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A Look at For the King, to Valhalla, a Forum-Based Roleplay and Character Study
By Prydania
The continent of Craviter on Eras is a place where tradition and modernity clash violently, where romanticism and materialism struggle for supremacy. The wheels of history are moved by the blood of these clashes. Kings, Emperors, and Generals all did what they did for personal glory, honor, and what they thought was right. It’s a land of heroes, villains, revolutionaries, lords and ladies, and of the epic struggle of the human spirit. Prydanians, despite having origins among their Andrennian brothers on Gothis, are right at home in Craviter in this regard.
Prydania had been, since 2002, under the control of the Syndicalist Party. The country suffered under the radical left wing regime, and it was William Aubyn’s Front of National Unity that offered the best hope to topple them. It was among the FNU that Prince Tobias Loðbrók found a father. His real father, Prince Robert, was executed in 2002 along with the rest of the Royal Family. William raised the Prince, and in 2012 the seventeen-year old Tobias received his family’s sword Veiðiblað. And he asked “are the stories real?”
Tobias asked that of Jørn Stöðuvatn when he was handed his family’s heirloom sword. The sword had been in his family for long time. A very long time. Back before the Loðbróks were even a dynasty. So it was natural Prince Tobias would ask that of Jørn when he was handed what was once Æschere Loðbróki’s sword. Did he really pull Veiðiblað out of an oak in ancient Andrenne to lead his people against a wild and ferocious enemy? Jørn never answered that question. Instead he pivoted it to remind Tobias of his place in modern Prydanian history. Of the role he played as their country burnt around them, and how Tobias could potentially save it. That is the story of For the King, to Valhalla. It’s the story of a young man who carries the weight of a nation on his shoulders. Who struggles with faith, love, loss, and the implications of his family’s legacy.
Tobias himself is not particularly remarkable. He is a kind-hearted young man who has had to deal with personal tragedy and loss from a young age, and who has the unfortunate case of having this tied into a civil war - a war for the soul of Prydania itself. Tobias is not a stoic general, a brave warrior, the chessmaster, nor a particularly charismatic figurehead. He’s just the last of his family - a family that happens to stretch back into the murky past of myth and legend. He needs to find a way to carry this responsibility and be the symbol of hope people want him to be, all without losing his mind or cracking under the expectations. This is the real power behind that very old sword known as Veiðiblað.
It’s through Veiðiblað that Tobias is finally able to understand the connection that allegedly stretches back to the semi-mythical Æschere. To Heorot, Hróarr, Vortgyn, and the rest of his family’s legacy. He can now touch it, understand it. Whether or not the stories of Æschere and the sword are true doesn’t matter. What matters is that he understands his place in history. Tobias will never be the grand figurehead or general so many expect him to be, but with this sword? He understands the role he has to play in being a beacon for hope for his people. He understands how he is the universe’s counterbalance to the tyrannical Syndicalist President Thomas Nielsen. The sword’s power isn’t magical, its power lies in being able to convince Tobias Loðbrók, a boy who has suffered tragedy after tragedy, that he can be King Tobias III and help save his country from those who would see it burn.
~~~~~
I began my stint in TNP’s Forum-based RP community with a novel idea. What if, instead of roleplaying a civil war, I roleplayed the immediate aftermath? Most people like to roleplay civil wars, but the aftermath is rarely fleshed out. I wanted to do something different, so my first roleplay, Over the Hills and Back, started with Tobias’ coronation. The war was over, the FNU had won, the Syndicalist tyrants were vanquished, and Tobias was King at the age of twenty-two, fifteen years removed from the Syndicalist coup.
I had a blast writing Over the Hills and Back with my fellow Eras roleplayers, but the details of the civil war I had chosen to skip nagged at me. That said? Fifteen years is a long time. There is a lot of minuitia in that timeframe. And so I thought about the civil war and how it affected Tobias and the rest of the country with no real outlet. I kept putting it off until fellow Eras roleplayer, Sil Dorsett, inspired me to do a collection of stories from the civil war. And thus For the King, to Valhalla was born.
I admit this structure leaves it a bit odd to read, as it rarely has chronological order. It’s a series of individual “episodes” from the war that I write as I feel inspired to. So the order is all over the place. Still, the timestamps should help. Regardless? I hope that despite this quirk it’s something people remain interested in. I’m quite proud of it, mostly because of how much fun it is to write. Of course I had the basics of Tobias’ character set and ready to go, but For the King to Valhalla allowed me to really dig into what makes him tick, what he’s like, and why he’s like that. Not just now, but over the course of fifteen years. It does focus on other aspects of the war besides Tobias of course, but he’s the focus. In many ways, it’s the story of how he became the young man and King he is in Eras’ present.
I find Tobias so much fun to write because of how human he feels. As I alluded to in my description of the roleplay above - he’s not even the leader of his own cause - his adoptive father William Aubyn is. Tobias is just a kid for the early parts of the war - a kid who has to make sense of a world that is trying to tear itself apart, all without his parents. He is unsure, scared, vulnerable, rash, and emotional. Who wouldn’t be? It’s his journey through these stages of his childhood and young adulthood, however, that matter almost as much as the FNU’s struggles against the Syndicalist government.
I’m a strong proponent of character roleplay being the best vehicle to explore national roleplay. In so far as that goes, Tobias Loðbrók is the “main character” of my roleplay with Prydania as a nation. For the King, to Valhalla began as an experiment to see if I could use the random episodic method to cover fifteen years of potential stories regarding the Prydanian Civil War. It has become perhaps the best character piece I’ve ever written in over thirteen years of NationStates-based roleplay. I hope it’s something people enjoy reading. If you find yourself checking it out, enjoy the journey!
