In this Flavor Pack, land on the shores of Chios, the famed island of Mastic, and birthplace of Homer, the legendary poet who composed the Iliad and the Odyssey. For centuries, if not millennia, the people here have been the world’s chief producer of mastic, a substance made from the mastic tree said to be worth its weight in gold. Can you, like the Byzantine Emperors and Ottoman Sultans in our history, profit from this island’s mastic trade, and help it grow and develop into a center of culture and trade?

Features

• Establish new Mastic Villages to improve Chios’ economy
• Partake in the Mostra celebrations of Thymiana
• Build a monument to Homer in Vrontados, or the Heraion of Samos, to honor the Hellenes’ pagan forebears
• Go on a pilgrimage to Patmos, and perhaps see a vision of the apocalypse!
• 28 generic flavor events about Chios
• 5 Greek themed songs

MASTIC

There is a special building in the County of Chios called the Mastic Industry. It comes with five levels. At the basic level, it only provides a bit of extra tax income, but later levels also provide bonuses like development growth, and increased prestige and piety for the owner of Chios.

If you have at least 12 Stewardship and control Chios, you’ll have access to the Establish A New Mastic Village decision which can be taken once in a lifetime. It triggers a short event chain where you’ll get to choose what kind of new mastic village you’ll build - on Chios, many of these so-called mastic villages, or mastichoria, were established in the medieval and early  modern period as centers of production for the lucrative mastic.

Anyways, you’ll have two main decisions to make regarding your mastic village, and at the end, the island of Chios will get an appropriate county modifier depending on your choices which lasts for 20 years. Each potential type of village will provide a base bonus to tax rate, but the additional bonuses the modifier provides depends on what you chose from the first set of options:

• Defense: fort level, garrison size, levy size
• Trade: development growth, even more tax income than the other two options
• Infrastructure: local opinion, reduced build cost and time

After this, the second choice is between whether you want a small, medium, and large sized village. These cost 50, 100, and 150 gold respectively, and impact how powerful the modifiers are.

HOMER

If you have at least 15 learning or are a pagan, you can take the decision called Erect Monument to Homer. Chios has traditionally been considered where Homer, the famous blind poet who supposedly composed the Illiad and the Odyssey, was born and lived much of his life. There is a rock on the island which local folklore claims to be where he taught and recited his poetry, and you’ll have the opportunity to erect a small monument there in his honor.

Anyways, the decision provides several bonuses. First, you get a lot of Prestige. Second, you get a special modifier for life, called Reveres Homer, which increases your diplomacy, learning, prestige, and monthly lifestyle experience. Thirdly, the island of Chios gets a permanent county modifier, Monument to Homer, which increases taxes and development growth. Note that this decision can only be done ONCE in a game, for obvious reasons.

MOSTRA OF THYMIANA

Another decision is to Attend Mostra of Thymiana. This was a traditional and well-known carnival celebrated in the village of Thymiana on Chios. Like my usual festival decisions (if you played my CK2 Immersion Pack mods), it triggers an event chain where you go through various events depicting your attendance at this celebration. This can be done once every 10 years, and is a good way to get a bit of prestige and piety.

PILGRIMAGE TO PATMOS

There is a cave on the island of Patmos, a little south of Samos, that is reputedly where the Book of Revelation was written. It has been a pilgrimage site for centuries now, particularly after a monastery was built near the cave in 1088 with support from Roman Emperor Alexios I (not too long after CK3’s 1066 start date, interestingly).

Anyways, to simulate this, in-game, the ruler of the county of Chios (which is where Patmos is on the game map) has a decision to Repopulate Patmos with Monastics. It won’t appear until Chios’ owner’s culture is in the early medieval era; once that happens, it can only be taken if the owner has high stewardship, high learning or their culture is in the high medieval era. Doing so gives you a nice modifier and the county of Chios a positive county modifier as well.

However, the main benefit is that it unlocks yet another decision, to Go on a Pilgrimage to Patmos. It’s pretty much a standard pilgrimage event chain in RICE. The twist here is you get a little chance to receive a vision about the Book of Revelation.

HERAION OF SAMOS

A new special building, the Heraion of Samos, has been added to the barony of Samos, which in vanilla is the city province of the county of Chios. In antiquity, Samos was a one of the most important cult centers of the goddess Hera, and her temple there was one of the first major classical Greek temples.

In-game, the building can only be constructed by a pagan, or a non-pagan who follows a faith with the Syncretic Folk Traditions tenet.