Medieval Borders in the Context of Video Games

Juan Francisco Jiménez Alcázar (Universidad de Murcia)

English translation transcript:

The contribution that I am presenting is part of the work that we carry out in the “Historia y Videojuegos” Group for Knowledge Transference of the University of Murcia (Spain), whose research, activities, news and results from our conferences can be found on our website https://www.historiayvideojuegos.com. In addition to the various publications of some of the members of the team, we also have available in open access almost all the works we have published on the subject, as well as a section of the various events in which we participate, collaborate on, or directly organise, such as the international online congresses «HISTORY AND VIDEO GAMES». The website also features other sections with screenshots of videogames, videos, and videogame-related collectible items, as well as email contact information of our group.

The study of the past, and more specifically of certain historical periods, has been a constant since history became a discipline with a specific starting point: what is studied, in what territory and in what period. The origin of the concept of “medieval” is parallel to that of the other traditional historical periods: the ideas of Ancient, Medieval and Modern history all emerged in the Renaissance. This is an important matter, since defining the Middle Ages is a challenge not only for those of us who are professionally engaged in researching and teaching Medieval History in university, but also for other researchers and the general public. The main reason is that this conception is the one that reaches society, and it is the cause why, from its origin, the Middle Ages have a negative image, complemented by the one generated by the Romantic movement of the 19th century, which is radically different. There is no consensus as to why the medieval period is so attractive to many people in our culture. It may be because it represents an origin point of many current states, and the process of identity is linked to that idea. Another reason may also lie in the reflection it has in the folklore of each place. Over the last few decades, this demand has grown and generated a trend that wants to know more about the period, as well as what was the actual of the Middle Ages and not what is traditionally known about them.  Therefore, these are questions that those of us who are dedicated to generating content, both in more orthodox and specialised research and in more popular, public-facing forms, are often asked: what was there in the Middle Ages, what was it like, what did they eat and drink, where did they live, what did they know… Generalisation is a problem, as we tend to identify with the same scheme what was a multitude of territories, inhabited by many more people and groups, and all across a vast period of time.

It must therefore be stressed that the answer to this question must be made with great caution, and always accompanied by “it depends”, since there will be a series of conditioning factors that will define ―with varying fortune― what was there, how they at a particular time were and in a particular area. A person from the north of the British Isles or from the south of the Iberian Peninsula at the beginning of the 8th century had nothing in common with each other, let alone with another one at the end of the 14th century. And it is not only a matter of geography, but also of culture, religion, technology, cosmogony… The turning point of the 10th-12th centuries, the 14th century ― they are all inescapable points of reference to understand that this was a period of great transformations.

However, there are elements that do allow the concept of “medieval” to be unified under a similar iconography. For example, a knight with a helmet, or a castle and its walls, although not the most common, tends to be seen as typical of the time. Though, in fact, this was neither the case nor did it correspond to reality. But even more interesting is the unification through certain processes that do allow us to identify the period as a unitary one. One of these is territorial delimitation, i.e. the border between jurisdictions. Therefore, I am going to deal with the concept of the “medieval frontier” as one of those references that allow us to analyse and understand the past and, specifically, how it can be applied to the development of videogames that have a historical background at some point in the period that we include in the Middle Ages, or, in other words, in the “medieval historical videogame”.

Strategy games have always resorted to the use of territorial distributions for an easier the development of the game, understandable with them being heirs of the old tabletop wargames. Therefore, we can see in Crusader Kings III (Paradox, 2020) this approach towards the different polities in the game, all reflected on maps with very well delimited territories, in the style of what we can see in any historical atlas; a clear example is the campaign suggestion of “The Carolingians”, where we see Western Europe two decades after the Treaty of Verdun. However, the reality on the ground was quite different, regardless of our preconceived idea that territorial boundaries were very well marked and delimited by a definite line. A fence, a wall or some other barrier is what marks a jurisdiction today, at a time when technology helps to make that demarcation. But in the medieval period this was not always exactly the case.

One must understand the limitations that the various powers had always had to express on the territory the absolute limit of their power. The lines were blurred by the material impossibility they had, were it large or small, to properly mark their dominion, with the exception of the walls that surrounded some populated centres. Rome was a radical change, as it had the resources to establish borders that did respond to a very well-defined physical demarcation in the terrain. The limes on the Rhine or Hadrian’s Wall were the best examples. It is this reference point from which we must start because the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire made this system impossible to sustain, and it was transformed into what can be defined as a defence in depth.

The irruption from the East of “barbarian” peoples can be taken as a benchmark, where it was almost impossible to withstand such migratory pressure. It is this situation that Attila: Total War (The Creative Assembly, 2015) illustrates, where the different powers that emerged from this period between the 4th and 6th centuries assumed that the simplest form of defence was to control certain points of vanguard, which would also serve for surveillance and, when ―or if― the time came, for staging an offensive towards neighbouring territories.

In this way, a border was created that was blurred on the ground, where the only references were the outposts that recognised a specific jurisdiction. The discontinuous line marked by the dispersed succession of these locations is what will delimit this border, in any case. Therefore, and in the absence of a very clear definition, all these border territories will be framed in an extensive “no man’s land”, especially when they were sparsely populated areas. Normally, the population density increased as the settlements moved away from these frontier points, and they became the de facto bases for their maintenance.

This concept of the “military frontier in depth”, which we can identify as the defining characteristic of the “medieval frontier”, was a reality that had been sketched out over centuries, and already present by the 6th century in the West. This historical concept, very complex in itself, became a challenge for developers of historical videogames who wanted to set them in this long period, adding onto that the lack of other tools to do so aside from visuals and narrative. What is most interesting is that, almost certainly, in most cases this historical factor has not been considered. For the design of strategy videogames, it is enough to handle the territories as if they were squares on a chessboard, as I have alluded to in the case of Crusader Kings III.

But let us take a specific example, that of the border between the Christian crown of Castile and the Nasrid Muslim kingdom of Granada, which lasted from the mid-13th century to the end of the 15th century. In this screenshot of Europa Universalis IV (Paradox, 2013), we see the border between the two kingdoms very clearly marked on the map. The reality on the ground was quite different. What appears on the screen is a photograph taken a few days ago. The landscape has been preserved, for various reasons, almost intact as it was in the 15th century: a horizon with barely any human occupation, without any physical boundaries, and, if anything, with only occasional landmarks that also served as guides for cross-border disputes.

Without going into too much detail, reference should be made to Rome: Total War (The Creative Assembly, 2004) where the developers put the focus on the control of certain points, in this case, urban centres. Nevertheless, and in general, strategy games did not change their dynamics, but we began to see titles that were set during the Middle Ages, at whatever time in that period, or were inspired by it, as is the case of the Mount & Blade series (TaleWorlds Entertainment) set in the fictitious land of Calradia. These reproduced the “feeling” of those jurisdictional crossings, of those suggested borders, as the truth is that the graphic adventure and role-playing genre allows it in a much simpler way. Such is also the case in the more recent Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Warhorse, 2018). Any territorial incursion had to have control over the strong points of the land it was intended to dominate, that is, to occupy the castles that dominated that region, whether large or small. From the same video game, set in Bohemia in 1403, I have used another capture to contrast it with the one I have shown of the old eastern frontier between Castile and Granada: the only difference is the geographical conditions, where there is more vegetation in the central European area, but the population vacuum is just as characteristic.

Without leaving the graphic adventure genre, sometimes developers find other, simpler solutions, and that is to place the action directly in the destination places, without taking into account in the act of crossing jurisdictions. As an example, I have used Ken Follet’s The Pillars of the Earth (Daedalic, 2017). The protagonist, Aliena, appears in different territories of 12th century Western Europe, with the narrative action taking place at the point of destination and without any reflection in-game of the crossing of jurisdictions, precisely because there were no barriers until reaching the city where the protagonist wished to arrive.

But at this point it is worth recalling a key element in this matter, and that is the role played by the most recognisable physical border, which was the wall. For the sake of brevity, we will refer to the walls that appeared in Age of Empires II (Ensemble Studios, 1999). They fulfilled their defensive purpose perfectly, to withstand attacks, but at the same time, they also served as a delimitation of territories for the players. Therefore, these artificial physical borders embody the key to the success of a video game, and that is its gameplay. In Age of Empires II and its gameplay, there are no actual borders aside from those in the player’s mind, only fortified points, be they towers or castles, and towns, but these same defensive lines could be used as border limitations to prevent attacks by an enemy. This is the resource that the development team makes available to its players to make the progress of the game more fun, engaging, at least within the framework of what is a real-time strategy game.

A very clear example of all of the above can be found in Medieval Machines Builder (FreeMind S.A., Solverto, 2024). It is a title that we can fit into the sandbox and construction genres, and its objective is to achieve success in sieges of various fortified posts through the construction of medieval war machines and devices. In the first level, where the player receives their first instructions in the game, we can already read directly in a letter from the “royal council” ―our ruler― that there are threats on areas on the frontier, with continuous assaults on these border demarcations. Thus, the player is tasked to build a catapult in order to destroy a fortification of the enemy’s vanguard outpost. It is a palisade with a watchtower located in a gorge, but the interesting thing is that it is this point that marks the border, the jurisdiction. There is no demarcation line except for the one marked by the wooden fence. The destruction of the post by the our constructed machine will clear the way into the enemy territory.

In conclusion, the difficulty of including certain historical realities in videogames is a factor that must be taken into account when alluding to the possibilities of disseminating content about the past to the user. The case of the “medieval frontier” is a good paradigm for this intervention. It contrasts with a concept of demarcation that is nowadays fully accepted. The screenshot of All Quiet in the Trenches (Totally Not Aliens, 2024), a title set on the Western Front during the First World War, has a clear meaning in this sense, as it is clear from the line marked by a trench how far the control of a territory extends.

In this way, the historical video game is configured as an excellent medium with the potential for dissemination to achieve a more or less approximate knowledge of what the past, the Middle Ages, might have been like. We can speak of “seen history”, as the interactive nature of the video game is what makes it attractive, but it is its immersive factor that ends up turning it into such an exceptional channel of cultural expression. With a sensible and methodologically well-planned use, it is possible to reach an understanding of history through a virtual experience, something unprecedented to date. The video game presents an incentive for the user, which in many cases will bring them closer to a distant past and which they will perceive as something more their own as a personal experience. The last image is that of an original document from the council of Vera, a town located in an area on the old border between Castile and Granada, and which had been the vanguard of the Nasrid sultan against Castile until it was conquered by the Catholic Monarchs in 1488 and became, after its repopulation by Christian families, a “frontier” town surrounded by Muslims who, by capitulation, were already governed by Castilians, but who were still seen as possible enemies. It is not necessary to dedicate many words to what it means to bring anyone closer to these primary sources in order to take on historical processes, or the generation of vocations to become historians. The world is in a state of flux, and videogames arejust another symptom.

Thank you very much for your attention.