Sundiata Posted March 9, 2019 Report Share Posted March 9, 2019 (edited) Thracian art references: Spoiler First, some frescoes: Shield patterns: Artist reconstructions: I'm not sure wether this is supposed to depict a real place, but the walls look like Seuthopolis (above): The country side is a little more rustic: Elites enjoying the good life... That's gotta hurt "It's a trap!" Epic archery is epic. No quiver, he only needs 1 arrow... Priest dude is pouring blood into the fire, because why not? Never go to battle with a hangover... I know it's just a painting, but it's strange how uncomfortable this image makes me feel... "El Rey tracio Rhoemetalces I" Edited March 9, 2019 by Sundiata 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundiata Posted March 9, 2019 Report Share Posted March 9, 2019 And one extra, a little mythology: Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, by Alan Lee. Both riders wearing Thracian equipment. Quote In the five book epic Aethiopis, which was part of the Epic Cycle (or Cycle of Troy) on the Trojan War, the coming to Troy of Penthesilea and Memnon was described in detail.[1] The Aethiopis was published in the 8th century BC and is attributed to Arctinus of Miletus. The main character of the epic is Achilles, who fights Penthesilea and Memnon before he is himself killed. Although Aethiopis has been lost, the Epic Cycle has been adapted and recycled in different periods of the classical age. The tradition of retelling the epic fall of Troy is indebted to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, which were grounded in oral storytellingand were only written down when the Greek alphabet was adopted in ancient Greece.[2] In the Aethiopis Penthesilea is a Thracian woman warrior. She was an Amazon and daughter of Ares, who comes to help the Trojans. She arrived with 12 other Amazon warriors. After a day of distinguishing herself on the battlefield, Penthesilea confronts Achilles. Achilles kills her, but after taking off her helmet, he falls in love with her.[3] Thersites rebukes Achilles for having fallen in love. Thersites is killed by Achilles, who travelles to the island of Lesbos to be purified before returning to Troy and fighting Memnon.[4] According to Homer, the Trojan king Priam had fought the Amazons in his youth on the Sangarius River in Phrygia, some 350 miles east of Troy. Later writers of the antiquity located Amazons geographically in Anatolia and started an epic tradition where Greek heroes, such as Heracles and Theseus, fought an Amazon warrior of distinction.[5] The Aethiopis version of the Penthesilea legend has become known as the Homeric tradition.[6] Achilles kills the Queen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastián Gómez Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 On 3/9/2019 at 6:28 PM, Sundiata said: And one extra, a little mythology: Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, by Alan Lee. Both riders wearing Thracian equipment. Beautiful illustration. Do you know the name of the book? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wackyserious Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 This faction and its assets should be added to Terra Magna, plus the additional factions that were added in Delenda Est 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion.Kanzen Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 31 minutes ago, wackyserious said: This faction and its assets should be added to Terra Magna, plus the additional factions that were added in Delenda Est that's the idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 2 hours ago, wackyserious said: This faction and its assets should be added to Terra Magna, plus the additional factions that were added in Delenda Est Indeed, Terra Magna could be the version of these civs that is compatible with the core game, while Delenda Est adds custom features. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundiata Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, Basshunter said: Beautiful illustration. Do you know the name of the book? Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad, by Rosemary Sutcliff, illustrated by Alan Lee: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Ships-Before-Troy-Story/dp/0711215227 Some more of Alan Lee's work on the Trojan war: Spoiler The Young Achilles with Patroclus Leave Scyros To Embark For Troy Briseis is Taken From Achilles The Trojan ally Memnon, King of the Ethiopians arrives at Troy with his Warriors Edited April 20, 2019 by Sundiata 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion.Kanzen Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 Now jokes aside, I asked him to add it, the civs weren't compatible, especially the kind of gameplay so special that DE has. 19 minutes ago, Sundiata said: Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad, by Rosemary Sutcliff, illustrated by Alan Lee: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Ships-Before-Troy-Story/dp/0711215227 Some more of Alan Lee's work on the Trojan war: Hide contents Briseis is Taken From Achilles The Trojan ally Memnon, King of the Ethiopians arrives at Troy with his Warriors I never imagined the Ethiopians participating in the Trojan War. