- [Huns]
- Hephtalites [Huns]
- Xiongnu [Huns]
- Donghu/Rourans/Xianbei
- Beidi
- Di
- Jie
- Liao/Xiajiadian
- Buyeo
- Quanrong/Qiang
- Tibetans/Zhangzhung
- Chu [Shang]
- Han [Shang]
- Jin [Shang]
- Qi [Shang]
- Qin [Shang]
- Shu [Shang]
- Wei [Shang]
- Wu [Shang]
- Xia [Shang]
- Yan [Shang]
- Zhou [Shang]
- Ba/Bo
- Shanxingdu
- Man/Miao/Nanman
- Rong/Xirong
- Yi/Dongyi
- Baiyue/Yue
- Emishi/Jomon
- Pyu
- Funan/Khmers
- Austronesians/Malays
- Chams
- All of them!
- None
- I don’t know
- I don’t care
- Other(s)
0 voters
And as usual, how many civs do you want to see added to the region?
- 1-2
- 3-4
- 5-6
- 7-8
- 9-10
- More
- None
- I don’t know
- I don’t care
0 voters
Ok, this one was particularly difficult to organize, and I’m not really satisfied with the result but I don’t think I could have done better. Especially in the early eras, most of the writen source are from Huaxia China, and describing their neighbours in a detailed and unbiased way was not really a concern. As a result, several of the possible civs are actually mismatches of different cultures that just so happened to live in the same general direction compared to those who kept the records. It doesn’t help either that many of those civs have the exact same name, at least in the latin alphabet (especially those with monosyllabic names).
As the poll about South Asia (and probably the previous ones to a lesser extent) has confused people about what the various options stand for, I will try to break it down here. I won’t present this in an impartial way, though.
Huaxia China: All of the “Shang” civs will be grouped there. Those are basically civs from the main Chinese culture which would later become the Han ethnicity, for which I have offered several possibilities of splits. Xia, Zhou, Qin and Han are all dynasties that have ruled China at different points in time, as the Shang have created a precedent for Chinese dynasties being represented as civs in AoE1. Qi, Chu, Yan and Jin were rivals to the Qin during the era of the Seven Warring States (Jin was actually split into three different states at some point), and Wei, Wu and Shu are the famous Three Kingdoms from the period of the same name… Though Wu is also the name of an ethnicity and the Shu were als called the Han, plus another Jin ended up invading everyone. In the end I don’t really think the Shang should be split except maybe to represent the Three Kingdoms, but I put all those options here just in case. It could definitely be renamed, though.
The Four Barbarians: The peoples living near the borders of China, especially under the Zhou dynasty. It includes the Yi, or Dongy, to the East, the Man, or Nanman, to the South, the Rong, or Xirong, to the West, and finally the Beidi to the North, which you can also call the Di, but in the poll this option stands for the Di from the Five Barbarians. All in all, I think including any of the Four Barbarians would be a bad idea, as they are usually not one specific civ but just a mixture of different peoples living and were just defined by their geographical situation.
The Five Barbarians: Those are far more interesting, even though they were mostly grouped together relatively late in the timeline of the game.
Xiongnu are quite possibly related to the Huns, if not the exact same thing. They formed a powerful confederation during serveral centuries and waged several wars with Han China. Hephtalites would be their later cousins who mostly lived in Central Asia and modern day TIbet and were a threat to the Sassanian Empire.
They were succeded by the Xianbei, a (probably) proto-Mongolic or para-Mongolic people just like the Donghu and Rouran.
The Qiang were a Tibeto-Burman nomadic people that may be the ancestor of medieval Tanguts.
The Di and the Jie are less clearly identified, they may or may not have been Turcic people. They’re not necessarily the most interesting of the bunch.
Other civs in modern China:
Liao/Xiajiadian and Buyeo are cultures from Manchuria, the first two of which are mostly known through archaeological vestiges.
The Baiyue, or Yue, are actually a huge culture group from South China and South East Asia, of which the Lac Viet are actually a part of. Here they would mostly represent the South Chinese part of the umbrella.
The Tibetans probably don’t need to be presented. During Ancient Era, they created the kingdom of Zhangzhung.
The Bo people from the Yunnan and Shichuan province, where they formed an independant kingdom during the Seven Warring States period. Shanxingdui is an archaeological site which predates the kingdom of Shu, who neighboured the kingdom of Ba to the West.
Japan and South East Asia:
The Jomon people lived in Japan before the Yamato (or Yayoi are they are called in the earliest periods) arrived. It seems they later branched out into the Emishi and Ainu, though the timeline seems a bit fuzzy.
Funan is the name of the first Khmer state (at least in China), founded in the 1st century. It had tumultuous relations with China, and was also in contact with Kalinga.
The Pyu were proto-Burmese people who formed organised city states as early as the 2nd century BC.
Austrenasian, and more specifically Malays are not as well documented as I would like, but it seems they were already seafarers in this time-period, with good fishing technics and some basic agricultural knowledge. Chams are technically part of this group, though they were already isolated in Indochina and a subject of Funan.
That’s it for this week. Next poll will probably be the last one for RoR civs at least for the time being.