Updates 45 (couldn't think of anything witty)

[Mamorien]

Before I begin, I'd like to thank Norgarth for linking last week's A Thing of Vikings, and for having better sense, taste, or both than to imitate my usual too-cute-for-the-room summary.

One of the interesting points to consider when analyzing warfare is to remember that the individuals who decide the course of it make decisions within their own biases and perspectives. While this may seem to be an obvious point—Emperor Romanos III, an inexperienced commander, thought that war was decided by large battalions and thus it was on these large, ponderous formations he depended and lost at Azaz, to name a memorable such defeat—this fact also plays off in more subtle ways.

Consider the case of Kagan Drago Bludvist. The man reportedly spent several years hunting and poaching dragons, and resented the anti-poaching laws put into place and enforced by the Song Dynasty protecting those same dragons. This attitude managed to embed itself deep in his psyche by all accounts, informing his strategy when he advised his predecessor, Kagan Berk, on the conquest of the Song Dynasty as a first step prior to taking their dragon nests.

But from an objective viewpoint considering objectives and strategy—gaining dragons and using them in conquest—such a strategy was foolish and pointless! What could the Song have hoped to do to prevent Drago's dragon riders from flying past them, and forcibly enthralling the nests deeper in their territory? The few token guardsmen working to prevent poachers from accessing the nests that the Song held as sacred would have been easily dealt with and the dragons forced into subjugation. Once that was done, the Pechenegs could have then used their augmented force to conquer not only the Song, but all of the empires and kingdoms in the region and beyond in short order.

But Drago, by his own admission later on, saw the Song and their laws as a barrier that prevented him from accessing those self-same dragons, and thus, to his mind, they had to be dealt with first before the dragons could be accessible. To him, the dragons were owned by the humans who claimed the land their nests sat upon, and thus those humans would have to be conquered before the dragons could be taken as spoils of war.

For another example, consider Emperor Henry the Black and his actions…

On the eastern shore of the Black Sea, Sigurd leads the Hypsikrates into Saqartvelos Samefo, trying not to think about the dangers back in Constantinople; Hookfang reflects on the incomprehensible whims of walkers, but has to admit that the benefits they bring to flyers outweigh the problems they bring; and the two of them travel into a live dragon-nest for the first time as a team. In the Jorgenson hut on Berk, Astrid talks with Spitelout about the Hooligans' possible need for a standing army, or at least Hiccup's need for a proper bodyguard. In his palace in Almatu, Kagan Drago is still getting used to his title when Elder Khurşӑ points out one of its responsibilities. In Bianjing, Mulan fails to convince her fellow councilors to open negotiations with the Hooligans, but manages to convince Li Shang that someone should. In the mead hall on Berk, Cami discusses Eret's possibilities with Merida, and also with Thuggory. Over in the Ingerman house, Heather considers possibilities for Mildew's master, and thinks about Toiréasa and Alvin. In Algeciras, Viggo and Ryker are also thinking, and indeed talking, about Alvin and Delilah. In his office in Inbhir Niss, Mac Bethad makes a desperate decision, and reflects on how far in he's stepped. And we close out by returning to Bianjing, where one of the Pecheneg casualties turns out not as badly off as his fellows thought...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089...s/71448276