This must be the worst day of your lives. Yet, for some reason, it doesn't seem to be the last. At least not yet.
They came in broad daylight. Funny, whenever someone mentioned the rumour of some strange cult spreading, you all expected them to conduct their business in shady corners, or at the very least at night. Then again, none of you have been even close to guessing how many of them actually were there. Their organization left nothing to be desired. Perhaps the attack was planned to be carried out exactly at midday, perhaps there was some signal you missed – either way, that was when your happy past became nothing more than a memory.
People drew their weapons all over town, and seemingly indiscriminately assaulted the person next to them. It was a massacre. Survivors of the initial attack fled, tried to barricade themselves in their houses, but to no avail. Doors were broken down, and more blood was spilled. Someone grabbed you and made you watch as your loved ones were slaughtered right in front of you, yourself powerlessly struggling to aid them. Then a sack was pulled over your head and you were carried away somewhere.
And so, all of you find yourselves seated at some table, hardly aware of your surroundings. Your fates today are very similar, but your lives up to this point have varied wildly. If you could see the others, you may wonder even more what your captors want of you. You have nothing to offer. Not more than those murdered on the streets, in their homes. Your attempts to know why have all been futile, long enough so that everyone is silently awaiting the next stage of their ordeal.
Then a prayer breaks the silence. At least it sounds like one – you have never heard anything like it. Will you find your end as the cultists' sacrifice? The cultist's voice drones on and on, delivers some kind of lengthy sermon, and at some point it entrances you. Your fears slowly dissipate, sobbing stops, and you begin to feel like the sack no longer engulfs you in darkness – but rather that it shields your light from the endless night reigning outside of the sack.
“Thus you are illuminated”, the priest ends. You recognize him as such now. He's not just some mad cultist. You were. A gigantic wave of guilt has crashed over you as the holy man's words permeated the fibres of the sack, reached your ears, which had heard nothing but lies before. You feel like you could bathe for eternity without ever being able to wash away the filth that has coated itself around the very essence of your being. Now most of you are breaking into tears, both immensely grateful and hateful of the revelation forced upon you.
The sacks are pulled off your heads, and you take in your surroundings. There are the other captives, and behind each of them one of the attackers, blood smeared over their faces. At one end of the table stands the priest, a bloody dagger in hand, bowing to another man, who thanks him profoundly. This other man exudes an aura of leadership and dignity, unwavering zeal burning brightly in his eyes. The man is soaked in blood, but he seems to have a somewhat familiar face. He resembles the town's lord.
The man smiles. “The truth is difficult to bear, I know. It was time for us to act. Welcome, Anonymous Council.
You may wonder about your purpose here”, he continues, having your full attention. “You are going to play a crucial role in the Illumination and Salvation of Mankind.”
You watch each other, puzzled. Mere hours ago, this man was responsible for the attack on the town, the deaths of your families, the destruction of all you have spent your life building. You would have strangled all life out of him at the first chance you got. But now – not that you would be able to – you have been illuminated, and the revelation shattered your desire for revenge.
“We all made sacrifices. I killed my brother. But what we ask of you is a far bigger one.” The man signals for the priest to speak.
The holy man's words explain what the Illumination revealed. That the world was once ruled by what he calls the Old Empire, and people lived happily under its prosperous rule. Until the Great Animal Calamity ravaged it. All of a sudden, beasts with human intellect arose all over the empire. Horses. Dogs. Bears. Cats. Elephants. Hedgehogs. Ducks. Even dragons. The empire crumbled, and a curse took hold of its people – making them both no longer able to distinct between human and beast, as well as allowing fertile unions between them.
This status quo has ravaged the world for centuries, until his own Illumination made the priest able to see the truth behind the illusion. He was entrusted with the divine task to save mankind, and exterminate all beasts. For this, he would have to choose a natural leader, ruthless and uncompromising towards his enemies; he found him in the former lord's brother. And he would form the Anonymous Council to assist him once he took power.
