[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Petrus66]

Dev Diary 5: This is not a Levant I expected. , i.e. a trip to Iberia

I thought maybe I could finish Iberia and the Middle East together and put it in one DD, but life wanted a different and instead of in the biblical Levant, we will go west to the destination of many Phoenician expeditions, the source of Crassus' wealth and tin for many countries of the Middle East, the Iberian Peninsula. And I must admit that I know even less now than when I started the research .

I know that many researchers question the presence of Phoenician colonies beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, despite sources saying otherwise. They argue this mainly through the lack of archaeological evidence of cities during this period, but from experience with colonies in more recent periods, we know that the establishment of a colony was often counted from the appearance of the first settlers, and I do not know if this would leave a significant mark.
But back to the topic, what got the Phoenicians this far? They decided to establish colonies in Iberia because there are large deposits of silver mined in the south and tin in the Galicia region (North-West corner the deposits were the size of Afgan ones and the trip was deffinetly worth it). An additional advantage was the existence of a merchant-friendly Tartessian culture ready to trade in peace with newcomers.
The Tartessians themselves were most likely a pre-Indo-European people related to the Iberians and Basques, although there are theories that it is the first traces of Celts on the peninsula (unlikely, but in a way possible, that's why I mention it). The Phoenicians greatly influenced their culture and religion. Temples to the Canaanite gods began to be built and Phoenician-inspired alphabetic-syllable script were used. The Greeks, when they reached southern Iberia, reported that there was a large, powerful state in the region and the warm welcome they received from the ruler by the name Arganthonios there. I will add from myself that his name is probably a little misunderstanding, because he would have to live 120 years (acording to legend) and that would be quite long for the period. Arganthonios was probably his title, not a name a bit like Celtic Brennus.

And here we come to the Lusytanians and the Vettones (then in one culture together with the Turdetanians) and interesting things start to happen because, according to researchers, their language is closer to Latin, but culturaly they resembled Celts. So ancient historians had quite a problem with it (and thats why they asign them differently each time). The most likely version for today is that they are part of an earlier migration of Indo-Europeans from the Baker culture, which is roughly the same as the Bronze Age mod.

Then we have the Celto-Iberians who separated from the Celts of Gaul by migrating Ligurians pushed out of the Po delta by the Italians during the Fall of the Bronze Age. to the east of them in the Iberian Levant are the Iberian Levantine and Argarian cultures with the latter on a higher level, although a bit decayed by then (the main boom in the Bronze Age when there could even existed a network of city-states). By 300, the Iberians would expel or assimilate the Ligurians, and the Ligurians in Gaul would be Celticized.

And here we come to the Basques who, according to some theories, split off from the Iberians at that time. Theories about their origins vary, but the most likely one seems to be the one telling about pre-Indo-European origin of the Basques and their relationship with the Iberians (interrupted by the Celtic invasion).

I am still wondering about the inclusion of the Tartessians into the Iberian culture group, as well as the slingers culture from the Balearic Islands, although here I am wondering between the Iberian and Nuragic one. Maybe you have any suggestions? Hope the next DD will be sooner. This time we will seriously go back to the Middle East since I have a more complete picture of the connections between the East and West of the Mediterranean and maybe by then I will complete historical figures from the region and finally touch on the subject of the Bible as a historical source. Take care.

 

[Petrus66]

Dev Diary 6: Post-apocalyptic Middle East

As I mentioned before, the mod is still under development, so a lot changed and will change. Today we have a very sensitive topic to discuss so it should be interesting. And by the way, I am not particularly religious, nor am I a fanatical atheist, so I will try to be objective (although we know that it is hardthese days ). But before we get into the spicy details, let's go back to Egypt for a moment.

Some time ago I forgot to add that a distant cousin of Siamun was ruling in Thebes at that time. The office of first priest in 984 BCE was held by Pinedjem, who took over from his deceased brother Nesbenebjet, who orphaned two daughters and, according to Egyptian custom Pinedjem, took care of them and ......................... took one for his wife.

