The 13th Warrior - A Quest based on the Motion Picture

[worm82075]

Admittedly I am not capable of creating this mod(yet) as I am still in the the research phase of this project and the self teaching phase of my modding career (thanks by the way to everyone who has contributed to the TES CS Wiki, without which I wouldn't know jack about modding). From what I have learned so far I would say that 90% of the plot is doable in Oblivion barring of course the rope swing across the waterfall and other various obvious limitations of the game engine. But that's the beauty of this project, the plot is simple as are most of the required models and textures. The most complicated thing to do will be quest scripting and voice acting, as the quest would be nothing without the dialog from the movie and said dialog would have to be event triggered. That way you could minimize the zoom to closeup pausing of the game.

 

Plot-the parts that are italicized will be adapted and the parts that are underlined will be omitted

 

The plot centers on Ahmad ibn Fadlan, who angers an influential noble in Baghdad and is commanded by the Caliph to serve as "ambassador to the North"—i.e., is expelled from the city—as a result. Traveling with Melchisidek, an old friend of his father, he meets a shipload of Viking raiders whose minor king has just died.

 

The language barrier is awkward, as Ahmed speaks only Arabic and most of the Vikings speak only Norse. Melchisidek and Herger, the Vikings' skald, both speak Latin and communication is established. After Buliwyf becomes the new leader, a bewildered youth enters the camp and requests aid for his distant village, threatened by an old and supernatural force. Through the commands of an oracle, it is decided that exactly thirteen men must go to face this danger, and that the thirteenth must not be a Norseman; thus Ahmed is recruited.

Ahmed learns Norse quickly by sitting amongst the group and listening intensely to their conversation, eventually beginning to understand what they are saying. He feels he has to prove himself to the uniformly huge Vikings, who mock him for his physical weakness and his small Arabian horse, but his fast learning of their language, ingenuity, and horsemanship eventually earns their respect and friendship.

 

The foe, known as the Wendol, have the appearance of both man and bear, although no bodies are left behind after their first nocturnal clash. In fact they bear a resemblance to pre-homo sapiens affecting the appearance of bears to confuse and instill fear into their enemies.

 

Losing members of their small force with each battle, and finding the settlement indefensible, Buliwyf opts to track the Wendol to their lair and attack them. Buliwyf and the remaining warriors track the Wendol, and uncover that they are cannibals; a chamber in the Wendol lair is full of human bones that have been gnawed upon. Buliwyf kills the Mother of the Wendol, but is poisoned by her.

 

Upon discovering that the warriors have entered the lair, the Wendol force them to submerge into a pool which leads out to the cliffs by the sea. The last remaining warriors return to the village and prepare for a final battle. The Wendol appear and both engage in an epic battle. Buliwyf kills the leader of the Wendol and they retreat, defeated.

 

Order is restored to the village, but only after Buliwyf dies from the poison.

 

It is true that this movie is historically inaccurate but I'm going to adapt it to Tamriel anyway so in the process i'll just be taking the story and that is the meat and potatoes. There are a lot of small extras that would make for better immersion but all of these are arbitrary and would be added last to round out the whole.

 

So if any of you have seen this movie and would like to comment on can dos and can't dos then please, I'm all ears.

 

Yes, I am aware of the annoyance to some by presenting a mod I don't plan on starting for a few months and to those people I apologize. But I love this movie so much and have been thinking about this mod for a long time. I just had to see if anybody else felt the same way. And please spare me your "that movie sucks and this mod idea is stupid speeches" . Criticize if you must, but be constructive. Thank you.

 

In loving memory of our times greatest TV and film composer Jerry Goldsmith 1929-2004. Without your fantastic score this movie would not be so rewatchable.

 

I would like to leave you with the orignal quote that I based my signature on:

 

Through seas of monsters and forests of demons we traveled

Praise be to Allah, the merciful and compassionate

May his blessing be on pagan men, who loved other gods

Who shared their food and shed their blood

So that I, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, may become a man

And a useful servant of god

[Vagrant0]

Aside from the obvious legal issues... Alot of it depends on how much you want to do with the language, if you want to attempt it as a TC or some sort of addition, and how you want to setup and contain the scenes. Your best bet as far as the scenes go would probably be setting them up in individual closed worldspaces (bordered by collision) for each scene, and using journal updates to handle any of the gaps between. Scenes on the boat could actually be setup in a interiors since it is an open ship where the player won't be doing much movement. In those small locations however the AI may not always behave relaibly. The tough task with each one would be scripting one actor to work after another, and to keep the plot interesting enough for the player to stick around durring this exposition.

