[MOD] Regional Immersion and Cultural Enrichment - a cultural flavor pack collection, sequel to Cybrxkhan’s Immersion Packs

[tonifr]

Thanks to you I am playing in regions I would have not played with the vanilla version!
After my tuareg game I am going to Sri Lanka for sure!

 

[cybrxkhan]

RICE Q3 ROADMAP​

Couple announcements to make on top of the flavor pack reveal earlier. Firstly, I'm proud to report RICE just reached a milestone of 100k subscribers on Steam workshop earlier today! Thank you all for the continued support - as always, it means a lot.

As many of you already know, the next flagship flavor pack, Sri Lanka: Abode of Lions, was announced earlier today with a reveal trailer. ETA for the update will be in roughly a month. After Sri Lanka, the next flavor pack will be in Eastern Europe, given it is one of the major "flavor deserts" for RICE at the moment which I hope to fill in by the end of the year. Potential candidates include flavor packs focused on the Slavic, Baltic, or Uralic peoples, as well as those in the Balkans (outside the ERE), and the western steppes.

Following the success of the poll for the India flavor pack, I will hold another non-binding poll to gauge interest in potential candidates in Eastern Europe later this month, so stay tuned for more info! While I have many potential candidates for Eastern Europe, feel free to make suggestions in the meanwhile, as only a select few will make it to the poll.

 

[Orinsul]

This looks amazing, thank you
Will buddhist, hindu, muslim, christian and jewish pilgrims be able to meet up the mountain and argue who's footprint it is?

 

[cybrxkhan]

This looks amazing, thank you
Will buddhist, hindu, muslim, christian and jewish pilgrims be able to meet up the mountain and argue who's footprint it is?

Thanks! As I've currently planned it, the flavor text for the Sri Pada pilgrimage will vary depending on which faith you follow as appropriate (same for the pilgrimage for Rama Setu).

 

[cybrxkhan]

The reveal for the Sri Lanka Flavor Pack was a week ago, so let's look back at the clues and go back to our regularly scheduled previews!

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Clue #1: In this region, 3 groups struggled against each other for power and influence during CK3's timeframe. Long divided, they must unite - but will it be under you?

The three groups referred to were the three main Theravada Buddhist monasteries in Sri Lanka during late antiquity and the medieval era: the Mahavihara, Abhayagiri, and Jetavana. While the Mahivihara were more conservative in their interpretation of Theravada, the Jetavana and especially Abhayagiri were more willing to adopt ideas and practices from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists in mainland India.

The new struggle, called the Sri Lankan Sangha (aka Sri Lanka's Buddhist community), focuses on the monasteries' centuries-long rivalry as they competed for influence and royal patronage. Given Sri Lanka's importance in Buddhist history, it is your opportunity to shape the direction that Theravada Buddhism takes, with consequences beyond Sri Lanka.

 

[cybrxkhan]

It's time to look back at the second clue for the Sri Lanka Flavor Pack! Today in this preview, we look more at the monasteries at the center of the Sri Lankan struggle

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Clue #2: In CK3's timeframe, one school of thought became the most prominent in this region over its rivals. This was thanks in part to a revival and reform movement patronized by the region's rulers.

Traditional accounts of Sri Lanka's history depict Mahavihara monastery as triumphing over their rivals, the Abhayagiri and the Jetavana, during the religious reforms of King Parakramabahu I (1153-1186). In reality, the process was likely more complex and Mahavihara supremacy not so absolute, as sectarianism continued for years.

Central to the Sri Lankan "struggle" is Prominence, a global value representing each monastery's influence that is mechanically similar to (but not exactly the same as) Greenland's Resilience and Networks. By becoming a Patron of one of Sri Lanka's three monasteries, represented as tiered traits, you can increase their Prominence in various ways.

 

[Orinsul]

looks great
Can I be a patron and be involved as a Hindu/non-buddhist/non-theravada?

 

[cybrxkhan]

looks great
Can I be a patron and be involved as a Hindu/non-buddhist/non-theravada?

Yup you definitely can be involved and patronize the monasteries as other faiths, as that did happen during some of the Tamil occupations of Sri Lanka if I recall correctly. For monastery patronage, I'm not sure what limitations I want to put on it at the moment, but I'm leaning on if you're not Buddhist, you need to have a faith that's either Eastern or pluralist. However, if you're a non-Buddhist, the effects won't be as huge.

 

[cybrxkhan]

THE FALLEN EAGLE'S INDIA/SLAVIC UPDATE IS OUT!

TFE Download | TFE India/Slav Dev Diary | TFE Discord​

Couple announcements to make today!

