Epigraphs - Book 4

The epigraphs of Book 4. Click here to return to the index page.

## Epigraphs by Chapter

### Chapter 120: From A Mustard Seed

Pre-Norse Germanic and Early Norse calendars were highly regional in use, with significant differences in practice and even names for months between different areas, with some using leap days, leap weeks, leap months, pure lunar reckoning with no adjustments for precession, or 12 months of 30 days each, with five or six additional days inserted as needed. Post-Reformation Norse calendars, however, are universally based on the calendar established by the Hooligans of Berk, which was itself restructured eighty years prior to the Reformation by the Jewish teacher Dror ben Ezra. Dror essentially used the Jewish calendar as a direct model, simply renaming the Jewish months for the Norse months, but keeping the general underlying structure of calculations the same, with months beginning with the new crescent phase of the moon.

As a result, the modern Norse calendar is a luni-solar calendar, structured around the Mahzor 19-year lunar cycle, with leap months added in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years of the cycle, thus keeping the calendar from precessing excessively from the seasons. Like the Jewish calendar, it does have the singular flaw that the lunar Mazhor cycle does not perfectly match up with the mean solar calendar over time, and falls one day behind per 216 years. This is a point of discussion among the Norse on possible methods to compensate, due to the fact that, as the beginning and ending of the months are tied to the natural cycle of the moon, skipping days to bring the calendar in line with the mean solar year, as was done with Julian calendar in the mid-1700s AD, is not practical.

The era used for the Norse calendar is År Odin (Year of Odin), abbreviated as ÅrO; as with Anno Mundi (In the Year of the World) or Anno Domini (In The Year of Our Lord), the words or abbreviation should precede the date rather than follow it. The epoch of this era is based on the historical Norse Reformation, beginning with the publication of the Norse holy texts in Harpa ÅrO 0.

—Norse Calendar (n.d.) In Wikikenna. Retrieved March 30, 1856

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### Chapter 121: Level Foundations

**Supernova 1054**

**Constellation:** Taurus

**Distance:** 6.5 kilolight-years

**Remnant:** Nebula

**SN 1054** is a supernova that was first observed on 4 July AD 1054, and remained visible until c. 6 April 1056. The event was recorded in numerous contemporary astronomical sources, including Zhōngguó, Nippon, Islamic, and European, as well as in petrographs associated with the Hisatsinom culture. Furthermore, it is historically noteworthy and significant as being one of the instigating factors in Magni Hiccupsson House Haddock’s initial astronomical synlengra experiments, which began a new age of observational astronomy in the coming decades and centuries. One aspect of these studies is that the remnants of SN 1054 have been extensively tracked, with new and increasingly larger synlengra constructed as the supernova remnants faded over time. The remnants of SN 1054, known as the Magni Nebula, consists of debris ejected during the explosion, and is located in the sky near the star Zeta Tauri, with the core of the exploding star having formed a pulsar, called the Magni Pulsar. Due to the centuries of close examination, and as one of the few Galactic supernovae where the date of the explosion is well-known, the nebula and the pulsar it contains are some of the most well-studied astronomical objects outside of the solar system, with the two objects being the most luminous of their types in their respective categories.

[…]

**Cultural Significance:**

The supernova was received as a supernatural portent in the immediate aftermath of the wedding of Tuffnut Thicknutsson House Thorston and his first wife, Princess Mór of the Isle of Mann, performed on 3 July AD 1054. The pair had attempted to wed in ceremony repeatedly over the preceding eleven years as a betrothed couple, despite technically qualifying as a common law marriage between their extended cohabitation and the births of five children in that time.

According to contemporary sources, the wagering on what might interrupt the wedding on this latest attempt included “another war,” “The Apocalypse,” volcanic eruptions, the blotting out of the sun by an eclipse, and several other types of natural and supernatural disasters, with the longest odds on offer given to the nuptials going through successfully. Several primary sources from the subsequent court cases indicate that the odds were universally set in excess of a hundred to one by different odds-makers, with the highest value being 400:1 against the ceremony going through without incident.

When the supernova was observed the day after the wedding ceremony had taken place, several odds-makers claimed it as a portent and attempted to avoid making their ruinous payments to the winning wagerers. This resulted in a number of lawsuits, the proceedings of which have been portrayed in dramatic and educational productions repeatedly over the ensuing centuries…

—SN 1054 (n.d.). In Wikikenna. Retrieved 9 March, 1852

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### Chapter 122: The Politics Of Desire

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.

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### Chapter 123: Matters Of Faith

According to the Catholic doctrine of **Papal Supremacy,** the Pope has full, supreme and universal power over the whole Church, by virtue of his office as Vicar of Christ and as the pastor of the entire Catholic Church.

The scriptural roots of this doctrine are found in the Christian Bible, specifically the section known as the Confession of Peter, recorded in Matthew 16, where Peter acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, and Jesus instills in him the authority over the Church as Jesus’ successor, a mantle to which the subsequent popes of Rome are successors in turn.

Historically, during the first few centuries of the Christian Church, there was no central authority; doctrine was decided by consensus at councils convened by Byzantine Emperors, although some of those councils did acknowledge that the Roman Church was “head of all Churches” in a manner that made them first among equals as opposed to a legal head. It was only in the late 6th to early 8th centuries that the Byzantine hold on the Roman bishops was reduced and weakened, allowing the Roman popes to fully assert their authority over the western half of the Church as its head, even as they broke with the imperial Byzantine remnants of the Roman Empire. The Popes first gained support from the Frankish rulers, especially the Frankish king Pepin the Short, who ceded to the Roman Popes the Italian territories that would later become the Papal States. Later, Pope Leo III’s coronation of Charlemagne—done partially in response to and in protest against the ascension of Irene of Athens to the Byzantine imperial throne—further bolstered the Roman Church’s separation from the Byzantine Emperors by giving them a supportive secular authority.

From here, the trend towards increased centralization around the Pope of Rome continued, accelerating with the coming of the Dragon Mail of Berk in the mid-1000s, when the Roman Church began to assert its authority over investiture—the ability to choose and install bishops, abbots, and even the Pope himself into their high Church offices. Due to the decentralized nature of the Church in the preceding centuries, this had been the prerogative and privilege of secular nobility and royalty…

—Papal Supremacy (n.d.) In Wikikenna. Retrieved February 17, 1862

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### Chapter 124: Meritorious

In another area of marked divergence among the major Abrahamic faiths, consider the differences in respective conceptions of ‘venerable holy person’ between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, termed, respectively, as *Tzadik, Saint*, and *Wali*, each of them in turn embodying the orthoprax (correct practice) or orthodox (correct belief) nature of their respective faiths. First, we come to terminological differences that differentiate how these concepts are even conceived of. In Judaism, *Tzadik* is derived from the root word צדק, *tsedek*, which means ‘righteousness,’ ‘fairness,’ or ‘justice,’ whereas *Saint* is derived from the Latin *Sanctus*, meaning ‘holy,’ and *Wali* literally translates as ‘Friend of God’ and is often given the connotations of ‘master’, ‘authority’, ‘custodian,’ or ‘protector’.

