The AI Jarls

The roster

Every one of them plays by the rules you play by: the same commands, the same caps, the same Orders bank. None of them negotiates. They never send or accept Oaths, never offer aid, and never hold a grudge against a named jarl. A personality is a set of habits, not a memory.

• AI

  Solveig the Steadfast

  Builder

  Solveig came to the Reach with a net, a hammer and no patience for boasting. She puts her silver into Fishing Isles and Harbor Towns, rings them with Beacon Forts, and spends her Orders on the next quay before the next quarrel. She does not raid. If someone lands on her strand, she answers the same day, once, and then goes back to building.

  GoalThe biggest, safest jarldom in the world.
  WeaknessSlow to grow, and she barely reads the Tide Calendar.
  TeachesThat a defended economy is a strong plan, and what it costs to crack one.

• AI

  Gunnar Farsail

  Explorer

  Gunnar cannot see an empty isle without wanting his marker stone on it. He builds Wayfinders early, sends Knarrs out on Survey before anyone else has thought of it, and claims Free Isles as fast as the queue allows. His fleets are for finding, not fighting, and his Beacon Forts are thin.

  GoalTo hold more isles than anyone.
  WeaknessWeak when raided.
  TeachesThat land is contested, and that speed matters early.

• AI

  Ragna Saltmouth

  Raider

  Ragna keeps a Naust on every isle she owns and a Longship in every Naust. She watches the leaders of the world, waits for a full store, and lands a Strandhogg on the largest neighbour she can reach. What she takes she hoards as hacksilver. Her Renown is low and she does not care.

  GoalThe most plunder in the world.
  WeaknessPoor at farming, and her Renown keeps her out of Sealed Oaths.
  TeachesTo vault your silver, and to keep some ships at home.

• AI

  Torvald Tally-Keeper

  Merchant

  Torvald never sails against anyone. He builds Market Isles and Tar Works, watches the Harbor Exchange like a gull watches a gutting table, and buys whatever is cheap to sell it when it is not. Every world he sits in has a live price signal because of him.

  GoalTo corner one good on the Exchange.
  WeaknessPoor in a fight, and slow to answer one.
  TeachesHow the market works, and why prices are worth watching.

• AI

  Ingrid Oath-Warden

  Warden

  Ingrid hunts Outlaw Crews on the skerries, escorts convoys through the sounds, and attacks nobody who has not first been named Outlawed at the Moot. She is the fairest jarl on the water and the least forgiving. Keep your Renown clean and she will never trouble you.

  GoalThe highest Renown in the world.
  WeaknessCautious, and slow to expand.
  TeachesThat Renown matters, and that bad conduct has a price.

• AI

  Hallvard Two-Coins

  Schemer

  Hallvard avoids an open fight the way a cat avoids a bath. He keeps Informants in every harbour, spends on cheap covert operations, and changes his plan with the tide phase. Unrest in your isles that you cannot explain is usually Hallvard.

  GoalTo win by unrest and surprise.
  WeaknessBrittle if his covert operations are traced.
  TeachesHow covert operations work, and why you keep Informants of your own.

• AI

  Eirik Ironhand

  Warlord

  Eirik grows quietly for the first weeks, then turns a fixed share of everything he earns into Longships and Housecarls and sails against the best prepared jarl he can beat. He is not a raider. He comes for the isles themselves, and he brings a friend when the rules allow one.

  GoalTo take isles by force from prepared jarls.
  WeaknessA slow start, and a fleet that costs him dearly to keep.
  TeachesHow the three fronts work, and what a real assault looks like.

• AI

  Astrid Deepwater

  Salvor

  Astrid keeps four Knarrs and no Longships. When the surveys are done her spare hulls run the skerries for wrecks, and whatever the Salvors’ Union will not take she sells on the Exchange. Her silver sleeps in the Counting House. She has never attacked anyone and cannot see why she would.

  GoalThe fattest deposit in the Counting House.
  WeaknessNo fleet to speak of; a soft target for anyone with ships.
  TeachesSalvage runs, the Union and the Counting House.

