Divine Intervention III: RagnarReign of Terror

[TheForestAuro]

Divine Intervention III

Here's the idea - I, the Immortal Ragnar, will play 50 turns. Then, I will post a save, and you - the god - shall make any number of changes that are in accordance with the rules. Your Divine Intervention, as it were. Then, you'll upload the save, and I'll play 50 more turns!

See Divine Intervention II for more details, and examples!
Game Settings

Map: Large Continents
Speed:Epic
Difficulty: Noble
Leader: Ragnar, of the Vikings

The Eleven Commandments of Deityhood

I.Thou shalt announce your intentions.
--(Be sure to "got it" so we don't run into continuim errors. We reserve the right to ignore not announced updates)

II. Thou shalt not Intervene if you were the last deity to intervene, and thou shalt only intervene once per waking
--(You may only intervene once per my update, and you must wait for another God to intervene before intervening again.)

III. Thou shalt not reveal the secrets of knowledge or the heavens to mortals.
--(No units or techs should be revealed to any civilization if they are not in the current or previous era of the player)

IV. Thou shalt not use your powers for cataclysmic destruction
--(Remember, less is more. Be subtle. It is far more interesting for everyone if you make subtle, interesting changes like forming a choke with mountains than if you just tear giant swathes of ice through my cities. I reserve the right to reject saves I think are unnecessarily apocalyptic.)

V. Thou shalt reveal yourself to the mortal with grace.
--(Everyone loves a good story, and if you decide to contribute to it, be creative! Choose a name and domain [i.e., Winston, the Sea God] that you govern, even if the characters don't know it's you acting)

VI. Thou shalt not be vindictive, and thou shalt not halt progress.
--(You are not allowed to strip techs away from me. Anything I research is mine permanently. You are also not allowed to remove any named unit, for any reason.)

VII. Thou shalt not be unnecessarily nice to the puny mortal.
--(I do not need a stack of thirty Level 9 Praetorians to win my fights. You do not need to fill my BFC with flood-plain grassland goldmine hills next to rivers. The only exception to this is if you genuinely make me work my ass off to get it, and even then it not ought to be as good as the dream city outlined above.)

VIII. Thou shalt reward him for piety, and thou shalt offer him redemption for his punishments.
--(If you give me a quest and I succeed, reward me! If it was easy don't give me a big bonus, and if it was hard I am going to be miffed if I get another Great Prophet for all my hard work. Likewise, if you punish me, tell me how I can fix it!)

IX. Thou shalt not war with the other gods. Much.
--(Obviously there's going to be some strife between those who would support Ragnar's Conquest, and those who would seek to protect the world from his tyranny. Having said that, Gods are not allowed to reverse the effects of an intervention without waiting for the update after the effects have been felt. This includes quests. In fact, you would do well to leave the other god's quests alone entirely. If you want me to do yours instead, make it more interesting or more lucritive)

X. Thou shalt obey the natural order of things, and of time, and of destiny.
--(There is a storyline going on here. Do try and fit in. Do not take great lengths to completely detract from it. Be smart.)

XI. Thou shalt not abuse your architectural omniscient nature.
--(Don't add wonders that don't already exist.)

FAQ

Q: Another God has already edited the save this turn. Can I do it too?
A: Yes, but you may not undo their changes. Take their save and edit it. Also, you may only edit once per turn.

Q: I have this cool idea that only slightly violates your rules, but it's really cool!
A: Just keep in mind I have the ability to reject any save I deem over-the-top.


Segment Links
Chapter 1: Awakening
Chapter 2: The Divine Stir
Chapter 3: Rise of Eldar/Catherine's Folly
Chapter 4: When You Take a Man's Road
Chapter 5: Mercy of a Warlord
Chapter 6, Part I: A Woman Scorned
Chapter 6, Part II: Ride the Lightning
Chapter 7: Is Lisbon Burning?
Chapter 8: Instruments of Death
Chapter 9: A Bullet for Your Thoughts
Chapter 10: It's Not a Game If You're the One Bleeding

 

[TheForestAuro]

Spoiler :

Just for you Runner

They had gathered. It was decided. The Viking chiefs rarely agreed upon anything, and they agreed now.

