It’s been a while since I’ve stuck my nose up at anything Game of Thrones-related. I guess I just lost interest, which is what happens when you spend years investing in a bunch of books and then more years investing in one TV show, and then you get all this sudden and frustrating ending. Get.
But just because something ends badly doesn’t mean you can’t — after all, after a long enough grace period — dive back and enjoy everything you love before grinding to an unsatisfactory halt. Take it And so when I saw a full transformation mod for Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord, called Realm of Thrones, that turns the world of Calradia into Westeros and Essos and fills it with Game of Thrones characters and locations. Well, I decided to give it a try and see if I can still enjoy the characters and imagery I spent so much time with years ago.
(Image credit: Tailworlds / Carolina Warlord)
winter is coming
The mod has been in the works for some time, and just like Bannerlord, it is now in an early access state: not finished, but there is plenty to play with. With a map of Westeros and a considerable portion of Essos, Game of Thrones has hundreds of NPCs, major cities and families from the books and shows, dozens of towns and villages, and yes, even white walkers patrolling the north. There are also packs. of wall. That’s where I start playing in Castle Black with a new character named Skip Happyfish (the last name comes from his banner, which is a smiling fish, and his first name is what I do to communicate in the giant RPG comes from him). And then I quickly get to work, which I always do in the various Game of Thrones mods I’ve played with over the years: I seek out famous people and try to marry them.
That’s the problem with a world full of fictional figures like Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei Lannister, Ned Stark, Jon Snow, and more. I stopped Medieval Warfare and Bannerlord’s quests and changed the game to my own version of Pokémon. I can’t catch most of the famous characters from Game of Thrones, but I want to meet all of them and invite as many people as possible to join Clan Happyfish. I don’t have time for anyone else: no B-list characters, like Carstarks or Freeze, and certainly no randomly generated characters that aren’t from books or shows at all. I immediately start scouring mods for the most famous ones I can find.
It doesn’t take much time. While in Castle Black I run into Sandor Clegane. He’s not as big as I expected, but I invite him to join my little clan, which is currently so small that it’s only me. Other than Charles Foulbreath (surprisingly, he wasn’t in the books) and Commander Jair Mormont, I couldn’t find any other notes in the castle that are too important to walk around in the snow with me. But I do take the time to at least introduce myself. Speaking of snow, I don’t see the everlasting Jon Snow anywhere, so I take the Hound and leave.
We are immediately attacked by the robbers, who are the weakest and yet the most common enemy in Bannerlord. There are only a dozen of them, and I think Clegane can take at least ten at once while I kill the other two. Wrong in both cases! Sandor goes down almost immediately, despite the robbers having rocks originally just as weapons. I snuggle down in the snow with him a moment later, and we are briefly dragged into chains before I manage to escape.
(Image credit: Tailworlds / Carolina Warlord)
happy landing
I head to Winterfell where I meet Theon Greyjoy, who is probably walking around innocently there and not planning on deceiving anyone. I hire some lowly mercenaries to ride with me and meet a woman named Scabi Sansa, who I think is not the Sansa we know from fiction. More robbers follow us after we leave, but this time I’m victorious, and so begins the familiar practice of winning battles, taking prisoners, and building little banks to sell them and their gear. In Dreadfort I meet Ramsay Snow, who hasn’t been made Bolton yet, but is already on his way to becoming an evil badass.
Getting impatient in the cold north, I ride to the place everyone in Westeros really wants to go to: King’s Landing. It looks great in mods too, and at the inn I get my first real Game of Thrones A-lister: Tyrion Lannister. I add him to my slowly growing clan. He seems like the kind of guy you can put in charge of anything, but for now it’s nice to have him hang out with me. We do some small errands here and there, and while guarding a caravan we meet a few raiders, but once again my growing little band comes out on top. Then, just because I’m on a roll, I raided a village to the north, killed and captured a group of villagers, and a lot of people, including the Starks and Bolton, got very angry at me. Fortunately, I’m able to get ahead of Robb’s battleship and decide it’s getting a bit too hot to be around, though I make a quick detour into Castle Black to pick up Sandor again, who We managed to escape from the robbers who had captured us earlier.
I run into the less popular continent Asos, and when it comes to places like Pantos I find my memory a little fuzzy. Did stuff happen there? important stuff? Or am I thinking about Bravos? I really can’t remember—it’s been years since I’ve read the books and after the show’s final season I feel like I’ve blocked a lot of it. Joanna Swift, Boros Blount… These names sound familiar to me, but when I meet them I make a blank about who they are and what they did.
(Image credit: Tailworlds / Carolina Warlord)
dragon lady
whatever. I know exactly why I’m in Essos, and it’s up to Daenerys to track down her way to hell in Merren. When we ride and ride, and ride some more, the scale of the Realm Throne map really comes into focus, just to get closer to Meereen. Finally, I walk into the throne room and meet the Mother of Dragons, although it looks like she doesn’t have her famous pets yet. I try to marry him, but all my gold, animals, and weapons don’t add up to the trade window enough to break into his opinion of me. I can’t even join him because I’m at war with the village north of the village I raided, so I’m willing to help him deliver some horses, and some to build Sandor and Put Tyrion in charge of a caravan. Pennies.
With nothing else to do in Essos other than pine for Daenerys, I head back to Westeros. I sell almost everything I’ve collected from raids and robberies and prisoner sales to give a lot of gold to the north so that I can take away my little war, then figure out it’s really time to get into trouble Is. I ride with my 30 or so followers north of the wall and into a wooded and wooded area. The wild animals aren’t particularly friendly – I can’t get into Crestor’s camp, and everyone else will only talk to me from above their castle walls instead of letting me in.
(Image credit: Tailworlds / Carolina Warlord)
white wedding
And then we get into some real battles while patrolling the snowy woods. There are a lot of them. They are too well spoken for the undead, but instead of trying to negotiate I decide to challenge them to fight. While my clan puts up a good fight and we end up hitting about half the battles, what’s left is enough to wipe us out. All my progress gone, Clan Happyfish destroyed. It’s back to square one, as I’m once again dragged across the country in chains, this time by undead ghosts.
On the other hand, I got to see a lot of both Westeros and Essos, and I met all the people I wanted. The mod, even in Early Access, is exactly as playable as it is now, and the map is massive. There’s plenty here for any Game of Thrones fan to enjoy. Stay just south of the Wall, at least until your Warband clan is bigger than the Happyfish.
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