A Return to the Old Gods - Denmark AAR

I’ve considered trying a storyline version, what some call an After Action Report, of Denmark throwing off its Christian ways and going back to their old pagan Norse gods. I finally decided I’d give it a try. I’ll be using the LtC mod instead of the vanilla game. I much prefer it since it has a lot of fixes in it already. I chose the Denmark Short Campaign that requires controlling 20 territories and eliminating The Holy Roman Empire as the victory requirements. I also decided for the sake of the story line that as part of that victory condition Denmark must control all of the British Isles including Scotland and Ireland. In addition Denmark must also control Arhus, the starting Danish Capital and Oslo and Stockholm. Any other territories the Danes control at the end of the victory conditions will be pure gravy.

To better tell this story of the Danes returning to their old ways I have decided that no churches will be built in any city nor will any priests be recruited at any time. Also I wont do any calling for Crusades. I'll let the game AI determine the Crusades. The game starts with one existing Cardinal, which I cannot remove but, he’ll slowly fade to the past and I’ll explain that in my writings how that comes about and why.

This is my first try at such a campaign and my first try at an AAR storyline so please understand it may not be up to some people’s standards but I’ll do my best to entertain. Also I should point out that I don’t plan to post pics so the reader will have to use their imagination as they read along. Sorry about that.


Faction: Denmark
Game Version: M2TW Patch 1.1
Mod: Lands to Conquer
Game Settings: Hard/Hard





A Return to the Old Gods

Preface

In the fall of 1066 AD The Danish King, Harold Hardrada decided to lay his claim to the English throne as he believed was his right. To once again unite Denmark and England under one Viking rule. His rule. Harold and his Viking army landed on the East coast of Northern England in Northumberland. Marching inland he quickly defeated a local English army at Fulford Gate in Northumberland.

Claiming the old king had named him the successor to the throne, the new English King, Harold Godwinson learned of this attack and marched what forces he could quickly marshal together. He intended to defeat this Danish King and claimant to his throne and secure his own claim and right to the crown. Gathering his huscarls and levied troops as he quickly marched north he met the Danish Viking, Harold Hardrada, at Stamford Bridge on September 26th.
The Harold Godwinson and his English army surprised the Danish Vikings by showing up so quickly and unexpectedly. The battle ensued all day and at the end it was the Danish king that lost. Harold Hardrada reportedly took an arrow in his chest and fell on the battlefield. The Danish Vikings were routed after that. Of that army Harold Hardrada led and invaded England only a small portion of it returned to the Denmark to tell the sad tale.

The last chance for Viking control of England had pass. It was the last big Viking invasion seen. And it died with Harold Hardrada, the Danish King. Or did it?

Starting Cast of Characters:

Royal Family:
King Knud. Age 40. King of Denmark, Faction Leader
Prince Charles, Age 19, Son of King Knud, Faction Heir
Queen Adel, Age 35, wife to King Knud and mother to their children
Princess Ingrid, Age 18, Eldest daughter of King Knud and Queen Adel
Princess Cecile, Age 2, youngest daughter of King Knud and Queen Adel

Other Characters:
Cardinal Halstan, Age 40, Pope Gregory’s Papal representative in Denmark
Koblein of Holmr, Age 20, Spy and Adept Agent to King Knud
Toke, Age 30, a merchant and bean counter in service to king Knud
Admiral Jon, Fleet Admiral of the small Danish Navy
Captain Haakon, A Captain in King Knud’s Army.


Prologue

Late Winter/Early Spring 1080

The wind blew in the dark moonlit night. Clouds raced across the sky in thick clusters separated here and there allowing the moonlight to cast shadows upon the dark ground below each time a bank of clouds raced under the moon. Here and there patches of snow still clung to areas. Winter’s last chill was slowly giving way to the spring thaw. The weather in recent days had turned from snow to icy rain. The trees had shed their snowy cover for bare bark now. As the land slowly gave up its wintery blanket one last storm of winter’s gasp rushed through the Dane mark.

Inside the royal palace not a sound other than the wind’s fury was heard. The palace dark mostly except where a torch lit a hallway leading to the King’s bedchamber. Inside the room was pitching black. The queen slept peacefully. Her breath slowly inhaling and exhaling in deep slumber. The man lying next to her was not so fortunate. He tossed and turned in his sleep. He dreamed of wild things that raced across the night sky.


The great white horse whinnied and snorted loudly as its eight legs quickly carried it across the night sky. The man upon its back laughed aloud in joy. He was singing when he wasn’t laughing. The singing was a song of noble battles and valiant men that feared nothing. He was dressed in battle armor. His hauberk was made of chain-linked mail with a leather tunic beneath it. His upper arms were encased in chain-linked mail and leather as well down to his elbows. On his lower torso he wore boiled leather pants. Thick leather black boots on both feet that came up high to just below the knee caps. His hands open to the weather and each clutched reins of the eight legged horse. Occasionally he would throw one hand and arm up and yell in exhilaration. His facial features were obscured by the hood of the dark cloak he wore on his back. It looked as if he was an old man. Beard grown grey by many years of living. Yet his manner drove away any indication he was old or feeble. His voiced boom again and again with laughter between lines of song. Gusts of strong wind carrying the words back a long ways behind him as they raced through the night sky.

