Tibby's Graphics and Grab-Bag Thread.

[Turquoise Blue]

"Gang Aft Agley"

Prime Ministers of Scotland (2021-2024)
Nicola Sturgeon (SNP majority) 2021-2022
Damn Cherry. Damn everyone who won't damn Cherry. That woman managed to bind the SNP to unilateral independence in their November conference and then rushed the Parliament to vote for it. By a narrow one-seat margin, Scotland declared independence. Sturgeon was now the first head of government of an independent Scotland in centuries. But what should have been a triumphant declaration was now some rushed and probably illegal thing. And now Boris declared that he wouldn't stand for it and was now putting what remained of Britain's clout on isolating its unwelcome neighbour.

Any poll that would have been held about independence would have seen YES fall back below 50% after that. The gradualists lost the fight so comprehensively and Sturgeon herself lost control of the party. The leadership challenge was almost an afterthought.

Joanna Cherry (SNP majority) 2022-2024
The triumph of the fundamentalists in March 2022 came with more and more blows. An application to even consider joining the EU was rejected frostily, and President Biden refused to even meet the Scottish ambassador. Sure, there was some 'informal' acceptance here and there, including China. But none of it helped the Scottish economy, which was now collapsing like there was no tomorrow. Many economists attributed it to its historic dependence on the south, and the most charitable would say that this was a 'rough transitionary period'.

But for the average Scot, it was a nightmare as more and more jobs fled southwards. Boris, now successfully covering himself as 'defender of the Union' with his tough diplomatic talk, declared that there was 'no compromise on the Union', and even though Starmer adopted a more conciliatory tone, he was still firm that UDI was illegal and opposed by Labour. The diplomatic isolation was without end in sight. And out of a desperate move, Cherry signed more and more deals with China, giving them overt influence over the country. This did get Scotland more diplomatic recognition, but only outside the West.

As jobs vanished and poverty rose, including Covid-22 tearing apart the country in sickness worse than the UK in 2023, the people of Scotland turned angrier and against the SNP which promised such a rosy vision of independence and yet gave Scotland hell. In 2024, this would come to a boil.

Colin Fox (Scottish Socialist leading Revolutionary Government) 2024
They said it couldn't be done, that workers' revolutions didn't happen in this day and age. But Red Clydeside was back once more. With the SNP and Scottish Parliament successfully marginalised by a workers' uprising, Colin Fox declared the formation of the Republic of Scotland.

Prime Ministers of the Republic of Scotland (2024-????)
Colin Fox (Scottish Socialist leading Revolutionary Coalition) 2024-2026
2024: def. Ruth Davidson (Progressive Unionist), Nicola Sturgeon (SNP), Alex Salmond [in exile] ("Provisional" SNP), Patrick Harvie (Green)
Despite a stronger Unionist support than expected [one easily dealt with by a bill passed the first day expelling all members not supporting Scottish "national integrity"], Fox got his majority in the new People's Convention, and immediately moved with his policies. While many of them would see leftists down south start to agitate more for recognition of Scottish independence and saying that some of his stuff could be learnt from, it would cause their increasing marginalisation in British politics between a seemingly-dominant Conservative Party and a Labour Party anxious to not be associated with Scots.

Left unsaid was that Fox was in an unenviable position. The economy was still collapsing with no end in sight, and the only way he could solve it was by opening up further and further to China and other countries. Which would reduce Scotland to a mere economic puppet. In the end, he chose to put Scottish workers first and move away from those, instead prioritising a state-ran economy. This would see quite a bit of success at first.

But China, scorned by this move against any foreign economic influence, deemed that it was not worth the effort and declared that it 'respects the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom, as we hope the United Kingdom returns in turn'. The Chinese money left, leading to a panic and thousands of jobs lost in the blink of an eye. Christmas 2025 was the most miserable yet. Fox held firm and declared that "Scottish Socialism" would get the country out of the mess. But then he was thrown out by his own Convention in favour of a name that people thought was over.

Tommy Sheridan (Solidarity leading Revolutionary Coalition) 2026-????
2029: unopposed [SNP, Provisional SNP denied the ballot, Unionists forced to go underground]
A key element of the second rise of Tommy Sheridan was that he was part of a much more cynical streak emerging in Scottish radical left circles. One that believed that the world was against Scotland and that only Scotland could look after Scotland. A much more isolationist, insular viewpoint, but one much more open to autarkic ideas. But above all, the thing that defined Sheridan's government was its unrepentant hostility to criticism.

The press were heavily curtailed and opposition parties were consistently portrayed as suspiciously disloyal to Scotland by the Prime Minister. The main target of his attacks were the broad-tent Progressive Unionists. Being the child of the merger of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties and representing a broad "rejoin" attitude, it represented everything wrong with Scottish politics in his eyes. So to see that they were denied the ballot was unsurprising, especially as Sheridan centralised that to under his government's control.

But what was more surprising was that the two halves of the SNP, the official and provisional elements, were also denied it. The 2029 election returned a bunch of yes-men and yes-women [no yes-enbies though] and his control over Scotland cemented itself. Helping this was that finally the broken Scotland economy could start to rebuild itself. All jobs that could be lost were now lost, and Sheridan could continue Fox's project of "Scottish Socialist" state-controlled autarky. An uniquely-Scottish attempt at a command economy was now in full steam.

Meanwhile, Scotland's diplomatic isolation continued as Boris Johnson was followed by Priti Patel who promised to be every bit as tough - "if not more" - on the Scottish Question. By the time Sheridan drove opposition out of the convention, only the far-left in the UK backed Scotland. Labour was now fully committed to what was then a growing sense of British nationalism, built out of an instinctive reaction to what Scotland was. Everything Scotland was, Britain was the opposite. If Scotland is insular and closed, Britain is open to the world. If Scotland is state-controlled, Britain is for the free market. If Scotland is anti-European, well, let just say that Britain is now in the EEC again, but it says it's not. It's merely the UK-EU Coordinated Trade Market, which is totally not the EEC believe us.

The year is 2031 and the red sun rises above the grim brilliance of Tommy Sheridan's Socialist Republic. He is still in full grip of Scotland, but he is fully expected to hand over to his deputy Pat Lee in the coming year, yet still be greatly influential. Alex Salmond is still banned from returning to Scotland and is seen most of the time in Moscow. Joanna Cherry is still unrepentant about her pushing for unilateral independence, but is otherwise shunned by most people, even middle-class TERFs in the UK. And Nicola Sturgeon haven't been sighted for three years.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Decided to do this piss-take going off the idea of "The British has a socialist revolution, but it ends up like the first republic".

Note: I have no clue how left-wing factionalism worked in the 30s, so apologies for any horrendous mistakes there.

"So This Is How The Revolution Dies, With Thunderous Applause"

Monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1910-1931)
George V (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha/Windsor) 1910-1931

Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1921-1931)
Arthur Bonar Law (Conservative majority) 1921-1923
1922: def. J. R. Clynes (Labour), David Lloyd George (National Liberal), H. H. Asquith (Liberal)
Stanley Baldwin (Conservative majority) 1923-1926
Philip Snowden (Labour-Liberal coalition) 1926-1929
1926: def. Stanley Baldwin (Conservative), David Lloyd George (National), H. H. Asquith (Liberal)
Winston Churchill (National-Conservative coalition) 1929-1931
1929: def. Philip Snowden (Labour), Stanley Baldwin (Conservative), R. Palme Dutt (Communist)

Convenors of the People's Commonwealth of Britain (1931-1938)
Bertrand Russell (Independent) 1931-1933
1931 (supported by Fabian Society): def. Fenner Brockway (Independent Labour), R. Palme Dutt (Communist)
1932 (supported by Fabian Society): def. Fenner Brockway (Independent Labour), R. Palme Dutt (Communist)
Fenner Brockway (Independent Labour) 1933-1937
1933: def. R. Palme Dutt (Communist), A. V. Alexander (Co-operative & Fabian Society)
1934: unopposed
1935: def. Albert Inkpin (Communist), A. V. Alexander (Co-operative & Fabian Society)
1936: unopposed
Albert Inkpin (Communist) 1937-1938**
1937: def. Fenner Brockway (Independent Labour), Tom Mann (Independent Communist), A. V. Alexander (Co-operative), Beatrice Webb (Fabian Society)

Chairmen of the Provisional Committee of the People's Commonwealth of Britain (1938-1949)
Oswald Mosley (Independent Labour) 1938-1940
Stafford Cripps (Independent Labour) 1940-1948*
Harold Nicolson (Independent Labour) 1948-1949

Monarchs of the Popular Kingdom of Great Britain (1949-present)
George VI (Windsor) 1949-1952
Elizabeth II (Windsor) 1952-present

Prime Ministers of the Popular Kingdom of Great Britain (1949-present)
Harold Nicolson (Labour majority) 1949-present
1949: def. A. V. Alexander (Co-operative), John Loverseed (Radical-Democratic), Evelyn Waugh (People's)

The announcement by the Provisional Committee, which replaced the Trades Unions Congress in 1938 in an upheaval of centralisation and rejection of what was perceived as "Russian influence", that an invitation would be sent to the King in Canada was an unexpected one to many as it closed the page on Britain's second experiment at republicanism and a much more radical one than the first.

But as the King was crowned in Revolut- Westminster Abbey and the restored Family moved back in Buckingham Palace [please excuse the burnt bits], they're acutely aware that the Britain they return to is a radically different one. While Parliament is once again back, the upper-chamber is more or less the old TUC rebranded as the "House of Trades", the political parties dominating the conversation [apart from that weird Mr. Waugh's People's Party] are solidly left-wing only in different forms, and the economy is firmly not capitalist, being primarily an uncomfortable mixture of various socialist policies, with some mutualised cooperatives, some state-controlled enterprises and some suspiciously "market" socialist experiments here and there. The days when Britain was the land of nobles is firmly over, and all power belongs to the workers.

And yet somehow they're fine with a crowned head. Both Stalin and Barkley could agree on one thing - they didn't know how to respond. Nevertheless, the Popular Kingdom of Great Britain now exists, a huge "up yours" to people who think countries have to make sense ideologically.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

"It is the year 2021. The world and the stars are divided in two bitter competing forces, both advocating completely different ideologies. One bases its legitimacy off hereditary authority in a crowned head theoretically bound by traditional liberties and constitutionalism, the other derives its legitimacy from the workers enabling an authoritarian party-state furthering the revolution. The gap between the two couldn’t be starker.

But the one thing that unites them is that they have in theory transcended the old petty ideas of nationalism. Why be a Russian or an Englishman when you can be a Soviet or an Imperial? The fall of nationalistic forces have led many to foolishly declare that “the Springtime of Nations is at an end”, and therefore we are in the “Winter”, the nadir. The days when people defined their identity off ‘nations’ is at an end. The Soviets say that the struggle against the Imperials is the “final struggle” against capitalism in its death-knell, while the Imperials declare that “reckoning” for the “red tyrants” is coming.

But even as they posture on how their form of post-nationalism is the one that will lead the world, they internally compromise with nationalist forces. The Imperials’ confusing multi-level authorities that are supposed to give ‘more local accountability’ and is ostensibly covered with peerages is all but giving the internal identities their power in exchange for loyalty while we all know the Soviet Union’s ‘national republics’ such as the Korean or Manchu SSRs are touted as “Soviet national liberation”.

Ultimately, even though the cold war is helmed by men and women sitting in Moscow and London, it is one determined by the old relationship between their largest nationalities – China and India. China, or the Chinese Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, eclipsed Russia in the 60s in power, and determines its future direction without equal. Meanwhile its rival, the Union of India, has a much more tenuous relationship within the Imperial Federation due to being first incorporated via colonialism, but as political necessities empowered it, it has rapidly took control much to some Englishmen’s dismay.

Do not be deceived. This may be seen as a cold war between such post-national concepts of Soviets and Imperials, but at heart it is the thousands-years-old rivalry between the great nations of Asia – China and India."


UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS ('SOVIET UNION')

Vanguard of the Revolution
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Still the only legal party, although by now it's essentially factionalised to fuck. The labels below are made by Kremlinologists for informal caucuses.

- "Chinese Faction": Not really all of the Chinese members of the Party Committee, but it's dominated by them, it's the one that talks of "market socialism" and "socialism with patriotic characteristics" whatever that even means. All I know is that it has worked gang-busters in bringing China up to wealthy status [as their former Chairman reportedly said "to get rich is glorious"]. Been the dominant faction since the 90s, the latest Himalayan Crisis has however been egg on their face as Kremlinologists in London predict Xi Jinping's end as Chairman. Still, that has been said a lot...

- "Russian Faction": The "orthodox socialists", they tend to want the old command economy back and idolises those days. Democratic centralism means they don't often say such in public, but it's known that Russia has generally benefited way less from perestroika than China has, and resents it. Also the faction that is way more into the idea of "Soviet patriotism", contrasting it with the "feudal identity" of the Imperials.

- "European Faction": The more 'liberal' of the factions regarding stuff such as gay rights [although neither superpower has covered themselves in glory here, to be honest], it's dominated by the western republics such as Germany, Sweden and Yugoslavia, they tend to be the most independent-minded of the republics and massively advocate decentralisation of the Soviet Union to empower the republics, even if still following the party line when forced to. Murmurs that they're secret collaborationists with the Imperials are rife. Also has the Koreans, which are massively different from the rest.

- "Agrarian Faction": One of the few major factions that aren't based in a region or nationality, they're generally representing the people disaffected by the mad rush to industrialisation, and call for a restoration of the level of agrarian subsidies that were cut in the 90s in the "Third Industrial Revolution". Mostly excluded those days from power, their strongest base is Mongolia and Central Asia, but even that's being squeezed.

- "Religious Faction": Aligned with the Russians since the 2000 conference, they've been considerably more powerful in the past than they are now, with China's more secular leadership dragging the Soviet Union away from mealy-mouthed compromises with the Orthodox Church. Their sympathisers in the West routinely decry a "second Kulturkrieg" with the Soviet Union now officially increasing control over religious authorities.

