I searched for "Vinland" in Google Image Search in the hopes of finding more cool images and guess what?
50 pages of images of strips and crappy fanart of a
Manga about Vikings in Vinland.
That is it! If Vinland reaches the pacific coast soon enough I'll try to conquer Nippon just for the lulz.
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Odin demands Iroquois Blood! Týr demands Justice!
Manowar: Hand of Doom
Once they marched triumphantly over Ontario, and then they pursued retreating but valiant Wyandot warriors as they retreated into enemy territory, where the greatswords of Vinland advanced to help them and prevent their annihilation by the massive horde of enemy skraelingar. The disciplined yet furious formations of berserkers armed with their massive zweihanders surprised the barbarians, and when the most skilled among the berserkers charged and decapitated several of them with a single swipe, the battle situation, once hopeless for the Wyandot, was about to change.
Not even with almost five thousand horsemen the Iroquois managed to turn the tide of the battle, and now their capital was already under siege and ripe for the taking. Time was running out. The Dagonl'nu will not await and almost twenty thousand march into Smaragdur while the Iroquois suffered a major defeat in the 8th of August. Plus there is the issue of attrition. The supplies of the large allied armies in Oneida won't last for the next month. They need food and water, and there is a place where both are aplenty. Thus, as the month was about to end, and supplies were running low, still under the influence of the berserkergang, Warrior-Consul Aksel Olavsson advanced with his personal "hammerite" guard dangerously close to the walls, and lifting his
war hammer(not to be confused with oversized and impractical ceremonial ones) forged for both practicality and resemblance to mjölnir, siege towers already built around the skraeling fort and ready, he ordered, leading his men from the front, like a true Norse leader*:
"To the walls brave sons of Odin! The gods will remember this day!"
*Rather than from behind like an liberal
And while a brutal assault happened in the Iroquois capital, likewise the defenders of Smaragdur were attacked by a vastly larger legion that tried to assault their walls.
For every man who sacrificed his life for the defense of Smaragdur, over forty abominations were slaughtered. With such heroic defense, Vinland stands a chance of having enough time to crush the Iroquois so harshly they will never rise again. Another glorious victory. Meanwhile, even if at a high cost, the brave greatswords were about to open the gates of Oneida and most of the ramparts already were taken over by them.
In the end both the assault on Oneida and the defense of Smaragdur against the eldritch hordes were successful, reforging the legend of the contemporary berserkers even more.
Friendly skraelingar are respected. Enemy ones are merciless crushed, and now the end of the Iroquois is but a matter of time. The superior discipline of the Norsemen overcame numbers and savagery so far.
Smaragdur won't last much longer, but bravely the remaining garrison is clearly determined to fight to the last man to defend the best Republic.
The remnants of the Iroquois forces desperatedly launch an attack against Freyhóll, where the Army of Vinland meets the Sleipnir Knights
They are utterly vanquished. Even better, in Smaragdur starvation from having no sustenance in the scorched earth and the simple-minded and hungry horrors claimed thousands of Dagonl'nu lives to the point those remaining were too few to quickly conquer the region. Now, the near entirety of the enemy skraelingar were being hunted down like rabid wolves and the Iroquois demise was only a matter of the forts of Freyhóll and Smaragdur buying enough time for them to completely crush the savages.
While they were being hunted down, more arable land was being made, and Vinland invested heavily in these new cleared areas to ensure the prosperity they bring shall increase both population and wealth in the countryside of Nyr Reykjavík, even minting a lot of coins to be able to afford such an investment.
In 1st of March of 1512, the entire army of the Iroquois was wiped out, making their final stand in Mohawk. They made a big mistake in allying with those who seek to bring an end to the human race. But the same eldritch natives continued besiegin Smaragdur, and time for a truly crushing and complete victory against the Iroquois was even shorter than manpower for Vinland. Thus, once again one of the greatest generals of the Norskers, Aksel Olavsson led his men from the front into another glorious and bloody assault against the enemy walls.
After 36 days of intense battle for the walls and keeps, the region of Mohawk was completely conquered, and the demise of the Iroquois one step closer to come.
There was a leftover of their army, after all, but so few they were that two thousand knights by the blessings of Odin crushed them in spite of being slightly outnumbered.
Truly, the defense of Smaradgur this time has been so courageous, so unwavering, that the Althing was divided on the new idea of creating a special symbollic icon for bravery those truly great, heroic and honorable would proudly wear. Regardless, the bravery of the garrison of Smaragdur will be remembered by the skalds of present and future.
Then, after years of resistance, they assaulted with almost twenty thousand horrors again, and vastly outnumbered, the garrison failed, but they still fought to the last man. May their deeds and names never be forgotten. Freyhóll was immediately scorched by the Army of Vinland which then, having no more time to wait, advanced boldly under the leadership of the valorous Aksel to conquer Pocumtuk in another bloody, intense and bold assault to its fortifications that must not fail.
