AAR : Faerun's Second Times of Trouble

[Unknown_Enemy]

Game setup :
Pretender :
Ruteger the arch mage commanding the Order of Light.
5 astral
2 earth
1 fire
2 nature
Fortified city
Dominion 4
Strong magic generation and moderately lucky
So a support pretender, more turned to roleplay than game efficiency.

Opponents:
abysia
lhynn
ermor
vanheim
jotunheim
mictlan
All of them are difficult ai.
Map : Faerun's Forgotten realms (the large one ! )
1 starting province
50% special site frequency
rare random events
no special start locations
independents strength 3


In the year 1333, Lord Ao the Overpower cast the Gods down to Faerun. This was known as the Godwars, the Avatar Crisis or the Times of Trouble. But we now understand it was merely a repetition. The real drama is unravelling as I write. This is my account of the Second Times of Trouble, or Dominion Wars.


Proclamation
Year 1376 [Netherild Calendar]
My name is unimportant. I was a humble battle-Priest from the Order of Light, serving Helm and the Order. After ten years past in a crusade, I was allowed to become chaplain of a small village 20 miles south east of Altenberg in Deepingdale, between Cormyr and Sembia.
Altenberg is the only citadel of Faerun whose walls have never been breached, and it is also the headquarter of the Order of Light, a powerful Order of holy warriors created a thousand years ago. Almost all of us served Lord Helm, but some served a few other lawful deities. Until now.
On the 4th day of Spring in the year 1376, our God vanished. Helm, the Watchful One, the only God not cast out by Ao 13 years ago has vanished. Not only Him, but all known Gods. Even Ao cannot be reached. Worse, our powers as priests are gone ! Our magic is gone ! Mages can still cast spells, but all Faith based magic is gone ! I came back to Altenberg, seeking guidance from my priest-brothers, but all were enduring my fate, and none could help me. Some brothers were giving up hope, others stood confused. Chaos was everywhere.

Then a messenger brought us an announcement : the Queen of Ermor was proclaiming herself Bringer of Pain, Bane of the Living and was claiming the Throne of Ao for Herself. Not only that, but the clerics who accepted her evil domain were seeing their powers coming back ! Following her, word spread about proclamations from the Emperor of Lhynn, Abysia's Master of fire, Vanheim�s Nature Protector, Jotunheim's Icy King and Mictlan's God of Murder . Ermor's queen was a vampire, the Emperor was an Evil Mage, Abysia�s ruler was a fire elemental and Jotunheim's ruler was an ice giant. All of them were monsters trying to become God !
Meanwile, Arch Priest Ruteger, the most respected priest-mage of the Order gave us a lecture about these events. They had already happened long ago. These were the legends hinting Ao�s ascension to the Throne of Overpower. Now it seems one power in this world would become supreme, allowing others to become Gods under his rules. Our mortal fates would depend upon the way next Overpower will behave. In such a situation, I did the only thing I could do, I prayed. I prayed for the ArchPriest to guide us in the time to come. I prayed with my brothers.
We prayed for hours.
We prayed for days.
We prayed for weeks.
We prayed until we feel the Magic of Faith coming back to us. But it was not Helm coming back, it was something else. Our faith had created a new pretender. Arch Priest Ruteger would now be known as the Lord of Duty, Master of Arcane Mysteries. His faith was already spreading into other states. But old habits don�t die easily, neutral countries intended to stay so, looking at our Lord as another common land owner. We would have to strip the land from them to allow followers to help us. Then, there are other pretenders, but only one will ascend.
We know our duty.
The war has begun.

[The Order of Light is full of elite but expensive soldiers, with good priests and some fire/astral magic]

[ July 27, 2004, 15:50: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]