For Judaism, a tzadik is, in essence, someone who exemplifies the orthopraxic nature of the religion—following Jewish laws in a righteous manner, acting with humility, and when they do lead, leading by example and education. Other related concepts that cast light on the position that tzadikim hold within Judaism include *Tzedakah*, which is the giving of contributions of money or resources to the needy and to good causes. Compared with the Christian concept of ‘charity’, where the giving of such contributions is framed as an act of philanthropic goodwill and generosity on the part of the giver, in Judaism, *tzedakah* is an ethical requirement to live a righteous life, as exemplified by the tzadik. In short, a Jewish tzadik is venerated and held up as exemplary not because they are innately holy or blessed or pious, but because their actions exemplify that which is held as the correct path of the Jewish ideal and draw them closer to the divine as a result.

In contrast, a Christian saint is an individual of exemplary faith, as suiting the orthodox nature of the religion…

—Divine Light Through The Gem Of Man: Studying The Many Facets Of The Holy, Waterford University Press, 1692

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### Chapter 125: Wheels Within Wheels

**Death Song:** Mystery-class dragon

**Overview:** Diurnal close support and economic dragon; primarily useful in civilian life, with tactical applications in non-lethal crowd control. Their acoustic skills can assist in calming even agitated combatants, and while the dragon is notably visually striking, most individuals have significant skill in stealth and ambush, and will hide if necessary, rendering them difficult to counterattack. On the modern battlefield they have little tactical use, but historically saw application in disrupting mass infantry formations. Furthermore, their ‘amber’ breath can be useful in immobilizing small numbers of closely packed targets.

**Breath Type:** Rapid-setting binary polymer plastic. Historically this material was confused with fossilized tree resin (amber), as it closely resembles that material in coloration and gross mechanical characteristics. Death Songs are capable of ingesting and recycling this material, along with other plastic polymers, limited primarily by individual tolerance for taste.

**Identification:** Large adult size. Gold to red coloration along the wings and main body. Single wing pair, two legs with grasping claws incapable of fine manual dexterity, long whiplike tail with barbs and small fins at terminus. Wings are scalloped inwards between the supporting ribs, and feature large eyespots and other patterns on the inner and outer surfaces. Large spines along the spine, and fins and long horns on the head. Distinctive songs (See Death Song Appendix C for audio recording).

**Strategic Role:** Crowd control, non-lethal immobilization of high-value targets, tactical distractions, and morale support.

**Known Weaknesses:** Extremely eye-catching; while skilled at stealth, these dragons find it hard to hide again once spotted. Counter-acoustics can distract or enrage them, making them break stealth with ease.

**Phenotype Cluster:** B2FØS5+S4-S3!M4+TØTØ

**Populations:** Small and scattered. Primarily located around the Aegean and Black Seas, Death Songs, also known as the Siren Dragon, have been reported in numerous nests scattered as far away as the northwestern Vestrilands, as well as individual isolates connected to no known nest. Note that isolated individuals tend to be undersocialized and hostile as a result, with recorded instances of cannibalism of other dragons by these individuals.

—North Sea Empire, Office of Draconic Intelligence, Dragon Breed Profiles (Declassified), 1822 Edition

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### Chapter 126: Solemn Oaths

The destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a.k.a. the Church of the Holy Anastasis, in AD 1009 at the order of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, a.k.a. “The Mad Caliph”, was part of Al-Hakim’s larger personal campaign of persecutions against those in his Caliphate who were not Shia Islamic. This campaign included outlawing various religious ceremonies and ritual materials (especially wine) of both Christians and Jews, confiscating or destroying churches, convents, and synagogues, mandating distinctive and humiliating forms of public dress, and other ordinances designed to persecute non-Shia.

However, the demolition of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre had longer-lasting consequences than the unfair laws and ordinances Al-Hakim had imposed on his populace, which were repealed or weakened after his death. The Church, which is built on the site of Jesus’ death and resurrection according to Christian tradition, is seen as one of the holiest sites in Christianity and had been a major pilgrimage site since its consecration in September AD 335. As a result, a sense of shock and anger rocked the Christian world at the total destruction of the holy site, which was so complete that, according to the chronicler Yahia, “only those things that were too difficult to demolish were spared.” However, with the Caliphate out of reach for most of Christian Europe to effectively retribute against, they sought a scapegoat to punish in lieu of the actual perpetrators, and found one in the form of the Jews. Some European regions merely expelled their Jewish residents, while others, such as Francia, actively persecuted their Jewish populations.

According to multiple Francian sources, the rumor was spread that the Jews of the city of Orléans had sent a letter to either Al-Hakim or to the Jews in residence in the Caliphates via a beggar. This letter allegedly provoked the destruction of the Church, and thus the persecutions were justified in response. The Francian king, Robert II ‘the Pious’, coordinated with his vassals to destroy all of the Jews in their lands who would not accept baptism. The Bishop of Limoges, Alduin, offered the Jews of his diocese the choice of baptism or exile in AD 1010. For a month, Christian theologians held disputations with the Jews, forcing them to defend their beliefs or be baptized or expelled. This did not have much success from the Christian perspective, as only three or four Jews accepted baptism, while others killed themselves, and the rest either fled or were exiled. There were similar persecutions and expulsions elsewhere across Francia. In Rouen, Normandy, a mob attacked the Jewish quarter with such violence that Jewish women jumped into the river to escape them, and drowned. In other cities, Jews were burned at the stake along with Christian heretics at the order of King Robert II.

While this period of active persecution died down after Jacob ben Jekuthiel managed to bribe the Catholic Pope with seven gold marks and two hundred pounds, to send a special envoy ordering King Robert to stop, these events laid the groundwork for the Crusades in the coming decades by sowing a deep and unsated hatred of non-Christians in general and Jews in particular into the Christian populace…

—A History of Old Francia, 1432, Oxford Press

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### Chapter 127: Bonds Of Many Forms

Another less salutary aspect of both human and draconic societies was that both of them made use of forced labor by members of their own species as a direct result of social stratification. While humanity’s more intricate social structures allowed for more sophistication in the forms of unfree labor they used, ranging from direct chattel slavery to bonded labor, serfdom, forced marriage, and more across the vast majority of historical human civilizations in every inhabited region, dragons likewise made use of unwilling labor by their fellows. Thengills routinely required significant ‘rents’ in the form of food and other services to allow access to nesting sites, such as forcing dragons with significant adaptations towards tunneling and digging to expand the volume of the nest, despite the personal risks of entombment or asphyxiation, along with other abuses such as forced matings and brood parasitism.

