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Today we have the final clue to look at. I may put out a couple more previews after this before the release of this update sometime this month. I will also likely be making an announcement soon about the Celtic flavor pack coming later this year - I'm in the final stages of deciding what flavor pack I'll focus on.
Clue #5: The color red is important. That's literally it. That's the clue.
The clue referred to two things. Firstly, to Red Rus, or Red Ruthenia, or Red Russia, an old name for the regions that formed a core part of Galicia-Volhynia. Secondly, to cochineal, which was discussed in the dev diary and the previous preview.
Cochineal, if you recall, is the name of several species of insects whose larvae are used to produce red dye, and that red dye itself. Though Mexican cochineal eventually came to supply much of the world's cochineal historically, during the medieval period, Polish and Armenian Cochineal were the main sources of cochineal in the Old World. I already showed you several screenshots of the Cochineal building, decision, and the decision's event in the dev diary, so here's a preview of the final level of the Cochineal building, as well as the modifier you get when taking the decision.
Now that we've finished going over the clues, we move onto normal previews. Hopefully the update will be out this week, so we won't have too many more previews left, but no guarantees. Today's preview is of Roman Mstislavich is one of two characters getting aspirations and a historical mini event chain in RICE's new update.
Fulfilling Roman Mstislavich's aspiration, however, is a little different than that of other characters; before Roman gets his rewards, the Byzantine Emperor will get an event first to pick between offering Roman marriage to an unmarried relative of the Emperor (if one is available) or a random high-ranking Byzantine noblewoman. An AI Emperor will prefer to pick the former, if it is possible, though this is not guaranteed to ensure some variety. When Roman gets his follow up event, he can choose to accept or decline the marriage offer. Accepting gives Roman further prestige and legitimacy on top of the other rewards he gets, though if he already has a wife, he'd obviously have to divorce her.
Roman's second wife IRL, Anna-Euphrosyne, who may have been the daughter of Emperor Isaac II Angelos, played an important role as regent for Galicia-Volhynia after Roman's death in 1205, and for encouraging the spread of Byzantine cultural and religious traditions in Rus. Supposedly, she may have lived as late as 1288 to witness the death and burial of her grandson, Vladimir, the ruler of Volhynia. If this is true, she would've lived more than a century.
"I have seen the Rus as they came on their merchant journeys and encamped by the Itil. I have never seen more perfect physical specimens, tall as date palms, blond and ruddy."
- Ibn Fadlan, 10th century Arab explorer
I'm happy to announce the release of RICE's next flavor pack - Galicia-Volhynia: Borderlands of the Red Rus! This update takes RICE back to the Eastern Europe, as has been requested by many players. Huge thanks to Meat Plague for letting me integrate some content from the Baptism of Rus mod - it's fully compatible with RICE, so check it out if you want an even more flavorful experience playing the East Slavs!
Aspirations for Roman Mstislavich the Great and Oleg Yaroslavich in 1178
Develop the portage trade routes in the lands of the Rus
Invest in the cochineal industry of Eastern Europe and Armenia
Kupala Night activity - can you find the elusive, legendary fern flower?
Revised East Slavic culture setup and Rus culture emergence in the 867 start date (with game rules to customize)
... and much more!
Remember you may need to unsubscribe and resubscribe for mods to update properly (multiple times if necessary). You do not need to restart if you're playing a game with RICE already. If you are experiencing issues, you can try rolling back to an older version of the mod.
A hotfix might be out this weekend for any issues. As I'll be busy in March and won't have much time for modding, there were some things I didn't have time to get to. Some changes I hope to implement once I'm less busy in a few weeks is some long-time requested QOL features, a couple more Slavic special buildings, and tweaks to the 867 Slavic cultural setup (it's rough atm and was done quickly for ease of coding). Thanks all for your understanding!
