Carlota is pretty sure that the reason Cotonnet didn't introduce rules of order more complicated than "raise your placard to be called on, stand in line to speak" is because that is already more than the unlettered delegates can cope with, as evidenced by the fact a number of them have been shouting out of order. She would ordinarily be all in favor of replacing those rules with more complicated ones, as this advantages that set of the delegates who aren't mentally incompetent, but she notices that the woman has snuck an enormous amount of authority for the Archmage Cotonnet into her purported 'rules of order' and that needs pushing back on. 

"This downright Asmodean proposal purports to merely make the convention orderly. But I observe that it further grants the Archmage Cotonnet the discretion to compel our attendance whenever and however he pleases. Her Majesty of course possesses that authority, but I see no signs she intended to grant it with no bounds whatsoever to Archmage Cotonnet merely because he has experience running conventions. And that it further grants the Archmage Cotonnet the authority to determine the outcome of every vote, with no constraints that he do so in line with the will of the body; that he has the sole discretion to appoint all members to all committees on whatever grounds he pleases, and otherwise is effectively a declaration that every feature of this convention ought to amount to 'the Archmage does as he desires'. Not only is this unreasonable, I suspect that it is not even the desire of the Archmage. If he wished to write his own constitution and send it to the Queen for her consideration he could have done so. The decisions that your clever code of laws defers to him are rightly ours."

"I learned quite recently and to my distress that some people were brought here against their will! I think the first act of this convention should be to release them from bondage and let them all go home."

The rules seem reasonable?  Except they are coming for a woman Thea knows is a diabolist lawyer, so there has to be a trap.

She feels like an idiot when she hears the duchess point out the catch.  Compared to the duchess's rather blatant scheme this one is subtle.  But kind of pointless?  The Archmage already holds all the power he could need or want, what is the trick or trap in giving him some back?  If he wants the power back, he could just take it?  Still, having missed one layer of the trap Thea doesn't trust her own judgement about the trap anymore.  Thea would almost rather take an open trap from the duchess than a seemingly harmless diabolist trap.  She should bring Dia with her, lots of nobles brought servants.

Perhaps she should speak in favor of the duchess?  To signal that she doesn't resent the Duchess's scheme?  Or would that seem to be rubbing it in?  She decides if someone speaks against the duchess or in favor of the lawyer's rules, she'll speak up then.

And shit, someone is trying to get rid of the sortition candidates... which Thea isn't sure but she thinks shifts power to the nobility.  Or do peasants and commoners in general instinctively obey their nobles?  She will say something about that if no one else does.

It would hardly do for her to disregard her own rules, so she gives it a bit before seeking the floor again. She took some quick shorthand notes during the Duchess's remarks, and glances at them briefly.

"President Cotonnet, to my understanding, possesses the authority to compel attendance, unless attendance at this session alone discharges all obligation which if true I have not heard, as well as possessing other authority which my proposed Rules merely acknowledge and set into letters for avoidance of doubt. If the President is not to determine the outcome of each vote, who is to so determine? If the President is not to choose the membership of committees, to that extent to which they are not self-selected, who is to so choose? And moreover, if the President declare the outcome of a vote to be affirmative, who is to gainsay him? If the President disallow a committee, who is to gainsay him? None are. It is true that a wicked President might pervert this assembly to his own desires; would he not do so with or without my orderly Rules? I thus rejoice that the President is wise and just."

She'll ignore the aspersions on her character; after all, they aren't even true. It was a Mephistophelan proposal.

Okay now Thea will speak up.

"You may be right that none can truly gainsay the President, but why formally cede power back to him if the power is already his?  Indeed, as the Duchess already suggested, he already had what power he desired and deliberately gathered this convention to hear our counsel.  So...  if you speak again, perhaps you could elaborate on a reduced set of rules without such excess deferrals to the President?"

And maybe that will make the trap clearer?  But maybe she should be shutting this down instead of giving the Lawyer even more of a platform?  Too late now...

