Scandinavian Gothic: The Finnish Holy War

[Warzybok]

Skandinaavisen Goottilainen

Table of Contents
Prologue- Burning Gods
Chapter One- Dreams and Death

This is to be my second attempt at an AAR. The first is currently on hold while I wait for the mod to be updated.

The basic setup for this mod is that I have created a character, High Chief Pyry of House Karjalainen , who reigns in what we would today call Saint Petersberg, then known as Vodi. His father was a high chief and his father before him. Unlike his father and grandfather however, Pyry is no warrior. In fact, he is a dwarf; standing under five feet tall. What this young man lacks in height, he compensates for in ambition. On the Ides of September in 1066, Pyry converted to Orthodox Christianity in order to secure betrothal to a young woman of the Rurikovich house. His hopes are that the connection of himself to the powerful Russians will be sufficient for him to slowly conquer the tribes to the north, and see him crowned King of Finland. He is the first Christian Finn. Time will tell if he is the last.


I hope in writing this to absorb some of the Scandinavian Gothic mood espoused in the books of Henning Mankell and others. The northern climate is bleak, and I imagine the rulers in this time period were similarly dower.

I will be using CKII+ as my platform. The rules are that I will not cheat, and the AAR will be conducted without any save-and-exit tactics. I do plan to be very serious about playing in a way which conforms with the temperament of the players I am simulating.

 

[DensleyBlair]

Sounds interesting - I'll be standing by

 

[Dovahkiing]

Oh. God.
This shall be EPIC!
I bite my nails in anticipation.

 

[Luusydh]

Very excited to see this! I'm interested to see a strong, orthodox Finland in this timeframe. I honestly didn't even know it was a Kingdom that could be formed.

 

[Zealuu]

It usually gets formed by the King of either Norway or Sweden, depending on who wins the Northern Pagan Colonial Race. I can't imagine it being formed by indigenous factions without the kind of player intervention we'll hopefully be seeing here.

 

[Warzybok]

Prologue: Burning Gods

The flames had been hot on the Pyre. On it burned the Gods of old. Ukko, Ahti, Tapio. All of them. The man who had burned them had been raised in their faith, and now, seated on his high seat, he watched the flames fly higher. Pyry was not a handsome man, he was not a particularly devious man; he was a smart man. Or half-man. A dwarf, Pyry stood not five feet tall. And yet, in that chamber, as he burned the Gods, many of those assembled still worshiped those very Gods, and dared not utter a word in protest. To them, he might as well been a giant.

The reason for this sudden action was the conversion the night before of Pyry to the Orthodox faith, at the behest of an envoy from Russia. The King of Rostov, the most powerful man in the region, had agreed to the betrothal of his eldest daughter, Anna, to the lowly High Chief Pyry; guaranteeing him not only children but a position of power among the lords of the heathen north; and alliance with the many kingdoms of the Rurikovich realms. All he needed to do was renounce the old Gods and convert to the Orthodox faith. His father had been beaten in clan war after clan war, and his Chiefdom had barely survived intact. Without allies, Pyry knew he was consigned to the same fate as his father. Unsentimental, he without hesitation had ordered the consummation of his betrothal in the burning of those Gods.

For nights thereafter, Pyry was haunted by the sight of the statues in flame. His bride to be was but a child of 13. Was it really worth it? Now, every time he left his walled hovel, he wondered if his “loyal subjects” would mean him violence for his unremorseful sacrilege. The Chief may now be Christian, but his people were not. Sitting at his high-perch, the 22 year old young man could not help but question if his first real choice in life would cost him that life too young.

And yet, day turned into week, week into month, month into year. A handful had even converted, if not for piety, then as least to win the Chief’s good favor. The men of the old faith seemed weary; seemed to sense their star had fallen, and that their Gods might just be resigned to their fate. For men of such temperament, regicide was no remedy. And with each day, Anna Rurikovich grew taller. Her breasts were ripening, and the dwarfs gamble seemed like to pay off. Perhaps dwarves were lucky after all.

On January 10, 1071, with a slight snow falling on a gray landscape, The sleigh bearing the dwarfs bride finally appeared before Pyry’s holdfast. Tomorrow would be the wedding. Tomorrow, a dour dwarf promised himself, his dream would begin to come true.

 

[Blitzzer]

Please tell me this: did you create your starting character with the dlc ruler creator or did you tamper with some settings? Would have probably been easier than going from count of Dal -> independent finnish Finland...

