Going crazy with historical connections

Hi there, friends and foes of democracy,

For those who don't know, Socratic Democracy is a single player visual novel about how democracies become tyrannies, according to Socrates. The game’s purpose is to generate awareness and interest about Book 8 of Plato’s Republic, the classical text in which it is based. The game also targets aficionados of ancient Greek culture and politics in general.

I love historical connections, and loved to investigate that when reading historical novels, such as Pillars of The Earth. Even when reading more fantastical stories, such as Harry Potter or One Hundred Years of Solitude, I couldn't help but wonder where would Hogwarts and Macondo be located, what places inspired their looks and settings.

I cannot avoid doing the same for my own game. It is both fun and a source of new plot details. So here is a bit of my research on the subject.

Location

Foititia is supposed to be in the outskirts of Greece. As such, it is not a place near Athens or Sparta. It is far from the main action.

I also thought it would be nice for the imagery to have the sun coming from the left. Andrea Yepez (one of our artists) made a great visualization of a city overlooking a bay and distant mountain in the background. 

The city itself had to be over a hill:

• It was common to be located over hills, for defensive reasons.
• Being over a hill makes the city look a bit more like Athens.
• Being over a hill allow using the “worldview” style of Bruegel’s Tower of Babel painting, a major artistic reference for me.

After searching for a suitable place, I decided to locate Foititia in ancient Thrace, not far from modern Alexandropolis. More precisely, over the hills near the ancient city of Maroneia. There, one can find a coastline that goes almost straight from east to west for about 60 km, with hills on both ends.

And this would be the view from this location, looking westwards:

While the place looks like the game geographically, it was politically distinct. Around this time, Thrace was inhabited by the Thracian people, who were not entirely greek in culture. There were however many cities founded by what we conceive as Greek peoples. According to ancient Greek myth, the city of Maroneia itself was Greek in origin and founded around 540 BC. Archeological evidence suggests that the city was much older and founded by Thracians.

This region was known for producing the best wine of the time; after learning that, I included it in the story of the game.

Historical period

From the outset, I had two requisites for the time of this story:

• Earliest date: 379 BC. The game should take place after the publication of Plato’s Republic, as there will be a copy of this book in the local library. The publication date is uncertain, but the earliest possible date is 380 BC.
• Latest date: 359 BC. According to Wikipedia, 355 BC or 353 BC is when the city of Maroneia was conquered by Philip II of Macedon. But even before that, Macedonian expansion was a big issue. The game would be unable to ignore Macedon after 359 BC, when the expansion started to get into Thrace. Thus, the entire political life of Leonidas should finish before 359.

This allows 20 years for the story to develop, which is tight, but doable. It inspired me, however, to add a small change in script. The Republic of Plato should not be in the library at the beginning of the game, but rather arrive there during the story. Now, the arrival of Plato’s magnum opus deserves its own scene. Something to think about.

Based on these restrictions, I am assuming the following timeline:

• 400 BC. Leonidas is born.
• 381 BC. At just 19 years of age, Leonidas is elected for archon for the first time.
• 378 BC: A copy of The Republic of Plato arrives in Foititia.
• 381-375 BC. Leonidas governs as a populist, winning successive elections.
• 374 BC: Leonidas performs a successful coup d’état after losing the election.
• 374-359: Leonidas tyranny.
• 359: Leonidas dies, because of his flamboyant lifestyle, at 41 years.

Nice thought: 2027 is 2400 years after the first election of fictitious Leonidas.

Conclusion

This is probably useless, but it is so much fun!!!! I wonder if you, game developers of itch io, also have similar nerdy digressions about your own games.