• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

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.

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!
 
  • 161Like
  • 95Love
  • 6Haha
  • 6
  • 3
  • 3
Reactions:
Sorry, but I think you're mistaken.

The Trapezuntite rulers accepted the title of "Despot" soon after the Palaialogos reconquest of Constantinople in 1261. That's a really ambiguous title and it doesn't really fall into to any western feudal hierarchy.

I think they should be a kingdom-rank realm, but that's 100% a gameplay decision.
Screenshot_20250530_161551_Chrome.jpg

Screenshot_20250530_162022_Chrome.jpg

Check the Byzantine-Trapezuntine of 1282, I think that the Georgian rulers recognized the title as well
 
  • 6Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Maybe if you use 1.243M for population, you should use consistent system for thousands?
Like 4.950K instead of 4,950.
Or at least use space instead of comma 4 950 instead of 4,950.

View attachment 1309530
Completely disagree on this, I think the way it is represented is already perfect. Why would you want to remove the comma or information for no reason? 17,063 has the same amount of characters as 17.06K, one just has a pointless letter instead of a meaningful number. It makes sense for millions as 1.243M is quite a bit shorter than 1,243,678.
 
Last edited:
  • 11Like
  • 6
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
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…

Can we see an example? How far past the 1453 those alt-historical events go? Any chance of some (rare ones, I get it) fun events for Romans late in the game, in the XVII-XIX century?
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Why is one of the event options green?
It's an event option that is not always present, but depends on some additional triggers. Art is WIP, as usual.
 
  • 23
  • 19Like
  • 1
Reactions:
View attachment 1309480
View attachment 1309481

The Empire of the Romans were not Greek, there was no such thing as Greek. They called themselves Rhomaioi and spoke a language they called Romaika. The change to greek happened during and because of Ottoman oppression as a way of nationalist revival towards the end of the games time period, certainly not at the very start.

Poking fun at people who know the history of this polity is all well and good but its not a good look if it remains this way on release.

The best option, imo, would be for Empire of the Romans to be the default name, and have the ahistoric exonym of Byzantium be an option in this game rule. Eastern Roman Empire, Basiliea ton Rhomaion and Rhomania are also good alternative options to add to the rule.
Screenshot_20250530_162854_Chrome.jpg

Wrong, checkmate Byzaboo:p
 
Last edited:
  • 20
  • 7
  • 4Haha
  • 1Like
Reactions:
This is the starting diplomatic situation:
View attachment 1309486

There's an event that gives a Casus Belli to recover Achaea, and that's it; the rest is mechanic-driven.
did you change Serbia's attitude towards Byz? as they shouldnt ally each other(as shown in ludi's vid) at the start since they had a war 3 years prior to the start
 
Last edited:
  • 2Like
Reactions:
Is it possible that the consolidated corruption estate privileges could be gained by any decaying empire? Rather than being unique to the Byzantines.
Not a bad idea, we'll consider attaching it to the 'Decline of Empire' disaster somehow.
 
  • 113Like
  • 30Love
  • 12
  • 1
Reactions:
Or at least use space instead of comma 4 950 instead of 4,950.

Completely disagree on this, I think the way it is represented is already perfect. Why would you want to remove the comma or information for no reason? 17,063 has the same amount of characters as 17.06K, one just has a pointless letter instead of a meaningful number. It makes sense for millions as 1.243M is quite a bit shorter than 1,243,678.
I'll invoke the International Bureau of Weights and Measures on this one:
- Indifferently comma or dot for decimal separators, as both are in use depending on the country
- Space for thousands separator to dissipate any ambiguity with the decimal separator
 
  • 8
  • 3
  • 1
Reactions:
We need the dynamic of the co-emperors, a dynamic that can also be added to Genoa with its diarchy. Byzantium also needs an exclusive succession law and Chinese meritocracy already integrated; merit topics in Byzantium were extremely relevant. We also need many events for the final wars with the Turks. Giovanni Giustiniani Longo must be protostrator! There must be a last Constantine with very good stats, Also, a casus belli to reintegrate the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
 
  • 4Like
Reactions:
Wrong, checkmate Byzaboo
Yeah that is about as worthwhile as Voltaire's claim about the HRE.

Clowns with delusions of grandeur using the Roman Empire as a basis for their legitimacy try to delegitimise the actual Roman Empire.

idk man, you should know better. Please stop trolling :)
 
  • 13Like
  • 9
  • 4
Reactions: