IC Scene: The Council Chamber (Provinces / Free City Event)

"Provincial lords collect taxes in the name of the King. They were entitled to nothing more as Governor. If they feel they've lost something from this arrangement, His Majesty is most just when holding court, and would surely address their pleas if they find they are unable to preserve their dignity with their own duchies."

"Surely? I, on the other hand, cannot predict what the king will or will not approve. The provicial lords have the additional task of overseeing all duchies whithin their provinces. This is tiresome work and I suppose the king rewarded them for their efforts.Without a province, their income will dwindle."

Isabel turned to Marcus and her eyes flashed with anger. Her voice was slow, and her accent thick. As she proceeded through her statement, she gradually began to speak quicker. Her voice was filled with notable passion, but not necessarily the anger her eyes showed.


"Must we return to old debates, Centurion? We are here only for what the King wants. That which pleases His Majesty is the law of this realm, and that which displeases His Majesty is impious, unjust, and illegal. If our proposal does not please the King, we have wasted time, and not just our own, but that which is infinitely more valuable, the time of His Majesty, the King. I remind you, that you are bound to His Majesty's pleasure no less than I am. If you feel that you are not bound to His Majesty's will and desires, then leave this chamber, and this Kingdom, or submit yourself to chains and confess your treason, throw yourself upon your knees and beg His Majesty for mercy."

"Constable Iskar, you have the right to conduct and sponsor this discussion as King Mordred has graciously given you. However, you speak of blame. Would not the blame go to me, as Duke of this city, if such an incident involving security happened within my walls? No. If you wish for you halbardiers to remain for your own city you have that right, but I will not allow the weapons to be removed. If you feel intimidated by Grandmaster Mastifus's dagger I can order a sword brought for you, but I trust that someone who has the discipline to lead a knighthood order has the discipline to not murder his peers on a whim."

When he finished speaking, Darlion sat and listened to the flurry of conversation that took place in the wake of his arrival. Yet he said nothing, until his own subordinate spoke up and the Grandmaster turned to Marcus.

"Isabel speaks true here Marcus. You dance perilously close to treason with your words. Unless you plan to rebel against our King Mordred, I would suggest you choose your words more carefully."

Turning back to the rest of the room, Darlion spoke a third time.

"As for this Shadow... to suggest it is a threat to the realm goes too far. Yet, to suggest we can simply remove or replace it would be... a mistake. While I don't like the idea of this man or woman being allowed to exist with the power they have, at the same time there is no indication that it is working against the realm or King Mordred. Surely that would change if and when we decide to turn against them. For the time, I say let sleeping dogs lie."

"Power really does show a man's character, doesn't it? I beg to see which laws allow you to override both royal decrees and the sacred rules of hospitality, Sir Darlion. But not now. Now we must focus on concluding this meeting.

Shall we finally vote and move on?"

Iskar listened to the debate, his brow furrowed, his head supported by his right arm. He sat there for a while in his chair beside the empty seat of the chairman, a situation that he seemed to be well used to. When Marcus finished, he focused Sir Darlion first.

Your Grace, you rule this city in the name of his majesty, but by royal decree we oversee this meeting and I had ordered that no weapons be allowed in the council chamber. I will not try to command your men, but as chairman of the meeting I must kindly ask you to have them remove all weapons from the room and then leave us. They can join the guard duty outside the door together with the halberdiers.

Now, he continued towards the whole council, I suggest we try to solve this disgusting thicket of accusations, selfish bickering and fairy tales. Disdain flashed in his green eyes again then he assumed a more neutral expression although a hard trait remained around his mouth.

As much as I would agree with the suggestion that no provinces at all will serve a unification better than new provinces, I wish to remind you what titanic task it is to rule a kingdom. The provinces were important administrative instance. Without them the royal court would see an incredible inflation, the number of officials required would multiply. When you have such a large number of people, you cannot prevent some being wicked and the last thing we want is corruption in the royal administration, since this would cause a huge loss of confidence in the king among the nobles as well as the commoners. We therefore need to find a system that replaces the provinces without drawing new borders nor too obviously removing the old ones.

