Evolution of City Names and Languages

[BackseatTyrant]

Zlotoryja, despite being the oldest settlement in Poland, only has about a population of 15,000 today and has not gone much above that throughout it's history. Assuming that the first city being founded would also be the capital why should that be chosen over the likes of Warsaw or Krakow?
Regarding another civ like England, the oldest "settlement" seems to be Colchester which didn't actually receive city status until 2022.

My reasoning, at least partially, is that nations switch capitals all the time. It's just that no game in the series have ever incentivized the player to do so, save from when the old capital got conquered. Also chronological accuracy matters more to me than perceived importance.

So I wouldn't really mind England's capital being Colchester in game. France, however, is a lot trickier by comparison; Marseilles is its oldest city, but it's at least a millennium older than France itself, and even after France was founded, Marseilles existed for almost half a millennium more not being French. For similar reasons, I roll my eyes at cities founded by the Danes in the Swedish city list, and it's also why I believe the Russian city list should exclusively consist of cities founded by Muscovites or Novgorodians (thus allowing Kievan Rus/Galicia-Volhynia/Ukraine to be a separate civilization).

Basically, my criteria can be summed up as "Who founded this place and when?"

 

[Leyrann]

My reasoning, at least partially, is that nations switch capitals all the time. It's just that no game in the series have ever incentivized the player to do so, save from when the old capital got conquered. Also chronological accuracy matters more to me than perceived importance.

So I wouldn't really mind England's capital being Colchester in game. France, however, is a lot trickier by comparison; Marseilles is its oldest city, but it's at least a millennium older than France itself, and even after France was founded, Marseilles existed for almost half a millennium more not being French. For similar reasons, I roll my eyes at cities founded by the Danes in the Swedish city list, and it's also why I believe the Russian city list should exclusively consist of cities founded by Muscovites or Novgorodians (thus allowing Kievan Rus/Galicia-Volhynia/Ukraine to be a separate civilization).

Basically, my criteria can be summed up as "Who founded this place and when?"

The French issue would be present for most if not all European countries though.

My hometown, which I mentioned previously, got city rights over three centuries before the Netherlands first became a separate entity in any way, and while it's old it's not unusually old. I wouldn't be surprised if there are more than a hundred cities in the Netherlands that got city rights before the Netherlands first became a thing.

The same will hold for Spain, Portugal, Austria, Italy, Germany (unless maybe you count the HRE) and plenty of other European countries that may or will be included.

In fact, I'm pretty sure it'd hold for England as well.

(and here I'm merely speaking about the part of the world I'm most familiar with - I'm sure there are plenty of non-European civs that have this issue as well)

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

The French issue would be present for most if not all European countries though.

My hometown, which I mentioned previously, got city rights over three centuries before the Netherlands first became a separate entity in any way, and while it's old it's not unusually old. I wouldn't be surprised if there are more than a hundred cities in the Netherlands that got city rights before the Netherlands first became a thing.

The same will hold for Spain, Portugal, Austria, Italy, Germany (unless maybe you count the HRE) and plenty of other European countries that may or will be included.

In fact, I'm pretty sure it'd hold for England as well.

(and here I'm merely speaking about the part of the world I'm most familiar with - I'm sure there are plenty of non-European civs that have this issue as well)

It's a problem for every area and every era.

To use a "recent" (300 year old) example, the city of Detroit was originally settled by the peoples who eventually became Canada before being captured by the peoples who eventually became the USA, but it wouldn't make sense (to me) to include it in Canada's city list and exclude it from the USA's city list.

Colonial nations obviously cause a lot problems because of the issue of "when did they become X instead of Y?", but you don't avoid that issue by going back in time - you just eventually reach a period where we don't have enough data about what was going on to understand just how complex and messy things actually were. And by the time you reach that period, you're well before the period when the concept of "nation", "civilization" or "culture" meant anything like what they are understood to mean now.