Essex: Alder Tull was
the one who … about a year ago I believe La Cruz was killed by Mr. Castle and
his compatriots known as 7. They sort of
stated to the world the first estate would become more violent because all of
the diplomats had been killed. All the
diplomats and political leaders but implications were that all the thoughtful
and restrained are all dead and now we will turn into a rampaging violent hoard
and so you should avoid causing any trouble for us. There was the other Alder Da La Cruz who was
also known for being very calm and I believe is still in existence and not a
member of the Prima Invitca.
Surprisingly …
Raoul: I saw him
recently. He’s doing well.
Essex: And it didn’t really mention that house Flayed had
been firm supporters of Mr. Castle. Once
he was publically known as being with 7, they did a fairly consistent scene
with seeing him destroyed but it was like ‘you, all you other people have done
this,’ it’s not the member of the first estate who murder each other in
prominent police actions or be betrayed by people of the covenant. It’s disappointing because some of them were
very prominent members of the first estate and respectable and maintainers of
our society. Many politicians have been
killed by members of their own covenant which is rouge members. I would agree with the Invictus that they form
the basis of our society. So it’s
disappointing when you essentially have rouge elements overturn that.
For instance the same members of the first and second estate
were involved with the end of Cardinal Sebastian. These things are disappointing.
Whereas I’m always disappointed when Dragons act poorly and
they have, the frequently do especially in Indiana. I’m happy to reiterate any number of cases of
them doing that. It disappoints me sort
of personally but not philosophically because it’s not often academically but
the cause of very poor social skills.
On the contrary point, at some point we are going to have a
war within our society. In the same way
people fight over cities we now have … we all live much closer together and interact
more and that is going to. It shouldn’t
have to result in violence but most likely will. And there are cases to be made that of having
that happen before a fully fledge sort of information and security state is
present means that all gets settled sooner rather than later. We are less likely to expose ourselves to the
world fully. Whereas if we have a great
war in our society 50 years from now vampires will quickly become apparent to
the public. So the presence of the Prima
Invicta tendency to globalize is possibly in the long run going to do better. Not necessarily that they will be successful
but it sort of forces the issue. I’m
not a fan of warfare but I think it’s entirely likely and if this should fail
badly, it will hopefully be replaced by a better model. One that they will establish will be a
unified set empire and even if incredibly oppressive will at least maintain the
masquerade, so … That has its advantages.
Raoul: So you think
the Prima Invicta does have its merits.
Essex: I don’t think a singular emperor is a wise idea. We obviously haven’t moved past Princes and there
are arguments to be made that Kindred need a top predator, just from evidence. Counsels frequently have not worked in ruling
cities.
Raoul: Well …
Essex: They tend to
devolve and I’m a scientist and I don’t look past what is apparent. Set systems are still the most problematic
point of the Gangrel and Carthians have tried number of experiments they rarely
have been successful in the long run. On
the other hand, I respect that they are attempting to turn into something else because
increasingly younger Kindred are embraced and younger Kindred do not deal well
with a Utilitarian state but much less with Aristocracy. So even calling on a Prince immediately turns
off younger Kindred. If you had a CEO in
charge of your city, they might deal with that better.
Raoul: Speaking of
that, you have heard that Chicago was declared itself a free state.
Essex: Oh yes, I find that very interesting and I hope that
it works out well but usually it has not.
And you’ve only been doing that for a couple months …
Raoul: Yes that’s true.
Essex: My assumption is that at some point that would consolidate
after a year or two, well actually usually a couple of months, but sometimes it
takes a bit longer, into one or two singular individuals by force of
personality sort of become the leaders of that particular consul of free
states. And then usually get into a
fight with one or two other notable voices and then the power sort of consolidates.
Raoul: We’ll see
Essex: I don’t have a
preference between either systems, actually.
I think the consuls have a lot to recommend them and actually would
frequently be better. It’s just that our
natural predator instincts tend to result in people establishing whom is the
greater predator, up until there is one.
Sheriff of Dekalb: Would it be fair to call Chicago a consul? It’s more of a freeform democracy. It was explained that everyone has a voice.
Essex: Yes, and actually as far as I know that hasn’t
actually been tried and that may alter the state and actually may work out very
well. Because a dark democracy or
functional anarchy, hard to define those things, they are similar, may actually
work out better. But the problem is when
someone is acting aberrantly it is harder to put them in place without a
gathering within the gathering.
Raoul: Well, we have
had many discussions about how we would deal with someone who wasn’t abiding by
the traditions and was being a problem.
