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AAR: Heathenous Ways

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Mathegenius

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Apr 3, 2019
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Hello there!
I just wanted to make a short AAR about my latest game as Erik the Heathen of the af Munso dynasty. Please excuse any faults of mine in writing/format/really anything, I'm new to this forum

In the early months of the year 1066, Erik had only one thing in mind. He was one of the few remaining devotees of Odin left in all of Sweden, and he knew he would never bow to the foreign God, no matter how much his liege demanded for him to convert. He wanted desperately to reclaim his father's kingdom that had been denied to him due to his paganism. His blood boiled at the thought of king Stenkil and this Catholics holding mass and celebrating the so-called God of forgiveness. He briefly imagined himself storming the castle with a band of men and casting out all signs of softness from his home and then after the battle was won, he'd dedicate the entire slaughter to Odin.
He was shaked from his musings by the sudden lurching of his longship, and he realized the impracticalities of murdering the entire administrative body of his kingdom. Have patience, he told himself. He knew it would take many years for him to retake the kingdom of his birthright. In the meantime, he had to accumulate power for himself. He was currently travelling up to the northern reaches of the north where he had heard about a mysterious brotherhood of warriors who, fuelled by superhuman rage, donned the skins of wolves and bears in battle. He wished to obtain this power for himself, and he knew it was the first step to restoring Sweden.
 
Welcome to the forums! Good luck with this. Really, for posting stuff, you make your own rules on length, timing of updates, content, format etc. It’s what is right for you. Just put up a chapter at a time whenever you are ready. Give people a chance to read and comment (could take a while to start with, so be patient). It’s good if you can acknowledge and/or respond to comments and questions regularly, to keep your readers engaged. And enjoy yourself! :)
 
Erik appears to be a wee bit frustrated.

Welcome to AAR writing. I hope you enjoy yourself. I will echo everything @Bullfilter says above. I will also add a small bit of presentational advice - it helps to leave a clear line break between paragraphs. This makes the text surprisingly easier to read on monitor screens.
 
My favourite starting character in game and also the topic of my so far the only AAR... There are many AAR styles, but the one advice I like to give out, is imagine as if you were telling a story or writing a book. Also, adding pictures here and there can help.
 
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Bullfilter said:
Welcome to the forums! Good luck with this. Really, for posting stuff, you make your own rules on length, timing of updates, content, format etc. It’s what is right for you. Just put up a chapter at a time whenever you are ready. Give people a chance to read and comment (could take a while to start with, so be patient). It’s good if you can acknowledge and/or respond to comments and questions regularly, to keep your readers engaged. And enjoy yourself! :)
Click to expand...
Thanks!
 
stnylan said:
Erik appears to be a wee bit frustrated.

Welcome to AAR writing. I hope you enjoy yourself. I will echo everything @Bullfilter says above. I will also add a small bit of presentational advice - it helps to leave a clear line break between paragraphs. This makes the text surprisingly easier to read on monitor screens.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply! I know Erik sounds a bit frustrated, I'd say he kinda feels like I did when I couldn't pull off this silly achievement after 7 attempts
 
Hello, and thanks for reading my first post. Here's the follow-up post. I read all of the advice posted here, thanks for your support. I wish I had more screenshots, but alas, I only took three towards the end of the playthrough. Anyway, here's the new post

It was a warm day in his capital of Uppland, and Erik couldn't help but feel pleased with himself. He was opening his pile of official correspondences, and a lot of good news had come in. His first letter had come in from the Wolf Warriors: the Grandmaster of the order had recently granted his request to advance to the rank of Warrior in the lodge after his recent success in channeling the berserker rage. The story behind Erik's rage had been spectacular: he was at one of the order's semi-weekly training sessions and he was trying to figure out how to gain the berserker powers. He had no success so far, and the advice of the others had been unhelpful. His problem was compounded by one of the onlookers, who was one of his vassals, the count of Blekinge Tollir, who had taunted him ceaselessly about various topics. He would shout things like "Your father was a hamster! That must be from where you get your prowess in battle and in bed" or things like "You cannot wear a bear-skin or a wolf-skin like the rest of us, you should wear a hare-skin! It would match your daughter's lip".

Of course, these things got under Erik's skin. By the end of the meeting, Erik was positively red with rage. After the final taunt (which was "I think I'll pay your women a visit later, maybe they'd appreciate a real man") from Tollir Erik had had enough.

Erik roared "Somebody get me an axe!"

"Whoa, someone's angry. At least the blood flows somewhere in your body, Erik." said Tollir, to the general chuckles of the onlookers.

Erik turned his gaze on Tollir and, before he could respond, brought it down. Several minutes later, his head cleared and as he staggered and swayed after his rage, he observed the mess he made. It was later ruled that since the beserker rage was still legal in Uppland, and that Tollir had wittingly brought it down upon himself, that Erik was not guilty.