- "International Faction": Aka the ones that the Imperials' John Birch Society [a 'non-political' organisation named after an Imperial missionary killed by Soviet forces in the 40s] thinks are the dominant faction, they're reportedly seen by the others as dangerously close to Trotskyism in advocating an active expansion of the global revolution up to the point of risking nuclear war with the Imperials. Thankfully they're safely irrelevant.

- "Space Faction": Mostly a vague faction that every other faction is sort of aligned to, this is the one that aggressively promotes space exploration and settlement [never colonisation, that's a dirty word for what the Imperials do], and their symbolic leader is the first taikonaut on Pluto.


UNITED FEDERATION OF IMPERIAL DOMINIONS ('IMPERIAL FEDERATION')
Unlike the Soviets, the Imperials pride themselves on "public politics", although it is known that there does exist some "Palaceologists" in Moscow, because while the Soviets seemingly have a lack of public information on their political dealings, the Imperials have too much. Their political parties are so fractious and based in local politics more often than not, that Moscow regularly consult their experts to comprehend what their rival has just done.

Hence we are going to rely on the Palaceologists' analysis of the various party factions here, all under their "official" Imperial party brandings.

Her Imperial Majesty's Government
Conservative Party ("Tories")
The party on the "right" of the Imperial spectrum, it is a ridiculously broad-tent party [tbf like all else] based around three things above all - Anti-communism, pro-tradition and pro-business. But the last two can really vary, while the first is something all (legal) parties in the UFID can agree on...

- "Populars": Mostly dominated by Indian and African MPs, this faction has either sent the Tory leaders or played kingmaker in the various leadership struggles. The current Prime Minister, former First Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi himself is of this faction. He's a curiosity as a relative unknown compared to the dominating political dynasties often seen in Indian politics. The Popular Society tends to be the most flexible on economics (although under Modi has been quite firm on pushing free-market reforms, a notable shift) while firm on social conservatism, and opposes any centralisation to Westminster, preferring to emphasise the Federation aspect of the Imperial demos. Known as the Progressives in North America.

- "One Nation": Notably different from the Populars in how they prefer to centralise power to Westminster, and tends to be more flexible on social issues as well as fiscal, they tend to be more concentrated in Britain and Canada than elsewhere. Apart from that, there's not much to say, really, apart from their being the loudest on environmental issues, to the point of being called the "turquoise tendency".

- "Unionists": Economically, they tend to be basically the Liberals' Marketeer faction, calling for less state intervention, but combining that with a social conservatism to match the Populars, they tend to be the dominating faction in the American Dominions and hence have enough clout to at times block the Populars' more statist tendencies. Historically they used to be the Liberal Unionists, a splitter Liberal branch, before merging in the 1920s. Those days they and the Populars tend to vote more or often in-sync, leading some palaceologists to wonder if the two have merged in all but name.

- "Nationals": The faction most on the outs those days, it combines social conservatism with a firm economic-interventionist policy, seeing the Populars as traditionally too fickle to implement anything properly interventionist [and under Modi they seem to have been proven correct].

Her Imperial Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition
Liberal Party
The party ostensibly on the "left" of the Imperial spectrum, it is too a ridiculously broad-tent party that defines itself rather succinctly, as the party of Liberty above all. To the Soviets of course, this party is nothing but just the peak of bourgeois capitalism with some sops here and there to the workers.

- "Marketeers": The more free-market sort has really rose to prominence in the last few decades, bolstered by both a shift in the Indian liberals away from their traditional New-Liberal alignment and the success of the Chinese Faction in creating wealth in the Soviet Union, leading the Marketeers to call for the Imperials to out-compete the Soviets in the free market. Had quite a few successful PMs since, but since 2015 is now in opposition.

- "New Liberals": The "new" is a holdover from the early 1900s when they were the bright young things on the political stage advocating a radical shift in the United Kingdom and its Empire [as the Imperials were known then], they are famously the faction of Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the greatest Imperial Prime Ministers, but has certainly fallen far since, with their 'social-market' regulations now perceived as stifling the Federation in the 80s.

- "Fabians": Also known as "Liberal-Labour", they're perhaps the most left-wing yet mainstream faction and the only ones who dare to mention the word "socialism". A key part of Liberal internal party coalition in where New-Liberals used them to successfully marginalised the old Gladstonians in the 'interests of progress', their presence has notably increased the last decade as Marketeer dominance squeezes New-Liberals in more developed areas. They only had one Prime Minister, the ill-fated Harry Lee who oversaw the economic crisis of the mid-70s.

- "Greens": A relative new-comer, this is a faction mostly based in younger faces especially in the "Anglo" Dominions but increasingly in urban areas in India, and often call for anti-corruption measures, environmentalist policies and all those radical-liberal policies that are increasingly popular with young people. They and the One Nation sort have a curious synergy despite their massive policy differences.

Other Parties
The Imperial Parliament is noted for its rowdy nature, something it has inherited from the old British Parliament, and hence this is something that the Soviets often make fun of, contrasting their orderly conferences with the cheers and jeers and sometimes brawls in the Parliament. The plethora of parties does not help with that, and it would take thousands of words to describe all of them. Just think the most variety possible, and you're close.

[Citation: The flag for the Soviets was created by redrich on DeviantArt here, and the one for the Imperials was created by SunnyCant on Reddit here]

 

[Turquoise Blue]

2020 Illinois parliamentary election

• Boldly Onwards! - 31 seats, 16.95% [Barack Obama's vaguely liberal, mostly personalist, movement, sells himself as a "new change"]
• Downstate First - 20 seats, 10.97% [Formerly fringe right-wing party railing against "Chicago dominance", benefited off corruption scandals]
• Solidarity - 15 seats, 8.70% [Traditionalist-left Polish and wider Slavic interests, got votes from religious trade unions abandoning Labor or CPP]
• Labor - 15 seats, 8.48% [The normal "big left" party, it has increasingly split and split before the recent corruption brought it down]
• Libertarian - 11 seats, 6.44% [Got a surge as big donors decided to leave a GOP seemingly tied to nativist populism, not knowing they're nuts]
• Anti-Madigan Labor - 8 seats, 4.81% [Mostly just "Labor, but fuck Michael Madigan", so emphasises anti-corruption measures]
• Republican - 8 seats, 4.58% [Tried to skew more nativist to take away votes from the right-wing, only managed to fuck up stuff]
• Protestant - 8 seats, 4.39% [De facto the party of Southern Baptists due to the Methodists voting for other parties, so very right-wing]
• Catholic People's - 7 seats, 4.05% [Once was a strong force, but since the scandals, have been hit hard, especially to parties like Solidarity]
• All-American - 6 seats, 3.76% [Very much clear what it wants, no more immigrants, build a wall. Also white-supremacist of course]
• Sinn Féin - 5 seats, 3.14% [The party of the Irish in Illinois that vote on the basis of ethnicity, they've made some gains]
• Social Democratic - 5 seats, 2.91% [Formerly the German Social Democrats, they're trying to appeal to Scandinavians now]
• Liberal - 4 seats, 2.68% [The traditional party of the middle-class who generally aren't hot on the Republicans, but tainted due to Lab-Lib pact]
• National Association - 4 seats, 2.49% [Once the party of African-Americans, this election Obama all but took most of their votes]
• Democratic Labor - 3 seats, 1.91% [The traditional-leftist, anti-Labor party that didn't like the idea of supporting a Slavic party]
• Jewish Labor Bund - 3 seats, 1.90% [Those days it's a generally social-democratic-ish and pro-Jewish minority rights party. Mostly the later.]
• Green - 3 seats, 1.90% [A trendy eco-socialist party popular with young people who want a proper left-wing, non-ethnic and not-corrupt party]
• Christian Democratic - 3 seats, 1.69% [Once a heady attempt at creating a pan-Christian party, it's now just the mushy Christian centrists]
• Black Panther - 3 seats, 1.67% [Normally never was anywhere even 2 seats, the fact it got this high shows this election is quite unique]
• German Conservative - 2 seats, 1.10% [There has been some murmurs of copying the DSP and going for a multi-ethnic approach.]
• Indian National Congress - 1 seat, 0.96% [The biggest Asian minority in Illinois is the Indians, but the INC struggles to unite them.]
• Pride - 1 seat, 0.87% [LGBT rights, and seen by many younger LGBT people as just that, with it eagerly supporting neoliberal centrists in deals]
• Green-Progress - 1 seat, 0.85% [Only different from the Greens because of a procedural dispute in the early 2000s that never was resolved.]
• Kuomintang - 1 seat, 0.85% [Chinese interests. Currently floating the idea of a pan-Asian "Asian Alliance" with INC and smaller parties]
• Socialist - 1 seat, 0.66% [Democratic socialism, but currently much ignored.]

Parties that failed to get enough votes for a seat

• Forgottonia! - 0 seats, 0.52% [Fell below the threshold after a few decade hovering above it, this party is a regional one just shaking its fist]
• Farmer-Labor - 0 seats, 0.46% [A merger of Grange and a Labor splitter in 1919, this party has been safely irrelevant for the most part]
• Grange - 0 seats, 0.31% [In the 70s, there was a dispute between the left and right, and the right refounded the Grange as a party.]

Resulting Government
- Dan Lipinski (Solidarity, with Anti-Madigan Labor, Catholic People's, Sinn Féin, Social Democrats, Democratic Labor, Christian Democrats, German Conservatives, Indian National Congress and Kuomintang, with Downstate First and Labor supply and confidence)
Majority - 1 (85/169)

 

[Turquoise Blue]

In future I'm gonna post role-play I do for each election-game here depending on if I think they're good enough.

First, this game (Ikiru ka Shinu) is set in 1858 Bakumatsu Japan, and never got past the first turn. But I really got deep with that, including digging up what might be the most detailed English writing about the history of Ryukyu, to form my character.

So who is Kunigami Chōten? Well, why not post his character form here? [I also have pasted the explanations for each issue for full clarification].

Picture (Okada Saburōsuke)

Name: Kunigami Chōten
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Allegiance: Ryuk-... Satsuma.
Class: Nobility
Occupations and Offices: Bureaucrat in the Ryukyuan Administration (1850-present)
Bio: A quiet and cerebral man, Kunigami Chōten grew up with a burning ambition in his heart. That of Ryukyu standing, well not tall, but proud. That on its broken and divided islands, it can craft a new society, one of industry and of progress. He sees the West, and all he feels is… jealousy.

He knows they merely see Ryukyu as a puppet, at best, of Japan. And that irks him. He sees Japan’s present society, and sees it as tiresome and backwards. He wants his kingdom to blaze into the future, to well, to ‘Westernise’. Perhaps only through putting on Western attire Ryukyu can break free.

His passion is painting, and he paints both the traditional Okinawan style and increasingly the new Western. He hopes to one day, fuse both to show a new Ryukyu, one that blends Ryukyuan tradition with Western learning. And to show that Ryukyu can take both, become a true kingdom in its own right.

Or at least prevent a future annexation by the Japanese…
Flaws and Traits:
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters - You are likely a charismatic idealist, and envision yourself leading the righteous into battle, be it in war or revolution, but you possess few actual martial skills; Generalship is capped at 3.
The Man of Ryukyu: Hailing from the Ryukyuan islands in the Satsuma Domain, Kunigami Chōten has made a name for himself among the local aristocracy of the islands and is today a champion of the cause of the Ryukyan people. +5 to initiatives about or taking place in Ryukyu
Stats:
Generalship - 3
Subterfuge - 4
Administration - 6
Charisma - 6
Issues:

Spoiler: The Modern Age According to Kunigami

Kurofune: (In 1853 the kurofune, Black Ships, of Perry crashed through the carefully cultivated barrier of bakufu control. Dozens more have followed in their wake. A flurry of treaties has slowly begun to open Japan to the Americans, British, Russians, French, and Dutch. A mere 8 years ago our contact with the west was tightly regulated through a single artificial island in Nagasaki where only the Dutch could enter at the Shogun’s blessing. Now foreigners walk freely in numerous cities subject only to the laws of their own nations. Their goods flow into the country as protective tariffs are being forced down to nearly non-existent levels. Anger is rising at both the foreigners who have entered the country and the bakufu which appears powerless to resist them. There have already been several incidents of violence associated with the sonnō jōi (Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians) movement although they remain somewhat infrequent. The sonnō jōi gain power by the day despite Shogunal condemnation with the Emperor himself rumoured to be a sympathizer. The Shogun and his advisors warn we must take a cautious approach and build up our strength until we can confront the foreigners on an equal footing lest Japan go the way of China. There are also some, albeit a somewhat small group, who believe the time has come for the country to embrace the international system. What is your position on this pressing issue? Righteous violence against the invader? Pragmatic diplomacy while marshaling Japan’s strength? Or acknowledgment of the modern age?)
"This is an opportunity for our land to get more cards to its hand. We must seek to acquire as much of the foreigners' technology as possible so we can make Ryukyu as powerful as possible. We must take their technology and use it to make our land prosperous!

Bakufu: (For some 250 years the Tokugawa bakufu has ruled Japan. The Shogun stands at the center of a circle radiating from his person to the broader Tokugawa family, its vassals and cadet branches, their ostensible fudai allies, to the tozama outsiders. The Emperor’s supreme authority has long been moral and theoretical rather than concrete as the military government exercises real control. Yet centuries of peace, relative prosperity, and urbanization brought change to the delicate balance between central authority and regional autonomy created by Tokugawa Ieyasu in the early 17th Century. Many of the mechanisms designed to keep the daimyo and domains obedient have fallen into mere formality. The distinction between by fudai and tozama blurred as lords found common cause in protecting their rights against centralizing impulses. Evidence of the bakufu’s erosion even before the arrival of the west came in 1840 when an order for a daimyo to exchange his realm for another was flatly refused with the backing of local grandees and both fudai and tozama lords. Now the humiliating treatment of Japan at the hands of foreign powers has further shaken the legitimacy of the bakufu and led to a groundswell of support for “restoring” the emperor to his proper power. Tozama leaders advocate loosening central controls to increase the ability of domains to modernize on their own. On the other side there are many within the bakufu and their fudai allies who argue it must begin a process of strengthening and transforming itself into something closer to a modern western nation-state. In the debate over the system which has governed Japan since the 17th Century, where do you fall? Has the Shogun had his day and is it time for the Emperor to return? Do the domains need greater control of their own affairs? Can only a reinvigorated bakufu bring peace to Japan?)
"Do not speak to me of Edo business!"