"To who other than the President could the power to run this convention be deferred? Why, to us, the people to whom the Queen intended to defer it! Committee members may be selected by the recommendation of at least five other delegates, and should too many qualify in that matter, by lots. Votes can be counted by the clerk, and recorded publicly to ensure that every delegate's vote is recorded as they intended it, and any deception identified immediately. Some members are gathered here by summons of the Queen, who has the authority to issue summonses to her subjects, and also the authority to grant any other party the authority to issue summonses in her name, but certainly the Archmage has no such authority save if the Queen chooses to authorize him in issuing her summonses."

Thea mentally counts the people she has met over the past month.  She can make 5 probably.  Any well connected noble can.  Chosen of bigger churches can.  But the sortition delegates, dragged as they were into this with less preparation time or connections to fall back on, almost certainly not.  And depending on how much work the elected have put it, they may not be able to either.  She's not going to speak against the Duchess though, it serves Thea's own purpose well enough if some of the masses are weeded out... Thea just needs to remember to win over their vote before the final constitution.

Taís likes the suggestion about allowing her to go home, but she isn't sure if that's the sort of suggestion where if you say you agree with it you get executed for desertion.

Fernando had been content to let other say their piece.  He would get onto a committee and prove his loyalty there.  But if membership were to require votes, he would have a problem, he doesn't have anyone who will vote for him.  He breathes to calm himself and prays to whatever god listens that he does not stutter.

"I think if so much of the constitution is to be decided by committee, we should not exclude anyone that is willing to participate.  This process is intended for every citizen here!  I propose uh, uh... we allow everyone who wishes to participate in a given committee in, and then, should it prove too large for its members and chair to handle, split the committee into relevant subtopics, decided by committee vote!"

Hearing his own idea out loud... it sounds chaotic, which might be bad, and Galtan, which means it is loyal, right?  And most importantly will guarantee he can get on at a committee without anyone actually wanting him there.

"I'm not opposed to requiring allied votes to populate a committee in principle, but the Duchess's proposal would defy the structure of the convention! To have a committee filled by anyone with five friends present could quickly mean a single group dominated a committee. This is clearly not the intention of Her Majesty or President Cotonnet, or else why would we be divided in four equal groups when called here? No, clearly any committee must select at least one delegate from among the clergy, those elected, those with noble titles, and those chosen by sortition, to be considered a proper deliberative body capable of carrying out part of this Convention's duties. And to avoid confusion, best refuse to count those who technically fall into two categories, such as myself."

...why is he actively trying to make it hard for the convention to be organized in a sensible way? He's not one of the random monsters or peasants!

"If by 'refuse to count' you mean to abstain from committees, I think that would be appropriate for any person representing a god of Hell such as yourself. 

 But I think it is natural that people who bring the Queen different knowledge and different backgrounds may have differences in which committees are of interest to them, and it would be unfortunate to limit, say, the number of former slaves on the committee about slavery lest they find few nobles who wish to sit on it, or the number of nobles sitting on a committee about taxation of the nobility for lack of religious members interested in attending - I note that many of the churches could not spare all of the representatives to which they are entitled, probably because in our homes our people are dying for their absence."

"Certainly there are difficulties if only preexisting coalitions dominate every movement -" since the Galtophiles haven't gotten enough Republican-sympathetic allies yet "- but also the duchess is wise, because expert knowledge is needed on some affairs. I wouldn't want men with no experience of war interfering with the armies, nor those who know little of the gods making laws about religion, and likewise those of us who have never been enslaved do not have the expertise what slavery is like. But there are slaves and priests and generals and nobles and burghers and wizards in every archduchy of the realm, and so instead I propose that each committee has one representative from at least five of the nation's great divisions,* so that the whole realm can be represented, not merely those with kin and comrades at home in Westcrown."

(*: A preexisting term for all the big regions that includes the personal union of Isger, the crownlands of the Heartlands and doesn't claim the Hellcoast has an Archduke.)

