MONARCHY, THE CORRUPTOR

[framalam 837]

 

‘Hearken! ye sons of Horen, for your woes be answered. Hearken! ye sons of Horen, for though the laurel hath not withered, the horn hath crumbled. Hearken! for a horn splintered is no horn at all, but a pile of dust.’

 

The realization of the Republican dream should have led us all to a revelation that has slept dormant for so long. It is not by virtue of the Lord that Unholy men rule. It is by virtue of the power - avarice - that they hold onto rulership with an iron grip.

The time has come in Salvo, and through the dismantling of the Godwinite realm by the Lord’s faithful, we may shed our shackles, and rise from our knees. We kneel to men and women who otherwise deserve not even a bow of the head. The time has come in Salvo, and so it has in Aaun, and so it will in Balian, Haense, Reinmar, Numendil.

 

When Silasia was plunged into plague, what did their dukes do? They did not share their pantries with the People. They sent the People to war; they sent the People to die. Your kings and queens do not care about you. They care about the taxes you provide, the labor you give, and the produce you toil to make. When was the last time a king hosted you for dinner, when you would host him so readily? Question it, Braevosi, and question it well.

 

The collective will of the People is most Holy. After all, we are all blessed with the Lord’s gift of life. Our very being is virtuous. All men are born with virtue, and so when we are in community, together, we emulate how the Lord made us - in tribe. Horen was chosen by G-D to lead his tribe. 

 

But his sons, Godwin, Joren, Harren, it was their tribe who chose them. So the Lord’s will was torn asunder, and split in three, but it lived, because the people chose their king. Through their wishes, they left with Godwin, or they left with Joren, or they left with Harren.

 

 Can you say the same? Could you leave your king to fight for another? Hanseti, can you leave your king to fight for Balian? Have you truly let the politics of monarchs, of families who may not even know you exist, influence you so heavily that you would kill another man before talking to him? Does Balian hate you, or your king?

 

The longer a founding monarch’s dynasty rules after him, the longer they stray from the very values that elevated their progenitor to begin with. Reinmar and the Shugonate were founded through strong men, and strong times. Do they still represent the same values they did so long ago - where is the Lectorate now? They have been allowed to languish, to develop further from the strong times that founded them, and in doing so, have fallen to heresy.

 

Rise, sons of Horen, and take what is yours. Take your life in your own hands. Topple the king who rules by virtue of his father’s father, and his father before him. Topple the queen who would rather form a court, than an army. Topple the prince who would rather feast, than feed his people.

 

Through Republic do we return, and imitate the Exalted. Through Republic do we return to Horen, and to his horn. Through Republic do we live as the Lord intended.

 

The sins of the monarch are many. In this work I shall be outlining the faults of monarchy, both historically and ideologically, as well as its fundamental disconnect from Virtue. Men were not made to be ruled over, but to wander the land He, the Creator, made for us free. Rulerhood, property, and ownership are all but faces of Avarice, a Sin cursedly put upon us by the Greatest Deceiver.

 

Avarice lies at the heart of monarchy, for it seeks not to uplift, bless, or grant out generously, but to own. It is a sin that enslaves both ruler and subject alike - see the fate of Charles of Aaun, and how he is only liberated in exile. Rulers are but men, but they assume the guise of gods, to be descended from prophets as if it further legitimizes them. They deign to hold sway over our lives as if they alone held the Creator’s will. Alas, we know this all as FALSE.

 

A ruler who amasses land titles and wealth in his name has strayed from humility, thus virtue, and has thus sinned. Ambition is fruitless, for you will always ever pale in comparison to the greatness of the Lord, the Creator, and the fruit of virtue never rots. Such is the fate of kings and queens, they do not enter in selfless service: they act in dominion, in enslavement, and in servitude to their Sin and the Deceiver, Ibl--s. Each inheritance drifts further from the righteous, strong men that won a crown, and nearer to vain selfishness.

 

Think, dear reader, of the Blessed Robert II, who forwent the crown of Oren in service of the Lord. If his birthright was heavenly ordained, no matter if he was firstborn or not, and it was G-D who wished him to take it, why did he reject it for further service?

I answer for you: to rule over other men is not the will of G-D.

