He knew this day was coming. It was inevitable. Still, if he had to take part in this whole ordeal, it might as well be something he was interested in.

Not the politics, of course; he despised the politics. In Osiron the politics were straightforward. There were always those jockeying in the court for the Pharaoh's favor, always advisors or courtiers trying to curry influence and power. But ultimately everything was guided by Abadar's wisdom, channeled through the twin institutions of the Church and the personal embodiment in the monarch. Not like here.

But at least this was mostly going to be about infrastructure and finance. This was the reason he'd been conscripted into the Chelaxian nobility in the first place: as punishment for (or at least for his responsibility in) the destruction wrought on various cities, most notably Egorian, during the war. It's also what he'd spent much of his time over the last year working on. Of course there would be politics—this was all the wizard's doing, after all, and that meant politics was unavoidable—but he would do his duty, no matter how unpleasant he found it.

"Yes, Miss Arodea," he said with the same level expression and tone he had so practiced with the Chelaxians in the past. "The Committee on Repairing, Replacing, Financing, Etc. Etc. Infrastructure Damaged in the Most Recent War will now come to order."

Jaume is prepared to take notes. He is NOT making a fanboy face at the Inquisitor.

Aspexia-Isona has noticed that this is the No New Taxes committee, and so it is her second-highest priority to attend after the Disinheriting People committee! She is here trying to look as nonevil as possible and as though her grandfather is totally not a vampire and as though she is totally a mature capable adult qualified to handle this. This strategy may perhaps not be hugely effective in a professional poker game, and a good deal worse when dealing with someone who doesn't really need Detect Thoughts because he has eyes.

Last meeting. She can do this. Probably they're just going to talk about roads and boats and stuff and will tell her that this isn't even the place for concern about orphanages, and she can be free. But she has to check that someone is thinking about them.

Livi builds things! Or orders other people to build things, at any rate. Most of what he builds are buildings rather than bridges and roads but he's pretty sure that buildings can still count as infrastructure. H's here to see if he can set things up so that he gets paid to rebuild a lot more of them, ideally for enough money to compensate for having to pay his laborers.

Alfons-Valentí has a number of principles he has always stood by, when it comes to politics. Among them are "infrastructure: good" and "taxes: bad". This committee seems likely to touch on both, and to actually make substantive recommendations to the Crown, unlike, say, Forests, which exists only to placate the druids into stopping their stupid destructive plant-growth boycott.

Yes, this is meant to be one of the substantive committees. You can tell by the long name, by the important chair, by the fact Carlota's present, and by the memoranda she is passing around about dam bursts, bridge collapses, and port destruction across Cheliax.

Oh dear. It's easier to vote against any taxes if people don't have decent reasons for taxes.

"I suppose for opening statements we will proceed in descending order of seniority, with the chair reserving its time."

He looks over the rest of the committee members, examining each in turn as he waits for the Duchess to begin.

✨process✨

"Cheliax is in shambles. The Thrunes neglected almost every form of infrastructure. They hadn't bothered repairing the damage done to Corentyn from the civil war when it was sacked again during the war to remove them. I do not think there is a single reasonable person who thinks that any of the investments I have listed are bad investments. I have spoken to people who hope that maybe if we sit around doing nothing the archmages will finance some repairs out of the Goodness of their hearts. I don't think they'll do that, and I don't think it is in the Chelish spirit to be beholden to foreign archmages anyway. We need to pay for this ourselves, and the sooner we do it the better."

