AdamElGoblino
Recruit
Arabia: Between Empires - العرب بين الإمبراطوريتين
About the period
The 6th century is a time of great change and turmoil for the major kingdoms that dominate the Arabian peninsula, Himyar and Kindah are in their twilight, facing conquest and annihilation by Aksum and the Sassanid Empire, raids and political erosion by the nomadic tribes around them.
This period is immortalized in the great poetry of the pre-Islamic period, with many legends such as Imru al-Qays and Antarah ibn al-Shaddad living at this time, carrying out feats of heroism and chivalry. Our mod starts on the eve of the Kindite war in 525 AD, coinciding with the Sassanid invasion of Himyar and 45 years before the birth of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
In recent times, we have seen more media depictions of pre-Islamic Arabia near our timeframe, depicting the rich and diverse cultures that developed along the frontier between Rome and Persia, notably those of the Lakhmids and Ghassanids. We will be exploring the Arabo-Aramaen cultures of the Syrian frontier in our mod as well as the Arab tribes which settled along the frontier more recently. Along with them, we will also be exploring the often-overlooked kingdoms, confederacies, and city-states of the Arabian peninsula itself.
Whilst the mod's primary focus is on Arabia and the migratory Arab tribes settling the frontier, careful attention will also be given to the nations of East Africa, Persia, and the Eastern Roman Empire. Our goal is the create an immersive environment steeped in exciting legend and historical accuracy for the player, with absolute freedom to roleplay and use our setting as a sandbox for the many interesting cultures that occupied our map area at this time!
The world and atmosphere
Please note: The map will be expanded to include the Caucasus.
Careful attention will be paid to the spirit and atmosphere of this time period, this is a time of legendary kings and outlaw warrior poets, honor-bound tribal confederacies, and impetuous raiders.
As such, we plan to implement future mechanics that will add more roleplay elements to the mod in the form of minigames, a more in-depth honour and relations system as well as more diplomacy and kingdom management mechanics, possibly even a religious system.
The factions
The Empires:
The Eastern Roman Empire
The Sassanid Persian Empire
The Empire of Aksum
The Kingdoms:
The Kingdom of Himyar
The Kingdom of Kindah
The Lakhmids of al-Hirah
The Kingdom of Nobatia
The Kingdom of Mahra
The Ghassanids
Tribes and Confederations
The Tayy
The Bani Kalb
The Salihids
The Bani Qaynuqa
The 'Azd of Oman
The Bani Uqayl
The Bani Judham
The Hawazin
The Quraysh
The Bani Juhayna
The Bani Bali
The Blemmyes
The Outlaws
The Aghribat ul-Arab
The descendants of African slaves with free Arab fathers, the Aghribat ul-Arab (Arab Crows) form a category of legendary warrior poets, committing to feats of heroism to earn their freedom, acknowledgment, and status in the clan.
The Sa'alik
Brigand poets, outcasts, and renegades, the Sa'alik are those cast out from the tribe who live on the fringes of society, taking refuge where they can and forming warrior bands with other outcasts, the vagabond lifestyle of the Sa'alik is preserved as some of the most esteemed pre-Islamic poetry.
We will be taking full advantage of Bannerlord's clan system to create an accurate atmosphere of the clan and tribal dynamics for all factions, including the royal houses of Iran and the dynasties of the Eastern Roman Empire. Note that we plan to add in more mercenary clans and possibly landless factions following further research.
Enjoy some teaser assets!
Please note that all displayed content is WIP and may be subject to future improvements.
Join the team!
If you, like us, find this period to be extremely interesting and in dire need of accurate portrayal, we would be glad to have you in any capacity!The current development team is very small, with me (Goblin/عبدالاَياخ) heading development and 3D modeling, Andaluz handling writing and Huriale helping with research and 2D art, and Nawaf making Arabic voice lines.
As stated prior, the aim of this mod is to do justice to every culture we portray. In a world focused on factions from similar cultures, we must do our utmost to ensure the world feels diverse and alive by highlighting the unique traits and aspects of everywhere, one and thing we portray throughout the development process.
In order to help realize this goal, we are currently looking for:
- Someone to assist with world map development and settlement placement
- A programmer to create and implement new roleplay mechanics into the game
- A 2D artist to create loading screens, banners, etc
- Voice actors and translators for Greek, Middle Persian, Ge'ez, and Old Nubian voice lines.
- An XML editor to assist with porting 3D assets into the game
I'm sure many of you, like me, want to see the total conversion scene start kicking off for Bannerlord and give us the same variety in completed content as we had in Warband. To help further this, everything created by myself in this mod will be open-source. If other developers who join the team in the future consent, then their work will also be shared with other teams.
Currently, we are collaborating and sharing assets with our friends at Burning Empires (Bannerlord) and 457AD for Warband.
