Quote: 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.

Quote:Despite knowing full well that Mei wasn’t going to (deliberately) blow up the world again, Izuku couldn’t help but feel nervous as he waited with the rest of Class 1A to stride out onto the field for his second First Year UA Sports Festival.

The fact that such a sentence even made sense gave him a headache if he thought about it too long.

In an entry retrieved February 17, 1862, Wikikenna editors Wrote: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…

BHS Wrote:Homura versus Sayaka.

DeshLune, editor at small, Wrote:What?! Another chapter done? So soon? My word, Desh, just what do you think you're doing? Ah well, more to come, more to go. So! I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, it was a pleasure to work on. Loads of fun. Loads of fun. One day, I'll even figure out how to write one of these properly.

Blake Skies Wrote:Petrons gets new orders, and much to his shock can't take the entire fleet with him. This is gonna be interesting.