title: Akira Tozawa

text: Tozawa defeated Sami Callihan, Austin Aries, and BxB Hulk for Dragon Gate USA in January 2011, but run-ins with stablemates Jon Moxley and Yamato led to him being kicked out of Kamikaze USA. At the following Dragon Gate USA tapings on April 3, Tozawa defeated Moxley to earn an immediate shot at Yamato's Open the Freedom Gate Championship. He was, however, unsuccessful in his attempt to become the new champion. Tozawa was also unsuccessful in beating Pac for his Open the Brave Gate Championship on April 2, at Mercury Rising 2011.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On March 4, 2011, Tozawa and Kevin Steen, dubbing themselves the Nightmare Violence Connection, entered PWG's "DDT4" tournament, upsetting the Briscoe Brothers in their first round match. After another upset victory over the ROH World Tag Team Champions, The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli), he and Steen made it to the finals of the tournament, where they were defeated by The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson). On April 9, Tozawa was defeated by Low Ki in a singles match in PWG.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On April 15, Tozawa returned to Chikara, captaining Team Dragon Gate, consisting of himself, Kagetora and Super Shisa, in the 2011 King of Trios tournament. In the first round of the tournament, Team Dragon Gate defeated the Spectral Envoy (UltraMantis Black, Hallowicked and Frightmare). The following day, Team Dragon Gate was eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinal stage by The Osirian Portal (Amasis, Hieracon and Ophidian). On April 17, the final day of the tournament, Tozawa faced Eddie Kingston in a losing effort.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On April 19, Tozawa made his debut for Evolve at the promotion's first live internet pay-per-view, facing Chuck Taylor in a losing effort. On May 15, 2011, in Austin, Texas, Tozawa captured the Anarchy Championship Wrestling (ACW) U–30 Young Gun Championship, the first title of his career, by defeating previous champion ACH, Arik Cannon and Gary Jay in a four-way match. He would lose the title to Gerald James six days later.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On May 27, Tozawa returned to PWG for his final weekend with the promotion before his return to Japan. During the first night of "All Star Weekend 8", Tozawa and Kevin Steen defeated El Generico and Ricochet in a tag team match. The following night, Tozawa wrestled two matches, first teaming with Steen to defeat the RockNES Monsters (Johnny Goodtime and Johnny Yuma) in a tag team match, before defeating Chris Hero in his PWG farewell match.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On June 3, Tozawa and Yamato failed to capture the Open the United Gate Championship when they lost to reigning champions Masato Yoshino and Pac at Fearless 2011. On June 28, 2012, Tozawa unsuccessfully challenged Johnny Gargano for the Open the Freedom Gate Championship. Tozawa received another shot at the title on July 28, 2013, at Dragon Gate USA's fourth anniversary event, but was again defeated by Gargano.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On July 24, 2015, Tozawa returned to PWG, losing to Ricochet, and on the first show of 2016, returned once again, losing to Zack Sabre Jr.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On June 8, 2011, Tozawa made his return to Dragon Gate, joining the stable Blood Warriors. Upon his return, Tozawa defeated Shingo Takagi on July 17 at "Kobe Pro Wrestling Festival 2011". In August, Tozawa and fellow Blood Warriors member BxB Hulk took part in the 2011 Summer Adventure Tag League, where they ultimately defeated Masaaki Mochizuki and Yamato of rival group Junction Three to win the tournament. On September 16, Tozawa defeated rival Yamato in a no ropes, no disqualification match. This led to Tozawa challenging Masaaki Mochizuki for the Open the Dream Gate Championship on October 13, but Tozawa was defeated. On December 1, Tozawa and BxB Hulk defeated Kagetora and Susumu Yokosuka to win the vacant Open the Twin Gate Championship, Tozawa's first title in Dragon Gate. On January 19, 2012, Tozawa and Hulk turned on Blood Warriors leader Cima, causing him to lose a ten-man "Loser Leaves Unit" tag team match; as a result, Cima was kicked out of Blood Warriors. After this match, Tozawa assumed the leadership role in Blood Warriors. On January 29, Tozawa made a one night return to PWG, when he teamed with Kevin Steen and Super Dragon in a six-man tag team main event, where they were defeated by El Generico, Masato Yoshino and Pac. On February 9, the Tozawa-led Blood Warriors won their feud with Junction Three by defeating them in a fourteen-man elimination tag team match, forcing their rival group to disband. On March 1, Tozawa renamed the Blood Warriors to Mad Blankey. Three days later, he and BxB Hulk lost the Open the Twin Gate Championship to Jimmy Kagetora and Jimmy Susumu.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On July 22, Tozawa received another shot at the Open the Dream Gate Championship, but was this time defeated by Cima. On August 19, Tozawa, BxB Hulk and Naoki Tanisaki defeated Cima, Gamma and Magnitude Kishiwada to win the 2012 Summer Adventure Tag League and the vacant Open the Triangle Gate Championship. They lost the title to Kaettekita Veteran-gun (Gamma, Hub and Magnitude Kishiwada) on October 21. On May 5, 2013, Tozawa received another shot at the Open the Dream Gate Championship in the main event of Dead or Alive 2013, but was again defeated by Cima. On June 15, Tozawa and BxB Hulk regained the Open the Twin Gate Championship from Shingo Takagi and Yamato, when Yamato turned on Takagi and joined Mad Blankey. Tozawa and Hulk lost the title to Naruki Doi and Ricochet on July 21. On August 1, after Tozawa had led Mad Blankey to victory against -akatsuki- in a match, where the losing stable would have to disband, the rest of Mad Blankey turned on him, kicking him out of the group and assuming Yamato as their new leader.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On August 30, Tozawa formed a new stable with former Mad Blankey stablemate Uhaa Nation and Shingo Takagi. On September 12, the three were joined by Masato Yoshino, Ricochet and Shachihoko Boy, forming a stable named Monster Express. On December 22, Tozawa and Takagi defeated Naruki Doi and Yamato to win the Open the Twin Gate Championship. They lost the title to Eita and T-Hawk on July 20, 2014. On February 28, 2015, Tozawa won his first singles title in Dragon Gate, when he defeated Kzy for the Open the Brave Gate Championship. On March 29, Tozawa also won the Open the Owarai Gate Championship by defeating Yosuke♥Santa Maria. On November 1, Tozawa lost the Open the Brave Gate Championship to Kotoka in a three-way match, which also involved Naoki Tanizaki. On November 14, 2015, Tozawa lost the Open the Owarai Gate Championship to referee Mr. Nakagawa via fan support. On September 22, 2016, Tozawa unsuccessfully challenged Yamato for the Dream Gate Championship. On September 25, he announced that he would be wrestling his final Dragon Gate match on November 3, before moving to the United States to work for WWE. In his send-off match, he teamed with Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi in a losing effort against the team of Shingo Takagi, Yamato, and BxB Hulk.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On March 31, 2016, Tozawa was announced as a participant in WWE's Global Cruiserweight Series tournament, which was later renamed the "Cruiserweight Classic". The tournament began on June 23 with Tozawa defeating Kenneth Johnson in his first round match. On July 14, Tozawa defeated Jack Gallagher in his second round match. On August 26, Tozawa was eliminated from the tournament in the quarterfinals by Gran Metalik.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On the September 5 episode of "Raw", Tozawa was announced as part of WWE's upcoming cruiserweight division. On November 2, Tozawa was announced as a roster member for the upcoming cruiserweight-centric "205 Live" show. On February 6, 2017, Tozawa made his debut on "Raw", defeating Drew Gulak. In June, Tozawa was recruited by Titus O'Neil to the "Titus Worldwide" stable and entered in a feud with the Cruiserweight Champion Neville. At Great Balls of Fire event, Tozawa was unsuccessful in his first championship opportunity against Neville; however, he pinned Neville in a tag team match the next night. On the August 14 episode of "Raw", Tozawa defeated Neville to win the Cruiserweight Championship. However, at SummerSlam, he dropped the title to Neville, ending the reign at 6 days. In late 2017, Tozawa quietly left Titus Worldwide.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On the October 10 episode of "205 Live", Tozawa was attacked on the ramp by Drew Gulak, which began a rivalry. Tozawa was out of action for a few weeks until he returned on the October 31 episode of "205 Live", where he defeated Gulak. On the November 21 episode of "205 Live", Tozawa defeated Gulak in a Street Fight, ending their feud. In February 2018, Tozawa formed a tag team with Hideo Itami, and they defeated Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado on the March 13 episode of "205 Live", but got into a confrontation with them and their ally Kalisto post-match. After trading victories between each other, they finally lost a tornado tag team match to Metalik and Dorado on the April 17 episode of "205 Live" after Tozawa accidentally kicked Itami. On the May 1 episode of "205 Live", Tozawa and Itami were defeated by The Brian Kendrick and Gentleman Jack Gallagher after another miscommunication between the two, after which Itami shoved Tozawa, thus ending their partnership. The following week, Tozawa was defeated by Itami.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On the January 2, 2019, episode of "205 Live", Tozawa defeated Drew Gulak to qualify for the fatal four-way match at Royal Rumble for the Cruiserweight Championship, which was won by champion Buddy Murphy. On the January 29 episode of "205 Live", Tozawa defeated Hideo Itami in Itami's final match with the company. On the February 14, episode of "205 Live", Tozawa defeated Cedric Alexander, Humberto Carrillo and Lio Rush to become the number one contender for the Cruiserweight Championship at the Elimination Chamber, where he was defeated by Murphy. As part of the 2019 draft, Tozawa was drafted to the Raw brand. On the November 18 episode of "Raw", Tozawa made his debut on the brand, where he was defeated by Buddy Murphy. At Survivor Series, Tozawa represented Raw in an Interbrand triple threat match for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship, which was won by NXT's Lio Rush. On the December 23 episode of "Raw", Tozawa captured the 24/7 Championship after pinning champion R-Truth, but lost the title to Santa Claus. On April 12, 2020, Tozawa was announced as a participant in the Interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship Tournament, representing Group B in the tournament. He defeated Isaiah "Swerve" Scott in his first match and Gentleman Jack Gallagher in his second match, but lost to El Hijo del Fantasma, thus leaving him with two wins in the tournament, failing to advance to the finals.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: At Backlash, during a segment between The Street Profits and The Viking Raiders, Tozawa appeared with a gang of ninjas on motorcycles, turning heel. On the June 22 episode of "Raw", Tozawa defeated R-Truth to become the 24/7 Champion for the second time, only to lose the title back to Truth one week later. On the August 3 episode of Monday Night Raw, Tozawa won the 24/7 Championship for a third time in a triple threat match against champion Shelton Benjamin and R-Truth. A week later R-Truth, disguised as a Tozawa's ninjas, pinned him ending his third reign. He would win the title five other times. On the February 15 episode of RAW, he pinned R-Truth backstage to win the 24/7 Championship but lost it to Bad Bunny after being attacked by Damian Priest, ending his reign at 28 seconds.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: Afterwards, he and R-Truth continued feuding over the title, alongside Drew Gulak and others. When Reggie won the title after he was abandoned by Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, he and R-Truth began feuding with him, even building a temporary alliance with Drake Maverick. On the September 27 episode of "Raw", Tozawa would be quickly defeated by Keith "Bearcat" Lee. In early 2022, after spending months with both him and Tamina Snuka trying to win the 24/7 Title, Tozawa and Tamina ended up becoming lovers and on March 28 they got (kayfabe) engaged. On April 18, Tozawa won the championship for the fifth time by pinning his partner, Tamina, during their wedding ceremony. Tozawa then lost the championship back to Dana Brooke. Later that month, due to him being unable to help her win the title, she filed for divorce. On May 30, 2022 at "Raw" he pinned her during the Miz TV winning the title.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: On the November 17th, 2022 episode of Raw, Tozawa turned face after beating Baron Corbin and JBL in a game of cards. He would subsequently return to wearing more traditional ring gear as opposed to his ninja gi.


