Here I would like to summarize my thoughts on the changes to the story of The Dark Hordes and also ask for feedback. I have been reworking TDH recently. The reason why I am reworking the ancient and unfinished TDH now is because I irresistibly love this campaign. Unfortunately, however, the story of TDH is very simple and not at the mainline level nowadays. DiD is more appealing in that regard (of course DiD is also my favorite campaign).
I therefore considered completely improving the story of TDH.
Put simply, what will be done is reworking story parts and dialogues, as well as adding new characters. But overall, it would be very significant changes and it would be difficult for me to implement this without getting feedback. Below is the storyboard. I sincerely hope that you will not hesitate to point out all the good and bad points.
Note that the first story text is long, as you can see if you read it. It needs to be organized well in the future. Please advise me on that as well.
S1 - A New Chance
Story parts
(transience.ogg) Brothers Gwiti and Nati Ha'atel were born as twin sons of the high lord of Weldyn. During their boyhood, Wesnoth was in the midst of the reign of the Dark Emperor Mizenwyn and was about to be reborn as an empire of dictatorship. Amidst much turmoil, the brothers' father was actively available to Mizenwyn, benefiting from his bloody bounty and living close to him. However, their whole situation changed when two heroic elves - Niryone and Elynia - invaded Weldyn.
They put an end to his dictatorship by defeating Mizenwyn. A civil war then broke out within Wesnoth, but the victory and defeat were clearly evident now. The First Empire of Wesnoth, as it was known to later generations, was dismantled and most of its former forces were killed. And among them, it was the brothers' father who resisted to the last. He was shot by an arrow from the elven army and died instantly. Orphaned, Gwiti and Nati were adopted by Lord Leonard on the frontier after long discussions about their treatment.
Leonard treated them with deliberate coldness. He was blatantly disgusted that the brothers had benefited from Mizenwyn, even if they were still children; Nati could still understand that. But Gwiti was still very young, and could only grieve. The only one he could open his heart to was Maya, the only daughter of Leonard; Gwiti did not know how to make friends, but only with her could he talk deeply.
As the months passed, the three were encouraged by their close teacher to go to study at the Magic School in Alduin. There they studied sorcery together, and achieved very high grades. As adults, they began their careers as young sorcerers in Weldyn, under the reign of King Delvhar I.
(main_menu.ogg) In those years, Wesnoth maintained peace under its alliance with the elves. Meanwhile, however, there were signs of unrest in the northern lands not under their control: after the large orcish civil war near Glamdrol, the Great Chiefs had emerged from among them, and their forces were rallying in their lands. Upon receiving reports, the Wesnothians had to keep closer eye on their movements.
After prolonged tension between the two sides, the orcs finally launched an attack on the Stone of Erzen, an important northern stronghold for Wesnoth. Delvhar I sent reinforcements commanded by the Ha'atel brothers to the region, accompanied by Maya. But they were too few in number to prepare for the orcish invasion that was to follow next. The cruel orcs sent an enormous army to Erzen and laid siege to its fortress.
The battle dragged on, the battlefield was covered in the blood of humans. The lords of Erzen fled, abandoning their brethren, and the people began to go insane with fear. Gwiti experienced his first taste of the terror he had never known in his life; the casualties steadily mounted, and the defenders, and reinforcements, quickly disintegrated.
Nati was fighting back fear and tears, remembering the magic she had learned in Alduin and searching in desperation for ways to defuse the situation. Then the demon whispered in his ear. He had single-handedly perfected the magic that moves dead creatures; he made the decision to resurrect the corpses of his former friends and enemies on the battlefield. Exhausted, Gwiti and Maya, who had lost their judgment, quickly agreed with him.
It was only when the cavalry sent by the King arrived that it became clear that their actions had been rash. The cavalry was astonished by the situation at Erzen. The battlefield had turned into an hell where corpses and orcs were swarming and fighting. The cavalry clashed with the undead, and all chaos broke loose at Erzen. The three necromancers fled in the confusion, unsure of what was going on.
When they returned to Erzen, they found it in pristine ruins; the Wesnothians had been defeated by orcs as the result. The survivors attributed the whole thing to the undead that the three had raised. The Ha'atel brothers and Maya were captured, heavily shackled, placed on an old rudderless ship, and banished to the Great Ocean to be drowned. The Wesnothians feared that their corpses would rise again.
But fate was always ironic. They never completely despaired of their situation, and in fact they did not die: the ship carrying the three was shipwrecked in an unexpected storm, and they were separated and cast adrift in unknown lands. This was the beginning of the uprising of the dark hordes.
Dialogues
Start: (elvish-theme.ogg, wesnoth-3.ogg)
Gwiti: "My whole body still aches... Where the hell is this strange beach?" Narrator: "The area was blighted. Not one human being was there." Gwiti: "It seems the gods have not yet completely abandoned me. Is this fortunate? Or is it unfortunate? I have been banished from my homeland, I have lost everything, and yet I still seem to be forced to remain on earth..."
Maya drifts ashore and joins Gwiti.
Gwiti: "Ah, you are alive! But you did not deserve this terrible treatment." Maya: "Is that not the same for you? We certainly had no other choice. No one wanted to accept that fact, no one wanted to listen to us, they wanted to kill us. That's really ironic." Gwiti: "I agree with what you say. By the way, do you know what happened to my brother?" Maya: "I do not know, that is all I can say. After the ship disintegrated, we could only concentrate on drifting through the ocean; there is no way of knowing where Nati is now." Gwiti: "Oh, I do not even know if he is alive... This fate cannot be allowed to happen." Maya: "But Gwiti, now is not the time to get emotional. Can you smell the beast around here?" Gwiti: "I feared that too. If the gods were to put us to the test, the most affordable would be the monsters. Oh, yes, we cannot die now!"
When the ogre dies: Ogre: "Argh! I die!"
Maya: "Who is hiding there?" Corcyn: "I almost got eaten by an ogre... Are you necromancers like me?" Gwiti: "Yes, they probably are. We have already been fallen. We are already hated by others." Corcyn: "There is no need to be so down on yourself. I, too, did not choose this kind of profession by choice. So why did you come to this place? Did an ogre catch you like I did?" Gwiti: "The answer is no. We remember the part where we were threatened with death by our former friends, wandering the seas, and separated from my brother. What do you think about this?" Corcyn: "You seem to have very interesting circumstances. Well, I shall follow you. I will provide you with my bats, corpses, and servants. But for now, let me get some rest." Narrator: "You can recruit his servants in the next scenario and beyond."
When the naga dies: Naga: "I am... defeated..."
Victory: Gwiti: "Wait. I feel like there is someone encamped over there... Maybe Nati has reached this land too." Maya: "Should we head there?" Gwiti: "Of course. If it really is Nati, we must meet again. It is that great kingdom that we are at odds with. We need Nati in this war." Maya: "This war? No way, are you planning to take revenge against Wesnoth?" Gwiti: "Oh, this is war. We should not be left to die in silence, eaten alive by savage orcs or skewered by farmer vigilantes. And you feel the same way. Now, we must move on."
Defeat - Gwiti: Gwiti: "Am I going to die like this?!"
Defeat - Maya: Maya: "Oh no! This is death..."
Defeat - Time over Gwiti: "The Wesnothians chased after us. Our luck had run out..."
I will add the rest as soon as I finish thinking about it.
Statistics: Posted by KameRamen — Yesterday, 5:04 pm