Sunno: (Sonnō, the first word in the slogan sonnō joi, refers to reverence for the Emperor. The Emperor of course has always been a figure of reverence through his status as a living deity descended from the sun goddess Amaterasu herself. As Shoguns usurped Imperial power, they nonetheless continued to view the Emperor as a great and powerful man worthy of respect. Yet this has taken a turn in the last few decades. Adoration changed from a spiritual and cultural value to a political one. Scholars began advocating more temporal power for the Emperor to bring peace to a country that appeared to be slipping towards disorder. The arrival of the west has transformed this relatively small scholarly school into a grassroots movement extending through the length and breadth of Japan. With the bakufu entering crisis many now look to the ancient court at Kyoto for guidance. There is variance within the movement, however, as to some it simply means the Shogun should heed the wishes of the Emperor more closely and form something resembling a proper power sharing agreement. Even some members of the bakufu itself have come to see some merit in the idea for the sake of improving national unity through Kōbu gattai (Union of Court and Shogun). At the same time more radical members are moving towards supporting a full “restoration” of Imperial power and deposing the Shogun who stands in the way of the Emperor’s divine will. Such men are still outside the halls of power but appear to be inching closer in numerous tozama domains. What is your opinion on the Emperor and Imperial power? Is the current situation sustainable? Should a new Kyoto-Edo partnership be established? Can the Emperor and court take power for themselves?)
"I have reverence for my King. Some for the Emperor, who is of course the Sun God and whatnot, but I revere my sovereign the most."

Rangaku: (Contrary to the belief of some, Japan has not remained a close-minded place these past centuries. The phenomenon of Rangaku, or Dutch Learning¸ has brought a steady flow of western knowledge from the Netherlands through their trading post at Nagasaki. Japanese scholars have come to increasingly understand fields such as biology, astronomy, and chemistry from a western point of view. This has only accelerated in the past few decades as traditional Confucian approaches to the sciences gradually give way to western empirical methods. The arrival of Perry convinced both the Shogun and many domains that they must embrace a modernizing approach or risk being crushed by the outside world. The bakufu invited the Dutch to establish a naval academy at Nagasaki in 1855 and hurriedly purchased several modern steamships. Numerous domains rushed to do the same. After them came other military, scientific, and industrial advisors alongside a flood of texts. This has not been undertaken without considerable resistance. There are some who view this as a perversion of traditional Japanese cultural as well as evidence the Shogun is selling out Japan to foreign powers. In a perhaps curious twist, others believe both that foreigners are an existential threat to the purity of Japan and western technology must be adopted to resist it. Although numerous scholars, engineers, and officers are eager to learn from the west there are an equal number who feel their position is threatened in this new age. Is the growing official acceptance of western knowledge a fundamental threat to our ancient culture? Must Japan modernize as fast as possible or risk colonization? Or can we afford to take a more measured approach?)
"Knowledge can never be a dangerous thing. Read, note and learn from them, so we can use it for our means."

Mibunsei: (For centuries, the Japanese class system has been rooted in Confucian morality which became formalized in the mibunsei system. Under its principles there is strict separation between the four ranked classes of samurai, peasants, artisans, and merchants with the Emperor and court nobility above all. Each class ought to remain in its proper place and occupation. In practice, however, this has never fully been the case. The samurai intermingle with both the court nobility above and wealthy commoners below. Well off commoners often purchase commissions or marry into samurai families which allows them access to higher rungs of power. As the Japanese economy developed into a sophisticated form of proto capitalism the legally superior samurai and daimyo often found themselves indebted to powerful merchants or landholding peasants. Some scholars blame this blurring of lines for a rise in internal unrest, corruption, and infighting within the ruling class. Of course, others chafe at the formal restrictions in place which stigmatizes new entrants to the upper ranks and bar those who do not have this status from official positions above the village level. Within the samurai class itself many positions have become hereditary which keeps talented men from rising. Should the status quo simply remain lest any change only worsen matters? Is it time to embrace true Confucian morality through strict adherence to mibunsei? Or are these restrictions remnants of a less enlightened past?)
"We need reform, that is clear. But we cannot sacrifice our traditions. Note, learn, but keep who we are. And by we, I mean Ryukyu."

Gimin: (Gimin, “virtuous men,” occupy a key part of popular memory among Japan’s rural and urban labourers. These men stand up to cruel landlords, unfeeling officials, and nature itself to fight for the common people, often becoming martyrs in the process. Japan has a long tradition of lower-class protest ranging from withholding taxes to presenting petitions all the way to rioting and organized rebellion. Even during the so called “Tokugawa Peace” this has remained a fact of life. Yet the daimyo and bakufu are alarmed at the increasing rate of disturbances since the beginning of the 19th Century. The advent of proto capitalism brought dislocation to the countryside resulting in a growing gap between desperately poor agricultural labourers and wealthier landowners. Population increases have sent many to the cities where they are dependent on cheap supplies of rice and often insecure work. As urbanization continues and a growing portion of commoners are employed as wage labourers they are vulnerable to swings in the economy or sudden increases in the price of grain due to natural disaster. Efforts to counteract this trend through a mix of suppression and enforcing a Confucian “moral economy” have largely failed, much to the consternation of the ruling class. Is this a sign the common folk need greater support or loosened restriction from their betters? Should they simply be repressed with force despite possible economic consequences? Is it the fault of immoral merchants and landowners?)
"They're inconvenient. The West however, have managed to quell them to an extent. The last major Gimin rebellion there was a decade ago, and the one before that was sixty years ago. We should take notes so we can learn how to modernise our economy so the gimin no longer rebels."

That sums up Kunigami. A Ryukyuan nationalist to his bones, he loves his island-home and wants to see it prosper. And he sees true prosperity as only coming via modernisation. To him, the days of old are dead and Ryukyu must act boldly.

Hence why he advocates what he calls his "Modernisations". The First Modernisation is that of industrialisation, the Second Modernisation is that of government reform and the Third Modernisation is that of education. But do not think he wishes for Ryukyu to sacrifice its culture and become "Westernised". He thinks that Japan has made Ryukyu lose its treasured past, including that of the priestess system and belief in the spiritual superiority of women. This is a man who believes fervently in gender equality for nationalist reasons, but as of the First Modernisation, he is holding back for now.

Now, the below is the role-play itself. It is an incomplete (sadly) letter from Kunigami to the King of Ryukyu about the First Modernisation.

====

To the great, magnanimous, wise and enlightened Shō Tai, King of the Ryukyu Islands and Lord of Okinawa, from your most obedient servant Chōten, Lord of Kunigami.

I present the first part of my threefold proposal to enrich and empower your Realm.

Your ever-beloved islands have never wanted for knowledge of foreign countries nor their advances. Trade with China and with Japan have much enriched it. But actions by England and France the last few decades regarding the Kingdom have deeply disturbed the Realm, especially their dalliances with aggressive missionarism. It is clear that if the Realm wishes to develop itself into one that can turn back those missionaries and protect its cultural heritage, it must take notes of the technological advancements the foreigners have done.

As China takes its last steps as a great power at the hands of the industrial might of England, Ryukyu’s vulnerability is clear. When even the power of China cannot stand against industry, the Kingdom’s age-old strategy of being tributary to two empires cannot last. It is clear that it must adapt to a new and terrifying age. This humble plan of mine is designed to be a proposal on how it can do the first, and most vital, part.

For what unites the European foreigners? Industry. The Kingdom’s northern masters have dallied with industrialisation efforts the last decade, but tides are turning there according to information the court has received from its men at Satsuma. With China falling and Satsuma turning sceptical, it is time for the Kingdom to take advantage of the opportunity it has, and modernise.

One may say that such a small and geographically fractured Kingdom such as Ryukyu cannot industrialise, and my response would be that industrialisation is but a young and green idea. The world has not seen its full bloom yet, nor its limitations.

If this Kingdom desires to industrialise, first it has to consider what sort of energy source that it needs to rely on. There are many options, but in this I am focusing on five. The one the foreigners mostly use. The other one the foreigners tend to use. And the three I believe are best.

The foreigners mostly use coal. The Kingdom is aware that Admiral Perry noted four years ago that there existed coal in the southernmost parts of your Realm, in the Yaeyama Islands, but that due to the Kingdom’s interests at the time you ordered the location to be covered up. If you, in your eternal wisdom, choose to exploit coal for the Kingdom’s industrialisation, this such location will have to be revealed. And I have to note that the Realm has no knowledge or awareness of the amount of coal in those possible seams, so any possible industrialisation based on coal may fall short.

Another source for the foreigners is that of crude oil, also known as petroleum. They extract it from under the soil with drills. This is a source that they have rapidly grown an interest from. However, the Realm knows of no oil fields within itself. There is an alternative, however. Whale oil. This country has a tradition of fishing and whaling, and whale oil may prove a good burner for the possible machines the Realm may wish to import. But whale oil needs to be regularly harvested by whalers, and the challenges comes of balancing the Kingdom’s small population between industrial workers and whalers.

Wood may be a useful source, but it is a limited source that must be restored. The Kingdom must not bring down every tree it has. It must seek to plant one tree for every one it takes down, for its inner peace demands a birth for a death. The Kingdom’s natural beauty depends a lot on its trees, and if they all were to be taken down in the quest for industry, that would be a tragedy beyond compare.

If the King would accept my counsel, I would recommend walking away from any form of coal or oil for the primary form of energy in industrialisation. Those demand too much of your people to extract, and become industries in of themselves. This country needs a regular, steady source of energy that does not demand men’s labour. Fortunately, there is one resource this Kingdom does not lack.

Wind. The Kingdom is noted for its abundance of breeze, and if Ryukyu can exploit such a resource, it may be able to construct industries that do not rely on coal or oil for such purposes. This is not an unknown idea, the Realm’s most familiar Europeans, the Dutch, habitually use it to drain water. The Kingdom is also familiar with turning gears, which transports movement from one area to another. By combining the gear and the wind, the Kingdom may be able to fuel machines using such power.

However, wind by itself, despite the Kingdom’s weather, may be unreliable. There may be still days, and this Realm cannot afford its industrialisation be determined by the fickleness of the skies. This is why I propose a three-source industrialisation. Wind, wood and... water. Ryukyu has considerable peaks with mighty rivers pouring down them. The energy they spend into blazing down the slopes could be used to great ends by fuelling watermills which may be used to develop power for industries.

The use of three sources instead of one enables flexibility. If the Kingdom takes down too much wood, it may rely more on wind and water until its new seedlings dominate the scenery once more. If the wind is still, the Kingdom may rely more on wood and water until the skies bluster and blow once more. And if wood is short and wind is still, water faithfully runs down Mount Yunaha every day and has done so for thousands of years. It is the most reliable of sources.

The tragedy of the Kingdom is that it unfortunately do not already possess sufficient knowledge of industry. So the unfortunate conclusion is that it shall have to invite foreign advisors. There must never be another Bettelheim, that is certain, but there is no chance the Realm may industrialise without learning from foreign powers.​

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Extract from “A Complete History of Wales Vol. 5 – ‘Subjection’.” by Aneurin ap Gruffydd, 1974.

The Conquest of Wales was complete with the last Prince, that of Gwynedd, bending the knee and acknowledging Cnut II as ‘Lord of All Wales’, ending centuries of constant struggle against English expansion. To understand the period between conquest and integration, the so-called ‘Marcher Years’, we have to dissect Welsh society at this period, both in the Marches and in Gwynedd, and how it interacted with English domination.

The ‘Long Peace’ that Magnus the Ancient enjoyed in Wales during his reign was enabled by the rise of what was at the time described as either ‘Marcher’ or ‘Walian’ people. To understand the stability of the ‘Long Peace’, we must understand the Walian people, what historians refer to as the ‘Cambro-English’. Cnut II was a man dedicated to Christian beliefs in just rule and law, and hence appointed the Hardradas he believed to follow those beliefs the most similarly as he did. This would have a long effect on shaping Welsh society. There could have easily been more harsh rulers that would have ruled differently from the men Cnut appointed instead.

While Haakon ‘Ironfist’ of Powys would be known widely in England for his brutal response to the Earls ensuring the young Magnus would reign smoothly, and his rule of Powys be more firm-handed than that of Harald of Dyfed and Rolf of Gwent leading to a minor rebellion, he was known for cultivating a minor class of translators, inspired by his dearly-departed brother’s deep reliance on a translator to talk to Anglisc-speaking people. He was ruler over a vast Kymraec-speaking populace, and he had to make his will known to them so they could obey. Those minor class of translators would increasingly grow more and more wide until it proved to be less a label of employment and more a signifier of class, the ‘aspirational’ sort that aligned with the feudal elite’s interests while regularly having contact with the peasantry. This practise which proved so effective at dictating Haakon’s will on to his Kymraec-speaking subjects would spread to the other earldoms of the Marches as they paid close attention to what Haakon performed, and this vague class grew rapidly in those more light-handed areas.

By necessity, the ‘Walians’ were bilingual – knowing both Anglisc and Kymraec – as they served as the ‘bridge’ between the Anglisc/Norse speaking elite and the Kymraec-speaking masses, ensuring that the former could communicate their demands and ensure taxes could be collected promptly and without any misunderstandings that could occur. It was noted that by the end of Magnus the Ancient’s long reign, the ‘Walians’ were in multiple generations and carving out considerable influence over government via dominating the trade economy and the translation industry. While Haakon’s successor noted a discomfort with their growing influence, the expectations set out by Cnut and upheld by Magnus via his Ancient Laws and Parlement held firm and they were increasingly relied upon to ensure the ‘just rule’ principle was consistently held to.

