Rapunzel I, heir to Frederick William II of House Hohenzollern. Elsa I, heir to Aaron IV Asbjorn of House Hohenzollern. Both inheritances in clear violation of the Salic Law. Even decades before, this would've been an outrage. The War of the Austrian Succession had been fought over this exact issue. These two successions, however, had occurred with barely a whimper of protest. Granted, war was engulfing Europe for other reasons, but it was indeed a sign of the times. The notion that the crown might pass to some distant cousin simply because he had been born through male-line descent only, and not to the heir the kingdom had spent years getting to know, due to the moldy old dictums of a long dead Emperor seemed quaint, if not blatantly ridiculous. When the personal union between Hannover and Great Britain broke, it was not because of the Salic Law alone, but because Britain no longer wanted the burden of continental obligations, and the state could at some point lead to tensions threatening the balance of power.

In the Arendelle palace, a wet nurse fed two babies. The two twins, a boy, and a girl, were born for great things. The boy, a dirty blonde with precociously bright eyes, was Napoleon's heir, the future Napoleon II of the French Empire. The blonde would fade from his hair after a brush with death by tuberculosis in his early 20s, during which he was famously cold as a corpse, but the fire never would. Here was a man born to be his father's son. He would expand the French Empire across the globe, founding the House of Bonaparte-Hohenzollern through his marriage to his second cousin, Gothel Hohenzollern. The girl had dark brown hair and a knowing gaze. She would ascend to the throne as Elsa II Maria, presiding as figurehead in a government where she no longer had power, as Norway's industrialization hit full force. She would inherit her mother's love of architecture, becoming a friend of Norwegian Romantic architect Hermann Major Schirmer, using her practical and frugal nature combined with a love of the austere beauty of ice synthesized with the Dragon style and Schirmer's ideas to create a style of building now known as Draconic Functionalism, an early forerunner to Modernism, and an inspiration to many Soviet architects. In recent times, the style has come under fire for being emblematic of the Communist regime, and some young architects have taken to calling it Funky Dragon style (after Funkis, functionalism, and the Dragon style). It is a political issue that transcends parties in a peculiar way, as rightists and leftists will defend it for being a national symbol and a symbol of the good that Communism did, and at the same time, rightists and leftists will attack it for being a Communist symbol and being staid and backward-looking.

As for Sweden? The Junta had found themselves an heir, though it was too late to keep the Finnish territories. Young Bernadotte, a military officer of France, graciously accepted the offer. Far from becoming a French puppet, Bernadotte would work with his military colleagues in revitalizing the country, implementing reforms in education, trade, and the woefully outdated army. Although it would not be a new Golden Age for Sweden, and Sweden was no longer the Great Power it was in the 17th century, it would see a restoration of national prestige, and if the Swedes were no longer numerous, their reforms would make them elite, and many a Soviet would meet their end at the hands of the skilled White Swedish forces. It was a sign of the times that an heir could simply be brought in, despite having no blood connection to the old family.

In Arendelle's armed forces, the 4th Light Infantry would distinguish itself in leading the assault on Stockholm and other cities. The regiment soon earned the nickname of the "Ice Troopers", and was eventually reorganized into the 1st Grenadiers of Arendelle, the "Ice Troopers", in the 1834 military reorganization. When the monarchy fell and the Communists took power, the regiment would survive as the 7th Mechanized Infantry, and continue to receive honors and recognition for bravery. The Ice Troopers would be granted the title of Vanguard of the Worldwide Revolution by Stalin himself, and would eventually have the honor of hoisting the flag of the USSR over Krasinski Palace in Warsaw, in an image that has become one of the most enduring of the Second World War.

Children are the future. What kind of child is more precious than an heir?