First, the Chelish state should be restored to it's maximum extent, peacefully if possible and by the sword if not.

Second, Lastwall, Andoran, and the dwarves have nothing fear, but Korvosa, Molthune, Rahadoum, Druma, other Druma, and maybe Galt are all on notice. And Andoran will be too, if Codwin ever loses a vote.

Third, we are willing to wait for a casus belli and may already have one or two written up and waiting for the right moment.

...All phrased very diplomatically so as to make it difficult to oppose on the floor. Almost certainly prepared before the convention began. Alexeara has already misstepped once today. To speak out against this motion might very well be another folly. But... To support it would be wrong, and he does not think anyone else would be the first to speak against it.

"I would speak in support of your second principle, if I thought it needed any. A commitment to peace and nonaggression is admirable, and no good could come of war between those who should be the best of friends. But I have concerns with your first principle, and the latter part of the third. We should take great care not to conjure up imaginary slights to our national honor, nor to be overly-eager to protect those we imagine to be our kin from themselves. You propose reunification with all the domains of Aspex and Haliad, with every land and every people that has ever been a part of Cheliax, but with no regard to whether the people there still are Chelish or desire to be. Are we to reunify with Taldor as well, each of us to kiss the robe of the emperor in Oppara? Of course not. That tie of kinship has long since dissolved. It was broken when Aspex declared his separation from the emperors of the east. In much the same way, many of the people once of Cheliax have declared their own separation from the emperors in the west. Perhaps some of them will wish to return, now that the empire no longer serves Hell. But for those who do not? You cannot make kin by force of arms, and it would be a great evil to try."

"We are already reunified, through ties of marriage as well as our ancient kinship, with Galt and with its partners in unity in Druma and the riverlands, and we pray that, through soft words and gentle persuasion, we may bring more of the shards of Cheliax-that-was into the union. We do not seek to slay our brothers, but merely seek trade, peace, the freedom of Chelish people to travel and worship as they wish, and the eradication of the Church of Asmodeus and its allies and all the cults of the dark gods. What is there in this for even a paladin to object to?"

"One can find no fault in your intentions as you have just described them, Delegate Ardiaca, yet still worry about how a principle of reunification might in the future be turned to evil and folly by unwise men."

"The emperor in Oppara is a lout and he should kiss our Queen's robe!" shouts a delegate from the floor.

"My case is made. Thank you, honored delegate."

"In Iomedae's day the Empire reached from Galt in the east to Pezzack in the west, from Azir to Canorate, and it was only through its unity that Empire had the strength to repel the great evils of its day. Splintered a hundred years ago, our grandparents failed to repel the great Evil of their generation. Are we to believe Evil is forever put to rest? If not, then we must have the unity of purpose to fight it together. That need not, necessarily, mean political union; but if there is another Worldwound, Cheliax and Lastwall alone can not bear the burden of putting it down. A peoples who know their common kinship will find it easier to band together in times of great need. The committee seeks to strengthen those bonds."

"I agree with the Delegate de Seguer, but I think there is one other response that must be made, Delegate Cansellarion, one point that you have not considered. I cannot deny that you speak words of reason, of moderation, of temperance, or that these are virtues. You cannot say that our queen is not good and wise and true, and so she and her counsellors would not begin unwise wars of conquest, and so for our generation it is settled. And yet I say that when you give this warning to our sons you still err in one way. Aroden may be dead, but we are still His people, forged by His will and driven by His commands and comrades of His inheritor. Are we not all of us told that it is our birthright and our destiny as men to surpass our fathers and the gods themselves? Was that not the one thing Asmodeus tried to deny on us, and has he not been proved not merely wicked but wrong, when a Chelish archmage and a Chelish queen freed us all? And thus to say that we and we alone can be trusted to rule wisely and well and that our heirs will be fools seems to me to set aside the ambition of Aroden and all His saints, and settle for a mediocrity that is, in the end, beneath us. No, the truth is otherwise - Asmodeus has tried to tear us down, but there is a thing we can learn from that. This, today, is the lowest we will ever be. The rise of humanity and of all reasoning beings will continue from this day forwards, and I say that our sons and their sons after them are to be trusted with the wit and the virtue to interpret our advice not as wisely but more wisely as we do ourselves. I support the Count of Gandisa's proposal, just as I did in committee yesterday, and in the name of all the gods, let it stand!"

Watch who you're calling a "Chelish archmage." 