Resultingly, it is generally seen as an inevitability that, following the Norse alliance with dragons as equal partners backing an ideological opposition to exploited labor, oppositional groups quickly arose based around humans exploiting dragons and, in mirror, dragons exploiting humans. After all, they were already used to exploiting their own species and extending that exploitation was a natural outgrowth.

—The Dragon Millennium, Manna-hata University Press Ltd.

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### Chapter 128: With Open Arms

However, social forces do not exist in isolation. Even apparently singular points of social influence exist in the midst of a web of cues, directions, impulses, and directives. A useful way in which to conceptualize social dynamics is through a concept called *dialectics*. Related to the dialectical method of Greek philosophy, social dialectics allows one to frame many social issues in terms of two or more social forces in opposition to each other. In such a framing, “society” can be conceptualized as a web or fabric suspended between numerous forces working in opposition with each other, each of them trying to pull the resulting network in a direction of their liking. Wages for workers is perhaps the archetypal example of a social tension, stretched between the employer, who wishes for the wages to be low—if not nonexistent, in the extreme cases of thralldom—and the laborers, who want them as high as possible.

Consider other such oppositions; the aristocracy will be in opposition to the peasantry in terms of rights and privileges, and possibly also in opposition to the royalty. Hedonists exist in opposition with the ascetics. The intellectual against the ignorant, and possibly the propagandist. The agriculturalist against the industrialist and each in turn against the preservationist. The artist against the censor. The pacifist against the martialist. The authoritarian against the libertarian. The anarchist versus the statist. The despot versus the democrat. And so forth.

Each of these in turn stretch the fabric of society between themselves, forming the social environment of laws, mores, attitudes, beliefs, concepts, traditions and systems in which they live.

—Nationbuilding: How People Move, Talk, Think, Organize, & Structure Themselves, 1888, Amsterdam University Press

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### Chapter 129: And A Warm Embrace

During the periods of the Kingdoms of Francia, Brittany (Breton: Breizh), in its position occupying the westernmost peninsula of the region, was regarded as a stubborn outsider—culturally Brythonic Celtic instead of Gallo-Roman, with a different and distinct language, identity, and historical background. Beginning as independent petty kingdoms formed by displaced Celts from the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, Brittany spent the next few centuries fully independent, occasionally joining forces with the Roman Empire against the likes of Attila the Hun, but otherwise being mostly occupied with domestic political matters and associating with their fellow Celtic nations in the Isles, occasionally sending reinforcements to the Cymru, Picts, Kernowyon, and Gaels as they fought against the Anglo-Saxon invaders.

Later, in the 9th century AD, Brittany became a tributary suzerain state to the Carolingian Empire under Emperor Charlemagne, who managed to impose vassalhood on the region, reducing the Breton lords to semi-autonomous status. This did not last long, however, as in the aftermath of Charlemagne’s death, they rebelled against the Carolingians, securing their independence as a unified kingdom of Brittany in 851 AD after defeating Charles the Bald at the Battle of Jengland. From there, they proceeded to expand their kingdom at Francian expense, taking large swaths of territory around the eastern extents of their peninsula, and reaching their greatest territorial extent in 867 AD.

Internal political disputes ensued, stopping the kingdom’s expansion, and rendering it ripe for conquest by Viking raiders in the early 900s; by 919 AD, the entire kingdom was fully occupied by Norsemen, who looted and pillaged many cities and monasteries without facing organized resistance. The region was eventually liberated from the Norse occupiers by Alan “Twistedbeard” II, grandson of King Alan the Great, the prior king of Brittany, between 935 and 939, culminating in an attack on the last Norse stronghold at Trans-la-Fôret by joint Breizh and Frankish forces. Meanwhile, to the neighboring east on what had once been part of the kingdom of Brittany, Rollo the Viking had settled in with his own men, offering allegiance to King Charles the Simple in exchange for claim to what would become known as the Duchy of Normandy.

With his lands in ruin from decades of war and looting, Alan could not hope to restore his prior kingship and likewise made the same decision as Rollo had, offering tribute to King Louis IV of Francia in 942 AD as the Duke of Brittany. This action ended Brittany’s time of independence and politically brought it into the Kingdom of Francia as the Duchy of Brittany. However, the newly-born duchy still had a long independent history and a cultural identity as separate from the rest of the kingdom…

—A History of Old Francia, 1432, Oxford Press

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### Chapter 130: Paradigm Shift

“Soldiers are prepared to fight the last war,” “Generals are always ready to fight their father’s war,” and “the military mind is always fighting the last war,” as the saying and its variants go. What this means is that militaries are fundamentally conservative institutions, looking back and thinking on what they have done wrong in previous conflicts as compared to looking forward and adapting to what is coming. This is especially well seen around the times where shifts in technology and tactics render the old ways obsolete, and yet the commanders persist in sticking closely to what they know, typically refusing to adapt to the changes in warfare, even in the face of proven losses. Typically adaptation happens by the removal of those elder generals—either by political removal or death on the battlefield—and the appointment of newcomers who are aware of the new battlefield realities and are willing to change and throw out conventional knowledge in the face of new lessons.

The loss of life before this happens can be staggering…

—Statecraft: The Great Game Of Diplomacy, Espionage, & War By Other Means, 1732, Rouen University Press

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### Chapter 131: Alliances Of Honor And Interest

While it took most of a generation for formal political parties to develop in the Grand Thing, with the first such, *Rättfärdig U Tzedak*, dating its founding to AD 1076, the roots of the Grand Thing’s political structure predate the assembly itself. The event which most scholars point to, the Citizenship Conclave of AD 1043, saw the early development of voting blocs and informal alliances set for the achievement of one political goal or other. However, there were no formal political factions as of yet. Instead regional, social class, linguistic, religious, and ethnic factions dominated most of the proceedings, with most of the attendees working and voting for their own interests. While they produced a legal code that achieved the stated goals of King Stoick in offering a structure for the nation at large, it was still a work of compromise that directly contradicted the King’s own stated desires on more than one point, a factor that oddly helped legitimize it in the eyes of many in the kingdom.

—Origins Of The Grand Thing, Edinburgh Press, 1631

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### Chapter 132: Entanglements Of The Heart

Prior to the end of the Dragon War, the societies of the Hooligan Norse and their close cultural allies in the Eirish Sea region existed in a fundamental contradiction brought on by two opposing cultural forces.

On the one side, there was a cultural incentive towards, and acceptance of, romantic love and associated romantic courtship—it was expected that couples would meet, court, and grow more and more romantically entwined, regardless of the social classes or origins of the respective partners. A chief’s heir could even court and marry a freed thrall and be seen not as a fool for marrying so far below their social rank but instead as a fine upstanding member of the tribe, bringing in an outsider fully into the tribal society. This romanticized xenophilia was culturally adaptive for the Hooligan Norse due to the need to bring in and integrate outsiders as a result of the birth rate dysfunctions brought about by exposure to Deadly Nadder venom.

