“Well, they are people,

just like us

from within our own solar system.

Except that their society is

more highly evolved.

They don’t have no wars.

They got no monetary system.

They don’t have any leaders,

because each man is a leader.

…

How’s your joint, George?

l believe it went out.”

~Easy Rider (1969)

Long ago, thousands of years before the birth of Christ, there was an island in the Norwegian Sea called Stjórnleysi. This island was ruled over by a little known Norse god named Redbeard. Redbeard created out of ether and ice a race of men called the Mimirians to inhabit his small corner of the globe. He created this race as perfectly as he could. He wanted each man to be free and able to do as he pleased. He therefore made them a wise and rational people so that they could live without the restraints of monarchs, aristocrats, or nobles, unlike the other flawed races of men. The rest of mankind had been cursed by the Father of the gods long ago for their insolent pride and disobedience. In order to reign in their own cursed nature, the Father of the gods provided rulers to govern them. Redbeard however gave the Mimirians one law, and due to their divine nature, it was one they were naturally inclined to obey. Thou shalt commit no act of aggression against thy neighbor. Any form of violence, coercion, theft, or fraud was strictly forbidden. The law itself was a mere formality, because the thought of committing acts of aggression never even crossed anyone’s mind. As the Mimirian population began to increase, Redbeard apportioned to each tribe a particular section of the island, and within these sections each head of family was apportioned a plot of land to cultivate and keep. The East half of the island was mountainous and rich with minerals, also the coast had a rich supply of fish. The West half of the island was more suited to farming and grazing livestock. Those who lived in the West peacefully traded with those who lived in the East and the island grew very prosperous. As the race of Mimirians grew in splendor and beauty, they gave joyous thanks to Redbeard for making them a blessed and happy people. They sang to him, “Blessed Redbeard, creator of the Mimirians, you have made us and you have made us well. Happy and free we live in harmony with our neighbor, skill for bread and bread for skill, together we live and together we prosper!”

Eventually other gods took note of the Mimirians and became increasingly jealous of Redbeard. One day the gods took council together and they said to one another, “Let us commission Ægir, the god of the sea, to destroy the splendor of the Mimirians.” So that is exactly what they did. Whenever seafaring foreigners would travel anywhere near the island, Ægir would call up a storm and cause their craft to crash on the rocky shores of Stjórnleysi’s Eastern seaboard. When the Mimirians came across these hapless seafarers, they took pity on them and allowed them to take up residence in their society. The foreigners gladly took them up on this, as Stjórnleysi was the most magnificent place they had ever been. Year by year, Ægir brought more and more ships to the shores of the island. As time went on, the aliens began to intermarry with the Mimirians and produce hybrid offspring that carried in them the cursed seed common to ordinary men. While this did occur in the West, it happened more often in the East, where Ægir would draw them and slam their crafts’ against the rocks. The Father of the gods said to himself, “Redbeard is full of himself and thinks he is all-powerful. Soon he will learn that there is more to this world than his silly decree and his naïve Mimirians will be the subject of my display.”

As the years went by, changes slowly started to creep into Mimirian society. There was no longer sound accord between the external law of the Mimirians and the internal nature of all of it’s citizens. Redbeard had written his law into the very DNA code of his beloved creation and when they intermarried flaws were introduced. Some of the hybridized people, as well as fresh foreign settlers, began to deceive, steal, and use violence to deprive others of their belongings. The older Mimirians were outraged that these sorts of things were happening. They were taken aback and they really didn’t know what to do, questioning to themselves, “How could anyone living in Stjórnleysi, the realm of Redbeard, defy his divine ordinance, ‘Thou shalt commit no act of aggression against thy neighbor?’“ In order to cope with the new problems, the elders had to try to come up with a way to suppress criminal activity without, they themselves, violating Redbeard’s decree. The solution, they decided, was to encourage some Mimirians to voluntarily form small local agencies called Gildis, which in the Mimirian tongue means “police force.” For a fee, each Gildi provided police service to any Mimirian who wanted it. Those opposed to the idea weren’t forced to accept the service, but if anyone were to commit an act of aggression against them, they would be without recourse. The elders reasoned that if someone violated the divine ordinance, they had in effect renounced their status as a Mimirian. Therefore, it was permissible for a Gildi to use force because it was for the purpose of upholding the divine decree. Moreover, no one could accuse Gildis of extortion, because their services were voluntarily purchased. In this way they felt justified fighting fire with fire, though the very idea made them uneasy. Once a Gildi would capture the accused, he would be brought before another private agency called a Dómari, which means “Judge,” where he would be tried. Once the concept was disseminated and encouraged, many Mimirians took up the call and formed numerous Gildis, as well as a sufficient number of Dómaris. There were enough Gildis that each Mimirian had the option of choosing between multiple in his local area. After the Gildis cropped up, the aggression rate dropped to near zero, the Mimirians rejoiced and again gave thanks to Redbeard.

