[R&F] [Story] Deity England: A History Book AAR

[marcopolothefraud]

I love reading the AARs for Paradox games, and I wanted to make my own for Civ 6.

Settings:
Difficulty - Deity
Country - England
Map Type - Pangaea (war is better)
Map Size - Standard
Resources - Abundant
Sea Level - Low (more land = more cities)
Rainfall - Wet (more chops available)
Start - Standard
Temperature - Standard

 

[marcopolothefraud]

Index
Prehistory: c. 900,000 BCE - c. 3200 BCE
Cynn Period: c. 3200 BCE - c. 2700 BCE

 

[marcopolothefraud]

Prehistory: c. 900,000 BCE - c. 3200 BCE​

From Wikipedia about OTL England:

"The earliest evidence of human occupation is around 900,000 years ago is at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast, with stone tools and footprints probably made by Homo antecessor. The oldest human fossils, around 500,000 years old, are of Homo heidelbergensis at Boxgrove in Sussex...Fossils of very early Neanderthals dating to around 400,000 years ago have been found at Swanscombe in Kent, and of classic Neanderthals about 225,000 years old at Pontnewydd in North Wales. Britain was unoccupied by humans between 180,000 and 60,000 years ago, when Neanderthals returned. By 40,000 years ago they had become extinct and modern humans had reached Britain. But even their occupations were brief and intermittent due to a climate which swung between low temperatures with a tundra habitat and severe ice ages which made Britain uninhabitable for long periods. The last of these, the Younger Dryas, ended around 11,700 years ago, and since then Britain has been continuously occupied."

*Note: In OTL, Britain is situated far in the northern hemisphere. Here, it's far in the southern hemisphere.

During the Neolithic Period, the Thames River (the surroundings of present-day London) was much more forested than today. Wheat was much more prevalent towards the north of the city, and a copper deposit existed by the Werthlic Mountains, hence the name. *In Old English, one word for "copper" was "Weorðlicnes", which was corrupted into "Werthlic" over time.

Evidence of prehistoric settlement nearby present-day London dates back to 7000 BCE, likely accelerated by the wheatfields. Although they lived nearby the coast, ancient Londoners wouldn't develop maritime technologies for some time; instead, they would focus on developing their land around them, and creating one of the world's first surviving texts: the Heathulac.

 

[marcopolothefraud]

The Cynn Period: c. 3200 BCE - c. 2700 BCE​

(Cynn simply means "people" in Old English - Londoners called themselves the Cynn.)

"One Cynn, attacking [in] darkness, encountered two Gyr. Thinking quickly, he killed one man and captured [the] other. [The] captive was sacrificed for quick victory." - The Heathulac

The Heathulac, written in a picture writing system with several illustrations, details the Cynn conquest of Gyr and several warriors' stories. It's notable for being written in a Subject-Verb-Object format, indiciating that English has been like this for a long time. It's also written from right to left, on a clay tablet. Ultimately, it hints at London developing a militaristic culture, encouraging the exploits of soldiers.

Curiously, this conquest coincided with a significant drop in London's population, hinting at a possible conflict or epidemic that devastated the city-state. This likely ensured that London wouldn't control Gyr for long. It took two hundred years for them to expand outwards again - this time farther north, on Lake Tyne.

Around 3000 BCE, Newcastle upon Tyne fell into London's influence. It was remarkably different than it is today - it had rainforests to the north and stone deposits, to the south, both of which would be deforested and exhausted by the medieval period. However, continuous barbarian influence and internal struggles would slowly erode at London until it was abandoned for a capital further north the Thames, created by horse-wielding peoples.