The Great Heathen Army - A Viking Historic AU // Viking leaders needed!

[Primarch]

Ragnar Lothbrok lies dead in the Northumbrian dirt, veins choked with Anglo-Saxon wroth and vipers venom.
Revenge was swift, his sons laid waste to the British Isles, splintering the land and slaughtering all whom opposed them.
The Viking Horde swept West, an insatiable force that brought Alfred the Great to his knees.

I ran this game once before and it was quite fun. The idea is to start our own little version of the Great Viking Army invasion of England in AD 865. One of the important parts I might stress is that while this is based on a historical period I intend for this to be a historic AU. We will replace historic individuals with our own characters and make it our own story. This is intended to be a long term game designed for players interested in world-building and plot development.   

Do I need to be a history buff to take part?
No. This is not intended to be strictly grounded in historic fact. It should be considered more in the vein of the show 'Spartacus' or even 'Vikings' for that matter.

Will you be 'GMing' the story?
No. This is a collaborative narrative. I will set up a Discord chat we can use to keep in contact, plot events, organise and world build but I will not be GMing. At most I will be a first among equals who might nudge things along or take the lead as we get started.

I prefer playing as female characters, can I play a shieldmaiden?
Yes, Absolutely!

Are we limited to the Viking side or can I play a Saxon/English character?"
Not at the start. I would very much prefer to generate a healthy roster of characters on the Viking side, being the main focus of the plot. It's likely there will be a few persistent NPC's and down the line full PC's for the opposite side would be welcome. 

~~~
I will put up a character sheet & further information on sufficent show of interest.
Questions, Comments & suggestions are welcome.

Code Select Expand

[float=right][img][/img][/float][b]Character:[/b]
[b]Player:[/b]

[b]Role:[/b]
[b]Specialties:[/b]
[list]
[li][/li]
[li][/li]
[li][/li]
[/list]

[b]Personality:[/b]
[list]
[li][/li]
[li][/li]
[li][/li]
[/list]

[b]History:[/b]
[list]
[li][/li]
[li][/li]
[li][/li]
[/list]

[b]Relationships/Connections:[/b]
[list]
[li][/li]
[li][/li]
[li][/li]
[/list]

[b]Additional Details:[/b]
[list]
[li][/li]
[li][/li]
[li][/li]
[/list]

[TheHangedOne]

I love vikings. Definitely interested.

[Primarch]

Delighted to have one! I've also already got one character submitted via PM. She'll hopefully post in here soon.

[Elven Sex Goddess]

Character: Samarian
Player: Elven Sex Goddess

Role:  Viking Thrall - warrior / groom
Specialties:

• Survivalist skills, which include hunting, trapping and surviving off the land. Samarian is a Persian,  whose family has held onto their Zoroastrian beliefs and religion.  Despite being persecuted by Arab caliphate that has been control of what was Persia.  Because of such lived on the fringe of society.
• Skilled horsemen warrior, fighting from the back of a horse with sword, spear and bow. Having come from a life of persecution,  where mobility is valued for survival. She is not going to meet a full armor Saxon knight a heavy horse troop,  instead her horsemen skill is more attune to light skirmish tactics.  Reason for not meeting a heavy horse, is heavy armored horsemen fought dismounted.  The tactics of using heavy horse as in the knights, and knight templars did not occur until the 12th century.
• Ability to track and ghost from being tracked.  The ability to read the signs of someone passage.  As well as covering her own tracks to move as a ghost amongst the land.  This skill is best in woodland areas, for it is like that of her homeland from whence she came.

Personality:

• Honor bound,  raised with the religion of Zoroastrian of good deeds, good thoughts and good acts.   Her honor is her word.
• Devout to Zoroastrian religion and the god Mithras.  She shows respect to other religions.  However, they are not her true faith.  She is piqued with interest in the deity Freyr who she thinks might be the name Mithras uses amongst her new people.
• Protective of her people,  even through she is a thrall in Viking society she considers her master and his or her people to be her people.

