So(cially) Ancient! Representing Ancient and Early Medieval Social, Ethnic and Religious Realities in Video Games
Finnish Institute at Athens
22-23 October 2026
Participation is free and open to everyone.
Online
Register via the following link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
In-person
Register by sending an email to edufi@finninstitute.gr.
DAY 1 – THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER
9-9:30: Welcome and introduction
9:30-10:30 Keynote 1 – Jane Draycott: ‘‘Everything public that exists about this game is a statement of intent’: The challenges of researching historical & archaeological video games’ (Chair: Jasmin Lukkari)
10:30-11 Coffee
11-12:50 Session 1: Religions and mythologies (Chair: Antti Lampinen)
- Daniel Hinz (Cologne): ‘Faith as a Resource: Mechanising Religion and the Diachronic Evolution of Cultural Representation in Age of Mythology and its Remake’
- Juha Isotalo (Turku): ‘Atheist Herodotus? Representation of Greek Religious Reality and Practice in Historical Video Games’
- Athanasios Votsis & Dina Babuskhina (Twente): ‘Digital Socratism: An existential-semiotic analysis of the Apotheon video game’
- Charles W. Oughton (Brigham Young): ‘Deus Ludens: The Mechanics of Religion in the Total War Series’
12:50-14:30 Lunch break
14:30-16 Session 2: Ancient social conditions (Chair: Timothy Hart)
- Alice Rieti (Trento): ‘Playing Sparta: Society and Religion in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey’
- Niklas Ziegler & Vincent Hupfauer (Mainz): ‘When in Rome, Do as the Romans Did? Anno 117’s portrayal of slavery and slavery-related violence’
- Julie Sawezyn (Sorbonne): ‘The Witch strikes back: feminine power and mythic rewriting in Hades II’
16-16:30 Coffee break
16:30-18 Session 3: Ethnic otherness I (Chair: Antti Lampinen)
- Anna-Sofia Alitalo (Oxford): ‘Painted Egyptians, Greeks of White Marble: Considering Statues in Assassin’s Creed: Origins through the Lens of Chromophobia’
- Edward Hammond (Bristol): ‘Carthaginian Religion in Total War: ROME II and Old World: A Historical Problem Space Analysis’
- Maelenn Nivet (Sorbonne): ‘Playable barbarians: ancient stereotypes or modern nationalism?’
DAY 2 – FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER
9:30-10:30 Keynote 2 – Robert Houghton: ‘God from the machine: systematising religion in Crusader Kings III’ (Chair: Antti Lampinen)
10:30-11 Coffee break
11-12:50 Session 4: Late Antique and Medieval religions (Chair: Jasmin Lukkari)
- Karl Dahm (St Andrews): ‘Essentialising Religious Diversity – The Depiction of Late Antique Christianity in the Total War Series’
- Prolet Decheva (Mainz): ‘Christian relics in video games’
- Thomas Besson (Sorbonne): ‘A Church in the shadows: from the Dark Ages to the classroom in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’
- Juan Manuel Rubio Arévalo (Vienna, ONLINE): ‘Assassin’s Creed (2007), the Crusades, and the War on Terror. Historical Realism as a Methodological Approach for the Analysis of Historical Video Games’
12:50-14:30 Lunch break
14:30-16 Session 5 Ethnic otherness II (Chair: Juha Isotalo)
- Timothy C. Hart (UMass Amherst): ‘Build your own ‘Decline and Fall’: Creative Representations of the Late Antique World within the Crusader Kings III Modding Community’
- Cédrik Michel (Reading): ‘Video Game Developers and Ethnographers: Imagining the ‘Other’ in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (2017) and Hellblade II: Senua’s Saga (2024)’
- Maxime Kremer (Sorbonne): ‘From Ethnic Categories to Royal Lineages: Modelling Early Medieval Scotland in Historical Strategy Games’
16-16:30 Coffee break
16:30-18 Session 6 Representations of the Byzantine Empire (Chair: Prolet Decheva)
- Elias Stouraitis (Thrace): ‘Simulating Empire and Faith: Comparative Representations of Western Medieval Europe and Byzantium in Digital Strategy Games’
- Denis Njari (Osijek): ‘Playing Empire: The Representation of the Eastern Roman Empire in Civilization V’
- Jokela (Turku): ‘Ἡ φίλη τοῦ Βυζαντίου – Theodora’s afterlife in Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Gods and Kings’
18-18:30 Concluding conversation