TFE's new update was just released: Beyond the Vistula and Indus, focusing on improving the Slavs and India for the iconic late antiquity setting. I contributed to mostly the India half of the update, including work on TFE's fourth struggle, The Huna Invasions. This was also a cross-promo with RICE's upcoming flavor pack, Sri Lanka: Abode of Lions. Some upcoming Sri Lanka features are already implemented in TFE as part of general Indian flavor, so check out TFE if you haven't to get a preview of what's next for RICE!

TFE is 100% compatible with VIET and RICE. If you play RICE, TFE has to be below RICE in load order. Also, remember to unsubscribe and resubscribe to mods with new updates.

EASTERN EUROPE FLAVOR PACK POLL

Poll Link ​

Additionally, the official poll is now out for RICE's Eastern Europe flavor pack, which will come after Sri Lanka. There are 16 candidates available for the picking. The poll will close sometime later in July or early August. While it is non-binding, it'll give a good idea of what in Eastern Europe interests people the most. Poll Link:

 

[cybrxkhan]

Today's preview is on some of the off-map new cultures you might encounter as rare, occasional courtiers as part of the Silk Road communities revamp. Many of the Asian cultures will be adapted from the Rajas of Asia mod, which expands the map into Asia along with much flavor and content.

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Clue #3: The next update adds new cultures to liven up RICE's old Silk Road mechanics. Could people from these distant lands have traveled by this region, a trade center and exporter of luxury goods?


Sri Lanka, situated along the Indian Ocean trade routes, was home to a host of communities, from Nestorian Christians to African slaves and merchants. Anyways, I previously showed the Makua, Samhan (Korean), and Kinh (Vietnamese) cultures. Today, we'll look at three others:

• The Tsonga are a Bantu-speaking peoples who were trade middlemen between southern Swahili port towns and inland south African kingdoms like Great Zimbabwe.
• The Cham of the Champa Kingdom were one of SE Asia's major players in their day, but are presently an ethnic minority in Vietnam.
• The Tagalog, the largest ethnic group in the Philippines, controlled a peripheral but important part of the maritime Silk Road.

 

[cybrxkhan]

​

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Today is the first of three dev diaries about RICE’s next flagship flavor pack, announced earlier this month in a trailer video: Sri Lanka: Abode of Lions.

This update is a collab and cross-promo with the Rajas of Asia and the Fallen Eagle mods, the latter which recently released its Beyond the Vistula and Indus update.
Additionally, if you’re interested in future RICE content, please don’t hesitate to partake in the Eastern European Flavor Pack Poll for the flavor pack that’ll come after Sri Lanka.

Very lastly, before we start, a minor note – while I use the term “Sri Lanka” in this post, as well as in some parts of the mod for convenience, it is anachronistic. Tambapanni is the term used in contemporary sources.


The Sri Lankan Sangha

Now, onto the dev diary proper! RICE's next flavor pack will have three main focuses:

• A struggle about Sri Lanka's Buddhist community, the Sri Lankan Sangha
• New general flavor for Indian rulers of all creeds
• A revamp to RICE's old Silk Road communities mechanic to better depict Indian Ocean maritime trade

The Sri Lankan Sangha, the subject of this dev diary, is a deceptively small struggle focused on the history of Sri Lanka’s Buddhist community (i.e. its Sangha). Every good struggle, in my opinion, has a specific narrative question it focuses on. For vanilla’s Iberian struggle, for example, it’s whether the peninsula’s Muslims and Christians will coexist peacefully or violently.




The Sri Lanka struggle, then, asks what direction Theravada Buddhism will take. Due to the importance of Sri Lanka in the history of Theravada, one of the three main branches of modern Buddhism, the results of the struggle has ramifications beyond the island itself.

The struggle is underway in both bookmarks and has three phases. Degeneration represents a decline in the island’s Buddhist community, whether from foreign threats, unscrupulous local leaders, or corrupt monastics. Accumulation represents Buddhist institutions gaining great amounts of wealth and influence on the island. Purification is about attempts to reform these Buddhist institutions, and remove their (supposedly) corrupt elements.






The Three Monasteries

In traditional accounts, much of Sri Lankan Buddhist history in late antiquity and the medieval era revolved around the rivalry between the island's three major Theravada Buddhist monasteries:

• Mahavihara: A conservative sect, eschewing what it sees as heterodox foreign ideas.
• Abhayagiri: An innovative sect that often incorporates ideas from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism.
• Jetavana: Another less traditionalist sect. At one point, their stupa was the tallest structure in the world after the Pyramids.

Like the Greenland struggle, the Sri Lanka struggle revolves around global values, in this case the three monasteries’ Prominence. Like the Greenland values, they go up and down between 0 and 1000. Each monastery’s Prominence automatically decreases by small random amounts each year based on phase.