And here is a certain discord because in this period there was a slight chaos in Egypt and there are many inaccuracies, for example Pinedjem had a son with a previous wife named Psusennes, who succeded him in office and in Tanis the last pharoh of 21-st dynasty had the same name Psusennes. Has there been a small attempt by the Egyptians to retain power with the help of the Thebes lineage? We know that after the revolt of Osorcon, Siamun bribed some of the rebels with high government offices. Perhaps he had given them too much, and that would be enough for the Libyan chiefs of ma to gain control of Egypt.

But that's about Egypt (for now, because I have a strange feeling that we'll be back there again). We come to the main topic, the situation in the Levant.

And here it would be worth saying something about the new and old inhabitants of this region. First, the Canaanites in the later Bronze Age split into the Northern (from which the Phoenicians evolved) under Hurrian influence, and later Hittite and Southern under Egyptian rule. The Egyptians themselves never exercised too much control over Canaan, because they didn't really like to leave the country because of their religion (probably it was about the necessity to mummify the corpse). But I know that they kept a network of garrisons at strategic points like at Beth-Shan (North-South road). After fending off the Sea Peoples from the delta, Pharaoh realized that he would not be able to resist such invasions indefinitely and decided to hand over Canaan to the invaders, possibly in exchange for a vassal contract. When the invasions from the west ended, the second wave began.

Then the weakened states were attacked by the Aramaic (Ahlamu), who are sometimes combined with the Bronze Age Amurru because of the similarity of names and region of origin. Many of the Aramaic tribes had lived beyond Jordan for centuries, and the Israelites were probably just such a tribe. The disappearance of great empires must have been like a miracle for them, and in addition, climate change meant that the lands that were not suitable for cultivation could be just right for them (their economy was based on herding, so they did not need complicated irrigation systems for now). From Merneptah's stele, dated 1224–1208 B.C.E. we know that he carried out a successful campaign against a people (not a state, but a group of nomads, he marked it) called the Israelites. This is the first mention because the term Hebrew in the language of the Canaanites meant hmmm how to put it ............ a nomadic group of well-armed people who were sometimes hired for military campaigns. We have references to the Hebrews throughout the Levant, and they may or may not be Israelites. Moving on to David himself, he is most likely a historical figure and that's all we know. This is evidenced by references from the Moabites and Arameans of Damascus calling the Judah dynasty the House of David. In addition, I postponed his conflict with Ishbaal (that is most likely his name, because Ishbosheth is an insult as far as I know) because at the same time Egypt was slightly busy otherwise he would have reacted faster, which happened when Shosqenq started supporting separatists from northern tribes . As for the division into northern and southern tribes, we know, for example, that the inhabitants of the north ate pork because bones were found there, and not in the south, which suggests a greater orthodoxy of the local population.

As for the religion of the inhabitants of the region, I know that the main god of the Moabites was Shamash, so at least at the beginning the Aramaeans had greater sympathy for the Mesopotamian pantheon, later taking over the Canaanite gods also. The problem arises with the Jewish religion which, according to some, was monolathric at first (i.e. other gods exist but mine is better and i worship him exclusively) which may explain two sacrificial altars with an altar for the main deity on one side. Another explanation is that Judaism was initially polytheistic and became monotheism due to contact with the Zoroastrians at the end of Judah's existence, and the second altar (possibly Ashera's diety from one of inscriptions) was then removed. Either way, the Edomites partially and a few tribes south of Judah also worshiped a god named YHWH (as one of dieties). I have something to think about, and maybe you also have some ideas.

I also added the family of David from the Mother side, Nahash, and half-brother Hannun, as well as two sisters. Nahash and his son supported David's brother during his escape and provided his army with the support of trusted officers.

I have also added other biblical characters like the Hadadezer of Sovah.

I'm not sure, but Hiram was reportedly helping Solomon with the construction of the temple. In any case, at that time Tire was being ruled by Abibaal his father and the whole dynasty was from Sidon so maybe Tire was under the sovereignty of that city or the dynasty had moved.

