With Hellblade just released and God of War on the horizon, I’m guessing some of you might be thinking of starting the game again as a Norse character. Don’t do so without this mod!* Check it out on the Workshop here.
It is a large expansion to playing as a character with the Germanic pagan religion, focussing on RPing as the new Head of the Faith (the Oðinnshrafn, or Odin’s Raven, called the Fylkir in vanilla). Drawing on the fascinating mythology of the Norse, the mod immerses the player in a world that could have been, had Scandinavia not largely converted to Christianity in the Middle Ages. Some features are available at game start, but the mod comes into its own once you have reformed the faith.
It is compatible with save games where you are already Reformed Germanic, but you will miss out on some tasty flavour events.
Direct download: If you want to download this outside the workshop, download the .zip attached to this post, and extract the contents (not the whole .zip file, but just its contents) into your mod folder. This is normally located at C:\Users\<your name>\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II\mod. Then simply activate the mod in your launcher as usual.
Main features
I started a new game as a Norse character and worked my arse off securing all the Holy Sites to reform the faith, only to find that very little changed afterwards. There is just so much more to do as a Christian ruler, and I found the absence of bespoke Societies particularly galling considering I had just shelled out for the Monks DLC. So I set about tweaking a few bits here and there to make things more interesting. This expanded into many other areas until I had quite a sizeable mod on my hands. I love the RP aspects of CK2, and this mod really focusses in on creating a more immersive and interesting experience to playing as a reformed Germanic character.
Future updates
I've had lots of excellent suggestions for expansions to the mod, and in the near future will be working on:
This is quite a large mod, so as with any mod you could run into issues. I’ll try to help out if anything does, but I’m not a full-time developer, so please use at your own risk. That said, I’ve now got a reasonable amount of experience in modding and have tested this thoroughly, so hopefully it shouldn’t do anything drastic.
Version: Compatible with CK2.7.2 (latest patch as of date of publishing this mod). Not tested on previous versions.
DLC: Obviously the Old Gods, to be able to play as a pagan. Some features (such as Societies and artefacts) will only work with the relevant mods installed. But other than that it should be compatible with anything. I play with all DLC enabled.
Ironman: No.
HIP & CK2+: Workshop and download link version not compatible. There are merge files available on p4 of this forum, thanks to @Doukan @marcinfa and @Vonbalt for putting these together. For any queries on these merge files, please reply to this thread and include @Doukan for CK2+ or @Vonbalt for HIP in your reply.
Other mods: Again, it’s quite sizeable, so may clash with other mods. For a quick guide on how to check this mod’s compatibility with others, see the bottom of this post
Language: I’m shamefully poor at languages, so have just used Google Translate for the French, German and Spanish localisations. They’re probably wrong in places, but at least the results should be funny. If anyone wants to have a go at translating, please let me know! Also, I haven’t used the mod in those languages and as the sentences tend to be longer, the text might clip outside of the event boxes.
More features
For a fuller (although not exhaustive) list of features, click the tag below.
For a guide on how to check this mod’s compatibility with other mods, click the spoiler tag below
I hope you enjoy this mod, it has been a bit of a labour of love for me and I’m excited to hear you’re feedback.
* I began working on this mod before I was really aware of the sudden surge of interest in Norse mythology... jus sayin’
Here's that link again!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1108337366
It is a large expansion to playing as a character with the Germanic pagan religion, focussing on RPing as the new Head of the Faith (the Oðinnshrafn, or Odin’s Raven, called the Fylkir in vanilla). Drawing on the fascinating mythology of the Norse, the mod immerses the player in a world that could have been, had Scandinavia not largely converted to Christianity in the Middle Ages. Some features are available at game start, but the mod comes into its own once you have reformed the faith.
It is compatible with save games where you are already Reformed Germanic, but you will miss out on some tasty flavour events.
Direct download: If you want to download this outside the workshop, download the .zip attached to this post, and extract the contents (not the whole .zip file, but just its contents) into your mod folder. This is normally located at C:\Users\<your name>\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II\mod. Then simply activate the mod in your launcher as usual.
Main features
- New powers for the Head of the faith, alongside his new title of Oðinshrafn (Odin’s raven)
- New lore around the reformed faith, with rich and immersive flavour events
- A new Holy Order, the Hammers of Thor
- Send your courtiers to the Halls of Faith to become Eiðmaðr (Oathsmen, powerful warrior monks) or Friggjarsniptar (Sisters of Frigg). These function somewhat like monks and nuns
- Two new societies: the Kappa af Miðgarðr (Champions of Midgard), a sect of powerful Norse warriors (closest to the Assassins, but with a focus on military power and combat prowess); and the Order of the Vanir, modelled on the monastic orders, but with a focus on the arcane.
