There Will Be War: A Collaborative MP AAR

[Cuthuthulu]

The Legacy of Great Britian

The Legacy of Great Britain​

Part 1: There Will Be War​

Where there was supposed to be order..... There was chaos
What was supposed to have signaled in a golden age of peace and prosperity instead brought about a dark age of war and poverty


No one could have predicted that in the early 11th century the two kingdoms of Scotland and England would unite, bringing the British Isles under one king. Even fewer could have predicted that this same event would almost bring about the complete destruction of both kingdoms.

Our story begins during the reign of Robert Curthose in England. Robert was not a particularly outstanding King and his only real legacy was being the last Norman king of England. Unfortunately the King had a problem, although the king was young he had worms growing in his belly and he did not have much time to live. Robert had also been plagued with daughters and had no male heir to pass down his line. Unwilling to let the throne go to his brothers after he died, Robert agreed to marry off his eldest daughter to Malcolm, king of Scotland. Although it would mean the end of Norman rule in England, Richard hoped that Malcolm would give him the heir he needed to prevent his brothers from ever inheriting the throne.
Not long after the marriage Malcolm and the daughter of Robert soon had a child. This was praised throughout the land and soon Malcolm declared that this child would also be the King of Scotland. This brought great power to both kingdoms and no one dared to challenge the authority of the two kingdoms. Many years passed and King Robert grew weaker and weaker. In 1094 Robert finally passed away leaving the Kingdom to the young 5 year old prince of Scotland.
At first the English dukes accepted their new king without a word of protest. However the child soon grew corrupt with power was overcome pride and suspicion against his fellow man. Many of dukes began to believe that the young king was growing into a tyrant and was not fit to rule. Many of the dukes revolted against the young king each one put down one after the other. Only Cornwall successfully resisted occupation. By this point Malcolm III, well into his 70s began to realize that his son would not be capable of holding the two kingdoms together. Malcolm tried to assassinate the boy in a last ditch effort to preserve the kingdom. The plan backfired, and several months later King Malcolm was found dead in his bed, rumors of poison spread throughout the Kingdom.
The final union between England and Scotland would trigger decades of bloody civil war. Both Scots and Englishmen alike would rise up against their King and the lands became lawless. Plague and famine will spread across the land and some said the very island was cursed. This was a time of tyrants and madmen. It was a time for chaos, it was Britain's’ darkest hour. Where the only thing certain was that there will be war.

 

[King of Men]

One year Geir Jonsson travelled to Dovre in the winter; for what reason he would not say, nor does any man know what passed there. But when he returned, he brought with him Anja Sigridsdatter; and from this much else flowed, as shall presently be related.

Anja was a very tall woman, and stronger than many men. She often joined the weapons-practice sessions at Geir's field. At first this caused a few youths to stop attending, saying that sword and shield were a man's weapons; but Geir said that a warrior mother was the best way to ensure warrior sons, and Anja showed that she could fight as well as most, and so no more was said of this among Geir's followers.

Kalle was a man, who had lands in the south of Viken. He had often looked with envy on Geir's wealth and favour with the king, and said to his following that it was not right that a landless beggar, whose bloodline no-one knew, should come to such power in the land. Now he saw himself vindicated, and when Olav next held Ting, Kalle spoke against Anja, saying that she should be forbidden to bear arms as men do. And there were many who agreed with him, and said that Anja was shameless, and there were some who muttered that she used seidh, and should be burned lest she bring bad luck on the land.

When this was said to King Olav, he replied, "That is a strong accusation, but see the accused is not here to speak for herself. Let her come before us tomorrow, and we shall hear what she has to say." And with this Kalle had to be content for that day.

The next day Geir came man-strong to the Ting, with all his followers; Kalle had likewise brought many men. But the most man-strong of all was King Olav, and he reminded all present that it was unlawful to draw weapons at Ting-meet, and said that whoever drew sword first should be banished from the land. Then he asked Kalle to speak his accusation again; and Kalle replied thus: "There is among us one who brings ill-luck to the land with her impious ways. She dresses as a man, which is against godly law and old custom; she uses seidh, which offends the land-spirits; and she makes the young girls rebellious, which brings about unpeace in our households. Therefore I ask that Anja Sigridsdatter be banished, or at the least that she accept judgement and behave fittingly hereafter."

