#I love how my top post for this year is my magnum opus on Viking Dragons

[a-krogan-skald-and-bearsark]

I posted 3,141 times in 2022

That's 707 more posts than 2021!

55 posts created (2%)

3,086 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@rabbitindisguise

@a-boros-named-seamus

@ussmysterymachine

@vaspider

@asexual-thot

I tagged 139 of my posts in 2022

#goncharov - 21 posts

#unreality - 21 posts

#mechwarrior - 10 posts

#mechwarrior 5 - 8 posts

#battletech - 8 posts

#twitch - 6 posts

#youtube - 5 posts

#yes the hell jehan's whales - 3 posts

#skyrim - 3 posts

#worldbuilding - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 125 characters

#the look on the blue suns face when the way they find out they didnt get archangel is him offing papparazzi on the citadel...

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I would be Conan Doyle's favourite sort of fan. "Sherlock who? Now about Professor Challenger..."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle jumps off the Q&A stage, runs down the aisle, and kisses me full on the mouth.

16 notes - Posted November 26, 2022

#4

What pronouns does the Faerie Knight use?

Sidhe/They

18 notes - Posted February 2, 2022

#3

Please friend, tell your tale. What earned you your position as The Guy?

So I went from being home schooled directly to university and joined a historical reenactment group in my second semester. It quickly became roughly ninety percent of my identity. I routinely wore my non-combat kit everywhere. Tunic, trews, and most importantly a giant fuck-off cloak.

I, of course, did not realize I was The Guy until an acquaintance of mine came into the pub I was drinking in and excited bought me a pint because one of his friends had mentioned seeing "The guy in the cloak" in town, and my buddy was able to go "I know that guy! I'm friends with him!"

I also, one semester, regularly showed up to lectures in armour (In my defence. The lecture ended when the training session started. And it's easier to wear maille than carry it)

32 notes - Posted April 5, 2022

#2

Something tells me that either the U.S. Army has never watched M*A*S*H, or has COMPLETELY MISSED THE POINT.

And either of those seem to me to be equally likely.

36 notes - Posted February 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

So because I have had a hyperfixation on Scandinavian history 700AD to 1300AD for about a decade and a half now, consistent like. And have been coming back to the Temeraire books all regular like for about the same span. I have decided to share some headcanons/AU worldbuilding for the role of Dragons in Norse society.

So. The generally accepted theory is that dragon-handling was introduced to the Proto-Norse by the Romans. Because the setting is similar enough to the real world that we aren't getting rid of that 'radiation of civilization' bullshit. Especially not before the Napoleonic War.

However. My headcanon is that it happened slightly differently, and I have come up with some ways to have evidence that both supports my headcanons but is obscure enough for the “The Romans did it” theory to be the dominant one at least as far as the novels.

Specifically having the Romans theory contradicted by several manuscripts of Snorri's "Heimskringla", and an Icelandic manuscript of uncertain provenance (But probably also fucking Snorri because everything is) entitled "Sigurds Saga Fafnirsbani" which would be an alternative text of the Volsungasaga or Nibelungenlied. The texts would diverge in the sequence immediately following the death of Fafnir.

In the germanic texts, Regin the smith instructs Sigurd to cook Fafnirs heart but not to eat it. Depending on the version Sigurd either burns his fingers on the heart and sticks them in his mouth, gaining the wisdom Regin intended to obtain by eating the heart and coincidentally realising the smith plans on betraying him. Or is warned of the impending treachery by a grey-cloaked old man who happens to be wandering nearby and may or may only have the one eye. (This is how the story goes IRL)

In the Icelandic text (invented for this AU by yours truly), amongst the treasures of Fafnir is a large egg, and Regin instructs Sigurd to wake him if the egg shows signs of hatching  as neither of them them have the skill to destroy the egg before it hatches and only Regin has the lore to slay the hatchling, as he had the lore to instruct Sigurd as to how to slay Fafnir 

Regin then goes to sleep, at which point our nameless old hobo ambles past, stops, and goes "You ken your friend is lying through his teeth, aye?" before explaining the Regin intends to bind the hatchling to his will, before murdering Sigurd and conquering the north with a tame Dragon. But. Says the creepy old man, who appears to know things he really shouldn't. If you let Regin sleep, and when the egg hatches, you feed the hatchling and give it a name, it will be willing to bind it's fate to yours. Anyway. Food for thought. Says the old man. And then wanders off.

Long story short, Sigurd ends up with a harnessed dragon (Scandinavia’s first), Regin ends up with several feet of steel through his spine, and the sagas converge again, because having a dragon doesn't do you a lot of good if you don't have the sense god gave little green apples, but do have the insight check of a golden retriever puppy. (For those who aren’t familiar with the saga, Sigurd gets engaged, then drugged and forced to marry someone else, and while under the influence of said drugs is also forced into tricking his ex-fiancee into marrying his brother-in-law instead of him. It starts a blood feud that lasts about three generations and only ends when everyone related to anyone involved is dead. But that isn’t important here.)

