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CK2 Dev Diary #29: Illumination

By the grace of God, I am finally back and able to pen another development diary, though my hands are still unsteady from the shocking things I saw while in hiding. I think it best to simply recount my harrowing experiences of the last few weeks. For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, there is much to be learned from my travails.

For many months, I had felt that something strange was going on at the office. In hindsight, the signs were all there; colleagues naming their daughters “Sophia”, hushed talk of “secret knowledge” and Dan “podcat” Lind suddenly breaking off his presentation of the next Hearts of Iron IV expansion in order to explain how the Creator is just an “evil emanation of the original Monad”. But it wasn’t until Björn “Metal King” Iversen took me aside to listen to the subliminal messages in various Judas Priest tracks that I finally realized the truth: the company had been infiltrated by Sethian Gnostics! I recognized some of the messages from the Second Treatise of the Great Seth and the Gospel of Judas...

I suddenly did not want to help Björn record any more death sounds. Who knows how many souls he has helped “liberate” from this earthly prison in his infernal studio? He eyed me with suspicion when I assured him that I had already achieved Gnosis. Beating a hasty retreat, I was forced to skulk in various unused meeting rooms for a full week until I could finally make my escape. While in hiding, I witnessed many disturbing sights; people wearing inverted pentagrams and muttering to themselves, a secret follower of Mahomet performing an odd prayer ritual, various outlandish and no doubt fraternal handshakes, and worst of all; a vile heathen festival in the lunchroom involving spiderwebs, skulls and a bloody brew spewing smoke.

The rot runs deep. There are worse things afoot than mere Gnostic heretics... I fear there are several other corrupt sects burrowing like ticks within our ranks. How could this happen? What malign stars have aligned in the skies above our afflicted nation? Dark heresiarchs are at work in the Realm, pulling strings from the shadows and inducting naïve game developers into their subversive cabals. Who can feel safe in these dark times?

I have written the Holy See with a plea for aid. My sole hope lies in the Holy Father, Pope Francis, though I wonder if he is made of stern enough stuff to unleash the Hounds of God, for I fear only the Dominicans can save us now, as they did in the times of Cardinal Torquemada, bless his soul...

May God send us a light, for the darkness surrounds us!

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Wow that's amazing ! Gnostic religions have always been my favourite.


Would be cool too ! Can't wait to play a fraticelli monastic order with the new heretic gameplay ;) .

I hope the game will manage to properly model the rising of Fraticelli amidst the founding of Franciscans and the poverty controversy : )
 
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Sounds interesting, but very, very cryptic :) Aside from thing already mentioned, there are some things I would like to see in a heresy-oriented DLC:
1) expanded Cathars
2) Hussites - in timeline terms, they arrive a bit too late to be fully incorporated in CK2 and too early for EUIV, but an event modelled after this crisis might be created to fire earlier if necessary (I can imagine triggers like low catholic moral authority and an influential priest being executed for a suspicion from heresy); offers a late-game crisis for catholics
3) some events related to possibly harmless-but-suspicious countryside cults (like the Benandanti of Northeastern Italy)
4) the devil scare of Late Middle Ages and need to respond to popular call for witch trials (but again, this is something that culminated more during the reformation)
5) Christian Doomsday cults, people congregating on hills, leaving their riches behind etc. (or in your hands :)
6) the Neo-Adamites: be a good Christian, run around naked, practice free love, the Age of the Holy Spirit is coming!
 
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I hope the game will manage to properly model the rising of Fraticelli amidst the founding of Franciscans and the poverty controversy : )
Fraticelli is my favorite heresy, you get the best of the mechanics of Catholicism plus it's more stable. Especially in a converted game (Protestantism doesn't happen if Fraticelli is dominant {or at least it didn't last I played EU4, I'm waiting for that one to be more or less done before I grab a bunch of DLCs and get back into EU4}).
 
I shall pray for your soul @Doomdark may the holy father hear thy plea. :p

 
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Fraticelli is my favorite heresy, you get the best of the mechanics of Catholicism plus it's more stable. Especially in a converted game (Protestantism doesn't happen if Fraticelli is dominant {or at least it didn't last I played EU4, I'm waiting for that one to be more or less done before I grab a bunch of DLCs and get back into EU4}).
You don't like Catharism? No opinion penalties for female heirs and leaders and women can be assigned to every council position.
 
Be sure to include a high priestess called Hildegard Cliddon who cooks spirits and eats babies and etc.

Really didn't expect to see a reference like this here haha.

Dev Diary leaves me intrigued and excited!
 
You don't like Catharism? No opinion penalties for female heirs and leaders and women can be assigned to every council position.
The lack of a religious authority is a hard -20 to any possible sustained Moral Authority for a gameplay reason to not enjoy them plus I don't like the belief system in general for a out of game reason.
 
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I shall pray for your soul @Doomdark may the holy father hear thy plea. :p


Hehe, classic scene. I've actually thought about adding a special tribute sound effect (but of course, Björn will have to confess his sins first and seek forgiveness.) :)
 
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Nice list. What is a base value system?

Something like base tax, production and manpower from EU4. Basically each province would get a development value from 1 to 20. Higher development would unlock more holding slots, income and levies would be determined by development. Disease outbreaks and raiding would decrease development, while long prosperity would have potential to increase it.
 
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I love these more story-oriented diaries! While I'm not sure exactly what the expansion will change, I hope to see more on religion, heresies and perhaps even the introduction of monasteries.
 
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