"Cheliax is not merely in a shambles it is in pieces. I agree with the Duchess that we cannot and ought not rely on the beneficence of the queen's allies to rebuild our country. We should surely restore all the traditional taxes and duties that the assemblies of old would grant to their kings and queens. But that cannot possibly be enough. I am sure the church of Abadar will offer loans, which may make up the difference to fund reconstruction, the expansion of the old roads, and so on - But Abadar will not fund war, and I fear that further war may be just as necessary as roads for putting our country back together. The Varisian colonies have abandoned us, our brothers and sisters across the arch suffer under the rule of fiends and atheists, and the entire coast east of Sirmium has been taken over by pirates. In times of emergency, we have always granted our rulers greater privileges, the rights to collect more dues and fees, on a temporary basis until the crisis has passed. I say we are in such a time of crisis now, and cannot afford to be stingy. Whatever recommendations this committee makes must be sufficient to finance the rebuilding of our navy as much as our cities, our empire as much as our roads. Thank you."

He nods in thanks, making no expression at the speaker's frequent references to himself or his friends and allies, before turning to the next committee membrer.

Oh no he's looking at her. He can read her mind! He knows everything she's ever been embarrassed of!

"Sirmium is just about bankrupt. My family has held everything together in Mequinenza well enough but we are being flooded with refugees from places that didn't; Sirmium is supposed to be the breadbasket of the kingdom but the port cities are taking out loans to buy grain because we can't ship anything along the river and deserters from the army retreating from the Andoran border have looted everything movable and burned everything else. The Archduke is doing his best but the only way we haven't starved is because of last year's tax relief, and I'm not optimistic about this year's harvest, either."

"The damage to the cities during the sackings, earthquake, and Tarrasque attack all occurring so close together put strain not only on the insurance system but also the reinsurance system which we were subscribed to through Absalom; it may be difficult to secure painless rates for future policies. The rebuilding projects are ripe for investment if those investments will be protected, but many cautious pockets are unsure if radical elements will yield a constitution that forbids collecting tolls, or rents, or interest, or something of that kind, and are waiting for results to come out of this building before they will place their money on repairs and construction. It doesn't help that the number of Abadaran clerics operating in Cheliax was very low per capita compared to most functioning countries, though I believe our coreligionists are among the most eager immigrants."

What?? None of the other committees made her do this!!

" - things in Egorian are very bad," she says, mostly because everyone else said that everything was bad and she feels weird not following the form. Wait, shit, the Archduke is in charge of Egorian, maybe she wasn't supposed to say that one. "I am mostly here because I wasn't sure whether the orphanage system counted as infrastructure, or where else it would go if not."

"...Things are also bad in Corentyn. Probably not as bad as Egorian. I'm in charge of a construction business back home, and I thought my experience with the rebuilding efforts might be helpful." For him, in the sense that he might be able to get rich.

He blinks at the mention of orphanages, the only real surprise in the mostly-tedious opening statements. He was right: this committee would deal with things he was interested in. He gives Korva a look before turning his attention to the next speaker, a delegate here seeking to extract wealth from the rebuilding process. Shawil could appreciate the dedication to creating a fortune, if not a country.

"Thank you to all the delegates willing to speak to the urgent matters of infrastructure and rebuilding a country ravaged by lawlessness, Hell, and war. I greatly appreciate each and every one of your contributions."

It's not lying; it's diplomacy.

"As you are no doubt aware, this committee is part of a convention intended to create a written constitution for Cheliax, to provide a framework for the governance of this country," he says, looking at each member of the committee individually in turn. "It may yet extend beyond the scope of this assembly to implement specific policy proposals." This time, he meets Carlota's gaze.

"Some of you have already brought forth issues relevant to the specific purview here: the powers of the crown, the estates, the other corporate interests, to levy taxes, tolls, tariffs, and, of course, war. The manner in which funds will be dispersed, investments will be decided upon, contracts will be made, and so forth. Of course, knowing where the line between a broad framework and a specific policy exists can be tricky, so I will err on the side of allowing all discussion, even if my hope is we will eventually focus on our core mission. With that, I will open the floor."

Just because he despises politics doesn't mean he can't be good at it.

She's not going to talk. She's not crazy.

Nope, not after those opening statements.

...the duchess was a child when Aroden died. That means he's the only one here who even knows what all the old traditional taxes are.