title: Akira Tozawa

text: Tozawa made his video game debut as a playable character in "WWE 2K18" and later appeared in "WWE 2K19", "WWE 2K20" and "WWE 2K22".


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: About Last Night is a 2014 American romantic comedy film starring Kevin Hart, Michael Ealy, Regina Hall and Joy Bryant. It is a remake of the 1986 film of the same name; both films are based on the 1974 David Mamet play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago". The remake, featuring a predominantly Black cast, is directed by Steve Pink and written by Leslye Headland. It tells the story of Danny (Ealy) and Debbie (Bryant), and Bernie (Hart) and Joan (Hall), two couples who test how their relationships work in the real world.


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: While the original film is set in Chicago, Illinois, the remake is set in Los Angeles, California where filming took place in late 2012. It was produced on a budget of . The film premiered at the Pan African Film Festival on , 2014 and was released in theaters on Valentine's Day, , 2014. The film received generally positive reviews, with most critics praising the humor between Hart and Hall. The film grossed $50 million at the box office.


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: Danny is a salesman working in the restaurant supply business along with his friend, ladies' man Bernie. Bernie invites Danny on a double date, where he meets Debbie, a friend of Joan, Bernie's latest sexual partner. He is still pining over his ex-girlfriend Alison, but begins a relationship with Debbie. They have a more conventional romance, while Bernie and Joan are constantly antagonistic towards each other, and eventually mutually end their relationship.


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: Several months later, Danny and Debbie move in together. Bernie regularly mocks Danny about his relationship, accusing him of being emasculated and under Debbie's control. Danny and Debbie begin to argue more frequently about a variety of topics, but particularly about Danny's apparent lack of commitment to their relationship. He is fired from his job for extending credit to bar owner Casey, and begins working at Casey's as a bartender.


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: While working, Danny is surprised by Alison. After she gets too drunk and refuses to go to her own home, Danny brings her to his apartment, where she flirts with him. The same night, Debbie, who is on a business trip, is propositioned by her coworker and ex Steven; both reject their exes.


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: After another argument at a New Year’s Eve party, Debbie breaks up with Danny and moves out. Both of them continue to be emotionally affected by their relationship, and have difficulty being with other people. Meanwhile, Bernie and Joan rekindle their relationship, based on their mutual enjoyment of antagonizing each other. Danny calls Debbie hoping to meet up, but is rejected.


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: Bernie and Joan's relationship continues to grow, eventually leading them to move in together, despite both of them having had discouraged Danny and Debbie from moving in while together. Walking the dog that he and Debbie got as a couple, he runs into her, they having been set up to run into each other by Bernie and Joan. They talk and agree to give their relationship another chance.


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: Hart was cast in June 2012. In the following July, Ealy and Hall joined the cast. Hart, Hall, and Ealy had previously starred together in the romantic comedy "Think Like a Man" (2012), which "About Last Night"s producer Will Packer also produced. Joy Bryant was cast in August to round out the four key roles. In addition to McDonald, Rodríguez, Lo Truglio, and Patton making up the supporting cast, American football player Terrell Owens had a cameo appearance in the film.


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: Hart and Hall played the characters that James Belushi and Elizabeth Perkins played in the original film. While the character Joan was not very likable in the original film, Hall said the writers revised the character to be closer to the one depicted in the play. Hall said, "Instead of making her just snarky, there are a lot of levels that she goes to."


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: Ealy and Bryant played characters portrayed by Rob Lowe and Demi Moore in the previous film. Ealy said he chose not to see the play or the original film to avoid repeating any performances. He said of the roles of Danny and Debbie, "With Bernie and Joan, they are written funny, they act funny, they are funny pretty much non-stop. [Danny and Debbie] bring a bit more gravitas to the entire story, and reality." Ealy, who was old at the time of release, played a 28-year-old character, so he lost to look more youthful. He also compared "About Last Night"s depiction of "adult Black people in a sexy, romantic way" to the film "Love Jones" (1997).


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: "About Last Night" is produced by Screen Gems, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, with the involvement of production companies Rainforest Films and Olive Bridge Entertainment. The film is directed by Steve Pink and written by Leslye Headland. The film is a remake of the 1986 film of the same name; both are based on the 1974 play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" by David Mamet. Both films differ from the play by substituting a reconciliation of the couple at the end instead of a break-up.


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: Development of the film began in January 2011 when Screen Gems tasked Will Gluck to produce the film and to hire a director and screenwriter. By June 2012, Leslye Headland was hired to write the adapted screenplay, and in the following August, Steve Pink was hired as director. Pink said he liked Headland's screenplay, and he wanted to direct a romantic comedy-drama. He said the story was not high-concept, "It's very simple and grounded in that way. The trick there is to keep it moving. It's in Mamet's original play, and the writers of the first one knew that. So structurally the movie moves quickly because you're moving through a pretty big emotional story in a short amount of time without a lot of high-concept devices."


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: In contrast to the original film, the remake's starring cast is mostly black. Actor Michael Ealy said the story could be read independently of race and that it did not mean the original film would be called "predominantly white". Actor Kevin Hart said, "I feel that what we're doing is making it a little bit more modern, by incorporating black people. I don't think it's just about us being black, it's just a different take on the relationship feel. Our rants are a little different than a white rant. Our way of arguing is different from a Caucasian couple's fights. It's a little more violent. It gets a little more vulgar. Things are said that you don't expect to be said." The "Toronto Sun" reported that in addition to the all-black cast, the remake would be closer in tone to the source material.


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: The remake is set in Los Angeles, California, where the original film was set in Chicago, Illinois. The production did not qualify for a California film tax credit, but executives intended to film in Los Angeles regardless. The crew filmed in downtown Los Angeles, not traditionally depicted in films as a people-friendly community. The downtown area had been revitalized in recent years, and the crew chose to film most of "About Last Night" in a 10-block radius around 6th and Main Streets. Most films are filmed in different locations not near each other, so the setup for "About Last Night" was unconventional but helped minimize transportation costs. Filming locations in the area included Pacific Electric Building, Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet, Santa Fe Lofts, Casey's Irish Pub, and Broadway Bar. The crew's location manager approached the owner of the local businesses to depict their properties as-is and benefit from publicity in exchange for lower rental fees for use of the space. Dodger Stadium was the sole filming location outside of the radius. Filming lasted for seven weeks in late 2012, and production was completed with a budget of .


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: "About Last Night" premiered at the Pan African Film Festival on , 2014 as the festival's centerpiece film. It was released in in the United States and Canada on Valentine's Day, , 2014. The film grossed over the opening weekend (not including the holiday Washington's Birthday on Monday). It ranked second after "The Lego Movie", which was in its second weekend and grossed . "USA Today" said "About Last Night"s performance "met most analysts' expectations" and that its success was helped by "an aggressive marketing campaign" featuring Kevin Hart. In addition to "The Lego Movie", the film faced unconventional competition from two other opening films that were also remakes of 1980s films: "RoboCop" and "Endless Love". "Forbes" reported that "About Last Night"s opening weekend audience demographic was and 30 years old. According to the polling firm CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an "A−" grade.


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: Over the second weekend (February 21–23), "About Last Night" grossed and ranked sixth at the box office. "Variety" said the second-weekend performance was "a steep 71% drop" from the previous weekend. Overall, "About Last Night" grossed in the United States and Canada and in other territories for a worldwide total of . In March 2014, Box Office Mojo had forecast that the film would pass but fall short of the similar film "Think Like a Man" (2012), which grossed .


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: The "Los Angeles Times" said the initial reviews for "About Last Night" were "largely positive" and better than those for Hart's film "Ride Along", which was released the previous month. It reported that critics found the film "pretty satisfying, if rather familiar" and that the reviews, including negative ones, highlighted in particular "the comic relief of Hart and Hall".


