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Tinto Flavour #23 - 30th of May 2025

Hello, and welcome one more Friday to Tinto Flavour, the happy days in which we take a look at the flavour content of Europa Universalis V!

Today, a day after an infamous anniversary, we will be taking a look at the Byzantine Empire - or Eastern Roman Empire, as you’re free to pick the custom name you prefer for it, as it’s a game rule that you can set before starting the game:
Game Rule Byzantium.png

Game Rule Eastern Roman Empire.png

Let’s now start with the content itself:

Once a proud Empire that stretched from Egypt and the Levant to Iberia and Italy, Byzantium now faces a decadent period that began almost three centuries ago. During his reign, Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos saw fit to dissolve several key institutions, such as the Navy, in an attempt to save the dying economy of the country, while the Theme System continued to be a shadow of what it was, as the Empire lost territory across all fronts.

His successor, Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos, is now faced with the difficult task of safeguarding what remains of our once-glorious Empire. To our east, the Ottomans have started amassing a large army to wipe out our remaining holdings in Anatolia, threatening to set foot across the straits. At the same time, King Stefan Uroš IV Dušan Nemanjić eyes Thessaloníki and Northern Epirus like a vulture. Meanwhile, our treasury runs dry of precious coin, and the country may yet be thrown into a perilous civil war, as the family of our Emperor conspires with the Dynatoí behind closed doors.
Click to expand...

Country Selection.png

Country Tooltip.png

As usual, please consider all UI, 2D and 3D art WIP.

Byzantium1.png

Eastern Roman Empire1.png

As I don’t want to spark yet another Byzantine discussion, and its subsequent civil war, here you have a couple of map screenshots, with a different country name option each!​

Byzantium (which is the name that I will use from now on, as being the most commonly used by the community) starts with a bunch of reforms and privileges:
Estates.png

Most of the Estate Privileges are generic ones, but there’s a unique one for each estate. We will show them in a later section of the TF, as they’re related to the Byzantine Succession Crisis, a disaster that may happen to Byzantium early on.

Regarding the starting reforms, the first is a generic one, while the other two are unique ones:
Reform Autocracy.png

Reform Theme System.png

Building Thema Headquarters.png

Reform Kritai Katholikon.png

Byzantium starts with a ‘State Patriarchy’ policy, as shown last Wednesday:
Policy State Patriarchy.png

And some other unique policies:
Policy Pronoia System.png

Policy Byzantine Law.png

It also has quite a bunch of starting works of art:
Works of Art1.png

Works of Art2.png

The Theodosian Walls are also represented through a unique building:
Building Theodosian Walls.png

Byzantium also has a bunch of advances; we are going to focus on the early-game, historical ones, as they also unlock some Byzantine unique units:
Advance Heart of Orthodoxy.png

Advance Late Cataphracts.png

Unit Byzantine Cataphracts.png

Advance Akritai.png

Unit Akritai.png

Advance Shield of the West.png

Cabinet Action Extensive Conscription.png

Advance Poikilia.png

Advance Expand Varangian Guard.png

Unit Varangians.png

Advance City Taker.png

Unit Modernized Helepolis.png

Let’s now move on to the narrative content for Byzantium. As I mentioned previously, a Succession Crisis is latent in the country, and that would historically lead to the Byzantine Civil War of 1341-1347, which allowed King Stefan Dusan of Serbia to occupy Macedonia and proclaim himself emperor, the Bulgarians to recover some borderlands, and seriously debilitated the country, making it easier for the Ottomans to gain a foothold across the Sea of Marmara, from Gallipoli.

We’re portraying this latent crisis and the general state of decay of the country by some starting privileges, plus some starting inflation, low funds and stability, etc.:
Privilege Corruption Nobility.png

Privilege Corruption Burghers.png

Privilege Corruption Clergy.png

Privilege Corruption Commoners.png

This situation will also spawn in your neighborhood a couple of months after the game starts, although we will talk more in detail about it next Friday:
The Turkish Threat.png

And it’s very likely that this disaster may end up triggering early after the start of the game, if you are not careful enough:
Succession Crisis.png

Succession Crisis2.png

Succession Crisis3.png

It is something we internally call Semi-Generic Disaster. This means that while it uses the texts, panel, etc. of the generic ‘Succession Crisis’ disaster, some countries have unique triggers, events, and content attached to it, so the player can experience similar, but different crisis. The Byzantine Succession Crisis is one of those, therefore.