He paused for a moment before going on:

While I think I made sufficiently clear that the new provinces I suggested had a clear common purpose of the duchies comprised therein, I cannot deny that similar cultural backgrounds might produce similar problems to be addressed, so the duchies formerly forming one of the old kingdoms have a right to be treated together, too. My suggestion is therefore as follows: All provinces as of now will be dissolved, but there will be regular meetings of the dukes of these former provinces together with the king, his chancellor or any other appropriate representative. These representatives can be high ranking members of other orders, the royal court or the clergy of a Pendorian church. There will also be similar regular meetings of the dukes of such duchies that would have formed one of the new provinces together with the king or one of the afore mentioned representatives. This allows all important issues to be addressed, both those that are common to the duchies of the old kingdoms, as well as the defensive or economical ones that unite the new provinces I suggested.

The dukes will be pleased because they will have seats in two councils, feeling honoured by that as well as the fact that the average duke will have slightly more influence on middle scale politics. To keep the balance we can suggest a law forcing the dukes to hold similar councils with their own bannermen to address the particular issues of their own duchy. On one scale even below the single lords could also hold meetings with the lower nobles and patricians in their holdings. We thus achieve a system of nested councils that are fit to deal with all possible problems from the smallest to the largest without enforcing the rigid structures of provinces on the realm.

Furthermore, the old kingdoms will not be erased from one day to the next, since their old dukes will still meet regularly, while also regularly meeting with other dukes that have similar problems in other aspects will work to create a consciousness of unity across the old borders that we wish to remove in the heads as well as on the maps.

The peasantry will not feel any notable difference since they see hardly anything of the workings of power in the spheres of dukes and kings anyway. They might even see a considerable improvement since the sequence of nested councils will reach down to their stratum, too, enabling them to bring forth their own problems to the ears of elders and patricians who themselves can address lords and so on.

He paused after his speech was done, then raised his voice again.

Before we loose ourselves in petty discussions about the details of this suggestion again, I would like to hold a voting on whether we want a system of this general kind - not regarding the particularities - at all. I await the votes of the present grandmasters or their representatives.

Isabel turned back to the Constable.

"You've called for a vote on two matters, Constable. The dissolution of formal provinces is what has been proposed, twice, and it is what a vote is required for. These new councils you would have are another matter, to be voted on separately. Your commoner's tricks are best left outside of this chamber, with your halberd thugs."

Saeros looked in the direction of Lady Laisha, and then further away to Iskar and the other rangers present. He mutters a few words in an old Noldor dialect, then points to two spots on the map.

[OOC: I assume some of you may know Noldor, perhaps Tubby-Lucius and Sir Azrael. So Saeros spoke in a Noldor dialect, which probably no one would understand. If you still think your characters know that, PM me and I'll PM you. But be fair (it's not something someone not bookish would know).]

To be precise, Lady Tenorio, Iskar replied with a slightly tired undertone, I asked for a vote on a single matter: Whether the current provinces should be replaced by a system similar to the one I suggested. As for the possibility for peasants to bring their problems before elders and patricians and ask them for help, what you call peasant tricks, I see no reason against it. It has nothing at all to do with giving power to the peasantry, only their problems would finally be heard and addressed. It would greatly add to the reputation of his majesty among his people to install such a system. But now, I asked for the votes of the grandmasters, not the comment of a common knight who misunderstood my statement.

He turned away from her. Gentlemen?

Varys turned to Celduir and whispered in his ear,

"It is not your fault. Bickering and accusations were inevitable; you did your best. But now, we must vote."

He heard Saeros speak in Noldor tongue, and he tried to make out the words. However, he didn't understand it, as he only knew a few words in the Noldor tongue, and he gave up trying to decipher the foreign language.