Changelog
Added Galicia-Volhynia Flavor Pack
Added 6 soundtracks for the Galicia-Volhynia Flavor Pack, 2 for the Mordvin Flavor Pack, and 2 for the Siberia Flavor Pack
Added new loc specifying which struggle you have to be part of for struggle ending decisions to avoid confusion, since vanilla won’t fix only referring to the Persian struggle for whatever reason and it’s been too long
Added Iron Forest as a special cavalry MAA for cultures with the Image of China tradition (aka the Khitan)
Khitan Emperor in 1178 now starts with some Iron Forest in his starting bonus army
Ostyak/Khanty culture now starts with the Siberian Survivalism tradition
Ugro-Permian heritage now has access to the Siberian Survivalism tradition
Allowed interlopers in the Normandy struggle to do the Outsider’s Yoke ending decision if they meet a legitimacy requirement
Made Guiyi the de jure liege of Guazhou, Ganzhou, and Aksay in 867, and de jure part of the Empire of Tibet, as a temporary stop gap measure to fix issues with Admin government when Guiyi is a titular title
Fixed legend from founding the Tuareg Empire of Air referencing the Tuyuhun Kingdom instead
Fixed potential bug where a Silk Road merchant spawns with Akom faith if it’s from the steppe community
Miscellaneous bugfixes and tweaks
What's Next?
Also happy to reveal RICE's next flavor pack — Mayo: Heather and Yew. That's right, I picked the least popular option from the Celtic flavor pack poll. I've been eager to return to the Celtic regions, because even though they're of interest to me personally, the last time I did so was the Brittany Flavor Pack which came out over four years ago. I hope to still do further Celtic flavor packs, perhaps one of the more popular options on the poll.
Tentative features might include (but are not limited to) flavor related to holy wells, the pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick, and a new bookmarked character in 1178, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair.
To wet your appetite for the future Irish flavor, here's something I quickly whipped up for a character in the 1178 bookmark who I hope to add a little flavor for: Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair (anglicized as Rory O'Connor), the last high king of Ireland. Ruaidrí was directly related to the events that brought the Anglo-Normans to Ireland, changing the course of Ireland's history forever. However, 1178 is just the dawn of England's presence in Ireland. There is ample room for different, alternate history scenarios to play out in Ireland, whether you play as Ruaidrí or not....
Thank you for the update, I am thoroughly enjoying the new content! You can really see how much love and work has been put into the region, really grateful for that.
I didn't play with RICE before, and not sure if this is the right place for feedback, still, here are couple of humble points from me:
1. It looks like special building Kamianets-Podilskyi Fort is not added when update is installed into an earlier save game, but maybe this is game limitations. In a new game it present.
2. Like in Baptism of Rus mod, I would really wish for Longships innovation for all pre-Rus and Russian cultures to be discovered, like for Scandinavians. There are many historical account of trade routes using major rivers and portages, and east slavs even had their own ships called ladja/lodja/łódź/ладья (design similar to scandinavian drakkars) from as early as 8th century.
Thank you for the update, I am thoroughly enjoying the new content! You can really see how much love and work has been put into the region, really grateful for that.
I didn't play with RICE before, and not sure if this is the right place for feedback, still, here are couple of humble points from me:
1. It looks like special building Kamianets-Podilskyi Fort is not added when update is installed into an earlier save game, but maybe this is game limitations. In a new game it present.
2. Like in Baptism of Rus mod, I would really wish for Longships innovation for all pre-Rus and Russian cultures to be discovered, like for Scandinavians. There are many historical account of trade routes using major rivers and portages, and east slavs even had their own ships called ladja/lodja/łódź/ладья (design similar to scandinavian drakkars) from as early as 8th century.
Kamianets-Podilskyi is placed on the map through an effect at game start. It's a roundabout way of doing it to avoid touching vanilla code, which I do at all costs to ensure maximum compatibility and ease of updating. So because of that, some features won't appear if you load in RICE mid-game and it's possible due to this that there might be some wonkiness here and there (though usually not gamebreaking). You can add it in through console commands if you know how to do that, with this console command:
I wasn't sure whether to give the East Slavs the Longships since I wasn't sure whether I wanted to see them naval raiding all over the place, and I didn't want to give them their own regional innovation yet (that would enable the major river navigation) because adding new innovations messes up existing saves, so I usually only add new innovations when there's a major update/DLC out where old saves would be borked anyhow. I probably could add a Ladja/Ladya innovation whenever the next DLC drops, yeah, thanks for mentioning the name.
I hope everyone's enjoying RICE's new Eastern European flavor! This is just the obligatory hotfix for the major RICE update. I will also be busy IRL until the end of the month, so I won't be able to mod much or at all. This will likely be the last update for a few weeks (though I may post an occasional preview of the Mayo stuff or other things I'm planning). Thanks all for your understanding!
The hotfix should be savegame compatible if the game was started with RICE 1.14.x.