How do you increase Prominence, then? First, you need to take a decision to Align with a Sri Lankan Monastery. This grants you a trait corresponding to the monastery you chose; the more you support the monastery through decisions and activities, the more trait experience you gain. You need to frequently support the monastery of your choice, as patron trait experience depreciates monthly. Anyways, each trait gives different effects besides piety:

• Mahavihara: learning, monthly lifestyle xp
• Abhayagiri: diplomacy, dev growth
• Jetavana: stewardship, reduced building cost

The decision is available to rulers with counties in Sri Lanka, even non-Buddhists who meet certain requirements, and every ruler of a Buddhist faith with the Pali Canon doctrine in a large range outside Sri Lanka. However, if you are not Buddhist, or are outside Sri Lanka, you’ll gain less benefits and affect the struggle less. If you convert to another faith and aren't involved or an interloper in the Sri Lankan struggle, you'll lose the patron trait too.





You can take a decision to Align with Another Sri Lankan Monastery if you are unhappy with the one you're currently supporting, whether for roleplay or min-max reasons. However, doing so resets the progress of the patron trait to zero.




Lastly, similar to having an estate in the Greenland struggle, your patronized monastery will grant you a random amount of piety and prestige each year depending on its Prominence.


Support, Persecute, or Purify?

The two main ways to influence Prominence are through decisions to Support or, alternatively, Persecute/Purify the Sri Lankan Sangha (the second decision is named the former if you are non-Buddhist, and the latter if you are Buddhist). When you support, you give up money to get prestige, piety, and Prominence for the monastery you patronize.

The 9 types of support are:

• Almsgiving
• Gavu Pillars
• Ritual Deposits
• Ordination Ceremonies
• Ambalamas
• Pali Literature
• Frontier Monks
• Pariveṇa Schools
• Senior Guides

Gavu Pillars, Ambalanas, Frontier Monks and Pariveṇa Schools are only available to rulers in Sri Lanka, while Host Teachers is only available outside Sri Lanka. Additionally, while all types of support provide varying amounts of piety and prestige, some also have some unique bonuses like boosting your counties' control or giving lifestyle experience.




When you persecute/purify, you lose prestige (and piety if Buddhist and it's not the Purification phase) and cause Prominence of all three monasteries to decline but especially those you don't patronize. You also decrease development in all counties you own in Sri Lanka. However, you conversely increase control in those counties and, more importantly, gain a nice chunk of gold, the amount of which is random.

There are 6 options:

• Burn Books (50-150 gold)
• Defrock Heretics (100-200 gold)
• Plunder Wealth (150-250 gold)
• Seize Land (200-300 gold)
• Ransack Monasteries (250-400 gold)

Note that ransacking is only available for non-Buddhists.

Anyhow, even as a Buddhist ruler, Purifying the Sangha is a good way to get gold immediately and reassert your control over your counties, if you can stomach the consequences. The maximum amount of gold is also increased if you own the county of Phiti, where lies the sacred city of Anuradhapura.


Relic Veneration

A new activity, Relic Veneration in Tambapanni, is available to any Buddhist ruler in Sri Lanka who is a patron of one of the three monasteries. You can choose to venerate three relics, each associated with a specific monastery:

• Mahavihara: Bodhi Tree
• Abhayagiri: Buddha’s Tooth
• Jetavana: Dharmadhatu

You don’t need to necessarily venerate the relic associated with your monastery. However, if you do, you’ll increase the prominence of that monastery even more, decrease the prominence of the other monasteries, and gain a more powerful version of the bonus modifier associated with that monastery at the end of the activity.




As an aside, the procession of the tooth relic is one of the most famous religious festivals in Sri Lanka nowadays, but it did not arrive at its present form until a few centuries ago. During the medieval period, it was strongly associated with the Abhayagiri, and, interestingly, was frowned upon by the Mahavihara who eventually “won” the competition between the monasteries.

Anyhow, there's a few other ways to affect Prominence, but I'll cover them in a later dev diary.

Endings

Unite the Sangha

There are only two endings for the Sri Lanka struggle. One ending is to Unite the Sangha, which requires the Prominence of the monastery you patronize to be 900 or higher. It asks two questions: (1) which monastery will lead the way with reforming Sri Lankan Buddhism, and (2) how will that affect Theravada’s outlook and practices?




A while back, RICE introduced the Buddhist Canon doctrine for Buddhist faiths to roughly group them to unlock different features. I felt the Pali Canon (Theravada) doctrine was boring compared to the others. Now, if you manage to Unite the Sangha, the Pali Canon will be “upgraded” with new bonuses, depending on which monastery you support.