History:

• Roughly two hundred years ago the last Persian empire fell to Arab invaders and the largest caliphates was begun.   Through this caliphate brought with it the teachings of Islam.  It has been slow progress in converting in the former Persian empire.  Even with heavy taxes upon those not converted to Islam.   Pockets of Zoroastrian faith persist despite the persecution.
• Samarian is one such woman as her family and people.    Who in the two hundred years have been turned into a nomadic people.   Surviving in a land that is being changed.  She is but 16 years of age when she is caught by Caliphate soldiers and sold into slavery. Such life as a slave in the caliphate is short-lived. Only a year as a slave of an Arab merchant that traveled part of the old Silk Road plying his goods.  For it is well known that Viking raided into the Mediterranean and on one such raid in what would be one day Northern Turkey. A port town of the Byzantine Empire is raided by one of these raiding Viking bands.   The slave Samarian of a Arab merchant is taken as a thrall of the vikings, during the raid as a prize. 
• It has been at least three years since taken and brought to live amongst the Norse people.  Samarian is now twenty years of age.   She has shown her ability to track and also her horsemen skills.  Which make her a good at being a groom of horses.  That she also can handle herself with a sword, means she has  traveled with her master and indeed has fought in raids.  Likely along the English and Danish coasts.  Through she is a slave and can likely used sexually being a woman.    That the vikings culture allows her freedom to maintain her beliefs in Zoroastrian religion has been a big part of her duty to her adoptive people. 

Relationships/Connections:

• drottinn - (master/owner) Need applicant to fill this role.
• Additional connections - Open

Additional Details:

• Native language is Farsi (Persian), she has in the three years learned to speak Old Norse.  In addition, she is adapted at picking up languages and knows some Welsh and English dialects. Making her further useful to bring along.
• Having grown up around horses, she is good at taking care of them as a groom.
• Yes she has aspiration of a husband, family and children.  Yes she hopes that she one day captures the eye of a viking man who will take her for a wife.  Samarian is 20 years of age when the game starts.   She has been a slave or thrall for the past four years.

[RedPhoenix]

Withdrawn

This set up inspired me...not sure how active I can be in posting but if I am able to join....I'd like to play something like this? :)

Character: Zisa Munityr (sometimes Beltarivulf)
Player: RedPhoenix

Role: Berserker
Specialties:

• Disruptive Combat - Line Breaking
• Herbalism - mostly those that help with going berserk, or making a celebration more fun, usually doesn't mix them up. Usually.
• Sailing - she's very handy on a longship, or smaller vessel, not so much to navigate, but with the basic tasks of seamanship, she is a very good swimmer, but a terrible fisherwoman.

Personality:

• Zisa is quick with a laugh or a playful barb. She's very happy go lucky in her affairs, and approaches most of her fellow countrymen like they are good friends, in fact most folks are her friends until they show otherwise, or line up on the opposite side of a battle from her. The only thing she truly fears is dying in some way other than battle.
• Zisa is helpful for most things around a camp or town, provided they don't require any skill to do. If you need firewood, she'll bring you firewood. If you need bread, she'll bake something that may as well be firewood.
• Zisa takes the existence of gods and the afterlife as a given. She doesn't consider the Norse gods to be all there is, and listens to tales of those from other lands with equal interest. She is interested in what prophets, soothsayers, and wise women have to say, and, while she doesn't always do a good job of understanding them, at least will listen.
• She has no love of those who feel superior to others by right of anything except victory in battle, and her mockery can become a bit more pointed around them. To Zisa a leader is one who wins wars, not one who asks you to kneel because they have a fancy hat.

History:

• Zisa was once a young girl who had no great ambition or desire for battle. Her mother was a wise woman to a small little settlement in the Norse homelands, and she grew up picking herbs and making concoctions and doing a terrible job catching fish for dinner. One day a boy from the village who Zisa quite fancied asked her to be his woman, and she happily agreed. Zisa's mother forbade the union, saying the bones had told her Zisa was meant for another. Zisa blew it off as her mother not wanting to have to do all the herb grinding herself, and went off with the boy - Olaf Bjornsson, to make their home together. Olaf quickly gave her a child and the two were very happy together for a brief while. However, the child was born missing an arm and still. The midwife told Zisa that she had seen the rune of Tyr in the afterbirth, and Olaf took Zisa back to her mother and left the protesting woman there that very night for fear of what it might all mean.
