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In Progress Odin demands blood! Let's revive the Viking Age in Crusader Kings 2!

Kayerts

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
883
THE SAGA OF THE SECOND VIKING AGE​
norse14.gif

September 25, 1066

The sun rises over Stamford Bridge, and the sun sets on the Viking Age.

For three centuries, we have scourged the shores of Christendom. We have brought the Allfather's fury down on the slaves of the Slain God. We have hammered them so hard that even their calendar knows the Thunderer's name.

But our time is ending. Our people are fading from a world that now trades in silver, not in steel. We have been told we have one last chance for glory before we are lost to the ages. We have been told we should put our hope in Harald, the prince who disappeared into the frozen wastes and came back dripping with gold and jewels. The Returned King of Norsemen. His friends call him the Hard-Ruler. His foes call him nothing, because they are all dead.

Now he has raised the Raven Banner of Odin and sailed to England. He has gone west to bring a second dawn to the Viking Age. He has gone there bearing the True Norse Faith. He has gone to hack off the weak King Godwinson's head and pry off his crown with an axe.

He has gone there to die. Godwinson is not so weak as we thought. He will throw the Hard-Ruler's men into the sea and redden the waves with berserker blood. He will chop Harald's dragonships into kindling and cook his parsnips over their prows. Harald came for England, and he will get at best six feet of its ground. At worst he will dribble back to Norway to die in shame, forswearing Odin for a god who tolerates failure. And with the last great Viking King will end the great Viking Age.

That is what the Allfather warns me in my dreams. That is how the Trickster mocks me in my sleep. That is what will happen. Or would, except that the Thunderer struck my head with his hammer and reminded me that he made the Norsemen to take the peace from the world.

Thord, they call me. "Son of Viking." A good name--for now, all Viking men are my kin. And I have need of my brothers.[1] For Thor has shown me what waits for us in the days ahead. The Christ-Men are coming for us. Today they watch the Last Viking King bleed, and tomorrow they will fear the Viking men no more. In the coming decade, or maybe the next, they will swarm out of their warm lands, burn our forests, tear down our temples, and slaughter us all. They are forging the swords that will do it now. They are growing strong. They think that they can win.

I can stop this. By word or by blood, I will bind together the last of the Free Norse: the feared Lapplanders, the mighty Vasterbotten, and we, the cunning Angermanlanders. Even Finns will take shelter in the Allfather's shadow. All will stand as one. We will gather in the darkness at the roof of the world, in the night that lasts for months. We will carve runes on our swords so that our enemies will know our gods' names. And we will wait.

The Christ-Men will come for Norse blood, but we will meet them with Norse blades. They will come for their god, but they will die for ours. They will come, but none will leave.

Come, little Christ-Men. Come and face Thord. Come and feel the hammer of the gods.

____

[1] :bro:



* * *

Welcome to my Crusader Kings 2 LP. I'm playing as an independent Norse count, nestled in the bosom of Christian Scandinavia. I call the left one Sweden and the right one Norway. As I'll explain as it comes up, this is really fucking hard, which will make it interesting to play and hopefully interesting to read about.

I'll be alternating a bit between in-character narration, because it's fun when I can sustain it, and out-of-character narration, because I'm going to want to vent about the amount of bullshit the game will throw at me. (Spoiler: It will throw a LOT of bullshit at me.) There will also be some discussion of real history, where it's relevant, because the actual medieval era had a surprising amount of cool stuff in it.

* * *

UPDATES:

WARCHIEF THORD THE OLD

I. WARCHIEF OF THE WASTES
II. THE TERROR OF THE GULF
III. GODS' FRIENDS, AND THE WHOLE WORLD'S ENEMIES
IV. THE END OF WAR

JARL GUNGNIR THE TRICKSTER

V. MOST UNTRUSTWORTHY LEADER OF THE INFIDELS
VI. WITH SPEAR AND HAMMER

KING MJOLNIR THE BLOODY

VII. WHEN ALL YOU HAVE IS A HAMMER

QUEEN MAER THE VALKYRIE

VIII. THE RISE OF THE VALKYRIE
IX. I AM THE PAGAN LORD

EXTRAS:

The world in 1127
Alternate Timeline: OUR SPIRITUAL LIEGE
Luzur's Conquest of Norway
Financial and geopolitcal report, 1180
 

Kayerts

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
883
QUESTIONS THAT MAY ARISE:

Q. What's Crusader Kings 2?
A. CK2 is a very detailed strategic simulation from Paradox Interactive. The game covers Europe, the Near East, and northern Africa from 1066-1453. The player chooses a dynasty, great or small, and then guides its leaders through this period. More information may be found here.

