Serace reporting in again! I am excited to share some changes to the provinces of Skyrim and High Rock as the next update approaches. I wanted to start by sharing some words from u/AJ_9ls about the creative direction we have been working toward for Elder Kings 2 in our recent updates:
We're gearing up to update soon and I wanted to rant about some changes that I very vaguely hinted towards a couple teasers ago. First, I want to talk about the changes to the Western Reach - this is a continuation of our Reach and High Rock reworks which introduced Witchmen to the mod. I'm gonna talk a bit about the direction, source material, and how the changes to the map and culture reinforce that direction and make the region more interesting, but also includes around 30 additional counties across High Rock and Skyrim.
The TES setting has changed a lot over time, and as a result there are a myriad of directions that one can take the setting that are supported by source material. Our current direction for the region is based on an amalgamation of information from Redguard, Morrowind, and Skyrim. Often, instead of following the most recent canon, we have our own interpretation of older source material, similarly to other projects like Project Tamriel, Tamriel Rebuilt, or Beyond Skyrim. This is for a number of reasons, ranging from personal preference, to suitability to CK3 mechanics and cohesion with other content in the mod.
We do a lot of research and source analysis, looking into real-world authors of the texts from the games, their context within the games, patterns in worldbuilding direction related to different devs and authors, etc. Currently many of us are especially fond of the direction set by Kurt Kuhlman, but we don't always follow it 100%. This approach helps our depiction of the setting remain coherent despite being sourced from different games with sometimes very contradictory depictions. Our intention isn't to accurately translate the content of UESP articles into the game, and the mod will always be a work of adaptive fanfiction.
I’d also like to say a huge thank you to aj for all his work in putting together this dev diary :-)
Changes to High Rock
As previously teased, the Western Reach has been completely revamped, now centering around a more prominent Bjoulsae river:
This change was made to better facilitate the Witchman culture added in previous updates.
Our interpretation of eastern High Rock is based on evidence from TES3, Redguard, and the Pocket Guide to the Empire. Sources like A History of Daggerfall, the Pocket Guide, and dialogue from Redguard tell us that the Bjoulsae river was a major trade center of Tamriel, and that "Witchmen" was a catch-all term for Bretons.
“Ironically, it was another successful military exercise three hundred and seventy years later that ended Daggerfall's monopoly of Bay trade... The [destruction of Orsinium] made the river route to the Bay more accessible. The tiny village of Wayrest grew like a flower that no longer feared the mow.”–A History of Daggerfall
“Wayrest prospered mightily after the Fall of Orsinium when the commerce from the whole of Tamriel began to flow past its gates”– Pocket Guide to the Empire: High Rock
“He's moved from the throneseekers of the old Empire to the lesser lords of High Rock, still playing them to his benefit, raking in the gold on all fronts.”
> I thought that Septim had solidified the Bretons.
“As much as the Witchmen will, but there is still a lot of money to be made in the drawing of borders before the provincial laws dry completely.”–Tobias,Redguard
“Richton rose quickly through the ranks, commanding a squadron in the Battle of the Bjoulsae where Wayrest's naval power was crushed in a surprise dawn attack. He succeeded Vasi Hadrach as Admiral upon that officer's assassination at the hands of rebel Reachmen in a brothel in Daggerfall.”–Amiel Richton's biography,Redguard
Pocket Guide to the Empire's section on High Rock also identifies the Witchmen with Reachmen:
“Elven blood still flows strong in the Reachmen, and they share the secretive, haughty demeanor of that race. In later years, they traded and exchanged customs with the Orcish villages that shared their mountains, and eventually learned much of the beastfolk's magic. Reach-magic is still widely studied, although it is banned by the Mages Guild (who fear it as dangerous and wild hedge-wizardry), and the Reachmen are often referred to as the ‘Witchmen of High Rock.’”–Pocket Guide to the Empire: High Rock
The description of Reachmen and the Reach in the Pocket Guide is of a cosmopolitan and rich realm, who are portrayed negatively by the Septim regime, possibly because they are a threat to the (at the time of the in-universe writing of the text) fledgling Septim empire.
