The History Of Europa Universalis 4: What are your sources?

[pattb011]

Personally, I'm extremely interested in history, and would like to know where you found the information about the nations which where added into EU4. This is simply for self-enlightenment, and I am not challenging the historical validity of your brilliant game.

I've jsut about to begin year 10 (UK) as a student of History after choosing history as one of my options. Although I won't be studying medieval history, or anything before, i'd love to lear as much as possible about the period.

I have, of course, done my research on certain nations which have caught by interest, but there are some which seem to be very elusive, and I struggle to learn more about their history. I often wonder whether some of the nations which are present in EU4, didn't exist in real life. Just to reiterate; I don't want to critisize the validity of EU4, I just want to know more about the nations!

To give some examples:
Pate; the african micro-nation
Itza; the mayan city state
Styria; the country rather than the region
Other nations which are listed as only regions when I research them.
Other nations which simply do not yield any relating results when I research them.

All I am asking here, is that I am prehaps made aware of some of the sources of your research for EU4. Any of the major sources, prehaps some minor ones?

---- If this is in the wrong location, please tell me, or if you're an admin, feel free to move this ----
Thanks for checking this out

 

[Woifee]

Really, really weird porn.

 

[WeissRaben]

The pre-AoW situation was mostly Google-fu and Wikipedia. With AoW, several mapmodders were dragged on board, mainly for RotW; this happened after this question was first asked and answered, so I don't know.

 

[MrOobling]

I've found that a lot of pages on other countries histories are in different languages meaning they don't show up when you use search in English although I am not sure if the developers took facts from other languages.

 

[pattb011]

Wow, thanks for the quick answers. I definitely think the most credible answer i've seen so far was:

Really, really weird porn.

Nonetheless, I've heard that much of the history of asia/africa is a bit unreliable. Hopefully an admin or dev with accurate information will see this most and give a comprehensive answer

 

[Maq]

Wow, thanks for the quick answers. I definitely think the most credible answer i've seen so far was:


Nonetheless, I've heard that much of the history of asia/africa is a bit unreliable. Hopefully an admin or dev with accurate information will see this most and give a comprehensive answer

There are many historical inaccuracies in the game. Some are inevitable: It's impossible or inconvenient to place every tiny county in the game. That counts mostly for Europe. As for the rest of the world, I believe that Paradox realized at certain point that players love exotic tags, and their PC systems are powerful enough to handle them. And so many dubious states appeared. I'm not happy for that but obviously I represent a minority.

 

[Woifee]

It depends on the region I guess. USA has a big online archive.

For SE Asia there are good books in every library. Look for "South East Mediterranean"

Europe has so much.

 

[pattb011]

Thank you, although I'm more looking into obscure nations rather than obvious ones which are almost always in Europe.

 

[RockmanYoshi]

I've always wanted to know where they found the ruler list for Pate and Hormuz

I know there are local chronicles (some which differ) but they are so rare and also so expensive

 

[oblio-]

There are many historical inaccuracies in the game. Some are inevitable: It's impossible or inconvenient to place every tiny county in the game. That counts mostly for Europe. As for the rest of the world, I believe that Paradox realized at certain point that players love exotic tags, and their PC systems are powerful enough to handle them. And so many dubious states appeared. I'm not happy for that but obviously I represent a minority.

Don't forget game play. It's good for game play in a certain area if there are a lot of actors. Some of the states in 1444 stretch the idea of a historical start by dragging some states that disappeared short before 1444 or appeared shortly after 1444, with the caveat that most of the things added, as far as I know, where relevant for the region's general history.

So they could be forgiven for making the start date more of a continuum of 1430-1460 collapsed into that specific day in 1444.

 

[EnricoMettifogo]

check the mega-Mod MEIOU&Taxes, their map is much more representative of the period
or something like that

 

[tobias.mb]

Wikipedia is usually good enough. If you are really interested the sources wikipedia articles list at the end are a good place to start.
I doubt you will find any nation where you won't find a wikipedia article...

 

[ZomgK3tchup]

Wikipedia is good for very general information, but if you want specific information, use Google to find academic sources.

There are members here who specialize in certain histories, so I try to pay attention to the sources they post. Obviously, anyone can claim to be a professional, but if you see a bunch of people referencing the same source over and over, it might be worth checking out.

There are usually a handful of books, papers, and other academic sources that could be considered "required reading" for a particular field. If you ever see somebody discussing something that you're interested in, just ask them what they consider a good source of knowledge on that subject. At least in my own field of study, people are more than happy to drop names and titles that are good for learning more about it.

 

[Clownie]

I suggest asking Trin Tragula in a PM when you have specific questions. I've asked him about sources for Mesoamerican flavour before, and he's really helpful. Best way to get a dev to notice your question is to ask them personally!

 

[GlidingHamutaro]

Concerning Styria, specifically, I believe it's used to symbolize Ferdinand I's separation of the Austrian lands between his three sons after his death in 1564. Maximilian II inherited the area with only Austrian cores; Charles II the area with the Styria core (which is actually composed of several duchies -- Styria, Carniola and Carinthia, collectively called Inner Austria); Ferdinand II inherited the area with the Tyrol cores.

 

[pattb011]

Thank you for the information and advice. Perhaps I will PM a dev. But i'd still like to know where the devs got their information in a specific format.

 

[mgporter]

Oh yeah, you know this'd be a pretty cool weekly dev diary if they've got a slow period between updates.

 

[Golladan]

I've always wanted to know where they found the ruler list for Pate and Hormuz

They don't have a ruler list for Hormuz.

 

[pattb011]

I'm very interested in micro-nations, or generic small nations. Any history of them, and the sources would be so great. But I would still really like to know the major sources of paradox's research and implimentation. I understand that some areas of the game are based on google information and wikipedia, but there are more intricate areas of the game where the history is detailed. There must have been very useful sources to attain the history of these areas, and i would love to know these sources.

 

[Mudcrab]

https://archive.org/details/bookofknowledgeo00jimrich

"Book of All Kingdoms"

Is a fully illustrated e-book of a manuscript by a 14thC friar which EU4 grabs some flags from for itself (especially the Berber and african regions and unfortunately the Makuria-Alodia ones (Plate 15) ). It's a superb source of not merely observed flags but a description of the travels of this anonymous friar who travelled, we assume, as far as from Mali to Persia and perhaps Delhi, although its wise not to take all his writings as bona fide fact.

Enjoy.