Has the Galtan archmage considered that right now Cheliax is wanting for the freedom from the whims of Galtan archmages.

Message to Carlota: If we're going to have this law we should also ban challenging commoners to duels, as it amounts to a far worse sentence for the same crime. Between the nobility dueling serves its purpose, but—

Only since the Convention started has he seen so many people even attempt it. A druid, seriously.

The thing is that he could have had practically all of his insane radical policies if he had ensured that they made it a month without those insane radical policies obviously causing hundreds of murders!!!

Her archduke is in fact the one who read the room right and considered the 'truth' battle winnable. She should give him some credit for that. Safe Roads can produce a code for dueling that protects everyone with no interest in participating, I think, though I don't have one drawn up already.

Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh so they'll be told after the votes if they angered the archmage but only once it's too late to do anything about it?????

Oh good the Archmage is protecting them!  And he sounds outright encouraging of a law immunizing floor speech like Thea wanted.  (She had thought it would not be allowed from “the laws of Cheliax are the laws of the convention” or whatever it was he said in his speech this morning.  Did he change his mind after this vote, or did she misunderstand him?)

It doesn't have to be immediate, of course. I had thought that 'don't challenge people who have no interest in being able to challenge people themselves' was already implied, but this bloody convention seems to have proved me wrong. A furtive glance in the general direction of the Marquis of Almenar.

Yep, he voted right with amendment!  He maybe shouldn’t have voted for the rest of the law without it?  He could introduce a similar but distinct amendment to make up for it?  He’s on forms of the convention and necessary alterations to the monarchy… and he’s already thought of a Law to add to the constitution he wrote for necessary alterations to the monarchy which will kind of address what the Archmage is asking for?  He can make public speech related to future elections, sortition selection, religious delegate selection, and nobility selection protected by the speaker believing it to be true!

Oh, they try the archmage's patience, do they. 

It is insane to put the archmage on the list of people he wants to see die a traitor's death, because he cannot have it. 

I have never heard of a code of duelling which allows duelling people who don't agree to participate but perhaps in the absence of any formal codes at all people have started behaving very loosely.

I will not at this time declare that all speech on the convention floor is immune from prosecution, since I still believe you can make that decision for yourselves. Don't try my patience.

Is that anything other than an explicit directive on how to vote under the threat of a foreign archmage's wrath? He doesn't think so. And that means that, while he can't speak against the proposal, he also can't speak for it.

No, agreed, that proposal is now political poison for anyone who doesn't want to be a Galtan archmage's client governor. He wonders how far the political backlash will splash.

Hurrah for protected speech at the convention!

It's not that the archmage is wrong, but she'll take this law and this morning's censorship law over 'no publishing' and she's pretty sure that's the trade on the table.

Also... Hmm. Yeah, there's no better time, the lunch break will end up short. Message to Ardiaca. Do you have a committee in mind for the future convention proposal? I can do it on Rights but that would be worse, and I'd like to see it on tomorrow's floor.

No, what Cheliax needs is for people to stop killing each other!

DEATH TO THE GALTAN ARCHMAGE!

Victòria is so confused about the archmage's political opinions. She's perfectly happy to ignore them either way but a lot of them seem like they contradict each other? Maybe she should see if she can find some of his speeches, like Vidal-Espiwhateveritwas was threatening to read at his trial.

Okay, they support free speech on the convention floor, got it. (You can't get mad at the archmage for not giving much direction and then also get mad at him for giving direction!)

Why does the archmage not simply tell everyone what he is going to do and send this entire silly group home.

Hey wizard. Hey wizard. You have another one of those door spells? Or one of those leave the country spells? 

Okay so, the archmage liked the note he put on his ballot, but he wants everyone else to vote on it rather than just letting Conradí do it by himself? Maybe he should try the note strategy more often.

It’s a bad look. But don’t panic like that, this guy isn’t Razmir.

No obvious one, he messages back to Jilia. 'Alternatives to the Monarchy' would look even worse than rights. 'Forms of the Monarchy' could do it if it had to. We could create another committee for writing the thing but I'd rather keep that in my back pocket for if it fails.

Well, sounds like the archmage wants her executed, and without even the theoretical ability to get her opponents executed first. He's thrown in entirely with the Galtan radical nobility and their 'well-earned reputations'. As is perhaps to be expected of a Galtan radical, but she had hoped—but hope is wrong. (Wrong means factually incorrect; this is a Mephistophelean, not an Asmodean.)

Chance of execution, one in one. Is there a trick, is there an escape?

The problem is that everyone is reactive and tense and stressed and scared and despite that mostly a fairly radical body when it comes to freedom of speech! The rider nearly passed! 

The situation just needs to not deteriorate for a while and then they can pass some amendments and everyone needs to not polarize into factions and -

She is as mad at Cotonnet as anyone but they have to support the Queen, they don't get a new Queen if they sulk about the present situation, and that means they have to support Cotonnet, actually, without appearing to. There is too much here to throw it away because they all dislike each other. 

"I have my disagreements with the delegate from Galt, as I think has been apparent this whole convention, and one of those disagreements is that I support this slander law wholeheartedly, and another is that I do not want statements on the floor to be immune from prosecution.  

 But I do think that this body might be tempted to distract itself from its important work with constant negotiations over whether various statements made in the course of our work are scandalous or malicious. That would be petty, it would undermine us, and it would be beneath us. And it would further oblige Her Majesty's courts to spend their time litigating whether it is scandalous to say there are a lot of bandits on the roads instead of catching and hanging rioters. I believe Her Majesty's courts are just and fair, and will consistently find that productive disagreement in this convention is legal, but I hope we do not waste their time proving it. 

Towards that end: this country is not presently well-run. The army is mostly made up of men not qualified for their roles or with no desire to perform them. This body has a significant contingent that has voted as if obsessed primarily with enriching themselves off taxes that their countrymen can barely afford. Many people are not sure under what principles the judges acquitted Valia Wain, believe they were probably deeply unwise principles, and are relatedly despairing of writing laws that will have the intended effect when enforced. Many of the people of Cheliax are frightened of their government and expect nothing of it, and many others expect or hope it to be a tool they can use to execute everyone who disagrees with them. Many people want the Church of Iomedae to replace the Church of Asmodeus, but the Church of Iomedae mostly wants us to help them solve their problems and turn to other gods for ours. Almost all of us want too many people dead for the country to survive us all getting what we want. The pamphlets were inflammatory not just because they were often full of vile lies, though many were, but because they were often full of astute and accurate observations about the incompetence with which the major objectives of the regime have been pursued. Healthy countries do not tolerate diabolists, not at all, and yet we have no choice about it because there are too many people who are in some sense diabolists to kill or shun them and still have a country at the end of it. 

I believe that under the law we have just passed, all of these observations are permitted; and I hope that having heard them spoken anyone who shares them will not too much hesitate in saying them yourselves. If you think they're slander, go ahead and say that now, and let's establish the facts of the matter when the test case is someone who can pay whatever fines are relevant."

Anyone want to claim that these are slanderous?