[MOD] Age of Iron

[Petrus66]

Dev Diary 1: Vision

Hello, Petrus66 here, I would like to show you the mod I have been working on recently. I have always been fascinated by the periods of turmoil in ancient history and how countries dealt with them (or not as the picture shows ).

The Bronze Age ended when desperate seafarers attacked the Middle Eastern empires, ending the old order. The wave of invaders destroyed city after city from Greece to Palestine. Archaeologists are digging up traces of destruction, hasty evacuation or even reports like in Ugarit confirming how quickly events have progressed . Proof of how large the operation was is evidenced by the participation in the attack of the Libyan tribes led by Merjey, the Greeks from Crete, the Luccans from Anatolia and presumably the inhabitants of Sardinia (and other still unidentified nations). The final stop on their journey was Egypt under Ramses III (drawing above), who managed to stop them. New fighting style of newcomers, however, undermined the primacy of chariots as the main weapon around which the whole tactic was built so far. The cut trade routes also forced the rulers to find an alternative to bronze.

The new world in which people found themselves required new solutions. It was during this period that iron began to be used. Iron did not required the import of tin from places such as Afghanistan or Spain (Yes people realy travelled as far as Britain for it). Another invention is the regular army introduced during the reign of assyrian emperor Tiglath-Pilaser III. The Iron Age is also the period known from the Bible where Pharaoh Shoshenq, of Libyan origin shown above, made a guest appearance.

I decided to count time from the death of Sargon the Great till this moment, the creator of the largest empire in the history of the world, and the goal of the game is to surpass his achievements and follow the path of Cyrus II or your own. The date is still uncertain as the reign dates during this period may vary by about 10 years but it will be around 984BC .

I decided to leave the old map, possibly changing it to fit the period, adding a few territories. The cultural affiliation of several nationalities also bothers me and in many cases I will use mythological characters for more fun except in regions where historical figures are known. I will try to design the nations so that each is played differently, for example assyrians having martial culture should have better units and bigger levy size then Babylonians (goal will be to unbalance the game and make it more realistic). As a curiosity I will add that King David was probably a historical figure because the Judean dynasty was called the house of David by its neighbors (as the name of the country people used the name of the founder or the name of the capital like Samaria or house of Omri for northern kingdom of Israel). Therefore, next to the revolt of the Libyans led by Osorkon the Elder, or the overthrow of the Bazi dynasty by elamite migrant, I added David's war with Ishbaal.

The mod is still early in production so a lot can and will change. I would like to know your suggestions and if you are interested in the project at all. Stay safe and thanks to Lambert for being inspiration for the mod see you all in the next dev diary.

Later Edit: If you want to read other dev diaries use the Threadmark function at the top of this message and click on the dev diary you are interested in. You will definitely find an interesting topic.

 

[blackbirdgriffi]

Hey man this looks soo awsome, I am looking forward to hearing news from such a project and beeing able to see what's scope you will have for said project, This is thrilling, 984 is really early for me so I'm also looking forward to see and learn from a map where political entities around the eastern medditeranea just got out of the bronze age collapse,
I wish you good luck on your mod

 

[mike the knight]

That's a really interesting concept ,i will monitor it closely

 

[Snowlet]

If you want, and there are ever things we can work together on (as the Bronze Age dev), i'd be happy to help.

 

[Petrus66]

If you want, and there are ever things we can work together on (as the Bronze Age dev), i'd be happy to help.

For now, I am stuck at the stage of completing the political, cultural and religious map. It's a boring and rather easy job. You may know what the matter with graphics looks like, because I took those from the previous dd from pixabay and they should rather be free, and the author of the copy of the inscription in the main menu seems to be dead long enough for his rights to expire. If the mod is free, can I use any graphics?
Recently, I discovered the "Historical Top" channel on youtube. They have a lot of recordings about Bronze Age and I used them because many civilisations from that period survived in some shape to the 10th century bc.
Maybe tomorrow I will write something more about the India. I spent some time on that location recently.

