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Quote by John Anders Erickson

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Vikings & Pirates: Tales of My Fathers

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John Anders Erickson

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“Their greatest folly is that they don't understand you or your kinfolk. They cannot imagine that you would refuse being their vassal on the throne. They have no inkling that there are races of man that value sovereignty above the air they breathe. Like a puppet they expect you to approve and sign whatever policy put before you, bulking as they presume and barbarian would confronted with the daily administrative minutiae of rulership- along with the flowery jargon they'll use to disguise their schemes. And soon, drowning in woman and wine, your senses dulled from that stuporous escape- they'll have you unwittingly dismantle the Varangian guard before burying a dagger in your back" - Almuric Agricola Excerpt from Varangian: Book One of the Byzantum Saga”

PhilosophyHistoryMilitaryHistorical FictionPolitical PhilosophyMedievalVikingsByzantine HistoryVarangian
Book:Varangian: Book One of the Byzantum Saga
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“The prince remembers his father's words- "Steal a loaf of bread, son, and they will cut your hands off, but steal an entire country and they will proclaim you their king. Humanity can never forgive mediocrity, but when audacity and brilliance combine in the right individual it can luster godlike- and they will forgive you anything, even a whole generation of boys sent off to battle for the interests of that lustrous-one". Excerpt from Varangian: Book One of the Byzantum Saga”

PhilosophyHistoryMilitaryHistorical FictionPolitical PhilosophyMedievalVikingsByzantine HistoryVarangian
Book:Varangian: Book One of the Byzantum Saga
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“How is it that after war and conquest the spoils are split evenly between the Emperor, the treasury and his Varangian Guard? True they are an unmatched commodity in war, but servants nonetheless, not so?Not so. They are tigers. Wild things we have allowed into our lands, our cities and our homes. They stand over our sleeping forms with their terrible axes poised. They have come to know all our secrets and entrenched themselves so deeply within the bosom of the Empire that it begs the question: are we paying them to guard us, or are we bribing them not to kill us?" - Justrudd Valusarian Excerpt from Varangian: Book One of the Byzantum Saga”

PhilosophyHistoryMilitaryHistorical FictionPolitical PhilosophyMedievalVikingsByzantine HistoryVarangian
Book:Varangian: Book One of the Byzantum Saga
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“We are the sons of that beast, Almuric, we are but spruced up- urbane predators. What else, if not a talent for violence separates the aristocracy from the peasantry? We are the nobility for the very fact that we are able to visit more violence upon them than they can upon us. History is written by nations with superior violence. The greatest civilizations to ever have existed were allowed such lofty cultivations only because of their divine brutality- their ability to vanquish those nations standing in the path of their destiny" - Grand Champion, Count Húracan Excerpt from Varangian: Book One of the Byzantum Saga”

PhilosophyHistoryMilitaryHistorical FictionPolitical PhilosophyMedievalVikingsByzantine HistoryVarangian
Book:Varangian: Book One of the Byzantum Saga
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