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True World - IE Start Position Changes (2025 Update)

DESCRIPTION: This mod tweaks the starting positions in Immortal Empires to be, in my opinion, more balanced and loreful. Certain lore oddities like no Daemons in the entire Southern Wastes, and gameplay imbalances such as Malus taking over the entire Northern Wastes, the upper Southlands being a bit too crowded, and Empire/Kislev being too chaotic inspired me to make this mod. My goal was to make the starting world a little bit more lore accurate, while still maintaining game balance and a diversity of races in each region. I tried to follow CA’s formula and made sure each faction has a weak nearby enemy to fight an intro battle with and then swiftly expand. This is a tweak, not an overhaul – most factions' starting positions are fine and were left untouched. You can see the full list of changes below. These locations may not be final, I have plans to expand along with CA as they add in new parts of the map and factions, so stay tuned and let me know if you have any suggestions or run into any problems!

COMPATIBILITY: This mod is script based, so unlike many other starting position mods which change startpos directly, it coexists with other mods, even many that change startpos files like Immortal Landmarks! However, any mods that do similiar things (moving/adding lords, changing settlements, etc.) may lead to a messy starting position or conflicts if both mods are moving the same things around or in the same regions, as this was balanced with Vanilla in mind. I have noticed, for example, that Mixu's Unlocker can cause minor unwanted effects, such as Mannfred, Malus, and Balthazar not being moved.

KNOWN ISSUES:
• Victory conditions have not been changed, making some difficult to achieve! Recommend using a Victory Condition Overhaul mod of choice
• Intro descriptions still describe old starting location
• Old starting position is still shown in the faction select screen


LIST OF CHANGES:
• Skarbrand has been moved to Daemon's Gate in the South Chaos Wastes where he is on a collision course with Oxyotl and staged to invade Lustria. This frees up the Badlands for more loreful factions to take control, as well as to give a much needed Daemonic presence in the South Chaos Wastes
• Malus has been moved closer to Naggaroth to strike out into the Chaos Wastes, to give Chaos more room to take control of the Chaos Wastes proper.
• Daniel has been slightly moved to Black Fortress, Malus’ old start and a more central location
• Azazel and Sigvald have been roughly swapped, given Sigvald is Norscan and Azazel Daemonic. Azazel starts in the Silvered Tower of Sorcerers taking on Slaanesh's nemesis Khorne, and Sigvald starts in Varg territory in Norsca (also gives Kislev more room to breath)
• Wulfrik has moved south to Skaeling territory, to give him some more room from Belakor and Sigvald and to better raid the Empire
• Mannfred has moved to Nagashizzar in search of artifacts belonging to the Necromancer (also lets him survive longer and makes Southlands less congested)
• Kugath and Epidemius have roughly been switched, sending the Tallyman to the side quest in the Dragon Isles and the Plaguefather himself to take control of the chaotic northern wastes
• Drycha, displaced by the Wood Elves, has moved to command the similarly malevolent spirits of the Jungles of Cathay, which gives some more lord density and diversity there and also gives Kislev and the Empire some more breathing room
• Nakai has moved slightly northeast to Mount Li to accommodate this change
• Skrag has been moved to Yhetee peak in the northern Mountains of Mourn, to be closer to his god the Great Maw and to help ensure the Ogres prosper in their home Mountain range
• Greasus starts in Greasus' Greathall, the Overtyrant's rightful seat of power
• Maneater has been moved to Skrag's old start position in the Border Princes, befitting his lore as a mercenary captain in the Southern Realms
• Taurox has been moved to Khuresh, to take control of the beastmen known to inhabit these parts, and invade Cathay from the south
• Alith Anar has been pushed south by Dark Elves to the Twisted Glade, so the great citadel Karond Kar may start in the hands of its rightful Druchii owners
• Cylostra has been pushed south to Arnheim to make room for this change
• Zhao Ming starts in his rightful seat of power, Shang-Yang
• The Changeling was moved out of the crowded Empire and to Cathay, according to rumors of Tzeentch cults in the area
• Balthazar Gelt has returned to the Empire, tasked by Karl Franz to retake the fallen city of Mordheim, and guard the eastern Empire against vampiric and chaotic threats.
• Grom has returned to the Southern Badlands, closer to his home and allowing for him to take his loreful WAAGH path to Ulthuan. Also allows for a greater Greenskins presence in their home of the Badlands after Wurrzag moved away, and give some space for Bretonnia to actually rule their homeland rather than falling to the green menace.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Here are a few start position mods from Herald that I personally use along side this mod. I would have added similiar changes to this mod if these hadn't already existed (also check out their other start pos mods as they do a great job and offer alternatives to my mod):
-Herald's Morghur in Bretonnia:https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3370297466
-Herald's Mother Ostankya in Kislev https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3286496315
-Herald's Yuan Bo in Cathay https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3349739659

THANKS to Porkenstein for working to fix some of the issues with the original version of this mod, such as some of the camera start positions. He has many other startpos mods which I use and recommend using alongside this one, as well as modular versions of this mod (if you only want *some* of these changes but not all), so check out his collection here: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3009052162

CREDIT to Meuhoua’s mod Changer of Ways - Revamped Starting Situations ( https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2862453489&searchtext=changer+of+ways ), from which I used as a basis to teach myself lua scripting. If you like the idea of my mod but don’t agree with all of my decisions, check out this one! It is similar but has a different take on the starting position than mine.