"You misunderstand me, then, Duchess. What I said was that the initial group of a committee must contain at least one delegate chosen by sortition, at least one who sits as a priest of one of the invited gods, at least one who holds a noble title, and at least one who is elected and not any of the former three. If it does not contain these, it does not represent the convention, and so it is not a valid committee and its deliberations and reports are not part of the record of the convention, merely some conversations as private individuals. I would suggest that additionally a committee must contain five, or perhaps seven, individuals, to begin its work, and only from there may the committee vote to add further members or begin to write its notes, which would allow additional representation where particular groups are highly significant. For regional divisions, I am not particularly opposed, but too many requirements will quickly grow unwieldy and the procedure that chose us was balanced first by type of citizen, so if we must keep only some, it is more orderly to favor the citizen balance first."

"And of course it would be equally out of line with the formation of the convention to exclude from committees anyone permitted to take their seat in this hall. Certainly that flower beast that claimed a valid election and arrived in Westcrown cannot sit on a committee, but neither is it sitting among us as a delegate to the convention. Any who are approved to be a delegate must be permissible as a committee member; Her Majesty, our President, and their allies of the War have already passed their judgment."

Oh, the duchess doesn't misunderstand. She thinks the commoners don't know enough math or logic to tell the difference. But it's almost more terrifying that there's someone in this room actually talking sense. Like, not 'let's maybe not all murder each other' sense, but, like sense that both might be some attempt to include more people in the task they are ostensibly here for, and might manage to elude a particularly thoughtful six year old. There's some catch, surely, but she doesn't see it. Easier to control commoners? Probably, but that's only a quarter of people. - Oh, no, he said it, he doesn't know anyone and doesn't want the people who do getting to make all of the decisions. Elected, so he's in by raw talent for convincing people who don't know him to agree with him anyway.

Well. She doesn't know anyone, either.

She takes very quick notes, and when next at the floor, looks over them for a bit longer.

"Regarding the formation of committees, it seems to me that we need avoid two sorts of error: that a committee be too few, amounting to a mere handful of Members, and that a committee though it be numerous, be imbalanced towards a single interest. That the President fill a committee past the number of Volunteers, I had intended to check these errors" well, she didn't think of the second one at all, but it fits "but I hear the words of that learned Priest and would amend my proposed Rules that the proportions of Members on a committee, by title, priesthood, election, and sortition, be in the same equal proportion as the Membership itself, such proportion being already judged good and proper by Her Majesty."

"Regarding the powers of the President, if it satisfy those who mistrust that blameless archmage who now presides, I would amend my proposed Rules to add the redundancy that the President count votes and exercise other powers justly and honestly, which seems to me excessive flattery of that good man but is scarcely a lie. That votes may be taken by the Roll is already provided for in said Rules, and I dispute its necessity for all votes, though it be desirable on matters of import."

She reads some amendments:

VII Voting
that Questions before the Convention be decided by Vote, which the President shall call for at the close of Debate, by his just and fair determination that enough has been said, and the results of which he shall fairly and honestly determine and announce;

VIII.i Committee Membership
that a Committee being formed, its Members be chosen in proportions equaling the proportions of the whole Body, of title, priesthood, election, and sortition, first from Volunteers, and if the number or proportion not satisfy the President, chosen by him from all Members;

IX Conclusion
that all submit to the will of Her Majesty the Queen, and Julien Camille Élie Cotonnet her appointed President who exercises his powers justly and honestly, holding it above all else, and each do his duty piously and faithfully.

She'll scrivener's them around too, if they keep the paper and ink flowing! It's really satisfying to cast.

Seems like someone is trying to make sure the commoners aren’t fully left out of the room. Doesn’t mean this priest is a friend to the people, but he seems more like one than the others.

Enric isn’t ready to draw attention yet, but he’s keeping an eye on Theopho and sometimes visibly nodding at key points in the argument.

"By a fascinating oversight you've forgotten in your amendments that many of this body objected to granting this foreign archmage the unbounded privilege to kidnap any Chelish person at any time. I must urge you to remember to correct that one also, and to correct your committee apportionment proposal, which is even more untenable than the one the good representative of Hell put forth in that it obliges all committees to maintain a perfect balance in members when the four estates present are not at all balanced in size.

