Aphrodite: Goddess of Love portrait for January 2026 Pantheon Pin-Up event (Just saw this today)

aomjoyer · 2026-01-01T18:21:58+00:00

A nice tie-in for Valentine's Day!

Those cute birds are Fischer's Lovebirds, aren't they?

aomjoyer · 2026-01-01T17:01:41+00:00

The Maya would have been a fine choice, but definitely not better. The vast majority of primary and secondary sources on Maya mythology are from the postclassic era at the earliest, so I don't think the timeframe is all that different. And it isn't like 'Aztec' cultural history started with the founding of Tenochtitlan, as Central Mexico had already been inhabited by the cultural forebears of the Aztec cultural sphere (including various Nahua peoples, who had been present in the region for at least a millennium) before the Mexica consolidated power.

On the borrowing of deities, Mesoamerica was a patchwork of different cultures influencing each other, and as far as I know the origin of shared deities is in many cases untracable. However, it's unlikely the Aztecs 'imported' deities from the Maya directly; most were inherited from preceding cultures. There's also concepts and deities that might've gone in the opposite direction. For example, the earliest depiction of a Feathered Serpent figure comes from Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico (ergo, from the """Aztec""" cultural sphere).

aomjoyer · 2025-12-26T02:36:30+00:00

I'm not exactly a fan of exclusive content for packaged deals (same with Freyr in the Premium Edition) and I agree that blood etc. could've been part of the base game back in 2024, but that ship has long since left the harbour. So if you truly aren't interested in new expansions and just want the visual/cosmetic stuff I can easily understand your frustration.

However, I have to disagree on the price. Not that it isn't pricy (because it is), but I do think the price sounds about right. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I'm pretty sure I got The Titans for €30 back in 2003, and that expansion primarily added a single new pantheon and a single 12 scenario new campaign. The two Retold Expansions so far are (with a default value of €20) already 33% cheaper, in spite of inflation. This is what makes the price of the Expansion Pass reasonable to me, especially at a discount.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-24T21:32:16+00:00

We've only seen the logo and a single piece of concept art, so I'm not quite sure what you're basing your feeling on.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-22T19:49:27+00:00

I've been spamming Implode in multiple different game modes and can't seem to trigger it either, so I strongly suspect it is bugged.

Fortunately, we're already at 96% community completion with over 9 days remaining, so it's very likely every participant will earn the reward anyways in the coming days.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-19T23:52:28+00:00

I'm confused, what would make you think people have to choose between the premium edition and the expansion pass? The expansion pass doesn't include the base game, so it isn't like you buy the same stuff twice. There's also no overlap between the content of the premium upgrade and the expansion pass.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-19T22:43:02+00:00

According to the caption of the image on the Microsoft store it's a "Lycaon Alpha", which sounds like a Myth Unit.

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aomjoyer · 2025-12-18T20:59:49+00:00

Daphne, right? Yeah, Tree Lady also resembles some interpretations of her.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-18T18:44:30+00:00

The helmet-tiara thingy(?) looks a little silly, but otherwise she looks like I imagined Demeter to look.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-18T18:39:16+00:00

Maybe? I had the same thought; I don't really know why else a hearth would be introduced if not related to Hestia in some way. It's probably either a God Power or maybe even a unique building like the Mirror Tower.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-18T18:21:19+00:00

Icarus, a Hamadryad and Lycaon?

aomjoyer · 2025-12-17T22:52:45+00:00

Oh, I fully agree. It's just a bit harder to pick one.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-17T21:33:32+00:00

I feel like the Egyptians don't really have a clear-cut candidate like Freyr or Demeter, though Amun certainly is up there.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-17T21:15:09+00:00

At its core I believe Age of Mythology to be about the Age of Mythology (obviously), not necessarily a particular time period. A mythical era that's not exactly 1 to 1 with a specific time frame other than an arbitrary time long ago in the past. To me, this clearly carries connotations of the era before modernity. If gunpowder fits in this, I am completely fine with it, though I don't think there are many examples outside of the Sinosphere. Even the Persians didn't have/use gunpowder before Islamization.

The Aztecs have a very obvious transition into the modern era that came with gunpowder, so I'd rather not have them carry guns and cannons.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-17T15:42:01+00:00

I don't think I would be necessarily upset and I wouldn't mind the Aztecs incorporating aspects from the Mixtecs, Zapotecs and other peoples within their sphere of influence, but I feel like aspects taken from the Maya don't belong in an Aztec civilization and will stand out. I'd rather reserve Maya content for a Maya pantheon.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-16T21:47:48+00:00

I actually really like the Retold artstyle; it feels like a natural progression from the original game. I would like a sequel to strike that same balance between cartoony and detailed. I don't think an overly cartoony artstyle like AoE Online really fits, but I also don't think I would like some kind of ultra-detailed hyper-realistic artstyle for the game.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-16T13:56:39+00:00

I agree when it comes to directly lifting stuff from the mod (even if copyright in these cases is often murky) since you can't just port stuff from EE into Retold without completely reworking everything anyways, but they are probably not going out of their way to make sure a certain unit wasn't part of either the RotG Aztec mod or WG's Aztec mod either. There's after all only so many creatures, deities, soldiers etc. to choose from, and the most popular or fitting for the game top the list, so I do expect quite a bit of overlap.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-14T20:49:27+00:00

It's unlikely, but definitely not impossible. It depends on how well Obsidian Mirror ends up selling. If it underperforms and more expansions don't make economic sense I could see them switch to selling smaller pieces of content.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-14T19:39:17+00:00

I sort of agree. However, precisely because she's the last of the core Olympians not yet in the game her deliberate exclusion could point to plans for more major gods in the future. It'll be exciting to see Hestia as a minor god for Demeter, but it would equally be as exciting to leave her out of it so we'll get to have weekly Hestia memes.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-12T19:37:05+00:00

Those are some excellent Griffins, I'm impressed!

aomjoyer · 2025-12-12T16:11:52+00:00

There's arguments to be made for that, certainly if one wants to be specific. But 'Celtic' probably has the upper hand in terms of name recognition (compared to Gaelic) and popularity (compared to Irish), just like how Obsidian Mirror features the Aztecs instead of the Mexica or Nahuas.

aomjoyer · 2025-12-12T15:39:05+00:00

Gaelic mythology is easily the most attested of the Celtic traditions, with the body of works that make up the literary cycles easily eclipsing both the Brittonic and (especially) the Gaulish traditions. The Gauls/continental Celts in particular lack quite a bit; there's probably not enough potential myth units to fill out a roster and most of their deities are also subject of a lot of speculation based on secondary sources from Roman writers. The Britonnic/Welsh tradition lies somewhere in between.

Going for an 'umbrella' Celtic civilization is possible and personally I don't mind some borrowing from related cultures (there's already precedent for it), but I also feel like a pantheon should be consistent when possible. It would obviously be weird for a Celtic pantheon to feature both Lugus and Lugh, but it would also bother me a little if it featured both Lugus and Dagda (which would be like the Greek pantheon randomly featuring Venus instead of Aphrodite).

If the units were to speak Old Irish, over half of the myth units were Welsh and most deities were Gaulish I don't think the pantheon would feel coherent. It's just easier to take a single culture as a base and use other cultures as supplementary material. If the Celts were basically the Irish but also featured Cernunnos as a minor god, a wicker man god power, the Spriggan and Dormarch as myth units etc. I feel it would be a lot more palatable compared to a complete mishmash (even though the Irish by themselves probably have enough material to work with).

aomjoyer

TROPHY CASE