Also, rumor has it that the DLCs in CK3 Chapter 4 will be announced sometime next week. While I'm still committed to doing a Mayo Flavor Pack this year, the schedule and content of Chapter 4's DLCs may alter when I get around to the Mayo content, and other things I'm planning for RICE and VIET this year.
Changelog:
Added failsafe for make sure Rus emergence decision doesn’t appear if Rus culture already exists on map (due to other mods or game rules, for example)
Buffed language learning bonus for merchant traits slightly
Tweaked how Volhynian culture is placed on the map in 867
Tweaked Slavic idol effect slightly to avoid duplicate entries in the script if using Baptism of Rus
Made AI even less likely to take the decisions to collaborate with pirates now (they rarely do anyhow)
Fixed vassals not being more likely to connect to Rus culture when taking the decision to form Rus culture
Mendicant Mystics tradition will no longer be removed from Rus culture if starting with the Vanilla or Partial game rules for the Rus Emergence decision/event
Fixed intro text referring to Zhangzhung flavor pack
Fixed Slavic idol decision refunding you more gold than its cost if you decide not to go through with it
Now that CK3 1.15 is coming out, and Chapter 4 has been revealed, including a rough schedule for when this year's DLCs will come out, I have a better idea of how to plan out VIET and RICE's updates for this year.
The 1.15 "Crown" patch is out today, but as I am pretty busy much of March IRL, I might not be able to update VIET and RICE for a couple weeks. Thank you for your patience and understanding! Please be aware that VIET/RICE's update to 1.15 will probably not be savegame compatible with games started in 1.14.
VIET/RICE 2025 PLANS
Next, it looks like we're getting the China expansion after years of back and forth debates - it is what it is. This will undoubtedly be one of the CK series' largest updates ever, and it'll be neither an easy nor quick effort to get mods up to date. I did not originally expect something like this so soon, so I'll have to significantly rework my plans for VIET/RICE. I am still committed to doing the Mayo Flavor Pack this year, as well as featuring upcoming TBA RICE content in this year's ModCon (even if only as a preview). More news will be forthcoming once I figure things out!
I've a few announcements to make! First, I'm proud to report that RICE has almost reached a milestone of 200k subscribers on Steam workshop! It's great to see the mod's evolution over the past 4½ years. Thank you all for the continued support - as always, it means a lot.
RICE NEAR TERM PLANS
RICE will hopefully be updated this weekend.Still, please do not play with the mods unless you know what you're doing and/or are willing to risk potential bugs/issues.
Looking ahead, after the announcement of CK3 Chapter 4, I've modified my plans for VIET and RICE in 2025. For RICE, I am still committed to doing the Mayo Flavor Pack, but I've decided will have to delay it (again) to a later time (perhaps this summer). I'm also still considering what to do later this year, especially when All Under Heaven comes out. For the near-term, I've decided on a smaller flavor pack to go along with the release of Khans of the Steppe.
TEASER 1 for REDACTED
Since work is also starting on RICE's next flavor pack I thought I'd start showing teasers again. As this is a smaller flavor pack, there will probably be a few teasers for this one at most. And, as another reminder and a hint, the Mayo Flavor Pack has been postponed to later this year after PI revealed their plans for Chapter 4.
Clue #1: Watch the skies, traveler. This flavor pack's focus group was involved in the steppe history.
Ladakh is a region straddling eastern Kashmir and western Tibet. Historically, it was located at a strategic crossroads between many different civilizations, kingdoms, and religions.
RICE 1.15.0 "Ladakh" is now out! Thanks all for your patience and understanding while I was busy most of March. My main priority was to do a basic patch to 1.15, so I did not implement a number of major tweaks I had been planning for a while, though I did squeeze in some new stuff. Features of this update include:
Official update to patch 1.15
New flavor and bookmarks for Azjur al-Turki (867) and Margaret of Beverley (1178)
Glacier Marriage activity for the Pamirs/Ladakh region
New innovations: Glacier Grafting and Netsang Relationships
... and much more!
Remember you may need to unsubscribe and resubscribe for mods to update properly (multiple times if necessary). Please start a new game with this version of RICE.
I may put out a small hotfix within the next week, and will also post some "postviews" of the new content (i.e. explaining it) in between the previews of the next flavor pack.
