The Kingmaker
Alexander
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2004
- Messages
- 1,971
Having studied Mesopotamia rather extensively at the university level, I haven't exactly made it a secret that Babylon has become my favorite civ. Needless to say, I was pleased to hear that Firaxis is even thinking about Babylon, considering they made us wait all the way until BtS to see a representative of the Cradle of Civilization the last time around.
I was also pleased to see that the Persian leader in Civ5, Darius, appears to be modeled on his appearance in the Behistun Inscription, and not on Ant-Man as in Civ4.
I say this because Persia copied Babylonian culture the way that Rome copied Greece (meaning a strong influence without exact duplication). Thus, Darius' appearance is a good indicator to me that someone in the art department at Firaxis knows their stuff.
I'm glad to see that Nebuchadnezzar will finally be depicted in a Civ game, as this guy was seriously the biggest bad-@#$ of the ancient world. However, there is not a lot of highly accurate Nebuchadnezzar artwork out there, so I wanted to discuss what he ought to look like.
Image#1: This is the best Nebuchadnezzar image I've found to date, in terms of his portrayal. He's wearing the tall Assyrian-style crown that the Neo-Babylonians copied, as well as a royal blue robe fringed with gold and crimson. He has an intricately curled mustache and beard in the same Mesopotamian style. This is a great model for any would-be Nebuchadnezzar animator.
Here are a few other images of similarly clad individuals, though none are as accurate as the first, imho.
Image #2: This Nebuchadnezzar is wearing a rather overly stylized tiara, imho, when the tall crown would be preferable. However, the facial hair and royal blue robe are similar in depiction.
Image #3: This Nebuchadnezzar is wearing a crown that the artist appears to have taken some liberties on.
It looks like he merged the standard royal crown with the crown worn by Babylonian deities (which Firaxis used as an influence for the crowns of Hammurabi and Darius in BtS) such as the one worn by the god Shamash on the Code of Hammurabi, who is often mistaken for the king himself. Thus the crown here is not really accurate, but still evokes the right sentiment.
The beard is correct, though I'm not a fan of the way they did the mustache here (since the Mesopotamian kings depicted themselves with elaborately curled mustachios, and any sign of shaving would be considered a sign of emasculation, as the only men without facial hair were eunuchs, or worse, Egyptians). Also, we can't seem to escape the royal blue attire, even though we've now moved on to a third artist. (Shall we call it Ishtar Gate Blue?)
In terms of speech, Nebuchadnezzar would speak the extinct Akkadian language, and I'd love it if the character said something that translated to: "Hail! I am Nabu-kudur-usur, King of Babylon! The gods have given your puny kingdom into my hands, so deal forthrightly with me and prosper."
After all, boastful and arrogant is the Babylonian royal style, if you've ever studied Assyro-Babylonian inscriptions.
Now let's move on to the unique unit. Firaxis has usually done a good job with the Babylonian bowman in the past, though I'd prefer to see a horse archer or chariot/chariot archer such as the ones depicted below:
These are just my sentiments on the Babylonian Civ. Hopefully somebody over at Firaxis is watching. I hope we're in for a treat.
I was also pleased to see that the Persian leader in Civ5, Darius, appears to be modeled on his appearance in the Behistun Inscription, and not on Ant-Man as in Civ4.
I say this because Persia copied Babylonian culture the way that Rome copied Greece (meaning a strong influence without exact duplication). Thus, Darius' appearance is a good indicator to me that someone in the art department at Firaxis knows their stuff.
I'm glad to see that Nebuchadnezzar will finally be depicted in a Civ game, as this guy was seriously the biggest bad-@#$ of the ancient world. However, there is not a lot of highly accurate Nebuchadnezzar artwork out there, so I wanted to discuss what he ought to look like.
Image#1: This is the best Nebuchadnezzar image I've found to date, in terms of his portrayal. He's wearing the tall Assyrian-style crown that the Neo-Babylonians copied, as well as a royal blue robe fringed with gold and crimson. He has an intricately curled mustache and beard in the same Mesopotamian style. This is a great model for any would-be Nebuchadnezzar animator.
Here are a few other images of similarly clad individuals, though none are as accurate as the first, imho.
Image #2: This Nebuchadnezzar is wearing a rather overly stylized tiara, imho, when the tall crown would be preferable. However, the facial hair and royal blue robe are similar in depiction.
Image #3: This Nebuchadnezzar is wearing a crown that the artist appears to have taken some liberties on.
It looks like he merged the standard royal crown with the crown worn by Babylonian deities (which Firaxis used as an influence for the crowns of Hammurabi and Darius in BtS) such as the one worn by the god Shamash on the Code of Hammurabi, who is often mistaken for the king himself. Thus the crown here is not really accurate, but still evokes the right sentiment.
The beard is correct, though I'm not a fan of the way they did the mustache here (since the Mesopotamian kings depicted themselves with elaborately curled mustachios, and any sign of shaving would be considered a sign of emasculation, as the only men without facial hair were eunuchs, or worse, Egyptians). Also, we can't seem to escape the royal blue attire, even though we've now moved on to a third artist. (Shall we call it Ishtar Gate Blue?)
In terms of speech, Nebuchadnezzar would speak the extinct Akkadian language, and I'd love it if the character said something that translated to: "Hail! I am Nabu-kudur-usur, King of Babylon! The gods have given your puny kingdom into my hands, so deal forthrightly with me and prosper."
After all, boastful and arrogant is the Babylonian royal style, if you've ever studied Assyro-Babylonian inscriptions.
Now let's move on to the unique unit. Firaxis has usually done a good job with the Babylonian bowman in the past, though I'd prefer to see a horse archer or chariot/chariot archer such as the ones depicted below:
These are just my sentiments on the Babylonian Civ. Hopefully somebody over at Firaxis is watching. I hope we're in for a treat.
I like the pictures though! 
