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

[cybrxkhan]

DOWNLOAD VERSION 1.16.0.a Hotfix for "Buddha of Light" (Released 5/20/25):
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Newest Flavor Pack: Manicheism: The Religion of Light
Next Flavor Pack: TBA
Next Next Flavor Pack: Mayo: Heather and Yew​

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

RICE, or Regional Immersion and Cultural Enrichment, adds immersion to different regions, cultures, and religions in CK3. As a spiritual successor to my Immersion Packs for CK2, it is a collection of "flavor packs" similar to PI's official flavor pack DLCs. RICE's guiding philosophy is to keep a focused scope that won't change gameplay significantly, but instead adds flavor across the world that is grounded in historical authenticity, especially for lesser-known places, peoples, and histories.

Currently, the following Flavor Packs are included in the mod:

• Aachen: Charlemagne's Capital (5/15/21)
• Bamian: Valley of Light (12/12/23)
• Bozo: Masters of the River (4/18/23)
• Brittany: The Western Duchy (3/16/21)
• Chios: Isle of Mastic (10/31/20)
• Galicia: The Way of Saint James (6/30/22)
• Galicia-Volhynia: Borderlands of the Red Rus (3/4/25)
• Granada: Memories of the Alhambra (6/1/22)
• Guanche: The Fortunate Isles (12/16/21)
• Harran: The Last Hellenic Pagans (5/22/21)
• Khuzestan: Land of the Sugar Cane (1/15/23)
• Khwarezm: The Oxus Borderlands (1/15/23)
• Lesbos: The Island of Poets (10/5/24)
• Magadha: Diamond Throne of Buddhism (2/8/22)
• Manicheism: The Religion of Light (5/19/25)
• Mordvin: Along the Volga (12/19/22)
• Niger Delta Flavor Pack: Heirs of Oduduwa (8/17/22)
• Normandy: Adventurers and Aristocrats (4/3/23)
• North Atlantic: From Iceland to Vinland (10/30/22)
• Pamir and Zunist: Roof of the World (8/23/21)
• Polabians: Defenders of Svetovit (10/23/23)
• Red Sea: Treasures of the Eastern Desert (7/20/21)
• Rhodes: Shadow of the Colossus (3/15/22)
• Sardinia: Reign of the Judges (2/8/24)
• Siberia: People of the Reindeer (12/28/20)
• Sicily: Where Three Worlds Met (8/28/24)
• Siwa: Oases of the Western Desert (10/31/20)
• Socotra: Isle of Dragon's Blood (4/11/21)
• South Ethiopia: The Highland Kingdoms (3/7/24)
• Sri Lanka: Abode of Lions (8/28/23)
• Sus: Door of the Sahara (12/16/21)
• Tarim Basin: Peoples of the Silk Road (5/17/22)
• Tuareg: People of the Veil (6/12/23)
• Tuyuhun: Horsemen of Qinghai (5/1/21)
• Upper Egypt: Children of the Nile (3/15/22)
• Yazd: Abode of Worship (1/10/22)
• Yazidis: People of the Peacock Angel (11/11/23)
• Yorkshire: To Scarborough Fair (10/24/21)
• Zhangzhung: Land of Hidden Treasures (2/5/25)

At the moment, RICE is compatible with most mods as it is designed with compatibility in mind; wherever possible, I avoid editing vanilla files to prevent conflicts with other mods. For example, new cultures are added via hidden events at game start instead of province history. If you are a mod author and concerned about compatibiliy with RICE, don't hesitate to contact me on the forums or Discord!

Compatches​

• • RICE + EPE: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2553043828
  • RICE + UBP: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2573060053

Preview Screenshots​

Spoiler

 

[cybrxkhan]

Reserved

 

[cybrxkhan]

Reserved

 

[cybrxkhan]

Last reserve

 

[ChicagoZohan]

this is fantastic and incredibly cool! I can't wait to see where you go with this. Flavor events are definitely exactly what CK3 needs more of!

 

[AlexTheTall]

Viet and this! MAN!!!!! I love you!

 

[cybrxkhan]

this is fantastic and incredibly cool! I can't wait to see where you go with this. Flavor events are definitely exactly what CK3 needs more of!

Thanks! My plan is to have these more or less like my Immersion Packs from CK2 in scope and content, except this time they are all combined in one mod rather than as separate modules. While I'd prefer to have them as separate mods, to give players more options as to what they want and don't want for a playthrough (for example if you're playing in Finnland, a Somali flavor pack won't do you much good, and vice versa, I decided to have it as one mod as it's much easier to update and bugtext one mod especially when major vanilla patches roll around, rather than going through a bunch of multiple little ones.

