Guenevere (WIP)

Eh, feeling a little down today (but thanks for asking). :slight_smile: The thing with dropbox no longer enabling HTML is depressing, because even though I’m sure I’ll eventually find some kind of alternative for hosting Guenevere, the original link to the game has been spread far and wide on tumblr and elsewhere, and now that link is going to break no matter what. (Yes, I can probably replace the HTML index file with a document that will give the new link when I have one, but still… not the same. Not a redirect, which won’t be possible.) And I’m super-busy with work right now, so trying to figure out a hosting alternative – even if it’s as simple as learning how to use ftp for LordIrish’s (may all the gods smile upon him) very generous offer to host – isn’t how I want to be spending my time. I’d rather be writing my actual game! Stupid Dropbox. :angry::disappointed:

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I hope everything works out well!

I’m not sure if this has been asked before, but… will Duchess Tilda be a RO? I’ve been wondering that ever since my third play through, but I wasn’t sure if it had been asked before or not. It’d make for a good achievement… something like ā€œDiplomatic Relations - Secure peace between Britain and Frankenmarch by seducing/wooing Duchess Tildaā€. I’ve been playing through Part II and I can’t help but ship Arthur X Radagund. While I highly doubt I could hook them up, at the very least I hope they can become friends and allies.

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@Asura I’m definitely not ruling out Tilda as a RO; the idea does appeal to me. :slight_smile: The question is just how much I can manage to work her into the plot after part 2 – she is slated for more appearances, but I don’t know yet if they’ll be substantial enough to turn into a romantic/sexual relationship. (Though I suppose if nothing else, she and Guen could have a one-night stand.) That’s the sort of thing I’ll go back and layer in once I’ve finished all seven parts.

Arthur and Radagund would indeed get along very well with each other, which makes the whole mess with Frankmarch that much more tragic.

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@jeantown in the Gueneverse will their be any openly gay/non binary lords or people, or will they be more secretive about it.
I understand why they’d be more secretive about it, but it’d be hilarious to see an extremely flamboyant and bubbly (yay stereotypes) character.

And as for expanding England for a military Guen, what can she do? Can we destroy the Saxon guys and the Franks if we pass all checks, or is some stuff only going to work (like taking over the Saxons) if we go against/ with Arthur’s ideals

And what will happen if Arthur gets seriously injured? Will he blame us or does it depend on what we do instead? And would he be happy or less happy with us choosing certian options, like favouring defending England or him over the other options

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Is expanding England kind of the preferred path for a military Guen? It certainly sounds like it has potential, and it’ll certainly be a key point if you end up defecting to Mordred. The domination of the lands will practically be a requirement for a military Guen, so I’m assuming in that scenario we’ll be able to take over quite a lot of places. Even if we don’t, I’m guessing it’ll be implied.

With Arthur though, I’m not sure; you’ll need to be pretty proficient in manipulation to pull that off without him losing trust in you, but if you want to conquer a land that has done nothing to you to start with, I think it’s a pretty safe assumption that Arthur will not approve.

Expansion won’t be the path for all military Guens though; my Guen is a strategic and military genius, and she’s content to just be left alone to do her studies unless she’s needed. Which she will be a lot when people both recognise her genius and said genius is developed.

Arthur: ā€œLook, we’ve tried everything; they’re too good at routing our troops. Maybe…we lose this battle and regroup so we can win the war.ā€

(awkward silence)

Arthur: ā€œā€¦what?ā€

Lancelot: ā€œā€¦We thought you’d say thatā€¦ā€

Morgana: ā€œSo we invited Guen.ā€

Arthur: ā€œYou what?ā€

(Enter Guen, flinging the flaps of the tent open in extremely dramatic fashion with the smuggest grin in existence).

Guen: ā€œHey, morons. So what mess do you want me to get you out of this time?ā€

(Arthur sends death glares at Lancelot and Morgana, who just look at their feet while Guen waits expectantly).

This is one of my set-in-stone headcanons that I always imagine happening to my military Guen. Expansion be damned.

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Yeah, why can’t she just fight the Welsh like everyone else? :stuck_out_tongue:

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@Sherlock221B

Considering that Guen happens to be the queen of what seems to be a unified Welsh state… :stuck_out_tongue:

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Hmm… well, it’s complicated. People in the Guenverse don’t tend to think of sexual orientation as an identity so much as a preference. Same-sex attraction in itself isn’t considered shameful, but nobles are expected to reproduce, so they tend not to advertise s-s attraction as that might be seen as an obstacle to reproduction. one exception below…

Probably the closest you’re going to get is Lancelot’s cousin Lionel, who can make an appearance in the Michaelsmount branch and also appears in Lancelot’s prequel. Lionel is relatively flamboyant and cares a lot about clothes. He’s not particularly attracted to women and makes no secret about that, but he’s nonetheless in the position of trying to find a wife in order to shut his family up. He’s currently courting Lady Elise, and he’s been completely honest with her about everything. She’s still trying to make up her mind about it. I actually don’t know yet what Elise will decide; probably I’ll have to wait until part 3 to find out.

