Thea: The Awakening, Svarog 1, Part 1

I have started a new game of Thea: The Awakening with Svarog as the chosen deity. I planned to play a speed-run to develop the god. My game had been updated to version 1.11.1312.0. The screenshots below are taken from that version.

The bonuses of Svarog, version 1.11.1312.0.

As usual, I picked Gatherers as the Village Focus. I had only Svarog's first bonus. I think the bonus reduces the experience required for villagers to gain new attributes by 10%.

As I was choosing a new deity, I picked the same difficulty settings as my first game with Mokosh, with one exception. I set the Group Limit to 12 for the extra score multiplier. This meant that during each challenge, only a maximum of 12 characters would participate on each turn. As I was planning to play a speed-run, it was likely that I would complete the game before my expedition size grew over 12.

The custom difficulty settings.

At the start of the game, I considered the resources around my village.

Resources available around the village.

It was bad.

There were no resources to gather at all within the village. It was fortunate that there was Wood in the next hex so fuel would not be a problem. However, the only food available was the Exotic Fruit in another adjacent hex. Exotic Fruit required a lot of work to collect for a small yield. This meant that my village would collect food at a lower rate. Hopefully, it would not be too low. It was for situations such as this that Mokosh's third bonus would be helpful.

Exotic Fruit required a lot of work for a small amount.

On the plus side, Grain could be harvested near the village. Grain was useful in a number of recipes, especially in Baked Meals. Also, Pastures and Cabbage Fields constructed with Grain had the best Attract Humans attribute of all the food.

Starting resources available.

I checked the resources available at the start. I had 2 Children. Gold, Vines, Wicker and Dark wood would be useful to craft early tools. Granite was most useful for constructing buildings. However, I would need a lot more than the 5 I had.

Exploring a little further from the village revealed that there was a good variety of food nearby.

There was a good variety of food close to the village.

I had an early encounter with a Skshack. A food offering of 20 (a big number at this early stage of the game) to the creature gave a permanent +1 Gathering to all the people in the village. This would make my people more productive while gathering Exotic Fruit.

The Skshack blessed villagers with +1 Gathering.

Food must be secured for the village. With that in mind, my expedition camped to gather food. While I was passing the turns, the village was attacked by a Witch.

The Witch and her four Hulking Rats were tough to handle this early.

My ill-equipped village of four people somehow managed to defeat the Witch. Three of the villagers were critically wounded.

The villagers were injured badly.

It was fortunate that all the villagers later recovered from their wounds.

I met with an odd Event that I had never encountered before. It was a meeting with a Treasureboy. I could not get anything useful out of it, though. I wonder if this Event was related to Svarog since the Treasureboy's description had some similarity to Svarog's golden glory.

The Treasureboy Event.

In order to execute my new strategy of recruiting Elves, I unlocked Elven wood. Unfortunately, the resource spot for Elven Wood appeared very far from the village. That scraped the plan.

Elven wood appeared deep in unexplored territory.

I needed a variety of food for the bonuses they gave. It would be turn 35 before I felt that I had gathered enough food that my main expedition could go exploring.

Having more types of food gave more bonuses.

My village had been robbed of some precious resources by bandits. I had faced this Event before so I knew it was worth pursuing. Also, I had read online that the Event had been fixed so it properly gave the rewards.

Bandits raided the village.

After I checked the first location of the Main Quest, the tower of the university scholar appeared next to the village again. This was the third time in three separate games, though this time the tower was in a different direction relative to the village. The scholar really was spying on the village in his magically hidden tower.

In addition, it appeared that the villagers had rotated the village again.

Perhaps the scholar was studying the phenomenon of the rotating village.

I had the Night of Kupala Event. Since I was playing with Svarog, I chose the option with the most fire involved.

Night of Kupala Event.

As it turned out, making and playing with a large bonfire really was related to Svarog. I was sent to find a group of fire demons. As the fire demons appeared far to the west, across a very large lake, it would be some time before I could search for them.

Meanwhile, four of my villagers gained attributes both temporary and permanent.

The next stage of the Event involved finding a group of fire demons.

To prepare for a long journey to find the fire demons, I needed more people in my main expedition. Thus, I looked for the bandits that robbed my village earlier.

I received proper a reward this time.

As in Morena's game, I chose to intimidate the bandits into leaving the area. With the no-reward bug fixed, this time I received two Axes and some Malachite. In addition, the Fat Rat was back. It appeared that having one party member with an Animal Kinship of 2 was enough to recruit the beast.

The attributes of the Fat Rat.

Without Morena's bonuses (or any of Svarog's), the Fat Rat had hardly any attributes - only those suitable for Fight challenges. Still, he (it was already hinted that the Fat Rat was male) was an additional expedition member and he could carry loot.

Meanwhile, Svarog dropped by to drop his hammer:

Is he cutting his thumb with a broken sword?

I met with a group of nomads and traded them a weapon. At this early stage of the game, I had weak weapons and any good material was valuable. The nomads did not trade anything dragon-related unlike a previous occurrence.

A weapon was traded for resources.

In the Smithy quest, I convinced Orcs to part with the Children under their care (they were not the Orcs'). The Fat Rat learned to talk as a result.

The Fat Rat learned to talk.

On the way back to the Rusalka with the Children, one of them grew up. Thus, the option to hand over the children did not appear. It was then that I discovered another way to complete the quest. The Red Ribbon that the Orcs gave me unlocked an alternate solution. The solution required more smooth talk but I would get the final reward and keep the Children.

Do not anger the Rusalka without any Red Ribbon at hand.

I fought against a Necromancer who had been sealed within a tower. The battle was difficult but I was not about to let someone as dangerous as him loose on Thea. He had some good resources and books, which gave some permanent attributes to a few party members. Unfortunately, most of the expedition were critically wounded during the fight.

The Necromancer had loot.

Most of the wounded would eventually recover. One of the Warriors, however, did not. Since it was still early in the game and she was not a rare character, the lost was not so great though she was one of the people who was blessed by the Night of Kupala Event.

A Warrior died.

I had yet to search for the fire demons for the Night of Kupala Event or even make my way in the correct direction. I hoped to do so soon or this speed-run would take longer than expected.

Thea: The Awakening, Svarog 1, Part 2
Thea: The Awakening, Svarog 1, Final Part

Thea: The Awakening, Contents