Soldiers, Raiders, and Settlers: A Norman AAR

[howardislit]

This is the first AAR I've ever made. Personally I'm fascinated by the Normans. While I am personally fascinated by the Norman Conquests as well, with the conquest of Southern Italy and it's somewhat chaotic nature, as well as Norman Mercenary work for the byzantines(and their broader relations with the byzantines) significantly more than the Norman Conquest of England, I also find the idea of A mixed that retained many Norse Customs and culture while integrating into Francia society absolutely awesome. This, unfortunately, never came to be, as the Normans rapidly integrated into Frankish society, while they were a distinct group of people, they weren't any more unique than the champagne region, for example.

But what if that, mostly, didn't occur? What if the Normans retained a highly distinct and unique, possibly even Old Norse speaking, culture? It's not impossible, as from a quick google search the average person living in normandy has around 1/10 viking DNA. I initially just wanted to find an AAR like this, but I quickly realized I wouldn't be able to, as any AARS about the normans I could find were in reference to England, or their Mediterranean conquest, not the duchy itself, so I'm gong to make one.

For this I'll be using the RICE mod, and playing Hrolf, I'm going to call him that throughout this AAR as that's what the game calls him and it's his Old Norse name, a language which I plan to keep using as long as possible.

 

[Chac1]

Welcome to AARland, @howardislit . As someone who venerates the Norse culture, I encourage your cultural journey through this AAR.

Although about a different geographic region, you may find The Breton Chronicles, an incomplete AAR from @Werther might be worth your time to review.

Some other suggestions for you as someone new to the forums....

You may wish to advertise your AAR in the Inkwell. The SolAARium is filled with writing tips, if you need those. If you feel up to it, come hang out in the bAAR with some of the other writers here (but you may want to read some of the posts and the beginning post or two of that one first). Folks here are a welcoming bunch and I hope you find it that way too. Everyone is encouraged to read other AARs and if you feel up to it you may vote in the AARland Choice Awards (the ACAs).

Too much? If so, sorry to overwhelm you but we are always happy to see new authors here.

 

[HistoryDude]

Indeed, welcome to AARland! We're always happy to have more authors.

This AAR's premise sounds fascinating.

Will Old Norse and French gradually influence each other to create a new Norman language?

 

[howardislit]

Indeed, welcome to AARland! We're always happy to have more authors.

This AAR's premise sounds fascinating.

Will Old Norse and French gradually influence each other to create a new Norman language?

Honestly this was a somewhat impulsive decision to write this, as I realized there was a sore lack of Early Norman AARS and decided to write about it myself, so I'm not entirely sure how this is going to go down in full, I do know I'm going to try to avoid having very quick expansion(any expansion I do will probably only stretch into Anjou, Brittany, and maybe stretch down to the Loire), and I'm going to stretch the definitions of certain In-Game features, such as my Bishop/Court Chaplain to reflect history or what happened in History. Any historical counts who are Dukes in-game will be called Counts and I'm going to refer to historical titles as what they were.

I'm fairly lucky with this in that I've been interested in the Normans for a long time, and I have a fairly significant amount of background information that I can utilize to my advantage.

Finally, I'm poor. So unfortunately I don't have any of the DLCs, not entirely because I can't afford them, but because from checking reviews and just seeing how much it would affect my game, I can't convince myself to buy any of them. I probably will buy the Rise to Power DLC though, if reviews are good and I personally think it seems good.

Full List of the MODS I'm using in this AAR:
Ethnicities and Portraits Expanded
Culture Expanded
Rank & FIle
Suzerain & Council Gold
Medieval Arts
Counterfactuals
Earlier Partition
Rebalance+
No Legitimacy
Cultural Armies
War Veterans
Testament
Culture & Faith Granularity
No HRE Kingdoms
Big Battle Vies
Displayed With and Death Dates
In My Humble Opinion
and RICE

as you can see it's quite a long list but all of them I either can't figure out why they're not in the base game anyway, some are essential to this game, and some I can't bring myself to get rid of.

 

[Lord Durham]

Welcome to AARland and congratulations on starting your first AAR. You've chosen a time period I've always been keen on, too. I've long had a fascination for Norman Italy. I wrote an AAR way back in 2004 for the original CK, titled Norman Knights: The House of de Hauteville. It's only a couple of pages long. I had to abandon it for reasons. However, it's an area I'd love to revisit if I ever try another AAR. Anyway, good luck with your writing. As @Chac1 mentioned, there's some worthwhile links to check out.

 

[Midnite Duke]

Welcome @howardislit! Once was involved in a discussion about what Normandy would be called if the Norse had been repelled and did not settle in northern France.

 

[overthetop_G]

Wonderful to see another writer! I also have fond memories of RICE Normandy, though it was mainly the ritual purging of my vassals every time a new Duke came around, due to multiple reasons.

 

[Chac1]

Wonderful to see another writer!

Indeed, there are many writers in AARland and it is always good to see new folks. Hoping this new writer returns to continue this project.

 

[overthetop_G]

Indeed, there are many writers in AARland and it is always good to see new folks. Hoping this new writer returns to continue this project.

Just noticed he posted in April lol. This subform is so inactive...

 

[Chac1]

Just noticed he posted in April lol. This subform is so inactive...

Likely, the EUIV subforum is the most active. I believe that the CK2 subforum is a bit more active than this one for CK3.