Chapter 122: The Politics Of Desire

### Story Date

Sunday, 1 May, AD 1043/6551 ε.Κ/18 Ramadan 434 AH/18 Iyar 4803 AM/18 Huai-Yue Huangyou Era Year 1/18 Harpa ÅrO -1

## Appearances

### Locations

Berk
Guangyuan
Vedrarfjord
Al Jazīra Al-Khadrā
Eigg

*In comparison to many other forms of clan societies found elsewhere in the world, Berk’s society was unusually sexually liberated, being accepting of homosexuality and having a romantic ideal of courtship based around mutual romantic attraction between the courting pair. In most clannish societies, heterosexuality was and is strongly—even brutally—enforced, as the collective unit of the clan would take importance over the individuals that composed it, and is perpetuated through the production of heirs to the clan, rendering romance between the married couple as a secondary—at best—consideration to the production of heirs and exogamous clan bonds.*

*However, in tribal-era Berk, the low birth rates combined with the temporary marriage structure of their concubinage institution provided a legally and morally acceptable way for homosexual individuals to produce heirs for their clan, even as they remained primarily bonded with their preferred romantic partner of the same sex. This is not to say that the sexual liberation was absolute, however. Bride prices and dowries were still legally obligated, creating an economic class structure that disproportionately affected the poor, and created barriers to marriage, and—barring certain high-status exceptions—intercourse before marriage was seen as a scandal at best, and was strongly policed. But all in all, Berk’s society before AD 1040 was comparatively better in its expectations and restrictions of personal sexual preference than many of its neighbors and contemporaries.*

*These factors continued into the Imperial Era. While this frequently made for staggeringly complex family trees, requiring special notations between legal and biological lines of descent, the fact that it allowed for the avoidance of scandals and unhappy marriages ensured its general continuation and social acceptance. Indeed, many of the noble families of the North Sea Empire were polyamorous from the foundation of the Empire, as a direct continuation of their practices under Berk’s tribal period, beginning with Emperor Hiccup III of House Haddock and his two wives, and the marriages of a number of his close friends and inner circle. In the next generation, Hiccup’s daughter Valka II and her husband Olaf III both had their own preferred and legally acknowledged same-sex partners, but still married and had children in order to formally and legally unite their realms.*

*—Family, Fidelity, Faction: A Sociological Study Of Kinship Ties And Political Structures, Kyoto University Press, Ltd.*

## Major Events

* Thuggory hears advice from Bladewit that in the short-term, asking the betrothed couple Heike and Jyette to annul their betrothal and becoming his concubines is the best legal arrangement he can get.
* Mulan saves Mushu from a mob.
* Fintan reports to Hakon that they caught a thief stealing from their wastepaper basket. The thief admits to them and Gunvor that the information in there is useful for merchants and that the general populace likes hearing of the gossip. This gives Hakon the idea of publishing those themselves.
* A delegation of Jews from Timbuktu meet Fishwings in Al Jazīra Al-Khadrā. Viggo hears of them when he arrives and is looking to recruit a few.
* Thuggory proposes to Heike and Jyette to be his concubines and they accept.
* The Norse priests from Uppsala arrive on Eigg and they meet Tuffnut.
* Stoick offers Camilla a position as treasurer and Merida a position as political adviser.

## Trivia

The server and cook at the noodle shop are humanized versions of Po and his father from *Kung Fu Panda*.

## Characters

### Humans

* Esther bat Rivkah
* Dovid ben Eliezer
* Menachem ben Moshe (first appearance)
* Bladewit Drorsdóttir
* Thuggory Mogadonsson
* Fa Mulan
* Yao
* Chien-Po
* Unnamed server
* Unnamed cook
* Li Shang
* Malachi (first appearance)
* Ling
* William of Normandy
* Wulfhild of Norway
* Astrid Hákonsdóttir clan Haddock
* Hiccup clan Haddock
* Gobber the Belch
* Hákon Mortensson
* Unnamed farmer
* Fintan mac Ionatan
* Gunvor Dugaldsdóttir
* Fishwings clan Ingerman
* Viggo Grimborn
* Eret Eretsson
* Heike Eretsson
* Jyette Markusdóttir
* Tuffnut Thicknutsson
* Cecelia clan Hofferson
* Unnamed Uppsalan pagan priests
* Cami Berthasdóttir
* Merida Dunbroch
* Big-Boobied Bertha
* Naoise Eysteinsson
* Dyana Berthasdóttir (first appearance)

### Dragons

* Mushu (first appearance)
* Inkpot

## Analysis

### Epigraph Tie-In

* The epigraph discusses that the concubinage system allowed for individuals with homosexual preferences to still produce heirs for their clan. The chapter shows Thuggory asking Heike and Jyette to become his concubines with their child legally becoming Thuggory's heir.