No problem, I like discussing historical and religious topics. Maybe next time we can use the discussions tab (it's located at the top of the page) not to flood the comments section.

- The realms I chose for Aphrodite are: Yamhad and Achaea, because they contain Cyprus and Cythera, respectively. Aphrodite is strongly connected to these islands, some of her epithets include Cypris, Cytheria.

- For Astarte I also chose the realms based on her cult centers: Retjenu (Emar), Yamhad (Ugarit and Ebla), Fenkhu (Sidon and Tyre) and Assur (Mari).

Basically I chose the realms for each god based on their main worship centers (cities), but this doesn't necessarily mean that they were worshipped over all the realm. Realms are an ingame mechanic to group settlements, sometimes the grouping doesn't agree with historical evidence, so settlements from different cultures may belong to the same realm.

Hi. I hope I'm not being too much of a pedant? I'll understand if I'm boring you)))

Another question: The goddesses Astarte, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Shaushka, and Hathor are transformations of a single image of a female goddess among different peoples (with subsequent mutual influence and borrowing of images from each other), tracing back to a more ancient mother goddess.
Therefore, in the game, it would be logical for only one of these goddesses to be worshipped in a given territory. But in the mod, there are overlaps:
- Aphrodite and Astarte are present in "canaanite_yamhad_realm" (Aphrodite is not Canaanite).
- Astarte and Ishtar are present in "mesopotamia_mat_assur_realm" (Astarte is not Mesopotamian).

I'm also not an expert in the history of the Near East, more of an enthusiast. For my work, I've been living for several years now in the very areas where the Hittites lived, and over time I've become more interested in them. I have my own submod about the historical names of cities and regions in Anatolia (in the game, they are very heavily distorted). Perhaps I will translate it into English and/or offer it to other modders to include in their (historical) mods. In any case, your mod was sorely missing from the game, as having only about 5 gods for Bronze Age cultures, whose pantheons actually included several dozen, is very few and doesn't capture the reality. And reality is always more interesting and captivating.

Thanks for the info, I'm not an expert on Middle Eastern deities. I knew that she was identified with Ishtar, but many Hittite, Mesopotamian, Canaanite, Egyptian... deities are identified with each other. One of the reasons why I chose Nineveh as her cult center is that she was the highest ranked goddess in the Hurrian pantheon. I think that the adoption of Nineveh on Hittite pantheon occurred due to Hurrian influence.

Moreover, Nineveh already has its own unique building - the House of Exorcists. Having the Great Temple of Shaushka as well makes the city overloaded with unique buildings (given the standard 4 slots).

Although no direct archaeological remains of the temple in Lavazantia have been found yet, its existence is confirmed by Hittite cuneiform texts and references in religious documents.

The temple Lavazantia gained particular significance during the reign of the Hittite king Hattusili III (13th century BCE), who married Puduhepa — the daughter of the high priest of Shawushi from Lavazantia. This marriage helped integrate the cult of Shawushi into the official religion of the Hittite Empire.

Yes, Nineveh was one of the centers. But that was due to Hurrian influence, not Hittite. And there, by the 13th century BCE, she was already associated with Ishtar (essentially, they are the same goddess). Lawazantiya was specifically the center where Shaushka was worshipped by the Hittites. This doesn't break the game's logic (a Hittite goddess in Mesopotamia, two similar goddesses Ishtar and Shaushka in the same region, etc.).

She was worshipped in Nineveh, as well as the cities of Lawazantiya, Hattarina and Tameninga. As far as I know, Nineveh is the city that she is most associated with, that's why I chose it as her cult center.

Hello, I have a question about the mod's content. Goddess Shaushka is in Ninive, but historically her temple was in the region of Kizzuwatna, in the city of Lawazantiya. If we're talking about the game, the closest suitable city is Kyinda. It's just very strange that a Hittite goddess is located far away in Mesopotamia.

Ah, I see. I edited that script a long time ago, that is probably a typo/bug of the vanilla game that was fixed in a later update, but my mod overrides the change. I will fix it the next time I update the mod.

Thanks! I have added a link to the translation in the description.

Were you able to read my previous comment where I pointed out the location of the error?
PS: I have localized your mod into Russian. You can specify it in your mod description.

Yes, this is located in script/campaign/phar_local_deities.lua
line 6140

Alpanu is a base game deity, my mod doesn't add any text related to her. That's strange, do you mean that there is an ingame text mentioning that she is the "Egyptian sun god", or is it the output of a translator? She was an Etruscan goddess of the underworld. (I can't read your second comment, it's waiting moderator approval)

-> epithet = "phar_map_local_deities_epithet_ra"

Hello. I became interested in your mod and wanted to make a translation, but I ran into an issue. For example, "alpanu" was oddly translated as "Egyptian sun god"

I'm not a 2D artist, I'm reusing the game's assets for the god portraits. If anyone is willing to make custom portraits, I'll be happy to add them to the mod.