Now King Olav asked to hear Anja speak, and she said this: "I use no seidh, but honest strength and skill. And if Kalle Bonde would give his children leave to learn to fight, as all Norse should, he would have no unpeace in his household. And what is more, I will meet any man who wishes it in holmgang, and prove by right of arms whether the gods dislike my clothes."

At this the men of Geir's following said loudly that this was well spoken, and that such strong women would be needed for Norway in years to come. But Kalle replied that duelling was against the law, and for good reasons; and asked the King to judge the case. And the King spoke thus:

"I shall now give judgment in this matter. We have heard that Anja uses seidh, but we have seen no proof for this; so for false accusation, I fine Kalle Bonde 100 marks of silver. We have heard that Anja causes unrest in the households, but children are always unrestful for something; so in this matter I make no judgement against either party. We have heard that Anja wears men's clothing in breach of custom, and this we can all see is true. Therefore I fine Anja 10 marks, and she shall pay a penny for every day she wears such clothing henceforth. And lastly, we have heard Anja give challenge to holmgang, which is against the King's peace; so I fine her another 50 marks for this." And with this judgement both parties had to be content.

-------------------------------------------------​

"Anja, you idiot, what the devil was that?"

"Watch who you call an idiot, Jonsson."

"Fine! Anja, cleverest Yngling in the land, what the devil was that?"

"Well, what's this nonsense of duels being outlawed, then? This is Norway!"

"Ah. You had the briefing for 1400, didn't you. Duelling has been outlawed since 1014. We expected we'd have it back by the time you got here."

"Mmm. Do you have 50 marks?"

"I do, yes." Geir kept his tone dry. He'd have to pay the fine - Anja was penniless in her own right, but he couldn't very well have her banished - but he intended to make her squirm for it.

"I'll pay you back."

"Oh so? And how will you do that?"

"I'll get the king to give me a ship, go raiding. Some of the lads will come along."

"Hmm." Geir considered it. "That's not a bad idea. We've been too quiet lately. I'm too old for raids, these days."

"So you'll pay the fifty marks, then?"

"Yes, yes, fine. And the new tax, too. Penny a day, sheesh, that's robbery."

Anja snorted. "Takes one to know one. I think the King was hinting I should wear dresses, actually. He doesn't expect you to pay."

"Eh. He'll have to live with it - you can't very well fight in those skirt things."

"Right. Tell me about Einar."

Geir blinked, but he was used to Anja's sudden changes of subject. "What's to say? Grandson of the king, not too awful with the sword, prefers the bow and is better with that. Bit too slow for real deadliness in unarmed, but persistent. Likable sort, doesn't push himself forward. I think I intimidate him; probably you do, too. You've still got a bunch of uptime habits, you know."

"Like what?"

"All those dominance tricks - you should back off on them. These aren't strils. No need to force them to submit to our Will."

"Oh yes they are." Her mouth twisted in contempt. "Strils the lot of them. Not a real fighter in the bunch. It would serve them right if we went back uptime and fought it out with nukes."

"So why were you asking about Einar?"

"Well... he's the closest thing to a real Yngling around here. At least he's descended from Olav."

Comprehension dawned; Anja was still trying to merge her genes with the male line from King Olav. Since Geir wouldn't oblige, the king's grandson would do. Actually Geir was surprised she hadn't set her cap for the king himself. He felt a bit sorry for the lad, but then again he'd no doubt think it was all his idea, and anyway he'd certainly have a wonderful time.

"Try not to get him killed on your raid, then."

Anja grinned. "Oh, what's to worry? Brief life burns bright."

 

[Sid Meier]

Tsar of All Russia

In the grand hall of the largest church in Muscovy, there was a great gathering of Russians nobles from all over the land where Vladimir Rurikovich the Great held sway, there was a church choir singing a song that the now famous Aleksandr Rurikovich wrote himself "inspired by God in a dream", there is a wide pathway going straight across the hall with throngs of nobles on both sides. A Orthodox Patriach walks down or should I say up? the ail to where situated there is a throne surrounded by nobles of the highest of rank and station, Stephan Rurikovich Prince of Kiev, and the Lower Ukraine, Davyd Rurikovich Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal, Simeon Rurikovich Prince of Courland and Novgorod, Grigorii Rurikovich Prince of Novgorod-Seversk, Prince Aleksandr Rurikovich of Kyiv, Prince Steikint Rurikovich of Poltolsk, and finally Prince Sviatopolk Yaroslavich of the Sames. The Council of Seven, the Seven Greatest and most powerful of the House of Rurik and its affiliates headed by King of Rus Vladimir Rurikovich.

