New Era - Old World, formerly known as After the End: Old World is a post-apocalyptic Game Mod for Crusader Kings II. A fan made spin-off the of the popular After the End: Fan Fork mod, this one is instead set in a slightly edited version of the base game map (the eponymous "Old World") about a hundred years before the primary After the End mod.
The Steam Workshop collection can be found here
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In addition to tropes present in the base game, this mod provides examples of the following tropes:
- After the End: Just like the original, Old World is set several centuries after the mysterious Event more or less destroyed modern society.
- All Hail the Great God Mickey!: A very prominent feature of the Novelist faith. Their high god is Eru Illuvatar, they hold Aslan, Quasimodo, and D'Artagan as minor gods, and their listed evil gods include Sauron, the White Witch, and Dracula.
- All Jews Are Ashkenazi: Averted, while Ashkenazi Jews exist, they're mostly grouped under the Israeli culture, which includes other groups of Jews such as Mizrahis and Sephardis in addition to many smaller groups. And there are no playable characters at the game start that use the Ashkenazi culture.
- Apocalypse Cult: The revived Hellenic faith believes the apocalypse to have already happened, in the form of a massive war between the gods of Olympus, ending with Zeus and the other older Olympians being overthrown by Anaxogras, Alexander the Great reincarnated as the twin brother of Athena, and therefore the son of Metis who was foretold to be strong enough to usurp his father.
- Back from the Brink:
- The Palmarian Catholic Church (a real life schismatic church that split from Rome) has made a staggering comeback in the mod. In real life, they currently only have one congregation, whereas in Old World it is the dominant faith in Iberia, excluding Portugal.
- Yugoslavia has re-emerged in the generations since the Event. Encompassing much of the Balkans, it’s left to the player whether it lasts or suffers the same fate as it did in the 1990s.
- In-game, it’s still very possible for Protestants, especially Calvinism or Anglicanism to triumph over the prevailing faith of Britannia: Thelema.
- The Ket people of modern Siberia have apparently experienced a revival in the post-apocalpytic version of Russia, as one of the more powerful Dukes of Siberia is owned by, and populated largely by the Ket, despite there being only around 1,220 of them left in real life.
- Balkanize Me: Played With as some areas of the map have been thoroughly shattered, while others have united post-Event.
- Most of Western Europe from Spain to Germany and Italy has been turned into warring dukes and kingdoms.
- Britannia fully controls all of England, Wales, and Scotland as well as Northern Ireland and northern France, being effectively at its greatest reach in Europe throughout most of history
- Lithuania has almost reached the borders of its greatest historical extent under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
- Ironically, Balkans itself are united at the start date... although it's entirely possible for them to shatter and Balkanize during the game, as there's an entire event chain dedicated to their internal troubles and crisis of Imperial Authority
- Played completely straight with Russia, as its modern area has been turned into close to a hundred different tribes, kingdoms and independent republics.
- Born in the Saddle: Everywhere where they are Nomads, from Sahara to Kazakhstan and Mongolia
- Cargo Cult:
- The Ironists of old Kazakhstan worship old machinery, particularly cars and industry as the creation of a higher power but are incapable of operating most of it, due to equal measures of lost knowledge of their functions and the machines themselves being several centuries behind on their regular maintenance. They can however construct bootleg cars in the form of horse-powered chariots.
- Nousthreskeia, meanwhile, is a Russian faith that has apparently deified concepts such as the Noosphere and the scientific method.
- Cowboy: While there are no actual cowboys in-game per se, the American-German culture is called "Kuhjung", which is German for "Cowboy"
- Death of the Old Gods: In the setting's revived Hellenism, Zeus and the other older Olympians have been overthrown by Anaxogras, Alexander the Great reincarnated as the twin brother of Athena, and therefore the son of Metis who was foretold to be strong enough to usurp his father.
- Dirty Commies: Zarists regard post-Event communists as this due to who the communists regard as the true god of Russia. Communism in Europe post-Event has changed into a religion worshiping Stalin as a god.
- The Empire: Britannia serves as this in Western Europe, encompassing the British Isles and parts of France. Yugoslavia plays this role in the Balkans. Transnistra used to be this, see its entry under Vestigial Empire.
- Enemy Mine: The usually-warring Kingdoms of the Balkans have united together into the Empire of Yugoslavia while under the invasion of the Hellenic Empire, eventually reducing the former invaders to a mere tributary of theirs.
- Expy:
- Jacobinism is the European equivalent to Americanism in After the End: Fan Fork. This also extends to how Jacobins tend to wear 18th-19th Century attire.
- The Nigerian Empire is one to the Empire of Brazil from the Fan Fork mod. A wealthy, powerful empire that appears offmap and lies near an important trade route.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Yugoslavia is a stand-in for the Holy Roman Empire while Transnistria is one for the Byzantine Empire, similar to the Holy Columbian Confederacy of the original and Fan Fork versions of After the End. Yugoslavia's mechanics mirror the HRE, while Transnistria happens to be the remnant of a once-mighty Orthodox Christian empire in decline.