By Prydania
The continent of Craviter on Eras is a place where tradition and modernity clash violently, where romanticism and materialism struggle for supremacy. The wheels of history are moved by the blood of these clashes. Kings, Emperors, and Generals all did what they did for personal glory, honor, and what they thought was right. It’s a land of heroes, villains, revolutionaries, lords and ladies, and of the epic struggle of the human spirit. Prydanians, despite having origins among their Andrennian brothers on Gothis, are right at home in Craviter in this regard.
Prydania had been, since 2002, under the control of the Syndicalist Party. The country suffered under the radical left wing regime, and it was William Aubyn’s Front of National Unity that offered the best hope to topple them. It was among the FNU that Prince Tobias Loðbrók found a father. His real father, Prince Robert, was executed in 2002 along with the rest of the Royal Family. William raised the Prince, and in 2012 the seventeen-year old Tobias received his family’s sword Veiðiblað. And he asked “are the stories real?”
Tobias asked that of Jørn Stöðuvatn when he was handed his family’s heirloom sword. The sword had been in his family for long time. A very long time. Back before the Loðbróks were even a dynasty. So it was natural Prince Tobias would ask that of Jørn when he was handed what was once Æschere Loðbróki’s sword. Did he really pull Veiðiblað out of an oak in ancient Andrenne to lead his people against a wild and ferocious enemy? Jørn never answered that question. Instead he pivoted it to remind Tobias of his place in modern Prydanian history. Of the role he played as their country burnt around them, and how Tobias could potentially save it. That is the story of For the King, to Valhalla. It’s the story of a young man who carries the weight of a nation on his shoulders. Who struggles with faith, love, loss, and the implications of his family’s legacy.
Tobias himself is not particularly remarkable. He is a kind-hearted young man who has had to deal with personal tragedy and loss from a young age, and who has the unfortunate case of having this tied into a civil war - a war for the soul of Prydania itself. Tobias is not a stoic general, a brave warrior, the chessmaster, nor a particularly charismatic figurehead. He’s just the last of his family - a family that happens to stretch back into the murky past of myth and legend. He needs to find a way to carry this responsibility and be the symbol of hope people want him to be, all without losing his mind or cracking under the expectations. This is the real power behind that very old sword known as Veiðiblað.
It’s through Veiðiblað that Tobias is finally able to understand the connection that allegedly stretches back to the semi-mythical Æschere. To Heorot, Hróarr, Vortgyn, and the rest of his family’s legacy. He can now touch it, understand it. Whether or not the stories of Æschere and the sword are true doesn’t matter. What matters is that he understands his place in history. Tobias will never be the grand figurehead or general so many expect him to be, but with this sword? He understands the role he has to play in being a beacon for hope for his people. He understands how he is the universe’s counterbalance to the tyrannical Syndicalist President Thomas Nielsen. The sword’s power isn’t magical, its power lies in being able to convince Tobias Loðbrók, a boy who has suffered tragedy after tragedy, that he can be King Tobias III and help save his country from those who would see it burn.
~~~~~
I began my stint in TNP’s Forum-based RP community with a novel idea. What if, instead of roleplaying a civil war, I roleplayed the immediate aftermath? Most people like to roleplay civil wars, but the aftermath is rarely fleshed out. I wanted to do something different, so my first roleplay, Over the Hills and Back, started with Tobias’ coronation. The war was over, the FNU had won, the Syndicalist tyrants were vanquished, and Tobias was King at the age of twenty-two, fifteen years removed from the Syndicalist coup.
I had a blast writing Over the Hills and Back with my fellow Eras roleplayers, but the details of the civil war I had chosen to skip nagged at me. That said? Fifteen years is a long time. There is a lot of minuitia in that timeframe. And so I thought about the civil war and how it affected Tobias and the rest of the country with no real outlet. I kept putting it off until fellow Eras roleplayer, Sil Dorsett, inspired me to do a collection of stories from the civil war. And thus For the King, to Valhalla was born.
I admit this structure leaves it a bit odd to read, as it rarely has chronological order. It’s a series of individual “episodes” from the war that I write as I feel inspired to. So the order is all over the place. Still, the timestamps should help. Regardless? I hope that despite this quirk it’s something people remain interested in. I’m quite proud of it, mostly because of how much fun it is to write. Of course I had the basics of Tobias’ character set and ready to go, but For the King to Valhalla allowed me to really dig into what makes him tick, what he’s like, and why he’s like that. Not just now, but over the course of fifteen years. It does focus on other aspects of the war besides Tobias of course, but he’s the focus. In many ways, it’s the story of how he became the young man and King he is in Eras’ present.
I find Tobias so much fun to write because of how human he feels. As I alluded to in my description of the roleplay above - he’s not even the leader of his own cause - his adoptive father William Aubyn is. Tobias is just a kid for the early parts of the war - a kid who has to make sense of a world that is trying to tear itself apart, all without his parents. He is unsure, scared, vulnerable, rash, and emotional. Who wouldn’t be? It’s his journey through these stages of his childhood and young adulthood, however, that matter almost as much as the FNU’s struggles against the Syndicalist government.
I’m a strong proponent of character roleplay being the best vehicle to explore national roleplay. In so far as that goes, Tobias Loðbrók is the “main character” of my roleplay with Prydania as a nation. For the King, to Valhalla began as an experiment to see if I could use the random episodic method to cover fifteen years of potential stories regarding the Prydanian Civil War. It has become perhaps the best character piece I’ve ever written in over thirteen years of NationStates-based roleplay. I hope it’s something people enjoy reading. If you find yourself checking it out, enjoy the journey!