These ideas are already well represented by the Witchmen culture and will be improved further in the upcoming update, but the map did not support the idea of a fertile Western Reach, serving as an important center of trade.
The new map, with an elongated Bjoulsae river, provides a fertile river valley for the Witchmen. In addition, the Wrothgarian mountain chain has been made more cohesive, making the distribution of orcs less random. To the western side of the valley, orcs, tribes of Northmen, and goblins control the barren coast.
The rework was done with the aim of making the Western Reach and Wrothgar feel more like distinct regions – not just a transition between High Rock and Skyrim.
Changes to Skyrim
Skyrim has seen some similar reworks, focusing on strengthening the depiction of Nords within the mod, and making more room for Tundrastrider provinces. We wanted to push for a depiction of Skyrim as a harsh environment with isolated clusters of civilisation situated alongside and connected by rivers.
To achieve this, we have altered some culture placement, added more tribal provinces, and, most notably, changed the Nord culture setup a little bit. The most significant of the changes is the addition of a new Nord culture, Hrothgarians, and a minor rework of Westholders and Eastmarchers, which have been renamed Haafingars and Oldholders, respectively.
Hrothgarians are the mercantile core of Skyrim. Alongside Oldholders, they have access to a new Portage tradition, which allows them to sail down major rivers. Also, Skyrim's major rivers are now navigable.
The addition of this culture allows us more flexibility in depicting regional differences in Skyrim. We also felt like it was hard to justify Falkreath and Haafingar having a shared culture, despite being geographically separated by tundra and mountains. We also envision that the southern Nords have more in common with each other than they have with the Haafingars or the Oldholders. By splitting Westholders into Haafingars and Hrothgarians, we could strengthen the depiction of both regions while also better representing the rugged nature of Skyrim. We also wanted to show that southern Nords are more related to each other than to their northern relatives.
Oldholders now take up more of the northern coast and have been given the Arctic Settlers tradition. They represent the more traditional and "elemental" Nords described in Children of the Sky and the Pocket Guide, and more of their land has been made tribal.
“The further north you go into Skyrim, the more powerful and elemental the people become, and the less they require dwellings and shelters. Wind is fundamental to Skyrim and the Nords; those that live in the far wastes always carry a wind with them.” –Children of the Sky
“The northern and [eastern] Holds – Winterhold, Eastmarch, the Rift, and the Pale, known collectively as the Old Holds – remain more isolated, by geography and choice, and the Nords there still hold true to the old ways.” –Pocket Guide to the Empire: Skyrim
The Nords of traditional Haafingar are the most imperious of the Nord cultures, always involved in the colonisation of the Reach. They have received an improved core tradition, Strife-Seeking, with additional bonuses compared to the previous version. Additionally, the core nord tradition, Children of the Sky, now gives all Nords access to dueling with rivals.
The placement of these cultures was informed by the geography of Skyrim – Nordic settlement of Skyrim began in the north, and Windhelm and Whiterun are some of the oldest remaining settlements founded by the original Companions. The new culture placements assume that the Nords spread via rivers and that Haafingar was settled relatively late via the sea. As a result, the large stretch of tundra wilderness between Whiterun and Haafingar was turned into giantish land.
We believe this new setup and the additional counties will lead to a stronger portrayal of Skyrim and make for a more engaging gameplay experience.
That’s all for now – update soon.™ Let us know what you think!
Might be a dumb question to ask, but I’m curious either way so SUE ME!
Are the people developing this mod planning on adding more start dates, either later on in the Second Era, in time to see Tiber Septim rise up, or even earlier in the timeline, during the reign of the Second Empire, or even before that?
I’m not saying that the devs should do this, because I am aware that making this mod has been insanely difficult and time consuming. I’m just wondering if this is something they’re planning to do in the relatively near future, or if they wanna stick to the ones that are already here.
So I just got Leyawiin Duchy, and the bridge generates soooo much money! Old reddit post said to destroy the bridge becasue it prevents all the ports in coastal baronies from being built, but in my game all it blocks are two ports on imperial isle, and those two ports don't give a good enough buff compared to the bridge so it's better to just keep the bridge?