Q. Aren't there already like five hundred billion CK2 LPs here?
A. Technically there are only four hundred billion, but yes.

Q. Isn't there already a pagan CK2 LP?
A. Yeah, two.

Q. Isn't there already a Norse CK2 LP?
A1. I really don't see what you're getting at here.
A2. (4/14) No, there isn't! This was a completely original idea, how dare you imply otherwise.

Q. Why'd you choose the Free Norse?
A. Because I want to beat the game to death, and the heaviest thing I can lay my hands on is a pair of Viking balls. The independent Norseman has arguably the hardest start in the game, which should lead to an amusingly fucked up game.

Q. I WANT TO BE A PAGAN.
A. Vaarna has helpfully posted a guide you can follow to play as pagan in CK2.
 

kazgar

Arcane
Joined
Apr 23, 2008
Messages
2,164
Location
Upside Down
More CK2 lp's aren't a bad thing, see how different playstyles evolve, and different events fuck people over.
 

Kayerts

Arcane
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
883
I. WARCHIEF OF THE WASTES

Preamble

". . . But it is not our time to die, and soon they shall know that. We will carve down the gulf like the striking spear of Odin himself. They will see us, and they will know Valhalla's wrath is real, and that their legends yet walk the earth . . . "

"Who's that tard?" asked one old hunter, jerking his thumb at the man declaiming in the town square.

"That's Thord, the new chief in Angermandland." A young axeman grinned back. "He got smashed in the head with a lightning bolt and called it a vision from Thor. Now he wants to unify the tribes."

"That's a new one." The older man snorted. "You give a harmless tard a castle, and suddenly he thinks he needs _ambitions_. Goes from making his life's work to discover his cock with two hands and a map, to thinking Odin has a special plan for him to become important."

The younger man nodded, absorbing this wisdom. "I know, but . . . I wonder if he's not wrong. I was in Uppland last month to trade. I've been twice before. The Christ-Men seemed different this time. Smug. Proud. Even their merchants looked me in the eye and spoke in even tones. Something was different this time."

"Were you wearing pants?" asked the old hunter.

"I was," the young man said proudly, then looked down to check himself. He was still wearing pants. "It wasn't that. They have lost the fear of us."

"They lose the fear of us when we split it out from their skulls," the hunter said. "And Chief Tard can have our support when he pulls it out from our hearts." He spat and turned away. "Enjoy your day, lad. And try not to listen to tards."

The young warrior nodded back at the older man, but he wondered . . .

* * *

Back in Angermanland, Thord seethed. The other chiefs had heard him, and they agreed that the Christ-Men were a threat, but they were not so eager to join their arms to his. They had always stood strong alone, and they had no wish to rally to another chief's banner.

If you are attacked, you will have our aid, Magga of Lappland had said. I have some old waraxes I could send you, Frille of Vasterbotten had offered. In return Thord had pledged him one new axe, to be delivered to his neck immediately. He would have made good on his promise then, had not young Karl leapt to pull him back.

It was as it had ever been, Thord knew. The world had changed, but the Norsemen had not. They only respected strength and steel. Well, he had plenty of both. Perhaps when they had felt them, they would call him Warchief.

Here's Thord.

1r1KM.jpg


You will note his parents are not only not alive, but they never actually existed. Presumably Thord is a literal self-made man! That's okay, though; it just makes it easier for us to claim to be a son of Odin. We've got fodder for creative lies! That is so much better than having loving parents!

Anyway, our Thord's actually got great stats, especially for a starting character, and especially for this starting character. He's normally the worst of the three Nordic chiefs. He still is, but being ambitious gives a fantastic stat boost. We're going to need it.

I'm going to talk for a while about what we have to work with, so you understand what we're up against. If it's not your thing, skip it.