(He's glad he was born after Aroden died. Imagine thinking the height of human civilization was mucking about with swords and lines on a map.)

Sorry Élie, but you wouldn't actually like the result if the resurrected and Molthuni nobles dispensed with the mutually beneficial fiction that this convention is presided over by a Chelish archmage who has every right to be here because Galt is part of the Empire. "You're a foreigner trying to impose your foreign traditions and foreign Queen on us" would go worse.

Ah. All the Molthune nobles want to conquer. Well, that's what you get from putting the military in charge for a century, just like political games in Infernal Cheliax.

...He's never actually read real Arodenite texts but he somehow suspects that's not what he meant. Not that he was probably against the conquering, that much is obvious, but 'trust your children over yourself' is... not the sense he ever got. He ought to read an Arodenite text.

There's that 'all reasoning beings' again. They asked the President to explain what it meant last time but he never answered. Feather would be a lot less worried about 'the rise of humanity' if all reasoning beings included, you know, all the reasoning non-humans.

"I do not in the least dispute that it is the birthright of all to surpass their forebears. But not every person successfully claims that birthright. If greatness is measured by lines on a map, then every king after Haliad failed to surpass him. If it is measured in prosperity and stability, then Gaspodar's generation surely failed to outdo the ones before it, though the greatest fault there lies with Hell. If it is measured in wisdom, history has no shortage of fools who succeed their wiser parents. I sincerely hope that our children will surpass us in every way, that they will be stronger, wiser, happier, and kinder than us. But I will not take it as assured that they will. If our sons are wiser than we, our guidance can do them no harm. If they are more foolish, good advice may save them a great deal of suffering and loss. No just and wise man would decline to war on a puppet of Hell merely because his father did not call for it, but many a fool may hear his father's advice to war on Hell and imagine that all his enemies have Hell in their hearts. That our sons may surpass us is cause to rejoice, but it is not a reason to be careless in the advice we give them. Archduke Requena, I know your sons are not yet men. Would you tell them, today, that they each ought to slay a nabasu before they have forty years, not knowing whether they will ever have the strength? I would not advise my own sons thus, before they are even born. No more would I advise them now to war for the honor of Cheliax, when I do not know what those words will mean to them. Is Chelish honor besmirched if a foreign merchant shall call one of our own a swindler? Should that deed justify ten thousand corpses? Wars have been justified by less. I know how I would answer that question. I know how I hope my sons or grandsons might answer, if they sat on the council of state sixty years hence. I do not know how they would actually answer. So I will not tell my sons to war for honor, only for lives, and trust that if they are wise they will act justly and if they are foolish my words will not make them more so."

Except you don't have any sons, Alex, and you don't have any legitimate ones, Xavier, and both of you are doing an awful lot of grandstanding about your sons for men who are neglecting their duty to their country to take a wife and get started having them. Not that Carlota's personally invested here. 

If not for the events of this morning so far, she'd assume that the Church of Iomedae wanted to hold out for, if they can get it, the Goddess to be consulted before the country goes to war. It's an enormous amount of influence, but they have the leverage to get it, and it's obvious why they'd want it, and she doesn't really begrudge them it, presumably Iomedae wants the obvious problems like Molthune and Druma handled. Given the events of this morning so far, though, she has no idea what the Church wants and considers it possible she would begrudge them it!

"I will tell my children to judge wisely, Count Cansellarion, and tell them that they should only act through means acceptable to the gods of Good and in accordance with the finest traditions of the Chelish state, to do war with no godly realms beloved of their people, and to never bring violence against those who do not bring harm to the Chelish people, just as the committee proposed."

"Gentlemen," he says, "what exactly do you mean by 'means acceptable to the gods of Good'? Do you intend to enshrine in the constitution that we must consult Iomedae's Church before going to war?" (Obviously not; if that's what they meant they'd be listening to Cansellarion, who speaks for the Church just as well as anyone.)

"The intention of the committee was that this principle should encourage Her Majesty the Queen and whatever republican institutions are built around Her throne to consult the priests of the leading churches of the gods of Good and Law before starting any war, and seek to avoid the war if the wisdom of the gods teaches otherwise. We had not worked out details of enforcement, since we wished to make sure our views were in line with those of the Convention before progressing too far on any such plan."

Wars are terrible and there shouldn't be any more wars, but since fancy nobles are arguing there's no way she's going to get up and say that.