 

[Petrus66]

It's hard to talk about the Ancient Near East without mentioning India and the trade relations between these civilizations. From the Bronze Age, the merchants of Sumer and Akkad imported ebony, ivory, gold, and silver from a land called Meluhha. Archaeologists determined that most likely this name was used to describe the members of the Indus Valley Civilization. Control of the sea route to India through Dilmun (Bahrain and Qatar) and Magan (UAE and Oman) was important to the rulers of Mesopotamia. Huge amounts of tin were also imported from nearby Afghanistan. The second source of this metal on such a scale can be found far away in Western Europe. During the Iron Age, the trade routes to and from India also played a large role and it should also be remembered that the change from one metal to another was not that fast (even the Romans used bronze e.g. for making helmets).

In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, the Indus Valley civilization succumbed to the climatic crisis and the invasion of Indo-European peoples (the earliest books of the Rigveda speak of the conquest of cities and fortresses, the time is also correct and the books also mention other Iranian peoples from the west). The newcomers introduced many of their customs, such as horse sacrifice, and gods like indra and agni, but they also adopted local deities like probably Shiva (it is on some Harrapan tablets but it is not known what it was called then). Over time, and perhaps because of the predominance of the local population, local traditions have won.

The most powerful and oldest country of this period was Kuru, which historically experienced civil war at the end of the 10th century, its capital was destroyed by floods and finally the non-Vedic barbarians of the Salva tribe completed their destruction. Then the center of Hindu civilization shifted eastward to Panchala and to Magadha, the country that built the first empire in Indian history.

I have to admit that I still need to learn a lot about India during this period. Most events will focus on the Kuru, such as the Salva invasion. I will also think of a bronze weapon system and a separate one for iron. As well as various types of war elephants, such as African, forest and Indian elephants. Dev diaries may be shorter, but I will be reporting on progress more or less weekly. Thank you for your support. It really means a lot to me.

 

[Snowlet]

For now, I am stuck at the stage of completing the political, cultural and religious map. It's a boring and rather easy job. You may know what the matter with graphics looks like, because I took those from the previous dd from pixabay and they should rather be free, and the author of the copy of the inscription in the main menu seems to be dead long enough for his rights to expire. If the mod is free, can I use any graphics?
Recently, I discovered the "Historical Top" channel on youtube. They have a lot of recordings about Bronze Age and I used them because many civilisations from that period survived in some shape to the 10th century bc.
Maybe tomorrow I will write something more about the India. I spent some time on that location recently.

The ART wasn't made by me so i'm not the one to ask for permissions, but you can use any piece of code as long as proper credit is given.

 

[Petrus66]

The ART wasn't made by me so i'm not the one to ask for permissions, but you can use any piece of code as long as proper credit is given.

My question was rather generally about property rights to graphics from books, fan art etc. Thanks for allowing me to look into your code. This accelerated the work on startup conflicts. Another Dev diary should come out tomorrow because I had problems implementing Shoshonq I's family ties but managed to fix them. In addition in the next dd, I will tell about what happened in Egypt and the neighboring areas after the attack of Merjey's Greek-Libyan allience and how Egypt lost its superpower status.

 

[DreadGrunt]

This looks incredible and I cannot wait.

 

[Petrus66]

Dev Diary 3: Egypt and its strangely familiar problems
At the start, before I can even discuss the events that led to the situation in which Egypt finds itself at the beginning of the game, I will have to discuss some elements of culture necessary to understand the context of these events. One of them is recognizing the pharaoh and the ruling family as gods (the Egyptians themselves were fully aware that it was nonsense, but for the sake of order they pretended that they did not know, and the pharaoh pretended that he did not know that they knew). The king was recognized as a deity only when he ruled over the entire country. Since women also had divine blood, Egyptians did not mind, as in the case of the lack of a male heir to the throne or, as in the case of, for example, Nefertiti, the heir's minor age, the country was ruled by a woman. For the same reason, the pharaohs hardly ever married off their daughters to foreign rulers. Not because of too high self-esteem, just not to give strangers rights to the Egyptian throne.
Egypt also used to employ defeated opponents as soldiers, eg the Sherdens plundered the coasts of Egypt in times of Ramesses II, who managed to defeat them and formed a bodyguard from prisoners who took part in the Battle of Kadesh. The Sherdens also took part in the Battle of the Nile on the side of both the sea peoples and the Egyptian army. Egypt gave foreigners the opportunity to move up a social ladder that they would not experience anywhere else.
The Egyptians were not in the habit of writing history objectively (like most of their neighbours at the time). In those days, events were presented in the best light, and descriptions of battles were often used for propaganda purposes (some says nothing changed in this matter). For example, Ramses II presented Kadesh as a great victory, when the truth was that he almost perished and achieved nothing.