But in truth, even were you now to propose an amendment with such rules, I would urge this body to reject your rules in the entire, because one should not, having spotted many diabolical and Asmodean tricks in a contract, then sign it on the presumption one spotted them all. Those matters you raised in which there is other interest can be written by someone with a better memory and a more honest pen."

Deeply weird for her to act as though kidnapping people was a privilege granted to the archmage, by some other person, as opposed to being the obvious prerogative of any archmage who cares to. Really this convention is pretty much a best-case scenario as far as being kidnapped by archmages goes. 

"Would you stop calling me that if I paid one of our Abadaran delegates to give me their truth-spell and verify that I am not, nor have I ever been after childhood, an Asmodean, Miss representative for presumptuousness?"

"I understand you to worship the Mistress of Dis, my lord, not Asmodeus, and if under a truth spell you deny any such association I will offer this whole body my abject apologies, as to make such an accusation wrongly would be a terrible evil."

Joan-Pau thinks he wants to have a chat with this Erecuran after the day's work is over.

An infernal cleric in the convention? Mmm. Drevnic knows how to deal with infernal clerics.

"I worship the woman who stole immortality from Pharasma and was condemned to Hell for it despite doing nothing Pharasma could judge Evil, and follow her example in giving honest advice even to those I detest when living in unpleasant circumstances. That she is married to Dispater does not reflect on her character or mine, as even Pharasma acknowledges. She does not represent Hell, but contracts with it; I am the same. You lived through the civil war, did you not? Can you honestly say you never allied with Evil for your own self-preservation?"

"Never," she says instantly. "It was the honor of every member of my family down to the smallest children to die rather than compromise with diabolists."

Andreu Drevnic moves to the front of the line to speak - an unassuming, middle-aged man - and then turns an unflinching gaze on Theopho and speaks with a voice of divine wrath that carries clear through the room. "I have served Hell as has every man under Asmodeus's whip, but I serve it no longer. I move that if the young man who claims to worship the Queen of Dis does not hereby foreswear all fealty to her and all infernal powers, that he be expelled from this Convention as an enemy of it and of all the gods of Good." Expelled out into the streets and expelled from the protection of the archmage. 

Oh good! She wanted to say that, she just didn't know the words. 

She doesn't know much about whatever this man's god is but that all sounds very fake. Probably he's going to be executed for advocating diabolism but she guesses maybe the terrifying wizards are waiting a bit since they just said not to kill each other?

"I did not say 'diabolists'. Not one of those who fought the Thrunes by your side was Evil, you say, and yet, as I believe I heard you acknowledge, you spent the century in Axis, not Heaven. I think you were either willfully blind or terribly naive. I am as Good as you, as is my goddess, and unless you can prove me wrong or petition Pharasma to change her judgment of Erecura's alignment, I will insist you cease to refer to me as representing something I hate as much anyone in this room."

"I do not consider Her an infernal power, and will happily swear never to serve any such. Under truth spell, and I will repeat the rest that way as well if anyone doubts it."

Liushna recognizes this man as Tibex's friend, and also he's said useful things today. 

Unfortunately there is...absolutely no way her speaking up on his behalf actually improves his situation. Even if she really understood the issue at hand, which she does not. 

So she'll keep her mouth shut right now, but she will not be happy about it. 

So is this guy a diabolist trying to trick the people by offering them committee spots? Or is he a threat to the nobles being accused of something to get him out of the way?

Enric looks to the cleric section to see how they’re reacting. They probably know who Erecura is and if she’s really evil or not. 

Valia barely knows who Erecura is, but - "Dis is in Hell. Devils are deceivers. Any being that dwells in Hell serves Evil, in the great war between Evil and Good, and if you imagine you can serve a Hell-being wisely or well then I think it is you who are willfully blind and terribly naive. Or lying to us. That worked once, when people were too frightened to think, but Good people do not need to be frightened, not in Cheliax where Good has triumphed. You have been given the opportunity to repent of serving the Queen of Dis. Do not squander it in favor of trying to convince a people who have seen the devil's lies at work that this one can be trusted."

"Erecura is the planar and moral exception of all exceptions... No, this is pointless, most of you don't have the knowledge to trust my Law not to be Asmodean. Fiducia Agramunt! How much for Abadar's Truthtelling, here and now?"

