Why is Vlandia mainly yellow instead of red?

[Rafalongo]

Yeah. You’re mistaking different time periods and perhaps misidentifying them. The Middle Ages were from 1000-1450 (approximately). From 600-1000, there were the dark ages. Before that is considered antiquity.

the game is meant to take place around 1000, give or take a few hundred years.

1000 ab urbe conditia, so, it could be in the V century. That have sense because the empire still exists. But I dont be mistaking, in my lenguage "high middle age" is 500-1000 and "under middle age" 1000-1500. "Late antiquitty" from III century to VII c. overlapped with the middle ages...

Dev Blog 15/02/18 - TaleWorlds Entertainment

The Empire is based on the Byzantine Empire (330 - 1453), not the Western Empire (285 - 476).

byzantine empire is the south empire. The western empire is the roman. that is quite obvious