CHAPTER 33: Speech
Yurlin wasted no time in getting his speech started. Tens of thousands of regular Ancient vikings were once again gathered at the central point of the island, in the main vicinity of the village. Yurlin was stood behind a wooden podium, flanked by his entourage of council vikings. His long boots which nearly went up to his kneecaps, his unusually big steel helmet, and his black leather coat and yak-hide internal armoury made him look the most militaristic out of all of the vikings surrounding him.
He wasn't going to hold back any punches in this speech. With the annexation of the Northern Markets fully secure, Yurlin felt like he could get away with anything at this point. He was much bolder than prior to rallying up the notions for annexing the Northern Markets.
The tens of thousands of Ancient vikings squashed among each other, women to men to children, all throughout the village, concentrated their eyes on nothing but their Chieftan. They loved their Chieftan for the dignity and respect he seemed to earn their tribe from the other tribes, and for the way in which he seemed to be genuinely causing the Warlords a bit of anxiety.
None of them truly understood the extent to which he hated his perceived unvikings, but many of them nonetheless brought into the notion. For them, as long as they could live a proper viking lifestyle in a world free of any threats of war, with their families and strict routines that they felt vikings should have, they were happy to go with the flow. Yurlin hated unvikings, and so did they.
The wooden signs scattered all across the village which had the phrase 'unvikingism is criminality!' were still intact, and more of them were being built not only around the village, but on the shores of the island and the pathways through the many huts. It was already a systematic policy on behalf of the council, to discriminate those who were perceived to be unvikings, but it was ramping up gradually especially after the annexation of the Northern Markets.
The Ancients started applying what they did on the Northern Markets to their own island - any perceived unvikings were forced to be topless without any gear, and had to walk around with a big black X painted on their chests. Any vikings with physical disabilities, i.e missing an arm or a lifelong injury, were swiftly thrown into this category as unvikings and thus had their armour removed and their chests exposed to cold coats of black paint when the X letters were painted, which weren't allowed to be washed off even when they were inside their huts.
It was ramping up that much that the council was starting to apply the unviking definition not only to those with physical limitations, but also those who were mentally unhappy. Ancient vikings who were just depressed and unhappy and thus expressed depressed emotions for long periods of time, they were now forced into the same topless, black X painted on their chests routine to be marked permanently as unvikings.
And yet, the vast majority of regular Ancients still loved Alfa Yurlin. They all appreciated how 'viking' it felt once again, like how it did seven generations ago. The council had made sure to keep the action it was taking against the unvikings hidden and as under the radar as possible, except for when they'd be roaming around without their top gear in public and with the black X painted on their chests having already been identified as unvikings.
"My dear vikings, I feel the need to once again address you all for we have made the most vile and revolting discovery, to the expense of the Ancient Tribe," Yurlin roared, his voice like a machine gun from his throat as it echoed with power into the air.
"There is a great crisis that has emerged on this archipelago, much bigger than anything we have faced since I came to power as your proud Chieftan & leader. And it is a crisis I intend on resolving, one way or another. There is an oppression going on!"
The Ancients in the massively packed crowd, with all their helmets, listened to their Chieftan with great focus as his movements and voice kept them engaged.
"There is a settlement on an island all too familiar to the outside tribes, the very tribes who shared a mutual relationship with the dragons, an island of which we had no great relevance or history with given our past, prior to my needed emergence, as a strictly pacifist group. The very island of the Red Death, the queen of the dragons when they were in this world, known as Dragon Island. This settlement of foreign vikings on Dragon Island, territory they had no right to take, not only threatens the prospect of the Warlords taking advantage, but the Wingmaidens, the fraudulent vikings who're responsible for this settlement, have been brutally killing our Ancient vikings in great numbers!"
"How can any reasonable tribe sit back and let that happen? when it is crystal clear what is going on here, the brutal killing and oppression of our own vikings for no given reason, how can we be expected to sit back?! not least given the very strain of unvikingism that we seek to combat, will latch onto this and give the Warlords a chance to take advantage of their naivety?!"
Yurlin was careful not to highlight the other reason he was targeting the settlement built by the Wingmaidens on Dragon Island: them being women vikings. For now, he wanted to gradually butter up the vikings in front of him with his reasoning for doing this. He wanted to word it differently, so it'd get to a point that he could point out them being women vikings as another problem without any backlash or raised eyebrows from the regular Ancients.
And again, Yurlin's claims of oppression and murders of the Ancient vikings at the hands of the Wingmaidens on Dragon Island were completely false. Not that the vikings in the crowd listening to his speech knew any better.
