The Proclamation of the League of Veletz

[Nectorist 12869]

PROCLAMATION OF THE LEAGUE

In the year 137 of the Second Age

 

✠

 

“AUDERE EST FACERE”

 

---

Although forged in triumph at the great Battle of Rolly’s Hill, the victory was born from the low cunning characteristic of its age. The swift ascendance to open conflict was a lamentable deed, but lessons worth learning from the war remain. Notably, the triumph was a feat of the combined efforts of a number of allied parties unified by their interest in the safety of Velec and opposition to the Aaunish Crown. It was the customs of the Sarkozics, the masses of Adria, the steel of Blackvale, the dedication of Rouen, the grit of Montalt, the loyalty of Euler, and the services and sacrifices of many more that propelled our cause to victory. Through this unity of disparate peoples and forces- past enemies, past friends- the many plights of Adria were avenged and the opportunity for the realm to pilot its own course was achieved.

 

While we raised our blades in defense of this old, esteemed title and its peoples, and through the prosecution of our victorious war righted wrongs both contemporary and distant, it is a great necessity that history is not repeated. Such may be the ways of humanity, perhaps even our predecessors, as brief lives allow history to be viewed fondly, yet these perceptions of the past provide only for a clouded future. It must be the prerogative of Horen’s children to advance their race and leave behind those that are flawed. While the ways of Adria must be respected, and its history revered for the triumph that it has now produced, our mortal nature must be followed, and evolution must come in the aftermath of ascendancy.

 

Through the unified efforts of Sarkoz and Aert, the League of Veletz is born to be the catalyst of the new era.

 

The Age of Heroes was a time of great men and women, objects of aspiration for their virtue and successful, or at least desirable, ambitions, and for it from history prior to the Rubern War, we are gifted with great tales of chivalry, the dazzling spectacles of lords and ladies across the world, wealth and splendor without the undercurrent of vice that such fanciful living breeds. However, only in dreams and wild imagination did such a world exist, for it was as dark and cruel as ours, with such brief, romantic tales only briefly punctuating the shroud of devastation, strife, and political intrigue. The violent collapse that came about from the failed attempts of the successors of these 'great men and women' to match the feats of their ancestors nearly split the world apart, yet the crafty politicians, those who knew their histories, proposed an alternative.

 

That alternative was Age of Man, where the liberal and popular ideals of the Helenan, Vesian, and Rezan, cynically corrupted forms of the Adrian method, yet claiming political descent from it all the same. To shackle the greed and folly of our mortal aspirations, and the damages it may wrought, those in charge wrangled their subjects and stifled any sort of ambition and activity. While mankind was able to live in relative peace, its people, much like children in a long carriage ride, squirmed with impatience. Denied an outlet to express themselves aside from the trappings of electoral politics, and ungrateful for the easy lives they had been provided, the fools backed those who claimed the ability to bring about a return to the Age of Heroes, a return to the pursuit of glory and triumph. However, such men generally spoke falsely, and soon the world again was plunged into chaos.

 

It was the Age of Villains, where no true representative of the honor and beauty of our mortal mankind could be found, save perhaps Manfred of Arichsdorf and his spiritual successor, Gustaf de Vilain. In their eagerness to lose all that was associated with the prior age, the people turned to stupidity and cruelty. Art, poetry, authorship, song, all were lost in the fires that consumed not only the world, but the human spirit. Humanity became a brutish and mean people, unable to possess the cunning intelligence of their immediate predecessors, nor dignified or brave enough to replicate the distant ancestors they desired to mantle. Virtue was lost, and those few who possessed it were made outcasts to their homeland, if not Almaris as a whole, for the world ignored their study of our history and instead turned to their ill-formed conceptions of a time long-distant, one unknown to them.

 

We enter now into a time where our history is unknown, yet desperately clung to. Unable to profess their purpose for existence, for they do not know them, men have instead pointed to triumphs that belonged not to them, but their grandfathers and grandmothers. What has man achieved, if it is not triumph, not peace, not beauty nor even the accomplishment of petty schemes? There is no vision forward, only a demented, aimless gaze towards the past. Sitting without desire for change, mankind has returned to the idleness they claimed gripped them during the Age of Man. As there has been no remedy, violence has naturally ensued- the birth of Veletz is evidence of this very thing. As our rise has been marked by the ignorant, violent brutality that has defined this Age of Villains, we must now aim to depart from this era and follow the tide of history into the next.

 

THE TERMS OF VELETZ:

 

I) Duke John II of Adria, Duke Valentin of Blackvale, and Count Markus of Aldersberg enter into a commission to formally govern the League of Veletz. 

 

II) Duke John II of Adria is named the Captain-General of the League of Veletz. In this office, he is to have full executive authority to create the forms of government for the new state as he deems fit. His office shall only end upon abdication or death.

 

III) In the event of the death of the Captain-General before the formation of a national government, the signatories of this document shall elect a new Captain-General.

 

IV) Duke John II of Adria shall formally abdicate the ducal throne of Adria and oversee elections for a new Duke of Adria. In compensation, he shall receive the Duchy of Middelan, encompassing the City of Klarov and its surrounding properties, the County of Rivigrenz, and the County of Sonlach.

 

V) The institutions of the present Duchy of Adria, including the Duma, the General Staff, the Court of St. Emalyne, and other such functions of state, shall be generally adopted by the new government of the League of Veletz.

 

VI) Duke John II of Adria shall formally renounce his right of succession to the ducal throne of Blackvale and cede all claims to the properties and titles of the House van Aert to his younger brother, Gaspard van Aert.

VII) All existing treaties made in the name of Duke John II of Adria shall remain in effect.

[Vermy 1484]

The Duke of Blackvale looks over the proclamation with a smile.

[AnonymousAlexa 3890]

“Now this is a league I like,” declared the Queen of Norland.

[Evrocentrik 348]

The olden Prince read the missive over dinner with Markus Sarkozic and his good friend Edward Aurelius. He sipped on his Vlachian vintage, nodding with content as he drew up plans for the future.

[Nooblius 7965]

Markus Sarkozic considers the history of the Adrian Raevir. How the principles of strong borders, militant nobility, and harsh work that initially founded the March of Adria had since gone on to invite many similarly principled groups into Adria, until the Crows of Adria were outnumbered. He prayed for the success of the successor state, and prepared to pledge himself to the Captain General. Many letters would be soon sent to the electors of the Dumapalooza.

[Cobbler 809]

Eadred would grin as he read the proclamation, for progress was being made.

[Ryanark 2738]

Martijn sipped his cup of tea.

[ninjaclimb1 432]

johan van aert is a fan of this

[CanadaMatt 873]

"Interesting" says a prrson

[Maiyun 362]

The wizard of Klarov overlooked the missive belatedly, sifting through the words as though she were looking for something. Whatever she found, or did not find, her brows pinched together in a somewhat indecisive expression. Pensive, she rose from her pondering to place a kettle on the fire, gazing into the space between the bricks of the hearth as though it might provide the answers she was searching for.

[𝖂𝖆𝖌𝖜𝖆𝖓 740]

 

The Baron of Rivia dined. 

[JoanOfArc 4604]

Saskia van Aert stood proud of her family's accomplishments, and peace within the Middlelans!

[Rainalyn 130]

Agnes skimmed over the missive with a smile 

[unlegiqDuck 324]

Upon reading the declaration, William Payne would nod in approval.

[Souswe 5]

Al'ruan would approve.