On the other side, however, there were rigid clan and social structures, with individual members expected to conform with social roles and existing under the control of the clanhead, who had the legal right to demand from each member a month’s worth of uncompensated labor every year, along with effective taxes to the clan coffer. Besides control of the clan coffer, the clanhead also had veto rights over many forms of personal expression by the members of their clan. Furthermore, due to the social and economic stresses of the dragon raids, jobs that were perceived as unproductive were stigmatized against by the general populace.

As a result of these pressures, romantic impulses were given a legal standing that was atypical in many Norse societies, as an outlet for individual wants—but only in certain prescribed ways that were seen as acceptable. Specifically, the accepted social path began with a formal courtship and romantic encounters, followed by a formal binding betrothal with semi-illicit sexual encounters and ultimately culminating in one form of marriage or another.

The end of the Dragon War, however, destroyed this unstable equilibrium, removing the constrained economy that granted the clanheads their near-total control over people’s personal finances, and the population boomed through territorial expansion, immigration, and natural growth from the end of Nadder venom exposure. New people, new economic opportunities, and new social opportunities all challenged the control of the clanheads who had ruled their sections of the tribe as personal fiefs just a few years earlier. As a result, the rising groups of young adults found themselves in an environment where they were wealthy, socially attractive, and free from the close supervision of their elders and tribe which had been the rule during their childhoods. As such, they acted accordingly along the lines of their cultural romantic ideal with new tribal members and various foreigners alike.

This caused no end of problems and entanglements. Some, indeed, reached the level of becoming the basis for enemy propaganda during future conflicts, where Christian Crusaders painted the pagan Hooligans as sexually depraved and predatory, using exaggerated reports as the basis for their accusations, alongside wholesale fabrications, with the seed of truth in the exaggerations rendering the accusations hard to rebut and refute…

—The Dragon Millennium, Manna-hata University Press Ltd.

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### Chapter 133: A Wulfhild, Enfolded

…and while the beginnings of their familial and romantic relationship was shadowed due to plots and machinations, there is no question that Wulfhild Haddock I was also an integral and beloved member of the Haddock family. The only legitimate child of King Olaf of Norway by his wife Astrid Olofsdotter of Sweden, she was maneuvered into marriage with then-Heir Hiccup through the plotting of the the Norwegian court chaplain, Father Henriksson, as part of a plan to ensure a Christian heir to the rising kingdom of Berk. This backfired on the Father, since Wulfhild, as a direct result, waited to baptize her children with Hiccup until they were of age to consent. While this led to other complications, including rumors that she was a secret Jew, which were used to discredit and demonize her…

[...]

…soon, after her husband assumed the throne in AD 1044, Wulfhild gave up her position as Head Almoner and instead took over Hiccup’s role as Herald and chief diplomat. There, she was instrumental in forming the political bloc of allied nations that dominated the global political sphere for most of the next one hundred and fifty years…

—The Second Flowering Of Yggdrasil: An Analysis Of The Norse Resurgence, 1710

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### Chapter 134: Rank And Privilege

The social structure of Berk when Stoick assumed the title of chief in the 1020s AD was, by the standards of the era and region, extremely egalitarian, with wide-ranging universal rights. The few reserved legal rights were primarily assigned to social offices such as chief and clanhead, instead of social ranks as was the case elsewhere. As a result, a new arrival on Berk from a lower class origin elsewhere would find themselves having access to a wide variety of rights that had previously been denied to them. This was partly policy on the part of the Hooligans, as a way to incentivize personal investment into and identification with their society by the newcomers, as their efforts were needed in defending against and repairing the aftermath left by dragon raids. This social structure had been stable for generations by the time Stoick inherited leading it, and thus he sought to continue spreading it as Berk’s territory and population grew.

—The Dragon Millennium, Manna-hata University Press Ltd.

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### Chapter 135: The Hall Of Mirrors

One category of recurrent problems that are endemic to the field of espionage are those of ‘cognitive traps’—systemic biases in thinking and analysis that lead the intelligence analyst down blind alleys and towards incorrect conclusions. These can come about from the personal biases of the individual analyst or from larger scale biases on the part of the organization to which they belong, but in all cases, it is a systemic issue that can cause large scale problems based on the garbage-in, garbage-out principle—if your assumptions about why an action was taken are incorrect, then your conclusions will also be incorrect.

The most common cognitive trap is that of ‘mirror imaging’—the assumption that the subject of the analysis thinks, considers, and acts in a manner much like that of the analyst themselves, thereby rendering their actions in the structure of “How would I act if I was in their place?” This particular trap is pernicious, as it can be hard to recognize unless confronted—and when it reaches the organizational level, it can be hard for individual analysts to challenge, as the conclusions, even if flawed, typically come from senior members of their organization who will be acknowledged experts.

But this trap is particularly dangerous, beyond how it can lead to incorrect conclusions, as it can cause an inexperienced analyst to view a dissenting viewpoint as a personal attack on themselves, which can result in them growing more attached to their own analysis in response. Such entrenched opinions, especially in a person of responsibility and decision-making power, can be catastrophic. Having the ability to bring in dissenting voices, especially from other backgrounds, can be helpful in combating this, but the analyst needs to hear those opinions and have the experience and necessary dispassion to be able to separate themselves and their personal egos from the structure of their work…

—Statecraft: The Great Game Of Diplomacy, Espionage, & War By Other Means, 1732, Rouen University Press

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### Chapter 136: Jammed Machinations

...as such, the methods by which appointments to offices and positions are handled are of supreme importance to avoid or at least reduce the development of entrenched interests and corruption.

Generally speaking, systems of organization that allow for appointment to offices by patronage are highly susceptible to corruption due to the fact that such appointees are typically more concerned with the needs of their patron than they are with the needs of their office—or, conversely, those who show *inadequate* concerns for the needs of their patron typically find themselves removed and replaced with more compliant individuals. Unfortunately, systems of patronage are typical in environments where the organization is the personal concern of the head individual, such as in absolute monarchies, dictatorships, private businesses and corporations, and other such institutions, where, so long as the patron is satisfied with the performance of their appointee, the appointee can make use of their position for personal gain. In the worst cases, positions can literally be available for purchase, with the understanding or even expectation that they will be used for personal profit by the purchaser.

Conversely, systems of organization that require merit and competence to be appointed to official positions and are kept accountable to those that they serve tend to show lower rates of corruption and abuse of office. This is not to say that they are immune—especially for those systems which underpay their functionaries, who *somehow* need to recoup the difference between their wages and those resources necessary for survival, and turn to corruption of their office as a means to do so—but such systems allowing for the ability to remove a misbehaving office-holder from their position without needing the consent of potentially corrupt managers have a means by which to directly reduce and react to corruption.

