Posted by Powee Celdran
The long wait is now over as the board game I created Battle for Byzantium is finally out! Last time, I wrote two articles about the board game I am producing: the first about how I came up with its idea and what to expect from it and the other one being a tour of the 18 cities that feature in the game set in the Byzantine Empire in the year 1025. Now that the game has finally been produced and is ready to be launched, I will now write an article about probably the most important part of the game- its characters. Since this is a 4-player action/ conquest game, it obviously features 4 characters wherein each one is unique not only because they come from a different part of the world and have an interesting backstory but because they have their own unique special abilities in the game which gives them an advantage over the others. These 4 formidable, brave, intelligent, and ambitious warriors featured in the game that players can choose from include the cunning and vengeful Byzantine Cataphract commander Demetrios, the ambitious Arab general Al-Sadin, the glory-seeking Norman adventurer-knight Jean-Pierre, and the fearless female Varangian warrior Freydis. All these 4 characters that players can choose from now are not real historical figures but are based on real civilizations and people from this time in history being the 11th century. The game basically features an alternate historical timeline wherein it is the year 1025 and thus the powerful and popular yet feared Byzantine emperor Basil II (r. 976-1025) has died- which happened in real history- and due to his death, these 4 powerful warriors of different backgrounds and ethnicities all compete for control of the Byzantine Empire, though only one can emerge victorious. The game true enough features 18 cities in the map- being Byzantium in the year 1025- and thus its objective is to conquer all its 18 cities, and once all are taken, the warrior who has the most number of cities wins the game. Now in the game itself, the 4 characters come as printed wooden figures in their shape featuring their front and back sides almost similar to an action figure of them!
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Now since the board game Battle for Byzantium is set in the year 1025, the characters including their appearances and background stories had to match its historical time setting. Of course, I as the creator of the game conceptualized these 4 characters but behind their appearances and designs is the game’s lead artist Chrysa Sakel (follow her on Instagram @chrysasakel) who illustrated these 4 characters and the game’s story writer Franco Gallardo (follow him on Instagram @franco.gallardo96) who created the background story for each character and more importantly came up with their names. As for Chrysa when illustrating the characters, it is actually not very far from the main work that she does being the illustrator of the Byzantine Tales comics (follow on Instagram @byzantine_tales) as the time period of her comics is actually very close to this game’s setting, therefore there is a lot of similarities between the illustrations of this game and her comics. As for Franco when coming up with the background stories for the characters, he apparently did some research on the time period and thus based off their stories on those of other historical figures he researched on as well as on the races these characters come from.
Now, as for my part as the creator when creating the characters; ever since I conceptualized the game back in 2019, I already envisioned it as a 4-player game and thus there would have to be 4 unique characters, therefore each of them had to have a unique look and backstory. However, as time passed all while the game was being developed, a lot of changes took place when it came to conceptualizing the characters, but at the end it was still my choice that the game would have characters and that they would be as they are being a Byzantine, Arab, Norman, and Varangian. The whole point of having these 4 characters come from these 4 different races was to represent each of the 4 parts and major players of the world at that time wherein the Byzantine represents the Byzantine Empire, the Arab representing the Arb world, the Norman representing the Western world, and the Varangian representing the Norse people. And now before beginning the article itself, I would like to give a brief summary of it wherein we will start giving a quick intro to the game’s 1025 setting before we move on to the characters. As we discuss the 4 characters, we will then go over for each of them a character background story, their special abilities, their appearance which includes their arms and armor, and lastly a behind-the-scenes section on them which covers what they were based on in real history and the whole story of creating the said character. This article will then end with a part about the reception for each character by the public and a wrap-up on the creation process for the characters.
The Historical Background on Battle for Byzantium
The board game Battle for Byzantium is set in the year 1025 following the death of the great Byzantine emperor Basil II (r. 976-1025) of the Macedonian Dynasty, and here the Byzantine Empire is the military and cultural superpower of the Middle Ages wherein its borders extend west to east from Italy to Armenia and north to south from the Crimea to Syria.
In his long reign as emperor, the brave though ruthless emperor Basil II expanded Byzantium’s borders through wars of conquest in the north by totally crushing and annexing the Bulgarian Empire into the Byzantine Empire in 1018, in the east annexing parts of Armenia and Georgia, and in the south securing a number of victories against the Arabs. By the time of Basil’s sudden death in 1025 at the age of 67, the Byzantine Empire had seen its borders stretch larger than ever, something the Byzantines (Romans) never saw their empire at ever since the glory days of the 6th century under Emperor Justinian I the Great (r. 527-565)- though back then the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire almost controlled the entire Mediterranean. At Basil II’s death however, the Byzantine Empire was practically still a superpower compared to almost all other medieval powers in Europe and the Middle East that true enough other powerful states such as the Holy Roman Empire and the Kievan Rus’ Empire either were in fear of Byzantium or respected its power and culture while other neighboring kingdoms to Byzantium more or less feared its military power that they did not want to mess around with Byzantium or else suffer the same fate as Bulgaria in being totally wiped off the map as it has been annexed into Byzantium. However, no matter how great Basil II was as a warrior, diplomat, and statesman emperor who had left behind a powerful empire not just militarily but in terms of state administration and diplomacy, his major problem was succession as Basil true enough never married in his whole lifetime and therefore did not produce any children to be his heirs.
