No Blood, No Bones, No Sacrifice, No Fun – Possible Solutions to Age of Mythology’s Censorship Dilemma and the Aztec Problem

I don’t think you can include Romans without giving them Jupiter. But as for the rest, they could absolutely be those you named.
Not because there wasn’t a period where they didn’t have Jupiter. But because in pop culture, Jupiter is very often the only Roman God ever mentioned, so having Romans without Jupiter would feel like having Greeks without Zeus, or Norse without Odin or Thor.
It doesn’t matter if it was historically accurate. It would feel wrong.

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Oh really? I never heard much about jupiter in connection to roman stuff in pop culture as a child. It was way more names like Mars and Justitia that i associated with them. But i absolutely understand your point. You could easily change janus to mithras position and add Jupiter as a major god i guess. Mithras is a special case anyway i think. But it’s all just fun civ crafting in the end. I think making Jupiter ‘‘not just zeus again’’ could be a little bit tricky. But maybe i’m wrong.

Asterix mentions Jupiter a lot.
There may be the occasional Roman who says “by Pluto!” or something like that, but for the most part, the Romans are all about Jupiter in the context of Asterix. Just as an example. And while Mars is mentioned a lot too, I see Jupiter mentioned more. I don’t think I ever encountered Justitia in pop culture, but maybe you just watched some pop culture I’m unfamiliar with.
I did find it strange to see Mithras in your lineup, as I was under the impression he was a middle eastern God. A teacher of mine mentioned a Mithras-Cult in connection to Babylonians. But I’m not ruling out that I’m mixing stuff up.

now that you mention it, that’s true. I think the Asterix romans are representing the ‘‘very greek’’ roman phase anyway. But as i said, i get your point. So maybe i should change my mind about excluding jupiter as a major god in this case. He was very important to the romans over several eras i guess.

Yes, that’s true. The mithras cult has a long story popping up in roman history. That’s why i said he’s a weird pick anyway haha. I don’t know why i included him back in the day. Maybe just because i thought ‘‘it’s a cool story about that roman mithras cult’’ haha :smiley:

I think Justitia stuck in my mind as a roman godess as a child comes from the fact, that she’s the symbol of justice in many ways even today. I can remember a child’s book about justitia to teach children about ‘‘justice’’.

The popcultural association with Romans is late Republic, early Empire, and on occasion the late Empire. Without actually doing some research, people would barely know the Kingdom of Rome before the Republic even existed.
The Legions with the iconic square shields and the segmented plate armor comes to mind as something distinctly Roman.

The Similarities between Romans and Greeks aren’t just with their Gods. The Architecture is similar too. There are even people who can’t tell them apart. There are differences. Romans had domes and arches, while the Greeks favored straight lines.

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I’m pretty sure the 2nd DLC is already in early development by now so we can likely not influence what civ it’s going to be.

But if they keep supporting AoMR then we can obviously suggest future civilisations. For AoE2DE they have mostly been making what the majority of the community asked for so far.

I’m really curious to try out the Chinese before I start suggesting new mechanics.
Maybe the DLC/Campaign already hints towards the 2nd DLC. It would make sense to make the stories of both campaigns connected when they already know that they are making a 2nd DLC.

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11111

That’s why sometimes I am sarcastic or ironic. I have patience for a certain type of ignorance, but it can’t go beyond a certain limit. That’s why I didn’t make this comment you made: It’s basic to study or at least research what you’re going to talk about.

If someone claims that Roman gods are simply Greek gods, I already know they are someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. If a person speaks about something with certainty, without knowing for sure what they are talking about, I can’t respect them enough to be very patient. Because I know that if I am polite, they will take advantage of that to bring even more ignorance into the debate.

For example, what would I say to someone who claims that the Atlanteans are, in a way, the Romans?

Naturally, it’s obvious that someone who makes this claim doesn’t even understand the basics of Roman military units: Where are the legionaries? Calling destroyers legionaries is, at the very least, a joke, and not just because the weapons used by both are different, but also because of the use of the infantry unit in question. People look at a rectangular shield and think: Roman!

  • Where are the Velites? Light spearmen similar to the peltasts, used to fight infantry?
  • Where are the Triarii? Heavy infantry armed with spears.
  • Where are the Hastati? Principal Roman Infantry for close combat, armed with spears for ranged attacks.
  • Where is the varied Roman cavalry?
  • Where are the Roman siege weapons? Polybolos, perhaps? Or the giant ballista?

Pretty much all Atlantean units are Roman units, but that doesn’t mean that they represent what a Roman civ would use.
Half of them are based on Gladiators.

You can’t deny that Rome would be more similar to existing civs (Atlanteans and Greeks) in religion, culture, units and architecture then pretty much any popularly suggested pantheon would be similar to an existing civ.

Babylonians (Mesopotamians) would only have little in common with Egyptians.
Japanese would have little in common with Chinese.
Celts would have little in common with Norse.
Aztecs and Mayans would have barely anything in common with any existing civ (maybe Atlantean architecture a little bit).
Even Aztecs and Mayans between each other would have more differences.

Rome is certainly popular but people already hated the Atlanteans for being Greeks 2.0. Most would be even less happy about seeing Greeks 3.0 in the civ before more other are added.
If the Romans would be the next after the Chinese then we would have 3 Greek like civs vs. 3 other civ (Norse, Egyptian and Chinese). That is 50%!

Understandable why many people aren’t happy about the idea of adding Romans to the game.
Romans are different enough to be worthy to be their own civilisation at some point, if AoMR actually keeps getting supported in the long run.

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There is no denying that there is an overlap between Roman culture and Greek culture. That is not exclusively because of modern ignorance, but also, to no small part, due to decisions the Romans themselves made. They saw the Greeks as something to be admired and emulated, and not always in a way the Greeks liked. Not that they were given the choice on the matter.
The idea that Greek Mythology and Roman Mythology is the exact same thing, just using different names due to the language difference, is something the Romans themselves believed. But that doesn’t necessarily make it true. There are differences. Between Greek and Roman Gods, and between Greek and Roman Buildings. Tho they are often subtle.

Atlantean military units do take inspiration from the Romans, and I feel like Retold shows this way more than the original. Tho that may be in part because the models weren’t as detailed.
In the original the helmet and armor of the Katapeltes never stood out as particularely Roman to me. Now I can’t help but feel like I’m seeing a legionary with a mace and no shield.
This is especially true for the heavy variants, but also holds true for standard, medium, and champion versions as well. On some units more than on others.
Roman inspired isn’t the same as Roman, but the similarities are there, and in my opinion, they should have been made more subtle, not more pronounced, when being translated from original to Retold.

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Yes, despite the great similarities with the Atlanteans and Greeks, the Romans deserve to be included in the game, as they were one of the leading civilisations of antiquity, and antiquity ended with the fall of Rome.

And yes, the person who doesn’t see the similarities of the Romans between the Greeks and the Atlanteans in the game, that must have been a very frustrated and bitter person, coupled with crass ignorance. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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