After the Battle of the Nile mentioned in dd1 and the defeat of the exotic Greco-Libyan coalition of Merjey, Ramses III was probably forced to relinquish certain territories in Canaan to the Philistines, Tejeker, Shardan, and other coalition members. Most likely, he concluded a vassal agreement with them. He was forced to do it all the more because the Libyans regrouped and tried to occupy the delta again only just couple years after. All these campaigns, the loss of territory and the collapse of trade caused the economic crisis. We know that Egyptian construction workers went on strike because of unpaid wages (previously I read about cases of strikes due to the failure to deliver ritual eye paint so the Egyptians were not such a murderous regime since there were strikes but the situation at that time was much more serious), and Pharaoh for the first time in centuries has surrounded the temples with a defensive wall. Perhaps this caused one of his wives together with about 40 officials to attempt a coup d'état. The coup was foiled and the conspirators were imprisoned and sentenced to death. The Egyptians did not recognize prison penalty and instead preferred to punish criminals immediately, e.g. by impalishing them or burning them alive in extreme cases (thus refusing them to live after death). Until recently, it was believed that the coup failed, but research has revealed a wound on the king's neck nad toe, so it is possible that the king's death was hidden from the public.

Then it only got worse. The last true pharaoh was Ramses XI. During his reign in Thebes, where the priests of Amun gained some autonomy, the high priest of Amenhotep lost his position. He complained to the pharaoh who, having no means to intervene, sent a Nubian corps to Thebes under the leadership of viceroy Penehesi. He managed to get the situation under control and became the temporary manager of upper Egypt. Relations between the two, however, deteriorated, and shortly thereafter Panehesi ordered the introduction of a state of emergency. Seeing that the situation was getting out of hand, Pharaoh ordered the Nubians to return south. Panehesi must have taken this as an insult because he marched down the Nile with his entire army shortly thereafter. On the road beyond thebes, he met a royal army made up mostly of Libyan migrants. The clash ended in a draw. Eventually, Penehesi was driven from Thebes by Herihor, who became the new high priest. Under his successor, Pianchi, the division between the upper and lower Egypt was established, where the governor Smendes took power, who moved the capital to Tanis. We know that Pianchi tried to visit Penehesi to ask if he "is still faithful to the pharaoh" which looks a bit strange unless there is something we don't know.

All this brings us to the pharaoh Amenemope, a descendant of Smendes, who has to contend with the rebellion of the Libyans led by Osorkon.

The conflict ended with the defeat of the Egyptians and the first Libyan pharaoh in the country's history.

Osorkon came from one of the tribes that participated in the invasion of the Linians, namely the ma tribe (the other was the Libu tribe, from which Libya probably took its name, although in the past it was used to describe all North Africa, not only the lands west of Egypt).

So far I know about two branches of this family because Osorkon also had a brother Nimlot. Which leads the Libyan troops in Bubastis (Menetho claims that the entire clan came from this city and the subsequent transfer of the center of power seems to confirm this).

Osorkon's rule was marked by clashes and unrest. Those tombs which were not robbed for Ramses XI were looted during this period. After his death, negotiations took place, as a result of which Siamun, probably the son of the previous pharaoh and the military commander, married Ketimala, the daughter of Osorkon, and the Libyans returned to their homes.

The son of Nimlot, Osorkon's brother, was Shosqenq, who would eventually take power from Siamun's son in a quite peaceful manner (the two men held state ceremonies together). This suggests that the subsequent transfer of power and family reunification may have been part of the deal. You can also know Shosqenq from the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark with Harrison Ford, where his war campaign in the Levant was mentioned, during which he was supposed to steal the ark of the covenant from Jerusalem but it is stuff for another DD.

