CHAPTER 5: Decree
In his first meeting as Chieftan with his council after being appointed a few days ago, Alfa Yurlin had ordered the reconstruction of a new hall. He also had a significant agenda on his mind for this meeting - what to do in the aftermath of the fire to the old hall building which Yurlin continued to claim came from the Warlords hidden across Ancient Island.
"Gentlemen," Yurlin said, "now is the time for us to act in the best interests of the Ancient Vikings. The fire unleashed on our hall by the unvikings confirms the need for a decree of sorts, for the wellbeing of our vikings. We must make sure those unvikings, primarily the Warlords who've been sent to spy on us, are not in a position to hurt our tribe."
The council consisted of the same vikings that Grull the Great had appointed as his team.
"In what manner is such a decree being proposed, Chief?" the leading council viking asked.
"For the protection of the vikings and the tribe, we must have the power to make decisions without the need for these council meetings all the time. As Chieftan, I feel it necessary to have the ability to make decisions and carry them out without consultation, because we need them initiated quickly in the face of these unvikings. I'd also like us to initiate a program of building up our maces, battleaxes, helmets, weaponry in general, ships."
The council vikings were unsure as to how to react.
"I promised when I became Chieftan, I wanted to give our vikings the old viking lifestyle back from the poison of modernisation, which led exactly to the likes of Grimmel and Drago in the first place, and I also believe it's important for us to rearm and prepare for the Warlords, for it is our destiny to fight them and end them. Our young boys and men in our tribe will be able to experience what it was like to battle like a true viking in the face of an existential threat in the form of the Warlords and their unviking puppets."
Again, the council wasn't sure how to take all of this.
"It is a warfare of its last, after the Warlords' door has been kicked in and wiped away, we will forever have peace at long last on this archipelago. So I'm seeking for our tribe to immediately build up our weapons, we must aim for the strength of the Hairy Hooligans under Stoick the Vast, and that is an order, not a wish!"
The council slowly nodded - from what they could hear, it sounded like Yurlin was proposing putting into practice the book he wrote five years ago. Some of them were alarmed as well at the dictatorial proposal to just be able to bypass council meetings like this so Yurlin could make the decisions without consultation, but the others, genuinely fearing Drago Bludvist and the Warlords, nodded.
Yurlin could identify the reluctant men in the meeting, not that he pointed it out to them or made it obvious, but he quickly established who in this room was on his side and who wasn't. He was pushing ahead with these things regardless.
The decree as Yurlin called it was to come into effect upon the conclusion of this council meeting. Like every tribe on the archipelago, including the Hooligans, the Chieftan would normally host a meeting in their Great Hall before making decisions and so on. With Yurlin's proposal, that entire process would be scrapped in favour of him being able to make the decisions, with his word being the final order, and the council vikings felt too weak and powerless to do anything about it - because across the tribe, Yurlin's supporters had become bolder and ruthless now that their man was the leader.
They didn't like the dictatorial aspect of this, but Yurlin's justifcation for doing it rammed home pretty well with a good chunk of the council vikings in the room. The others, although reluctant, and felt too weak to do anything about it, didn't consider it crossing any lines. They could still control Yurlin if he went too far.
"I wish for us to make contact with the various tribes of this archipelago. The Hairy Hooligans being my greatest desire," Yurlin declared, "there's a coalition to be built in opposing the rise of the unvikings in Drago Bludvist and all those who contributed to the alienation which led to his rise."
"Their new island is vastly different to the one they abandoned, Chief. Geographically it's impossible for us to make contact with them when their island is a practical hill in the seas," said one of the council members.
"We'll have to send a couple of our boats around the vicinity, just to grab their attention. I am eagerly anxious to meet Hiccup Haddock and inform him of the situation - I then want to propose our alliance whereby I can avenge his father for him, we can have a trade-off in terms of what we control ultimately in the world we need to create. And this will all culminate in the living space we desperately need for the Ancient vikings."
After mentioning the living space Yurlin intended to go through with, the council vikings began writing notes down.
"Not only do we have to extinct the unvikings of this world, but our island is too small for the number of vikings we house. We have between 30,000 and 50,000 men and women and children, all of whom we need to examine as well and see if the unviking traits live, and that will all coincide with us deploying a search team to find these despicable Warlords who started the fire," Yurlin declared.
