Edict of Separation

[frankdh 2418]

Edict of Separation

 

 

11th of Harren’s Folley, 1786

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Throughout our country’s four hundred years of history, we find ourselves still making decisions unlike any of our ancestors before us. Every sovereign guides us down a new pattern across the Tapestry of Man, threads left behind us like the worn paths of a traveler. 

 

It is most curious to me to find myself here. This country - our holy empire - was united after decades of disjointed rule, a mad emperor, and the cruelties of civil war. The men and women who had witnessed those years had come to know the same truth that every soul of Humanity discovers with an absence of an empire: chaos, isolation, and loneliness. 

 

The return of Oren, such ideals rekindled by Joseph of Marna, rebirthed the feelings of Oneness, of unity, and trust in ourselves bound us together. One Empire, One people, and One vision, would have us march proudly, chin raised high, as we walked in the path of God.

 

Yet that one vision became so blurred that I may never know where the first signs of division started. Differences in style became differences in culture, which turned into disagreements of government and legislation. The threads that once were woven in unison now grew to be tugged and snarled, as we entangled ourselves in grudges, stubbornness, and animosity. 

 

It should be said that I am the granddaughter of a Haeseni princess, Karenina Barbanov, and it was an interest of mine throughout my life to indulge and experience Haense’s centuries of culture, language and achievements. Historical recountings of Peter I standing with his people before John III to swear his loyalty and restore Haense as a kingdom, Pontiff Everard IV’s strength to stand as Humanity’s protector as regent, Marius II’s relentless efforts to stand with an emperor for the sake of his country and the brotherhood of man, and Terrence May’s decades dedicated to shaping our shared nation as a founding father. It is these great men, and their accomplishments that impacted and defined my perception of Haeseni triumph.

Given the reluctance to fully engage in the Empire's systems, the Aulic government has made it evident to me and my administration there is a wish for Haeseni autonomy. Thus there are few mutual benefits to our current arrangement, given the refusal from the monarchy and Aulic government to contribute to that shared country, whether that be militarily, economically or legislatively.

 

Penning this missive saddens me greatly. If we could only invest together as we intended, in good faith, in our shared institutions and infrastructure, we could have achieved unprecedented heights for our people. In contrast to the aforementioned Haeseni of yore, who sought to work towards mutually beneficial aims for the good of the brotherhood of all humanity, I have been made aware that the formal stance of the royal government is that the Haeseni people are forced, against their will, to participate in free and fair representation in the Imperial Diet. Such ill sentiment is so unhealthy for our country, and so wrong-headed, particularly given the historical disenfranchisement of the Haeseni people by the Pertinaxi regime of my predecessors, and it cannot continue. 

 

We are a country of laws and of civic participation. The deadlock brought forth by the Haenseni government, in their efforts to preserve an identity that was never intended to be harmed, has hampered innovation not just in Haense, but throughout our entire empire. The idea that a group of aristocrats would vote to reject the supremacy of the Imperial Diet - in which they themselves are fairly represented - to legislate on any issue concerning them, is untenable to me, and for me to turn a blind eye to this would be incompatible with my role as defender of the Orenian constitution.

 

For the sake of the greater good, I have no other choice. 

 

In treating our realm as if it were not a commonwealth of man, but instead an alliance or union of individual states, it defies the very notion of a national purpose. The laws that the representatives of the people write, and the government that executes them, must be designed to shape the benefit, and future, of the whole. When private good triumphs against the common good, there is no national spirit in these few. There exists a certain divergence between the national interest of the Empire and the royal interests of Haense, that has grown to the point that makes it impossible to ignore. This clash of direction and ideals has manifested the very thing the Empire exists to oppose- a weakened and ineffectual Humanity.

 

So long as this rejection of our systems remains, our government cannot properly function for the remainder of our subjects. In order to properly govern our brotherhood of Man, Their Imperial Majesties henceforth dissolve any oaths of fealty and homage owed to the Imperial Crown by the Kingdom of Hanseti-Ruska, release them from the Holy Orenian Empire, its legal structures, institutions, obligations and boons, and shall consider them an independent country.

 

It is a mutual misfortune that the Aulic government was so opposed to integrating fully with our shared institutions of unity and representation, and the people of Haense will henceforth lose the opportunity to benefit from the cumulative potential of all our peoples in only the way an Empire can provide. Our administration is still welcoming of the opportunity to work with the Aulic government in good graces, but this is simply the only solution that will benefit both entities. 
 

 

ISSUED AND PROCLAIMED,

Anne I, by the grace of GOD Holy Orenian Empress, forever August, Queen of Renatus, Curon, Salvus and Seventis, Defender of the Faith, Princess of Malinor, Duchess of Adria, Novellen and Lorraine, Baroness of Renzfeld, Protector of the Heartlanders, Highlanders and Farfolk, etcetera.

 

Joseph II, by the grace of GOD Holy Orenian Emperor, forever August, King of Renatus, Curon, Salvus, and Seventis, Defender of the Faith, Prince of Malinor, Duke of Adria, Novellen and Lorraine, Baron of Renzfeld, Protector of the Heartlanders, Highlanders, and Farfolk, etcetera