Herakleios: War of Three Faiths

[Majorian]

Summary:

634 AD, the Sassanid & Roman Empire faces a new enemy - the Rashidun Caliphate.
Previous years before, the Romans and Persians have fought against each other to the bones.
In the shadow of this clash, Mohammed and his followers built a ground for the expansion,
which now starts. After Mohammed died, Abu Bakr was the first successor. Now Omar
is the leader of the Rashidun Caliphate, and he has an ambitious goal, a Caliphate, from the pillars
of Hercules to the mountains of modern iran. Furthermore he wants that culture prospers, but
also that religious minorities should have a right to practice their religion.




Features:

• over 50+ new units
• islam as a new religion
• exciting new starting date: 634 AD
• unique gameplay for steppe factions
• historical accurate family trees
• historical characters like Herakleios, Omar, Uthman and many more

impressions:







The promotion map is still WIP so maybe, we will add some factions.

[Moon_Man]

Nice to see you made a new thread, by the way are you going to use some AOC skins for the Islamic units?

[metafish13]

is there a steam link?

[Moon_Man]

is there a steam link?

This mod is still WIP

[Fraxinicus]

"Furthermore he wants that culture prospers, but
also that religious minorities should have a right to practice their religion. "

This isn't really an accurate depiction of the early Caliphate. Most evidence points towards the early Islamic empire being a strongly ethnic empire organized around expanding the power and wealth of the Arabs who participated in the conquests. If the Umayyad period is anything to go by, that was really the only concern of the early conquerors. Sure, they treated minorities pretty well, and culture flourished even in the early days, but you're painting an overly-rosy picture of the motivation of the early Caliphate (not that the Romans or Persians were any less self-concerned).

Will there be any mechanic to represent the rise of the Umayyads? If this has the same time scale as Attila, we should be leaving the Rashidun period pretty quickly.

[metafish13]

sorry, meant will there be a steam link. my bad.

[Derpy Hooves]

Looking forward to this

[Majorian]

@Fraxinicius: Yes, you are probably right, but all of this summary is really overstated.. I think that it is clear, that a Empire -like the Rashidun Caliphate- in the Dark Ages was not something like a secular state. Either way this mod is 12 TPY so maybe it is possible that an event changes the name "Rashidun Caliphate" to "Umayyad Caliphate" (but for this I need somebody, who can make scripts). Furthermore the first caliph of the umayyad dynasty "Mu'waiya" is also in the mod.
@Moon_Man: Yes, I reskinned the Frankish/Visigothic/Langobardic roster with AoC armour, and the Sassanids are also reskinned. The Rashidun Caliphate units are halve reskinned and renamed, the other halve just reskinned, with armour of AoC.
@metafish13: Yes, I will upload it on steam, and maybe an other upload page.

Hopefully, this clarified some questions.

[Linke]

Will there be any mechanic to represent the rise of the Umayyads? If this has the same time scale as Attila, we should be leaving the Rashidun period pretty quickly.

that is the process known as the second fitna, or the great Shia-Sunni divergence, wich might be a bit sensitive to some. It occurs after the fourth Rashidun Caliphs, Utmans family, the ummayads have nestleded themselves into powerful positions in the provinces of the former roman east. Then as Ali after Uthmans death finaly is made Caliph, the powerful ummayads assert themselves as their own caliphate (+ a guy ruling Egypt being a bit neutral), furthermore throughout the empire a group know as the Khawarij gain land and control, a group of radical islamic rightists who first take the recent incention of military Jihad (made by Omar to justify his conquests) to mean extermination of all non-muslims, and muslims who don't follow their teachings. Perfect for a civil war campaign, although already the armies were quite changed, also in the Byzantine empire.

As for the treatment of non-arabs I agree, of course in the local Persian tradition they weren't brutalt represed, but largely absent from government, except for example in Tabaristan where the Arabs instead of conquering the local pre-islamic dynasties made them vassals. An interesting note is the dual meaning of thr contemporary (right?) word Mawali, refering both to non-Arab islamc converts, and friends in general, but also subjects, and even slaves

[Fraxinicus]

that is the process known as the second fitna, or the great Shia-Sunni divergence, wich might be a bit sensitive to some. It occurs after the fourth Rashidun Caliphs, Utmans family, the ummayads have nestleded themselves into powerful positions in the provinces of the former roman east. Then as Ali after Uthmans death finaly is made Caliph, the powerful ummayads assert themselves as their own caliphate (+ a guy ruling Egypt being a bit neutral), furthermore throughout the empire a group know as the Khawarij gain land and control, a group of radical islamic rightists who first take the recent incention of military Jihad (made by Omar to justify his conquests) to mean extermination of all non-muslims, and muslims who don't follow their teachings. Perfect for a civil war campaign, although already the armies were quite changed, also in the Byzantine empire.