There will be at least one other major gay character who will be much less stereotypical, and also more discreet about his preferences. He has a stronger sense of duty than Lionel, and is under a lot more serious pressure (including self-imposed pressure) to make a strong political marriage with children.

You may have to settle for containing/controlling the Franks rather than destroying them; they’re much larger and more powerful than Britain. The Romano-Saxons could maybe be wiped out? Not sure yet; I’ll have to see how that goes. Arthur would definitely not agree with that decision, though. Following Arthur’s ideals is more likely to result in alliances rather than expansion.

For that, you’ll just have to wait and see (too spoilery). :slight_smile:

Not preferred, necessarily – the real victory will be fighting off the Romans at the end, and a military Guen can do that without taking over other territory – but yes, Mordred would prefer expansion.

Yes.

Yes; the extremely vague implication is that Guen’s Britain is extremely vaguely Celtic, in a totally anachronistic way that includes tons of later medieval French culture and nomenclature (as is typical for Arthurian legend). The exact status of Wales has not been specified, but you can vaguely assume that it’s kinda sorta part of Guen’s Britain. In any case, the Guenverse’s Wales is definitely not a separate nation with a border.

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Oh, one thing I forgot to mention: I just found out that PWLI and I will very likely be visiting Scotland sometime next summer, and we are going to try to get up to Orkney. So I will probably be able to write some of the parts of Guen Book III that are set in Orkney while I’m actually in Orkney!!

I’ve been to Glastonbury and Stonehenge and other Arthurian/medieval sites in southern England, but never to Orkney, so I’m really excited! :grin:

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Hope you enjoy your trip! :slight_smile:

Out of curiosity, how old are Tilda and Radagund? I’m guessing Tilly’s roughly the same age as Guen, but Rad strikes me as a fair bit younger.

Thanks! :smile:

Radagund is 18. (She was 10 when Lancelot rescued her; he was 16 at the time.) Tilda is a little older. I don’t seem to have written an exact age for her in my notes, but I imagine her being early 20s. So, since Guen is 21 in part 2, you’re basically correct about both. :slight_smile:

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Hmm… I’m guessing she might have quite the crush on Lance, then? Makes me wonder if that - or at least the fact that she owes him her life - could be exploitable to get her to call off the invasion?

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How do you shade spoilers while typing on the phone and I’m back

Either by typing [spoiler] whatever should be blurry [/spoiler]

Or by going on the little gear in the menu (if you don’t get it displayed, first click on the menu button on the upper right corner):

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if you kill the Saxon in the beginning does he come back as a zombie.

@Jeantown

Inspired by @Tntrules, in the Camelot battle, can a high dark magic Guen use her dark magic skills to go to a cemetery and make zombies (or skeletons, or what-have-you) as a last-minutes preparation?

Also, could we do the same against the Romano-Saxons and the Roman invasion?

We must do everything we can to protect the kingdom! For Camelot!

Okay so, sometimes I get confused on which knights or characters are confirmed to appear or haven’t been asked about without going through the whole game or forum, so I decided to make a little list to keep track.

I’ve only listed major Arthurian characters, if lesser-known ones show up I’ll add them. If I missed anyone important, which I’m sure I did, please tell me!

Bold - Character has been confirmed to appear or exist.
Crossed Out - Character does not exist or will not appear, or has been fused with another character.

Characters that have not appeared, may or may not appear, or been have not been confirmed yet are just regular text.

FIRST GEN: Uther. Igraine. Gorlois. Merlin. Leodegrance. Ector. Lot. Urien. Pellinore. Pelles. Vivien. Evaine. Bors. Esclabor. Ban. Claudus. Elaine/Alana. Nimue. Aglovale.

SECOND GEN: Arthur. Morgana. Guenevere. Lancelot. Guinevak. Morgause. Elaine of Corbenic. Elaine of Astolat. Tristan. Isolde. Lionel. Kay. Bedivere. Ywain. Tor. Sagramore. Safir. Palamedes. Pelleas. King Mark. Meleagaunt. Laudine. Lanval. Morien. Dindrane. Dinadan. Galehaut. Enid. Eric. Dagonet. Constantine. Blanchefleur. Emperor Lucius. Breunor. Elyan. Bors. Lucan. Griflet. Baldwin. Balin. Balan. Geraint. Hector. Accolon.

THIRD GEN: Gawain. Gaheris. Gareth. Agravaine. Mordred. Galahad. Ragnelle. Lynette. Lyonesse. Percival. Lamorak. Beatrice. Evaline.

