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- The year is 850. After a
period a chaos surrounding the fall of Rome, Europe has settled
down to a period of several hundred years of relative peace and
stabillity. All that is about to drastically change. The Vikings
have begun a two hundred year period of pillaging and conquering
that will leave almost no part of the West untouched. Historically
at one time or another they conquered most of the cities in England,
Ireland, France, Germany, European Russia, Sicily and even looted
as far as North Africa, Constantinople and the Caspian Sea. By
the time they finally settled down after converting to Christianity
they had profoundly changed history.
While the Vikings were helping make the Dark Ages dark, the Byzantines
and Abbasids were the keepers of the technological flame. Both
of these powers were vibrant and militarily powerful during this
era, but they were more or less in entrenched positions, prevented
from growing. Meanwhile, in the middle of Europe the Hungarians
(Magyars) were terrorizing their neighbors with their deadly
cavalry.
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