Despite the studio’s reputation for serious, in-depth strategy games, Paradox doesn’t shy away from sometimes being ahistorical in the name of fun. You only have to think back to the Sunset Invasion DLC for Crusader Kings II, in which the premise was a medieval-era Aztec invasion of Europe. But there are some unused art files from the Star and Crescent DLC for Europa Universalis IV that are even more bizarre in tone.
They were first brought to my attention with a post at the SomethingAwful forums, and you can have a look at them for yourselves if you unpack the ‘dlc004’ folder from the game and use a .dds viewer to look at the files called “INVASION_ALLIES” and “TEMPORAL_RIFT.”
The first seems to show the interior of a spacecraft, piloted by some kind of native tribe, while the second is terrifying collage featuring an Ottoman tank, a T-Rex dinosaur and an alarmed citizen fleeing from another UFO.
Here they are:
They seem to be unused in the DLC itself, but hopefully this is a sign that Paradox is planning something absurd(ly great) for the future.
