All Quiet on the Civ Front

[ggalindo001]

IN catching up on this thread in the last day -- I am thinking that the fine folks at FXS are running us like "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" -- getting a major kick out of the community's sleuthing, hypothesis, and the like. Dropping clues here and there that will get us spinning out of our collective minds. In some corner at FXS, Ed is probably telling someone --"remember when I opened the civlopedia by accident -- well, hold my beer, I told you that this sucker's code name would send them in orbit". I must admit, if they did a "leak" on purpose, it is ingenious.

With that said -- I will openly say "I, for one, welcome our new Firaxis overlords".

Now, can we get it to late November please -- or better yet, mid February!

 

[Guatenadian]

If it is Æthelflæd or Eleanor of Aquitaine, are we thinking that she could be the leader of a new civ? Or is it more likely that she's an alternate leader for England/France?

 

[jddods]

.Æthelflæd is my pick.

 

[nzcamel]

As someone pointed out, the Maori weren't a naval civ - they were a warrior society best-known for their initially hostile interactions with European colonists. Very similar in that respect to the Mapuche or the Zulu.

I don't think that is accurate. Yes Abel Tasman's only interaction with them was very negative; but Cook and those who followed mostly had great interactions with Maori who were very entrepreneurial and immediately saw the benefits of trade with outsiders. They are a remarkable people in many ways; one of them being that they largely didn't see the continuing arrival of Europeans as doom for their world. They were and are still very optimistic.

You're certainly right about being a warrior society. Might was right, with anyone who could get away with something being seen as having the favour of the gods. That is part of their concept of Mana. The British at one point described them as the fiercest hand to hand fighters they had ever met - ranged weapons weren't really a thing; so it makes sense that the Maori were utterly fearless in melee. You had to be. That legacy carried on into the world wars where the Maori Battalion often performed with distinction.

But it wasn't until fallings out after the Treaty of Waitangi that Maori and European were significantly pitted against each other (If anyone wants to learn more about that via a new game rather than reading, they should check out: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29386/maori-wars-new-zealand-land-wars-1845-1872 ).

I asked a Maori friend to look at the leaked picture of the Polynesian leader. She reckoned the cloak is Kurī hair (Polynesian dog). From the Museum of New Zealand, they also say the cloaks were the war cloaks of chiefs, so this fits a Maori leader. Although she did say it could be any other Polynesian culture with dog hair cloaks (The Kurī spread all over Polynesia).

The dog is extinct now, but you can read more about it and the cloaks here:
https://teara.govt.nz/en/kuri-polyn...ICHOIouPRjgbFzPL1Cg81Nb_h7OMqKIHOBsH_-43s0G_A
https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/...wdVJgEZSVhTF8N6R_PvI3ilXwL9amO4ok5-wokCXts7wI

Right, the items he is wearing are really not specific to the Maori people, they were worn all over. Which is why I think the more telling items would be the symbols on the clothing. I am not sure what exactly the necklace is, but he does appear to have either swords (which are a symbol of the Tongan kings) or, and the more I look at it the more I think it is this, Kapu sticks (symbols of the ancient Hawai'i kings).

Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if it's Polynesia again, rather than Maori specifically.

 

[bite]

Moderator Action: Hi everyone, because things are no unofficially no longer quiet on the Civ front we will close this thread.

Please feel free to continue the discussion over HERE https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/new-expansion-speculation-thread.637912/