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: The film review website Metacritic surveyed and assessed 20 reviews as positive, 9 as mixed, and 1 as negative. It gave an aggregate score of 62 out of 100, which it said indicated "generally favorable reviews". The similar website Rotten Tomatoes surveyed and, categorizing the reviews as positive or negative, assessed 66 as positive and 30 as negative. Of the , it determined an average rating of 5.9 out of 10. It gave the film a score of 69% and summarized the critical consensus, ""About Last Night" wanders even further from the David Mamet play that inspired the original, but it benefits from an engaging cast and a screenplay that smartly balances romance and comedy." Tim Ryan, writing for Rotten Tomatoes, said critics found the film "wise about the ups and downs" of love. Ryan said, "The pundits say "About Last Night" doesn't reinvent the romantic comedy wheel, but it's refreshingly honest and insightful, and it provides a fine showcase for Hart's onscreen talents."


title: About Last Night (2014 film)

text: Columbia Records produced a soundtrack featuring various artists. The soundtrack was released digitally on , 2014, and it was released physically on , 2014. John Legend contributed a new song, titled "A Million", to the film's soundtrack. The track listing is shown below:


title: The gospel

text: The gospel or good news is a theological concept in several religions. In the historical Roman imperial cult and today in Christianity, the gospel is a message about salvation by a divine figure, a savior, who has brought peace or other benefits to humankind. In Ancient Greek religion, the word designated a type of sacrifice or ritual dedication intended to thank the gods upon receiving good news.


title: The gospel

text: The religious concept dates back at least as far as Greece's Classical era. Roman authors are known to have adopted it toward the end of the 1st century BCE, and Christians somewhat later. It is a central message of Christianity today, in which written accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ are known as Gospels.


title: The gospel

text: "Gospel" () is the Old English translation of Greek , meaning "good news". This may be seen from analysis of ( + + diminutive suffix). The Greek term was Latinized as in the Vulgate, and translated into Latin as .


title: The gospel

text: In Old English, it was translated as (, "good" + , "news"). The Old English term was retained as in Middle English Bible translations and hence remains in use also in Modern English.


title: The gospel

text: In Greek the term originally designed a reward or tip customarily paid to a messenger who has delivered good news. The term then came to designate the good news itself, and also a religious offering of thanks for good fortune.


title: The gospel

text: In Ancient Greek religion the word εὐαγγέλια means a sacrifice offered for good tidings or good news. Like other Greek religious thanks-offerings, gospel offerings took the form of animal sacrifice, offerings of food and drink, and ritual dedications. News of military victory was frequently celebrated with a gospel offering. In the play "The Knights" by Aristophanes of 424 BCE, the comic character Paphlagon proposes an excessive sacrifice of a hundred heifers to Athena to celebrate good news. This word in Greek has a double meaning: the singular form means a reward paid to a human messenger who brings good news, and the plural form means a thanks-offering to the gods for good news.


title: The gospel

text: The Roman Imperial cult celebrated the gospel of the August One or Divus Augustus, a mythologized version of the first Roman emperor Octavian, also known as Augustus Caesar. Augustus was both a man and a god, "a savior who has made war to cease and who shall put everything in peaceful order." This period of peace is called the "Pax Romana". To celebrate the good tidings of peace with an unusually grand gospel offering, governor Paullus Fabius Maximus suggested the ritual dedication of the calendar to Augustus, starting the new year on Augustus's birthday. This dedication to the August One served to synchronize diverse local calendars across the Empire, and is the origin of the name of the month August. The idea of dedication to a divine king's birthday later formed the basis of the Julian and Gregorian calendars.


title: The gospel

text: One implementation of this gospel calendar dedication is recorded the Calendar Inscription of Priene. In it, the Koine Greek word for "good news" appears in celebrating the birth of the god and savior Augustus, sent by Providence to bring peace. It announces the intention of the city of Priene to change their calendar so that it begins on the birthday of Augustus, the first day of the good news. The Priene inscription is the most famous pre-Christian use of the concept of the gospel. Dated to 9 BCE, a few years before the birth of Jesus, the inscription demonstrates that the gospel was used as a political term before it was applied to Christianity.


title: The gospel

text: The ancient Hebrew noun ("besorah") appears to carry the same double meaning as the equivalent Greek word for gospel, used for both a messenger delivering good news and a thanks-offering to a god upon receiving good news. The noun and verb forms are used several times in the Hebrew Bible.


title: The gospel

text: When Jewish scriptures were adopted by Christians as the Old Testament, these mentions of good news came to be viewed as prefiguring the later story of Jesus in the New Testament.


title: The gospel

text: A genre of ancient biographies of Jesus took on the name Gospel because they tell good news of Jesus as the Christian savior, bringing peace and acting as a sacrifice who has redeemed mankind from sin. The first four books of the Christian New Testament are the canonical gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In addition, a number of non-canonical gospels give accounts of the life of Jesus but are not officially included in the Christian Bible.


title: The gospel

text: Paul gave the following summary, one of the earliest Christian Creeds, (translated into English) of this good news (gospel) in the First Epistle to the Corinthians:


title: The gospel

text: Paul describes the gospel as being powerful and salvific:For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.


title: The gospel

text: The good news can be summarized in many ways, reflecting various emphases. C. H. Dodd has summarized the Christian good news as taught by the apostle Peter in the Acts of the Apostles:


title: The gospel

text: The good news is described in many different ways in the Bible. Each one reflects different emphases, and describes part or all of the biblical narrative. Christian teaching of the good news—including the preaching of the Apostles in the Book of Acts—generally focuses upon the resurrection of Jesus and its implications. Sometimes in the Bible, the good news is described in other terms, but it still describes God's saving acts. For example, the Apostle Paul taught that the good news was announced to the patriarch Abraham in the words, "All nations will be blessed through you." (Galatians 3:6–9; c.f. Genesis 12:1–3).


title: The gospel

text: Liberation theology, articulated in the teachings of Latin American Catholic theologians Leonardo Boff and Gustavo Gutiérrez, emphasizes that Jesus came not only to save humanity, but also to liberate the poor and oppressed. A similar movement among the Latin American evangelical movement is the integral mission, in which the church is seen as an agent for positively transforming the wider world, in response to the good news. This can likewise be seen in black theology of certain African and African American Christians.


title: The gospel

text: The Christian missions movement believes the Christian good news to be a message for all peoples, of all nations, tribes, cultures and languages. This movement teaches that it is through the good news of Jesus that the nations of humanity are restored to relationship with God and that the destiny of the nations is related to this process. Missiology professor Howard A. Snyder writes, "God has chosen to place the Church with Christ at the very center of His plan to reconcile the world to himself".


title: The gospel

text: Another perspective described in the Pauline epistles is that it is through the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection, and the resulting worship of people from all nations, that evil is defeated on a cosmic scale. Reflecting on the third chapter of Ephesians 3, theologian Howard A. Snyder writes:


title: New Morning

text: New Morning is the eleventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on October 21, 1970 by Columbia Records.


title: New Morning

text: Coming only four months after the controversial "Self Portrait", the more concise and immediate "New Morning" received a much warmer reception from fans and critics. Most welcome was the return of Dylan's familiar, nasal singing voice. While he has a slightly nasal tone to his voice on "Alberta #1" from "Self Portrait", this was the first full album with his familiar voice since "John Wesley Harding" in 1967, when he began singing with a country croon. In retrospect, the album has come to be viewed as one of the artist's lesser successes, especially following the release of "Blood on the Tracks" in 1975, often seen as a fuller return-to-form.


title: New Morning

text: It reached No. 7 in the US, quickly going gold, and gave Dylan his sixth and last UK number 1 album until "Together Through Life" in 2009. The album's most successful song from a commercial perspective is "If Not for You", which also was recorded by George Harrison, who played guitar on a version of the song released on 1991's "The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3", and was also an international hit for Olivia Newton-John in 1971. Bryan Ferry also included the song on "Dylanesque".


title: New Morning

text: Dylan discusses the recording of "New Morning" at length in one chapter of his autobiography, "Chronicles, Vol. 1". Several alternate, preliminary forms of the album have been documented, including tracks which later appeared on the unauthorized 1973 album "Dylan". He has played only four of the album's twelve songs in concert; "If Not for You", "If Dogs Run Free", the title track and "The Man in Me". "If Dogs Run Free", made its live debut on October 1, 2000, within weeks of the 30th anniversary of the album's original release.


title: New Morning

text: "New Morning" was released just four months after "Self Portrait" and there was some speculation that it was recorded hastily and rushed out as an immediate response to the scathing criticism that surrounded "Self Portrait". In fact, much of "New Morning" was already complete when "Self Portrait" was officially released.


title: New Morning

text: "I didn't say, 'Oh my God, they don't like this, let me do another one,'" Dylan said in 1975. "It wasn't like that. It just happened coincidentally that one came out and then the other one did as soon as it did. The "Self Portrait" LP laid around for I think a year. We were working on "New Morning" when the "Self Portrait" album got put together."


title: New Morning

text: During the March sessions that yielded most of "Self Portrait", Dylan attempted three songs that he later rerecorded for "New Morning": "Went to See the Gypsy", "Time Passes Slowly", and "If Not for You." A number of performances were recorded, but none to his satisfaction.


title: New Morning

text: After work on "Self Portrait" was virtually completed, Dylan held more sessions at Columbia's recording studios in the Columbia Studio Building at 49 East 52nd Street in New York, beginning May 1, 1970. Held in Studio B, the first session was accompanied by George Harrison, bassist Charlie Daniels, and drummer Russ Kunkel. A large number of covers and old compositions were recorded in addition to several new compositions. The results were rejected, although "Working on a Guru" and alternate versions of "Time Passes Slowly" and "If Not For You" have since been released.


title: New Morning

text: Sometime in the spring of 1970, Dylan became involved with a new play by poet Archibald MacLeish. A musical version of "The Devil and Daniel Webster" was titled "Scratch". "New Morning", "Father of Night" and others were all written for the production. Though Dylan enjoyed talking with MacLeish, he was never confident about writing songs for the play. "Archie's play was so heavy, so full of midnight murder, there was no way I could make its purpose mine," he would later write.


title: New Morning

text: Eventually, a conflict with the producer over "Father of Night" prompted Dylan to leave the production, withdrawing his songs in the process. Al Kooper, who is credited as co-producer of "New Morning", would later say that these three songs were "pretty much the fulcrum for ["New Morning"]... That got him writing a little more."


title: New Morning

text: The next session for "New Morning" would not be held until June 1. By this time, Dylan had written several new songs, including "Three Angels", "If Dogs Run Free", "Winterlude", and "The Man in Me".