In the letters from the kings of Pattina and Hamat there is a ruler with a Philistine sounding name Toi. Historians believe that there was a Philistine state in the north, including Pattina, Lakhuti and Hamath, but the former revolted, which may explain the desire for good relations with Israel.

Karkemish was an important center for the Hittites, therefore power over it was given to members of the ruling family. About 984 BC its last living representative ruled there.

During the reign of Ashur-Rabbi, Assyria lost territory to the west, and the Aramaeans managed to break through their defenses north and south of Karkemish. The rulers of Assyria did not report defeats, but from the information we have (they carried out numerous campaigns beyond the Euphrates, which gave nothing) we can conclude that the enemy's tactic was guerrilla warfare. The Assyrians themselves, after this cataclysm, began to perceive the lands outside their domain as hotbeds of chaos, and annual war campaigns as a religious duty. To end the crisis, they began to use the so-called practical violence, i.e. in short, at the beginning, a warning, then when they had to send the army, they conducted a "show" of torture skills under the walls, and when they had to attack, they destroyed entire cities and the population was deported to distant corners of the empire. The ruler of the defeated people was publicly tortured and killed. So biblical descriptions are not so wrong.

Meanwhile, the situation was the same in Babylon. State was ruled by the Kassite clan from the city of Bazz (it is not known where exactly), where the capital of the country was moved for safety. Bad situation was taken advantage of by a migrant of Elamite origin, about whom little is known but must have been well remembered because he was buried with honors in Sargon's palace (it does not necessarily mean that Sargon's palace, but that he was buried as the rightful ruler). Since Babylon was very cosmopolitan (to put it mildly) it didn't have to come from Elam (but he could).

As for the situation in Elam, we know that Susa was still an important and great city but Anshan lost many of its inhabitants. But Elam still controlled the city. However, this could mark the first attacks of the Persians. As for the rulers there, we do not have certain dates, only a few names.

I also added Heraclids in several Greek countries but it still needs to be refined. Surely you noticed that I added bloodlines to the more important characters (about 17 boodlines so far). I don't know if you like the combination of mythical characters with real ones. For example, we know that Assyria negotiated with a Phrygian king named Mita. So we know that at least the name is correct. To sum up whether the Bible can be considered a historical source, yes. Although, as we know, someone had to copy, publish and approve it. Historians often consider the event to be historic as they have at least two mentions, e.g. copies of the Egyptian and Hittite peace treaty after the Battle of Kadesh. So when a biblical event is mentioned in another source, it probably really happened (but as you know, the devil is in the details). Until next time.

 

[Petrus66]

Dev Diary 7: Through the Alps and beyond !

As promised, today we will visit the tribes in and north of the alps and talk about the changes that occurred in these areas after the fall of the Bronze Age (or not depending on where you were). We will also talk about pre-Indo-Europeans from Illyria and visit the Middle East for a short time.

Celts
The first thing that catches your eye is the sea of green to the north of the Ligurian area. According to the adopted version of events (which the articles and graphics found by me seem to confirm), the Celtic expansion caused a domino effect around 1200 BC. First, as a group called Tumulus, they invaded the coasts of northwestern France, then a group of tribes stormed the Pannonian valley, pushing the Italians out of there, they in turn pushed the Ligurians from the mouth of the Po River to the west (ancient name of the river is rumored to be of ligurian descent), and under their pressure some of the Celtic tribes from the vicinity of Marseille moved to Iberia. Cultures from the coasts of England and France were connected with trade ties which were quite advanced at that time (with visits from guests from the Middle East) and were at a higher civilization level . There is also no evidence of a sudden migration like in the south, so hence the supposition that when the warlords from the Tumusus culture group (middle bronze age north alps) entered their area, they were assimilated like Germanic tribes 1000 years later, giving some elements from themselves and adapting the existing ones (the pre-celtic inhabitants of British islands, for example, had the habit of throwing swords into the lakes, does that remind you of something? ).

