Crossroads – The Caucasus Overhaul
A mod, that attempts to increase the historical accuracy of the Caucasus region.
I’ve used Erik Hoff’s mod ‘Rome by the Euxine’ with his permission, and worked from that – https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=794242701. I also used his newer proposition for Georgia from the forum, but also added Dvaleti province to that, and I carried over his changes to the Balkans and Carpathians.
Aside from the stuff you can see on the screenshots, I’ve added a number of OPM cores in Shirvan and Georgia to allow for their historical fragmentation. e.g. principalities of Svaneti and Guria in Georgia, and Talysh, Derbent, Baku, Quba khanates in Shirvan (only I didn’t rename their governments into khanates, but that doesn’t mean anything gamewise anyway).
I renamed the abkhaz culture into Abasgi, cause it’s a more encompassing term, so now it has 2 provinces, the second being Abazinia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abazinia).
Since the mongol invasion, Gazikumukh has been dominating Dagestan, holding most of it as vassals, and yet never managed to annex them. This is now represented in the game. Gazikumukh has following vassals: Avar Khanate, Lekia (represents federation of lezgic city-states of the period), Kara-Kaitag and Tumen khanate.
The dynasty question in Dagestan. All the information on dynasties in Dagestan is vague, unreliable and insufficient. I decided to go by my CK2 mod’s example, and make unique dagestani titles into dynasties. So, now Shamkhal, Utsmi and Nutsal are dynasties, not titles.
Historically, around the start of the game, Akhty (lezg. Akhtsah) was the biggest lezgic city-state, and was ruled by a member of Utsmi dynasty of Kaitag. So, I decided to give Lekia the same dynasty as Kaitag to let them ally easier.Tumen is a lesser known principality in the northern Dagestan. You’ll probably only find it in russian sources (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Тюменское_владение). Due to the lack of information, I gave them the same dynasty as Gazikumukh, also because they’re said to have contributed to the kumyk (turkic lowland dagestanis) ethnicity forming. For the same reason, I gave them dagestani culture.As for Didoya, I also made them tribal federation. Couldn’t find any information about dido rulers of the period, so I took a name of the person, who spread Islam among them, and gave him the same dynasty as avars. This is gonna bring them closer with avars, as historically they’ve been so close, many people even count them as the same ethnicity. This is also gonna help avars break off of Gazikumukh, as it’ll make easy for them to find an ally outside Gazikumukh’s sphere of influence.With Vainakhs there was also a lack of information. I made them tribal federation, but the earliest leader of the period I could find for them, was Ushar-Murza, the father of Shikh-Murza, who tried to ally with Russia in the 16th century. Obviously, there was no single leader among vainakhs, since they had a taip structure after the mongol invasion, but I had to pick someone. Ushar-Murza and his son are presumed to be from Akkoy taip, and although taips aren’t dynasties, I decided to use Akkoy as a dynasty for the lack of better choice.Karachay, Balkar and Abazin chiefdoms I’ve left without a leader, so they are gonna be randomized.And, I think, the last thing to mention is Hereti. Now, if you’re playing as an iranian culture, except for Tat (the primary of shirvan), you can create Djaro-Belokani communities, if you own Hereti (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djaro-Belokani). You’re gonna get a bonus tax from it. I decided to use Chartalakh as the name for them, cause it’s a shorter one, and better to fit on the map, and I gave them noble republic government. They’re supposed to represent Elisu Sultanate as well, there’s just no place for such small states. Cheers to limonenzitrone from the forum for helping me with creating the decision.