Varys flipped his coin, and caught it. He sighed, and said, "I vote for the abolition of provinces, not for the system you suggested. Let us vote on just the abolition of provinces now; we can vote on a system later. We must keep it clear and precise. Not whittling down something vague and uncertain."

Lucius looked mildly nonplussed as he listened to the ranger speaking in Noldor, then spoke.

Constable, while the knight was rude, her point stands. Claiming that a proposal is only one matter does not make it so. I will only vote on whether the Provinces remain, and on that count, I vote to dissolve them. We have had discussion on the provinces, but nothing of the system you mention.

Celdiur sat in thought for a moment, let out a deep sigh, and then spoke.

"Ser Varys speaks the will of the Eventide. The provinces must be dissolved"

Zekic heard Saeros speaking noldor dialect and memories got into him..

Noldor commands to kill his father caravan..

The langauge he constantly heard in forests of laria, the language he heard constantly before noldor attack, the language the meant that one of his friends gonna die that day.

He heard that language when he was alone, even if no noldor were nearby, he would slash bushes, cut trees, he almost became insane becouse of this language, this language signaled a danger, and zekic's reflexes kicked in.

Zekic had a special hiding space in armor, for his little custom crossbow, one of few things, that he still have after spending his fathers money. And he never parted with this crossbow. He took that crossbow, targeted Saeros and pressed trigger..

Luckily, more for Zekic then for Saeros probably, zekic's trusted crossbow failed him this time, there was no bolt in it. Zekic himself removed the bolt before council just in case something like that happens.

Zekic looked at his crossbow with disbelief, then he calmed down, placed his crossbow back, and silently told Saeros.

"Don't you dare to speak in this language, in my presence, ever again, if you value you'r life silvermist."

Then Zekic left the council chamber, violently pushing one of halberders out of his way.

Lucius stood up, obviously barely controlling his rage

Members of the council, I cannot apologise enough for the actions of my subordinate. I assure you he will be dealt with. Please let us continue with the matter at hand, and forget this foolishness.

Sir Aranor stayed silent. He didn't let his face betray any thoughts he may be having of the incident he just witnessed.

"I vote for Silvermist system. Provinces dissolved."

Varys shook his head.

"My, my, I hope this isn't how the rest of the gauntlet acts."

Saeros facepalmed. He stood up, walked over to map, and pointed to the tiny hole made by Sir Mastifus' knife.

"See this?", he said, "See how a single uncivilized act can lead to terrible consequences? It all started with this", he pointed to the small cut in Ravenstern, "and it will end with this". As Saeros said those words, he ripped the map in half, from Rane to Singal and the great desert, with Sarleon being split in the middle.

"It is your duty, as grandmasters, to leave your pride outside that door" , he pointed to the large door, which has just slammed behind the gauntlet, "and work together to prevent that.

Say what you will. Say that 'your duty is to protect the king'. Say that it is 'to ensure the safety of Northerners'. Say it is to 'protect mankind'. Still, your higher duty is to not put your preferences above the realm's. Knights, you say you are. But you behave like drunken peasants. None of the offenses commited in this room will not be forgotten, but now is not the time to deal with them.

I say again: will we work together, or will we cancel this meeting?"

"In light of recent events, I must confess that I would be far happier with my blade at my side. At least then I wont be defenseless when the next assassination attempt comes". Celdiur said that with a fair amount of astonishment in his voice.

"Just how incompentent are your halberdiers, Saeros?"

He rose from his chair now and adjusted his position to address the hall.

"Lords, ladies and knights of the realm. As entertaining as this meeting has been, I find myself no longer capable of listening to your pathetic bickering. You call yourself knights but you are no better than a drunken rabble. Send for me again if you are again ready to negotiate in a civil manner. Until that time though, a bid you adieu"

With that Celdiur turned and left the chamber, leaving the guards to close the door behind him.