Hi all,

this is my first post here on games2gether. Recently over on Discord, I discussed possibility of Bohemians as a unique Medieval era culture and since then, I was thinking a lot about it. So I decided to get it off my mind and wrote brief culture design seed.

Bohemians - Medieval Era

Historical background: During the late 14th and early 15th centruy, Bohemia was on slowly decline after the death of the beloved King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg. He founded the first Univesity in Prague and managed to bring the country half of century of prosperity, even tho Europe was suffering with famine and black death at that time. After his death, his son Wenceslaus IV had really difficult time to step into his father‘s shoes and nobility thought him unfit of rule. His brother Sigismund took the title of Emperor and in time managed to get under his control most of Bohemia and Hungary. These power struggles of the nobility and clergy made the common people suffer once again.

During this difficult time, some people sought the solace in faith. Jan Hus was the preacher and philospher from the University, who was one of the most influential figures of the time. He preached in Bohemian language and made religion accesible for everyone. He criticized the Pope and Emperor for all the suffering their power struggles brought to common folk. Because of this, he became increasingly more popular amongst them, and made many enemies – mainly clergy and nobility. Then he was tricked, called to justify his claims on the religious council, he was condemned for heresy and burned at stake. This ignited the unrest in Bohemia and soon, even petty noblemen were siding with common folks. Must notorious of them was Jan Žižka, mercenary knight, who created army from the peasants and this way, the Hussite rebellion was born.

Trait: Agrarian – Majority of Hussite forces were recruited from peasants. Even their weapons of choice – scythes, pitchforks and flails – were common farm tools customized for battle. As such, Agrarian trait reflects this origin.

EU: War Wagon – Under the training of Jan Žižka, peasants learned how to use their usual farming tools as weapons – pitchforks, scythes, flails and morning stars. With innovative tactics such as using the advantage of swampy terrain and defense capabilities of War Wagons, Hussites mannaged to withstand 15 years of consecutive Crusades of best of European knights of the time. Even after the end of war, Bohemian mercenaries continued to use War Wagons with great succes against both knights and infantry, even employing early firearms. (Special unit with strong defence, especially against Knights and Infantry)

EQ: Tábor – First encampment built by Hussites on the top of the mountain was named after the Biblical Mt. Thabor, but later similar fortified communing places of common people adopted the designation tábor, which is today in Czech even synonymous with the camp. At such places, common folk gathered for joint defense, worship and even shared thein meager possesions, trying to recreate original Biblical utopia. (Gives Influence for each adjecent Farmers Quarter; Gives Manpower for each „population in Food production“.)

Legacy trait (provisional): Farms produce +X Manpower. Farms produce +X Influence. (Provisional until I learn more about the actual gameplay).

Justification of Bohemians: On first glance, this is just another European Medieval Kingdom, probably one that many people outside of Central Europe never heard of. In fact, Bohemia had quite unique history and great influence during the Middle Ages - I don't want to bother you all with the details, but in short:

- it was one of first Slavic states, first to convert to Christianity (Great Moravia - predecessor of Bohemia)

- it's culture is mainly Slavic, but with strong German and even some Celtic influence (both Celts and later Germanic tribes inhabited Bohemia prior to arrival of Slavs)

- it was only Slavic country to be part of HRE while retaining its sovereignity

- for a time, Bohemian kings were also the Emperors of HRE

- at the greatest reach, Bohemians ruled all the Central Europe - today Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, parts of Germany and Hungaria, and even bits of Slovenia, Italy and more

- in my iteration of the Bohemians, I focused on one particular period of their history, which I think is pretty unique, but there is more possibilities

- fun fact at the end: they tried to form Medieval European Union before it was cool, but were way ahead of time... (George of Podebrady)

- while I know, that Medieval era has so many hot contestants, that Bohemians would probably not make it to the top 20 Medieval cultures, but after 10 expansions... who knows?

Thank you all who read my post and I would be happy for any feedback you can give me! Stay safe, wash hands.

EDIT: Golly, I read it once again and found so many typos made by language localization of Word, that I am truly embarrassed! Apologies!