Update Thread 39: The Newer Beginning

[Mamorien]

I am so very tired of Lannisters.

Yesterday, while we weren't looking, Mal broke through the block and posted a Subprime Directives chapter! Tyrion plays two rounds of conversation with his uncle, interrupted by a game of cyvasse with Jade, in The Art of the Possible.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/119351...s/37368257
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12632190/19...Directives
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/...t-50799505
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/th...t-11347661

[Shepherd]

I really need to start reading Forged Destiny again. I bogged down somewhere in the middle of searching whatever continent it was with the enchanted scrolls. It just wasn't as entertaining as some of the earlier material.

The desert search would have been chapters 81-86. Chapters 87-88 are a kick-ass fight scene with great emotional character development. Chapter 91 ends with some epic cliffhanger dialogue, the best (so far) in the entire story.

[Shepherd]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/179568...7#workskin
It Takes a Village (Or Sometimes an Army). Girl Genius. Complete.

[Norgarth]

Heretical Edge
https://ceruleanscrawling.wordpress.com/...nce-38-08/

[Rajvik]

Started Midtown High PTSD yesterday,halfway through and laughing my ass off

[Norgarth]

Clover Spear: The War of '56 (BT AU)
https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/50857156/

A 12 Step Program to Omnipotence (MCU SI) has finally reached the Chitauri invasion of New York
https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/50857396/

[Mamorien]

May I make it known that I warn you, Star Wars: Bare Squadron continues!

As Kara and Cal arrive at Alliance High Command they get swept up into a rescue mission that may alter the fate of the Rebel Alliance forever...

https://www.deviantart.com/travolore/art...-759604830

PLUS! Hundreds of prize doors! Bios for the two new supporting characters introduced on board Home One:
https://www.deviantart.com/travolore/art...-752412997
https://www.deviantart.com/travolore/art...-762715031

[Norgarth]

Heretical Edge, 2 mini-interludes
https://ceruleanscrawling.wordpress.com/...-and-lies/

https://ceruleanscrawling.wordpress.com/...d-miranda/

[Shepherd]

https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-32792-7/...oses+2.htm
Cross Purposes 2 (Terawatt Multiverse).

[ECSNorway]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7207791/53/...ake-Dreams

From Fake Dreams (FSN): The Trial of Lord El-Melloi II continues.

[batzulger]

New Chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-God Prince (Potter/DCEU) https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-32841-2/...Prince.htm

[SilverFang01]

What Do You Want, Chapter 25 : https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12327719/25...o-You-Want

Akane and Ukyo decide that they want to get married, Akari and Ryoga start to mend fences.

[Norgarth]

Heretical Edge
https://ceruleanscrawling.wordpress.com/...d-company/

EDIT
A Thing of Vikings
https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089...8#workskin
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12639117/61...Of-Vikings

[Mamorien]

Norgarth's A Thing of Vikings update is kind've bare-bones. It needs... well, it doesn't need one of my pithy thummaries, but it's going to get one anyway. What it really needs is the epigraph.

The Byzantine Theme system (singular: thema) originated during the intense warfare facing the Byzantine Empire during the 600s AD.  The theme system was conceived of and designed to meet the logistical and manpower needs of the diminished Roman-Byzantine Army.  While the system evolved dramatically over the ensuing seven centuries until the final collapse of the Empire in the late 1300s AD, the general structure and concept was simple: each thema was (ideally) a singular district under the (equally ideally) unified military and civilian command of the local governing general (Strategos).  In that district, there were specific lands (stratiotika ktemata) that were under direct military rulership; these lands were used to provide for the upkeep of soldiers in the army. 
This created a group of soldier-farmers, the Strateia, who would work the stratiotika ktemata in time of peace, and join the army in times of war, or offer material and logistical support to the army directly (in contrast with the civilian farmers, the georgoi).  The status of Strateia was hereditary, and was intended to maintain the manpower and logistical needs of the Byzantine military in perpetuity.  Overall, the theme system was flexible and easily expanded; newly (re)captured lands could be granted to pensioners from the army, whose sons would then join military service.  There were other benefits as well to being part of the Strateia—exemption from certain taxes, and pay and state-sponsored material support for taking part in military campaigns and aiding in public works. 
The Theme system arguably reached its height under Emperor Basil II in the early 1000s, providing, provisioning, and manning a force of 110,000 men, the largest the Byzantine Army had reached in over five centuries.  It then quickly cratered, as Basil's land taxes and protectionary laws were undone by his immediate successors under pressure from the Dynatoi, the aristocratic magnate class.  Much of the stratiotika ktemata were acquired by the Dynatoi over the ensuing decades for their large-scale farming estates (latifundium), weakening the theme armies and their support.  By the beginning of the Dragon Era in the AD 1040s, the Byzantine Army could only muster 60,000 soldiers, with over 20% of those being foreign mercenaries. 