Back in his hall, Erik shook himself out of his thoughts. "He will not be missed" mused Erik as he counted the gold that used to belong to Tollir. "Blekinge is a poor province, but it is close to Uppland and he was my least favourite vassal. I have made good steps towards the crown".

He leafed through his smaller letters, mostly ale bills from his warriors that were sent to him as a business expense. He pulled out the final letter, a larger envelope stamped with a raven on the cover. He opened it and it read simply: The duke of Smaland will assist the rightful king Erik in the event that Stenkil does not relinquish the crown. Erik smiled. He now had the numbers equal to the King. Now he had to only wait for the perfect moment to declare his claim. He noticed a gleam coming from the pile of gold to his left, the one that belonged to Tollir. It was a splendid arm band, and as Erik turned it over in his hands he saw the runic inscription on one side: "The ring of Andvari".

"Andvari's ring? How did that moron Tollir get ahold of it?"

He then remembered the curse of Andvari, and he briefly considered throwing the ring into the ocean to avoid the curse. But, his zealous side took over.

"The gods have made our fates, and I am destined to be king. This ring will not cause me to fail. "


I'll post again on Sunday, I've got some stuff to do tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed this latest entry. Let me know what you think
 
Tollir’s jibes did give me a chuckle - well done. :D He deserved the axe through the head. Good to get some support for the claim, too. Is Ring of Andvari an actual in-game artefact and is there a curse on it?
 
Bullfilter said:
Tollir’s jibes did give me a chuckle - well done. :D He deserved the axe through the head. Good to get some support for the claim, too. Is Ring of Andvari an actual in-game artefact and is there a curse on it?
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's an artifact in-game and it's considered "cursed", so you can't break it or gift it. I don't know what exactly the curse does, it only seems to give a health deduction.
 
Tollir certainly has mastered the trick of a well-hurled insult.
 
"Your father was a hamster! That must be from where you get your prowess in battle and in bed"
The best insult I ever heard! I swear. :D
 
Erik stared out over the foamy sea from his castle, deep in thoughts. For the past few months he had waited for the perfect opportunity to arise, where he could muster his soldiers and lead them to the throne of Sweden, and he had just received news that the northern tribes were in open rebellion - this would be the perfect opportunity to rise up against the king. He remarked that earlier in his life, had he been given the chance, he would have trembled with anticipation at the thought of going to war and gambling everything he had - everything the followers of Odin had - on something as petty as revenge and the tiny kingdom of Sweden. But now all he felt was a calm surety.

I no longer feel fear, he remarked.

The next day, he mustered his men by the gate.

"Men of Uppsala, the time is now. I will go to reclaim not only my birthright, but ours! No longer will we have to worship Odin in secret and burn sacrifices in our back fields! No longer will you have to kill your children in times of need, when the Christians keep their grain to themselves!

Most of the men grinned at these words, knowing that if they followed Erik, they would surely see times of plenty again, but one man, a rather sharper knife in the metaphorical drawer, spoke up.

"Wait, do you mean to redistribute the wealth from the Christians? If so, they are a considerable minority in these parts and they won't have enough food for all of us. Do you propose some sort of government-imposed sharing programme, similar to the monastic communes in Christian Europe?

Erik, to his credit, had already considered the downsides of such a system, and rephrased his speech:

"No, I don't mean to enforce some sort of commune-istic system, what I mean is that we will remove the Christians that oppress us systematically and discriminate upon us just for believing in Odin, and I mean to go no further than to insure that every carl (freeman) has an equal opportunity to provide for his family in Sweden, Christian or Norse. I know we might have a few followers of the Eastern gods here, so there will be no change in rights for you"

The men, who were satisfied in his explanation, had no further questions. But, Erik had one final thing to say:

"Men, if we fail in this endeavour, there will be no second chances. Stenkil is a cruel man and a zealous Christian, so if you flee the shield wall you will be chased down and butchered, and so will your families. We must trust that the gods have written our fates, and if I cannot lead you to Sweden, I will lead you to Valhalla!"

And so King Stenkil promptly received the demand to hand over the throne, and he just as promptly tore up, stomped on, chewed up, and burned the letter.

"And to think I gave that ungrateful whelp the Duchy of Bergeslagen! I will take a leaf from the annals of the Franks and burn every pagan alive! Chef, I want a victory feast ready for when I return, and chaplain, I want you to prepare the purge of every Odin-bower from here to edge of the world."

The chaplain wisely thought that it wasn't a good idea to point out that Stenkil had a bit of letter stuck in his teeth.