Anyway, for the sake of nationalism, I shall lurk the AAR-forum and track your progress...

 

[Dovahkiing]

Go Pyry!
For Finland!
Any chance of screenshots?

 

[Warzybok]

Please tell me this: did you create your starting character with the dlc ruler creator or did you tamper with some settings? Would have probably been easier than going from count of Dal -> independent finnish Finland...

Anyway, for the sake of nationalism, I shall lurk the AAR-forum and track your progress...

DLC. Basically just took a pagan High Chieftinate and made the guy Orthodox at the start of the game.

 

[Warzybok]

Go Pyry!
For Finland!
Any chance of screenshots?

Absolutely. Just threw together a quick prologue before the "events" of the AAR started. The real chapters will have a picture for every paragraph.

 

[DensleyBlair]

A nice introductory scene - how did you use the DLC on the Chief? I thought you could only customise playable characters.

 

[Warzybok]

A nice introductory scene - how did you use the DLC on the Chief? I thought you could only customise playable characters.

At least in CK+, Pagans are playable characters. I haven't played Vanilla in some time now, but I did think they were playable finally even there.

 

[DensleyBlair]

At least in CK+, Pagans are playable characters. I haven't played Vanilla in some time now, but I did think they were playable finally even there.

Ah, forgot you were using CK+ - but, alas, they're unplayable in vanilla without editing the files.

 

[Blitzzer]

Ah, forgot you were using CK+ - but, alas, they're unplayable in vanilla without editing the files.

Woe is me. I'll just have to stick to my fake finnish converts (though I suppose after hundreds of years of being finnish, they sorta really are, even with a funny surname like Gälta...) and root for you, the true finnish conqueror!

 

[addsub]

OOOOOO! Very interesting area of the world that isn't usually represented in this game! I have a love of the Finnish so will be following your AAR!

 

[Warzybok]

Chapter One- Dreams and Death

On January 11, 1071, High Chief Pyry of the pagan Ingrian Tribe, ruler of the swampy region known as Vodi, Was wed to Anna Rurikovich, the daughter of King Vsevolod of Peryaslovil and Rostov, and the most powerful man in the Russian region. Anna was beautiful; brown haired and dark eyed, with a delicate air about her. Although privately mortified to be made to marry a converted pagan, who barely spoke Russian, and was smaller than even she, Anna said nothing of it. She never once probed the subject with her new husband. When the night came, she allowed herself to be led into the consummation bed without complaint; it was her duty.

The marriage proved to be a loving one; but the reason for the marriage had never been love. Pyry needed a powerful ally to survive in the cold wastes of Finland. The strip of swamp he called a home was too sparsely populated to stand up to any of his neighbors, and even his own people did not share any great love for this half-man. But in the mind of Pyry was a great idea; that Orthodoxy could be the force that would unite the Finnish tribes, and build a great kingdom in their homeland of swamp and stone and wood. With support from Russia, and the passion of the Orthodox church, he would not only survive, but see himself build a great nation.

Over the course of the next days, he carefully dictated a letter (he did not know his letters), and had it sent to the Patriarch, asking permission to lead a holy war into the north. He wanted Russian support to directly invade the swathe of land he felt sufficient to call a kingdom, and imagined the Patriarch would enthusiastically endorse his crusade.

But the Patriarch in Constantanople was not the Pope in Rome. The Orthodox did not enthusiastically endorse wars, especially wars which would serve only to advance the agenda of a recent convert of dubious piety. Patriarch Ioannes VIII wasted little time in diplomatically rejecting the sanction of God for war in the north, urging instead the peaceful conversion of the populace. That night, with a fire at his back, and starting out his window on the small village he called a capital, Pyry wondered what his next step would be.

By the next winter, events would move inexorably in Pyry’s favor. In November, a holy war broke out; not between Christian and Pagan, but between Pagan and Pagan. The High Chief of the Livonian tribes, a devotee of the Romuva faith, started a war against the Estonians, led by High Chief Allikes. The Estonians were not themselves Finns in the proper sense of the word, but instead the bastard cousins known as Ugric-Baltic. They spoke almost the same language, and, importantly, prayed to the same Gods which Pyry had once devoted himself; the Suomenusko faith. At contest was the provice of Tartu, which, despite belonging to the Estonians, was more divided in its faith, with many Romuva practitioners, and considered to be outside the Finnish realm. Many of the Finnish High Chiefs rushed to defend their religion; and many of the Lithuanians in the south did the same in support of the Livonians.