"Ah. Perhaps we ought to start by knowing what sources of funds are traditionally available to the monarch, before we agree to restore them. It has been a while but I will try to recall them to mind... There was the one-third part of all internal tariffs collected, and the three-fifths part of all external tariffs. The salt tax, naturally. The poll tax. The supplemental halfling tax. The due on incomes and properties, with exemptions for the church and nobility. The tax on acreage. The paper tax, in times of war or emergency - which this is, of course. The royal shipbuilding dues. The restitution paid by monstrous persons - that one should be abolished, possibly, in favor of raising the head tax... Those are the unexceptional ones. If we're all agreed on those we can start debating exceptional taxes."

Jaume is SO GLAD the chair is an Abadaran and will not be taxing things left and right just because they're there. You have to pay for state services somehow but this is ridiculous. Please?

"I observed that this taxation schedule worked quite well and the Empire was prosperous and had the power to take on any external enemy short of Hell."

Aspexia-Isona thought of more taxes but isn't going to mention them in the hopes that maybe if everyone forgets they exist they'll stop being collected.

"I think we should keep the one about making monsters pay restitution."

"Perhaps it can be revised," he concedes, "but of old it was often misapplied, to subjects of the king who rightly owed no restitution for they had done no wrong. Perhaps an additional tax on Evil Beings instead?"

He really was not expecting "monsters are bad" to be as controversial as it seems to be.

"I'm fine with saying the tax should be for evil monsters."

"How does one tax evil monsters, in practice, or is it a tax on whatever land fails to expel them?"

"Monstrous persons. Actual monsters just get killed, not taxed. Though thank you for reminding me, there is also the royal fifth of any treasure recovered from the place of a haunting or of the nesting of a dragon or dragon-like creature."

" - I'm sorry, can I ask what a monstrous person is?" She wouldn't ask but it sounds like no one else knows, either.

"Ah - I'm not very familiar with the full history of the term, but my understanding is that it once meant - dragonspawn, tieflings, orcs - subjects of the king who had some monstrous heritage but were still, ultimately, people. But by my day it had expanded to include the deformed and in the most egregious cases the merely ugly." Lady Raimon would be taxed as a monstrous person, but he's too much of a gentleman to say that aloud or even to glance in her direction.

"As a matter of efficiency, you ought to tax monstrous people more than other people because the best taxes are those on traits that cannot be altered, and on peoples who are nonetheless best off as your subjects. A man, sorely taxed, might leave, but where would a tiefling go?

As a matter of morality, rather than efficiency, taxing tieflings encourages tolerating tieflings and it's better to be rid of them as a relic of Hell, so I'm opposed."

"The Slavery Committee wants to set all the slips free. I bet you could raise some extra money just by saying they count as monsters and making them pay the tax for it."

"Duchess, while I might find acceptable a narrow tax on tieflings, to tax the merely ugly for their ugliness is cruel. Are we at least agreed that the tax on monstrous persons must be reformed, if it is to be restored at all?"

"Delegate Barro, halflings are not monsters. Though if they are all to be freed perhaps we should let lapse the supplemental tax on halflings as well as the tax on monstrous persons..."

"Why let the tax lapse rather than make the halflings pay it? We don't want them going around being idle in enormous numbers, the famine will be even worse than it's shaping up to be already."

"I don't think we should be getting rid of taxes on monsters when honest men will have to make up the slack."

"From an efficiency standpoint," she muses, "I think the right principle is to tax the beautiful rather than the ugly. I am naturally opposed out of self-interest."

