Taking the Bifrost to Arrakis: What we might expect from House Thorvald as a Major Faction

[FDR'sThinkTank]

House Thorvald is probably, from what I have seen, the close second place to favored HOUSE Factions that may or may not be added to Dune Spice Wars. If you factor in Non-House Factions, it's probably still in the Top 5, overall. Honestly, House Thorvald's end is worse than House Moritani's end, by far. It would be really nice to see them fleshed out and given a fighting chance!

House Thorvald's Homeworld is Ipyr, a Lush Jungle World. I wasn't able to find anything about it's known industries or culture. It's ultimately wiped clean of life by Emperor Paul Atreides and never recolonized. This means that Shiro Games can pretty much do anything they please with it.

In the Canon Timeline, Firenza Thorvald becomes the 4th Wife of Pashida Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV in the year 10187 AG. She was chosen because her pear-shaped body was viewed as being strong and capable of bearing sons. What Emperor Corrino failed to appreciate was he was already sterlized by his 1st wife, a Bene Gesserit. Only a couple of years later, Firenza Thorvald was dead and Earl Memnon Thorvald had become a bitter man who resented Imperial Power.

I believe, if they are to make this House into a full faction, Firenza Thorvald should still be alive and NOT married to Emperor Corrino. She would be a valued Councilor. The only downside to this is that it changes the trajectory and flavor of House Thorvald, who is mostly known for organizing the bitter resistance against Emperor Paul Atreides a decade later. With a slight tweak, Earl Memnon Thorvald can still be someone who deeply mistrusts Imperial Power and wants to eliminate the Influence of the Emperor to give power back to the Lansraad. He wouldn't be a particularly dishonorable House, but he wouldn't be a Honorable (and Naive) as Duke Leto of House Atreides, always expecting the rules to be followed. Essentially, his House would represent pragmatic interests of Lansraad. (The Flipside to House Thorvald's politcal push for weakening the Imperial Throne would be Jaxson Aru's Rebellion who act as actual terrorists or Ur-Director Malina Aru's CHOAM who favor the Noble Commonwealth. The main difference would be House Thorvald's more favored with Great Houses and Minor Houses would prefer the Noble Commonwealth.)

I should note, that Earl Memnon Thorvald will likely show up in the 3rd Dune movie and we will get to see more of his allies... but in the books it's rather scant. So I've been forced to dig a little deeper for him.

Lord Colus (Of House Minor Colus from Galicia.) He was part of Thorvald's Rebellion against Emperor Paul Atreides. He is a man who believes in the Rule of Law and Honorable Combat. In the books, he is mercilessly slaughtered by Enno, a fanatical Fremen... Who Gurney Halleck then executes to make an example to other Fremen out of.

Guild Navigator Steersman Beric. Thorvald's contact in the Spacing Guild that helped him in arranging his Rebellion and the attacks they would have made. Emperor Paul Atreides uses Prescience to predict the assault on Caladan, then confronts Beric about this: Beric was ultimately forced to betray Memnon Thorvald and the entire Rebellion. However, like Dr. Yueh Wellington... if circumstances weren't so unfavorable, Beric likely would never have betrayed House Thorvald. Note that Steersman Beric is not to be confused with Steersman Edric. Edric Participated in an ill fated plot against Emperor Paul Atreides 12 years after he ascended to the Golden Lion Throne.

That's it for suggestions on personnel... Pretty much everyone else helping House Thorvald will be made from scratch or possibly come from the 3rd Dune Movie, as I see it.

I'd like to see some interactions with Canyons in this game, Perhaps House Thorvald can "Green" canyons adjacent to his territories giving his Troops Jungle Territory advantage? This might be incredibly silly, all things considered.... but Noble Houses are quite noted for their wasteful use of water on Arrakis. If Thorvald was going to have some sort of Canyon advantage, it might be necessary for the game to be forced to spawn a Canyon in a Non-Spice Field/non-special territory adjacent to their base (Meaning they always put their base near Canyons.) Vikings are raiders, but these fellows don't come from a particularly cold or barren planet. I would hesitate to just make them a straight forward raiding faction like House Moritani... but perhaps they could have something that interacts with Canyons well enough to allow them to mount effective raids on opponents.

Keeping up with the Canyon theme: I could see them having a Max Hegemony one shot ability to drop a Stoneburner on a Non-Special Territory and transform it into a Canyon. Doing this to anything other than a neutral territory would result in a loss of Lansraad, but considerably less than full fledged Atomics. You could use it when an opponent is taking a Neutral Territory to kill his units without any consequence.

I've mentioned I'd like to see Valkyrie's in this game, since we won't be getting Honored Matres or Fish Speakers. Female only fighting forces are part of the Dune canon and Noble Houses are known to have extravagantly eccentric habits. It meshes nicely with House Thorvald's viking theme, in any case.