The cultures before the Bronze Age Collapse thanks to Wiki
Raetians
In the Alps, however, there is a people culturally related to the Etruscan people called the Raetians. Ancient historians assumed that they once lived in the Pad River valley, but today it is believed that the reasons for their cultural connection must have been other than migration. Interestingly, to the same ethnic group are also assigned pelasgians and lelegs from the Aegean area, as well as the inhabitants of the island of lemnos previously known as Raminija (linguistical similarites).
Castelieri and Bosuti
The cultures of Northern Illyria are likely of pre-Indo-European origin. The Castelieri culture built defensive fortresses reminiscent of Mycenaean structures (hence the name) and took advantage of the turmoil of recent centuries. This culture has existed for quite a long time, since at least the 15th century BC. On the other hand, in the Bosut culture (whose ethnicity is up for discussion), mass graves of human ritual victims were found.
Lusatians
Lusatian culture was probably the subject of the hottest disputes of all those mentioned earlier. It kept in touch with the Greek colonies and built defensive settlements resembling those later built by the Slavs (hence the disputes). The most famous settlements of this culture are Buch near Berlin and Biskupin in Poland. The construction of the fortifications was probably related to the emergence of the Cimmerian tribes in the area, which fled from the Scythians at that time (later Cimmerians melted with the north Thracians creating Dacians and Gets). And below thanks to Wikipedia you have a reconstruction of the mentioned Biskupin.

Research on this culture was carried out from the interwar period. During the war, the Germans wanted to use the excavations in Biskupin to prove their rights to these lands, but they achieved nothing except damaging the site. Biskupin was built in the 8th century BC (we know because water from the lake on which settlement stands preserved the wood in decent shape), which is more or less at the same time as the Cimmerian invasions of the Middle East. To this day, neither the Germanic nor the Slavic origin of the Lusatians has been established and we will probably never find out (mainly due to too many migrations at that time).

I am still wondering how to deal with it, so if you have any opinion, say it. Would you like to present them as proto-Slavs? Meanwhile, we will visit the Middle East.

In the 10th century BC, Jerusalem was not such a large city (and was called Jebus). It was more like a little bigger fortress. The Israelites were probably attracted by the site's defensive qualities. Ornan or Araunah is often given as its ruler, which is a slightly similar dilemma to what he was with the Tartessians because his name means Lord in Hurrian. No wonder, actually the Caananites might have preferred the Hurrian customs to the Egyptian because Egypt basically occupied their lands, and the grass always seems greener where we are not.

I did not have time to give it before but the Philistines are often called Caphtorites, and this name is mentioned by the Egyptians as the name of Crete, hence the assumption that they were of Minoan-Greek origin, which explains their appearance. The Minoans were created by combining Anatolian influences (feather caps on their heads) with Mycenaean influences (weapons). The remnants of the Minoans were still present in Crete and Cyprus in the time of Herodotus (Eteocretans in the eastern part of the island).

That's it for today. As you can see not much left (but as you know it can always change), maybe next time I will finish the map and implement dieties. See you in a week or earlier.

 

[Petrus66]

Dev Diary 8: From the frozen north to hot Nubia

Forgive me for the slight delay, but sometimes things can go wrong. Today we will visit the far north, the steppes and finally return to the Nile valley.

At first, I don't know if I mentioned how I'm puting the cultures in place at all. Well, at the beginning I look at the language. If we do not know what dialect was in a given place, then I look at the markings of archaeologists. Usually they mark cultures from the Iron Age and earlier periods using pottery or the most famous excavation site (e.g. Corded Ware culture or the famous Harappans). I mentioned it in case the names seem strange to you. Sometimes it happened that when I considered a culture important, despite the fact that it inhabited a small area (e.g. Rutulians) I added it and vice versa, if the culture was more numerous, I did not see the need to artificially divide it. I think facing a stronger enemy is part of the fun. I will add modifiers to tribes anyway to reflect the unstable nature of this form of government as the rest of the systems will work.

