The Historical Accuracy of Total War Faction Icons #2

Welcome to Total War Profiled and today we have an analysis of Faction Icons (Emblems/Flags) from Rome Total War and Alexander Total War
Which are accurate? Which are based of Culture, of Legend, and of their long histories?
And which are absolute fails? XD
I cannot expect a full novel of detail out of each of them. So my rule was, if I felt they had some historical backing there, but I could have done better, then 2 stars. And less, 1 star. If I could not do better, 3 Stars.
We have already done one on European Factions, so today's will be on the African and Middle Eastern Ones. And I through the Alexander Total War Factions in there also, to fill time.
Discord: / discord
Twitter: / melkor83677456
Patreon: / melkor_yt
Enjoy : )

[@MelkorGG]

Check out Part 1 Here: ua-cam.com/video/x8Q7XDibtEk/v-deo.html
Next time I do one of these, I think Medieval 2 Total War would be fun to look into. : )

[@Canaris4]

Parthia's purple background is a reference to their Eastern Infantry unit who were commonly found wearing pink pajamas.

[@coolthefool1]

Canaris4 PJS😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@stefanstoyanov7460]

The Horus symbol is there because the Numidia in the game is just a major generalisation of the warious tribes of Lybia and Africa (today northern African lands west of egypt) They were very heavily influenced by the egyptians, even the carthaginians were under their strong influence in the early days. The ankh and the eye of Horus is a common found in almost every ancient home srine in northern Africa. This is just a subtle reference for it. The Kings of Pontus believed they are descendants of Heracles and Hermes, that is why the winged hat and the caduceus of hermes were a common iconography on their coins. That is why it is on the banner of the faction. The snake is a sacred animal to almost every tribe in Thrace and Illiria, Often the thracian coins have the labris surrounded by snakes. The Zeus or in this case the Perkon's lightning is a nice symbol for the thracians too, because Perkon is the main god in the majority of the thracian tribes, although the more common symbols are the lion (symbol of the Odryssian dynasty) and the labris.

[@romanbuinyi]

So thracian lightning god is called Perkon? It's interesting since slavs had thunder god called Perun and balts had Perkunas in the same role, and he also was major god.

[@stefanstoyanov7460]

@@romanbuinyi The western historians are going to told you that they have nothing in common but that is just politics talking. The culture of the slavs and the thracians/illyrians/skythians is one continuous flow from the halkolite to the modern days. The clothing is one, the pottery, the iconography, the mythology and the bestial ancestry association and deification is the same. Heck even the whritings are the same thing too. The claims that the thracians had no whritings is a shameless lie. The late bulgarian runes, that gave the basis of the glagolitza alphabet, is basically the same as the runes and pyctographs found on the numerous balkan historical sites and items. They on themselves are based on the whritings found on pottery dating from 4-5 millenia BC. The very name "slav" comes from the tribal name of the Geti/Getae. Gayate in the old indoeuropean/sanskrite language means to glorify in song. So the geti/getae litterally means "glorious" people. Guess what: slava means glory in the slavic languages. The name slavi was first the tribal name of the ones habitating the area between the Karpatian mountains and Black Sea, rigth were the Geti of old lived. The name just got reinovated. The modern Association of us as "Slavs" is a new one, it comes from the Russian imperialistic ambitions back in the 17-18 century to unify our people into one "Glorious" nation. Before that it was just the name of a single tribe. Among ourselves we had reffered as "sloveni", I know it sounds simmilar to slaveni, but it acually means a differend thing. Slava means glory, slovo means tongue or word, so our original name means the people who spoke the common tongue. Even today we often call the Germans "nemtci", that means mute, for they do not speak out tongue. Even the old Greek historians confirm this by sayng that all people northward from Thessaly speak the barbarian tongue, not tongues, just "the tongue".

