Today is the day that they enshrine in the law 'no dragging random peasants here'! Or more likely the day Cotonnet stops them, but he's looking forward to that fight, honestly. Let the tyrant show his colors.

Today's the day when they finally get some sensible rules on Magic ensconced into law. 

Carlota does not love the reintroduction of unlanded titles but she will admit the crown needs money and anyway promised to speak in defense of Coeliaris's proposal if Coeliaris withdrew it yesterday so they could abolish slavery, so she has a speech prepared about the economics.

Nice, sensible, mining committee today. Doubtless there will be six emergencies from everyone else, but at least she's helping.

Feather has to tell Voshrelka about the undead awakened badgers!!! Where is she - 

Sleep deprived, but in her ordinary spot next to Tuimfane. Napping already, actually.

Professor Coeliaris prepared Dimension Door today, so as soon as the floor opened for speakers, she was just there.

"Nobles and Peasants, Mages and Clerics, Men and Women, Creatures of All Sapient Races under the Auspices of Man- I stand before you once again. Yesterday, the Committee of Magic, withdrew our Proposals to be further inspected by the many august members of this house. So we come before the Convention again with this Slate of Proposed Laws. It has been asked that we vote on these separately, and therefore we will start with the following Law. My apprentice Tillia will once again maintaining an illusory page, sufficiently large for all to see, above, with the text we have formulated."

PART I. — PRELIMINARY

1. Short Title

This Act may be cited as "The Magical Arts Regulation Act of ???."

2. Interpretation

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-

"Spell Lord" shall mean the office created herein for the regulation of magical affairs;

"Metatitle" shall mean a designation of magical achievement as established by this Act;

"Relevant Hellknight Order" shall mean any body of Hellknights specially charged with matters arcane;

"Major Magic University" shall mean such institutions as shall be designated by the Spell Lord;

"Spellbook" shall mean any personal associated tome or collection of magical formulae used in the practice of wizardry.

PART II. — OF THE SPELL LORD

3. Establishment of Office

(1) There shall be established the Office of Spell Lord

(2) The Spell Lord shall be a person of demonstrably Good alignment, as verified the Queen of Cheliax or her Agents. 

(3) The office should be offered to the President of the Constitutional Convention. Should he decline the office, subsequent appointments shall be made by majority vote of the Convention, any subsequent legislative body established by such, and failing that, the Queen of Cheliax.  

4. Powers and Duties

The Spell Lord shall have power and responsibility to

(a) To regulate the introduction of new created species 

(c) To investigate and suppress dangerous magical activities; 

(d) To grant and revoke Metatitles according to the law of cheliax 

(e) To superintend the relevant Hellknight order in all matters 

(f) To establish and maintain a voluntary registry of all practitioners of magic above the Third Circle

(g) To inspect and certify, on a voluntary basis, all new permanent magical constructions above the fifth circle

(h) To declare states of magical emergency when necessary

(i) To establish containment protocols for magical disasters

(j) To regulate the creation of extraplanar and extraterritorial portals

(k) To oversee royal magical research facilities

 (l) To establish standards for the safe disposal of magical materials

(m) To determine the expected income per circle.

Hopefully they actually get to vote, this time.

Time to fulfill her promise. "This is how Absalom does things. One might ask, why imitate Absalom in particular? The best answer, to my mind, is that Absalom like Cheliax has an enormous population of wizards. This is an enormous strategic advantage, one that has served them very well over the centuries, and it will serve Cheliax equally, once we figure out how to avoid having all our wizards underemployed. I do not expect that the President of this convention will accept this appointment but I do not think anyone can dispute that if he did it would be a great achievement of this convention and for this country."

"This says a lot about regulating, and establishing standards and protocols, and so on. But it doesn't say what is actually illegal or even what counts as dangerous or as an emergency. Could you - say some more about what they would actually stop from happening, and hopefully put it in the law?"

Actually she can just say the thing and hopefully everyone will agree, even Chelish don't like undead. "Apparently there's an undead wizard creating undead intelligent badgers living under the city. I very much hope that would be disallowed, and if everyone agrees I think the law should say so and not leave it up to the Spell Lord."

