Ethiopia in Broken Crescent,any discussion yet.

[Marvzilla]

Hi people.
I am lurking a lot on here,and got myself interested in Ethiopia.
I dont have much facts about Ethiopia.Maybe we can share them here,or a more experienced poster
could make a discussion thread.
Ethiopia was pretty strong in the BC era if I recommend rightly.
They dominated the east of Africa,were pretty powerful.
What do you guys think,please contribute.
Also,I love BC and the team puts a lot of work in the mod.
God Bless and discuss my friends.
So the first Information I got is:
The ruling Dynasty in BC times in Ethiopia was the Zagwe Dynasty.
Its historicaly disputed how strong they were,many sources speak form
different numbers of kings.
Source is Wikipedia (Yeah,I know).
So if someone got more information,I will be searching too.

[ALFAJI]

i can say to you as a team member i CANT really wait for it its very interesting faction really from its units to its position to its history to its way to play it its so dazzling to me

[Marvzilla]

Yeah,it is one of the more interesting factions.
One question though,should they be Coptic (Oriental Christian) or Orthodox Christian ?
I am really not sure.

[knight who says nee]

how will this faction function? They are sealed off by the makurians, so do they invade arabia or march through makuria to fight the ayyubids

[Marvzilla]

Yeah,I think first of all they will battle with the Makurians,maybe some rebells first.
The former rebell settlement Axum should be Ethiopian soil.Maybe they could ally and threaten eqypt.
Invasion of Jemen from Seaside.
A crazy Ethiopian Leader could form a good navy and attack India.
You could say the same about every nation,at the beginning you always have the same enemys or allys and threats you have to overcome.
God Bless.

[Alejandro Sanchez]

Unfortunately, information about Ethiopia at that time very few.

As was truly said, the rule in Ethiopia at this time belongs to the Zagwe dynasty, and most likely the leader of faction in game from the start is the king and saint Lalibela Gebre Mesqel (1172-1212) whom tradition attributes the construction of famous stone churches ("Second Jerusalem") in Roha.

Very little is also known about the relationship between Ethiopia and Nubian kingdoms. Most likely, it were friendly, as it had a common Christian faith (Patriarchate of Alexandria). Known letter of one Ethiopian king to the king of Makuria, with a request to be a mediate in the petition for the Patriarch of Alexandria for the appointment the Abuna to Ethiopia.

Near Ethiopia placed several independent lands: brave Falasha and proud Somalia, that too would be difficult to conquer.

[kepper]

[Marvzilla]

Cool,where do you have this pictures from ?
Eventhough the picture with warrior who wears a blue coat,looks more like be ancient times.
I dont know what you think but this armour the Queens horse wears in these picturescould be implemented for generals.
Also,Metall should atleast be avaible for the higher tier units.

[JoeSteel]

Well Ethiopia does have a stronger history with christianity and indeed most of the "civilized" world at that time. Many people even beleive they were the ancient kingdom of Shiba. I might think that they have similar armor and weapons to the makurians, but that is just speculation. Anyways hi5 for afro infantry!

[0N3]

If you are planning on having regional muslim units, maybe you could have a jewish unit too? I've always found the ethiopian jews to be cool at least.

[nein]

are they traditional allies of makuria... or will makuria be an enemy to them? I assume their army will be similar in style to the makurians? Lots of impoverished tribals and a few wealthy elites. What interests me is the arms and armour of the elite warriors, will they wear a combination of frankish and muslim gear like the makurians or stick to their own? I would like to see some ethiopian knights riding around in cloth armour like the pic earlier in the thread.

[Alejandro Sanchez]

are they traditional allies of makuria... or will makuria be an enemy to them? I assume their army will be similar in style to the makurians? Lots of impoverished tribals and a few wealthy elites. What interests me is the arms and armour of the elite warriors, will they wear a combination of frankish and muslim gear like the makurians or stick to their own? I would like to see some ethiopian knights riding around in cloth armour like the pic earlier in the thread.

They are allies most likely. In any case, history does not know the war between Ethiopia and Nubia during the high Middle Ages. On the contrary, there is still a message of XI c. that the Ethiopian king asked the Nubian king to mediate in talks with the Patriarch of Alexandria.