"And so now, what is standing before us as a tribe is a problem that will, not possibly, but WILL, be solved. And rest assured, it is the last territorial demand I have to make on this archipelago. I won't be swerved from this demand, nor will I be intimidated to back down. When it comes to the sovereignty and the well being of my vikings, our interests come first and foremost."
Yurlin was set to get to the most divisive part of his speech.
"The Wingmaidens are a strain on the definition of being a viking. How could a bunch of women vikings conceivably live in a world rife with the unviking disease, handed to this very archipelago by the still-alive Drago Bludvist and his chums? they are a pest to the human race, they're territory invaders. No alliance that they hold with the other outside tribes, as they do, will convince me to back down or think twice. I am not to be intimidated!"
"I ought to carry on, don't you all think? pests know no limits in going to places they're not desired, so why not carry on attacking the pests verbally?! the Wingmaidens figured because the world was free of dragons, they were right to take over an abandoned island without understanding the geographical circumstances. How do we know, given they have oppressed our own vikings on that island, that they won't come for our own island right here and do the same to us?! much like wildlife is slaughtered for meat, we'll have no qualms in slaughtering the Wingmaiden pest likewise!"
"We must come to an understanding, one way or another. As I have already said, this is the last territorial demand I have to make on the Barbaric Archipelago, and I simply make this offer to the Wingmaidens who happen to live in their little village on that island - free the oppressed vikings of ours, cede your stolen territory to us, go back to your home island or we'll have no choice but to come in and give those oppressed Ancients their freedom ourselves."
"I have no further interest in the Wingmaidens beyond this. All that's needed is for them to cede Dragon Island to us and free our vikings, we want no Wingmaidens! Dragon Island is all we seek, and as I have also already said, I will not swerve from this demand. I have no interest in Wingmaiden island, but if they think we're going to back down in demanding they cede this island to us, and with it the imprisoned Ancient vikings who've done nothing but display pure innocence, they'll have another thing coming!"
"The only conclusion I could realistically come to, in the event we have to take matters into our own hands and take this land ourselves if they refuse, is that they want war. And war they would get. We're all vikings here, I have done all I can thus far to prevent war - we know the Warlords will be swiftly dealt a knockout blow in due course. But I fully understand the consequences of a war, and I'm sure all of the outside tribes understand such consequences."
"Peace or war. That is my offer. If we cannot resolve this problem with reasonable cooperation, what other option is left? although I know the consequences of war, given most of this archipelago witnessed such wars when the Hooligans took on Drago Bludvist all those years ago shortly before they mercilessly killed Stoick the Vast, I'm equally not afraid of it if needed. Our tribe's might is established, our army is at its full capacity and we have displayed great levels of coherence in our vikings. I will have no hesitations in going to war if needed!"
"I only have one more statement to make in regards to this very real problem. And it is this - to the Wingmaidens who're unfairly occupying that island with oppressed Ancients, thus threatening our sovereignty and the risk of the Warlords taking advantage, you have only but two days to make up your minds. You can choose peace, or you can choose war. Two days will be your deadline. If, stupidly, your tribe decides to continue holding that island hostage, it is war that will be declared and I cannot for the life of me imagine that you would want to inflict yourselves with the level of casualties and losses that'd come your way because of your stubborn nature in holding hostage an island you never lived on in the past!"
"I mean this, I will throw as much resources as I possibly can at the half of your tribe living on Dragon Island, until we take and liberate it and safeguard the final territorial demand from the Warlords in preparation for the knockout blow we intend to inflict upon them. I will repeat, I want nothing beyond Dragon Island. No Wingmaiden island, no Wingmaiden vikings, just that island. TWO DAYS!" yelled Yurlin, concluding his speech.
A giant roar of cheers broke out from the Ancient viking as they started chanting in their thousands 'Our Yurlin' with salutes in the air. Some of the vikings in the crowd lifted their children up onto their shoulders so they too could do the same salute and chant in the open view of Yurlin himself.
The gauntlet was now laid down by Yurlin and he wasn't holding back any longer. For the first time in ten years on the archipelago since the dragons left, a Chieftan was openly threatening war on the archipelago, something NONE of the vikings ever expected to happen again following the defeat of Grimmel.
Yurlin didn't fear war at all. The question was, however, would the other tribes, fully acknowledging the threat of war Yurlin was making, be able to urge a sense of calm from Yurlin's part to get him to back down?
