Crusader Kings II: Sword of Islam Windows, Mac game

A.D. 633: Rise of Islam has been updated to version 3.2, to be compatible with the latest version of Crusader Kings II (v3.2.x, Iron Century).

New features, centered around Cushitic pagans in East Africa, are also included:

Cushitic Flavor

In previous versions, the Cushitic religion of Somalia and Ethiopia was pretty much generic pagan. In this release, I added the "ayana" feature to flesh out the religion more.

In Somali and Oromo mythology of the "Waaqefanaa" religion (known as Cushitic in-game), ayanas are spirits, generally those of ancestors, clans, or even minor deities themselves. In modern practice, men who are recognized as being possessed by or receiving guidance from an ayana have exalted positions within religious practice. Women are believed to be possessed by their mothers' or grandmothers' ayanas, in communion with the goddess Atete, when they perform a certain ritual.

This is represented in game by a decision tree for male characters, and an event chain for females.

In lieu of picking a patron deity (since Cushitics are essentially monotheistic or henotheistic), men can pick a patron ayana. Different options (focusing on diplomacy, stewardship, martial, etc) are available depending on the player's characteristics, his father's characteristics, and the alignment of the clan ayana. Only the dynasty head can choose an ayana for the entire clan; this type of ayana will be available to guide every dynasty member.

Women get the ayana event chain. Through interaction with their main male guardian, they can get good, excellent, or bad results:

A good result is more likely when the ritual items are of good quality.

Barbaria: A Merchant Republic

Trade in the Indian Ocean flourished for centuries before the advent of Islam. Depending on the political climate, cities on either side of the gulf of Aden functioned as natural ports of call for this bustling trade. In the absence of a strong regional power, several merchant city states sprung up on the horn of Africa, including Avalites, Mosylon, Mundus, in an area known collectively as Barbara (also Barbaria and Berbera).

George Tsiagalakis / CC-BY-SA-4 licence

Information from this period is scarce, but there was some level of cooperation between these city states. It is possible that by the seventh century there was a degree of cohesion, enough to think of them as a single political unit.

Whatever the case historically, there was enough hints for me to justify taking these city-states, and melding them into a single merchant republic in-game: Berbera.

Now there's at least one playable trade republic at the A.D. 633 start date, which I always thought was a deficiency before.

A note on tribal de jure areas

Many of you have been wondering about the lack of de jure kingdoms in Russia and Eastern Europe. It was an intentional design choice to remove de jure kingdoms in this area.

Historically, the seventh century was just past the end of the Great Migrations period. The tribes had barely settled in one spot for more than a generation, so there was definitely no concept of rightful or de jure kingdoms.

Unfortunately, CK2 automatically fills in de jure kingdoms and empires when the game is loaded, if there isn't already something there. That is why I had to put in the placeholder kingdom and empire, previously called "Dummy Kingdom" and "Dummy Empire." Someone correctly pointed out that those names were very immersion-breaking, so I have changed the name in recent versions.

I have also further locked down these titles, so it should be completely impossible for them to ever be created, even by peasant or religious revolts.

Rulers in this area have a modified "Become King" ambition, allowing them unlimited subjugation of rulers with the same culture, rather than subjugated of titles in the same de jure kingdom.

Please continue to report bugs or issues associated with this feature so I can continue to improve it.

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