By the very end of Magnus the Ancient’s reign, it was even noticed that the children of prominent Marcher lords under the Earls were growing up more and more influenced by the ‘Walians’ as it proved extremely easy to hire a ‘Walian’ nurse than hire one from England or throw hostage to fortune and hire a Welsh one. Indeed, those children would go down in history as the second stage of the ‘Walian Ascendancy’ as history marked this period as, the stage in which the 13th century would see a growing class of bilingual minor nobles of dubious loyalties expand influence in the realms of Wales.

Indeed, if you look at notes from English visitors to the Marches, you find many scathing notes of the ‘Walians’ and their ambiguous loyalty, as well as the Marcher Lords for enabling such. Those notes will often pin all the blame on the ‘soft-hearted’ Cnut and his weakness for ‘Christian justice’, hindering their ability at bringing the matter to an English court still dominated by Cnut’s children.

But historians do concur, the growth of the ‘Walian’ class of collaborators with the new regime, originally created as a form of necessity by Hardradas influenced by the idea of ‘Christian justice’ and emerging as an embryonic middle-class in medieval Welsh March society, played a key part in defusing tensions that could have led to a major rebellion within Magnus the Ancient’s reign, and ultimately enabling his successor to believe he could complete it peacefully via a marriage with the daughter of the last independent Welsh ruler.

However, for most Welsh people, who remained firmly peasants and solely Kymraec speaking, the emergence of the ‘Walians’ changed little. They were told in their language what obligations they had, what taxes the new lord demanded from them, what the prices were at market. They spent their entire lives speaking Kymraec, just like their ancestors did, and had little incentive to learn any Anglisc. The ‘Walians’ tended to come from the ambiguously-defined ‘common gentry’ that grew to achieve more power by leveraging bilingualism to enter themselves into key positions in the new regime. It was not a popular class, but one of the common gentry expanding power.

With the Earldoms loyal Hardrada family members and the common gentry enjoying power via being interlocutors, the only exception was that of the Prince of Gwynedd. The sole ‘truly’ Welsh ruler of Wales, it would be a mistake to assume his court was that of a realm yearning for lost days. While there were of course nostalgia, there were benefits to being cooperative with England, including noted greater trade with the Marches and Lancaster, and the Prince was extremely conscious of his fragile status, despite being in comparatively defensive ground. It was why after the Powys Revolt started, the Prince ordered a man with a quick horse to gallop to the royal court with a letter disavowing the revolt and re-asserting his oath of loyalty to the King as Lord of all Wales.

Gwynedd did not benefit from any possible ‘Welsh Revolt’, and the growth of the ‘Walians’ made it more difficult than ever to truly unite the ethnic Welsh against the English, for who was Welsh in those times? Was it the powerless Kymraec-speaking peasantry or did it include the bilingual common gentry making a living as interlocutors in all things? A more harsh rule of Wales could have created alienation of the common gentry and created the roots for a more potent Welsh Revolt, but skilful handling of it by the Hardradas in Wales and the ‘Walian’ class defused that and created the ‘Long Peace’ that Magnus the Ancient enjoyed.

Then arrived Erik, Magnus’ fourth son and successor. Influenced by this new status quo in which Wales was seen as a relatively peaceful area, and the ‘Walians’, as dubiously loyal as they may appear, to be maintaining that such peace, he deemed the area worthy of being integrated via the altar, not via the axe, and made preparations to ask the Prince of Gwynedd for his daughter’s hand in marriage and the final unification of Wales with England, and with promises considered generous for the time.

Aiding him was the shift in English thinking of the Welsh as fundamental enemies since time immemorial [actually around 500 AD] to a more ambiguous stance. Poems and notes at this time cultivate the imagery of the Welsh as a mystical race with great powers, and fascination was mixed with fear. However, it was a safe fear, as the Welsh was then considered mostly pacified and even the Gwynedd Lord bowed the knee to the King, and even upheld his word. The true fear, not the exoticising fear, was the Saracens, a far away and merciless alien race that could slaughter many good Christians. Compared to the Saracens, the Welsh were comparatively small potatoes.

One amusing note is that of a noble at court who wrote in his letters approvingly of Erik’s idea to wed the Princess of Gwynedd, but did not justify it by any form of realpolitik, but by the idea that by marrying into Welsh blood, the ‘magic’ of the Welsh would be inherited by the Hardradas, and that any Welshman would refuse to take up arms against a Welsh ‘ruler’, no matter how diluted the blood may be. This noble then went on to reference the old English foundational tale of expulsion of the Welsh to Wales in the settlement of England, and completed rather snarkily ‘It took us a Cnut to conquer most of Wales, but Erik shall conquer a cunt for the last’.

===

Extract from “A Complete History of Wales Vol. 6 – ‘Balance’.” by Aneurin ap Gruffydd, 1977.

The Wyrmcrieg, or as the Walians called it in their developing version of Anglisc deeply influenced by Kymraec, the ‘Draicrec’, divided many areas of Britain. But it never did Wales. The Kymri and the Walians could agree on one thing, that their loyalty was to their Prince. The son of the ‘Good Queen’ Siwsan of Gwynedd [commonly referred to in Anglisc as Susanna] and grandson of the last Kymro monarch, their loyalty to Prince Edmund was twofold.

First was of course that many of their number became influential under Edmund’s father Eric, who became celebrated in many well-to-do families as the one who ended the conquest and the rebellions, and indeed today you can still see his legacy in the Welsh name Iareg. As part of his historic agreement with the Prince of Gwynedd was that Edmund’s son would be recognised as Prince of all Wales. So almost from the outset, the Rauther line was strongly associated with the emergence of a united Welsh national interest, to the point of adopting the Red Dragon of Wales as their symbol, as contrast with the White Dragon of England.

This led to the second fold of their loyalty, which was to the House of Gwynedd and the perceived senior line namely that of Edmund’s. While it may seem confusing to readers today accustomed to houses being inherited solely through the male line in medieval times, the Kymri had numerous examples in their past of houses surviving through the female line, such as the house of Gwynedd itself, which was descended from lords of the Isle of Man that married into the house proper.

This legal argument was strikingly class-based. The middle-class Walians made pains to avoid such overt association of any Rauthers with a house that was not Hardrada, but the more poorer Kymri believed in it fervently, mixing it with the folk-myth of ‘Y Mab Darogan’ to portray this chivalric heroic saviour that would come to free Wales from the oppression of the Hardradas. It was sheer fortune that Edmund would turn out to be the peak of courtesy and chivalry, fitting the folk-role the peasants envisioned him as. This in turn cemented their loyalty to the line and the belief that they were fighting for Gwynedd, not quite Rauther. But such an argument never entered the King’s court as long as the Walians could help it.

However, the Walians themselves had their own esoteric legal arguments. Being firmly middle-class merchants and translators, their class interest laid with the Parlement, but their regal (and ethnic) loyalty laid with the Witenagemot. Keenly aware that they were disadvantaged either way as a Hwiter victory would lead to Walians being excluded from power and reduced to Kymri once more, their deepest fear, yet a Rauther victory and Parlement being abolished would dent their class influence, they worked overtime to come up with the concept of the “parlement pur”, as it was described as such in the French, or in the original Walian as the ‘Senath’.

The concept of the “parlement pur” was at its heart much more absolutist than the Parlement that Magnus created, calling for a centralisation of power away from what one Walian called “the weakness of the division of right to rule” and pushing for centralisation of power into the crowned head. The “parlement pur” Walians argued for was the unorthodox idea of the abolishment of the Rauther-favouring Witenagemot along with the Hwiter-favouring Parlement, arguing that even the oldest chamber compromised itself. Only a period of “phoenix-fire” could cleanse the country of the faults lingering in the three chambers.

Ultimately, the motivation for this argument came back to what the Walians deemed the ‘Great Betrayal’, that of their promised Prince-King, the one so much heralded as the true unification of the Welsh and English thrones being overlooked in favour of his uncle, and this was done with the explicit approval of the Cyningesgemot, Witenagemot and Parlement. Since that fateful decision, the Walian intellectuals have always been embittered by the system, and wished to destroy it.

For what worth was a King’s guarantee if his advisors could turn back on it? The ideal chamber, in the Walian eyes, was one that guaranteed their influence via representation, but ensured that nobody could compromise the regal right to rule. Hence the “parlement pur”, a parlement like the one Magnus created, but ‘purified’ of any treasonous elements and made explicitly submissive to the Crown. A key element of this ‘purification’ was the explicit abolishment of the chambers having the right to determine succession. It was to be primogeniture, but unlike the more Salic sort advocated by their European allies, the Walians was firm on it being what was described as ‘agnatic-cognatic’ in formal parlance, or like what Ethelrada described later on – ‘sonnen afore doutren, doutren afore brethren’. This was mainly because they were deeply sceptical of any succession rule that could fall into the hands of the hated Hwiters, and would much prefer a Rauther daughter above a Hwiter son.

Ethelrada would be the one to take the ‘parlement pur’ concept on, but she took it from the vague concept of ‘abolish the three chambers, centralise everything, destroy the system, hereditary rule’ it was up to that point and turn it into a much more codified concept, the Grand Courts. It is often easy to dismiss the Walian exiles’ influence as merely symbolic, as they were considerably negligible in terms of presence at court, but they had influence above their numbers, up to the heir to the Rauther claim marrying a Walian noblewoman and siring half-Walian children, including Ethelrada, who grew up surrounded by her mother’s family as advisors due to her father often being someone who was more interested with sins of the flesh than on any parenting.

When Wales was under Hwiter rule, both Kymri and Walians chafed under their rule, as Hwiters grew to distrust any of them as the same, the hated “Welsch”. It is from this time that we see the (now-slightly-archaic) proverb “to welsh”, meaning to work against someone behind their back. It is commonly associated with backstabbing, but seen as less spontaneous, more plotting. This came from the Welsh of both variants never giving up on the Rauther ideal and with Hwiter rule inherently meaning marginalisation of the pro-Rauther Walians which were at that time the only class that could faciliate communication, it worked to ensure that while the ruling elite was pro-Hwiter, they had very little ways to cement their rule over the peasantry which understood little of them and actively disliked them. Hwiter rule of Wales was thus made inefficient and impotent outside their earls’ courts. ‘We aren hal þe oll kardei” one Walian exile noted of the situation.

Ultimately, this situation was untenable and as the Wyrmcrieg continued to rage on, something had to break.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Incorporates
Gold cross on blue - St. Edward the Confessor's Cross
Red cross on white - St. Patrick's Cross
White cross on red - Representing the Defender of Faith role (and Norway)
Scandinavian shape - Representing the Norse heritage (and Norway)


For a possible union with France, the flag incorporates
The Oriflamme - Representing the Patron Saint of France, St. Denis.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Henrietta Maria of France
Name: Tiffany Comyn (reigning as Empress Tiffany)
House: Comyn
Date of Birth & Age at Ascension: January 9, 1503 (19 y/o)
Relation to the Previous Monarch: Great-Granddaughter to Malcolm I & V
Personality: Artistic, creative, likes to think of herself as "broad-minded", tends to rely on advisors a lot, not particularly great at "statecraft" and tends to be easily distracted (but is aware of that and tries to snap out of it).
Style of government: A "courtly government" with royal favourites and the imperial legislatures having great say, with the Empress herself aware that she's not a natural leader, so she will gladly defer to them. If possible, she will try to form a "cabinet" of important favourites.
Spouse/Potential Marriage: The King of France [or his heir, which one is closest to her age]. Failing that (hopefully not!) she will seek to marry a close relative of the French King who will not seek to push themselves as consort. [the aim is really an alliance with France].

Main Goal: The Tiffanic Renaissance
Being a woman of the modern 1500s AEnglund, the Empress is keen to continue her great-grandfather's legacy.

She will continue his sponsorship of the universities, and seek to sponsor the creation of one in the west of AEnglund in the growing city of Brickstow ('Bristol'), aware that both universities as is are on the eastern half of AEnglund. This university is aimed to appeal more to the western English and Welsh intellectuals and the growing importance of the Atlantic Ocean for the Empire. She hopes it will be named the Imperial University, but won't push.

She will set up an "Imperial Society of Natural Philosophy" on advice from her more scientific-minded advisors, and hope that there will be many natural philosophers keen to join the Society. Members of the Imperial Society will have imperial favour of course, and given that Tiffany doesn't know much of natural philosophy and of the emerging science, she will seek to try to give her favour as neutral as possible, and based on clear proof.

Keenly aware of her relative's reputation as "Arthur the Navigator", she will also set up an imperial company of people who are employed to explore the world and (ideally) discover riches unexploited or trade routes once-undiscovered, and of course claim it all so it may be enjoyed by the Empire. The "Imperial Company of Navigators" sounds like a good name.

On much more familiar grounds, she will seek to encourage the more... artistic element in life. The growing popularity of plays in Westminster has caught her eye and she is keen to cultivate it, with her even attending some of the plays and inviting certain playwrights and their company to perform for her. Perhaps if one of the companies catch her eye, they could end up "The Empress' Men"...

And of course she will seek to invite renowned artists and philosophers to court. She does like the paintings and the philosophic wit over such... cold things such as natural philosophy (even as she sponsors it anyway). She will try her best to encourage the artistic element with her favour. The art she will favour will tend to be more inclined to the kronisket theory, with a sense of imperial unity being encouraged. The Scots, the Welsh, the English, the Norsh and the Atlantic folk, they're all united in one loving empire.

As a part of this favouring, she will try to encourage more Francophile art, or art that represents the Frank as a 'natural' ally against the Germans, and perhaps a play or a painting here and there that implies that the Northron has more in common with the French, anything to justify her big plans.

Major Goal 1: The Grand Concord
As part of her attempt to marry in the French royal family, she will seek to orient Northron foreign policy towards a more pro-France stance and establish closer ties between the Empire and France, continuing on Cead's legacy, but overall she will try to stay reasonably aloof from war in Europe, well knowing the Empire is exhausted from the most recent Northern War. Perhaps this is just a reasonable geopolitical stance, but her writings suggest it is more motivated by a deep distaste of the idea of being a 'warrior queen' like Etheldreda and Caitlin.

