Interview with the Realms in Exile Creators, a Crusader Kings 3, Lord of the Rings Mod
I feel like mods extend and improve the life of pretty much every game they are a part of. After playing a million mods on a million different games I decided to find out how mods are made. This is an ongoing series of interviews with mod creators.
Realms in Exile is the first mod that caught my eye.
Realms in Exile is a total conversion mod that brings the CK3 player into the Lord of the Rings world during the time of the Lord of the Rings movies and books.
I reached out to the massive sixty-person team on their Discord to find out more about their mod.
Since I was hitting them up on Discord, I figured I would start the questions with a Discord question.
In this day and age, it seems like every mod, game, or even office software has a Discord. How is Discord working out for your mod team?
Discord is great! It allows the dev team to stay close to the community of players, hear about their experiences playing the mod, offer teasers and regular dev diaries on our progress behind the scenes, organize community multiplayer events, log bugs and generally discuss anything and everything Tolkien!
With over 7,500 members, it’s a great tool for us to really understand how the mod is being played.
Your team is huge. It has something like 60 people in it. How did you get all these people together and what drew them to modding CK3?
We do have a lot of developers and contributors to the mod, as well as an active beta testing team — though it’s important to note that we don’t have that many actively contributing to development. Modding is a hobby in the end, and something you do in your spare time (which can be rare for some!).
In practical terms, I’d say we have a core team of 8 developers and 7 testers that regularly work on the mod and produce / test the majority of the content, while the rest offer contributions periodically as time and inspiration allows.
Our team is based all around the world, both young and old, but all united in their love and appreciation of the works of Tolkien and the world that he created. Each found the mod of their own accord and decided it’s something that they’d like to contribute to.
And honestly? That shared creative endeavor working towards a common ambition is one of the things I find most rewarding part of working on Realms in Exile.
How does someone get into modding in general?
Find a project you’re enthusiastic about and reach out to the team — simple as that! Most modding teams will welcome new members with open arms. Just be sure to be open with them about the amount of time that you’re going to be able to commit to the project.
Do you accept new people into your team?
Of course! We’re particularly keen to add more 2D and 3D artists to the team.
I noticed some of your mod team works on other mods as well, how do they manage their time between the mods?
However, they like! We don’t require any minimum amount of contribution to stay on the team and understand that people’s inspiration can wax and wane over time. They mostly just work on whatever interests them at the time.
Is there competition between the different CK3 mods? Are there any mods you want to trash talk (I am kidding! Unless…)?
Some teams are more competitive than others, but generally there’s a great amount of cooperation between CK3 mods (in fact, there’s a Discord for exactly that!). Personally, I feel no competition with other mod teams and want them all to put out the best work they possibly can. That’s good for the players, good for CK3 and great for the modding scene in general.
What is your teams process for working on the mod?
Any given update goes through a number of different phases. Firstly, we expand the map into the new areas: painting the terrain, raising hills and mountains, digging out rivers, defining provinces etc. Then we work on history: what characters, cultures, religions, and dynasties exist there, and what realms do they hold? Then we finish off with a big push on adding new mechanics, decisions, and events to the new areas. And all throughout our artists work away on creating new graphics and models to bring the new areas to life.
Do you use traditional programing tools like Git, or do you just wing it?
We organize, plan, and manage our work using GitHub.
Do you guys get paid for working on the mod?
No — we’re not interested in making any commercial gain from the mod. Rather, it is a passion project inspired by our mutual appreciation of Tolkien’s work. Being able to see Tolkien’s world brought to life in one of our favorite games, and seeing it being downloaded and enjoyed by over 100,000 people is enough reward for us.
Is there anything Paradox could do better to help the modding community?
Paradox is very supportive of the CK3 modding community and I don’t really think we could ask for more. They’ve made large amounts of the game code open to modders to make sweeping modifications to the game and they actively engage with the modding co-op Discord, taking on community ideas for how to improve modability of the game.
What do you think of the Royal Court DLC?
I love it! Paradox explored some interesting new territory with the 3D rendering of the court that really adds to the role playing side of the game and having the inventory system in place is awesome (especially for a Lord of the Rings mod!). The modding scene has been quick to react too with some amazing custom throne rooms and artifacts.
Why did you pick CK3 as the game you wanted to adapt Lord of the Rings into?
Mainly because it’s a game we all love and the focus on characters fits in really nicely with Tolkien’s focus on characters in his literature. Granted, there are elements of CK3 that aren’t really portrayed in his works (such as intrigue, infidelity, and incest), but we try to not limit those kinds of things too much. We still want the mod to feel like CK3 after all!
Were there any other games out there that you thought about using as a platform instead of CK3?
Given the popularity of Tolkien’s work, Middle-earth is a very popular setting for mods in many different games. Just looking at Paradox’s strategy games alone, there are Lord of the Rings mods already for Victoria 2, Europa Universalis 4, and Crusader Kings 2. Never mind all the mods for other games like Mount & Blade, Total War or Battle for Middle Earth.
Really, we’re part of a big family.
What are the biggest challenges of converting Lord of the Rings to CK3?
