A Saga of Blood and Gold
Cold Wind Rising
Behold the Story of the Northmen, come down to to the Lands of Catholic Kings and Forest Chiefs to raid and conquer. A Divided world is a World is ultimately one for the taking and so upon the shores of the lands of the Black Bull a group of hardy warriors had landed.
Their Leader was a Warrior of Legend, Aerin the Aesirling a Man who claimed descent from the Myths and Stories.
Aerin had planned for this day, long and hard. The Young warrior had claimed to have seen his success, a long story of conquest and righteous anger but ultimately a collapse and one that would doom him and his people to Ragnarok This had been the Story of a
House of Ravens.
This time it would be different, Aerin would build a lasting memory, in this before time his blood had overextended and had given away their power to those under him. This time he would strike, first at the tribes surrounding his new Capital and then South with furious anger.
With one hand he offered peace to the many followers of the Cross to his south. Those who did not oppose his dream Aerin would not conquer, he would greet them as friends in his great hall, companions and comrades.
Among them would be the King of the Balt who denied his own crown, The King of the Mighty River whos desires stretched to the Great Channel and Sea and the King of the Germans, a Man surrounded by many in need of strong friends.
Such was a dangerous time for Aerin however, the King of the Saxonland, over his River was more powerful and held many men, more men than Aerin could call at least at the time. So Aerin waited, he grew his legend and prestige, he took what he could using his mind and when that failed, his axe.
Eventually his legend spread and many flocked to his banner, hungry for glory and conquest, but Aerin was not a dishonorable man. The King of the Saxons fought with the Dutchmen against the Danes for his crown. Aerin waited, he collected Wealth and Followers until the Danes had been sent defeated away, and then he struck himself.
The Dutchmen were offered the same friendship Aerin had made with the other Christmen to the south. The Dutchmen refused and marched for the Saxons as well as the Short men of the Mountains and many other minor warriors of great and ill repute. But Aerin struck first and caught the Saxons returning from the Daneland and butchered thier army with his own, then He marched South, over the River.
A Message needed to be sent and a war needed to be won, Aerin could not win against all the Christmen but he could make a victory turn to ashes in thier mouths. So Ashes it was, Burning the Saxonland until it had become unfeasible to take, Castles, Cities, Churches all were put to the torch and when the fires had died out Queen of the Saxons kneels and accepted Aerin has her King.
Aerin was not done, He remembered those who had named themselves his foes, and he marched West to the Dutchland, burning as he went.
Cities, poorly defended and poorly manned, weak from Aerin's Kin in the North were no match for the hardened army of the King of Kings. Each Fell lasting only days some only hours. The Dutchmen, weak and defeated ceded the Holy Place of Zeeland to Aerin and together with his control of Sjaelland and the Ruins of Irmusil Aerin finally forged himself a crown of the Iron and Gold he had taken from his foes.
The Faith of the Allfather would be reforged, it would be organized it would prepare for when the men of the south inevitably struck back. At its head would of course be the Godkin himself, Aerin would accept no other besides those of his blood to speak on such matters. Aerin decreed that inheritance would fallen to the choice of those in power, That a true warrior should have the right to designate his successor, while Emphasising the defense of the faith and protections against the Cross.
Aerin would name himself not just a King but the King of Kings, a Title greater than any other, He spoke not with the will of a people like the Saxon Queen but with the Power of the Thunderer and the Wisdom of Odin.
He would speak great lessons and stories to his people and guide them to the true way, A prophet, a warrior a philosopher he would become the terror of the Christian World and a Shining light for the wild and untamed North. But his time ultimately was not destined to last. The greatest warrior alive died not in battle but in his sleep, by the hand of his lover.
Aerin had a weakness for Women who claimed to practice Magic, His Wife Dagmar had been called 'The Witch Queen by his Men' but he had other women. Liubava, the Russian Witch had been taken on one of Aerin's Raids south and shared his bed and bore him sons, but when she had heard of Aerin's plans to name one of Dagmar's children the Sole heir to his great lands she had struck in the night, killing her Lover for the sake of ensuring her sons a place at the High Table.
