Heya, it’s Uschi again, Tarock’s writerling and this time I want to talk about my history with the ancient world. So, obviously I don’t only love to play games, I also read a lot, and I think it all actually started with Greek and Roman myths.
I basically grew up with stories about gods and heroes of the ancient world, had a kid-friendly version of the Ilias and loved the Asterix&Obelix comics. At one point I was gifted two books, that sealed my love for ancient Rome:
Quintus geht nach Rom & Caius ist ein Dummkopf
Both tell stories about boys who make it in the ancient streets of Rome, solving mysteries, experiencing life and politics. I kind of envied them for their adventures, for their resolve and their lives in this (in my eyes) big, colorful and exciting city that felt mythical and real at the same time.
I realized that sadly, I couldn’t go back in time to visit this grand place, but I found out that there was this job called archeologist, where you could at least learn more about it. So that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up (I think the Indiana Jones movies and Tomb Raider did cement that wish). I chose a school that would teach me Latin and Ancient Greek (much to the dismay of my mother who wished I’d choose French instead), I devoured any book I could find on Rome and its history and tried not to fail any tests (I did bad in a lot of them). I had really great teachers though, who taught me about roman warfare and the great minds of the times. I can still recite the first sentence of Caesar’s De Bello Gallico, because one teacher made us remember the first paragraph by heart.
For a time I inhaled every book I could find on anything greco-roman, but in the end I didn’t become an archeologist. Still, I think being a bookworm comes in handy. While I’m not as knowledgeable on some things as our superb history consultant Lucas (you should read our Devlogs 12&13) it helps having more than a stable basis whenever I build our game’s narrative. It also pushes me to integrate a lot of small things I learned along the way.
One example is latin. I want to incorporate not only some of the typical sayings that would have left a Roman Legionary’s mouth, but I am also thinking of latin in quests-names or items. As a narrative designer, I know some players skip any type of lore whenever they can, but there might be some people out there who will read through every item description, every letter and listen to every interaction. So I want to give them a rich experience and maybe even tell them something they didn’t know before. Of course it can’t be excessive and a short description for example probably shouldn’t be over 2 sentences, but it should work as a kind of appetizer or incentive to go and learn more by yourself.
It probably would look something like this:
Gladius
Short Sword
Quite light but sturdy, short blade made of hardened steel. Used as a stab weapon in formations rather than slashing.
Now, I (and a lot of you probably as well) know a whole lot more about the Gladius and I could have written a whole paragraph about it, could have written more about the hilt or how it was made or used and what kind of differences have been found over time. But: it’s still a game. And there won’t be a lot of space for paragraphs. So while I’m quite sad about restrictions (even if it’s our game we still have to have common sense), maybe I’ll find a way to have an NPC talk about weapons so it would be optional to hear more about them.
And that’s it for this time.
To make this whole devlog-thing more interactive (and to maybe expand my library) I would love to know what kind of stories or books got you hooked on the Roman Empire? Please write me some book recommendations in the comments or join our discord server and share them there!
Thanks, Uschi