The mod has now been released! Read more here
Beginning of the End is a mod for CK2 centred around the 15th and 16th centuries, with a bookmark at 1400, and the end date extended up to 1600. With this dev diary series, I will showcase different areas of the mod, as well as outlining future plans for the mod. In today’s dev diary, I will explain the scope of the mod and show off a bit of what has been developed so far.
Why 1400?
At the turn of the 15th century, great developments were about to take place, some more long-term than others. Of course, the greatest European development of the 15th century was the Renaissance. There are many opportunities that this will present from a gameplay perspective, from new artifacts to game-changing international developments which radically change the balance of power. Northern Italian states are at the heart of these changes, but the spread of the Renaissance will provide many others with the ability to leave their own mark in this exciting new age. As these changes reach your domain, how will you react? Will you enhance your prestige with splendorous statues speaking of the ancient past, or will you reject the excess of the wealthy, instead joining a religious movement against those who seek to put themselves in the place of God? The renewed interest in the Classics also results in Latins rediscovering their Roman past. Will you use your Roman roots to establish your own successor-state to the Roman Empire, rejecting the legitimacy of the pretender Empires, or will you look back further to the Republic?
As time progresses, the moral authority of the Catholic Church is called into question, causing dissent to stir in Europe. Perhaps a new Church will rise, rejecting the Pope, his lavish excess and his corruption? Furthering such a movement might demonstrate your piety and devotion to truly following God’s Word… but it would also rid you of your political obligations to the Pope. The emergence of Protestantism will shake the very foundation of Europe on both a political and religious level, creating interesting scenarios which will be both challenging and rewarding. Will you side with these religious rebels and cement their place in history, or will you side with the Papacy, mending the Western Schism before it can go too deep?
But enough of the Old World... in this time of change, European powers begin reaching further than usual. Pushing the boundaries. Exploring the unexplored. If they go far enough, they might find a whole New World, rich with its own cultures, lands and resources. Ripe for the picking. This might be exactly what you need to boost your nation's prestige and guarentee your place in the history books forever. With the potential of untold wealth and power, it will only be a matter of time before the European powers begin scrambling for dominance in trade a occupation of land. It is up to you to make sure you come out on top- by any means necessary.
Current state of the mod
At the moment, the focus of development is on history modding - that is, filling in the 63 years of history between the final start date in vanilla CK2 and 1400. Each province must have its rulers, and each ruler must have its immediate family. While this is a lot of work, especially in areas where sources are patchy, there is also something rewarding about it. When you’re modding history in CK2, the way you interpret it shapes how others will view the time period. In a way, what we include in the mod will become historical canon to people who play it. There is definitely an element of responsibility in this!
This screenshot provides a rough idea of how Europe will look in 1400, although there are a few kingdoms left- some of the HRE, Finland and the Russian lands to the east. Some borders might not match up to how you expect, but there are naturally limitations with border-accuracy in a video game like CK2! Of the 113* de jure kingdoms in this start date, we have completed 36, which means we’re about a third of the way there to an alpha release. We would love to have more modders on board so we can speed this up, so if you are interested in helping out, please let me know! You don’t need to have done history modding before- just experience of modding CK2 in general is all you need, since history modding is easy to learn. You can leave a comment or send me a message, and I will invite you to the Discord server for the mod.
*(The exact number may change, but this is the number of de jure kingdoms by 1337, give or take a couple, since the Wiki isn’t up-to-date with everything.)
That’s all for today’s dev diary! At the moment I intend for these to be a weekly release, but it might be more ad hoc than that. In the following weeks, I plan to release dev diaries with information about specific areas to provide historical context, how that’s translated to the game world, and how we’re going to expand on it in the future.