Essex: Yes, well, the
thing with the Prima Invicta is that some point we will need structures that
are wider than a city. The very fact is,
we communicate across city lines and we can travel quickly across city lines,
whereas, several decades ago, you might have those in Elysiums but you might
have people who’d be in your city who didn’t communicate with other Kindred
very much. You’d have your little
territory, you’d have an overarching Prince but you wouldn’t interact that
much.
Brief interlude were Tsubaki delivers a birthday invitation to
Master Lin’s birthday which Essex quickly reads and then pushes far away from
himself as possible.
Raoul: We are a bit
worried about Master Lin in Chicago with good reason I suppose.
Essex: He is a sort of number of traditions and considers
family important to him and Lord Ivanovich was his childr or grandchildr. Therefore I imagine he is rather upset or
rather disappointed in the way things went.
Raoul: He has made some vague threats in our direction
nothing concrete yet.
Essex: Usually acolytes would find that their
tradition. But anyways, about the
Invictus, at some point there will be wider Kindred organization. The covenants at the very least will organize,
some more than others in wider spreads.
I honestly don’t think an Emperor is good. Most of the imperium that have cropped up just
between a couple of cities have also destabilized. And the Prima Invicta haven’t seem to decided
… while they have their Emperor they also have all these other Viceroys and
they are without a Prince or a sovereign, which is a good selling point, but
ultimately wouldn’t work for the same reason those imperiums fell apart. As the Prince will change over and will not
wish to follow some particular order. The imperiums haven’t worked because either
they’ve been to oppressive that people have left or not oppressive enough. So, I don’t think it’s the ideal system, I
think it’s going to help force the issue and possibly as much as some of the
southwest of the United States done, will form wider governments in
response. And hopefully out of that
something productive will occur.
Hopefully prevent a war. If not,
we will at least get out of the way earlier, hopefully that will be it. Because I imagine most Kindred after having a
high body count and breaks in the Masquerade will ultimately determine that is
a terrible idea.
Raoul: I’ve never
meant Clement, have you? What do you
think of Clement as a Kindred?
Essex: I’ve seen him
at one or two gatherings and spoken to him once. He’s impeccable polite in society and sort of
well behaved. But that comes across very
much as a ‘I’m a fairly monstrous individual and sort of maintaining this façade.’ Which is very clearly meant as a façade. As far as his judgment, he’s been involved in
any number of what might be termed, murder squads.
Raoul: He is a member
of House Flayed, correct.
Essex: Yes. His presentation is … there’s been a couple
of gatherings where he’s spoken, there was a gathering, when one of the older
Romans turned up to inspect society where he at least spoke, ‘there were many
people that he didn’t agree with and he didn’t like but was willing to work
with all of you. ‘ He is not in favor of
chaos. The problem is, many people view
particularly House Flayed’s efforts to maintain order, in fact is creating
disorder.
Raoul: Well yes,
since they have way to maintaining order by causing disorder to maintain
order.
Essex: Well they
would say, they were eliminating the disruptive elements, on the other hand,
some of their targets of that are people like Cardinal Sebastian who would not
be seen as disruptive by any right thinking individual.
Raoul: Yeah, they
have no right to make that judgment, and yet they do.
Essex: The other problem,
well the other difficulty the Prima Invicta is going to face, is that while it’s
currently an imperium anyone has chosen to join, it’s largely, well I don’t
believe I’m incorrect in saying that while there are members of the first estate who are skeptical
of the Invicta, it is viewed as largely run by members of the first estate. Therefore if you have members of the movement
who are unhappy with the situation but cannot match the military force of it,
or feel they can escape, they are likely to resort to alternative means as
such. Like, they are not going to meet the
Invictus on the battlefield or Invicta battlefield, the norms have established
that is not wise. Acolytes or Carthians
and I’m worried we will begin having gatherings were people will, say, bomb
them or torch areas or act as an insurgent force because Kindred are
particularly good at that. In fact it’s
wiser for a Kindred to act as a terrorist then to meet someone on the field on
honor. That level of rampant violence
and disorder will quickly become a problem.
Raoul: On that
subject, Evengii is missing still, we still don’t know where he is.
Essex: That’s disappointing.
Well on the other hand House Flayed would likely take credit for that if
they had eliminated him.
Raoul: I don’t
believe he’s eliminated. He’s probably
just waiting this out someplace.
Essex: Yes.
Raoul: He made a few
bad decisions.
Essex: Lord Evengii
has periodically taken some time to calm down when things have unwound to
fully recover. He will go through periods were
he grows close to his Beast and becomes a little erratic and usually steps away
at that point. So he may be doing
that.
Raoul: Okay, well I
hope so. I’m not sure how the Chicago
free state would be if he was still around.
However, he’s not so it continues on.