"I support that proposal wholeheartedly, though Ser Cansellarion would know better than I whether the Church of Iomedae in particular is prepared to accept such a responsibility under current circumstances," since, for one, the senior nobility have no idea who is actually empowered to speak for the entire Church in a capacity like that. If you give the power to declare wars just or unjust to the Church carelessly, you might end up giving it to Valia Wain.

Wars are a very bad idea as a general rule but if the good gods won't approve of them if they are.

Carlota doesn't want anything to come down to unpredictable Cansellarion right now. "If the floor approves the committee's statement of direction, the committee can call in representatives from the Good and Lawful churches - many of whom we're honored to have gathered here today  already, and more I think who'd travel for this- who can testify as to how they would perform this role and whether it is an obligation they are ready to accept."

Really? Cansellarion has one massive fuck-up at understanding tax policy, and you'd rather let Valia Wain speak for the Church instead?

"I am confident Iomedae's church would be willing to advise the crown and other Chelish institutions about which foreign policy ends are just and beneficial to pursue, and by what means they can be justly pursued, if some mechanism were in place to ensure that future generations would heed that advice when given." And present generations likewise.

"In that case it sounds like we are all in accord that the committee should continue its work around these founding principles, with a particular emphasis on mechanisms to ensure that the counsel this document calls for of the Good and Lawful churches will be heeded by our heirs, even if some of them are foolish."

"That was the intention of our second clause. Shall we then vote on whether these three clauses shall serve as a basis for future developments?" He is not going to raise the fourth clause until he figures out what Alex wants.

After a nervewracking two days Carlota is starting to get a hang of floor votes. They tend to pass, is the thing, even the ones that seem ill-advised; there are just more people who'll say 'yes' to things than 'no' to them unless 'no' is the obvious right answer (and that takes a prestigious person denouncing it on the floor and then the notables voting against it.) She is not sure how Republicans avoid ending up with a government empowered and commanded to do everything including contradictory things. So this'll pass. 

She is in favor. She wouldn't have given Ardiaca the committee if she wasn't planning to support the Molthuni nobles in their bid for a clean reconquest of Molthune. It seems more complicated than it did yesterday, but she can hardly withdraw her support now. 

"Seconded," he says. And then he'll vote yes.

Yes.

Can't ask for more than "ask the Good churches first and don't do it if they say no."

He really doesn't care and will abstain. It seems basically irrelevant to his interests.

It's not just about the cute boy, caucusing with the Molthuni and resurrected nobles seems pretty smart right now. They're not Evil and not under suspicion of being Asmodean. The fact that they are sexy and powerful and will duel for you is just a bonus.

This sounds like a pretext for starting wars and Jaume is against.

There was clearly a lot of manuevering at work there and Valia's suspicious of nobles by this point - even the ones who don't glow Evil - so she'll follow Ser Cansellarion, who clearly knows what he's doing.

Yes. This is the preliminary 'should we invade Molthune' vote. If only he could see the Lord Protector's face when the reconquest begins...

Kicharchu doesn't have the context for any of this and abstains.

It sounds nice. Maybe if they write it down and pretend to believe it for long enough it'll even be nice. Sure.

Laia appreciates that they'd want to consult the Good churches. A sensible precaution if a state is recovering from Asmodeanism. In favor.

Blai will vote how Cansellarion votes whenever he is confused and sometimes even when he's not.

This is for the war faction, which is the only faction that definitely exists so far, including everyone from Molthune.

...They'll probably go fight Rahadoum, if that works. After Druma. And the paladin's against it too.

No.

It sounds nice. A great big friendly empire. Trade and travel across all those inconvenient lines on the map. Plenty of chances for folks to level, folks who aren't her but still. Aye.

This is the "no more piracy, Andoran!" bill? Aye.

The nobles he doesn't want to make enemies of are overwhelmingly in favor, so he is too. He'd be in favor even if he was against it, really, but it even seems reasonably sensible.

She is not entirely sure she understood all the details here but it sounds like it might prevent them from going to war to defend another country, even if the people of that country had been seriously wronged and were asking for their aid. She's against it.

The fancy nobles are mostly in favor. She can take a hint.

Ughhh. A lot of people he doesn't like are voting for it. But it sounds like it might let them stick it to Andoran, which would be great. He votes in favor.

He votes in favor.  Reunification just makes sense, if it can be done peacefully, or by means righteousness enough to satisfy the Good churches.  

It doesn't hurt that Xavier is voting for it.