"What areas are we looking at, Chief?"
"The areas in which the unvikings have taken over deserve no sovereign boundaries. When we defeat the Warlords in our great battle, the living space will be ours for the taking. The territory in which the Warlords reside will be our primary objective. And then, as we succeed, we will have to deal with the unviking question sooner rather than later."
Alfa Yurlin didn't limit his definition of 'unvikings' to men. He was super serious about this given his genuine hatred of Drago and Grimmel for what they caused to the archipelago with their rivalries with the Hooligans, and all those who contributed to their rise. Women, children, all of these types of vikings didn't hesitate Yurlin in the slightest in making them unvikings if they met his criteria.
"Fundamentally, gentlemen, we are going to reform our society in this tribe as well. We're going to establish alliances with the Hooligans, as well as the Berserkers and potentially the Outcasts. I also want to see our women vikings take a step back from battles and physical activities, and to concentrate their resources on raising families for the future of the tribe. The old viking lifestyle had the notion that the men were the defenders and fighters, whilst the women were the mothers cooking food, raising our future warriors and girls for farm food picking."
The council continued taking notes as their Chieftan laid out his intents.
"The decree will come into effect after this meeting. Although this shall be the last council meeting we'll have which ratifies my decisions, I want you all in light of this meeting to make papers and write down the decree, and stick them onto all the tree trunks, wooden torch poles in our village, everywhere you can, so our vikings can adjust. This decree is for the protection of our tribe against the unvikings as well as to unleash in our new era."
Some of this sounded awfully archaic to some of the council vikings, but they continued taking notes.
"I do not wish to impose unreasonable territorial demands on any tribes that don't have the unvikings on them, so as we bring forward our potential allies, I'll make it clear to them that I am proposing to be the defender between them and the disgusting Warlords and Drago himself. We can do this, gentlemen."
The meeting would go on to its conclusion, with the council members taking all their notes. It was a long meeting, but one that was set to begin the radical changes of the tribe for Yurlin's personal ambitions. He wanted to be the Chieftan that took the archipelago and the world back to an age of true viking lifestyle, and that all started today.
The decree was now written and ready to be distributed across Ancient Island, this was the writing on the paper of it exactly:
Under consultation of the council, the following is now ordered and MUST be followed in the defence against the unvikings and their colleberators following the fire to our Great Hall:
1. There is no limit to how often the council can search viking's huts for any potential dangers to the lives of the tribe, unviking or not.
2. All vikings are to take on board the greeting of 'Our Yurlin!' for both the morning and night time rituals, any defiance of this will be perceived as an unviking act. In these grave times as Drago continues to be alive, unified support for our Chieftan is paramount in combatting the disease of the unvikings.
3. There are no individual rights, human rights or rights to talk out, under the great leader, Alfa Yurlin. The Chieftan feels it necessary to hold all of his viking's rights for their protection, this is to avoid the enemy taking advantage of naivety.
4. Any joking or negative connotations of the leader Alfa Yurlin will be met with grave punishments. The unvikings want this to happen and there can be no toleration of such comments in these dangerous times.
5. The council will strictly monitor events across our island. There will be no privacy, all of the huts on our island will be searched and personal weapons like maces, steel helmets, are from this point on owned by the council of the Ancient Tribe.
6. The unvikings found on our island will have no mercy shown to them, for the leader and Chieftan Alfa Yurlin believes these to be the vikings who led to the rise of Drago and Grimmel, which went on to cause great harm to our archipelago due to the modernisation of the viking life and the alienation that followed said modernisation. Their punishment will be precisely the same manner in which their leaders, Grimmel and Drago, attacked and harmed the Hooligans.
7. Vast and strict camping sessions for our young vikings will be held and are mandatory. The council believes in order to prevent the unvikings ever rising up again after we finish the unviking question, our kids must be trained up in the old viking lifestyle.
8. Alfa Yurlin believes that wives and women vikings are best suited, like our great ancestors across these islands, inside the huts raising children, cooking freshly caught hunted meat, picking food from our crops, to raise the defenders of the future. In a true viking tribe, the men do the physical, the women do the raising and hut keeping and kid raising!
