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Light&Darkness is the name of multiple mods with the same story-line based in the original Mount&Blade map with a High Fantasy Setting. The series contains many new additions over the native game, including an actual plotted story-line; something that even many of the most popular mods don't have.
New Game Play Features[]
- An actual plot
- The horse armor combining system
- The Weapons and Armors repair system
- A new-and-somewhat-improved camping system
- Blackjack in the tavern.
- More and stronger heroes: Four modified veterans, the Zendar Trifecta (Xerina, Dranton and Kradus), the three Generals of the Durhua Empire, and two new and unique heroes
- The three unique evil heroes; Fenrir, Hel, and Jormungand
- The Mysterious Bandit Leaders: Oguma of the Tundra, Melva of the Forest, Nabaer the Pirate and Black Khergit Baheshtur Khan
- The Energy Bar which is in turn, related to energy strikes and various abilities.
- A remote Horse Market (Mid-Game)
- Unique Weapons/Armors/Horses
- Unique Items
- Dungeons
- The Almighty Shield of Fate
- The return of Zendar and the Dark Knights
- The Sixth Faction: The Dark Empire
- New Character Creation System
- Epic Intro
- Power Gems (only 4 in first chapter)
- Unique flaming sword (after completing certain quest)
- Special rewards in arena melee fights (can be added by paying a certain amount of denars before the melee fight)
- Create your own banner using the banner creating system
- A map during battle which indicates your and enemies troop location
- Unique Merchants (one of which sells guns)
- In total 7 factions can be made (the 5 original, Durhua Empire, and the player's faction)
- Unique companion abilities (ranging from increased damage to massive energy blasts)
- A unique ability for the player to discover
- Unique Mirror of Truth (which can be obtained after completing a part from the mainline quest)
- A National Tournament (during manline quest)
- And An Epic Adventure
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The character creation in Light and Darkness is not in the same style as the original game's "construct your history", but instead in a small survey of questions regarding your morals, your tactics and your values (for example, "Your company is surrounded by enemies. You....")
Upon creating your character, a small cutscene plays where the player is introduced to the history of Calradia. The main things to take note of during the scrolling text is the creation of the Durrhea Empire by foreign invaders. After that, a Fire Emblem-esque opening introduces you to the factions of Calradia, which excludes the Sarranids.
Your player will experience a dream where he/she is dressed in an ornamental churburg wielding a flaming sword and a golden shield. The player in the dream will appear to be blasted by a fireball from a mage on the top of a dark spire before waking up.
Going downstairs and talking to Suker, the tavern keeper, will reveal that a caravan dropped you off at the tavern, but due to drinking too much, you slept through their exit from Zendar. They used your money to pay for the bill, and in order to regain your lost coin, you can take a manhunting job from the Constable Hareck, who has put a bounty on the heads of the nearby River Pirates (100 gold a party). You can also talk to Marnid in the tavern, and once you are eligible, recruit him.
Going into the main square of Zendar will introduce you to the characters Shoey (a young girl who can tell you the history of the town and rumours), Pain (the horse merchant and race-manager), Prince the tournament master, Guy the trainer, Fat Robin the weaponsmith, Alix the armorsmith, and the general goods store merchant. You can accept various quests from all of them, of which rewards can vary (from a repeating crossbow to a brick).
In order to enlist into the manhunting job, train with master Guy and defeat the first two tiers of fighters (Novice and Regular), or defeat the first tier and win a tournament from Prince. Once these requirements are met, you can talk with Hareck to accept the job. When prompted, you can either say that you have never done a manhunter job before, or that you have experience with hunting bandits. The first option will put you in a manhunter party, where defeating the first 5 (25% completion) bandit parties is risk-free, and the second option will have Hareck send you on your own manhunter party upon which you can accept quests from Alix (bring 25 Nomad Armors to him for a corrazina), Fat Robin's quest (retrieve a Fire Spar for a variety of choices for high-tier weapons), and Ramun to find Borcha, an expert tracker.
Guy in question, upon defeating all tiers of his training, will give you a Clue that can put you on a quest to retrieve a scroll which grants a powerful ability (one which I won't spoil).
Either way, when you are sent on your way to hunt the River Pirates on your own, you should always retrieve Borcha from the prison in Rivacheg (go to the castle hall and go straight instead of taking the stairs). The town will be blocked by a guard, and you can either pay up or pass a speech-check involving either intelligence, charisma or strength to get the guard out of your way. You will need prisoner management to get Borcha out of the prison, and at least 50 denars.