Anna considers and judges that the Queen would probably be in favor and her Lictor wouldn't care a bit. Yes.

War is good for business. Yes.

Alonso doesn't especially trust the Good churches to keep Cheliax away from Andoran. No. 

War is expensive. No.

He didn’t really follow all of that?  The Paladin didn’t fully agree but as he learned with the tax and slavery vote earlier you can’t just cheat off the Paladin.  He’ll go with the general mood and vote yes.

The problem with all these damn things is that the only situation where you can be like "does this mean that, or the other thing" is if you are on the committee. And you can't be on the committee for everything. It's not like Lluc really expected last week like he'd have any effect on how the Queen ran things but now that he is expected to have such an effect it's actually really annoying when there's bits of governance flying by out of reach because he can't be on every committee! If they vote this one down will they bring back something better or something worse or try the exact same thing again next Sunday after making backroom deals? (Do they meet on Sundays?)

It would probably be easier to do worse than better. He'll vote in favor.

"Cheliax gets bigger" seems like a bad habit for them to get into. No. 

He didn’t follow everything, there is almost certainly some subtext he missed.  (A war that already meets the criteria listed?). But in general it sounds fine and like something the Queen and his peers want?  Yes.

She votes how she thinks the majority is voting.  Best not to stick out.

It sounds like there is an end goal in mind to these seemingly reasonably points, but it also sounds like it doesn’t affect Thea, so no point going against the nobility.  Yes.

Nuria isn't a hundred percent sure this whole thing is a good idea. She isn't sure it isn't, either, but it looks like it's going to pass comfortably and the nobility will get a swelled head if their motions pass with too much of a majority. No. 

They're going to just do whatever they want anyway, regardless of whatever this vote ends up as. Humans always end up making excuses that pretend to follow the rules they wrote out, and then attacking places to sate their greed. Abstain, this isn't her fight and she's not going to burn goodwill for it.

Aspexia-Isona thinks this results in less war than a general decree that the queen can start whatever wars she likes, and probably most of them are good ones. Yes.

Alicia is against this, Lord Cansellarion knows better than almost anyone about the importance of going to war with evil countries and if he doesn't think this is justified even with that and requiring the approval of good churches she'll trust his judgment far more than she trusts that of the rest of the nobility.

"No."

Paladin who took her city is against because it's too warlike. Noble fucker who may or may not be her only potential protector after this shit is the person calling for the vote.

Abstain.

She has to make her first decision on where she stands right now. If she goes against him now, and decides she wants to work with him later... it'll probably be easy to point out to the archduke he hasn't promised her anything yet, and if she wants the duke to feel indebted to her she needs to set that up. And frankly speaking, the army isn't ready for a war yet and saying we should be going to war before we have an army ready to fight it is madness anyway, that's just warning your enemies for no reason.

She stands up, makes sure she has a clear line of sight to Duke Cansellarion, and votes against the proposal. He's probably got aides tracking whoever votes for what, but she won't make it harder on him.

"No."

Narikopolus will vote with Cansellarion, but he's deeply unhappy about how it looks.

Caught between Cansellarion and his allies among the nobility, he will abstain. On the one hand, war is bad; on the other, Cansellarion is being silly if he thinks the borders of Cheliax are the important kind of Alfirin's influence to limit.

Aye; why is this controversial?

He doesn’t fully understand all of it, but from context this sounds kinda like they’ll have more war for reasons he cannot follow. 

“No” (I guess)

It's looking like it will pass comfortably, and she's no longer voting early enough that people will follow her; even most of her counts have already voted Aye.

"Aye," she says, and notes it on her private list of things she might need to justify to Jackdaw.

Three archdukes! The paladin! Ahhh! What do to?

It's going to pass, so he'll vote with the majority.

Berenguer-Aspex votes yes because "you voted for this in committee and not otherwise" is a bad look and because it's going to pass.

It sounds like they only want to fight for good things,  defending against demons and winning other countries from hell like they did Cheliax. But if the paladin still worries about wars starting for bad reasons under these rules… 

His uncle lost an arm and the use of a leg. Hard to say that’s worth it for anything less than fighting hell or demons. 

Voting no. 

Proud member of the war faction here. “Aye!” Hope they have better loot than demons. 

If the Good churches tell them it's not Good to kill everyone in the forest then - they won't stop, but at least it might stop them telling her "it's already a war and that in itself is a reason not to make peace", if they're not allowed to call it a war anymore.

Aye.