Fortunately, Basil had a younger brother Constantine VIII who being his co-emperor for the longest time- ever since both Basil and Constantine were children wherein both were crowned as co-emperors by their father the emperor Romanos II (r. 959-963)- succeeded him as the new emperor. The new emperor Constantine VIII (r. 1025-1028) however was nothing compared to his strong ruling older brother as Constantine did not possess the ability and experience his brother had in ruling an empire, rather he was someone that would turn out to be a weak, useless, and often times a cruel ruler. In real history, we all know that the great and strong emperor Basil II was succeeded by his weak brother Constantine VIII and it was in his short 3-year reign when the glory days of the empire would begin to end and thus the empire would go all downhill from here on. True enough, just immediately after the glory days of Byzantium under Basil II and the Macedonian Dynasty, the Byzantine Empire would experience an age of gradual decline with weak rulers, corruption in the government, and foreign invasions by new powers coming into the scene such as the Seljuk Turks in the east and the Normans in the west. Sad enough, it was all during the same century being the 11th century when Byzantium went from glory days to an age of decline which culminated in Byzantium’s fatal defeat to the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, and thus after that the empire would never really recover to how it was in 1025.
In this game however being an alternate historical timeline, all these setbacks Byzantium would face following Basil II’s death in 1025 could be reversed if either of the 4 characters seized the empire. Here in the game’s story at least, history is altered following Basil’s death as here these 4 warriors from different lands and of different ethnicities exploit the weakness that the empire is in now that the weak Constantine VIII is the new emperor. These 4 warriors thus do not recognize the new emperor Constantine VIII, and thus they all fight amongst each other for control of the empire. As each warrior comes from a different ethnic background, they have their own starting point from where they launch their rebellion to seize the Byzantine Empire. Now despite all warriors having a common cause being to seize the empire, they are in fact not allied with each other as true enough each have their own objective being to seize the empire by capturing cities for themselves, therefore this whole idea makes the game a competitive one wherein each player must seize cities for themselves.
The Characters
Demetrios- the Byzantine Commander
Background Story
Demetrios, the classic disgruntled military commander and war veteran belongs to the Cataphracts (Kataphraktoi in Greek), the elite cavalry force of the empire.
He served the Byzantine Empire as a cavalry commander and at one point as an operator of the empire’s secret superweapon Greek Fire during the long reign of Basil II wherein he fought in his many wars. However, by the time of Basil II’s death in 1025, the borders of the empire have been pacified thanks to Basil’s conquests and diplomatic feats, hence there are no more wars to fight for soldiers like Demetrios. Due to the lack of wars, Demetrios and his men therefore have no more purpose, and more so those people in power- namely Constantine VIII who now rules as emperor- treat Demetrios and his men like expendable henchmen. Now in a quest to gain power but also out of loyalty to the late emperor Basil, Demetrios feels that it is the right time to rebel against the imperial authority being the new emperor. The turning point happens when Demetrios is nearly killed in a fire caused by no other than Byzantium’s secret superweapon Greek Fire, and as a result of this, a strong passion burns within him to raise an army in rebellion against the Byzantine government. Demetrios’ purpose for rebellion now is to change the way things are run in the empire, basically meaning ridding the empire of corruption and weak leadership- which is what defines the new emperor Constantine VIII- and return the empire to stability and strong leadership which is what defined Basil II’s rule. Now in the game, Demetrios’ starting point is at the eastern edge of the map in Eastern Asia Minor (today’s Eastern Turkey) which is where as a commander, he is stationed but also where he is launching his rebellion.
Special Ability
As a former operator of the Byzantine superweapon Greek Fire and also as a result of getting his face burned by it- hence he covers his face with chainmail- Demetrios’ is immune once in the game to the “Greek Fire” card. This means that he unlike the other 3 characters does not have to go back to his starting point when selecting this card. With this special advantage, he can for once in the game keep the Greek Fire card and use it to capture an open city by landing on it with the roll of the dice.
Appearance (Arms and Armor)
In terms of appearance, Demetrios is an imposing figure made to look like the classic Byzantine Cataphract soldier wherein almost his entire body is covered in armor except his eyes. True enough, the word “cataphract” comes from the Greek word Kataphraktos which meant “completely enclosed” which is why this military unit is called as such. Cataphracts too had been around as an elite military force even long before Byzantium as they were used by the Romans and the Parthian and Sassanid Persians, although the most famous kind of Cataphracts were the Byzantine ones which were literally fully armored cavalry soldiers that served as a medieval version of a tank.
