Tales from the Winter Court [Svartalfar AAR]

This game was played on a scenario by Rex_rgis and under the rules stated here


New era begins
Sages that remained loyal to the Winter Court during the Age of Ice are claiming that the age of Mulcarn has come to the end.
I have decided to gather together the proud elven people, scattered during the harsh years. Iwith their hands I started building a city, that will become my capital, and the palace, from where the Dark Queen will rule over the world! Well, perhaps not immediately, but such a time will come, I just deserve it.
Having all the basic needs of the city’s (Thariss) citizens fulfilled I decided to send scouts to the neighbouring areas. There are other groups of survivors who are trying to take control over different parts of the continent. My diplomats have made contact with Flauros on the north, Perpentach on the east and Cassiel on the east. Looking at them it is quite clear that Winter has touched minds of all the weak humans and left them more or less insane.
But my scouts have discovered that the renegades, following the pretenders from the Summer Court have also make it through the Winter. They are led by my (cursed be her name) Arendel. It seems that at present her forces are stronger than mine, so I accepted peace, but inside I was boiling, seeing her arrogance and lack of respect towards the rightful Alfar ruler.



Barbarian invasions
Spurred by the growing treasures of the settled nations, bands of orcs started roaming the lands. At first I ignored them, but that changed after shocking news brought by merchants: the wicked Ljosalfer were destroyed by the barbarians!

Immediately I sent out scouts for more news. What they brought was indeed impressive: Evermore is now under orcish rule, there are no signs of any refugees in the surrounding woods. However the body of Arendel is said not to be found neither amongst bodies in the city nor in the palace. That’s a real shame, I really wanted to throw her out the window of my palace’s tower. Well, I suppose one can’t have everything, even if she’s the Elven Queen.
The barbarians threaten even Thariss.

There is another great news, barbarians were so kind to take care of this foolish light-blinded Varn. I suspected he might be a non-ending source of trouble and now he’s gone. Good.

On the other thought the orcs refused me the pleasure of personal revenge against Alender and toying a little bit with Varn. My dungeon master already had some pleasures prepared for the both.
Just after Varn’s defeat, in year 150 I received emissaries from a strange folk. They call themselves the Elohim and live north from Flauros. They are ruled by Ethne, a woman obsessed about protection of something. I am not sure however what she is trying to protect from the old ages, everything was changed by the Winter. But she shows me more respect that the damned Arendel ever had.

Apart from the strange lady in white at that time I had contact with Flauros (cute and sweet, but he may be dangerous I guess), Cassiel (now this one is completely out of his senses, he talks some crazy talk about gods and angels), Sandalphon (snaky bastard) and Perpentach (funny fellow, I’ve been to few great partiesat his palace).

A sage called Machiavelli (what a name?) completed his work, showing that Svartalfar are the most backward people on Erebus. I forbid his work in my lands and sent a few assassins after him. That should prevent others from spreading such a ridiculous gossip! I am the Immortal Queen and I lead my people well!

Hidden war
My hunters have had first successes with taming giant spiders and other beasts. I decided to try their battle prowess on Calabim. I dispatched a spider pack to lurk in the Calabim lands and pick up unarmed men, like those building roads or farms.

Perpentach demanded that I cancel my open borders deal with Ethne. I don’t like to feel like being commanded, but political reasons demand that I agree to his demand.
Scouts brought me new informations on Evermore. There is now hardly any evidence that it was an elven city before. Near the city my hunters captured an elephant. It will be the mascot of my garrison, once they will manage to walk it to my lands.

Second Svartalfar city and Spider City
My empire grows in power, in the year 169 settlers from Thariss found a new city. It will be known as Gareth Minar.

My scouts came across a city guarded by orcs and spiders. I admire the twisted mind of the city’s ruler. With army of both orcs and spiders, if used well, one could conquer the world. Therefore my troops razed the place, sparing no inhabitants. I am not known as being tolerant to any competition.


In the meantime even more amazing news came…

Fires
News were that Acheron has awoken and he chose Evermore as his residence.

The forests in the former elven lands were burning and burning… The fires covered half of the continent, including limited areas in my lands. But Calabim suffer the most. I will have to sacrifice something or someone to Cernunnos, perhaps it will help (me, I don't care for Flauros' folk).

