Fire Warms the Northern Lands is an After-Action Report of Victoria: An Empire Under The Sun by Paradox Interactive Forums member Rensslaer.
It details the rise of the Kingdom of Prussia from its not-so-humble origins as a German Great Power to a world power encompassing Central Europe, and the trials and tribulations it encounters along the way. The story is told both through history-book style retrospectives and narratives, each proceeding to add their touches to the main story.
Tropes found within the work include:
- After-Action Report
- Alternate History: This is a Paradox game, after all.
- Author Avatar: Pieter van Rennsslaer. Slight subversion in that
Rensslaer didn't intend for him to be such. - Balkanize Me: The eventual fate of the Austrian Empire, but happens in a much different fashion than in our World War I.
- Bittersweet Ending/Downer Ending: Prussia establishes itself as the hegemon of Central Europe, but its neighbors have all fallen to Fascism and Communism, and the only other major liberal democracies, the UK and the US, don't like Prussia very much.
- For Want Of A Nail: The game's point of divergence is simply the death of Prince Frederick William, who in our timeline became king. Here he does not, leaving his brother William to take the throne earlier.
- Last Stand: Munich proves to be very resilient against the Prussian forces. And then there's the formidable defense of the northern England beachhead in the Second Anglo-Prussian War.
- Lonely at the Top: Prussia.
