[MOD] Princes of Darkness

[Vegetalss4]

I was just thinking about the Sabbat formation event and started wondering about something. In the event, the Paths of Enlightenment are treated as this grandiose new invention of the Sabbat. But is there any meaningful difference between following a Path and the Roads kindred have always had, lorewise? I remember oldschool VTM used to be a lot more strict about this stuff, all vampires are on Humanity by default and joining a Path requires an active, herculean effort to extinguish your humanlike thinking, making all vampires on them completely and fundamentally alien in a way that you can't stress enough. But I guess then someone came up with the concept of Roads for Dark Ages and it kinda seems to contradict that? I'd say maybe Roads are more like V5's flexible Humanity system where you decide yourself what "being human" means to you, such as being courageous or hungry for knowledge, but in the mod, many Roads are nearly direct counterparts to the future Paths, so is there a difference?

It's also worth nothing that this is one of those things that has varied over the decades and myriad sourcebooks that has been part of the various Old World of Darkness, vampire lines.

From a real world perspective:
Roads where created as a design decision to serve the need of the Vampire Dark Ages books, which had some different themes and ideas than the main "modern" VTM line and therefore had some different design decisions.
One of those was to backwards project a variant of the Path system and soft change the paths as older than they had previously been written as.

As a general tendency a lot of stuff was changed for the Dark Ages family of book to be older than they where in the modern day games. It's one thing to say that cool/spooky thing X was from the renaisceance/naopleonic time/a few decades ago in a modern game book where that means they are all there for the ST to use in their game, it's another thing to do the same for stuff set in the Dark Ages where it'd mean that it's no longer in the toybox. The latter can leave the toybox a bit empty or require you to come up with more new stuff that would later be lost to replace it. (and if you and others like that new stuff it has a tendency to get adopted as having unexpectedly survive which still leaves the past with fewer toys).

 

[Lord Asgar]

Thank you both for the explanations, that helps a bit.

I guess what my question really comes down to was, is vampire morality an objectively real, metaphysical phenomenon, or completely subjective?

Oldschool modern-day VTM pushes this idea that humanity is automatic. You don't have to do anything to get it. If anything, becoming a vampire means you become aware of it more than ever. I'm not talking sociopolitical stuff here like the Camarilla's agenda, but metaphysics. If you were to suddenly awaken one night a vampire and the entire rest of the world had disappeared, you would still automatically end up on Humanity. Anything else, the Paths, are treated "unnatural", a corruption thereof. It is also clear that once you enter a Path, you can never get back to Humanity. Which is honestly pretty baffling to me considering how many Lasombra in V5 join the Camarilla and presumably re-embraced Humanity. How is the whole "spiral of damnation" still a thing if you can switch back and forth as often as you want, if you can completely re-learn to be human after 500 years of deliberately training yourself to view them as insects? So much of the central pathos of Vampire no longer makes sense if Humanity doesn't have a special metaphysical position in the setting.

By contrast, becoming a vampire in the Dark Ages spinoff gameline seems to mean that there is no inherent morality to a vampire. You have a choice of many things, including Humanity, and you'll need to choose something, but all choices are of equal worth, it's just a matter of self-control. If you, in the same example, just awakened to your first night as a kindred with nobody else in the world to push you in any particular direction, you'd be... what? Presumably you'd just automatically find your way to whatever Road best suits your nature without ever having to be taught about it?

Were medieval vampires more alien to humanity than modern-day vampires then? Or are their morality paths simply more closely modelled after the values of their former human societies, but no less moral than their modern equivalent? Certainly, most of the Roads seem "Humanity-adjacent", like the Road of Kings with its emphasis on chivalry or the Road of Heaven with its ideals of (Abrahamic) morality. There also seems to be a point to be made about the Sabbat paths being a "corruption" thereof. Maybe by inserting a radical anti-human political agenda that didn't exist before? Perhaps there is a distinction between being passively inhuman in the way the Road of Bones is vs being actively, aggressively, assertively anti-human in the way Sabbat paths are?

 

[karde]

Even in Dark Ages, humanity (the road of) is by far the most common and "default" point. If you suddenly awaken as a vampire with no teacher and you were an average medieval person, you will try to still act like a mortal did, hence road of humanity.
The Road of Humanity book has even an entire chapter dedicated to those "innate" humanity vampires that don't receive any formal teachings or anything. It just makes sense to stay that way for them.

Modern pushes that even further in a way. With no teachers for the other roads around anymore, and humanity being enforced as the norm, it's even harder to change your "morality system". Only in a sect dedicated to this, that systematically tries to erode your humanity (the Sabbat), can you try to shift.... and even then, there are a lot of Humanity vampires in the Sabbat still.

So I don't think all of that is contradictory. Humanity is the default morality system. Always was, always will be. But it's not the only one, you can ward against the Beast (which is the point of the morality system in the first place) by multiple means, but the other ways (other roads and paths) are much more difficult to understand and conceive for young vampires. So you need a teacher, a long and often traumatic experience (it is known that shifting to a Sabbat Path often involves quite a lot of very inhumane actions for example to "evolve" away from humanity to become a predator etc) and the actual will to go out of the easy, comfortable, zone. Not something many would do without political pressure.

