Darius a little to dark?

[eric_]

(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!!!

Some put it in a bag, some wear it on their heads in the form of HUGE plates .

 

[Impaler[WrG]]

He also needs a Mustache

 

[Slobadog]

And some ear hair

 

[Mango]

Iranian man

Don't see what the problem is.

Modern day Iranians are not of the same ethnicity as ancient Persians, even though they like to call themselves Persian.

 

[Inhalaattori]

He doesnt even look human. His eyes are very wierd... He looks like a monkey, baboon or something like that.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Yes but the only way Darius could be that dark, is if he had Nubian or Ethiopian blood in him. Which would be unlikely because Nubians and Ethiopians were used as slaves by the persians, enless of course it was a Nubian/Ethiopian Queen/King.

 

[Xen]

Modern day Iranians are not of the same ethnicity as ancient Persians, even though they like to call themselves Persian.

I doubt this- if all the invasions and colonizations in europe changed the collective gene pool there about a grand total of 5% from what the populations were in the neolithic and before, i dont think that whats gone on in Persia has much changed its ethnic make up either.

 

[eric_]

Modern day Iranians are not of the same ethnicity as ancient Persians, even though they like to call themselves Persian.

Source? I've never seen anything supporting that. Furthermore, if that is the case, we truly have no possible way of knowing what ancient Persians looked like, and thus this thread is 100% moot.

FWIW, here's wikipedia's take on the matter.

I don't have any other sources to back that up at the moment, though.

 

[ohcrapitsnico]

I'm not surprised they did this after looking at his civilopedia entry saying he ruled in the 1st century.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Exactly. Darius was certainly not a Slave. He wouldn't be to sun burned and being a relative of the white Cyrus, it seems weird for me.

 

[bonafide11]

Yes but the only way Darius could be that dark, is if he had Nubian or Ethiopian blood in him. Which would be unlikely because Nubians and Ethiopians were used as slaves by the persians, enless of course it was a Nubian/Ethiopian Queen/King.

Ummm you're wrong about that. Ethiopians emigrated to Egypt and eventually to Greece and Persia, and they mixed with the Egyptians as well as the Persians. The ancient world did not conceive of "race" as we know it...

 

[cybrxkhan]

actually, i think it IS possible for an Ancient Persian RULER/relative of ruler to have dark skin, if it is by diplomatic marriage. get it? and anyhow, i know that some Arabs do have pretty dark skin, and although Arabia =/= Persia, that shold tell us something, sohuold'nt it?

and on the being related to Cyrus... yes, it is probable if he is related to Cyrus then he shouln't be as dark, but... im pretty pale for a Vietnamese, and my cousin has a pretty bad tan, so it is possible.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Well i have a pretty bad Tan for being a Pole. (maybe it's my Spanish Side?) Well that's not the discussion.

And can anyone get info on if Darius' Mother/Father was Nubian/Ethiopian or something?

 

[cybrxkhan]

i checked on Wikipedia - Darius' predecessor conquered Egypt, and possibly married an Egyptian. so... that Egyptian girl could have had a pretty bad tan, or could've been part-Nubian/Ethiopian... so...

 

[TheLastOne36]

ok i can somewhat believe that he could've been that dark..

 

[Dom Pedro II]

I think he's too dark, but I can attest to the fact that families can vary widely in skin color.

I'm the pastiest, whitest man on this planet... I've been referred to as "clear" on more than one occasion.

My uncle... not my grand uncle's grandson or equally removed relative... was as dark as Darius here. My father lies somewhere in between. Why so different? Aside from possibly dormant genes from earlier intermarrying, we come from a somewht diverse background. My skin color comes from my mom, an American-born woman of Scotch-Irish and Anglo descent.

I still think he's too dark, but I'd only want to make him a shade lighter and Cyrus perhaps a shade darker... thankfully, since these are not pre-rendered 2D graphics like in Civ3, one only needs a copy of Photoshop in order to mod these skin changes in. I think the facial features for both are fine, and so you wouldn't have to do any restructuring of the models to make it work IMO.

EDIT:

Just so I don't seem too serious today, Darius is also that dark because his mom had a bad case of jungle fever if you catch my drift...

 

[Lars_Domus]

i checked on Wikipedia - Darius' predecessor conquered Egypt, and possibly married an Egyptian. so... that Egyptian girl could have had a pretty bad tan, or could've been part-Nubian/Ethiopian... so...

That would be Cyrus' son Cambyses, who was not Darius' father. Darius himself was, furthermore, a grown man during the Persian conquest of Egypt. Darius' father was named Hystaspes, an Achaemenid nobleman who fought in Cyrus' army, and later became governor of Parthia. No special mention is ever made of Darius' mother, though, at least AFAIK.

 

[cybrxkhan]

That would be Cyrus' son Cambyses, who was not Darius' father. Darius himself was, furthermore, a grown man during the Persian conquest of Egypt. Darius' father was named Hystaspes, an Achaemenid nobleman who fought in Cyrus' army, and later became governor of Parthia. No special mention is ever made of Darius' mother, though, at least AFAIK.

right, right, i wasn't thinking... though it would still be possible that due to historical descrepancies, Firaxis, which has good and excellent historical research capabilities, was able to discover an obscure but reliable text (a Greek and Roman source) that told us the general looks of Darius, though not the exact ones.

 

[Mirc]

I think he's too dark, but I can attest to the fact that families can vary widely in skin color.

I don't think so, my skin can have two colors, pale, transparent white or red.

When it's burned by the sun, which happens too often.

Apparently Persians can be from this light:

To this dark:

Don't forget Persians are Indo-European though.

 

[Lars_Domus]

right, right, i wasn't thinking... though it would still be possible that due to historical descrepancies, Firaxis, which has good and excellent historical research capabilities, was able to discover an obscure but reliable text (a Greek and Roman source) that told us the general looks of Darius, though not the exact ones.

Actually, I think we are putting to much into it. I think the artist just wanted to do something different, what with working on a leader whose appearance has been obscured by history and all, and I, for one, am pleasantly surprised by the way it turned out