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Description
Like I mentioned in yesterday's blurb, when I set out to craft a storyline around the Baltic Sea for my D&D campaign set in 526 BCE, I relied heavily on the Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus, a 16th century work by Swedish Archbishop Johannes Magnus. This chronicle is a bizarre mix of faulty Biblical chronology, random assortments of myths from the Eddas, and whatever Johannes can pull out of his ass to give the current king's regnal number a boost. It's clearly not a historical document, but it was the best I could get for names and dates this far back in the region's history. According to Johannes's narrative, my party would've lived during the reign of the evil and despotic king Grimmer, a treacherous man renowned for his greed and lack of human decency. The party's primary responsibility was overthrowing the king to install his son, Tord, a prince disowned by his wretched family because he actually cared about his subjects. Tord recruited the party to protect him on his diplomatic journey to the lands of Estonia and Curonia to build an army that could overthrow his father, a feat they ultimately accomplished. Indeed, they even managed to win over the crown prince, Tord's brother, to their cause. This prince (unnamed in Johannes's account, but for the sake of story I gave him the name "Skimo") knew his father was a terrible man, but felt he needed to remain loyal to protect the interests of his own son and heir. This served as the backbone of Tord's dilemma, and thankfully it is one that the party managed to resolve peacefully.

The party left Sweden after bringing Grimmer down, now realizing the king was merely a puppet for a much more powerful and ancient force… but Johannes elaborates on the remainder of Tord's reign. Though he had earned his throne, he had not yet earned the people's trust, being the son of such a reprehensible man as Grimmer. To make matters worse, the Estonians and Curonians were still on the war path to plunder all of Grimmer's riches. Of course, nothing unites quite like a common enemy, and Tord received this saving grace in the form of a fleet of Saxons or Obotrites who turned all the states of the Baltic Sea into their personal pirate chest. Tord mustered his allies into a fierce resistance force, pushing out the Saxons not once, but twice, sending the pirates away with their tails between their legs. Tord at last won the respect of his people, and he was at last able to rebuild Sweden into a strong kingdom that enjoyed a peaceful and prosperous reign. Tord kept the throne warm for quite the tenure before he "died suddenly" and his nephew Gotar, a plucky but level-headed young administrator, was unanimously accepted to take his place.

Design notes, Tord's sheet definitely came out better than his father's did. There is an image accompanying his blurb in Johannes's work, but like with Grimmer, it's clearly a generic woodcut which was copied and pasted across multiple entries in the original book's manuscript. It's also very clearly based on the clothes of a 16th century king rather than attempting to be historically accurate to the time period in any way, so I mostly improvised. I took some minor inspirations from archaeological finds dated to the Nordic Bronze Age, though obviously textiles themselves are hard to come by that far back. I basically prompted myself to design a generic Rogue, and well, that's what came out the other side. Not the most inspired piece, sure, but Tord was a minor character who probably didn't even exist at all, so I'm not too hung up about that.

Description
Like I mentioned in yesterday's blurb, when I set out to craft a storyline around the Baltic Sea for my D&D campaign set in 526 BCE, I relied heavily on the Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus, a 16th century work by Swedish Archbishop Johannes Magnus. This chronicle is a bizarre mix of faulty Biblical chronology, random assortments of myths from the Eddas, and whatever Johannes can pull out of his ass to give the current king's regnal number a boost. It's clearly not a historical document, but it was the best I could get for names and dates this far back in the region's history. According to Johannes's narrative, my party would've lived during the reign of the evil and despotic king Grimmer, a treacherous man renowned for his greed and lack of human decency. The party's primary responsibility was overthrowing the king to install his son, Tord, a prince disowned by his wretched family because he actually cared about his subjects. Tord recruited the party to protect him on his diplomatic journey to the lands of Estonia and Curonia to build an army that could overthrow his father, a feat they ultimately accomplished. Indeed, they even managed to win over the crown prince, Tord's brother, to their cause. This prince (unnamed in Johannes's account, but for the sake of story I gave him the name "Skimo") knew his father was a terrible man, but felt he needed to remain loyal to protect the interests of his own son and heir. This served as the backbone of Tord's dilemma, and thankfully it is one that the party managed to resolve peacefully.

The party left Sweden after bringing Grimmer down, now realizing the king was merely a puppet for a much more powerful and ancient force… but Johannes elaborates on the remainder of Tord's reign. Though he had earned his throne, he had not yet earned the people's trust, being the son of such a reprehensible man as Grimmer. To make matters worse, the Estonians and Curonians were still on the war path to plunder all of Grimmer's riches. Of course, nothing unites quite like a common enemy, and Tord received this saving grace in the form of a fleet of Saxons or Obotrites who turned all the states of the Baltic Sea into their personal pirate chest. Tord mustered his allies into a fierce resistance force, pushing out the Saxons not once, but twice, sending the pirates away with their tails between their legs. Tord at last won the respect of his people, and he was at last able to rebuild Sweden into a strong kingdom that enjoyed a peaceful and prosperous reign. Tord kept the throne warm for quite the tenure before he "died suddenly" and his nephew Gotar, a plucky but level-headed young administrator, was unanimously accepted to take his place.

Design notes, Tord's sheet definitely came out better than his father's did. There is an image accompanying his blurb in Johannes's work, but like with Grimmer, it's clearly a generic woodcut which was copied and pasted across multiple entries in the original book's manuscript. It's also very clearly based on the clothes of a 16th century king rather than attempting to be historically accurate to the time period in any way, so I mostly improvised. I took some minor inspirations from archaeological finds dated to the Nordic Bronze Age, though obviously textiles themselves are hard to come by that far back. I basically prompted myself to design a generic Rogue, and well, that's what came out the other side. Not the most inspired piece, sure, but Tord was a minor character who probably didn't even exist at all, so I'm not too hung up about that.