For the time being I ordered that captured goblin workers be used to do cuttings in the forests to prevent fires from spreading to may lands. I will not make my elves do it, not when I ordered my priests to pray to Cernunnos.
New barbarian nation appeared near my borders. They look like half-human half-lizard and live well with the orcs. My hunters yet have to taste their blood.
Speaking about my hunters, they seem to have discovered the last reservoir of wildlife in this more and more civilized world. Hopefully not all regions of wilderness will disappear, otherwise my huntsman will become idle.

Shadows
News on the death of Sidar was the first news I received about this strange folk.
They have passed away unnoticed, just like they lived…
Now the balance of powers looked as follows:

In the same time my spiders were passing unnoticed Calabim and Elohim lands, feeding on occasional workers and sometimes even weaker warriors. Those are the real shadow beasts! Who will deny that Svartalfar are true beastmasters?
Fortunately I kept a spider in my lands, so I was able to help the barbarian conga line (well, whatever is this, my general used that expression) and Cassiel lost a city.


Next news from this there were however worse, Flauros took the city from barbarians, who didn’t looked like they wanted to retake it. So it seems the city will remain Calabim.

Leaves
At last the priers were answered. Gareth Minar become the center of a new religion, Fellowship of the Leaves.


During next years forests in my lands grown larger and darker than before, thus preventing any fire from spreading to my lands.
The new religion earned quite a popularity in the world. Whole cities in Calabim and Balseraph states converted to the new faith and soon Flauros and Perpentach announced the Fellowship as the official state religion. Gareth Minar was collecting a respectable amount of gold from pilgrims.

The Dark Evermore
I send an expedition to capture Evermore and take over the famous Dragon Hoard. Alas, year after year, my units were too afraid to attack the dragon roaming through the countryside.


Instead I made my units lure him into attacking them in well defended positions, hoping that one of his attacks will be fatal. In the process, he was allured to Flauros lands and died attacking a city.


My troops captured the former Arendel capital.

Evermore, once proud Ljosalfar capital changed much during the years of barbarian and dragon rules. It became a twisted and dark place. A perfect new home for Svartalfar adventirers and exiles. Being separated from the bulk of my lands by lands of vampires, it was not easily governed from Thariss. So I appointed the most cruel dark elven aristocrat as the governor of the previous Ljosalfar lands.
I funded a generous reward for Arendel’s body or place of burial, but I don’t really expect to find it afer so many years…
In the meantime Flauros and Cassiel declared war on Ethne. I believe there was not much fighting and so this first war didn’t change much in the balance of powers.

Dominating religion and new cults
In the year 405 60% of the world population worship the Leaves. There are also two minor religions: Runes of Kilmorph with 13% influence and Council of Esus with 6%. Kilmorph chose Elohim as guardians of her legacy. Council of Esus gained first followers in Evermore.

Dark Evermore become the center of a new cult and seat of the Undercouncil.

I myself become the first Dark Magistrate and actively promoted membership, giving knowledge of Deception to Cassiel and Perpentach. They both joined the Council. Perhaps this will somewhat offset they vassal links to Flauros and deminish his political power.

Heroes die young
My court was visited by a strange figure. He said his name was Alazkan and he was a blade for hire. I sent him near to the Calabim city of Edge, the same that I helped barbarians to capture, to kick some vampire a##es. It turned out that he wasn’t as good as he claimed to be. Either that or my bad planning, but I won’t admit the latter. Anyway after very short time in my service he was as dead as a parrot pining for the fjords.


A lost civilization
On the very north-east of the continent my scouts met a strange group. Their speech was almost non-understandable and their manners were somewhat wild. They said they called themselves the Amurites.
These barely surviving people claimed they had a gloriuos past and noble ancestors. But now they were little more than barbarians. They also had a strange pagan ritual of choosing their leader, called Casswalawn.

They quickly accepted the supremacy of the elven race (as really every reasonable man should) and Dain became my vassal. In a short time he also adopted Esus as the state religon, becoming the only Esus official follower (well, official only to me, as the Holy City is in my hands).


