I spent all of CK3 going around and hybridising and converting as much as possible, to create as many Goidelic-heritage cultures as I possibly could. I will say up front, this was not without cheats, I did this mostly because I wanted to create a save I could have lots of fun with in Victoria, and so I would periodically switch ruler or make changes when I saw opportunities or things that needed fixing. Mostly, that meant some empire would try to purge all cultures other than their leader's, and I would pop in to make the small-and-almost-extinct cultures not as pitiful, because I wanted diversity. During this time, the main progression was, Icelandic-Irish (called Paparach) invade Denmark, form 'Sacsain' with the native Saxon culture, invade Scandinavia, invade the whole Baltic coast, cause repeated problems along the way. Meanwhile, the Irish in Ireland occupy the British Isles, thoroughly Celticise them (important to note, 'English' culture does exist, but it's not even necessary English, it's Anglo-Nordic, and all the Anglo-Saxons were replaced with Hiberno-Saxons), and eventually move into mainland Europe. A bit later, Irish Normans and Irish Icelanders have a combined last hurrah of the Viking Age, and make some moves in the Mediterranean, resulting in Irish Italy, Irish Jerusalem, and Irish Morocco, in roughly that order. Eventually, I glance over and the Byzantines are ruled by someone from the same dynasty as the ruler of Irish Scandinavia, and the HRE is ruled by someone from the same dynasty as the ruler of the Irish Isles, which I would say is when I realised I was playing with powers beyond my control.
On the religious front, Orthodoxy also kinda became the de-facto religion of Europe, mostly on a fluke. The native ruler of Sweden had converted to it by the time the Irish arrived, they adopted it, and it spread from there. The Irish also had a few heresies, like the Isles themselves are a weird equivalent to Anglicanism called 'Conchobarism', and the Totally Righteous Irish Crusaders in Jerusalem made Senchánism, which was basically just designed to holy-war Islam quicker. There was also Capallism at some point, an Orthodox heresy with Rite and Syncretic Folk Traditions on the Steppe, but the converter to EU4 turns any religion with Rite into its parent religion, so that's gone. Also, at one point, the Papacy was destroyed completely, but by this time Iberia had become (without the help of the Irish) almost entirely Catholic, and I realised with shock and horror, with the Pope himself gone, the Catholics were now following the Arch-Abbot of Irish Insularism. I, of course, tag'd in and gave him some land on the Southern coast of Spain, which stood as a nice Neo-Holy-See until EU4 when Catholic Badajoz decided land was more important than piety. Maybe we'll see a revival of the Gibraltar Vatican in the Victorian era? Who knows.
After the conversion to EU4, I used mods to slow down colonisation by a large amount, but since I went all the way to 1821, that didn't matter so much. I didn't really play any of the EU4 portion myself except the very beginning, where I saw first-hand how unexpectedly frantic the colonisation of the New World was. The Irish Isles had split apart by this time, as had Irish Scandinavia and Irish France. For some reason, almost every sub-culture of these regions decided to try their hand at colonisation. The Hiberno-Saxons got most of Quebec, the Icelanders got Greenland, the Irish themselves got a portion of Newfoundland and New Eng- Éire Nua, and at some point the Irish-Welsh arrived, it was a whole mess, made even messier by the arrival and absolute domination of the Irish Italians. At one point I think the Italians ruled most of North America, but the Irish took it back at some point. Also, Agadir, ruled by the Berber-Irish, made a good show in South America, until Badajoz, the only non-Irish contender, started pushing them out of Brazil. the Irish Bretons and the Irish Lithuanians also showed up. Most of the East Indies never got colonised, but portions came under control of the various countries that got spat out of Greater Jerusalem. Taiwan was Irish-Egyptian, half of Australia is Irish-Persian, bits of Malaysia are Coigriche, which is the CK3 base-game name for when the Irish hybridise with the Mashriqi. Most of this time I wasn't actively participating, just leaving it running and checking in every once in a while to raise my eyebrows in surprise at something else stupid happening, like the Irish-Dutch colonisation of Florida, or the Mordvinian Irish Tribal Horde (formerly called Capalla, which is bad naming on my part, essentially 'Horse-ia' in Irish) killing the Qing. Eventually I went to sleep and woke up to the game paused on the year 1821, the EU4 end-date. It's also worth noting, when I closed my eyes, Italy was dominating the world, and when I opened them, Ireland had retaken North America, and Byzantium had a colonial empire. What a strange world these people live in.
A quick map of every culture in the Irish group at the end-date, (bear in mind, EU4 has a very limited colour palette, so most of these do share colours but are not the same cultures at all)
Now, we move to the actual interesting stuff, what I did all of this for.