• Mahavihara: +1 learning per piety level
• Abhayagiri: Unlocks the (normally Mahayana/Vajrayana) Life Release activity, Mahayana/Vajrayana are seen as righteous
• Jetavana: -20% reduced costs for the decision to build Buddhist religious sites

That's not all, however. All Buddhist faiths with the Pali Canon will get a special permanent doctrine, depending on which phase the struggle ended on. Instead of forcing you to have to be in a certain phase to end the struggle, you're incentivized to optionally go to a phase to get the bonuses and maluses you want:

• Merit Accumulation: -10% temple building and holding costs, -20% control
• Great Purification: +20% control, -5% development
• Age of Degeneration: +1 intrigue per piety level, -20% piety gain mult

There’s even more! The last thing you have to decide is which of the three major relics from the relic veneration activity should the newly triumphant monastery venerate the most. It doesn’t even need to be the relic they are associated with (though you'll gain more piety if you do). The chosen relic will grant additional bonuses when the activity is done from then on.




Anyways, even after Uniting the Sangha, the other two monasteries will still remain, to represent how the 12th-13th century reforms of Sri Lankan Buddhism was a gradual, complicated process. The "losers" instead decrease in prominence at a random but large amount every year, and no one will be able to align with them anymore. Once their Prominence reaches 0, they will disappear. Thus, though you can support them after the struggle ends, there isn't much a point in doing so.

Lastly, you can take Unite the Sangha even as a Buddhist faith that doesn't have the Pali Canon doctrine. You can even do it as a non-Buddhist with a Pluralist faith! Obviously, you obviously won't reap the benefits of the "new and improved" Theravada faith(s), though.


Destroy the Sangha

If you are a non-Buddhist, however, you can Destroy the Sangha. This symbolizes more the complete destruction of Buddhist institutions in Sri Lanka, rather than an actual eradication of the island's Buddhists. To achieve this, you need to get the Prominence of every monastery below 100.




This ending gives every Buddhist faith involved in the struggle a special permanent doctrine, Destruction of Sri Lanka’s Sangha, that reduces prestige and especially piety gain for followers. You also get a hefty sum of gold, representing your looting of whatever remains of the Buddhist temples and monasteries.


Post-Ending Relic Flavor

If you unify the Sangha and choose what relic to venerate the most, a corresponding county modifier with differing effects is placed in the county of Phiti, where the sacred city of Anuradhapura is. If you don’t like where it is, and you picked either the Tooth or Dharmadhatu relic, you’ll also now have access to a decision to Re-enshrine this most venerated relic.




The decision shifts the county modifier to a county of your choosing. Besides giving the bonuses to this county instead now, if you want to do the veneration activity for this relic, you’ll now have to go to the capital of this county instead. This decision has a long cooldown, and is meant to represent how the real life tooth relic was constantly moved to different temples and palaces for political reasons until it arrived at its present day location at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy.




The decision is not available if you picked the Bodhi tree, since it wouldn’t make sense to move the entire tree. The modifier for it will always be in the county of Phiti, where the sacred city of Anuradhapura is. The real tree, more than 2300 years old, is still there today.

Why Sri Lanka?

That concludes this dev diary! The next two dev diaries will go into other additions, like general Indian flavor, and the revamp of RICE's Silk Road communities and new off-map cultures/faiths.

Before we end, I’d like to dive a bit into the thought process behind this flavor pack, as I’m sure many of you are wondering why in the world Sri Lanka would ever get a struggle.

Of the three major branches of modern Buddhism, Theravada is often seen as closest to original Buddhism, unchanging for millennia. In truth, like the other branches, Theravada has gone through many changes over the centuries. It also interacted with Mahayana and Vajrayana significantly during much of the CK3 period.

While traditional accounts might’ve overplayed the importance of the rivalry between the three big medieval Sri Lankan monasteries, their history with each other and the outside world shows a very dynamic religious environment. My hope with this struggle is to tell the story of how Buddhists in this part of the world embraced – or rejected – new ideas and views from within and without, in part as a reaction to the contemporary political and cultural situation.

Lastly, Sri Lanka is RICE’s third struggle, and I want to take the lessons learned from creating the Greenland and Normandy struggles, by combining and hopefully improving on elements of both.

Anyhow, I’m excited to share more about this update in the coming weeks! I want to also thank my fellow modders on the Fallen Eagle and Rajas of Asia teams for collaborating with me so far, particularly Soraya, who’s provided great research and guidance in regards to Indian history.