Viggo Grimborn arrives in Rouen, just behind Hiccup's party. On Jannick's farm, Inga includes herself into the discussion of Harthacnut's offer, and she and Dogsbreath come to a conclusion. In Rouen Cathedral, Adalwin and Brighid Alvin and Delilah learn of Hiccup's arrival, figure out that it's not about them, and make plans to deal with it anyway. In Constantinople, Snotlout Sigurd realizes there are some plans he hasn't made, then learns that other plans have already overtaken them. Heather translates for the Berkians on the road to ruin way into Rouen. In the chief's hut back on Berk, Stoick watches Cami and her family deal with new-bride jitters, and a conversation with Bladewit gives him some jitters of his own. And we close, of course, in Rouen, where Hiccup bonds with William the not-yet-a-Conqueror. Those links again:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089...s/37535828
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12639117/62...Of-Vikings

[Jinx999]

https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/9...f-Learning

Mother of Learning - Fantasy time loops. Now, possibly on the last loop.

[Shepherd]

https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-28404-22...Xendra.htm
Xendra (Buffy/Xena).

[Norgarth]

Heretical Edge
https://ceruleanscrawling.wordpress.com/...8b-larees/

EDIT:
Another (short) installment of Mizuki Stone's 'Origins Rewritten (D&D SI)' (with our Wrymling SI still visiting Dresdenverse Chicago)
https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/51033505/

[Shepherd]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11910907/30...-My-Weight
Pulling My Weight (Naruto).

[Norgarth]

Update to 'Prison of Glass' by McSwazy on SB,
A CYOA Worm SI where not a single chapter has been from the SI's perspective. Instead we're always shown events through the eyes of various canon characters/OCs as they deal with the antics of an overpowered SI.  

https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/50746081/

EDIT:
Heretical Edge
https://ceruleanscrawling.wordpress.com/...day-39-01/

Worm: More than Meets the Eye (Worm/Transformers
SB) https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/51073348/
SV) https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/posts/11393970/

EDIT Again:
Industrious' "A Subtle Knife" (SI with Jack Slash's powers added to Young Justice)
https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/51059473/

[Bad Moon]

Chris Dee's Cat Tales Gifts has updated with chapter five Demon's Head

https://catwoman-cattales.com/ct/master....fts-05.htm

[Norgarth]

Cross Purposes 2 continues with Stormburst undercover.
https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-32792-8/...oses+2.htm

[batzulger]

More with Diana and the Trio (Guest appearance of Death) https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-32841-3/...Prince.htm

[SilverFang01]

Mystic Knight Online: Worlds to Sow - Chapter 1

The World Seed is a tool created by Kayaba to ensure that Virtual Reality would remain a part of people's lives and Steel Phoenix has been "gifted" with the responsibility of determining what should be done with it. And others would certainly be interested in this development.

[Norgarth]

Heretical Edge
https://ceruleanscrawling.wordpress.com/...day-39-02/

[Mamorien]

The Normans are an ethnic group originating in the District of Normandy, originally one of the northern duchies of the Kingdom of Francia.  Emerging initially from contact between the native Franks, Gallo-Romans and Norse Viking settlers in the 800s AD, the Normans gained political recognition and legitimacy under the Viking Rollo, by treaty with the King Charles III of Francia in AD 911, where Rollo was granted the lands settled by the Normans and recognition as a noble lord in exchange for protection against other Viking raiders… 
In the centuries after their establishment, the Normans traveled and conquered widely, either as mercenaries in the employ of others or as their own feudal magnates, with conquered territories at the Straits of Jabal Ṭāriq, the Islas Canarias, the Islas Baleares, Cyprus, Southern Anatolia, Sicily, and the Maghreb…
…while the militaristic nature of the Norman culture is without question, they were also great patrons of the arts during the feudal era, and continue to have noted artistic contributions since.   In addition, two common themes in Norman-controlled regions were a degree of meritocratic egalitarianism, regardless of ethnic or religious origin, and the integration of local arts, architecture and society.  This emphasis on integration/syncretism created Norman-Arab, Norman-Byzantine, Norman-Moor, and other hybrid societies where they conquered and settled… 

Yep, new A Thing of Vikings. Will edit after lunch to include my usual too-cute-for-the-room summary, but In Rouen, Viggo Grimborn hears of last chapter's cliffhanger being (at least temporarily) resolved off-camera; Heather translates for Hiccup; Viggo sees Hiccup and William take off on the promised flight, then sees Astrid and Heather ride out the gates of the ducal keep; and Heather asks FitzOsbern some very good questions and gets some downright sickening answers. In the catepanate of Italia, Sigurd and Hookfang, and the rest of the dragon Varangians, arrive to form the tip of the spear. Back in Rouen, Hiccup and the others get Heather's report; Viggo meets with the arch-episcopal Father Confessor; and the synagogue of Rabbi Dovid ben Eliezer has an unexpected visitor. On Berk, Stoick and Bertha talk about alliances and their potential benefits. And we close, again, and still unsurprisingly, in Rouen, where Viggo interviews ex-king "Adalwin" and "Lady Brighid" and sees at least partway through them. Now here are the links:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089...s/37717052
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12639117/63...Of-Vikings