evonannoredars
Warlord
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2024
- Messages
- 288
The Maya have, in every game so far, suffered having icons that ultimately aren't very... Maya.
My primary source for this is Reading Maya Art by Andrea Stone and Marc Zender.
A glyph seems the most obvious choice for an icon - although there was little distinction between writing and artwork to the Maya, glyphs and artwork followed the same iconographic system. Many glyphs however are far too complex to work as a small, easily quickly readable icon in a video game. Fortunately, there's a few that are simplistic enough, and the flexibility possible in glyphs means others can be simplified down. In no particular order (although 2 and 4 are my favourites):
- Civ 4: A double-headed serpent - featured in Maya iconography too iirc, but the specific design is Aztec.
- Civ 5: The central face from the Aztec sun stone, as far as I can tell.
- Civ 6: The feathered serpent - more broadly Mesoamerican and I can't find a clear consensus on where the feathered serpent originated, but imo I'd associate it much more with Teotihuacan and either way it's too unspecifically Maya for my tastes.

A glyph seems the most obvious choice for an icon - although there was little distinction between writing and artwork to the Maya, glyphs and artwork followed the same iconographic system. Many glyphs however are far too complex to work as a small, easily quickly readable icon in a video game. Fortunately, there's a few that are simplistic enough, and the flexibility possible in glyphs means others can be simplified down. In no particular order (although 2 and 4 are my favourites):