The Last With Pagan Blood

[RhaegarTelcontarTargaryen]

Chapter XIII: Mother Earth, Father Thunder
By lightning conceived was I
The stars above became my eyes
Hvergelmir flows in my veins
My hair the mist across the never ending nameless lake
This heart winged, I am eagles son
Through storm and spite, untouched, it is pounding on
This sword, forged in fire and ice
The runes that trail its blade can be seen but by my two eyes * **​

Norse like to feast, both in Valhalla and in Miðgarðr​

It was autumn of 1122, the equinox had passed, the days were much shorter, and the weather was getting cold. It was the time for the great blót. The large feast hall in Håtuna was filled with smells. Smell of fur and of people, smells of feast, meat, bread, mead, ale and fire. It was crowded, to the point of bursting, tables densely packed with guests. Huge celebrations and a large feast was going on, for after the great blot, came the feast. This one was even ore significant, because it was also a celebration of King Ragnar the Lionheart's victory in the war against Christian Germans. As a lone messenger entered the hall, he saw that In the middle of the table sat a man in his early forties by the look of him, although the envoy knew that early fifties were closer to the mark. His copper red hair was streaked with grey hairs, as was his beard, but his piercing bright eyes shone, as if they were not merely reflecting the fire, but as if the fire was burning behind them. Around him several women, sat closely, as well as his hirdman, his personal guard. His warriors, young and old were crowded around the tables, feasting on food and drink. By the look of them, several of them were even Christians. One wore cross around his neck, and the other was a famous warrior of house Estrid. There was Herra Bror of Njudung of House Bälbo, Jarl Ragnar of Bornholm, and Jarl Harald of Skåne, of House Akra, a great friend and chancellor to the King, one of his staunches supporters, even though he was Christian. Envoy approached bowing, but the King Ragnar gestured at him impatiently, to skip the formalities, and be done with it. He was sweating, and shaking, but he delivered his message, all the while trying not to look the king in the eyes. As he was going on with his message, King slowly turned in face, first pale, then red. As he was close to the king, only those few who set right next to the king could hear the message. When the messenger was done, King stood up and slammed his fist down on the table. He roared, a voice that would more suit an aurochs than a man:

"WHAT? IS THIS SOME KIND OF A JOKE? ARE YOU PLAYING A TRICK OF ME, YOU BLOODY FOOL? IS THIS MESSENGER SOME SORT OF A BAD JOKE FROM ONE OF YOU?" He turned, looking around the hall, at his vassals and friends, warriors and Jarls... they sat in shocked silence. None spoke.
"Sire. I have.. have a written message...with a seal.. if .. if it pleases you."
"GIVE THAT OVER HERE" He leaned across the table and grabbed the parchment from his trembling hands. As he read the message, it was the King who started shaking in turn.
"Get out! GET OUT YOU BLOODY IDIOT, OUT OF MY HALL NOW!" He roared at the messenger, and then took his drinking horn, filled with ale and threw it in the direction of the poor envoy, speeding up his hasty retreat towards the doors. He stumbled a couple of times but managed to reach the door quick enough, as well as avoid the horn and the ale that spilled from it. Horn smashed against the wall loudly, turning some candlesticks along the way, the sound that startled two young whelps that were sleeping in a cradle, behind the tables towards the back of the hall. As on some unwritten agreement, they both started screaming and crying together at once. At that moment King burst into laughter. "Poor fool. The way he tripped and run through the hall. Send someone after him, give him food and drink. He must be shaking with fear by now." But at that he turned, his face darkened.
"So much for enjoyable feasting, drinking and celebrations." Turning towards some of the women he yelled "Will you shut them up, I can't hear my own thoughts with the two of them crying like that".
"Well, if you haven't been screaming and smashing things around the hall, they wouldn't cry in the first place" said a woman, as she slowly took them away towards the chambers behind the hall. The rest of the guests looked at their king, with puzzlement and confusion on their faces. Several older children, sat in silence in the back of the hall, listening to what was going on. King Ragnar turned towards his Jarls and guests, his voice now the essence of calm and dignity.
"Well so much about the alliance with Lietuva. The bloody fool Mindaugas managed to lose his throne. Five years it took us to win the throne for him, and he lost it in two. Bloody fool, says he knew we were at war with the Christians, and didn't wanted to push his kingdom into a civil war he could not win without our help. So instead, so he bowed down when his chiefs demanded that Ringaudas the Lion be given back the crown of Lietuva."
A young, tall youth cried in anguish "Is he dead? I mean Mindaugas.. My.."
"No, he is still a chief of Lietuva, and Deltuvai. But Ringaudas once again sits the throne of Lietuva. Well he sat on the throne at least, before he died. Got to respect that man and his will to fight, if only he wasn't so stubborn. A man would think that after he executed so much of his kin, no chief would support his claim, but there you go."
The lad was visibly relived when he learned the news.
"Well, your father wanted to avoid the civil war in Lietuva, so he gave back the crown to Ringaudas. Small good that did to both of them. Ringaudas is dead, and now several chiefs are fighting for the throne. The very thing that I wanted to avoid by supporting him and crowning him King of Lietuva in the first place."

