforged (included in this)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2680163732