Ragnar was in charge.

It had taken seventeen days - any and all challengers came, and come they did in numbers. The opportunity to lead a unified Viking nation was one any tribesman would give his soul for. Unfortunately for them, it was only Ragnar that had learned the proper channels for such an exchange.

He had not slept in many days since a ritual was performed on him by his elders, who had prophecized his leadership after reading the bones. He had not performed the best in every fight - but Ragnar the Rock was just that - he was seemingly unkillable. No matter what wounds he sustained he would never surrender, and the healed quickly - the spirits were with him.

Ragnar was their leader.

And when Ragnar said that the time for wandering was over, Rangar was obeyed. "Nidaros!" he proclaimed, and it was so. They named the settlement as such.

Spoiler :

Ragnar got his way.
----------------------------
"What!?" screamed the viking king, as the messenger pushed into the room. The boy winced, but stayed - a sign that his message was important, after all. Ragnar had found by simply appearing as if he were ready to behead the messenger, that the true importance of the message could be quickly deciphered.

"Sir, there's a woman who wishes to speak to you."

"A woman? Tell her husband to see me!"

"N-no sir..." the messenger startled, aware that he was indeed correcting the King. "It's a woman-king. From another tribe. The Russians, sir."



The Viking King chewed on his lip for a moment, and then raised a brow inquisitively. "Is she attractive?"

"Yes sir. Very."

"Then organize a feast!" he yelled, slamming his fists on the table exuberantly.
--------------------------------

Ragnar met two others quickly - a man of the Dutch Tribe by the name of Willem. A very odd-faced man, the Viking Leader was not fond of him and no such similar feast was held.



--------------------------------

But in the third leader, he saw a bit of himself - a man who was at home at Sea. The one known as Joao, of the Portugeuse Tribe, caught his eye and he was interested in their culture. Time would tell whether or not they would be allies, or if their culture would become Viking culture...



---------------------------------
World Recap --v

Spoiler :

Ragnar felt tired, for the first time in a very long while - he had long since accepted his immortality, and thought it to be indicative of a strong soul, but little did he know that he had a part to play in something much bigger.

The gods awakened, as Ragnar slept, and looked down upon the world...

 

[ElonaOfCedarie]

got it..............

 

[Eldarion]

((Not editing the save, just introducing myself to the story.))

In Ragnar's dream, he stands atop a cliff overlooking the sea. The waves roil and churn below him, crashing the rocks with a bestial roar. Above him, a storm rages. Torrential rain lashes his face, but he pays it little heed. There is something else here, he feels... a presence that has yet to make itself manifest.

Lightning flashes, blinding him, and the thunder shakes his very bones. When he recovers, he is staring into the face of the divine. The hardened warrior feels his heart quaver within him, but he speaks bravely nevertheless.

"I am Ragnar, ruler of the Vikings!" he shouts above the din. "What manner of creature are you?"

The eyes in the countenance before him spark with lightning. "I am Eldarion," he says with a voice of thunder, "and I am lord of the storm. Know well my name, child of man, and remember it."

"And shall I remember it as friend or foe?"

"That remains to be seen. The world is reborn, and the gods awaken anew. Immortal though you be, young yet you are. Know this, child of man - we will meet again ere long."

Blinding lightning exploded in dazzling starbursts, and when the Viking ruler looked again, the storm god had vanished.

 

[CCRunner]

I call god of Gold and Transportation. No story from me, that will have to wait until I edit the game.

Oh and welcome Elona!

 

[CivCorpse]

LOL, can i pre-got it for the next intervention?

 

[vra379971]

I call, Eirae, God of Ice.

 

[ElonaOfCedarie]

What had been a fine, warm summer's day had suddenly grown into a chilling night. Quite suddenly, in fact, for even the sun had seemed to retreat beneath the horizon too soon. Suddenly, the birds seemed to lose their taste for singing and the animals retreated into their forests and hills and shelters as if afraid to be out in the open. The wind, only hours earlier a warm gentle breath, now seemed to howl, rage, but most often it seemed keen bitterly in the premature dark. Something had happened. Something terrible.