 

[Lord Asgar]

Random question, I swear we used to have a bookmark just for revenant families, but it seems to have been removed?

 

[karde]

Their gameplay features are a little lackluster to be honest, they feel like discount vampires with less things to do. This isn't something we like to "advertize" with a big and visible bookmark. It's more of a side thing for experienced players to enjoy.
Revenants and ghouls are still on the map and playable as usual though.

 

[flintsparc]

We know about the update for Elegance of Empire. This one snuck up on us. We hope to put out an update for POD soon. Don't expect anything until very late today East Coast U.S. time.

 

[heliostellar]

Just discovered this mod and I am OBSESSED!!!

A quick aside, should Syracuse have a building slot for a Princedom? Right now it has the special building, Tomb of Shadows, which is good but doesn't provide precious tax revenue to the holder like a Princedom would. Many provinces such as Cagliari have a Princedom in addition to the special building (there, Argentiera Mining Settlement).

 

[flintsparc]

A quick aside, should Syracuse have a building slot for a Princedom? Right now it has the special building, Tomb of Shadows, which is good but doesn't provide precious tax revenue to the holder like a Princedom would. Many provinces such as Cagliari have a Princedom in addition to the special building (there, Argentiera Mining Settlement).

The capital county of the duchy of Sicily is Palermo, not Syracuse. I guess you know what a Montano player first goal should be.

 

[flintsparc]

Update 1.8.2 "Lore of the Clans", April 5, 2022.

Specialized Content for Vampire Clans: https://www.princesofdarknessmod.com/wiki/index.php/Clan_Content

Compatible with CK3 1.8.2 Robe/Elegance of Empire.

Now compatible with Full Screen Barbershop (FSB) and Community Flavor Pack (CFP) with no compatibility submod patch required. If you are using Full Screen Barbershop (FSB) and/or Community Flavor Pack (CFP), put them BEFORE Princes of Darkness Mod in your load order.
Now compatible with CFP without requiring an additional patch mod!

Change Log:

Spoiler

# Princes of Darkness, "Lore of the Clans", Version 1.8.2, Change Log, April 5, 2023
- Updates for CK3 1.8.2 (Robe/Elegance of Empire)

- CFP compatiblity with no patch necessary! Improved potrait and throneroom compatibility: This will greatly help future updates from vanilla CK3 as well as make the mod more easily compatible with Community Flavor Pack. Also, some changes to make CFP provided throne rooms in their night version, as well as have some CFP clothing and headgear to appear appropriately on canon characters. Changes to the intro event that check for CFP (like we check for FSB) and provide appropriate warnings and load order advice. A few canon character portraits may need tweaking to match their author's version. As a bonus the player character can pick some fantasy colors for hair. I plan to turn down their saturation a bit in the future. In the future there will be some more fantastical hair colors on fae and other appropriate characters.
- Makes CFP throne rooms work logically with POD faiths. Known issue: Remove the whiteness from windows in the HRE/Fiefs of the Black Cross court.
- Fix for portrait shaders for Vulkan API renderer (Mac/Linux relevant)
- Fix issues with CFP African, Iberian and Andalusian Throne Rooms
- Added support for Norse Throne Room
- Changed texture files for Elegance of Empire drip
- Added support for choosing Elegance of Empire drip
- A patch for EPE will be made in the future, merger of shaders values is needed.

___Vampires___

__Clan Content___

Clan Content - [[:Template:Princes of Darkness Mod Wiki]]

www.princesofdarknessmod.com

___Banu Haqim___
- Vizirs, sorcerers and warriors devoted to their vision of their founder, Haqim.
- Weakness : Banu Haqim's skin darken with age. Represented as a game rule in the mod. Their second weakness, the Baali curse, happens during gameplay as a major event.
- Content : The Web of Knives, allowing Banu Haqim to pursue contracts placed on other vampires for gold.
- Overhauled the Izhim event
- The Web of Knives has had a facelift and various improvements
- Ur-Shulgi no longer kills characters he has been told to not bother.
- Assamite factions influence has been capped to be clearer to players

___Brujah___
- The warriors scholars of Carthage and Hellas are bitter and angry, devolving into a rabble of rebels looking for a cause.
- Weakness : Brujah are prone to frenzy. In the mod, they are more likely to get the various frenzy events.
- Content : A dynasty legacy unlocks a unique Brujah Warmaster court position.
- Replace the Brujah cadre dynasty legacy by an unlock of a new minor court position. The Brujah cadre interaction was sort of clunky and a court position achieves the same end result in a more streamlined way

___Cappadocians___
- The scholars of death, cursed to go in cycles of death and rebirth for eternity.
- Weakness : Cappadocians, past mortal age, will always look like corpses (both in lore and the mod).
- Content : A dynasty legacy unlocks the Lamia bodyguard, representing the unique relationship between Cappadocians and the daughters of Lilith.
- Reworked the Lamia bodyguard perk to be a chain of events with several choices
- Added a tolerance between Lilin religions and via ossium (so that Lamia can work alongside Cappadocians as intended)

