With the release of the first major DLC for Assassin's Creed Valhalla, "The Wrath of the Druids" course-corrects some of the missteps in the base game. It's a more tightly plotted story with a compact list of quest goals that will entertain you for 10 to 15 hours without turning into a 100-hour slog. It's a lighter, brighter, and breezier tale told in the green vales and rocky crags of Ireland, with a smattering of familiar city settings thrown in. And it's got plenty of supernatural bite without bringing the full pantheon of the gods thundering down on the whole thing. But where the DLC succeeds best is in minimizing the overall game's illusion of choice and letting Eivor (ie the player) actually make a meaningful decision by the end of it all. Spoilers follow.
"The Wrath of the Druids" sees Eivor traveling to Dublin, Ireland in order to answer the summons of her cousin Barid. While Eivor has long thought Barid to be dead and gone, it turns out that he's become the Norse king of Dublin. However, his position there is threatened from pretty much all sides, and his 17-year-old son Sichfrith isn't exactly smoothing things over with the locals. Eivor's arrival turns things in Barid's favor as they soon suss out the source of conflict within Dublin: The local king's former son, Thorstein. After you guide Eivor through the usual series of quest goals in pursuit of Thorstein, you manage to apprehend him and bring him before King Barid. Now here's the important part: No matter what you suggest as punishment for Thorstein, Barid will choose his to banish him and claim his land and silver, every time.
While that's only the end of the beginning of your journey in "The Wrath of the Druids," it's a decision that, I thought, continued the precedent set in the main Valhalla storyline. The Illusion of Choice. Lots of modern RPGs fall into this trap, presenting players with what looks like a meaningful, branching decision that will influence how the game plays out from there, but they're actually just paying lip service to this idea. Whatever you choose, the writers' narrative will continue from there. However, I'm happy to say that this is corrected somewhat by the final choice in the DLC.
In the course of attempting to forge alliances and allegiances across Ireland, including seeking favor with the High King Flann Sinna, your cousin Barid inevitably dies at the hands of soldiers hired by a rival power to usurp the newly installed king. Much of the DLC revolves around rooting out the people behind this army and the source of their poisonous attacks. Eivor hunts down the druid cult known as the Children of Danu, a fundamental sect who have spun off from other druids as a response to Christian incursion into Ireland. Their mastery over poisons and other toxic and hallucinogenic attaks makes for some tough fights, but also paints the druids with a broad brush and sets them up as scapegoats. You're assisted in ferreting out the secrets of this order by Flann Sinna's druidic poetess, Ciara, who used to be a high-ranking member of the order herself. More on that in a minute.
It turns out that the real power source behind the Children of Danu is none other than the very Christian Abbot Eogan, the same spiritual leader who oversaw and blessed High King Flann Sinna's coronation. Eogan's rise to power was always part of his plan as founder of the Children of Danu. He had become disillusioned by Christianity and saw the religion's expansion as a threat to the existing Irish druids. His subterfuge and attack on Flann Sinna's forces was a failed attempt to restore the druids to power, or at least keep Christianity from increasing their foothold in Ireland. And while that didn't work, thanks in part to Ciara and Eivor, what happened next almost played directly into the Children of Danu's hands.
A gathering of the kings of Ireland leads to a discussion about what to do about the perceived druid problem. The other kings believe that other extremists may yet lurk in the shadows; they propose an inquisition to root out any remaining druids in Ireland, giving them the "option" of converting or being exiled. No matter what Eivor suggests, with very slight variations from one of the assembled kings, the next part plays out the same. (Illusion of Choice!) Flann Sinna opts to form an inquisition against Ciara's protestations and she storms out, rightfully offended. Eivor seeks her out to try to make amends and show her the kings' point of view, trying to form a united Ireland, but Ciara disappears in a toxic cloud and makes a beeline for Lia Fail, the legendary speaking stone on the Hill of Tara north of Dublin.
Here, the final fight of the "Wrath of the Druids" DLC plays out in surprisingly rapid fashion. Eivor and Flann Sinna attempt to talk Ciara down as she powers up the Stone of Destiny, but she first confounds the minds of Flann's soldiers and sets them against the High King and Eivor. Then, once they're defeated, Eivor will have to square off against the mind-controlled king himself. After that follows a two-phase fight against the surprisingly nimble, rogue-like Ciara, who uses a combination of druidic powers and dual-blade attacks while also charging up the speaking stone for an AoE blast. But once Eivor's victorious, the real choice arrives.
Here we learn that Ciara is the last of a bloodline of druids who could activate the Lia Fail. Doing so is what the Children of Danu wanted all along. She sees the error of her ways here, but asks Eivor to kill her so that she might never be tempted or made to do so again. With her death, her sacrifice, the bloodline ends and so ends the power of her people. What choice would you make?
It actually matters this time ... sort of. If you give Ciara a warrior's death, Eivor will praise her sacrifice to her chosen gods and make a not-so-quick-and-clean kill; Flann will then destroy the stone once he awakens. If you spare her, Eivor will instead wisely suggest destroying the stone, which Ciara does herself before bidding both Flann and Eivor farewell. Scene.
What ultimately happens at the end of "The Wrath of the Druids" remains the same: Flann will walk back his decision to form and inquisition and instead convinces the other kings that Ireland is a place welcome to all who live there. Eivor parts ways amicably with Flann, who welcomes her back to Ireland whenever she wants. Eivor then joins her cousin-once-removed Sichfrith while grieving at Barid's grave, saying that the departed warrior's hugr will remain strong in both of them. And there ends "The Wrath of the Druids," either with Ciara alive and well and off doing her druid thing, or dead and (presumably) buried, her druidic powers dead with her. The choice is yours for once; choose wisely!