title: New Morning

text: Dylan vacated Studio B and moved into Studio E, both of which were in the Columbia Studio Building, where he stayed for the remaining sessions. For five straight days, ending on June 5, Dylan recorded most of "New Morning"; he even recorded a number of covers with the intention of including a few on "New Morning". The June 1 session was devoted entirely to covers, but Peter La Farge's "Ballad of Ira Hayes" was the only one given any serious consideration for inclusion. The June 2 session produced a solo piano rendition of "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue"; Al Kooper felt it was a strong candidate for "New Morning", but it was ultimately set aside. Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles" and the traditional "Mary Ann" were also recorded on June 2, with "Mr. Bojangles" receiving serious consideration for inclusion.


title: New Morning

text: On June 9, several days after those initial June sessions, Dylan accepted an honorary doctorate in music from Princeton University. Dylan did not enjoy the experience, and it inspired him to write a new song, "Day of the Locusts".


title: New Morning

text: Weeks later, a session held on June 30 was dedicated to recording new versions of "Blowin' in the Wind," but those recordings were left on the shelf.


title: New Morning

text: Bob Johnston was still credited with production, but by July he was absent and would not return. Instead, Dylan and Kooper created the preliminary sequence for "New Morning". The process was wrought with frustration, possibly the result of the negative criticism over "Self Portrait". The first sequence of "New Morning" included a few covers as well as a new version of "Tomorrow is a Long Time," an original composition dating back to 1962.


title: New Morning

text: Meanwhile, Kooper convinced Dylan to record orchestral overdubs for "Sign on the Window" and "New Morning". An overdub session was held on July 13, but Dylan left those overdubs out of the final mix. These alternate mixes would later appear on . Kooper then convinced Dylan to record overdubs for versions of "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue", "If Not For You" and "Went to See the Gypsy". That overdub session was held on July 23, but Dylan would ultimately reject these recordings.


title: New Morning

text: "When I finished that album I never wanted to speak to him again," Kooper said. "I was cheesed off at how difficult [the whole thing was]...He just changed his mind every three seconds so I just ended up doing the work of three albums...We'd get a side order and we'd go in and master it and he'd say, 'No, no, no. I want to do this.' And then, 'No, let's go in and cut this.'... There was another version of 'Went to See the Gypsy' that was really good... It was the first time I went in and had an arrangement idea for it and I said, 'Let me go in and cut this track and then you can sing over it.' So I cut this track and it was really good... and he came in and pretended like he didn't understand where to sing on it."


title: New Morning

text: Dylan ultimately decided to re-record "If Not for You" and "Time Passes Slowly", holding one final session on August 12. During that session, he also recorded "Day of the Locusts", which by now had been finished. For the album's final sequencing, these three recordings were placed at the beginning of "New Morning", while covers of "Ballad of Ira Hayes" and "Mr. Bojangles" were dropped.


title: New Morning

text: While "New Morning" neared completion, Dylan and his manager, Albert Grossman, formally dissolved their business relationship on July 17, 1970. Grossman retained certain rights from previous agreements, including royalties on work produced under his management, but their publishing company, Big Sky Music, would be replaced by Ram's Horn Music before the end of 1971, putting an end to any joint ownership in publishing. Dylan would gain complete control over his personal management and his own music publishing.


title: New Morning

text: The album opens with "If Not for You," which was also recorded for George Harrison's album "All Things Must Pass" released a few months after this album. A sincere, sentimental love song with modest ambitions, it was Dylan's only single from "New Morning".


title: New Morning

text: The song was later covered by Olivia Newton-John and was also the title song of her first album in 1971.


title: New Morning

text: "Day of the Locusts" is a cynical piece of work that Dylan's June 1970 experience at Princeton University inspired. David Crosby was present, and later commented: "Sara was trying to get Bob to go to Princeton University, where he was being presented with an honorary doctorate. Bob did not want to go. I said, 'C'mon, Bob it's an honor!' Sara and I both worked on him for a long time. Finally, he agreed. I had a car outside, a big limousine. That was the first thing he didn't like. We smoked another joint on the way and I noticed Dylan getting really quite paranoid about it. When we arrived at Princeton, they took us to a little room and Bob was asked to wear a cap and gown. He refused outright. They said, 'We won't give you the degree if you don't wear this.' Dylan said, 'Fine. I didn't ask for it in the first place.'...Finally we convinced him to wear the cap and gown."


title: New Morning

text: The song's lyrics refer to Brood X of the 17-year periodical cicada (often misidentified as "locusts"), whose sounds blanketed Princeton at the time of his visit:


title: New Morning

text: In a 2008 interview with the Aspen Institute, Crosby revealed that a line in the song, "The man next to me, his head was exploding", was in reference to Crosby's presence during the event.


title: New Morning

text: This is another deceptively simple song where Dylan appears to sing the praises of stability and stasis. There is some sense with lyrics like 'ain't no reason to go anywhere' and 'time passes slowly and fades away' that maybe Dylan is not as satisfied with inaction as he appears on the surface. "Time Passes Slowly" is one a few songs on New Morning originally written for Archibald MacLeish's play "Scratch". An alternate version of the song featuring George Harrison's guitar playing and harmony vocal appears on .


title: New Morning

text: It is often assumed that Dylan wrote "Went to See the Gypsy" after meeting Elvis Presley, as the song mentions visiting with a mysterious and important man in a hotel. The song also contains the line, "A pretty dancing girl was there, and she began to shout... "He did it in Las Vegas, and he can do it here." This lyric was seen by some as a reference to Elvis' record-breaking run of performances in Las Vegas (his series of concerts at the International Hotel commenced on July 31, 1969). The meeting described in the song may have been purely imaginary, however, as Dylan clarified in a 2009 interview with "Rolling Stone"s Douglas Brinkley: "I never met Elvis, because I didn't want to meet Elvis... I know The Beatles went to see him, and he just played with their heads." In the same interview, Dylan expanded upon his imagined mythical image of the singer: "Elvis was truly some sort of American king. Two or three times we were up in Hollywood, and he had sent some of the Memphis Mafia down to where we were to bring us up to see Elvis. But none of us went... I don't know if I would have wanted to see Elvis like that. I wanted to see the powerful mystical Elvis that had crash-landed from a burning star onto American soil." In the final lines of the song, Dylan makes mention of a "little Minnesota town," a rare reference to his own childhood in Hibbing.


title: New Morning

text: "Winterlude" verges on satirical, a humorous love song directed at a girl named Winterlude, and includes the chorus, "Winterlude, this dude thinks you're fine". The song was featured in The Comic Strip's 1998 special "Four Men in a Car".


title: New Morning

text: "Winterlude" is followed by "If Dogs Run Free", a beat jazz paean, featuring scat-singing Maeretha Stewart as a guest vocalist and Al Kooper on piano.


title: New Morning

text: The title track of "New Morning" is another one of the lighter tracks, a wry take on country life. "New Morning" is another song initially written with the idea for use in Archibald MacLeish's play "Scratch", though none of Dylan's songs were ultimately used in the play.


title: New Morning

text: "Sign on the Window" expands on the joyous sentiments found in "New Morning", applying it to domestic bliss. "Beginning hesitantly, the last verse of 'Sign on the Window' builds towards its repeated last line not as a forced projection of false hope but as simple, matter-of-fact acceptance of middle-age sentiment," writes music critic Tim Riley. "[These words] offer a way of redefining one's values that doesn't mean copping out or giving up. The antithesis of the family man, at thirty a father of four, begins broaching homeliness without irony—and still convinces you not to hear it as strict autobiography."


title: New Morning

text: Guitarist Ron Cornelius recalls, "Dylan had a pretty bad cold that week. You can hear it on ['Sign on the Window'], y'know, that bit about 'Brighton girls are like the moon,' where his voice really cracks up. But it sure suits the song. His piano playing's weird...because his hands start at opposite ends of the keyboard and then sorta collide in the middle—he does that all the time—but the way he plays just knocks me out."


title: New Morning

text: A blues-influenced song in the key of A major. "One More Weekend" is ostensibly a simple paean to the idea of a loving couple taking a weekend getaway. Some observers see more complex undertones however - the references to 'weasel on the run' and 'coming and going like a rabbit in the wood' give some sense that not is all as it seems.


title: New Morning

text: In "The Man in Me", "Dylan surrenders to the person he sees when his lover looks through him," writes Riley. "He's not trying to impress this lover, so the title hook resonates enough to carry things... 'Take a woman like you to get through/To the man in me' is so direct in its expression of the unflinching cues of intimacy, you forgive him the occasional forced rhyme." The song was later featured during several scenes in the 1998 Coen Brothers film "The Big Lebowski".


title: New Morning

text: "Three Angels" is gospel-tinged track limning sights on an urban street, including "a man with a badge", a "U-Haul trailer", and "three fellas crawling their way back to work". A reference to the 'Tenth Avenue bus going west' gives an indication that the song is likely set in New York City. The atmosphere of the song is reminiscent of the recitations recorded by Hank Williams as Luke the Drifter.


title: New Morning

text: The final song, "Father of Night", is Dylan's interpretation of the Jewish prayer Amidah. In 1973, the song was covered by Manfred Mann's Earth Band for the album "Solar Fire". At 1 minute 32 seconds, "Father of Night" is Dylan's shortest song from a studio-released album.


title: New Morning

text: Several critics were quick to praise "New Morning" as a return to form after "Self Portrait". Ralph J. Gleason of "Rolling Stone" heralded the release with a headline declaring "WE'VE GOT DYLAN BACK AGAIN!" and described the album as "beautiful". Reviewing for the same publication, Ed Ward echoed this sentiment and deemed it a "superb album". Ward lauded "Went to See the Gypsy" and "Sign on the Window" as "masterpieces"; he said that the former was "the hardest rocker from Dylan in a 'coon's age", with the singer's voice "back in its raspy, rowdy glory", while the latter "ranks with the best work he's done", including "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands", "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and "Like a Rolling Stone". He also praised Dylan's piano playing and concluded by calling "New Morning" "one of Dylan's best albums, perhaps his best".


