Quest Suggestions - Europe 1200 Warband

So, in our port for Warband we are going to include a ****load of quests. Both unique quests for lords which can only be taken one time, and general quests like the taking enemy prisoners etc. Now, we would be more than pleased if you could come with some suggestions for us. Remember, we only make unique/one-time quests that are inspired by historical events that happened to the lord that will be giving the quest!

Before you make a suggestion, make sure that the quest is not on the list:

Unique quest(s) for a future version: The subordination of Bulgaria to the Papacy (perhaps even simulate the several missions dispatched between Rome and Tarnovgrad, in the generic "deliver a message to Lord X" native quest style) - taken from Tsar Kaloyan (by the late 1199/early 1200 he had just received the first Papal legate). Persuasion might also be potentially included (in the last part of the quest, if it's multi-tiered) to decide the Pope's recognition of the heads of state and church (f.e. low persuasion result - Pope recognizes Kaloyan as "rex" (king) and Vasilii as "primas" and Kaloyan has to accept, medium (or good) result - Pope recognizes them as "rex" and "primas", but Kaloyan takes it as "imperator" and "patriarch" and the Pope has to accept (historical case), very good result - Pope recognizes them as "imperator" and "primas" (or even "patriarch"?)).

Edit, 28.12: Btw, after that quest, there could f.e. be a possibility to reverse it and negotiate with Nicaea to restore the Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarchate and recognise the head of state as tsar (which happened a bit later, in 1235). This could f.e. be tied to faction relations - if Bulgaria goes to war with a Catholic faction (Latins, maybe Hungary) which Nicaea is at war with as well (the 1235 change happened because Bulgaria and the Nikeans were fighting the Latins together).
Another alternative could be, f.e. if the original quest with the Papacy fails, to lead such negotiations with the Byzantines themselves (in 1203, the Byzantine emperor himself had offered to recognize Kaloyan's demands, in exchange for Bulgarian help against the Catholics, but historically Kaloyan refused and continued the negotiations with the Pope).

What about the "swedish crusade" it was around this time(give or take 50-60 years).
I know it isent pressent around 1200 but it hapened around this time so probobility is that peapel from the first swedish crusade is still alive and that peapel who will be in the second are just born. So altho a longshoot idea it is not that far off.

And mabe it culd only be taken after taking the Swedish civil war quest.


And mabe more commoner quests, I havent realy thught any ones out yett but give me some time.

General Quest: Militia Recruitment

The lord asks you to bring him X number of Y serfs. X being variable, and Y being the type of recruits in the lord's lands. So, imagine you go to a castillian lord, he would ask you for for example 20 castillian serfs. He will pay you 10 denars for the recruitment of each guy, plus a price of 500 or whatever.



Unique to Almohad Caliphate: Razzia

Raid 3 villages from Kingdom of Portugal, Kingdom of Leon, Kingdom of Castille, Kingdom of Navarre or the Crown of Aragon. Any lord from the Almohad Caliphate could give you this mission.

Possible dialog after succes:
Great. Those attacks will hopefully weak our Christian neighbours and keep them bussy for some time. Here, take this gold. I hope it is enough to cover your campaign's expenses.

NikeBG said:

Unique quest(s) for a future version: The subordination of Bulgaria to the Papacy (perhaps even simulate the several missions dispatched between Rome and Tarnovgrad, in the generic "deliver a message to Lord X" native quest style) - taken from Tsar Kaloyan (by the late 1199/early 1200 he had just received the first Papal legate). Persuasion might also be potentially included (in the last part of the quest, if it's multi-tiered) to decide the Pope's recognition of the heads of state and church (f.e. low persuasion result - Pope recognizes Kaloyan as "rex" (king) and Vasilii as "primas" and Kaloyan has to accept, medium (or good) result - Pope recognizes them as "rex" and "primas", but Kaloyan takes it as "imperator" and "patriarch" and the Pope has to accept (historical case), very good result - Pope recognizes them as "imperator" and "primas" (or even "patriarch"?)).

