Esterlen

Thank you for this. It was very frustrating to amateur genealogists like myself how what was originally such a cool open-source project devolved (in the last year particularly) to a haven for all sorts of bad behaviour and surreptitious editing. Great work on tightening the leash!

A despondent George Kovachev drinks himself under the table on hearing of his youngest daughter's death. A nervous wreck, the huge aristocrat is heard by his attendants to say only one thing, constantly repeated. "It seems that everything is collapsing around me."

"We not did not start this war, gentlemen," comments a man in a Sutican coffee-house, "Nor did we ask to be invaded by a hostile tribe of barbarians. They should remember that next time they bleat about facing the gallows, or the Imperial long tube."

George Kovachev, marooned on the southern continent, examines an abridged copy of government-gazette from within a Sutican coffee-house. He is most intrigued to hear of the development of fiscal policy among the Elvenesse, swearing to commit further time to research when returned to Providence.

“The Elysiumites have been dragged into this war by the cruel Nordlings who lord over them. They fight us and die in combat against us, and to what end? The mad geopolitical ambitions of the Burning Bush?” offers the Surveyor-General somewhat rhetorically.

@Radzig An obese bureaucrat regales his grandson with an explanation of what assuredly was dominating the day’s papers in Providence. “Tally-ho, young man! Let none forget: Sir Franz ran an excellent government. His adroit hand guided us through the fiscal problems of the last decade and the more recent crises overseas, and of course that damned business with those rapacious aristocrats. You are to look to him as a model and not to me,” he finishes, shoving in another cream-cake. Beneath his characteristically ornery visage, Kovachev thought back to the events of 1799. Unlike much else in his life, he was glad that it transpired as it did.

The crone, Belén de Selm y Lopez celebrates a private victory. At last, the Duke of Crestfall would belong to her and her alone. Now, the only obstacle was her grossly obese husband...

"Blessedly, Joseph II had ruled in accordance with the principles his tutor had instilled in him from the age of eight. My uncle, Frederick Armas, had despised the emperor's boorish father, considering him a lustful, pernicious aristocrat. After the Duke of Adria's death, he had contrived, above all else, to at the least moderate whatever impulses his heir had - at the most, the Harrenite had hoped to create a better sort of leader than the ones that had dominated his own life. Josip Klemens var Adrian Sarkozic was born to a brutish marauder and a Haeseni princess. Over the course of his octogenarian lifespan, he would come, through the designs of others, to be the sovereign of the greatest country known to the descendant peoples. From his union with the Princess Imperial would come the House of Novellen - named after the monolithic palace of his father-in-law. The Viscount Rillsworth did not live to see his protege ascend to the throne alongside his wife, but in whatever hell the old solicitor found himself in, he would have been beyond proud." An excerpt from the personal memoirs of Riordain MacDroch-Armas, Viscount Rillsworth, 1815.

George Kovachev uncorks a bottle of brandy and drinks himself into catatonia upon hearing the news. His uncle was a tired old man of eighty - but inexplicably, that made the Surveyor-General's grief no less immeasurable.

–Her Imperial Highness the Princess Helen of Crestfall bid me return to you with this letter, sir. —I simply cannot believe the old woman was only five years older than me! –What's that, Mr. Kovachev? —The old crone. Natalia's grandmother-in-law. A woman of sixty-eight alone. How long has it been, then, since Captain Iliquin denied me that commission for being a callow youth of fourteen? –He did not deny your commission solely for that, Mr. Kovachev. —Away with you, Echeverry! What effrontery! And what would you know about military strategy, anyway? Return to the gentlewoman whom owns you!

"Mr. Kovachev, sir," offered a valet, "The Governor of the Palace wanted to inform you that your daughter has written to the Emperor... concerning the matter of your late son-in-law, sir." "Get me a brandy!" barked the obese man to the servant, yellowed teeth ripping and tearing into his dish of tripe.