As for the treatment of non-arabs I agree, of course in the local Persian tradition they weren't brutalt represed, but largely absent from government, except for example in Tabaristan where the Arabs instead of conquering the local pre-islamic dynasties made them vassals. An interesting note is the dual meaning of thr contemporary (right?) word Mawali, refering both to non-Arab islamc converts, and friends in general, but also subjects, and even slaves

Well, I don't think anyone is putting out their public names and addresses here, so I don't think there should be any problem in trying to represent things as long as it reasonably follows reality within the constraints of the game.

Personally, I'd love a system that lets you choose between either side, switching up the characters in the family tree to the appropriate faction, and then have the other revolt in a civil war... would probably require a lot of scripting to do that right, though. At the very least, I think it would be preferable to rename the main Islamic faction to simply "The Caliphate", or "Arab Empire". Rashidun really only makes sense for the idealized early rulers, and in-game the player is almost certainly going to be taking the empire past that point, and into the period where the normal, dirty processes of history come into play.

Another chain for the Kharijites would be great too. But then it's easy to talk as a 3rd party about what would be cool, when I don't have to worry about developing anything.

[Juliuscivilus]

You forgot to make a Muhamed pic in the family tree.

[You_Guess_Who]

This Family Tree illustrates perfectly how hard for modders to properly representate a faction when its not a hereditary monarchy, and especially the complex nature of Prophet's Sahabat familial relationship with each others in Attila Total War engine.

For starters:
The Prophet have lots, and I mean lots, of wives. How could we even represent this in Attila?

Umar's last wife, Ummu Kultsum is Ali's daughter - But one of Umar's daughter from his previous wife was one of Muhammad's wife. And Ali is the Prophet's son-in-law. Okay, how should we call this kind of relationship, and depict it in a family tree?

The Caliphs of the Khulafaurrashidin was appointed by a Shura representative of the Ummah by consensus. Abu Bakr, Umar bin Khattab, and Uthman bin Affan weren't the Prophet's descendants. One of the point of schism was, Is the Imam should be the direct descendants of the Prophet? In later times, the Shia followers believes that Ali bin Ali Thalib, as the Prophet's son-in-law, should be the true Imam, and the appointment of previous Caliphs were unlawful.

How to script the Fitna between the Ummayads and Ali supporters? How to depict how the radical Khajarites kill their own Caliph Ali because he's not as confrontational to the Ummayads as they hoped? How to depict the Ummayads rise to power and political machinations? How to depict the lingering animosity between Arab tribes now united by Islam, for instance between Banu Ghassan and Banu Lakhm? How to simulate the disgruntlings of Arab Tribesmen that they cannot cling on their old Jahiliyyah tribal war customs of war plunders, against the new Caliphate order? and so forth. Its tricky for us modders and players of Attila to relive all of that.

[Derpy Hooves]

There are bastards. Just RP that the bastards are from different wives

[Moon_Man]

You forgot to make a Muhamed pic in the family tree.

It is frowned upon for the production of images of The Prophet in Islam out of fear of people worshipping Mohammad's image instead of Allah's. Muslims have kept a policy of iconoclasm since the eighth century. Also it's just less work for the devs.

[Majorian]

Completely forgot to mention Konstantinos as a historian in the team, he is basically the backbone for our research. I want to give him the credit he deserves.
thank you Konstantinos (he often changes his name.. but he is well known in the twcenter forum)

[Antiokhos Euergetes]

This is very true, sorry let me introduce myself I am the historian on this mod and out others Iustinianus Augustus-Restitutor and Origio Europae.
There are a few details I would like to raise, but have been away. For example the Christian Arabs in the northern peninsula Monophysites and Nestorians.
But we shall endeavour to make this important epoch as historically detailed as the game will allow.
There is still so much I wish to do as an Historian on our last mod Iustinianus Augustus-Restitutor.

Any historical questions ecclesiastical or political ask and I will endeavour to answer.
To those who are Orthodox I hope you a blessed Lent while we wait Pasha

[Malarkey95]

Is his wife of age yet anyway?? Come on man put a photo for muhammad?

[Linke]

Is his wife of age yet anyway?? Come on man put a photo for muhammad?

wich?

[Malarkey95]

witch or which?

[Malarkey95]

Can't with to play as the Hrvati Croatia