"Today nineteen silver."

"Done. Apply it to me, if you please." He will count out the silver from his pouch and prepare to fail his save.

Fascinating. Does Alexandre want Theopho alive?

Because Truthtelling isn't perfect. There's an obscure spell a handful of third-circle song-sorcerers* have that wizards can't stabilize that beats it, even aside from elaborate nonsense with illusions. All it would take was a single announcement - offer to get his own truthtelling - and that wouldn't save Theopho.

But he thinks he does. Theo is, after all, making this more interesting. Let's let this roll.

(*: Such as Pedra Casal Lachanessa, faithful readers! See screw you, abrogail thrune, and the god you rode in on for more details. - Administratin' Aevy)

"I alleged not that you are an Asmodean, but that the deity you represent resides in Hell and consorts with devils. Do not imagine you successfully distract from that allegation by answering a different one. Deny that you worship any being of Hell, if you want to satisfy us."

Fiducia Agramunt gets up and begins to make his way down to the floor; it's touch-range and hopefully they'll have made up their minds about whether there's a meaningful dispute by the time he gets there.

There we have it, an answer from a cleric of Iomedae. That was a close one, almost fell to the temptation of power and position. At least the diabolist is getting a truth-spell ready so he can repent and forsake the power of hell. 

He steadies himself. "Worshiping Erecura does not make Hell stronger, nor does it strengthen any Evil power of Hell, or indeed any power of Hell; I claim it unjust to consider her a power of Hell, rather than one merely in Hell, who would be elsewhere were she sorted as every other ascendant and mortal is, or were she permitted to choose the location or plane befitting her nature."

"If you present me compelling evidence that my worship serves Asmodeus, Dispater, any of the other archdevils or the myriad powers that serve them, I will be grateful for the painful lesson and cease. For that matter, any other Evil power, god or demigod. Or that it weakens any of the gods of Good. I do not believe you can do so, because none of that is true, and so I will not give up a practice which has brought Good into Cheliax."

Lluïsa's mood is drifting from "constitutional conventions are neat!" to "constitutional conventions suck!". She mopes, entirely internally.

"You will not cease worshipping Dispater's whore unless someone present happens to have proof on hand that Dispater benefits from it. I do not withdraw my insult, then."

Okay that part seems unnecessary. At least by how Theopho tells it, this Erecura is a decent lady who got married off to an evil man and has to live in his house. That happens all the time, Enric has friends whose families married them to the wrong people. Or, even if Erecura is evil but still, you don’t call a married woman a whore like that. 

--This isn't fair. 

"One would hope that an archduchess would be above ignoring someone's arguments in favor of using words like 'whore' as though they meant things they don't. Whether worship of Erecura is still appropriate in a context where she's no longer the least Evil thing available is a matter for whatever committee on religion is set up, not personal insults after the President has already chastised the convention for their use. Can we please get back to discussing business?"

He'll give Nuria a polite nod and a brief ghost of a smile. At this point he's content to wait for the Fiudica.

If they kick out everyone who looks like they're probably related to Hell some way, he won't get paid, which sucks, but probably people get to 'kick out' before 'kill', so it might be helpful fo timing.

...she probably should not say that she's against allowing people to return home - she didn't even realize this was true until a second ago - but she is also beginning to suspect that they are actually going to write a constitution here?? And there's nothing like watching the nobility try to paint pressuring everyone they dislike to leave as something kind to make her want to fight to keep every single one of them here.

Well, except everyone deciding to lynch the second-most reasonable voice in the room. That might actually do it. She raises her placard. Her heart feels like it did in Egorian, during the fire, too full of blood and about to burst.

"I would like to speak to my fellow delegates appointed by lot. I am sure I am slower than many of you, and that many of you already know what is happening, but are more careful than I, and know that to speak is to put oneself in danger. But if the priest of Erecura will put himself in such danger, to allow our quarter of the convention to speak - because that, and not his goddess, is what prompted this attempt to silence him - then let one of us with him have enough courage to make plain what is happening."