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundiata Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Lion.Kanzen said: I never imagined the Ethiopians participating in the Trojan War. Yeah, popular culture has an obsession with writing important black Africans out of history, and then reinserting blacks into places they don't historically belong. It's very frustrating. For example last year BBC came out with a miniseries called Troy: Fall of a City. They made Achilles a black man... WHY?! They even made Zeus a black man... WHY?! But Memnon, one of the key figures in the war, was completely written out of the story, as usual... Memnon was considered to be almost Achilles' equal in skill, and was loved by Zeus himself! They removed an actual black king from the actual story, and replaced one of the main white protagonists with a black man instead. Why are they doing this??? Aaaargh?!@# It's just deliberately designed to stir controversy... Quote "Before the next day's battle, so great is the divine love towards Memnon that Zeus makes all the other Olympians promise not to interfere in the fighting. In battle, Memnon kills Nestor's son, Antilochos, after Antilochos has killed Memnon's dear comrade, Aesop. Seeking vengeance and despite his age, Nestor tries to fight Memnon but the Aethiopian warrior insists it would not be just to fight such an old man, and respects Nestor so much that he refuses to fight. In this way, Memnon is seen as very similar to Achilles – both of them have strong sets of values that are looked upon favourably by the warrior culture of the time. When Memnon reaches the Greek ships, Nestor begs Achilles to fight him and avenge Antilochos, leading to the two men clashing while both wearing divine armour made by Hephaestus, making another parallel between the two warriors. Zeus favours both of them and makes each man tireless and huge so that the whole battlefield can watch them clash as demigods. Eventually, Achilles stabs Memnon through the heart, causing his entire army to flee in terror. In honour of Memnon, the Gods collect all the drops of blood that fall from him and use them to form a huge river that on every anniversary of his death will bear the stench of human flesh.[3] The Aethiopians that stayed close to Memnon in order to bury their leader are turned into birds (which we now call Memnonides)[4] and they stay by his tomb so as to remove dust that gathers on it" Interestingly, the dating of the Trojan war has been a little uncertain, and the consensus has already shifted a century or so... Since the 3rd century BC at least, the ancients identified the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III, as Memnon (according to Ptolemaic Egyptian priest Manetho, also see Colossi of Memnon). Amenhotep III, a black pharaoh of the 18th Dynast (New Kingdom), ruled only a century or so before the current dating of the Trojan war. There is little basis to confirm Amenhotep III as the mythical Memnon, but it's interesting, to say the least, and there were others called Amenhotep, after him as well, including at least one viceroy of Kush... Also, The Egyptian Empire actually bordered Anatolia during this period... And during the reign of Ramesses II, the treaty of Khadesh was signed, a peace treaty between the Hittites and the Egyptians (around the time of the Trojan war). Ramesses II was succeeded by Merneptah. During the New Kingdom, Kush was part of Egypt and Egyptian armies had large numbers of Kushites serving (often referred to as Nubians in modern writing). Ramesses and Merneptah actually fought of invasions from "sea peoples", and the whole history of the Eastern Mediterranean seems very intertwined... Amenhotep III, and Memnon: Spoiler Amenhotep III: Memnon in ancient Greek art: Edited April 20, 2019 by Sundiata 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) 27 minutes ago, Sundiata said: Yeah, popular culture has an obsession with writing important black Africans out of history, and then reinserting blacks into places they don't historically belong. It's very frustrating. For example last year BBC came out with a miniseries called Troy: Fall of a City. They made Achilles a black man... WHY?! They even made Zeus a black man... WHY?! But Memnon, one of the key figures in the war, was completely written out of the story, as usual... Memnon was considered to be almost Achilles' equal in skill, and was loved by Zeus himself! They removed an actual black king from the actual story, and replaced one of the main white protagonists with a black man instead. Why are they doing this??? Aaaargh?!@# It's just deliberately designed to stir controversy... This is one of my pet peeves as well. In the name of inclusion, the entertainment industry is actually using exclusion. Why make James Bond black when you can be creative and create a new awesome black agent character (maybe even make a cinematic universe out of it where 007 and this new agent frequently cross paths)? Maybe even make him come from South Africa or Liberia somewhere like that so you can include realistic socio-political or historical commentary. You know, a black African who just happens to be as sophisticated as the suave white guy from MI-6. That would be real inclusion. But no... that wouldn't sell in the Chinese market, would it? Why make another goddarn show or movie about Roman Britain (cast with random Middle Eastern and black actors), when you could have a show or film about the Kingdom of Kush? Bring something new to domestic and foreign audiences. Nope, gotta have another Roman show about a lost legion or Boudicca or Gladiators @#$%ing each other. Edited April 20, 2019 by wowgetoffyourcellphone 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion.Kanzen Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 