Influenced by some Italian advisors, she will seek to employ the use of "ambassadors" and "embassies" to the countries which she (and her advisors) find crucial to the Empire's interests. Namely, France, Frisia, Austria, Aragon, León, Hungary and of course her relatives (are they still related?) over in Egypt. The Hardradas of Egypt and those of the Empire has long diverged, but she is keen to rekindle relations especially with this new idea of diplomacy. She will also, if possible, send an envoy to Lithuania to establish relations, but if it is unworkable she will not bother.

While she will not seek a binding alliance within her reign with all those countries, she will seek to cultivate warmer and more consistent diplomatic relationships, especially with France which she would be the first to admit the Empire has ran hot-and-cold on.

As part of this diplomatic effort, she will seek to create a military attaché system where the military people will seek to learn from the new ideas emerging elsewhere. She will also host the ambassadors from those countries [if they so desire return any] and welcome them the warmest possible.

Major Goal 2: A Renewed Government for Peace and for War
Some of the Empress' advisors (especially the Italian ones) have been quietly dismayed at how inefficient and how reliant on one person the Imperial structure is. So they have encouraged her to at least dabble in some government reform.

The Flottecortes, Colloquium, Riksdag, Løgting, Alþingi, Inatsisartut and Avalonic Alting (which she would try to gently counsel to change to a new name out of personal confusion at it and the Icelandic one having the same name) would remain of course. The imperial system flourishes on those regional parlements. In addition to those number, and only if the Flottecortes consent, she will set up a Senedd for the Welsh nobles, elevating it to a nation in itself equivalent to the Faroes and Iceland. This was very much influenced by her more romantic side fuelled by kronisk rhetoric (as well as her brief time being Princess of Wales leading to her visiting her new realm and liking their music a lot).

However, it is true that the current system is woefully inefficient. The advisors do not counsel a major change in the system, pointing to the woes of the Wyrmcrieg and the incoherency of the three-parlement system (and of course, the Riksdag actually has power). Hence the regional parlements will continue as they are, and she will merely ask them all to send a set number of 'delegates' to a much expanded Imperial Court - justifying it as an expansion of the old court to take in account the parlements' wishes, and actually a show of respect to them all.

She will still make herself available to the parlements if they so desire (well, maybe not for the Avalonic Alting. But to be the first European monarch to step foot on Avalon soil... now that's tempting). However, all of this court reform comes with the second aim at a government "renewal".

Namely the bureaucracy. It has been much straining to do the tasks it currently needs to do, and hence that is why she will seek to expand it further - into a proper "Imperial Civil Service". She will also encourage the expanding civil service to open itself up to less noble sorts, as long as they show some intellectual qualification of course. The Empire needs every intelligent subject, not just the nobles (as appreciated as they are).

She will also put the head of the new civil service in her Imperial Court, so he can advocate for the civil service's interests. No more will bureaucrats silently toil with the government and the monarch unwittingly adding more work.

All this is hoped to make the government run more efficiently (and maybe with less money waste?).

On other matters, after months of arguing between some counsellors who wish for an expansion of the military and others which wish for an expansion of trade routes, the Empress (normally willing to let them come to a conclusion) lost her patience and told them all she has made her decision.

Which is... Both.

Yes. Both.

As her advisors stare at her in confusion, she elaborates on her plan. The North Sea Empire is one ruled by the sea, correct? Hence the logical thing is to expand the Navy, but ensure that the Navy also protects and expands the trade routes the Empire can control (and those the Society of Navigators discover too). Hence we will have far more secure trade and stronger economic grounds to build off of.

The Army, ah, that's something to reform indeed. She will, this time deferring to her counsellors, go for a gradual move of the Huscarls to a less "frontline" position and try to utilise more modern ideas to expand the army. She will seek to further encourage the innovation of technology for military means. However, she will pain herself to ensure that the Huscarls see this as not a removal, but as a promotion. They are the eldest and well respected class, and after the ah, Northern War debacle, surely they would be up to helping the Empress modernise the army, with them of course as... officers? Yes, that sounds good. A formalised military hierarchy with the huscarls kicked upstairs to "officer" status.

The huscarls will serve as the core of what her advisors now eagerly describe as a "professional army" like the Eastern Roman Empire. A core of well-trained officers, with local soldiers buttressing up the rank and file, with there being a clear hierarchy of command going all the way up to... oh. The Empress as commander-in-chief. She shows her distaste at having a military role, even if purely ceremonial, but relents to pressure.

With the Navy now oriented to protecting trade and the Army hopefully professionalised, the whole thing should be far less of a money-sink and far more efficient. Gosh does her councillors like that word. Less money for more action. Hopefully it works.

Minor Goal 1: The Female Art
As much as the Empress likes to present herself as very different from the previous queens [Ethelreda and Caitlin] by being a far more peace-loving and consensus-oriented monarch, she does have her own wishes. A far more humble one of course, but one all the same.

She will seek to encourage some of the noble women to participate in painting and in wider art, with a few receiving her support. If there's enough interest to work with, she will present her paintings to court as a way to signal that even the empress paints, so it is not just a masculine thing.

Eventually she will wish to paint a self-portrait, distrusting anyone else to truly capture her image. One day, yes. And it'll be beautiful.

Minor Goal 2: A Family Woman
Keenly aware of the AEnglisk tradition of warm royal families and the shortcomings of the Comyns in that area, she will seek to ensure that her own family, her husband, etc., are well-looked after. The Empress will try to set aside a period of time every week to spend with her children, and her husband [if the King of France and his heir] will be kept in regular contact [hopefully helped by the navy being improved] and have enough time to well, produce any children. The ultimate aim is to reintroduce some true family to this Comyn [Bourbon?] dysfunction.

The Empress will also make sure that all her children are well-accommodated to the various heritages they have - the French, English, Scottish, Norwegian and Welsh heritages - as much as possible. Her first son will be granted the Prince of Wales title [as well as Duke of Lothian yes] and when he reaches his tens, be sent to learn as much as possible of the realm of Wales and hopefully grow to like it as much as she does.

Minor Goal 3: A Taste of Fashion
The least of her priorities, but still one, is encouraging a more simple fashion for both men and women. Less large dresses for women, less elaborate clothing for men. This comes from her frustrations at doing anything in an elaborate dress that reduces her to just standing around and looking pretty.

But simple doesn't mean drab, though. She'll try to ensure it remains colourful, just... less complicated.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Decided to make a list of all the characters I've done for an election-game or succession-game that I've actually put time in beyond an one-off election.

Austin Blanchet (the Elder, 1st Baron Wilmington), Austin Blanchet (the Younger), Justin Blanchet, Euphemia Bloom, Raminta Buinickaitė, Valérie Bonnay de Casa, Julia Casanova, Tiffany Comyn, Apikalia Kalākaua/Pika Connors, Vika Mikhailova/Vika Connors, Harry Crane, Artemis Fowl, Astrid Frost, Priska Jahn, Lily Kamiya, Kunigami Chōten, Luci Label, Melody Lam Tsam-yui, Evie Larkin, Casella Lemonwood, Liang Zemin, Astra Lion-Core*, Andrey Lylley, Sir Theodore of Macedonia, James A. Maxwell, Tonya Melnik, Arya Moon, Fabian Morgenstern, Nguyễn Tiến Chí, Strawberry Night [1st Countess Mallorquin], Azuolas Ozols, Tobias Lothair Pabst, Evie Park*, Joel Ambrósio Pinheiro, Zika Rhenniyaw*, Dietrich von Rosenberg, Jean-Calixte Roussel*, Ruan Mei, Remember Schofield, Mélanie Song Guiying, Tanimoto Saki, Tanimoto Sora, Tanimoto Sota, Lily Sun*, Chika Temple, Edward Templeton-Black (5th Duke of Canterbury), Matthew Thomson (as Danny Rennie), Pavle Tomić, Emily Tsang Yaling, Audrey Wilson, Darren Wilson, Buzz Windom, Taleah Vesikula.

All binary. 24 men, 30 women. 49 cis, 3 trans, 1 virtual. 27 Caucasian, 3 Pasifika, 1 GdCL, 14 East Asian, 1 Earth Pony, 1 Nautilen, 1 Rika, 1 "Luso-Atlantoid".

In terms of location
- 16 America, 6 1/2** Britain, 1 1/2** Russia, 1 Lithuania, 1 Ireland, 2 Dorne, 1 Equestria, 1 France
- 4 Germany, 3 Japan, 1 Moon, 4 China, 1 Pacifica, 1 Nautilus, 1 Poland, 1 Yugoslavia, 1 "Potosi" [Bolivia]
- 1 Star Wars Galaxy, 1 Vietnam, 1 Portugal.

Six of them are mixed-race [Kamiya, Label, Lion-Core, Pinheiro, Temple and Vesikula], so I have categorised them where they most identify with.

* Astra Lion-Core, Evie Park, Jean-Calixte Roussel, Zika Rhenniyaw and Lily Sun are vaguely-planned characters.
** Denoting Vika Mikhailova/Vika Connors, who is the same character, only basically 'redone' for different settings.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Faceclaim: Nathaniel Dance-Holland
Character: Alexander Justin 'Austin' Blanchet (later 1st Baron Wilmington) [son of J. Blanchet]
Game: Power to the Many (by Major Crimson, Gonzo and Rankein) - ACTIVE
Location: Delaware, British North America (later Delaware, Dominion of Anglia)
Time: Lived 1731-????, Played 1774-????
Ideology: American loyalism, paternalistic conservatism, pro-slavery, pro-"loyal" Native, very condescending proto-feminism.
Personality: Devout to a fault, quite erratic, but likes to think he is a 'man of his word'. Bitter rivalry with his brother.

Faceclaim: George Clymer
Character: Justin Joseph Blanchet
Game: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie (by TheReformer and Gonzo) - DEAD
Location: London, England, Kingdom of Great Britain
Time: Lived 1693-???? [-1780 in PttM], Played 1746-1747
Ideology: High Toryism, Absolutism, Francophilia. Especially Francophilia.
Personality: Idealistic, lofty thoughts, often can be quite naive at times.

Faceclaim: Helen Gladstone
Character: Euphemia River Bloom
Game: Hard Graft (by Charcolt) - DEAD
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Time: Lived 1801-????, Played 1844-1865 [sparingly]
Ideology: New Religious Movement, feminism, abolitionism, very very proto-New Age shit.
Personality: Deeply insecure, secretly dislikes what she sees as her 'purpose', but believes that if she fails at converting humanity the world dies.

Faceclaim: Margaret Bondfield
Character: Raminta Buinickaitė
Game: Fresh from the Forge of Nations (by Augenis) - COMPLETED
Location: Republic of Lithuania
Time: Lived 1900-1939, Played 1938-1939
Ideology: Very firm pro-Soviet Stalinist communism, but with some nationalist streaks.
Personality: Defiant to the end, stubborn as heck, will [and did] die for her beliefs.

Faceclaim: Robin Wright as Claire Underwood
Character: Valérie Bonnay de Casa
Game: A dictatorship would be a lot easier! (by TransUral) - ACTIVE
Location: Republic of Potosi [ATL Bolivia]
Time: Lived 1954-????, Played [tbd]
Ideology: Developmentalism, and willing to be pro-indigenous and pro-trade union if it gets her support. However, very realpolitik.
Personality: Stylish, fashion-conscious, deeply calculating. From a young age, she was made to expect she would be President of Potosi.


Faceclaim: Unknown model
Character: Juliana Maria Pia Luna "Julia" Casanova
Game: Winter in America (by TransUral) - COMPLETED
Location: New York State, United States of America
Time: Lived 1943-1982, Played 1972-1974 [with sunset rolls]
Ideology:
- Pre-1973 Casanova: Radical feminism, SCUM Society, actively hates all men, wishes to discover brain surgery to 'convert' men into women.
- Post-1973 Casanova: Right-libertarianism, "Feminist capitalism", 'mainstream' as much as possible. At first fake, but she ends up actually believing it.
Personality:
- Pre-1973 Casanova: Deeply weird, insular, hates socialising, plays a lot with her knives and wants to practise on 'human subjects'.
- Post-1973 Casanova: A personality in collapse, mind actively against itself, increasingly forgetting her radical past. More sociable, surprisingly.

Faceclaim: None
Character: Apikalia Kalākaua "Pika" Connors [based on a character for a RP I did long ago]
Game: International Society of Explorers and Adventurers (by EdMarCarSe) - DEAD
Location: London, England, United Kingdom
Time: Lived 1884-????, Played 1902-1904
Ideology: Not much of one. Generally pro-British, given she was brought up a Brit? Didn't really develop her much...
Personality: Creative, inventive, curious. Deeply curious.

Faceclaim: None (I tried, but...) [if I was to play this version again, I would go with a Wednesday Addams picture, I guess]
Character: Viktoria Terentiyovna "Vika" Mikhailova
Game: Plowing the Sea (by killertahu22) - DEAD
Location: Russian Republic [later Russian Empire]
Time: Lived 1894-????, Played 1908-1910.
Ideology: An eclectic and incoherent mixture of fervently religious monarchism and Bolshevik-influenced communism.
Personality: A revolutionary zealot who sees no compromise possible if it diverges from her ideas, but ultimately will put Russia first.

Faceclaim: None (I once floated a picture, but it didn't stick) [see my disclaimer on Vika (1), it applies here too]
Character: Viktoria Mikhailova "Vika" Connors
Game: International Society of Explorers and Adventurers (by EdMarCarSe) - DEAD
Location: London, England, United Kingdom
Time: Lived 1890-????, Played 1902-1904
Ideology: Not much of one. Devoutly religious to a fault, stubborn and headstrong, somewhat of a 'tomboy' by Victorian/Edwardian standards.
Personality: Devoutly religious to a fault, stubborn and headstrong, somewhat of a 'tomboy' by Victorian/Edwardian standards.