 

As far as the larger areas go, the landing, the village, these can be setup as a single worldspace, and you should be able to use parenting between them to setup individual scenes and statics within that worldspace. Using a child worldspace will allow you to maintain terrain across all of them, but change out statics and markers depending on what is supposed to be happening. You would however probably require a handful of new meshes to be made. And something script and dialogue heavy like this is probably alot more complicated than making any other sort of TC since you'd technically be scripting each individual NPC to perform very specific actions, with a different NPC copy for each scene (trying to put all the scripting for a single actor on a single NPC would probably be too long, or atleast make it more difficult to fix problems), rather than only scripting a few key NPCs and just having everyone else as more of a backdrop.

[worm82075]

Aside from the obvious legal issues...

 

I really don't see a lot of legal issues here as I'll not be coping any assets from the movie and that goes for the title as well as the actor appearances and actual wardrobe. I have sent correspondence to the author of Eaters of the Dead and am optimistic that I'll get the go ahead to use the premise. As for the dialog I'm afraid the movie industry holds no legal claim to copyright of sound or dialog alone. The copyright act (I research thoroughly) clearly states that a copyright claim on a motion picture is limited to the imagery+sound+actor likenesses and while you may copyright imagery alone by definition a movie can not be sound alone. So, their copyright is only valid as a whole or as imagery alone. That is why thousands of people are permitted to copy sound clips from tv and movies and freely distribute them all over the web without so much as peep from anyone about copyright infringement. By all rights I could legally use the actual sound clips from the movie, but out of consideration for the individual actors (for whom I have a great deal of respect) I will not do that. The premise alone is almost enough to go on but will make a world of difference if some of the key dialog is uttered during the quest. Because of all these factors I have chosen to very loosely base my mod on the movie and pending permission, more so on the book. Any possible part that can be adapted to Oblivion (ie;Norsemen become Nords) will be given an in game equivalent. Like I said the premise is the meat and potatoes of this content and If legalities forced my hand I'm confident that i could still make an excellent mod with it even if it bears little resemblance to the film or the book.

 

Alot of it depends on how much you want to do with the language,

 

I would definitely not attempt to recreate that aspect of the film. English only.

 

if you want to attempt it as a TC or some sort of addition,

 

I envision this as being seamlessly integrating into the game along with the other side quests. I will not be attempting a TC until TES V is released ( see my post in "What would be your dream mod" if your interested).

This will be my training ground if you will and by no means will this be a half-hearted venture. Even if it takes me six months to complete, unless someone asks me to I would not upload it unless I (and anyone that volunteers to test it for me) thought that is was done well. My goal is to create a fun and interesting quest mod that doesn't hinder any of the really great mods out there.

 

and how you want to setup and contain the scenes.

 

That will be fully determined at a later date. However I have concluded that the ship scene will definitely be omitted as there is just no way in hell it could be done well.

 

As for the rest of your comments they are just icing on the cake for me. They will be the first of many (I hope) to be added to the database of advice and suggestions that i will draw upon when production time rolls around. I will say this though, about your idea for splitting AI scripts among several copies of the same NPC....Brilliant!

 

As always your comments are (deep breath) relevant, intelligent, concise, impartial, constructive and straight to the point. You are without a doubt a very valuable member of our community. Thank You and Kudos to you my friend.

 

Now if just a half a dozen or so like yourself would do the same I would feel confident in a successful completion. To facilitate that request, I will add the following to draw upon.

 

In order for this to be successfully done well the following must be achieved;

1 - A full and complete Wendol race, including most notably, the bear skull headdress, the bear claw club and preferably made playable so the quest can be reversed should you chose to play as the evil Wendol.

2 - The village including all interiors must exist entirely in an exterior cell as to permit the full on attack of the Wendol (no running to an interior cell to heal yourself).

3 - The integration of preprecedented systems such as decapitation(although this could be simulated since it's an NPC on NPC action) and horse combat to name a few. Whether or not direct use of these other mods or a custom alteration is used will be determined later and will be reliant on having permission to do so.

4 - Finally the adition of many of the stories objects, while not absolutely necessary will really round out this mod. Objects such as the mother of Wendol trinket and the honey liqueur.

 

Again I would like to leave you with a quote from the film;

 

Low there do I see my father

Low there do I see my mother, my sisters and my brothers

Low there do i see the line of my people back to the beginning

Low they do call to me, they bid me take my place among them

In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live forever