Shadowy Flauros
My Rangers spotted giants in the Calabim lands. Not only they were a formidable opponent for my seasoned troopers to practice killing, which is always good, I also had some suspicions that they are somewhat controlled by Flauros, as they were behaving too peaceful amongst Calabim cities and villages. Flauros denied he had control over the giants or even any connections with them. Thus I ordered my Rangers to kill all three of them all and sent the giants’ heads to Flauros as a sign of our friendship and my care for his people.

More or less in the same time a new unit, Vampires, were seen in Flauros border cities. Few years later his engineers have constucted Troyan Horse. Something I have been saving for later, thinking nobody else will have interest to build. This really annoyed me, something will have to be done about Flauros growing in power. As for now I refused to help him against Elohim.
A glimpse of the political situation:


Republic? Phew!
Today I received a delegation of scholars. They said times are changing, and power should go to the people. What a ridiculous idea! Power to the people? The elven never lived in such a way and never will! I am the Queen and I am the Goddess and I will never allow such a heresy spread amongst the elven race!!
The scholars were taken care of by my dungeon master.

Proper research, Blight, Aeron and Councils
A man called Herodotus completed his work, proving beyond any doubt that Svartalfar are the most cultured nation. Now, this is what I call a truly objective piece of research, not that pseudo-scientific gibbering that Machiavelli had presented years earlier!
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/108597/34_most_cultured.JPG
Bad deeds of the mortals have called upon heaven's wrath in the form of Blight. Many cities on the continent starved. It lasted years before agrculture returned to the almost previous state.
But there were also good things coming from the gods. Aeron himself blessed one of Svartalfar seasoned assassins. I used that to establish Aeron's Guild and spread in in my cities. Now elven sinister assassins will be feared even more than before!

Overcouncil was founded in an Elohim city very close to Evermore. It became a diplomatic body with only one member. In the same time Undercouncil had four members, after Flauros joined in a few years ago.

On the next voting he was appointed the Dark Magistrate and took my position! I will not forget this humiliation! To ease my anger the Undercouncil proposed to give two Assassins under my control. I agreed. Soon they will taste Calabim blood…

War with Flauros
The time has come to challenge my strongest rival, the vampire state. He has about twice as much land as I do and has a little edge on technology. Recently Vampires were seen in the border cities, so I wonder if it isn't already too late for a war.
Fortunately Cassiel broke free from vassalship, so I will only face Flauros and Perpentach. I can’t count on much support from my vassal Dain, he’s somewhere in the stoneage.
I split my army in two parts.
I have split my army in two divisions. The eastern group, consisting of champions, illusionists and assassins, will invade vampires’ lands with the primary goal of taking the border city Edge. The second group, consisting mostly of Nyxkins and assassins, will be held as a reserve near my north-western border. Its goal is to stop any eventual counter-attack either from Flauros or from Perpentach. If things go well, this army will be used as a second invading force. Apart from that I got strong garrisons in border cities and two Nyxkins in the city in eastern-central of my lands, as a quick reaction force in case my invading stack needs back-up or Flauros makes a counter-attack here, ignoring my attack force. There’s also a quite garrison and a group of assassins backed up by an illusionist in Evermore, which is an isolated city.


In the first year of the war my troops took Edge.

One year later my reserves razed a Calabim city near my eastern border., which happened to be the Holy City of some obscure cult worshipping something underwater. Whatever it was, here in the middle of the continent it couldn’t help the cultists.

My troops enraged a treant who left the forest on the border and speeded into my lands. Fortunately he died before doing any harm. And I thought I had Cernunnos on my side!


Apart from battle of treants (it turns out that Cernunnos decided to repair his mistake and aftre next Calabim Treant appeared he awoken a Treant from my forests) and temporarily losing taken Calabim city the Vampire War went better that I might have expected. The bulk of Calabim lands were joined to the Svartalfar empire. Perpentach didn’t make any hostile move against me and 10 years after the war had started he abandoned Flauros and proposed peace. I agreed without hesitation, as it was Flauros who was the real enemy. After 10 more years of fighting I signed a peace treaty, taking Drama and increasing my territory twofold. Flauros was left with his relatively new territories on the east (between Cassiel and Dain) and a lonely city in the west.

In the same year Cassiel offered his loyalty and become my vassal.