This council would be you. As to the unspoken question of “why you”, the priest immediately addresses it. “Desire to keep one's own power can corrupt all but the purest of believers. I was instructed that only those who had no personal power, whose sole care would be the Path of Salvation, could advise our leader. They should be random people from the town, who had all suffered under the Calamity. These people would cast aside their personal lives and be placed under divine protection, entering a state of immortal contemplation within this very room. Whenever the leader feels unsure, they are to provide advice on how to proceed on the Path.”
You feel the divine presence – again, just as you did during the Illumination. It is your calling, your fate, one you cannot refuse. You thought it was the worst day of your life, perhaps the last. No, it wasn't the worst. And it was only partly the last. It is the only true day of your lives. Before, you lived under the curse – from now on, you will “live” solely for the purpose of fighting it. You all nod in unison.
The leader reacts immediately, and places two maps on the table for you all to see. “Come today, we are the only illuminated place on Earth, all beasts having found their deaths today. I will certainly not see the day of Salvation, but I can lay the foundation for our bright future. And this is what we will have to face.”
The beasts have dominion of vast expenses of the known world. You shudder at the sight of the map. Truly the name of Great Animal Calamity fits well. Human realms are no longer united as they were in the days of the empire, but splintered into many, divided by ruler, culture, faith. Some live in unity and apparent harmony with beasts. The divine task is set out for you. Your lives have ended; your purpose begins.
********************
Welcome to my newest AAR! If you've read my last one, then you will find that this one will differ in style. While Ubbe's saga was character-based, I am going to cover bigger gaps of time between updates here (or I would never be able to even come close to finishing it ). Instead, our great leader (who it is will depend on your choice) will present his successes, his failures, a short overview of the realm at the end of each chapter.
The premise is what this AAR is all about – I am playing in a random world, with the animal kingdom cultures added. And the goal is to exterminate every last one of them, wipe their culture off the map. It's going to take a while, not to mention that it won't be easy. Should we fail to end the threat before the renaissance, then there shall be a conversion to EU IV. Once Earth has been cleansed – should that happen – we have to fight the root of all evil and purge the stars in Stellaris...
The game will start in 769, all DLC are active. No savescumming, but also no ironman – the console may cover bugs, but most of all I will likely change the names of the deities and religion. Also no mods but cosmetic ones - Blue Duke and the almiron (IIRC) font from Decorus Visum.
Game rules different from the random world standard:
The religion (whatever it will be - therefore also its leadership - depends on the first vote) is warmongering, has the doctrines of blood sacrifice and unrelenting – but the only humans to ever be sacrificed or raided are those who shelter beasts or cooperate with them.
Of course, the only ruler starting as this religion will be whoever our leader is.
And have no fear, magic will not play any role .
As to the interactive part – you are the Anonymous Council. All you can do in this world is to provide valuable counsel on which alternative to seize on our path of destruction.
Why? For the style of narration I wish to try for this AAR. Every update will be somewhat similar to the introduction (save for the violence towards the advisors), with the current ruler presenting what happened in the past, then presenting his options and asking for advice, (hopefully) written in reflection of his traits. As the Anonymous Council, you only know what he's telling you, which will (mostly) be true...
Every vote will take the same form as the first one: The ruler will present at least two options concerning the general direction of the realm (such as attack X or Y, heir education, succession law etc.). You can cast your vote for either option via a bold comment of your favoured one. The ruler will then follow the advice which gets the most votes at the time of the tally. Should two options get the same amount of votes, then his traits will decide which one he'll pick. Feel free to shortly explain your choice, but don't debate it too much. You are not a character affected by it.
Any comments other than casting the vote are appreciated. As I'm experimenting with the style, any specific comments to that even more so .