Selected Sources for Further Reading

• Archaeology and Cosmopolitanism in Early Historic and Medieval Sri Lanka, Robin Coningham, Mark Manuel and Christopher Davis
• A Search for Mahayana in Sri Lanka, Mahinda Deegalle
• A Study of Medieval Population in Sri Lanka With Reference to the Literary Sources, U.N.K. Rathnayake
• Buddha's Tooth Relic: Contesting Rituals and the Early State in Sri Lanka, Tilman Frasch
• Divine Kingship in Medieval Sri Lanka: Dynamics in Traditions of Power and Virtue in South Asia, Stephen Berkwitz
• Fundamentalism and Modernity: the Case of Theravada, Tilman Frasch
• Highway System in Ancient Sri Lanka, P. Vidanapathirana
• Low-Density Urbanism in Medieval Sri Lanka: Exploring the Hinterland of Polonnaruva, Various authors
• Religious Use of Elephants in Ancient Sri Lanka, Dhanesh Wisumperuma
• Rewriting Buddhism: Pali literature and Monastic Reform in Sri Lanka, 1157-1270, Alastair Gornall
• Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History, ed. by Zoltán Biedermann and Alan Strathern
• The Wilderness Monks of the Abhayagirivihara and the Origins of Sino-Javanese Esoteric Buddhism, Jeffrey Roger Sundberg
• Was Buddhaghosa a Theravādin? Buddhist Identity in the Pali Commentaries and Chronicles, Rupert Gethin

 

[cybrxkhan]

I hope you enjoyed the first dev diary for the Sri Lanka Flavor Pack! There's more to show in future dev diaries and previews, but for now, in today's preview, let's go back to Clue #4, and take a deeper look at the decision mentioned in the dev diary to Persecute/Purify Sri Lanka's Sangha.

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Clue #4: During the CK3 timeframe, major cultural sites in this region were plundered by both local rulers and foreigners, including conquerors from the north skilled in raiding across vast distances.

Anuradhapura was Sri Lanka's capital for over a millennia, and home to the original Mahavihara, Abhayagiri, and Jetavana monasteries. The Cholas, a naval empire in southern India who raided as far away as Indonesia, conquered the island in 1017 CE, ruining much of the city. When the Cholas were chased out in 1070, the capital moved to Polonnaruwa, and Anuradhapura's importance declined until the modern era, when it became a symbol of Sri Lankan nationalism, and a popular destination for pilgrims and tourists.

Medieval Sri Lankan sources lamented the Cholas' oppression or even pillaging of Buddhist monasteries, but also made note of some local Buddhist rulers also did the same over the centuries. Sometimes, this was done to monasteries or sects that Buddhist ruler opposed or believed to be heterodox.

 

[cybrxkhan]

For today's preview of the Sri Lanka Flavor Pack, we look back at Clue 5!

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Clue #5: A style of poetry grew popular in this region in the CK3 period. While these poems could have religious themes, their sensuality was controversial for some due to moral and aesthetic reasons.

The style of poetry here refers to kavya, a style of Sanskrit court poetry from mainland India. This poetry was associated with erotic and emotional themes, and was seen by some Sri Lankan Buddhists as being at odds with Buddhist teachings. Yet, in the CK3 timeframe, some Sri Lankan monastics began composing kavya using Pali, the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism. Their logic was that by using kavya's "worldly" elements to express religious themes, they could spiritually inspire their audience to become better Buddhists.

When you support the Sri Lankan Sangha and take the Pali Literature option, there is a chance you'll get an artifact of Pali Literature sometime later. Kavya poetry is just one of several potential types of texts you can get.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Today we go back to Clue 6, to preview at one of many new cultures coming with the Sri Lanka flavor pack – this one, though, is the only one directly pertinent to Sri Lanka itself.

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Clue #6: Many new traditions will soon be added (some as part of the Silk Road mechanics revamp), including these four. One of them is for a culture native to the focus region of the next flavor pack.

Some you fell for my trick of the "Stepwell Builders" tradition, which was too obvious a clue. The clue actually refers to the last tradition, Cave Dwellers, for the Vedda culture. The Vedda are believed to descend from Sri Lanka's pre-Sinhala, pre-Tamil indigenous peoples. They maintained a separate identity for a long time, but have been increasingly assimilated by the Sinhala and Tamil, especially in recent years. The Vedda language, for example, may be a creole of Sinhala and an unknown language from the early medieval era.

Besides their own culture, the Veddas will get their own faith, and will occasionally pop up in Sri Lanka as courtiers. The Cave Dwellers tradition was given to them on account of how some Veddas traditionally lived in cave or rock shelters.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Today's preview is of a new character for the 1066 bookmark. If you look closely, you'll also notice visual improvements to the RICE bookmarks, as territories of bookmarked characters are now highlighted. Credits to Nezaros of Rajas of Asia for this - if you're interested in more Asian bookmarks and content, be sure to check ROA out!

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Clue #7: A new bookmarked character for 1066 was known for his religious deeds, infrastructure projects, and involvement in wars against people of other faiths.