In the end, the difference is between that of a king distributing personal fiefs to his friends for them to manage as they see fit, versus that of a government appointing managers who are answerable to their constituents.

—Nationbuilding: How People Move, Talk, Think, Organize, & Structure Themselves, 1888, Amsterdam University Press

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### Chapter 137: Cascading Effects

Judaism most assuredly affected the Norse revival at its very roots. However, while certain cultural aspects made the leap between the two, such as the emphasis on scholarship, there are a number of distinct cultural and theological differences. While both religions have an emphasis on the importance of personal actions and on how it is mankind’s right and duty to interpret their divine mandates, the theological relationships with the divine differ strongly. In Judaism, Jews have always had an argumentative relationship with their G-d, starting with the earliest patriarchs, who routinely argued with their divine figure even as they worked to interpret and fulfill His directives. However, by contrast, in the Reformed Norse, mankind are explicitly the allies of their gods, working together to stave off the coming of Ragnarok and the end of the world.

—The Second Flowering Of Yggdrasil: An Analysis Of The Norse Resurgence, 1710

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### Chapter 138: Deus Vult

Perhaps the most illustrative example of the difference between the orthodox nature of Christianity and the orthoprax nature of Judaism and Islam is the examination of their respective statements of faith, which structure their relationship with the divine.

In Judaism, the statement of faith is known as the *Shema*; found in the text of the Torah, it reads simply as, “Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.” “Hear O Israel, The Lord is our God, The Lord is One.” In this simple passage, the nature of the Hebrew god is defined as being the Lord of the people of Israel, and a singular entity. While there is more to the text of the prayer in liturgical use, this single phrase is the structural core of the Jewish statement of faith in their god, their relationship to that deity, and that deity’s singular oneness. The rest of Jewish law concerns fulfilling the commandments of their Lord. No further professions of faith are strictly necessary beyond this, so long as the deeds and actions of the individual Jew stay on the path dictated by their deity.

In Islam, the statement of faith is known as the *Shahada*; found in the text of the Koran in various combinations, it also reads simply, “Ašhadu ʾan lā ʾilāha ʾilla -llāhu, wa-ʾašhadu ʾanna muḥammadan rasūlu -llāh.” “There is no deity but God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.” In this simple passage, again, the nature of the Islamic god is defined as monotheistic, and being specifically the deity on whose behalf Mohammad acted as prophet. And while the formulation of the statement is not found precisely as-is in the text of the Koran, it is directly derived from it, and anchors the religious structure of the Islamic faith—they worship one singular god as Mohammad instructed them to, with the instructions being found in the text. Again, as another orthoprax religion, the instruction of faith is singular and focuses on singular points, with the rest of religious observance being defined by actions.

In contrast, Christianity, as an orthodox religion, has two statements of faith, the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed, both of which are lengthy, detailing the full beliefs of what it means to be Christian with twelve distinct articles of faith, in the Nicene Creed reading:

“I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.”

In this text, the full orthodoxic nature of Christianity comes through, detailing the specificity of belief that makes one a Christian. Further, this statement does not come from the Christian holy texts, but was instead compiled centuries later at various religious councils, as the early Christian faith struggled to define itself solely through belief; even later, as the Apostles’ Creed came into general use, due to its shorter nature, significant portions of the statement of faith require inclusion…

—Divine Light Through The Gem Of Man: Studying The Many Facets Of The Holy, Waterford University Press, 1692

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### Chapter 139: Legacy

The **First Shieldbearers of Berk and the Lands of the North Sea Empire, and Members of the Imperial Body Guard of High Thanes**, popularly known as the **Shieldbearers** , is the unit of the North Sea Imperial Armed Forces charged with protecting the persons of the Imperial House. The oldest Imperial military corps still in existence, it was formally created by order of King Stoick I of Berk in response to the Caen Massacre…

—First Shieldbearers (n.d.) In Wikikenna. Retrieved August 10, 1876

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### Chapter 140: Love Not The Bright Sword For Its Sharpness

Thor likewise changed between the East Norse and the Eirish Sea Norse, although his divergence was more of a change of emphasis. Across the various Norse and other Old Germanic-derived religions, of which Norse is the only survivor, Thor and his various incarnations—Thuner in Old Frisian, Thunar in Old Saxon, and Donar in Old High German—was consistently a lightning and thunder deity associated with storms, sacred groves, strength, hallowing, fertility, and the protection of mankind from elemental forces. He ensured that crops sprouted and were protected from the ravages of nature, and defended farmers and thralls, acting as the defender of mankind’s hard-fought order from elemental chaos. While the precise canon of the stories differed, often significantly, the god’s portfolio and general aspects were generally agreed upon across time and space, but this did not mean that the *importance* of the different roles were all ranked identically.

For the Eirish Sea Norse, Thor’s focus on fertility and hallowing were lessened, with some of the responsibility for these being given over to his wife Sif, and his role as protector and defender of mankind, especially those in bondage, grew more emphasized…

—The Second Flowering Of Yggdrasil: An Analysis Of The Norse Resurgence, 1710

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### Chapter 141: Nor The Arrow For Its Swiftness

“Captain, according to the wireless range finder, there is no one else in a position to stop them aside from us.”

**\*recording indicates seven seconds of silence aside from normal bridge noises\***

“Then it’s up to us.”

“But we’re just—”

“In the right place at the right time, XO Jorgenson.”

**\*PA System Announcement Whistle\***

“This is the captain speaking. Battle stations. This is not a drill. Battle stations. I repeat, all hands to battle stations. Prepare for combat. We are about to engage the enemy fleet. Repeat, this is not a drill.”

**\*battle stations klaxon is heard in background\***

“Comms, Priority message to High Command. Message reads: Zeta. Zeta. Zeta. Enemy airships, numbering eighteen, on approach from North by Northeast over the Baltic, altitude three kilometers, four hundred kilometers south of Stockholm, two hundred kilometers east of Copenhagen. The *Kvasir* is the only ship currently in range. Optical examination reveals they are carrying city-buster ordnance. They are heading on a course for Copenhagen, Lubeck, or Hamburg. We will buy what time we can. Requesting immediate reinforcements. Zeta. Zeta. Zeta. End message.”

“Signal sent, Captain Haddock.”

“Thank you, Mr. Irving. Helm, get us up above the cloud deck. Drop all ballast and prepare for maximum altitude. All non-essential personnel are to be evacuated. Include a copy of the bridge record in their pods.”

“Aye, Ma’am.”

“Wings, prepare to deploy our dragons. We’re going to need screening elements and spotters.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Comms, instruct Engineer Mac Phearson to take the safety governors off the focusing array and deploy all of the remaining elements of the distributed array. And prepare their focal elements for long-range collimation. He’ll know what I mean.”