Thus Aerin died, not as he wished to but died all the same, His body burned and his ashes spread across the sea. With the Great King of Kings Dead his crowns would be split amongst all his Sons. the Dutchmen to one, the Lands of the Wends to Another and the Saxon Men to yet another. While Aelix the cowardly and deformed stole his father's crown.
Aelix is not his Fathers son. Deformed and Cowardly Aelix is not a godly man nor is he a prophet or a conqueror. He eshews the soft Touch of Women and prefers the company of his Shield Brothers. Yet behind the Monster lies a low cunning, His Mother, the Russian Witch Liubava had given him his Father's Crown but the work was not yet done. Aelix's Brothers are half bloods, unworthy of bearing the titles that were rightfully his.
If he could not have the Crowns of the North for himself, he would see them melted, burned, broken. The Blood of Aesirling would spill but such a tale, is for another time.
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Pictured Above: The Ideal were shooting for
I'm Back and we've got some work to do. So the runup to how we got here is rather, long and dramatic. Simply put we had a game, then we didn't have a game for,
reasons, then we had a game then there was a coup or well more accurately, the Emperor went missing and so the Praetorians found a new emperor, Nice of them really.
Now were here, in Shattered World, Old Gods Start. I originally had asked for the Pomeranian spot in order to play the Hansa and do a lot of trading across the sound while waiting for Eu4. Then People whined, and So Merchant Republics were banned for Pagans. So we were stuck holding the Bag so to speak, and forced to be fuedal in a really, really bad spot to be feudal.
So let me explain a bit more, We had a survey within the player base to sort of peg where the good players are so we didn't have a repeat of last game with certain players basically being put in spots they were expected to die or otherwise have a difficult time playing. We ended up 3-4 people voted in as Top tier. The Irony of course is that both players that ultimately ended last game aren't joining us, at least not right now, while I didn't play at all

.
So as a result I was given 3 counties to start with while Blayne my closest neighbor in Saxony started with
5. So we of course could have complained. But then I remembered I started with 3 Counties is
for a Reason
So I made some new Friends, namely in the South, the People who would be able to help blayne if a stray axe found its way into saxony. I also splattered Mud and Blood on myself by negotiating a Nap with Blayne to prevent him from just killing me at the start.
The Sad part is all this could have been avoided if I was just allowed to Play the Merchant Republic since I was expecting to own like 20 counties max the entire game with that strategy. So We raided for Gold, Got around 1.5k Denmark decided to prepare invasion Blayne right as I was ready to go myself, and proceed to make an absolute mess of everything and delay my strategy by half a decade.
Then It was my turn.
Depicted: Catholics as I rampage my way through Saxony.
With the Death of Blayne I then had a few debts I needed to Pay, First off King of Men our Holland player had one of my Holy Sites he also Joined the War against me. So we Took the Holy Site, and the Vikings from Scandinavia did the rest. Half of what remains of the dutch republic went to Clone while the other half went to me. Then We reformed the Faith we picked, Unyielding (Because Stay off my Lawn Kids), Meritocratic (Because I'm expecting to get max tolerance eventually and thus have abs-cog-merit-primo to pick the best kid every time). Sons of Ragnarok(Cause VIKINGS) and Temporal, becuase I like Wearing Robb Stark's Crown and the normal norse ones kinda look meh.
Now we have our Empire, and pretty much the borders south of the Sound I want for the rest of the Campaign. I could do with more, particularly Danzig and Prussia but I can also do without. Ultimately I still want to play a Tall campaign, Going Full NGF sort of makes me germany, and if I wanted to do Germany I'd have started in Germany, not Lubeck.
So Basically, we had our fun, Now we'll have having our pay, raiding for gold to build as many great wonders as we can baby. Were gonna build a wall and make the Catholics pay for it. Literally. We'll see how things look come Eu4, If Germany or England or Scandinavia explodes into a mess, I guess Germany, England or Scandinavia, otherwise I'm planning for some quiet time keeping the Catholics from crusading me out of germany and colonizing Vinland.
Should be Fun, and if I die a glorious death then I guess Plan B will be to play a crusader state somewhere.