The Patriach, walking bent with age and wisdom granted to him by God walked down with dignity over to Vladimir of the House of Rurik, he stood there ar the feet of Vlad's rather modest throne and waited. Vladimir Rurikovich stood from his throne and recited the Nicean Creed:

"I Vladimir Rurikovich, believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all æons, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;

by whom all things were made;

who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man;

he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;

from thence he shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead;

whose kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets. In one holy catholic and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

After which the Patriarch invoked the holy ghost and all the crowds participated in reciting a litany, the Moskva metropolitan archbishop Vseslav Vsevolodovich recited the following address to the gathered nobles:

"Most God-fearing, absolute, and mighty Lord, Tsar of all the Russias, this visible and tangible adornment of thy head is an eloquent symbol that thou, as the head of the whole Russian people, art invisibly crowned by the King of kings, Christ, with a most ample blessing, seeing that He bestows upon thee entire authority over His people."

Then he passed the Crown to Vladimir Rurikovich who, standing up placed the Crown upon his own head, this left no doubt that, imperial power came from God.

Bozhe, Tsarja hrani!
Slavnomu dolgi dni
Daj na zemli!
Gordyh smiritjelju,
Slabyh hranitjelju,
Vseh uteshitjelju –
Vsjo nisposhli!

Pervoderzhavnuju,
Rus’ Pravoslavnuju,
Bozhe, hrani!
Trarstvo jej strojnoje,
V silje spokojnoje!
Vsjozh nedostojnoje
Proch otzheni!

O, Providenije!
Blagoslovenije
Nam nisposhli!
K blagu stremljenije,
V schast’je smirenije,
V skorbi terpenije
Daj na zemli!

God, save the Tsar!
Long days to glorious
Give on the earth!
To humbler of the prouds,
To keeper of the weaks,
To comforter of everyone –
Grant ye him all!

Land of the first throne,
Orthodox Rus,
God, save her!
Harmonious reign for her,
Calm in strength!
Everything unworthy
Drive away!

O, Providence!
Blessing
Grant us!
Towards Good aspiration,
Humility in happiness,
Endurance in sorrow
Give on the earth!

As the celebrations were winding down, Aleksandr Rurikovich edged his away from the throng excusing himself from his Lord prescense due to ill health and made his way out of the Kremlin down the street by the Neglinnaya river bridge, lighting his pipe waiting.

Soon as if riding the cold Russian winter winds a "whiirp whiirp" sound echoed through he darkness and Aleksandr Rurikovich smiled...


No one had ever heard from Aleksandr ever again.

 

[BurningEGO]

Then he passed the Crown to Vladimir Rurikovich who, standing up placed the Crown upon his own head, this left no doubt that, imperial power came from God.

In your case, imperial power comes from León.

Oh and... Gonzalo, King of León was the first Russian King by the way.

 

[Sid Meier]

shush you. They dont need to know that.

 

[unmerged(63836)]

Another 'Great Game'! Your first mega campaign was most interesting, and inspired me to play and write AAR about my own mega-thing. Playing mp must be real fun, too bad that i`m late/don`t have DV. Nevertheless, I`ll be following.

 

[Lurken]

Another 'Great Game'! Your first mega campaign was most interesting, and inspired me to play and write AAR about my own mega-thing. Playing mp must be real fun, too bad that i`m late/don`t have DV. Nevertheless, I`ll be following.

You are not to late to join up. Go over to the CKMP and see if there's anything you like there.

 

[King of Men]

Ok. I don't know if anyone outside the game actually reads this thing, but if anyone does, I feel they are owed an explanation of the strange things that are going to be happening. Due to personal conflicts I won't go into here, and I hope no-one else does either, the game broke up. However, a subset of the players started a new game; its name is not settled yet, but the first session will be this Saturday. In this game we are limiting ourselves by not permitting King titles until 1200; this puts a little bit of a crimp in plans for playing Norway, to be sure. However, we get around this by editing so that Norway becomes the Duchy of Østfold - this makes Orkney, the Isles, and Trondhjem independent, which is historically not too unreasonable.

