21: Watch your paths well! – On Medievalism, Digital Games and Chivalric Virtues

21: Watch your paths well! – On Medievalism, Digital Games and Chivalric Virtues

Nico Huss, @NiHuMedieval Today I will talk about chivalric virtues and their reception – from the medieval text to digital games. I will show on Crusader Kings III and The Witcher 3, how modern games adopt medieval ideas of indexing virtues and discuss the role of game’s genres. As a medieval example I will refer to the ‘doctrine of virtues’, which is unfolded on the ‘Brackenseil’ (a hounds leash) in Albrecht’s Younger Titurel – a ‘post-classical’ Arthurian Epic of the late 13th century. There (JT St. 1911-25) we find a catalogue of virtues: zuhtec (mannerly) or balt (bold) – kiusch (chaste) – milt (clemency) – triuwe (loyalty) – mâze (temperance) – sorge (care) – scham (pudency) –bescheidenheit (prudence) – staete (constancy) – diemüete (humility) – gedulde (patience) – minne (love [to god]). This specific catalogue is already mentioned as ‘Fürstenspiegel’ in the testament of Gerhard v. Sayn when he tells his sons to listen to the ‘Brackenseil’ (Hound's Leash). This is also what connects the virtues to today’s reception: a guide for chivalrous lifestyle. Crusader Kings III refers to it in a sort of ‘Object-related Medievalism’. Witcher 3 in contrast does it in a more neomedieval way, referring to already existing medievalism. For the categorization of (Neo)Medievalism please see my article on Mittelalter Digital https://mittelalter.digital/

Looking at Crusader Kings III we see, that ‘virtues’ are ‘personality traits’, which can be virtues in certain religions. The pre-set virtues for Christianity are ‘Compassion’, ‘Chaste’ and ‘Forgiveness’; all can be found in the catalogue above: sorge, kiusche and milte. Virtues are indeed pre-set to religions but differ between ‘faiths’ or when creating a new faith by choosing ‘tenets’. Catholicism adds ‘Temperate’ and ‘Honest’ to its virtues. Here we find ‘maze’ and – by bending translations – also ‘zuht’ in the sense of modesty. Crusader Kings III fulfils its sandbox-promise. At the same time, it sticks to medieval sources. Players decide if they want to play ‘object-related’ or in a more ‘neomedieval’ way by choosing own traits they want to count as virtues for the new created faith.

In Witcher 3: Blood and Wine players can collect virtues by ‘right’ decisions for the quest ‘There Can Be Only One’. Even before the quest logs, players must prove their ‘valor’, ‘honor’, ‘compassion, ‘generosity’ and ‘wisdom’. Those virtues seem rather deflected through pop cultural medievalism than derived from medieval sources. The object-related medievalism is outsourced in recipients’ cultural memory and not such strong pre-set like in Crusader Kings III which sticks closer to the ‘medieval’ examples.

The genre of a game as well as the developers’ and players’ intention are essential in what they perceive as ‘medieval’. Chivalric virtues are a great example how fluid ‘authentic’ experience is and that these experience lays at last in players’ responsibility. Witcher 3 takes some first steps on ‘sandboxing’ reception, when it lets you choose how to act out virtuousness. Loose bounding to medieval sources and medievalisms let players establish their own ‘authentic’ play. Maybe this is a way out from endless discussions on Authenticity.

37