[@romanbuinyi]

​@@stefanstoyanov7460 I know difference between slava and slovo cos i am ukrainian by etnicity, and, as i understand by your name, you are probably bulgarian? There is plenty of bulgarians traditionally living here, in southern Ukraine. I always though that southern slavs are mostly assimilated thracians\illyrians, but didnt thought about the idea that, maybe, slavs and balkanians were ethnically close from the start or even the same. Too many years expired, so, probably, we will never discover how things actually were in the past(maybe in future, with some innovative scientific methods...), so i just wish peace and prosperity to our balkan neighbours🤝

[@stefanstoyanov7460]

@@romanbuinyi Hello brother, I didnt knew you were kin. Здравей! The northern slavs such as russians, poles, chezhcs and the baltic nations are the result of the migration of the large illiryan tribe of the Venetii. Even today the scandinavian nations call the russians "Venelainen". You can get an educated guess who the Vandals were, not german for sure! The name of the tribe comes from the name of the thracian mother goddes Venda/Vendis/Venzis/Bendis/Bendida/Kibella. As you can see her name is still capable to be explained in our language. The words venetz and venchanie- wedding comes in mind. And no wonder, Venda was a goddes of marriage, motherhood and home. Much like Vesta. You, the "ukrainians" as the moskovans told you, are the last remnants of the skythians. The name is self explanatory in our language, men without home, wanderers. For they wandered the wast steppes. You are result of a much earlier migration, that likely happened around 18 century BC, for this is the likely date of the Aryan invasion in India. There is a legend that say that the thracian god Dionys decided to conquer India and for that he chose the best warriors among the thracian tribes and led them in to war. Evidences that this is as many other legends an actual truth are those: The Indian lore claims the the invaders called themselves Ari, one of the many ancient names of the Balkans is Aria, other famous one is Europa. Second, the sky god of the thracians is called Ata/Tata-father, also called Papayos, the one who feed us. The main god of the Skythians is Papay, also a sky god. Not to mention that majority of the culture is virtually the same among the thracians and skythians. Third, it is without a doubt that those who invaded Industan peninsula in the early second millenia BC are skythian tribes. The Saki, Sogdi and the Masageti ( the name is almost indentical with the often used name Getomiz- a man born from the union of a Geti and Mysian parents) are mentioned by the Indian historians of old to be the descendants of the kshatrii (warriors) who conquered their lands by the order of Brama. Four, one of the epitettes of Dionys was Bromius - the thunderous one, literally the same as Brama himself. Five, many tribes native on the Balkans are mentioned in Ramayana and Mahabharata, those who come to my mind are the Serdi and Odrisi. Six, the Persians bear the thracian personal name of Persey/Prusii, much like the moderm Prussians who the germans just recently acknowleged, quite reluctantly I must add, to be slavic in origins. And just to round it up at the end, the neighbours of the Persians, the Mydians bear the name of the thracian name Medi. I end it here because it is starting to look like an essey.

[@romanbuinyi]

​@@stefanstoyanov7460 Вітаю! It looks like you know much about ancient history of this region. Veneti is very popular name of tribe, it looks like there were at least 3 different tribes with that(or similar) name-in northern Italy, in Gaul and in Eastern Europe, its hard to understand-are they somehow connected or not. Ukrainians is self-name, it means just "people of this land\country", from "kraj", russian government called us "malorosy"-"Small Russia" or something like that. Scythians are probably one of ancestors of eastern slavs, but they were nomads and it brings question-are they changed lifestyle from nomadic to settled or they from the start had different groups, from which one was herders and other was farmers, or, maybe, even mixed up with local farmers that lived in this region before. Overall, all indo-european peoples have certain common traits, so similar names are understandable. Some people even think that real human history is much shorter and was artificially "lengthened" to give more weight to certain nations, and all current nations exist only for 300-400 years :D Its a shame that we cant verify how it was actually, everybody have different opinions and arguments.