• Zisa's mother explained that she had consulted the stars and the bones and learned that her daughter was meant for Tyr in Valhalla, and that the god had marked her child with a missing arm, as the god's arm was lodged deep in Fenrir's stomach, and would stop any man from giving her children but him. Zisa felt she could no longer deny what fate had in store for her and accepted her lot in life. After mourning her child, her once fiery red hair turned nearly white, and she took on the name Munityr - Tyr's Love.
• Zisa took up an axe and went after battle, hoping that she would die worthy and end up in Tyr's embrace, not just so that she could give him an earful for denying her joy on earth. She joined forces with a nearby chief's raids against his rival. Zisa threw herself into the fight with hysterical vigor, content to believe that she, no better with an axe than she was a fishing line, would fall soon and wake up in green pastures. Shockingly, she was one of the few survivors of the fierce brawl. This repeated itself again, and again. Her skill with the axe grew, as did tales of her ferocity and eagerness to fight. Along the way she fell in with the wolf warriors - berserkers - and found that her skill with herbs did have a use in battle after all. By and by she left her grim dour past behind, and decided to embrace that joy in life where she could find it, and found that there was much joy to be had when one went looking for it.
• Following the tales of where the greatest fights would take place, Zisa made her way to the great viking army, and looks forward to dying gloriously in their conquests.

Relationships/Connections:

• Open to all sorts really.

Additional Details:

• Zisa will typically hunt wolves for their furs when she is able to between battles. She isn't a great huntress and thus not known for clean kills, so the furs are often mangled. Wearing the fur of a wolf into battle signals to her companions that she will be in the throes of berserkergang and unable to tell friend from foe.
• Zisa tends to gamble or spend anything she earns almost instantly, and tends to rely on charity to keep herself fed if she hasn't pillaged anything lately. For this reasons she is sometimes called Beltarivulf, "begging wolf."
• Zisa sometimes has a hard time finding male companions due to the rumor that Tyr's curse will cause grievous injury to the manhood of any who fall prey to her charms (and, to be fair, it does seem to happen rather often, something that Zisa has not yet learned that she would be more capable of seduction if she'd learn to lie about it). In the meantime, Zisa has therefore learned to enjoy the company of women, or foreigners who don't know any better, or brave vikings that haven't heard the rumors yet.

[TheHangedOne]

Scrapped


So, this is my big big scary man.

If anything is out of place, Primarch, please let me know, and I'll fix it up.

@Red How about Zisa and Agnar being battle buddies? They could come from a similar village? Or, maybe more fun--her village could have raided his (Or heck, maybe they've always been kind of antagonistic), and they now find themselves united against a common enemy. Maybe they've crossed blades before?
@Elven Sex Goddess, if you'd like, Agnar does have thralls. So I'd love to plot with you on that front.

[Primarch]

Delighted to see we have 3 characters now. However we have 2 characters leaning into the berserker thing, one regular & one wolf themed. I appreciate I said in the opening post you don't need to be a history buff but you're likely not the only ones who might want to explore that character type so I should address this now.

Even better. There's quite a good video here where a chap gives an idea of what berserker's actually were. If you don't want to watch a 12 minute video, it mostly boils down to berserker's were household champions. The idea of them going into a wild frenzy, wearing little to no armour, shield biting or anything like that is quite false or not associated with them. They were generally heavily armoured household champions & royal bodyguards. They did wear an animal skin (normally bear) but this was given to them to identify them as King's household champion.

If you want to re-vamp your characters as household champions that's fine. Might even make it easier to get characters connected & involved when we have the characters at the top of viking society planning the invasion & what not. Or you can tweak out the berserker references and keep them as smaller figures playing their part in the larger machine.





 

[Elven Sex Goddess]

@RedPhoenix - nice character concept.   A connection between our characters can be found likely through hunting.   As I have written up in Samarian profile she is a good tracker.    Due to her heritage and part of that heritage is her people came from Northern Persian Empire, as in Caspian;  Hyrcanian forests.  Thus giving them a common ground to have met. 