Meanwhile, Celtic culture came to the British Isles. The tribes adjacent to the Calais Strait had a strong cultural influence from the Belgae tribes on the other side of the channel. This is probably why Caesar had to go to the islands to "talk them out" of supporting relatives from the continent. They can also worship the deities from the islands and the lands of the Belgae tribes (I admit that I have around 65% of gods and pantheons. I had to add new conditions in some cases so that, for example, the rulers of Babylon would not get Ashur, unless we conquer the capital of Assyria to reflect tense relations between the two after assyrians "visited" Babylon last time. Therefore, I had to redo the existing pantheons and finishing it will take me 2 or 3 days.).

The battle in the Tollense River can tell us a lot about what happened in the region. In short, two groups of professional warriors met by the river, one wanted to cross it what ended up with violence. Normally nothing out of the ordinary, but couple of details drew the researchers' attention. First of all, as I mentioned, they were veterans with visible, healed wounds. Secondly, there was more or less 4,000 fighters, which is a lot for this area. Third, some of the warriors came from Bohemia. All this points to large population movements which will result in the migration of the Germanic tribes to the south and east, and the Celtic tribes to the east. Some of the Celts will even land in southern Poland.

I found a fairly good excerpt from a book about the cultures of this period from the area east of the Caspian Sea. The region was experiencing the economic growth at the time. The Amirabad and Chustian cultures were sedentary with the latter at a higher stage of development (at least two cities). The Dahae tribes were mentioned in Rigveda so they have been around for a long time. Another detail worth mentioning is the gradual migration of the Scythians towards the Black Sea. They will drive the Cymmerians to the south and east (one of the Assyrian rulers will die in the fight against them and their invasion will cause permanent traces in the culture of middle east, e.g. the name gomorrah may come from the Gimiri tribe). To the north of them was the settled Charnoles culture which was connected with the Cimmers and Scythians by cultural ties.

Cities in the region of Iran lay mainly on trade routes to Afghanistan from where tin was imported to the Middle East. However, the sea route to India was faster and safer (and less tariffs on the way, some things do not change). When Persia opened up overland routes to India, Dilmun and Magan declined economically.

African religions were closely related, and many deities appeared in both the Egyptian, Libyan and Nubian pantheons. Such an example of a deity is Amon worshiped from Nubia to Libya. Another example is an interesting deity Set who has had many ups and downs. He was considered the protector of foreigners and the people of the desert. He had even been the head of the pantheon of Upper Egypt. The main centers of the Set cult were in the oasis of Kharga at that time. Some deities like Dedun (one of the oldest nubian gods) were more local.

In some pantheons we know very little, eg we know the Elamite deities mainly from the Akkadians and Sumerians because their writing has not been fully translated. In the case of the Tocharians, their pre-Buddhist beliefs could have had Iranian and Tengristic influences (certainly one of the goddesses came from this pantheon).

I think that's it for today. I should have religion ready for the next time. Perhaps it will be possible to move on to units and traditions. I know from Scandinavian rock drawings that the Germanic people of this period used mainly axemen, spearmen and archers. And I did not forgot about three types of elephants i promissed. In a week's time we will see how much we can get out of this game.

 

[Petrus66]

Dev Diary 9: Gods of Iron Age
Hello everyone. In today's short DD I would like to inform you that all religions are finally working.

Many elements like treasures still need some polishing, but the main religious mechanics work. I learned a lot, for example Tocharians were of Indo-European origin, but their pre-Buddhist beliefs were heavily inspired by the early polytheistic form of Tengrism. A particularly popular goddess in this area was Gun Ana.

Another interesting religion that I came across is the faith of the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka called Vedda people. Namely, they believe in the so-called nae yakka, means spirits of ancestors summoned by shamans in order to, for example, ensure successful hunt. They also have more important spirits whose worship is more widespread in the island like Kande Yakka (demon of the mountain).