“One country,” offers the Surveyor-General to his daughter, Natalia, “One country and one law for all. These noble-blooded reactionaries flee into exile because they cannot accept that fact!” He bites into his haunch of roast boar. “Now that the rising in South Arentania has been put down, we ought to go about finding your sister a new husband.” @shay

"Tally-ho! Off to a good start, then, old boy?" inquires George Kovachev to his daughter's wedding portrait, still hanging on the wall in his office. The inanimate object does not respond. A fat fist brandishes his tankard of beer - a mocking gesture of cheers to the image of his late son-in-law.

"This tyrannical emperor shall never eliminate our ancient right to privatized armies, fiscal policy, foreign affairs, judicial authority, an endless stipend, a chainmail coat, the prima nocta, the liberum veto, wanton slaying and assault of the peasantry, freedom from any and all tax liabilities, unlimited free real estate, the right to regicide, and so on and so forth," guffaws the aristocrat Lajos Schnitzel-Brawm rather scatalogically, nurse administering his lithium. "And so we do declare, forthwith, that there shall be no emperor, until the end of time, let it be done, the moon's in the sky." @Braehn Elendil An'Hiraeth

RP Name: George Kovachev MC Name: esterlen Voted: Yes :)

A ruddy-faced bureaucrat retrieves the letter from his Providence pied-a-terre, returning inside and away from the crisp morning air. He tears it open somewhat carelessly with his letter-opener, poring over the contents with dull eyes. "My God..." offers the Surveyor-General with a tinge of regret, slapping a fat hand down on his breakfast table in rage, "A young woman and a promising career, over, finished, lost so young! What the hell kind of sordid business did I get her involved with? Cloak-and-dagger intrigues, calumnies and sabotage..."

RP Name: George Kovachev MC Name: esterlen Voted: Yes! :)

"For too long have we tolerated these dangerous extremists in this country, Leuven, too long," chortles George Kovachev, waving a fat finger as a warning, "His Imperial Majesty's life has been threatened by the Cult of Zann, and for what eldritch purpose we know not!" The Surveyor-General takes a bite out of his ham hock and washes it down with a finger of brandy, nodding pensively to Albert.

RP Name: George Kovachev MC Name: esterlen Voted: Yes!

RP Name: George Kovachev MC Name: esterlen Voted: Yes!

George Kovachev mentally prepares his notes for the debate, readying himself for what is hopefully a high point for the campaign!

Candidacies for House of Commons Elections in Providence District, 21st Diet SURNAME: Kovachev FIRST NAME: George ADDRESS OF RESIDENCE: 5 Baker Street, Providence YEAR OF BIRTH: 1750 Are you registered and eligible to vote in Providence District? Yes. Do you have any other title, peerage or military service that may conflict with becoming a Member of the House of Commons, as per the Edict of Reform (1763)? No. If yes, do you understand that you will be required to resign or abdicate from this position should you be elected to the House of Commons, and if this does not occur your seat shall be considered to be vacant?: Yes. ((MC NAME)): esterlen

George weeps, bottle in hand. After, he stuffs himself with deep-fried sweetbreads.

SURNAME: Kovachev FIRST NAME: George ADDRESS OF RESIDENCE: 1 Silver Jubilee, Helena DATE OF BIRTH: 1750 Are you registered and eligible to vote in the Holy Orenian Empire? Yes. Do you have any other title, peerage or military service that may conflict with becoming a Member of the House of Commons, as per the Edict of Reform (1763)? No. If yes, do you understand that you will be required to resign or abdicate from this position should you be elected to the House of Commons, and if this does not occur your seat shall be considered to be vacant?: Yes. ((MC NAME)): esterlen

A letter arrives. "I vote aye on the Strong Institutions Bill. Unfortunately, I am not satisfied from the transcript therein that the Unlawful Imprisonment Bill arises from a situation of legislative necessity. It seems to me that there is a philosophy, present within this place, that to legislate for legislation's sake is the role of this chamber. In this particular instance, I am not yet convinced of the practical good that this document would enact, and so I must vote nay on the Unlawful Imprisonment Bill. Regards, George Kovachev MHC"