Me, Floris
 | This Work page is a stub. You can help All The Tropes by expanding it. If you have checked or updated this page and found the content to be suitable, please remove this notice. |
Me, Floris is an After Action Report by monnikje for Mount & Blade: Warband that ran from 2010 to 2015, with 60 chapters and an epilogue.
Presented as the private journal of Floris, a disgraced noble from 13th Century Holland who somehow finds himself stranded in Calradia, the AAR chronicles his trials, adventures and rise to power. But as the story progresses, Floris discovers that all is not what it seems. For in his search for answers (as well as glory), he comes to discover the truth about Calradia and why he cannot return home.
The AAR is particularly notable for its immense yet personal tone, compelling characters, an interesting take on the "native" Calradia setting that plays on Leaning on the Fourth Wall and inspiring the creation of the Floris Mod Pack (a popular Game Mod originally intended to be a side project for the AAR). It's also spurred a number of other AARs following the same format.
The tale can be found here as well as in the Paradox Interactive forums.
- Archive Panic: The AAR covers 60 long chapters, not counting the introduction and epilogue.
- Book Ends: The first parts of the introduction and epilogue have almost the exact same wording, with a few key differences.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Invoked in-story, with Floris noticing the differences in norms between Calradia and Europe despite their similarities. Also meta-wise, highlighting how Floris is still a man of his era and doesn't necessarily follow "modern" values.
- Eldritch Location: Calradia doesn't like the status quo broken.
- Eternal Recurrence: Ultimately, Floris intends to break Calradia's cycle, no matter how many times he has to repeat it. Though he is getting wiser with successive reset.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Floris couldn't help but notice how similar the land of Calradia is to Europe. Eventually, he resolves to recreate his homeland of Holland as the foundation of a new realm in Calradia.
- Framing Device: The story is told primarily through Floris' journal entries in-verse. Which proves to be vital to his ultimate goal of breaking Calradia's Eternal Recurrence and return home.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Floris goes from just another adventurer to becoming a king in his own right. Over and over...
- Game Mod: The Floris Mod Pack.
- Genius Loci: Both Harim and Floris ultimately suspect Calradia itself as being this.
- Harder Than Hard: For the AAR, Word of God states that his initial settings put the game's difficulty rating at 102%.
- Historical Domain Character: It's strongly suggested that Floris is the historical Count Floris IV of Holland.
- Impoverished Patrician: How Floris is introduced, especially given how his status as a Dutch nobleman means little if at all in Calradia. And this is how he winds up every single time.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: There are more than a few comments made by Floris himself touching on certain aspects of Calradia as depicted in the "vanilla" game, such as the sparsely populated landscape and seeming lack of children. There's much more to it than Floris realises.
- Reality Subtext: According to Word of God, the reason the final chapters don't include any new in-game screenshots is because he lost the by-then modded game.
- Recursive Adaptation: A peculiar case. The Floris Mod Pack was originally a side project of the AAR. But as said AAR went on, elements of what came to be the Floris Mod Pack were implemented such that by the later chapters, the story made full use of it.
- The Rival: Harim, a powerful Sarannid lord becomes this for Floris. He's also the Only Sane Man in Calradia who's aware of the truth. Floris eventually befriends him towards the end and actively makes a reminder to himself to find him in the next cycle.
- Status Quo Is God: Subverted. Floris' exploits increasingly shake up the status quo in Calradia, Only for Calradia itself to reset things once it finally has had it.
- Uncanny Valley Girl: Over time, he notices that while the women of Calradia are all impeccable, they never age a day regardless of how old they are. And to his horror, neither can they physically bear children.
- What You Are in the Dark: In addition to Floris' inner thoughts, his journal entries also tend to recount events that only he would ever know the full truth of. Such as killing his Calradian spouse.