title: New Morning

text: "Stereo Review"s Noel Coppage said it was not only Dylan's best LP but "the best album I've heard in years" and "for all practical purposes, an album without a flaw". He called the musical arrangements "exemplary" and agreed with those who recognized "Time Passes Slowly" as "the "best" song Dylan ever wrote", saying that it was "the new anthem for Dylan's people ... It points toward open country and toward family instead of community." Geoffrey Cannon of "The Guardian" found "New Morning" a departure from all of the artist's previous albums and commented on the range of styles and influences while highlighting Dylan's "dynamite piano". He described the title track as "a marvellous song, pointing to all our best hopes" in its celebration of the simple pleasures of nature and the senses.<ref name="Cannon/Guardian"> Available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).</ref>


title: New Morning

text: Other commentators disagreed that the album marked Dylan's full artistic return. According to biographer Howard Sounes, these more dispassionate listeners found it "a little self-satisfied" and, further to "Nashville Skyline" and "Self Portrait", evidence of the singer's descent into commercialism and conservative values. The "NME"s Richard Green said the record fell short of the high expectations created in the build-up to its release and by the high quality of his past work; he wrote that "much of it is standard pop that would be totally neglected if any other artist had done it." Green admired the rock-oriented tracks and predicted that, while the LP would be a big seller, it would "not go down as one of Bob Dylan's best efforts". Morgan Ames of "High Fidelity" wrote that Dylan remained an intermittently interesting songwriter, but he was no longer "a Force in the way he once was and everyone knows it". Conceding that he had never liked Dylan's singing, Ames said "New Morning" was not an album he would revisit and that, but for the legend surrounding Dylan, it would have been received as merely "a competent, if not inspired, offering from a country-oriented folksinger-writer".


title: New Morning

text: "Village Voice" critic Robert Christgau named "New Morning" the seventh best album of 1970. In comparing the record to "Self Portrait", he later wrote: "this time he's writing the pop (and folk) genre experiments himself, and thus saying more about true romance than is the pop (or folk) norm." Christgau highlighted "Winterlude" and "If Dogs Run Free", but panned "Three Angels" and "Father of Night", saying they "make religion seem dumber than it already is".


title: New Morning

text: In his contemporaneous review for "The Times", Richard Williams wrote that "New Morning" showed Dylan left behind by recent trends and "a newer generation finds it hard to understand what the fuss is about". Writing for Rough Guides, Nigel Williamson says that music historian Sean Egan "astutely" summarized the issue when he commented: "[Dylan's] music was no longer an elemental thing ... his world view was limited to the end of the driveway of the home that his wife baked in and his children caroused through." Williamson calls "New Morning" a "fine album" but, despite the excitement of Dylan's supporters at "Rolling Stone", "more of a false dawn".


title: Fire temple

text: A fire temple, Agiary, Atashkadeh (), Atashgah () or Dar-e Mehr () is the place of worship for the followers of Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of Iran (Persia). In the Zoroastrian religion, fire (see "atar"), together with clean water (see "aban"), are agents of ritual purity. Clean, white "ash for the purification ceremonies [is] regarded as the basis of ritual life", which "are essentially the rites proper to the tending of a domestic fire, for the temple [fire] is that of the hearth fire raised to a new solemnity". For, one "who sacrifices unto fire with fuel in his hand ..., is given happiness".


title: Fire temple

text: , there were 167 fire temples in the world, of which 45 were in Mumbai, 105 in the rest of India, and 17 in other countries. Of these only 9 (1 in Iran and 8 in India) are the main temples known as "atash behrams" and the remaining are the smaller temples known as "agiarys".


title: Fire temple

text: First evident in the 9th century BCE, the Zoroastrian rituals of fire are contemporary with that of Zoroastrianism itself. It appears at approximately the same time as the shrine cult and is roughly contemporaneous with the introduction of "Atar" as a divinity. There is no allusion to a temple of fire in the Avesta proper, nor is there any Old Persian language word for one.


title: Fire temple

text: That the rituals of fire was a doctrinal modification and absent from early Zoroastrianism is also evident in the later "Atash Nyash". In the oldest passages of that liturgy, it is the hearth fire that speaks to "all those for whom it cooks the evening and morning meal", which Boyce observes is not consistent with sanctified fire. The temple is an even later development: from Herodotus it is known that in the mid-5th century BCE the Zoroastrians worshipped to the open sky, ascending mounds to light their fires. Strabo confirms this, noting that in the 6th century, the sanctuary at Zela in Cappadocia was an artificial mound, walled in, but open to the sky, although there is no evidence whatsoever that the Zela-sanctuary was Zoroastrian. Although the "burning of fire" was a key element in Zoroastrian worship, the burning of "eternal" fire, as well as the presence of "light" in worship, was also a key element in many other religions.


title: Fire temple

text: By the Parthian era (250 BCE–226 CE), there were two places of worship in Zoroastrianism: one, called "bagin" or "ayazan", was a sanctuary dedicated to a specific divinity; it was constructed in honor of the patron saint (or angel) of an individual or family and included an icon or effigy of the honored. The second, the "atroshan", were the "places of burning fire" which became more and more prevalent as the iconoclastic movement gained support. Following the rise of the Sassanid dynasty, the shrines to the Yazatas continued to exist, but with the statues – by law – either abandoned or replaced by fire altars.


title: Fire temple

text: Also, as Schippman observed, there is no evidence even during the Sassanid era (226–650 CE) that the fires were categorized according to their sanctity. "It seems probable that there were virtually only two, namely the "Atash-i Vahram" [literally: "victorious fire", later misunderstood to be the Fire of Bahram], and the lesser "Atash-i Adaran", or 'Fire of Fires', a parish fire, as it were, serving a village or town quarter". Apparently, it was only in the "Atash-i Vahram" that fire was kept continuously burning, with the "Adaran" fires being annually relit. While the fires themselves had special names, the structures did not, and it has been suggested that "the prosaic nature of the middle Persian names ("kadag", "man", and "xanag" are all words for an ordinary house) perhaps reflect a desire on the part of those who fostered the temple-cult ... to keep it as close as possible in character to the age-old cult of the hearth-fire, and to discourage elaboration".


title: Fire temple

text: The Battle of al-Qādisiyyah (636 CE) and the Battle of Nihavānd (642 CE) were instrumental to the collapse of the Sassanid Empire and state-sponsored Zoroastrianism; destruction or conversion (mosques) of some fire temples in Greater Iran followed. The faith was practiced largely by the aristocracy but large numbers of fire temples did not exist. Some fire temples continued with their original purpose although many Zoroastrians fled. Legend says that some took fire with them and it most probably served as a reminder of their faith in an increasingly persecuted community since fire originating from a temple was not a tenet of the religious practice.


title: Fire temple

text: The oldest remains of what has been identified as a fire temple are those on Mount Khajeh, near Lake Hamun in Sistan. Only traces of the foundation and ground-plan survive and have been tentatively dated to the 3rd or 4th century BCE. The temple was rebuilt during the Parthian era (250 BCE-226 CE), and enlarged during Sassanid times (226–650 CE).


title: Fire temple

text: The characteristic feature of the Sassanid fire temple was its domed sanctuary where the fire-altar stood. This sanctuary always had a square ground plan with a pillar in each corner that then supported the dome (the "gombad"). Archaeological remains and literary evidence from "Zend" commentaries on the Avesta suggest that the sanctuary was surrounded by a passageway on all four sides. "On a number of sites the "gombad", made usually of rubble masonry with courses of stone, is all that survives, and so such ruins are popularly called in Fars "čahār-tāq" or 'four arches'."


title: Fire temple

text: Ruins of temples of the Sassanid era have been found in various parts of the former empire, mostly in the southwest (Fars, Kerman and Elam), but the biggest and most impressive are those of Adur Gushnasp in Media Minor (see also The Great Fires, below). Many more ruins are popularly identified as the remains of Zoroastrian fire temples even when their purpose is of evidently secular nature, or are the remains of a temple of the shrine cults, or as is the case of a fort-like fire temple and monastery at Surkhany, Azerbaijan, that unambiguously belongs to another religion. The remains of a fire-altar, most likely constructed during the proselytizing campaign of Yazdegerd II ("r." 438–457) against the Christian Armenians, have been found directly beneath the main altar of the Echmiadzin Cathedral, the Mother See of the Armenian Apostolic Church.


title: Fire temple

text: Apart from relatively minor fire temples, three were said to derive directly from Ahura Mazda, thus making them the most important in Zoroastrian tradition. These were the "Great Fires" or "Royal Fires" of Adur Burzen-Mihr, Adur Farnbag, and Adur Gushnasp. The legends of the Great Fires are probably of antiquity (see also "Denkard" citation, below), for by the 3rd century CE, miracles were said to happen at the sites, and the fires were popularly associated with other legends such as those of the folktale heroes Fereydun, Jamshid and Rustam.


title: Fire temple

text: The "Bundahishn", an encyclopaediaic collection of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology written in Book Pahlavi, which was finished in the 11th or 12th century CE, states that the Great Fires had existed since creation and had been brought forth on the back of the ox "Srishok" to propagate the faith, dispel doubt, and protect all humankind. Other texts observe that the Great Fires were also vehicles of propaganda and symbols of imperial sovereignty.


title: Fire temple

text: The priests of these respective "Royal Fires" are said to have competed with each other to draw pilgrims by promoting the legends and miracles that were purported to have occurred at their respective sites. Each of the three is also said to have mirrored social and feudal divisions: "The fire which is Farnbag has made its place among the priests; ... the fire which is Gūshnasp has made its place among the warriors; ... the fire which is Būrzīn-Mitrō has made its place among agriculturists" ("Denkard", 6.293). These divisions are archaeologically and sociologically revealing, because they make clear that, since from at least the 1st century BCE onwards, society was divided into four, not three, feudal estates.


title: Fire temple

text: The Farnbag fire (translated as 'the fire Glory-Given' by Darmesteter) was considered the most venerated of the three because it was seen as the earthly representative of the "Atar Spenishta", 'Holiest Fire' of Yasna 17.11, and it is described in a "Zend" commentary on that verse as "the one burning in Paradise in the presence of Ohrmazd."


