Historical Honesty

Sources, labels, and corrections.

Sakartvelo Defenders is a game, not a textbook. But when it uses Georgian history, archaeology, myth, and cultural memory, the project should be clear about what kind of claim is being made.

Every lore entry should tell players what it is.

History

Used for documented people, events, institutions, places, and widely accepted chronological framing.

Archaeology

Used for artifacts, settlement evidence, architecture, burial culture, metallurgy, trade goods, and visual design grounded in material evidence.

Myth and Folklore

Used for Medea, Aeetes, Jason, the Golden Fleece, devi, dragons, Amirani, and other mythic or folkloric layers.

Game Adaptation

Used for invented battles, towers, bosses, enemy waves, abilities, objectives, and any dramatic compression made for gameplay.

How we decide what is reliable.

Tier 1: Institutional and official

UNESCO, Georgian National Museum, Georgian Encyclopedia, official EU documents, official cultural institutions, and other primary institutional references.

Tier 2: Academic scholarship

Peer-reviewed articles, university publications, serious historical monographs, and recognized scholars of Georgian and Caucasus history.

Tier 3: Ancient and medieval sources

Herodotus, Strabo, Kartlis Tskhovreba, and other source traditions. These are valuable, but they must be labeled as ancient or medieval testimony rather than modern verification.

Tier 4: Discovery sources

Wikipedia, blogs, videos, and tourism pages can help find leads, but they should not be the final authority for in-game claims.

Known wording rules for the cleanup.

Ancient Colchis

Public copy should distinguish between the Kingdom of Colchis proper and earlier Bronze-Age or proto-Colchian roots. The active game may use a broad playable frame for Era 0, but the site should explain that early chapters are archaeological inspiration, not documented royal history.

Medea

Medea is a mythic Colchian figure and symbolic hero-guide. She should not be described as a verified historical commander.

Borjgali

The Borjgali is a Georgian cultural and solar motif, but it is not part of the modern Georgian national flag. Do not describe the five-cross flag as containing a Borjgali.

Golden Fleece

Use “often associated with” or “linked by some interpretations to” gold-gathering traditions. Do not present the sheep-fleece gold-panning explanation as proven fact.

Didgori

Didgori belongs to the Georgian Golden Age and David IV. Do not place it in the pre-1089 Age of Invasions.

Aspindza

The Battle of Aspindza belongs to 1770 and Erekle II. Do not use the incorrect 1510 date.

Modern topics

Use factual, restrained wording. Georgia received EU candidate status in 2023, while the accession process was later described by EU institutions as de facto halted. Do not say candidacy was revoked.

Respect beats overconfidence.

When a claim is uncertain, the project should say so. Georgian players should feel the game is proud, careful, and honest — not pretending myth, politics, and archaeology are all the same kind of evidence.