___Followers of Set___
- Devoted followers of their God Set, ready to bring freedom and corruption to the world.
- Weakness : Setites take double damage from the sun. Not represented in the mod.
- Content : If you play a character with the via set religion, you can"corrupt" any vampiric religion that you hold at least 3 holy sites of. Corrupting here means making them a part of the pillars of Set, righteous to you and other members of this secret pact.
- Added the Setite special clan content (religious content more specifically) : corrupting other faiths
- Expanded and improved the "warriors of glycon/witches of echidna" event
- Added a chain of event for Egyptian rulers featuring Baybars' purge. Procalmation of Red Tears/Baybars Event Chain: In lore, Baybars' reign was a catatlysmic affair for the Egyptian supernatural, resulting in the entirety of clan Setite fleeing Egypt during his reign and Ombos itself (their capital) being sacked by the Mameluke. It is said that the Setites' reaction to later Inquisition in Europe was basically "Heh, Baybars was way worse". It's now represented in the mod. At the start of the event chain you can choose to follow the canon choice of the setites : fleeing. It will be very costly but you will be out of reach of Baybars' follow up attacks. It's the prudent choice. Or you can choose to stay. Whatever your choice, Baybars will ramp up his attacks in the following years, resulting in even more devastation. What precisely will be his attacks is randomized from playthrough to playthrough. But it will always culminate attacking one of the supernatural wonders of Egypt (like Ombos, or the Fire Court). Their owner can try to defend it, but it's difficult. For those that have managed to stay in Egypt until the end of Baybars' reign, they will have an opportunity for payback. But it will be difficult. The AI follows exactly the same rules as the players. Meaning Egyptian AIs will be very very weakened during Baybars' rule, which might open opportunities for neighbors. Finally, since it is quite the painful chain of events, a game rule allows you to disable it.
- Setup changes (Clan Book Setite/Setite Revised full read)
- Greatly expanded Kemintiri's special content
- Faiths with the Osirian league doctrine will now lose it if corrupted by Setites
- Childer of Warriors of Glycon and Witches of Echidna now get the right disciplines instead of their standard clan spread.
- Warriors of Glycon get Potence, Prescence and Serpentis. Cadet Houses created from Warriors of Glycon keep the same behavior.
- Witches of Echidna get Animalism, Presence and Akhu (Blood Sorcery). Cadet Houses created from Witches of Echidna keep the same behavior.
- Corrected Disciplines of The Last Glycon character that spawns as part of Setite clan content. (Had Protean advanced, now has Serpentis Advanced)
- Updated the Character Creation decision to reflect the change in Warriors of Glycon disciplines. (Used to get Protean, now gets Serpentis)
- More safety checks to the end of Baybars' purge

___Gangrel___
- Nomads, wanderers, the Gangrel work with the Beast, not against it.
- Weakness : Gangrel gain an animalistic feature when frenzying, both in lore and in the mod.
- Content : As a dynasty legacy, Gangrel rulers can unlock the Rite of Status to formally introduce themselves to one another.
- Replaced the Challenge for Alpha Gangrel interaction by a more in depth Rite of Status chain of events
- Small setup changes, new characters (Clan Book Gangrel and Clan Book Gangrel Revised full read)

___Giovanni___
- The Venetian necromancers, a bloodline sworn to the Cappadocians, but with their own ambitions and methods.
- Weakness : While most other vampires' bite is a blissful experience, Giovanni's bite is always painful. In the mod, it disallows some predator types.
- Content : GIovanni get access to the Familial Embrace mechanic, where they can nurture of their own mortal family for potential Embrace.
- Added a Giovanni familial childe event system

___Lasombra___
- The ruthless social darwinists, draped in shadows of their own creation.
- Weakness : Lasombra cast no reflection, making them obsessed with their appearance. In the mod, it is represented as a potential chain of events.
- Content : Lasombra get access to the Courts of Blood, allowing them to Petition for Sanctioned Diablerie of fellows Lasombra, and the Amici Noctis, their secretive leading organization steering the clan towards their own ends.
- Added events related to joining and using the Amici Noctis
- Diablerizing a Lasombra sentenced by the court of blood doesn't count as a murder anymore (so no murder secret or kinslaying). Still does make you a diablerist though because, well, you are
- Fixed Courts of Blood's victim already being a nemesis edge case

___Malkavian___
- Seers and madmen, the Malkavian see truth and falsehood much clearer than other clans.
- Weakness : Malkavian all have a derangement, represented as the lunatic, depressed, paranoid or possessed traits in the mod.
- Content : Some dynasty legacies unlock the Madness Network interactions. Using them can lead to various events down the line at you explore it.
- Expanded the existing Madness Network interactions
- All the permanent vanilla naked modifier (tied to lunatic trait) have been changed to temporary ones. To avoid all Malkavian invariably ending up naked as time goes on.
- AI use of Malkavian powers has been sanitized (heh) to follow the new AI powers usage rules
- Added a missing Malkavian lineage/house from France by Night
- Nerfs to the Knossos labyrinth wonder to make it less front-loaded