Faceclaim: Ethel Mannin
Character: Viktoria Terentiyovna Mikhailova
Game: Darkness at Noon (by Kerguelen) - ACTIVE
Location: Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Time: Lived ????-????, Played [tbd] - it's a succession game, idk yet.
Ideology: Quite religious, very socialist [left-communist, I would say].
Personality: Intense, very intense, often a quiet thinker but one that is a firm ideologue.

Faceclaim: Frances Clayton as 'Jack Williams'
Character: Harry Jackson Crane III
Game: Hard Graft (by Charcolt) - DEAD
Location: United States of America
Time: Lived 1802-1884, Played 1852-1865.
Ideology: A 'Jacksonian' take on utopian socialism, a somewhat deluded 'liberal interventionism', die-hard abolitionism.
Personality: Less of a man, more of a destructive force, he is a hard, hard taskmaster who regularly gives hell to his friends and enemies.

Faceclaim: Tony Benn
Character: Artemis Madison Fowl
Game: The Crossroads of Destiny (by Heliogabalus) [this one goes to the fourth and final thread] - COMPLETE
Location: United States of America
Time: Lived 1921-1987, Played 1960-1984.
Ideology: Started off as an anti-populist conservative but shifted to the left to 'green' centrism due to the nuclear exchange.
Personality: Insufferable as fuck, thinks he's always right, looks down on everyone else, quite charismatic nevertheless.

Faceclaim: Edith Summerskill
Character: Astrid Maria Lisette Frost
Game: Auferstanden aus Ruinen (by Communard and UniquelyEqual) - ONGOING
Location: Free State of Bavaria, Federal Republic of Germany
Time: Lived 1923-????, Played 1949-????
Ideology: 'Social Christianity', environmentalism, Christian feminism, pro-'caring' government, 'Bavarianism'.
Personality: Prickly, more at home in bureaucracy, dislikes being ordered around.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Spoiler: Text of the Instrument of Government (1009)

We, the assembled representatives of the Equestrian Ponykind, do declare that all power to govern this realm comes from the divine nature of our Holy Princesses, Celestia and Luna. Long may they reign, long may the sun and moon rise in turn, and may none of our actions counteract their Divine Guidance.

As part of our service as Their Majesties’ ever-faithful and true assistants in governance, we have submitted this humble proposal for constitutional reform which we earnestly hope will receive their approval.

Noting the limitations of unicameralism in representing and working for the interests of all ponies, we humbly propose the creation of two different chambers, one to represent the important aspects of our society, the other for ponykind as a whole and the Four Races. The two chambers assembled shall be known as the Paddock.

The first chamber shall be named the High Loft and be composed of four different measures. The first measure shall be the totality of all ponies of good breeding and good character that the Divine Princesses had seen fit to ennoble, and their heirs thereof. Any future nobleponies bearing an honourable title shall be given a seat in the High Loft as well on the date of their ennoblement, to be held by their heirs and their heirs’ heirs for as long as their lineages hold.

In place of strife, we seek to bring harmony to all of Equestria. We seek to ensure that the workings of government rises above disputes that cloud our days. There shall be two councils set up, one elected by every pony that has registered their status as a business-owner and hence representing the interest of those who manage and those who seek to enter the glorious world of entrepreneurship. The other council shall be elected by every worker registered with a union and seek to represent the working pony and the interest of those who toil for the nation’s prosperity.

Those two councils, the Business and Trade Union Councils respectively, shall be of the same number of councillors and together make up the National Arbitration Board which shall be the court of final appeal on any labour dispute. It is hoped by the drafters of this bill that such a structure encourages those who produce and those who manage to work together for the common interest of the Realm. To ensure the interests of the two are represented further, they shall be the second and third measure of composure to the High Loft, appointing Economic and Labour delegates.

In the interests of efficient government and ensuring the will of the Princesses are communicated greatly to the ponies of Equestria, no matter where they be, this bill will be reorganising the local governments into ‘ranges’, each governed by a ‘derby’, a paddock in miniature in other words. They shall be unicameral at their commission, but be granted permission to reorganise themselves if they so desire, and be supervised by a ‘vicereine’ appointed by the Princesses to communicate their words and guidance to the range in question. The vicereine shall appoint an avener to be head of the range government, taking the Princesses’ advice and the derby’s leanings in consideration. The avener will nominate people to be part of their cabinet and have the derby confirm them.

The fourth and final measure of composure to the High Loft shall be ponies directly elected on basis of the range boundaries. Those ponies shall be referred to as ‘lofters-elect’. In the case of any ponies suffering from demise in their office as lofter-elect, the range derby in question is granted permission to appoint a substitute until a by-election is held for a permanent successor. All four measures of composure is mandated to be equal in presence in the High Loft.

The second chamber, and the primary one of governance, shall be known as the Stable of Commons, which shall be the legal successor to the current chamber. In the interest of adequate and equitable representation of the races of Equestria, the measure of election used in the 1009 by-elections chosen in the interest of accelerating the representation of thestrals to the present chamber shall be extended to other races and set in perpetuity.

Any previous customs set for the present chamber’s conduct and governance of its own business shall be considered extant in the Stable of Commons as its successor unless measured otherwise by this bill or any future bills passed by the Stable for its own management. Internal management of paddockian conduct in either the Loft or the Stable shall be exclusively the domain of the relevant chamber.

When the Stable considers a bill worthy of being presented to the Princesses, it shall be first sent to the High Loft for review. The High Loft can deem it worthy in their eyes too, or it can send it back for revision. In the case they send the bill back, the High Loft must give clear reasons why it is not worthy in their eyes and offer substantial recommendations for alteration. The Stable may not be able to send the bill back to the Loft without alteration. No bill may be presented to the Princesses unless it have had both chambers of the Paddock’s stamp of approval. This is hoped to avoid or lessen any clash of the Princesses with the Paddock as we have experienced such too much recently.

The sun and moon are two halves of the same whole, we cannot have a day without sun nor a night without moon. Any bill presented to the Divine Princesses must have both of their approvals for it to become a full-fledged law. If one or both of the Princesses think such a bill is not worthy, she or they may send the bill back to the Paddock with clear directives they deem in need of revision.

In extraordinary circumstances, the Paddock may be prorogued in the interests of national order. Such a decision needs to be true in the day and in the night, and hence shall have both of the princesses’ approval before such a decision becomes true. The Paddock may be re-assembled with the stamp of approval from one Princess, but be treated as a ‘plot paddock’ with limited powers until the second Princess grants assent to it being formed as a full paddock.

The two chambers can also be subjected to election if both of the Princesses deem it in need of renewal. They can subject the Stable, the Loft, or both together, to a stamp election. If the Loft is subject, it means that the lofters-elect and the business and union councils are all up for election once more. If the Stable is subject, it means that all ponies elected are now subject to a new election by the measure of election as legally set out in law.

The Divine Princesses have seen fit to appoint a pony of good stature in the past to govern the Realm on their behalf, the High Chancellors. Such a laudable tradition shall be continued, with the new position of Cheval Regent superseding the position of High Chancellor, and shall be determined in the same manner, namely that of the Princesses, both of them, coming to an agreement on who is the most fit pony to govern on their behalf.

The Cheval Regent shall present their choices for their cabinet to the Stable and if each of their choices enjoy a majority of the Stable in their favour, they shall be able to serve in the position for as long as the Cheval Regent serves their term, or unto their resignation. Special disposition is made to the position of Leader of the High Loft, which shall be selected by that chamber alone.

The Cheval Regent can recommend the Princesses declare a state of emergency with the backing of a majority of their cabinet. In a state of emergency, the paddock is prorogued and all power of governance lies with the cabinet and the Cheval Regent, all on behalf of the Princesses. The Princesses must agree as one to grant the Cheval Regent this request. Either one of the Princesses may break this state of emergency if they so deem such. The state of emergency can be no longer than ten years, and cannot be called again without a renewal of the paddock.

All of those reforms above are designed to further our assistance of the Divine Princesses, for without them the sun and moon would not rise in their turn. It is from them that we see the glory of Equestria, and it is ultimately from them and their benevolent reign that we are assembled here, for we are nothing but servants sent by ponykind to serve our beloved Princesses in the arduous task of governing the greatest Realm in the world, the Holy Principality of Equestria.

May those reforms bring around an age of peace, prosperity and harmony to all ponykind, and make the Divine Princesses smile once more!

 

[Turquoise Blue]

The presidency of Evie Park was certainly turbulent for the nation...

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Extract from ‘The Brooch Province: A History of Dominion Delaware’.

Delaware’s expansion to include the Maryland counties of Kent, Queen Anne’s County, Talbot, Caroline, Dorchester, Somerset and Worcester, and the Virginia counties of Accomack and Northampton, was one of the most transformative periods of Delawarean history. The expansion was ordered by the Viscount Chastleton, allegedly because the future Lord Wilmington persuaded him of the idea at their one meeting years before, but more concretely because Chastleton distrusted more Patriot provinces and wished to associate loyalism with some form of visible reward.

Delaware was granted full province status, cutting off its last ties with the Penns albeit they would still be widely respected in the brooch province as they were considered able administrators that afforded Delaware every right. This grant was welcomed by many Delawareans, but the second part of Chastleton’s reward for loyalty, the rapid expansion would bring with it consequences.

Pre-expansion Delaware (or what would be known post-expansion as ‘Delaware proper’ or the ‘Three Counties’) was geographically more Southern, but its history and population density tied it very much to the northern province of Pennsylvania and to Philadelphian trade. Within a very short amount of time, Delaware would find itself even more tied to the north and the south as many of its inhabitants found themselves producing even more stuff for Philadelphian consumption due to the Lord Wilmington successfully pulling in all his Delaware contacts to fuel his philanthropy, and then it had a sudden expansion to include nine southern provinces and was included in the southern Dominion of Anglia. This view that the small Delaware was grasping the north and south tightly within its interests led it to be described as alike a brooch, a small shining jewel that nevertheless fastens together two diverging interests. This would lead to its popular nickname of the ‘Brooch Province’ by the 1790s.

In the aftermath of the expansion, the General Assembly came together to oversee a reorganisation of the province in the wake of its changing from the three lower counties on the Delaware to composing most of a peninsula. There needed to be a system set in place to integrate the new counties. The most glaring issue was the one easiest solved, with the two Kent counties being renamed ‘West Kent’ and ‘East Kent’ respectively by an almost unanimous vote despite some (Delaware) Kent representatives objecting. The hundreds set up in Maryland often crossed over into Delaware proper due to the unclear boundary, so the General Assembly set the line at their claim and firmly delineated the borders of Sussex with the formerly Maryland counties, ensuring that the hundreds of the latter would have to shrink to acknowledge the new border.

The most heated debate however, was Caroline County, the newest and only inland one and widely seen by the General Assembly as just a way to give a colonial governor a county named after his wife. The de facto capital of it was even mocked for its name of Pig Point. The General Assembly was on the verge of abolishing it and ceding the land back to its former counties when the Lord Wilmington arrived from Philadelphia. By then, he had a deeply speckled reputation in Delaware itself, but his voice still held great sway. He sided against the idea of reversing Caroline’s creation, talking at length on how even the smallest of places could still bring greatness, waxed on for half an hour about the glory of Rutland to the confusion of most of the attendees, and then finally implored them that Caroline was if anything, despite its inland status, the ‘Delaware of Delaware’, the small and deeply looked upon county. ‘Give poor Caroline a chance, let her shine!’. Moved by this unusually emotive statement about something they considered non-controversial, the General Assembly decided to drop the matter and permit the province’s only landlocked county to survive.

Wilmington’s real motivation would come out soon after as news of Chastleton appointing the husband of the county’s namesake as Viceroy of Anglia would arrive to the General Assembly. He knew that the Baronet was a man who might hold a few grudges against a province that took his Maryland’s eastern shore, so he moved to prevent another grudge from emerging by ensuring that the county that held the Vicereine’s name was not abolished. Wilmington was no fool, he knew all chances of his future influence came from maximising influence and sway on the Viceroy and he was already standing on weaker ground than that ‘cavalier’ over in Virginia due to Delaware’s land expansion.

Nevertheless, he managed to prevent Caroline County from being abolished, and in the process gave it its inexplicable nickname – ‘The Delaware of Delaware’. Meanwhile, there were questions about the process of election to the General Assembly in those areas, or even Delaware as a whole. At this time, the General Assembly was functioning on the constitution of William Penn, even if they crossed out Pennsylvania for Delaware. There were a few questions asked about the definition of ‘freemen’ and if Delaware should resist the restriction made on the Dominion franchise that reduced it to just Anglican freemen rather than the more ‘cosmopolitan’ colony Delaware developed to be.

Some reformers cited the Delaware Act, made before the Dominions were created, as precedent for Delaware continuing the ‘Pennsylvanian franchise’ even under a more restrictive Dominion. The legal uncertainty of the matter led to a slim vote in favour of such continuation at least for the first elections to the General Assembly in this new and much bigger Delaware. ‘If the Parliament or the Viceroy deems otherwise, let there be a notification and we will correct, but in the absence of any notification, we will continue as we have always been’ was the statement of the speaker of the General Assembly upon the vote being held.


The boundaries at this time were defined by hundreds so a hasty committee allocated seats to the Maryland and Virginia hundreds on their estimation of their populace, which turned out to be somewhat incorrect. However, it would not be corrected until after the first election returned the new dominion-era legislature of Delaware…

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Character Sheet:

Sir Henry Mather Jackson, 2nd Baronet
Name: Alexander Justin Blanchet - referred to as "Austin the Younger" to distinguish him from his father.
Date of Birth/Age: 18 November 1753 - 32 years old
Gender: Male.
Place of Birth: Blanchet Estate, Wilmington, Delaware Colony, British North America.
Nationality: American - Anglian - Delawarean
Religion: Church of England (relatively lax)
Faction: Liberal - Conciliator (American) - Shelburnite/Liverpudlian - Whig (British, loose association via his father)
List of Offices and Occupations Held:
- Soldier in the Delaware Loyalist Militia during the Columbian Rebellion - 1774-1778
- Deputy Trader (in his father's business) - 1778-1781
- Member of the Anglian House of Assembly from Delaware - 1781-present
Biography: For way too long, Austin the Younger has stood in his father’s shadow. It was why he was so eager to join the militia over his father’s objections and even march with other soldiers to fight for the British Army. However the hard truth was that the elder was already a figure everyone knew for good or ill, and it would take a long time for the younger to carve out his own reputation.