[@tsarbill4865]

From what I found the Dahae were a confederation of tribes that included the parni. They were known for their horse archers so for a symbol perhaps something similar to the Hun from BI or (if Wikipedia is to be trusted) a wolf. Reasoning behind this is that the indoeuropean word for wolf was dhau

[@MelkorGG]

Interesting, Thanks : )

[@theorangeveteran8125]

I thought the carthaginian symbol was to represent the crescent at the battle of cannae.

[@MelkorGG]

It could have been.
There's no right or wrong answer, really with these videos, as it is all still just speculation. : )

[@bakedpotatoes3903]

that laugh tho :))) 6:33

[@quno5174]

Hey I don’t know anything about ancient history, but this is still entertaining. Works for me.

[@alexandrustan968]

I really like the effort that you put in this videos,love from Romania

[@estebanandresaguirre8101]

Just came back from installing air conditioners with my dad.

[@Thematic2177]

Nice

[@idontlikerome2744]

Gonna make for the Barbarian Invasion's factions too right? come on MELKOR we know u can do

[@MelkorGG]

Someday, yep. : )

[@RocketHarry865]

The macedonian logo should have been changed to the Vergina Sun

[@beezybuzyfamily]

yes i agree i know

[@Yews]

Carthage actually used the star and crescent symbol, not just a crescent. That being said, a horse or a horse in front of a palm tree was the most often used emblem for Carthage. Same for Numidia, but the Numidian horse often galloped, had no tree behind it, and faced the opposite direction. Could have used an elephant to avoid having too many horse banners in the game. Egypt is 1 star even considering that in-game Egypt is off by a good 1000 years, because even in actual Ancient Egypt (with pyramids and stuff) the pharaoh’s ‘personal emblem’, if any, was an image of the sun, often sided by 2 snakes, and not Ankh. The authentic option would be simply an eagle, or alternatively two eagles standing beside each other facing the same direction. Seleucids most often used an image of an elephant, or an anchor. But the only distinctly Seleucid symbol is the horned horse, often depicted from the neck up, so 1 star here too. The Parthian icon in the game is simply bollocks much like the absolute majority of other icons. Actual Parthians very often charged into battle under a banner that had an image of a cross on it, kind of like today’s Scotland. Armenia must have had its icon confused with Spain because it would be completely fine if used for Spain, but Armenia? Armenia had two birds staring at a star for its banner back then. Wtf is up with Pontus - no idea; Mithridates favoured images of a comet, Pegasus grazing, or the star and crescent, but the icon in the game seems to be a weird fusion of them.
P. S. Macedon is kind of alright but the palette is strange. Dahae were essentially wild Parthians (or Parthians were domesticated Dahae, idk). Probably the most difficult one because they left little to no shit behind, might have used a griffin or a double-eagle-headed dude or something

[@TheMercyfulEmperor]

Ahura Mazda was a God in zorastrianism in Persia

[@sauromatae9728]

and a japanese car company

[@Luwi1996]

I just realized, that there must be a second part, two hours after watching the first and just now wondering, where the icon of the eastern factions are xD

[@LordLevan]

Yeah. Informative

[@zerozero2170]

Are you gonna do Barbarian Invasion

[@MelkorGG]

Someday I hope to : )

[@floflo8461]

dahae they are dacians,daoi means wolfs,its a derivation,dacian totem was the wolf

[@mackycabangon8945]

just because two names sound similar doesnt mean that they are the same. Sure they are Indo European but not much else

[@theoldcavalier7451]

What’s your least favourite TW game

[@MelkorGG]

Empire, but only because of the bugs.

[@theoldcavalier7451]

Mine is shogun because I don’t give a fuck about Japanese history and I find the game repetitive

[@Thematic2177]

@@theoldcavalier7451 - I've never played Shogun, but I always imagined it would be boring when all factions are the same

[@Thematic2177]

@Caravanserai of Life - I may be wrong, as I said I've never played the games

[@GAMER123GAMING]

Damn i didnt know you watched Melkor. I have you added on steam for some reason

[@theoldcavalier7451]

6.9k subs N I C E

[@paulusrafaelis4337]

Now do Total War Attila or Rome II