You guys DO know that North Africans were originally dark right? They were repeatedly described as dark or black skinned. So saying they were never that dark is inaccurate despite what they look like today. It has already been mentioned but the numerous contacts with the Mediterranean, the Arab conquest, the Barbary Slave Trade and numerous other factors are why many North Africans look like they do, not the environment. There are still black North Africans in the southern regions of those countries and they are NOT all the descendents of slaves. North Africa also had gene flow with Sub-Saharan Africa during the Green Sahara period. Whatever the accuracy (or lack thereof) of these models saying North Africans were never that dark is just as inaccurate.
Accounts of Ancient Mauretania, c. 430 BCE- 550 CE
From Herodotus, Strabo, and Procopius of Caesarea
Edit: like I said, I'm not stating these models are historically accurate or perfect especially for the time period the game covers,but segregating Ancient North Africa into white and Ancient Sub-Saharan Africa(which didn't always exist) into black is ridiculous since all the ancient indigenous populations of Africa were shades of brown. There's also the Green Saharan period which allowed for travel and gene flow throughout the continent so imposing a race line using the Sahara desert which wasn't always there is wrong.
. . . since the time when the Mauretanii wrested Aurasium from the Vandals, not a single enemy had until now ever come there or so much as caused the barbarians to be afraid that they would come, but even the populous city of Tamougadis [Timgad], situated against the mountain on the east at the beginning of the plain, was emptied of its population by the Mauretanii and razed to the ground, in order that the enemy should not only not be able to camp there, but should not even have the city as an excuse for coming near the mountains. And the Mauretanii of that place held also the land to the west of Aurasium, a tract both extensive and fertile. And beyond these dwelt other nations of the Mauretanii, who were ruled by Ortaïas, who had come, as was stated above, as an ally of Solomon and the Romans. And I have heard this man say that beyond the country which he ruled there was no habitation of men, but desert land extending to a great distance, and that beyond that there are men, not black-skinned like the Mauretanii, but very white in body and fair-haired.
Accounts of Ancient Mauretania, c. 430 BCE- 550 CE
From Herodotus, Strabo, and Procopius of Caesarea
Edit: like I said, I'm not stating these models are historically accurate or perfect especially for the time period the game covers,but segregating Ancient North Africa into white and Ancient Sub-Saharan Africa(which didn't always exist) into black is ridiculous since all the ancient indigenous populations of Africa were shades of brown. There's also the Green Saharan period which allowed for travel and gene flow throughout the continent so imposing a race line using the Sahara desert which wasn't always there is wrong.
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