title: Fire temple

text: Although "in the eyes of [contemporary] Iranian Zoroastrian priests, the three fires were not 'really existing' temple fires and rather belonged to the mythological realm", several attempts have been made to identify the locations of the Great Fires. In the early 20th century, A. V. Jackson identified the remains at Takht-i-Suleiman, midway between Urumieh and Hamadan, as the temple of Adur Gushnasp. The location of the Mithra fire, i.e. that of Burzen-Mihr, Jackson "identified with reasonable certainty" as being near the village of Mihr half-way between Miandasht and Sabzevar on the Khorasan road to Nishapur. The Indian (lesser) "Bundahishn" records the Farnbag fire having been "on the glory-having mountain which is in Khwarezm" but later moved "upon the shining mountain in the district of Kavul just as it there even now remains" ("IBd" 17.6). That the temple once stood in Khwarezm is also supported by the Greater (Iranian) "Bundahishn" and by the texts of "Zadsparam" (11.9). However, according to the Greater "Bundahishn", it was moved "upon the shining mountain of Kavarvand in the Kar district" (the rest of the passage is identical to the Indian edition). Darmesteter identified this "celebrated for its sacred fire which has been transported there from Khvarazm as reported by Masudi" . If this identification is correct, the temple of the Farnbag fire then lay 10 miles southwest of Juwun, midway between Jahrom and Lar. ()


title: Fire temple

text: According to Parsi legend, when (over a thousand years ago) one group of refugees from (greater) Khorasan landed in Western Gujarat, they had the ash of such a fire with them. This ash, it is said, served as the bed for the fire today at Udvada.


title: Fire temple

text: This fire temple was not always at Udvada. According to the Qissa-i Sanjan, 'Story of Sanjan', the only existing account of the early years of Zoroastrian refugees in India and composed at least six centuries after their arrival, the immigrants established a "Atash-Warharan", 'victorious fire' (see Warharan for etymology) at Sanjan. Under threat of war (probably in 1465), the fire was moved to the Bahrot Caves 20 km south of Sanjan, where it stayed for 12 years. From there, it was moved to Bansdah, where it stayed for another 14 years before being moved yet again to Navsari, where it would remain until the 18th century. It was then moved to Udvada where it burns today.


title: Fire temple

text: Although there are numerous eternally burning Zoroastrian fires today, with the exception of the 'Fire of Warharan', none of them are more than 250 years old. The legend that the Indian Zoroastrians invented the "afrinagan" (the metal urn in which a sacred fire today resides) when they moved the fire from Sanjan to the Bahrot Caves is unsustainable. Greek historians of the Parthian period reported the use of a metal vase-like urn to transport fire. Sassanid coins of the 3rd-4th century CE likewise reveal a fire in a vase-like container identical in design to the present-day "afrinagan"s. The Indian Zoroastrians do however export these and other utensils to their co-religionists the world over.


title: Fire temple

text: One of the more common technical terms – in use – for a Zoroastrian fire temple is "dar be-mehr", romanized as "darb-e mehr" or dialectally slurred as "dar-e mehr". The etymology of this term, meaning 'Mithra's Gate' or 'Mithra's Court' is problematic. It has been proposed that the term is a throwback to the age of the shrine cults, the name being retained because all major Zoroastrian rituals were solemnized between sunrise and noon, the time of day especially under Mithra's protection. Etymological theories see a derivation from "mithryana" (so Meillet) or "*mithradana" (Gershevitch) or "mithraion" (Wilcken). It is moreover not clear whether the term referred to a consecrated inner sanctum or to the ritual precinct.


title: Fire temple

text: Among present-day Iranian Zoroastrians, the term "darb-e mehr" includes the entire ritual precinct. It is significantly more common than the older "atashkada", a Classical Persian language term that together with its middle Persian predecessors (𐭪𐭲𐭪 𐭠𐭲𐭧𐭱 "ātaxš-kadag", "-man" and "-xanag") literally means 'house of fire'. The older terms have the advantage that they are readily understood even by non-Zoroastrian Iranians. In the early 20th century, the Bombay "Fasilis" (see Zoroastrian calendar) revived the term as the name of their first fire temple, and later in that century the Zoroastrians of Tehran revived it for the name of their principal fire temple.


title: Fire temple

text: The term "darb-e mehr" is also common in India, albeit with a slightly different meaning. Until the 17th century the fire (now) at Udvada was the only continuously burning one on the Indian subcontinent. Each of the other settlements had a small building in which rituals were performed, and the fire of which the priests would relight whenever necessary from the embers carried from their own hearth fires. The Parsis called such an unconsecrated building either "dar-be mehr" or "agiary". The latter is the Gujarati language word for 'house of fire' and thus a literal translation of "atashkada". In recent years, the term "dar-be mehr" has come to refer to a secondary sacred fire (the "dadgah") for daily ritual use that is present at the more prestigious fire temples. Overseas, in particular in North America, Zoroastrians use the term "dar-be mehr" for both temples that have an eternally burning fire as well as for sites where the fire is only kindled occasionally. This is largely due to the financial support of such places by one Arbab Rustam Guiv, who preferred the dialectal Iranian form.


title: Fire temple

text: Functionally, the fire temples are built to serve the fire within them, and the fire temples are classified (and named) according to the grade of fire housed within them. There are three grades of fires, the Atash Dadgah, Atash Adaran, and Atash Behram.


title: Fire temple

text: The "Atash Dadgah" is the lowest grade of sacred fire, and can be consecrated within the course of a few hours by two priests, who alternatingly recite the 72 verses of the Yasna liturgy. Consecration may occasionally include the recitation of the Vendidad, but this is optional. A lay person may tend the fire when no services are in progress. The term is not necessarily a consecrated fire, and the term is also applied to the hearth fire, or to the oil lamp found in many Zoroastrian homes.


title: Fire temple

text: The next highest grade of fire is the "Atash Adaran", the "Fire of fires". It requires a gathering of hearth fire from representatives of the four professional groups (that reflect feudal estates): from a hearth fire of the "asronih" (the priesthood), the "(r)atheshtarih" (soldiers and civil servants), the "vastaryoshih" (farmers and herdsmen) and the "hutokshih" (artisans and laborers). Eight priests are required to consecrate an "Adaran" fire and the procedure takes between two and three weeks.


title: Fire temple

text: The highest grade of fire is the "Atash Behram", "Fire of victory", and its establishment and consecration is the most elaborate of the three. It involves the gathering of 16 different "kinds of fire", that is, fires gathered from 16 different sources, including lightning, fire from a cremation pyre, fire from trades where a furnace is operated, and fires from the hearths as is also the case for the "Atash Adaran". Each of the 16 fires is then subject to a purification ritual before it joins the others. Thirty-two priests are required for the consecration ceremony, which can take up to a year to complete.


title: Fire temple

text: A temple that maintains an Adaran or Behram fire also maintains at least one Dadgah fire. In contrast to the Adaran and Behram fires, the Dadgah fire is the one at which priests then celebrate the rituals of the faith, and which the public addresses to invoke blessings for a specific individual, a family or an event. Veneration of the greater fires is addressed only to the fire itself – that is, following the consecration of such a fire, only the "Atash Nyashes", the litany to the fire in Younger Avestan, is ever recited before it.


title: Fire temple

text: The outer façade of a Zoroastrian fire temple is almost always intentionally nondescript and free of embellishment. This may reflect ancient tradition (supported by the prosaic nature of the technical terms for a fire temple) that the principal purpose of a fire temple is to house a sacred fire, and not to glorify what is otherwise simply a building.


title: Fire temple

text: The basic structure of present-day fire temples is always the same. There are no indigenous sources older than the 19th century that describe an Iranian fire temple (the 9th century theologian Manushchir observed that they had a standard floor plan, but what this might have been is unknown), and it is possible that the temples there today have features that are originally of Indian origin. On entry one comes into a large space or hall where congregation (also non-religious) or special ceremonies may take place. Off to the side of this (or sometimes a floor level up or down) the devotee enters an anteroom smaller than the hall he/she has just passed through. Connected to this anteroom, or enclosed within it, but not visible from the hall, is the innermost sanctum (in Zoroastrian terminology, the "atashgah", literally 'place of the fire' in which the actual fire-altar stands).


title: Fire temple

text: A temple at which a Yasna service (the principal Zoroastrian act of worship that accompanies the recitation of the Yasna liturgy) may be celebrated will always have, attached to it or on the grounds, at least a well or a stream or other source of 'natural' water. This is a critical requirement for the Ab-Zohr, the culminating rite of the Yasna service.


title: Fire temple

text: Only priests attached to a fire temple may enter the innermost sanctum itself, which is closed on at least one side and has a double domed roof. The double dome has vents to allow the smoke to escape, but the vents of the outer dome are offset from those of the inner, so preventing debris or rain from entering the inner sanctum. The sanctum is separated from the anteroom by dividers (or walls with very large openings) and is slightly raised with respect to the space around it. The wall(s) of the inner sanctum are almost always tiled or of marble, but are otherwise undecorated. There are no lights – other than that of the fire itself – in the inner sanctum. In Indian-Zoroastrian (not evident in the modern buildings in Iran) tradition the temples are often designed such that direct sunlight does not enter the sanctuary.


title: Fire temple

text: In one corner hangs a bell, which is rung five times a day at the "boi" – literally, '[good] scent' – ceremony, which marks the beginning of each "gah", or 'watch'. Tools for maintaining the fire – which is always fed by wood – are simply hung on the wall, or as is sometimes the case, stored in a small room (or rooms) often reachable only through the sanctum.


title: Fire temple

text: In India and in Indian-Zoroastrian communities overseas, non-Zoroastrians are strictly prohibited from entering any space from which one could see the fire(s). While this is not a doctrinal requirement (that is, it is not an injunction specified in the Avesta or in the so-called Pahlavi texts), it has nonetheless developed as a tradition. It is, however, mentioned in a 16th-century "Rivayat" epistle ("R." 65). In addition, entry into "any" part of the facility is sometimes reserved for Zoroastrians only. This then precludes the use of temple hall for public (also secular) functions. Zoroastrians insist, though, that these restrictions are not meant to offend non-Zoroastrians, and point to similar practices in other religions. There was a custom in India that Zoroastrian women were not allowed to enter the Fire Temple and the Tower of Silence if they married a non-Zoroastrian person. This custom has been challenged before the Supreme Court of India.