 

To infiltrate the camp of Horen, Ibl--s, the Great Deceiver, whispered promises of power, pleasure, riches, ‘gold and sweet food’. He corrupted Saul with these sweet iniquities, and using Saul as his very avatar, he spread this wicked injustice across the Lord’s most blessed tribe. Though the Scrolls, our Canonist scripture, do not explicitly say what lies and wickedry Saul spread in the camp of Horen, we can extrapolate from what Iblees said to the others: ‘soft beds’, ‘good wines’, and ‘finely worked jewelry’. 

 

Sons of Horen, does this not remind you of the opulent splendor that the nobility adores partaking in? The galas, the banquets, the coronations, the weddings that oh-so-must involve the entire population of a city! The Saulican comes in many forms: the deceiver, the trickster, the peddler, of course, but also the goldsmith, the tailor, the seamstress. Woe! to them I cry, woe! Similarly, the Saulican is one who, fundamentally, undermines the role of the wife. A Saulican is one who violates the holy rite of matrimony as observed between Saint Julia of Paradisus, and the Exalted Horen.

 

So, sons of Horen, does this not remind you of the politicism the daughters of the noble pedigree are forced into? I raise the case of Juliya Barclay (peace be upon her) born in Kretzen, born to Waldenian parents, and married off before she knew how to write. Am I to believe that two children hold the capacity within them to love each other as Horen and Julia? Should the Church, then, abandon its position on child marriages, the unsightly things they are, and the uncomely noble tradition of pushing them? Call it a betrothal, call it a promise, we know what it is: you sell your daughters for power. You undermine the holy rite of matrimony as Saul did, and you sinned as he did.

Avarice.

 

Lastly, it was Saul who preached any law but G-D’s law, Saul who prattled a false doctrine that not even a hound would do well listen to. Saul twisted the word of the Creator, the most Almighty, He Who Is Highest In Heaven, our Lord, and defiled it into some bastard born of deceit and evil, Iblees’ chaos. It is not the place of men to dictate justice. It is not the place of man to say what is, and is not allowed. The Lord has told us how to live through his prophets, and the Sons of Spirit. To listen to any king’s law is to deny the Lord’s law.

All men, no matter what silly piece of metal they may wear on their head, bow to the Lord, and all men are subject to His judgement.

 

Do you see, Sons of Horen, how their power corrupts them? How monarchy, in its purest, evil form, twists and taints the Pure Soul the Lord blessed us with?

 

 

I would never make this argument if I was not sure of myself. After all, I once served a queen. In the decades since I have become disillusioned with the mythos surrounding her and her family, to find the truth. It was one man, one knight, who forged his own legacy out of G-Dly goodness, but it is his successors who lounge and gorge themselves on the riches he provided them.

 

I have written avidly about avarice in this text. However, I acknowledge that all man is Sinful. None of us could ever hope to be as flawless as He is. Yet, to continue to place a crown atop your head is not only avarice, it rejects all Seven Cardinal Virtues within the enchiridion virtuitis, or the handbook of virtue that has been cemented into the framework of our faith. I define herein, for the sake of the rest of the argument, and all that prior, that monarchy is a form of government in which a single person is entrusted with total power, and sole rule over a polity, until either their death or abdication. Similarly, I define virtue as all that is wholly good, all that the Lord wishes to see, and all that he has outlined for us within the Scroll of Virtue.

 

Now, I shall delve into how monarchy is fundamentally a disconnect from the Scroll of Virtue, and the virtues therein. Monarchy contests faith by its very being. Again, I bring up the Blessed Richard II, who is undeniable proof that G-D would rather every monarch take up the cloth. Why do you title yourself as anything, rather than a layman? Why do you claim to rule anything, except your household? Why do you command anyone, except yourself? You forget yourselves, all you noble many. 

 

Why do you dress yourself in an ermine cloak? Why do you encrust gems within your crown, demand the finest metal for your blades, and gild every surface you see? Why, noblemen, do you adorn yourselves in stones that glitter like the heavens high, and yet weigh your soul down with the heavy burden of vanity, the heavy Sin of Pride. To don yourselves so, with silk and satin - is this not a distraction from your Holily ordained, virtuous humility, your path that the Lord so wisely prescribed? Such luxuries descend you into the depths of the deepest hells, banish you to the Void, and sink your soul ever closer to the Deceiver, to Saul.

 

Why do you sit on vast hoards of gold? Why do you tax your peoples far beyond what you need? Is it not enough to reinvest into the land you inhabit? If all you required was the gold to fund the road, the gold to fund the taxmen, the guard, then why still, do you have so much? Why have you not given it all to the people, who provide your power, who provide your wealth, whose hands build your steeples and churches and palaces and kingdoms. Your crown is not yours, kings, your crown is your peoples. 

