Historically, the Varangians played a major role in the formation and military history of Kievan Rus. Scandinavian warriors served Rus princes, and Prince Vladimir of Kiev famously supplied Byzantine Emperor Basil II with approximately 6,000 warriors in 988, helping establish the Byzantine Varangian Guard.
While their Scandinavian origins justify their inclusion for the Danes, their deep connection to Kievan Rus makes them equally fitting for the Slavs. It would be a historically appropriate addition and give the Slavs another interesting infantry option.
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I kind of like this suggestion, but I think the problem is that the Slavs are…very poorly defined/broad and this historical example fits a very specific area and period. So if they did this, they would basically be saying “the Slavs represent the Kievan Rus” whereas now the Slavs seems to represent basically everything from modern Ukraine to all of Russia at the least. I have seen several suggestions (that I support) that the Slavs should get the same treatment the Indians did: Split them up into more specific and defined civs. And if that were to happen one of those civs could totally be the Kievan Rus which would then get Varangian Guards. I think that’s the way to go with this suggestion.
Fun fact is their scandinavian origins were entirely unknown… to scandianavians themselves. E.g.: 13th century Laxdæla saga mentions Bolli Bollason (born in 1004) to be the first norse among varangians
text passage
Höfum vér ekki heyrt frásagnir að neinn Norðmaður hafi fyrr gengið á mála með Garðskonungi en Bolli Bollason.
Have we not heard accounts that no Norseman had ever entered the service of the King of Gardariki before Bolli Bollason?
So when "Vladimir of Kiev famously supplied Byzantine Emperor Basil II with approximately 6,000 warriors in 988, " the first Scandinavian varangian … wasn’t even born.
Are they not Rus city states at one point?If the game adds serbs croats slvs automatically become just the Rus city states.
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Their unique unit (Boyars) tells me that Slavs currently represent Kievan Rus. Boyars were the nobility of Kievan Rus. Also, Druzhina tech is spelled closer to how it is used in modern Russian/Ukrainian rather western Slavic languages.
The game already has other Slavic civs in Bulgarians, Bohemias and Poles (those were added later to the game though), so I don’t think Slavs represent the entire Slavic world as a whole but rather Eastern Slavs, specifically Kievan Rus.
If that’s the case, the Slavs have a much stronger historical claim to the Varangian Guard than the Danes or Saxons. The Varangians played a significant role in the military and political history of Kievan Rus. Their first prince (Rurik) was a Varangian!
Regarding political fragmentation, consider Italy…it remained politically fragmented into several independent states until the 19th century, yet the game represents them collectively as a single Italians civ. I think Slavs are a good representation of Eastern Slavs during early medieval period before the split into Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians became more defined.
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Not sure about this. But I was expecting the Varangian Guard to be a team unit similar to Condottiero, at the end both were mercenaries.
A split into Russians, Belarusian, and Ukrainians would’ve been dumb, but I’m not against a more medieval split with Novgorodians (navy, Varangian Guards), Muscovites (gunpowder, Steppe Lancers) and Ruthenians (more or less current Slavs).
That’s DLC level change which would be great addition imo, but would require a lot of work to put into the game.
My suggestion is rather simple and could be added by the devs with minimal effort to the current release of the game.
Novgorod’s could even be fitting longship civ. Possible the only longship civ to have an oceanic cannon boa
Unless like… Frisians? The one longboat civ you can argue should not have Varagians
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