Kings of Lietuva
Korybutas 09.05.1122 -
Ringaudas the Lion 08.04.1120 - 09.05.1122
Mindaugas the Usurper 12.11. 1117 - 08.04.1120
Ringaudas the Lion 10.12.1096 - 12.11.1117
Ginvilas 06.02.1084 - 10.12.1096
Sotvaras the Just 05.01.1082 - 06.02.1084​

King Ragnar left his table, and went towards the back of the hall, where his private chambers were located. As he entered, three women inside and six children. Beside his first wife, were his two concubines. Ragnar was a man of many appetites, and women were among chief of those. Liubava Mstislavovna Rurikovich was a daughter of Knyaz Mstislav of Novgorod, but she spent a good deal of hear years as a prisoner and a concubine of Lietuvan chief. When Ragnar's army took one of the holdings in Lietuva, they liberated her, but given her high birth took her back to Uppsala. She was the eldest of the three, but still pretty although lazy and prone to gluttony, she was happy to escape her captor Radvilas, known as Radvilas the Cruel, and even more than happy to allow herself to be seduced by Ragnar. Alison de Normandie was the mother of Ragnar's daughter Freyja. There were of course, Sotvaras and Vaiga, children of Mindaugas and Aslaug, Ragnar's niece and nephew. And at last, there was Ingrid, Queen of Sweden, and twenty four years younger than Ragnar, mother of his sons. Although, truth be told, Ragnar had some doubts about who was the father of the children, since he spent a lot of time waging war, and saw Ingrid only on few occasions, when she travelled to Denmark during the war against the Holy Roman Empire. This seed of doubt, and the age difference, caused that what begun as an idyllic relationship, turned sour. Although there remained a good dose of respect, Ingrid never forgot how hard Ragnar pushed her when he was her mentor in her youth, while Ragnar suspected adultery, as well as his dislike of her wroth nature and tendency to gluttony meant that this wasn't any more the relationship of joy and love. To Ragnar, who in retrospect remembered the relationship between his father and his mother, seemed that all kings were destined to sacrifice their personal happiness.

​

When their first son was born, King Ragnar's happiness was beyond words. He named him Björn, after Björn Ironside, the son of Ragnar Lodbrok. Finally he had an heir worthy of his Kingdom, and as the years passed, young Björn showed that he was indeed, his father's son. Soon however, things turned sour, when King Rangar went on campaign. During the years he fought in a war, he and Ingrid saw each other a few times, when she travelled south to Denmark. And although they did see each other, when a letter from Ingrid reached Ragnar, saying that she was pregnant again, he started having doubts as to weather it was possible that he was the father of his the child.

Some months later, Ingrid gave birth to twin boys. Ragnar decided to name them Harald and Knut, publicly cause they were great Vikings and Kings who ruled vast lands. But privately, he had doubts about their paternity, and thus decided against the wish of his heart, to name them after Ragnar Lodbrok's other sons, Ivar the Boneless and Sigurdr Snake-in-the-eye, as he desired. But happy as he was for having many sons, Ragnar also remembered something else. The Kingdom, or rather areas in which the Norse ruled during Ragnar Lodbrok's life, was divided after his death among his sons, causing fracturing in Norse power, and many wars between later generations. Ragnar was determined not to allow that to happen again, and to leave his Kingdom for his heirs at the peak of its power, posed to strike further against the Christians. But how to achieve that, when he had three sons, three heirs to come after him....

Spoiler

Björn Ragnarsson, named after Björn Ironside

Knut Ragnarsson, named after Knut the Great

Harald Ragnarsson, named after Harald Fairhair

Ragnar spent a decent amount of money trying to figure out if he was indeed the father.

