Recap pages are Spoilers Off by default, so in all these pages all spoilers are unmarked. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned
In the island of Java, a new, great power is surfacing. An ambitious man has become Prime Minister of the Majapahit Empire. His name is Gajah Mada, and his desire is to unify the islands in one massive empire to control the sea and the land of the Archipelago. However, it's unknown wether this man's undying loyalty to his King and his never-ending ambitions will allow him to keep this oath to the very end...The player is in control of the Malay, the color being Red.
Scenarios
1. The Story of Our Founders
The people of Majapahit are proud and loyal, and such loyalty stems from their history, namely the story of Raden Wijaya and how he, starting from a small and harmless village, managed to face big threats such as the hostile forces of the collapsing Singhasari Kingdom and the invading Mongols dispatched by Kublai Khan. With trickery and courage, Raden manages to defeat his enemies and found the Majapahit Empire, respected and revered by the great men of Majapahit, such as Gajah Mada.2. Unconditional Loyalty
King Jayanagara of Majapahit is under threat: Gajah Mada has been suspicious of the noble Kuti, and for a good reason. As he's on an errand, the rebels stirred by Rakrian Kuti are attacking the capital and threatening to destroy the castle and murder the King. With the help of the loyal minister Arya Tadah, Gajah Mada must rescue his liege and wipe bring him to safety.3. The Oath to Unify Nusantara
The King was saved, but Gajah Mada's loyalty and prowess made him arrogant, reckless and lustful. Eventually, a doctor assassinated him under the pretext of a minor operation, and his step sister, Tribhuwana nominated Gajah Mada Prime Minister in lieu of Arya Tadah. Determinated to show his prowess as the greatest Prime Minister Majapahit ever had, Gajah Mada swears to not eat fruit or spice-covered food until all of Indonesia is under Malaysian control. The naval war is about to begin...4. Serving the New King
Years have passed, now Tribhuwana's son Hayam Wuruk is the king. However, this is not going to stop the oath of Gajah Mada, not when he's so close to success. The Malay fleet goes East, ready to submit the local tropical islands and their inhabitants. Be them pirate harbors or fortified cities, Gajah Mada won't relent. Not until the oath is fulfilled.5. The Pasunda Bubat Tragedy
The island kingdom of Sunda is the only remaining domain on Gajah's list. However, King Wuruk considers them allies and plans to marry their princess in order to secure an alliance. He's not aware of Gajah Mada's plan to keep his oath by modifying the treaty so that the Sunda will actually surrender to Majapahit, and secretly leads an armed force at Bubat, with the intent of surrounding the Sunda delegation and force them to surrender. However, this time, Gajah Mada's ambition will come with a far too steep price to pay...This campaign contains examples of:
- Anti-Hero: Downplayed, Gajah Mada is overall a good person, but he's also overly zealous and ultimately puts his own ambition in front of his loyalty to the King.
- The Caligula: Feeling invincible thanks to Gajah Mada's help, king Jayanagara devolves into an hedonistic jerk who mistreat his subjects and going as far as to take an inappropriate behaviour with his own stepsister. Unsurprisingly, not even Gajah Mada does too much when the King is assassinated.
- Call-Back: The fourth scenario is a remake of the famous Caesar versus Pirates scenario from the first game.
- The Cavalry: The second scenario has Gajah Mada joining forces with Arya Tadah to save the king from the murderous rebels. It's actually a Timed Mission, as the castle will eventually fall if you take too long.
- Cosmetic Award:
- The HD Edition has "Gadjah Mada Campaign Completed". DE replaced the achievement with "Island Hopper".
- DE also has "No Royal Hair Touched"note .
- Developer's Foresight: Thinking of backstabbing the Mongols who have called a truce with you in the first mission? That's impossible, as the Mongols will immediatelly call off their alliance the moment you send troops to their base.
- Downer Ending: Gajah Mada had a good career going on nearly uniting the Malay Archipelago, until his plot to make Sunda submit went awry and had most Sunda nobles, and Hayam Wuruk's soon-to-be-bride, committing suicide. His career crashed down, his co-workers want him dead, and Hayam Wuruk could only give him an exile mansion far away in honor of his services, but Gajah Mada considered it a Fate Worse than Death and spends the rest of his time recounting that he was not a hero, but a fool who was just paying the price of his ambition. And for those who know Indonesian history? That marks the decline of the Majapahit that he and Hayam Wuruk built so far.
- The Empire: It is the Majapahit Empire, and you spend the last half of the campaign conquering and subjugating the islands of the archipelago, with some of your enemies calling out if there's a limit to their greed. And finally, the Sundanese people viewed it similarly and while Hayam Wuruk wanted a subversion, a peaceful conquest, Gajah Mada instead made it played straight, which had the effect of turning it into a tragedy.
- A Fate Worse Than Death: Gajah Mada sees his current situation as a terrible fate and a proper retribution for his unbridled ambition.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: The Mongols begin as enemies, then offer you an alliance against a common enemy, but once that common enemy is defeated (or if you bring military units to their territory in case you see this coming) they become enemies again.
- Heel Realization: If his final narration was to be trusted, Gajah Mada had a last-minute realization that this may be a bad idea and tried to stop the bloodbath, but he was too late, his men killed every Sundanese warriors and then the Sunda princess committed suicide out of grief.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Downplayed, as the campaign does little from showing Gajah Mada's campaigns and failure, it's worth noticing that a few historians do believe that Gajah Mada was behind the assassination of the corrupted king Jayanagara.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: Unusually, the narrator of the campaign is a retired Gajah Mada himself, in exile, telling the player the story of how he lead the Majapahit empire to greatness before the inevitable fall and decay.
- Keystone Army: The Mongols in the first scenario will surrender once you destroy their castle. Since they leave all their building to you, it's wise to target their castle and that alone.
- Knight Templar: Gajah Mada's loyalty is unquestionable, though it's pretty clear that he's not exactly loyal to his king himself but rather to the Majapahit Empire: as seen in the intro and outro of the fourth mission, Gajah automatically assume that his wishes for the Empire's welfare are the same of the King, and dismiss the latter's amiable agreements with the Sunda as foolish and irrelevant in the greater scheme of things.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Indirect example, Gajah saving Jayanagara's life leads to the latter believing himself to be invicible and protected and thus devolves into a greedy tyrant who thinks he can get away with everything.
- Gajah's plans for Sunda involves preparing an agreement for the king which openly states that Sunda will be subservient and then surround the square where the Sunda Princes await with a massive army, ordering them to surrender peacefully. He's surprised when the Sunda, enraged, proceed to attack, starting a bloodbath which ruins everything. Because of this terrible incident, Gajah Mada is blamed for everything and exiled.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Gajah Mada successfully fulfilled the Palapa Oath he cited to Tribhuwana... at the cost of basically everything about his career and even straining his relations with Hayam Wuruk whom he used to get along with. In the end, his victory prevented him to 'taste any pleasure' as planned, even when he's resting, he's feeling horrible about himself.
- Timed Mission: The achievement "No Royal Hair Touched" requires you to rendezvous with the King in less than 10 minutes in "Unconditional Loyalty".
- Undying Loyalty: Deconstructed, Gajah Mada appears to be loyal to the royal family of Majapahit the classical way, but it's soon clear that said loyalty is focused on his own vision of Majapahit and his ambition.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Once the dust raised by the Pasunda Bubat Incident settles, King Wuruk is furious at his Prime Minister and wastes no time in lambasting him before stripping him of all his titles and sending him in exile.
