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Legacy of Rome will be released next week, so this dev diary will be the last of this cycle. Doomdark is busy hammering away at the game, so this week the honor of writing it falls to me. As he said last time, we'll finish off with some of the unique decisions, events and mechanics we've added to the Byzantine Empire in the DLC. Note that the following stuff is for the DLC, not the free 1.07 patch.

Succession in Byzantium works the same as in the rest of Europe, except for one thing. Children born to an emperor during his reign will get the ”Born in the Purple” trait, which gives them a stronger succession claim than any older siblings born before their parents ascended the throne. If you, as emperor, still want your gifted firstborn son as your heir instead of his snotnosed younger brother who had the good fortune of being born during your reign, infanticide is not your only option. Granting the Despot honorary title to your firstborn will rank him the same as if he had the Purple trait, and given his seniority in age, he will become your heir again.

View attachment LoR_02_ERE_Events.jpg

Ambitious emperors will no doubt try to reclaim some of Rome's former glory by restoring the Empire's lost territory. If they or their imperial vassals hold certain provinces, they will have the opportunity to restore the Roman Empire. This decision essentially signifies that the West has no choice but to accept the Byzantines as the true heirs of Rome's legacy. You will get a new title (complete with a new flag, of course), and the rulers of a restored Rome always get the ”Augustus” trait, which gives a slight boost to vassal relations. If you wish it, there is a decision to move your capital to Rome, though the city scarcely compares to Constantinople in this era so you will likely have to invest a lot of gold and time to rebuild it.

Another major decision, of course, is to mend the Great Schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. You will need to reunite the Pentarchy (Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Rome) under Byzantine and Orthodox rule and accumulate a great deal of piety. When this decision is taken, Catholicism will become a heresy and Catholic rulers across Europe will have to decide whether to convert or not. A few will refuse, and Europe will likely be plagued by religious unrest for some time, but the first step has now been taken to unite Christendom under a single church.

View attachment LoR_01_ERE_Events.jpg

As you have probably seen, Byzantine rulers can elect to blind or castrate their prisoners. This can be an efficient way of permanently crippling your rivals without executing them outright. Have an obnoxious brother that covets your throne? If he is blinded or castrated, he will be removed from the imperial succession, and you will have one less pretender to worry about. Just don't expect him to like you much afterwards.

Castrated rivals aside, eunuchs played an important role at the Byzantine imperial court, and from time to time one of them will distinguish himself enough to be brought to your attention. This eunuch will be very loyal to your ruler and quite skilled in his chosen field. When other lords turn their backs on you, you will usually still be able to depend on his service, whether it's as a skilled general or a gifted spymaster.

Other events you can expect to see are triumphs being held when you emerge victorious from decisive wars, unruly Varangians in the capital, Hippodrome races and much more.

View attachment LoR_03_ERE_Events.jpg

Finally, let me stress that this does not mean that we have created a supercharged Byzantine Empire that will always go on to dominate Europe as the Romans did before them. Skilled and dedicated players will be able to stage a miraculous recovery and recreate the borders of the Roman Empire and maybe even hold it all together afterwards, but we have naturally taken care not to upset the balance of the game. Just wanted to put that out there. :)
 
Please tell me that coat of arms for the restored Roman Empire is a work in progress. I like the eagle and SPQR and all, but given that this is a Christian Roman Empire it needs more ERE references, like a double-headed eagle and perhaps a cross. If not, I suppose there's always modding...

That same style but with a double headed eagle would be great, I think. It is rather suggestive of Classical pagan Rome and could use some Orthodox Christian symbols in there.
 
You say that if a contender for the throne is mutilated then they're removed from the succession. Are there any extenuating circumstances for this? because historically mutilated contenders often came to the throne, usually because of a coup or a war (i.e. Justinian II, Isaac II). Can civil wars still be fought on their behalf?
 
You say that if a contender for the throne is mutilated then they're removed from the succession. Are there any extenuating circumstances for this? because historically mutilated contenders often came to the throne, usually because of a coup or a war (i.e. Justinian II, Isaac II). Can civil wars still be fought on their behalf?


I would love to see chain throne as much as happen historical , because it very hard for every emperor to hold it.
 
That same style but with a double headed eagle would be great, I think. It is rather suggestive of Classical pagan Rome and could use some Orthodox Christian symbols in there.

The chi-rho could work well, since I presume that most people will have also finished restoring the pentarchy at the same time as restoring the Empire. Evocative of the whole one empire, one church business.
 
You say that if a contender for the throne is mutilated then they're removed from the succession. Are there any extenuating circumstances for this? because historically mutilated contenders often came to the throne, usually because of a coup or a war (i.e. Justinian II, Isaac II). Can civil wars still be fought on their behalf?

An interesting question. Possibly, the mutilated contender with a valid claim would still be able to press the claim in war, the way your sons who get appointed bishops can.
 
Just a thought, will the ERE still be usurpable by non christians?
As with all the new mechanics tied to it, itd be thrice as annoying for the turk to take it.
 
