Fortriu map errors

I really love Brytenwalda but there are a couple of niggles I have with the Pictish territory:

Moncrieffe Hill (Monib Crobh) and Scone (Caislen Credi) should probably swap places on the map - the hill is to the south of Perth overlooking both rivers Tay and Earn, while Scone is north east of Perth.

The other issue is Bertha.

The “historical” Bertha wasn’t a settlement but rather the site of Roman camp where the river Almond merges with the Tay, a couple of km from Perth. Except the Romans probably called it Tamia after the then local name for the river Tay. The site was dubbed Bertha by medieval historians who having no clue as to the actual Roman name was, basically used an unusual 13th century spelling for the city of Perth as a kind of placeholder.

The Pictish and Gaelic kings knew the Roman site as Rathinveramon (Fort at the mouth of the Almond) used for ceremonial purposes through to early medieaval times. It is generally accepted that the name Perth comes from the pictish for copse or wood “pert”, suggesting the settlement site is much older than its first appearance in royal charters in the 12th century.

So basically either Bertha is a Roman ruin or a Pictish settlement but please change the name 

I like the history and this mod is about history
It would be awkward and dangerous for Fortiu to move Monib Crobh further south.
They are often the target of the other factions Scone is a buffer area for battles.
It would be better to move the river on the map.

Also, I am a relative newb regarding both this mod's historical team and real history.
There were quite a few individuals that contributed to the map's evoluation since the Song of Taliesin came out in 09.
I would want to know their thinking.

I can easily change the name of Bertha.
What would be your preference?

Fair enough point about the game mechanics dictating a buffer but moving the river would mean moving Perth too - how about changing Scone to Forteviot? It was an important site from paleolithic times through the Picts and up to Kenneth McAlpin:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forteviot_Bronze_Age_tomb

As to Bertha - there are currently 3 theories n its establishment: the first that Perth grew out of the activity at the Roman remains, the second - independently as a trading settlement and third the establishment of its church; using "Rathinveramon" would suggest the first possibility while "Pert" the other two. Personally speaking I favour the first mainly because it makes the area seem more alien

I like the name.
Was Rathinveramon around 620 AD more like a fort or a village as seen no the map?
The forts are spread out to provide cover fort he villages which might be why the creators made it a village.

it looks like the original devs have been down this path (search for Bertha on the linked page below)
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=62354.30

And opted for a settlement rather than a fort.

But to answer your question what, in 620ad, would be on the site of the Roman fort? River confluences were very special places for the Picts and Rathinveralmond was directly facing a confluence, so basically some kind of ritual site. So I read the Rath part as a nod to the site origins rather than its actual function.

On a related side note - the site was "rediscovered" in the 18th century by a General William Roy - by asking the locals about it. It was widely known in the area that the site was of Roman origin - to the point it's local name was "Rome"

Here's my WIP version of Pictland



One of the interesting things about Perthshire is trying to work out what is hidden under it's Gaelic overlay:

Monid Crobh looks like a Gaelic place name but it's actually Pictish (although Gaelic borrowed "monid") Monid Crieff means "wooded" (crieff) hill (monid)

Rathinveramon should probably be Rathaberamon - inver is the Gaelic form of aber - Bryttonic for "river mouth" or "confluence" and possibly "holy"

Forteviot is the Anglicisaton of the Gaelic place name "Fothair Tabhaicht", but given there was a Pictish royal palace there in the time period of Brytenwalda it would seem logical that it had a Pictish name and like Monib Crieff it could be hiding under it's Gaelic wrapper. I'll do some more digging but it's probably not an accident that Forteviot,  Fortriu and the river Forth share the same "For". I'll leave it as a place holder for now.

Sounds good. More pictish is better I guess. I'm not sure how assimilated those cultures were at that point.
I will add to the patch I hope to release after my projects are due on Sept 22.

As far as Picts go initially they were unique in their area to use the "P" sound, so while Perh had quite a few Gaelic names - none of them started with "P". This also means most places with "Pit" in them, are also Pictish though the Gaels living in the area adopted the "Pit" themselves later on.

As to the mixing of cultures, that didn't start in earnest until after 839 as far as I can tell. The main issue is of course that only sources available are mediaeval copies of earlier documents which either mention the Picts in passing (imagine trying to understand Hawaiian culture based only on documents from North Korea) or have some kind of political value, like "establishing" claims to titles, land or both (think Tony Blair's Iraqi Arms dossier).