Darius a little to dark?

[TheLastOne36]

Don't you think Darius is a bit to dark for a persian?

Discuss.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

The real question is: Wasn't Cyrus too light?

I think they both need to be moved closer toward each other so that they might look like they're actually from the same civilization.

 

[Gilder]

They really should move out of the sun and push Cyrus into the sun.

 

[Snoopaloop]

He looks like he's real old, and has back problems.

It seems as if he is hunched over. To me he seems more frail than the Gandhi leader head.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Darius sorta looks like a women...

And the typical Persian is as light as Cyrus. I don't know why they made him so dark.

My friend is a persian and i would mistake him for a european any day.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

It's partly the particular moment of the screenshot. He looks middle-aged overall I think.

 

[Alter Ego]

There are quite a few skin tone/hair color oddities... Joao II is lighter than Willem van Oranje, Pericles is darker than Hammurabi (and so is Gilgamesh from the same area), Suleiman is darker and has a more yellowish tone than Mehmed despite probably having less Asiatic Turkic blood and so on.

 

[Da_V_Man]

Don't you think Darius is a bit to dark for a persian?

Discuss.

I think he looks a little too Egyptian to be Persian, what with all the mummification and all.

 

[Gilder]

Darius sorta looks like a women...

And the typical Persian is as light as Cyrus. I don't know why they made him so dark.

My friend is a persian and i would mistake him for a european any day.

Persians also spent a lot more time outside than we do today. Actually that's probably true for most ancient peoples.

 

[TheLastOne36]

There are quite a few skin tone/hair color oddities... Joao II is lighter than Willem van Oranje, Pericles is darker than Hammurabi (and so is Gilgamesh from the same area), Suleiman is darker and has a more yellowish tone than Mehmed despite probably having less Asiatic Turkic blood and so on.

Yes but Darius is really of.

 

[bonafide11]

I'm glad they made him a little darker. It's nice to see Firaxis recognizes that there are shades between "white" and "black" that leaders can have, and since Cyrus is already so white looking, the Persians needed a little darker leader.

Please trolls, I don't care to hear how the Persians are the "true Aryan race" or any other silly argument about why Darius is too dark. There is no true Aryan race...

 

[Fruidoc]

Do any of you really know how dark he was? Does ANYONE? I doubt it. Perhaps Persians today look lighter - gotcha. But does that mean that EVERY Persian is light-skinned? It's not like it is not at all possible that he could have been dark - maybe he has some Nubian blood or something.

I think it was the right decision not to add Xerxes again....after the 300 movie, I don't think they could ever pin down an image of the fellow. I'd love to see them just put in the actor from the movie...hehe "THE THOUSAND NATION OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE DESCEND UPON YOU!"

 

[BobTheTerrible]

I'm just waiting to play as the Greeks, get Leonidas as a great general (he actually is in the game as one), and try to hold off an entire Persian invasion with Leonidas attached to a phalanx.

 

[Lars_Domus]

First off, I think the Darius leaderhead in and of it self is really cool. He's one of the leaders I was really excited about, and I'm quite satisfied with the way he turned out. He certainly looks nothing like I would have expected, nor like what I would have done if I should try to make an artistic interpretation of him. Yet, the man we see before us could easily be imagined to be the model for the contemporary depictions that exists of him:

Also, as said, we know little of the Achaemenids' skin tone - accounts from their time are more focused on their achievements and acts as rulers rather than their appearance. I think that isolated, the Darius leaderhead is an apt and interesting take at depicting him.

But, I say "isolated"... There's a minor detail here that's irking me. Darius was (or so he claimed anyway) the grandson of Cyrus II's (that's the Cyrus in Civ IV, in case you're not familiar with Persian history) great uncle. I think it's kind of weird to depict him as so incredibly different from his relative (though it would certainly be possible and even plausible for them to have been so different.) Furthermore, Darius was the father of this other chap you might have heard of:

Xerxes I, the fruitca.. ehm... I mean the "Great".​

As you can see, there's somewhat of an inconsistency in Firaxis' artwork. Indeed the Darius we see before us in BtS seems far more likely to have had a son that would look something like this:

Might this be a nod to the popularity of Frank Miller's 300? Though and excellent comic book and movie, with an interesting use of artistic license, it pains me greatly that its depiction of the Persians have become so influential.

I don't know, I'm just rambling on here. At least our Darius is dressed as a Persian, and sports a stylish beard. His slightly "alien" appearance also gives him a touch of divinity, proper for an Achaemenid emperor. All in all, I'm happy with the way he turned out, and I'm looking forward to seeing him in my diplomacy window when BtS comes around

 

[cybrxkhan]

I think he looks a little too Egyptian to be Persian, what with all the mummification and all.

i thought he also looked like a seriotypical egyptian priest or something. but at least he doesn't look like some girly mexican.

 

[RedRalph]

Yeah he dosent look persian to me. They have got pretty much caucasian features an darker then northern European skin, so, bscially in general they look simiar to Southern Europeans. Always exceptions of course,, here in Ireland you get 100% pure blood Irish who have sallow skin and blonde hair

 

[thenooblet22]

I don't understand the criticism. Not every leader was beautiful, some were ugly by our standards. What's wrong with that? The description I've always heard of Justinian was that of a meek, pale man, as they did portray him so. I don't know much about the leader of Khmer, but is it too hard to imagine he wasn't appealing to the eyes?

Not every historical leader was a Prince Charming. You'll get used to them in a week tops after you being playing.

All of these leaderhead discussion threads are pointless because you know you'll get used to them in less than a week of playing.

 

[eric_]

Iranian man

Don't see what the problem is.

 

[eric_]

Check out the dude on the right

"Tajiks" is the name given to Persians in some of the central Asian nations (Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, etc).

 

[madscientist]

I t doesn't really matter. I have known several Iranians and their skin color varies from pale, northern ueropean looking to darker, almost pakistani (skin color). He was supposed to be related to Cyrus (sorry I missed exactly how) but what does that matter since he had two parents (My youngest daughter has my olive, Spanish skin and my older one has my wife's Scottish/English skin). So his skin color I think is fine. His stance and demenor are another thing, he has an appearence that makes we want to send a hundred raging Beserkers to destroy his country (OK, perhaps his financial/organized trait may be causing that). I personally think he should have been holding a bag of gold to represent his traits!!!