The kind of Cataphract design of Demetrios is a Byzantine Cataphract from the 10th-11th centuries, which is more or less the game’s setting. For the head, Demetrios wears a classic Byzantine conical helmet which above it has a large red plume sticking out, then covering his face leaving only his eyes exposed is a chainmail hood which were commonly worn by Byzantine Cataphracts. As for his armor, he wears a suit of gold lamellar or scaled armor sewn over a red leather base, this armor type was known to the Byzantines in Greek as Klivanion which literally meant “oven” as it would usually overheat under the sun, and this scaled armor suit not only protects his body but upper arms and thighs as well. Beneath this suit of scaled armor, Demetrios wears a suit of chainmail which extends down to his knees and to his hands, and beneath his chainmail a red tunic with a golden border can be seen which is his inner shirt. Additionally, Demetrios wears scaled gauntlets protecting his lower arms and scaled greaves protecting his lower legs while in his chest over his scaled armor, he wears a leather harness which is worn to further support the armor. For his weapons, Demetrios wields a long spear known to the Byzantines in Greek as a Kontos– which has a red band attached to it-as his primary weapon, while seen sheathed on his right side is his sword or Spathion being his secondary weapon, and attached to his left arm is a small round shield with the initials of Christ in Greek (the chi-rho) on it. True enough, as cavalrymen Cataphracts held with them a small round shield on one arm which is why Demetrios is seen wearing one. Meanwhile, Demetrios’ gold colored scale armor as well as the red plume over his helmet is meant to indicate his rank as a high-ranking officer. Meanwhile, in the box cover of the game, Demetrios as a Cataphract is seen mounted on an armored horse, however in his wooden figure which is used in the game, he is seen standing up without a horse.
Behind-the-Scenes
As a Byzantine game, a Byzantine character is an essential for it in order to represent the empire the game is set in. Ever since the game was first conceptualized in 2019 where there was no particular time period in Byzantine history for the game, there was already a Byzantine character who back then was still unnamed, though interestingly this character created for the game was also a Cataphract.
It was only when the game’s creation process in 2022 took place, when the character of Demetrios was decided on together with his name which was given to the character by the game’s story writer Franco who also came up with Demetrios’ back story. Interestingly, Demetrios bears the name of the patron saint of Thessaloniki- the second largest city in the Byzantine Empire which appears in the game too- St. Demetrios, who true enough is a military saint as well as a Christian martyr from the early 4th century, and thus with Demetrios being a warrior, his name very much fits his occupation since he gets his name from a warrior-saint. Now when it comes to basis on historical figures, Demetrios was not based on a particular person at this time in history but his story was true enough based on the rebel Byzantine general Nikephoros Xiphias, a loyal general to Basil II who eventually betrayed his emperor by rebelling against him. Nikephoros Xiphias now famously served Basil II in his Bulgarian War wherein Xiphias earned a reputation as a war hero by fighting alongside Basil II at the famous Battle of Kleidion in 1014 which was the decisive battle that paved the way for the full Byzantine conquest of the Bulgarian Empire in 1018 wherein Xiphias took part in other battles which ensured further Byzantine victories. By 1022, Xiphias was then assigned to Asia Minor being made the Strategos (military governor) of the Anatolic Theme, but here he had grown disillusioned with Basil especially since Basil did not allow him to accompany him in the emperor’s campaign against the Kingdom of Georgia.
When Basil II was away campaigning against Georgia, Xiphias together with another general being Nikephoros Phokas Barytrachelos- son of the general Bardas Phokas whom Basil defeated earlier on in his reign- launched their rebellion against the emperor wherein even the King of Georgia George I supported it, although between Phokas and Xiphias it wasn’t clear on who will take over as emperor after they kill Basil. However, Basil was able to crush the rebellion not by force but by sending letters to both Xiphias and Phokas separately to create distrust among them to the point that it so happened to work wherein Xiphias ended up having Phokas killed. However, with Phokas dead, the rebellion they launched collapsed, and thus Xiphias was forced to surrender wherein he was brought to Constantinople, and from there he was banished to the Princes’ Islands nearby in the Marmara Sea to retire as a monk. Xiphias’ supporters were then executed under Basil’s orders wherein one that tried to poison Basil was killed by being thrown to the beasts. In 1028 however, following Constantine VIII’s death, the new emperor Romanos III Argyros (r. 1028-1034) released Xiphias from the monastery, although due to his old age, Xiphias chose to no longer fight but instead retire again as a monk, this time to the Stoudios Monastery in Constantinople.
As for Demetrios, he does not exactly have the same story as Nikephoros Xiphias, rather his whole story arc was based on Xiphias’ rebellion against Basil II and it was also more or less almost at the same point in time when both Xiphias and Demetrios would launch their respective rebellions, except Xiphias’ happened 3 years earlier in 1022 while Demetrios’ happened after Basil’s death in 1025. The main similarity however between Xiphias and Demetrios is that both were commanders that rebelled against the emperor at around the same point in history, though their purposes were different as Xiphias wanted to overthrow Basil II whereas Demetrios here is loyal to the late emperor and his memory which is why he decided to rebel. The other major difference between both rebelling commanders is that Xiphias’ rebellion greatly failed whereas nothing is known about what will happen to Demetrios as he has just launched his rebellion, thus only playing the game will determine if Demetrios’ rebellion will succeed if he wins it by conquering the most number of cities, otherwise if he doesn’t win, then his rebellion fails.
Al-Sadin- the Arab General
Background Story
In his native Syria, Al-Sadin al-Dawla is an Arab warrior with the rank of general and is a descendant of the now gone Hamdanid Dynasty that once controlled his homeland from 890-1004.