___Nosferatu___
- Deformed beyond belief, the Nosferatu must also face the wrath of their sadistic founder.
- Weakness : All Nosferatu has hideously deformed, both in lore and in the mod.
- Content : During your game, you will have reports of strange events in your domain that put your Nosferatu brethren in a fearful frenzy. Claiming those events are the work of the dreaded Nicktuku, they will ask of you to make (costly) preparations for defense. A large majority of the time, these events will be red herrings, just simple paranoia... but sometimes, it will indeed lead to a confrontation with a Nicktuku, where the preparations you made might save your unlife.
- Added the Nosferatu clan content, related to the Nicktuku

___Ravnos___
- Indian vampires, divided by castes, embroiled in an unending war for their homeland.
- Weakness : Ravnos have compulsions, be they good or bad, to do a specific action even at the most inopportune of times. Not represented in the mod.
- Content : Ravnos are divided by Jati (castes) represented as Houses in the mod. Each Jati has a mini objective to improve their starting house modifier.
- Reworked the Ravnos family tree, fixing some issues and adding new houses. Basically to include all of their Jatis/castes so that we have an easier time scoping to them for extended content
- Added mini objectives for the Ravnos Jati
- Some setup tweaks (Clan Book Ravnos/Ravnos Revised full read)

___Toreador___
- Aesthetes and poseurs, leeching off humanity's imagination to feel alive.
- Weakness : Toreador can get entranced for hours by something or someone they think beautiful. In the mod, it is represented as a potential chain of events.
- Content : As their last dynasty perk, Toreador get access to 5 "mini wonders", powerful but expensive buildings.
- Added 5 unique buildings as the last Toreador dynasty perk. Toreador don't have secret societies or fancy activities, so they get something to lean on their more humane/artistic nature. These five buildings are "mini wonders", expensive but powerful.
- Volgirre now get the right disciplines instead of their standard clan spread. Volgirre get Auspex, Celerity and Vicissitude. Cadet Houses created from Volgirre keep the same behavior.
- Added support for Volgirre to the Character Creation decision.
- Tweaked the Rayeen'al fen house modifier

___Tremere___
- The Usurpers, former mages who wrestled immortality from other vampires, and must now fight to retain it.
- Weakness : Tremere are especially easy to blood bound, both in lore and in the mod.
- Content : The Inner Council, the ruling body of the Tremere, is a special mechanic available to all loyalist Tremere.
- Added the Tremere Council feature for early testing
- Added 5 events related to the Tremere Council system
- Completed the Tremere Council system

___Tzimisce___
- Monsters and fiends, sending shudders down other vampires' spines.
- Weakness : Tzimisce must always sleep close to some soil of their homeland. Not represented in the mod yet.
- Content : The Rite of Release is a tradition for Tzimisce childer that happen several years after their Embrace, it happens as a small chain of events. Tzimisce also are especially geared towards "Revenant play" but it's not strictly limited to them.
- Added a small chain of events for Tzimisce childer several years after their Embrace, the Rite of Release. Tzimisce already have several "almost clan unique" mechanics like the Revenants and Vicissitude shenanigans. So this addition is on the small side, mostly to highlight the often forgotten "tradition bound" part of the clan.

___Ventrue___
- Nobles and tyrants ruling the night.
- Weakness : Ventrue have particular tastes and can only drink blood from a specific subset of mortals. Represented in the mod as a choice during the starting events.
- Content : The Ventrue Ephorate is the shadow council of the 12 elders debating the stance and philosophy the clan as a whole should follow. As a game mechanic, it can give important dynasty modifiers to the Ventrue and open new events to a Ephor character.
- Added the Ventrue Ephorate
- The Ventrue clan bane event is now more talkative, including actually telling you what "young" means in game terms. The predator type event also now explain what they are.
- Mithras now has a starting event to hide his early nights secret
- Some predator types don't give an automatic herd anymore, or aren't available to Ventrue. New player picks Ventrue because recommended. New player picks a feeding weakness. New player picks a predator type with auto herd that doesn't take into account the weakness. New player dies of constant stress in a matter of weeks. Bad.
- Added a way to reforge the Shattered Spear of Artemis Orthia
- Used @Sarg 's laurel icon for Camilla laurel artifact

___Salubri___
- Added Valeren as a "reward" for a specific ending in the Tremere Antediluvian hunt
- Allow Salubri Watcher awake Hun and P'o, gain access to (nearly) all Kuei-Jin powers
- Zao zei is now correctly a woman
- Added an event if all "Saulot is evil" artifacts are gathered
- Updates the files for the Salubri Third Eye so that skin and eye color matches the character.