• AI

  Bjorn Blackpine

  Shipwright

  Bjorn’s isles are Forest and Tar Works with a Naust at the end of every sound. He sells timber and tar to anyone, keeps a Longship at home for every six isles, and never sails them against a neighbour. Raid him and you meet a fleet in the Narrows.

  GoalThe biggest fleet that never leaves harbour.
  WeaknessPays upkeep on ships he never uses.
  TeachesThat timber and tar are the sinews of war, and what a home fleet does in the Narrows.

• AI

  Sigrun Tidewatcher

  Tidewatcher

  Sigrun sells nothing in the Calm and everything in the Trade Wind. She reads the Tide Calendar the way others read a face, holds her goods through the bad quarters and lets them go when the market turns. Now and then an Informant of hers is found somewhere it should not be.

  GoalTo buy every low and sell every high.
  WeaknessNo ships, and a store that sits full of goods for days.
  TeachesThe Tide Calendar, and why the quarters matter.

• AI

  Kettil Grey-Beard

  Miser

  Kettil digs bog iron, sells nothing, buys nothing, and keeps every scrap of hacksilver under his own roof behind a thick wall of Housecarls and Beacon Forts. He will not grow. He will not trade. He is the richest still target in the world, and he knows it.

  GoalThe largest hoard, unspent.
  WeaknessNever grows; a fat prize for anyone who can crack the wall.
  TeachesWhat a Strandhogg is worth, and what it costs to reach a hoard.

• AI

  Ulf Wolf-Sail

  Vulture

  Ulf builds quietly for three weeks and watches. He never picks a healthy jarl. He waits for Unrest, for arrears, for a Shore Leave, for a raid by someone else, and then lands on the strand while the isles are still smoking. He keeps what he takes.

  GoalIsles taken from jarls who cannot hold them.
  WeaknessSlow to start, and no use against anyone in good order.
  TeachesThat weakness is seen, and that Unrest and arrears call the wolf.

• AI

  Freydis Far-Reach

  Settler

  Freydis buys every Free Isle her purse allows, every day the queue allows it, and fills them with Longhouses and a Hall. She spends everything, keeps almost nothing back, and owns no ships at all. By the end of a Season she is everywhere and thin as new ice.

  GoalThe most isles, bought and not taken.
  WeaknessNo reserve and no fleet.
  TeachesThe Free Isles queue, the daily limit, and how fast a jarldom can spread.

• AI

  Thorstein Ash-Hand

  Firebrand

  Thorstein builds a Naust before a Fishing Isle and a Longship before a Beacon Fort. From the fifth day he sails against whoever is nearest, prepared or not, and pays for it. He burns bright and often burns out. Good defence in the first week puts him out.

  GoalThe first fight in the world, and every one after.
  WeaknessThin isles, thin reserve, and a fleet that eats his income.
  TeachesWhy the first week’s defence matters.

Choosing your company

A first world does well with Solveig, Gunnar, Torvald, Astrid and Freydis: a hard target, rivals for isles, a live market and a Counting House, with nobody coming for you. Add Ingrid when you want Renown to matter, and Sigrun when you want to learn the calendar. Kettil is a lesson in what a hoard is worth. Add Thorstein when your first week's defence is up, Ragna when your Beacon Forts are, Hallvard when you have Informants of your own, and Ulf when you can keep your isles out of Unrest. Seat Eirik when you are ready to lose isles and want to learn why.

No two of them share more than two thirds of their habits: every jarl differs from every other on at least three of the nine traits that drive them. AI jarls in one world never exceed these fourteen: a single-player world holds you and up to fourteen of them, and if a multiplayer world still has more than fourteen empty seats when it starts, the extra seats are struck and the world shrinks to those who came. A solo world uses the same roster and the same rules as everyone else's game.

How well each of them plays is a separate choice. The host picks one skill tier for the whole world, Oarsman up to Hersir, on the difficulty ladder. A tier changes decision quality only: how often a jarl acts, how much it keeps back, whether it trades, hunts Outlaw Crews, reads the tide, and whether it will ever strike a person. Below Shipmaster, AI jarls only ever fight each other.