Winter, 1440 – Rimrivertown, the Avaeran wildlands. Captain Huacoatl van Jafaarsan van Kelshir emerged from his warm cabin into the brisk morning fog of the outpost, to the sounds of the the beginning of the day. From nearby he could smell the smoke and odours of the breakfast being cooked by the night-watch before they returned to their bunks. On the northwall, the morningwatch could be heard continuing with yesterdays work on the rammed earth embankments. Then the yellow rays of the morning sun breached the nearby hills, and the fog quickly fled as the grey hills came alive with colours of vivid green. Again, the view he enjoyed from his quarters cum office took his breath away, a small mercy to be weighed against the cosmic injustice of being appointed to the governorial triumvirate for Rimrivertown, pitiful trading settlement in the most obscure corner of the Midsea. >From the moment of their arrival, things had not fared well. Thanks be to He Who Is One, they had survived those first few months, establishing the settlement, defenses, a good harbour and were able to supplement some of their supplies with food from the singular friendly tribe nearby, the Panchayyah. Other than that, Captain Huacoatl had struggled to fulfill his third of the mandate as Lord of the Guard, to safely establish the trading outpost. An almost complete hostility amongst the neighbouring Avaeran chieftains, safe for the exception of a minor clan in the immediate hinterland, prevented any diplomatic let alone commercial ties being established. This failure, in turn prevented the other two triumvirate members, the Lord of the Merchants and the Lord of the Secretariat, from carrying out their own duties, instead they remained holed up in the settlement for the majority of the time, aside from the occasional foray to accompany patrols or to the small Panchayyah village nearby. It had been almost two months now since the last attempt by youth from the larger Avaeran tribes to raid the Kaeirean settlement, mused Captain Huacoatl. Perhaps soon he could turn over the main responsibility of authority over to the second lord of the triumvirate, the silver-tongued, slight-of-hand Secretariat Lord, Sir Oris van Stwyth. Perhaps. Perhaps when things were quieter, he could persuade the other two lords to send a delegation to the north, to the distant Kelshir plains of his childhood. Somewhere beyond these wild hills were the grassy plains of southern Kelshir, and beyond them, the jagged mountains and jungle of the Kelshiri valley, where He Who Is One might be benevolent enough to allow him to find perhaps some surviving kin of his own long-lost clan. Perhaps. But in the meantime, he had to fulfill his mandate, see the success of this settlement, and return to Kaeir in commercial glory. That itself would be a gargantuan task, Huacoatl mused to himself, as he strode down the hill to the Guard mess-hall where his lieutenants were undoubtedly already waiting. --- "Rise of the Senate, 1439-1441", History of the Kaeirean Republic (Society of Scholastics, Tirmar: 1500): In the year 1440, the second stage in the political consolidation of the Republic of Kaeir took place. The Senate, while initially doubtful, easily reinforced its authority over all in the Republic, and Basiluddin in a roundabout fashion, lost much of his. Following pressure from Mir, the fearful Senate ordered the lifting of the Tal blockade, ordering the Fleet Commanders to return to the Kaeirean Straits. While the Commanders unhesitantly agreed, what was significant about this was that the old revolutionary drive to “re-take” all of Taltheran was banished from mainstream politics, and even the pragmatic revolutionary politics of Basiluddin and his cohort marginalized. Many did not realize this yet, but the sharper minds in the Senate did, as did Lord Basiluddin, who gracefully accepted his retirement from political life, instead taking command of the expeditionary forces in Port Tirmar. Basiluddin’s loss of political fortune had been engineered by the political genius of Lord Sanus Jafaarsan, son of a martyred Tirmari republican lord, and chief of the Merchant-Lords in Kaeir. Jafaarsan had worked at the eroding of Basiluddin’s powerbase for several years, and in 1440, after a series of failed actions by Basiluddin, persuaded the Senate to change its political direction. Lord Basiluddin was removed from office, and given the title Commander of the Expeditionary Forces as face-saving compensation. The why and how this remarkable series of events was simple. Basiluddin’s right-hand man, Sir (now Lord) Karl von Kahshaar was elevated to the position of Senator, and Secretary-General of the Information Secretariat, in recognition of the now critical importance of the Information Secretariat. More importantly, Lord Gregor Ulricovic and Lord Cyril van Fitzlyri, the two of whom had previously formed the other two thirds of Basiluddin’s old revolutionary Triumvirate, came over to Jafaarsan’s position. Ulricovic was confirmed as Commander of the Guard, in exchange for his support, and van Fitzlyri made the new Admiral of the Fleet. As further compensation to these three Senators of the military, the Senate conceded to the right to short-list candidates for the senior ranks of the military to these three powerful institutions. At the same time, Jafaarsan engineered the appointment of several new positions in the Senate: Senate for the Merchant-Houses, the Pro-Consul of Celtehar, the Pro-Consul of Celtelath, the Mayor of Port Kaeir, the Secretary for Commerce, and the provisional Pro-Consul for Port Tirmar. These new positions ensured the Senate would no longer be dominated by the military, as in the days of Basiluddin’s Triumvirate, and established the foundation for a civic political tradition. Further evidence of Jafaarsan’s political genius could be seen in the composition of these appointments – whereby he ensured all the major political factions of the Republic were represented and therefore involved in the political life of the government: the old guard Basiluddinists, the patriotic Tallists (these emigrants from the mainland often used the slogan: “Until Tal!”), the cryptic Mirrists who dominated the Information Secretariat, the new and religious Millatists who cut across the old political lines, and the influential and pragmatic Green faction led by Jafaarsan. Only one political grouping was left out, the firebrand revolutionaries whose slogans of “No Kings! No priests! No borders!” unnerved even the Basilludinists and Tallists. Though in 1441 these factions were not very identifiable, the beginnings of these groupings could already be discerned, and would become much more coherent in the years to follow. ---- Lord Jafaarsan, Greetings. I write to you to inform you of how the Port Tirmar campaign goes. It has been a month since the assassination of the tyrant Salokin. Ensconced in our fortified position in the eastern half of Port Tirmar, we have been able to watch the events that flowed from his death. Already, considerable numbers of Czarist forces have left Port Tirmar, apparently in a race back to Tal, as Salokin’s generals jostle for the top position. In Port Tirmar itself, several minor fortified towers have come over to our side, evidence of widespread dissatisfaction and low morale amongst the Czarist troops, though these dissertions have not been of large enough numbers to make a difference in military terms. I have ordered continued preparations, and am pleased to inform the Senate that I plan to make an assault in the New Year, to break the back of the remaining Czarist forces and push them our of Tirmar. A continuance of the usual supplies is necessary, and what spare troops are available in the capital will also be of benefit. For the Republic, Lord Osric Basiluddin Commander of the Expeditionary Forces of the Great Republic of Kaeir ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