1. Land:

J55rk.jpg


There are a few things going on with our situation here, but I'd say the main thing to notice is that it sucks a lot of dick. I mean, a LOT of dick. Sweden borders us to the south, Norway's one county over. The good news is that they've got issues of their own, for the moment. Sweden's got a heathen duke in the north and a powerful, ambitious neighbor in Denmark. Norway's king is currently busy getting his face stomped in by the King of England. This means that if things go as planned, they'll give us a decade or two, and then they'll come north for holy wars. When they do, Thord will become either a legendary Viking hero, or roadkill. I'm aiming for hero, personally.

Toward that end, we need more men. The best place to get them are our two neighboring Norse counties to the north. The best way to get them is to beat the shit out of them.

The reason we want to attack our fellow Norsemen is that each pagan barony in CK2 gets the option to create a warrior cult. For a nominal fee, this gives you 600 soldiers for your levies. It's by far the best military building in the game, and it's basically free. It is the one good thing about being a pagan, meant to allow the normally AI-controlled heathens to offer some resistance to the Christians, before they are inevitably crushed.

Moving on: To the west is Jamtland, an independent Christian county. That means that it has no warrior cult, which means it can only raise a few hundred soldiers. This might make it seem like a tempting target, but it's a trap--Christian land won't be useful to us for years to come. Worse, it's part of the de jure duchy of Jamtland, which means there's a Norwegian duke that has a claim on the land. If I take it, he'll have a claim on MY land. And since everyone hates Norsemen, his king might even back the claim. We're staying the hell away from Jamtland.

To the south is Sweden. The Swedes are a lot stronger than us. And while the Scandinavian alliance is rocky at best, if Thord gets uppity, the other Christian rulers will happily drop what they're doing to pound his skull into his ribcage. Consequently, Sweden's off limits until something changes.

My immediate strategy vis-a-vis Christendom is to avoid it. I'm hoping to unify the Norse, then branch into Finnland, all while keeping strong enough to make the Christians look elsewhere. Hopefully, Sweden or Norway will move on the Finns before me; if I'm lucky, the Finnish chiefs might even call for a war of religious defense. In the meantime I'll take Christian land if I see an opportunity, but what constitutes an opportunity can be pretty deceptive, as I will undoubtedly demonstrate.

2. Thord's Council

TZmzK.jpg


Thord's advisors are . . . actually, quite good. Surprisingly so, even. Still, they could be better. I spend all my starting piety and half my starting gold to attract new nobles and clergy to our court. The cost to summon courtiers is very low early, and good advisors pay for themselves many times over. Also, these guys have a tendency to die, so building up a talented set of spares is a decent idea.

Right now, our goal is expansion, so our most important council members are our chancellor (to fabricate claims so that we can start wars) and our marshal (to train up enough troops that we won't be die horribly in those wars). Our spymaster's going to be irrelevant for the whole of Thord's reign. The chief diviner is going to become very important later, but for now his duties are limited. Our steward won't be relevant for a long time, because Norse provinces suck economically; he'll give us a small boost to our income, but an extra 15% of approximately nothing rounds down to still be nothing.

3. Viking Technology Report: "Punching: The Future of War?"

zRjdt.jpg


Normally there are colors as well as empty little bars on this screen. Not for us!

We are armored in the holy fury of Odin, which apparently is less useful against swords than actual armor. Charging into battle in a bearskin looks pretty cool, but if I could pick my soldiers' greatest weakness, I wouldn't have gone with "weapons." Anyway, there's not much we can do about this at the moment. Or ever, actually. I tag legalism, tactics, and town infrastructure as my techs to focus on; this will probably be the last time in the game that I change those settings.

4. Fuckin'

Thord's unmarried. We've got to do something about that!

Due to religious hatred, most Christian nobles won't let Thord touch their bloodline with his ten-inch pole. Pagan chiefs might marry their daughters to us, but by virtue of being pagan, their lands fall into one of two categories: "places Thord plans to fuck up" and "places too far away to matter." That's another thing that sucks about being Norse: travel in the frozen north is very, very slow, which apart from just generally being annoying means that wars are more expensive, because they take longer, and you lose more time if you mess up.

Anyway, alliances aren't worth much if every possible war will be decided before your ally arrives--if they choose to honor your alliance at all.

So instead of alliances or prestige, we're going for something different with our marriages. For our ruling line, we're going to be creating a dynasty of genetically superior ubermenschen. See, in CK2, there is a very rare "genius" perk that gives you +5 to all five stats. That is completely insane, by far the best trait in the game. I think it's also partially hereditary; from what I can tell, geniuses have improved chances of spawning other geniuses or "quick" kids. ("Quick" only gives you +3 to every stat, but that's still ridiculously good.) Even if we end up with totally normal dudes for our sons, we can light a celebratory fart on fire as we send them off to be tutored by our much smarter wives. Using geniuses as educators will lead to even average children ending up with great stats.

