Fans piece together Europe from upcoming Paradox game—and the border gore is horrifying

The Holy Roman Empire, as usual, does not look either Holy, or Roman, or like an Empire.

A merchant selling goods in medieval Europe, as seen in Europa Unversalis 5.
Image via Paradox Interactive

Hype continues growing around Paradox Interactive’s upcoming strategy game codenamed “Project Caesar,” believed by many to be the sequel to its flagship, Europa Universalis 4. Now, players have managed to piece together the rumored sequel’s map of Europe, and it’s the ugliest thing in the best of ways.

Recommended Videos

After weeks of drip-feeding the community with snippets of the Old Continent’s many regions, players in a May 17 Reddit thread have managed to piece together a full map of Europe, though not with all the details. It features the world as it was in 1337—an aristocratically fragmented France, the Eastern Roman Empire still pulling through, and, of course, the Holy Roman Empire being the nightmarish border gory hellscape that it always was. It appears to be the most detailed map of Europe Paradox has ever created, and the HRE, in particular, has been compared with meticulous mods such as Voltaire’s Nightmare.

The Ottomans on the map are small and not an empire yet, though they will likely have a ton of modifiers to push through into Europe and conquer the lesser Beyliks around them. Hungary, England, and Spain feel oddly unified under strong rule as opposed to the numerous, severely Balkanized nations. If the HRE plays as it looks, we stand to see hundreds of playable tags at the initial 1337 starting date, which would make Paradox Tinto’s new game one of the most diverse in the publisher’s history.

There is currently no unified map of other interesting regions, such as East Asia, but we are bound to get those soon.

Paradox is yet to officially announce this upcoming game. However, many in the community believe it will be Europa Universalis 5, partly due to Paradox Tinto working on it. The small studio was formed to specifically work on updating Europa Universalis 4, which has recently received a massive DLC that some claim will be its last.

Author
Image of Andrej Barovic
Andrej Barovic
Strategic Content Writer, English Major. Been in writing for 3 years. Focused mostly on the world of gaming as a whole, with particular interest in RPGs, MOBAs, FPS, and Grand Strategies. Favorite titles include Counter-Strike, The Witcher 3, Bloodborne, Sekrio, and Kenshi. Cormac McCarthy apologetic.