2 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said: This is one of my pet peeves as well. In the name of inclusion, the entertainment industry is actually using exclusion. Why make James Bond black when you can be creative and create a new awesome black agent character (maybe even make a cinematic universe out of it where 007 and this new agent frequently cross paths)? Maybe even make him come from South Africa or somewhere like that so you can include realistic and timely socio-political commentary. You know, a black African who just happens to be as sophisticated as the suave white guy from MI-6. That would be real inclusion. But no... that wouldn't sell in the Chinese market, would it? Why make another goddarn show or movie about Roman Britain (Christ, there are like 20 of these), when you could have a show or film about the Kingdom of Kush? Bring something new to domestic and foreign audiences. Nope, gotta have another Roman show about a lost legion or Boudicca or Gladiators @#$%ing each other. BBC.... Spain is improving better shows... Spoiler is a shame isnt in English. try to see it , even with generated subtitles(translated) the first years of Spanish Conquest , since Colombus To first settlements in Veragua (Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama) I hope next season Aztec or Incan conquest. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundiata Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) 38 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said: This is one of my pet peeves as well. In the name of inclusion, the entertainment industry is actually using exclusion. Why make James Bond black when you can be creative and create a new awesome black agent character (maybe even make a cinematic universe out of it where 007 and this new agent frequently cross paths)? Maybe even make him come from South Africa or Liberia somewhere like that so you can include realistic socio-political or historical commentary. You know, a black African who just happens to be as sophisticated as the suave white guy from MI-6. That would be real inclusion. But no... that wouldn't sell in the Chinese market, would it? Why make another goddarn show or movie about Roman Britain (cast with random Middle Eastern and black actors), when you could have a show or film about the Kingdom of Kush? Bring something new to domestic and foreign audiences. Nope, gotta have another Roman show about a lost legion or Boudicca or Gladiators @#$%ing each other. Hahahaha... I feel you man! Nobody was asking for a Black Achilles. I don't know a single black person that was waiting for this... It's just stupid! Like that other BBC animated series about ancient Romans in Britain. I didn't understand the outcry at first (there were black people in Roman Britain), until I actually saw it and cringed at the sight of armies of black Romans and even black Celts... Who does that?! Black Celts? Really?? Why?! Why not make them Nepalese while you're at it... We want movies about Taharqa, Ezana, Sundiata Keita, Mansa Musa, Osei Tutu, Queen Amina, Nzinga, Alfonso of Kongo, Menelik II, Jaja of Opobo... Movies set on the ancient Swahili coast, the Kingdom Zimbabwe, the Kingdom of Benin, Kanem Bornu Empire, Songhai, Sokoto... Even diaspora stories, like the Zanj Rebellion, the Haitian revolution, Nanny of the Maroons, etc, etc... But nah, here's a black washed Achilles instead, because f#&@ you! Edited April 20, 2019 by Sundiata 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion.Kanzen Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 3 minutes ago, Sundiata said: Hahahaha... I feel you man! Nobody was asking for a Black Achilles. I don't know a single black person that was waiting for this... It's just stupid! Like that other BBC animated series about ancient Romans in Britain. I didn't understand the outcry at first (there were black people in Roman Britain), until I actually saw it and cringed at the sight of armies of black Romans and even black Celts... Who does that?! Black Celts? Really?? Why?! Why not make them Nepalese while you're at it... I agree with that. but the question is why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundiata Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 6 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said: I agree with that. but the question is why? That question is another Pandora's Box... At least we can do the right thing here on Wildfire Games, free from the hyper politicized popular retellings of history. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion.Kanzen Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 2 minutes ago, Sundiata said: That question is another Pandora's Box... At least we can do the right thing here on Wildfire Games, free from the hyper politicized popular retellings of history. I guess that, not for the sanity (mental) of forums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