Due to having no more control of his lands- which now fell under the control of the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt since 1004- Al-Sadin aims to avenge his lost dynasty by becoming a military leader with dreams of leading his men in conquering the Mediterranean Sea. In hopes of becoming this kind of leader with a vision of conquest, Al-Sadin sets his eyes on conquering the Byzantine Empire now in a state of weakness due to the death of their strong emperor Basil II and the ascension of the weak Constantine VIII which for him would be just one of many conquests ahead of him. Additionally, Al-Sadin excels in duels and crushing local rebellions with brute force. Now in the game, Al-Sadin’s starting point is at the south- literally the Mediterranean Sea- as he is coming from Syria by ship and aims to conquer Byzantine lands by sea through his navy.
Special Ability
Being a master at crushing rebellions, Al-Sadin is immune to the “Rebellion” card at least once in the game. This means that when selecting this card, he does not lose a city unlike the other 3 players when selecting the card. However, if he selects this said card when not owning any city yet, the card can be kept for future use wherein when once again selecting the Rebellion card, he can use his other one to prevent him from losing a city.
Appearance (Arms and Armor)
In the game, Al-Sadin appears to be ethnically Arab and in his 40s in terms of age with a thick black beard and strong piercing eyes.
He thus wears the traditional outfit worn by Arab warriors of this time in history consisting of a pointed conical-shaped helmet, a hood attached to it to protect his neck from the sun, a blue outer tunic, and inside the tunic a set of leather armor protecting his upper arms, and below that a suit of chainmail that extends down to his knees and to his elbows. His lower arms meanwhile are protected by leather gauntlets and his lower legs by leather greaves. Across his waist is a leather belt to hold his equipment and a leather strap across his chest which is to hold the sheath for his sword. As for his weapons, Al-Sadin wields a classic Arabic Scimitar sword on his right hand, and on his left hand a large round shield with Arabic patterns on it. In the box cover of the game meanwhile, Al-Sadin appears the same way as he does in his wooden character figure except that in the cover, he is in a crouching position with his sword drawn.
Behind-the-Scenes
Ever since the game was first conceptualized in 2019, an Arab character was already created as one of the game’s 4 characters despite there being no particular time period yet for the game’s setting and also no name for the said Arab character.
True enough since the Arabs played such a major role in Byzantine history as the empire’s major enemy for some 4 centuries (7th-11th centuries), it was definitely fitting to put an Arab character in the game to represent the main enemy of the Byzantines and the Arab people. It was only when the game’s creation process took place in 2022 when the character of Al-Sadin as the Arab was decided together with his name and background story in which both the name and story were created by the game’s story writer Franco. Although Al-Sadin was not based on anyone in particular from the time period of the game being the 11th century, according to Franco his inspiration for Al-Sadin and his backstory was on the famous 12th century Islamic warlord and Sultan of Egypt and Syria Saladin- full name: Salah-ad-Din Yusuf ibn-Ayyub- who although lived more than a century after the game’s setting. Although Al-Sadin and Saladin lived at different periods in history, both warriors have names similar to each other and both were ambitious warriors with dreams of world domination- at least in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the appearance and attire of Al-Sadin was inspired by several illustrations of medieval era Arab warriors in battle attire in which Chrysa combined a series of images and artworks of medieval Arab warriors in order to create the character of Al-Sadin.
Although Al-Sadin is an entirely fictional character, the dynasty he comes from being the Hamdanid Dynasty was a real historical Islamic Arab dynasty that ruled Northern Mesopotamia and Syria from 890-1004. The Hamdanid Dynasty was at its height of power under the emir Sayf al-Dawla (r. 945-967)- Al-Sadin’s great-grandfather- ruling from Aleppo, and during his reign the Hamdanids were a major opponent of the Christian Byzantine Empire that were expanding east all while Sayf al-Dawla’s court in Aleppo was a center of culture and Arabic literature, however it would no longer be such after the Byzantine conquest of Aleppo by the general Nikephoros Phokas who would then be Emperor Nikephoros II (963-969). Following Sayf’s death, the power of the Hamdanid Dynasty would decline, and thus in order to avoid being conquered by the Byzantines, the Hamdanids surrendered as a vassal to the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt, though in 1003 the Fatimids had deposed the Hamdanids, and by 1004 the Hamdanid Dynasty was no longer in power and thus Syria fell under the rule of the Fatimids. Now, in real history the last Hamdanid ruler in Aleppo was Sayf al-Dawla’s grandson Sa’id al-Dawla (r. 991-1002) who died in 1002 thus creating a power vacuum in the Hamdanid state which led to its eventual overthrow by the Fatimids not too long after. In real history, it is known that Sa’id al-Dawla had no children, however in this game being an alternate take on history, Al-Sadin is actually the long-lost son of the emir Sa’id al-Dawla, and thus he uses his birthright as a way to raise an army and reestablish his now gone dynasty, but in order to do so to prove his ability, he must first conquer the Byzantine Empire before returning home to Syria to reestablish the Hamdanid Dynasty’s rule over it. However, it is only by playing the game that would decide whether Al-Sadin’s bid to restore his dynasty is successful, and this would mean winning the game by taking the most number of cities in the Byzantine Empire.