So, all the Norway-external stuff in the AAR to date is now a bit... off. There will almost surely not be any quick conquest of Sweden, because I can no longer vassalise Dukes. Same for Brittany, not that I had much joy of the place anyway, it was always rebelling. But I'm quite happy with the Norway-internal events, the stuff that happens to Geir and Anja. I therefore decree that this is all canon, and happen as described. The foreign-policy events, however, will be retconned somehow to fit in.

So, I will continue this AAR essentially where I left off; I may occasionally interject a map or gameplay section just to show what's going on, but I'm actually more interested in where my uptime Ynglings are going. The game is just a backdrop. So the conquest of Sweden, for example, should be considered as free-floating in time; something along the lines of the described battles will surely happen at some point, but not necessarily to the characters I've got there and certainly not at the same time.

Ynglinga Saga continues. Stay tuned.

 

[King of Men]

Ok, gameplay/griping time. Boy what a session. Let's see; my wife was simul-married; that is, a bug led to her accepting to marriages at the same time, and the other guy fathered three children on her. I kill her, I'm a kinslayer. All my vassals DOW, Bremen gets a claim by event on my main title, Bremen DOWs, Burgundy and Poland DOW. All my provinces revolt. My stability is -3. I have an income, with all armies demobbed, of 2 per month. My efficiency is 25% after annexing my vassals, with all the attendant bad events. My new wife is a rival, and has in sheer spite given me two daughters and only one son. And just to add insult to injury, my brother, played by the AI, is doing some quite successful crusading up north. A single point of light: This early in the game, nobody has a lot of claims on me.

But I shall deal with it. Are we not Ynglings?

 

[VILenin]

Ouch. I guess that first wife was one of the few remaining polygamists in Europe.

 

[King of Men]

All right, retcon. Anything that contradicts what I've said before should be taken as canon. Hey, when you mess about with the timelines, retcons are not a bug, they're a feature!

2. Ute was a woman, who lived in the Saxon lands south of Denmark. She was the daughter of a rich farmer there, and her beauty was renowned far and wide, so that she had many suitors. One year King Olaf travelled in Saxony, and he heard men speak of Ute; and he said "Let us guest with this Konrad Jarl, and we will see what truth there is to these tales."

Thus they travelled to Thuringen, and guested there; and Olaf found that Ute was indeed as beautiful as the Saxons had boasted, and was soon smitten with her. Nor did she seem to mind his affections. But Konrad Jarl who was chief of that land thought differently in this matter; and although Ute wept and swore that she would rather die than marry Heinrich, Konrad's son, she had little choice in the matter, and the Norse soon found that they had cold cheer in Konrad's hall.

3. The next year Olaf campaigned in Saxony, and took land-tax, bread, and salt of the cities there. But men said that he brooded deeply over the loss of Ute; and as they were preparing to set sail for Norway, Olaf ordered most of the host to sail without him, and took Geir Jonsson and a few picked men with him, deep into Germany. There they came to Konrad Jarl's hall as the midwinter celebrations began; and by moonlight they stole Ute from the fire-dance. But Konrad sent men in pursuit, and a stray arrow struck Ute in the throat, and she died.

After this Olaf was much changed. He took to drinking deeply, and taking frill-wives to his bed, which he had not often done before; but there were few who slept with him a second time. In council he became short-tempered and unruly, and gave offense to powerful men.

4. Aslak was a man, who had rich farms in Rogaland in the west. One year he came man-strong to Ting, although he did little business there; but on the last day he spoke to the assembly thus: "You have all heard how it went for us in Viken this Yule, when Olaf threw his ale in my face and said he'd have no more West-pigs in his hall. Now I say that if he'll have no more of us, then we'll have no more of him; let us elect again our own king, as it was before Harald Fairhair, and have no more of these Viken rats taking our land-tax." Now in the West-land there had always been many who disliked having a King in Viken, and Aslak was well liked; so there were many who said that this was well spoken, and the end of it was that the Ting cried Aslak hail, and said they would pay no more tax to Viken.

5. Now when King Olaf heard of this, he was angry, and sent at once for a levy of ships and men. "It is intolerable", he snarled; "it shall not stand." Nor did it; for the Viken lands are rich, and the host that King Olaf mustered was twice the size of the West-men's. It came to a fight outside of Stad. In this battle many good men fell; Yngve Raude was one, Walter Tyske another. But in the end Olaf's men cleared the ships of their foes, and the West-land was again brought under Olaf's rule. But Olaf did not appoint land-stewards, lensmenn, and jarls, as his fathers had done; instead he took the richest farms for himself, and gave some to his followers, while others he ran with wardens. This was a new thing in Norway.