Here are all of the dev diaries so far:
Dev Diary #000
Dev Diary #1
Dev Diary #2
Dev Diary #3
Dev Diary #4
Dev Diary #5
Dev Diary #6
Dev Diary #7
Dev Diary #8
Beginning of the End is a mod for CK2 centred around the 15th and 16th centuries, with a bookmark at 1400, and the end date extended up to 1600. With this dev diary series, I will showcase different areas of the mod, as well as outlining future plans for the mod. In today’s dev diary, I will explain the scope of the mod and show off a bit of what has been developed so far.
Why 1400?
At the turn of the 15th century, great developments were about to take place, some more long-term than others. Of course, the greatest European development of the 15th century was the Renaissance. There are many opportunities that this will present from a gameplay perspective, from new artifacts to game-changing international developments which radically change the balance of power. Northern Italian states are at the heart of these changes, but the spread of the Renaissance will provide many others with the ability to leave their own mark in this exciting new age. As these changes reach your domain, how will you react? Will you enhance your prestige with splendorous statues speaking of the ancient past, or will you reject the excess of the wealthy, instead joining a religious movement against those who seek to put themselves in the place of God? The renewed interest in the Classics also results in Latins rediscovering their Roman past. Will you use your Roman roots to establish your own successor-state to the Roman Empire, rejecting the legitimacy of the pretender Empires, or will you look back further to the Republic?
As time progresses, the moral authority of the Catholic Church is called into question, causing dissent to stir in Europe. Perhaps a new Church will rise, rejecting the Pope, his lavish excess and his corruption? Furthering such a movement might demonstrate your piety and devotion to truly following God’s Word… but it would also rid you of your political obligations to the Pope. The emergence of Protestantism will shake the very foundation of Europe on both a political and religious level, creating interesting scenarios which will be both challenging and rewarding. Will you side with these religious rebels and cement their place in history, or will you side with the Papacy, mending the Western Schism before it can go too deep?
But enough of the Old World... in this time of change, European powers begin reaching further than usual. Pushing the boundaries. Exploring the unexplored. If they go far enough, they might find a whole New World, rich with its own cultures, lands and resources. Ripe for the picking. This might be exactly what you need to boost your nation's prestige and guarentee your place in the history books forever. With the potential of untold wealth and power, it will only be a matter of time before the European powers begin scrambling for dominance in trade a occupation of land. It is up to you to make sure you come out on top- by any means necessary.
Current state of the mod
At the moment, the focus of development is on history modding - that is, filling in the 63 years of history between the final start date in vanilla CK2 and 1400. Each province must have its rulers, and each ruler must have its immediate family. While this is a lot of work, especially in areas where sources are patchy, there is also something rewarding about it. When you’re modding history in CK2, the way you interpret it shapes how others will view the time period. In a way, what we include in the mod will become historical canon to people who play it. There is definitely an element of responsibility in this!
This screenshot provides a rough idea of how Europe will look in 1400, although there are a few kingdoms left- some of the HRE, Finland and the Russian lands to the east. Some borders might not match up to how you expect, but there are naturally limitations with border-accuracy in a video game like CK2! Of the 113* de jure kingdoms in this start date, we have completed 36, which means we’re about a third of the way there to an alpha release. We would love to have more modders on board so we can speed this up, so if you are interested in helping out, please let me know! You don’t need to have done history modding before- just experience of modding CK2 in general is all you need, since history modding is easy to learn. You can leave a comment or send me a message, and I will invite you to the Discord server for the mod.
*(The exact number may change, but this is the number of de jure kingdoms by 1337, give or take a couple, since the Wiki isn’t up-to-date with everything.)
That’s all for today’s dev diary! At the moment I intend for these to be a weekly release, but it might be more ad hoc than that. In the following weeks, I plan to release dev diaries with information about specific areas to provide historical context, how that’s translated to the game world, and how we’re going to expand on it in the future.
Here are all of the dev diaries so far:
Dev Diary #000
Dev Diary #1
Dev Diary #2
Dev Diary #3
Dev Diary #4
Dev Diary #5
Dev Diary #6
Dev Diary #7
Dev Diary #8
Last edited:
- 6
- 3