The takeover of Egypt by the Libyans brought only short-term peace. Soon after, there was a conflict in the ruling dynasty, as a result of which the country fell into pieces, which was used by the Nubians who, after years of occupation, under the leadership of the El-Kurru clan from Napata, invaded Egypt and established their own dynasty.

To the west of Nubia were the tribes of Mejay that had been used in Egypt for centuries as an elite police unit. South of Nubia we have the kingdom of D'mt (probably read as Damot in many languages from the period there were no vowels, hence the strange names). Damot was a kingdom of local origin but strongly influenced by arabian religion and culture.

I also spent some time over Africa, where the first Phoenician colonies, such as Ubon, Utica and Annaba, began to emerge during this period. I took the names of the Libyan tribes from Herodotus who in many cases has a slight tendency to color, but probably had to encourage the audience. Some Greek tribal names, such as lotophagi in the case of Libyans or Gedrosian Ichtiophagi, were given for reasons such as a popular profession or export material, e.g. lotus eaters (some fruit, the Greeks called this way a few so we don't know which one), or fish eaters.

Separate recognition is due to Menetho, the priest from Sebennythos, without whom we would know little about the history of Egypt. Menetho was a Hellenized Egyptian priest who, apart from Greek, could read hieroglyphs and knew Egyptian traditions. We owe him, for example, a list of all Egyptian pharaohs and dynasties.

Thank you for the positive reception of the project so far. From the mapping of cultures, religions and countries, there is still a European part and the issue of the origin of the Celts (I know about the theory of the so-called Celts from the West, which does not have to be so unrealistic if we take into account cultural and not population migration, where wilder tribes adapt to a more advanced culture of the conquered regions and spread it), Etruscan language lemnian origins, etc. If you have any suggestions please write. Hope to see you in a week. I wish you health.

 

[Snowlet]

Dev Diary 3: Egypt and its strangely familiar problems
At the start, before I can even discuss the events that led to the situation in which Egypt finds itself at the beginning of the game, I will have to discuss some elements of culture necessary to understand the context of these events. One of them is recognizing the pharaoh and the ruling family as gods (the Egyptians themselves were fully aware that it was nonsense, but for the sake of order they pretended that they did not know, and the pharaoh pretended that he did not know that they knew). The king was recognized as a deity only when he ruled over the entire country. Since women also had divine blood, Egyptians did not mind, as in the case of the lack of a male heir to the throne or, as in the case of, for example, Nefertiti, the heir's minor age, the country was ruled by a woman. For the same reason, the pharaohs hardly ever married off their daughters to foreign rulers. Not because of too high self-esteem, just not to give strangers rights to the Egyptian throne.
Egypt also used to employ defeated opponents as soldiers, eg the Sherdens plundered the coasts of Egypt in times of Ramesses II, who managed to defeat them and formed a bodyguard from prisoners who took part in the Battle of Kadesh. The Sherdens also took part in the Battle of the Nile on the side of both the sea peoples and the Egyptian army. Egypt gave foreigners the opportunity to move up a social ladder that they would not experience anywhere else.
The Egyptians were not in the habit of writing history objectively (like most of their neighbours at the time). In those days, events were presented in the best light, and descriptions of battles were often used for propaganda purposes (some says nothing changed in this matter). For example, Ramses II presented Kadesh as a great victory, when the truth was that he almost perished and achieved nothing.