So we're going to create the Master Race, which will be multiracial. We're going to import the smartest, most talented women from three continents, and we're going to bang the hell out them. From this shall be born a dynasty of demigods, which we will then train into the most talented rulers on earth.

(This breeding strategy is available to Christians, too, and is easier for them to pursue. But since Christian alliances and claims aren't worthless, it's less clearly the best move.)

For Thord's wife, we'd prefer a Midas Touched girl, if we can find one. In addition to giving huge buffs to her stewardship, the Midas Touch perk also somehow gives buffs to her uterus, raising her fertility dramatically. If Thord does his duty, she'll be popping out babies like a goddamned machine gun.

We find this lovely lady:

z4vo6.jpg


And ask her dad what he thinks about us boning his daughter three times a day for the next thirty years.

jwjxfh.jpg


It turns out he thinks that sounds cool. Thanks, new dad. Bee tee dubs, do you know how Gisla feels about hair-pulling? Actually, don't answer that, I learn best by doing. (Get it? "Doing?" Because I'm going to be doing your daughter, a lot.)

Anyway, our new wife is a genius, but also a filthy Catholic. That's a problem, because Catholicism is a communicable disease, and any children she'd educate have a high chance of growing up Catholic. More immediately, it also makes her less enthusiastic about letting us touch her boobs. Thord reacts to this challenge by sending the High Priest of Freyja to head up a goddamn inquisition, preaching about the glory of the Norse Gods and also of the reverse cowgirl. This has a pretty good chance of converting a random unbeliever in the county to the True Faith, and since our new wife is the only unbeliever in town, it shouldn't take too long to embrace Thor. ("Thor" is Thord's name for his dick. It's actually pretty confusing.)

5. Public Works

We're not going to build anything for long time, because my secret plan to save the Norse is going to require building up a sizeable war chest before it can be put into motion. Moreover, buildings are expensive, and the free Nordic lands are the absolute poorest in the game. We can't fix that with economic development, either; income-producing buildings in CK2 take sixty years to pay off their initial investment. We don't have that kind of time, so the plan now is to save what we can, and amass early funds primarily by plundering weaklings' treasuries. It is the Viking Way!

6. Interlude

Okay, that's about it for our initial setup. We send off Chancellor Dan to Vasterbotten and wait for him to forge a claim; we won't have much to do until he succeeds, and that's likely to be years.

jjFx7h.jpg


While we wait, we go on a hunt. Hunting is slightly risky, since you can be wounded, maimed, or even killed. But to shirk from danger is not the Viking Way. Beyond that, hunts are currently dirt cheap, and they confer good prestige bonuses. Thord is currently neither prestigious nor a magazine, so he needs all the help he can get. More importantly, each hunt has a decent chance of producing an event that gives Thord the "diligent" trait, which gives +1 to every stat. It's one of the best traits in the game, and under the circumstances, we need to scrape together every advantage we can get. Hunting will also probably give temporary buffs to Thord's martial skill. As the only actual leader in our realm, Thord will be assuming personal command of our forces during our first war, so that's potentially valuable.

Then:

Kf8jJh.jpg


The King of Sweden is looking to consolidate support among his vassals to deal with the rising threat posed by the Terror of the Northern Wastes, so naturally, he checks in with the Terror of the Northern Wastes to see if that's cool with us. We're feeling sporting, so we tell him it's cool.

Then:

7. The War of Fakery

FWl2th.jpg



Hot damn, it barely took our chancellor a year to put that together. We did pay to hire the best chancellor we could, but the expected time for him to forge a claim is still about 5 years. Well done, Chancellor Dan, now head over to Lappland and get to work on them.

All right, bros, this is it. Our levies are at full strength, so we go ahead and declare war.

6kVZAh.jpg


Our numbers here are pretty close. Thanks to our excellent marshal, we've managed to raise a few more, but that advantage will be more than negated if we attack the enemy across a river. Also, the rival leader is leading the enemy warband, and he's a better commander than Thord. What I need to do is trick the enemy into attacking us. They won't normally do this, because (a) we're the aggressor; all they have to do to win the war is refrain from dying, (b) both our counties have defensive terrain bonuses; and (c) even if they won, they wouldn't have enough men to siege my castle. But you can tempt the enemy into attacking by first attacking them.