And this will be the first vote: Determining in which world we are. I have generated three possible worlds with slightly different parameters, and you will now have your pick, with a small explanation of the situation. So, back to the narration for now:
**********
The leader leans over the map, ready to explain. “You are not entirely randomly chosen, I must admit. None of you have ever left town, or am I mistaken?” None of you say anything. The most-travelled man you have ever spoken to was the priest, for some of you the lord. Any ware from far away had seen multiple local hands if it ever found its way into yours. “Then here we see the gigantic task set for us:
“Nomadic dragons threaten the east around the Himalayas. Their many raids have led to parts of the cats to their west to adopt their ways. The cats are as split as their scaly brethren, but control lands from Gujarat to the frozen wastes in the north. West of them, hedgehogs rule everything from Persia to the White Sea, a massive expanse of land mostly in the hands of medium-sized realms.
Then come the empires. Dogs may rule most of Arabia, but their biggest presence is within the West Germanic Empire. That the emperor is Anglo-Saxon doesn't change the fact that this unholy empire is a huge threat to human purity, and we need to be wary of it. Yet their strength is inferior to the Hallowed Bear Empire, another misleading name. In fact, in this abomination bears and horses live together. Mostly formed by equines, this realm possesses enough power to advance against the splintered states of misguided humans around it, and I fear many generations will be lost to that monster – even if the horses overthrow the bears.
To the west of the empires lie the duck kingdoms in western and central Africa, while western Europe is completely dominated by small bear-states. The British isles are nearly entirely ruled by elephants.
Our work is cut out for us; but if we illuminate our widely splintered neighbours, we should be able to gather enough strength to exterminate one small state after the other, before moving against and shattering the behemoths. Not forgetting another one – the dragon khans had united under a jade one a century ago, and rule a massive realm to the east.”
“Very few powers have emerged strong after the fall of the Old Empire.
In India, we have three beasts: the nomadic horse-lords in the north-east, the smaller bear-states of the north-west and the cats in the rest – either nomads or under the Snugglesian king.
Ducks dominate the middle east and the eastern half of Africa, while elephants are in the west, as well as Iberia. Elephant Africa's north and half of Iberia are under the Panacidea Empire, but compared to the other one this empire is fairly weak.
The Blessed Dog Empire dominates eastern Europe. An eastern Europe which has mostly hedgehogs in the east and dogs in the west.
Dragons rule most of Europe between elephants and dogs, and a jade cousin of theirs has established a massive realm in the far east.
As I see it, if we advance aggressively and decisively, extermination should proceed fairly smoothly in the future. Snugglesia and the empires may be dangerous opposition, but as long as the abominations remain mostly split, we should triumph and cleanse the world.”
“More or less powerful kingdoms control most of the world. As they all oppose us, that doesn't make the Path to Salvation any easier. Although at least the African and Iberian tribes are free of animal influence.
Dragon and elephant nomads are forming the borders to the unmolested tribes in Europe and the middle east though, and they are not to be underestimated. Eastern Europe is hedgehog territory as much as central east Europe is dominated by cats. As if the weakness of the Celtic Empire wasn't enough, there's a majority of dragons in it, too, and these damned beasts have landed on the other side of the channel recently as well.
The east is clearly in animal paws, claws, hooves, whatever. Only the kingdom of Meriia is relatively free of beasts. Else we have horses between elephants to the west and bears in the east, just as we have dogs in southern India. And we have the Holy Bedouin Empire. They reached their lofty title after subjugating vast parts of duck territory. Only because the birds ruling to the west and east of the Ural had set out to put one of their number in charge of a powerful empire to the far east.
We will have a long struggle in front of us to establish ourselves as a regional power first. And by then, who's to say the kingdoms haven't united? But we are chosen to illuminate the world, and as such we will not fail.”
_________________________
In which world is it set?
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Voting is open until Friday, 1st February, 22:00 CET.