As more time passed, Ægir brought even more ships into the jagged crags of Stjórnleysi. The Mimirians continued to welcome them. Some made it out West, but like before most settled in the East. As time passed, some Gildis in the East began to weaken and failed to perform their duty properly. Whether out of insolence or oversight, some criminals were quite literally getting away with murder. In order to fix the problem, better functioning Gildis began buying out and taking charge of the failing ones. The successful ones became larger, like puddles absorbing drops of dew. The rate of degeneration was happening so rapidly that even the larger Gildis began failing, until eventually there was a monopoly. At this point there was a single juggernaut in the East providing police service for the whole eastern half of the island. The founders called it Monolith, while others many commoners called it “Leviathan,” because of it’s labyrinthine complexity and size. Things went on for a while until the leadership of Monolith began to entertain fantasies about breaking Redbeard’s divine ordinance. They reasoned to themselves that the large number of now-degraded Mimirians who refused to pay for their service, would have done so if they only knew that it was for their own good. They disguised to themselves as good will for their fellow citizens, what was really a desire to rule over and extort other Mimirians. They decided they would bring everyone in the East under their protection, and in return the Easterners would be forced to pay annual dues whether they liked it or not. Monolith began by hiring soothsayers to go around committing blasphemy against Redbeard. They would say,” Redbeard is not a god, but a demon. He has lied to the Mimirians and exalted them for the sole purpose of taking pleasure in watching their destruction. Monolith is the only true power that can save us. Serve Monolith and we shall prosper once again.” Some people were shocked and resisted this notion but in time the soothsayers began to have their effect. Many people began calling for Monolith to bring all Easterners under the benevolent protection of the great Leviathan. There were some who stubbornly resisted the propaganda, but once Monolith had enough of the population on it’s side it’s used its monopoly of violence to force the remaining resisters into compliance. Redbeard was furious, but there wasn’t anything that he could do to intervene, the other gods were laughing and mocking him viciously. Redbeard consoled himself by looking to the Western half of his realm, it remained filled with Mimirians who feared and honored him with great reverence.

As all of this took place, the West looked on in astonishment. They couldn’t fathom why their fallen brothers would give way to such blasphemy, but they knew that there wasn’t anything they could do about it, except trust in Redbeard. After the Monolith was established in the East, they began sending spies into the West, to go in undercover and infiltrate their institutions. Eventually, about one-third of the Gildis were infiltrated. Others were infiltrated too, but they were too pure to be successfully subverted. The Gildis that were successfully subverted began promoting pro-Eastern propaganda and began to weaken the West. What the spies brought with them began to spread like a disease, but was met with at least some healthy resistance. That is the majority of the Western island held-fast but a large portion began to be seduced by pro-Eastern propaganda. The lies were taking root and growing like weeds among their healthy pastures. When the West was weakened sufficiently, the Eastern Monolith dared to make it’s boldest move yet, it launched an all-out attack on the Western part of the island. The Western Gildis that weren’t subverted, did the rational thing and banded together to counter this most horrendous act of aggression. There was one problem though, there weren’t enough men who were willing to join the Gildis and fight. Much of the West had been weakened too and many of the Mimirians were unable to figure exactly what was in their rational best interest, that is to say, they had somewhat degenerated. The Westerners weren’t about to break Redbeard’s law to fight off the invaders, they couldn’t break divine ordinance and force conscription, that would make them no better than this Eastern abomination standing at their doorstep.

