The Plot Thickens

(**This post contains some light spoilers for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.  Since I cannot pry myself away from the glowy dots, they don't deal with the ending or anything too serious...but be forewarned!**)

Eivor's adventures in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla have now grow to include a brief foray into North America and even some mythical wandering in Asgard.  The main story (something that's mostly ignorable) has also veered off into some semi-serious drama.  And, Eivor has murdered waaaay fewer people than Kassandra did in Odyssey--so that's fun!

Asgard is a beautiful, mythical detour.

Choices....or were they?

Several times the story has presented moments that seem somewhat choice based.  One of those moments popped up during the Sciropescire quest chain.  Ivarr the Boneless (who you meet on an earlier campaign) plays a central role in this story arc...and he's a tough character to like.  From the beginning, he presents as an overly cruel, brash, and violent character.  In essence, he's the perfect Viking warrior--a raider who crushes his enemies.  Ivarr's brand of Viking brashness doesn't suit the delicate political situation that Eivor and others are trying to navigate while negotiating alliances.  Things really come to a head when Ivarr decides to impulsively kill the brother of a powerful noble while various parties are trying to hammer out a peace agreement.  Immediately, things boil over into war...stupid Ivarr!

The rest of the arc involves trying (and failing) to re-negotiate a peace agreement and eventually coming to the conclusion that the only way to accomplish peace is through more war--basically sabotaging the troops and supplies of the powerful lord thus weakening him and forcing him to leave.  Once you've guided Eivor through all the sabotaging, the lord finally agrees to leave...it looks like things will work out.  But...it's not what Ivarr wants (Ivarr has a vendetta against this particular lord because of the fact that he received a nasty scar from the guy in an earlier battle), so he takes the murderous step of killing Ceolbert (the Saxon son of a noble who was to become the next ealdorman of Sciropescire) and making it look like the Britons did it.  Eivor is none the wiser and accompanies Ivarr to storm the castle and capture the lord.

The English countryside is quite beautiful.

Ivarr's deviousness becomes apparent when he has Eivor accompany him while he tortures and then violently kills the lord.  It's here that he starts prodding Eivor to fight him (something that is stupid...) and then drops the bombshell that he's the one who murdered Ceolbert (who was just a kid...and a kid who Ivarr was supposed to be mentoring) and framed the Britons.  There's nothing left to do but to battle the idiot.  The fight itself isn't too difficult and it ends with Ivarr being defeated and Eivor left with the choice of giving Ivarr his axe so that he can wind up in Valhalla or to kick it away.  While it's true that Ivarr is the very model of a Viking warrior...he's also a sadistic asshole who murdered his ward for no reason other than fulfilling his own need for revenge.  I had Eivor kick the axe away...Ivarr doesn't deserve the glory he craves.

I'm not sure what impact this choice will have--if any.  It has been one of the more memorable story scenarios that seem to give players some options.  Since AC generally doesn't have a story that is impacted by player choice, I really don't think it will matter.

Eivor also encountered more conflict with Dag--her longtime crew member--who had started questioning her lack of progress in finding and returning Sigurd to Ravensthorpe.  The conflict culminated with Dag challenging Eivor to a battle to the death...something that I'm not sure can be avoided.  After a brief battle, Dag is defeated and Eivor is once again presented with the option to give him his weapon (and an afterlife in Valhalla) or not.  This decision is particularly difficult as there's strong nudging that allowing Dag's disrespect to stand will make Eivor look weak.  Since he was a longtime crewmate of Eivor's (even though his repeated and seemingly pointless confrontations about her actions were annoying) I gave him his axe.  The other Ravensthorpe villagers didn't seem so thrilled about the entire confrontation and there seems to be quite a bit of building tension.  Will this have an impact on the story?  I guess we'll find out.