Henry's Coming To See Us (Again): Remembering Kingdom Come Deliverance - Part 1

Dissecting a Slavic swashbuckler.

Introduction

With a sequel on the imminent horizon, I have ill-advisedly decided to write a hasty and overambitious restrospective of an RPG that I’m perversely fond of. It’s been years since I last played Kingdom Come Deliverance, however it is a game that I know well¹ and have a lot of affection for, warts and all.

For those not familiar, Kingdom Come Deliverance is a roleplaying game released in 2018, set in Bohemia in the year 1403. KCD puts the player in the shoes of Henry of Skalitz, a blacksmith’s son who escapes the massacre of his village, and sets out on a journey to avenge his parents and reclaim his father’s sword.

Promo art of Henry fleeing from Skalitz.

I have divided my retrospective into two parts. Part 1 will deal with the question of race and nationalism in Kingdom Come Deliverance (i.e. a whole can of worms), while Part 2 will look at the game’s handling of women (a can containing many worms, but a few specks of gold), its examination of social outcasts within Czech society, and other more positive or nuanced aspects of the game.

(I don’t necessarily want to constantly be posting about gender or race issues, but KCD doesn’t give me much of a choice. I’d feel like I was being dishonest if I just talked about the positives, and glossed over the very understandable reasons that a lot of people are wary of this game and its creator.)

Daniel Vavra, Twitter, and the diversity debate

Among players and critics, there was (and is) a certain amount of ambivalence and even hostility towards KCD and its developer, Warhorse Studios, which finds a focal point in the personality of Daniel Vavra, the studio’s lead writer and co-founder.

Vavra is the kind of person who does very well in the attention economy. It’s fair to say that he is outspoken and kind of right wing, and his engagement with reactionary politics on Twitter very much became part of KCD’s marketing. It got people talking (heatedly) about the game, and amassed a vanguard of supporters who were invested in the game for dubious reasons, and opponents whose noisy denouncements greatly raised its profile.

The controversy over KCD centred on the fact that it depicts an entirely white society; some people didn’t like that, and others liked it a bit too much. Of course, this is presumably accurate for rural Bohemia in the 1400s², however it got a lot of people’s backs up, and certainly increased hostility to the already evident nationalist undertones (and overtones) of the game.

We can also see that even groups with a well-documented presence in Bohemia at the time, such as Roma and Jews, were excluded, which should probably raise eyebrows. A developer’s forum post indicates that Roma were actually intended to appear at one point of development, but this didn’t happen, probably due to the fact that the game was supposed to be far bigger than it ended up, and was originally meant to be released in an episodic format. Jews are also absent³ (the post attibutes this to the fact that they were concentrated in major cities), though an in-game codex describes the history of Jews in Bohemia, indicating that there may have been an intention to feature Jews at some point in the development process.

In any case, the accusations of racism led to a lot of strident pushback from Vavra, who gained a large Twitter following in the process, essentially marketing KCD by framing himself as an ‘anti-woke’⁴ champion, and the game as a based product for right wing gamers. This approach was undoubtedly off-putting for many potential players, and prejudiced many critics against the game.

Political debate in the Middle Ages.

Still, I don’t necessarily want to condemn Vavra out of hand. It’s clear that KCD was a massive project for him and his team, a big risk⁵, and the result of passion and enthusiasm, and on that level I can understand his indignation. And sadly, the nature of Twitter is such that people are algorithmically incentivised to become the worst and least nuanced versions of themselves. The only way to win is not to play, but creators like Vavra are kind of forced to play, and usually end up becoming worse people as a result.

Interestingly, it does seem that the studio (and Vavra) are likely to follow up on the question of diversity in the sequel, which some (wretched) people are already tarring as ‘woke’ on the basis that there is now a noteable black character⁶, and, true to the developers’ comments before the release of the original game, the wealthy major city of Kuttenberg (Kutna Hora) is going to be more diverse than what we’ve seen previously⁷.

Also, if I am reading the article linked correctly (it’s missing a quotation mark so I’m slightly confused if these are Vavra’s own words or not; I don’t use Twitter so can’t look at the source), it’s even going to be possible for Henry to have a gay romance, which is beyond surprising, given that the only gay characters in the original game were villains⁸, not to mention the adolescent and laddish tone around hetero relationships (more on this later).

(If the gay romance is with Sir Hans Capon, that would be the single funniest thing a game studio has ever done⁹).

The (mis)treatment of the Cumans

I have said that I am fond of KCD, and it’s true. In a lot of ways, it’s a better and more complex game than people give it credit for. However, the treatment of the Cumans is not one of those ways. In fact, it’s so bad it kind of overshadows the rest of the game, and it could not possibly have been well-intentioned.

For those not familiar, the Cumans were a nomadic Turkic people who were displaced by the Mongol invasions, and settled in Hungary, where they were offered refuge and given land by the king. In the present day, the Cumans have more or less been absorbed into the Hungarian population, but they remained culturally distinct for centuries, with their language dying out in the late 1700s¹⁰.