Added Azjur al-Turki (867) and Margaret of Beverley (1178) as bookmarked landless characters, along with their own starting flavor events and unique modifiers
Added unique helmet artifact for Margaret of Beverley: Cooking Pot Helmet
Added preset dna/appearance for Margaret of Beverley and her brother Thomas
Added preset COAs for Margaret of Beverley and Azjur al-Turki
Added inaccessible placeholder innovations in the code (for future proofing save game compatibility issues when adding innovations mid-game)
Added a Host Palio Race struggle catalyst for the Sicily Struggle
Added game rule to override other mods’ East Slavic/Rus culture setup if you prefer RICE’s setup instead of other mods like Baptism of Rus
Tweaked starting stats of Azjur al-Turki and Margaret of Beverley
When the Sicilian struggle restarts, any cultures or faiths with at least one ruler who owns a county in the Sicily struggle region will become automatically involved (as a stopgap measure to fix how cultures/faiths previously in the struggle don’t become re-involved when the struggle restarts)
Tweaked Tarim Basin history setup to have better compatibility with the HM Invasion Expand mod
Medical School of Salerno modifier will now be placed in Salerno even if another mod adds in a unique building (otherwise, the associated decision wouldn’t have worked)
Removed the Liminality dynasty perk struggle catalyst from the Sicily Struggle
Land of Towns tradition now enables travel along major rivers (non-Baptism of Rus version)
Expanded Skiing region and innovations to various parts and cultures of Siberia and Eastern Europe
Natkokwe/Burmese paganism no longer added to the map if playing with More Bookmarks Plus for better compatibility
Turco-Hephthalite changed to Turko-Hephthalite to be consistent with vanilla culture names which use “Turko” rather than “Turco”
Japheth ibn Bundar and his father (Bundar) now start with the Silk Road merchant traits
Tweaked language of the requirement to control various duchies for the Decision to Restore the Tuyuhun Kingdom to look less messy
Highest rank of the Merchant traits now increase max language learning schemes instead of a bonus to language schemes
Fixed Bundar not being Japheth ibn Bundar’s father
Fixed Encourage Settlement option of the Volga-Dnieper trade decision no longer displaying culture/faith conversion text erroneously by hiding it
Fixed Volga-Dnieper trade travel option potentially creating a merchant with a Silk Road merchant trait instead of the Volga-Dnieper trait
Fixed “weight = { base 10 }” in RICE_harran_events, RICE_sicily_events, RICE_socotra_events and RICE_tarim_basin_events
Fixed missing piety/prestige rewards/values from the Fulaich Festival activity
Fixed missing loc for the Elamite and Chamic namelists
Here's the second teaser for RICE's next flavor pack! Does this clue clearly shed light on the truth, or is it another intentionally misleading deception?
Clue #2: A newly added character is an obscure figure whose starting situation will receive changes to be more accurate when All Under Heaven comes out (or if you use mods like Rajas of Asia or Oriental Empires).
Hint: They don't even have their own Wikipedia page (across all languages), and though they're mentioned somewhere on Wikipedia, I doubt most will know which article(s) to look at
RICE 1.15.0 POSTVIEW #1
Since I didn't get a chance to give you all a preview of RICE 1.15.0 "Ladakh", I'll also be doing "postviews" in between the previews of RICE's next flavor pack, to explain some of the new content. First is an innovation and activity I originally wanted to include with the Zhangzhung Flavor Pack, but shelved because adding innovations can cause issues with existing saves - since this is a new major update, however, that's less a concern.
Glacier Grafting is an innovation available to cultures that inhabit certain parts of the Pamirs/western Himalayas, and its main advantage is enabling the Glacier Marriage activity. This was a method of creating new glaciers in the mountains for irrigation purposes, through a ritual process that involved the marriage between so-called male glaciers and female glaciers. According to legend, holy men taught the locals how to do this during the medieval era to create natural barriers to protect them from invaders, variously said to be Mongols, Tibetans, or the rulers of Kashgar.
Yes, this means the Pamirs is somehow still getting even more flavor and still remains the most flavorful non-struggle region of RICE even after all these years.
Perhaps this clue will be an illuminating light that helps you navigate the darkness that is my annoying trickiness. (Hint: The "like" is not the full word – I'm hiding the rest of it.)
Clue #3: This update's focus group was renowned in the CK era for the importance they placed on their literature.
RICE 1.15.0 POSTVIEW #2
As part of RICE's 1.15.0 update, two landless characters previously added in RICE also got minor flavor and were added as bookmarked characters. One is Margaret of Beverley in the 1178 start date. Margaret was born in Jerusalem as her parents, who were from Yorkshire, were on pilgrimage at the time. She later returned to Jerusalem around the time of the Third Crusade, where she participated in a couple battles.