Mild interactivity approved by Mr. Capiatlist
They came in broad daylight. Funny, whenever someone mentioned the rumour of some strange cult spreading, you all expected them to conduct their business in shady corners, or at the very least at night. Then again, none of you have been even close to guessing how many of them actually were there. Their organization left nothing to be desired. Perhaps the attack was planned to be carried out exactly at midday, perhaps there was some signal you missed – either way, that was when your happy past became nothing more than a memory.
People drew their weapons all over town, and seemingly indiscriminately assaulted the person next to them. It was a massacre. Survivors of the initial attack fled, tried to barricade themselves in their houses, but to no avail. Doors were broken down, and more blood was spilled. Someone grabbed you and made you watch as your loved ones were slaughtered right in front of you, yourself powerlessly struggling to aid them. Then a sack was pulled over your head and you were carried away somewhere.
And so, all of you find yourselves seated at some table, hardly aware of your surroundings. Your fates today are very similar, but your lives up to this point have varied wildly. If you could see the others, you may wonder even more what your captors want of you. You have nothing to offer. Not more than those murdered on the streets, in their homes. Your attempts to know why have all been futile, long enough so that everyone is silently awaiting the next stage of their ordeal.
Then a prayer breaks the silence. At least it sounds like one – you have never heard anything like it. Will you find your end as the cultists' sacrifice? The cultist's voice drones on and on, delivers some kind of lengthy sermon, and at some point it entrances you. Your fears slowly dissipate, sobbing stops, and you begin to feel like the sack no longer engulfs you in darkness – but rather that it shields your light from the endless night reigning outside of the sack.
“Thus you are illuminated”, the priest ends. You recognize him as such now. He's not just some mad cultist. You were. A gigantic wave of guilt has crashed over you as the holy man's words permeated the fibres of the sack, reached your ears, which had heard nothing but lies before. You feel like you could bathe for eternity without ever being able to wash away the filth that has coated itself around the very essence of your being. Now most of you are breaking into tears, both immensely grateful and hateful of the revelation forced upon you.
The sacks are pulled off your heads, and you take in your surroundings. There are the other captives, and behind each of them one of the attackers, blood smeared over their faces. At one end of the table stands the priest, a bloody dagger in hand, bowing to another man, who thanks him profoundly. This other man exudes an aura of leadership and dignity, unwavering zeal burning brightly in his eyes. The man is soaked in blood, but he seems to have a somewhat familiar face. He resembles the town's lord.
The man smiles. “The truth is difficult to bear, I know. It was time for us to act. Welcome, Anonymous Council.
You may wonder about your purpose here”, he continues, having your full attention. “You are going to play a crucial role in the Illumination and Salvation of Mankind.”
You watch each other, puzzled. Mere hours ago, this man was responsible for the attack on the town, the deaths of your families, the destruction of all you have spent your life building. You would have strangled all life out of him at the first chance you got. But now – not that you would be able to – you have been illuminated, and the revelation shattered your desire for revenge.
“We all made sacrifices. I killed my brother. But what we ask of you is a far bigger one.” The man signals for the priest to speak.
The holy man's words explain what the Illumination revealed. That the world was once ruled by what he calls the Old Empire, and people lived happily under its prosperous rule. Until the Great Animal Calamity ravaged it. All of a sudden, beasts with human intellect arose all over the empire. Horses. Dogs. Bears. Cats. Elephants. Hedgehogs. Ducks. Even dragons. The empire crumbled, and a curse took hold of its people – making them both no longer able to distinct between human and beast, as well as allowing fertile unions between them.
This status quo has ravaged the world for centuries, until his own Illumination made the priest able to see the truth behind the illusion. He was entrusted with the divine task to save mankind, and exterminate all beasts. For this, he would have to choose a natural leader, ruthless and uncompromising towards his enemies; he found him in the former lord's brother. And he would form the Anonymous Council to assist him once he took power.