In KCD, they are the only potentially ‘non-white’ group depicted, and this depiction does pretty much validate claims of racism. Although in actual fact their character models don’t appear different from Czechs¹¹, they are strongly signalled as foreign by their clothes, armour, and weapons, and by the fact that they speak a foreign language¹². They are also constantly referred to as barbarians and savages, and fill the role of a very stereotypical rampaging Oriental horde, of the kind that would make Robert E. Howard blush.

In-game art of a Cuman warrior.

The depiction of the Cumans is inaccurate in several ways, contrary to the studio’s claims of rigorous historical accuracy, and these inaccuracies all serve a certain narrative, i.e. foreigners are bad and scary. One such aspect is the Cumans’ armour, weapons and clothing, which are quite dubious - this was a period in which the Cumans, while still culturally distinct, had been living in Hungary for close to 200 years, and it would be unlikely that they would still be armed and equipped as they were when they were neighbours of the Kievan Rus, which is how they are depicted in the game. While their armour does admittedly look very cool in-game, it overwhelmingly emphasises their ‘scary foreigner’ identity, in a way that is clearly deliberate.

To borrow a quote from an article contemporary with the game’s release:

Deliverance’s Bohemia is in turmoil because of the “foreign” Sigismund, who leaves his seat in Hungary to pillage the land with a force of even more exotic, Turkic barbarians as his cavalry. Our first glimpse of the latter sees them attempting to rape a local woman, their speech incomprehensible because it lacks the same English subtitles given to nearly every other character. The Cumans are a constant source of fear in the game. Henry refers to them in an early conversation as “diabolical barbarians from the East with no regard for the rules of warfare.” Others call them “heathen dogs” or “savages.” The player is assured, by one character, that, even though “all armies” will “pillage, rape and slaughter,” it’s the Cumans who “take pleasure in it.”

You can see from the quotes here that the game depicts this culture in an entirely negative way, to a degree which is certainly dehumanising: there is not a single named Cuman, many are rendered faceless by their distinctive helmets, and their speech cannot be understood. Effectively, they are monsters, less nuanced even than Tolkien’s orcs, some of whom are at least named, and capable of intelligible speech.

The one point I would dispute is whether the assertion that the Cumans alone take pleasure in atrocities is actually the voice of the author: this line comes from generic townsfolk, and as such it might just represent the popular opinion among Czechs. It’s also worth noting that the game’s whole second (and much of the third) act revolves around hunting down Czech renegades who committed an appalling massacre of men and animals¹³, and like the Cumans are referred to as ‘demons’ by survivors, which might have been intended to throw the nationalist assumptions of the introduction into question.

Still, the nuanced depiction of Czechs does little to rehabilitate the Cumans or put them into context. The emphasis on the idea that Cumans were ‘heathens’ or ‘pagans’ is also doubtful - Cumans converted to Christianity as one of the conditions of their settlement in Hungary, and while it’s likely that this was a slower process in reality than it was on paper¹⁴, it’s very unlikely that by 1400 they were still practicing a foreign religion as the game insinuates. (One line from Captain Bernard acknowledges that the Cumans ‘claim’ to have turned to Christ, although Bernard clearly doubts it.)

In-game art from the DLC ‘A Woman’s Lot’ gives the Cumans exaggerated Asian features. This game really makes you grimace sometimes.

The game’s emphasis on the Cumans as uniquely cruel and un-Christian is also present in the dialogue asserting that only Sigismund would sink so low as to use Cuman soldiers. This isn’t just claimed by townsfolk, but by various other characters with far more authority¹⁵, and is clearly supposed to be taken as fact. Bartfai’s article addresses this:

However, in the reality they had been used in centuries of medieval warfare, and they took part in all Hungarian military actions since the late 13th century from Austria to as far as Italy.

…

Were they as horrible as they are presented in the game? Some medieval sources commented that they were. However, the same sources tell us how King Ottokar II hanged out Austrian nobles from towers on chains, or described Czech actions against the Hungarian populace, like crushing the skulls of infants against church walls. Partially these statements can be true, partially they are exaggerations of medieval chroniclers always eager to point out the inhumanity of the enemy. After the 13th century when their novelty expired we have – as far as I am aware – only a few information on their conduct in war. They were melting into the Hungarian populace.

So, Bartfai’s view is that there simply isn’t enough evidence to confirm the idea that Cumans were unusually cruel in war compared to other Europeans. Therefore, we can see that Warhorse was prepared to throw historical accuracy out of the window in service of a xenophobic narrative, whereas at the same time appeals to historical fidelity were used to justify excluding other minority characters. It’s hardly surprising that this made people angry.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Cumans will be returning as antagonists in the sequel, and still have the same armour. On the one hand, this was kind of unavoidable, as they were such a distinctive and memorable presence in the first game that players would be sorry to see them go, and it would also introduce a continuity error to exclude them, as they were shown to be a major part of Sigismund’s army. On the other, I very much doubt they will transcend their cardboard cutout evil foreigner characterisation, although if they do then I will be pleasantly surprised.

