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Hello everyone, we are the development team for the mod Voltaire’s Nightmare.
Voltaire’s Nightmare has evolved quite a bit over the years — it originally emerged in 2016 with the idea of creating something like ‘Iaponia Universalis’ for the Holy Roman Empire, which is to say, replacing the entire world map with an ultra-detailed HRE. Taking this chaotic world of tiny lordships, abbacies, and republics as our starting point, we have expanded the scope of the mod to cover everything from Ireland to Iraq and a full timeline from 1054 AD to 1871 AD.
While Voltaire’s Nightmare deliberately tries to preserve the flow of EU4’s core vanilla gameplay as much as possible, this ‘zoomed in’ map allows for a level of detail in provinces and countries that couldn’t be captured by a traditional map mod, and we’ve added plenty of new religions, cultures, techs, units, governments, ideas, monuments, events, and missions to flesh out this expanded world beyond just the addition of nations.
Religions & Cultures
Every religion in Voltaire’s Nightmare has some kind of custom mechanic. This could be something as simple as a unique set of Personal Deities, but we have also re-used most vanilla religious mechanics from outside the zone of the mod’s map to let you experience things like major incidents in the history of the Nestorian church or modernization reforms in the multiple pagan faiths of the Caucasus. It’s up to you whether you want to try playing as a Cappadocian Iconoclast destroying icons, a Dalcassian Lollard fighting off Crusades, or perhaps even revive the religion of Ancient Egypt and become a Coptic Napoléon.
Interesting Starts
Since Voltaire’s Nightmare covers such a vast timeline with hundreds of added nations, we thought the best way to give you a snapshot of the mod would be to highlight just a few scenarios from the 1054-1444 period that might pique your interest.
The Kievan Rus
Empire of China mechanics from “Mandate of Heaven” have been retooled for the Kievan Rus, allowing you to expand and manage your appanages and ultimately form either Ruthenia or Russia. In 1054 the Rus are split between only a handful of major principalities, but as time goes on the Rus Princes will have to deal with the infamous Rota system of collateral succession and the fragmentation of their patrimonies into an ever-finer network of small fiefs — to say nothing of the looming arrival of the Mongols.
New England
One of the more intriguing countries in Voltaire's Nightmare is the semi-historical nation of New England. A handful of medieval sources allege that a group of Anglo-Saxons led by Earl Siward of Gloucester departed England after the Norman Conquest and sailed to Constantinople to join the Varangian Guard. As reward for their service, the Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnenos later rewarded these Anglo-Saxons with a strip of land located on the shores of the Black Sea. There, surrounded by heathens, they established a colony and embraced a piratical lifestyle in exile. New England is just one of several special Pirate Nations you can play as in Voltaire’s Nightmare.
The Crusades
Another interesting setup to play is the Kingdom of Jerusalem after the First Crusade. The Kingdom is divided into many minor baronies and also holds loose control over the larger Crusader states like Antioch in the north. Among these special subjects are the famous Hospitaller Order and Templar Order, protecting the flanks of the Holy Land through a network of fortresses. Hidden in the Syrian mountains, there is also the opposing Order of the Assassins, who seized control of several remote valleys after being expelled from Aleppo for their heretical beliefs. There's a lot going on in this region with many different religions and political entities to explore — including the possibility of launching your own Crusade with help from across the Catholic world.
The Reconquista
While the Reconquista is almost complete by 1444, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries we find a much more dynamic Andalusia that could be united by any Christian or Muslim power. To the south, the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031 has created a patchwork of minor emirates known as Taifas. Among these Taifas are the Taifa of Dénia, ruled by former Slavic slaves, the Shia Taifa of Málaga, and the Taifa of Córdoba, a republic formed in the Andalusian Caliphate’s old capital. In the north, the familiar Christian monarchies are consolidating their power to strike against the weakened Taifas. The one thing giving the Taifas some breathing room is the Tierra de Nadie, a strip of uncolonized provinces around the Duero River which represents the devastated borderland that had been left almost uninhabited on account of the constant warfare between the Christians and Muslims.
Beyond the Middle Ages
We hope you enjoyed this little look into the world and features of Voltaire’s Nightmare. To really get a sense for the mod, we suggest you try to explore the timeline yourself and see if anything sticks out to you. Maybe you could be the first player to start at the height of the French Empire in 1812 and manage to conquer the whole map before 1871?
For the last few years we have mostly been adding flavor to the mod rather than new map content, but one of these days we might just get around to filling out Persia…
In the meantime, you can also check out Voltaire’s New Nightmare, an associated mod that returns to the original ‘HRE only’ premise (albeit in much better quality than the 2016 version).
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I imagine many of you won't have trouble finding Voltaire's nightmare, and indeed may have it downloaded in your mod folder already. But just incase, be sure to check out them out here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=684459310
And now that this series has officially proven to be a success we plan on keeping a much stricter schedule with uploads! You can expect a new mod spotlight once every 2 weeks, on Fridays. As usual let us know if there are any mods you'd like us to cover, or indeed reach out if you yourself might be interested in showing off some modding work. Whether in progress or published. Until next time!