I tried to reflect the smaller cults too. For example, the pre-Buddhist beliefs of Burmese (who could at that time be found in the area east of the Ganges) had a similar cult to Veddan people with the difference that those who died a cruel and unjust death could be deified after death. Today there is a pantheon of about 37 nats (those deified spirits) that Burmese worship. The problem is that it was codified around the 10th century AD (and most of them passed away around that time). So I've added a few of these nats for now, and then I'll think about what to do next. I was honestly wondering whether, as a thank you, I should give them the names of Snowlet and others who sent, for example, maps that I used or provided the code, but I do not know if it would not be a bit improper (I think it's better to add them as in-game characters) so if you have any idea what to do with it I'm open to sugestions.

Each religion has two positive and one negative trait, but the modifiers still need some thought and are not final. Since I should have given some release date for the mod, I decided that on October 30th the mod will be released and I'm going to make sure it does. There are still units and traditions to be done which must be done for alpha which should take a week or a week and a half. Then I'll finish cosmetics. Thanks for support.

 

[Petrus66]

Dev Diary 10: War Never Changes

Hello everyone in todays Dev Diary. I would like to inform you that we have a total of 22 combat units. At one point I realized that it might be a bit of an exaggeration for the alpha version, but since I have already programmed it, I think that this is enough to reflect the diversity in the way Iron Age cultures waged their wars. I will only mention that the balance of units will change until October 30, so do not attach importance to the numbers. However, your suggestions will of course be taken into account.

Rulers did not immediately abandon bronze for iron. It is used in the military to this day (apparently it does not cause sparks, so they use it to produce explosives). Therefore, I decided to add a new commercial product called tin and convert base metals into copper, i.e. metals that were used to produce bronze (tin replaced arsenic because it is poisonous). The largest ancient concentrations of this mineral were in Spain and Afghanistan. The Hittites, Elamites, Nuragians from Sardinia had smaller mines (which explains their exceptionally good equipment in the paintings from the time of the Fall of the Bronze Age). If the player has access to tin and copper, it will serve him instead of iron (at first iron was not somehow more durable, rather it was chosen because it was more common).

One of the changes will be the division of chariots into heavy and light. I know that light chariots were the favorite weapon of the Egyptians, but the Akkadians preferred the heavier ones. I've also added slingers and skirmishers. The slingshots from that period are not like ours. Those were made of a piece of leather into which a specially selected stone was inserted and spun to give it the speed of the bullet. Infantry units will be divided not only into light and heavy but also into spearmen, swordsmen and footmen. The latter unit is intended to serve as a visualization of better-equipped Imperial troops (such as Egyptian and Assyrian visible on reliefs) equipped with short swords specifically for close combat. Of course, I have not forgotten my promise.

And here I have a problem, because for greeks elephants were slightly exotic animals and according to what I have read, they defined African elephants as one species, and there are at least two. Forest elephants, occurring in Egypt and those in the West in the service of the Libyan Phoenicians. The forest ones are smaller than the Indian ones, as reported by the Greek sources, so no wonder that they were afraid of their Indian cousins, but the African ones are a bit bigger, so under Raffia Ptolemy used most likely the forest specie from nubia. Of course, I added the appropriate goods to reflect the presence of these animals. I will have to think about it little bit more.

As you can see, not all traditions are ready yet, but I should be able to finish them next time. There are still modifiers and other cosmetic stuff (maybe I'll have some heritages for next Saturday). I think the mod will be finished on time. Take care.

 

[Petrus66]

Dev Diary 11: After a break

After a fairly long delay, it's nice to see you back. As I said yesterday, the tradition system works and only cosmetic work remains until it is released. In this DD, I will talk a little about the idea of the whole system and the differences between the factions. There is a lot of it and the time is short, so I will be brief.

In fact, in short, the fighting style in each culture depended on the conditions in which the local people lived. Inhabitants of open areas preferred more mobile and ranged forms of combat, and where the terrain became tight and limited the room for maneuver, infantry formations were placed. Peoples with a long coastline had naturally developed sailing abilities. The first mentions of Illyrian pirates date back to the 10th century BC, and Illyria quite strongly resembles Greece, so it is no wonder that both of them had colonization impulses.

