The explanation from content makers and insiders was very clear and understandable. There will be no difference between the variants and other civs!
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The content makers aren’t the ones making the game. The expansion isn’t released yet.
Like I said: I hope the developers make it clear ingame. But the fact is the word “variant” exists and the developer intends to use it.
No one has any complaints about Ayyubids, so good names exist. Devs just need to listen to the opinion of the community.
By the way, Ayyubids is the only name proposed by the community. The rest of the names were born in the minds of devs. Maybe that’s the problem? Maybe developers need to listen to the opinion of fans of the game? Maybe they need to give feedback?
And we get communication in one direction. Every second topic on the forum is dedicated to the problem of names. Why? People try to shout to devs because they feel that they are not being heard.
If a poll with 300 samples are small and misleading, how about 2300? I recommend you to watch the video below by Age of Noob, an AoE2 & AoE4 content creator, and AoE4 enjoyor, I consider.
He analyzed multiple polls from different websites, and started his own poll on his channel, collected 2300 samples at the time that video was made, 3100 samples now, and He also believes his subscribers are mixed with casuals and enthusiasts, which will lead to a more balanced result. Still, 42% of people dislike/hate the name of variant civs.
Long story short, he doesn’t think it’s only the haters who dislike the names and the poll does reflect the majority of players dislike the name.
He also suggested the new name for ZXL, he can’t actually say the name due to NDA, but he used the flag with the Chinese letter “宋”(Song), I guess it’s either “Song dynasty” or “Southern Song”. (btw I also suggested “Southern Song” in my comment above)
Maybe not everyone dislikes the name was hater, huh?
That was before the name change though.
Didn’t like Sultan’s army either. New one is great.
Im fine with Jeanne Darc considering the focus of the civ.
And order of dragon is fine.
Zhu xi is the only name im not convinced but i guess i can accept it.
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Sometimes it’s better to just shut up, you were never taught that?
You act like Variants are something made up from us when the concept it’s been clearly presented by the Devs like GorbMort showed you. Didn’t you know that?
That’s not a definitive build, usually they preview older ones. So, work in progress, things can change and usually UI is done after. That list could easily be a temporary solution. Or not. Any case, chill out.
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Yes, I agree that “Ayyubids” is great name, but that also bothers me that why don’t also rename ZXL to “Song” or “Southern Song”?
“Ayyubids” and “Song” are both the names of dynasties, I mean, at least make the rules of naming consistent, please?
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Other than the fact that the Song Dynasty is one of the 4 dynasties you can obtain as both Chinese civs? The civ encompasses more than just a Dynasty, you still go through Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming as both civs.
Just rename it into something else, maybe call it “Policy Focus”? e.g. the Ming Dynasty gives players military advantage, then called it “Military focus”? Not the best suggestion, but you know what I mean.
Again, I commented on this many times on other threads, having a player “advance” to another dynasty is such a poor design in terms of historical accuracy. In real history, the dynasties’ changes meant the decline of empire, it always means blood, war, political struggle, coup, or even foreign invasion, etc. Ask any Chinese player how the textbook describes it.
How did the Song Dynasty “advance” to the Yaun Dynasty? they lost the war and were conquered by the Mongols. Yaun Dynasty itself was a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division.
Speaking of which, if the Mongols and Yaun Dynasty can co-exist in the game, then I see no problem of Chinese/ Song Dynasty and Southern Song co-exist.
Also, notice that the Tang dynasty was around 200 years before Zhu Xi was even born, so it makes no sense and needs some change anyway.
This video is a bit old but it shuts down many arguments of the most vocal opposers we have in this forum.
Anyway this topic is not just about finding a good name, it’s also about the substance of the variant itself.
? The video literally says there are a lot of players dislike the variant civs’ names and should not be ignored 
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There are other parts to the video, the first ones, those deny those whom denounce cheapness and a turn to fantasy.
In the second paragraph I was referring to this topic, not the video, sorry.
Anyway I too was dissatisfied with the names and tried to find a better solution where possible.
Ironically, if there was only one (Ayyubids, Mamluks, or Persians) civ as a third new civilization - without Jeanne DArc, Zhu Xi, and Order of Dragon - I and my buddiest would have pre-ordered this expansion on the very first day.
But we haven’t still. And we might not even buy it anymore.
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Are you not going to buy this expansion just because of the names of the variant civs?
From the perspective of modern people, the replacement of Chinese dynasties is the decline of empires, political struggles, peasant uprisings, and alien attacks, rather than foreign invasions. There are 56 ethnic groups in China, and the founders of all dynasties are among these 56 ethnic groups. Modern Chinese believe that this is the internal struggle of the Chinese nation. Moreover, regardless of the Han, Mongolian, Manchu, Xiongnu, Turkic, etc., their common ancestors were all born in the Yellow River Basin region of China. Due to ethnic competition and other reasons, some had to leave their homeland to continue living in other places, forming China’s agricultural, nomadic, fishing and hunting ethnic groups, all caused by differences in the environment. Many foreigners do not understand Chinese history, and the historical view of division and differentiation Outer Mongolia is used as a template, thinking that the Mongols are foreign ethnic groups in China. In fact, the Mongols and Han ethnic groups come from the same ancestral group.
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No. I may not buy it because they are non-civilizations (except Ayyubids which is pretty cool and relevant).
Plus, I dislike the idea of a second French, second HRE when there are other much cooler / more important civs than French not yet in AoE4.
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That’s what AOM is for 
Shaolin monks? Seriously? This is not just a random mix of different things, but the most ironic thing is that the whole point of Neo-Confucianism is to eliminate the political and social influence of Buddhism. A bunch of Shalin monks taking orders from this marde is a serious insult to Buddhism and ##### # ##### new level of historical stupidity.
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That’s one of the reason Zhu xi legacy is the wrong name. But if you put the name aside nothing in the gameplay is really related to Zhu xi other than like 1 landmark which i think can coexhist with the monk if the whole civ wasn’t named this way. And I like to keep the Shaolin Monk idea if they go with a different name.
Hopefully they will rename this civ as it’s the most inconsistent and irrelevant. I’m fine with the other 3 variant civ names so far.
They are making the game worse with this recycled junk just to save money, it is awful. The thing is, everyone would have been perfectly happy with just the two actually unique civs we are getting in byzantines and japanese
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