The chi-rho could work well, since I presume that most people will have also finished restoring the pentarchy at the same time as restoring the Empire. Evocative of the whole one empire, one church business.

I was thinking the same, - red background, with the golden chi-rho, the golden Roman-style eagle surmounting it, as though perched upon the Rho? Maybe a little too stylised, but just a thought as an alternative.
 
Out of curiosity, what happens to the HRE if Byzantines form the Roman Empire proper? Since that decision represents the rest of Europe accepting the Byzantines as the actual Romans, you'd think those other guys might run into a little problem...
 
IV. China is an empire because Westerners translated the title of their sovereign as emperor, and therefore the realm he ruled was an empire. Huangdi may also be translated as king, as I recall, but we refer to it as emperor because wang is also a word that means king and a huangdi is greater in rank. Don't take my word for either of these two things, since my knowledge of this is second hand and I know next to nothing about the Chinese language. :)
We call China an "empire" by analogy, since the enormous scope of Chinese imperial states was roughly comparable to Rome, and Chinese emperors claimed a similar kind of universal sovereignty. But you're right, it's just a translation convention; calling them emperors does not imply that they have anything to do with Rome, because they don't.

As a title, Huangdi (皇帝) is actually somewhat more like a Persian King of Kings, since it's merely two different characters for regal titles mushed together.
 
I plan to create a minimod for a decision to End the Schism on the Western side, and a decision to force the Greeks to recognize the HRE as the legitimate Successors of Rome, pretty much as soon as I can go through the files and figure out what the schism's end does for the Eastern side.
 
We just need the ability to have female generals, and we're all set to create a matriarchial society ("born in purple" for all females, "divested" for all males - Enatic succession here we come!)
 
I plan to create a minimod for a decision to End the Schism on the Western side, and a decision to force the Greeks to recognize the HRE as the legitimate Successors of Rome, pretty much as soon as I can go through the files and figure out what the schism's end does for the Eastern side.

This whole thing makes me laugh. HRE successor to Rome! Charlemagne helped the pope out of a tight spot and the pope chose to tighten their ties even more by crowning him emperor. This happened because it was politically expedient at the time for the pope to take this action, there was no intention to create a successor realm. The intention was solely for the pope to gain a protector and an ally. Charlemagne's empire was a Frankish empire, not a Roman empire. The HRE was a Germanic empire, not a Roman empire. It might have suited Charlemagne's successors to claim political descent from Augustus, but they were nothing of the sort. They were the political descendants of Clovis, and if you ask me that's a pretty good place to start.

There's a certain kind of Western-orientated mindset that doesn't want to accept that other empires throughout the world were actually empires. The Chinese or Persian empires for example. It just all seems a little bit small-minded.
 
There's a certain kind of Western-orientated mindset that doesn't want to accept that other empires throughout the world were actually empires. The Chinese or Persian empires for example. It just all seems a little bit small-minded.
Naaaaaa it's not racism or Eurocentrism or West-centrism of any sort. It's just that people want to give different names to things, and to separate the specifically western idea, born with Rome, of a world-wide legal-political highest authority from political entities that are specific to other cultures and visions of the world. In the end any classification would be arbitrary, and I am sure that in China they have similar, symmetric concerns.
 
This whole thing makes me laugh. HRE successor to Rome! Charlemagne helped the pope out of a tight spot and the pope chose to tighten their ties even more by crowning him emperor. This happened because it was politically expedient at the time for the pope to take this action, there was no intention to create a successor realm. The intention was solely for the pope to gain a protector and an ally. Charlemagne's empire was a Frankish empire, not a Roman empire. The HRE was a Germanic empire, not a Roman empire. It might have suited Charlemagne's successors to claim political descent from Augustus, but they were nothing of the sort. They were the political descendants of Clovis, and if you ask me that's a pretty good place to start.

There's a certain kind of Western-orientated mindset that doesn't want to accept that other empires throughout the world were actually empires. The Chinese or Persian empires for example. It just all seems a little bit small-minded.

I don't see your point in regards to his. Would you not agree that the Pope and the HRE historically would have like to end the schism and thus bring total legitimacy to them? Certainly the Popes of the period would have relished the chance to end the schism by subjugating the Orthodox Church. The HRE isn't the successor state to Rome, but that wouldn't matter in the eyes of the Pope or the Emperor.
 
I don't see your point in regards to his. Would you not agree that the Pope and the HRE historically would have like to end the schism and thus bring total legitimacy to them? The HRE isn't the successor state to Rome, but that wouldn't matter in the eyes of the Pope or the Emperor.
Nor do I see why the westerners/catholics wouln't be able to enact their own Roman Restoration should they first supplant the Byzantine Empire in the East in fourth-crusade styled way.
 
Nor do I see why the westerners/catholics wouln't be able to enact their own Roman Restoration should they first supplant the Byzantine Empire in the East in fourth-crusade styled way.
You can; in fact you can do what was done historically -- create the Latin Empire. :)
 
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