@TheHangedMan - also a nice character concept.  Interesting thought on Samarian being one of his thralls.   I see her not as timid nor submissive by nature.  Not as a survivor that she is.  Not that she will be fighting at every turn he or she that owns her.   Now I see your devout to your peoples religion at that time.   Have issue with those of Christianity.   Now according to history the Norse vikings were tolerant of other religions.  Mainly because contrary to popular belief there was no truly unifying religion.   It varied from location to location.    So having come from a homeland that persecuted one that did not adhere to the state religion.   That Samarian is allowed to worship and hold to her beliefs.  Is the catalyst to her obedience, making it her honor to serve.  For through she is a thrall the vikings have given her a freedom she has never had in the land of her birth.  If we can work in that parameter I think it could be a good match.



I mention a goal of becoming a wife.   One big goal is rising in status and not being seen as a thrall but as one of the people.   Despite her origins and where she came from.   Is an unconscious goal of Samarian.   Through she does not actively seek such.  As it's not consciously conceivable to her.    Even as she has had evidence of such in Viking culture.   It however, is never applied to herself.    So through her deeds I hope to have her win her freedom and become one of people.   

[Kakihara]

As a former practicing heathen, I'm intrigued.  I have a vague idea of a skald, an odinsman, in my head and will see if I can ply anything out of it. It's been a while since I've been in a group game and it seems like a fitting way to start back with something I've been interested in for a while. If the concept would fit. 

[RedPhoenix]

Withdrawing interest. Have fun everyone. :)

[Primarch]

Character: Haakon "Goldmane"
Player: Primarch

Role: King of Vestfold & Rogaland/Great Viking Leader
Specialties:

• Sword & Shield combat
• Night Raids
• Siege warfare

Personality:

• Faithful - Haakon believes in the Gods, that they are watching and that his actions will lead him to Valhalla.
• Pragmatic - Haakon has little interest in how a situation should be or in theory, he has a strong preference for the reality of a situation before him.
• Fierce - Possessing something of an aggressive and passionate disposition. Haakon has been described as 'intense' in several facets of his life, fierce in love & fierce in battle

History:

• Haakon was born in 830 AD, 37 years after the Lindisfarne raid.
• Raised a Prince of Vestfold's and the heir presumptive to his father, King Lief
• Haakon first met Ragnar Lothbrok in 845 during the Sack of Paris. It was his first major raid & battle. It proved to be a major event for young Haakon as it instilled his interest in West Frankia as a source of wealth and cultivated his later talent for siege warfare.
• Succeeded his father in 851 AD, when he was 21 years old.
  
• As King of Vestfold he led his people on Viking raids far and wide, chiefly aiming west but returned to Frankish territories every few years.
• As his fame grew many warriors traveled to Götaland to journey with him in his raiding. This force also allowed him to defeat King Arnarson and take his petty Kingdom of Rogaland.
• In 862 Haakon worked his way up the Rhine and became the first Viking to plunder Cologne.
• Haakon had resumed sacking Frankish territories when he received word of Ragnar Lothbrok's death in Northumbia. He immediately dropped everything and his men sailed for Kattegat where he became a leading figure in the great army.

Relationships/Connections:

• To be completed as characters submitted/relationships plotted
• To be completed as characters submitted/relationships plotted
• To be completed as characters submitted/relationships plotted
• To be completed as characters submitted/relationships plotted

Additional Details:

• Haakon is known as 'Goldmane' not due to his blonde hair but his occasional preference to wear golden rings woven into it.
• Not surprising considering his time spent in Frankia but many of the weapons & armour found among Haakon's more veteran men are of Frankish origin, these were either plunder or gifts to keep him away

[Kuroneko]

Could I play the same character I used in the previous incarnation of the game? 

[TheHangedOne]

Delighted to see we have 3 characters now. However we have 2 characters leaning into the berserker thing, one regular & one wolf themed. I appreciate I said in the opening post you don't need to be a history buff but you're likely not the only ones who might want to explore that character type so I should address this now.

