No, the most reasonable druid is the one who doesn't want to be eaten by devils. (Not that Voshrelka doesn't make more sense than all you humans.)

Yeah, she's just the one that does the talking, Tuimfane is totally reasonable and she'll return to her seat next to him.

Theopho's speech is pretty. She may actually just like the guy.

She's not sure she agrees with the speech, though. Sure, they were all the property of hell, but you can have more or less space to move in. Furthermore, everyone is born with bonds they did not choose. Such is the nature of mortals. Hell, in fact, tried to sever those more than foster them, in favor of reliance on the whole machine.

For the druid... better harvests matter, she supposes, if they can really give them. But you can say a slave can stay, or that it obviously makes sense for them to, and that doesn't in fact mean they will. And it doesn't mean that uninvolved people won't die of the loss.

(Lebanel isn't Evil, it's just fundamentally dangerous, and contrary to common sense, and repellent, to have a cleric of an infernal power just going around! Even when he's agreeing with you! The correct amount of entanglement to have with Hell is 'none at all', and it's one of those principled lines you hold rather than be subject to any negotiation about whether some carefully Hell-crafted edge case qualifies.)

If Tiumfane wants to be considered most reasonable he should be taking more actions about it. A rock that says 'Fix the portal in the Whisperwood' on it merely isn't unreasonable.

Why are we having this fight? The druids are on the other side and everyone likes them now.

He's not trying to have a fight at all, he's trying to say "yes, abolish slavery, please then do something reasonable with the former slaves."

You made your point badly, and everyone is looking for obvious Good points to win in front of a crowd. Or 'You should make nice with druids' points, for this druid in particular.

Iker knows there’s a lot of types. It’s simple for orcs and almost-orcs, though. Slave, then technically-not-slave, then fighting slave, then army, then noble retainer. Then that baron Ramirez guy, but there can only be one of those. There’s a big difference, moving up a type is great and moving down a type is the worst. Which is why he’s staying quiet, saying something that pisses off the boss sends him back down from retainer to army.

"My predecessors to speak have explained to you why this is the correct policy, and why His Grace the Duke de Fraga, Taldane -" the ancient enemy to all those who remember the days when Galt and Andoran were provinces "- born and bred and married to a Taldane wife, supports this, and so do all those of his Taldane faction." Faction: Also a deadly word! "But let us suppose we entertain the idea of taking him at his word, and hearing him say that he wants Cheliax to embrace community, that high virtue of Erastil. Shall we, then, entertain the thought that he wishes for all nobles to be forbidden from spending the money they get from their feudal dues on rich fabrics -" what a well-dressed noble de Fraga is "- and fine jewels and splendid feasts, instead of adventurers and knights to protect or grain-mills and bakeries to feed, his subjects? Shall we assume that he wishes for the abolition of the monopolies that forbid members of the community to grind their own grain and bake their own bread? Do you think he content to yield his own lands to his slaves and his serfs, to make of them free men and full members of the community? I think we will find that he invokes community when it wins him votes, and then when the time comes for the community to ask their fellow of the commune for his own share, he will look down in his silken suit - a new one every day! and say that that rabble should depart his lands, for then the convention will be over and it is he, not his subject, who will have a whip. Is there any man here who thinks that if I were to propose that all nobles' holdings should be divided so that every farmer can have enough land to raise a family, he would say 'what a fine thing to do, Erastil supports it, Desna and Shelyn will say nothing against it, Sarenrae smiles on the forgiveness of debts' - or would he say something that sounds high and noble and virtuous, and means 'get back, you stinking rabble?'"

A pause, for this to sink in.

"Now, our Taldane delegate says that if we free the slaves, the orphanages will fill with halfling children whose owners don't want them any more." He waits a long second, tilting his head in arrogant appreciation of just how stupid a point that is.

