Duchies Expanded

As the project has grown beyond its original focus on Polish territories, the name Polish Duchies Expanded no longer reflects the true scope of the mod. With new content now affecting counties, duchies and kingdoms across Central & Eastern Europe (and more expansions planned), I realised a rebrand to better capture its broader ambition and future direction was needed.
Therefore I present:

Duchies Expanded enhances the historical and geographical accuracy of select regions of the map, with a particular focus on areas that have received less attention from the game developers. It refines title borders, improves regional cohesion, and adds missing details like coats of arms and historically accurate localisation, offering a more immersive and polished experience. Apart from that, it also tries to mimic the dynamic shaping of the regions’ borders throughout the ages using decisions and events. Furthermore, some smaller dynasties have been added with their accurate CoAs.

Removed the duchy of Varmia. Fixed history for the 1066 start date: added new characters ensuring the survival of old noble families, added the prince-bishopric of Nysa, rearranged vassal-liege setup on duchy level. Small localization fixes.

Added Polish localization. Small localization fixes.

Title borders in Eastern Europe have been revamped. They no longer strictly follow the rivers, but more closely reflect the historical lines. Four new duchies were added, one of them only formable via decision.

Prussia has been reshaped. The duchy of Varmia no longer appears on any game start date (as it would be ahistorical), but can be created via decision. Klaipeda (Memel) can also be made de jure part of the duchy of Prussia. It can also be retaken by Samogitia.

Polish Heraldry Expanded is no longer required, as the CoAs have been fully integrated into this mod.

• 14 new Duchy titles
• 5 new County titles
• historic coats of arms for all Barony titles in the kingdoms of Poland and Galicia-Volhynia
• West Slavic rulers are addressed with historically accurate title names (see FAQ)
• renamed fictional Polish Tribal ruling dynasties to historical aristocratic families with their respective coats of arms
• flavour decisions and events: Conquest of Klaipeda (Memel), Integration of Ruthenia, The Varmian Foothold, and more
• fixes of historical inaccuracies in Barony names

Most of these titles associated with Western aristocracy only gained traction in West Slavic regions well into the modern era. The somewhat unique understanding of nobility in Poland (i.e. that all nobles are equal) meant this highly structured hierarchy of titles could never be accepted. In the Middle Ages, when feudalism was only starting to get established in these regions, such strongly defined hierarchy simply was not a thing, and rulers were referred to by their function or as lords in general. Tribal, specifically pre-Christian titles are even more vague and confusing.

No. The mod won’t work correctly on older saves and requires starting a new game to function properly.

Maybe. Probably. If I get some ideas.

If you’re willing to help me translate it into your native language! There is a Chinese one.

Yes.

Map changing mods are a hard incompatibility.
Anything else can probably be fixed with a compatibility patch. If you want to make one or request one, send one in the Suggestions discussion.

There will be a Culture Expanded compatibility patch soon!

This mod alters the map data, history and titles files. I’m working on rewriting the code in order to increase the compatibility with other mods, but for now it’s best to assume it won’t be compatible with mods directly overwriting history and titles files.

• Polish localisation
• More flavour decisions & events
• More historic CoAs for Ruthenian titles
• Something coming after the Q4 update…

Chinese Localisation Mod, courtesy of 無壹