___Kuei-Jin___
- Fix Kuei-Jin players don't get Dharma
- Yin Mantle unlock wraith Men At Arms and enchant weapon interaction
- Eightfold Yin Mantle unlock shade Men At Arms, enchant armor interaction and summon Yin artifact interaction
- Touch of Rust allow you to make target lose all their gold.
- Semblance will reduce time to unlock nexus building
- Yang Prana Rework
- Chi'iu Muh Rework

___Miscellaneous Vampire Changes___
- The court tutor minor position has been re enabled for vampires. It now reduces the prestige cost of the mentoring event depending on the tutor's aptitude.
- Added mentoring events for Dominate, Animalism and Auspex. The logic behind mentoring stays the same but you now must get through some thematic events before acquiring the discipline. This makes it a little costlier hunting for each discipline, but also more flavorful for each one.
- Added mentoring events for Celerity, Potence, Obfuscate, Presence, Protean, Vicissitude, Fortitude, Blood Sorcery, Chimerstry, Obtenebration, Abombwe, Serpentis, Daimoinon, Necromancy, Temporis, Spiritus, Melpominee, Dementation, Valeren, Quietus and Mytherceria
- Fixed a childe trying to mentor themselves during education event
- Added BDW's herd fix
- Masquerade War Casus Belli
- Kinslaying for vampires had some general changes. There is no kinslaying possible for killing someone loosely related to you (of your dynasty) anymore. Close family (siblings, childer, sires) kinslaying is still a thing. Killing a clanmate that is very loosely related to you is really not considered a crime in vampiric society
- Fixed a duplicate Auspex text
- Gargoyles don't need mass sire secret to be recruited as Men at Arms anymore. We're tired of answering the "Why can't I recruit Gargoyles? I have the dynasty legacy!" question. And having Gargoyles troops doesn't make you a mass sire really anyway, it's not like you are going around biting people and they become Gargoyles
- Added the early Midnight Circus vampire triumvurate for potential future use
- Dominate tweaks
- Revenants and ghouls can also choose to recruit from torpor instead of killing
- Mytherceria's steal the mind cooldown has been increased
- Raktasadhus religion can now build the Mahabodhi temple
- Ashirra religion can now build the Imam Ali mosque, the great mosque of Mecca
- Everyone can now use the Pit of Malkav
- Added more explanation about the dominate secondary target thing
- Forgetful mind has been reworked to be sleeker. While the previous interaction was technically impressive, it was also 30000+ script lines long and very maintenance heavy.
- Setup changes (Children of the Revolution full read)
- Feral lorekeepers now correctly get access to commission epic
- You aren't informed when vampires get wounded anymore. Since they recover automatically, it doesn't matter and it will stop the AI from picking potentially lethal "treatments"
- Torpor decision has been dropped down the menu to avoid misclick
- Setup changes (Rites of the Blood full read)
- Two artifacts have been modified to be useful for the existing Antediluvian hunts
- Added Okhin's Daughter of Cacophony chargen fix
- Fixed the failed mesmerize opinion malus not triggering
- Fix new vampires don't have Masquerade

___Werewolves___
- Added 7 new music soundtracks by Serial Symphony, Werewolf themed
- Werewolves maintenance events have been removed from yearly_everyone, the most engine intensive on_action
- Werewolves yearly_everyone event for shapeshifting has been removed. Replaced by a check when a war is declared (not a raid) that shift all werewolves knights (and AI leaders) participants in the war to crinos form for a while
- Werewolves yearly_everyone events for wounds and diseases have been moved to yearly_playable instead. Which will result in unlanded WW being weaker to diseases and wounds, a price I'm willing to pay for better optimization. And WW health bonus should carry then to recovery with vanilla mechanics anyway
- Werewolves can now use Sherwood
- Fix ghouling kinain werewolves
- Commented out the Bastet characters for now as they aren't the focus anymore and cause weirdness
- Fixed Bastet changes making Abomination not being able to pick Homid Born gifts

___Hunters___
- Fix Holy Heal can't heal others
- Hunters will lose Hunter trait if make pact in Abyss
- Reworked the ask pope decision for hunters
- Fixed a potential issue for the First Inquisition warning event

___Mummies___
- Added a tomb building event chain for mummies. This compensates for the above nerf, letting Mummies ramp up faster if the tomb is invested in
- Added a missing Mummy character
- Added new Mummy artifact
- Fixed Draw Sekhem interaction; makes it so that Draw Sekhem properly works on creatures that do not have Sekhem, as the perk describes.
- Removed some starting perks from Mummies. While lore accurate, the sheer number of options Mummies start with is overwhelming and doesn't leave much room from gameplay growth
- Mummies are now less fertile. An attempt to curb the crazy mummy dynasty numbers in late game

___Demons, Baali and Infernalists___
- Reworked how mortals acting as vessels of demons lose their lives. Now higher prowess vessels last longer than low prowess ones.
- Added support for Demons creating a new Sin faith. This does not change which sin it follows but allows for some customization while still allowing the Tempt and corrupt interactions to work as intended.
- Overall nerfs to the infernalist stuff
- The demon chargen house choice now doesn't create a cadet house, only flavor. Creating a cadet house, or putting you in an existing dynasty, would result in not having control over your dynasty legacies, which is important for demons
- Demons can now use Ceoris and Iglesia
- Nergal and Moloch are now alive, but unreachable like Baba Yaga and Ur Shulgi
- Infernalist trait now gives a serious stress malus. Selling your soul to demons isn't a net positive anymore
- The Grail of the Bitter Ashes will now always reject infernalists