Jean-Pierre- the Norman Adventurer
Background Story
Jean-Pierre, although originally from Normandy (Northern France) is a veteran Norman knight based in Southern Italy ever since the first Norman adventurer-knights arrived in the region at the turn of the 11th century.
Jean-Pierre now was among the first Norman knights to venture from Normandy to Southern Italy in search of land and riches due to the lack of land in Normandy to be given by its duke to the many men he knighted. In 1017, Jean-Pierre as one of the many Norman knights that came to Southern Italy first as pilgrims entered the service of Melus of Bari, the leader of the Lombard rebels against Byzantine rule in Southern Italy and thus he helped the Lombards score some victories against the Byzantines. In the following year however, Jean-Pierre fought against the Byzantine imperial troops at the Battle of Cannae wherein the Lombard rebels lost while only 10 of their Norman allies survived the battle which included Jean-Pierre. The Byzantines on the other hand despite fighting against the Normans were impressed by their bravery in battle, and thus the Byzantines decided to recruit what was left of the Norman knights as mercenaries and thus settling them at the Fortress of Troia in Southern Italy, and Jean-Pierre too happened to be one of these knights settled in the said fortress. Jean-Pierre however was not satisfied with sharing control of a small fortress with other Norman knights, rather he had dreams and ambitions to conquer as much land as possible for his family, which was a vow he made many years back in his knighting ceremony. Thus, to gain as much land as possible for he and his family, Jean-Pierre had set his eyes on conquering what was left of Byzantine territory in Southern Italy including its regional capital Bari. Though when hearing the news of the emperor Basil II’s death in 1025, Jean-Pierre had now set his eyes on conquering the entire Byzantine Empire itself taking advantage of the weakness the empire is at now that the strong emperor is dead and that a weak one being Constantine VIII now rules. Additionally, it is rumored that Jean-Pierre is descended from a Greek god which apparently makes him immune to the plague. In the game, Jean-Pierre’s starting point is at the west being the region of Calabria where he is based in and owns land despite the region still being under Byzantine hands.
Special Ability
Being immune to the plague due to his alleged descent from a Greek god, Jean-Pierre is immune to the “Plague” card at least once in the game. This means that when he selects this said card for the first time in the game, he does not end up being exiled to Ragusa at the northwest corner of the map and thus lose a turn unlike the other 3 players. However, once this advantage is used, it cannot be used again, and thus when he selects the plague card again, he like the others is exiled to Ragusa where he loses a turn.
Appearance (Arms and Armor)
Out of the 4 in-game characters, Jean-Pierre happens to be the oldest being already in his 50s due to the fact that he was already an adult when he first arrived in Southern Italy at the turn of the 11th century wherein he was around 25 at that time, and thus 25 years later where the game is set in, he is definitely at least 50.
Now in appearance, Jean-Pierre was made to look like the classic Norman knight from the 11th century wearing a full set of chainmail armor known as a Hauberk which extends all the way down to his thighs. As for his head, he wears the classic conical shaped Norman helmet which is painted red above and has a nose guard protecting his nose, while attached to the helmet and protecting his neck is a chainmail hood, though this kind of helmet design leaves at least his face exposed where you can see that as a Norman being a descendant of Vikings, he has blond hair as seen with his blond mustache and blue eyes. Beneath his chainmail armor, Jean-Pierre is seen wearing a blue padded vest for extra protection while underneath it is a red tunic with gold borders, and as for his feet he wears high-cut leather boots. As for his weapons, Jean-Pierre wields a large two-handed sword as his primary weapon which was a weapon commonly used by the Normans while on the other hand, he too has a large shield with a dragon symbol on a blue background painted on it. In the box cover of the game, Jean-Pierre- although wearing the same attire he appears in his wooden figure in the game- is seen in battle position swinging his large sword whereas he wears his large shield behind him which here is strapped across his chest.
Behind-the-Scenes
When the game was first conceptualized in 2019, there were already 4 playable characters in it wherein 1 of the 4 was a Westerner or “Latin” and as for its Byzantine setting, there needed to be a character to represent the Western Latin world, however this character at first was not necessarily a Norman.