av93 Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 Would love to have Garamantes for more African factions. Numidians are half covered with Carthaginians 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion.Kanzen Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 @Sundiata if you open a topic about Garamantes, Gaetuli or Numidians nobody will be angry. https://www.deviantart.com/tyrannoninja/art/Gaetulian-Girl-755013732 some temptation. Im aware of minifaction african post but... we need more than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundiata Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) 3 hours ago, av93 said: Would love to have Garamantes for more African factions. Yes, I agree 100%! I think it will be a long term project though... But Garamantes would be the ultimate desert faction... The oasis kingdom... Rulers of the sand! Personally I'm very into the idea of developing the Greco-Bactrians and the Scythians, because 1) they're absolutely awesome in their own right, and 2) they would allow for a seamless integration of the Han Chinese and the Xiongnu... Develop 2 faction, get 2 more for "free" Sarmatians would also be flippin' awesome... I'm also very excited about the Thracians, because they have like, the coolest units ever... They're like fantastical Greeks or something... They've got that cool Greco-Barbarian thing going for them... They're very relevant to at least 5 or more other factions already in game. They're not often depicted which adds exotic flavour. They help to "complete" the European side of the game. The only people still missing from the European side would be some Germans/Germanics/German Celts, I dunno what to call them. Perhaps split them into Germanics proper like the Suebi (Marcomanni, Semnones), and La Tène period Celtic Germans, like the people from the Oppida of Manching, Alcimoennis and Heidengraben. Yes, Germanics, and German Celts... That would be noice... Then of course there's the "Arab" factions... Nabataeans and Sabaeans... Mmmmmm... I'm even thinking about the possibilities of Habesha/proto-Aksumites/early Aksumites (Ethiopians). So there's no shortage of possible new factions to develop over the coming years Of course, there's also still plenty of work to do, to improve the already existing factions... Edited April 20, 2019 by Sundiata 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion.Kanzen Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Sundiata said: Yes, I agree 100%! I think it will be a long term project though... But Garamantes would be the ultimate desert faction... The oasis kingdom... Rulers of the sand! Personally I'm very into the idea of developing the Greco-Bactrians and the Scythians, because 1) they're absolutely awesome in their own right, and 2) they would allow for a seamless integration of the Han Chinese and the Xiongnu... Develop 2 faction, get 2 more for "free" Sarmatians would also be flippin' awesome... I'm also very excited about the Thracians, because they have like, the coolest units ever... They're like fantastical Greeks or something... They've got that cool Greco-Barbarian thing going for them... They're very relevant to at least 5 or more other factions already in game. They're not often depicted which adds exotic flavour. They help to "complete" the European side of the game. The only people still missing from the European side would be some Germans/Germanics/German Celts, I dunno what to call them. Perhaps split them into Germanics proper like the Suebi (Marcomanni, Semnones), and La Tène period Celtic Germans, like the people from the Oppidum of Manching, Alcimoennis and Heidengraben. Yes, Germanics, and German Celts... That would be noice... Then of course there's the "Arab" factions... Nabataeans and Sabaeans... Mmmmmm... I'm even thinking about the possibilities of Habesha/proto-Aksumites/early Aksumites (Ethiopians). So there's no shortage of possible new factions to develop over the coming years Of course, there's also still plenty of work to do, to improve the already existing factions... what about west, central and South africa. I want conquer the world. ----------- The history of Aksumites and Sabeans is interesting. Edited April 20, 2019 by Lion.Kanzen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundiata Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, Lion.Kanzen said: what about west, central and South africa. That map you shared is not good with regards to Africa... I'll also remind you to read through this post first: Some further elaboration: There's not much there to reference, to be honest, in terms of "civilization" during the BC period... The Nok culture from Nigeria produced a ton of stunning terracottas, almost enough to derive a unit-roster. But architecture is a relative unknown, for now. Advances are being made, but all the looting really destroyed a lot of sites... The Bafour/Imraguen of the South Western Sahara seem to form a missing link between the Tichitt people and later ethnicities like the Mande people, but there's not really much material to research... I'm still waiting for the MILLION manuscripts of Timbuktu to be translated and analyzed/interpreted. They will surely shed some more light on the ancient history of West-Africa. But that will probably take another generation or so. Iron Age cultures like the Nok were already spreading across West Africa and even the Northern part of Central Africa since the early 1st Millennium BC (perhaps even earlier), but we just barely know anything about them yet. The oldest Iron Age sites in Southern part of Central Africa date to the 4th century AD... Around the equator and south of it, Africa was still populated by ancient Paleolithic African Stone Age hunter gatherers, related to Bushmen of the Kalahari/KhoiSan (South) and Pygmies like the Baka (Cameroon, Congo, Gabon) or the Mbuti from the Ituri rainforest (Congo). From the 1st millennium BC onwards these Palaeolithic Africans were slowly, but entirely replaced, absorbed or exterminated by the Iron working, sedentary agricultural societies in most of Central