As I promised, the great majority of cultural groups have their own traditions, although some of them share them with two to three others. I will look at it from time to time so I did not know if it is worth showing you everything one by one, and a lot can change anyway. I would like to add that each tree has from 12 to 16 traditions with short descriptions. For example, you will be able to find out what the Kassites were known for in antiquity or where the Blade called Sica came from to end up among the Judean partisans (hence their name Sicarians) fighting Rome.

And here is the table of units from which I got neurosis yesterday Going from the beginning we have: Axmen with long and short axes, camels, heavy cavalry, horse archers and light cavalry, then heavy and light chariots, elephants in African, forest and Indian versions, infantry in the form of better armed soldiers, spearmen and swordsmen in the heavy and light versions, archers, skirmishers and slingers.

Since I did not mention it earlier, I will mention Battle Axes, because they are not such an ordinary weapon. Their range makes it possible to defend themselves against the attacks of the cavalry, however, it requires a lot of skill in the use and mainly that is why it was rare. The Egyptians probably had one such unit in Pharaoh's personal guard. However, among the Germanic tribes, its popularity was high and it can be seen in the reliefs from the era where the local elite is depicted with them. Another unit are chariots, which in the heavy version were used to break the opponent's formation, and the light ones were such a worse version of horse archers.

A lot of changes are ahead of us, so don't get too attached to the numbers. I hope there will be no more delays and I can finish the project smoothly. Take care while I get back to work.

 

[Petrus66]

Dev Diary 12: What cosmetic work really meant.

As the confusion in my private life continues, the progress is quite slow, but we have nothing to do that requires more thinking, so the main problem is in the number of descriptions to be done. Withoutfurther talking, let's get down to business.

In the last week I mainly dealt with heritages and added one per culture group with modifiers and description.

And then I realized I forgot the descriptions for the historical bloodlines and added them too.

According to the adopted schedule, there are still some greeting screens to be made, which I plan to make one per region, and as you can see, I'm stuck more or less in the middle. And at least a few decisions to form nations like Urartu or Media. Additionally, I don't know if I shouldn't make any changes to the units, because there is a bit too much of them for my taste, and I think it's better that there are fewer of them so they will be better (quality over quantity).

I saw that you asked for a discord. Well, I have it, but so far there was no need to use it, but if you want to I dig it out for the next time. I think that after the greeting screens and decisions (the most important ones at least), I will release the mod. Since alpha is probably too much of a word, maybe we'll call it beta instead. Until next time.

 

[Petrus66]

Dev diary 13: Beta version release

Hello everyone and I would like to announce that the first version of the modification, although incomplete and far from what I wanted to achieve, landed on the steam workshop. If there is something new to be uploaded, I will announce it earlier here and in the comments on steam, and then I will add it on Sunday evening. Apart from that, I will briefly tell you what I have been doing recently.

From the pictures above, you can guess that of course I was dealing with flags, which is something that has been catching the eye from the first DD. I tried to follow historical symbols if they existed and so Assyria has Ashur on the flag in all its belligerence, and the Kassites of Karduniash (Babylon in their language) a chariot which is an allusion to their horse breeding tradition for which they were known throughout the Middle East.

Formable factions (of which there are still not enough which I regret) have also made flags. Examples are the flags of Urartu, a centuries-old thorn in the ass of Assyria with their god Haldi on the flag (from the royal seal) and the kingdom of Mittani, which may form out of the remains of this Bronze Age power that existed at that time. Mittani, in turn, has the Shaushtatar seal (their greatest ruler) on the flag, used for many years by his successors.

In addition to flags and decisions, I was also dealing with treasures, which I will be reviewing and adding from the scratch, which was one of the reasons for the delay (because I simply forgot about them). As I'll dig out from the above topics, I will deal with historical events, and there will be a lot of these because this period was full of Scythian invasions (at least two towards the Middle East, one towards the west and one towards today's Poland), not to mention the Celts. Don't worry, we have a lot of interesting content. Take care.

 

[Petrus66]

Due to the change in the mod's concept, the thread was moved. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/mod-ancient-chronicles.1524489/