This council would be you. As to the unspoken question of “why you”, the priest immediately addresses it. “Desire to keep one's own power can corrupt all but the purest of believers. I was instructed that only those who had no personal power, whose sole care would be the Path of Salvation, could advise our leader. They should be random people from the town, who had all suffered under the Calamity. These people would cast aside their personal lives and be placed under divine protection, entering a state of immortal contemplation within this very room. Whenever the leader feels unsure, they are to provide advice on how to proceed on the Path.”
You feel the divine presence – again, just as you did during the Illumination. It is your calling, your fate, one you cannot refuse. You thought it was the worst day of your life, perhaps the last. No, it wasn't the worst. And it was only partly the last. It is the only true day of your lives. Before, you lived under the curse – from now on, you will “live” solely for the purpose of fighting it. You all nod in unison.
The leader reacts immediately, and places two maps on the table for you all to see. “Come today, we are the only illuminated place on Earth, all beasts having found their deaths today. I will certainly not see the day of Salvation, but I can lay the foundation for our bright future. And this is what we will have to face.”
The beasts have dominion of vast expenses of the known world. You shudder at the sight of the map. Truly the name of Great Animal Calamity fits well. Human realms are no longer united as they were in the days of the empire, but splintered into many, divided by ruler, culture, faith. Some live in unity and apparent harmony with beasts. The divine task is set out for you. Your lives have ended; your purpose begins.
********************
Welcome to my newest AAR! If you've read my last one, then you will find that this one will differ in style. While Ubbe's saga was character-based, I am going to cover bigger gaps of time between updates here (or I would never be able to even come close to finishing it ). Instead, our great leader (who it is will depend on your choice) will present his successes, his failures, a short overview of the realm at the end of each chapter.
The premise is what this AAR is all about – I am playing in a random world, with the animal kingdom cultures added. And the goal is to exterminate every last one of them, wipe their culture off the map. It's going to take a while, not to mention that it won't be easy. Should we fail to end the threat before the renaissance, then there shall be a conversion to EU IV. Once Earth has been cleansed – should that happen – we have to fight the root of all evil and purge the stars in Stellaris...
The game will start in 769, all DLC are active. No savescumming, but also no ironman – the console may cover bugs, but most of all I will likely change the names of the deities and religion. Also no mods but cosmetic ones - Blue Duke and the almiron (IIRC) font from Decorus Visum.
Game rules different from the random world standard:
- Chinese Invasions: All – well, who's to say that there are humans in China...
- Supernatural&Absurd events: unrestricted – I mean, there's no other option here.
- Defensive pacts: Off – it is a merciless world, and no man shall stand at the beasts' side unless he betrays us and allies them
The religion (whatever it will be - therefore also its leadership - depends on the first vote) is warmongering, has the doctrines of blood sacrifice and unrelenting – but the only humans to ever be sacrificed or raided are those who shelter beasts or cooperate with them.
Of course, the only ruler starting as this religion will be whoever our leader is.
And have no fear, magic will not play any role .
As to the interactive part – you are the Anonymous Council. All you can do in this world is to provide valuable counsel on which alternative to seize on our path of destruction.
Why? For the style of narration I wish to try for this AAR. Every update will be somewhat similar to the introduction (save for the violence towards the advisors), with the current ruler presenting what happened in the past, then presenting his options and asking for advice, (hopefully) written in reflection of his traits. As the Anonymous Council, you only know what he's telling you, which will (mostly) be true...
Every vote will take the same form as the first one: The ruler will present at least two options concerning the general direction of the realm (such as attack X or Y, heir education, succession law etc.). You can cast your vote for either option via a bold comment of your favoured one. The ruler will then follow the advice which gets the most votes at the time of the tally. Should two options get the same amount of votes, then his traits will decide which one he'll pick. Feel free to shortly explain your choice, but don't debate it too much. You are not a character affected by it.
Any comments other than casting the vote are appreciated. As I'm experimenting with the style, any specific comments to that even more so .