While the father was ultimately a man of peace who loved to come in after a battle and try to fix matters, the son was one shaped by the trauma of war and by his committing murder against his fellow Americans. And he knew coming home that he would want his own way, that he desired control over his own life, be his own man. The war tore away the boy that his father still believed existed in him, and replaced it with a man. While accepting a job at his father’s business for needed revenue, he chose to purchase his own Wilmington house and distance himself at least spatially from him.

Hunting was a favourite pastime of his, the assertion of man over nature. What more splendid could be any activity, nor more innate to the human condition? The wilderness was a refuge from expectations, and it was on one of those hunting trips that he encountered a Nanticoke village. The Nanticoke were a people who were in regular contact with the colonials, and many of their boys went out to fight for the British. Knowledge of English was considerable at this time, and it was why Austin had little issue making himself understood.

And it was in one hunting trip in 1780 that he met his future wife – a Nanticoke woman who he would know as Arabella. It was not love at first sight, in fact she didn’t notice him the first time and he originally paid the interaction little heed. But as he increasingly stopped by the village, the two grew to like each other, and that liking grew into something more.

While the business was closing for the day, his father stopped him and asked him if he would like to be in the Anglian Assembly, as he was looking for ‘men of quality’ and of course his son was one of those such men. While Austin knew this would be obvious nepotism, and bind him politically to his father, he accepted sure in the knowledge that he would use the office for his own means. He did however, extract a concession from his father for his continued political loyalty – he would not object to Austin’s future bride.

This the elder Austin cheerfully agreed to. The election went smoothly, and Austin the Younger was elected as one of the elder’s men of quality, even as there were some murmurs of nepotism from a man who was supposedly above it all. After getting Arabella’s agreement to wed, he told his father of his intended bride, and the elder Blanchet sighed but agreed, providing the marriage was in a Christian church, muttering that at least it was a loyalist.

With the son now married, he realised the one advantage he had over his father, and used it judiciously. The elder Austin pushed back, but the two came to an agreement – the father would use his connections to help his daughter-in-law’s tribe gain recognition, in exchange for the son not breaking from the Liberal line and not signing up to Brown’s manifesto.

The deal was struck, and as the Viceroy proves sickly and his replacement grows inevitable, the Prime Minister is no longer Chastleton but Blackburn, and change is in the air, Austin the Younger feels that 1785 is his year. With three children [the obligatory Austin the Third among them] and a fourth on the way, he feels confident enough to step out of his father’s shadow. Will he?

Spoiler: Issues

-The Pioneers
“What use is a foolish pioneer risking life and limb on a dead dream? Pah! They’ll all die eventually.”

-Native Neighbors
“The issue is quite simple – a question of loyalty. The Iroquois and the Nanticoke both are loyalists of the deepest colour, but many of the rest were ones that took up arms against the Crown. But I am not my father. I don’t make the hypocritical distinction he makes between ‘civilised’ and ‘brute’ tribes. Merely ask all, like we do with the so-called ‘Patriots’, to swear an oath of loyalty to the Crown and be open to integration of their towns and villages and possibly tribes into the British system.”

-Tensions over Slavery
“Slavery? It is a fundamental truth of our society and any abolitionist rhetoric is naught but nonsense pushed by weak-minded men. However, I myself prefer to refrain from owning any slaves as I do not hold a grand estate like my father, preferring my own humble abode to be one based off the efforts of my own hands and those of other honest men of good stock I can rely, rather than any slave that I can only rely to cower under the whip. I do however, support laws that work against the enslavement of Indians, however.”

-North and South
“As a resident of the ‘brooch’ province, all I can say is that there are more uniting us than dividing us. Delaware has always prospered best when the northern and southern colonies cooperate in peace with the British Crown. However, we all must remember that we all are Englishmen, and seek to cooperate as part of the Empire.”

-Economic Progress
“Change is natural. I have every faith that those changes that are happening are to our best interests. However, if any of them prove to be our displeasure, I am sure we can lobby our good Viceroy, whoever they may be, to change their policies or to adjust. The Viceroy is supposed to be a neutral figure, disconnected from petty local politics after all, and be above all a servant of the Empire.”

-Colonial Reforms
“The new system may be alien and unfamiliar to many, but I believe it will work to our interest. I have as a member of the Assembly taken extensive notes of the structure and the expectations and although frustrated by our old Viceroy’s secretive nature, I believe I understand it the most of any of my faction. The new Viceroy, I have faith they will cooperate to make certain of the political support for their policies. And I will take charge of such cooperation from my side, as my father has grown rather poorly recently.”

-The West
“The West? It is irrelevant to me as a Delawarean. Delaware out of the colonies never had any western ambitions, and I see no reason it would do so now. If there are any who wish to seize the new land, all I can say is travel safe, and look out for new friends and enemies.”

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Decided to do a silly off the Europe Elects thing.

Monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (-1921)
Edward VII (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) 1901-1910
George V (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha/Windsor) 1910-1921

Monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1921-1927)
George V (Windsor) 1921-1927

Presidents of the United Republic of Britain (1927-)
Philip Snowden (Independent Labour/National Labour) 1927-1937*
1927: def. unopposed [Conservative spoiled ballots]
1931: def. James Maxton (Independent Labour), Oswald Mosley (New Patriots)
William Jowitt (National Labour) 1937
James Maxton (Independent Labour) 1937-1940 ['40 election forced by Parliament due to Maxton vetoing the war declaration]
1937: def. William Jowitt (National Labour), Oswald Mosley (New Patriots), Albert Inkpin (Communist)
Fenner Brockway (Independent Labour) 1940-1952
1940 [supported by NLP, NPP]: def. James Maxton (Independent ILP [supported by Communists])
1946: def. Godfrey Elton (National Labour), Oswald Mosley (New Patriots), Johnny Campbell (Communist)
Elizabeth Windsor (National Labour/National Democratic/Progressive/Independent/Social Democratic) 1952-present
1952 [supported by NPP, Democrats]: def. Fenner Brockway (Independent Labour), Harry Pollitt (Communist)
1957 [supported by Democrats]: def. Aneurin Bevan (Independent Labour), Oswald Mosley (New Commonwealth)
1962: def. Annie Maxton (Independent Labour), Oswald Mosley (New Commonwealth), R. Palme Dutt (Communist)
1967 [supported by Unionists]: def. Tony Greenwood (Independent Labour), Oswald Mosley (New Commonwealth)
1972 [supported by Unionists]: def. Michael Foot (Independent Labour), Oswald Mosley (New Commonwealth)
1977 [supported by UP, LDP]: def. John Silkin (Independent Labour)
1982 [supported by LDP]: def. Margaret Thatcher (Independent Unionist), Wogan Philipps (Communist)
1987 [supported by LDP]: def. unopposed [Communist, some Unionist spoiled ballots]
1992 [supported by LDP]: def. David Owen (Independent SDP), Nina Temple (Communist)
1997 [supported by LDP]: def. Anthony Lynton Blair (Independent [supported by Independent Democrats and Communists]
2002 [supported by LDP]: def. Peter Hitchens (Independent), Jeremy Corbyn (Republican)
2007 [supported by LDP, Greens]: def. Peter Hitchens (Independent), Peter Tatchell (Green Republican)
2012 [supported by LDP, Greens]: def. Jacob Rees-Mogg (Unionist), Jon Lansman (Green Republican)
2017 [supported by LDP, Greens]: def. Claire Fox (Independent [supported by Unionists and Communists])

The "Lizocracy" of fourteen-term President Elizabeth Windsor seems to be reaching its twilight as there's now publicly talk of the dominant [and heavily personalist] "Windsor Front" of the centre-left 'soggy' Social Democrats, centrist Greens and centre-right 'wet' Liberal Democrats nominating someone else in 2022 with her blessing [that is, if she ever decides to go, which is unlikely]. The undisputed frontrunner for such an election is her own son Charles [a member of the Green Party], with her other son and preferred successor Andrew destroyed by a recent scandal that even caused President Windsor's approval ratings to dip markedly. Still, the dominance of the Windsorian ideology seems to be undamaged.

There are murmurs of some satirists that the family should be just put back on the throne what with them already holding all power, but everyone laughs at that. Elizabeth Windsor, bastion of the Republic and proof of the revolution succeeding beyond belief, being a crowned head? Nonsense.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

First of all, I apologise tremendously for this. But it just got stuck in my head and refused to budge. So...

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1921-1947)
George V (Windsor) 1921-1931
Edward VIII (Windsor) 1931-1947

Monarchs of the People's Commonwealth of Nations (1947-) [also styled as "Presidents"]
Edward VIII (Windsor) 1947-

Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1921-1947)
David Lloyd George (Coalition Liberal) 1921-1922
Andrew Bonar Law (Conservative) 1922-1923
1922 (min.): def. J. R. Clynes (Labour), David Lloyd George (National Liberal), H. H. Asquith (Liberal), Albert Inkpin (Communist)
Austen Chamberlain (Conservative) 1923-1924
Philip Snowden (Labour) 1924-1929
1924 (min.): def. Stanley Baldwin (Conservative), David Lloyd George (Liberal), Albert Inkpin (Communist)
Austen Chamberlain (Conservative) 1929-1931
1929 (maj.): def. Philip Snowden (Labour), David Lloyd George (Liberal), Albert Inkpin (Communist)
Philip Snowden (Labour) 1931-1933
1931 (maj.): def. Austen Chamberlain (Conservative), Herbert Samuel (Liberal), Harry Pollitt (Communist)
Stafford Cripps (Labour-led "Popular Front") 1933-1947
1937 (coal.): def. Winston Churchill (Constitutionalist), Archibald Sinclair (Liberal), Harry Pollitt (Communist)

Premiers of the People's Commonwealth of Nations (1947-)
Stafford Cripps (Labour-led "Popular Front") 1947-1949
1947 (coal.): def. Oswald Mosley (New Democratic), Megan Lloyd George (Liberal), Harry Pollitt (Communist)
Guy Burgess (Communist-led "Popular Front") 1949-

Edward VIII will be forever known as the "Red King", the one who brought his unique brand of autocratic 'socialism' to Britain, strangling its democracy in favour of a 'guided' model based around what he thought was right for Britain and the Empire. In another world, he could have subverted it in favour of a form of fascism. For want of an unplanned trip to Moscow in the early 20s, he could have.

But what's done is done. As Stafford Cripps resigns due to collapsing health and a realisation that he's now powerless, the King appoints his friend of several years to be Premier, overriding Parliament in the process. Many say that Guy Burgess has little skill in actually governing and has a deep problem with alcohol. He is a triple-puppet to everyone but himself. The King's choice, the increasingly-powerful CPGB's choice, and Moscow's favoured.

As America marshals the forces of capitalism and democracy with the support of the Canadian Regency, the rest of the Empire increasingly come under 'Red' London's thumb. Australia and New Zealand has already been secured, Africa is a powder-keg ready to explode and India...

Subhas Chandra Bose continues to fight on, and has accepted American funding, leading to the expulsion of the American diplomat from London. India, the jewel of the Empire, will be under Britain's thumb once more if Edward VIII has anything to say about it. Moscow however, has been much more uncertain and has leaned into their 'man in London' the Premier to seek a negotiated transition to a "people's government".

In the court of the Crimson King, swirling factions pull and push, but one thing is clear. Edward VIII rules absolute. Just as he wanted.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Long Live Examplia!
An 'Interactive Game'.

It is the year 1803. We have finally broke free of the United Empire of Tyrannia after a glorious revolution in which every proud Examplian fought! Now as we assemble to create our National Assembly and choose our first ever President, the nation awaits with bated breath. Who will they be?

After a hard-fought election, the next President is...

A) A wide-eyed idealist from the One Party. Firmly conservative, he nevertheless has grand dreams for Examplia that electrified people on the trail.
B) A hard-nosed revolutionary general from the Two Party. Somewhat of a reformer, he will nevertheless prioritise national security above all.

Vote!

====

Welcome to Long Live Examplia!, my silly attempt at creating a sort of 'SG, but the GM does all the hard work' idea. The premise is that I write up the agendas, and write up all the turns. You however, choose the leaders [such as in the above election. Please vote for that], sometimes can vote in events and have points to spend!

That's right! In this game, instead of doing RP, you already have points! Woah! You start off with 10 points to spend. However, there is no way you can get points outside of just simply time. At the present rate, you get 5 points every 4 turns. So spend wisely, for your points are finite!

What do the points do?

Well, every 1 point can be spent on a +5 boost [or a -5 malus!]. It can go up to a +20 bonus/-20 malus which is the cap. If people spend points countering other people's spent points, both will be considered spent. So be very very careful about where your points go!

====

Examplia is currently in a two-party system.

The One Party is the party of the big farming elite and the Purple Church's clergy [which holds sway over a lot of really devout people].
The Two Party is the party of the merchant trader class with some reforming ideas. They hold a lot of power over the undeveloped economy.​

 

[Turquoise Blue]

This is gonna displease a lot of people...

1920
The Moose, the League and the Tragic Realignment

Republican-Progressive: President Theodore Roosevelt (R-NY)/Secretary of Labor Eugene N. Foss (P-MA): 335 EV, 52.9%
Democratic: Senator Thomas J. Walsh (MT)/Governor Francis Burton Harrison (NY): 196 EV, 45.9%

After a shock victory in 1912, the heady days of the Progressive Party ended up sour as the domineering Roosevelt quickly moved to hijack the weakened Republicans and forcibly align the Progressives with them, creating the 'Republican-Progressive' alliance. Accentuating this shift from the 'left' was his attempt in the 1912 election to emphasise more conservative views on race to win over Southern voters [1]. This was bolstered by support from many dissenting Georgia Democrats fuelling the 'White League' such as the 'grand old lady of Georgian politics' Rebecca Latimer Fulton, all which spurned the 1912 campaign of Thomas Marshall out of a distrust for the 'comedic Hoosier' who somehow got nominated. While Roosevelt won the election, his performance in the South was not enough to win any states.