Viet and this! MAN!!!!! I love you!

Thank you!

 

[witcher1701]

This looks great, can't wait

 

[Lord Lorkan]

Love your work, Keep the great Job mate!

 

[Sleight of Hand]

No! Not more mods! Somebody stop this man!

 

[cybrxkhan]

This looks great, can't wait

Love your work, Keep the great Job mate!

Thank you both!

No! Not more mods! Somebody stop this man!

Lol if you can believe it I'm actually slowing down the pace of my modding the past week or two, I was doing a lot of stuff the first couple weeks after CK3 came out, mainly to understand the game systems.

 

[Lordinquisitor]

It´s happening, i´m looking forward to those very much!

Have you considered turning the "Mastic" Modifier into a building? Personally i find modifiers such as these quite easy to miss. Likewise, considering that plantations and farms are already buildings (representing the country wide infrastructure) it seems a bit "odd" to have something like this as a "mere" modifer. It´s no big thing, just a personal preference.

 

[cybrxkhan]

It´s happening, i´m looking forward to those very much!

Have you considered turning the "Mastic" Modifier into a building? Personally i find modifiers such as these quite easy to miss. Likewise, considering that plantations and farms are already buildings (representing the country wide infrastructure) it seems a bit "odd" to have something like this as a "mere" modifer. It´s no big thing, just a personal preference.

You know what, that's a good point.... My design was based on my CK2, where buildings felt more like specific add-ons than with CK3 where it's more like county wide infrastructure. Not to mention in CK2 I sometimes forgot buildings were even a thing, whereas in CK3 the fewer numbers of buildings makes them more imortant.

At any rate, I'll change it as a building then, what you say makes sense. You'll have other opportunities to get other province modifiers for mastic anyways (still working that part out) so might as well kept the main mastic thing separate.

 

[cybrxkhan]

SIWA FLAVOR PACK PREVIEW​

I’m mostly done with the Siwa related stuff for the first release of RICE, and am partway done with Chios, so I figured now’s a good time for a preview for the Siwa related content.


First, there are two new special buildings - the Temple of Hibis in Kharga, which was one of the biggest temple complexes in the western desert oases in antiquity, and of course, the famous Oracle of Amun in Siwa. You must be pagan (any kind will do) if you want to build these.

Spoiler: A Special Building

Once these buildings are built, they unlock access to certain decisions for any rulers who are pagan and have territory in the region of Egypt. With the Temple of Hibis, you can Pray at the Temple of Hibis every 10 years to pray for a blessing from one of four gods - Amun, Seth, Ha, and Igai, the last two being local deities worshipped in the western desert during Pharaonic times. You can get no blessing, a minor blessing, or a major blessing. If you own Kharga, or at least some territory in the western desert, this decision will be cheaper.

Spoiler: Temple of Hibis

For the Oracle of Amun, you can Seek Guidance from the Oracle of Amun. This can only be done once in a lifetime, and gives you a nifty modifier for 10 years. You can ask for advice from one of five different categories that correspond to the five main attributes, and depending on your luck you may get better versions of the corresponding modifier. Like with the above, the decision is cheaper if you own Siwa or at least some territory in the western desert.

Spoiler: Oracle of Amun

The last major feature associated with Siwa is a decision to Visit the Fountain of the Sun, which can be taken every ten years by anyone in the Egypt region regardless of culture and religion. There are many springs in the Western Desert, but this one happened to be quite famous and was noted even by Herodotus. Anyways, it’s a very simple couple of events that help cut down on your stress. You’ll get a different modifier depending on if you decide to visit the springs privately, or do it as a public event and interact with the locals.

Spoiler: Fountain of the Sun

Of course like usual the module will also come with a few VIET-esque flavor events associated with Siwa and the western desert oases in general.

Spoiler: Events

Later this week I’ll hopefully post a similar preview for the Chios related stuff.

 

[Roguedemon]

Looks cool. I think it would be good if religions with the pagan syncretism trait (I forget what its called exactly) could build it too.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Looks cool. I think it would be good if religions with the pagan syncretism trait (I forget what its called exactly) could build it too.

I wanted to do that, but couldn't find a pagan syncretism tenet... and then I just realized now that its naming scheme is inconsistent with the other syncertism tenets and it's called "Syncretic Folk Traditions" lol. Won't be able to access the decisions for obvious reasons but should be no problem to make it buildable with that tenet, yeah.

 

[Heatth]

Is it obvious that you wouldn't be able to access the decisions? I kinda feel at least the oracle decision doesn't seem too incongruent with monotheism.