Perpentach followed soon after.

Maintenance costs of my increased number of cities started to be a real pain for my economy. However, after the treatment I gave to the scholars proposing change to republic, I didn’t feel like changing the government.

Rebuilding
Standing in the face of my economy getting more and more surcharged with costs of the central administration I decided to give some autonomy to my local governors and introduced a government type that my scholars called city-states.
Evermore, the pearl in my crown, become the mother city of three guilds.
A spider feeding on Calabim workers for at least 200 years got killed by rangers.
I returned to my seat of the Dark Magistrate. Holding this position and with two vassals to my throne my political position become incomparably better to the one I had before the war.
I started building temples and monuments in the captured cities in order to assimilate them faster. I also sent two Great Bards to amuse simple post-Calabim folk.
Cernunnos’ favour changed lands across my empire to more fertile. Gods be praised! Well, actually the people praised ME for the miracle, I hope Cernunnos will not get nervous about it…

Politics and religion – a snapshot
Now the Dark Elves are the largest political power, having the largest empire and Amurites, Grigori and Balseraph as vassals. Decimated Calabim stand alone. Yet another separate power are the Elohim.
Religion-wise the world is not very differentiated. All the nations but Grigori and Elohim accepted the Fellowship as the state religion. Followship is followed by half of the world population. Elohim worship Runes. However, the second popular cult after Leaves is Council of Esus with 10% influence and rising.

Few Balseraph cities followed Ashen Veil, but the cult was removed by my Inquisitor (Nobody expected the Svartalfar Inquisition!), safe the Holy City.

Empyrean was founded in Elohim lands, but its influence is very much limited.
There was one city Calabim city following Octopus Overlords, but it was razed by my troops during the war.
Me, Flauros, Cassiel and Perpentach are Undercouncil members, with me as the Dark Magistrate.
Ethne is the sole Overcouncil member. She even passes resolutions, meeting no opposition in the voting process.



Rules:
The game was played under Fearyl Viconia Roleplaying Challenge rules.
The additional restriction I put over myself was to have God King civic as long as possible. I eventually changed it to City States when my empire reached such a size that even with courthouses in all cities and Palace, Winter Palace and Forbidden Palace placed in different parts of my lands my research rate was going to fall to 40%.

Problems:
I had problems with spreading Esus. I kept building recon units in my Esus Holy City, but actually none of them started with Esus religious promotion. On the contrary, from some point of time, Esus spread to every city I conquered, removing the previous religion(s).
If I recall well, I also didn’t have the option to spread Esus with the Nightwatch unit I got from Undercouncil “Enlist the Nightwatch” resolution.

That's the end folks!
It took a long time for me to write it down and also I haven't played much beyond the end of the story. Gets real slow on my machine

At the end I wanted to thank Rex_rgis for his great scenario, I really enjoyed it. And still I'm the first to post a report

Interesting, you may have found a bug with your note about problems spreading Esus with the Nightwatch.

Nightwatch, Shadow, Gibbon & Shadowriders should all start with Esus every time. So if any unit with Esus religion can spread it, I'd go for the shadowrider. Can't remember precisely how it is supposed to work.

Cool story overall, I only skimmed it though, not too much for AAR myself just yet (mostly because I am afraid then I would want to write one, and I don't have time to actually play the game right now!)

You have to have council of esus as your state religion

xienwolf said:

Interesting, you may have found a bug with your note about problems spreading Esus with the Nightwatch.
Nightwatch, Shadow, Gibbon & Shadowriders should all start with Esus every time. So if any unit with Esus religion can spread it, I'd go for the shadowrider. Can't remember precisely how it is supposed to work.

Click to expand...

At first I wasn't sure how to spread Esus and I think I stupidly lost my initial Nightwatch in a fight isntead of using it to religion spread. And then no unit built in city with Esus started with Esus promotion, which was a reason for me not to be able to spread the religion.

kenken244 said:

You have to have council of esus as your state religion

Click to expand...

Are you sure? I thought that it unit with CoE promotion is enough?

No, to spread Esus, it MUST be your state religion. Meaning if you are not the founder of it you have to conquer a city with Esus, or wait for it to spread into your lands naturally.

Nice read! I really liked it.