 

In the city of Blackspire once stood two figures overlooking the Hand of Horen. One king, and a king beside him. Once, I saw them, burnt alit. Two vast and trunkless legs of stone, standing amidst ash and death. Beneath them, their heads lay half-buried: a shattered visage, a sneering lip, and a crown that doomed them both. And so I came to learn a truth, that no matter how virtuous the kings may have been, that no matter how pure their hearts were, there was no purity greater than that their people gave them. For it may have been their sons, good kings in their own right, who erected the monuments, but it was the people, the hands that built, and fed, who dragged slabs from quarry, who hammered chisel unto rock.

For it was not the kings who deserved such honor, such recognition, but their people.

 

Sons of Horen, your kings and the crowns above will always seek to erase you. You are individual. You have a name. You have a face. Never forget this, as they order you to. Never forget the hastiness of Charles II and his Novellen lapdogs, and all the kings and queens and dukes and counts to ever send men to war and death without a second thought. Never forget how they stray from prudence, and flee with their tails between their legs when Virtue cleanses the Sin from their souls.

 

 

Fear not, Sons of Horen, for Salvo has listened to your cries. The weeping sobs of generation upon generation, flocking to republic, after republic, yet never succeeding. But Salvo was forged in the crucible, Salvo holds, no doubt (though I cannot decree this as an illicit authority figure per the Codex Iuris Canonici Daniel Pontifex) the Mandate of Heaven. Mull over their constitution, and think. Think yourselves! Ignore what your accursed monarchs would ever think, take their opinions as worth as little as the town drunkard - for they are! 

 

All men were made equal in the eyes of the Lord, and it is the virtue with which we live, and our imitation of the Exalted through which success in any endeavor lies. The sins of the monarch are left behind in Republic, and so the sins of men can be lessened, mitigated. We live as the Lord intended us to, for He chose Horen, and He chose Owyn, and He chose Godwin, but none other can say the same. No king is chosen by Him, apart from the Kings of Spirit. The Lord is King of Kings, King in the Highest Heavens. To fashion yourself as anything similar is not only Sinful, but preposterous. Your splendor, opulence and pride shames Him in your mere self entitlement.

 

Sin shared is Sin lessened. Virtue shared is Virtue doubled. And so it is, and so it shall be, and so it is unsurprising that monarchs yearn for Virtue, that they yearn to be correct and true as they were born, and so they yearn and make their sham assemblies, and pretend to listen and empower them. Avarice is lessened when wealth is split among many.

 

The citizen is no longer a tool of the monarch or the state when he himself is the state. Republic is your voice. Republic is your salvation. Your civic engagement rises you from the proletariat, from the gutters, to the square, and to the direction you choose, Horenite. We choose, as the people, We the People! choose. The folly of war is not the responsibility, and thus the head of one man, but a slap on the necks of thousands. The community is not merely a domain a ruler rules, a nation, but rather a group of individuals determined for the greater good of their own cause - Republic.

 

The community that self-governs, that restricts itself, that knows its own limits, is one that will never fall victim to the pitfalls of Monarchy! No abuses of power, no fall throughs as corruption sweeps through the land and takes the coin from where it originated - the people! Republic safeguards against Tyranny, Avarice, Republic is Prudence!

 Republic is Justice!

 

No more will the people, and the community, be forced to act as instruments to one man’s opulence, to act as servants of his pride. Rather, the people choose the men to lead them, the people choose those among them who stand accountable! Those prudent, those charitable, those humble! No longer will those who abuse these systems be allowed to walk free, undeterred lest the neighbor-king rear their head! Under Republic, all man is equal, as the Lord intended, and all man is as guilty of a crime they committed, regardless of their birth or statute.

 

Rejoice, Sons of Horen!

 

‘Hearken! ye sons of Horen, for your woes be answered. Hearken! ye sons of Horen, for though the laurel hath not withered, the horn hath crumbled. Hearken! for a horn splintered is no horn at all, but a pile of dust.’

Go well, and go with G-D,

Holy Ser

Senator deorum electus

Harrenite

Acolyte

LUCIEN

☺

 

[GMRO 6187]

"Ask someone in the heartlands to form a new state and see how long it takes for them to plot the downfall of another." Remarked the old Ser Rickard in service to a king by oath.