Fic Updates 48

[Norgarth]

A Thing of Vikings
https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089.../103227435

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

EDIT: A reminder that ATOV will be on hiatus for the next 3 weeks.