"I have lived all my life in Cheliax, not as it was in the Duchess's day, but as she left it. My sister was executed for primary worship of Calistria. I am not so brave as her. I have compromised with evil many, many times, to protect the children that she left behind. All of you - slave or free, man or woman, rich or poor - know that this is true of everyone in our quarter of the room, because all of us are still alive. The good Duchess may never have consorted with one who set foot in hell, but I have. I grew up there. All of us grew up there."

"I do not know if the cleric of Erecura means good or ill for any of us. I do not know if the Duchess of Chelam means good or ill for any of us. But I know that the good duchess invites us to go home to farms still owned by true diabolists, who no one puts a truth spell to. To ruins that no longer shelter our children. To leave all decisions regarding our fates to a handful of people whose hands are stained only by blood they shed at the behest of no devil, no schoolmaster bent over frightened children with a whip of spikes, no master who held your life in his hands, no mind reading cleric who laid your very soul bare as he searched for any scrap of sympathy or spine. And I know that she invites us, too, to expel from our midst the only person in this room who has suggested a rule that requires that anyone making decisions must hear the pain that they left us to shoulder, whether or not there are enough of us to make them listen."

"The cleric of Erecura invites us to speak. Demands that we speak, because he was here, and understands that we know that to speak is to die, and that this is the only way that we can be heard. Knowing that this might still be true, he spoke. If that is called diabolism today, as it was called 'primary worship of other gods' two years ago, then let us be brave enough to burn for it this time. I oppose expelling the Erecuran for his deity, and oppose extending a well-meant invitation to return home, so that others may debate without us which of us to burn for our imperfect courage."

Liushna is not sure she's ever respected anyone this much in her life. 

Theopho silently stands up, turns toward Korva, and bows, deeply and slowly. When he stands up, he is, for a moment, entirely smiling.

There is absolutely no way that a random commoner made that speech but whoever fed it to her did so very cleanly. The diabolist has allies.

Oh, Raimon LIKES her. If they wind up doing the thing where you need someone from each quarter to sit in a committee he wants to tag her for any he's on.

"I recommend" (what is her name - it's on her placard? Great!) "Korva Tallandria for the Committee On Excising The Influence Of Diabolism And Asmodeanism From Our Country!" Sometimes you need to see which way the wind is blowing and take a chance. "Because we need someone to speak for the people being rooted among."

What in Iomedae's name is Joan-Pau playing at -

- Ah. "Chaotic Good." He thinks he sees.

Every thought she has had doubting the strength or will of the sortition delegates feels like idiocy now.  She feels like she did when she realized Eiseth had abandoned her and all of her old assumptions were wrong.  If she is wrong about something as fundamental as the strength in commoners, what else could she be wrong about?

Alexandre will clap at the speech as loudly as any sortition delegate.

That was brilliant. Hopefully it saved that cleric of Erecura, who seems to be among the sensible people in this room.

He claps. "Hear, hear! I second the recommendation that we require at least one person from each quarter to sit on a committee, and I second the recommendation of Ms. Tallandria for the Committee On Excising The Influence Of Diabolism!"

Oh, are we clapping? Clap clap! Old Cheliax probably wasn't even that great, senior delegate snooty duchess!

Theo seconding that motion will not help and so he will not do it, as much as he wants to. He'll do her a favor somehow, even if she turns against him later. Not because she's done him a favor, though she has, but because... because this is the kind of person he wishes was running the world, instead of nobility.

"But she didn't denounce diabolism and Asmodeanism. She just said that since everyone's lives are very hard and Evil tainted all of our hearts no better can be expected of us than the service of Hell's more minor deities. And it is so, that everyone's lives have been very hard and that Evil tainted all of our hearts, and maybe it's even so that those with the fortune to die early don't know what the rest of us endured.

It's not an excuse to serve Evil.

Every one of us compromised with Hell's overseers, yes, and that was a mistake that every one of us made, because it would in fact have been better to die.  A mistake which we have the opportunity to correct, but a mistake we will more than double if we defend it. Evil is Evil, and the only thing that can damn us now is convincing ourselves that it's better to have Evil on our side than to admit we erred in it."

