Rodrigo Dรญaz de Vivar, known as El Cid or El Cid Campeador (1040s โ July 10, 1099), was a Castilian knight and warlord in Medieval Spain. After his death, El Cid was mythologized in several epics that turned him into the embodiment of the ideals of Honor and Chivalry, most notably the 12th century Cantar de Mรญo Cid. This legendary version, rather than his historical career proper, is the basis of the El Cid campaign in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors.
El Cid appears briefly in the beginning of the first and third scenarios of the El Cid campaign in The Conquerors. In both cases, El Cid is substitued by a mounted knight with a lance (similar to other campaign-only hero units), El Cid Campeador, after he comes near his horse, Babieca. Both El Cid and El Cid Campeador are key, must-survive units in the campaign.
Spain is divided between Christian kingdoms to the north and Moorish kingdoms to the south. In the barren borderlands of Castille, Rodrigo Dรญaz, called El Cid, gains notoriety as a brilliant general and heroic crusader. The Cid is so popular among soldiers and peasant alike that the distrustful king of Castille sends him into exile. The Cid must join forces with his former enemies, the Moors, and fight against his beloved Castille. But an even greater threat waits across the sea in Africa, where fanatical Berber horsemen are eager to seize what the Moors could not.
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—In-game campaign description
The El Cid campaign consists of 6 scenarios. The player plays as the Spanish or Saracens, and the player color is red.
El Cid is the only non-anthology campaign in The Conquerors that actually takes place in the Middle Ages. Attila the Hun takes place in Late Antiquity, and Montezuma in the Modern Age.
"Cid" derives from the Arabic word Sidi, meaning "Lord" or "Master", while "Campeador" is from Medieval Latin Campidoctor, "Master of the Field" or roughly "Outstanding Warrior". It seems El Cid's actual nickname in life was "El Campeador" (which he was given around the Battle of Golpejera, and is used by contemporary Christian and Muslim sources alike), while Cid was a more generic term for battlefield commanders at the time.
The story of El Cid was a factor in Ensemble Studios's decision to include the Spanish as a playable civilization in The Conquerors, along with the possibility of pitching them in a campaign against the Aztecs. The second option for a Western European civilization was the Italians.
This campaign also made Ensemble consider the Moors as a civilization with a new Mediterranean building set shared with the Spanish and Italians, but it was dropped in favor of creating a Mesoamerican set. The Moors were then considered as a civilization with the Middle Eastern set, but were abandoned due to the Middle Eastern set having four civilizations already, and the Saracens and Turks were used for them in the campaigns. Eventually The African Kingdoms introduced the Berbers as a Middle Eastern civilization, covering the Moors.