Sigurd’s “success“ starts a trend of Norse magnates harnessing dragons, and a linking of the Udal (land) Rights with the support of Dragons. Specifically, amongst a Landowner's Udal rights, they include the right to dictate who on their land was permitted to support a dragon. (Also, a bunch of responsibilities regarding any harnessed dragons supported under their Udal rights)

Now because the Udal Rights (And the titles and land that go with them) are so closely tied to dragons, the Udal Right is entailed on the Magnate's Dragon, and on the Magnate's death, passes to the heir selected by the Dragon as partner. The fact that dragons basically control the inheritance of noble titles makes the relationship between the Norse and their dragons more of a partnership than you find elsewhere in Europe.

However this leads directly to the start of the Viking period as there are only so many Udal Rights available. So you end up with Dragon-riders who have no landrights of their own, and thus have to do something to make it palatable for someone who does have Udal Rights to permit them to support themselves off said magnates land. Obviously the solution is to provide expensive gifts while simultaneously requiring as little support as necessary. And oh, look. England isn't far. And it's rich. And it doesn't have many dragons, and those they do have are smaller and less invested.

My. That's a lovely monastery you have there, Lindisfarne. Be a shame if someone were to happen to it.

But everything changes when the fire nation Ragnar Lodbrok attacks shows up.

As in Ragnars Saga Lodbrokkar, Ragnar marries a princess who is descended from Sigurd Fafnirsbani

Unlike real world Ragnars Saga he does not kill the Dragon guarding her. As it happens to be Sigurds Dragon. Instead he convinces it to become his companion.

He makes the argument that as said Dragon was a key part of instituting the draconic elements of Udal Rights, and Udal Rights are conferred by the Dragon they are entailed upon, he has Udal Rights to all of Norway.

This a bullshit claim and not widely accepted, but he is able to sway enough magnates that it is never conclusively struck down, even if he never manages to enforce it.

But it sets a precedent.

Said precedent is latched onto by Harald Shaggy, who does manage to enforce it. With much bloodshed and strife. He then buys himself a comb, and hires a barber, and changes his cognomen to Fairhair. The bastard.

Now we have  a problem. Because we have a nation full of dragons that are used to agency, and aren't too pleased at being forced to yield it to some upstart Christsman who was fostered in DENMARK, of all places.  And one full of magnates who are used to being big fish in a medium pond and don't take too kindly to becoming medium fish in a big pond. But what's a good pagan dragon or ormscarl to do? Fairhair has the backing of a bunch of converts, traitors and sellouts, as well as the Danes and the English, and some of the Swedes, and the Saami, knowing which side of their bread does not have punitive campaigns marching over it, are staying decidedly neutral.

The answer? Fuck off to Iceland and found a new country! A Better Country! With Blackjack! And Hookers! And no centralized authority! And Votes For Dragons (STEP IN TIME!)

Of course, Iceland isn’t known for it’s forests, and eventually their boats start to fall apart, and Haakon the Good and St. Olaf show up with their Christianity and Organized Church and Monarchy, and treaties that they don’t even honour for a year, and everything falls apart.

The decline of the Icelandic Commonwealth actually happens slower. The dragons mean they’re less dependent on boats for fishing and whaling, although trade still suffers. Too, the shift to Christianity being the state religion takes longer, as dragons making impassioned speeches about “The faith of our fathers” and “Isn’t this why we left Norway in the first place” are impossible to ignore, if only because they’re so loud.

But it does happen, and the same trend of slowly tightening the restrictions on the pagan faiths until they are practically impossible to practice occurs. The Icelandic Diocese also does it’s very best to get rid of this pesky “Dragons are people, actually” thing these Icelanders seem to have come up with, a campaign aided by the fact that property in Iceland steadily ends up being held by the church (or church aligned families, me here, glowering at the Sturlissons), so most of the people well-enough off to support a Dragon are closely tied to the diocese.

HOWEVER! Dragons are long-lived, and more than capable of holding grudges, and in some of the more remote parts of Iceland, and some of the offlying islands and Skerries, dwell families that remember the old ways Some of them hold Gothi, or priest-rights, and eventually these end up being passed to their Dragons because it means they’re more likely to keep the traditions correctly. These families and their dragons are effectively a secret society, probably responsible for a pretty hefty chunk of North Atlantic piracy, and can be relied upon to meddle anytime it can inconvenience the Powers That Be.

Anyway, this got away from me a bit, so...

63 notes - Posted April 14, 2022

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