The Magnaura

[Privateerkev]

I find it ironic that you continue to use the sacking of Antioch against me, while also proposing an edict that mandates that we sack.

You might find me morally strict but I find you to be remarkably flexible in your morals.

As for what my vassal has said of the Caesar, he was rebuked. The Emperor has the power to ban Vissa's letters from the chamber. If you are not happy with how the matter has been handled, then take it up with the Emperor.

Your starting to grasp at straws...

[Andres]

I find it ironic that you continue to use the sacking of Antioch against me, while also proposing an edict that mandates that we sack.

You might find me morally strict but I find you to be remarkably flexible in your morals.

As for what my vassal has said of the Caesar, he was rebuked. The Emperor has the power to ban Vissa's letters from the chamber. If you are not happy with how the matter has been handled, then take it up with the Emperor.

Your starting to grasp at straws...

I didn't mention Antioch and won't mention Antioch during this Senate Session, because I understand that it is a sensitive subject for you.

Taking into account the sensitivities of your opponent is part of the art of diplomacy I was talking about.

And I am not flexible in my morals, Grandmaster. If you would pay more attention to what I say, than you would understand that sacking those settlements is the best thing to do, even from a moral point of view. In the long run, we will lose less innocent lives.

If you are not able to handle the dirty part of real statesmanship, than you should withdraw from the current election and go back to your dreamworld.

Let real leaders deal with reality.

[Privateerkev]

You almost said the word "butcher" and we all know what you meant. You have been mentioning Antioch in both private and public for decades. I now know why you promised in private that you wouldn't mention Antioch. It is because it would expose your blatant hypocrisy.

It would be most difficult for you to keep up your mock horror at what happened to Antioch while your pushing for a law that forces all of us to sack non-Orthodox settlements.

My morals might be unbending like a concrete pillar but yours are like a rope. And you have just tied that rope into a knot.

[Andres]

By being "unbending", Grandmaster, you will do more harm than good, but it seems like you refuse to understand.

Oh well, like a wise man once said: beati pauperes spiritu.

Savvas shrugs.

[Rowan]

During a lull in the argument between the two candidates Vartholomaios Ksiros stands up

Basileos, Caesar, fellow Senators.

In the interest of equal development for all parts of the empire I wish to propose
Edict 4.4: Megas Logothetes is not allowed to fund the building of Drill Squares (level 3 barracks), unless prioritized or no building queue is present, until he has funded at least two Garrison Quarters (level 2 barracks). One of the Garrison Quarters must be in Europe and one in Asia.

Let me explain: at the moment there are several underdeveloped castles in the Empire, two good examples would be Belgrade and Aleppo which guard our western and south-eastern approaches. The purpose of the edict is to see not all military building concentrated on just one or two castles, but spread it out a bit further. After the construction is started on these two relatively cheap structures the Megas is then free to start building structures that allow more formidable troops to be trained.

[Privateerkev]

I wish something like this wasn't even needed. But with the Caesar's criminal neglect and blatant cronyism, I fear it is.

I second Edict 4.4

[TinCow]

OOC: Before anyone brings it up, Rowan checked the wording of E4.4 with me before he proposed it. It is very, very well worded to fit into the Rules without contradicting any of them. It is valid as written and does not need to be proposed as a CA.

[Rowan]

I second Edict 4.3

[Ramses II CP]

A letter arrives from Vissarionas ek Lesvou and is read into the record by a scribe who grows increasingly nervous as he goes on reading out the points.

I second Edicts 4.3 and 4.4.

I wish to make it known that I was suitably chastened by my Lord and Protector, the Grandmaster of the Order, for my outrageous comments and I further withdraw my own amusing little 'edict' in the name of respecting what pathetic dregs of authority remain to this body in the wake of the latest Megas' abuses.

I would also like to officially apologize to the Emperor, may God protect him, if he was in any way offended that I pointed out the fact of his son's idiocy, resemblance to a pig, or astonishing capacity for damaging our nation through his incompetence.

The poor scribe stumbles over the last words, and looks about helplessly.

I must further apologize to Princess Anna, the representative of Patriarch Nicholas III, Prince Isaakios Komnenos, and Prince Andronikos Komnenos if my reporting the facts of the Caesar's crude habit of pleasuring himself with snakes in any way disturbed their sleep, as it has my own.

Even more so I must apologize to Senators Ioannis Kantakouzinos, Lisas Attaleiatis, and Pavlos Chrysovergos for revealing that syphilis has so destroyed their sensibilities that they have sworn themselves to a mange ridden dog who feeds them only the scraps from his own filthy meals.

The wide eyed functionary has no recourse but to carry on speaking, though his nervous swallows and stutters make the words difficult to understand.

Furthermore I must apologize to Senators Nikiphoros Manouelitis, Methodios Tagaris, Hypatios Machonios, Apionnas Vringas for publically demonstrating the gross cowardice and utter incapacity for thought on the part of their most recent Megas, the Caesar.

And yet again I must apologize to Senators Annios Solomon, Efstratios Monomachos, Michail Arianitis, Savvas ek Militou, and Aleksios ek Ikoniou for my wildly unecessary revelation that the Caesar's favored libation is undistilled boil drainage from the 'ladies' who work the dockyards in the evening.

At this point the reader breaks into a sweat, and turns deathly pale, but clearly feels he must not abandon his job.

Also a deeply heartfelt apology must go out to Efstathios Laskaris, Nevoulos ek Philadelphias, Zigavinos Vasilakios, and Ioannis Kalameteros for my accurate but unwholesome description of the Caesar's willingness to sacrifice the lives of soldiers, civilians, children, cats, dogs, and even priests to further his own pedantic ends.

And finally an apology to the children of the Komnenos household; I purchased and shipped chastity belts in your name in the vain hope that you could remain unspoiled by the hideous depredations of your elder but I fear I am too late, and all of you may already be too old to suit the beast's tastes.

At this the scribes eye's at last roll back in his head, and he faints dead away, dropping the letter, not quite finished. He is quickly carried off by his fellow scribes, all of whom look deeply relieved not to have drawn the short straw on this day. If anyone picks up the paper or chances to glance at it there is but one final line of text.

To my brothers in the Order, I am sorry beyond words, but the brute fact is someone must speak, and if no one else has the courage or the outrage, then I do. I will restrain myself in the future, so far as good conscience allows.

Vissarionas ek Lesvou



OOC: and on the back, in tiny letters, it says:

Chivalry characters do it in the open