Essex: I assume Miss Mae has been a component of the Chicago
Free State.
Raoul: Oh yeah
Essex: I would be curious to see if … If she and Lord
Evengii agreed on those things it would be a very stable situation. If it had been agreed things would probably
be better, in a sense.
Raoul: Mae and Papa
Sallow are not attending the gatherings as much anymore. They are clearly active within the city still. Mae was never fond of Ivanovich and was happy
to see his end.
Essex: That’s not
surprising. Also given his personality
she wouldn’t have approved of his approach to many things. Well, early on, especially in his first term
as Prince, even in Chicago, he had sort of a more restrained hand. Well he had apparently grown very close to
his Beast and in the matter with which he approached that, I doubt Miss Mae
would have dealt with it well. People appear
to be getting more erratic, sort of led by their Beast or kind of unreasonable
to utilitarian figures. Which is not
surprising for those in the movement to dislike that. I don’t think she necessarily dislikes order,
I mean Carthians are not viewed as anarchists, but I think she dislikes situations
in which people are not expected to think.
Raoul: Right. I understand.
Essex: And for some
of the things I heard about Lord Ivanovich he had started to, if someone was
not immediately following orders he was …
Raoul: He committed
quite a few atrocities near the end there.
They were all taken into consideration during his trial.
Essex: Speaking of
that, how are things going with yourself?
You were having some difficulties, I believe, with the Acolytes, also
with Lord Ivanovich. That situation of
course resolved itself.
Raoul: Um, not the Acolytes.
I’m deputy in the city to Einar who is an Acolyte and Sheriff of the
city.
Essex: My impression was there was some conflict there.
Raoul: Well, I mean,
I had some conflict early on when I first came to the city.
Essex: Well that’s …
Raoul: Have you heard
anything else, recently?
Essex: No. Just curious.
I was curious if your studies is involved in trying to provoke people or
not. There are Dragons who do that. Or possibly a matter of approaching this
situation.
Raoul: I mean, there
is a bit of that, yes. I don’t always
get along well at social gatherings. I
tend to be a little antsy at times.
Essex: So you haven’t
had any further difficulty with Mr. Anderson.
Raoul: Well there was
one, a little bit of one. He called me
an idiot and I called him an idiot back and that didn’t sit well with him.
Essex: No it wouldn’t. That’s a fairly minor … I assume that Chicago
is fairly unified right now. I would
just be concerned about the unity or stability that can quickly become paranoid
about any disruptive elements.
Raoul: Yeah … Besides
that there hasn’t been anything. I’m
really proud to be part of a unified state right now. It’s a good concept, I think it’s fairly
interesting.
Essex: I’m rather fascinated
by it and keep meaning to visit it at some point.
Raoul: Well, you’d
have to … I don’t think they would attack you, I doubt it but …
Essex: I still think
it would good to give notice.
Raoul: Yeah, it would
be.
Essex: That’s usually
a good idea in general.
Raoul: It would be
your Priscus, I believe Ellen Peters, if you contact her she would be …
Essex: There have
been a couple different manners. Does one contact
the Sheriff, the Priscus, or both?
Raoul: The Priscus is
what we say but both is better.
Essex: That was my
point. Apparently there has been some
confusion over the topic so … Just to be fair I was planning on contacting both
but was just curious what the official policy was.
Raoul: The official policy
is the Priscus
Essex: I also I didn’t
want to seem disrespective by contacting both and say that I was covering my bases
would show a lack of appreciation for the ordered system. If free is how it would go … A kind of free
state is a bit different then a consul so I’ll be interested in whether … in
the same way the Prima Invicta aim is a much larger incurrent than normal and
therefore I’d be curious whether it breaks down as quickly.
Raoul: *sigh*
Essex: I do think the
problem with the Prima, well the member states of the Prima Invicta that we
have, is that, at the moment they are very much, well every Prince is sovereign
and people can join freely or possibly, they haven’t really said that people
could leave freely, there’s some self determination arguably there. I don’t think that’s going to become more flexible. That people are usually inflexible and once
there is now that we are established and concrete cities that are under there
are going to say, well we have this control.
This person has been a client for a long time, they have a Viceroy, they
will begin sort of consolidating and moving on to further developments within
their cities. Consolidating authority
because for one thing it is largely members of the first estate and that is how
the first estate operates. It’s not
necessarily a bad thing but it is bad for those who believe they are living in
some sort of loose affiliation or under a slightly wide umbrella. They are essentially living in an empire and
an empire becomes what people view as oppressive.
Raoul: Right now it’s
voluntary. I don’t believe it will stay
that way. Eventually they are going to
want more power than they have.
Essex: Right.
No comments:
Post a Comment