And this will be the first vote: Determining in which world we are. I have generated three possible worlds with slightly different parameters, and you will now have your pick, with a small explanation of the situation. So, back to the narration for now:
**********
The leader leans over the map, ready to explain. “You are not entirely randomly chosen, I must admit. None of you have ever left town, or am I mistaken?” None of you say anything. The most-travelled man you have ever spoken to was the priest, for some of you the lord. Any ware from far away had seen multiple local hands if it ever found its way into yours. “Then here we see the gigantic task set for us:
“Nomadic dragons threaten the east around the Himalayas. Their many raids have led to parts of the cats to their west to adopt their ways. The cats are as split as their scaly brethren, but control lands from Gujarat to the frozen wastes in the north. West of them, hedgehogs rule everything from Persia to the White Sea, a massive expanse of land mostly in the hands of medium-sized realms.
Then come the empires. Dogs may rule most of Arabia, but their biggest presence is within the West Germanic Empire. That the emperor is Anglo-Saxon doesn't change the fact that this unholy empire is a huge threat to human purity, and we need to be wary of it. Yet their strength is inferior to the Hallowed Bear Empire, another misleading name. In fact, in this abomination bears and horses live together. Mostly formed by equines, this realm possesses enough power to advance against the splintered states of misguided humans around it, and I fear many generations will be lost to that monster – even if the horses overthrow the bears.
To the west of the empires lie the duck kingdoms in western and central Africa, while western Europe is completely dominated by small bear-states. The British isles are nearly entirely ruled by elephants.
Our work is cut out for us; but if we illuminate our widely splintered neighbours, we should be able to gather enough strength to exterminate one small state after the other, before moving against and shattering the behemoths. Not forgetting another one – the dragon khans had united under a jade one a century ago, and rule a massive realm to the east.”
“Very few powers have emerged strong after the fall of the Old Empire.
In India, we have three beasts: the nomadic horse-lords in the north-east, the smaller bear-states of the north-west and the cats in the rest – either nomads or under the Snugglesian king.
Ducks dominate the middle east and the eastern half of Africa, while elephants are in the west, as well as Iberia. Elephant Africa's north and half of Iberia are under the Panacidea Empire, but compared to the other one this empire is fairly weak.
The Blessed Dog Empire dominates eastern Europe. An eastern Europe which has mostly hedgehogs in the east and dogs in the west.
Dragons rule most of Europe between elephants and dogs, and a jade cousin of theirs has established a massive realm in the far east.
As I see it, if we advance aggressively and decisively, extermination should proceed fairly smoothly in the future. Snugglesia and the empires may be dangerous opposition, but as long as the abominations remain mostly split, we should triumph and cleanse the world.”
“More or less powerful kingdoms control most of the world. As they all oppose us, that doesn't make the Path to Salvation any easier. Although at least the African and Iberian tribes are free of animal influence.
Dragon and elephant nomads are forming the borders to the unmolested tribes in Europe and the middle east though, and they are not to be underestimated. Eastern Europe is hedgehog territory as much as central east Europe is dominated by cats. As if the weakness of the Celtic Empire wasn't enough, there's a majority of dragons in it, too, and these damned beasts have landed on the other side of the channel recently as well.
The east is clearly in animal paws, claws, hooves, whatever. Only the kingdom of Meriia is relatively free of beasts. Else we have horses between elephants to the west and bears in the east, just as we have dogs in southern India. And we have the Holy Bedouin Empire. They reached their lofty title after subjugating vast parts of duck territory. Only because the birds ruling to the west and east of the Ural had set out to put one of their number in charge of a powerful empire to the far east.
We will have a long struggle in front of us to establish ourselves as a regional power first. And by then, who's to say the kingdoms haven't united? But we are chosen to illuminate the world, and as such we will not fail.”
_________________________
In which world is it set?
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Voting is open until Friday, 1st February, 22:00 CET.
Mild interactivity approved by Mr. Capiatlist
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