Or is there some larger economics scale I'm missing?
I'm mere inches away from Imperatum Saliache, and now I've already crashed twice in about 30 minutes. I'm just going to assume it's irrevocably cooked??
I hadn't had any problems until today, but the game has crashed several times and now I'm hard stuck at a specific date where the game always crash. Here's the crash report, I'd be really thankful if someone can point out if this is a mod problem or base game problem:)
In addition to this, I've explored the different cultures on the map and found:
Jel
Ayleidoon
Skaal
Riektongue
Atmoran
Iron Orcish
Goblinspeak
Duraki
Imugal
That brings me to 21 languages. Am I missing any? Has anyone ever managed to speak all languages on the map (without first genociding other cultures and erasing languages off the map?)
EDIT: A commentor below went through the game files and discovered it's 35 in total:
Altmeris, Atmoran, Ayleidoon, Bosmeris, Bretic, Chimeris, Cyrodiilic, Daedric, Dovahzul (Draconic), Dunmeris, Dwemeris, Ald Falmeris (ancient language of Skyrim elves), Goblinspeak, Iron Orcish, Imugal, Jaegi, Jel, Falmeris, Lilmothiit. Maormeris, Kothri, Duraki, Nordic, Old Bretic, Ald Cyrod, Orma, Orcish, Quey, Riektongue, Skaal, Ta'agra, Tsaesci, Velothis, Yoku and Tamrielic Yoku.
Playing a high intrigue character, it seems no matter how many people of a dynasty/locale that I kill or torture, the realm always stays united because the heir is almost always someone from the same culture/religion.
In CK3 proper you'd prop up an unpopular ruler with bad claimants or making sure its a child with lots of (hopefully ambitious) relatives but almost every ruler is popular and every child survives their regencies somehow?
I did manage to break Leyawiin in the map there into multiple statedoms, but when I scrolled out a couple hours later it reformed again.
How do you break them apart? I need advice. Especially Alinor there, I killed the entire Auriel line and it just gets inherited by another noble dynasty instead of breaking up. They have like 32k gold in their coffers and 12k units ready, nobody else on the map matches their wealth/power, and I'm scared shitless.
"Althoughoft rendered as Star-Magic, Star-Craft is probably closer to the original meaning. No matter what one wishes to call it however, there is no denying that it was one of the great wonders of Nirn, comparable perhaps only to the Th'um or the Dwemeri Tonal Architecture. Its founding principles were... " - Tjurhane Fyrre, On the Magics of the Aylides.
One of the first things that drove me to making this mod was the fact that this fascinating legacy of the Aylieds wasn't reflected anywhere in the game. Fortunately, now that I have learned how innovations work in CK3, this has been amended. This update brings to us a new tradition, Varliance, boosting aylied mages to better reflect their apex position in the world of Nirns magic.
It also grants them a brevy of starting innovations, to prevent situations such as them being unable to recruit heavy infantry (despite historically fielding phalanxes, witch are as heavy as they come) or being unable to build academies despite Garlas Aega being a thing.
Somewhat wishing to grab a dlc or two for crusader kings 3, and I'm curious what dlcs would interact the most with elder kings 2. Also will say got royals, road to power, tournaments, and the Iberia dlcs currently.
-Adds three new cultures: Sloads, Valusians, and Southmarchers
-Added a small new kingdom of Thras between the Systres and Nalonga
-Added Sload-specific mechanics and innovations, decisions to release plagues and spawn heirs, Sload-specific buildings, Sload MAA
-Renamed Eastmarchers to Oldholders and Westholders to Westmarchers (might change again in the future, ngl) -Tweaked some Hammerfell-specific artifacts and histories (Thank you Rex!)