Previously, Margaret received a generic modifier allowing her to fight as a knight. While she still keeps that modifier, she now also gets her own unique modifier, Like a Fierce Virago. The modifier's name is based on Margaret's own words, as quoted and written down by her younger brother Thomas, a monk: "like a fierce virago I tried to play the role of a man [...] a woman pretending to be a man ... terrified, but I pretended to not be afraid".
I have a few things to share today! First, I'm happy to announce that a reveal trailer for RICE's upcoming flavor pack will go live on my YouTube channel on April 7, 2025 at 6:00 PM. You can use the link below to watch the grand premiere! Although this will be a small update to accompany the Khans of the Steppe DLC, I wanted to practice making videos again in preparation for ModCon 4 later this year. (More news on what to expect for that when the time comes.)
This will be the last teaser before the reveal trailer comes out on April 7. Will this final clue bring to light what the next update is about? Or are you still left in the darkness?
Clue #4: The 10th century marked a major transition for this group after a leader had to leave somewhere.
RICE 1.15.0 Postview #3
In RICE's 1.15.0 update, the other landless character getting a bit of flavor and a bookmark is Azjur al-Turki, who should still be governor of Egypt in the 867 bookmark, as he was replaced in 868 IRL, but vanilla made Ahmad Ibn Tulun rule Egypt instead in 867 to ensure the Tulunids start off as rulers. Historically, Azjur was a puritanical and unpopular official even before he was appointed governor. Sources differ on what he did afterwards: either he went on the Hajj to Mecca, or returned to the Caliph in Baghdad to get a different government post.
Azjur's starting event lets you choose between starting these two routes: ether make your way to a port on the Red Sea Coast in the direction of Mecca, or travel to the Levant in the direction of Baghdad, and you'll get a corresponding modifier. Of course, you can continue your journey after making your initial pit stop or go a different route in life. You'll also get a claim on the Kingdom of Egypt, if you want to try reclaiming Egypt ("Somehow Azjur al-Turki returned"?).
Okay, I actually decided I'll have one last clue, my bad! This will probably be the last teaser before the reveal trailer comes out in a couple days.
Reason for this last minute clue is that I just learned about something I think is really cool, and wanted to add it in. Maybe this will enlighten you to the focus of RICE's next flavor pack, or is it a little tricky and sus?
Clue #5: Can you recover a lost ancient artifact that mentions a messianic figure? IRL, it mysteriously resurfaced and came to scholars' attention in the 1800s.
Please recite: purity, light, power, wisdom, the supreme perfect truth, Mani the Buddha of Light.
- Inscription dated to 1445 CE at Cao’an Temple, China, one of the few intact Manichean temples
Are you ready to fight the Princes of Darkness and free the Light? RICE's next major update, coming with the Khans of the Steppe DLC, is the Manichean Flavor Pack: The Religion of Light, focusing on the world religion founded by the Prophet Mani that once had followers from France to China!
Further previews and a dev diary will be shown in the coming weeks. Planned features include:
Immersive decisions, activities, and events to make playing a Manichean more interesting
Decide Manicheism's fate in 867 by suppressing it as the Caliph, or choosing to support, reform, or abandon Mani's Church as a powerful Uyghur ruler
New playable historical Manichean and Uyghur adventurers, such as Tatatunga, Genghis Khan's Uyghur scribe
More flavor for the old Tarim Basin Flavor Pack like new traditions and local pilgrimages
... and much more!
I also want to give a shout-out to two existing mods with Manichean flavor that are already compatible with RICE. I'll continue to ensure they're compatible with and complement RICE's Manichean content:
Eclipsed Crown
Adds a 724 start date with flavor decisions, events, struggles, and more, including Manichean and Uyghur flavor.
Manichean Tweaks
From the same creator of the Baptism of Rus mod, this mod improves Manicheism and the Uyghurs.
Princes of Darkness
This has nothing to do with Manicheism but coincidentally in Manicheism, the Prince of Darkness is the ruler of the World of Darkness/Matter. I heard RICE works with POD, but as POD is a TC use at your own risk!
