CK2: Triforce Kings v0.5 Release news

Welcome to the Triforce Kings Demo! There is much to be said about the current release of the mod so read on to find out out more.

Note: while you can only play as the characters from Hyrule, the Desert, The Lost Woods, and Arcadia in this Demo, you can still expand your countries outside and into the newly added lands as well as convert to all available cultures and religions.

• I also apologize for the lack of game play pictures this time. If you read the through the section called "The State of the Mod", you will see why there are so few.
  • EDIT: I have since gotten the help of a friend so there are new images of the mod for you to check out. Enjoy!

Compatibility: This version of the mod is compatible with every version of the game from vanilla to version 2.8.3.3. The mod is incompatible with versions starting from Holy Fury as the mod is not yet updated for the Holy Fury features and therefore would crash on startup. You can change the version using steam. It has been uploaded in .zip format so it should be accessible on most computers, unlike than the earlier .rar version, which some users had trouble accessing. Once you open the zip file, you are going to want to extract the files to the mod folder for CK2. Typically you will want to send these files to the CK2 mod folder in your documents rather than your game files, however if the mod does not appear in the launcher you may wish to try moving the files the the game's mod folder instead. There are no required DLC needed to play this mod, however without some of the face packs the faces of Human, Hylian and Sheikah characters may be invisible. In the future I intend to make it possible to once again play this mod all the way up to the current version, but I will have that follow a 1.0 release, as my first priority for a 1.0 release is the complete functionality of the mod from a vanilla experience. Updated compatibility will likely come alongside a 1.1 update.

State of the Mod: Much has been added since the first early access release of the mod, which was more of a proof of concept rather than a real release. As many of you may know, I have been working towards the creation of a fully functional mod which integrates the world of The Legend of Zelda into the engine of Crusader Kings 2. As to my current progress, I have both good and bad news. The good news is that I am very near to completing a fully functional mod which I can feel comfortable calling a version 1.0. The bad news is that the laptop I have been using to create the mod has stopped functioning recently and I will need to have it repaired. I suspect that the battery is fried or the charging port has been in some way damaged. It will likely take some time for me to get everything back up and running, as I am back to University in a few days, and therefore development will once again slow down until the summer, regardless of the state of my laptop. I am lucky to have been able to retrieve the files for the mod and upload them now from my school laptop. This is why I am uploading the mod in it's current 0.5 state. Nonetheless, It is safe to expect a completed version 1.0 sometime near the end of the summer, or possibly sooner if I can repair my laptop. That being said, there is much to discuss with regards to the mod itself.

What's new?:

• The primary continent of the mod has been completed and the number of overall provinces has exceeded that of vanilla CK2.
• Racial traits have been introduced for all cultures excluding the Elves.
  • Most races still lack trait descriptions
  • Elves have been left out because i have further plans for them and their ethnicity portraits. Just a note, the elves do originate in Zelda lore as a seperate race from the Hylians, as described in the Legend of Zelda manga by Yuu Mishouzaki. Since Mishouzaki's Hylians have round ears, and the Elves are known for having longer ears than Hylians, I will need to make some adjustments to accommodate the similar look between elves and Hylians in the rest of the series.
  • The Elves are considered non-canon, along with the Mishouzaki manga, but I will stress that I am trying to include all official Zelda lore that i can, both canon and non-canon, otherwise the world would end up being limited to 3 or 4 empires.
• There are many new Kingdoms and Empires.
  • New lands originating from across the extended Legend of Zelda lore include:
    
    • Ordona (Twilight Princess)
    • Koholint (Link's Awakening)
    • Calatia (Valiant Comics)
    • Hytopia (Tri-Force Heroes)
    • Moria (The Shadow Prince)
    • New Hyrule/The Lokomo Realms (Spirit Tracks)
    • Holodrum (Oracle of Seasons)
    • Labrynna (Oracle of Ages)
    • Koridai (The Faces of Evil)
    • Tolemac (Zelda's Adventure)
    • The Elven Realms (Mishouzaki Manga)
    • Faron (Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild)
• The mod has expanded to incorporate The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls (カエルの為に鐘は鳴る in the original Japanese) in it's entirety. As such, you will find de jure empire title with three kingdoms that don't technically originate in the Legend of Zelda. These three kingdoms being Sable, Custard, and Mille-Feuille. I decided to incorporate this setting for several reasons.
  