Borcha will be added to your prisoners list. Initiate dialogue and recruit him. It is usually a good idea to hunt the River Pirates and get the Nomad Armors for the Armorsmith Alix to get the Corrazina, an armor on-par with medium-high tier armors.
Upon reaching 50% completion, Suker the tavernkeeper will send a messenger to you and ask for your help. His request is this: a group of suspicious pilgrims have went past Zendar with prisoners and are heading to Wercheg (presumably for the port). He asks you to get rid of them and will award you with a certificate (which will be useful later) and the chance to get a book which can grant you 5 extra Charisma.
The Pilgrims, upon connecting with their party on the map will reveal that the pilgrims are quite fanatical, and that Ymira, among others, are prisoners of them. Initiate combat. Typically, the fight shouldn't be too much of a problem since a), you should have the corazzina, which is enough armor to completely negate their weapons (staves and daggers), and b) their unit strength is comparable to that of a recruit, perhaps worse.
Once the pilgrims are defeated, Ymira will, quite distressingly, direct you to a valley near Dhirim, where the rest of her family was taken to be "sacrificed". It is also recommended to recruit the 30 Refugee prisoners from the Pilgrims as they can upgrade to medium-tier crossbow units with repeating crossbows (extremely efficient) and eventually to top-tier horse archers and infantry.
Beat the pilgrims in their hideout and one last pilgrim will reveal himself as a worshipper of "Mehdiuz" before dying. Ymira, distressed by the death of her parents, will join your party and is quite a competent medic. You can also retrieve the Fire Spar when looting the hideout. Return to Suker for a Certificate of a Knight, and go to Guy for a book that can increase your Charisma. Also, return to Fat Robin for a reward. The rewards are as follows: a masterwork bastard sword that can increase your powerstrike, a masterwork Khergit Cavalry Bow, several throwing spears that can increase your powerthrow, a spear that can increase your powerstrike and finally, a repeating crossbow (used by the Camp Defenders, the Female Warriors, and the Sword Sisters, the troops from the Refugee line). Typically, the crossbow is the optimal decision, due to several reasons. First, the crossbow is triple-shot and does competent damage (able to kill most Sea Raiders with two bolts), can be used on horseback, and has no requirement other than strength (compare that to the Masterwork bow, which requires 7 powerdraw).
Bring the news of the pilgrims to Count Arrasies (the lord of Zendar), and he will initially appear shocked. He will then dismiss you to continue the manhunting job for Hareck
Continue hunting River Pirates. upon reaching 100% completion, speak with Constable Hareck. He will redirect you to Arrasies which will task you to hunt down the Sea Raider leader Nabaer.
This is the first real challenge the player will face. Nabaer has around 70 troops, of around 20 are Pirate Kings, heavy shock infantry. Nabaer himself is a force to be reckoned with, but has no competent archers or cavalry of any kind. The most effective strategy is to buy some Tools and build a troop "in Camp => Prepare for Battle => Set a Trap). Setting effectively sets down a "killzone" on the battle map once you are within range of it. You can activate the trap to effectively wipe out 60% if Nabaer's force. You can then take your rescued Refugees, who have hopefully upgraded to Female Warriors and Camp Defenders and watch the rest of Nabaer's troops fall to the repeating crossbows. Upon finishing the fight, Borcha will find a small golden medallion, the Medal of Heroes. It will increase your Leadership and Charisma, and upon showing it to Arrasies with news of your defeat of Nabaer, will prompt him to start a cutscene if which he explains to you that that medallion belonged to the legendary hero Leon, who united Calradia and forced out an ancient empire, the Durhua Empire and its worship of the Dark God Mehdiuz when it conquered all of Calradia and forced it into endless bloodshed and tyranny. Arrasies will remark that the medallion appearing after worshippers of Mehdiuz kidnapping sacrifices can't be a coincidence, and also informs you of a legend about 5 gems, that when paired with the medallion, bought Leon the power he needed to take back Calradia. Arrasies states that Zendar was called the "Horn of Calradia" due to its role in warning Calradia of foreign threats and dispatches the player on a mission to warn the kings of each faction.
From there, your objectives fracture in each direction. With the revelation of the medallion of Leon, you could attempt to find the 5 gems, or you could address the threat of the Durhua directly and hunt down the pilgrims while warning the five kings. However many options there are however, one thing is clear.
The Durhua Empire will return.