After the Cholas conquered Sri Lanka in 1017, the island suffered from political disorder for decades as the Cholas and Sinhala warlords struggled for power. Vijayabahu, a distant cousin of the old royal family, led a rebellion that expelled the mainly Shaivite Cholas by 1070.

Vijayabahu did much to rebuild Sri Lanka, including its Buddhist institutions and irrigation infrastructure, after years of chaos. He led a storied life, both as a young man on the run from Chola armies, and later as king as he sought to assert his authority across the island. As such, he'll even get some special flavor, but what, you ask? That's for you to find out in the upcoming dev diary and previews.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Today we go over the last teaser clue for the Sri Lanka Flavor Pack. Though this covers the last of the 8 teasers, there's still plenty more previews coming your way, as well as a dev diary, so stay tuned for more!

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Clue #8: A holy mountain in this region is venerated in several religions. Will you follow in others' footsteps by going on a pilgrimage there?

Sri Pada is the name of a mountain that was, and is, an important pilgrimage site in central Sri Lanka. Remarkably, it is held sacred by several faiths, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. It was mentioned by famous travelers ranging from Faxian (5th century), to Marco Polo (13th century), and Ibn Battuta (14th century), the latter of whom claims to have climbed its summit.

The mountain is most famed for a footprint shaped rock formation near its peak, and there will now be an activity for rulers in Sri Lanka and south India of any faith to go visit it on a local pilgrimage. Now that I think about it, this reminds me of High Hrothgar in Skryim but on a tropical island.

 

[sreckom92]

I am genuinely stunned by your work and dedication!
Thank you!

 

[cybrxkhan]

I am genuinely stunned by your work and dedication!
Thank you!

Thank you and you're welcome!

 

[cybrxkhan]

SRI LANKA FLAVOR PACK PREVIEW #9

Now that we're done covering the tricky old teasers, we'll move onto general previews for the Sri Lanka flavor pack.

In 1066, Anuradhapura, the old capital of Sri Lanka, isn't doing too good in the wake of the Chola invasions. If you successfully kick the Cholas out of Sri Lanka in the 1066 bookmark, you might want to consider establishing a capital elsewhere. The next dev diary, which will be out in a few days, might provide info on how to do just that.

Anyhow, while archaeological evidence suggests the Cholas didn't cause as much massive destruction to the city as Buddhist monastic histories claim, it is clear that the city declined greatly following the invasions, especially as the political, economic, and religious energies of the island shifted elsewhere in the 11th century.

 

[cybrxkhan]

​

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This is the second of three dev diaries for RICE’s next major update, Sri Lanka: Abode of Lions coming with Wards & Wardens. In the first dev diary, we went over the new Sri Lankan religious struggle; today, we’ll cover general flavor coming for India as well as special content for the 1066 bookmark.

The update is a collab with the Rajas of Asia (which expands the map into Asia) and the Fallen Eagle (which takes the game to the Dark Ages/Late Antiquity), and both are compatible with RICE, so be sure to check them out too! ROA in fact has just released a huge update that includes a lot of new features to enhance its interactions with RICE.

Now, onto the new stuff!


Land Grants

While a good chunk of the next update focuses on Buddhists, I wanted to take the opportunity to add flavor applicable to the rest of India. These include two new decisions I’ve already added to The Fallen Eagle's India update as part of our collab.

One decision is to Grant Land to Temples and Monasteries, which improves development in your counties in India, at the cost of tax revenue. You can choose to give land grants to one of the main Indian religions – Buddhism, Brahmanism, and Jainism – regardless of which of the three you follow. This is meant to represent various forms of religious land grants in medieval India, from Brahamnical land grants in much of India, to those given to Buddhist monasteries in Sri Lanka, that often assisted local rulers with controlling frontier regions not as directly under their authority.






The bonuses vary depending on whether you follow that religion or not. Land grants to your own religion improves popular opinion and gives piety, but those for a different religion provide extra development and gives prestige. Either option also contributes to catalysts in the Sri Lanka struggle, if you’re involved in it. As such, either option is viable.






Unlike the version of this decision found in TFE, which has a small chance of generating minorities, unless you play with TFE, the one in RICE only has a small chance converting your counties to a random faith of that religion (preferably pulling from faiths already present in India). Still, this could result in religiously diverse regions in India, as happened historically.






Anyways, RICE has not integrated the minorities system for now due to potential compatibility issues – however, if you’re interested in adding minority cultures and faiths in your game, check out the original minorities mod. Better yet, check out Rajas of Asia, made by the same folks, as it’s just implemented unique minority content if you run RICE and ROA together.


Irrigation Tanks

Another new decision for Indians that is shared with TFE is to Construct Irrigation Tanks. It represents various systems of artificial reservoirs designed to hold water in pre-modern India. Gameplay-wise, it is similar to the RICE’s Qanats system in the Middle East and North Africa, as you choose the size of the Irrigation Tank you want to build to get modifiers for development and tax in your capital. The difference is you'll gain less prestige but more piety than a qanat.