Ragnar slept fitfully on his bed, tightly wrapped in all the furs the servants could provide him on such short notice. Damn the cold, he had thought as he slipped into sleep.

Ragnar dreamed of a beautiful woman, more beautiful than any maid he had seen in his kingdom... more beautiful than the foreign queen Catherine. She had long dark hair and tan skin and her eyes sparkled like emeralds. Ragnar's first thought was that this was a very good dream indeed. But the woman's beauty was marred by eyes swollen from weeping... this had never stopped Ragnar from having a woman before, but something about her made him weary.

"Why are you weeping, woman?" Ragnar asked.

"I am weeping because I have lost my home. It has been stolen from me."

"Stolen by who?" Ragnar asked unsure why he cared.

"Stolen by a soul vial and evil. Stolen by the most evil of men!" Suddenly she pointed at him. "You, you will return it to me!"

Ragnar scoffed, never would a woman dictate his actions. Who was this woman that she should be so bold as to tell him what to do?!

"Woman, how dare you speak to me such? Why should I care or bother to return you your home? I am a king, I am not at your bidding!"

"Take care Ragnar! You would be wise to ask to whom it is you speak before you insult them! I am Elona, goddess of nature!"

Ragnar bit his lip, immeadiately regretting his words in the presence of a goddess. Suddenly, he found he wanted nothing to do with this unearthly beauty. His lust faded and he wished to go back to dreaming about his new maid instead, but as many times as he tried to close his eyes and will himself back to the luscious young woman, he found that he could not, Elona simply continued to stand before him, arm outstretched.

"Why me? Why have you picked me to win you your domain back?" Ragnar asked without bothering to offer an apology.

"Can you not guess? You are Ragnar, mighty king of the Vikings. You are the strongest and most determined of the men I have seen. You, if any can recapture my garden."

"A garden? You want me to recapture a garden?"

"Idiot! I am the goddess of nature, where else would I reside? Capture the city at the heart of my garden and you will be the greatest hero of all time! Capture the city at the heart of my garden and you shall be rewarded."

Elona could see that this sparked Ragnar's interest, fame, fortune, riches, and bragging rights, what more could he want? Well, women... but that would come with the other things.

"Capture my city. To find it you must go west and cross a great bridge of desert. Then you must pass through three gates. Finally, when you pass the third gate, you will enter my garden, and at it's heart you will find my palace. Capture it back for me, Ragnar, capture it back and you will be greatly rewarded! I have given you four animal spirts to help in your search."

Before Ragnar could ask any questions, Elona faded from his dream whispering, "Capture it back."

 

[ElonaOfCedarie]

Thank you God Runner for your welcome... I enjoyed your reading about your interventions on the previous game. I thought this was really neat and I am glad that I get to join in this time!!!

 

[digitCruncher]

Question: Can two gods edit a post concurrently (in the same break between 50 turns?)

Not that I will...

Anyway, I'll take Digit, God of Entropy. I'll be a while before I get into this game however... I will limit my power until I get better at... God-ding. If that is a verb

[Edit]

Spoiler Not for Forests Eyes... Is Elona's edit too... insane? :

I would like Elona to defend her actions (preferrably in {SPOILER} Tags...) but this is what she has done...
#1: Added several animals. These aren't too bad.
#2: Either added a giant peninsula (Enough to fit a sizable civilisation on) / modified an entire swath of land with peaks etc., and added 4 barbarian cities. These Barb cities have lots of archers / axes. The worst part is, after playing a couple of turns, the barbs decide only to allow 2 defenders stay on the city, so Rome would (in about 50 turns or so), be entirely swamped by Archers and Axemen, impeding it's early game growth.

#3 (The big one): The central city has the Hanging Gardens World Wonder. This stops all other civs from building it.

Remember... this is turn 50. And already, there is a Medieval (Or is it classical?) era wonder, several castles, and hordes of barbarians in this penensula...

Of course, I would be a VERY poor person to stand up for 'outstanding example of not giving overpowered bonuses'. I practically am the center-fold in "Overly-Destructive Gods Weekly". That said... I recognise mistakes... The worst part is, The Hanging Gardens DOESN'T show up on the World Wonder list, so Forest won't know about this.