Also made the Hermetic Order accessible to reformed and feudal Norse Pagans
- Powerful new artifacts with complex acquisition event chains, based on Norse mythology
- To come: new heresies, including a ‘purity’ based heresy that aims to stamp out some of the more barbaric practices of the Norse
I started a new game as a Norse character and worked my arse off securing all the Holy Sites to reform the faith, only to find that very little changed afterwards. There is just so much more to do as a Christian ruler, and I found the absence of bespoke Societies particularly galling considering I had just shelled out for the Monks DLC. So I set about tweaking a few bits here and there to make things more interesting. This expanded into many other areas until I had quite a sizeable mod on my hands. I love the RP aspects of CK2, and this mod really focusses in on creating a more immersive and interesting experience to playing as a reformed Germanic character.
Future updates
I've had lots of excellent suggestions for expansions to the mod, and in the near future will be working on:
- New government type to represent a Norse version of feudalism
- New factions system based on a development of the Þing (like a Norse parliament)
- Adapted Devils Worshippers society
- More flavour events
- Personal Champion minor title
- Challenges to personal combat to resolve wars
- and other stuff
This is quite a large mod, so as with any mod you could run into issues. I’ll try to help out if anything does, but I’m not a full-time developer, so please use at your own risk. That said, I’ve now got a reasonable amount of experience in modding and have tested this thoroughly, so hopefully it shouldn’t do anything drastic.
Version: Compatible with CK2.7.2 (latest patch as of date of publishing this mod). Not tested on previous versions.
DLC: Obviously the Old Gods, to be able to play as a pagan. Some features (such as Societies and artefacts) will only work with the relevant mods installed. But other than that it should be compatible with anything. I play with all DLC enabled.
Ironman: No.
HIP & CK2+: Workshop and download link version not compatible. There are merge files available on p4 of this forum, thanks to @Doukan @marcinfa and @Vonbalt for putting these together. For any queries on these merge files, please reply to this thread and include @Doukan for CK2+ or @Vonbalt for HIP in your reply.
Other mods: Again, it’s quite sizeable, so may clash with other mods. For a quick guide on how to check this mod’s compatibility with others, see the bottom of this post
Language: I’m shamefully poor at languages, so have just used Google Translate for the French, German and Spanish localisations. They’re probably wrong in places, but at least the results should be funny. If anyone wants to have a go at translating, please let me know! Also, I haven’t used the mod in those languages and as the sentences tend to be longer, the text might clip outside of the event boxes.
I am not a historian, and knew little about Norse culture before I approached this mod. I have done quite a bit of research, and I’m fairly confident most of the stuff in here makes sense from an anthropological perspective, but I’m sure I’ve got some bits entirely wrong. If you do have expertise in this area, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.
There’s a lot of words from the Old Norse language in this mod. I’ve tried to use them for proper nouns, and for titles. However, I didn’t know a word of it before I started this mod, and used web searches and a lot of Wiktionary pages for the words, and I’m sure I have a lot of it wrong. If you speak Icelandic, I’d love to hear from you, as you may be able to help improve it (although obviously I recognise modern Icelandic is very different, but it’s the closest we have!)
Also, there is some light fantasy in this mod. Nothing major, and most can be explained through psychosomatic effects (e.g. if everyone thinks an individual has the blessing of the God of Personal Combat Týr, then they might indeed find themselves performing better in duels). Mostly this is done to immerse the player more in the thinking of the time. However, some of it is less easy to explain rationally (cancer being cured by a Healing Ritual, for example). This should happen very rarely, but if you are a stickler for 100% realism then you might want to avoid this mod.
There’s a lot of words from the Old Norse language in this mod. I’ve tried to use them for proper nouns, and for titles. However, I didn’t know a word of it before I started this mod, and used web searches and a lot of Wiktionary pages for the words, and I’m sure I have a lot of it wrong. If you speak Icelandic, I’d love to hear from you, as you may be able to help improve it (although obviously I recognise modern Icelandic is very different, but it’s the closest we have!)
Also, there is some light fantasy in this mod. Nothing major, and most can be explained through psychosomatic effects (e.g. if everyone thinks an individual has the blessing of the God of Personal Combat Týr, then they might indeed find themselves performing better in duels). Mostly this is done to immerse the player more in the thinking of the time. However, some of it is less easy to explain rationally (cancer being cured by a Healing Ritual, for example). This should happen very rarely, but if you are a stickler for 100% realism then you might want to avoid this mod.
More features
For a fuller (although not exhaustive) list of features, click the tag below.
- A new event chain for when you reform the Norse faith, that recognises the reformers role as essentially a profit of Odin. It grants him/her a nickname and powerful trait, and all patrilineal descendants a trait much like the Muslim Sayyids.
- Loads of new flavour events around the new faith, including ‘offering’ ceremonies for your children, blessing from the Gods, interactions with the Goðis (priests), and more
- All new titles for every rank of characters, based on the Norwegian and Icelandic aristocratic titles on the early Middle Ages (most lower appear only after you adopt feudalism, before that you’ll still be largely seeing chiefs
- Decision: Establish the Norse monastic orders - the Oathsmen and the Sisters of Frigg. After you have done this you will be able to order courtiers to retire to the Oathshall, where they will take a vow of celibacy and be disqualified from succession (a useful way to get rid of all those cousins with claims on your titles...)