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I really like it.

One problem though, a classic delivery quest style might be boring for a noble guy, especially with those distances. Would it be a possibility to say that the pope would only reconize them if they could conquer a castle from the Byzantine/Turks/whatever to show God is with them? Or would that be going over the line of what is reasonable to say is inspired by historical accuracy?

erik_3e said:

What about the "swedish crusade" it was around this time(give or take 50-60 years).
I know it isent pressent around 1200 but it hapened around this time so probobility is that peapel from the first swedish crusade is still alive and that peapel who will be in the second are just born. So altho a longshoot idea it is not that far off.

And mabe it culd only be taken after taking the Swedish civil war quest.

And mabe more commoner quests, I havent realy thught any ones out yett but give me some time.

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I would work if I planned on including Finnish tribes, sadly we don't, making this a hard quest to make.

Revan Shan said:

General Quest: Militia Recruitment

The lord asks you to bring him X number of Y serfs. X being variable, and Y being the type of recruits in the lord's lands. So, imagine you go to a castillian lord, he would ask you for for example 20 castillian serfs. He will pay you 10 denars for the recruitment of each guy, plus a price of 500 or whatever.



Unique to Almohad Caliphate: Razzia

Raid 3 villages from Kingdom of Portugal, Kingdom of Leon, Kingdom of Castille, Kingdom of Navarre or the Crown of Aragon. Any lord from the Almohad Caliphate could give you this mission.

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I like both of them, and none of them are hard to make, so I might even include them in the next patch.

Cruger said:

Would it be a possibility to say that the pope would only reconize them if they could conquer a castle from the Byzantine/Turks/whatever to show God is with them? Or would that be going over the line of what is reasonable to say is inspired by historical accuracy?

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I don't like your alternative. It's very simplistic, as if Innocent III was such a fanatic idiot. Rather, why not make the player convince the Papal legate of the importance of accepting Kaloyan's claims? The player doesn't have to go to Rome. If he does, then let's make the trip worth it. High relations with Kaloyan and high relations with the Pope.

If we implement religions, this quest could open the player the gates of becoming the "Pope's main lacay in the Balkans". Or, on the other side, the main man of Eastern Orthodoxy in Bulgaria.

Revan Shan said:

General Quest: Militia Recruitment

The lord asks you to bring him X number of Y serfs. X being variable, and Y being the type of recruits in the lord's lands. So, imagine you go to a castillian lord, he would ask you for for example 20 castillian serfs. He will pay you 10 denars for the recruitment of each guy, plus a price of 500 or whatever.

Click to expand...

This one is not particularly realistic. But, on the other hand, none of Native's recruitment quests are. Not even the recruitment system... so it's OK.

I had something in mind related to the Voto de Santiago. What about a city rejecting payment and the archbishop of Santiago sending you there to 'convince' them to pay? It could be done either by brute force or (with a little suggestion to both sides) by negotiation.

It could be even a repeatable quest, i.e. after solving the conflict with a certain town, other cities start to refuse payment, so you're tasked again to deal with it.

Korinov said:

I had something in mind related to the Voto de Santiago. What about a city rejecting payment and the archbishop of Santiago sending you there to 'convince' them to pay? It could be done either by brute force or (with a little suggestion to both sides) by negotiation.

It could be even a repeatable quest, i.e. after solving the conflict with a certain town, other cities start to refuse payment, so you're tasked again to deal with it.

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I've never heard of Vovo de Santiago, but basically it was about the people of Santiago refusing to pay tax to the Archbishop? Or the Archbishops emmisarry (the player) has to convince them, because the citizens wont listen to their lord, and will only listen to a man that talk Gods will? You have to give me more info..

No, it isn't like that.

Attending to the Chronique of Archbishop Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, in 844 a battle was fought between the king of Asturias (Ramiro I) and the Emir of Córdoba near Clavijo (La Rioja, close to Navarre). The chronique of the battle included the divine apparition of apostle Santiago, who showed up when the christians were about to be defeated and almost single-handedly slaughtered the arabs (there originated the myth of Santiago Matamoros, ~ Santiago the Moorslayer). Today we know the Battle of Clavijo never happened, and Jiménez de Rada's narration was probably a literary mythification of another battle, probably the battle of Albelda.

