Please, let’s do this. Otherwise, it’s going to be pretty ridiculous. The Viking peoples are already represented separately, while there is also a generic Viking civ. It’s really frustrating. The Danes represent Denmark, the Varangians represent Sweden, and having the Norwegians as a separate civ as well would be fantastic!
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I’d go with “Norse”, sounds more archaic and would cover Icelanders too
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Agreed. Tbh I’d personally be fine if they left it “Vikings” but if they had to change it i’d prefer “Norse” over “Norwegians”
Rename them instead to Norwayans /s
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Yeah, “Norse” sounds good… that’s what they’re called in AoM and AoEO… I don’t know why they went back to calling them “Vikings” in AoE 4, but it must be a nod to AoE 2…
So maybe change their name to Swedish too? I find it as really really confusing when we are about to have Varangians as a civ but Varangians Guard as a regional unit for 5 civs.
Yeah, it’s odd that they’re called Varangians and that the Varangian Guard is regional… I suppose they’ll have to fix that at some point, since medieval Sweden would be missing otherwise…
We have Danes rather than Danish, so presumably it would be Swedes rather than Swedish. Maybe they avoided it because of the root vegetable?
Yes, Swedes like in AoE 3, but retaining everything from the Varangian civ…
Because pop culture
If that was the case, it’d be Vikings and Celts, not Vikings and Scots
You could also just name them the Geats if they wanna keep the Swedes for a late medieval Europe DLC.
It’s still weird, though…
I was referring to the Vikings, the Celts were obviously not going to put them in AoE 4 because chronologically it is later than AoE 2…
For some reason, uploading photos from my phone keeps failing…In short, a new introductory screen for the Vikings appeared during the livestream; the dark faction icon at the bottom of the faction selection overview seems to have changed.
I think this gives us a fairly confident estimate: the pattern in the lower right corner of the new Viking UI is most likely no longer the Vegvisir, the old version of which was highly anachronistic; instead, it has been replaced by motifs such as the wooden carvings of animal heads found in the Oseberg ship burial.The developers did not change the Vikings into Norwegians, but they did use ancient patterns unearthed in Norway.
The Varangians in the live demo—notice the faint cultural patterns in the UI.
This is derived from ancient patterns unearthed in Sweden, and it also seems to explain why the developers chose to design it as a cavalry civilization.
A warrior on horseback, wielding a spear and a round shield, is accompanied by birds; in front of him lies a snake-like monster.
It originates from the embossed copper plaque found on the helmet of Vendel Grave I in Sweden; it dates back to around the years 650–700 AD, which means it falls within the so-called “Vendel period,” and is even earlier than the traditional Viking era. Academic sources describe it as a armed knight accompanied by two birds, facing a snake.
The subtle, folk-style patterns in the Danish version of the user interface are depictions of Mjölnir Thor’s Hammer.
This prototype is a gold and silver-plated Mjölnir pendant, about 4.6 centimeters in height, discovered in Bredsattra on the island of Öland in Sweden. The characteristics of this artifact are clearly visible in the old drawings: it has an anthropomorphic or animal-like face at its top, protrusions on both sides, a complexly decorated handle, and a very prominent triskelion motif at the center of the hammer head.
Thus, the Danish logo in the game has undergone a very effective “icon compression”: all the decorative elements such as beads, intricate patterns, facial features, and complex edges of the original design have been simplified.
This prototype was not actually discovered in Denmark; it was found on Öland, which is part of Sweden today. Therefore, strictly speaking, it is not a “national symbol of Denmark”.
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So not only a misfit wonder, but wrong emblem as well? Ehh…
As for the Saxon UI’s pale patterns It comes from Sutton Hoo—specifically, a gold and garnet decorative plaque inlaid into the purse lid found in the Sutton Hoo ship burial.