I think I get what the AI is going for here. If they lose the battle, they can at least run away. If they win, they're in my home turf, ready to start the siege of Angermanland. It's usually a pretty decent trick, and I've started using it myself, but it can be exploited.

JLhfHh.jpg


If I cancel my own march into their territory and then give the command again, we'll keep on our collision course, but they'll arrive slightly before me. So the battle will take place in my territory, with me defending. This is good, because the defensive bonuses are large enough to guarantee my advantage, despite Thord's relative weakness as a commander.

ToJJsh.jpg


Thord crushes the ruthless and unprovoked attack on Angermanland soil. He took enough losses that he can't siege the castle and win the war here, but the enemy took more losses than he did here, and they'll take even more if Thord hunts down and kill his fleeing armies. We can win this war by attrition. So for the next few months, I chase them around in a circle until I finally finish off the last of them. My own forces are too depleted to do anything now, so I dismiss my levies so that I don't have to pay their wages. Then I wait for the marshal to train more troops.

When I've hit my maximum levy, I go to camp outside his castle. I don't have the numbers to actually start the siege, but that's because his deployable army's currently gearing up inside. If they stayed there, we'd never win the war, but eventually, they're going to get impatient with these Angermanland assholes on their turf and sally forth.

lB8vIh.jpg


Whereupon we kill most of them, and the rest of them flee. We now have a sufficient numerical advantage against the garrison left in the castle to begin a proper siege, so we ignore the fleeing warband. There's little chance of them breaking the siege; it's just a matter of time before the defenders capitulate.

VbrcHh.jpg


They do. Vasterbotten belongs to Thord.

All this took us a little over two years, which honestly is doing well. It'll take years more to train men to rebuild our army back to full strength, and a few more for Vasterbotten to accept our rule and start giving us troops, but it's not like we have anything else to do in that time. The limiting factor on our expansion is currently our chancellor's ability to generate targets.

By the way, back during the last month of the war, we made a trip home to bang our wife, resulting in:

A1NLWh.jpg


I personally was pushing to name her "Shit,AGirl," but Thord vetoed that. Anyway, we're back to waiting for Chancellor Dan to do his thing in Lappland. During the next few years, Gisla redeems herself for her embarrassing failure and gives us a son:

t45Nzh.jpg


Thord wanted to name him after a legendary Norse weapon, to strike down his enemies. I suggested "Bonersword," but Thord went with the sacred spear Odin wields against his enemies, which can never miss its target. Our bro is subtle.

Lo0izh.jpg


Also, the wife renounces Christ and kneels before the God of Death, pledging to kill in his name for all time. Naturally, Thord thinks this is hot, so hopefully we'll soon have a full arsenal of mythological weapons running around.

Oh yeah, and around that time, she backslides and gives us another daughter. I didn't take a screenshot of it, because honestly, I can't even pretend to care about this failure.

Later, I get this:

I6DvLh.jpg


This is confusing, because Thord is at peace right now. I assume he was confronted by a particularly large pie, and by "stay put and fight," the game means "stuff your enormous face with it, possibly risking death by fatness."

ogAvsh.jpg


THE PIE IS SLAIN. VICTORY BELONGS TO THE ALLFATHER THIS DAY.

HnEash.jpg


Finally, Chancellor Dan comes through once more. It took him 8 years since his last success, which is unlucky for a man of his talents, though his average is still decent.

8. The War of Repetition

We now have a large enough army that the AI is no longer willing to fall for our fake-out trick. That's fine, because we also now have a large enough army that we can just fight and win.

M3cIw.jpg


Eventually, the Lapplanders surrender. They can do no other.

rN5Xe.jpg


And with that, the Free Norse are united. As Sindri forged Mjolnir for Thor, we have forged a Viking home for all Viking men.[1]
___
[1] Viking women are still screwed, though.


The gates of Lycksele had opened at dawn, and the old count had ridden out, weak with hunger, to give his final surrender. Thord had accepted with a grunt, then tossed him a hunk of venison and told him to stay in the camp and learn the layout. They'd be marching out together soon, he said.