View attachment 750455

After the Battle of the Nile mentioned in dd1 and the defeat of the exotic Greco-Libyan coalition of Merjey, Ramses III was probably forced to relinquish certain territories in Canaan to the Philistines, Tejeker, Shardan, and other coalition members. Most likely, he concluded a vassal agreement with them. He was forced to do it all the more because the Libyans regrouped and tried to occupy the delta again only just couple years after. All these campaigns, the loss of territory and the collapse of trade caused the economic crisis. We know that Egyptian construction workers went on strike because of unpaid wages (previously I read about cases of strikes due to the failure to deliver ritual eye paint so the Egyptians were not such a murderous regime since there were strikes but the situation at that time was much more serious), and Pharaoh for the first time in centuries has surrounded the temples with a defensive wall. Perhaps this caused one of his wives together with about 40 officials to attempt a coup d'état. The coup was foiled and the conspirators were imprisoned and sentenced to death. The Egyptians did not recognize prison penalty and instead preferred to punish criminals immediately, e.g. by impalishing them or burning them alive in extreme cases (thus refusing them to live after death). Until recently, it was believed that the coup failed, but research has revealed a wound on the king's neck nad toe, so it is possible that the king's death was hidden from the public.
View attachment 750457
Then it only got worse. The last true pharaoh was Ramses XI. During his reign in Thebes, where the priests of Amun gained some autonomy, the high priest of Amenhotep lost his position. He complained to the pharaoh who, having no means to intervene, sent a Nubian corps to Thebes under the leadership of viceroy Penehesi. He managed to get the situation under control and became the temporary manager of upper Egypt. Relations between the two, however, deteriorated, and shortly thereafter Panehesi ordered the introduction of a state of emergency. Seeing that the situation was getting out of hand, Pharaoh ordered the Nubians to return south. Panehesi must have taken this as an insult because he marched down the Nile with his entire army shortly thereafter. On the road beyond thebes, he met a royal army made up mostly of Libyan migrants. The clash ended in a draw. Eventually, Penehesi was driven from Thebes by Herihor, who became the new high priest. Under his successor, Pianchi, the division between the upper and lower Egypt was established, where the governor Smendes took power, who moved the capital to Tanis. We know that Pianchi tried to visit Penehesi to ask if he "is still faithful to the pharaoh" which looks a bit strange unless there is something we don't know.
View attachment 750458
All this brings us to the pharaoh Amenemope, a descendant of Smendes, who has to contend with the rebellion of the Libyans led by Osorkon.View attachment 750459
The conflict ended with the defeat of the Egyptians and the first Libyan pharaoh in the country's history.
View attachment 750467
Osorkon came from one of the tribes that participated in the invasion of the Linians, namely the ma tribe (the other was the Libu tribe, from which Libya probably took its name, although in the past it was used to describe all North Africa, not only the lands west of Egypt).
View attachment 750476
So far I know about two branches of this family because Osorkon also had a brother Nimlot. Which leads the Libyan troops in Bubastis (Menetho claims that the entire clan came from this city and the subsequent transfer of the center of power seems to confirm this).
View attachment 750478
View attachment 750481
Osorkon's rule was marked by clashes and unrest. Those tombs which were not robbed for Ramses XI were looted during this period. After his death, negotiations took place, as a result of which Siamun, probably the son of the previous pharaoh and the military commander, married Ketimala, the daughter of Osorkon, and the Libyans returned to their homes.
View attachment 750479
The son of Nimlot, Osorkon's brother, was Shosqenq, who would eventually take power from Siamun's son in a quite peaceful manner (the two men held state ceremonies together). This suggests that the subsequent transfer of power and family reunification may have been part of the deal. You can also know Shosqenq from the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark with Harrison Ford, where his war campaign in the Levant was mentioned, during which he was supposed to steal the ark of the covenant from Jerusalem but it is stuff for another DD.
View attachment 750480

The takeover of Egypt by the Libyans brought only short-term peace. Soon after, there was a conflict in the ruling dynasty, as a result of which the country fell into pieces, which was used by the Nubians who, after years of occupation, under the leadership of the El-Kurru clan from Napata, invaded Egypt and established their own dynasty.

View attachment 750482
To the west of Nubia were the tribes of Mejay that had been used in Egypt for centuries as an elite police unit. South of Nubia we have the kingdom of D'mt (probably read as Damot in many languages from the period there were no vowels, hence the strange names). Damot was a kingdom of local origin but strongly influenced by arabian religion and culture.
View attachment 750487
View attachment 750485
View attachment 750488

I also spent some time over Africa, where the first Phoenician colonies, such as Ubon, Utica and Annaba, began to emerge during this period. I took the names of the Libyan tribes from Herodotus who in many cases has a slight tendency to color, but probably had to encourage the audience. Some Greek tribal names, such as lotophagi in the case of Libyans or Gedrosian Ichtiophagi, were given for reasons such as a popular profession or export material, e.g. lotus eaters (some fruit, the Greeks called this way a few so we don't know which one), or fish eaters.