A quick update, as I haven't played much during holidays, but I did get an heir I desired. A few too many I might say. Seems to me that this forces Ragnar to act much more quickly than I desired. I considered staying unreformed, to keep raiding, and keep the +50% retinue size for Norse... As the famous saying goes, "We princes make our careful plans and the gods smash them all awry."

 

[Specialist290]

The best-laid plans of mice and men... A shame Mindaugas proved to be such a pushover, especially when he was supposed to serve as a bulwark against Christendom's steady advance.

Also, glad to see you writing again

 

[xXConquerorXx]

Great chapter, and good to see you're back at it again, let's hope Ragnar's Empire doesn't immediately collapse after his departure. Also, you wrote 1022 instead 1122 in the beginning.

 

[RhaegarTelcontarTargaryen]

Also, you wrote 1022 instead 1122 in the beginning.

Thank you. Corrected.

As of now, I am one province away for being able to reform Asatru. But that one province is in Kingdom of England or, alternatively, in Duchy of Flanders, in France. Plus my bastard son is married to the Duchess of Flanders, so for role playing reasons, that is no. Also for reasons can't fight HRE, France, Poland and Aquitaine at the same time.

 

[stnylan]

So, he has three sons --- or does he?

 

[Nuada Airgetlám]

Ragnar feels the weight of years, and he must secure his legacy now while he still can.

 

[RhaegarTelcontarTargaryen]

Chapter XIV: Bärsärkarna från Svithjod

I vredens trans, björnens dans
till nordstjärnan länkar bands
Kallad till brynjting av Oden vald
hamnfolk av Svears börd
Med klo som ovän flyr
svuren ed till Hangatyr
Till valplatsen vi stå i härens för!*​

it was the autumn of 1122 when, in a repeat of a similar invasion two and half centuries ago, huge number of Norse people, landed on the shores of England. After already gaining control of Lincoln, during the period of the civil war few years earlier, raiders under the command of Ragnar King of Svíþjóð, landed on the shores of England, to conquer the city of Jórvík, which once was the most important city of the Danelagh. In the begining, it was unclear what made Ragnar invade Kingdom of England, when he helped to defend it in the civil war during the rules of Richard I and Richard II. Although many Christian lords pledged their support to King Richard of England, and promised to expel the pagan hordes, most of them were busy fighting their own wars, far away from England.

King Richard III de Normandie​

When Ragnar left, his wife was left acting as a regent, along with the council left to rule in king's stead. Soon messengers brought news to Ragnar, about a plot of a treasonous Duchess of Jutland, Frú Gudrun, and her rebellion against the King and his council. However, with most of his vassals levies, left behind for protection of the realm, the council and the Queen had an easy task of putting the rebellion down.[1]

Rolland de Beaumon, adventurer who tried to conquer Jutland, and Lincoln.​

No sooner had that rebellion been quelled, when a pretender to the county of Lincoln, and a member of the powerful House de Beaumont, a Norman noble house in service of William and his heirs, gathered support in England and France, and launched an invasion against King Ragnar. His forces quickly joined forces with that of the Richard III, King of England. Just as England was at the point of breaking, a hope for the Christians came in the form of the Norman adventurer, and fifteen thousand troops he managed to gather in England, Brittany and France.