Loving the flavor, though. I am thinking I might start my next game in the region!

 

[cybrxkhan]

Per above, I've changed the requirements for building the buildings to allow for religions with the syncretic folk traditions (aka Pagan syncretism) to build them, though they won't be able to access the decisions. For the purposes of the screenshot below I cheated to create a custom Islamic faith that had syncretic folk traditions as a tenet:

Spoiler: Cool Building

Is it obvious that you wouldn't be able to access the decisions? I kinda feel at least the oracle decision doesn't seem too incongruent with monotheism.

Loving the flavor, though. I am thinking I might start my next game in the region!

Thanks!

The decisions won't show up unless you are the right religion, as I felt it wouldn't make any more sense to see them than it would for a Christian or Buddhist to see the Hajj Pilgrimage decision.

Anyways I did consider allowing the Oracle for non-Pagans earlier but decided against it, because the oracle is directly tied to the god Amun himself, so it wouldn't make sense to replace Amun with some lesser being like a Saint or angel or something for a non-Pagan religion in the flavor text as it wouldn't really be an Oracle of Amun at that point and syncretism only goes so far at least as far as the game's concerned.

 

[cybrxkhan]

CHIOS FLAVOR PACK PREVIEW​

Now it’s time for the island of Chios! Like with the other flavor packs, this one has a few simple gimmicky mechanics and associated flavor that reflects local history and culture.

Since ancient times, Chios has been the world’s main source of mastic, a unique resin made from the mastic tree. It was (and is) rare and profitable, and called the “Tears of Chios.” The mastic trade was technically the monopoly of the Byzantine Emperor (and later Ottoman Sultan), but for simplicity’s sake the mastic related features are for whoever owns the province of Chios.

There is a new building available in the province of Chios, called the Mastic Industry, which has several levels. At first, it only provides a bit of tax income, but later upgrades also provide bonuses to development and your personal piety and prestige.

Spoiler: Mastic Industry

Mastic is also represented in a new decision, Establish a New Mastic Village. On Chios there are a number of mastic villages, or mastichochoria, that are still standing today, some of which were founded in the medieval period. The decision, which is available with high enough stewardship and can only be taken once in a lifetime, starts a small event chain where you decide what kind of village to build, resulting in different province modifier bonuses for Chios for 20 years.

Spoiler: Mastic Village

First, you need to choose whether the village will focus on defense, profit, or improving the local infrastructure, which determines the bonus the modifiers give. Second, you can choose between a small, medium, and large size for the village, which determines how strong the modifier’s bonuses are - obviously, better bonuses are costlier. Thus, there are a total of 9 different modifiers available.

Spoiler: Mastic Village Modifier Example

Besides the mastic shenanigans, there is a new festival decision, Attend Mostra of Thymiana, which is structurally and thematically similar to the simple festival decisions/event chains I had for my Immersion Packs in CK2. You can attend every 10 years if you own Chios.

Spoiler: Mostra of Thymiana

The last decision is to Erect Monument to Homer (aka the Illiad and Odyssey Homer, not the American cartoon one). Though there are several candidates for the legendary birthplace of Homer, Chios was considered one of the likeliest even in antiquity - on Chios there is a large rock where Homer supposedly taught and recited poetry. Anyhow, this decision can only be taken once in the entire game by a ruler of Chios who is pagan, or has high enough learning.

Spoiler: Homer

Taking the decision has several benefits. First, Chios gets a permanent province modifier giving a little bit of tax and development (I considered making it a building but decided against it as it’s implied to be just a tiny little monument you build). Second, you yourself get a lifelong modifier, “Reveres Homer.” Lastly, you also get a bunch of prestige.

Spoiler: Homer Modifier

And that should cover it for the preview of the features for Chios. Most of the remaining work now is to work on the flavor events and bugtest. At the moment, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish it by next weekend, but either way I will probably release a “beta” version later this week similarly to what I did for VIET for anyone bored enough to try it out.

 

[cybrxkhan]

THE RICE BETA IS NOW UP ON GITHUB​

Hi all, so I've just uploaded a Beta version of RICE to GitHub for anyone who's interested. It includes pretty much all of the actual Siwa and Chios mechanics, and is mainly missing a number of flavor events and may have some bugs; however, the included features should be functional and playable. Since this is a beta version, do be aware of any bugs or wonkiness - this is more for those of you who are bored and want to mess around, rather than attempt a serious game with this, obviously.

The main thing for me to do left is add in the missing flavor events (mostly Chios related) as well as hunt down the bugs. Hopefully, once that's taken care of, I'll be able to release next weekend.