View attachment 750486

Separate recognition is due to Menetho, the priest from Sebennythos, without whom we would know little about the history of Egypt. Menetho was a Hellenized Egyptian priest who, apart from Greek, could read hieroglyphs and knew Egyptian traditions. We owe him, for example, a list of all Egyptian pharaohs and dynasties.

Thank you for the positive reception of the project so far. From the mapping of cultures, religions and countries, there is still a European part and the issue of the origin of the Celts (I know about the theory of the so-called Celts from the West, which does not have to be so unrealistic if we take into account cultural and not population migration, where wilder tribes adapt to a more advanced culture of the conquered regions and spread it), Etruscan language lemnian origins, etc. If you have any suggestions please write. Hope to see you in a week. I wish you health.

Looks very well made, if you're interested, if you contact me on Discord, I can give you the maps I used to rework the Egyptian and Bronze Age cultures in high detail.

 

[cristofolmc]

Very cool project

 

[Petrus66]

Very cool project

Thanks for kind words. Dev diary will be on Tuesday. Then we will visit Italy and the surrounding islands, as well as get to know the culture of sea invaders with horned helmets teased in DD about Egypt. For now, I am at the stage of "painting the map". I encourage everyone to comment. If you know something, e.g. about the culture from this period do not be afraid to write about it. Your suggestions will not be ignored.

 

[DreadGrunt]

I like to think I know a fair bit about Bronze and Iron Age Anatolia. The Hittite Empire should still be the dominant power in the region in 1292, this is a decent map to use that's roughly for the same time period, The nation/people of Pala should also probably still exist in this rough geographical area to the north of the Hittites. Their language was spoken until probably 1300 or thereabouts and the final references to Pala go into the early 1100's so I think it'd be fair to include them. The Kaskians should exist to their east and the west/southwest of Anatolia should be controlled by a collection of smaller independent Luwian states. This isn't super in depth but should help a bit I hope.

 

[Petrus66]

I like to think I know a fair bit about Bronze and Iron Age Anatolia. The Hittite Empire should still be the dominant power in the region in 1292, this is a decent map to use that's roughly for the same time period, The nation/people of Pala should also probably still exist in this rough geographical area to the north of the Hittites. Their language was spoken until probably 1300 or thereabouts and the final references to Pala go into the early 1100's so I think it'd be fair to include them. The Kaskians should exist to their east and the west/southwest of Anatolia should be controlled by a collection of smaller independent Luwian states. This isn't super in depth but should help a bit I hope.

The starting date is 984/11/19 before Christ, i.e. after the fall of the Bronze Age. The date in the Imperator is counted from the event not to, i.e. the game counter adds years and does not subtract. That's why I chose the death of Sargon the Great as the event from which I count the years in the game.
I haven't shown this region because my research is still ongoing. I know that the remnants of the Hittite ruling house ruled until about the 10th century in Carchemish and possibly Pattina. The Hittites were at the time forced to evacuate from the Hattusa region and were pushed south to what is now south-eastern Turkey and northwest Syria (the Land of Hatti and Aram). As for the Pala people, they were replaced by Paphlagonians, whom scientists associate with the Luwians or Kaska people.
Kaska, in turn, were also forced to migrate eastwards in their case. Some departed towards Georgia, others perhaps founded a country called Katak, and one of the groups emigrated to Assyria where they were wrecked.
Thanks for the maps, they will definitely come in handy since many cities like Gordion were taken over by the newcomers like Phrygians.

 

[Petrus66]

Dev Diary 4: Where is my Pizza?

This time we will take a break from the Middle East and visit the Italian peninsula. At that time, as much happened there as in the countries of the fertile crescent. Invasions from all sides, the emergence of new cultures, Sardinian pirates, there will be plenty to tell. Since we previously talked about Egypt, in this DD we will tell about the origin of the earliest member of the coalition of sea peoples mentioned in the sources.

The Sherdens, because we are talking about them now, according to the theory that is most likely, came from Sardinia, where the Nuragic civilization thrived. The art they left behind shows that during the Bronze Age they were a group of city-states with priest kings occasionally forming federal structures when necessary. Perhaps the most famous part of their culture are the buildings called Nurhage. Archaeologists are still wondering what function they served, warehouses, fortresses or maybe palaces (probably all three). Below, thanks to Wikipedia, you have a picture of such a building.