title: Fire temple

text: When the adherent enters the sanctum he or she will offer bone-dry sandalwood (or other sweet-smelling wood) to the fire. This is in accordance with doctrinal statutes expressed in "Vendidad" 18.26-27, which in addition to enumerating which fuels are appropriate, also reiterates the injunctions of "Yasna" 3.1 and "Yashts" 14.55 that describe which fuels are not (in particular, any not of wood).


title: Fire temple

text: In present-day Zoroastrian tradition, the offering is never made directly, but placed in the care of the celebrant priest who, wearing a cloth mask over the nostrils and mouth to prevent pollution from the breath, will then – using a pair of silver tongs – place the offering in the fire. The priest will use a special ladle to proffer the holy ash to the layperson, who in turn daubs it on his or her forehead and eyelids, and may take some home for use after a Kushti ceremony.


title: Fire temple

text: A Zoroastrian priest does not preach or hold sermons, but rather just tends to the fire. Fire Temple attendance is particularly high during seasonal celebrations ("Gahambar"s), and especially for the New Year (Noruz).


title: Fire temple

text: The priesthood is trigradal. The chief priest of each temple has the title of dastur. Consecration to this rank relieves him of the necessity of purification after the various incidents of life that a lesser priest must expiate. Ordinary priests have the title of mobad, and are able to conduct the congregational worship and such occasional functions as marriages. A mobad must be the son, grandson, or great-grandson of a mobad. The lowest rank is that of herbad, or ervad; these assist at the principal ceremonies.


title: The Settlers

text: The Settlers () is a city-building and real-time strategy video game series created by Volker Wertich. The original game was released on the Commodore Amiga in 1993, with subsequent games released primarily on MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows: "The Settlers II" (1996), "The Settlers III" (1998), "The Settlers IV" (2001), "" (2004), "" (2007), and "" (2010). There are also several spin-offs; "The Settlers II (10th Anniversary)" (2006) is a remake of "The Settlers II", "The Settlers DS" (2007) is a port of "The Settlers II" for Nintendo DS, "Die Siedler: Aufbruch der Kulturen" (2008) is a German-only spiritual successor to "10th Anniversary", "The Settlers HD" (2009) is a handheld remake of "The Settlers IV", and "The Settlers Online" (2010) is a free-to-play online browser game. With the exception of "The Settlers HD", Blue Byte has developed every game in the series, as well as publishing the first three titles. From "The Settlers IV" onwards, Ubisoft has published all titles.


title: The Settlers

text: An eighth game in the main series, "The Settlers: Kingdoms of Anteria", was scheduled for release in 2014, but after the game's closed beta was abruptly shut down by Ubisoft in light of negative feedback, the game was removed from the release schedule. It was ultimately repackaged and released in 2016 as "Champions of Anteria", an action role-playing game unrelated to "The Settlers" series. A franchise reboot, initially named simply "The Settlers", was scheduled for release in 2019, but was postponed and all preorders were refunded. In January 2022, Ubisoft announced that the game would be released in March of that year. In March then, it was again postponed. In November, Ubisoft revealed the game was now called "", and was slated for a February 2023 release.


title: The Settlers

text: Narratively, each game is a stand-alone story with no connection to the other titles in the series (although "Rise of an Empire" is an indirect sequel to "Heritage of Kings"). From a gameplay perspective, although each game tends to feature its own set of innovations and nuances, broadly speaking, they are all built on a simulation of a supply and demand economic system in which the player must maintain the various chains of production, building up their military strength and the robustness of their economy so as to defeat their opponents and achieve certain predetermined objectives. Some games foreground city-building and complex daisy-chain economic processes whereas others focus on real-time strategy and building a diverse military force. Common game mechanics include resource acquisition, economic micromanagement, managing taxation, maintaining a high standard of living, trade, and technology trees.


title: The Settlers

text: Critically, reactions to the games have been mixed, ranging from universal praise for "The Settlers II" to universal condemnation for "The Settlers DS". The series has sold very well, with global sales in excess of 10 million units as of September 2014. It has sold especially well in Europe. The games have also done well at various game award shows, and the series features two recipients of the "Best Game" award at the annual "German Developer Innovation Prize".


title: The Settlers

text: The core elements of "The Settlers" gameplay are city-building and real-time strategy. Both the original "Settlers" and "The Settlers II" are city-building games with real-time strategy elements, and have similar gameplay and game mechanics. Unlike the first two games, "The Settlers III" and "The Settlers IV" foreground real-time strategy elements over city-building, with more focus on combat than their predecessors. "" is unique in the franchise insofar as it focuses almost exclusively on real-time strategy and combat. After "Heritage of Kings" received a negative reaction from fans, the next game, "", returned to foregrounding city-building over real-time strategy. This was true to an even greater degree in the following game, "", whose gameplay was based on the most popular title in the series; "The Settlers II".


title: The Settlers

text: In the first five games, the primary goal on each map, broadly speaking, is to build a settlement with a functioning economy, producing sufficient military units so as to conquer rival territories. To achieve this end, the player must, to one degree or another, engage in economic micromanagement, construct buildings, and generate resources. In "Rise of an Empire" and "Paths to a Kingdom", the importance of military conquest is scaled back, with many maps requiring players to accomplish certain predetermined tasks tied to the economic strength of their city. Whilst the first four games feature broadly similar supply and demand-based gameplay, starting with "Heritage of Kings", Blue Byte began to alter the game mechanics from title to title. So, with "Heritage of Kings", there is little focus on micromanagement, daisy-chain economic processes, or construction, and more on technology trees, combat, taxation, and workers' motivation. "Rise of an Empire" features a significantly simpler economic model than any previous title in the series, with the complexity of the various supply chains significantly streamlined. "Paths to a Kingdom" features a more robust economy and focuses on micromanagement, daisy-chain economic processes, city organisation, upgrading buildings, technology trees, and trade requirements. Additionally, for the first time in the series, the gameplay in "Paths to a Kingdom" is flexible enough to allow players to develop their settlement based upon one (or more) of three basic options - military, technology or trade.


title: The Settlers

text: The gameplay of every "Settlers" title revolves around serfs (the titular "settlers"). In all games except "Heritage of Kings", serfs transport materials, tools and produce, and populate and perform the requisite task of each building. In "Heritage", serfs are differentiated from workers - serfs are the only units capable of constructing new buildings, repairing damage to pre-existing buildings, gathering wood, and extracting resources by hand, whereas workers occupy buildings. In no game except "Heritage" does the player directly control any individual settler - instead, the player issues general orders, with the AI handling the delegation to specific settlers. In "Heritage of Kings", the player "can" directly control serfs, such as ordering them to chop down trees in a particular location, or scout unexplored territory. Workers, however, cannot be controlled.


title: The Settlers

text: In "The Settlers", "The Settlers II", "Rise of an Empire", and "Paths to a Kingdom", as the player constructs buildings and thus requires settlers to occupy them, the settlers are automatically generated as needed. In "The Settlers" and "The Settlers II", as the settlement continues to grow in size, the quota of settlers will eventually be reached, and the player will need to build a warehouse to generate more settlers. In "Rise of an Empire" and "Paths to a Kingdom", once the settlement's quota has been reached, new settlers can only generate once the player has increased living space, either by building new residences or upgrading existing ones. In both "The Settlers III" and "The Settlers IV", new settlers aren't generated as needed; instead, a set number is added to the player's pool upon the construction of residences. In "Heritage of Kings", the player manually recruits serfs as needed. Once the serfs have constructed a building which requires workers, those workers will automatically emerge from the village centre and occupy the building. Once the settlement's quota has been reached, the player must either upgrade the centre or build an additional one.


title: The Settlers

text: In the first two games, an important game mechanic is the construction of a road network so as to allow for an efficient transportation system, as any settlers transporting goods must use roads. To maximize distribution, the player must set as many flags as possible on each road. Flags can only be set a certain distance apart, and serve as transport hubs; a settler will carry an item to a flag and set it down, at which point the next settler along will pick up the item and continue, freeing the first settler to return and pick up another item at the previous flag. A major change came in "The Settlers III", where roads were no longer necessary, and settlers could walk freely around the player's territory, with the AI handling pathfinding. Aside from "The Settlers II (10th Anniversary)", roads were not a requirement again until "Paths to a Kingdom" (players could build roads in "Rise of an Empire", but they were optional).


title: The Settlers

text: The first four titles in the series feature a broadly similar economic system built on a foundation of basic supply-and-demand, and in all four games, the player can control the economy in various rudimentary ways. For example, the player can adjust the distribution of goods by selecting which percentage of a given resource is transported to a given building. In a similar manner, the player can select what tools are made when, which is important insofar as all buildings require raw materials and a worker with the right tool.


title: The Settlers

text: The economic systems in the "Heritage of Kings", "Rise of an Empire", and "Paths to a Kingdom" differ substantially from the first four games, and from one another. In "Heritage", for example, the player must manage taxation. Serfs do not need lodgings, nor do they consume produce, but they also do not pay taxes. Workers, on the other hand, need both lodgings and sustenance (provided by farms), and the closer the lodgings and farm are to their workplace, the more productive they will be. A major change to the mechanics in "Heritage of Kings" is that unlike the previous four games, serfs no longer transport resources. Instead, resources are automatically deposited into the player's storehouse, and the various refinery workers collect the materials for processing themselves. In the case of construction, the necessary resources are automatically transferred to the build site without having to be physically transported. Another new feature is the ability to upgrade buildings, which can increase efficiency or capacity, grant access to new abilities, or allow access to new technologies.