Even better. There's quite a good video here where a chap gives an idea of what berserker's actually were. If you don't want to watch a 12 minute video, it mostly boils down to berserker's were household champions. The idea of them going into a wild frenzy, wearing little to no armour, shield biting or anything like that is quite false or not associated with them. They were generally heavily armoured household champions & royal bodyguards. They did wear an animal skin (normally bear) but this was given to them to identify them as King's household champion.

If you want to re-vamp your characters as household champions that's fine. Might even make it easier to get characters connected & involved when we have the characters at the top of viking society planning the invasion & what not. Or you can tweak out the berserker references and keep them as smaller figures playing their part in the larger machine.

I'll just scrap Agnar. Easier for me to make something new than to gut it and rebuild it.

Sorry, ESG.

[Primarch]

This is my work in progress. Please feel free to make suggestions to improve the quality.

Hey Grey,
Can you please stick to the format? Adding in an extra image is throwing everything off. If you want to include any additional images I might advise putting them at the bottom of the character sheet behind spoiler tags.
Also if the character is supposed to have the weapons & armour to match whats in your pic, our game is set at best 600 years too early. Heavier armour may have been difficult, if not impossible to acquire, for someone of this characters size as it would have had to be made to fit and Vikings didn't have access to that sort of technology. 

Could I play the same character I used in the previous incarnation of the game? 

Absolutely, welcome back!

I'll just scrap Agnar. Easier for me to make something new than to gut it and rebuild it.

Sure thing, if there's something you have a thought on and want to run by me, drop me a PM?

[greypsychman]

Withdrawing interest. Have fun with the game.

[Kuroneko]

Absolutely, welcome back!

Wonderful, thank you! Would you like me to send you her sheet again/post it here? I just need to check that the formatting is the same.

[Primarch]

Go ahead and post it in here so the rest can see it!

[Kuroneko]

Taking the sheet offline until/if the game goes anywhere.

[TheGrandAdmiral]

Character: Solveig Knuttsdottir
Player: TheGrandAdmiral

Role: Shield Maiden
Specialties:

• Sword and Shield Combat
• Hand to hand combat
• Hunting

Personality:

• Honorable - she believes in acting in a honorable way
• Reserved - she is known for staying away from noisy festivities and open display of emotion
• Faithful - she has been baptised in secret, she is a devout Christian which causes inner strife with the Viking lifestyle

History:

• Born in a regular Norse family in a small village in what is now known as Norway, Solveig has always been looking towards the horizon. She dreamt of exploration and adventure, so it was natural for her to become a Shield Maiden.
• She took part in raids in the Baltic villages, but she wanted to see more. Ragnar Lothbrok looked towards England, but others looked towards the South East. Solveig was one of them, she joined a group that travelled to their distant "cousins" in the Kievan Rus, where they were known as Varyagi.
• But that was not enough. She was lucky that she visited the greatest city in the old world - Constantinople. It struck her imagination, it was as if she had visited another world. There she was baptised into Christianity, but she kept it to herself given her people's relations with that faith. She learned a bit to read so that she could learn from the sacred texts. Realizing how barbaric she was to the Byzantines she decided to return to Scandinavia.

Relationships/Connections:

• Open to any

Additional Details:

• She is a secret Christian baptised in the Greek Orthodox way (though there are still 2 centuries until the Great Schism, there were some differences)
• She loves exploration
• Can read some Greek and can speak some

And yes, I know the pic is of Lagertha  [/list]

[TerribleTira]

planting a tentative flag of interest. I only do female OCs, but the roster already seems female heavy. I'll go ahead and throw something together if I see more male characters pop in

[Primarch]

planting a tentative flag of interest. I only do female OCs, but the roster already seems female heavy. I'll go ahead and throw something together if I see more male characters pop in

Who thought it would be this hard to get some Viking men? 

[TerribleTira]

Who thought it would be this hard to get some Viking men? 

lmao!

No shit, huh?

[bubby]

It's like I never even left...

[Kuroneko]

BUBBY!!!!

Tacklehugs

[Primarch]

It's like I never even left...

Care to join us?