Anyway, the battle of Clavijo served to justify, the Voto de Santiago, a church tax stablished in the mid XII century. It affected almost all the territories of Castille (included the ones conquerd after its imposition, in fact Granada was the kingdom where it was paid more scrupulously) and even northern Portugal. Although the true veracity of the battle of Clavijo and the donation from Ramiro I was proved false in the late XVI century (prominent figures like Quevedo viciously criticised the Voto), it wasn't abolished until XIX century. The tax consisted in a yearly payment of a variable amount of wine or bread to the church of Santiago, making it the richest one in all Iberia if I remember correctly.

Of course, such a tax met resistances among the populace (both rural and urban); the quest should serve to portray them.

I really like that. I will definitely be making that one.

Ok so Ive thught about it for a while and I might have 2 quests for when you are a commoner.

Idea #1
Plot:
Ok so you are a commoner you come by a a village, you go and talk to the Village elder/leder.
Dialog:
-You ask him if you culd help the village with anything.
-He answers "whell we are not to happy about how our lord is treeting us, but no one dares to stand upp against him and we culd use a leeder who knows what he is doing. Wold you be interested in this?"

Action:
When/if you accept you will gett a direct relation boost with the village and then x number of villagers join your party(for free as this wold be a rebbelion).
You then have the option to go and find the lord who owns that village or you may have the option to go to other villages that this lord owns and gett more pesants to join your party for every village you manage to persuade onto your side you gett a boost in relations with that village and x number of villagers join you(only possible to do all this in villages that the lord owns).

When you finaly desides to confront the lord you will put forth the demands the pessants ask(havent figured out what they may be yett, probably something with lower taxes etc.) this will imediatly give you a significant relation droop with this lord and possobly the King of the lords faction alternatly a droop in relations with the whole faction. The dessision the lord will decide wold be decided by how many villagers you have joining you becous a lord wold not whant to slughter to mutch of his working force(culd be to costly for him. If the lord decides you are to few and deny you, you will emediatly go into battle with him charging you. This will make the lords villages gett poorer(from average to poor, Good to Avarege etc.) if the lord wins he will put you in prison for a while, if he looses you will gett all of the battle loot and whatever the villagers might own, the villagers will also leve your party. If he accepts/find you to many he will accept your dessision, the villages from witch the villagers come from will leve your party and you will get a reward of whatever the villagers might own.


Idea #2

Another idea for a commoner quest is to make some money in taverns.
You culd have an option to take a quest from different men in taverns, the quest wold basicaly be a fight betwene you and the other guy. You wold have the option to bett money and then dubble the money whatever you betted. letts say a limit of 150 denars in a bett.
You wold have the option to choos betwen a life and death  fight or a fight without weapons and only fists, fist fight wold only earn you the money you bett while a death match wold earn you all that your oponant had on his body(clothing, weapons and the money offcors). The oponent will have to be on a realy high level as it wold be to easy to win otherwise.
The fight culd take place outside the tavern in the streets.

Village Elder, Tavern Keeper and Guildmaster quests! How could I forget?

Both quests has good potential, and I would really like to make them. Talewords actually wanted to include a tavern fight quest where you would bet on yourself against someone else in a fist fight, so the idea isn't new, but I havn't seen any sign that they are taking steps to include it, so I might just go make it myself.

I'll add a spoler for the above mentioned quest givers

A suggestion for a village elder quest.

Help a fugitive reach exile: An unfortunate friend has offended the local lord, and now faces execution and/or torture. He, through the village elder, asks you to hide him in your army until you reach a nearby foreign city or village, where he/she can dissapear forever. If you accept, you get him as a temporal companion (something like "Concealed fugitive").