- Decision: Raise the Oathsmen - raise an army of powerful warrior monks when in a defensive war against infidels
- Decision: Choose your pantheon - like other pagans can choose a patron God, reformed Norse rulers can select the Æsir or the Vanir to be their patron pantheon, with respective traits conferring different benefits
- Society: Order of the Vanir - available after you’ve established the Norse monastic orders, this Society functions similarly to the other monastic orders in the game. It has a number of bespoke features, however, including the ability to learn potioncraft and/or seiðr (sorcery), perform a healing ritual, or a curse
- Society: Champions of Miðgarðr - a sect of powerful Norse warriors who compete to be crowned the Kappi-Efstr (Grand Champion). Closest to the Assassins, but with a focus on military power and combat prowess. Quests include Viking raids, winning battles, and other ways of proving oneself a great warrior. Powers include challenging others to duels to climb the rankings, inspiring your armies, and even raising a huge army of followers. The most distinctive feature of this society is that the Grandmaster (the Kappi-Efstr, or Grand Champion) cannot sit idle, and will be unlikely to hold their position until death. Any rank 3 member can challenge them to a duel, and if the Grand Champion loses they will forfeit their place in the Champions. In addition, s/he must regularly hold a Champion’s Tournament, where their position is contested by other Champions.
- Society: Hermetic Order now accessible to feudal reformed Norse Pagans
- Holy Order - the Hammers of Thor (Hamrar af Þor), with all the features such as zealous sons/courtiers asking to join
- New artifacts, with rich acquisition event chains (these are currently unfinished, I’ll be working on them over the next couple of weeks). Mímirshǫfð (Head of Mimir, bonus to learning), Brísingamen (Freyja’s necklace, intrigue), and Óðrerir (mead of poetry, diplomacy). I’ve also edited Mjolnir and Andvaranaut, two of the Norse artefacts in the base game, as I found them and their acquisition event chains underwhelming
- 6 new artifacts (more to come)
- Dozens of new event chains
- 20 new decisions, with associated event chains
- Over 100 new character modifiers
- 4 new nicknames to acquire (more to come)
- 2 new Societies, with powers and quests
- 10 new traits
- More stuff I’ve probably forgotten
For a guide on how to check this mod’s compatibility with other mods, click the spoiler tag below
Basically, to check whether mods are compatible with one another, you need to check whether they edit or replace the same vanilla files.
This mod edits the following vanilla files:
This mod edits the following vanilla files:
- common\artifacts\00_artifacts.txt
- common\cultures\00_cultures.txt
- common\landed_titles\landed_titles.txt
- common\minor_titles\00_minor_titles.txt
- common\modifier_definitions\modifier_definitions.txt
- common\religions\00_religions.txt
- common\societies\00_societies.txt
- decisions\ mnm_monastic_order_decisions.txt
- decisions\ mnm_society_decisions.txt
- events\ mnm_misc_events.txt
- events\ mnm_monastic_orders_events.txt
- localisation\customisable_localisation\00_ customisable_localisation.txt
- localisation\text1.csv
- localisation\v1_10.csv
- Check the .mod file for the mod you want to check compatibility with. This is usually located in Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II\mod. Open with a text editor, and you should see a short file that starts something like name = "Ascent of the Hrafn".
- Check whether this file contains the line replace_path = "<name of a folder here>". If so, this means the mod actually replaces vanilla files. You need to check whether the name(s) of the folders specified match any of the paths of the files my mod edits above. (e.g. ‘common\artifacts’ or just ‘common’)
- If the answer to the above question is yes, then sorry it is likely incompatible, as your mod replaces a file I'm trying to edit
- If the answer is no, you then need to access the zip file for the mod you want to check (mine is called ‘robmod_raven’).
- Navigate to each of the paths of the files I have edited in the list above, and check whether your mod has a copy of the same file.
- If the answer is yes, then sorry again, it’s incompatible, as both mods are trying to edit the same file. If it is in the ‘localisation’ folder then it shouldn’t matter too much, but otherwise you would need to create a compatibility mod (there are guides online for how to do this).
- If the answer to both these questions is no, then they are compatible.
For reasons known only to themselves, Paradox used a numbering system for recording character traits in save files, rather than using the trait’s code name. What this means is that if you add in new traits into an existing save file, it will jump these numbers around and you’ll end up losing traits from every character in the game. Now my mod uses a file name system for the traits which should circumvent this (and definitely won’t cause a problem with vanilla traits), but could (although unlikely) clash with traits from other mods. If you want to know for sure before you use this mod on an existing save (as it can be pretty game breaking) then comment on the thread below and I’ll explain how to check.
I hope you enjoy this mod, it has been a bit of a labour of love for me and I’m excited to hear you’re feedback.
* I began working on this mod before I was really aware of the sudden surge of interest in Norse mythology... jus sayin’
Here's that link again!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1108337366
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