The Once and Future King
Prologue
This was the Kingdom of Berk.
It was a fairly new kingdom, having been founded only seven generations ago and had only exactly seven monarchs so far. It wasn't a particularly huge kingdom, considering that there were dozens of other nations and tribes littered all around it. A quarter of those kingdoms were allies, a quarter were enemies, and the rest were preferentially ignored.
Besides the dozens of villages and towns that were scattered across its semi-large territory, Berk had a central castle – their capital, which they had named also the Castle of Berk, or just Berk.
The Kingdom of Berk and the Castle of Berk. All Berk, because Berkians were frightfully uncreative people that way.
For all their lack of skill when it came to naming things (as you will soon discover), they were pretty good warriors. It was said the first immigrants that landed on present-day Berk were invaders - Vikings from North, a heritage that Berkians were much proud of. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising then that quite a number of the older kingdoms hated Berkians with all their might. After all, Berk's ancestors had stolen a good score of their ancestors' land. And their food. And their gold. You get the drift.
It wasn't a bad place to live in. It had mighty kings that held the country together. It had strong armies who deterred their hotheaded neighbours – most of the time. It had a growing economy and prospering people. The only problem was ...the criminals.
You see, while most kingdoms dealt with robbers, murders, smugglers – not to say that Berk had none of those, but these were considered lesser – Berk dealt with…sorcerers.
Magic wasn't limited to Berk alone, oh, no, but it was a uniquely huge problem in Berk. Never has there been a kingdom so utterly against sorcery. It had been set as law in the times of the first Kings of Berk, having been written in the grand scrolls locked at the bottom of the royal archives, that magic was prohibited on the pain of death. It had been said that out of the all seven Kings gone by, Stoick the Vast had been first and only to have been opened to magic, even appointing an official court sorcerer. That had been a time when magic had flourished in Berk.
But then suddenly, he had had a change of heart and he had reinstated the laws of his ancestors, beginning the dark years that was only ever referred to again as the Great Purge. Persons born with magic; persons practicing magic; persons making magic items for commercial use, and persons that had magic inflicted on them were all executed without trial. Many of the native born followers of the old religion were wiped off the map completely – high priests, Druids, factions and even whole villages. Never had so many tears been wept or blood spilt.
But that was an age ago. After fifteen years of bloodshed, Berk now settled into a semi-prosperous era. The witches and enchanters, who have all gone into hiding during this time, began to whisper of a new beginning. A prophecy was passed from the seers to the zealots to the nomads.
A great sorcerer would rise amongst the people, bringing who bring with him an even greater ruler; one who would be fair to magical and non-magical alike. It would be an era of peace and justice for all of The Wilderwest.
The sorcerer, as they called him, was Jokul Frosti.
A/N:
Information:
AU: Based on BBC's Merlin (the one with the young Arthur and Merlin, duh), so essentially the period is during like 400-500 AD? Where Berk is pretty much Camelot, and the entire setting is somewhere in a place much like Great Britain, but NOT Great Britain (I'd like to think it's somewhere in Norway, since that makes more cultural sense), and there are a lot of warring tribes. Yep. I'm following Merlin's way of doing this – meaning I will be ignoring actual historical figures, events etc., and there would be heavy injection of ROTG and HTTYD instead. Expect magic, and some Arthurian lore (Maybe even Holy Grail – or as Merlin has subtly removed the religious context - the Cup of Life. Who knows?)
Oh, Jack is Merlin. Hiccup is (currently prince) Arthur.
Pairings: I'm a heavily canon person, so no slash. Hiccstrid. Possible slight Jelsa (possible only.) Any other non-canon pairings are highly likely to be temporary, or plot device.
Movies involved: Most the focus would be on ROTG, HTTYD and Frozen films, but other Disney/Dreamworks films like Brave, Tangled and Big Hero 6 may possible make appearances and have roles in the story. The main characters are still Jack and Hiccup, so expect them to be here most.
Writing Style: Unlike my other fic, The Odds of Five, this story isn't a full-length novel exactly, but rather a bunch of (largely) chronological drabbles. It does follows a storyline (inspired by Merlin's own), but it will be told in 'episodes' – which would be about 5-8 Chapters in length – massive jumps in time would be like 'seasons'. These chapters are likely to be also shorter the massive ones I write in TOO5. I'll probably brief you guys into each chapter/part that I write (when necessary).
Updates: My updates for this will be erratic, because this is my writer's block-killer and sarcasm dump. But review and questions would be much appreciated nonetheless, and the response to this would affect my motivation for it. Hopefully.
Review. Ask Questions.
TO THOSE WHO HAD READ THE DRABBLE THAT USED TO BE HERE:
I have removed it because I had re-watched the show and found out that what I had written will have problems in the future, and is not the direction that I want to take (I spotted about a total of three errors in it – you won't know what they are, but I would, because … I'm the writer). So…yeah. Maybe one day I'll re-upload it as a 'deleted scene'. Maybe. Here's the snitch – WHATEVER HAPPENED IN THAT DRABBLE DIDN'T HAPPEN.
Okay. Next Chapter.