"I feel that it would be prudent to remind this council that, whatever emotions of disgust any one delegate may feel, worship of Erecura is not presently illegal, and therefore not a valid reason to remove any delegate from the convention," a cold voice in very small Hellknight armor says, in conjunction with exactly correct procedure re: how to speak up.

Oh, this is impossible. Korva is right about what the nobles are doing. Theo is right that, whatever the gods picked every lot-chosen peasant for, it’s not going to happen unless someone makes the nobles give up some seats at the table.

But that’s how they get you. The diabolist says that you deserve power and their authority is the only thing that can give it to you. What they say makes sense but, a dozen small compromises later, you’re selling out your brother for a handful of paper and a travel pass. Enric knows better than to trust any speech that gets hooks into him like this; splendor is just another power devils can trade for a soul. 

Aspexia-Isona is really conflicted about this! She wants to wipe out the Asmodeans as much as anyone else, but she heard what was happening in Galt, and she doesn't want that, either. Probably she should speak up to support the Iomedaean? This wasn't really covered in her instructions...

"Trying to move forward from the ashes of Evil is not 'serving Evil'. Recognizing that you have compromised with Evil is not 'serving Evil'. 'It would have been better to die than to serve evil' — maybe it would have! But we cannot build anything new from that foundation! Shall we round up everyone who 'supported' the Infernal regime? Everyone who ever prayed to a power of Hell, even once? Make no mistake, such a purge would not stop until every city is empty and all the souls of Cheliax lie within the Final Blades!"

(Jaume has made it all the way down now, but the spell doesn't last forever, so he's going to wait until there is actually a calm moment in which Theo can make a statement and have whoever needs to hear it hear it.)

"The man in question currently and proudly worships the Queen of Dis! It's to his advantage to act like that's the same as having ever done Evil in the past, but it isn't. He was offered the chance to repent, and he has refused it! You think too little of the Chelish people, if you imagine 'no worshipping the Queen of Dis' will end with every soul in a Final Blade! Most of us stopped worshipping Hell the first minute we had the chance, and most of the rest got around to it in the next year or so!"

"I actually believe that the proselytization for Infernal powers is in fact illegal, under guidance published shortly after the new Queen took power, and that the actions of the delegate representing Hell constitute such under standards used by this government in previous prosecutions - though I have no desire to see anyone prosecuted, and propose that in this case we could productively settle for an agreement by the delegate to proselytize no further for any Infernal powers in this setting unless the convention should vote to relegalize the proselytization for Infernal powers, if we're empowered to do that. Are we, Mr. President?"

"Just because something comes from Hell does not mean we should not hear it. The lady Eritrice, patron of truth and debate, is said to have hailed from Stygia before she moved to Nirvana and established the Windswept Lea. So to was General Vengeance the son of Dispater, and he now commands one of Heaven's legions. Even Lady Shelyn herself still pleads with her fallen brother to return to the light, and if salvation is available for even the Midnight Lord, then surely all the more so can a mortal repent."

Her face hardens. 

"The issue, though, is that the first step of redemption is wanting to change, and he seems proud of what he is and was. What I have heard from Theopho today would have been enough to put him in rare company, even two years ago now, but that's all it is. The least of the old realm's evils should not be mistaken for virtue, any more than grey becomes white when painted alongside black."

If Élie were to rank constitutional conventions he's attended by density of mutual accusations of diabolism, this one would be solidly in the bottom half. He's almost nostalgic. He can't say he enjoys it. He hopes the Duchess is having a good time. 

"The Duchess of Chelam is correct that proselytization for Infernal powers, Evil or not, is forbidden by law. Delegate Lebanel is reminded that he is here in his personal capacity and that the merits of his goddess are not up for debate. 

Delegate Derenge is also correct that the worship of Erecura is presently legal, and therefore not grounds to remove the Delegate Lebanel from the convention. More generally: if such an impediment existed on the part of any delegate, they would not be here. This body was constituted to best represent the interests of the Chelish people, whole and entire, and I'm afraid that until it has completed its work you are all going to be stuck with each other."  

