Hey all! Ryagi here to help showcase Aevum Lupi Bicipitis with experienced modder and lead dev on ALB, Trappist-1E. We've had a streak of covering these huge map mods, and this one really encapsulates that alt history "Ooooo cool new map!" feeling.
If map mods are not your thing, worry not, we'll get back to looking at more than just big map mods for future spotlights. For now though, lets allow Trappist to take it away and show off what ALB has to offer!
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Hello, I’m TRAPPIST-1E, one of the lead developers of ALB, and I’m here to present my mod. It’s an alternate history mod, featuring an overhaul of the map from Ireland to Cathay! The main focus is on alternate migrations, leading to the Slavs ending up in Scandinavia and Central Asia, Muslim Byzantines, and more!
You can read a more in depth overview of the mod’s setup here https://www.reddit.com/r/eu4/comments/1d4dxrf/introducing_aevum_lupi_bicipitis_an_althistory/
The mod is also based upon a series of maps by u/ilcubosperantista on Reddit, which can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/imaginarymaps/comments/xdz7u3/the_realms_of_a_different_europe_in_1315_aevum/?rdt=58899
Overview of the Map
We’ve overhauled almost the entire map, from Ireland to Cathay (no, not the one in Russia) and even reworked pretty much the entire province map in Europe and the Near East.
Rhomania is the Byzantine Empire, the premier nation in the Eastern Mediterranean. In 1444, though it’s facing hard times, though through its mission tree they may fight decadence and reconquer the empire. Soxony is the successor of West Rome and the Kingdom of Soissons, and it is facing a large vassal revolt that may spell their doom.
As migrations have reshaped the face of Europe, the culture map looks radically different. Key to note is the Norse in Britain, now called Biono, that have migrated there after Scandinavia fell to the Slavs.
Of course, with such radical changes, religion is wildly different as well. The Indictian and Impotian churches have split off from Catholicism, with Manichaeism also becoming a major religion in the near east.
Religions
ALB has a variety of religions, as seen above. All have received unique religious mechanics, from holy sites to icons, and more.
Protestantism is gone, as well as reformed. In their place is Wycliffian, a sort of general reformist faith. It is actually not a new creation, being first founded as a reformist movement by the Anglo-Saxon scholar Johanes Wycliff in 1390. The Kongrevy of Saxony and the surrounding states adopted it, but a strong Catholic backlash happened, and the Wycliffian Wars began. A series of crusades were fought that forced the Wycliffians back, until even Saxony fell and all the followers of Wycliff were sent into hiding. However, as the Pope grows corrupt in Rome, and more and more speak out against the church, the followers of Wycliff may make a resurgence across Europe.
Arianism is a dying religion, only being present in Iberia and Germania, specifically among the Germanic states. Arianism functions much like it did in real life, and ingame has recieved custom mechanics! ! You gain Arian Fervor to spend on various actions, which is earned passively and through converting provinces.
Additionally, Impotian and Indictian have Patriarchate and Holy Site mechanics respectively.
Nation-Specific Content
We currently have over 35 mission trees, as well as unique national ideas for nearly every tag on the map. Of special focus are the aforementioned Rhomania and Soxony; Pruthia, leader of the Germanic Confederation; Saxony, premier power of the east; Siescheng, last heir of Guo Hong, and Molise, emperor of the Holy Italian Empire.
You may be wondering about the last two, and I can offer explanations. In this timeline, the HRE is in Italy, becoming the Holy Italian empire. They are headed by Molise as the emperor.
Siescheng is the heir of Guo Hong, this timelines replacement for Genghis Khan. He was an exiled Chinese warlord that conquered most of Eurasia for the Empire of Ten-Thousand Armies. Their mission tree leads them to establish dominion over most of Eastern Europe and rule it through a vassal swarm.
(It’s part one because their vassals have their own subject-focused mission trees!)
Here is Soxony’s mission tree, with the early game featuring recovering from their disaster. The disaster is the Sygirdom Revolt, where all their vassals may rise up against them. They also have a unique gov mechanic about empowering their fellow Impotian nations.
Saxony’s mission tree is also quite large, leading them to conquer most of the east and establish a personal union with Valtea. They have also received a unique estate: the Knight Lodges!
And finally, because a mod featuring so many Roman claimants would be incomplete without some expansion of vanilla’s Rome content, the Roman Empire mission tree!
These are just some of the 35 nations with content in 1.0. However, the mod isn’t complete yet. Currently in-development is the 1.1 update, Western Dawn, which shall give new and updated content for every nation in North Africa and Iberia, as well as expanding some content in the Americas.
Of special focus are the formables of Iberia, Herkulia, and Africa. Iberia is for any Iberian nation, and has a sizable mission tree, as well as a government mechanic inspired by the German cultural integration mechanic, where you turn all of Iberia into your culture group!
Herkulia is formable by the nations of Raklion, Bettia, and Mauria, and is something of a Portugal-equivalent in its playstyle. Its mission tree is very heavy on colonialism and navy, with tons of upgrades to trade companies along the way!
Finally, we have Africa, the Southern Roman Empire. It is formable by any nations of the African culture group (in North Africa) and is the largest in this update so far, with a focus on reviving the Roman Empire and spreading the Indictian faith.
We’re not stopping at 1.1, however. Below is a little teaser of what is to come . . .
Anyways, that’s all I have to share for now. Thanks for sticking around and listening to me for this long, I hope you’ll go check out the mod on Steam. For further teasers for future updates and just to chat about the mod, we have a discord! Thanks again, and see you!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3288644137
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Cheers to Trappist for covering ALB! It's great to see such a variety of content/map overhaul mods like this and others we have covered flourishing. If you're like me, you may end up loading up many of these mods to have a quick look around, only to find yourself actually doing a playthrough of them :p
Next time we'll be covering the winners of Modathon season 3! And if you've seen our Modathon season 2 spotlight, you know modders have some spicy things to show off. Thanks for reading!