I don't know as much about Northgard, because I haven't played it. I don't know what mechanics are unique to that game that haven't been mirrored in this game. The factions for that game are myriad and diverse, probably more varied than this game. I heard that game has balancing issues in most game modes, particularly FFA. If anyone has suggestions about elements of Northgard that would fit well with House Thorvald this is the thread to drop those in!

It would be interesting as well for House Thorvald to have an Operation that allows them to transport their units anywhere (A Bifrost, if you will). This might simply be Guild Support in letting them land Carryall Units in that territory.... as a more pure teleport it would be more limited in use a one way trip each time. Teleport could be set to automatically teleport combat units in a certain area around the Spacing Guild Branch. Perhaps the one way teleport is the normal operation.. and if Steersman Beric is your Councilor, it gets upgraded to Guild Drop Zone, so to speak. The nice thing about the drop zone is... you pay the cost for the Mission, then pay the cost for the transports.... Costs are all built in. Obviously, the Corrino Faction can use Interdiction to stop it. If this isn't an upgrade from an Councilor, with an ability this strong, it might be necessary to take away Airfields from this faction.

It would be neat if their Drone was a sort of "Blood Eagle" Altar, where they ritualistically execute the strongest foe they have defeated in battle and project it on a massive Solido projector to demoralize their opponents (and possibly drive their own warriors into a frenzy.) Then again, maybe this is just too evil? It would be amazing to capture the enemy Hero, then have your Solido Projector constantly replaying their execution as it floats from battle to battle.

Maybe House Thorvald's Aircraft are themed after Odin's Ravens... when they purchase, they get a pair. I could see these craft being particularly good at hunting stealth units, having superior LIDAR for dealing with Ipyr's Lush Jungle Terrain.

Same rules as my other "What if this House is Added threads"
1. Focus on House Thorvald
2. Worry about other Factions on other threads, not here
3. Assume this faction is going to be added. I didn't post this in feature requests, this is a speculation only. If you oppose this faction or any other faction I have posted being added, go cut me off at the pass in Feature Requests and impress upon Shiro Games about how much you hate the idea of them adding whatever faction it is that you take issue with.

[FDR'sThinkTank]

If they did have some sort of "Jungle Canyon" mechanic, I could see House Thorvald having a bonus to controlled Canyons that Hides Points of Interest from rivals. House Thorvald would have Statesman Developments that focus Lansraad Gifts directly into controlled Canyons. This allows them to horde their points of interest more effectively and is a hard counter to anyone who prefers raiding opponent's Point's of Interest.

I don't know about how non-Lansraad Point's of Interest spawn outside of the Spacing Guild ones that appear only in the special zone. It might be interesting if Thorvald had Ornithopters that could "Pick up" Point's of Interest and MOVE them to a place of Thorvald's Choosing (Such as a Jungled Canyon)

Then he could claim those points of Interest at his leisure. It also kinda has a sort of Viking Raid feel to it, in some ways.

[FDR'sThinkTank]

I had more thoughts about this Jungle Canyon Mechanic today:
It's a massive Terraforming project, absolutely cartoonish compared to the gardens of Ecaz... still, you can lean into that.

Thorvald's faction might start with a Jungle Canyon adjacent to their HQ, but their unique building could allow them to transform more Canyons. This faction building might have a toggle ability: it can sustain the transformation for a high cost of water... or... lower the relations with Nearby Seitches as it taps into underground Aquifers and drains the sacred Water hordes those Seitches maintain.

I was also thinking that transforming Canyons into Jungle Canyons would probably kill the wind inside them, but it would also lower the wind of adjacent territories by one, minimum of one. This does a few things:
1.) With a Wind of Zero, Jungle Canyons are immune to Sandstorms. It becomes a high pressure zone that sandstorms move around.
a.)They might have their own localized weather pattern that interacts with Thorvald Ornithopters "seeding" clouds and storms... which meshes nicely with the Stormbringer Viking theme in some ways. Of course, between Cloud Seeding and transporting points of interest, Thorvald's Ornithopters would be much more busy than typical Ornithopters.
2.) Jungle Canyons lower the Wind rating of adjacent territories, but they increase a different stat: Humidity. Dew Collectors would have their mechanism altered so that they collect water based on Wind strength X Humidity (Which is normally at a one.) Fremen Windtraps lose out in this scenario, but all other factions would find Jungle Canyons mostly boost Water production for territories adjacent. Jungle Canyons can stack Humidity for territories that are connected to multiple canyons. With only One Jungle Canyon, territories with normally 3 or more wind strength will get more water due to the Jungle Canyon. Even Low Wind Strength territories can potentially get big water boosts with multiple connected Jungle Canyons.
3.) Thorvald gets advantages working with his Jungle Canyons, his troops would have equipment that specifically takes advantage of them, but because most factions can get boosted Water supplies holding territories near these canyons, it could turn them into highly contested areas.