The Nuragic people used the crisis of the end of the Bronze Age to violently expand their influence. Even before the crisis, the inhabitants of nearby Corsica began to imitate the construction style of the Sardinians, and later the Sardinian influence was felt even in the Balearic Islands and Sicily. In the time of Amenhotep IV (known as the heretic pharaoh), they traveled east, establishing bases in Crete and Cyprus, acting essentially like Vikings, once looting and once serving as mercenaries. During the Iron Age, their iconic structures were abandoned, and the Nuragic people themselves began adopting parliamentary aristocracy as their system. They also created a network of trade connections with the farthest corners of the Mediterranean Sea.

On the left you have an image of a Sicilian warrior and on the right a sketch from Egypt. The supporters of the theory of the western origin of the Sherden (including myself) claim that after reaching the West, the Nuragic people got better weapons, but they did not completely abandon the iconic horns.

Going further east we have Sicily and the peoples of the Elyms, Sycans and Sykels. They all came to Sicily around the period from the 13th / 14th century to the 11th. The first arrivals were the Sycans after them, the Elim, and finally the Sykels were driven out of Italy. The Elyms were to have a slightly Iberian accent, which indicates Ligurian origin, although Nuragians or Corsicans were also supposed to have such an accent (especially those from the coastal cities). Besides, little is known about them. The Sykans and Sykels had intense contacts with the Mycenaean culture, and due to the similar wording of the names Sykels and Shekelesh, they are suspected of taking part in the attack on Egypt. Both peoples were probably Illyrian in origin, which explains the Mycenaean influences.

The Roman Civilization is basically a continuation of the Etruscan civilization. The Romans borrowed many things from her, such as gladiators' games (Etruscan funeral rituals) or fortune-telling (the Romans valued the Etruscan methods much more than the Greeks). Triumph is also probably an element borrowed from the Etruscan. The Romans liked to show their aversion to human sacrifice, but the strangling of foreign leaders at the foot of the temple or the gladiatorial games look a bit hypocritical, and I know an example when Octavian sacreficed his enemies on the construction site of the temple of Julius Caesar . At first, the Etruscan city-states had a monarchical regime, later to go into democracy and form the so-called Etruscan Lukomonia with delegates from 12 cities.

I think that the Italic tribes need no introduction. I will only add that they came to the peninsula before 10 century BC and pushed the Etruscans to the areas of Tuscany, which is the land that owes its name to this people. In addition to Rasenna (their own term for their people) during this period there are several enclaves of related peoples in the south and in the Padan Valley (Raeti and Camunni are related to them). In addition, we also have the first Celtic invasion of the Cenegrate culture whose members later mixed with local peoples like the Ligurians.

There are still many elements to be worked on and some cultures will be discussed on another occasion (Like the Ligurian one which was present in Iberia and Gaul at the time). I also plan to program a Brennus invasion in the future. Perhaps, instead of being tied to the date, events will be more dynamic (eg, a Lepontic Invasion will occur when a player or a non-tribal faction takes part of the Po Valley). What do you think about it? I'm also working on a surprise project, but I don't know if it will work. Maybe in a week we will be able to return east to the Levant (I know this is a sensitive topic, so it should be interesting). Take care.

 

[trewajg]

Looking very promising! I'm a big fan of the bronze age mod and I think imperator really is an excelent game for this kind of total conversions, so I will definetely also follow the development of this thread!

 

[DreadGrunt]

It's nice to see the Nuragic peoples getting some love, they're sorely lacking in vanilla Imperator.

 

[teo1901]

when will you release this mod ?

 

[Petrus66]

when will you release this mod ?

Hmmm, I wouldn't like to say "it'll be ready when it's ready" because that would be a bit weak. For the completion of the map and cultures in the early Iron Age there will be some 2 to 3 DDs, then about 2 DDs for the rest of the topics, and since I do it in the evenings it's + - 1/2 for bugs (and glory to Snowlet that he shared the code fragments, it took away like 2 DD). I think we should fit in 10 DD (along with the ones on the forum). Maybe it will be possible to speed up you never know.