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Guanche Flavor Pack Guide
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This flavor pack was made in collaboration with and is fully integrated into BlackEmperor’s Africa Plus mod (hereafter referred to as BAP). Check it out if you haven’t already, as it adds a lot of great cultural and religious flavor to Africa in a manner similar to RICE!

Far off the coast of Morocco, at the world’s edge, lies the Canary Islands, the fabled Fortunate Isles of Greek and Roman legend. Here, the hardy Guanche people - distantly related to the Amazigh peoples of the Maghreb - have dwelled for generations, worshipping their own gods, tilling the land, and establishing their own community in isolation. But times are changing, and soon, foreigners may arrive on these shores - foreigners who seek profit and power. Do you seek to unify these tribes as one people, or conquer them to exploit the islands’ resources? Will you even go as far as to destroy the environment of these lands to quench your thirst to fulfill your ambitions?

Features

New Faiths and Cultures

Guanche Culture

Now onto the Guanche! A new Guanche culture has been added with its own Guanche heritage, and is present on the Canary Islands at game start (added via hidden event as always). Their traditions are Cichiciquitzo, Sacred Mountain, Hit and Run Tactics, and Isolationist.

Cichiciquitzo is the Guanche unique tradition that grants various bonuses to fighting in rough terrain, and lets them unlock a skirmisher MAA called the Cichiciquitzo.

Amazigh Religion

A new Amazigh religion - provided courtesy of BAP - has been added to the game; it consists of three faiths representing the pre-Islamic beliefs of different Berber speaking communities:

If you're also using BAP, the Amazigh and Tuareg faiths will have additional flavor and different tenets.

Religious Decisions

Followers of Achamánism have two new decisions. The first is to Pray for Rain. Whether the prevalence of such ceremonies was exaggerated by Spanish chroniclers or not, it is fitting for a small decision, and similar to other small rituals added in RICE.

Taking this decision will give a chance of a county modifier appearing in your capital province that increases tax and county opinion. The strength of the modifier depends on your traits, skills, and more. You can also spend extra prestige to increase the chances of a better modifier appearing, at the risk of a potential temporary health malus.

Another decision is to Hold a Beñesmen Festival. It's pretty much like any other feast event chain featured in RICE and provides various piety and prestige boons. This festival was the main harvest and New Year celebration of the pre-Christian Guanche.

Canarias History and Unification

In vanilla, the Canary Islands and Madeira are controlled by one guy in both bookmarks. Now,at game start they’re split up and adds new rulers in Fuerteventura and Madeira.

The Duchy of Canarias is now also de jure part of a new Kingdom of Canarias (which is de jure part of the empire of Maghreb). However, this Kingdom cannot be created normally; it can only be formed via a special decision, Unite the Canary Islands. This can be taken if you: are either of Guanche culture, descended from it, or Achamánist; control the Duchy of Canarias completely and are only a Duke; and have very high prestige and piety.

As a little twist on kingdom creation, when you create the kingdom, an event lets you choose to emphasize to outsiders whether the Canary Islands are the Fortunate Isles of ancient myth or the imposing World's Edge. Both options give a character modifier to you and a county modifier to every county in the Canary Islands; the first option provides economic bonuses, while the second provides military and intrigue bonuses. This choice is permanent, so choose carefully!

Sugar, Sugar, Sugar!

Madeira’s Timber

Madeira wasn't permanently settled until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1400s, but vanilla CK3 has it ahistorically inhabited, so I decided to add flavor for it too. Although better known for its wines nowadays, in the early modern period, it was famed for its sugar and abundant forests. Thus, the county of Madeira starts each game with a modifier boosting tax called Island of Timber (Madeira literally means timber in Portuguese).

When it was first colonized, its timber helped fuel some of Portugal's initial expansion efforts by providing wood for ships, buildings, barrels, and more. As such, whoever owns Madeira also gets a character modifier, Exploiting Madeira's Timber, that reduces build costs and gives a little stewardship, so think twice before handing out this little island to anyone else!

Sugar Rush…

A non-tribal ruler of Madeira whose culture has reached the late medieval period or has the Urbanization innovation can take the decision to Introduce Sugarcane to Madeira. This does a few things.

First, it gives Madeira a county modifier for 50 years called Birth of the Sugarcane Industry in Madeira. It provides an extremely powerful economic boost.

Second, the decision allows you to build the Levada Network in Madeira. Levadas are a system of irrigation canals and aqueducts that cut across the island’s rugged terrain to bring water to the more parched regions, particularly where sugarcane mills were. The earliest ones were constructed soon after Portuguese colonization started.

Lastly, rulers of the counties of Canarias and Fuerteventura will get a random event sometime after sugar has been introduced to Madeira where the crop is also introduced to the Canaries, and is represented via a county modifier, Sugarcane Spreading to the Canary Islands. It is much weaker than its counterpart on Madeira, though.

… And Sugar Crash

At some point after the initial boom, once the positive modifiers time out, the sugar industry on these islands will crash via event; Madeira will be hit badly with a negative modifier lasting 25 years called Sugarcane Industry Crashed. This also permanently removes the Timber related county and character modifiers, so be careful - exploiting the island's initially bountiful resources might be unwise. Then again, maybe you just want to destroy the environment for fun and profit.

Historically, sugarcane was a major part of Madeira and the Canary Islands' economy in the late 1400s. With investment from Western Europe and slave labor from Africa, Madeira in particular overtook medieval centers of sugar production like Cyprus, Sicily, and Andalusia. However, there was a sugar crash (pun unintended) due to rapid deforestation as trees were tied to the sugar industry in various ways, including fuel for the boilers that turned cane juice into crystal sugar. My take on it here is an extreme simplification of the economic history, but I hope it brings some of the history of "white gold" to light.

Miscellaneous

The update also comes with the usual, obligatory extra miscellany like new flavor events and music.

Selected Sources for Further Reading