Then you have 2 options:
1. take him where he wants to go, for a very good reputation boost with his village, and some experience.
2. take him to the offended lord, for an important relation increase with the lord, an important reputation penalty with the village (you sold one of them out!), good money, and a little honour decrease.

In the meantime, if you speak with another lord of the same faction, you would get a minor relation decrease with him, with a dialog such as: "And...oh, wait...isn't that X? Did you know he/she is a criminal wanted by Lord X? The Lord isn't going to be happy about this. For my honour, I'm not going to denounce you, but I won't cover you up either. I thought you were more sensible than risking your position for a simple peasant."

Another unique quest suggestion:

The unification process of the Kingdoms of Castille and Leon took place during the XIIIth century. It was completely political, so I think the quest could be: increase your relation with the King of Leon (if you took the quest from the King of Castille, and viceversa) to a certain extent (perhaps 100!! ) in less than X time, say 365 days.

If succeded, both Kings agree to unify the two Kingdoms. The Kingdom of Leon dissapears and is annexed to Castille (or the other way around, if you took the quest from the King of Leon).

If it was possible, the name of the Kingdom of Castille (or Leon, the one "surviving" the unification) would change to Kingdom of Castille-Leon.

One more quest, this time from the guildmaster.

Get a shipment of exotic goods: This is more intended for "merchant" characters. You would have to travel a long distance and get a certain type of good. When you returned, you would automatically sell as many as you carried in your inventory for a great sum, say 10 or 20x its price. Of course, a good inventory organization skill would be very profitable here. If you failed the quest (timer runs out) you would get a minor relation decrease with the city.

And one question: "Vovo de Santiago" shouldn't be "Voto de Santiago" ?

Cruger said:

I really like it.

One problem though, a classic delivery quest style might be boring for a noble guy, especially with those distances. Would it be a possibility to say that the pope would only reconize them if they could conquer a castle from the Byzantine/Turks/whatever to show God is with them? Or would that be going over the line of what is reasonable to say is inspired by historical accuracy?

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Hmm, it's certainly not boring, but also not historically-based. Theoretically, it might work, it just didn't actually happen. The negotiations were, unfortunately, purely diplomatic ("Here, I finally give you the old apple of discord from the Photian Schism (plus quite a lot of gifts, of course), you give me my titles and tell those pesky Hungarians and Crusaders to stay out of my lands.").
The other potential problem is that after the negotiations, Bulgaria became a Uniate, not a Catholic church, i.e. it kept its Orthodox rituals etc, but it became subordinated to the Holy See instead of the Patriarch in Constantinople.

Cèsar de Quart said:

I don't like your alternative. It's very simplistic, as if Innocent III was such a fanatic idiot. Rather, why not make the player convince the Papal legate of the importance of accepting Kaloyan's claims? The player doesn't have to go to Rome. If he does, then let's make the trip worth it. High relations with Kaloyan and high relations with the Pope.

If we implement religions, this quest could open the player the gates of becoming the "Pope's main lacay in the Balkans". Or, on the other side, the main man of Eastern Orthodoxy in Bulgaria.

Click to expand...

Indeed, that quest would have the most effect if/when a religion system is implemented.
And, yeah, I hadn't thought that the player might alternatively just have to deal with the papal legate who is due to return to Rome. Though I don't understand the "high relations with Kaloyan and with the Pope" part - a prerequisite for the quest or a reward?

@Woolrigde.

The first quests is a great idea, simple as that.

The second quest could be done, but it would need a pretty complicated storyline (some nobles who don't want the kingdoms to be unified, maybe a unification war). I'd like to see what Cèsar thinks before promising anything.

I don't know about the third idea. In general quests were you just travel are considered boring (like all the bring cattle to X quests), it will be at the buttom of my priority list of quests

Fixed the spelling error.

@NikeBG
I think we should wait until we get some religion features done before going on with the Bulgarian/Papal relation then.

Cruger said:

The second quest could be done, but it would need a pretty complicated storyline (some nobles who don't want the kingdoms to be unified, maybe a unification war). I'd like to see what Cèsar thinks before promising anything.

