In another blog post that I made on September 29th, I stated it would be great for Byzantine history to represented in something else than a city builder game. That kind of game is well suited with people who are already quite interested in history. However, I think it is time for Byzantine history to be put on something that is more mainstream and more likely to have an impact on how people view that civilization. Currently, civ builders are too niche and a Role-playing game would be a great way to introduce people to that civilization and it culture.
In most video games, the main character is a person who has high amounts of agency. People generally do not want to play characters that are unable to control how they move around in their society. This is why in many video games, characters tend to be warriors or have a lot of influence in the setting of a video game.
Generally speaking, a video game set in the Byzantine Empire should have an emphasis on making a story about the Varangians. These mercenaries were some of the most formidable soldiers in the Middle Byzantine Army, starting under Basil II. They are a great organization from which to create a reasonable story for a video game protagonist, especially one who has a great amount of agency to move in the game.
The character of such a story can be either male or female, as the Varangians were a warrior class which was not so hung up on the strength of gender or social class. While the majority of Varangians were male as is to expected when we are talking about warfare and not logistics or support in armed conflict in countries.
Kingdom Come Deliverance, and its upcoming sequel, are examples of what can be done in order to create an interesting character in a historical setting. Henry, the main character, is the son of a blacksmith. Many video games have characters who are upper middle-class individuals, as that kind of person is the type that goes on adventures. Elaborating on this, his prospective wife, Theresa, is more in line with a typical farm girl persona. There is a dlc which handles her story; however, it generally sees her as the exception that proves the rule; women are not the ones who are leading in this society.
Henry, being a son of a man with great skills in blacksmithing, is able to have connections with the elite of Bohemia, which is in the Czech Republic. The same thing should occur with a Byzantine character in a video game, we should be able to show how a mercenary in 11th Century Byzantium, was able to gain so much power and influence people in the Byzantine court.
There is a market for such games. As much as it seems that Byzantium is an obscure topic, there is still possibilities that there can be an upstart game studio can make sure such games. All that is needed for the right characters and stories to get people interested in the game and I think that mercenaries would work well in that context with respect to Byzantine History.
Byzantine-Empire.com 