The orthodox cross and historical Komnenos characters

[Mel_E]

I have noted a few things about the topic. Petty minor points, but quite interesting for me.

For the orthodox cross, I am wondering why the foot stand of the orthodox cross is slanted? Is it because the Russian Orthodox Church traditions are more well-known? I was led to believe that in Greek Orthodox Church, the foot stand is not slanted. Or was I misled by the not-so-credible Wikipedia? And in that era, I would assume that Greek orthodox church still commanded some respect.

And according to William of Tyre, whose view was somewhat in favor of the ERE, Ioannes II Komnenos was called "John the Good/Beautiful" because of his character rather than physical appearance. In fact, William of Tyre described him as short and unusually ugly, and with such a dark complexion that Ioannes was known as 'the Moor'. Yet the game gave him the attractive trait. I am wondering what that is based on. Just the epithet?

On contrary, Andronikos was not given the attractive, quick, or genius trait. Yet he was depicted as a man "endowed by nature with the most remarkable gifts both of mind and body", in the Encyclopædia Britannica. I personally hold it true because of his rather legendary life, especially with respect to his licentious life style. His "record", as it were: 2 princesses and 2 nieces.

 

[berke]

All the emperors, except the politically unlucky ones, have extensive panegyrics calling them geniuses and whatnot, so I would take that with a grain of salt.

 

[Mel_E]

All the emperors, except the politically unlucky ones, have extensive panegyrics calling them geniuses and whatnot, so I would take that with a grain of salt.

That is unfortunately true, but I am curious why Ioannes was given a trait whereas Andronikos was not. Probably because the former is a bit more well-known?

 

[nurgles_herald]

Paradox has a long history of making awesome games that aren't really all that historical- Mahmud II was, in terms of what he inherited and what he was able to accomplish, one of the most capable and brilliant Ottoman Emperors, but his stats have traditionally been exceedingly average in the Europa Universalis series, just as one example. When I loaded up a game as Ioannes II and noticed that he had the attractive trait and that most of his other traits, including his education, were random, I just kinda rolled my eyes and went with it. Just remember that you're playing a game that is intended to be fun, not educational, and you should do fine.

 

[Zenith Darksea]

John II Comnenus was known as kalos ('fine', 'fair', or 'beautiful') in a somewhat ironic way. He was supposed to be very dark and ugly, but he was supposed to be pious, courageous, and 'beautiful' in his soul.

True, Paradox doesn't always get everything right, and giving John the attractive trait is rather inappropriate. Likewise, the use of the Karelian three-bar cross for all Orthodox is technically inappropriate and was likely chosen because it looks cool and is quite well known. However, the fact that we're even having a conversation about what traits John II should be given or how many bars the Orthodox cross should have is a sign of just how much more historically detailed a Paradox game is than other historical games.