In his second presidency, he skewed closer to his party's perceived 'Southern electorate' while rolling out his ambitious reforms elsewhere, sure that the Republican-Progressives could break through if they shunned the 'failed coalition' of the old in favour of a 'lily-white' one based around the idea of a white-led Progressive Party that could gradually re-enfranchise African-Americans. By the 1914 election, this ossified into a southern branch that rejected re-enfranchisement in the belief that it would drag the Republican-Progressives there off back to 'impotence'.

One thing that made tensions within the Republican-Progressive alliance worse was America's involvement in the Great War. Roosevelt was eager to get America involved, and despite Congress voting down a declaration of war Roosevelt openly supported the Allies in any policy he could, while ramping up preparation, and the 1916 election promised to be a tense one. The Democrats ended up nominating Senator John Burke of North Dakota, who ran on cautious isolationism, on continuing progressive reform and on his honest reputation. 'Honest John' was someone you could trust! Roosevelt ran on his record while attacking Burke as naive. Meanwhile the 'White League', by this time much grown due to support from the wider Progressive Party eager to expand their base, began to muscle out local Democrats and relied excessively on pointing out John Burke's Irish Catholic ancestry to drive Southern voters into the arms of the Southern Progressives and the 'White League'.

But of course what sealed it in the end was the Zimmermann Telegram. When Roosevelt brandished a copy and shouted loud that Germany was conspiring behind America's back, Democratic hopes of an upset was obliterated. The Upper South fell in the Roosevelt landslide and states like Georgia and Alabama came disturbingly close to falling. The Democrats retreated to lick their wounds, but the League was close behind with knives.

The declaration of war came shortly after and America intervened in the war, sure of a quick victory. It was to turn out nothing of the sort. A long slog, more and more people dead, and more and more Progressives grew sick of Roosevelt. Especially Robert La Follette, who was a firm isolationist, declaring America's intervention to be a mistake. As the war continued, the splits grew more and more obvious up until the Wisconsin Progressive Party, and the more western aspects, grew to be more distant from the 'Republican-Progressives'. Former Vice-President Hiram Johnson, now elected Senator from California, spoke bitterly of his vice-presidency and joined La Follette in opposition.

The neverending war entered 1918 with the nation at knife-edge. The long-promised reforms of 1912 seemed far away and unions grew more radical. Eugene Debs' Socialist Party would reckon at 8 seats in the House after the midterms which led to a controversial coalition between them and the Democrats under Henry Rainey which led to Roosevelt declaring it a second corrupt bargain to exclude the Republican-Progressives from power. In 1919, the war finally ended with a million boys gone, and with the nation so exhausted and bitter, with the rise of the Spartacists in Germany, Roosevelt declared that 'Spartacism must be crushed at once' and pushed for a second invasion of Germany.

This was the spark for the 1919 general strike, fuelled by a crippling war exhaustion and the greater influence of the Socialist Party on American political discourse. Roosevelt's Labor Secretary Eugene Foss immediately moved to send in the strike breakers, leading to riots and protests spreading all over the Midwest. In the end, the Red Scare worked. The Socialist Party was associated with Spartacism and the unions were broken once and for all. Still, the last words of Eugene Debs before he was killed echoed - 'You may kill a man, but you cannot kill an idea'.

Meanwhile in the south, the coalition of Democrats with Socialists drove further people into the 'White League' and led them to have greater influence on the Republican-Progressives, and Roosevelt was consistently presented as the last bastion of order against the red menace. Racist rhetoric of blacks being associated with Spartacism were floated around as well. Roosevelt's turn to more firm exclusionary rhetoric, including a declaration that 'loyalty to America, not to any other nation or idea, must be paramount in all Americans', fuelled them as well.

And we finally get to 1920. With Roosevelt declaring that he will run for a third consecutive term to ensure America remains free, bolstering it with his usual bombastic rhetoric, the Democrats stunned by the backlash from the coalition jumped back to seize on this with an unbeatable slogan - "Washington Wouldn't, Grant Couldn't and Roosevelt Shouldn't!". Helping them was the final splintering of the western Progressives with the greater whole, with Robert La Follette running against Roosevelt in the Progressive primary and losing decisively.

The man who the Democrats chose, Senator Thomas J. Walsh, was an Irish Catholic, but notably one who was a distinctive break from 'Catholic politics', supporting the war against Germany and endorsing the idea of Prohibition which disarmed it as a partisan issue much to some Rep-Progs' displeasure. He was a man widely popular in western circles even with western Progressives and his selection of a more moderate running mate appeased the people who worried he was too close with the 'left' so to speak.

Still, he was Catholic. And a South that had eight years of White League propaganda, fuelled by the backlash to the general strike, turned against him decisively. He was the first Democrat to not win any of the south, but German-Americans and western Progressives rallied behind him in opposition to Roosevelt, including by then again Governor of Wisconsin Robert La Follette who made the official Progressive candidate in his state the Democratic one in protest at Roosevelt's growing authoritarianism and anti-labor sentiment.

Still, the outcome was clear. To the chants of "Washington Wouldn't, Grant Couldn't, Roosevelt Shouldn't!" the voters went "Roosevelt or Chaos!".

The triumphant President would die in 1922 suddenly, after one and a half years of increasing discontent and economic woe as a result of the war. His successor, now-President Eugene Foss, would see his term be ended by a Democratic landslide bringing Edwin Meredith and a new Democratic Party in charge after 32 years in the wilderness. The cultural memory of Roosevelt would sink in as a loud "man's man", tough and hard-handed, a tough man for 'tough times'. Even to this day, the Republican-Progressives and the 'Southern League' [rebranded in the 70s] hold Roosevelt Diners and the man is a popular symbol of the American nationalistic right-wing. On Typpit, t/bullmoose often makes memes about 'cracking spartacist heads'.

[1] In 1912 he and the Progressive leadership prioritised a 'lily-white' southern Progressive Party, expelling southern African-American delegates and declaring that the blacks was the cause of the southern Republican Party becoming impotent. This is expanded upon here into a wider scenario.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

(Claudia López)
Name: Valérie Luz Bonnay de Casa

Political Party or Faction: Socialist Movement for Regeneration (Broad Front)

Leadership style: In public, she will be a conciliatory figure and present herself as a truly neutral figure to move Potosi into a new era. She will avoid criticising Ayma or even Mamani. In fact she will seek to appropriate their legacies to deform into hers. After all, they’re dead. And she’s very much alive. If possible, she will seek to cultivate a personality cult around her, but only if possible.

In private, she will seek to create a strong internal faction – the Casaitas – personally loyal to her and her alone. It will be one of a very deeply pragmatic streak bound in socialist rhetoric. This faction will be built by cultivating historically marginalised communities.

Leader Personality: A very composed individual, very little disturbs her. She seems to believe she is the main character of her own story, and has every confidence in her every decision.

Brief Bio: It would take a very special circumstance, or even the passing of aeons, to get a scion of Lorenzo de Casa into the presidency. But his granddaughter now sits in the same office he once did, and she has expansive plans for the country.

Born in Paris to Lorenzo’s posthumous daughter Blanca de Casa Montaña and her French lover Jean-Marie Bonnay, Valérie was somewhat of a family shame, even once being told to her face by her maternal grandmother that she was a ‘mistake sent by the Devil’. She just laughs that off, brushing it off as an ageing woman’s blind anger at the world for her suffering. Brought up primarily by her father’s family, even now she speaks Spanish with a slight French tinge. However, her mother’s newfound determination to climb up in Potosian society split an 11 year old Valérie from her father and his family and put her in an unfamiliar country, the Republic of Potosi.

Let it not be said that Valérie Bonnay de Casa was ever unable to adapt. Even now, she reminisces sometimes of her mother’s doomed efforts to achieve political influence in Potosi. She just wanted it too much and just alienated people. Meanwhile, Valérie just seemed to accumulate connections like a spider spins a web, which is to say, naturally. People just seemed to like her.

By the 1980s, Valérie was in her 20s, and growing acutely aware of the tensions in Potosian society. Already inclined against the elite due to her mother’s repeating what she knew of her father and his death, she sought to work with the left-wing organisations, including the emerging Socialists, and managed to achieve some form of informal influence by aligning herself with the charismatic Ayma who she gambled would go far.

Ending up with a party office when the Socialists won control in 1994, she ended up backing Ayma’s chosen candidate as his successor, but ah well, Mamani won. Turning on a dime, she expressed her loyalty to the Nation above all, and elected to keep silent when the party feud was going on, privately promising Mamani her full support for any of his actions, and even wrangling herself into the vice-presidency in 2010.

And now she is President. Who knows what she has planned.

THE AGENDA OF THE BONNAY DE CASA ADMINISTRATION
Socialism with Potosian Characteristics
While Valérie is not of the capitalist sort, she is deeply aware that Potosi needs a solution to the hunger and to the Starving Time. Thus she will seek to coordinate the state response with that of private companies.

She will seek to create this structure where every private company is a ‘partner’ of the state and hence can be reined in by the state, and has to follow the labour and environmental laws, but otherwise allowed to go as they please (within reason), with Potosi once more ‘open for business’. They will be allowed to brand themselves ‘State Companies’ if they so desire. To the public, it will be sold as merely calibrating the state policies and the state companies are really extensions of the state, don’t worry. No capitalism thanks, we’re Potosian! Hopefully this works!

She will also try to have the state support the growth of local cooperatives which will also be covered in the ‘state partnership’. Any partners of the state is good, and hey this helps burnish her socialist credentials, which is never a bad thing!

Diplomacy with Potosian Characteristics
The famine will be treated via the state taking a primary role, intervening to ensure Potosi gets food from as much places as possible. She will take this opportunity to expand Potosi’s diplomacy, saying that in times of crisis, when the people are starving, help must not be refused. Hence China will be turned to, yes, but she will turn also to Potosi’s main rival the Americans.

To the American President, she will emphasise that she is not her predecessors, and is instead a ‘good reformer’ who wishes to ensure free enterprise is phased in Potosi without the risk of a new revolution, and will bring up the fact that if starving Potosians get American aid, it may help endear a more pro-American [and hence more pro-free market] attitude. She will pledge to continue this quiet reform and allow American companies to have a share of the pie if the rivalry dies down.

However, she will also turn to China, invoking her predecessors’ wish to work with them in the world. Chinese companies will also be given a slice of the Potosian economic pie, and their ‘state partnership’ will be played up more than the American, as a show of ‘anti-imperialism’, while quietly signing more and more deals with American companies.

Russia and India too will be turned to for support and deals, and Potosi will emphasise its willingness to work with everyone and not be a hostile ‘hermit state’. However, to shore up the nationalist support, it will emphasise publicly that this cooperation will be on Potosian ‘terms’. Nevermind that the ‘terms’ are quite generous, it’s key to emphasise that it’s on Potosian terms!

The focus at first is ensuring everyone gets fed of course. Once this system is credited for solving the famine, it will have far more public trust, and she will expand on it far more to establish capitalism socialism with Potosian characteristics.

Politics with Potosian Characteristics
President Bonnay de Casa is heavily aware of the (mostly indigenous) death squads and loyalists in the military. It is why she will seek to bind herself deeply to the ‘legacy’ of Ayma and Mamani, portraying herself as their ‘natural successor’ in symbolery and rhetoric. A key aspect of this is indigenous policy. She is not one to needlessly alienate the majority populace! She will appoint a majority-indigenous cabinet, including an indigenous vice-president, and support a constitutional amendment recognising the main indigenous languages of Potosi (Quechua, Aymara and Guaraní) as co-official with Spanish.

The environment too will be a key policy of hers, with several areas recognised as national parks, an ‘Ecological Council’ with an indigenous majority will be appointed to oversee any applications to exploit the land for private use, and she will pepper in indigenist-environmentalist rhetoric in her speeches to underline what she wants to emphasise, that she is the ally of the majority.

To burnish her portrayal as a genuine democrat, she will allow other parties to contest elections… As part of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) of socialist and social-democratic parties. The idea was taken from a book about East Germany. Only parties that are basically just Casaita will be approved of, as they will continue to uphold the clear message of the Broad Front. The Socialist Movement for Regeneration will always be top of the Broad Front of course, but there will always be a fair few parties to demonstrate Potosi’s willingness to accept political pluralism!

Expansionism… with Potosian Characteristics!
The military has a lot of guns. This is a self-evident fact. The Potosian people are hyper about possessing Chaco. This is also self-evident. As much as it may be a decision she has much misgivings over, she is going to commit to holding Chaco. However, she will seek to put a puppet regime in Paraguay which will sign a treaty recognising Chaco is Potosian, and really work her socks off to convince America to agree to recognise this land grab.

To maintain control of Chaco, she will approve of a military ‘surge’ into the territory to clamp down on it. This also has the benefit of moving them far away from Potosi City and thus away from her. She will give them every license to do whatever they need to maintain control in Chaco, as long as they stay the fuck away from thinking about coups.

However, her main aim was never Chaco. Potosi was for a long time a land-locked country, and the coast is one that Potosi has lacked since that damnable war with Chile. Hence she will seek to cut some ethically-questionable deals with the Chilean government and companies in exchange for a treaty ceding the old coast to Potosi, or if that cannot be achieved, an agreement that Potosians can use the coast free of tariffs. Sure, it’s all a bit corrupt and dirty, but hey. That’s just politics.

Revisionism with Potosian Characteristics
As much as she would prefer to leave the matter be, she knows she would be a bad daughter to her mother if she didn’t at least try to do some light revisionism of her frankly nuts grandfather.

History books under her presidency will be rewritten to present Lorenzo de Casa as a well-meaning man who sought to try his best to save Potosi in his own way, only to be killed by the ‘elite’, connecting this with the by now decades-long socialist rhetoric to make a good ‘martyr’ role for the man. It may require a lot of flat-out lies. So what? History books are full of them anyway.