Norman adventurer Rolland de Beaumont​

While the council and the Queen were busy in Jutland, putting a rebellion down, and fighting Suomi raiders, who from time to time troubled Åland and Finmark, Ragnar fought a war in England. In three years, for that was how long the war lasted, he crushed one Christian army after the other, destroying both the power of Richard III, as well as army of adventurers and mercenaries put up by Rolland. After the peace was concluded it became apparent why Ragnar sought to conquer Jórvík from the Christians. It gave him prestige, power and influence, not only because he conquered another region from the Christians, a region that was once held by the Norsemen. It was also a city where King Ælla of Northumbria executed his ancestor Ragnarr Loðbrók. During a Blót at which he gathered all the Thanes, Jarls, Húskarlars he announced and unprecedented decision, a reformation of the Pagan beliefs and customs. While the beliefs itself were not significantly changed, King Ragnar reformed the Ásatrú faith, modelling it in part on the hierarchy that existed in the Abrahamic religions. The church of Odin was organized, with priests, seers, vǫlvas and priestesses, which were responsible to the head of the church - Fylkir. This left the Kingdom of Sweden in a state of shock. Some refused to adhere to the new rules, proclaiming them a heresy and offence to the gods. Many Christians saw this as a threat to Christianity, and a sign that soon persecutions against Christians will commence, probably seeing in that a reflection of the things that Christians did to Pagans. Ragnar proclaimed, that all were free to adhere to whichever faith and beliefs they want, but in a meeting with all his thanes and jarls, he asked them to convert to the reformed paganism. Although some refused, and for that none of them were punished, nor lost his lands or titles, many accepted. Ragnar insisted that this be done only from ones free will, but reminded them that their ancestors were all pagans, who worshipped Thor, Frey Odin, Hel, and other gods, and that they would only be returning to the gods of their ancestors. As an example, and a first one to convert, he produced none other than Rolland de Beaumont. Rolland was taken prisoner in a battle in England. Rolland declared war, and tried to take lands from Ragnar, but he was a Norman, whose ancestors came with Duke 'Rollo' in the ninth century. It is obvious that, although enemies, they respected each others skill at arms, and once taken captive, Rolland was treated with respect and dignity. During his time in captivity, Ragnar spoke of his ancestors, and how they share the same blood, blood of the Northmen, and so should share the same gods. Of course, a promise of freedom, a potential office and a place of a commander, and maybe even some lands might have helped to sway Rolland's decision.

The King of Sweden became the religious head of the Ásatrú Faith.​

His decision was followed by many others. Jarl Ragnar of Bornholm, Mogens of Jorvik, Jarl Harald IV of Skaane, from house Akra, Jarl Bror of Östergötland from House Bjälbo, Jarl Björn of Hälsingland, and many other lesser nobles. Immediately, priests, preachers and missionaries of the new "Church of Odin" as it became known, although that was not the formal name, started spreading their faith, both in the regions where the old gods held sway, and in the southern, Christian lands. It is of interests to say, that King Ragnar excluded Slavic Vends from this, and neither sent priests, nor demanded from their Duke to convert.

The establishment of the Church of Ásatrú faith, written in runes.[3]​

From the Vinland lands, where still the few brave ships sailed to trade with ferocious and wild strange people that dwelled in those lands to the far east and the mysterious Khazar sea, could the longboats of Norsemen, both raders and traders, be seen. From the lands of eternal snow and ice, to Norvasund and Kanaríeyjar, to Rome and Miklagard the sons of Odin sail. For centuries, they were forced on the back foot by Christianity. But now, as their reach and their power growing again after a period of decline.

No sooner did the proclamation of King Ragnar reach the Christendom, a flame of outrage was lit, not only in fear of what could that mean for the Christians, but also of the news that many Norse people now willingly accepted conversion to the paganism. Blayve de Beaumont, a pious man, proclaimed his uncle Rolland a traitor and a servant of devil, and called for all Christians to join him, in his quest to conquer those lands in Egnland, where again the Norse way held sway.

As soon as one is defeated, another takes up his cause.​

[1] I just added things about Queen acting as a regent for the story sake, cause Ragnar can hardly rule the realm if he is leading armies in England.
[2] Khazar Sea, meaning the Caspian Sea. I have no idea how the Norse / Rus called it, so I just used Icelandic word for Khazar, because one of the names for it was Khazar Sea. Norvasund, Gibraltar.
[3] It is actually part of Völsungs saga, written in medieval Icelandic runes.
[4] Hence the 0% warscore.

Spoiler: De Beaumont

Blayve de Beaumont

House De Beaumont

Rolland's conversion sparked his nephew to call Christians to his banner

Spoiler: Strategic Maps

Invasion of Jórvík

Belligerents of the war

Spring 1123

Rebellion of the Duchess of Jutland, ended in January 1124

Summer 1124

Spoiler: Battles

First major battle of the war, Battle of Southwell.

Second major battle of the war, Battle of Nottingham

Second Battle of Nottingham

Fourth major battle of the war, large fraction of the forces were English rebels[4]

Final battle of the war, that broke both the English forces, and the forces of Rolland de Beaumont

Spoiler

I decided to put a few less screenshots, only those depicting most important stuff, for the simple reason that it takes to much time to edit them all, sort them out and post them. The pace of this AAR is way to slow for my taste, although most of it goes down to my real life work, social life and shit like that.

Writing this was hard. I wrote a full chapter, from Ragnar's POV, but decided I disliked it, the dialogue and the wording just didn't seem right, I couldn't get it to work.