NEW: Maris. Bretta. Elise. Radagund. Ranulf. Camden. Aristause. Margaret. Tilda. Vathac. Cornelia. Julia. Hrothulf. Evaline. Eva. Grimald.

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@sirgalahad Is their a Kay? Like a knight of something? I’m terrible with this sorta stuff…

Also replacing a funny comment I found in another game, this is Fairlyfairfighter’s new favourite code:

*if (havecarrot)
*goto carrotbomb

Or anything to do with enchanted carrots, really.

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@fairlyfairfighter Yup, there is! Kay is Arthur’s foster brother.

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@Asura Radagund does admire Lancelot very much. :slight_smile: That said, she didn’t want the invasion in the first place but was powerless to prevent it, so her history with him on its own isn’t enough to change anything. But most of the Frankish nobles do view him favorably, which gives him an advantage if he goes to Frankmarch.

@Tntrules No, nobody comes back as a zombie in this game. :smile:

Zombies and animate skeletons and stuff don’t appear in Arthurian mythology. Although I’m giving the mythos a lot of my own twists, I’d still like it to have an Arthurian feel, so no zombies, I’m afraid. Giants and magical animals and enchanted forests instead.

@sirgalahad Thank you; this list is helpful for reminding me of characters I haven’t used and could still pull out if I need them! :slight_smile: Let me check your list against my ridiculously huge character file…

First Gen looks about right except that we will have a Pelles – he’s King Pellinore’s younger brother and Elaine’s father in this version, but he’s not the Fisher-King. (though the whole Pellinore family are the ā€œGrail Guardians.ā€) I probably won’t have him be wounded because he’s going to be kind of a villain and I don’t want to perpetuate the ā€œdisability = evilā€ stereotype. He might have a small permanent wound from a giant’s sword (like Meligaunt’s) but it won’t be disabling.

Ban and his wife both get talked about in the Lancelot prequel but don’t appear. I renamed that Elaine ā€œAlanaā€ to avoid confusion because there are too many Elaines. But speaking of people with the same name, we will be getting both Bors the Elder and Bors the Younger (also in the Lancelot prequel). I’m rather fond of my version of Bors the Younger, who is a knight at Arthur’s court in part 1.

Oh, and Uriens exists, as the brother of King Lot, but he won’t show up. He’ll get referenced at the beginning of part 3.

Nimue is actually first gen in my version. If I ever write a whole prequel novel about Uther’s generation, I’d like it to be from the PoV of Ygraine, Vivien, and Nimue. Right now my notes for it are a big unsatisfying mess.

Second Gen: Was Lucan in there? He’s Camelot’s titular head of household and may be retrofitted into some of the chamberlain’s roles, but more importantly, he often gets deployed as a diplomat. Lucan is Bedivere’s younger brother. Tor appears in the Michaelsmount branch. He’s Agolvale’s younger brother and honestly doesn’t have much of a personality yet, except that he’s a bit nervous. Griflet goes to Michaelsmount, too, though you won’t get to interact with him much. Oh, and Baldwin is also there. He’s a light magic user, a priestess of the Goddess (as a nod to his traditional clerical role). Laudine is Yvain’s wife and makes a brief appearance in the Camelot branch. Dagonet is in my notes with a ???, meaning that at one point I must have thought I was going to do something with him, and then forgot, but if I need to pull in another knight for some reason, it could likely be him.

Percival is going to be third gen here. He and Lamorak will be Pellinore’s sons and make their first appearance as children in part 4. Eventually they’ll be childhood friends with Galahad. Blanchefleur and Ragnelle are more likely than not to show up in some form, though I don’t have specific plans for them yet.

Grimald is indeed my own OC, though he’s so highly troperiffic that it’s hard to call him original in any way. Radagund is essentially an OC – the name shows up occasionally in Arthurian stuff, but she’s not based on any traditional Radagund. Her father Claudas, of course, does appear in Arthurian tradition as an adversary.

Other OCs: Queen Evaline of Benoic, who is Lancelot and Lionel’s cousin. She’s married to Bors the Younger and basically runs East Gaul single-handedly because Bors, who is technically king of Benoic, isn’t really fit to rule and he’s much happier just being one of Arthur’s knights. (Everyone’s fine with this arrangement.) Bedivere’s young daughter Eva (brief appearance in Camelot branch). Julia Saxonica (still not sure if she’ll be showing up later or not, but probably).

Oh, and you’ll see Ranulf and Camden in Arthur’s prequel, and even find out how they came to be his guards. :slight_smile:

Now if I could just figure out a cool backstory for Maris and Bretta… I’ve still got nothing.

Might be my favorite code, too, with the possible exception of ā€œ*goto sex.ā€ I wonder how many people will actually find the part where you can use the carrot as a bomb? There’s only one opportunity, and it’s somewhat buried.

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