  • Prince Richard of Custard appears in as a character in Link's Awakening. While he could technically be a figment of the Wind Fish's Imagination, his existence creates interesting possibilities.
  • There is nothing in The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls that inherently challenges the world or setting of The Legend of Zelda and vice versa.
  • Both The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls and Link's Awakening have a number of similarities in their game-play, and therefore the two series don't differ far in their nature.
  • It Gives me a good opportunity to easier incorporate the Christian religion, which i will explain further into this post.
  • The world of the legend of Zelda is rather limited in scope, even with the extended lore from non-canon sources, and therefore these three kingdoms won't really take anything away from all the other in-series kingdoms as there is plenty of room to shake things up.
  • The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls is just a fun game with limited representation in Nintendo properties. It seemed like a subtle enough opportunity to strike up more interest in a good game.
• The mod has a number of new religions. Though many do not have descriptions yet.
  • Wind Fish (Wind Fish Faiths)
    • This will be the primary faith of the Koholintians of Koholint. It will focus on music and the Wind Fish itself. Down the road I intend to add a heresy which will seek to control the wind fish and keep it in it's slumber so that it remains asleep.
  • Maku Trees (Oracle Faiths)
    • This is the religion of the people of both Holodrum and Labrynna. I intend for it to play similarly to the Deku Tree faiths, but with less conflict between the heresies. This faith will also venerate the Oracles alongside the Maku Trees.
  • Bellum Corruption (Ocean King Faiths)
    • This religion is intended to appear randomly in the World of the Ocean King and will represent the followers of Bellum and those Corrupted by his power. In future releases i would like to develop this faith to be similar in nature to Demon Worship and Majora's Corruption as I would like all three religions to give evil powers but at a certain cost.
  • Ocean King (Ocean King Faiths)
    • This will be the primary religion of the World of the Ocean King after the fall of the Cobble Kingdom. It originates as the relevant faith in Phantom Hourglass as the entire world is controlled by the Ocean King himself. There is limited information on the worship of the Ocean King so i will likely have to take a little more creative liberty with this one.
    • This will be the primary faith of the Mercayans and the Ho Ho tribe, both of which are only currently available in character creation.
  • Zonai Pantheon (Faronian Faiths)
    • This is the primary religion of the Faronian people. It is the hypothetical religion of the ancient Zonai civilization from Faron mentioned in Breath of the Wild. I intend for it be rather similar in nature to the Aztec faith in vanilla CK2, though with more features as development continues.
  • Horse God (Faronian Faiths)
    • This faith is inspired by the Horse Goddess Malanya from Breath of the Wild. She doesn't really have any following in the game but in the mod's history I plan on having this faith emerge as a minor one when the Faronians emerge as the powerful civilization that they grew to be in the lore of Breath of the Wild.
      • (The emergence of the Faronians as a massive empire is rather far down the road in development, as it will take place after the end of the current Zelda timeline)
  • Cobble Cult (Cobble Faiths)
    • This faith originates in Phantom Hourglass as the religion which centers around the nine sages of the Cobble race. As the aesthetic of the Cobble people is largely Egyptian, I will see if i can have this religion more closely reflect ancient Egyptian religion in future releases.
    • As I have yet to include the world of the Ocean King in any way, this religion is only available in Character Creation, as well as the Cobble culture and race.
  • Mountain Goddess (Goron Faiths)
    • This is the faith practiced by the Gorons in the Fire Realm of New Hyrule in Spirit Tracks.
    • This religion appears in spirit tracks with the Gorons worshiping some sort of goddess in the mountains, believing that it is her anger that causes the nearby volcano to erupt. We don't find out much about this faith so I will likely have to take some creative liberty with this one down the road.
  • Spirits of Good (Triforce Faith)
    • This is the faith practiced by the Lokomo sages in Spirit Tracks.
    • Since the world will not have a great flood (as such a thing is impossible in CK2), the Hylians will never have any need to flee in search of a new land to call home. However, while the world never floods, even in other timelines the geography of New Hyrule must still be there. As such, the Lokomo people and their faith still dominate this region of the world.
  • Ordona Worship (Triforce Faith)
    • This faith will include a degree of triforce veneration, however it will focus on Ordona as the spiritual protector of the Ordonian people. In future releases i will focus on further adjustmesnts to have the faith focus more on the agrarian nature of Ordonian life as seen in Twilight Princess. I like the idea of adding things like harvest festivals.
    • This faith will only be found in the de jure lands of the Empire of Ordona.
  • Christianity (Church of the Three heresy)
    
