History Characters / AgeOfEmpiresII

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The real Barbarossa had to put down rebellions in Germany, but not one [[PragmaticAdaptation seemingly comprised of all electoral princes going up in arms at once right after his election]]. He wasn't the leading man in Germany's expansion to the east, but something that Henry the Lion did mostly on his own (Henry ruled Saxony, which was by the frontier then, so any expansion of the frontier resulted in the Lion's own land and wealth being increased). And his conflict with the Lion himself wasn't as black and white as presented in the game (see bellow).

* WorthyOpponent: After his defeat, he regards Lê Lợi as an opponent worthy of respect. [[note]]Historically, while Wang was severely punished for his failure against Lê Lợi, he managed to have a CareerResurrection when he proved himself in 1449 (more than 15 years after Lê Lợi's death), during the defence of Beijing against the Oirats led by Esen Taishi, and was rewarded with a government postiion, along with his confiscated properties returned to him .[[/note]]

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: In the game he betrays Barbarossa and tries to usurp the Imperial throne, is defeated but forgiven, then betrays him again at the absolute worst time. [[PutOnABus The second time is the last.]]

** In the cutscenes, he goes into exile in England and when his identity is revealed he claims to be too old to take up arms again. In real life, he took exile in Normandy (part of France, but ruled by the King of England), destroyed a city in revenge for siding with Barbarossa against him, was defeated by Barbarossa's son, accepted to submit in exchange for a minimal part of his former lands, and ''then'' decided he was too old to fight and became a quiet patron of the arts.

* WorthyOpponent: After his defeat, he regards Lê Lợi as an opponent worthy of respect.

* {{Foil}}: To Bayinnaung. Both men were the right-hands of their sovereigns before said sovereigns' dassassinations, and had far greater abilities than their sovereigns. However, unlike Bayinnaung who was humble but decided to crown himself, Gajah was arrogant but never ascended the throne. In the end, Bayinnaung died a king covered in glory and fame, while Gajah was exiled.

* {{Foil}}: To Gajah Mada. Both men were the right-hands of their sovereigns before said sovereigns' dassassinations, and had far greater abilities than their sovereigns. However, unlike Bayinnaung who was humble but decided to crown himself, Gajah was arrogant but never ascended the throne. In the end, Bayinnaung died a king covered in glory and fame, while Gajah was exiled.

* Foil: To Bayinnaung. Both men were the right-hands of their sovereigns before said sovereign s' deaths, and had far greater abilities than their sovereigns. However, unlike Bayinnaung who decided to crown himself, Gajah never did so. In the end, Bayinnaung died a king covered in glory and fame, while Gajah was exiled.

The main hero and Majapahit general for the campaign; appears as a unique, champion-like unit. Unusually, Gajah is the narrator for his own campaign.

The main character of the Burmese campaign, represented by an Elite Battle Elephant hero and later by a monk.

* WorthyOpponent: After his defeat he regards Lê Lợi as an opponent worthy of respect.

* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Appear as antagonists in the third scenario of Genghis Khan's campaign (possibly the most popular of the campaign if not the whole game) and the entirety of the Lê Lợi campaign, but didn't get to have their own. Chinese campaigns are rare in the fandom for some reason. The fan site ''Age of Kings Heaven'' even tried to correct this by making a contest of historically themed Chinese campaigns. Eventually they get their own scenario in Battles of The Forgotten, Langshan Jiang.

* {{Mayincatec}}: Downplayed. The Inca use the Mesoamerican architecture set but speak Quechua and have units wearing traditional Quechua clothing. Their Wonder is also undeniably Inca, based on the Temple of the Sun at Macchu Picchu.

* TheUnfavorite: If there is a civilization that got the cold shoulder from ES it's this, left out of both ''The Conquerors'' and later ''Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs'' despite the declared aim being to bring in playable Native American civilizations in both occasions, and the Incas being the obvious choice being the biggest native empire in the Americas, having pack animals, the most Old World-like army organization and fortifications, and keeping resistance against Europeans for 40 years without counting later rebellions. In comparison, the Mayans weren't politically unified, and the Aztecs went down in 3 years. The first HD version was released without an Inca campaign, even though an empty South America map is still there. When it finally came out, this "Inca" campaign actually turned out to be about a Spanish army GoingNative... in the Amazon, outside of the (former) Inca Empire's territory.

* CoolShip: Their sleek Longboats with masts shaped like dragonheads, counterparts of the real like Drakkar.

* BadassPacifist: In ''The White Elephant'' Bayinnaung decides to subjugate his enemies by showing them the power of Buddhist faith and sends relic-carrying monks to subdue them.

* TheHeroDies: In the final scenario, after visiting all four the Buddhist temples, he dies, leaving his sons to finish the scenario.

Empress of Bulgaria

* CombatPragmatist: As part of his strategic prowess, when facing off against the Sultan of Delhi and his elephants, he sent a small brigade of camels carrying burning pitch. The sight of burning camels spooked the elephants enough to stampede the other direction.