"What owners? What we see happen is that slaves desperately try to look after their grandparents and their children, and their owners sell the babies and the grandparents to evil wizards for dark rituals fueled by mortal sacrifice. One assumes that they will find an alternative place to send them, if they are Good, that still turns mortal flesh into coins clinking into the coffer, but that offers some patina of morality over the event. If we free the halflings their parents will raise them. If Fraga wishes them to be provided for he has just as much power to do that for a man he doesn't own as one he does. But since they do as it happens, have the ability to provide for themselves - a claim I was earlier challenged to a duel over - I think our Taldane delegate makes a mountain out of a molehill. He here invents a problem so that he can enjoy the proceeds of not solving it."

She's mad at him for making a bunch of good points while also being an Evil murderer who kills innocent children because he's mad at their parents and laughs about it. Probably Alicia would say that she should be glad about him making good points and not angry at him for the murders but in fact she's still really upset about the murders.

...she claps anyway, but not very enthusiastically.

Down with de Fraga, who Lluïsa somewhat-arbitrarily dislikes! Clap clap!

Well, it's kind of useful to have the option of calling them the Taldane faction in the handy haversack, though she doesn't really want to burn bridges there quite yet.

Wait, is there actually a three (or even more) noble factions? Taldane-reactionary-radical-conservative nobles, other reactionary-radical-conservative nobles (she hasn’t figured out a unifying trait yet), liberal-moderate-radical nobles, and true radical (Jilia falls here, assuming she isn’t a conservative pulling an elaborate false flag, but Dia hasn’t actually figured out what it’s other members are yet).

Also, there are several commoner factions that seemed to be solidifying… Korva and Reuben are common-sense-commoners, the no taxes are the avaricious-commoners, and the anti-diaboloist commoners (now discredited with the riots but maybe worth keeping an eye on as the nobles continue to say stupid Asmodean shit out loud on the floor and the memory of the riots fade).

Joan-Pau wishes that the King-In-Irons would stop constantly and repeatedly burning the commons as a way of landing sick burns on people he hates.

Enric has realized a problem with the radicals. If it’s a faction of everyone who doesn’t want the nobles to do whatever they want to the commoners, that includes evil wizards who make good points but also do evil wizard things and your cleric of Iomedae has to fight them because cleric of Iomedae. But if you try to get rid of the evil wizards, that starts a fight in the streets and then the nobles steal your judiciary committee. Jilia has been a radical for a long time, maybe he can ask her how to deal with this.

It's fascinating how it seems like Theopho would get along fantastically with 'Aspex Ibarra' other than the part where he's a colossal dick. And probably even despite that. Not well enough to actually give him political support, but odds are they'll meet in Absalom someday and it will be an interesting day.

"Slavery is one of the greatest evils of Cheliax. We take people, children, who have done no harm and committed no crime, and force them to spend their lives toiling away in misery for the benefit of a man who happened to be rich enough to purchase them, and then steal their own children to do the same. This, alone, ought to be enough that we be rid of it, and more happily face the judge without it on our conscience. But that is not the only reason we must do it. Just one week ago, the delegates in this chamber voted to condemn slavery as an evil asmodean institution. What, then does it say about us, then, if we vote to keep it legal? That we do not care if something is evil, as long as we think it will benefit us? That we want to be evil, and so will do it anyway? I do not think either is true, not even of most people here whose deeds are so judged. I will be honest with you all - I do not think this bill goes far enough, and leaves much work undone, when it comes to closing the book on slavery. But that does not mean it does not need doing."

Aspex will clap for Alicia and also smirk at her.

Clap clap clap! Much more enthusiastically than for Ibarra!

Sometimes the simplest arguments are the best. Much applause for the Song-nonbird.

She doesn't smile back, but she does meet Alexandre's eyes for a moment. It's not really what she meant when she suggested the evil people in the convention repent, and she rather expects that he doesn't see it that way regardless, but - it doesn't mean she's not glad he's doing something good.

That vote reflects purely and entirely the fact that last week they were all more afraid of being called diabolists than they were of anything else.