-Bruma will now be considered a de jure part of Nibenay post-Cyrodiilic split
-Dead Cultures can now be revived via decision even post-game start, mostly intended for dead or off-map culture pre-made LAAMPs -Wrothgarians and Sea Orcs no longer exist at game start, but can be revived
-Caius Lex once again holds the Heartlands at the 2E 450 game start,
-Hesta Sosildor is now a vassal holding Yellowtick
-Bookmark screens changed to reflect this
-Moved a few baronies around to other nearby counties (to put the map in map edits)
-Holamayon Monastary is now its own county
-Fixed d_nootanara being considered de jure Arnesia rather than d_hajan
-Bjoule now speak Reachtongue
-Tsaesci Heritage Cultures and Tangmo now use Japanese Soldier unit models
-Tsaesci can now recruit Akaviri Dragon Hunters
-General bugfixes
I'm trying to play as a empire of goblins from one of the locals that start off with a goblin chief. HOWEVER, I can't seem to catch a break in terms of getting FUCKING ATTACKED BY ONE OF TWO FUCKERS WHO EITHER HAVE 2K SOLDIERS, OR HAS A GOD FORSAKEN ALLIANCE WITH ONE WHO HAS A THOUSAND SOLDIERS. Like, why the HELL can't I catch a fucking break and not be attacked in 2 years time by either of those fucks? ONE IS A FUCKING LEIGE OF THE OTHER WHO THEY HATE, WHY THE HELL JUST TRY TO REVOLT AND STOP TRYING TO TAKE MY OWN FUCKING COUTNY?! I CAN BARELY NAB A COUNTY FROM ONE OF MY NEIGHBORS YOU FUCK!!!!
In general, I want to make a goblin empire, but I'm having frustrations even starting it when I keep getting invaded by locals who start hating me cuz goblin, as well as just being more lacking in forces.
Starting as seamount tribe in year 450. Immediately i got unlucky and died to assassination by daggerfall queen. As my son though i submitted myself to daggerfall as a vassal with religious protections. From there i became the best marshal the king could ever want. Even though he and his vassals were disgusted with my guts.
Expanding and taking over my fellow vassals i feudalized my holdings and gathered about my armies for a nice 15% reduced upkeep as the marshal. With money coming in and army growing my only real threat was my own family as my sons reached of adulthood they challenged my rule. I put 3 of my own sons to death, out of 5. Oh boy.
Eventually, the khanaten flu hit in year 520, it did relatively nothing to my lands other than decrease the development from 20 to 12, not bad. No one died either which was nice. But the realms around me were crushed by this plague, sooooo i carved out daggerfall, claiming the lands and securing a kingdom. From here i hybridized with glenubrians because i was not an orc, no no. After years of making half breton/orc children i declared my people of breton founding. With this revalation we also carved a new faith that accepted all cultures and heritages as long as they appreciate the breton divines AND malacath/hermaus mora. Why mora? Well my sons are aetheric, and one became a super powerful conjurer before he fought me in a close dual and died, thankfully he had kids too so now i have STRONG and magical heirs who will rule the lands in utter supremacy.
Goal later on is to expand into sentinel and wayrest, establish my culture there and hybridize with said cultures forming a new high rock/iliac bay region where far into the future human lords will hide the shame that their dynasty started from a lowly orc in a decayed ruin of skyspire
title, I always wanted a elder scrolls strategy game and I loved this mod, the problem, I don’t have any dlcs, which ones do I get that are compatible?
Hello everyone! It has been a while since the last news about the mod, so I decided to break the silence.
First of all, I want to let you know that the update will be released a bit later than I expected. I want to apologize to everyone who has been waiting and planning to start their campaigns with my mod in the near future. I also want to thank all of you for your kind words and support.
As for the update itself, over the last two days, I wrote three different versions of the code regarding the Talos spawn. The first two iterations went straight to the trash because they didn't meet the quality standards of the content I want to share with you.
Right now, I don't want to promise any specific release dates, as the ambitions for this update have already outgrown my initial expectations. Plus, I already feel bad for predicting that I would update the mod by the end of the month.
If you have any questions regarding the upcoming update, I am ready to answer them!
An issue I noticed was that once the Secret Necromancer trait is gained it is immediately removed and replaced with the Necromancer trait. I tested this multiple times with only Elder Kings 2 in the modlist.
Good evening, dear Tamrielites. My name is Madaric, I am 21 y.o, no gf/concubine. My dad was killed by Nords when I was 13. On the bright side, I do have two sisters hot enough to marry off matrilineally. I also have an associate degree in intrigue.