It was only when the game’s creation process began in 2022 wherein it was decided that the character to represent the Western world would be a Norman due to the popularity the Normans have among medieval history fans and also because true enough, by 1025 the Normans were already a growing power in Southern Italy, hence it was fitting that the character to represent the west in the game should be a Norman. The character’s name “Jean-Pierre”- which is a very common and popular French name- and his background story meanwhile was created by the game’s story writer Franco. Jean-Pierre on the other hand was not based on anyone but just on any generic Norman knight in the early 11th century in search of land to conquer as his own. However, if there is one historical Norman person that has a similarity to Jean-Pierre then it is Robert Guiscard of the Hauteville clan, the Norman adventurer from the late 11th century well-known for his conquests in Sothern Italy which eventually earned him the title of “duke”. Robert Guiscard too became an enemy of the Byzantines who clashed with them in numerous battles wherein Guiscard even invaded Byzantine Albania and Greece in 1081 and defeated a Byzantine army led by the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081-1118) himself at the Battle of Dyrrhachion in 1081. Although highly intent to conquer Byzantine Greece and the Balkans, Robert did not achieve his dream as he died of sickness in 1085 while in Greece. Although both Jean-Pierre and Robert Guiscard are Normans, the major difference aside from Jean-Pierre being entirely fictional is that they lived at different time periods although very close to each other as Jean-Pierre is at the earlier part of the century and Robert Guiscard at the latter part. The major difference too between them is that Guiscard eventually ended up becoming the Norman duke of Southern Italy while Jean-Pierre is only a knight, though Jean-Pierre still has ambitions for something higher, though both Jean-Pierre and Guiscard also share the same kind of origin story where they started as something rather small and ended up achieving big time.
Now, out of all Western people- German, Lombard, French, Hungarian- to represent the Western world in the game, a Norman was chosen as again due to the popularity of Normans among medieval history fans and more so because by 1025 the Normans were already a rising power in Italy, and true enough Southern Italy appears in the game, so it was therefore fitting that the character coming from there should be a Norman knight.
In 1025 as well, the Normans have already begun expanding their hold on Southern Italy that by the latter part of the 11th century, the Normans under Robert Guiscard have already become the masters of Southern Italy and Sicily as well wherein the latter was conquered by Guiscard’s younger brother Roger. Not to mention, the Normans played such a key role in the 11th century as seen with their conquests of Southern Italy and even England in 1066 which therefore makes the 11th century the “Norman century”, therefore because of this it was very much fitting to have a Norman character in the game. Now, the Normans who first settled in Northern France in 911 were actually descendants of Vikings led by a warrior named Rollo who originally is supposedly from Norway. These Vikings led by Rollo that arrived in France in 911 besieged the French city of Chartres that in order to appease them, the King of West Francia (France) Charles III agreed to cede his lands between the mouth of the River Seine and Rouen in exchange for Rollo and his men swearing allegiance to the King of France, converting to Christianity, and to defend the Seine from other Viking invaders. These Norsemen that settled in Northern France eventually became the Normans wherein their leader Rollo became the first Duke of Normandy, and there the Normans easily integrated into society that they would soon enough be speaking French and would be Catholic Christians as well.
However due to the increase of knights in Normandy, there was not enough land there anymore to be granted to them, thus by the turn of the 11th century, many Norman knights and adventurers would leave Northern France wherein many would find themselves in Southern Italy first as armed pilgrims and later as adventurers seeking land and riches. According to the 11th century Norman chronicler William of Apulia, the Lombard rebel leader Melus of Bari- who was mentioned earlier- came across this group of armed pilgrims being the Normans who were heading to the shrine of St. Michael in Byzantine held Southern Italy. Apparently, these Norman pilgrims came to Italy as they were exiled by the Duke of Normandy Richard II for murdering one of his relatives. Here, Melus was raising his own rebellion against Byzantine authority in Southern Italy, and being impressed by the Normans’ bravery, Melus recruited these Normans under their leader Rainulf Drengot as mercenaries to help him battle the Byzantines. At first, the Lombard rebels of Melus assisted by these Norman knights had the upper hand by defeating Byzantine forces a number of times. In the meantime, since the Byzantine emperor Basil II was busy annexing the Bulgarian Empire to Byzantium, he thus sent a reinforcement army of the elite Varangian Guard to assist the Byzantine Catepan (governor) of Southern Italy Basil Boioanes. It was the army including the Varangian Guard unit led by Boioanes that confronted the Lombard rebels and their Norman allies at the Battle of Cannae wherein the Byzantines won a decisive victory which thus forced Melus to escape Italy and for the surviving 10 Normans to now be enlisted in the Byzantine army as mercenaries as true enough Boioanes and his troops were impressed by the bravery and fighting style of the Normans that the Byzantines agreed to settle them in Southern Italy in exchange for the Normans fighting alongside them as mercenaries.
However, since the Byzantines gave the Norman knights land in Southern Italy, the Normans would eventually want more that they would later turn against the Byzantines in order to seize control over Southern Italy; long story short, by 1071 the Normans under Robert Guiscard ended Byzantine rule over Italy after their capture of the last Byzantine city there being Bari. Now at least in the alternate historical timeline this game is set in, the opportunistic Jean-Pierre was one of the Norman adventurer-knights that came to Italy as pilgrims in the early 11th century, and Jean-Pierre too joined the Lombard rebels of Melus as a way to gain glory in battle, and he too together with Drengot was one of the 10 Normans that survived the Battle of Cannae and was thus settled in Byzantine Southern Italy. As the game’s map suggests, Jean-Pierre had happened to be settled in the region of Calabria which is where he is launching his conquest not just of Italy but of the entire Byzantine Empire based on pure ambition and greed for wealth and land. However, it is only by playing the game that would decide whether Jean-Pierre will achieve his dreams of conquering the Byzantine Empire, and this can only be determined if he wins the game by capturing the most number of cities.
