2 suggestions: Afsharid (Nader Shah) and Durrani Empires

[withche.07]

After Safavid dynasty was divided Afsharid empire was formed in Iran (ruled by Turkmens).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afsharid_dynasty
Nader Shah is great figure: "some historians have described him as the Napoleon of Persia, Sword of Persia or the Second Alexander."

"During Nader's reign, Iran reached its greatest extent since the Sasanian Empire. At its height it controlled modern-day Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan Republic, parts of the North Caucasus (Dagestan), Afghanistan, Bahrain, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan, and parts of Iraq, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Oman."

"At the Battle of Karnal, Nader crushed an enormous Mughal army six times greater than his own."

In his rather short reign he accomplished great campaigns:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaigns_of_Nader_Shah

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He did 80 km flank-march has been called a "military masterpiece" by the Russian general & historian Kishmishev:

This would be great formable with awesome military ideas. He was unluckily assasinated by his own officers. But until then he messed Mughals and Ottomans (greatest empires at that timeline).
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Summary of Durrani
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durrani_Empire

The empire ruled over what are now the modern-day countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, as well as some parts of northeastern Iran, eastern Turkmenistan, and northwestern India including the Kashmir region.

After the death of Nader Shah in 1747, the region of Kandahar was claimed by Ahmad Shah Durrani. From there he began conquering Ghazni followed by Kabul. In 1749 the Mughal ruler had ceded sovereignty over what is now Pakistan and northwestern Punjab to the Afghans. Ahmad Shah then set out westward to take possession of Herat, which was ruled by Shahrokh Shah. He next sent an army to subdue the areas north of the Hindu Kush and in short order all the different tribes began joining his cause. Ahmad Shah and his forces invaded India four times, taking control of the Kashmir and the Punjab region. Early in 1757, he sacked Delhi, but permitted the Mughal dynasty to remain in nominal control as long as the ruler acknowledged Ahmad Shah's suzerainty over the Punjab, Sindh, and Kashmir. After the death of Ahmad Shah in about 1772, his son Timur Shah became the next ruler of the Durrani dynasty who decided to make Kabul the new capital of the empire, and used Peshawar as the winter capital. The Durrani Empire is considered the foundation of the modern state of Afghanistan, with Ahmad Shah Durrani being credited as "Father of the Nation".

There is no reason for this Afghan empire to not exist.
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[JKiller96]

I can see Afsharids as a Turkmen or central Asian formidable but we already have the Ilkhanate as a central Asian Persia formable.

I definitely would like to see the Afghan Empire/Durrani Empire as a Khorasan/Persia focused formable myself, but as they can form both the Mughals and Persia, I'm not sure PDX will find a use for it.

 

[withche.07]

You are right about Ilkhanate, but this nation under Nader Shah was rather different:
The Safavids had introduced Shi'a Islam as the state religion of Iran. Nader was probably brought up as a Shi'a but later espoused the Sunni faith as he gained power and began to push into the Ottoman Empire. He believed that Safavid Shi'ism had intensified the conflict with the Sunni Ottoman Empire. His army was a mix of Shi'a and Sunni (with a notable minority of Christians) and included his own Qizilbash as well as Uzbeks, Afghans, Christian Georgians and Armenians, and others.
He wanted Persia to adopt a form of religion that would be more acceptable to Sunnis and suggested that Persia adopt a form of Shi'ism he called "Ja'fari", in honour of the sixth Shi'a imam Ja'far al-Sadiq. He banned certain Shi'a practices which were particularly offensive to Sunnis, such as the cursing of the first three caliphs. Personally, Nader is said to have been indifferent towards religion and the French Jesuit who served as his personal physician reported that it was difficult to know which religion he followed and that many who knew him best said that he had none.
Nader hoped that "Ja'farism" would be accepted as a fifth school (mazhab) of Sunni Islam and that the Ottomans would allow its adherents to go on the hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, which was within their territory. In the subsequent peace negotiations, the Ottomans refused to acknowledge Ja'farism as a fifth mazhab but they did allow Persian pilgrims to go on the hajj. Nader was interested in gaining rights for Persians to go on the hajj in part because of revenues from the pilgrimage trade. Nader's other primary aim in his religious reforms was to weaken the Safavids further since Shi'a Islam had always been a major element in support for the dynasty. He had the chief mullah of Persia strangled after he was heard expressing support for the Safavids. Among his reforms was the introduction of what came to be known as the kolah-e Naderi. This was a hat with four peaks which symbolised the first four caliphs.

So this country would be Shia meanwhile Ilkhanate is Sunni. And this country could come up with "tolerance of heretics" modifier making it lot more useful to conquer both Shia and Sunni lands.

Forming Ilkhanate is very hard btw. Instead Afsharid could be lot easier having events or rebellions.

@neondt may show interest. I hope to summon him

 

[neondt]

Interesting, but I don't expect to be able to revisit this region within the foreseeable future. I'll save this for another time

 

[withche.07]

Thanks for reply. It is good to hear you are interested. It isn't important to see it bit later. It would be fun alternative militaristic tag for many players to try in Persian region.

 

[klingonadmiral]

They already exist. The game calls them "Persia" and "Afghanistan".

 

[withche.07]

They arent totally same. They were culturally and religiously different.

 

[RNGesus322]

Durrani Empire was quite literally the predecessor to modern Afghanistan, and it was formed by Pashtuns (the dominant ethnicity in the country today). So it could quite honestly be represented by Afghanistan with a Durrani dynasty.

Persia in EU4 timeline was formed by a Turkic dynasty anyways (Safavids), so replacing it with another Turkic dynasty (Afsharids) wouldn't make it a different country. Administratively speaking they functioned very similarly (Shia majority religion, Persian and Turkish as official languages, centered on Iran with Isfahan as the capital). Only difference was Safavids were more of a theocracy, while Afsharids were a normal monarchy.

Better idea would be to have an event that occurs if Persia declines/loses part of its heartland, that makes Nader Shah a general and later brings him to power (like Napoleon). This could result in a government switch from Feudal Theocracy to Monarchy, along with a dynasty change to Afsharid.

You can model Nader's military strength with "Military Reforms" modifier and good general stats, and Tolerance of Heretics by the ruler personality "Tolerant" or a special ruler modifier.