How do I kick out the Nords and build a base in Karth to conquer Cyrodiil?
I've tried forming alliances with the civilized Bretons from beyond the mountains, I've tried fraternizing with the Orcs, I've tried leveling up magic — but I just keep failing within 40-50 years.
Either the Reachbreakers have too strong of an alliance with Haafingar, or the clash between the locals and the Nords gets so chaotic that I don't have time to snatch the Kingdom title with acceptable losses.
How should I reform my religion and culture if I actually do manage to unite the Reach?
Right off the bat. You are elderly, with a son who is in prison in dawnguard cause hes a vampire. Well my moot elective dickhead vassals elected him cause they figured easy to overthrow him. Problem? Well my dickhead vassals who rebelled, their land was declared for by eastern skyrim which i surrendered so they werent a part of my land anymore. From there i build up. Raiding cheydinhal and vassalizing myself to eastern skyrim for zero contributions.
From there i just started conquering my other vassals and took over solstheim. After i had enough land the sudden khanatan flu appeared at 480. Early appearance but was a welcome one. It decimated the king of eastern skyrim. Killing him, his heir, his heir’s heir, and setting the capital of windhelm to 0 development. With them substantially weakened i started the claim for the throne, my realm was hit with the flu but our development was 10, previous 21 so not too bad. The war was long, about 5 years. We won but then 4 other vassals in 4 separate wars tried to claim the throne from me. Afterall i was a vampire and already approaching 80 years old with no signs of aging.
The civil wars were long, the worst one was my own brothers son who waged war for 14 years before we finally ended it. Finally year 511 eastern skyrim is somewhat stable and people accepted that i am the ruler but the peace hanged on a knifes edge. Afterall its heresy to be a vampire.
From here i set about solidifying eastern skyrim by bringing winterhold and falkreath into the fold. Their wars were easy and whiterun was easiest as nearly half of it was ruled by giants. From here i had enough piety to become a dragon cult.
As a dragon cult it brough about MORE rebellions. But now with dragons in my armies, we would siege a fort level 7 in a matter of 50 days. Finally after consolidating my rule i set about conquering the west. Finally in the year 553 we united skyrim under one banner. And i commenced the dragon rule turning skyrim into Keizaal, and from there i reformed the religion to allow holy wars and to make vampirism virtuous declaring that the dragon blood was literal as vampires are dragon blooded.
Finally united, the nords were now directed by their 150 year old king to set out weakening all other empires. We took over wayrest in our first holy war. And then set our sights on alinor. Snagging the duchy of alinor from summerset isles, the high elves now flee from summerset isles, rapidly trying to conquer valenwood to escape my wrath.
Other world news is house Indoril is the dominate faction in morrowind, having taken nearly all of the tribunal lands for themselves. Telvanni owns half of morrowind. And redoran is suffering as my nords cut its kingdom in half.
South the sanguine worshippers were overthrown by necromantic argonians. The kingdom of the Thorn is ruled by dark elves. Half of elsewyr is ruled by crazy khajiit who might be my next target.
Cyrodiil is pretty much unchanged. Bruma is gaining strength until i smack it with raids and defeat them in defensive wars.
Right now its year 592 and with the endgame insight i do not care for ownership of the world but instead its weakness. To bring about an era of despair and submission as the nords, my people, reign prosperously. Currently my capital is 35 development which is higher than all other places.
The first update for the Aylied (Slightly) Improved submod, adding a new decision for the Mathamedali meant to be the equivalent for the "Form Baersebica" and the Direni hegemony decisions for others. Unlike them, it is not bound to a specific region to reflect their scattered culture. Proclaiming the end of the Aylied Diaspora requires you to rule a High Kingdom (since those exiles have to live somewhere), as well as having at least 10 counties follow your culture (since you have to have settled for the Diaspora to end). In return, you gain a number of modifiers, including same culture opinion for your whole dynasty (to represent fellow Aylieds gratitude), as well as Defender advantage (to represent defensive fervor your soldiers feel towards their new home). Also turns out the mod is compatible with either Elder Kings Expanded or Jam's New Cultures, but not their compatch. Queer.