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Historically, it was a completely political thing. As far as I know, there was no bloodshed involved. BUT it could be an option (instead of increasing relations, holding captive the King -which is hard enough- or the King and 1-2 opposing nobles -which would be really tough- ).

About the lords who are against the unification, the solution could be having to increase relations with the King and those 1-2 opposing lords, rather than only the King.

As always, it's just a suggestion. But it would be nice. Besides, that unification is what positioned the Kingdom of Castille and Leon in a dominating place, which lead to the Spanish Empire 200 years later.

Woolridge said:

Another unique quest suggestion:

The unification process of the Kingdoms of Castille and Leon took place during the XIIIth century. It was completely political, so I think the quest could be: increase your relation with the King of Leon (if you took the quest from the King of Castille, and viceversa) to a certain extent (perhaps 100!! ) in less than X time, say 365 days.

If succeded, both Kings agree to unify the two Kingdoms. The Kingdom of Leon dissapears and is annexed to Castille (or the other way around, if you took the quest from the King of Leon).

If it was possible, the name of the Kingdom of Castille (or Leon, the one "surviving" the unification) would change to Kingdom of Castille-Leon.

Click to expand...

That doesn't sound Medieval at all. First, the only way to "merge" kingdoms in the Middle Age is... none. There's no way to merge kingdoms until the XVth Century, when monarchs regain true public power. When two kingdoms were in personal union, it was this, nothing more. They remained as different kingdoms. Different law, different institutions, different jurisdiction. This happened even with duchies and counties. Every feudal state had its own law and dispositions.

Castille and León were unified because the two crowns fell on the same head. It had happened before, with Fernando the Great.

Let's make a quick sinopsis: Sancho the Greater was king of Navarra, and his kingdom had nothing to do with the dominant Christian kingdom in the Peninsula, León. Sancho was also Count of Aragon and Count of Castille. He owned a good piece of the Christian Peninsula. He died and left a title to each of his children. One intitled himself King of Aragon. Hence the Kingdom of Aragon, which would be later inherited by the Count of Barcelona. Another one was crowned King of Castille. He was Fernando, the Great. He was technically subject to the King of León, but rebelled. The king died, and Fernando married his daughter and became King of León and of Castille. But then, he died and left the crown of Castille to his elder son Sancho and León to his younger son Alfonso (as well as Galicia to his other son García).

Those are the kings in El Cid, yes.

Alfonso, in the end, inherited the three crowns, but he died with no male heir, and his daughter Urraca married Raymond of Burgundy. They had just one son: Alfonso, Imperator Totius Hispaniae (Emperor of All Spain). He had lots of children, and again divided the kingdom: Sancho got Castille, Fernando got León. Those are the fathers of the current kings, Alfonso and Alfonso () in 1200.

Political unifications? Not really. Bloodshed? Plenty.

Even when the son of Alfonso IX of León, Fernando III the Saint, got both crowns, it wasn't because his progenitor wanted to. Alfonso IX left the kingdom to his two remaining daughters, Sancha and Dulce. Fernando was a miscarried son to him, and also, was king of Castille already, also because he fought for it.

And even then, the kingdoms were left juridically separated, although given the relatively small differences and the constant personal unions, they shared lots of characteristics. The Court (Parliament) of Castille was different from the Court of León. Eventually, they would merge, but it would not be a thing of 20 years.

***

THe only way to get a personal union between Castille and León again is to kill one of the kings. Since they are cousins, it would not be hard to represent that. But I think that this is pointless, since there's plenty of justification if Alfonso IX decides to pick on his homonimous cousin and take the crown out of his head.

Pacts between them would end up in one of them loosing the crown. Who would do that, unless there's a gun pointing at his head.

Your ideas are interesting, but this one was not really fortunate. There are many other examples of why is impossible to merge kingdoms in the Middle Ages around Europe. Aragon is the finest example, but you have France also, England with Scotland, several Netherlands territories...

Take care!