Now Thord strode down the fort's great hall, the defeated Lappland warriors sitting disarmed at the table, Thord's own Angermanlanders and Vasterbotten trailing after him. They carried carts full of rations and fresh game, a huge boar, and finally casks of mead. The starving Lapplanders eyed the food with hunger, wonder, and a little suspicion. It was not the custom of victors to pay reparations to the vanquished. What was Thord playing at?

Thord jerked his thumb at the food, and his men started carving off portions, and pouring mead into great bowls, and unceremoniously setting both before the Lapplanders. Thord didn't trust them with knives, it seemed, but they'd been holed up in this castle for eight months, the last two weeks without food. They weren't concerned with table manners.

Some were concerned with poison, but Thord's men were eating, too. And if Thord wanted them dead, he had much more direct methods available.

At length, Thord clambered onto the table, and slammed his spear down on it, silencing the clamor in the hall. "Norsemen!" he bellowed. "You fight well. You will fight better when you fight on my side."

"And you will fight. The Christ-Men are coming, with less honor but more men than I, and they will make war on you. Even now, they are sitting in their warm lands, and they are trembling at our people's legend, and the legends we might make. If you let them, they will march in with overwhelming numbers, set your lands ablaze, and put every one of you to the sword. Then they will thank their silent god for victory over evil, and say a prayer to their prince of peace." A growl filled the hall. If it was Thord's men who started it, it was not just they who joined in.

"We have been enemies--honored enemies, but enemies no less. Many of us have lost kin; some of you, at my own hands. But today each of you gain two thousand Viking brothers. The fools who cross over into our lands will find we are no longer weak, scattered, defeatable. Too late they will discover we stand undivided, and when they do, they will face the Allfather's wrath made manifest."

"Today we unite our tribes, and tomorrrow we spread raven wings over Finland. Kemi, Pohjanmaa, even the wealthy Uusima will serve us.[1] When we are ready, our blades sharp, our longships low with Viking men, we will lock down on Christendom like the snapping jaws of Fenris himself. Then they will know we are strong, that their legends were real, and that the terror of their darkest dreams walk the land by day. We will take from them gold, land, and peace. And they will know the Viking Age never ended, but waited for those worthy of our name."
____
[1] In addition to its single castle, Uusima has a single city. It is the shittiest city in the game. This still makes it twice as good as any Norse county. We suck that much.


Thord was frothing now, spittle flying from his lips at every full stop. Marshal Bagge judged this the time to step in before Thord fell off the table. "Lord of the North!" he yelled. "Chosen of Odin! Warchief!"

First the Marshal's lieutenants, then the Vasterbotten company, and finally, grudgingly, the feasting Lapplanders joined in: "Warchief! Warchief! Warchief"


* * *

Weeks later, in the court of Sweden, King Halsten's spymaster led in a terrified smuggler. After impatient coaxing, he told Halsten the tale of a great chief of the north, who had raised the Raven Banner over Angermanland and brought all the Norsemen to stand beneath it. A long silence followed. Eventually, Halsten told the man he'd done Sweden a great service, and muttered something vague about having a full pardon for whatever it was he'd done. He was led out while the king stared blankly at the wall. The spymaster looked meaningfully at Halsten. "In time, this chief could be a problem."

"In time," Halsten rubbed his brow. "We have other worries now."

Whew, that concludes the first update. This post was heavy on game mechanics, mostly so that you bros know that I'm not randomly beating on my mouse and hoping something good happens; I'm planning to make the next one more focused on strategy and narrative. And shorter, especially shorter. Chief Tard will spend a lot less time talking. And I promise that the third update will be metal as all fuck.

I haven't done a real LP before; feedback on what parts you like is very welcome.
 

kazgar

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Messages
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Good work, I like the planning and mechanics talk when required. Understanding what your thinking then seeing you go through it (or attempt to) worked well.
 

Vaarna_Aarne

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MCA Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2
rN5Xe.jpg


Pictured above: Not free norsemen being united with free norsemen :p

Also, just to point out that forging claims can take quite a while sometimes, since the AI dice are fickle. However, sometimes it works like the wind.
 

Kayerts

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
883
They were freed from themselves.

Nah, but the medieval notion of freedom grew out of the classical notion, and both were very different from modern versions of the idea. It more or less reduced to nationalist self-rule. E.g., Herodotus writes that the Persians considered themselves free after Cyrus the Great overthrew the Median king Astyages, since the dude at the top of their org. chart was now a Persian. So in that sense, the Norse will be free as long as a Norseman is the one oppressing them.