Like the Qanat decision, this decision is unlocked with an innovation, in this case Irrigation Tanks, which is available if you are in India. Most Indian cultures have it at game start. If you’re involved in the Sri Lankan Sangha, it’s another tool to push the struggle towards certain phases.






Two new traditions further enhance this decision. Stepwell Builders, which the Gujarati and Rajasthani cultures at game start, increases the prestige and piety you gain from the decision.






Meanwhile, Wewa Systems, which only the Sinhala have at game start, makes the decision cheaper. In Sri Lanka, as in India, these tanks – know as wewas in Sri Lanka – were associated with religious and political institutions. Parakramabahu, one of the great medieval Sri Lankan kings, initiated many projects to build wewas and is quoted as saying: “Not even a drop of water that comes from the rain must flow into the ocean without being made useful to man.”






Pilgrimages

Sri Pada (Adam's Peak)

Two new Local Pilgrimages have been added near Sri Lanka. They’re fairly simple mechanically and mostly give the standard local pilgrimage benefits from RICE, as well as unique modifiers.

The first pilgrimage is to Sri Pada or Adam's Peak, a sacred mountain in central Sri Lanka. It is available to rulers of all religions – yes, that’s right, any faith. Because of that, the flavor text and the positive modifier you get at the end for visiting varies depending on your religion.






A notable feature of Sri Pada is a rock formation near the summit that is shaped like a footprint. Depending on who you ask, the footprint was made by either the Buddha, Shiva, Adam, or St. Thomas.


Ramasetu (Adam’s Bridge)

The second pilgrimage is to Ramasetu or Adam's Bridge, the thin land bridge connecting Sri Lanka and India before the 1400s. In the late 1400s, this land connection was severed due to massive storms. However, the area is still an important religious site for Hindus to this day.






Ramasetu is associated with the Ramayana, one of the great Sanskrit epic poems that is culturally and religiously influential in South and Southeast Asia, even among non-Hindus. In an episode of the Ramayana, the eponymous hero/deity Rama enlists the help of monkeys to construct a bridge, identified with Ramasetu.


Velakkara

A new innovation is available for cultures in parts of south India, Velakkara Guards. Only Tamils and Sinhala have it at game start. It reduces mercenary costs and helps with defender advantage. Most importantly, it unlocks a heavy infantry MAA, the Velakkara.






Historically, the Velakkara (or Velaikkarar) were a prominent guild or community of soldiers of mainly Tamil Hindu origin in the Chola Empire and in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan kings like Vijayabahu used them extensively, and they were even tasked with protecting the famous Temple of the Tooth Relic when it became a major Buddhist religious site on the island. However, they could prove a source of trouble, as Vijayabahu had to quash a Velakkara revolt later in his reign.


867 Characters

There are a couple new playable characters in the 867 start date, when Sri Lanka is ruled by King Sena II. One is Sena’s brother Udaya, who would succeed him as king. The other is Kutthaka, Sena’s high-ranking general who, in 862 CE, led an expedition against the Pandyan dynasty of mainland India which had invaded and ravaged Sri Lanka years before. His forces successfully took the Pandyan capital, killed the Pandyan king who led the invasion of Sri Lanka years before, and installed a rebel Pandyan prince on the throne, before returning to Sri Lanka.






A few players have pointed out before that RICE is biased towards 867 in terms of adding bookmark flavor, with less unique content for 1066. If that’s you, then you’ll be happy to hear that a lion’s share of the new bookmark flavor for this update is actually for 1066.


1066 Flavor

Vijayabahu I

Much of the 1066 flavor revolves around a new bookmarked character: Vijayabahu I, who, as in vanilla, leads a rebellion against the Cholas at game start. The Cholas had conquered much of Sri Lanka decades ago, and it is up to you – with help from some of RICE’s new content – to throw off their yoke and establish a new kingdom on the island. For instance, he starts with a few Velakkara MAA under his command at game start.






Vijayabahu’s descendant, Parakramabahu I, accomplished the “canonical” ending of the Sri Lankan struggle in the mid-1100s when he united the three main monasteries under the Mahavihara sect as part of his religious reforms. Traditional accounts of these reforms, however, likely underplay how this was more a long-term, complicated process that started long before him and continued long after him, sometimes without royal intervention.






Lastly, as you might have noticed, RICE’s bookmarks are getting a visual overhaul, courtesy of Nezaros, the lead dev behind the Rajas of Asia mod that RICE is collaborating with for this update. Now, territories of the bookmarked characters will be highlighted like in vanilla's bookmarks.


