When in 1010 the monks of Reichenau created this image, part of the book now known as the Bamberg Apocalypse, they may well have thought they were preparing for the end of the world. The previous century saw the attacks of the Vikings and the rise of powerful minor landlords and nobles in the political void left by the declining Carolingian state. Depending on your historical point of view, by 1000, power had either devolved into the hands of petty warlords or had been reclaimed by local leaders. In either case, the uniformity of economic, ecclesiastical, administrative, and jurisdictional practices that the Carolingians had heavily invested in was transforming again into locally defined ones. This led to a series of local and regional conflicts over the exercise of power and authority, which eventually led to open strife.