And, yeah, Lappland's weird in-game, since the ruling family is Finnish, even though the majority religion of the county is Norse. ("Suomenusko" is a reasonable name for it, I guess. It's not as silly as referring to the Farsi Sultan, or even calling the guy with the hat in Constantinople the Byzantine Emperor.)

I honestly don't know enough to say much about the historicity of that choice with Lappland. I think the area was inhabited at the time by the Sami, who followed a shamanic form of ancestor-worship that doesn't really fit under the in-game Norse or Suomenusko categories. Unreliable Internet sources tell me Sami religion had "Norse influences," so maybe Paradox based their Norse designation on that?
 

Vaarna_Aarne

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Actually the choice with Lappland is fairly correct. Yes, the area was populated largely by Lapps at the time with Swedes and Norwegians arriving late. And Lapps = Sami in this game (and it's a fairly correct term at the end of the day). I'd also point out that the Lapps should have either Tengriism (or Suomenusko when you account in the Kvens), but I guess you could set it as a intermediary province if you want to keep things simpler (and it's not entirely unreasonable that there wouldn't be some conversions taking place there). Also, unreliable internet sources are full of shit, there's no connection between Sami shamanism and norse paganism. Technically they probably should also extend the Kven territory into Finnmark to better match Al-Idrizi's accounts.

Also, if it was up to me some additional tribal divisions should be done for Finnish culture, since it technically didn't exist back then. Instead you should divide the area between Tavastians, Kvens and Karelians (mostly Karelians in terms of spread, as they were the most powerful tribal group at the time) to better represent the tribal divisions of the time. Similarly, the ridiculous "Ugric Baltic" (Ugrics live further to the East and in Hungary) label for Estonians needs to go, and they should either be called Estonians or Finnic Baltic (Ugrian peoples are at the OTHER end of the Finno-Ugric distribution). Or just replace the entire meddley with the accurate term Baltic Finns, which is the larger group they (or rather from my perspective, we) all belonged to, and probably most accurate in terms of things like language divisions at the time and would keep with the more generalized nature of the game's presentation.

The inclusion of Komi was a great thing in my opinion, though they're a bit too widespread and when you leave the Northern regions East of Finland should be replaced by Udmurts or Meryans. Liivinmaa and Dorpat should also start with a Finno-Ugric culture.

Here's a general estimate map (not particularly detailed though) about the cultures and languages of the area of modern Russia around the year 1000:

Muromian-map.png


Chudes is the general term used for Baltic Finns in old Russian chronicles (which includes a lot of fanwank over Chudes at points, in sharp contrast to later claims). Vepsians are the close relatives of Karelians who lived to the South of lake Ladoga, today there are only around 6,000 of them left. The Southern half of the area presented here as their region was actually populated by Tverian Karelians. Permians refers to both Komi and Udmurts. Merya, Mari, Muromians, Mordvinians and Meschera form the Volga Finns, of whom Meschera, Muromians and Merya are extinct. 600,000 Mari and 800,000 Mordvins live today.


Somehow this ended in a totally different LP than the one I probably should have talked about it in.

Here's a more :obviously: map in apology:

Europe_814.jpg
 

Smashing Axe

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Nice LP so far!




Am I understanding correctly that this movie brought in like $30,000 only? Is it really bad?
I enjoyed it (I enjoy almost anything with a norse theme), however it's arthouse, slow with sporadic bits of violence and requires an extended attention to make any sense of. Dialogue almost doesn't exist. It's definitely not for everyone.
 

Vaarna_Aarne

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Skridthfennds. I have idea what that's supposed to mean, probably some weirdass word for Sami. Anyway, around that time the area was still populated by Kvens (not precisely the Kvens of today, but rather the Northern powerful tribe among ancient Finns).
 

Vaarna_Aarne

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Which is why I decided to assume it's a weird word for Lapps. It's the most logical conclusion based on the way they're within the borders of Kvenland and Finnish Tribes.
 
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Kalin

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Sami is more politically correct, much like the case with "Romani" and "Gypsy".

As for the Skrithfinni, it could be a reference to Lapps, but if so, the map is way off. The area covers much land that was culturally Swedish and Norwegian at the time, not least Jämtland.
 

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