This decree has been issued by the Ancient Tribe viking and is to be followed at all costs - Our Yurlin, for the safety of the tribe!
The Ancient Tribe vikings were coming up to their temporary hall nearer the edge of the village, getting their fish soup for the night. Hundreds and hundreds of viking voices could be heard talking across the various wooden tables as giant lit wooden torches across the temporary hall beamed orange flames. As each viking entered through the big double wooden doors, the greeting imposed by the decree was already coming into action.
"Our Yurlin!" said a wide bearded viking to the council viking guarding the door.
"Our Yurlin," replied the council viking, monitoring the hall and the entrance.
Upon that greeting, the wide viking made his way into the hall as darkness grew outside. This temporary hall resembled the Great Hall the Hooligans had on Old Berk shortly before evacuating, with hundreds of vikings congregating and chatting as they feasted on carrots, hunted cooked meat, fish soup, and so on.
The council was clearly already enacting its authoritarian streak by imposing one of its members at the entrance of the hall. It was super important to Yurlin that his decree was enforced, because he wanted to enhance his support and his leadership, like, in his perspective, the viking ancestors would've done.
"What...have we done?" whispered a hesitant young viking lady sitting in the hall besides her husband.
She looked that fearful she hadn't even touched her vegetables. She was deliberately keeping her voice down so she wasn't caught saying what she was about to say, but it felt like the tribe had made the biggest mistake of its existence by supporting Alfa Yurlin to the point he became their Chieftan.
"What do you mean?" her husband asked, his long beard dangling over the wooden table.
"What kind of Chieftan have we gotten? he...he's imposed these rules on our tribe and what's stopping him from defining anybody as an unviking?"
"Now I didn't support him or even think he'd actually become Chieftan but...Drago Bludvist is still alive, and the vikings who led to his rise are on the archipelago, I feel like you just need to give him a chance for now, he's going to save us from the brink!"
She still couldn't get comfortable with the idea that her rights in the tribe were to be revoked because she was a woman nor could she get comfortable over having a crazy unhinged, in her view, viking as Chieftan. She didn't think this was going to end well at all for the rest of the archipelago.
It was the middle of the night for the council vikings. They all had huts situated nearer the hills of Ancient Island as members of the council. They were provided with bigger huts with more space and more surrounding land. The isolation from the main village allowed them to maintain their own space as members of the decision making group, but given the abolishment of such meetings from Yurlin, the reluctant ones felt a bit useless.
Nonetheless, they were fast asleep ready for the morning as the decree was in full effect and the onus was on them to enforce it. The Ancient Tribe as a whole could settle with the decree because all they had to do was follow it and then continue their lives like they did prior to Yurlin coming to power. It hadn't dawned on them fully yet that failure to follow the decree, such as using greetings for the morning and night 'Our Yurlin!' would result in genuine punishment.
One of the council vikings who felt reluctant about Yurlin's abolishment of council meetings and overall direction, the one who tried to justify it through the fear felt by many of his fellow vikings at the fear of Drago Bludvist's return, was soundly asleep in his hut in the quiet forests of Ancient Island.
His door was suddenly smashed in like a giant bullet had flown through it, and instantly, he woke up in his dark atmosphere of an oak room inside the hut. The cold breeze fed its way in as a dark figure stood at the open doorway. Almost instantly, fear had crept to the council viking as he sat up from his sheep wool-made bed.
"W...what are you doing in my hut?!" he fearfully stuttered, the dark figure not saying a word.
This was absolutely terrifying, and just as the dark figure remained still, at the very same motion it just sped forwards and charged for the resting council viking who had a pounding heart of fear, to the point it was physically hurting his chest. The dark figure gripped the council viking by the throat and continued holding on.
"WH..." coughed the council viking, trying to yell and move his legs around, but it was no use.
The strength of the dark figure, who was definitely a viking with his helmet on, was too much for the council viking to battle. The viking grabbed the wool pillow and, as he continued to tightly grip his throat, he pushed the wool pillow over the council viking's head.
He was getting suffocated by a viking and strangled. The viking conducting the attack simply spoke not a single word as he sought out to complete what was asked of him.