Again the knights of Vinland crushed the insignificant remnants of the Iroquois forces, but too many had died in multiple battles, and they had to return to safety.
And once again, with the blessing of the gods and their superior morale, the berserkers conquered now more than half of the Iroquois lands, but that was not deemed enough. They must never rise again, for what they did both against the Norse and against their fellow peoples is unforgivable. And there is only a way to ensure that: reducing their kingdom to almost nothing, something they will only agree with once all their lands are conquered and all their armies and garrisons vanquished. To victory!
In spite of being in very hard times, with their lands infested by traitors and rebels, the Wyandot finally managed to gather an army to finish the job against the Iroquois.
While the real last remnant of the Iroquois army retreated to their final doom in the hands of the berserkers, the merchantile might of Vinland, even in times of war, grew. Thanks to the brave naval backup of Sweden and Finland, so far blockades didn't happen, and Norsker merchants brought wealth from as far as India, in the Granadan colony of Goa where they stood among the most successful and powerful traders.
Freyhóll just needed to have bravery to hold a few more months, and the Iroquois would cease to be threat.
One of the reasons for the outcome of this war to be much better compared to the previous is how Vinland is significantly ahead of their enemies in the organization, tactics and technology of their armies. The 12-Year War was a mistake by Vinland as they weren't truly prepared, but still survived and weakened their foes, but this time their enemies made an even greater mistake by declaring a war.
As the Army of Vinland bade its time to recover, the greatswords defending Freyhóll proved their worth, being truly great men, the elite of the world armies far above the undisciplined rabble that besieged their walls, for rabble with eldritch mutations that made them inhumanly strong was still an undisciplined rabble.
The Wyandot proved to be truly honorable by not leaving Vinland alone, and never again Vinland shall leave them alone, as long as they maintain their loyalty and friendship with the Republic. To prevent malcontents from ruining centuries of good diplomatic relations, they marched into the capital of their kingdom and crushed the traitors, saving their kingdom from collapsing. With the Wyandot capital safe again, they marched into Kwedech
Because they were not in such a numerical superiority to risk another assault, and thanks to the immense resilience of the defenses at Freyhóll, an assault to the walls was dismissed this time, and instead they patiently besieged Kwedech, at leaast until a much diminished eldritch legion began to retreat from Freyhóll due to massive losses to attrition, and they couldn't let them get away and receive reinforcements from the seemingly endless supply of fresh recruits the vile Dagonl'nu have.
When they reached Smaragdur, the retreating horrors stopped, and now they starved in the scorched lands of Freyhóll. They once were ten thousand strong, but several failed assaults against courageous garrisons that fought to the death and the attrition had an immense toll against the scum. It was time to finish the job.
Thus, in 19th of June of 1513, the Dagonl'nu and Iroquois remnants, defeated by the resilience of the garrisons of Vinland and crushed by her army like a hammer into the anvil of the defenders, was almost entirely annihilated.
Unfortunately the Wyandot celebrated such massive victory by signing a white peace. But considering the hard times they are facing, they can't really be blamed.
And in Smaragdur, the job was finished. Now the Iroquois had no more army and almost half of the Dagonl'nu legions were exterminated, but they were desperatedly recruiting more men. Victory was certain, at least against the former. Rather than liberate Smaragdur, the armies of Vinland had one greater priority: to utterly vanquish their other foes.
This rising victory would soon be marked by a watershed in the history of Vinland. For years plans were developed and concocted by the Althing for the creation of institutions that will bring a new age of colonization and discovery for the Norsker people, and the organization, research and development of such institutions was almost concluded.
Many Europeans under the zealot Church envied Vinland for her wealth, yet feared a "crusade" would be utterly disastrous for they were their equals. In what may be the central continent of this New World, a certain Castillan known as Hernan Cortez discovered a people both civilized and savage, worshipping cruel gods that demanded daily human sacrifices by the hundreds, and yet, unlike the gods of the Dagonl'nu, they never sent horrors to stop the Spanish from subjugating these natives, finishing the job the plagues they exported started, for unlike the natives near Vinland, those in the south still didn't went through the plague, and may never overcome it. Cities of gold were reported to exist in that region, as were vast deposits of silver and gold, where what is left of the natives, the so called Aztecs, are forced to work as thralls, oftenly dying in less than a few months in the mines.