“Aye aye, Ma’am.”

**\*recording indicates thirty more seconds of bridge conversations as orders are followed\***

“What are you thinking, Ma’am?”

“I’m thinking that our little airship is the only thing standing between those bombs and cities of several million people, XO.”

“That’s true. But when I said the other day that I was hoping to live up to my family name, this *wasn’t* what I had in mind.”

“Nor me, but while we can make our choices, we don’t get to pick what decisions we’re faced with, do we?”

“No. We don’t. Ma’am, are you planning on going out there personally?”

**\*nine more seconds of background conversations\***

“I suppose that I should. Send word to have Inquisitive saddled, would you?”

“Aye, Ma’am. See you on the other side.”

“On the ground or in Valhalla, Snitlout. It has been an honor working with you.”

—Bridge Records of Imperial Science Ship *Kvasir*, Captain Dame Astrid Haddock VII commanding, prior to attempted sneak attack on Imperial territory.

All essential hands and wings of the Kvasir were lost, but brought down sixteen times their tonnage in enemy airships and delayed the enemy forces from their objectives by twelve hours, allowing for the massing of a defensive force and the activation of air defenses in targeted cities. Captain Haddock and Inquisitive (NF-00005871b) did significant damage to the enemy propulsion systems and gas envelopes after the Kvasir was downed, and they, and their entire crew, were granted honors—the majority of them posthumous—for their actions.

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### Chapter 142: Nor The Warrior For His Glory

 ***Result:*** | Strategic Hooligan Success
Duchy of Normandy
Duke William House Haddock
2,500 dragons (50 engaged in combat)
219 men
34 dragons

The First Battle of the Seine River was fought in August AD 1043 by the combined forces of the Hooligan Tribe of Berk and William Haddock, Duke of Normandy, against the forces of several rebel Norman barons, led by Sir Henry of Brittany, son of Regent Godefroy of Brittany, in their efforts to seat Gui de Brionne, the son of Reginald I, Count of Brionne, on the ducal throne of Normandy.

The battle—technically a series of holding actions along the length of the Seine River at various bridges near Rouen—was a strategic victory for the Hooligans, despite the loss of the Hooligan Marshal, Spitelout Jorgenson I, and a number of other men and dragons to the attacking Francian forces. The holding actions allowed for the strategic goal of complete evacuation of the various Jewish communities from North Francia to the Alban Isles…

…often referred to as the opening battle of the Norse Reformation, the battle was instrumental in a Norse cultural shift of its warrior ideal from aggressors to protectors…

—First Battle of the Seine River (n.d.), Wikikenna, retrieved August 22, 1871

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### Chapter 143: Love Only That Which They Defend

Furthermore, it bears repeating that when choosing to have a battle, one should choose a place and time in which one’s own advantages are maximized, and the opponent’s are rendered as reduced as possible. While this might seem obvious, I have seen far too many generals and other commanders of high rank who feel that having a “fair” and “honorable” fight for glory is of more importance than achieving their objectives or safeguarding the lives of the soldiers who follow them. So, for all of the glory that appears to come with two armies lined up on a field, ready to hack and chop each other to pieces and let the side who died the least say that they won the day, I believe that it is *more* honorable to have the other army be soundly defeated by overwhelming force if they cannot be brought to parley and negotiation. For sure, the young hotheads who feel otherwise will throw themselves into conflicts and waste their lives, but those who reserve fighting for when it will do the most good will have far fewer dead friends and allies to mourn.

And for those times when a battle is inevitable, then a wise general will do everything they can to arrange things in their favor. Allies. Supplies. Their morale and that of their enemies. Differences in culture. Surprise. Reputations. The weather. The land itself. All are ultimately tools in the hands of those who would wage war with their final goals in mind. And the more of these that the wise general can bring to bear, the more weight they remove from the arms of their own soldiers when it comes time for the clash itself.

To those that say that this is the cowardly route, all I can say is this: Which is more glorious? An army marching to its doom, shedding bodies and blood like leaves from a tree in autumn, beautiful and transient and weakened after the fight with rain and cold? Or a force that loses as few men as possible, and comes home with stories about how their foes fell like wheat before the scythe, and achieved *victory*?

—The Wing And The Ax, Queen Marshal Astrid Haddock I, undated draft, Waterford University Archives

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### Chapter 144: The Fair Fame Never Dies Of Him Who Has Earned It

The Second Battle of the Seine River was then-Princess-Marshal Astrid Haddock I’s debut battle in the military sphere as a formal commander. This battle—insofar as it was a battle and not just a rout—left as much of an impact on the political and military spheres as it did on the landscape, where her artificial river-flood changed the course of the Seine River, closing one meander downstream of Rouen and creating a new oxbow lake. In the military and political calculus, it took some time for the full scale of her impact to penetrate. News was comparatively slow to get out, hampered by the fact that the Hooligans had their hands full with other considerations and problems, and was liberally mixed with rumor and hearsay, along with outright libel. But as the details spread in conjunction with her subsequent actions, the sheer lethality and pragmatism of the Princess-Marshal’s tactics combined with the reputation of Berk as a whole and her husband in particular. This was, after all, the first wife of the Hero, and she had clearly not gotten her position on nepotism. Her wife, Princess-Herald Wulfhild, made pointed use of her spouses’ reputations in her negotiations…

—Dragons of the North: Profiles Of The Viking Lords, Waterford University Press, 1733

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### Chapter 145: Power Plays

The roots of the present lie in the seeds of the past. The seduction of painting the times of our ancestors as blessed, as ideal, as better, is ever-present. But the drumbeat of progress marches forward, not back! For all of the relative advantages that our ancestors had over their neighbors, it is important to remember that such advantage was relative! Old Berk, for all of its mythologized acceptance and welcomeness, was still an unequal authoritarian society! Let us not forget that there was obligated combat service and disdain for anyone that could not martially contribute, incredible centralization of power and control of resources in the hands of a small minority in the form of the chief and clanheads, whose word could be literal life or death at a whim, a communal outlook that prioritized the rights of the group over those of the individual, and active pressure on outsiders to assimilate and conform with the majority!

Oh yes, they accepted the individual deviations from the norm in gender, religion or sexuality… but only so long as those people were able to materially contribute to the survival of the tribe! This was hardly a society of perfect egalitarians, as many try to now paint it. Yes, they gave nominal equality and freedom to thralls who would otherwise have no investment into their society, but it was strictly nominal acceptance, and based entirely on pragmatic reasoning, as they could not afford to waste capable bodies! But the freedmen were still a lower class, denied most access to the structures of power! For all of the egalitarian trappings, Berk was still held in the grip of a scant few, who could demand the very lives of everyone else at their whim! Yes, a ‘Chief Takes Care Of His Own,’ because doing otherwise would be wasting his soldiers!

