The Sicilian Struggle

RICE’s fourth struggle is the Sicilian Frontier. It is located in southern Italy, and revolves around the theme of the “frontier.” This is a wild border zone between three worlds – Islam, Byzantium, and the Latin West – where identities, beliefs, and loyalties are blurry. The central question the struggle asks is: what is the frontier, and how do people understand and exploit it?

The struggle has four phases: two ending phases – Periphery and Imperiality – and two normal phases – Borderlands and Colonization.

The Borderlands phase is a period of instability and transition in South Italy, when warfare is more common, and loyalties and identities even blurrier. For instance, this phase represents when Muslims gradually conquered Sicily in the 800s, or when the Normans did the same two centuries later.

The Colonization phase is when there is relative stability in the frontier of southern Italy, even if the region was still very much a frontier zone. It represents periods when realms like the Kalbid Emirate, Norman Kingdom of Sicily, Lombard duchies, or the Byzantine Empire more effectively expanded their authority over the region’s resources and peoples.

The Three Worlds

The subtitle of the flavor pack, Where Three Worlds Met, refers to the “three worlds” that influenced medieval Sicily: Islam, Byzantium, and the Latin West.

In-game, belonging to one of the three worlds may unlock various mechanics or bonuses to various decisions and other content.

Below are the requirements to qualify for one of the three worlds:

Latin: follow a faith with the Pope as the religious head, or a Latin, Iberian, or Frankish heritage culture
Greek: follow a faith with the Ecunemical Patriach as the religious head, or a Greek heritage culture
Arab-Berber: follow a faith in the Muslim religion, or an Arab or Berber culture

Dominance

The Dominance of each of the three worlds is an abstract, global value representing the power each of the three worlds have in practice in Sicily.

You cannot directly change Dominance – it’s simply a measure of how strong each three are in the region. The value is calculated every year based on several factors, including how many counties and involved rulers are of certain cultures and faiths, and the experience of rulers with the Sicilian Signore trait. For instance, an Orthodox Greek ruler in Sicily who has maxed out the Latin track of the Sicilian Signore trait contributes to the Dominance of both Greek and Latin.

Dominance otherwise doesn’t have a huge direct effect on things, other than the struggle endings.

Ending the Struggle

The Sicily Struggle has four endings. Two are ending phases (Periphery and Imperiality), and two are done through decisions (Crossroads and Dominion).

Ending Phases

Ending phases, in vanilla, are special phases that automatically end a struggle once you reach them. The Sicilian Frontier will often result in these.

In the Periphery ending, the Sicilian frontier is so devastated by endemic warfare and economic decline that outsiders lose interest in investing time and resources in it. One of its main effects is that it places a Latin, Greek, or Arab-Berber Substrate modifier on every county in the region that decreases development and increases building cost. It represents the dominant cultural ideas and lifestyles in the region. The substrate is chosen based on the world with the highest Dominance when the phase was reached.

In the Imperiality ending, the Sicilian frontier is exploited by powerful realms (internal or external) and has lost much of its vitality. An effect of this ending is it places a Latin, Greek, or Arab-Berber Ruling Class modifier on each county in the region that decreases tax and control, representing the interests of short-sighted elites. Like with the substrate modifier, the type is chosen based on which of the three worlds has the highest Dominance when the struggle ends.

True Endings

Now, Periphery and Imperiality are “fake” endings: if they happen, you can restart and thus repeat the struggle (more on that in a moment). To escape this cycle, and get a “real” permanent ending, you need to take one of the two ending decisions, Dominion or Crossroads. They represent two different kinds of independent, powerful Sicilies.

Dominion is for a frontier tamed through force, and a Sicily united under a dominant group. You’ll choose one of the three worlds to become the ruling force in Sicily – or, if you’re an outsider, impose a new “world” on the region.

Crossroads, meanwhile, is for a frontier that has become multicultural and welcoming, where different groups truly blend, instead of merely accepting a “rough tolerance” with each other.

Restarting the Struggle

If the Sicilian struggle ends in Periphery or Imperiality, rulers who own territory in Sicily can restart the struggle. There are two decisions to do this, which can be taken after 10 years have passed since the previous iteration of the Sicily struggle ended.

First, if you own land in Sicily, but don’t have a capital in it, like if you’re the Byzantine Emperor based in Constantinople, you can choose to Begin Occupation of the Sicilian Frontier.

If you have a capital in Sicily, you can take a decision to instead Revitalize the Sicilian Frontier.

Each decision provides different bonuses, but they both restart the struggle and remove the negative modifiers that were previously added from the “fake” endings.

Most importantly, taking these decisions gives you or other rulers a shot to achieve the “true” endings. There’s a good chance you won’t be able to get the true endings right away, so keep in mind the ebb and flow of the Sicilian Frontier.