Fic Update Thread: I can't drive 55

[Mamorien]

A Thing of Vikings (HTTYD/11th century history) Chapter 163: Consequences.

One of the core points of theology in the Reformed Norse is to be aware of the possible consequences of your actions. While this might seem fairly basic as a theological concept—aren’t we all aware that our actions have consequences?—the Norse take the concept further than most do. For most, the idea of consequences is simple—if you punch someone, they might punch back. But the Norse, as part of their theology, attempt to model and conceptualize how other people might react to their actions, both in the positive and in the negative, going off of the basic postulates of human behavior, including that everyone needs enough to survive and will act in accordance with that need first and foremost, so it is worthwhile to incentivize people into doing what they want to do, rather than simply assume they will cope or comply against their own interests.

Another related concept that the Norse explore is that of a twisted or perverse incentive, where people will attempt to manipulate the system to their benefit. The classic example cited by this in Norse texts is that of the ‘Jewish Ransoms’ of the first centuries after the Norse Reformation. As a fairly self-contained example, it is used in Norse instruction on a routine basis, and goes as follows.

In the immediate aftermath of the Jewish evacuations from Northern Francia, the newly rescued Jews, who were grateful to their rescuers and wished for other members of their far-flung community to reach safe harbor in the Kingdom of Berk, started a communal fund for Jewish immigration to the Kingdom. This fund was intended to help with the various expenses and costs associated with immigration, including transportation fees, legal costs, and so forth.

However, as the analysis in Norse concepts goes, the founders of this fund forgot one important detail. Quite simply, for all of the ill-treatment and discrimination that the Jews of Europa and elsewhere faced, which gave them significant incentive to pack up and move, for the places in which those Jews lived, the Jews still provided essential economic services to their host nations. While these were services which they were not compensated for, they still provided services in the form of moneylending, usury, tax collection, and other financial instruments, all of which were necessary for any economy that functioned above a barter system. Remove the Jews from a given kingdom, especially if their wealth left with them, and the local economies might well collapse, or at the very least undergo a recession.

So it did not take long at all before those kingdoms began to clamp down on freedom of movement for their Jewish populaces, with strict and limited supplies of exit visas, many of which had exorbitant costs associated with acquiring said visas. In essence, the effort to help these Jewish communities move to the North Sea Empire resulted in those communities being farmed for what amounted to ransoms in all but name, simply due to the incentives offered to the kingdoms who held them. And it is factors like these which the Reformed Norse point to as key to awareness of possible consequences.

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

###

The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.

“So if they’ve started there, and have reached all the way to the Song by now…” Astrid made the mattress flutter again with another shrug. “They’re conquering, and conquering widely, and sooner or later, we’ll have to stand up to them. Either with friends and allies… or alone.”

###

Durgulel gave a sweeping—and mocking—bow towards Drago. “My dear Captor, please, let me introduce you to Brother Tomaso of the Order of Saint Benedict. He’s a bit far from home, but leapt at the chance to come and minister to the needs of my soul when asked.”

###

Fishlegs blinked. “How’d you find that out? I was literally about to surprise Munia with the news,” he said.

“You told Fishwings and Fishwings told me in London on her way south with your letter to him,” Ruffnut said with a shrug.

He cocked an eye. “Yesss… but then why did you fly from London to here just to ask me?”

Ruffnut suddenly seemed to shift in posture in a way that was oddly familiar, but it took him a moment to recognize why—it was the same posture she and Tuffnut had adopted when they’d been caught in some prank.

But why…?

###

Kurya glanced at the pile of leather on his workbench. The Song gave him a fairly decent supply; nothing extravagant, but enough to work with for making belts and the like. None of it was extremely hardened leather, and he especially didn’t have the wood he’d need to make a proper tree for anything resembling an actual saddle.

But if Kudret was willing to try the equivalent of wrapping him in leather straps to hold his spines down…

###

(Stoick) took a deep breath and thought for a moment. Yes. Yes this was a good time. Gently. Carefully. But it needed to be done. “In fact… while we are on the subject of oaths, I would ask both of you to make one to me to not speak of what follows.”

“What… for?” Hiccup asked cautiously.

“Just for the next few months. Not forever. But… things have changed.” A slight giggle entered his voice. “Oh, have they changed.”

###

Glancing at Father Salucci, who was seated in a comfortable chair, a goblet of wine in his hand, Viggo considered for a moment just what would happen if he were to try instituting the laws that Salucci had just suggested. First, obviously, it would involve tearing down or at least cutting down to height a number of the mosques in the city. The five-times-daily Adhan would need to be muted or silenced. And…

If he got that far before the surrounding Islamic taifas all shook hands and agreed to deal with him for his sacrilege against their beliefs, he might live long enough to deal with an angry mob of his own Moorish subjects.

“I don’t have any especial love for the Moors or their faith,” he said quietly to the Father. “But your belief on the strength of my hold on these lands is very much not in line with the reality.”

“Humph,” the Father said, and took a drink from his goblet.

###

“Well, if they’re engaged in banditry, that makes them acceptable criminals, unless someone wants to claim them as their men… which is a dangerous move,” his cousin pointed out. “Because that would give you legal grounds to revoke their titles.”

“Indeed. I guess that’s worth pursuing then. But I do want the roads as safe as possible,” William said.

“I don’t quite understand why, though. It’s not as if you’ll need them for troop movements, and you’re backed by Berk. It’s not as if dragons need roads to get around.”

William sighed. He didn’t know how to get across to his older cousin exactly what he’d learned from Stoick and Hiccup. On the value of having a happy and prosperous populace. On the importance of them being able to move around safely, without worry of bandits and other such dangers. “It won’t do anything positive for our tax revenues if half of the goods being moved around the duchy get looted or burned on the way,” he said instead, getting a nod and a grunt of understanding from his cousin. Which was good enough.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089.../149826025