u/AlvahDalton

This started with one of my players saying she wanted to replicate Leto's metamorphosis, which certainly sound like something that someone, somewhere, would try at least once. It will probably end with her character having the same sort of psychic duel with Leto that Alia had her grandpappy.

As for the wider setting, that presents some interesting possibilities. On the one hand, the game is pretty dependent on houses and the law of Kanly, which seem to be much less prominent in the Post-Tyranny given that the Sisterhoods, the Bene Tleilaxu, and the Ixians are all directly commanding armies in this period.

On the other hand, Heretics actually gives us one of the OD canon's biggest windows on life off of (A)Rakis, what with the gang's adventure across Gammu and the significance of the Danians.

I'm ashamed to say I never finished Chapterhouse, but given that Rakis has been blown up in that book, I presume there must be some setting details there as well. (All I know is the Jews confirmed part.)

Tibet really isn't a very interesting place to play. There just isn't any unique content--which is a shame, given that historically this region followed a novel path to complex civilization over the course of the Middle Ages, and it was--after all--one of the few regions in CK2 to get a unique government.

With the features we're getting in By God Alone, CK3 could be easily depict the unique area of faith and politics that Tibet was in this period.

First of all, Dharmic religion was the institutional path out of tribalism for Tibet, just as it was for Southeast Asia. In Tibet, however, this went even further. Rather than divine monarchies, the Sangha itself became the government. Landed monasteries grew into regional states, absorbing or vassalizing the tribal aristocracy. As with Catholic bishoprics, noble families competed for control of these monasteries, with abbotships usually passing from uncle to nephew.

The Mongol Empire accelerated this process. The Mongols, as we know, issued nearly every civilization in Eurasia the same ultimatum: "Submit or die." The Tibetans, alone among all the peoples of the continent, answered: "We'll submit, thanks." The historical record on what exactly happened next is fragmentary and contradictory, but it seems that a renowned Buddhist monk named Künga Gyeltsen approached one of Ögödei's sons to plead for the Tibetan people and offer tribute. The Khan was so impressed with Gyeltsen that he named him viceroy of Tibet. Leveraging this prestige, Gyeltsen was soon convinced almost the entire plateau to submit to his theocratic rule under the Great Khan.

This system would not only survive Künga Gyeltsen's death, but would pass smoothly into a vassalage to the Yuan Dynasty, and continued in one form or anther until the CCP's invasion of Tibet in 1951.

Even if Paradox itself doesn't include unique Tibetan content for moving from tribal to theocratic or submitting to the Great Khan with extra benefits, something like this would probably be pretty easy to mod in.

I don't know exactly what this energy is, but we need more fighter-bard interactions like this.

Thinking of running the Dune TTRPG in the Heretics/Chapterhouse Era. Any recommendations?

Theocracy, the Mongols, and the Tibetan Empire