I tried to make this an interesting write, as it wasn't much of a surprise, given that it was obvious that I would try to reform Asatru. But the gameplay itself was very fun, and in the end it was much much easier than I expected.

The game follows the events I described in the last two updates. I won the war against HRE, using the fact that they had a new Emperor installed by fraction demand, war against Poland and two major rebellions, and took the one county of Holstein duchy. Then when Ragnar got his twins, meaning he had three sons, I was considering weather to try and reform the Norse, or to try and conquer back the lands once King Ragnar dies, from brothers. They might not even live to the adulthood. I was considering staying pagan, as I was unsure weather I can raid once I reform, but also to have the huge 50% retinue bonus I have as unreformed pagan. What determined me, was the fact that I could hardly convert anything or anyone to norse or Asatru as it is called in HIP, and my provinces were fairly vulnerable to conversion. In fact, most of the Norse pagans I gave counties in Denmark or southern Sweden, had actually converted to Christianity, leaving only central and northern Sweden fully pagan.
So I declared war on England, which at the time was fairly strong, some 15-18k troops. The good thing, that helped me, was the fact that King of England had 4 provinces in HRE as his personal demesne. And he was an ally of HRE in their war against Poland, probably against rebels too. So I declare war, Scotland joins in, Aquitaine joins in. Deposed Emperor or HRE, now Duke of Franken, joins in. A year or so later France joins in too, but by that point it is too late. HRE joined in some two years later, when it signed peace with Poland. By that point I had 100%, and wanted to raid a bit more, but when HRE joined in with 20k troops, I immediately signed peace.
However, I only fought English troops, those of the King, as well as some vassal troops (there was some vassal infighting between East Anglia and Northumbria) and the troops of the adventurer of Rolland de Beaumont. Rolland had some 15k troops, and England had some 15-18k, plus some English vassals and rebels which were hostile to me, and had raised troops to fight each other. That is mostly all troops I have seen. Scotland had 10k, I saw none. Aquitaine had 17k, i saw none, they were allied with Aragon, and had some land taken from Muslims in Iberia, so I guess that is where their troops went, few wars were fought in Spain during my war. France had 10k but they had some rebellion, and they lost a large part of Duchy of Valois, when it was inherited by independent Duke of Provence before the war, I am unsure what were they doing..

I am telling you this, because I won the war more or less with ease, and between few taxes collected by my steward, and some raiding I did in England, I only went down a couple of hundred of gold. I had some 2300 gold when the war ended. However, then I first used all my retinue cap, to build troops, just before I clicked on the reform button, and went down from 23k retinue to 12k retinue cap. This left me with some 800 gold, but it meant I would have 12.5k troops once the retinues build to full strength. The war itself was very intense, at least when I fought it, cause I was expecting allied Christian armies to appear any time, and wanted to quickly crush both England and Rolland de Beaumont's adventure troops, so I divided forces in 4 groups, lured the enemy stack to attack one, then quickly sent the others in to have equal or superior numbers. In the end it was fairly easy victory, but if the AI had any sense, and grouped his armies together, I would never have any chance. However I counted of France being busy and Scotland fighting Poland together with HRE and England. I have no idea where their troops had been, but Scotland's 10k would be enough to turn the tide against me. Good thing, I never saw them.

After I reformed it was easy. I could go with primogeniture, because it requires high crown authority, so I had to settle with Elective. Aside from that, I need a few more technology to unlock majesty, legalism to be able to unlock full centralism and late administration. It's good when you start as absolute pagan, and don't have to put up with a council.

I also had to cope with some raiding and a minor rebellion during the first year of the war. Duchess of Jutland, rebelled when I tried to imprison her. She was fighting a war against Duchy of Sieland, for one county, and I could not stop her and she was winning, but she was stupid enough to plot, which my spymaster discovered. I wanted to stop her from taking more counties, given that I assasinated two of her Turgot predecessors for trying the same thing. She managed to avoid being taken prisoner, but I had my vassal levies left in reserve, so I it was east taking down her 2k troops.

The war left me victorious with a large realm, a bunch of vassals converted to refermoed Ásatrú, a good chances of finally converting a bunch of provinces to my own faith. I had to give out some of the lands as my demesne went from 17 to 13 when I ditched gavelkind. And I lost a good deal of troops in England, I am powerful enough to avoid any immediate threats, but I would have to wait a few years until my levies come back to full size.