title: The Settlers

text: "Rise of an Empire" features a considerably streamlined economic model when compared to all previous titles, with the most basic production chains of any game in the series (usually involving only two buildings). A settler in a resource building will walk to the nearest source of raw materials, gather them, and return to his building. When the building is full, one of the settlers living there will take the resources to the storehouse. A settler in a produce building will then walk to the storehouse and bring the raw materials back to his building, using them to make finished goods, which are then sold from that same building. New to "Rise of an Empire" are needs and wants. Settlers in resource buildings have only one need (food), and no wants. Settlers in produce buildings have wants under two headings (prosperity and decoration), and as the city grows, they acquire increasingly diversified needs. If the player doesn't ensure a settler's needs are met, that settler will eventually go on strike.


title: The Settlers

text: In "Paths to a Kingdom", how the player interacts with buildings is substantially different from any previous title in the series. Work yards cannot be built directly, but must be attached to a base building. Each base building can have three work yards attached (depending on the availability of space), and each base has specific yards which cannot be attached to other buildings. The rate of work yards can be modified by controlling the distribution of food. Although some work yards don't require food, the player is free to send both "plain food" (fish and bread) and "fancy food" (sausages) to the base buildings, with plain food doubling production and fancy food tripling it. Work yards which do require food can be supplied with fancy food, which will double production.


title: The Settlers

text: In the first four titles, the player's territory can only be expanded by building a military complex near the territory border and having at least one soldier stationed within, or by conquering an enemy complex. In "The Settlers" and "The Settlers II", soldiers are automatically created from the pool of existing settlers as needed. In "The Settlers III" and "The Settlers IV", the player must manually recruit soldiers by building a barracks, with each individual soldier requiring their requisite weapon to transition from settler to soldier.


title: The Settlers

text: In "Heritage of Kings", military recruitment is substantially different than previous titles. When the player recruits a soldier, that soldier is automatically a captain, and, provided there are sufficient resources, a set number of soldiers are simultaneously recruited and assigned to that captain. Once a captain has soldiers assigned, and at least one of those soldiers remains alive, he is invulnerable in battle. When all soldiers within his group have been killed, a captain can return to the vicinity of the barracks, where the player can recruit replacement units without the need to recruit another captain. In "Rise of an Empire", similarly to the first four titles, the player's territory can only be expanded by building an outpost in unoccupied territory. Soldiers can only be recruited in groups of six at a time, meaning the player cannot recruit any soldiers unless they have enough resources to recruit at least six.


title: The Settlers

text: In "Paths to a Kingdom", the player's territory can be expanded in three different ways; military, technology, or trade. For neutral sectors, military expansion sees the player defeat the sector's occupants, technological expansion involves sending clerics to proselytise the occupants, and trade involves bribing the occupying soldiers. To conquer sectors occupied by enemy soldiers, the player "must" use the military option. For the military path, all soldiers must be assigned to a general, with each general having a specific set of skills, based around melee combat, ranged combat, attacking fortifications, or a combination of all three. Players issue orders to generals, and all soldiers under that general's command automatically follow him, with combat handled automatically by the AI. For the technology path, the player must recruit clerics, who are the only settlers capable of moving through neutral and enemy sectors. To research new technologies, the player must send the requisite number of clerics to the necessary monastery, where they will begin research. For the trade path, players must recruit traders. To unlock a trade, the player must send the requisite number of traders to the corresponding outpost, with the trade then becoming available at the marketplace.


title: The Settlers

text: The original "Settlers" game was conceived, designed, and programmed by Blue Byte's Volker Wertich, who was inspired by titles such as "Little Computer People", "Populous" and "SimCity". Originally, he intended the game to be similar to existing god games, with early development working to that end. However, after almost a year of work, he scrapped his initial concept entirely and began work on creating a game which could simulate a complex economic system and which would feature gameplay built around a simulation of real-world supply and demand. The major innovation he introduced in "The Settlers" was how the game handled raw materials. In most other titles at the time, raw materials were made available without the player having to do much in the way of producing them. In "The Settlers", the player would be responsible for the raw materials upon which the economic system was built by way of constructing and maintaining each link in the chain-of-production.


title: The Settlers

text: Designing a game which could handle such complexity proved far from simple, requiring over two years of development and programming, with much of this time spent "teaching the computer the basic facets of running an economic system." Wertich worked on the programming of the game for a year, writing 70,000 lines of raw code, before any work began on the graphics. His biggest challenge was getting the computer to understand and accurately simulate supply and demand, which, once the necessary buildings have been constructed, is handled almost entirely outside the privy of the player. The game's project manager Stefan Piasecki explained:


title: The Settlers

text: "The Settlers" was released in 1993 and became a surprise hit, selling far more units than Blue Byte had anticipated. With this in mind, they began developing "The Settlers II". Wertich would not be involved, explaining, "after two years programming "The Settlers", I didn't really want to see those little men for a while". For the sequel, Blue Byte decided to leave the gameplay relatively unchanged from the original, although they did implement a more strategic battle system, whereby players can send out scouts and utilise a stationary offensive weapon. Most of the changes were aesthetic, including graphical enhancements such as more on-screen movement and more animations for the settlers themselves. They also introduced aesthetic differentiation between the distinct races. Additionally, unlike in the first game, there is a story-driven single-player campaign. When developing this single-player story, the team initially took the concept too far, designing maps which placed tight limits on what the player could and couldn't do, and featured scripted events which would happen at certain predesignated time. They realised, however, that this went too much against the principles of the game mechanics established in the first game, betraying the tone and style of the original. Upon this realisation, they changed the map designs accordingly.


title: The Settlers

text: Released in 1996, "The Settlers II" proved even more successful than the original, earning better reviews and selling considerably more units. After this success, Blue Byte pressed on with what was by now a franchise, with Wertich leading the design team for "The Settlers III". This time around, his core design principle was to preserve the most popular elements of the gameplay from the first two titles, improve the graphics as much as possible, and both expand and improve upon the game mechanics. Early design decisions included the removal of the road network that was so intrinsic in the previous games; giving the different races different abilities, economic models, and buildings; making the game in high color; and integrating the 2D isometric graphics of the first two games with certain 3D graphical elements.


title: The Settlers

text: An early problem faced by the game's artists, Torsten Hess and Thorsten Wallner, was that the settlers themselves couldn't be too complex, as small details would be lost given their 32-pixel height, yet they had to be detailed enough so as to seem at least somewhat realistic. To tackle this problem, Hess and Wallner elected to exaggerate the settlers' proportions, giving them disproportionately large weapons and tools, as correctly sized implements would be too small to be seen. The settlers were also made more rotund and given enlarged heads. As all the animations in the game had to be interchangeable for every settler (walking, bending etc.), Hess and Wallner first needed to work on the skeletal animation, building an "extremely primitive skeletal settler which we could put under the visible structure of our figures". The drawback to this approach was that every individual action had to animated separately, frame-by-frame.


title: The Settlers

text: Released in 1998, "The Settlers III" continued the series' run of commercial successes (although reviews were more mixed), and Blue Byte announced "The Settlers IV" at the ECTS in August 1999. However, Wertich was not working on the title, because, as he later explained, "Blue Byte wanted to have it ready for release by Christmas 2000, which, in my opinion, was not sufficient time to create a worthy title". At the E3 event in May 2000, Blue Byte cited negative feedback from fans who felt "The Settlers III" was too combat-orientated, and so "The Settlers IV" was intended as a return to the core gameplay of "The Settlers" and "The Settlers II". Blue Byte also revealed that for the first time in the series, the game would feature a non-playable race (the Dark Tribe), the importance of whom to the overall design was addressed by project manager and co-designer Hans-Jürgen Brändle:


title: The Settlers

text: Speaking to "IGN" later in the year, Brändle reiterated the designers' hopes that the game would more fully integrate economic-based settling with combat than had the previous title: "We are mainly concentrating on getting the balance between settling and fighting just right. We're introducing new features, which will make the settling part more important but will also influence the strategic fighting part. This will mean you can't concentrate on just settling, or only fighting".


title: The Settlers

text: In November 2000, Blue Byte announced the slated December release had been pushed back to early 2001. The game was released in Germany in February, but suffered from numerous bugs, leading to a negative reaction from fans and criticism of both the game and Blue Byte in the German gaming press. According to German magazine "PC Games", 76% of players experienced technical difficulties with the release version of the game. Co-designer Thorsten Mutschall later admitted it had not been ready for release in February and should have been held back for additional playtesting and programming.


title: The Settlers

text: Despite the problems with its release, "The Settlers IV" sold well, and Blue Byte pressed on with the series. In June 2001, they revealed the next game, "", would be a milestone in several senses - it would be the first to use 3D graphics and it would be released simultaneously for Microsoft Windows and the console market. Ultimately, the PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions never materialised. Speaking to "PC Games" in February 2002, the game's project manager and the series' new producer, Benedikt Grindel, explained that after "The Settlers IV" was criticised for being too similar to "The Settlers III", Blue Byte made the decision that the next game should represent a "real innovation leap". He also explained that for the first time, a "Settlers" game was being developed with an eye to the international market, particularly North America, as the series had traditionally sold poorly outside Europe. He later said that "we wanted to make a game that worked everywhere".


title: The Settlers

text: Early in development, the designers decided the future of the series was not necessarily to be found in employing more races, more goods, more complex economic processes, and larger maps, but instead in streamlining the gameplay and building a set of "complex but not complicated" game mechanics. Blue Byte explained the design philosophy was to "focus more on the settlers – the characters – themselves and reduce the importance of the delivery of goods". In December 2004, with the game being criticised for not "feeling" like a "Settlers" title, Blue Byte addressed the differences between it and the previous games, stating that "it was important to us that "The Settlers" series developed, and that's why there are some changes when compared to "The Settlers III" and "IV", such as the new graphical style, the 3D presentation, a more event-driven storyline, and the introduction of heroes".


title: The Settlers

text: Despite many fans' misgivings about the feel of "Heritage of Kings", it was a commercial success, outselling "The Settlers IV". For their next two titles, Blue Byte looked back rather than forward, releasing two new versions of "The Settlers II"; a remake, "The Settlers II (10th Anniversary)", was released for Windows in 2006 and "The Settlers DS", a 1:1 port for Nintendo DS, was released in 2007. Speaking prior to the release of "10th Anniversary", Ubisoft's business development director, Ralf Wirsing, attempted to put the overall franchise into context: