Leader01
Gilgamesh
Traditionally early; the poems are mostly later
Separate the king named in later tradition from the monsters, flood, and friendship of the Gilgamesh epic, then see what Civilization VII keeps.
LAB / GAMES / HISTORY
Civilization VII History Codex
The histories behind the names.
Leaders and civilizations can be combined in Civilization VII. This codex looks beyond the selection screen: the people, societies, and historical questions that inspired the game.
Leaders
01 / PEOPLE Leader02
Hatshepsut
15th century BCE
A royal regent became a pharaoh, turning overseas exchange and monumental building into lasting statements of authority.
Leader03
Confucius
551–479 BCE (traditional dates)
Learning, ritual, and humane conduct became the foundations of a tradition that reshaped education and government across East Asia.
Leader04
Xerxes I
c. 519–465 BCE (traditional dates)
Read Xerxes through Greek war narratives and Persian inscriptions, separating a failed invasion from the wider life of his empire.
Leader05
Alexander the Great
356–323 BCE (scope of this essay)
Follow a Macedonian king beyond the conquest narrative, from Persian administration to the divided kingdoms that outlived him.
Leader06
Ashoka
c. 304–232 BCE (traditional dates)
Read Ashoka's rock and pillar edicts alongside his later reputation, tracing the difference between imperial remorse and religious legend.
Leader07
Augustus
63 BCE–14 CE (scope of this essay)
Trace Octavian's rise and the making of the Principate, distinguishing republican language from the concentration of imperial power.
Leader08
Trung Trac
c. 40–43 CE (the revolt and its suppression)
Read Trung Trac through the Later Han account of the Jiaozhi revolt, then separate that official narrative from later Vietnamese memory and the game.
Leader09
Himiko
3rd century CE; the embassy falls in the Jingchu era
Read Himiko from the Chinese account of Yamatai, a queen who sent envoys to Wei, and keep later myth and the game's two personas in separate layers.
Leader10
Amina
Traditionally the 16th century; the dates are not settled
Read Amina as a figure in later Hausa tradition, and keep the walls, dates, and dawn legend separate from verified 16th-century archives.
Civilizations
02 / SOCIETIESCivilizations are grouped by their game age, not by a universal historical calendar.
Antiquity
Civilization01
Achaemenid Persia
c. 550–330 BCE (scope of this essay)
Explore Achaemenid conquest, tribute, roads, and royal claims without reducing a diverse empire to its wars against Greek cities.
Civilization02
Aksum
c. 1st–8th centuries CE (scope of this essay)
Trace Aksum through Adulis, ivory routes, and royal stelae, then separate its Christian memory from Civilization VII's single coastal economy.
Civilization03
Egypt
c. 3100–30 BCE (scope of this essay)
Beyond pyramids and pharaohs lies a long history of state formation, regional power, religious change, and imperial expansion.
Civilization04
Greece
c. eighth–first centuries BCE (scope of this essay)
Distinguish Athens, Sparta, and Thebes through citizenship, alliances, and war, then follow Greek political life into the Hellenistic age.
Civilization05
Han
206 BCE–220 CE, with an interruption
Between Chang’an and Luoyang, classical education, government, and far-reaching exchange helped shape an enduring political tradition.
Civilization06
Khmer
c. 9th–15th centuries CE (scope of this essay)
Read the Khmer kingdom through Angkor's temples and reservoirs, and separate that urban history from Civilization VII's single river civilization.
Civilization07
Maurya
Fourth–second centuries BCE (scope of this essay)
Follow the Mauryan dynasty through conquest, royal communication, officials, and religious patronage rather than one ruler alone.
Civilization08
Maya
c. 1000 BCE–16th century CE (scope of this essay)
Read the Maya as many cities and a long agricultural tradition, and separate the Classic crisis from any claim that Maya people disappeared.
Civilization09
Mississippian
c. 800–1400 CE (Cahokia at the center of this essay)
Read the Mississippian world through maize, mounds, and Cahokia, and refuse the shortcut that says its people simply faded from memory.
Civilization10
Rome
Eighth century BCE–sixth century CE (scope of this essay)
Follow Rome from early kingship through republican expansion and the Principate, then look beyond the western political rupture of 476.
Exploration
Civilization01
Abbasid
750–1258 CE (the Baghdad caliphate as the scope of this essay)
The Abbasid caliphate replaced the Umayyads in 750, founded Baghdad in 762, and fell to the Mongol siege in 1258.
Civilization02
Chola
c. 9th–13th centuries CE (the medieval Chola kingdom as the scope of this essay)
The medieval Cholas expanded from the Kaveri valley by temple building, naval raids, and village records, not as a preface to Ming voyages.
Civilization03
Hawai'i
From the refuge and ahupuaa at Honaunau to annexation in 1898
Hawai'i joined refuge sites and land divisions to a kingdom completed in 1810, then a coup in 1893 and annexation in 1898.
Civilization04
Inca
From the fifteenth-century expansion to the Spanish conquest of the sixteenth century
In 1532 the Inca realm ran from northern Ecuador to Chile's Maule River. Roads, khipu, and terraces do not reduce to one city.
Civilization05
Ming
1368–1644 CE (the central Ming government is this essay's scope)
Examine the Ming through Beijing's changing status and the Single Whip reforms, connecting political centers, taxation, and education.
Modern
Civilization01
Qing
1644–1912 CE (the post-conquest central government is this essay's scope)
Explore the Qing through banners, provincial government, population, warfare, and the changes that led to the abdication of 1912.