His temperature rises while listening, but he is calm once he reaches the podium. The scorn of the wicked is merit to the righteous.

"Delegate Lebanel says that a bond not chosen is of Hell. I suspect he has forgotten the most fundamental bond between people: that between parent and child. No child chooses to be born, and yet are bound to their parents, and their parents to them. Does that mean it is a bond of Hell, as he claims? If so, the Thrunes would not have striven so mightily to destroy it. No; we can reject his claims out of hand, and discover that to be an "unusually well-educated and well-informed subject of the Thrunes" means little in a good and free Cheliax. I remind the convention that he is justly forbidden from proselytization of the power he venerates, and suggest they consider his other words as similarly suspect.

Delegate Voshrelka reminds us that many halflings, in the forests and abroad, look at Cheliax's treatment of halflings with disdain. As I said in my first comment, let us establish in our constitution the equality of humans and halflings, and I suspect that shall be enough. She further asks what fear we have of free choice, and who we are to made decisions for others.

I remind the convention that she is one of the oldest delegates here, and has perhaps forgotten what it was to be a child, or to not have a full day's sustenance readily available by magical means. It is the rare person who can make sound decisions without consultation with wise advisors. Journey across Cheliax and the management of a household both involves dangers whose risks can be lethal; I am sure that many who have never managed a budget before will make it through the winter, and am equally sure that many others will not. It is not Good to focus merely on the successes of this approach, and not the failures as well. I doubt it is the case that every halfling who ran into the woods met druids before they met wolves.

When a serf must ask for permission to travel, it is because he has responsibilities to those around him, and must explain how his actions are in line with those responsibilities. When I first left home, I asked my father's permission to do so, and did not simply assert that it was my right to; I knew I had responsibilities, and wanted to faithfully discharge them.

Delegate Ibarra."

He stops, sighs, and shakes his head.

"Delegate Ibarra distracts the assembly with superfluous points, and misjudges my character. He is likewise banned from proselytization of the powers he venerates, whereas my proselytization to this broken nation is my sacred duty, done with the hope that I may heal it, not with the wish to destroy it. As with Delegate Lebanel, I remind the floor that these confusions are deep and connected.

When I spoke of overflowing orphanages, I spoke of the current evil, wherein slavery remains and uncertainty over its future status causes selfish and short-sighted owners to forego any investment. If your confusions were not so deep, you perhaps would have understood my point. The country will not be healed by you snarling at any outstretched hand like a mistreated dog.

As it happens, I do not own slaves. I take seriously my responsibilities towards my realm and the people that dwell within, and have not ignored cries for help, from slavers or from slaves, from barons or from serfs, from freemen or from archmages. I have devoted the wealth I earned in Mendev to the upkeep of the indigent, and escorted displaced halflings to safer homes for them. I am confident the Judge looks more favorably on my conduct than on Delegate Ibarra's. It is the worries of the people of Fraga that I present to you, and my worries for the rest of the realm, as President Cotonnet has charged us.

As for Delegate Rivera's point, what does it say about us, if we do not pass this specific law? That the committee must write another, which better addresses the convention's concerns, and is less disruptive to the country. It does not mean that  the convention will conclude with slavery as it was under the Thrunes; we have already voted to not do so. If some portion of this law must be passed urgently, let us identify that portion and pass only it. If we wish to halt the depopulation and have no more subjects of Her Majesty be sold abroad, let us simply ban the export of slaves, and only that, and give the convention more time to find a wise policy."

Ban the export of slaves… the Queen closed the ports in preparation of ending slavery….?!  (The idea suddenly clicks, along with the realization the convention matters externally, but it is quickly suppressed beneath rationalizations and existing assumptions.)  Whatever the convention “decides” the Queen will do as she will to see the country through successfully, so no actually they don’t need to dither to get the exact wording right when she can anticipate and adjust wordings or instruct judges or prosecutors in implementing the convention’s “recommendations” (which are basically what she decided on already).