Freydis- the Varangian Warrior
Background Story
At a young age, Freydis left her homeland in the far north- today’s Sweden- to join the elite Varangian Guard force which consisted of Scandinavian and Kievan Rus’ warriors sworn to protect the Byzantine emperor.
Being a female, Freydis was an exception in the Varangian Guard force as this was a male dominated army unit, though she did not hide the fact that she was female and she true enough excelled as a Varangian Guard. At the time Freydis joined the Varangian Guard, the emperor Basil II was heavily focused on his campaign against the Bulgarian Empire which was during the 1010s. Freydis thus joined the Varangian Guard force in 1015, the year after Basil II’s decisive victory over the Bulgarians at the Battle of Kleidion (1014), thus Freydis was not yet present at this epic battle that ended with Bulgaria’s total defeat which therefore paved the way for Byzantium’s ultimate conquest of the Bulgarian Empire. However, Freydis still got the chance to be in the Varangian Guard force protecting the emperor in his campaign to pacify what was left of Bulgaria from 1015 until the full Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria in 1018, and during this time she also served alongside the Byzantine war heroes of the Bulgarian War such as the generals Nikephoros Xiphias- the same one who rebelled against Basil II in 1022- and Constantine Diogenes. With the Bulgarian War over and Bulgaria thus fully annexed into the Byzantine Empire, Freydis would then join Basil II in his campaign against Georgia in 1022 which ended with a success for the Byzantines as this resulted in more lands annexed for Byzantium in the east. By the time of Basil’s death in 1025, Freydis was stationed back again in Bulgaria, though this time at the Danube River which was now the empire’s northern frontier, and here at this point she had a change of heart. Freydis true enough spent many years fighting alongside Basil II which thus made her fully loyal to him, and thus with Basil dead Freydis no longer had a sense of loyalty to anyone, especially not to the new emperor being Basil’s younger brother Constantine VIII who Freydis saw as unworthy of being emperor as well. At the same time too, Freydis had grown bothered by her role in Basil’s wars as being an elite warrior, she has killed many soldiers in the battlefield, though she also grew bothered of witnessing her fellow Varangians and Byzantine comrades slain in battle. Because of her trauma in the previous wars and the death of Basil, the emperor she was loyal to, Freydis left the Varangian Guard and decided to go rogue to pursue a plan to raid the imperial treasury in Constantinople in order to help children orphaned by the previous wars in the past few years. Apparently, raiding the imperial treasury was also a tradition among the Varangian Guard when an emperor dies. However, in order to achieve this goal, Freydis must seize the empire and its capital Constantinople.
Special Ability
As a skilled and seasoned commander, Freydis can at least once in the game use the “Gain an Army” card twice instead of once unlike the other 3 characters. Here, she can use this card to capture an open city when landing on it with the roll of the dice, and unlike the others who have to surrender the card after using it, she can use the card again to capture another open city when again landing on one with the roll of the dice. Additionally, she can use this advantage to capture the capital Constantinople with just one gain an army card since this is also equivalent to using 2 gain an army cards since normally for the other 3 characters, 2 gain an army cards are needed to capture Constantinople. However, this advantage can only be used once in the game, and thus if she uses this advantage already when capturing Constantinople with just one gain an army card, she can no longer use the advantage of using the same gain an army card twice in the game after that action takes place.
Appearance
Out of the 4 in-game characters, Freydis is the youngest among them wherein in the game’s setting being 1025, she is 30-years-old, which puts her birth year at 995 while at the age of 20 in 1015 she left her homeland Sweden to join the Varangian Guard serving in it for 10 years. Now Freydis appears to be a beautiful, young, tall, and well-shaped woman with fair skin and red hair while on her face is blue face-paint in the form of lines.
As for her attire, Freydis wears an unusual set of armor which is not the uniform type worn by other male Varangian Guards, thus the unusual style of her armor resembles more of a fantasy style armor and hints that it is a rare one made for female Varangians in which there were so little of if not non-existent except for Freydis. The body armor Freydis wears does not cover her whole body as it leaves her shoulders and upper chest exposed, thus it starts at her bust and goes down to her waist while she too is seen to be wearing nothing under it; basically, her armor is a strapless top in the form of a corset as it is made to protect her body and is laced at the back- however the back of her armor is not visible. Her shoulders and upper arms meanwhile are covered by a large fur cloak fastened by a chain across her chest. Freydis’ waist and thighs on the other hand are protected by a kind of leather armor held up together by a belt, and as for the legs she wears long blue trousers.
She also wears leather gauntlets lined with fur to protect her arms and leather greaves lined with fur as well to protect her lower legs. As for her weapons, Freydis wields a large Dane-axe as her primary weapon which was the main weapon used by the Varangian Guards of Byzantium whereas her secondary weapon is a double-edged Byzantine style Spathion sword which is seen sheathed and attached to her belt. Behind her on the other hand is a large Viking style round shield which is held together by a leather strap running across her shield. Although the illustration of Freydis does not show what design is on her shield, her wooden figure which players use to play her in the game shows what she looks like from behind wherein the large round shield is most prominent and here one can see that the shield is yellow with a flower pattern. Meanwhile, in the game’s box cover, Freydis is seen in an imposing battle position wherein she is at mid-air swinging her Dane-axe up high with both arms which also exposes her arms completely showing that her armor does not protect her arms and thus leaves it together with her shoulders exposed.