To my knowledge I don't think there was any deep connection between Khotan and Manicheism - I could be wrong but I'm guessing the devs did that just for geographical reasons. I do agree moving the Manichean holy site to somewhere in the Turfan region would make more sense (even Dunhuang would make more sense), but I can't since that'd require modifying vanilla code, you can't change holy sites in script like how it worked in CK2 sadly. However, the Manichean Tweaks mod I linked above does make edits to the Manichean holy sites to make more sense (they set it as Jerusalem, Baghdad, Samarkand, Gaya, and Yijinai).
Now that Manicheism: Religion of Light has been revealed, let's take a look at the earlier clues/teasers in our usual previews!
Clue #1: Watch the skies, traveler. This flavor pack's focus group was involved in steppe history.
This clue refers to the Manichean religion itself, which once had adherents all across the world, and was notably the state religion of the Uyghur Khaganate. In Manichean cosmology, the universe is in a conflict between the good, spiritual world of light, and the evil material world of darkness; humanity's goal is to liberate the light trapped in darkness/matter. Thus, the old purification doctrine for the Dualist religion in RICE now has a new option, Liberation of Light as Purification, which unlocks some Manichean mechanics. Only Manicheism starts with it.
As an aside, the clue's mention of the skies, besides being an Elder Scrolls (creepypasta) reference, is also a reference to how the Manicheans revered the sun, moon, and stars as representations of the Light. Non-Manichean sources, in fact, would often refer to the Manicheans as worshippers of celestial bodies.
See if you can notice a few of the differences between vanilla's 1066 Manicheism and RICE's new and improved version in the screenshot!
Let's look over our second clue, of a bookmarked landless adventurer coming with this update!
Clue #2: A newly added character is an obscure figure whose starting situation will receive changes to be more accurate when All Under Heaven comes out (or if you use mods like Rajas of Asia or Oriental Empires).
The obscure 11th century Chinese Manichean leader named Chen Pingshan (陈平山) was a disciple of the more well-known Lin Deng (林瞪), who played a major role in ensuring the survival of Manicheism for a few centuries by spreading Manicheism to Fujian in Southeast China. Lin Deng is revered by locals to this day for his legendary deeds.
Not much is known about Chen Pingshan, but ritual Manichean manuscripts inherited by his modern descendant, Chen Peishang, have been a great asset to scholars studying the history of Chinese Manicheism.
In normal RICE, Chen Pingshan starts in Gansu, but once All Under Heaven comes out, he'll be moved to the more accurate location of Fujian. If you play with the Rajas of Asia or Oriental Empires mods, whose modders I've both been in correspondence with about this update, however, he'll be moved to Fujian too.
With our 3rd clue, we take a closer look at some upcoming Manichean flavor!
Clue #3: This update's focus group was renowned in the CK era for the importance they placed on their literature.
Mani, the Prophet of Manicheism, argued that a flaw in older religions was that people wrote down their doctrines after their founders died, so their teachings became corrupted. He actively encouraged his disciples to write down his words while he was alive and to disseminate his teachings through books and pictures (for those who couldn't read), to ensure his teachings would remain pure.
The decision to Commission a Manichean Manuscript reflects how books were thusly highly revered among Manicheans. Each option for the decision provides an artifact and different benefits.
By the medieval period, the Manicheans' books were highly regarded even in their opponents' polemics. For example, the Muslim Arab polymath al-Jahiz (c. 776-868 CE) lamented the beauty of Manichean books compared to those of other religions: "No paper that I have seen is comparable to the paper of their books and no beautiful script with that which is used there."
Time to go over the 4th clue! I hope to have the first of two dev diaries ready within the next week.
Clue #4: The 10th century marked a major transition for this group after a leader had to leave somewhere.
Historically, the Archegos or Yamag was the head of the Manichean Church, originally based in Babylon, as Mesopotamia was the birthplace and heartland of Manicheism.
Though the last Archegos attested with certainty was a Berber man named Abu Hilal al-Dayhuri from the 8th century, we have evidence of the office of the Archegos surviving much later than that. For instance, in the 10th century, the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir (r. 908-932 CE) increased persecution of the Manicheans during his reign, resulting in the remnants of the Manichean community in Mesopotamia, including the Archegos, fleeing eastwards to Samarkand.
A non-Manichean ruler can replicate this event through the decision to Persecute Zindiqs in Mesopotamia (though later used to indicate heretics in an Islamic context, zindiq originally typically referred to Manicheans). Among other effects, it'll change the capital of the Manichean Yamagate from Kufa (where Babylon is) to Samarkand. It will, of course, be possible to return the Yamagate to Babylon as a Manichean ruler if this happens.