Probably trying to make sure that the CK3 AI isn’t too wacky or that immersion isn’t broken by vanilla mechanics. We want it to still feel like the player is in Tolkien’s world, so we need to put in certain restrictions to stay true to that vision (e.g., stopping characters from being able to murder Sauron).
Even with the huge amount of Tolkien lore available, was there any lore you had to make up?
Of course. While Tolkien painted a beautiful vision of his world and the people within it, those details often fall well-short of the amount of information needed to fully flesh out a strategy game like CK3.
For example, at the last count we have over 3,500 baronies in the mod and each of those needs a name. Tolkien’s maps where detailed but they did not go into that much detail. Nor did he go into great detail about the various feudal title structures of each and every realm, or all of their coats of arms, or their rulers.
So, we take everything that we can from Tolkien’s work and respected canon-adjacent sources, and where that still falls short, we try to create something that we believe is consistent and true to Tolkien’s vision. Our litmus test is: “Do we think Tolkien would approve of what we’re adding?”, and the answer to that should always be yes.
What are your long-term goals for the mod?
We want to have the whole of Middle-earth mapped: both the main regions detailed in Tolkien’s works and bringing to life those other areas that he only mentioned in passing or deep in the world’s past. Ultimately, we want to create one of the most detailed and lovingly crafted renditions of Middle-earth seen to date.
It is phenomenal how much the characters in the game look like the movie actors, how much time does it take to create one character?
Maybe an hour with multiple references of the actor to hand with the game’s portrait editor and 3D rendered character side by side for comparison.
What are the differences between the different mod starts?
At the moment, all of our bookmarks are based in the year 3000 of the Third Age, right before the main events of the Lord of the Rings books really kicks off. Our different starts focus on different regions and theatres of the great battle to come.
In the future, we plan to add earlier bookmarks around the Rise and Fall of Angmar and the end of the Second Age.
The southern region below Mordor seems very detailed, why did you pick that region to work on instead of the area around the Lonely Mountain or the area around The Shire?
It’s a question we’re often asked, and it all comes down to the availability of the team at the time. When we started work on it, we knew we were going to be without any 3D artists for a good number of months due to other life commitments and so we knew we wouldn’t be able to do the appearances any new races justice. We also knew that Royal Court was inbound with its revamp of cultures.
All of the other canonical areas had different races living in them, so rather than do something half-baked or leave the community for a long time without any major updates, we decided to expand in a direction where only humans resided, and that was the South.
Reaction to the Southern content has been very positive, which we’re really happy to see, but the team are really happy to be working back in the Northwest of Middle-earth for our new work.
Before I get into my Saruman specific questions, If the players find any bugs, what is the process for putting in bug reports?
There’s a bug reports channel on our Discord. Just tell us what the issue is and the steps that we need to take to reproduce the issue.
Also, just a general note on Saruman and Rohan content. That was the very first content that was made for the mod and we’ve learned a lot as a team since! We’re looking to revisit and better flesh out that content in the next major update as part of the Rhovanion expansion.
Since I am playing a Saruman game: That fool Aragon trusts me, and he does not hold the One Ring, so I have kept an eye out for Frodo or any little people in general and have not seen any. Where are the hobbits?!
The hobbits (and indeed the Ring of Power!) are still in the Shire. Expect to see them added in v5.0!
My Uruk-hai regularly march through the forests near Orthanc and I have yet to see any Ents. Should I be worried?
Oh, I don’t think you need to worry about the Ents. They’re on no one’s side because no one is on their side. But if you push your luck too much and your armies are humbled by the men of the Riddermark, perhaps the Ents will go to war. Even if it is likely that they go to their doom… the last march of the Ents.
Right when I started, I started preparing explosives. Is there a downside to doing that?
I’m sure you’ll be fine with all those explosives stored under Orthanc. Just be careful where you light up your next pipe full of Longbottom Leaf!
And since it is a CK3 mod, I must ask, can my Uruk-hai bang humans and have half-Orc half-Rohan babies?
No. We’ve seen what half-orc, half-human babies look like… believe me, we’re saving you from yourself!
That is it for this interview. Thanks to the Realms in Exile team for taking the time to answer my questions!
If you are wondering what is up next for the Realms in Exile mod check out their upcoming release plans:
V3.0 (currently in development) — Rhovanion — Introduces fleshed out Elven mechanics and expands into the Vale of Anduin, Mirkwood, Dale, Dorwinion and a few Easterling realms near the Sea of Rhûn.
V4.0 — Mountain Realms — Introduces fleshed out Dwarven mechanics and expands into the Misty Mountains, Grey Mountains, the Iron Hills, and other major mountain ranges.
V5.0 — Eriador — Introduces fleshed out Hobbit and depopulation mechanics and expands into Eriador, including the great lands of Arnor, Rivendell, Lindon.
V6.0 and beyond — Back to other areas seldom discussed in canon sources, pushing to the deepest South and the Farthest East. Also adding earlier bookmark starts.
To check out the mod get it in the Crusader Kings Realms in Exile Steam Workshop page!
If you want to join the conversation you can hit up the Realms in Exile Discord!
If you want to talk to me you can join my Discord or follow me on Twitch!