In short, it was a brief war. Erik had made sure to calculate that he had about 33% more men than Stenkil, and only the finest commanders (and all of them with the most magnificent beards). Erik marched his men to the current capital (that would change, he thought) and met king Stenkil in battle. Erik had donned his finest armour and wolfskins, and his rage was terrifying. It was said that on that day, Odin wanted to claim Erik for the upcoming battle of Ragnarok, but his Valkyries were to afraid to go near him. Erik cut through Stenkil's army, and actually broke through the line in minutes. However, Stenkil had already fled. The battle was over, and he was free to take the castle and the surrounding villages. However, he made explicit commands that the residents were to be spared if possible, and there was to be no looting, for, he reasoned, they were his rightful citizens.

A month later, his allies arrived with reinforcements and six months later, the King himself in chains. The war was brief, and since the mercenaries used by Stenkil were mostly Slavic Christians, an almost bloodless coup in terms of Swedish blood. Months later as he sat in his throne, waiting for confirmation letters for the Blot, he found that a lot of the nobles were still Christian. These RSVPs are only to know how many chairs I have to put out, but some of these are just nasty. He was rightly annoyed, as one letter claimed that he deserved to be disemboweled and have his entrails thrown to the dogs, and that every woman he slept with be killed, but that even his wife would be spared if they went by the technicalities. I have five children, how could they still be on about the infertility thing, he thought. I still have much work to do.
 
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Another entertaining episode. Is there any indication of the dates the main events are happening?
 
The establishment of the power went pretty well for Eirikr. But only now there are the real challenges waiting ahead.
 
This is going to be a bloody Blot
 
June of 1072, one and a half years after the revolt

Erik sat in his throne, discontent. He never knew how much hassle running a kingdom could be. He had several problems. First was that everyone in the realm worshipped the new gods, and since he followed the old gods there was disrespect and undermining from the vassals at every turn. The second problem was that he was getting old. He wasn't so concernedd about his greying hair, but his beard! after all, how would he intimidate enemies without his fire-red beard?

Odin is mocking me, he thought. The old gods will die with me if I cannot drive the followers of the book-God from Sweden.

Fortunately for Erik, the gods still had more in store for him. However, he needed a way to get more land and reinforce his pagan followers. It dawned on him: he should prepare an invasion of Denmark.

Perfect, now I shall be able to give the surplus land to the followers of Odin and turn the Christians into easily dispossessed minorities. he thought.

That very day, he sent couriers and messengers out to the far corners of the realm announcing his intentions to invade Denmark, so that hordes of warriors could join him in his endeavours. The two years went by quickly: from Erik's perspective, it was a frenzy of greeting new warriors at his gates, and finding enough drink to slake the thirsts of an ever-growing mob of boisterous Vikings. On the warm day of June fourth, 1074, Erik finally mustered his forces, and lead them to new shores in Denmark. From the get-go, problems were thrown at Erik. First, the Norwegians joined in on the war, and then the Holy Roman Empire joined in. He was raiding a temple in Zeeland when he heard the news.

These holy books are filled with much different things than the Catholics practice. I swear I've read the whole thing twice and I've never heard of a 'Holy Father'. In any case, I know where the silky-smooth texture of the pages can come in handy....

He was interrupted by a knock on the door, or what was left of the door after two thousand berserkers passed through.

"Come in." said Erik.

"My liege, the Romans have joined the war... they outnumber us. What should we do?"

Erik considered for a moment. "We need to move fast. I have had visions from Odin about the outcome of this war: If we wait, their numbers will destroy us. If we move quickly, we will take over Denmark. Give the orders, we march for the Capital. Also, load these holy books into my tent."

Erik's 10,000 men eagerly took over the capital, and the king was caught unawares in battle. Months later, the Roman vanguard was viciously destroyed in Schleswig, and the Romans were not eager to march up north to meet the Swedes in battle again. The Danes surrendered of their own accord, Erik had no need to send a demand. He was out behind his tent relieving himself when he got the news.

"My liege, I-" The messenger stopped as he saw that he had caught Erik with his breeches, quite literally, down. "I avert my eyes, my liege. The Danes have surrendered. The king is in chains, and... is that a holy book?"

Erik quickly hid the holy book he was using and replied. "Excellent news. And yes, I, uh, enjoy reading holy books."

The messenger replied, "That does not explain the missing pages that you appear to have used to soften the seat of your latrine. I have to tell the rest of the men about this, they'll never believe me!" the messenger replied with a grin.

Erik sighed, This one would be hard to live down. At least the glory of his victory might overshadow his nefarious uses for stolen books.

The war was won, and Erik fond himself in possession of Sweden and Denmark, and many nasty rumours.
 
I like the humour you’re putting into this. Nothing like casting your eye over a good book - or vice versa! :D
 
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