The Simurgh rises (Sassanids in China)

Descendants of the Sassanids have been added in China, with the possibility of reviving Iran, founding a new dynasty in China, and more!

You could consider this a BETA version of the mod, since there are still some things I will be adding soon (Maybe in a few weeks).

I haven’t tested any compatibility with other mods.

Unsurprisingly, the main focus of this mod is the Sassanids, specifically their Chinese branch, the descendants of the son of Yazdegerd III, Peroz III. In reality, we can only trace this branch to the mid-8th century AD, but what’s stopping us from speculating a little and artificially extending it? The last known representative of this branch is Li Mu Shanuo; I gave him a son, Li Chang, whose son in turn became Li Jun, who in 867 is 67 years old.

List of what’s been added with the mod:

• The family trees of the Sassanids, Surens (including the Indo-Parthian kings), Arsacids, and Mihranids have been expanded and in some places corrected. The dynasty of the Indo-Greek Kingdom and Elymais have been added (Each represented by only one historical character).

• Indo-Greek, Parthian, and Khuzestani (Elamite) cultures have been added.

• A decision to restore Elam has been added.

• Approximately ±10 new primary playable characters have been added, along with their relatives, etc.

In the future, plans include adding new decisions and events, related to the existing characters, which the mod sorely lacks now, further improving the historicity of the dynasties of Iran, Yemen, and possibly steppe rulers (Perhaps another new bookmark?).

Playable characters of the new bookmark:

Li Jun (Fictional) is one of the characters of the new bookmark added with the mod. He has a very good Stewardship education, lives in Chang’an, and is already fully assimilated into the Chinese environment. He has an older daughter, Li Meixue, and a son, Shimin, who is his heir. Since the Tang Dynasty will soon fall, it is assumed that one could use him to found a new Chinese dynasty of Sassanids.

Kavadh III (Li Yu) (Fictional) is the youngest son of Li Jun, starts as a landless ruler in the Hexi Corridor (Gansu). He is Chinese but has returned to the faith of his ancestors which is Zoroastrianism. He has a decent starting army with which he plans to restore the Sassanid Empire in Iran. Kavadh’s wife, Xuanji, is also Chinese with a similar background; she is a descendant of the Suren clan, one of the noble houses of the Sassanid court. Xuanji’s younger brother is an actual recorded historical figure, Surena Li, mentioned as a minor military commander serving under the Tang Dynasty in the 870s in the Book of Tang. For fun, I made Xuanji’s and Li’s mother a representative of the Kibi clan/ She is supposedly a descendant of Kibi no Makibi, who managed to father a child with a Chinese woman during the 17 years he spent in China. Thus, Kavadh’s heirs will descend from the houses of Sassanid, Suren, and the Kibi clan. At Kavadh’s court, there is a Persian, Jahandar, who teaches him Zoroastrianism and the Persian language.

Kumpante Kucha (Fictional) is a landless ruler, a representative of a collateral branch of the Tocharian aristocratic family from the city of Kucha. Few know this, but the game has a mechanic for playing as a preacher. You can purchase the necessary decision, and for ten years, you get the ability to convert provinces to your faith, provided the province’suj population is negative towards the current ruler (Popular Opinion). Kumpante is a Manichaean prophet, with whom you could give Manichaeism a second wind in by spreading it along the Silk Road.

Alexandros Axiotes (Fictional) is a young man from an Indo-Greek environment, one could say he is the last of his kind. The Indo-Greek culture has long been dead; only Alexandros remembers his roots and speaks the language. Alexandros’s unit is very small, located in eastern Afghanistan, but with him, one could revive the Macedonian Empire in reverse, from Punjab to Macedonia. In secret, he practices Hellenism.

Firuz Zunbil (Hist.) rules a small county near Ghazna in Afghanistan, secretly practices the ancient faith in Zun, the sun god. Ya’qub al-Saffar, his sworn enemy, killed his father when conquering Afghanistan. Firuz has an excellent Intrigue education, which will allow him to first get rid of his relatives and inherit their lands, and then Ya’qub himself, reviving the faith in Zun.

Paduspan Karenid (Hist.) is the last representative of the House of Karenids, a dynasty of Arsacids, the very one that once founded and ruled the Parthian Empire. Now Paduspan is just a minor count of Dihistan, but perhaps the Iranian Intermezzo is the period in which Parthia will flourish again.

Ziyar (Hist.) is the father of Mardavij, the last Zoroastrian ruler in history, founder of the Ziyarid dynasty, who managed to capture all of central Persia for a couple of years. In reality, Mardavij was born sometime in the 880s or 890s, and the peak of his political activity was in the 930s. However, considering that in the game the Iranian Intermezzo usually ends much earlier, and there is no other point besides ending the Intermezzo with Mardavij, in the mod he was born in 864 and already has the Conqueror trait.

Secondary new characters not included in the bookmark:

Khosrow Buyid is the progenitor of the Buyid dynasty, father of its founder, Buya. In the future, the Buyids will capture territories from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, subjugate Yemen and Oman, and become protectors of the Caliph. But in 867, the Buyids are nothing; in reality, Buya was a simple fisherman, and his father Khosrow clearly could not boast of any noble origin.

Hassan Shirazi is the progenitor of the first dynasty of the Kilwa Sultanate, ruler of Shiraz. After his father’s death, Hassan’s younger son will sail to Somalia and try to buy land there, but nothing will come of it. Then he will go even further south and buy the island of Kilwa from the Bantu tribes, founding a sultanate that in the future will become the dominant force in East Africa, the beginning of Swahili culture.

Ubadarma Salurahb is the last representative of the Khuzestani culture, governor of the small town of Dawak. He has access to a decision to revive the Elamite Kingdom.

The idea to create such a mod came to me about 5 or 6 months ago when I was actively reading about the history of the Sassanid Empire.

I want to separately thank the creator of the channel "MikkyV CK3" ( https://youtube.com/@mikkyvck3?si=KXqonv_emhwz6ETd ). Before this, I had never done modding or coding, and my profile is very far from this topic, but thanks to his guides, I was able to create this mod.

中国語：https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3403925213

日本語：https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3628657034