Independent of whether the player succeeds or not in defeating the Succession Crisis, and not weakening much in the process, Byzantium has a bunch of Dynamic Historical Events:
Event Hesychasm.png


Event Decline Palaiologos Renaissance.png


Event Reforming Kritai Katholikon.png

Reform Reformed Kratoi Katholikon.png


Event Acritic Songs.png


Event Song of Armouris.png


Event Kosntantinos Armenopoulos.png


Event Center of Learning.png


Event Gemistos Plethon.png

Event Gemistos Plethon2.png

Byzantium also has some alt-historical events, one of the few exceptions we make in the game, to include some plausible content in case that Byzantium avoid its decadence…

… However you will have to find it by playing the game when we release it, as that’s all for today! As today is Friday, this will be the schedule for next week:
  • Monday -> Tinto Maps Feedback about the Steppes
  • Tuesday -> Tinto Flavour about the Golden Horde
  • Wednesday -> Tinto Talks about Islam
  • Thursday -> Fourth ‘Behind the Scenes’ video!
  • Friday -> Tinto Flavour about the Ottomans and the Rise of the Turks situation!
And also remember, you can wishlist Europa Universalis V now! Cheers!
 
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I saw in the videos made by LP:rs following the announcement that the ERE starts with claims on western Anatolia and parts of Macedonia, but are there ways for them to also earn claims on other formerly ERE lands, thinking specifically of majority Greek lands, like the Aegean Islands, Crete, etc.?
 
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Amazing as always!

Is there any content for the reconquest of Anatolia or other areas of the empire? I was particularly wondering if there was anything to guide the rehellenisation of western and central Anatolia.
 
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Can we get a look at the 'Hellenism' that could be revived by Plethon?
Does it resemble his actual neoplatonic/renaissance humanist inspired beliefs with a hellenic-zoroastrian flavour, or is it inspired by the long-dead classical era beliefs?
 
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What exactly triggers the Succession Crisis? Prof. Anthony Kaldellis has made a point that a large part of staying in power as an Eastern Roman Emperor was keeping legitimacy in the eyes of not only the nobility but common people as well. I'm wondering if low legitimacy will somehow be emphasized in this case...
 
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Are there any specific requirements to revoke the Byzantine corruption estate privileges or destroy the Genoa or Venice special buildings in Constantinople or are these just dealt with through normal mechanics?
 
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Reform%20Theme%20System.png


I feel as though the Thematic system should bring one's nation towards centralisation. It was a highly bureaucratic and efficient system with its roots in Roman administration. It's the furthest thing from a decentralised policy.
 
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Thrudgelmir2333 said:
View attachment 1309465.
Ill replace all the bees with Byz later : v

Jokes aside, I was thinking a cool option for those that find Roman institutions to be too "out of time" past a certain century would be for Byzantium players to be given the chance to reform the country into a Greek Empire that sheds away Roman aesthetics, past a certain tech level?

Dont hit me, I said "option"! :oops:
Click to expand...
A nice idea but I think another tag(s) should be involved for this... Being Romans was a very large part of Byzantine identity, from Emperors down to the common people.
 
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Do we have an idea what is the population of the Byzantines land in Europe Vs the population they have lost in Anatolia?

Asia Minor and Anatolia has long been the heart of Byzantine manpower, and the losses of those areas made it challenging for the Byzantines to recover.

I hope there's something to reflect this as the Byzantines that controls the bits of Greece and Europe was never as populated compared to the lands in Anatolia.

Even after the crusaders had taken over parts of the Byzantine lands post 1204, most of them find themselves often not commanding or controlling as much population in the areas they controlled.
 
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When you announced the creatable countries, you said that Byzantium and the Roman Empire were both rank 4. Will there still be a way to remove the "Estearn" if Byzantium controls the historical zone of Rome? Or if it regains its former glory?
 
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How much territory does the Extensive conscription cabinet action cover? Or is it country wide? The reinforcement cost does seem to imply that, but I was under the impression that all cabinet actions had smaller (province, area or region level) territorial scope.
 
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