Pyry saw his chance. The High Chief of Livonia did not seek all Estonian territory, but only Tartu. Pyry saw the opportunity to declare war on Estonia as well; seeking to claim the other territory of the Estonians; land which was part of greater Finland. A hasty and uneasy alliance was forged between Pyry and the Romuva tribes. They agreed to fight together in exchange for the described partition of Estonia. On the 5th of December, as the cold winds began to push their way across the landscape, High Chief Pyry called his banners and declared war.

That night, Anna sent a message to her father, asking him to send the full force of House Rurikovich to support Pyry in his war. The response was quick and enthusiastic. The Patriarch may not have favored war, and may have looked suspiciously on Pyry, but the Rurikoviches did not. Within the month 3000 Russians were marching to the aid of the Ingrians. It would take them many months to reach Finland. The Ingrians themselves could muster only 340 men, augmented with 500 hired swords from the Honorable Exile company, a troupe of exiled Russian knights. In March, they linked up with the Livonians and met the main army of the Estonians at Wesenber. Perhaps not expecting both foes to fight jointly, the Estonians found themselves outnumbered and outmaneuvered. They were easily overcome. From here however, the sides split. The Romuva forces were only interested in the south, and would not pursue the broken Estonian army into Finish lands.

Undaunted, Pyry pursued with only his force, which had suffered severe losses at Wesenber. In May, with Rurikovich forces still weeks away from assistance, the Ingrians and their mercenaries made battle with High Chief Allikes outsie the walled city of Agelinde. The Ingrians were not well equipped, and were outnumbered. By rights, Pyry should have been defeated. But the Honorable Exiles dreamed of forgiveness from the Rurikoviches, and Pyry suggested subtly that his father-in-law would see them forgiven and restored if they fought with valor. That day, the mercenaries faught with even more passion and enthusiasm than Pyry’s men themselves. And even as the Ingrians wavered, they faught on. By nightfall, the Estonian army was crushed, and the Honorable Exiles stood in control of the field.

When the Rurikovich army finally arrived in July, any hope the Estonians had of victory faded. City after city fell. Finally, on October 27, with nowhere left to hide, Allikes surrendered. His Duchy was divided in two, and he fled into the frigid north, back to his pagan brothers. On the very day of surrender, Pyry declared himself the new Duke of Estonia, and moved his capital to the more hospitable region of Narva. He may not yet be a King, but at least he was now a Duke. He also used his new fifes to his own advantage. To his most loyal counselors he gave the important Bishoprics and Mayorships; but only on condition that they convert to Orthodoxy. In this way, by the end of the year, most of the nobles of his court were, at least nominally, Orthodox Christians. The same could not be said for his people, most of whom still clung to their old Gods.

Victory was not the only cause for celebration. In January, 1073, Anna finally conceived. On the 3rd of November, she gave birth to a daughter, Metta. Pyry had no use for a daughter. The people he ruled barely tolerated being ruled by a blaspheming dwarf; they would never accept a woman.

The next years were long and uneventful for Pyry. Anna seemed unable to again conceive, and the Pyry, now in his late 20’s, began to fear what would happen if she did not give him a son. Repeated attempts were made to convince the Patriarch to authorize a holy war for Finland; all were soundly rejected. In 1075, High Chief Ikapaiva of Kexholm attempted to seize a province from the Novgorodan Rurikoviches. Ikapaiva and Pyry bore no good will toward one another; Ikapaivas father had defeated Pyry’s father in two clan wars, and when the Novgorodans asked for Pyry to support them, he did so enthusiastically. The war was a misadventure for the Fins from the start, and within months, their forces were utterly crushed by the size and strength of the Russian armies. Perhaps the enduring element of the war however, was the growing hate which the Pyry and Ikapaiva bore one another; hate which would soon result in unspeakable horrors.

Finally, In late 1077, Anna again conceived. The court rejoiced to imagine that their little Duke would soon have an heir. But Anna was not well, and the pregnancy proved very difficult. On April 24, 1078, Anna delivered another daughter, named Irene. Child and mother were both unwell, and the midwives, despite their best efforts, could not save the baby. Irene did not live to see her fourth day.

