Rise of Persia

General Information

The Rise of Persia Mod is set in the 6th century BC, a most fascinating era of mankind’s history. It was the time of four grand empires having divided the known world from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Oxus in the east among themselves after the seemingly invincible Assyrian might had been broken. All of them had ventured through great struggles in their past for becoming the dominant superpower deciding the fate of all mankind.

Situation

In the east lay the vast dominion of the Median lords, the undisputed masters of the Iranian Plateau, ruling territory from Asia Minor to the most distant places of east Iran. These dreaded Iranian warriors had overcome the mighty Assyrians, the Kimmerians and the Skythians, they had forged an empire by the means of war that nobody could match in size or power. Yet their wise kings had now been avoiding open conflict on all fronts, making alliances with the Babylonian heir of the Assyrian realm.

Babylon, located deep in the cradle of civilization, had finally revolted successfully against the Assyrian murderers and flattened their seat of power, utterly destroying their capital Niniveh in retaliation. Babylon’s Great Kings took most of their territory including that of the rebellious Judah kingdom in the Levant. Brute force had made them submit, but clemency – and captivity – ensured their loyalty. Babylon and Media had been friends since the Assyrian Downfall, but there was enough space left to conquer.

The shadow of the Assyrians was long and their final end had also freed the time-honoured Kingdom of Egypt. The 26th Dynasty had successfully reclaimed its inherent place among the super powers again. Although their great Pharaohs had to face severe problems due to growing mercenary influence and also from the threats posed by Libyans, Greeks and Babylon, they were able to prevail over all these.

An ally of Egypt was Lydia, the most powerful Nation of Asia Minor. Their war-mongering kings of the Mermnads’ Dynasty hold sway with an iron fist over the lands between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Nobody had ever defeated them and their lance-wielding cavalry is as feared as Iranian archers or Greek hoplites. Even the gargantuan Medes could not defeat them and the Greeks of Ionia suffered the same fate as the rest of Asia Minor.

These four super powers came to terms of trade and co-existed more or less peacefully, despite some grim tensions between them regarding their bellicose past. Now was also the time when the Greek city states grew to a potentially serious contender for these powers. If an ambitious city state managed to master all of Hellas then a new and dangerous power would threaten to unbalance the tense equilibrium of the four empires. But while the colony of Kyrene in north Africa could hold their own even against the Pharaoh, the Ionian Greeks were in submission. However, the true reason of their rise was not war, but trade making them rich.

On the other end of the known worlds were the Indians, not yet involved in any of the others’ business. The heavy incursions of the northern nomads, which had devastated Asia and Europe in the past were over, nevertheless everyone needed to watch them carefully. In the south, Nubians and Arabians were in danger of being conquered by the expanding powers, who had decided not to engage each other.

Nothing seemed to stop their tetrarchy, but the world changed forever, when one man stood up against the Medes. His name was Kuruš and he was the leader of the ignominious Persian tribe. He vanquished the Medes, crushed the Lydians and conquered Babylon. He created the Persian Empire, one of the most splendid the world has ever seen. However, at the beginning of our mod he is just a tribal leader, alone against the super powers.

The year is 559 BC and the Rise of Persia is about to begin.

Factions

Rise of Persia features 19 factions, of which 10 are playable in the current beta release. Here's a complete list of them:

Mâda - Media

Lydia - Lydia

Bâb-Ilû - Babylon

Kemet - Kemet

Parsa - Parsa

Magadh - Magadh

Lakedaimon - Sparta

Athenaioi - Athens

Taras - Taras

Poleis Iades - Ionia

Kyrene - Kyrene

Makedon - Makedon

Illyria - Illyria

Bessoi - Bessoi

Mazaka - Mazaka

Skudata - Skudata

Kush - Kush

Saba - Saba

Balkh - Balkh

Mod Information

History

The Rise of Persia modification has approximately been founded near May 2005, by Faeghi. Originally, its name was Persia: Total War, but after long discussions the new name Rise of Persia was chosen. This name suits our mod the most, since it describes the setting better. It's not just Persia:TW, there are factions at the start of the era which are way more powerful than Persia itself. Since historically, it WAS Persia that rose to power, we chose this name.

In December 2005, the leadership of our mod was transferred to Nero666, and we started using our website at Riseofpersia.com intensively, for development. Soon after, many new members joined our mod, and we started to progress fast.

In March 2006, our first open beta was released, with six playable factions (Persia, Lakedaimon, Athenai, Taras, Ionia and Pandya). This was still based on RTW 1.2.

Soon after, in June, we successfully finished the transfer to RTW 1.5, and re-released our beta.

During the summer holidays, there was a lot of progress, and some new members joined our mod, giving development a great boost. In November 2006, we released a new beta, entitled Beta 2, with 10 playable factions (Lydia, Bâb-Ilû, Kemet, Parsa, Kyrene, Poleis Iades, Taras, Athenai, Lakedaimon, Bessoi), and many improvements, including unique systems.

Team

Our team consists of three magnificent historians, five extraordinary graphics artists, three outstanding coders/mappers and two unbelievably good musicians, most people doing more than one job at a time. Nero666 bears the title Team Leader, but in fact everyone leads the project a little or alot into the good direction, making the atmosphere very nice to work in.

Nero666 - Team leader, lead coder, mapper, saviour

Rez - Lead Historian, Texts

Goscinio - Lead graphics artist

FliegerAD - Allround Historical Advisor, Texts

Zenith Darksea - High quality Greek historian

Spurius - coder, mapper, musician, mad inventor & bughacker extraordinaire

Celtic Man - Head of Music

Kallikratis - 2D/3D Artist

Kaweh K - 2D Artist

Octavius - Coder, Team advisor, mapper

Palissa - 2D/3D artist

Vikrant1986 - 2D/3D Artist

Contact Information

Website: Riseofpersia.com

IRC Channel: #riseofpersia on irc.quakenet.org

Official Forums: riseofpersia.com/forums

Subforums: twcenter.net, scc.com, TotalRealism.net, MedievalTW.com