Would it be possible to make the new gods look more like the existing gods in the game?

It works, Thanx.

Hi, I have updated the mod to add the custom gods to non-playable factions. You need to load this mod on top of the faction unlocker. Let me know if it works for you!

I wanted to play as Athens with Athena but this doesn't work with faction unlocker sadly.

Do you mean in the gods panel or in the campaign map? He should be located in the Canaanite pantheon, and he is unlocked by conquering a settlement in the Sinai realm.

i can't find yahweh bruh

Thats a great suggestion, unfortunately, I'm no longer adding content to the mod

Hello, in the game nubian soldiers often praise Apedemak, a nubian god of fertility and warfare. Can you add Apédémak as nubian god ?

Great!

Thanks! i did it

Hi Numb, to create mods you need a tool called Rusted Pack File Manager, it allows you to edit ingame stats in Excel-like tables. You should import effect_bundles_to_effects_junctions_tables from my mod and edit Yahweh's effects and stats. It's quite easy, but confusing the first time you do it.

how do i edit bonuses because I want to make YAWEH op

Both mods edit the same script, so they can't be made compatible without creating a compatibility submod. If you are interested, I can tell you how to create it (it's easier than it seems).

Is it possible to add more worship slots? There's a mod for that, but it isn't compatible with this one

Come on, no Nergal for Mesopotamia? Great mod nontheless.

Cult centres require the Expanded Family Trees mod (read description for more details). Load this mod on top of it, a new save game is required.

I'm getting the grand temple of arinna in hattusa still. What am I doing wrong?

Yahweh!

Yes, it is compatible with Radious. If you also want to use the Expanded Family Trees sister mod, you should also use the Radious compatibility submod .

It commpatiblity with radious?

Yes, syncretism is fascinating. Cybele was paired not only with Rhea, but also Demeter, Aphrodite, Artemis. Whatever goddess the Hellenic peoples needed her to be. I think having access to Aphrodite will allow the Assuwans to replicate this sort of fertility goddess worship.

I didn't know about this. Wikipedia states that "the site was a local cult centre based around a local fertility goddess since at least the 7th century BC", about 500 years after the events of the game.

On a side note, I didn't know that Cybele was also identified with Aphrodite and Artemis. She is most often identified with Rhea, and sometimes with Demeter. I am currently reading the Dionysiaca, where Cybele is used interchangeably with Rhea.

In addition to Cyprus and Cythera, she had a major shrine in Caria in the city of Ninoe, which is in Assuwa in the game. Her worship was so strongly centered there that it was renamed Aphrodisias later on in the Hellenistic period. Of course she was most definitely syncretized with Cybele/Kuvava, who was the Phrygian goddess, but as that incarnation is only available to the Sea Peoples in the game, it makes sense to have the Greek version in Assuwa.

I decided the gods' homelands based on their historical cult centers and geographic associations. For Aphrodite, I chose the islands of Cythera and Cyprus as her homelands, she is often called Cythereia and Cypris/Paphia in literature. It's true that she sided with Troy in the Trojan war, but that doesn't make her a patron of the city. The ruins of the city suggest the worship of the gods Apollo, Athena, and possibly Zeus. If you find evidence of worship to Aphrodite in Troy, Dardania, Mount Ida, etc. I will be happy to add her to Assuwa.

Could you make Assuwa one of Aphrodite's homelands? Even if you have to move her out of Achaea? She was one of Troy's patrons and it doesn't make sense for Aeneas to be running around saying "Son of Aphrodite" if you have to go all the way to Yamhad to find her. My preference would just be to add her to Assuwa.

Thanks for the report, it should be working now. I have tweaked the bonus for higher worship levels, they now provide +1 victory points regardless of the level.

Hello! VP from ANU is not working. And I am playing only with your mod, not any combined. :)

You are welcome!

thank u man, awesome mod btw! I greatly appreciate what u modders do to these games, definitely wouldnt play as much without ur mods

Ok, I have rebalanced Yahweh's recruitment bonus to equate it to other vanilla game effects. Now it should give a maximum bonus of +16 in a province with 4 shrines. I didn't notice this because shrines usually give regionwide bonuses instead of provincewide.

well if a god gives a good bonus on recruitment, stacking those is pretty good in the same province. i tried to buff up my javelins to the max.

Ok, that must be the problem. I can't tell if this is a design flaw or an exploit. Why would you build more than one shrine to the same god in a province?

yahwen and some other god but yahwen seems rly op if u have 3 or 4 shrines in a single province. gives like +50 melee attack on recruitment.