"Watcher, I assume you've seen the pamphlets saying something about a convention of constitution?"

"The Convention for the Promulgation of a Constitution, yes, and the elections for it. I took home one of the more detailed copies."

"What in the Abyss is a Constitution, and why does it take a convention for the Queen to promulgate it?"

"You're a cosmopolitan man, Jick, so you know, in principle, what a republic is, yes? Some citizens, which is to say subjects, vote on some representatives, and those representatives may then vote on a second set of representatives, and that last set of representatives gather somewhere, usually the capital, and they propose laws and draft them and vote on them, and then whatever has a large enough margin of fools voting for it becomes law and is enforced on the whole populace."

"Yes. I'm not entirely clear on how they go about all that voting, or why they see it as having any authority, but in principle, yes."

"From there, I can begin to explain. You see, before they start with all those rounds of voting, they have another set of rules, considered higher Law than the normal law, and that higher law is the Constitution. Galt has theirs, Andoran has theirs, and Rahadoum has the First Law and then a few more."

"But isn't that, I don't know, circular? They make the law that sets how they make law, but what sets how they make the first and strongest law?"

"Well, in this case, it appears Her Majesty, Archmage Cotonnet, and probably the rest of their adventuring party which conquered us from the diabolists, have decided that we are going to make the Constitution... like so."

Theo brandished the broadsheet, which detailed the fraction of delegates which would be drawn from the nobility, the fraction from those priests of non-Evil gods who could be found, those who would be selected by lot from among the entire population of Cheliax both free and bound, and those who would be elected by their peers.

"And why does anyone respect this constitution, once it has been created?"

"Well, sometimes they don't. If you remember Galt when I was a boy, with all the chaos, they kept overthrowing their constitution and replacing it with a new one which favored the new faction in power. But when it works, well, take Rahadoum. Everyone knows their First Law, and it poses great costs on them, but they hold to it anyway."

"Yes?"

"A Constitution that succeeds is like the Church that restrains the Crown. Something people trust in, have faith in, and can appeal to if the temporal power is behaving badly by the Church's lights."

"Hmm. It seems very weak, for a Church."

"Don't undersell it. We have at least one archmage backing it, who's also the cloth magnate, and his wife the arch-healer who makes permanent teleportation circles with him, and the High Inquisitor of Abadar, and Her Majesty, who is quite personally dangerous herself and who was strongly in favor of constitutional restrictions on the monarchy in her youth, and the Korvosan shadow-sorcerer they've traveled with." And rumor among the highly-informed suggested that Her Majesty used an unusual quantity of archmage-level magic herself, but that was something not to be spoken of outside the darkest corners, if one had any sense. Or any loyalty to the new Crown.

"And when they die, of age or... well, whatever it is that kills archmages?"

"Consider King-Consort Cyprian. He's no archmage, nor a legendary adventurer to match one. I'd wager a number of our nobility who have done their own tours at the Worldwound could beat him in a personal duel, was he so foolish as to accept one. His armies have no need to follow him, not really. But they do. They believe in his rule and his right."

"In their Galtan Constitution?"

"Or at least in their institutions. I think by the time the Queen's party pass on, most of Cheliax will be used to the new order, where Church and Crown have become Constitution and Crown. Unless it's such an utter clusterfuck that it produces something that can't possibly be enforced and falls apart in a handful of years."

"You think that might happen?"

"Jick, you're a clever man, and I'm explaining this to you, as someone with experience living as a citizen under a constitution. Do you think you understand how it works?"

"No. Better than I did before I came, and all plaudits to you, Watcher, but still no."

"And how much worse off will everyone else be, at understanding the point of what they're there to do? I intend to stand for election, myself, but in a room of six hundred, I expect less than fifty will understand the point, and at least a hundred will desperately wish to be anywhere but there. It will be a complete mess. I assume if it's bad enough to be unusable they'll try again, but Cheliax is the last place in the Inner Sea I'd possibly want to choose, to try anything like this. It's virtually antithetical to everything Asmodeus stands for, and He was relatively successful at shaping Cheliax to be His country."

"I had been thinking I'd have to coordinate with others to find someone willing to be elected if we bribed him, so that none of us would have to go. You'll volunteer?"

"I will. There's power to shape the future, in theory, and while I don't expect I'll have many who agree with me about many ideas I might suggest, I am not going to turn down a lever of power I know how to use."

"I suppose shaping the basic laws could be profitable, but turning it to your own self-interest without inviting the wrath of the Crown..."

"If I know much about the people of her company, I would say that it's Élie Cotonnet, who will be the chair -- that's a bit like a presiding judge -- who will be the one determining if it invites wrath. Her Majesty strikes me as the type to invite a small team of jurists, nobility, and grand burghers and have them draft something in private, not this large ceremonial-festival selection."

"Still, I spoke with my wife and she nearly forbid me from attending outright. She says that it's an obvious opportunity to tempt people into speaking out and being marked as undesirables if they say anything against Her Majesty's wishes."

"It could be used that way, and many people will believe so; your wife is, at least this time, wise. But I know enough about the two Galtan-born to say that, wise as her instincts are, she's wrong; it won't be, not this time."

"Hmmm. I may stand for election myself. But if I do not, you will have my vote, I think, Watcher. Thank you for your counsel, as always."

"I am happy to give it, now as in the past, and as in the future. Watch wisely and thrive, Jick."

"Watch wisely and thrive, High Priest."