I love the vikings in CK2, we have so many iconic characters such as Ragnar Lothbrok, Eric the Heathen, Harald Hårfager and so many others. But even for all the characters they've added in there are very few events, it feels as though what Paradox has done is built a solid foundation for the Norse gameplay, but there's a large amount of room for expansion in my opinion. What I wanted to do is share some of my ideas for what would make the best gameplay experience, hear your take on it and maybe what you want to see from pagan gameplay in the future.
Vanaism:
So the biggest issue for me when it comes to Scandinavia is religion, because there's basically no variety there, all the way from Westphalia to Hålogaland it just says "Germanic", which I consider tragic seeing how much variation there is to Christianity. (Catholic, Orthodox, Iconist, Bogolomist and Friticelli just to name a few.) The natural split that comes to mind would be between Aesirism and Vanaism.
For those of you not familiar, in Norse mythology there are two families of gods, the Aesir and the Vanir, the Aesirs are most likely the gods you think of when you hear the words "norse mythology" as it includes Thor and Odin, but the Vanir are full of just as awe inspiring individuals, foremost among them is the goddess Freya. Accourding to the sources we have on norse myth Freya takes half those who have fallen in combat to her realm of Folkvangr while the other half goes to Odin in Valhalla. Other than that Freya has revealed herself to be an all around power-house, Thor once tried to command Freya to marry a giant, and spoiler alert, being rude to Freya did not turn out great for Thor as he was forced to dress up in a wedding gown and marry the giant in Freyas stead.
The obvious question would be where to put Vanaism, and the obvious answer would be the kingdom of Sweden, as one of the religious centers for Norse paganism was Uppsala and the closer you get to Uppsala the more local names are named after the Vanir. Frövi, Frölunda, Fröberga and Frötuna are just a few locations in Sweden named after Freya. So that's where I would put the religious split, make Norway and Denmark follow Odin and the Aesirs and give Sweden Freya and the Vanir. This would give the religion some depth and open up for a large range of different events.
Events:
While on the topic of events lets talk about them a little bit, because I've tried to play as Ragnar Lothbrok and so far the only event he gets is the one that gives him the title Lothbrok. That is a dissapointingly low amount compared to some other historical characters, such as Charlamagne. It feels strange, to put it mildly that characters like Lagertha and Aslög don't have events around them, along with all of Rangnars famous accomplisments. And Ragnar, even though he only totals in at one event, has more scripted story than most of the historical Norse characters.
Those are in my opinion the two major issues that I think should be fixed to make the Norse experience superb. Just all around more religious and character based events specific to Norse paganism and my ideal solution. Please let me know what your opinions are and please share your own visions for the game.
Vanaism:
So the biggest issue for me when it comes to Scandinavia is religion, because there's basically no variety there, all the way from Westphalia to Hålogaland it just says "Germanic", which I consider tragic seeing how much variation there is to Christianity. (Catholic, Orthodox, Iconist, Bogolomist and Friticelli just to name a few.) The natural split that comes to mind would be between Aesirism and Vanaism.
For those of you not familiar, in Norse mythology there are two families of gods, the Aesir and the Vanir, the Aesirs are most likely the gods you think of when you hear the words "norse mythology" as it includes Thor and Odin, but the Vanir are full of just as awe inspiring individuals, foremost among them is the goddess Freya. Accourding to the sources we have on norse myth Freya takes half those who have fallen in combat to her realm of Folkvangr while the other half goes to Odin in Valhalla. Other than that Freya has revealed herself to be an all around power-house, Thor once tried to command Freya to marry a giant, and spoiler alert, being rude to Freya did not turn out great for Thor as he was forced to dress up in a wedding gown and marry the giant in Freyas stead.
The obvious question would be where to put Vanaism, and the obvious answer would be the kingdom of Sweden, as one of the religious centers for Norse paganism was Uppsala and the closer you get to Uppsala the more local names are named after the Vanir. Frövi, Frölunda, Fröberga and Frötuna are just a few locations in Sweden named after Freya. So that's where I would put the religious split, make Norway and Denmark follow Odin and the Aesirs and give Sweden Freya and the Vanir. This would give the religion some depth and open up for a large range of different events.
Events:
While on the topic of events lets talk about them a little bit, because I've tried to play as Ragnar Lothbrok and so far the only event he gets is the one that gives him the title Lothbrok. That is a dissapointingly low amount compared to some other historical characters, such as Charlamagne. It feels strange, to put it mildly that characters like Lagertha and Aslög don't have events around them, along with all of Rangnars famous accomplisments. And Ragnar, even though he only totals in at one event, has more scripted story than most of the historical Norse characters.
Those are in my opinion the two major issues that I think should be fixed to make the Norse experience superb. Just all around more religious and character based events specific to Norse paganism and my ideal solution. Please let me know what your opinions are and please share your own visions for the game.
