My basic idea currently is:
Viking mythology(1 or 2 specific myths) X colonisation of America by the Vikings in year 1000AD X Civil War era/industrial age.
Ok. So basically I need to kind of rewrite history and say that Leif Eriksson set up a viking colony in North America back when he discovered it in the year 1000 and that the colony grew and got stronger and therefore America would have looked and been a lot different throughout history. Now we need to fast forward a few hundred years to the Civil War era (late 1800's) were I want my story to be plotted.
Then I can take my favourite Viking myth about the loveable god Balder and his death and the fact that he was meant to be reborn at the end of Ragnarök to symbolise a new era. Maybe, like the christian idea of God creating the world in 7 days (which is just an expression - many people believe that 7 days symbolises 7 time periods that could have lasted millions of years), Ragnarök could be a slow process. Back in about 1100 AD, the end of the Viking Era, Ragnarök could have started and the main fighting could have been over in a few short years, but the effects of it, or everything coming full circle to a time you could classify as being the end of Ragnarök could have ended in Civil War times. For example, maybe that's how long it took Scandinavia to recover from such an immense war where their Gods were mostly all killed, or maybe the end of Ragnarök would be when the first plant grew on Scandinavian soil or when the last body had been collected by the Valkyries (and there were so many that the last one wasn't collected until the late 1800's), or maybe the Scandinavian people kept on living, much like they are today, but quietly in the background, the effects of Ragnarök were still occurring.
Either way, when Ragnarök finishes, Balder gets reborn - the only Viking god to be reborn. Perhaps he comes to earth as a God (although his immortality could be considered boring and unchallenging from a player's perspective), or perhaps as a mere mortal who may have a few specific skills such as super human strength. His main mission could be to resurrect his AEsir and Vanir God pal's and the only way he can do that is by getting a hold of Thor's hammer. Perhaps after Thor's death during Ragnarök, his sons sent the hammer off to the North American colony who were to become its guardians. So Balder could find this out and could go to North America in search of it.
One issue I have come across is figuring out why the Vikings in my history were able to colonise North America where in reality they weren't. One of the main reasons that I found throughout my research that Vikings didn't colonise North America was because of Leif Eriksson's brother's and sister's terrible relationships with the native Americans. Leif himself was able to establish good relationships with them and often traded with them, but his brothers and sisters threatened and killed many of them. The vikings there were only a small group of people and could not stand against an enemy as strong in number as the native Americans. So for a colony to have been established, we need to say that the Vikings were on good terms with the native American Indians. This brings up an interesting idea - maybe they were so friendly with each other that the two groups of people mixed - became either one tribe or a "blood-tribe". This could be very interesting in terms of design - half Aryan, half American Indian.
Next issue - should the viking race in America be strong or weak? During the Civil War era, we have 2 groups opposing each other which led to the war - the North and the South. Both were large groups. I think that it would be too complicated to use this specific history (although the time period is quite good) and have both groups plus the viking group as a third. And the idea of having the Civil War with the Vikings as either North or South makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, so I think it's best to say that there will be no Abe Lincoln or North or South America or Civil war. There will be a war, but maybe between the Vikings and another group - a made up group. You have to be very careful of not seeming insensitive when you play around with history.
While I initially thought of my America in my game being largely influenced by the Vikings and having them as a strong and dominating group, I realise that they could also play the underdog, the weak group - which would provide players with the task of strengthening their people and building an army to take on what seems to be an unstoppable force. Work your way up the food chain. This underdog idea seems to work well with my story line so far as well - Ragnarök would have meant that most of the Viking gods died and ceased to exist - this would cause the Viking people who were still faithful to those believes to become depressed - their Gods are dead which means - what is the point to life? So yes - you have Ragnarök and the death of the gods which creates a depression in the Viking people. Even the colony in North America. So by the time another race of people "discover" America (could be Columbus, or otherwise another group), the Vikings aren't as fierce or awesome as they had been during the Viking era, and could easily be dominated by the new group who seek to take over the country. The Vikings could be sad and seek refuge in the mountains - abandoning the seas and their old ways of awesomeness and the other group could make America theirs.
What group though? This is hard - you can't be too insensitive to any one group of people. The answer that came to me was to have very snotty redcoat Englishmen as the opposing group here. The Vikings have historically not had the best relationships with the English, having raided and taken over many of their towns during the Viking era, so the English could naturally have something against them. Also, the idea of the American revolution with redcoat English soldiers had previously excited me, so I think we can bring them in here - if a little in the wrong time period. Say you have very Fable 2/3 style characters who still strongly represent the redcoats from the revolution era and are overall very snotty and arrogant. The English could have loved the chance to raid and take over Viking land since the Vikings had done it to them back in the Viking era and it could have been easy considering that the colony would have been quite small here.
I still really like the idea from a design point of view of the rich people from the "bad" side have plantations - maybe not with slaves, but just in terms of architecture and building design. These would of course have to be mixed with English design - could be castle-esque!
And of course, the protagonist needs a clear main boss enemy. Maybe this could be as simple as the governor of the English-America. He could be like the evil boss in Fable 2 who wants nothing but power. Maybe he isn't too bothered by the Vikings and lets the soldiers who work near the Viking town district scare them into submission without getting his hands dirty himself (so another enemy here could be the leader of that army). Maybe when Balder shows up and the governor realises who he is and that the Vikings are advancing and getting lots of power and could cause an uprising could he become more involved.
Aaaaand of course we need a romantic love interest. I had originally thought that this character could be Freyja, but it wouldn't work with the concept so far to have a God as a part of the American-Viking society because she would be too proud to allow her or her people to be dominated by their enemy. I'd like the character to have some of Freyja's characteristics though - her beauty for example, so maybe she's the descendent of Freyja who has also lost all faith due to the death of her gods in Ragnarök. Her main goal could be to just keep her people safe and out of the way rather than to have ambitions of taking America from the English. Therefore she would see our protagonist as a threat if he comes into the colony and starts to stir things up.
Okay, I have a fair idea of what I want and what I'm talking about so in my next post I'll write out the story line for my game!
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