Behind-the-Scenes
When the game was first conceptualized in 2019, there was no idea yet that there would be a unique female Varangian warrior character as one of the 4 playable in-game characters. Originally, the character of Freydis was supposed to be a male Rus’ warrior or a male Varangian Guard, however for the sake of diversity and inclusivity, there needed to be a strong female character for the game, therefore the Varangian was the one most fitting for this.
The reason now to why the female character had to be the Varangian (Viking) is mainly because at this time in history, the only people to have had recorded female warriors were the Vikings or in the east known as Varangians. It was also definitely fitting to have a Varangian character in the game as it was true enough during the reign of Basil II when the Varangian Guard consisting of warriors from faraway lands in the north like Russia and even Scandinavia was created to be the professional bodyguard force of the Byzantine emperor, and true enough the Varangian Guard unit turned out to be an institution in the Byzantine army that continued to be in use even way after Basil II’s time. As for the part of there being a female Varangian Guard, this was purely fictional as the whole reason for the Varangian character to be female was simply to make the game’s story more interesting but also because out of the 4 civilizations represented in the game, the best one for a female warrior is the Varangians or Vikings. The character of Freydis meanwhile was not based on anyone in this time period, although her appearance was based on that of fantasy artist Alquatica also known as Ro (follow her on Instagram @alquatica). On the other hand, Freydis’ name and background story were created by Franco, the game’s story writer. Included in creating Freydis’ story was the tradition among the Varangian Guard to loot the imperial treasury when a Byzantine emperor dies, however in Freydis’ case she seizes the opportunity to loot the gold for those orphaned by recent wars instead of using it purely for herself.
Although Freydis’ character was not based on any Varangian warrior from this time period nor inspired by anyone in this time period, the basis of her story comes from the story of the Viking warrior Sigurd from Byzantine Tales’ Basil: Basileus comic series wherein Sigurd originally from Sweden finds himself serving as the protector of the young emperor Basil II.
Despite Sigurd being a male Varangian warrior and Freydis being a female one, they have a lot of similarities as both come from what is now Sweden, both end up serving in the Varangian Guard, and both protect the emperor Basil II whereas Sigurd- although fictionally- protected the younger Basil II whereas Freydis would protect a much older Basil II. Meanwhile, it is not also very unusual for there to be a female Varangian character as true enough historical sources even mention the fact that there were female Varangians, although not serving the Byzantine emperor but in one instance where the Byzantines battled the Kievan Rus’ who had along with them female Varangian warriors. This historical source now being that of the 11th century Byzantine historian John Skylitzes famous for producing the illustrated chronicle known as the Madrid Skylitzes mentions that at the aftermath of the Battle of Dorystolon in 971- where the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes (r. 969-976) defeated the army of the Kievan Rus’ under their prince Sviatoslav I- the Byzantine troops were surprised to see among the enemy corpses women in armor, which therefore gives evidence that there were female warriors at this point in history. However, for Freydis, despite it being a known fact that there were female Rus’ (or Varangian) warriors, she is the only female Varangian that serves the Byzantine emperor which therefore makes it a challenge for her. The bigger challenge for Freydis though is not to assert herself as a woman in the male dominated Varangian Guard force but to seize the empire’s cities and most importantly Constantinople and its treasury to help the children orphaned by the recent wars. It is only by playing the game that will decide if Freydis will succeed in her goal, and this can only be determined if she wins the game by capturing the most number of cities.
Conclusion and Character Receptions
Creating the characters for the game despite there being only 4 was not an easy task, especially since all characters have to have a strong story and appearance to make players invested in them. However, it was also a fun and entertaining process when it came to conceptualizing the characters together with their appearances and background stories, and so once again congratulations to Chrysa and Franco for a job well done in making these characters truly unique and special! So far, the 4-in game characters have received positive feedback wherein many admire them for the design of their armor and weapons. Out of the 4 in-game characters, Freydis has happened to be a fan-favorite as majority had said that among the 4 characters Freydis is their favorite. This is possibly due to the fact that she is a badass looking female warrior thus making it something very unique; although despite her being a fan favorite, some have also questioned the idea of her being a female Varangian in the game saying that it is not historically accurate. However, the whole idea of the game and its characters is that it is not supposed to be historically accurate as after all, all 4 characters are fictional and so is the story of the game which features an alternate timeline of history. Meanwhile, the other 3 characters being Demetrios, Al-Sadin, and Jean-Pierre were also well received especially for their appearance especially Demetrios in which many admired the epic design of his armor. Of course, all characters in the game are equally important to each other and all equally special having their own unique abilities, but overall, the characters are essential as they are what makes the game playable among players as without them the game cannot be played but instead just admired as an artwork. Although no matter how important the characters are, they are just one part of the game as this game involves so many more details, therefore I will have another article coming up on the game, this time on its gameplay. Now, this is all for this article on the 4 characters in the “Battle for Byzantium” board game, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more articles on the game!
The Byzantium Blogger 