For the last couple of months, I’ve been increasingly obsessed with vikings. Vikings have become a bit of a hobby interest of mine (alongside geology), which is why I chose to make a Neverwinter Nights 2 module based on the Icelandic sagas.
Obviously I’m extra motivated to take an interest in vikings because I’m Scandinavian, but I’m not a great fan of romanticism and nationalism, so I try not to get too proud of the whole viking thing – after all there’s about as much viking in me as there probably is in you (which is to say I’m blonde and that’s about it). For the longest time, I’ve felt that there are too few vikings in popular culture – not enough viking games or films – and I’ve been a little frustrated that when something does deal with the vikings, it’s always obsessed with Norse mythology rather than the actual historical facts.
Granted, I definitely see the reason why games like Battle for Asgard would focus on the mythological side, because like the Greek ditto, Norse mythology provides an endless well of over-the-top legends, epic magic, and the hands down most ass-kicking gods ever conceived. Not to mention loads of really really good names. I’d just really like something more low-magic and more down-to-earth – I feel that vikings were awesome enough in real life to merit a story or two without having to bring in Thor or Nidhogg.
So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I would beat NWN2 into submission and turn its high fantasy towards a viking game. To this end, I was aided by content from the first expansion pack, Mask of the Betrayer, which takes place in the viking-inspired barbarian lands of Rashemen. One of the great joys of modding is stretching the limits of your creativity in order to work around the limitations placed upon your project by whatever game you’re modding, but it helps to have somewhere to start, and MotB gave me that.
Project outline
My module, called Virdingholm Feud, is made up of 3 exterior areas. This doesn’t sound like much, but terrain in NWN2 is a relatively expensive resource, the editor’s terrain tools are very powerful, flexible, and feature-rich, but that also makes them very time-consuming to use compared to the first game’s tile-based editor. The player will be cast as the chief of Virdingholm, a small coastal community on Iceland.
The story starts in 978 AD as the player returns from a journey across the European seas. The purpose of the journey is for the player to choose through the initial dialogue as he is greeted at the pier by his son Ask and his brother Arinbjorn. Of course a conflict is quickly introduced in the form of the latest development in an old family feud with another chieftain, but I won’t give that away here – hopefully you’ll be able to play through the brief storyline yourself some time in January.
My inspirations
For inspiration, I’ve been consuming a lot of viking-ish entertainments lately, including reading through a really long and awesome viking manga called The Vinland Saga that somebody was brilliant enough to link me to some months ago. I haven’t finished it yet because I savour it like a rare wine, but though it’s far more exaggerated and dramatic than I aim for my own module to be, every time I read some of it, I immediately feel like working some more on my project, which is a feeling I desperately need.
I also recently found the Swedish folk rock band Garmarna, featuring a female vocalist with a voice like an ancient Norse spell and harmonies like a long, dark fimbulwinter. I’ve really taken a fancy to the Swedish language, which has many of the best qualities of Danish without most of the worst. It can be a very lyrical language with many melodic vocals and fetching rhythms.
I’ve been listening to their 1999 album Vedergällningen (Vengeance) on repeat since I started the project, and I like to loop it while I work on the module – it’s a source of pure inspiration, directly injecting images of Scandinavia ca. 1000 AD into my mind (though admittedly I think the songs are actually from somewhere in the middle ages). Tragically, I can’t find a free sample of my favourite song on the album, Herr Holkin, but I implore you to listen to Gamen as an example of some brilliant staccato rhythms and Euchari as an example of the general aethereal quality of their music.
Last of all, I watched The 13th Warrior again yesterday, and it remains a consistently awesome film. It’s not exactly high brow, but it offers a wealth of convincingly dark viking humour, some really beautiful landscapes, and a storyline that successfully blends the mystical with the authentic without losing (much) realism. Not to mention really brutal and no-nonsense melees. It also features Maria Bonnevie.
There is litterally nothing to dislike.
Hey!
Been reading your blog for a while…
So, when are we going to be able to download your module??
thanks!
The project’s due on January 5, but TNM’s release date is January 24, so I don’t know if I’ll have time to wrap it up for release immediately after turning it in. My design for the project is fairly unambitious because I need to get it done in time and it really just needs to work, it’s another thing to release it to the Internet – I may spend some time writing incidental dialogue and expanding the game world a little. In its current form, you’d be hard pressed to squeeze more than 2 hours of gameplay out of it.
Sounds like an interesting project. I look forward to play it! and TNM!!! (notice the number of “!” :p)
I don’t usually condone more than one exclamation mark, but I believe TNM merits it
(ReCaptcha: “fatal November” – well it’d have to happen soon then, it’s almost December now.)
Damnit, I have been reading that Vinland saga non stop for three hours. I’m so easily addicted, no wonder I should stay away from MMO’s.
Finished them all, quite a nice read
Been working on my module all day.
And the editor just crashed in the middle of saving.
Thank God it keeps automatic backups.
I have a similar experience with Word .. 95 it was I think. Crashed every now and then, never saving anything.
Now I have this tic that after every time I press enter, I press ctrl+S, which is very annoying in a browser, yet very useful in word.
Well the NWN2 toolset takes about 10 seconds to save, so it’d be really annoying if I saved there as often as I save in Word. The autosave is also pretty annoying in fact, but I tolerate it because it’s highly beneficial.
Glad to read that somebody else likes “The 13th Warrior”. It’s packed with flaws, mostly in the script, and I recognize that when the hand held camera is used in the fight scenes, and you can’t tell what you’re watching, it’s because they saved money on action scenes. Even so, it’s a movie that can be watched every couple of years. I’ve watched the flim more often than that. The acting is very good, and the sets are wonderful. I especially love the timber palace of the aged, embattled Norse king. The Norwegians were skilled in wooden architecture. What I was told is that they chose their trees, topped them and de-barked them, but did not cut them down for years(?) to dry so that they wouldn’t crack or split. The clash between the Arab culture and the Norse culture in the film is interesting. Both cultures were successful in conquering huge empires. Both had religions that promised them an afterlife….if they behaved properly. I also agree with you about Maria Bonnevie. She’s beautiful.
I’m not sure “dying in combat” can be defined as “behaving properly” by modern standards, but you are of course quite correct. I didn’t know about that Norwegian building technique, that’s very interesting – and impressive.
I remember reading Ibn Fadlan’s account of his meeting with the vikings in history class in high school, they used several details from it in the film – namely the vikings sharing a bowl of water (which Fadlan was understandably repulsed by) and the king’s burial ritual – but then they added a generous helping of Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead which is based on the Beowulf poem. Fadlan was significantly less sympathetic to Norse culture than how he’s portrayed in the film, but that’s just artistic license, I guess
Now, you realize that “13th Warrior” started out as a straight film adaptation of “Eaters of the Dead”.
More viking film fun will be had in select US cities this Jan. 23 when “Outlander” finally gets it’s theatrical release.
Yeah I did realize that in looking it up for this post actually, heh. Haven’t heard of Outlander before, but checking it on IMDB, I gotta say it sounds absolutely idiotic. So I’m sure it’ll be awesome.
I’m more keen on Valhalla Rising by Nicholas Vinding Refn:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0862467/
It looks like it might be pretty cool.