@Atlas627 The EQ is about Venetian artists, learning their art in Venetian schools, why you want to switch and give it to Tuscans ? A merchant culture is perfect too to be a great benefactor/sponsor/backer of artists.(it's actually really legit)
You can give so much other things to Tuscans, Renaissance churches (a basic and emblematic innovation of Florence), their palazzo are an amazing and emblematic architectural type of palace (you learn about that in all Architecture Schools), Santa Maria del Fiore could be litteraly a Wonder. (amazing architectural achievement of Florence)...
About the Canal EQ, it's looks so meaningless about the Venetian culture imho and in term of game design. How it's look ? You can only build them on rivers ? On coastal tiles ? And what ? It's a canal with a little bridge ? As the Brugges ones ?
Yes, it's telling an iconic and touristic vision, and a certain way of life of the singular city of Venice, but it's telling nothing about Venetian international achievements, how their culture widespread through their different cities and what's the point in term of game design.
It's need to be repeatable and I don't know ... you want to give Canals to a culture for which it was really impressive because for their historical period it was an amazing achievement (hello Happarapans, and some other Ancient Cultures) not just because it's pretty in one of their city.
I'm sure than there is a lot of ancient cultures from south america or middle-east in ancient/classical era, which have revolutionary Canals system to speak about.
I know than Nabataeans have some amazing system of canals, dams and swimming pools in Hegra (in the desert) for exemple.
I don't know if you want to show something from Venice canals in all of your Venetian cities, something ponctual seems to be enough for me. Venetian Arsenal as wonder could give a Venice vibe to one of your city (named Venice and your capital if you want to be roleplay). Or suggest something architectural, as the amazing venetian Gothic Palazzio (from 14-15th century) which are on water. But canal seems so generic and not really a specific Venetian prowess. It's like a lot of cities which were builds on a bad spot, but which adapted to it, and became cute.
"Scientific, philosophical and mathematical thought entered Italy through Egypt and the Levant. Triggers for new Renaissance linguistic studies, Greek texts and scholars capable of teaching to Italians how to read them arrive from Constantinople after its conquest by Ottoman forces in 1453 in the academies of Florence and Venice, which are reborn from their ashes ."
I think than the deep connections of Venetians to multiple cultures through times are the things you want to show in Humankind. (They were Byzantine vassals, later their rivals, later their heir. They were artistic rivals to other Italian citystates. With their trading road to the east they were the direct concurrent to portuguese with their trading road to africa, etc ...). So a repeatable Aesthete EQ make sense for me, Obviously a Merchant EQ or a Naval merchant/warfare EQ make sense too.
I know than in Civ it's "Unique" quarter, not "Emblematic" quarter, but here, the canal thing, remember me this terrible choice of Grand Bazaar for Ottomans, which tell nothing about Ottomans architectural/artistic achievements, just give the name of a ponctual and today high touristic place of Istanbul (which could be a wonder if not so bad named and designed).
The Artists District is maybe not the most emblematic thing of Venetians (even if why not, I don't know, I read about that, and seems enough legit, I think the Amplitude historians must be competent), but please suggest something that reflects the way how venetian widespread their cultures. Because there is a lot of Venetian remains in a lot of cities and territories, and this is not canals which only are a thing in the city of Venice, and tell nothing about the Venetian radiance.
Edit : Still, my personal expectations for venetians were their Gothic Palazzo, but honestly I stayed reasonable about that, because, the timeline is not the best, and in term of gameplay I don't even know how it could work. (a coastal residential district ? with some canals through the quarter ? don't look really believable in term of gamedesign) or a City Center with some water, will look silly in multiple cities and some of the different biomes ... etc ...
Their coastal/naval forts in all their cities and colonies are rather emblematic and repeatable, but... it's really weak in term of stories.
Anyway, the Boggethe of Artisti has the merit to be original, and will be cool to have in all my Venetian cities (Zara, Bari, Vicenza, etc ...)
Edit 2 : You can even imagine than motivated modders add some little water ramifications/canals on Venetian generic quarters when you build it near water/coastal tiles/swamp tiles ?
(Paint level, sorry)
But for my personnal level of abstraction, building my mediteranean city on a river and having developped some Canal Technology seems to be enough for me to make one Venice city lookalike.
(zoom on openDev outro screenshot)
Sorry for this long post buddies, my meaning is than suggesting Emblematic Units and Quarters, it really more complex, and not so evident, when we transpose it in the context of the game and with the idea of culture of HK, than just throwing some ideas on forum or reddit