Essentially, my issue is thus: I love Vic3, I enjoy the mechanics very much, but this era is not my forté. I only care about one, single country in this time period, and it isn't even on the map. My beloved Ireland. You can only release one country so many times, and even moreso with Vic3. In CK3, or even EU4, you can go many different directions with one country, there is practically no limit to the outcome of your playthroughs even when starting as the same character or country each time. In Vic3, and this is no insult to it, you can do maybe six different things with one country before you need to start retreading ground, and even that is stretching it. It's just a more contained era, there's not time for the massive Irish upheaval of the world, and the dynamic gameplay comes from laws and power-blocs rather than from colonisation or hybridisation. So, what if, I could do the upheaval before the game even began? Enter the mega-campaign.
My goal in CK3 was purely to make the world Diversely Irish, if such a thing can exist. I wanted as many different countries, with as many different cultures, as possible. In EU4, all I wanted was Irish colonies abroad, and for no one country to dominate. I got my wish. I call this save-game, 'The Legacy of Milesius', which is a reference to the mythical conqueror of Ireland in the Leabhar Gábhala Éireann, who took the island from the semi-divine Tuatha Dé Danann and formerly-enslaved Firbolg, and turned it into Gaelic Ireland as the world once knew it. The story goes that Milesius himself died before reaching the country, but his descendants, the 'Sons of Míle', took it and divided it amongst themselves, from whence the later Irish nobility received their heritage and birthright. Surely, Milesius sheds a silent tear in Heaven on seeing what his sons have wrought.
Now, having achieved this, I can theoretically replay Vic3 as much as I want, from as many different countries as I like, without ever going outside of my comfort zone! I suddenly feel like I made a mistake somewhere. Anyway...
Here are some highlights:
The closest equivalent to the United States,
The make-up of their capitol, (which is the lovely city of Augusta, Maine)
(Gelreis is Irish-Dutch, Áilpín is a hybridisation of Scottish Gaels with Alpine Italians (I only realised after naming them that I maybe should have put the fadas the other way), and Hiberno-Saxon is a combination of Irish and Anglo-Saxon. Conchobaric and Orthodox I've explained, and I think the sheer horror of the United States capitol being majority Anglican with a sizeable Orthodox minority really is exquisite)
The Kingdom of Iceland, exiled to Greenland,
(to think that these people once started the Irish colonisation of Europe...)
The Byzantine Empire, whose monarch is a child who also owns Badajoz in a personal union,
Brazil, one of the only independent countries in South America.
(Afraic is Irish-Berber. Also, they're one of the only countries besides Badajoz to have decently sized Andalusian and Catholic populations. Their third largest cultural group is Neo-Lithuanian, which I didn't name, it's Irish-Estonians who then diverged into their own distinct culture in Lithuania and then, apparently, did some colonising. What a melting-pot!)
This one made my stomach lurch. Do you see what I see?
The very imposing French Empress (this is an oddity because the French culture is essentially wiped out, in everywhere except maybe two tiles it's been replaced by the more notably Hibernian 'Fhrainc' culture) of the Italian Empire,
(Personally, I'm in favour of calling this the Adalgarian Era instead of Victorian, even if she is Eighth of Her Name.)
Our closest geographic equivalent, I think, to Russia,
(Formerly called Mordvinia, formerly called Capalla, and also formerly engaged in a struggle between Orthodoxy and Weird Syncretic Pagan Orthodoxy. Whether Prince Máel-Anfaid IV ua Cruadláich (actual name) subscribes to the former or latter faith remains to be seen. Also, in hovering over him to find his name, I found out that he's a Hedonist and a Slaver, which I just thought you should know.)
Not-Russia's diplomacy tab,
And then, finally, the surprise Actual Closest Equivalent to Russia...
Drum-roll please...
Ireland!
I won't post any more screenshots unless prompted to, for fear of boring you, but suffice to say, there are many, many odd happenings. Overall, I am very happy with this endeavour. I look forward to playing this save until Perfidious Paradox breaks it with a well-meaning update. I think my first game might actually be eeking out an existence as Afraic-and-Andalusian Brazil. Or maybe breaking free from Ireland as Éire Nua? I could even see enduring the torture of playing Irish-Iceland-in-Greenland, or one of the several Irish states in the HRE. I could reclaim my lost empire as Agadir! I could reclaim my lost empire as JERUSALEM! Jerusalem in particular would be fun, they went through a revolution and now have an ideological union as their power-bloc but have a monarch on the throne anyway, which I assume to be the closest thing this world is getting to a Napoleon. Napoleonic-Jerusalem invasion of the Byzantine Empire, anyone? The possibilities really do feel endless.
I doubt this will get any traction, but if anyone does see it and has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them!
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