"Perhaps you could elaborate on what you mean by that? The first part, of course, the second is obvious to anyone with eyes."

wtf

"It is a hobby in Axis to study efficient taxation - that is, taxation that does not discourage that which you wish to encourage. Taxes on trade goods, for instance, are an obvious necessity in the Material because no one would maintain the roads without their fair cut but they do make trade more expensive, and so the lord tilts the scales against the very thing he most desires. By contrast, a tax on a trait that cannot or cannot easily be changed - such as being a tiefling, or possessed with unusually fair features - alters no one's conduct. This makes the latter kind of tax superior, where it can be employed. It discourages no one from their natural pursuits, while still increasing revenue. I don't find this logic applicable to tieflings as we ought to be rid of them entirely, but for orcs or halflings, say, I think it follows."

"And when you say a tax on beauty is more efficient than a tax on ugliness, why is that?"

"Does this not rest on the assumption that it will be prohibitively difficult to emigrate, for the fair or the helltouched or any other such group? As it has been, but I had been under the impression that was a thing of the past."

"Where would they go? Is there any country on the face of this planet which welcomes tieflings? If we were to tax beauty, of course, this would be much more of a problem."

"The beautiful are in many respects advantaged in life - they make better marriages, have more friends, I've seen it argued that even the Goddess favors them more. They have more to take, then, than the hideous, and being flattered by their obligation may be less inclined to evade it."

This conversation is....... bizarre.......... but he's a pretty normal looking guy so if they want to tax beautiful or ugly people more that seems fine?

"There once was a tax on beards. Abominable thing, the king changed his mind after a year. Whether that is a tax on beauty or ugliness I suppose is a matter of taste."

"How did this tax compare to the price of razors?"

"It was high enough that the common folk were nearly all shaven for the year, though none of them neatly and many no doubt with a kitchen-knife or a workman's tool."

Hmm. Does "no new taxes" actually mean "no bringing up old taxes?" Maybe she should bring up taxes on things her family neither does nor wants to do?

"In Sirmium there's also the manticore tax and the dwarf tax and the fen tax, and I thought those were all kingdom-wide?"

"- how does one tax a manticore?"

"I greatly appreciate the history lesson," he interjects, having decided the time has come to steer things back on course. "It sounds as though there are quite a few opinions regarding what taxes to enact and who should have to pay them. If I may, I wonder if someone here could provide more historical information regarding how those previous taxes came to be. Were they solely at the discretion of the monarch, or was he required to gain the consent of the nobility or merchants, whether officially or unofficially?"

"Proposed by the monarch, approved by an assembly of the nobility. Much like this one, but with more barons and fewer commoners."

"I see. And was that... written somewhere? Or merely tradition?"

"You'll have to excuse my ignorance. I'm simply curious if my friend's fascination with writing down laws and laws about laws is shared by the rest of his countrymen."

"Tradition. But that can be just as potent as a written word."

"I don't disagree. However, our task here is as much writing things down as giving speeches."

"Then we should write this tradition down, along with all the traditional taxes that were once routinely granted for life."

"And we shall." He gestures toward a scribe, dutifully scribbling everything down. "I'm not certain the exact form the assemblies will take in this new government—I imagine some at this convention are arguing over that very matter elsewhere—but I expect this committee will recommend that the monarch's power to levy taxes require their assent."

"Before we formalize that recommendation though," he continues, "Do the local nobility have similar powers within there territories, or are they limited to collecting rents? Traditionally, I mean."

Can't nobles collect whatever they want right now?

She really needs to get off of this committee, she has no idea what it's even talking about. Her mind trundles along, trying to figure out how taxes work entirely from what the duchess said. You want to tax things that can't be changed, okay. One way people can change the thing is by simply not existing in Cheliax, if anywhere else will take them.

...this suggests no dwarf tax. This is not relevant to the question the archduke asked and therefore she is going to shut up about it until it won't sound idiotic.

He's aware that some of the others are losing interest. It isn't that unexpected. In his experience, there are those that simply enjoy hearing themselves talk. If what it takes is letting the nobles have their long-winded say, then so be it. The commoners too, though through a mix of terror and a lack of pomposity, they seem less disposed to ramble.

Everybody talking about everything, indeed.