As the horse and rider continued to fly along with the stormy clouds below them the small town of Aarhus came into view. The man pointed downward towards the town and said, “There! That’s our destination!”

The horse’s head reared up as if to nod in acceptance then lowering its head the beast dived headlong downward. Its eight legs flailing in the wind increasing its speed. Closer and closer they approached the town. The top of the wall that surrounded the town coming up at them at a rapid pace. Below a lone figure standing atop the wall huddled by a fire as they raced past above. The guardsman never having looked up nor hearing their approach.

The horse raced through the city at rooftop level. Dodging between buildings then finding the main street it followed the avenue. The man pointed a finger ahead. Indicating a large fortress structure centered in the center of the town. “There! That’s the building! Onward!”

The horse increased speed more now as it homed in on its target. The man leaned forward as if to help the horse increase its speed. The royal palace loomed in their view as they got closer and closer the horse cut to the right as it neared the front of the palace wall and swung wide along its side. The horse then rose quickly in a steep climb and then checked itself for a moment and then went into a deep dive aiming for a set of windows of the upper building. With a whinnying cry horse and rider crashed into the windows at full force.

King Knud sprang straight up in his bed. The crashing sound of glass jarring him awake. He looked over to the windows and expecting a broken ruin of expensive glass and wood but saw only that the windows had come unlatched and were flapping in the cold night wind. He looked over at his wife and she was still sound asleep. Softly muttering under his breath about dreams and cold winters he got up and moved across the floor to the windows. Catching each he shut them again and relatched them shut.

He stood there pausing for a moment as he looked up at the moon in the night sky watching as racing clouds passed beneath it. He then turned to head back to his bed when he stopped abruptly in his tracks. Along the wall opposite the bed he noticed a dark shape. Darker than the darkness itself. It looked like a figure of a man but yet didn’t. He started to think his eyes were playing tricks on him and his mind over active from the dream he was having but then the dark figure moved. And it was moving towards him!

The king stood there unable to react not sure wether to run or to laugh thinking it was just his imagination. As the figure approached he noticed it resembled more of a man as it got closer. The dark figure then stopped just inside the light that shone through the window and onto the room floor. Knud realized that it was indeed a man wearing a dark hooded cloak and he had the sense of a warrior about him but yet seemed old but then again not too old.

King Knud began to think that maybe the guard from the corridor had entered unannounced and for a moment he felt angry for the intrusion. “What are you doing in here?” The King demanded.

The figure of the man didn’t move nor say a word. King Knud now became a bit worried. An assassin perhaps? Sent to kill him and/or his wife?

“Who are you?” The king demanded. His fear starting to show now that realizing this wasn’t a guard but a complete stranger and intruder.

An old man’s voice finally spoke but spoke with clarity and a voice of vibrancy of a man younger than he appeared. And the man did look old from what King Knud could make of him. A grayish beard but he couldn’t make out the rest of his features. The figure’s eyes seemed to shine a bit from beneath the hood. And one seemed brighter than the other.

“Listen to me O’ King of Denmark.” The figure’s voice said softly but authoritively. “Know that I have come to speak to you and I have words of wisdom to give”

King Knud debated wether to call out to alert guards in the corridor. If they heard his call they could be here in just moments. He would just need to hold the stranger off for a short time and he felt he could do that.

“Have no fear of me for I have no ill will to give you but speak we shall and you must listen.” The figure said. “I come to you to tell you you must turn away from the one good and return to the elder gods.”

“What do you mean? Who are you? I demand to know who you are!” The King replied with his voice rising. He looked over to his wife still fast asleep in the bed.

“She cannot hear us.” The figure replied. “Nor can the guards in the corridor outside this room. It is only you and I that now speak and hear one another”

This talk was unnerving the King but he remained calm. Life had taught him to remain calm when things and others around you began to get excited. “Speak then and tell me why you accost me in my bedchamber in the middle of the night. Who are you and why are you here?” he demanded once again.

“The figure spoke slowly, “I speak for the elder gods. Those that you and your people have turned away from. For this one god you people mewl over as if he was some great thing” The last part was spoken with disgust.

King Knud looked over his shoulder at the window and looked up into the sky. Then he looked back at the figure standing before him. “The elder gods? Odin? Thor? Freya, you mean? Those gods?”

“Yes! Those gods. I’m pleased you still remember the names” The figure replied. “They are the true gods of our people.” He said. “Time that they be worshipped properly again. Placed back into the forefront of your people”

“Why?” The King decided to humor this fellow. Something was happening here. He didn’t know what but he felt it was important so he listened.

