[OOC] This thread is for players in the King of the Romans PBM to post in character public deliberations in the Imperial Diet. All out of character debate should be conducted in the OOC thread.

Full sessions of the Diet have two main functions: to elect a Chancellor, who manage the Empire, and to pass Edicts or Charter Amendments that will direct the Chancellor.

The Diet will be chaired by the Kaiser, the Prinz or the Diet Speaker.

Edicts need to be formally proposed as follows:

Edict 14.1 This House directs the Chancellor to occupy province X.

where 14.1 refers to the first proposed edict of the eleventh session of the Diet.

Edicts need two seconders (who should explicitly use the word "second" when supporting a motion) before they can be put to the vote. Where edicts conflict, the one with more votes takes precedence.


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Elberhard: Electors, we meet together at a new Diet for the first time in many a year. And, by God, those years have been @#$%^&!!! @#$%^&!!!ing sons born of @#$%^&!!! @#$%^&!!!ing mothers.

We meet together in Nuremburg, historic capitol of Bavaria, not of the Reich. The Reich’s ancient and proper capitol lies a shattered and ruined city under the oppressive rule of the Byzantines. The great urban populations of Rome, along with those of Antioch, Bologna and Venice have been mercilessly exterminated – man, woman and child – by the Greeks.

We meet together to govern a diminished Reich, with less than half the number of provinces it spanned at its height. Each House has been humbled and beaten down. Outremer is no more than a Citadel, alone and defiant.

We meet together battered, but still the most powerful nation on God’s earth. However, our power attracts few friends and many enemies. The great nation of England, home of our Empress, still stands by us. The Papacy also stands with us, although its opinion of us is sorely tried by the blasphemy and destruction of the religious extremists who have plagued our lands. So, we have few friends. But our foes are legion. We struggle to fend off multiple invasions. – not just from the Byzantines, but also the French, the Danes, the Poles, the Hungarians, the Venetians and the Sicilians. The @#$%^&!!!ing Mohammadens would like to get a piece of us, but complain they can’t get through the crowds of our Christian foes hammering at the gates of our Citadels!

We meet together, each and every Elector of the Reich. But there are empty chairs in the debating chamber. The seat at my right – the seat of the Reich’s greatest general, one of its most successful Chancellors, the late Duke of Swabia and Hans, is vacant. My brother was cut down – like Kaiser Siegfried - not by a foreign invader, but by one of our own! By one of our own! Think on this, Electors – most of those Electors who have died during the past cataclysm have not died at the hands of outsiders, but at the hands of Germans. They were not killed by strangers, but by brothers. We killed them. I have sworn to Duke Lothar that I will let the past be the past, so I will not dwell on this. But the lesson is stark – we are the greatest nation on earth and there is no greater threat to us than that which comes from within.

Electors, we meet in trying times but we do meet. We are here. We are back – together. We have an opportunity to plan, to unite and to turn the tide. Our enemies come on at us without imagination, strategy or guile. We must elect a Chancellor who can outthink and outfight our enemies. One who can restore and deploy the great resources of the Reich – above all, the many talents of our generals.

We also meet to pass legislation. But I urge you not to succumb to the temptation to promote petty individual ambitions and seek personal glory. Nor should you scheme to promote the interests of one House above the others. Worse still would be attempts to fundamentally change our Charter. Electors now is not the time for Constitutional Reform! Now is a time of crisis, a time for action – we cannot afford to fritter away our energies on the work of lawyers and any reconstruction we attempt in haste under the present duress will surely be botched. If we pass legislation, let it be focussed, enabling legislation – Edicts that allow the Chancellor to do what must be done for the good of the Reich.

And so, with those opening remarks, I now declare the 14th full session of the Diet open. There will be a five day period of debate. The deadline for Edicts and Charter Amendments to receive two seconders is 3.30pm Wednesday (UK time). All candidates for the position of Chancellor must declare themselves by that time and have proposed manifestoes here. There will then be a 24 hour period of voting.

I would like to begin the business of the Diet by proposing:

Charter Amendment 14.1: Antwerp is formally incorporated into the Reich.

The disastrous civil war in Swabia has greatly weakened our western flank, but it has brought one benefit – the city of Antwerp is now in German hands. It is a rich city and potentially protected from invasion by land Bruges and Hamburg. Unless CA 14.1 is passed, we will have to abandon it. Do I have two seconders?