Sorry Elona... but this needs to be said. No harsh feelings?

Note: This would be GREAT in the medieval era, with the Hanging gardens being built in that city once a civilisation has captured it, rather than just "Always being there". 2 Longbows in every city, castle in every city... great!!. Its a great idea in principle. Just not when the human player is researching AGRICULTURE

 

[Winston Hughes]

Having looked at the Elona's save, I agree with dC that it's not very well implemented, and I would recommend against playing from it.

However, the ideas themselves are sound, and the write-up is excellent.

So, if Elona is okay with it, I'd like to redo the edit from scratch to make it more balanced, whilst preserving all the ideas set out in the write up.

The only problem is that I wouldn't be able to do that until later on today. I could have it done about six hours from now. If other gods wanted to do edits to the original save in the meantime, I could add Elona's stuff on top.

 

[ElonaOfCedarie]

okay... i suppose i may have made it rather difficult... but that was the point. I didn't want it to be a quick quest... i wanted it to be something that he would have to build up his strentgh to defeat... but, i suppose that it was too much... i was just didn't want the ForestAuro to march through my quest taking a city a turn, as he has done in the past... although i suppose he had superior units... anywho, i wanted the land to be able to build it...

Spoiler :

The Garen of Elona... with one of every creature resource and plant resourse... cause i thought it was funny... anywho, here are two options... let me tone it down... and repost, or i suppose i could wait a little while and do it later, but i would perfer to just tone it down...

 

[ElonaOfCedarie]

so, here is the toned down version... but i reserve to update this map as things go along, like add new buildings etc...
oh... oops... i forgot to name one unit, but i'll just fix it on a later post... hopefully, the Forest Auro won't go through my quest in one round...

 

[Churchill's Hat]

I call Churchill, God of Conflict.

 

[Eldarion]

((Again, no changes were made to the save.))

The storm god nodded. The pantheon was awakening, their powers - long dormant from slumber - were beginning to be made manifest. Elona, goddess of nature, had already made her will known to the mortal. It was time that he do the same.

Again, Ragnar dreamed, and he found himself once more overlooking the storm-tossed sea. A monstrous shadow towered over him, and he knew that he was once more in the presence of the storm god.

"I have decided, mortal," Eldarion boomed. "You, as well as all the other mortals, must prove yourself worthy of my favor. You must offer tribute to me in a manner that I shall decree."

Ragnar said nothing, waiting for the god to continue.

"Construct a city, son of man. Construct a city here, where its outlook is the vast and mighty ocean, and name it in my honor. Here, you shall build for me a statue, a testament to my power."

"Consider it done, o god of storms. I shall set my slaves upon the task..."

"No, son of man." Ragnar fell silent at the command. "Slaves will not perform this task, lest their blood stain my statue. There will be time enough for bloodshed. Nor will you use any flammable materials, for my statue must be able to withstand any storm. And know you this - you are not the only mortal to whom I shall make this revelation." A chill gripped Ragnar's heart. "Prove yourself to me, mortal. And the mortal who succeeds in this quest shall earn my favor."

With that, the dream faded, leaving Ragnar to his restless sleep.

Spoiler :

Quest is threefold:

1. Build a coastal city named Eldarion
2. Construct the Colossus in it without chopping or whipping
3. The civilization who completes this task first will be Eldarion's chosen

 

[TheForestAuro]

The rules have changed. Please read them again.

Giving until this evening for gods that want to get in on this to do so.

 

[Winston Hughes]

@Elona

Please don't take this the wrong way - I really like the idea and the story you've given it. But, imo, the changes you've made are too dramatic, and there are some fairly major problems (actual and potential) that you haven't noticed.

Being too difficult wasn't one of my concerns, btw. And I think setting the quest as a long-term project is absolutely the right idea.

Anyway, I had a go at building your idea from scratch in TheForestAuro's original save, with a view to keeping it as simple as possible. Take a look, and see what you think.

 

[ElonaOfCedarie]

I suppose that change is fine... The ForestAuro can play that one... I'll be back whenever he is done...

 

[TheForestAuro]

Got it
10 chars

 

[tycoonist]

may i introduce myself? i am eddie, god of metal