- Future Imperfect:
- Zarism, in general. An Orthodox-esque religion, its adherents take “divine right” a tad literally, worshipping the old Tzars of the Russian monarchy as gods alongside Russia itself.
- Jacobinism is based on corrupted memories of secularism, French Republicanism, and the Cult of Reason with a particular fondness for Madame Guillotine.
- At least some of the Islamic sects that emerged after the Event have some form of this, whether it’s the distant descendants of Iran’s Ayatollahs, or distorted memories of the Ottoman Empire.
- Ironists of the Kazakhstan Plateau appear to think that Horsepowers meant that cars of old were literally pulled by dozens of horses. They can even construct actual, horse-pulled Chariots and decorate them with the symbols of pre-Event car brands.
- Going Native:
- The Tibetan Plateau is populated by a mix of Tibetans and the descendants of Han Chinese refugees, many of whom have long assimilated into the culture.
- Many cultures scattered around the world are descendants of American soldiers that happened to be stationed there when the Event struck.
- Historical In-Joke: Loads, some with the implication that History Repeats.
- The Duchy of Macedonia is ruled by nobody else than Duke Alexander, who also happens to be a strong, military genius.
- Austria is, once again, ruled by the house of Habsburg.
- The King of Scotland at the start is none other than William Wallace himself
- Yugoslavia is actually ruled by House Karadziordzewic, which happens to be a bastardized name of the actual royal house ruling the Kingdom of Yugoslavia before the Revolution.
- The Kingdom of Prussia in the mod is ruled by house Zollern, which bears uncanny resemblance to the historical House of Hohenzollern
- The leader of Free Ireland, a quasi-independent State in Ireland which starts at war with Britannia is called Michael Collins
- Hidden Elf Village: Bhutan is heavily implied to be this, being one of the only remnants left of the modern world, and among the few factions with access to firearms and other gunpowder weapons. Its static bureaucracy and stagnant academia, however, have kept the so-called "Thunder Dragon Empire" from expanding uncontested.
- Interfaith Smoothie: Comes in three distinct flavors.
- Yugoslavism of well, Yugoslavia is a blend of Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Sunni Islam, attempting to bring peace to a crumbling Empire.
- Muwahidunna is an Islamic sect located in Sahara, which preaches that all Monotheistic religions of the world follow the same God and as such, are all brothers which shouldn't fight.
- Chrislam, the religion of the Nigerian Empire is a syncretic blend of both Christianity and Islam, incorporating elements of both.
- Matriarchy: The Zarist heresy Katerinism is all about this. While all Zarists worship the Tzars of Russia (mistakenly believing them to be gods) the Katerinists hold that Catherine the great is the greatest of the tzars and the embodiment of the goddess Mother Russia. Katerinists usually have their daughters take priority over their sons in regards to inheritance.
- Messianic Archetype: Downplayed, while it is unknown if the first King of the restored Kingdom of Israel was the real Messiah or not, most Jews in Israel believe he was and most of the Jews who don't believe in the royal family's messianic claim are outside of Israel.
- Shout-Out: Oh boy.
- One of the Counts in Britannia is named Jonathan Joestar
- One of the other vassals of Britannia is non other than Duke Richard Ringstarr, whose three vassal counts are called John Landon, George Harryson and Paul Cartney. He also happens to border Duke Michael Jagher
- France as a whole is filled with references to literature, going from Duke Asterix de Gaulle to King Aragorn Bonaparte
- One of the Vassal Dukes in Oman happens to be named Abdullah Alhazard
- There is a Russian tribe named Invisible Watchers
- There is an independent Kingdom in Kazakhstan run by a Korean character called Viktor Tsoy, referencing Russian-Korean singer Viktor Tsoi
- One of the formable Kingdoms located in Caucasus is Donkuban
- Wacky Americans Have Wacky Names: Kuhjungs, the most 'American' culture left in the old world certainly lends itself to having some... interesting names, like Joshua Throckmorton, Geoffrey Bonesteel or Kenneth Westmoreland.
- Vestigial Empire:
- Greece, which was once a Hellenic Empire that once stretched from Anatolia to modern day Bulgaria has been reduced to only a technically independent Kingdom factually ruled by the Emperor of Yugoslavia and an independent Kingdom of Anatolia.
- Transnistria once controlled lands from modern-day Romania to the Caucasus, while in 2555 it's reduced to parts of Moldavia and a fragment of Ukraine.
- Young Conqueror: A good number of these are present, most notably the leader of Slavic Macedonia, who calls himself Alexander the Second in mimicry of Alexander the Great, and has the stats to match.