'''Team Bonus''': Condotierro available in Barracks.\\

* EarlyBirdCameo: They were prominent in Kings and Conquerors campaigns long before they got a civ. You fight them in the form of the Western Romans in Atilla (Byzantines), the Genoese in the 6th Saladin (Byzantines), and the Italian city-states in both Atilla and Barbarossa (represented by Byzantines, Britons, Franks, Teutons and Celts).

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: The Condottieri's availability to other civilizations is explained by the fact that they are mercenaries. In real life the Condottieri were renown for their fickleness, sometimes changing allegiances mid battle.

An Italian mercenary, captain of his platoon after his father's death, and the main protagonist of the campaign. Represented by a condottiero unit.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The campaign paints him as a humble man fighting to liberate the common man. While much of Ivaylo's character may be lost to time, history is fairly certain he was abusive to Maria. [[note]]It should be noted that historically, Maria was previously the wife of Tsar Konstantin, and that she had a son with Konstantin named Michael. With Ivaylo, she only had a daugher.[[/note]]

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: While Maria's narrations portray herself as a mere bystander in the various Bulgarian political struggles, she was historically no naive princess; she was a niece of Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. According to her contempory Georgius Pachymeres, Maria supported her uncle's military coup d'etat and she prompted him to blind the legitimate emperor John IV Laskaris, who was brother of Bulgarian empress Irene, the second wife of Tsar Konstantin. [[note]]Maria later became Konstantin's third wife before marrying Ivaylo.[[/note]]

A wolf carrying a minor role in the Genghis Khan campaign. The task to convince the Uighurs to join Genghis, is to kill Ornlu and his pack. A renamed version of him, called Son of Ornlu, inexplicably appears in Montezuma. H is a very powerful wolf.

* BreakoutVillain: Despite his minor role, he is the best remembered of the fictional characters invented for the game. The fan made expansion Forgotten Empires gives Ornlu his very own Hero icon. Yep, the fans decided that spending their time making a Hero icon for only scenario-available Ornlu the Wolf was worth the time and effort.

The focal character of the Montezuma campaign, though arguably not the protagonist; this would rather be his nephew, Cuauhtemoc. Never appears in person.

* IdleRich

* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Cuauhtemoc is the narrator for the Montezuma campaign. The story is some sort of journal or a chronicle written down by him. The first scenario starting cutscene is prefaced with "Passed down to you by Cuauhtemoc, Eagle Warrior of Tenochtitlan." The second starts with him as Cuauhtemoc, Jaguar Warrior of Tenochtitlan. The fifth mission dramatically and slowly starts with Cuauhtemoc, Emperor of Tenochtitlan. He then relates his crowning by the priests, which is not so awesome because Tenochtitlan had just been wracked by warfare and the only reason he succeeded was due to Montezuma's death.

* YouAreInCommandNow: After Montezuma dies in La Noche Triste.

* OnlyInItForTheMoney
* OutsideContextProblem: To the Aztecs. The Tlaxcalans have a few skirmishes with him but soon become allies.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The campaign paints him as a humble man fighting to liberate the common man. While much of Ivaylo's character may be lost to time, history is fairly certain he was abusive to Maria.

The leader of the Saracens, and the protagonist of his campaign, as well as a FinalBoss of the Barbarossa campaign. Does not appear in-game, but in the expansions he's introduced as an heroic mameluke unit.

* CulturedBadass: The narrator hightlights how refined and educated he, and the rest of the Saracen civilization, is.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: The only female narrator.

* HandicappedBadass: He's called "Timur the Lame" because arrow wounds in his leg impeded his movement. He is still a highly cunning individual who earned his leadership by [[CuttingTheKnot throwing his helmet at an end post in a foot race]]. His cunning had proven rather deadly on the battlefield.

* HealingFactor: Subverted in that Bleda is actually a named, regular unit and lacks the healing factor of the Hero units of the game. Even in the map editor, he appears under the regular units tab and not under the Hero units one. This was fix in The African Kingdoms.

* ImprobableWeaponUser: Bleda uses the same model as the Mongol unique unit, the Mangudai...which makes no sense because the Mangudai is a horse archer and Bleda is a melee unit. This results in Bleda running up to units and firing an arrow from his bow at point blank range upward away from his enemies...

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: A lot is made of his honorability and religious tolerance. In real life, the first things he did after taking Valencia were burning alive the governor and turning the main mosques into churches (even though his forces also included Muslims and he was de jure under the command of a Muslim lord, Mutamid).

* SilentProtagonist

* DelayedNarratorIntroduction: She only clarifies her true part into El Cid's story when the second mission starts.

* TheGoodKing

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: In the game he seems to lack any positive trait.

!!!Nogai Khan

* TheExile; She is exiled to Constantinople after Ivaylo loses power.