The Byzantine empire it should called eastern roman empire because they were roman so lets change the name…
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You are right
But having two “Romes” (Holy Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire) might confuse newcomers and people not familiar with history.
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Hey welcome to the forum, mate. Now, the short answer for which is for the sake of easier reference. Why? That’s for the longer answer.
Here goes, the medieval political institutions, military operation, religion, etc of the E.R.E were shifting away from their ancient forms. Additionally, just like herrick said, when Barbarossa’s Holy R.E. came to power and was acknowledged by the Pope, it even causes more confusion to new players and historians alike, so we/they have to… distinguish the 2 periods. This won’t be the best answer but I don’t want to make it too long. You can find out more on the internet.
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The reason is language.
The English came under the influence of the HRE, and would pick up “Byzantine” as a name from German scholars who rejected the Roman Empire.
Basically, it is an etymological relic.
Though we know better today, Byzantine is still a synonym for the eastern half of the Roman Empire in the modern English language. Perhaps due to ease of use, it is preferred. Or it could be related to bias.
It has nevertheless caused a whole lot of confusion and has been unhelpful in educating many generations. Many believe it to be an entirely different entity because of this. Additionally, much like the HRE’s medieval usage of the word, it has also, in the modern day, been a target in politics attempting historical revisions.
I was hoping the developers, whom were so careful with many other naming conventions in the past, would’ve used this as an opportunity to help align language and history for those who bought the game to learn more about our past. Unfortunately, it seems the nostalgic popularity of its AoE2 predecessor won this time.
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This civ will just be called “Byzantines” because it’s the best name to use. Also, some improvements that the Byzantines will need can be having some unique techs that benefit their Monks to reflect their devotion to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Some examples of unique techs are something called “Ecumenical Council” and “Theosis”. I don’t know which idea of which effect for Ecumenical Council, but I do have an idea for the effect that Theosis can do and that is that it can let Monks heal 100% faster, which would make this tech, a nod to the team bonus of AoE2’s Byzantines that does the exact same effect.
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I think in the same way that Orthodoxy is a deeply useful feature that developers could still implement in interesting ways, especially considering that Byzantium itself conceives and evolves from it.
Well Eastern Roman empire was created before the creation of Holy Roman empire. The empire had two parts West and East with two emperors. So even historically we should use Eastern Roman Empire.
I think they went with the byzantine empire to not confuse it with the holy roman empire. I know that we know the difference between those two but the majority of the playerbase probably doesn’t and they probably didn’t want to create any confusion.
I think it’s in purely because of the Byzantine connection to AoE II, given how popular they were there.
I don’t have any strong feelings either way, AoE IV gets enough flak for not adhering to the flavour of the franchise, but at the same time I’m a fan of bringing things up-to-date wherever possible.
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