And all of that was before the ending of the Dragon War—and within three years of that, the very same people who are now mythologized as ‘accepting and welcoming’ repeatedly moved to keep power in their own hands! The structure of this very body dates back to those early power grabs! The Conclave of Houses and the Chamber of Commons are unequal bodies whose inequity can be traced back to the greed of those who are unjustly venerated—

—Lord Hardnut House Thorston IV, From Speech delivered to the Conclave of Houses of the Grand Thing, before being removed from the chamber; his remarks sparked a vocal protest and a brief fracas among the assembly, during which the Speaker attempted to call for order, and there was a motion to have his words stricken from the minutes of the Grand Thing’s records

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### Chapter 146: Invocations Of Faith And Power

…in contrast to the mandated inclusiveness of universal religions and imperial cults, mystery cults form a midpoint on the religious spectrum; not as exclusive as the closed and semi-closed practices of many ethnic religions, but not as far-reaching as the others. Instead, the faith of a mystery cult is reserved for initiates, who are members that have been formally brought into the cult’s secrets and knowledge.

The basic structure of a mystery cult is that of at least one level of formal initiation, where the new members are taught the signs, sigils and doctrine of their cult by the existing initiates, and are able to participate in the cult’s observances and practices as appropriate to that cult. In most cases, there were multiple levels of initiation, with deeper and deeper secrets and rites available to the highly initiated; this is where the term ‘mystery’ comes from in regards to these organizations, as the cult’s practices were shrouded in multiple levels of secrecy—first from outsiders by all of the initiates, and then from outer initiates by the inner members.

Once the general rule for most European religions, especially those of the Greco-Roman cultural sphere, in modern times most mystery cults have been rendered extinct through breaking the chain of transmission. Essentially, targeting the existing initiates, or keeping new members from joining are effective ways to destroy a mystery cult, as was done by the early Christians against the Greco-Roman pagan cults, which were wiped out in a period of just a few centuries. So while in modern times we still have much of the accumulated mythos of the Greek gods, as preserved through folk transmission in the Greek peoples and historical writings, the *practices* of worship, as performed by the cults that served the individual gods, are effectively lost with their practitioners.

The cult of Mithras during the Roman Empire, for example, was known to have seven levels of initiation, and featured communal ritual meals in underground temples, but the particulars of what was done in those temples, how, when, and to what ends, are all lost. Hundreds of the underground temples have been found, but unless the stones can be brought to speak about what they witnessed, the mysteries of the rites of Mithras are now forever a mystery.

—Divine Light Through The Gem Of Man: Studying The Many Facets Of The Holy, Waterford University Press, 1692

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### Chapter 147: Death In The Mourning

Reformed Norse mourning practices also show influence from Jewish practices, with several periods of delineated grieving attached to specific requirements. While there are significant differences between the two, both begin with the formal funeral and interment of the body, have a short period of intensive grieving for the lost (seven days for Judaism, nine days for the Norse) by first degree relations such as spouse, parent and children, followed by a period lasting to a full month after the funeral where the mourners slowly emerge from their grieving, and then eleven months of official but low level mourning practices.

For the Norse, at the end of the first month of official mourning, the mourners can resume official duties and responsibilities, including elections…

—The Second Flowering Of Yggdrasil: An Analysis Of The Norse Resurgence, 1710

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### Chapter 148: Assumptions Of Power

It should be noted that the process of forming a national identity is a significant one in itself. Citizenship is only part of the answer, as most people will still identify with their immediate regional, ethnic, or religious group, allowing for social fault lines to form. Generally speaking, a central “pole” is needed to act as a unifying force of identification in any large-scale nation-state. This can be a national epic, a written constitution, a venerated royal dynasty, an ideology, a larger ethnicity, or a religious institution, but to help weld together more multitudinous groups, some unifying symbol of identification is needed to be able to create the social institutions that allow for members of the nation to identify as members of the *nation*, as opposed to seeing themselves as part of the nation only through their identity as members of a social group which is a constituent part of that nation.

This might seem like splitting semantics, but it is an important distinction. If a feudal count declares war on his neighboring count in the hope of taking some of the man’s territory, despite them being part of the same kingdom, which perspective is more useful for halting hostilities? That their levies owe them fealty and thus must follow their orders? Or that their levies are being ordered to attack and kill their fellow subjects of the kingdom? The latter is clearly the more effective means by which to bond the two disparate groups together under a single unifying identity, even though there is no structural legal difference between the two.

Of course, there is always the option of coercive power by a central government to forcibly keep the peace between disparate groups, but this is rarely a long-term solution…

—Nationbuilding: How People Move, Talk, Think, Organize, & Structure Themselves, 1888, Amsterdam University Press

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### Chapter 149: The Strength Of Unity

While there was no shortage of voices in the aftermath of the founding of the Grand Thing complaining that the Citizenship Conclave had gone too far, or not far enough, it should be noted that the majority of the population it governed found the structure it offered acceptable. Certainly there were firebrands and reactionaries, radical egalitarians and staunch authoritarians, all of whom had their issues with the new social structure. But while accounts of these are easy to find in the historical record, a counterpoint must also be raised before it is taken as given that these viewpoints were normative. And it is quite simply the fact that they were not. The majority of the populace of the Kingdom of Berk, and later the North Sea Empire, that was governed and regulated by the Conclave’s output had no substantive issue with it. Standards of living were rising for all classes, and while some reactionary authoritarians grumbled at giving *any* voice to the general masses, they found amassing any general following beyond a few likeminded individuals difficult.

Of course, these factors are difficult to separate out from the events that immediately followed the Conclave, but a general look at the data collected by the royal government paints a clear picture of *most* of the populace accepting the compromise as a generally beneficial decision for everyone involved, even if they themselves had their individual sticking points.

The typical counterargument to this is that the populace was cowed by the military force available to Berk in the form of dragon-riders. However, this is not supported by the data, as there are records of protests, strikes, lawsuits, and other such actions which show that the general populace had faith in the rule of law…

—Origins Of The Grand Thing, Edinburgh Press, 1631

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### Chapter 150: Inflection Point

In most historical analyses, the Old Kingdom of Francia lasted from 843 AD, with the Treaty of Verdun which divided the Carolingian Empire into Western, Middle and Eastern Francia, to 1053 AD, with the final partitioning and annexations of Francia’s former territory into its successor states. While Francia had been politically unstable for decades, with a weak kingship and strong feudal lords competing and fighting one another over their personal fiefdoms, it was still a single polity.

