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Important: This article assumes familiarity with both the basics of Database Modding and the Modifier System. Familiarise yourself with that before diving into modding Narrative Events! And if you have never made a mod before, begin with the Getting Started article!
Narrative Events are a brand-new feature in Civilization VII. You’ve probably seen them as the various pop-ups that appear as you play. As the name suggests, they’re a great vehicle for narrative, and a great way to bring a sense of life to the game. Now, with the power of modding, you too can bring your own stories into Civilization VII!

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Anatomy of a Narrative Event

We interact with Narrative Events through pop-ups, so it’s best to consider how they relate. Most pop-ups are actually composed of multiple Narrative Events. So to make a single pop-up you’ll be normally be creating multiple events and linking them together. For example, the above popup consists of 4 Narrative Event entries. Event A is the pop-up itself. Events B to D are each of the three buttons presented to you as choices. These buttons are events in their own right and may have their own popups with further choices. We would say Event A leads to Events B, C, and D So we can break events down into two sections. The Pop-up and the Button.
  • Pop-ups consist of the following text:
    • The Storytitle is the title that appears at the top of a Pop-up.
    • The Completion is the long flavor text that appears as the body of a Pop-up.
  • Buttons consist of the following text:
    • The Name is the flavor text that appears as the key text element in a button.
    • The Imperative is an optional text entry that gives you a command to complete in order to advance the Narrative Event. It appears below the Name.
    • The Description is gameplay text that appears as the tooltip of a button. This usually a description of what happens when you select an option, such as “+2 Culture on Amphitheaters”.
Narrative Events might not use both sections. Some events aren’t triggered by buttons. Some events don’t trigger pop-ups. To reiterate, the Pop-up and the Buttons in a pop-up usually belong to separate Narrative Events. With the parent event supplying data for the Pop-up, and the various events it leads to supplying data for the buttons.
Note: There is one exception to this, which is a Narrative Event that does not lead to further events. In which case, the Pop-up will only have one button that says “Close”, text is pulled from the same Narrative Event for the Description. The Name and Imperative are ignored.
Continue to: Narrative Events — Creating events and requirements