Whether exaggerated or not, the reports on the cruelty and inhumanity of the Castillans, alleged to have even torturously slaughtered Aztec babies by roasting them to death as a means of terrorizing the natives to submission, have shocked even the Vikings of the New World, used to all kinds of horrors, and to deliver some brutality themselves when needed. Some theorized the Castillans were simply venting off their hatred of the Granadans against the locals, while others noticed that apparently these false gods these Aztecs worshipped demanded torture of children, and that was already commonplace in there before the Castillans arrived. Whatever the truth is, it is good to follow gods that at their worst were merely willing to reward, rather than demand, a few sacrifices once every decade or so, and nowadays this practice has long been forgotten among modern Norses.
The discoveries of the Castille pointed out there was more down there, uncharted islands and possibly great valuables. Soon Vinland would stake their claims to the southern and warmer regions of the New World as well.
Over Kwedech, waiting for the Iroquois garrison to surrender at this point was wiser, and after almost an year it was secured with much less casualties than the bloody assaults that happened in the early and decisive moments of this war. Unlike the Eldritch mongrels, they were allowed to leave in peace, and told to inform their king their people would prosper and be free from foreign rulers had their past kings been wiser in their choices of allies and enemies.
More scorching and crushing of isolated and few horrors went on in Freyhóll, as the entire army of Vinland continued to concentrate on finishing off the Iroquois in a way that will forever put an end to their threat against Vinland.
In times of war, the Wyandot gained and lost territory, but in times of peace, they achieved at last their greatest expansion, and became much stronger. The Wyandot and Lenape peoples are now united under the same king, whose blood is equal parts Wyandot and Lenape. It was the first time in the history of Vinland two truly distinct native peoples were united, and this was a clear sign of who are the true gods. For the Wyandot were the only of the natives to worship Odin, and now their kingdom is on the verge of ruling over almost all civilized or civilizing native peoples, and by extension, spread slowly the Norse faith.
They aren't even trying by September of 1514. Even as their northern half was under siege, Vinland was clearly far more victorious in this war than in all previous ones against their old enemies, of which one would soon cease to exist as a significant threat.
The Lenape tribes in Nyr Kópavogur were friendly, and to let them trade in peace would certainly improve their relations with the town inhabitants even more, perhaps even enough for them to swear allegiange to Vinland.
The Iroquois desperatedly raised an army, but it was futile. They were utterly and humiliatingly crushed by the superior might and discipline of the greatswords and knights. Now the footsoldiers were divided in two forces to besiege the last two territories of the enemy still not conquered.
And while they stood on the eve of total victory against the Iroquois, finally that predicted watershed has come! Since its birth, Vinland has been focused on the ideal of colonizing, of bringing prosperity to unsettled lands, of exploring new lands, new seas and new continents. Now, this enormous colonial tradition gains its greatest expression in the form of the existence of institutions, both public and private, that will empower the Republic with the ability to explore much farther than Leif Ericson did, and to become a colonial power capable of tapping unknown wealth all accross the world.
This date, 1st of February of 1515, was the beginning of Vinland's Age of Exploration, the second and much greater Norse Age of Sail and part of the greater Age of Discovery pioneered by a few other Western peoples focused on such endeavors. It was the beginning of an era.
When Onondaga fell, as Wyandot patriots besieged Kwedech, oblivious to how waiting out for Vinland to put the Iroquois on their knees would be far more beneficial to their goals, there was no more time to wait. Fortunately the walls of the last fortress of the Iroquois were already breached. Now it was the time for one last brave assault, for the hammer of Aksel to strike hard one last time into the heads of these skraelingar.
And thus, while the gold mines of Innu fell to the greater enemy, in 17th of August of 1515 the berserkers took over Cayuga after a bloody assault against the enemy keep network. And in parallel to the final and ultimate victory over the Iroquois, a true legend has risen in the far north of the Republic, as once again the greatswords prove their valor, their defense of Markland, one of the territories originally discovered by Leif Ericsson, worthy of an exclusive saga.
And so it shall be, the start of a new age of discovery for Vinland and the end of the Iroquois.
Meanwhile, soon Kwedech would be firmly in the hands of Wyandot patriots, and back to their rightful owner, reducing the Iroquois to a single province already pending subjugation, and doomed to such, for the Iroquois clearly have no dignity to deserve freedom considering what they sided with.
And here, in this 19th of August of 1515, as the Granadans were rumored to be setting up colonies even further south than Castille, as Markland resisted bravely, the greatest victory ever in the last four hundred years of the history of Vinland has been achieved, and one of the major threats to the Republic was finally completely and utterly neutralized. Now, emboldened by this glorious conquest, Vinland considers whether push forward to crush the debilitated Dagonln'u, for their armies also suffered massive casualties, and Vinland's army still has enough strength to perhaps go even farther and secure the safety of these lands for centuries.
WE WILL MAKE THEM BEG FOR THEIR DARK GODS: "SAVE US FROM THE WRATH OF THE NORSEMEN!"