This ended in 1043 AD, with the actions of King Henry of the Capet dynasty, and the subsequent reactions by his feudal vassals, with the duchies of Normandy and Brittany joining the Kingdom of Berk, and the Duchy of Aquitania and the County of Tolosa declaring full independence and allying with the northern Castilian kingdoms. The remainder of the kingdom limped on until being annexed by the Holy Roman Empire a decade later…

—A History of Old Francia, 1432, Oxford Press

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### Chapter 151: Determination

Our faith is one of conflict. We are a religion of war. We view existence itself as conflict, that of order versus not just chaos, but nihilism itself. We view our lives as bubbles of structure clawed out of a meaningless, pointless reality, hewn together with law and order that will collapse should we act unquestioningly in accordance with our chaotic natures. For we know what happens if we succumb to those base urges and unquestioning reactions: Ragnarök, where all we have striven for, all we have built, will collapse and be purged under the onslaught of disorder. That, ultimately, nothing we have done has lasting meaning, that our legacies will amount to naught.

So we fight against that end. We stop the unstoppable. We question ourselves and our actions, to see their endings. The All-Father *saw*, but he never reflected on what he saw. He merely reacted, and in that reaction, set forth the sequence of his own destruction. But the lesson we take from this is that it is possible to step back from the precipice and interrupt the chain of events, by *choosing* a different path.

The followers of the Æsir are at war. But while the Jötnar are all around us, they are not the enemy, even as they are the agents of our potential destruction. No, the enemy is within ourselves. For, unlike the Jötnar, we of Midgard have *choice*. We can use that choice for good or ill, but to abandon it in favor of unthinking reaction reduces us to little more than an animal or Jotunn, a predictable force in the tapestry whose thread is controlled.

The Weavers care not for the threads. When the Tapestry is complete, they will begin anew. But for us and for those we follow, every inch woven is another victory, every day that we stave off the final knot a battle won.

This is our existence. It is not for everyone. Other faiths view things differently. That is their choice. Their threads still weave through reality, even if they care not to acknowledge it, or view it in different ways—as the Christians view themselves in the service of a Father-God of Order in a conflict against a corruptive god of destruction, or as the Jews view themselves as being in an agreement with a God of Wisdom, helping build upon an imperfect creation. That is their choice, to view things in such a way. But as for us, we will safeguard our own choices, and theirs, knowing that it could all fall to naught. This is our struggle, our burden, our exultation.

Who is with me!?

—Fyrir Hiccup House Haddock VI, Collected Public Sermons & Private Contemplations

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### Chapter 152: The Shepherd And The Flock

Folklore continued to evolve in the North Sea Empire, despite the claims of certain prescriptivist academics to the contrary. While certainly there were heroic tales of the exploits of the leading families and individuals of the Empire, there were other, more wide-ranging developments beyond these individual works. One of the most infamous examples is how, within the space of a generation, an entire new class of minor malevolent entity had entered the stories and traditions of many of the ethnic and cultural groups in the Empire—that of the *kroaziad*, taken from the Brezhoneg word for crusader. By the 1070s, instances of this genre of folklore and folktales were commonly recorded, and it is possible to track the development and spread of this particular class over the prior and subsequent decades.

While the particulars differ between different ethnic and social groups, the general commonalities of the kroaziad are that they are disembodied malicious spirits sourced from the souls of Christian Crusaders slain in their attacks on Imperial communities; that their abilities , in their weakened state, mostly amount to causing minor problems and inconveniences for the household thus afflicted; and that their agreed-upon leader is the knight Sir Henry of Brittany. Other details vary between different groups. On the topic of removal, for example, the Breizhad hold that the best way to be rid of them is to shake a pouch filled with dragon-scales, while the Jews state that they cannot stand running water, and the Danes believe that a hearth-fire will repel them. The reasons for the spirits staying in this world and not moving onto the afterlife are likewise varied; among the Breizhad, the local psychopomp, Ankou, is believed to refuse to allow them to sully their cart, while the Jews state that the spirits themselves are responsible for their circumstance through a rejection of accepting responsibility for their crimes, and the Swedes state that neither Odin, Freyja, Rán, nor Hel allowed them into their realms, citing ‘standards’.

—Ten Thousand Living Tales: The Oral Traditions, Cordova Academic Press Ltd., 1545

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### Chapter 153: The Wolf At The Door

Much debate rages over the advantages and disadvantages regarding different types of ranged weaponry in use by dragon-mounted archers. Generally speaking, there are three types in common use—full crossbows, classic composite horse-bows, and hybrid mechanical bows, each of which has its own proponents and detractors.

Full crossbows have the greatest potential strength and are the easiest to use, with a simple trigger that looses the bolt, and can be pre-loaded and held at the ready without strain, but they take an extremely long time to reload. Furthermore, they are complex to make, with gears, levers, and, in the cases of the most powerful ones, a significant amount of quality steel for the lath and the string, adding significantly to the cost. In the context of dragonback combat, a skilled crossbow wielder could potentially break contact with the enemy and reload before coming in for another pass, but this is not universally possible. In essence, a flight of crossbow-using dragon-archers will deliver a single powerful punch, upon which they will need to either break contact or gain cover from other units while reloading.

Composite horse-bows require considerable training to use on dragonback, but are the quickest to nock and loose by an experienced archer, and are the cheapest and simplest to construct, being made of laminated wood, horn, and sinew, although there is a lead time required for drying in the manufacturing process. In the context of dragonback combat, a skilled horse-bow archer can potentially loose multiple arrows at their adversaries in a matter of moments, even in the high-speed conditions of a head-to-head pass. However, the training required for effective horse-bow use is unquestionably much higher than that of a crossbow, and the horse-bow is much more tiring to keep ready than a crossbow, and also more vulnerable to being burned by dragonfire.

Hybrid mechanical bows use metal arms, much like crossbows, but use a series of cams and pulleys to draw back the arms, rendering the mechanical bow similar to a traditional bow in use, even though it is much more complicated. Proper design allows the bow to even “rest” after it has been drawn back, lessening the strain on the archer’s body until the arrow is loosed. However, again, they require considerable material and expertise to craft, and the complexities of the design, while not as high as that of a crossbow, still renders them vulnerable to some of the same drawbacks; a slipped cam can result in the bow being unusable until repaired. That being said, they are frequently seen as an effective middle-ground between the two other options.

—The Wing And The Ax, Queen Marshal Astrid Haddock I, undated draft, Waterford University Archives

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### Chapter 154: Generational

In the Norse religion, **Forseti** is the god of justice, mediation, and reconciliation; the son of Baldur and Nanna, he dispenses justice and rulings from **Glitnir**, his father’s hall, which is roofed with silver and has columns of gold, and is noted to be visible for some distance with radiant light. Prior to the Norse Reformation, Forseti was a minor deity, attested to in only a few extant sources and works, mostly focused on his position as his father’s son. In the canon of the Reformed Norse, he has an expanded role and position, with an entire saga detailing his efforts...

—From Aesir To Yggdrasil: A Norse Primer

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