King Drum Thornfiddle sits in the chair's seat. He is so pleased he remembered to bring his cartoonishly large clockwork gavel.
(No one appointed King Drum chair but why would anyone else be chair? He's the king.)
"I will now call this meeting to order."
Why is he here. He doesn't want to be here. This committee looks like it's not going to involve any political philosophy.
Now that there's a Committee on Forests Feather will dedicate all her real efforts there, but this one is obviously the next most relevant one!
Also, the two committees shouldn't get stuck waiting for the other's decision. Or decide to do opposite and incompatible things, or something. So it's important to have someone on both.
This committee contains mostly non-humans and presumably none of them will want them not to have rights, so she has no idea how the deliberation will actually work besides them presumably agreeing on that.
Lucia looks a little scared, but also very interested in everything. "Hello everyone! Gosh, what a big hammer you have! Why don't we all introduce ourselves and also say what kind of thing we are?" She blinks a few times. "And I guess our style?"
"I am King Drum Thornfiddle, First of His Name, King of Brastlewark, Lord Protector of Gnomekind, His Most Desnan Majesty, Grand Master of the Banner of the Stag, Knight of the Royal and Distinguished Order of the Scrivener, et cetera. Gnome."
"I am Antonio Ramirez, baron of Fangspire, an orc."
"Liushna, Shalyeen of tribe Windwhip. Am Itarii. Humans mostly say strix."
"Hi Antonio!" She waves happily. "I'm Condesa Lucía Velacruz i Montemayor, de Halmyris. I'm human, with a lightning bloodline of some sort!"
"Alfonso Antoninus Blanxart, Archduke of the Heartlands, and human."
"I'm Bright Morning Feather, a druid from Ravounel Forest. I'm... a druid?"
Feather feels her Chelish is rather inadequate to the task, but she'll give it a go!
"Druid is - a kind of person. I'm not sure if 'race' means the same thing in Chelish. One thing I think 'race' means is that everyone of the same race can have children together, and that's not true for druids."
"As a druid, I turn into other kinds of people. Sometimes I'm a human, like now, sometimes I'm an owl, sometimes something else. It would be wrong to say I'm a human, because I'm not one half the time and maybe one day I'll decide to stop being one entirely. And druids are meant to -" transcend - "grow beyond being any one race like humans. Because we care about all races equally. And for other reasons it's - harder to explain," she finishes somewhat lamely.
"I am Aspex Ibarra, wizard of the fifth circle, King-In-Irons and captain of the Court of Exiles," and I have been nominated for this by gnomes, who I am going to murder if this doesn't turn out to be interesting. I'm here for revenge, not for any of this bullshit, "and I am a human."
King Drum rises. He doesn't know Condesa, but the rest are solidly on his side. Part of him wants to do an elaborate deception like in the court of the Thrunes, but he's been doing that for decades. It's been getting, well, a bit boring. It's time for honesty. Prepared speech #4, then.
"I am King Drum Thornfiddle, of Brastlewark. Many of you may not have heard of Brastlewark, and those who know may not truly understand what it is.
"Brastlewark is a free gnomish city. It is a city of gnomes, governed by gnomes, for the benefit of gnomes, with the practices and laws that are most suitable for gnomekind. It has been my solemn task for nearly a century to ensure Brastlewark's independence. Through my work and that of my aides, Brastlewark kept its ancient privileges even under the despotic rule of the despicable Thrunes.
"We continued to govern ourselves using our ancient practices, such as the town meeting. We worshipped the gods of our fathers and mothers-- Desna, Erastil, Cayden Cailean, Brigh-- in the ways our fathers and mothers did. We had freedom of the pen, and if we couldn't publish in Cheliax, what of it? Neither could an Andoren. We ran our own educational system in our traditional fashion, with respect for the scholar's curiosity and none of the cruelty of the Asmodeans. We passed our own laws and enforced them fairly on our own people. We maintained our own granaries for times of famine that no petty baron stole from to enrich himself.
"I fought for Brastlewark's freedom because of my constant and dedicated opposition to Asmodeus and all his works. But no one, I hope, will criticize me for saying that that motivation was secondary. I fought for Brastlewark's freedom because I care about my people.
"Gnomes are different from humans. We have different needs, which ought to result in different laws and traditions and forms of governance. A human may live in Brastlewark, as a gnome may live in Westcrown. But it is an injustice for gnomes to have no place to live that is designed for us to live a life proper to gnomes. The old kings of Cheliax recognized this, and gave Brastlewark its ancient privileges and immunities.
"My hope at this conference, most of all, is to protect these privileges and immunities. But my second hope is that all nonhumans should have the same rights as the gnomes-- to a homeland within Cheliax, in humble submission to the noble and generous Queen, but governed by members of their own race for the needs of their own race. I hope to see Devil's Perch"-- he nods at Liushna-- "independent from and yet harmonious with human village. I hope to see villages of halflings"-- he nods at Alonso-- "who are free of human domination, for they rely on humans for nothing, and know that self-reliance is the only path to true freedom. And though I know less of the needs of those people, I hope to see orcs"-- Antonio-- "and even kobolds"-- Kicharchu-- "free and safe as well, and at peace with the humans around them.
"Thank you. I hope you are all with me."
(Permira is also here, in the background, glaring at the humans.) ("Permira, a halfling.")
"Food does not grow in the sewers very much. It come from city. So kobolds cannot be allbyourselves."
This is the first time another delegate has said something applicable to the forests that Feather can unreservedly and enthusiastically agree with!!
She doesn't know about the local customs for endorsing something, so she settles for a "Yes!" and a grin.
“I think you’re being optimistic about halfling villages. I think legalizing the independence of Devil’s Peak could work, but there aren’t any places for halflings right now. Where would you put them?”
"The population of Cheliax is less than half of what it was before the death of Aroden. It's not like there isn't empty land, we just need people to kill all the monsters that have taken up residence."
"Unless those 'monsters' are people who should have rights just like the halflings." This is getting tiresomely repetitive, but - "can you define who you'd call monsters, and who you'd call nonhuman people we want to give rights to? I am asking because different people have given me different definitions of the word 'monster' so I think this is central to the discussion."
"There is lots of room in sewers for kobold size people. But, not lots of food, so probably more kobold size people wouldbeterriblyunhappy."
"By 'monster' I mean anything incapable of peaceful coexistence with its neighbors, for whatever reason."
"I have no objections to that!" It actually sounds so great that Feather worries she's missing something; maybe she'd better double-check. "So, anyone who's using the land and does not attack anyone can stay where they are, and they'd be people with equal rights. And anyone who can't or won't refrain from attacking others, you can attack back and drive out or kill, and they're called monsters?"
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