___Umbra___
- Commented the Umbra file for future ease of adding events, added some safeguards. So that you can't walk in the Copernicus space station before Copernicus is even born
- Added 6 small Umbra events
- Grace, the Umbral currency, is more costly to gain
- Umbra exploration now has piety cost for who has stress gain -100%
- Enter Umbra require gold depending of gauntlet level now
- Remove umbra travelling time in normal realm
- Receive fallback if no event in Umbra exploration

___Patron War___
- Patron War bookmark returns
- Patron Characters: Armand, Haldor Mjölnir, Ion Ilie, Barachiel, Gualtiero Romano, Anubis the Imperishable, Gabriel Lancaster, Daxaniel Angelista, Lev Caran, Magno Branco, Petrus Zonaras, Abhartach, Jaroslav Putnik, Seonjong Yi, Dàniel De na Seinneadairean, Nelson, Pandora Ashurbanipal, Occulta Larva, William Lee, Alcesimarchus Caerellius, Neferkheperu, Neferure

___Miscellaneous___
- More lore: Added 47 new lore buttons, scripted the stats of those characters
- All piety costs for Men at Arms have been moved to prestige. While an interesting idea, CK3 just doesn't support piety as cost for MaA, messing the display and confusing players about their sudden and unexplained piety deficit
- Replaced all remaining pluralistic faiths by righteous ones. Having evil faith vassals stay post Holy War cause a bunch of issues and weirdness
- Characters older than 100 (except ghouls and revenant) will now refuse baronies titles. A baron is basically an always loyal and content vassal revokable at will, which makes keeping powerful immortals in line too easy
- if a character is already landed, they will now accept being given baronies. Basically, you can't make an old immortal a baron by granting titles, but you can give them baronies if already landed
- Replaced torturing prisoners give piety (which doesn't seem functional in vanilla) by more likelihood of joining schemes for Goratrix' council doctrine
- The AI will now almost always pick its clan dynasty legacy for the first tree to start and complete. Since more and more stuff is tied to dynasty legacies, this resolves the issue of the AI picking something else than their clan one that would delay accessing the special content for the player
- Added 10 new great persons. 191 total now. Russia is now complete GP wise.
- Added 15 artifacts
- Added 4 new wonders
- Removed special building mapmode.
- Changed the GP steppe region to a broader one
- Chimera Men At Arms
- The odd smell event won't happen for AI anymore and has a longer CD for players, to avoid overwhelming the world with perfume
- You can't give land to innocents via a Fate of Iberia event anymore
- Fixed naked patrons looking like aliens
- Added a warning event if an AI ends the French struggle
- add BDW's new cosmetics for tar eyes makeup
- Fixed some small issue in an education event
- Increases max amount of displayed traits to a new maximum of 3+80 or 4+64 traits depending on if you have 3 or 4 personality traits.
- Bark Skin cosmetic
- Fixed some issues in two dynasty trees
- No Wyld true believer can't get Gorgon now
- Men at Arms numbers tweaked based on BDW's calculations
- Re enabled the Napoli vanilla university
- Ancient Egyptian don't start with Iberian Caballeros unlocked anymore
- Small setup fix
- More safeguard for unreachable characters
- Some dynasties legacies nerfs
- Added Tom's 4 portraits
- Reduced the likelihood of AI hybridizing cultures if that rule is turned on . Can get spammy with our "unique" cultural setup
- Setup changes. Thanks Seeamoebe for the translation of relevant Wien um Nacht parts and the back and forth conversation about it
- Nerfed the vanilla adventurer trait. Used more broadly in PoD
- Most of the innovations debuffs have been moved to era modifiers, to make them clearer
- Recruit bygone is a button instead of random event now
- Modifier form powers that apply to knight in war as commander also apply in duel now
- Added Crepe's Drone upload
- Added a way to reconstruct the Bai Ze Tu if all fragments are gathered
- Fertility tweaks. Main thing being that woman fertility per child already born decreases faster
- Pelesit Men at Arms numbers have been capped for AI like the other swarm MaA
- Updated Portraits
- Jod properly renamed to Job
- Enheduanna's character entry has been reworked to follow her historical counterpart more
- Added a fix to intrigue mentor vanilla event not avoiding unavailable characters
- Bookmark character age is now hidden once again

**In addition, as always:**
- Fixes and Tweaks
- Various localization updates
- Additional Chinese translation
- Misc, More Misc and various other types of Misc

___Fae___
- Prep Dark Ages Fae Bookmark work. You do not need to report bugs or localization/typo issues with Fae at this time. It is very much a work in progress.

 

[karde]

So... unexpected DLC suddenly dropping forced us to update the mod. The changelog provides you with the nitty gritty of things, but if you want a more general overview of the big stuff added, here you go :

Clan content :

Vampire society is divided by clans. This is a vampire group of shared "Blood" or heritage, who can trace their Generations back to a common ancestor, in particular to the Third Generation. Each clan has greater familiarity with a set of three Disciplines, a clan weakness largely unique to its members, and various stereotypes attributed to it as a result of a tendency to Embrace individuals with certain characteristics. In the mod, most content is tied to faiths, disciplines (which are obtainable by everyone with effort) and regions. But clans still play a big role, and some content is now tied to being part of one.