Germans and Hungarians vs Cumans

McCarter considers this xenophobic quality of the game to be closely tied to Czech history, having been subjugated at different times by various foreign powers, such as Austro-Hungary (and of course KCD’s main villains are Hungarians), and Germany. Germans aren’t treated too sympathetically by the game either, although they are at least depicted as human, unlike the Cumans. On finding the body of his quarrelsome German neighbour in the ruins of Skalitz, Henry regretfully remarks that in the end, the German (known simply as Deutsch) was a hero, having died trying to protect his family and neighbours. Another fairly likeable German is the knight Ulrich of Passau, a gruff and cynical older knight who is a foil to Henry, and a possible foreshadowing of his future¹⁶.

Although Sigismund’s connection to Hungary is emphasised at some points by KCD, his nationality was more complicated in reality, and this is not totally ignored by the game; in the prologue there is a prominent discussion of Sigismund’s relationship with his brother Wenceslas, who is Bohemia’s king, and this is again touched on in the epilogue in a conversation with their relative Jobst, which casts the war as an absurd family squabble, with hideous consequences for the little people like Henry and his loved ones. Of course, there is one really evil Hungarian (unless you count the Cumans), the conniving Istvan Toth, whose sole redeeming feature (referenced in an earlier footnote) is that he seems to genuinely care about his partner¹⁷.

In-game art of the Battle of Nicopolis, fought between the Hungarians (with allies) and the Turks. Turks don’t appear in KCD, but Nicopolis is mentioned several times.

The fact that there is a (variable) degree of nuance to KCD’s treatment of German and Hungarian characters does not mean the game isn’t xenophobic: if anything, it supports it, since the relatively Czech-like European Christian outgroups get measurably fairer treatment, whereas the (somewhat) Asiatic Cumans are utterly demonised, and also erroneously (and purposely) placed outside of Christendom.

To be continued…

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1. I’m re-playing it at time of publication.

2. Caveat: there are several depictions of dark-skinned people in contemporary art from Bohemia. However, I’m not aware of any written, genetic or archaeological evidence that could support such a presence in the actual population. Note that the images in MedievalPoC’s post are taken from religious art, i.e. they are depictions of Biblical scenes and characters, and therefore an abstraction of what people in the Holy Land might have looked like, rather than a depiction of what people in contemporary Bohemia looked like. The black characters could have been modelled on Ethiopian Christians who visited Europe as pilgrims around this time. Apparently, the post linked here led to a lot of harassment from supporters of the game, in one of many unpleasant online skirmishes over KCD.

3. The wiki labels this guy as Jewish, probably on the basis that he is described as a usurer, but a) it’s never mentioned, b) his name is not Jewish, c) he doesn’t wear the legally prescribed hat and isn’t segregated from his Christian neighbours, which the game’s developers were clearly aware of per the codex entry.

4. I’m not sure if that was the popular term at the time.

5. After all, the game is a) crowdfunded, b) ambitious, and c) weird. It’s like a self-published novel.

6. A nobleman from Mali who is part of Sigismund of Hungary’s royal court. It remains to be seen how this character will be handled - in the original game, Sigismund is to an extent (at least in the early game) framed as a villainous foreigner surrounded by other villainous foreigners, so it could be handled horribly for all we know. Vavra’s description of the Mali nobleman does suggest a more positive or balanced treatment, however, referring to him as an educated ‘renaissance man.’ So we’ll see.

7. I would presume there will be Jews, likely Roma, and possibly merchants, diplomats, pilgrims etc. from more distant regions. Again, could be handled horrendously, but we’ll see.

8. To quote Reid McCarter, ‘The gay characters – one appearing primarily in dimly lit nighttime scenes where he tortures Henry or sneaks his way into a castle to hold a defenseless Lady hostage, the other blackmailed by sniggering lords when they find out his sexuality – are presented with what reads as outright malice.’ I largely agree with this: the depiction is highly suspicious, although I would note a couple of humanising details - the latter character’s loyalty to the former appears to be genuine, and his lover (who is otherwise a complete toad of a man) clearly actually values him, and is upset and angered when his partner is held as a hostage.

9. And would also actually kind of work - his banter with Henry does read as outrageously flirty in the first game. No-one can tell tumblr about Henry and Hans.

10. Although a closely related language is still spoken by Crimean Tatars.

11. Real Cumans were probably quite varied in appearance, having a mixture of European and Asian ancestry. Documents suggests that many were light-haired.

12. In the game they speak Hungarian, although in this period they actually still spoke their own language. Presumably it was easier to use Hungarian, and the effect is the same, i.e. they sound foreign.

13. A clear parallel to the Cuman massacre at Skalitz.

14. ‘Church leaders did, however, complain about their behaviour in the late 13th century under the rule of their kinsman, László IV the Cuman, noting their lax view on sexual morality, wild haircuts, and strange, nomadic lifestyle – it contributed to Archbishop Ladomér calling a crusade against László.’ - Imre Bartfai

15. Notably the worldly Sir Radzig, whose delivery of this information reads like factual exposition, as opposed to an equivocal opinion.

16. Ulrich would be very at home in Westerns or samurai films.

17. Diversity win! The slimy villain is gay!