DEV DIARY: SOCOTRA FLAVOR PACK (Part 2)
And now it's time for part 2! Today's focus will be on Socotra itself. While Socotra is a cool gem of a start, it's a difficult *and* bland one in vanilla, so my goal is to add some new flavor and provide tools to help you thrive and survive on the island (given that historically, the island remained independent and mostly Christian until past CK3's timeframe anyways). I hope to polish the new content and upload the official update next weekend. By the way, I’ve also released a beta on GitHub if you want to try it out (see here).
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New Cultures
Before I talk about Socotra itself, I’ll note that there are four new cultures. The only one on the map is South Arabian. It is a catch-all for speakers of the so-called Modern South Arabian Languages (like Soqotri, Socotra’s indigenous language of Socotra), a distinct family of Semitic separate from languages like Arabic. For maximum compatibility, after the game starts, a hidden event will change several provinces as well as their ruling lords to South Arabian where appropriate (such as in Socotra) (instead of changing vanilla history files directly).
Other new cultures are Swahili, Shona, and Malagasy, lumped together in an East Bantu culture group for convenience. They represent peoples in the East African side of the Indian Ocean trade networks and show up as spawned courtiers. I considered adding in other East African cultures for variety, but decided not to for now for simplicity (I may return to it in a future Flavor Pack).
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Courtier Spawn
Occasionally, there are events that spawn courtiers in Socotra to representing peoples who contributed to the island's historically diverse community. For example, Socotra was a common destination for escaped slaves. These courtiers are of many different cultures and religions, and these events are the only way Swahili, Shona, or Malagasy characters show up normally. Bawarij pirates are the most notable of these potential courtier spawns as they often make good generals or commanders given they usually have high martial and/or prowess.
Some of these events can happen to any rulers in the Indian Ocean. In particular, if you have the Cosmopolitan Ports perk from the Maritime Trade dynasty legacies track, there's a chance you can get the Bawarij as well, though it's lower than if you actually own Socotra.
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Zahra the Poet
There is a small historical event chain for Socotra and Oman at the 867 start, revolving around Zahra, the first known Socotran poet. Contrary to the game's portrayal of Socotra as monolithically Christian, the island was religiously diverse and heterodox during CK3's timeframe. According to Islamic accounts, in the mid to late 800s, Zahra composed a poem asking Oman to protect the Ibadi Muslims of Socotra from Christian oppression. The Omani expedition had mixed results and ended in failure.
Within a few years of a 867 game, if Socotra is not ruled by a Muslim, Zahra will spawn and call on a ruler of Socotra to relax restrictions on Muslims and investigate your officials' behavior towards them. If you agree to her demands, you lose prestige, get a special modifier on Socotra with bonuses and maluses, and may even befriend her. If you refuse, you get a lot of piety and prestige, but a Muslim ruler in Oman will get a weak claim on Socotra, and Socotra will get a negative modifier; Zahra will also become your rival.
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Socotran Trade Goods
There are three new flavor decisions for Socotran rulers. The first, Invest in Socotran Trade Goods, gives you a modifier that lasts for 10 years, and a province modifier for Socotra itself that lasts 20 years. You can only do it once in a lifetime unless you have the Eastern Patricians perk (from the Maritime Trade dynasty legacy mentioned in my previous dev diary), which allows you to do it every 10 years instead. When you take the decision, you'll choose to "invest" in one of five Socotran exports. Each increases your income and Socotra's tax, and also gives:
- Myrrh: +1 Diplomacy; +10 county opinion on Socotra
- Socotrine Aloe: +1 Martial; +20% levy reinforcement
- Frankincense: +1 Stewardship; even more tax
- Desert Rose: +1 Intrigue; reduced building cost
- Dragon's Blood: +1 Learning; +0.15 development
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Sacrifice to the Moon
The next decision is Hold Moon Sacrifice. “Pagan” beliefs freely mixed with Christianity and Islam due to the eclectic, diverse nature of religion on Socotra. Historical accounts mention worship of the moon as commonplace, including a special sacrifice to it. I almost didn’t add this in, but decided to in order to showcase Socotra's peculiar religious landscape.
Every 10 years, as long as you are not a zealous follower of a non-Pagan religion, you can take the decision. It's simple and cheap, but there's a chance you'll get a negative modifier if the moon is supposedly displeased with you. You can reduce the chance this happens by upping the sacrifice at a cost of gold and piety (if non-pagan). Accounts mention specifically that human hands were often sacrificed. Thus, you can choose to sacrifice a commoner’s hand for the maximum chance of a positive modifier.
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Poetry Contests
The last, biggest decision is Host Poetry Contest, which is available if you’re of South Arabian culture and/or rule Socotra. Though poetry is important to many cultures, the poetry traditions of the South Arabian peoples such as the Socotri differ notably from their Arabic cousins elsewhere on the Arabian peninsula. Traditional poetry competitions are a mixed gender affair, for example, and poetic styles are also less direct compared to Arabic poetry, emphasizing metaphors and allegories; hidden or double meanings are considered the mark of a skilled poet.
The decision is functionally similar to other feast event chains I've modded, but with a few twists. First, you can choose the size of the prize pool, which nets you bigger bonuses when the contest ends.
Second, normally you’ll just be a host and audience member, but with high learning, diplomacy, or the poet trait, you can also join the panel of judges for extra prestige at the cost of some stress (reduced if you’re gregarious).
Lastly, there are many possibilities for who can win, and the type of poem that wins. There’s even a small chance one of your courtiers can win if they have the right stats or traits. For those of you who played the old version of VIET years ago, you may recall the African griot flavor I did (which I may try to adapt into RICE at some point) - this is similar in that the potential stories you can hear also show a similar kind of variety (and my penchant for references). The beta currently only has a few possibilities at the moment, but I’ve planned for at least ~900 (30x30) combinations of different winners and winning poems for release and potentially more in the future, which will help reduce repetitiveness. Here are three examples of different winning combos:
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Miscellaneous New Features
As usual, many new flavor events have been added. These cover a variety of topics ranging from visiting local beaches and caves, to dealing with Socotra’s special exports as part of the Indian Ocean trade networks. 8 Middle Eastern themed soundtracks have also been added to the game.
All in all, this is a huge update and the biggest Flavor Pack in RICE to date, and while the main focus is Socotra, there’s stuff for the Indian Ocean and the Middle East as well. Again, a beta has been uploaded to GitHub (see here) if you want to give it a whirl - it is missing a few things and may have some bugs, but should be stable.
One last thing - I have some further online sources for anyone interested. This is not an exclusive list of all the sources I used, but these should be the most relevant to the mod I think.
Selected List of Sources for Further Reading
- Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the coming of Islam, Robert Hoyland
- Incense and imagery: mapping agricultural and water management systems on the island of Socotra, Yemen, Julian Jansen van Rensburg & Kristen Hopper
- Socotra Fairy Tales
- Soqotra: South Arabia's Strategic Gateway and Symbolic Playground, Serge D. Elie
- The use of 'veiled language' in Soqoṭri poetry, Miranda Morris
- When Melodies Gather: The Oral Art of the Mahra [the biggest group of MSAL speakers currently], Samuel Liehaber
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