Hrolf could not believe himself.

He was a Count. A leader of men. Someone to whom people expected to lead.

And somehow, there were people arriving from all over with just that in mind.

Armies:

So beautiful.

Numerous great leaders of Norsemen, ready to fight for him.  Small bands of men arrived from all over, weapons at the ready, all bending the knee to Hrolf, every single one of them attesting to a dream they had, wherein a one-eyed man in a cowl spoke to them and urged them to come and fight for Hrolf de Normandie.

Of all the men that joined Hrolf, 3 stood out as powerful warriors renowned for their military prowess.

Ragnaar af Hoorn was one. Fabled as a man with a harsh temper, and one who greatly hated all those worshipers of the White God. Tales speak of his losing his entire family to so called “noble knights”. Hrolf had to admit, his name was especially fantastic; “Ragnaar”. Almost like a monster of the deep. Hrolf made a mental note to keep an eye on him, and ensure that this “Monster of the Deep” lead some of his armies.

A grand leader.

Arnbjorn af Hoorn was another. A great leader of men, one who inspired great courage in others. Reputed to be humble towards those he served, but Hrolf’s courtier’s whispered to beware of his macinations, as he often plotted against those her served. Hrolf thought that those two qualities were somewhat conflicting to him… He was a distant relation to Ragnaar and thus shared in his hatred of the White Gods. The two maintained an long-running feud.

Brothers in hatred.

Sæmundr af Egmund was the last. Persistently plagued by paranoia, he was known as being highly aggressive in combat, yet arbitrary and distant in his dealings with others. A man truly only fit for combat; Hrolf ensured that he would get his share of blood to keep him appeased.

Bit of a silly man, really…

It was important to populate the council, and thus Hrolf had to decide who to appoint!

Putting the fabled Ragnaar as Marshal, Hrolf’s armies were sure to be ever aware of their leaders’s might. The other positions he filled rather indiscriminately; who is he to care about scheming or money making? He is a Viking! He will make his money through taking it from others!

Such a grand force!

All this completed, Hrolf needed to decide what he wanted to do with his new found power. In only the space of a short month, he was granted huge amounts of true power; he decided to do what a Viking does best! RAID. He has taken it upon himself to gain as much wealth as possible. He will raid until his ships are full and his coffers overflowing!

He assembled his armies.

It was time.

He knew the importance of assigning proper people in charge of flanks, as he had prior experience serving as the Marshal of Holland. He put his generals in charge of respective flanks that he thought they would deal with best. Here’s hoping they don’t get themselves killed!  Except for Arnbjorn… Hrolf didn’t lack that one so much…

*****************************************************

The ships were ready. The armies were ready. Hrolf was ready.

He was going raiding.

Poor, poor abused Hrolf.

He exists normally as nothing more than a courtier of Holland.

And look, he’s even a Catholic! Sickening…

No more, I say! No. More.

*************************************************************

Hrolf de Normandie was born with a great destiny. The Gods truly had a plan laid out for him; why else would the birthing woman so insist, as if commanded by Odin himself, to strike Hrolf’s father’s name, and replace it with the mysterious “de Normandie”?

Hrolf has spent his entire life wondering why he was cursed with this affliction, this… This Frankish name. It plagued him throughout childhood. Constantly, people would mock him “Do you have no Father? A concubine’s bastard, eh? What Jarl would want you in his service?” It, of course, only pushed him; made him want to be better than all of them. This, the Gods planned well.

What they did not plan well was Hrolf’s father dying, and his brother being executed at the orders of a Danish noblemen. Hrolf often wonders why the nobleman didn’t have him killed as well. He never got a chance to ask before being shipped off to this silly Dutch land of Holland. If the noble were ever asked why he spared a young man such as Hrolf he would only pause, clearly in distress at the question, and say “History demanded it”.

So, Hrolf spends his days in the court of Holland, unsure of his life and his meaning. He serves this reformed Norseman Hrorekr, the Catholic bastard, as Marshal. Administering his armed forces, it is never enough to occupy his time – Hrolf is nothing if not diligent however, so he performs his duties well.

Again, the Gods deign it necessary to interfere.

Odin speaks to Hrorekr in the night. He tells him plainly and simply, with no allusions to his betrayal of the old ways, what he must do. Hrorekr speaks to no one about this.

Instead, he summons Hrolf to his hall early in the morning, conferring upon him a most unexpected and rather confusing honour:

“You will leave this moment for Westfriesland. It is now your land. You are also hereby released from my vassalage… You are your own free man now… Go. And speak no more of it”

It is only fitting

Hrolf de Normandie is now the Count of Westfriesland. An independent Norse count, no less! Two Norse vassals serve beneath him as heads of the city and church there, thus giving him real and true power.

Truly, Hrolf did not quite understand why he was given this; court rumours states the Duke’s insanity and betrayal of some figure known as “Christ”, but Hrolf did not care. He did not question it. He simply assumed that the Gods had this planned all along, a chance at last to allow him some real power. He envisioned himself raiding Northern Europe and dying surrounded by wealth and women, content in his new home of Westfriesland.

