💾 Archived View for germination.systems › ~vidak › old-blog › 2009-06-09-lines.gemini captured on 2022-04-28 at 17:39:03. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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generator: pandoc
title: '2009-06-09-lines'
viewport: 'width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes'
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The first
assembly of the Malasrionese Parliament since Ragzin's dictatorship
noted a lack of a Confederate executive, and nominated Humphries. The
nomination was obvious to all concerned, it had been the first thought
on their minds for weeks since Humphries called fresh elections almost
immediately after Malasrion's successful recapture of the Plains of
Qruv. Humphries was now considered to be the perfect choice for a
bastion of Malasrionese democracy -- the Parliament felt a great
gratitude towards her request to the Minister. The Minister had
immediately obliged, and Humphries was called to the Third Chamber of
the Parliament and was sworn in within hours of the first sitting.\
\
To the Jousen it was a national day of celebration. The Jou downed-tools
and stood straight in their fields in honour of their new national hero,
the protector of the rights of their race. They faced the sun, the men
who flew high with the clouds in their airships sang choruses for the
Jousen Commune's long life.\
\
The victory was bitter-sweet. Ticker tape ran in Nelen streets for a
war. Humphries had ordered the press be free, the ability for groups to
peacefully assemble and for a person's right to speak their mind, but
these orders revealed the true nature of Nela's last eleven years. The
details of the Gremanese discovery were unearthed, and the secret
campaign that had been waged for the last month in the Great Plains were
splashed across every publication that anyone with a printing press
could produce.\
\
It seemed like Nela was rubbing off the spell of the sandman. The smoke
spilling from every stack in sight didn't seem so noxious, but the last
ten years had been a dream land. It was now public knowledge that the
Gremanese weren't exactly their kindred brothers of ancient
civilisations past, and a very real threat to the Nelen way of life had
surfaced. Strange, but chilling was the prediction of a new Proskut that
had emerged deep in the Jousen desert of a long and bloody war ahead.\
\
The Minister of Malasrion had accrued de-facto dictatorship of Nela in
Ragzin's place, but his reign was to be a matter of weeks, the papers
and the speaker-tubes ran. Five High Judges were appointed to the
National Bench, answerable only to the Parliament straddling the divide
between the roads and the desert, it was declared that the Confederacy
was to be no more, Malasrion was to be a nation in itself. Despite this,
the Minister of Malasrion still retained his absolute power over all
Malasrionese issues. It didn't matter that Malasrionese affairs were no
longer a government portfolio assigned by Nelen authorities, the
Malasrionese Parliament saw it fit to double-up executive power. Such
was Nelen tradition, anyhow.\
\
It was soon called that the ranks of the Malasrionese Army were to be
drawn. Proskut was to be found, the rumour had spread too far and wide
to be ignored -- costly secret intelligence had revealed the existence
of great Gremanese weapons primed against the North, it was believed
that the mysterious Jousen demi-god would hold the key to gaining an
advantage over these threats.