"In his days, the king of Abyssinia sent to the king of Nubia, a youth whose name was George, and made known to him how the Lord had chastened him, he and the inhabitants of his land. It was that a woman, a queen of Bani al-Hamwiyah had revolted against him and against his country. She took captive from it many people and burned many cities and destroyed churches and drove him (the king) from place to place. That which befell him was a retribution for what the king who (was) before him had done to the metropolitan in the days of the father Abba Cosmas, as we have explained earlier, through his falsification and his fraud. He (the king) said to him (George) in the letter which he sent to him: "I desire that you should help me and partake with me in the fatigue, for the sake of God and for the sake of the unity of the Faith, and that you shouldst write a letter on your part to the father, the patriarch, in Misr to beg him to absolve us and to absolve our lands and to pray for us, that God may remove from us and from our country this trial, and may grant to us that he (the patriarch) may consecrate for us a metropolitan, as was the custom of our fathers, and that he may pray for us, that God may remove His wrath from us. I have mentioned this to you, O brother, for fear lest the Christian religion pass away and cease among us, for lo, six patriarchs have sat (on the Throne) and have not paid attention to our lands, but they (the lands) are abandoned without a shepherd, and our bishops and our priests are dead, and the churches are ruined, and we have learned that this trial has come down upon us as a just judgment in return for what we did with the metropolitan". When the letters reached George, the king of Nubia, and he had learned of their contents, he sent on his part letters and messengers to the patriarch Philotheus, and he explained to him in them all that the king of Abyssinia had mentioned to him, and he begged him to have compassion on his people. He (Philotheus) acceded to his request, and he consecrated for them a monk from the Monastery of Abba Macarius, whose name was Daniel, and he sent him to them as metropolitan. They received him with joy, and God removed from them His wrath and put an end to the affair of the woman who had risen up against them."

The presence of one faith helped to consolidate more than disagreement.

Nubia - a country of small fertile land along the Nile and the vast deserts around. Ethiopia - a mountainous country. In part, it affects the arms and methods of warfare. Of course, the similarities in the armies of two countries, but there were differences.
We will try to show armies of Nubia and Ethiopia what may have been, as far as possible, so little information (without hybrids ).

[Alejandro Sanchez]

If you are planning on having regional muslim units, maybe you could have a jewish unit too? I've always found the ethiopian jews to be cool at least.

I don't know. In my opinion, they had no external differences from the warriors of Christian Ethiopia. For example, Agaw people were Falasha (Jews) and Christians in the XII-XIII centuries.

[Harith]

hi,

just wanted to contribute to the discussion.

So, based on the geographical features and their resources I concluded the following. The Black Africans usually lacked metal in the region and they had a hot weather, burning sun and tough terrain. Not to mention that most were poor and taken as slaves to Arabia and Europe. I also looked to their civilizations and they weren't very advanced, more like stone age tribes using wood excessively.

Therefore, I can draw a conclusion that the Black African usually fought with no armor or fought only with leather. Some might have used wood?? However, a lot of the Black Africans were known for high speed and agility as well as muscular body. They also had high endurance (can handle tough living conditions, tough weather). This means that their unit can have high skill of both defense and offense as well as very high stamina and excellent morale. The disadvantage can be vulnerable to missiles and units can penetrate through them.

please correct me If I'm wrong about the facts

[Alejandro Sanchez]

hi,

just wanted to contribute to the discussion.

So, based on the geographical features and their resources I concluded the following. The Black Africans usually lacked metal in the region and they had a hot weather, burning sun and tough terrain. Not to mention that most were poor and taken as slaves to Arabia and Europe. I also looked to their civilizations and they weren't very advanced, more like stone age tribes using wood excessively.

Therefore, I can draw a conclusion that the Black African usually fought with no armor or fought only with leather. Some might have used wood?? However, a lot of the Black Africans were known for high speed and agility as well as muscular body. They also had high endurance (can handle tough living conditions, tough weather). This means that their unit can have high skill of both defense and offense as well as very high stamina and excellent morale. The disadvantage can be vulnerable to missiles and units can penetrate through them.

please correct me If I'm wrong about the facts

I might add, that the Nubians and Ethiopians not black Africans (not negroids), they are Ethiopid race. Their culture can not be compared with the culture of the neighboring tribes living in the Stone Age. Besides culture of Ethiopia (including material culture) is a blend of African Kushitic culture and Semitic culture fom Arabia.