“To bring back the glory of our people that is why” The figure answered. Your ancestors once ruled lands and seas, to the west, east, and south, far and wide. And now look at you. A few small holdings of land now. You know longer even hold the northern tribes. Your people have fallen and fallen low. Its time the warriors of Odin, Thor, and Tyr once again sail for other lands and retake what is rightfully their by conquest of might like in the olden days. To go a Viking like your ancestors”

“Those days are gone old man” The King sadly said. “They are gone like our gods. Never to come back”

“They can!” The figure insisted. “They just need a leader to rally them. To marshal the forces. To return them to the belief in their elder gods. And you… You could be that leader if you are as brave as I think you are” The old man finished.

“Me?” King Knud looked incredously. “How would I do that? The church would never stand for such a thing. Times have changed old man. No, the church and his holiness Pope Gregory would never allow that” and even if they did our neighboring nations would never stand for it. The Holy Roman Emperor would love nothing better than an excuse to attack us. The Kings of France and England would also be likely to attack as well. And the Poles to the east and the Russians. They too would look at taking what they could for such a simple excuse as of heresy. And heresy is what you speak of” The King stated.


“Not if you believe in the elder gods and return to them. Your people have a thing in them that none of those cowardly dogs you mentioned will ever have. A spirit inside them that cannot be quenched once loosed. Return to the old ways in belief but keep the new technologies and weapons and you’ll rule a land far greater than any Danish King or Viking Warlord had ever dreamed of before.”

King Knud thought about the figure’s words for a moment. He had thought at times what it would be like to have lived like his father, grandfather, and his grandfather’s father lived like. Back before the coming of the Christ and one god. Raiding and taking what they wanted and when. Fighting great heroic battles and villains like told in the Sagas. He had had dreams even at times in his sleep of such possibilities but they were just foolish dreams. Or were they?

The figure finally moved from his spot it had been standing in. Walking past the King as it walked toward the window. “Think about my words. Sleep upon it” The figure chuckled deeply. “I’ll send someone to you when the time is right”

The king had been deep in thought of the figure’s words when he realized what he had had said about sending someone to him. “Who? Who will you send and when?” The King asked turning towards where the figure walked past him. But as he turned all that was there was the window. The moon’s light shining down and through it. The wind outside was still blowing. In the distance King Knud thought he heard the whinnying of a horse and a mans deep laughter. He strode to the closed window and looked out and up into the sky but he saw nothing but scudding clouds racing beneath the moon.

Night after night King Knud had dreams about the elder gods and the old ways. In each dream the dark figure that he spoke to in his room that night showed him visions of what had been once and what could be again. Each day Knud would reflect on the dream he had the night before. In each dream he would see the black raven banner waving high above his armies as they marched into battle. Each battle was glorious and noble and always ended in victory for the Danes. The armies he led invaded the lands to the south, north, east, and west. His armies conquered all of the north and united his fellow north men. Combined they invaded and conquered England, Scotland, and Ireland. They pushed back the armies of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Kingdoms and duchies of the Poles and even the Russians to the east. Each night he dreamed victory after victory and as the black raven banner led his armies onward the dark figure was always above in the sky sitting upon the great white eight legged horse laughing and singing and encouraging the king on.

Finally one morning Knud came to the realization that these dreams were more than just dreams. They were prophetic. The elder gods were calling upon him to take up the black raven banner once more and return to the old ways. He determined he would do so and make a name for himself in battle and deeds like his forefathers had done before him.

Christianity had only been officially recognized in his kingdom for about 120 years but many still prayed to the old gods despite that. Paganism had been tolerated for the most part and not persecuted by the Kings. The Church had taken root and grown but it hadn’t completely driven out the old beliefs. It was often said the early Christian Danish kings had only converted in name but never fully stopped believing in the old gods.

Knud’s father, Sweyn II, had used the Church’s influence to help strengthen his political power but he didn’t seem to follow the faith totally. It’s well known Sweyn II had fathered a score of children out of wedlock, of which Knud himself was one. Knud’s brother, Harald III, king before Knud was also born out of wedlock. Many said King Sweyn was the last Viking King of Denmark because of his less than saintly ways.

Knud resolved he was going to be the new Viking King and lead his people to greatness and glory again. First though he had to deal with his Council of Nobles and Pope Gregory’s representative, Cardinal Halstan. The first wasn’t as difficult as he first thought. Many of the men on the council still secretly worshiped the elder gods or at the very least very tolerant of the old beliefs and those that still practiced it. They were whole heartedly convinced in King Knud’s idea of returning to the old ways. The pious ones that objected were quietly removed from the council. Some had decided they were ready to retire from public life and duties and a few caught chills during the last storm and died of illness. A couple died of purely by accident. One drowned while one died during a hunting accident when thrown from his horse. In the end King Knud had the Council of Nobles acceptance of his plans.

Due to some unexplained problem with the LtC mod it wont let me access any of my saved campaign game files. I got about ten years into the game when this happened.

Uninstalling and reinstalling hasnt worked neither. I have been trying to figure it out trying different things but nothing seems to work. So....until I can figure out what the problem is this AAR has been put on hold. Sorry to dissapoint people. I assure you no one is more fustrated and dissapointed than I. :furious3: