Medieval Byzantium and Caucasia in Ludic Visual Memory

This talk will provide a short overview of the ways in which the physical representation of Byzantine and medieval Caucasian cultures in modern games builds a modern cultural memory of the Byzantine and Caucasian worlds. Games are a major vector for the formation of cultural memory of premodern history in general, and Byzantium in particular. Whilst academic Byzantinists still too often think of their field as entirely marginal in popular representations, the Empire and certain historiographical questions around it are well known to the point of being commonplace in the large communities around various historical and semi-historical gaming titles. The Caucasus, whilst it looms less large in some ways, has complex ties to westernising and Byzantinising discourses, which are sometimes seen as a route to a European future outside the Russian sphere but sometimes also emphasise the shared Orthodox religious context with the region’s major former colonial power. This paper seeks to consider some of the material and visual language used around Byzantium and the Caucasus in modern games as an underpinning for further research in this area. It will use a brief overview of some of the games in this area to tackle three questions in particular: first, what central elements are used to signify these cultures, including colour, dress and armour styles, and architecture; second, whether on this basis modern games have a consistent or distinctive way of presenting these cultures that is intelligible to players between different games; and third, whether there are particular ties between representations of Byzantium and the Caucasus that emphasise their connectivity or difference.