    • Christianity has an interesting place in Zelda lore. I was initially skeptical about adding Christianity to the mod, but ultimately i feel like it is appropriate to include it as a heresy of the main triforce faith. Back in the early days of the series, Nintendo had intended Christianity to be the main faith of Hyrule, and therefore established it in Zelda 1, Zelda 2, and Triforce of the Gods (The Japanese version of A Link to the Past). Around Triforce of the Gods Nintendo decided to adjust to religion to focus more on the triforce itself rather than Christianity. The causes for this change can easily be seen in the american release of Triforce of the Gods, as the game had to be heavily adjusted and censored to remove all religious references to better suit a western audience. Amusingly, Christian elements still find their way into official Zelda media from time to time, with the Himekawa manga adaptation of The Minish Cap as a significant example as it displays praying before a cross and christmas.
    • In terms of the mod's history in future releases, Christianity will be the main religion of Sable, Custard, and Mille-Feuille, as well as emerging in Hyrule around the time of A Link to the Past before becoming the dominant faith by the time of Zelda 1.The faith will gradually leave Hyrule after the time of Zelda 2, unless the player intervenes of course.
• The mod has some new visual enhancements
  • The water has been adjusted to resemble the water from Phantom Hourglass.
  • There are several new textures which make the mod look more aesthetically pleasing.

Plans For 1.0 Release

• All island nations completed, including:
  • Gamelon (The Wand of Gamelon)
  • The Three Continents (Freshly Picked Tingle's Rosy Ruppeeland)
  • Tonalin (Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love)
  • Emeralia (Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love)
  • The Polar and Antarctic Icecaps
• Fixed Interbreeding
  • Currently all races can interbreed. I would like to adjust this so that some races cannot breed with others. This is, in my opinion, one of the few things standing in the way of me truly establishing the various races of Hyrule as their own. I am alright with having the races intermarry or become lovers however, it just doesn't make sense for certain races to produce offspring with certain other species.
• Naval travel
  • Currently there are no water provinces in the mod. This is for two reasons. One, I want to have all the land provinces complete before i move on to the sea, and two, i have yet to make navies capable of entering the seas when i do choose to test them out. This is simply something i need to do more research in, however if anyone has information of properly making provinces capable of launching their navies rather than leaving them stuck in the middle of the province, I would appreciate the info.
• History
  • I would like to have all of the provinces containing at least dukes at the time of the Hyrulean Civil War (the only current start date in the mod).
  • After a 1.0 release I Intend to expand the history files to create a proper history that follows the timeline backwards from the Hyrulean Civil War to the time of Skyloftian Settlement, which in this mod is year zero. once I have made my way to year zero I plan on moving forward in history from the Hyrulean Civil War to reach Ocarina of Time, which brings me to one final and very important point for the future of this mod.

What to do about the Timeline split following Ocarina of Time?

• Some of you who understand how CK2 works may be wondering what i plan on doing with the mod's history after i hit the timeline split. Well, the adult timeline is mechanically impossible as the engine doesn't support large changes to the map in-game and therefore the great flood is impossible. As such, I am taking an approach that I find rather distasteful at first, but which proves to be what I consider to be the most responsible approach. I will be following Breath of the Wild's model by using elements of all three timelines, while making most of the games possible. so here is how the history will play out:
  • Unified timeline goes on till Ocarina of Time happens and Link wins, Zelda returns Link to his childhood and we follow along the child timeline till Four Swords Adventure.
  • The fallen hero timeline will follow after the child timeline as one consistent history. this technically shouldn't be possible as Ganondorf, as a sane Gerudo, is killed at the end of Twilight Princess, but in a Link to the past Agahnim is supposed to be Ganondorf.
  • So here is the slight tweak: Ganondorf is killed in Twilight Princess, and he is reincarnated as a Gerudo named Agahnim (such things happen all the time in Zelda) and he causes the imprisoning war himself, is trapped for maybe 100 years, and returns to kick off A link to the past, moving us into the fallen hero timeline. It's a little fishy but it's gonna have to work for the sake of the mod's history.
  • After the fallen hero timeline ends, a couple hundred years pass and we get the Breath of the Wild backstory as the first great calamity happens, and it ends in Ganon's defeat. Time Passes and the Zonai emerge and establish an empire and civilisation spanning from Faron to eastern Hyrule, it falls, and then the Sheikah emerge as a technologically advanced nation, make Hyrule a vassal, and that's it. after that the history stops as you have 10,000 years before Breath of the Wild.
• While all of this history plays out, the geographic lands present in the adult timeline, the tingle games, and other spin offs will go through their own history, get involved in some conflicts, and do whatever makes sense in the turbulent periods of Hyrulean history.
• While it changes the official timeline by combining the child and fallen hero timelines, i feel like this is the best way to include the entirety of the world that the Legend of Zelda takes place in, while also resulting in a world that can historically end with the lore of Breath of the wild happening to end everything off.

I thank you guys for reading and I hope you enjoy the mod so far. See you guys in 1.0 and happy new years!