After the Westerners were handily routed in the first round of battles, they quickly realized that they stood no chance of defeating their foe. They convened to discuss their dire situation, where they came to the inevitable conclusion that to continue to fight was pointless. There was no conceivable path to victory. The faithful Mimirians would either be slaughtered or forced to live under the tyranny Monolith. There was one man in the West, a pure Mimirian named Konun, who had fought more gallantly than any of the others. Not only this, but he had always been extremely faithful to the ways of the Mimirians and the law of Redbeard. However, recently he had begun to have doubts about the supreme authority Redbeard. He came to understand that Redbeard’s law only held sway over the Mimirian people and that the aliens who had settled there over the years were beholden to different gods. These other gods clearly had more power than Redbeard, otherwise why would Redbeard have allowed this to happen to them. Konun, using the notoriety he gained on the battlefield, used his newfound influence to call the attention of the council to himself. He said to the council, “I have served Redbeard and the Mimirian people faithfully my whole life, but it is clear that the time has come to make a bold decision. Destruction and slavery loom before us, the remnant of our people, and it has become apparent that while Redbeard has been good to us, he is not an all-powerful god. The influx of non-Mimirians to our island was something that Redbeard had no power over and was unable to deal with once it occurred. This is indeed a hard and sad realization we must face my brothers!” He argued that the Mimirian ways needed to change according to this new revelation. He explained how the island had degenerated through intermixing with foreign people, from foreign lands, with foreign gods. He explained how only those Mimirians who had remained pure would have the wisdom to keep the island relatively free. He was a very persuasive speaker and was able to gain the support of everyone in the council. Konun himself was of the purest stock and brave in battle, so those in the council convened and decided to make Konun leader of the Mimirian people. They gave him the authority of force, knowing that his wisdom could salvage a modicum of the freedom that had been lost. The council gave a sacrifice in thanks to Redbeard for all he done for them, but they also made a sacrifice to the other Nordic gods, including Ægir and the Father of the gods, and asked them to bless Konun’s kingship and to give them victory in battle over the Monolith.

The first thing Konun did with his new authority was to force conscription in the West. He put to the sword those who refused to join the fight as well as all of the subverted elements in the Western Gildis. He called the troops to himself and gave a rousing speech. He said to them, “Men of the West, because of the degeneration that has come to our island, we can no longer live practically under the law of Redbeard. As you know, I feel this loss more painfully than any of you as I was among the most devoted followers of Redbeard and the greatest devotees of the Mimirian way of life. A time of change has come and we can no longer live according to the peaceful precepts of our fore-fathers. This power that goes by the name Monolith is threatening our very existence, not only do they utterly blaspheme Redbeard and thereby mock our forefathers, but they pay respect to no other except the false god Monolith. I stand before you today, urging that with our combined strength, my leadership, and the blessing of the gods, we can defeat this foe once and for all. I don’t know what life will look like after we win, but I can tell you that the new world we create will pay reverence to the past and will work for the freedom and happiness of the people of Stjórnleysi!” The troops wiped the tears from their eyes and cheered Konun, they had come to accept him as their leader and their last best hope. Konun lead an assault that plunged like a dagger into the heart of the monolithic menace. They were driven from the pastoral West and pushed back to the rocky East. The victory heartened the Westerners and Konun used this new wave of morale to his advantage. With their new found energy, the Westerners thrust assault after assault into the East. Eventually the remaining Monolith troops were pushed back to the shores from which the horror was born. Konun made a final rallying call, “Crush them and utterly annihilate them! Leave no one alive!” Konun’s troops did just that and utterly vanquished their demonic foe.

Years after the war had ended, the people of Stjórnleysi had started to make some progress in rebuilding the island. Konun was given a crown of authority and the power of the sword. The other of the wisest and purest were commissioned to write the laws for the island. The law of Redbeard and their Mimirian fore-bearers were taken into consideration when writing these laws. The bravest and strongest among those who had fought in the war were granted a status of nobility. The nobles were commissioned with the sacred duty of caring for the needs and desires of the islanders whose minds had become the most benighted by degeneration. Amidst all of the turmoil and conflict, Redbeard had become entirely dejected. When the other gods were satisfied that he had been taken down off of his pedestal, they sent Freya to console him and persuade him to come back and share Stjórnleysi and it’s people with the other gods. She said to him, “You created a wonderful and beautiful people, but your pride got away with you, because the Father of the gods has been deprived of his honor. He never intended for such a people such as the Mimirians to exist in this world and in this age. You defied his power and therefore we made a mockery of you by destroying your creation. Now that you have learned your lesson, you can rejoin the fellowship of the gods and have a say in the fate of Stjórnleysi.” Redbeard was consoled and took part in the governance of the realm that was formerly his exclusively. The island was never as free and peaceful as it was before, but with the leadership of Konun and his descendants they were able to live peacefully and prosperously for many hundreds of years to come.