1. The polish Empire vs. Nomads:
Poland was one of not so many surviving countries during the plague, it would make sense that they start to repopulate the land around them. I mean it would be stupid for a country in a middle of nowhere not to expand. Also would it would be logic if the polish people bordering the Nomads 'cause of expansion...

2. Island-Citystates in Milan and Brugge ('cause they survived the plague)

3. No cultures in unpopulated provinces:
In your mod the people in europe, the middle east and north africa died out, and without people there can't be culture (sounds stupid but it's just game logic). Some cultures could have survived in form Tribes or Nomads (like you said) and some cultures in provinces at nationborders, etc.

4. Small HRE:
Also some parts of Saxony, Brandenburg, Teutonic order survived too (same idea as Poland but with westward colonization...)

5. Renaissance of old faiths:
Maybe some people lost there faith and started to believe in old faiths (romuva, norse/germanic, celtic, etc.). Also interessting is that lithuania was still pagan at the starting years of the plague...

So, that are some my ideas, hope you like and sorry for my bad english :)

I've recently just found this mod on the workshop and it looks amazing!!!!
Here are my Ideas:
1) Colonial Nations in Middle East, Europe, and North Africa
Kind of like the Americas, but these colonial nations could eventually form some Modern Day Nations today!

I'll post more as I get more ideas, but Great Mod!

I would add to the list Hungary as historically at the time it was parsely populated in a large area (mongols killed two thirds of the pop) so the black death would not be affective aganist Hungarians as it requires large cities like London to spread the disease effectively.

Maybe you could expand upon the idea groups? If you want, we could help you make new ideas?

I don't know if this was at all an inspiration, but I recommend to take a look at "The Dark Continent" - it was part of the MiscMods package for Eu3 - created a fantastic Years of Rice and Salt setting, with some great examples of survival nations.

One perfect place that it didn't cover (seriously, include Crete, Scotland and the Knights) some additional ones I'd recommend are

1) Tripoli (in Djerba) little island, not alot going on there normally, but isolated and allows a muslim surivor nation

2) Guanche - the Canary islands could either be Moroccan, Spanish, or Guanche - I'd favour the last myself for some variety

3) Gotland/Aland/Copenhagen(?) Whilst Copenhagen may not work, the other two would be fantastic for a scandinavian surivor nation, perhaps even with a Norse/Christian decision going on there

4) Siwa - Whilst it isn't an island, Siwa Oasis is reasonably isolated, and could work for the basics of an Egyptian survivor nation, especially if they have a cool relocation event

5) Poland - I think having a strong(ish) Poland would be fantastic, because it allows expansion of the nomads on the steppe, but also providing opposition to them, perhaps explaining why they haven't seized all of Europe - would really add a totally different sense of play rather than "Colonise, blob, smash".

6) Hormuz - Small island, Persian Theme, :D

7) Venice - This one is debatable, as where else is more vulnerable to plague than a trade hotspot? But it could be filled with those lucky enough to survive the rest of Italy and the Balkans (maybe some Germans too) - and could have an interesting cultural playoff there.

Perhaps some horde nations in Arabia too? To represent Bedouin tribes that were unaffected by the plague? There could also be some Berber hordes living close to the Sahara (to represent them only recently coming out of the desert).

maybe add the migrating ability from the natives to maybe move basetax to uncolonised provinces to make them colonised, might be hard to code tho, also mod looks very fun .

1) Portugal in the Açores and Madeira; Castille in the Canaries and Aragon or Navarra in the Pyranees Mountains. [Islands, Islands, islands; as a suggestion for any surviving state ideas as well as traditionally isolated places during this time period (Mountain provinces for example)].

2) I also support a strong Poland; historically Poland avoided the worst of the plague and they would provide a strong bulwark against the hords so they wouldn't be too OP'd. Also some minor Russian surviving principalities also to give a little bit of variety in eastern europe.

3) Milan, like poland also managed to limit the devistation of the Plague as well and i feel would be a good option along with Venice as a "surviving state."

4) Some sort of surviving Byzantine State (with the potential of "reclaiming" the Title of the Roman empire. (This one's a bit of a personal preference but still, it would be cool). Potentially with the option to convert back to hellenism.

5) Maybe some surviving countries could have the option to "abandon" their current faith and switch to (potentially) a pagan religion or something to that effect. It's an idea that was presented in the "Dark Continent" mod that seems to have been discontinued.

6) Also maybe give American Nations and other surrounding nations that were "not affected" get events to encourage repopulation (Along with the survivors of course).

I have a slight addition to the suggestions above me, I think that if we included small HRE states that were spared that they should be nomadic tribes. Kinda like what we have now for the Americas, but edited so they can migrate every 4 months and it doesn't give as many bonuses. An excpetion to this would probably be scotland/poland.

I think that there should also be new trade nodes to Europe, probably dependant on the position of rivers/natural harbors, and whatever surviving states were left to funnel trade. Obviously they should be a lot bigger, (eg. Scandinavia would be a trade node, Rus would be a node, and the Iberian should be enlarged to include northern africa.)

As the plague came it would be logical to assume that the scandinavians would try and find a new land to enhabit, so there should be an area in newfoundland where the plague survived in the indiginous population. Maybe if you have a province in that region you could get an event about the revival of the plague? To make up for this perhaps you could also find artefacts from the explorers to help your technology?

Some kind of remnant states around europe would be rather interesting i believe, though they should get a tech malus due to the massive loss of manpower.

Is it possible to make it that only a certain techgroup can use the 'modernize' mechanic eg asian tech group so the other nations need to 'modernize' off them in a similar mechanic of westernizing? just a suggestion.

In the mod 'Dark Continent', Islamic colonisers were added to the game, witht heir own cultures. Would you add this, considering the fact that North Africa wasn't affected too badly by the plague (Ithink?).

Catholic Bastion - a few larger nations survivng do to isolationism, creating small bastions for christianity, likely much more conservative and militant after surviving, perhaps giving this group of christianity a new name and symbol

The Frozen North - would likely become important centers of trade. before that though it is even more likely that they descend into paganism and raiding liekly becoming major naval powers in the early game.

Vinland Saga - Vikings settle America, and americans catch the diseases gain immunity and learn of the western world


adding to this thread historically there were several countries that only bordered one other nation and never got the plauge do to reffusal to interact with the neighbor. Scottland only caught the plauge towards the very end because they decided invade England. had the plauge been this bad scottland would likely survive. if somewhat diminished in size.

simmilarly iceland and greenland would have survived as well maybe with a larger population thanks to those fleeing the plauge.

or the vikings seaking to escape the plauge brought it and a much larger force to "Vinland" they would have survived longer but spread the plauge to the americans slightly diminishing htier massive population and introducing them to other diseases much earlier alowing them to repopulate and introducing the northern nations to western culture.

Perhaps the vikings could have traveled east aswel as to vinland, it would be cool if there was more provinces in the wasteland about siberia, somewhere for them to have landed.

In addition to surviving historical nations you might want to add some smaller, think 1-2 province minors, with the nomad tech group to europe to represent bands of survivors who survived, but whose country didn't. In any apocalyptic scenario there most likely will be those who will try and control some portion of the wasteland and I feel like this might be a good representation of that.