Also my actions plunged England into chaos, young King Richard was left with very few troops, so soon his uncle raised a 9k rebellion to take the throne. Then Richard was removed from power, as fraction installed De Percy pretender to the throne of England. The guy gut his claim on the throne from his Godwine mother, she was daughter of King Harold Godwinson.

So there was a description of gameplay for those interested, cause it was for sure fun enough.

One of the most fun parts, was the de Beaumont adventurers, declaring war on me. I didn't cheat or do anything about it, the AI did all himself, including Rolland's conversion.

 

[m n]

3 minutes ago ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

[stnylan]

Plunging England into chaos seems a perfectly reasonably viking-y thing to do you know

 

[RhaegarTelcontarTargaryen]

Plunging England into chaos seems a perfectly reasonably viking-y thing to do you know

Indeed. But not so long ago I tried to keep it one place. That is why I reasoned Ragnar needed prestige and authority from controlling Ragnar Lodbrok's grave to reform the religion (from role play perspective the 'you must control this, this, this and that one too makes no sense, although it makes perfect sense in terms of game balance and difficulty.)

3 minutes ago ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

What?

 

[Specialist290]

Another Ragnar comes to Jorvik, not as prisoner but as conqueror. Quite the profound bit of symbolism there.

Let's hope that the newly-reformed Norse are up to the task of weathering the storm. I suspect the Christians aren't going to take the formation of a properly organized pagan alternative lying down...

 

[RhaegarTelcontarTargaryen]

Another Ragnar comes to Jorvik, not as prisoner but as conqueror. Quite the profound bit of symbolism there.

Let's hope that the newly-reformed Norse are up to the task of weathering the storm. I suspect the Christians aren't going to take the formation of a properly organized pagan alternative lying down...

Since I haven't played much past the point of reformation, I can reveal this:

Spoiler

There is a rebellion in England, which will likely succeed and put a strong king with a large army on the throne, which will be on par with me in terms of numbers. There is also a new Emperor in HRE. None of the two have a truce with me. At least I outnumber Poland. (Sometimes I really wish the AI was smarter, I would not have nowhere near such an easy time rolling over the Christians... )

 

[RhaegarTelcontarTargaryen]

I am not sure yet, but it could be that this was the last update for this AAR. I started this some eight or nine month ago, and planned to go at a much higher pace. However, I purchased "The Reaper's Due" DLC now (AAR being one of the reasons why I postponed that a bit) when I caught it while on sale, so I am anxious to try it out.

I played this with HIP Zeus six, or Zeus eight, I can't remember now ( [HIP Release [DEV: 2016-06-26 13:28]] ) so I doubt that once I update the game and the HIP version to the new one, it will be save game compatible (although I will try, and keep the old saves for back up just in case ).

I let down myself a bit with the speed of this, I hoped to get an update per week, or at least per fortnight. On the other hand, I am not the best person to judge, but I did tried really hard, and I hope the story, and the style of this AAR was of satisfactory level.

As I say I will keep backup files, so it's possible that I will continue with this one, you never know. Or I might try another AAR, given that I have few ideas on my mind already ( William the Bastard, another Viking, AGOT, or maybe my own country, there aren't many Serbian ones.)

 

[stnylan]

If it is, I will be sad to see it end, but for the best of reasons. Perhaps a new AAR might yet be in the offing as and when time permits.

 

[Specialist290]

If you're interested, I do know of a way where you can copy your current CK2 install and all mod files to a new directory that will remain untouched by the update, if you do think such a thing would be worth a try. I can PM you the details, to avoid cluttering this thread with "shop talk."

Otherwise, do keep us posted on your future endeavors. It's been an enjoyable tale, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your writing one way or another

 

[RhaegarTelcontarTargaryen]

If you're interested, I do know of a way where you can copy your current CK2 install and all mod files to a new directory that will remain untouched by the update, if you do think such a thing would be worth a try. I can PM you the details, to avoid cluttering this thread with "shop talk."

Otherwise, do keep us posted on your future endeavors. It's been an enjoyable tale, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your writing one way or another

Feel free to, I might give it a try, to see how it will end.

 

[coz1]

Ach! Don't tell me you are ending it just as I caught up?? Well, at least I can get in on the ground floor of the Conqueror AAR you mentioned. If it is like this one, it will be a joy to read. I had much fun going through this one at once. Great work, especially for your first AAR!

 

[GoldenShotgun]

The Norse faith has adapted, but can it survive the coming onslaught of Christian armies?

Tune in next time to find out!