and Southern Africa, a process referred to as the Bantu expansion. I hate the term Bantu, because it's one of those stupid terms that lumps everything together, referring to everything and nothing at the same time. It has also become a derogatory term, even used by "non-Bantu" Africans... There were also Nilo-Saharan and "Cushitic" (not related to Kushites) speaking pastoralists, in East Africa, but nothing of real interest (just cattle herders). This stuff is only interesting for mini-civs/map-creeps. But their geographical isolation makes it not a priority. Basically, during 0AD's timeframe: Spoiler Most of Central Africa was populated by Pygmies (slowly being replaced by Iron working cultures): Most of Southern Africa was populated by hunter gatherers like the KhoiSan (who also had a pastoralist element) Neither of these peoples are really RTS material, and both of these peoples are significantly different from modern Africans. (They both form only tiny minorities in the countries that they still inhabit today). West Africans from the rainforest belt in the BC era probably looked more similar to pygmies than more northern West Africans. Here in Ghana for example, every single tribe has origin stories from the North or the East, although we also clearly mixed with and absorbed the earlier peoples of the Kintampo Culture, for example. In fact, most modern West African tribes claim some Northern or Eastern origins (West African Sahel/Savannah/East Africa and even Yemen and the Nile Valley are cited with some strange regularity, depending on the people), and most of them only settled their current locations in the past few centuries to millennia... Oh, and East African pastoralists similar to the Nilotic Turkana and the Omotic Hamar Quote The history of Aksumites and Sabeans is interesting. Very... Quote I want conquer the world. Spoiler I understand... I too, am a megalomaniac @stanislas69, is it possible to split this thread, and move everything from Lion's post onwards to "===[TASK]=== African minifaction buildings", for now? Edited April 20, 2019 by Sundiata 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastián Gómez Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 12 hours ago, Sundiata said: Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad, by Rosemary Sutcliff, illustrated by Alan Lee: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Ships-Before-Troy-Story/dp/0711215227 Some more of Alan Lee's work on the Trojan war: Just beautiful! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genava55 Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 On 4/20/2019 at 5:07 PM, Sundiata said: The only people still missing from the European side would be some Germans/Germanics/German Celts, I dunno what to call them. Perhaps split them into Germanics proper like the Suebi (Marcomanni, Semnones), and La Tène period Celtic Germans, like the people from the Oppida of Manching, Alcimoennis and Heidengraben. Yes, Germanics, and German Celts... That would be noice... This is hard to give them an unique ethnic group. "German" is a foreign construct pushed forward by the Romans. They were culturally not homogeneous before the Roman Era and they undergone a long evolution from this point. Przeworsk culture is very close to the Celts and the La Tène culture before the 1st century BC. Jastorf culture is very poor and unknown from a militaristic aspect before the 1st century AD. The Niederrhein region is culturally ambiguous, closer to the Celts before the 1st century BC but changing quickly during the Roman Era. The better known place before the Roman Era from a military perspective is Denmark, outside the Jastorf extent. Thus the best candidate for a Pre-Roman Germanic faction is the Cimbri/Teutones. For a good representation of the Germans during the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD should be the Marcomanni, it would permits a huge diversities of regional variations. But later Germans are also diverse, Goths, Saxons and Franks notably. I still need some time to read the documents about the Thracians. I think they should be a more unique faction (rarely represented in the videogames): https://www.docdroid.net/qpO72Yg/thracian-combined.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 Germans will be for part 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundiata Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 1 hour ago, stanislas69 said: Germans will be for part 2 The Germanic tribes of the Migration Period belong in "part 2", yes, but the Cimbrian War, in which the Romans (and Gauls) suffered some very serious losses before defeating them, dates to the 2nd century BC. A Celt-Iberian coalition even fought them (successfully). Perhaps a semi-nomadic approach with packable structures/ox carts would be interesting? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion.Kanzen Posted April 21, 2019 Report Share Posted April 21, 2019 1 hour ago, Sundiata said: The Germanic tribes of the Migration Period belong in "part 2", yes, but the Cimbrian War, in which the Romans (and Gauls) suffered some very serious losses before defeating them, dates to the 2nd century BC. A Celt-Iberian coalition even fought them (successfully). Perhaps a semi-nomadic approach with packable structures/ox carts would be interesting? yes we can experiment those in the mod first to reach a concept. (conceptual art and design) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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