Well, one good thing about being small: You can survive a death spiral from the kinslayer trait just by annexing the dang vassals. Which also has the nice side effect of clearing Western Norway of all the non-Yngling nobles, in accordance with Geir's instructions. Granted my badboy is now horrible, but then again I have no vassals, so who cares? Although the 25% efficiency is pretty nasty, to be sure.

 

[Varyar]

Ouch. I guess that first wife was one of the few remaining polygamists in Europe.

Actually that happened to my heir as well, although he at least was the father of her kids.

 

[The_Carbonater]

I do read this, although not posting that much

 

[Happy_Lonely]

The MP AARs are the ones worth reading. Too sad they often end prematurely.

 

[Sid Meier]

In the Beginning there was a wirlp

Off in the forest in a clear patch of land a strang sound seems to come from nowhere and then within moments a strange shape is slowly materializing, blue in colour rectangular in shape, an alert observer would notice it as being a 1950-60's London Police Box.

gradually over about half a minute the box materialized and the sound stopped. The door opened and 3 men stepped out into the bright Ukrainian sub.

One man, wearing a dark brown suit and a light brown over coat stepped out, followed by another man of slavic origin, wearing clothing suited to an accomplished scholar, followed by a Chinese man wearing a double quilt oriental jacket.


Doctor: "Well Alex! Geuss its time to see you off on your adventure! Remember this, no contaminating the timeline with future trivia, secondly no killing an ancient relative, and thirdly: Do not attempt to kill Geir unless you are absolutely sure you know where he is and won't kill yourself and ruin the mission doing so. This mission Alex, is extremely dangerous.... Now that we got that stuff out of the way have a nice trip! We'll be back to pick you up before you know it!"

The Doctor shock Yuri's hand and went back in. Yang bowed to Aleksandr.

Yang: "I bid you farewell, and I hope you will not need to spend too long out here, best of luck friend."

Aleksandr Yuri returned his bow clumsily saw as Yang turned back into the TARDIS and watched as it demarterialized out of existence with that strange yet conforting metallic "whriloop" sound.

And he kept watching for quite some time even when it was apparent they were gone and would not be coming back for a very long time.

Aleksandr Rurikovich as he called himself now, would travel to the nearest "city" which to his surprise was ancient Chernigov. Capitol of what would become a shortlived Russian state before the coming of Polish domination.

And he would change that.

Traveling into the city in what was best resembling local dress he made some simple and descreet questions as to the current situation and the location of the manor of Prince Svyatoslav Rurikovich. Determining the location as being the southern edge of town in the hill fort he made his way. His first obstacle to overcome was the culture shock, once he could calmly talk to people and look around not looking like a tourist he gained much confidence in his mission, then his next challenge was getting the local dialect down pat over 1000 years of Polish domination has quite an impact on how Russian is spoken, the Russian these people spoke was definately the older mother tongue, an the root of what would become Russian, Byerus and Ukrainian and was hard to understand at first but the after affects of the TARDIS's telepathic field and his own quick mind allowed him to quickly assimilate the local slang and forms of address.

Upon finding the habitat of Prince Svyatoslav Rurikovich he walked through the gate, the guards attempted to stop him but phrases his words carefully the soldiers would either assume he was a man of God or a wiseman, one of them as he had asked escourted him across the grounds towards the man building serving as the main quarters of the Prince and his family.

Inside he greeted the man himself and they got along well enough, Aleksandr said he was a distant cousin arriving from the north from Novgorod, with raids from the pagans intensifying he felt it would be best if he offered aid to those who had the ability to make good use of it. Svyatoslav, intrigued, listened and accepted his urgings to launch a campaign to passify Kyiv to strengthen his western border against the Kingdom of Poland and to help make the path clear to contain Pereslavyl.

Maintaining stability of the realm and balancing the political pressures of the competing nobles all made Aleks head hurt, but considering how he as a living made abstrat observations of subatomic particles political intrigue didn't seem so hard.

Upon convincing Svyatoslav to attack Kyiv Chernigov launched its forces, unexpectedly however Pereslavyl counter attacked Chernigov taking away the prince of chernigov title although no lands exchanged hands and the principality of Kyiv was absorbed by Chernigov.

It is only a matter of time.