Budal

One of Vijayabahu’s loyal followers and trusted generals is another new playable character, Budal (also known as Buddharaja or Budalna), who starts off as a Count under Vijayabahu.






Budal is the subject of the Panakaduwa copper plate, a notable archaeological find discovered by a farmer in 1948. It records how Vijayabahu, now king of the island, granted Budal and his descendants immunity to any punishment for any crime they committed, as thanks for the fact that when Vijayabahu was a young prince, living in the wilderness and on the run from Chola armies, Budal was one of his chief protectors.






To represent their close ties, Budal starts off as Vijayabahu’s friend. Additionally, you now have a decision to Grant Privileges to Budal if you are Vijayabahu and Budal is still alive. It grants Budal’s dynasty a dynasty modifier lasting for a century with various buffs, gives Budal a hook on Vijayabahu, and also gives Budal a unique artifact, the Panakaduwa Copper Plate itself.






Polonnaruwa

The last flavor decision associated with Vijayabahu (or anyone from the 1066 start) is to Move Capital to Polonnaruwa, which changes the de jure capital of the Kingdom of Tambapanni (aka Lanka) to Polonnaruwa. Now, why would you want to move there when the island’s old capital, Anuradhapura, is perfectly fine?






Actually, in the 1066 start date, it is no longer fine. To represent the decline of the old capital from years of warfare, as well as the island’s political, economic, and religious center moving to Polonnaruwa, the old university there is removed and has been replaced with the Ruins of Anuradhapura. The county also has a less permanent but still long-lasting century-long modifier, Decline of Anuradhapura, with other nasty debuffs.






Moving the capital to Polonnaruwa instantly adds a university to the county for free, upgrades its development and control, and adds the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa modifier to the county which gives it various economic and defensive bonuses. It represents Vijayabahu establishing Polonnaruwa as his base in real life, and is only available in the 1066 bookmark.






If you are Vijayabahu, you can also choose whether to rename Polonnaruwa to Vijayarajapura, which is what he named the city after he made it his capital. Doing so gets you prestige, but keeping the old name gets you piety.


Miscellaneous

That concludes today’s dev diary! The third and final dev diary, which will be out in a week or so, will cover the revamp of RICE's old Silk Road communities, including many new African and Asian cultures and faiths, as well as other miscellany for the update we haven't covered yet.

This update’s ETA will be in late August, roughly a week or two after the Wards & Wardens DLC comes out. I decided it’d be pointless to release a big update right before a major patch might mess it all up. Hopefully, this gives more time to flesh out the new content!

Speaking of the future, if you’re interested in future RICE content, please don’t hesitate to partake in the Eastern European Flavor Pack Poll for the flavor pack that’ll come after Sri Lanka, if you haven’t done so yet. It will close in approximately a week next Sunday or so.


Selected Sources for Further Reading

• 24 Tirtha’s of Ramanatha Swamy Temple, Rameswaram, G. Ramamoorthy and J. Albaris
• Ancient Small-Tank Irrigation in Sri Lanka: Continuity and Change, Various Authors
• A Study of the Spatial Experience of Siripada Pilgrimage, Deelaka Bogahawatte
• Characterisation of the Rota Wewa Tank Cascade System in the Vicinity of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, Various Authors
• Characteristics of Buddhist Pilgrimages in Sri Lanka, Robert Stoddard
• Doorways to the Divine: Vijayanagara Reservoirs and Rural Devotional Landscapes, Kathleen D. Morrison
• Evolution of the Dry Zone Water Harvesting and Management Systems in Sri Lanka During the Anuradhapura Kingdom; A Study Based on Ancient Chronicles and Lithic Inscriptions, Various Authors
• Historical Water Resources in South Asia: the Hydrological Background, John Sutcliffe, Julia Shaw, and Emma Brown
• Panakaduwa Copper Plate Grant, H.A.K.L. Manjula
• Pilgrims and Merits: History of Buddhist Religious Tourism and Related Cultural Aspects in Ancient Sri Lanka, M. K. Amila Indika
• Rameswaram Island for Tourism, G. Ramamoorthy and J. Albaris
• Stepwells, UCLA Social Sciences
• Tanks in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka, Freie Universität Berlin
• Telling Otherwise: A Historical Anthropology of Tank Irrigation Technology in South India, Esha Shah
• The Dry Tank: Development and Disuse of Water Management Infrastructure in the Anuradhapura Hinterland, Sri Lanka, Various Authors
• The Excavations of Polonnaruva: The Impact of Socio-Political Interpretation, Danielle Nicole Silverman
• The Malayadesa, Sirimal Ranawella
• The State of Theocracy: Defining an Early Medieval Hinterland in Sri Lanka, Various Authors
• The Teachings of the Abhayagiri School, L. S. Cousins