"I suppose that I did cross the line from defending myself into proselytization; that was not my intent and I apologize for it."

Do they actually need him or should he go sit back down.

She hands the Abadaran four silver. "For my estimation of the sobering influence the truth spell provided despite not being cast," she says.

"- thank you, your grace."

"With that resolved, perhaps we ought to return to the matter under discussion before Delegate Lebanel's personal character. As much as I may disagree with his religious convictions, I think his proposal that any committee have at least one member from each section of society has merit. The committees seem likely to do much of the substantial work of the convention; for the same reasons that we are gathered from many classes of people, the committees must be as well. To do otherwise would be a perversion of this entire process."

Korva doesn't know Cansellarion's face, but she knows the name. Cansellarion took Egorian, almost a week after the earthquake. She is undecided on whether she hates him. But she breathes.

... fuck on a stick, now they're going to make her have opinions on how to root out diabolists. She's making everyone else do it, though. Maybe she can come up with an alternative committee tomorrow, as soon as she goes home and figures out what the fuck else she has an opinion on. Or maybe she can manifest some opinions about infrastructure. Or rights. She's like 60% sure she knows what a right is.

This whole thing is infuriating. There's no other word for it. On the one hand, there's that noblewoman, walking around like she owns the place and everyone else should just shut up and have the honor of serving her, condescending to everyone about the neutral gods, acting like whores are somehow equivalent to Hellish gods — and on the other hand there's an avowed diabolist, coming in here to defend a goddess of Hell, trying to use tricks of wording to excuse his actions like he thinks they're idiots who have never met an Asmodean. And somehow being allowed to remain, as if the archmages in charge aren't even bothering to pretend they care about what's right.

She's generally suspicious of Iomedaeans — maybe it was possible to be both Lawful and Good in Lastwall, if you're ignoring Cheliax the way they ignored it for the last century, but not here — but the Iomedaean woman is one of the only people here speaking sense, or something halfway close to it, her and the man who called to expel him, even if the idea that someone can simply repent of years in the service of a god of Hell is ridiculous. (How many people burned, because of him?)

When Delegate Tallandria starts talking about her sister, a part of Victòria — cracks. Because that could have been her, would have been her if she were braver, if she had known more about what Calistria stood for — but she wasn't brave like that. She let wrongs pass years unavenged, even knowing it was wrong, because she wasn't brave like that. But—

Tallandria is probably right that the noblewoman means this as a trick to silence anyone who would dare to stand up to the nobility. But that doesn't mean they should be allowing someone who openly advocates on behalf of a power of Hell to just— be treated like that's okay. Bad enough that men like him still walk the streets, but handing over the reins of society to them would clearly be worse. 

...She holds up her placard, when someone suggests that the committee for eliminating diabolists and Asmodeans needs someone to speak for the people being rooted among. That's just obviously ridiculous, like putting a bandit on the safe roads committee. But there are probably a dozen people all holding up their placards to speak, and she isn't called on before the archmage in charge sees fit to declare that the diabolist can stay as long as he isn't actively promoting Hell and its gods, and— it's not that she believes that battles like this aren't worth picking, but it's clear the archmage has no interest in letting them do anything about evildoers so long as they follow the (utterly inadequate) rules.

(She supposes that answers the question of whether the archmages in charge are bothering to pretend to care about what's right.)

Paladins! She thought Cansellarion was broadly supportive of efforts to make the committees that might have actual influence contain mostly people who weren't evil and could read.

Well, there are a hundred fifty sortitioned and a hundred fifty elected delegates, it's just a matter of picking the right one. Plenty of them have still spent the entire convention cowering.

"As firmly as I believe we should reject the influence of Hell in our doings I believe we should welcome that of Heaven. Mr. President, can you call a vote on the proposed committee rules? Not the complicated version the lawyer put forward, just - seven members to each committee, minimum of one from each estate, chosen by recommendation as Tallandria has been recommended to the committee on combating diabolism or by self-selection or if those offer no guidance on selection between candidates then by lot. If we are to be stuck here I'd like to get started."