Anna had taken a turn for the worse as well. The labor had been exhausting, and she appeared unable to regain strength. Pyry sat in a chair by her bed, and watched as her strength melted away. By the end of the week, she too was dead. Anna Rurikovich, the great hope of Duke Pyry, the woman he had grown to love, and the key to his alliance with the powerful Rurikovich Kingdoms, was gone. She left him only a daughter, and dreams of what could have been.

Pyry had no time to mourn. He needed a new ally, before the pagans again came to crush him. The oldest unmarried Rurikovich was 9 years old, and Pyry needed a son. He could not wait. The Emperor in Byzantium had a daughter, born into the purple, and beautiful as could be. At age 14, she was every mans lust. But the Emperor had no interest in shipping her to a unwashed corner of the north which shared nothing more than religion with him. Pyry’s request for her hand was firmly rebuked. Pyry next turned to the Ynglings, who ruled over both Norway and England (having won it in battle from Harold Hardrada). The Kings oldest daughter was a recent widow. But here too, the King apparently thought that a dwarf, practicing the wrong form of Christianity, was not a suitable son-in-law. Finally, he settled on Anna Doukas, the niece of the Emperor in Byzantium, and the daughter of the Duke of Turnovo. The match was not nearly ideal. Turnovo was a thousand miles away, and this Anna was not only plain, but was only 13, and would not be able to marry for at least 3 years. With no better option, Pyry accepted.

Perhaps seeing Pyry’s weakness, Ikapaiva pressed for war a second time. Here again, Ikapaiva bit off more than he could chew. While Pyry was this time forced to fight alone, with not Rurikovich support forthcoming after Anna’s death, his holdings in Estonia provided him the ability to field a larger army than Ikapaiva could manage. In December, 1078, Pyri captured the main province of his enemy; Kakisalmi. In the main castle, Pyry’s men capture the heir to Ikapaiva’s Chieftinate, his 9 year old son Ahma. Bankrupted by war, Ikapaiva could not afford to ransom his son. Hate flowed through Pyry’s veins; and perhaps a little resentment. Pyry had no sons, why should his most hated enemy? Also, Ikapaiva’s second son was mentally ill, and likely to die childless. Pyry decided that the child must die.

They’d brought the chopping block out in the black of night. This execution would not be for the viewing of the public. The little child, one of the few people smaller than Pyry, was brought out to the courtyard. Fear covered his face, and he began to sob. The axman even appeared to be struggling to carry out his orders. The little child was brought to the block, his little neck placed on it; and with one mighty strike, the child was no more. Pyry watched from his window. In his calculating mind, he knew it was the best decision he could have made. But for nights thereafter, the image reoccurred in his dreams. One night, he dreamed it was him on the block, and the axeman was not an axeman, but little Ahma. Ikapaiva was crushed by the murder of his son. As his war slipped from his fingers, he had no choice but to seek peace. But even as the truce was concluded, he sent a letter to Pyry, promising revenge, and reminding him that the Old Gods would see him punished for his evil ways.

On the 4th Day of February, 1081, Pyry’s new bride, a Greek Princess with the same name as his dead wife, arrived by ship from Byzantium. She appeared frightened by the north, and she was not such a pretty thing as the first Anna had been. But again, these things mattered little in the machinations of Pyry Karjalainen. On February 5, they were wed. Pyry was 33; his bride was 16. He had burned Gods, won three wars, and murdered a child. His first wife was dead; his second was half his age. Now, as he led his bride to the consummation bed, he knew the next miracle he needed was for this new wife to bear him a son.

 

[Dovahkiing]

The saga of Pyry begins in earnest!
And a thrilling narrative as well!
Nice writing too.

 

[Luusydh]

I hate Pyry already. Excellent story-telling.

 

[DensleyBlair]

Well, I think it would be an underatatement to call Pyry 'twisted'.

A very good first update

 

[Warzybok]

Well, I think it would be an underatatement to call Pyry 'twisted'.

A very good first update

In his defense (and mine), Ikapaiva is the de-jure duke of Pyry's original province, and has now conducted two wars against him. As I noted, Ahma as the oldest child was heir to the Chieftinate, and his next oldest son, Ikapaiva II, was a imbecile. When I roleplayed Pyry, I imagined 1) his disdain for the Itkonen's anyways from their prior history 2) his anger at being twice attacked and 3) his calculating nature of how Ahma's death could benefit him. My conclusion is that the murder is something Pyry would have done to advance his agenda.

No question though, Pyry has a dark side.