The Gods did indeed plan this. But their plotting was not yet over. Hrolf still had plenty left to do before they were done with him.

Ever since The Old Gods came out, I’ve been wanting to play as Hrolf de Normandie, the founder of the dynastic line that eventually begot William the Conqueror. One can consider Hrolf the beginning of a line that would eventually utterly change England, and indeed the political scene of Europe, for ever.

For anyone interested, I own all the DLC so this could be a good example to see the different DLCs’ effects in-game.

Here’s some small historical context – you can skip past if you find this kind of stuff boring and you just want to skip to me being a badass raider, I won’t judge you. Promise.

“Rollo of Normandy”‘s identity is somewhat shrouded in mystery, as his true identity is difficult to pinpoint thanks to rather lax record keeping. Two prime candidates exist for his identity: the son of a deposed Danish nobleman, his brother was executed by the Danes, whilst he was exiled to a life of wandering; or, the first born son of a small Jarldom in Norway.

I like to think it’s the former of the two, simply because it’s way more badass. Paradox has seemingly agreed with me on this, as the historical character of Hrolf (the Norse spelling of the name) exists as a courtier in the Duchy of Holland. The other candidate (likely being around 7 years old at the 867 start) exists as some kid in Norway, so we can forget about him. Actually, no. Maybe I’ll kill him? End history’s questions once and for all? That would be cool.

In-game, Hrolf has been given the dynastic name of “de Normandie” as a nice little nod towards history, but I want to make that reality!

I’ve had to do some mild modding of the game so as to make him playable; namely, I’ve given him the county of Westfriesland in Holland, making him independent of the Norse Duke there. I’ve also made him of the Norse Pagan religion once again because the game has, for some reason, decided to label him as a Catholic (when, in truth, he likely only adopted Catholicism once settling in Normandy). I mean, what kind of fun would it be if I couldn’t raid and collect endless amounts of booty and women?

A couple rules first: 

1. I won’t cheat to the best of my ability. 

2. I won’t save scum. Unless I mess something up for stupid reasons based on me being a moron. Then again, how will you know? I’m not recording this. You’re not the boss of me! Still, I won’t.

So, some AAR goals. These are the things I will attempt to achieve within my play-through. It will be a fairly dynamic play-through, and I’ll try and incorporate as much role-play with regards to my character’s actions as I can, so if I fail a goal I won’t Alt+F4 and commit Seppuku. Right, here they are:

1. Raid and be an awesome Norse badass. Experience playing a Norse in CK2 to its fullest. Conquer stuff, kill prisoners, make noble women concubines, you name it.

2. Possibly aim to take the Duchy of Holland. Clearly, the current Norse Duke of Holland has betrayed the old ways and adopted the dreaded White God worship, with all their fancy hats, prayer books and silly languages… His title is an insult to Odin, thus it must be removed!

3. Conquer as many De Jure counties in the Duchy of Normandy as possible before Hrolf de Normandie dies.

4. [Edit: Thanks to the information of redditor One0Eyed0King, I’ve laxed this one. I don’t need to form the Duchy of Normandy anymore, as  Rollo never properly did.] Before death, form the Duchy of Normandy, and make it my main title. My aim, ideally, is that by the end of his life Hrolf is the owner of two Duchies, thus his children will split them up, allowing me to continue to play as the one in charge of Normandy.

5. Keep being a badass. Conquer some stuff, raid, maybe conquer some places in Spain and put Norse Pagans there? Also awesome.

6. Eventually except the Norman-ization of my dynasty. For thus uninitiated, in a recent patch to the game, an event is included that allows people of the Norse culture to adopt “Norman” culture if they have their main holdings in French, Breton or Occitan lands. This is for the purpose of keep things somewhat historical, as that’s exactly what happened to the Norse conquerors of Normandy in real life.

7: I guess accept that blasted White God that those Catholics seem to like so much… I’d have to endeavour to marry my line into the English line at some point so as to get a claim. OR, even better, I could actually do a proper style Papal Invasion of England, just like William did.

8. Continue on with being an awesome Norman. Rule England, all that jazz.

9. Eventually accept the English conversion of my Norman culture. In the same manner of the Norman conversion event, as long as the year is at least 1100, any Normans who hold land in places of de Jure England will eventually be able to adopt the new English culture in the “English Culture Melting-Pot” event.

10. Then, finally: be an awesome Englishman. Maybe form the Empire of Brittania? Conquer Europe? Put my dynasty on as many thrones as I can? I like that. Imagine a de Normandie on every throne in Europe. Ahhh, it’d be glorious.

So, expect the first section of my AAR to come soon; it’ll introduce Hrolf, talk about his starting abilities and his stats and his situation, and then do some delicious raiding.

Hope you enjoy it!