The full list is available here :

Clan Content - [[:Template:Princes of Darkness Mod Wiki]]

www.princesofdarknessmod.com

Some highlights :

The Giovanni family :

Representing the Giovanni reliance on finding childer in their own mortal family, this repeating chain of events will give you the opportunity to find the absolute perfect family member for your next childe. For a cost.

The Lasombra Amici Noctis :

The "Friends of the Night" are the Lasombra's internal justice system. They can authorize diablerie on a wayward Lasombra (which removes the piety cost, potential kinslayer but not the diablerie secret itself) if asked to intervene. Players can either start in the Amici Noctis (if they are one of the canon characters in it) or be asked to join it if they are powerful and prestigious enough. Being a part of it opens new events.

The Ventrue Ephorate :

The shadowy "Ruling Council" of the Ventrue sets the tone for the entire clan "vision". In game, each member is part of a faction and each faction offers a bonus (and potential malus) to the clan as a whole. Ephors can revise their stance about which faction and, if they die, they will be replaced by another prestigious and powerful Ventrue. Players Ephors will have unique events to work with as well.

The Setite faith corruption :

If you play a character with the via set religion, you can now "corrupt" any vampiric religion that you hold at least 3 holy sites of. Corrupting here means making them a part of the pillars of Set, righteous to you and other members of this secret pact. All with praise Set in the end.

The Tremere Council :

The Inner Council is the leading body of House Tremere. There are now many events partaining to them, their policies for the clan and their competition for influence within the council. A strong council can unlock powerful bonus for the Tremere, including unique Men at Arms. If a Councilor dies or is converted away from the Tremere Code, they will be replaced.

Non vampires weren't forgotten during this update, with two major additions for them.

For Inquisitors :

The "ask the pope for money" decision was always a pet peeve of mine. Very strong (so sort of mandatory), lackluster choice (just pick the gold) and very far from what should be the impact the current Pope has on the Inquisition. In lore, the Pope's blessing (or ban) was really the catalyst for many of the Inquisition's biggest events. So the rework is trying to bring that to light. Inquisitors will now have to pray (or prepare) for an accommodating Pope each time the current heir of st peter dies. There are a little over 10 "pope types" possible, from the fully supportive to the fully disapproving to everything in between.

For Mummies :

Mummies will now be quickly greeted by a tomb building event chain (Tomb is a unique background Mummies can take in the ttrpg) In the mod, it's a quite long event chain with various possibilities to improve your tomb. Or sometimes entice you with quicker rewards but a less majestic tomb in the end. Once done (which will take a while, the chain goes on for years with around 10/15 events) a special wonder will appear in your realm, its power depending on the quality of the tomb you gone for in the previous events.

 

[Lord Asgar]

The Amici Noctis are in now? And joinable? Heck yeah!

 

[flintsparc]

If you are using Full Screen Barbershop (FSB) and/or Community Flavor Pack (CFP), load them BEFORE you load Princes of Darkness Mod.

 

[Jia Xu]

So... unexpected DLC suddenly dropping forced us to update the mod. The changelog provides you with the nitty gritty of things, but if you want a more general overview of the big stuff added, here you go :

Clan content :

Vampire society is divided by clans. This is a vampire group of shared "Blood" or heritage, who can trace their Generations back to a common ancestor, in particular to the Third Generation. Each clan has greater familiarity with a set of three Disciplines, a clan weakness largely unique to its members, and various stereotypes attributed to it as a result of a tendency to Embrace individuals with certain characteristics. In the mod, most content is tied to faiths, disciplines (which are obtainable by everyone with effort) and regions. But clans still play a big role, and some content is now tied to being part of one.

The full list is available here :

Clan Content - [[:Template:Princes of Darkness Mod Wiki]]

www.princesofdarknessmod.com

Some highlights :

The Giovanni family :

Representing the Giovanni reliance on finding childer in their own mortal family, this repeating chain of events will give you the opportunity to find the absolute perfect family member for your next childe. For a cost.

View attachment 964380

The Lasombra Amici Noctis :

The "Friends of the Night" are the Lasombra's internal justice system. They can authorize diablerie on a wayward Lasombra (which removes the piety cost, potential kinslayer but not the diablerie secret itself) if asked to intervene. Players can either start in the Amici Noctis (if they are one of the canon characters in it) or be asked to join it if they are powerful and prestigious enough. Being a part of it opens new events.

View attachment 964381

The Ventrue Ephorate :

The shadowy "Ruling Council" of the Ventrue sets the tone for the entire clan "vision". In game, each member is part of a faction and each faction offers a bonus (and potential malus) to the clan as a whole. Ephors can revise their stance about which faction and, if they die, they will be replaced by another prestigious and powerful Ventrue. Players Ephors will have unique events to work with as well.