Nubians could wear chain mail (imported, for example). But now it's impossible to refute or prove by 100 percent.

People in Ethiopia who were engaged in the processing of iron, blacksmiths were considered as warlocks, to them other people treated with caution and consider them a special "caste". In part, this may explain the weak development of metallurgy. Perhaps a similar situation was in Nubia. For example Arabs wrote that Beja nomads are not made iron spears themselves but bought spears from women who made ​​it.

[Harith]

People in Ethiopia who were engaged in the processing of iron, blacksmiths were considered as warlocks, to them other people treated with caution and consider them a special "caste". In part, this may explain the weak development of metallurgy.

so if blacksmiths were considered warlocks, doesn't that mean the people in Ethiopia were not familiar to mail and Armour?

[Marvzilla]

Harith,I would not say that black africans are more explosive or athletic than any other ethnicity.
Its just the individual.Otherwise I would say all Ethiopians should have high endurance,because they have good marathon runners.Russians should be strong because of the strongman competitions.
Modern accomplishments should have no effect on our stats for units.
Nothing against you,or anyone from an different ethnicity.Its just nonsense and generalization.
God bless.

[wudang_clown]

so if blacksmiths were considered warlocks, doesn't that mean the people in Ethiopia were not familiar to mail and Armour?

Of course it does not, because they certainly knew trade and they certainly had access to gold and slaves, so they always could exchange those for some mails. Theoretically.

Besides, mail is only one type of armour one can have.

[Alejandro Sanchez]

so if blacksmiths were considered warlocks, doesn't that mean the people in Ethiopia were not familiar to mail and Armour?

Of course it does not, because they certainly knew trade and they certainly had access to gold and slaves, so they always could exchange those for some mails. Theoretically.

Besides, mail is only one type of armour one can have.

Right Of course, the Ethiopians knew what is the mail. They had the opportunity to travel. Known many Ethiopian pilgrims in Jerusalem.

But the movement of people is not the same as the movement of goods. For example, I know an Egyptian medieval text that described the embargo on exports of military goods in Christian countries. I'll post here a quote from this text, when remember it name or the author.

In the magazine "Nubia Christiana" has an article in which the author analyzes the images of Saints riders in medieval Nubian painting. He has suggested that the change in the depiction of the stirrups (that is, form certain times image of the stirrups in the pictures change with more complex form to a more simple) was associated with the cessation of imports of these goods from Egypt.
If there can be difficulty in the ability to buy the stirrups, then a fortiori the same situation may be due to chain mail.

If Ethiopia did not have their own production of chain mail, and purchase it was very difficult, very small part of the warriors could have this armor (if they deemed it necessary to use this armor, because they always had to deal with light-equiped opponents). On the other hand, of course there could be some local leather armor. The problem is that I don't know confirm or refute this. If someone has this information, please share with us.

In other words, the issue of armor of the Nubians and Ethiopians (particularly) is open.

One question I have is about the name -- is Abyssinia less accurate than Kingdom of Ethiopia for this time?

As far as I know, Ethiopians chose to name his country as Ethiopia.

I dont know what you think but this armour the Queens horse wears in these picturescould be implemented for generals.

IMHO it's just for decoration. In the end, can read who it depicts, and why horse have blanket. I have at home seems a full picture of this scene.

[Dago Red]

Yeah those are some pretty borderline generalizations about East African black people. And there were surely no Ethiopan slaves taken to Europe, ever in history, as far as I know -- certainly not in the Middle Ages!!


Ethiopia just before BC timeframe was the ancient kingdom of Axum. A prosperous and legendary kingdom, wealthy and well advanced, trading with Rome and far east to India in antiquity. Certainly they knew of armor. Now, they seem to have gone through some bad times, a dark age, and emerged in the late 1100's or so as a different empire. No longer Axum. But they weren't set back all the way to the stone age. They also had plenty of contact with the rest of Christianity -- it's even said the Ark of the Covenant was taken there. Templars journeyed there for some purpose during BC's time frame.

One question I have is about the name -- is Abyssinia less accurate than Kingdom of Ethiopia for this time?