View attachment 964382

The Setite faith corruption :

If you play a character with the via set religion, you can now "corrupt" any vampiric religion that you hold at least 3 holy sites of. Corrupting here means making them a part of the pillars of Set, righteous to you and other members of this secret pact. All with praise Set in the end.

View attachment 964383

The Tremere Council :

The Inner Council is the leading body of House Tremere. There are now many events partaining to them, their policies for the clan and their competition for influence within the council. A strong council can unlock powerful bonus for the Tremere, including unique Men at Arms. If a Councilor dies or is converted away from the Tremere Code, they will be replaced.

View attachment 964384

Non vampires weren't forgotten during this update, with two major additions for them.

For Inquisitors :

The "ask the pope for money" decision was always a pet peeve of mine. Very strong (so sort of mandatory), lackluster choice (just pick the gold) and very far from what should be the impact the current Pope has on the Inquisition. In lore, the Pope's blessing (or ban) was really the catalyst for many of the Inquisition's biggest events. So the rework is trying to bring that to light. Inquisitors will now have to pray (or prepare) for an accommodating Pope each time the current heir of st peter dies. There are a little over 10 "pope types" possible, from the fully supportive to the fully disapproving to everything in between.

View attachment 964385

For Mummies :

Mummies will now be quickly greeted by a tomb building event chain (Tomb is a unique background Mummies can take in the ttrpg) In the mod, it's a quite long event chain with various possibilities to improve your tomb. Or sometimes entice you with quicker rewards but a less majestic tomb in the end. Once done (which will take a while, the chain goes on for years with around 10/15 events) a special wonder will appear in your realm, its power depending on the quality of the tomb you gone for in the previous events.

View attachment 964386

You guys really are amazing. Princes of Darkness is better than the vanilla game and it's not even close, IMO

 

[Orinsul]

Could there be a game rule when playing the everyone is vampires scenario, that all the other monsters are there just not landed? So you're in the world of vampire politics and courts, but you have all the werewolves and mummies and demons knocking about, to pull into your vampire politics?

 

[karde]

Not really. That would mean that werewolves, mummies etc would be courtiers/guests of the vampire courts, something we disallow by script for the other bookmarks already because it doesn't make any sense (a Gaia aligned werewolf would never work for a vampire, and would have nowhere to go in a bookmark where werewolves aren't landed).

 

[Orinsul]

Would it be possible to have them 'stuck' as wanderers/adventurers? or atleast a small number of them stuck that way? idk just from PnP experience and the 90s novels, while never working for vamps, they do get dragged into vamp drama, act as interlopers and major forces for change/discord and etc?
Given the game has werewolves, it's just as not making sense for werewolves to not impact/play a part in vampire politics as it would if they were happy servants? Mummies, demons and the rest too.

wandering garou takes out vamp causing power struggle and vendetta type situations. Or mad vampire wants to make ghouls out of the werewolfs doesn't work but gets all involved brutally werewolf murdered, that revanant family who are kinfolk, Mummy coming to town creates opportunity for power grab by leaking them location of settites, pact with demon. abominations? Weird vamp who only drinks werewolf blood so always needs a pet. etc classic prompts that in mod would be just by having them landlessly interacting, plotting, etc but not able to hold land or office, throw wrenches in plans and keep the world chaotic? the same as hunters do.
Also Petaniqua and the whole thing with her

but really just not werewolves or demons working for vampires, but conflict/opportunities caused by their being involved in vampire society, attacked by it, or just walking through it?

like there are hunters even when the world has no landed hunters and no hunter would work for a vamp so why not the same for wolves?
no stress though if it's not part of the teams vision.

Also the gargoyles and changelings in the current built are awesome, for different reasons.

Also the Independent Mummy guy gets worshipperservants of the mainstream mummy religion not his heresy.

 

[karde]

"Would it be possible to have them 'stuck' as wanderers/adventurers?"
"they do get dragged into vamp drama, act as interlopers and major forces for change/discord and etc?"

That's the two key points of your post. Yes, it is possible to stick them as wenderers but then... they won't do anything. It's CK3, wanderers only serve as guests to be recruited in the game (and vampires would never "recruit" Gaian werewolves) so all this drama you talk about just wouldn't happen. It would just be classic vampire courts with werewolves (and the rest) courtiers.

Outside of CK3, you are obviously right that vampires don't live in a vaccum (well... some editions really don't like cross splats, so even that is debatable) but CK3 has constraints that the tabletop doesn't have.

 

[Orinsul]

Thanks! Also just thinking, should gargoyles made by the Rock Lord, get his religion not the via servilis (?) so he can build a nation of free gargoyles, not get unlandable servantgoyles ?

 

[Jia Xu]

When someone on the Tremere inner council is kicked out, which factors go into determining the replacement?

 

[karde]

Orinsul : Most likely yes. Gargoyles aren't completely finished as far as I'm aware.

Jia Xu : If Grimgroth and Abetorius are available and still loyal, they are likely to be the replacements (as they canonically end up being). If they aren't (or are already on the council), it's a random factor valuing title rank held and piety (representing loyalty to the code of tremere) first and foremost, but also taking into account some other parameters (knowing blood sorcery, prestige etc)