She has Estella with her today (primarily to send messages) so Thea can in hushed whispers try to confer with her if these proposed laws are good for wizards.  (With the events of yesterday, she forgot to confer with Estella the previous evening.) And Thea is also thinking of how it affects herself and other clerics and common people.

Estella seems really supportive of the proposal? Almost suspiciously so, but Thea can’t see any corrupt personal enrichment angle in it, so she’s wondering why Estella likes it so much.

An anonymized delegate gets on the podium: "Why should the spell lord be restricted to persons of Good alignment? Any candidate of sufficient prowess whose oath of office can be trusted should be eligible. On that note, does the convention possess the skill to sufficiently estimate candidates, if the President were to decline? One would think that our wizards and archwizards can very well arrive at a Spell Lord candidate by their own mind."

Estimating the skill of wizards is so easy a peasant could do it. Can you fly? Cool, can you Teleport? Cool, can you make your own extradimensional spaces? Cool, can you stop time? Done.

But can you awaken badgers, that's the really important question

Professor Coeliaris herself would be an excellent Spell Lord Candidate, obviously.  (And Estella will have briefly impressed and likely have a job offer from the spell lord herself).

She’ll have Estella’s Thea’s vote for the position at least.  Now how to convince Thea of this… 

"Shall the Spell Lord also regulate matters of divine magic, including keeping a registry of third-circle and above clergy? Are devil and demon calling cults practicing such activities as meant by section 4c: dangerous magical activities"

Alexandre thinks he'd do a pretty good job as spell lord, which is why nobody will remotely consider offering him the job.

Desnia is following along attentively, having both slept unusually soundly and succeeded at child handoff. This proposal (the same one as yesterday?) is still hard for her to follow, but the words at least coalesce into sentences, even if the thing as a whole is the kind of thing she's finding it hard to have an opinion about.

The last question catches her attention - she hadn't thought that this would maybe affect her too, she'd thought this was about wizards and maybe sorcerers. She'd... rather not have to register with the government, probably, though she's also not third circle yet so it doesn't actually matter for her. 

She doesn’t want to fall under the control of anyone, but especially not an institute aimed at wizards, she’ll oppose this hard if it isn’t clarified to exclude clerics.

'To take those in order:"

"Any good spell-lord will regulate the badger- but there are necromantic spells that do not create undead that are economically useful and good. Despite this, the country of Lastwall, at the Worldwound, prohibits the entire school. For a serious investigation, we'd need to look through every possible spell, and determine if it should be allowed or not, and nobody here- not me, and not the Archmages- know all spells. I think it's better to delegate this prohibititory activity to the spell lord, who can then be supervised by this august body, and its successors."

"We want a good man, because don't want a man that will enrich himself against his fellows. I don't know about the noble delegate, but I trust in the capability of our Great and Noble Queen to determine the worth of her officers!"

"I strongly believe that the noble Churches will be able to self-regulate, once they have gained a sufficiency of personnel in the country. We should not look at dear Iomedae's recent failings as an example of what the church is capable of when fully staffed."

Is this going to turn into a political battle for Spell Lord?  He bets the archmage refuses, so there is an obvious candidate to nominate.  He didn’t exactly impress her last night, but she didn’t outright humiliate him (despite a few small jibes) so he is still aligned with her and would benefit from her own rise in station.

“The position of Spell Lord will require political acumen and good sense in addition to at least decently high circle spells, so I think Professor Coeliaris herself is an excellent candidate for the position and nominate her should the archmage refuse.”

Ah, of course, this is about appointing ourselves to high office. Why not. Greed and dealing to enrich yourself isn't even Evil, it's Neutral, or Abadar wouldn't be, right.

You can't have a fourth-circle spell lord, that'd just be embarrassing. But Carlota has honorably fulfilled her obligations and is not going to speak further on this.

He didn’t actually clear this with Professor Coeliaris ahead of time, hopefully she graciously refuses in a way that makes her look good is she doesn’t want the position.

"Let us not begin any other nominations before our noble savior-archmage has had a chance to properly consider the offer. I personally believe that the holder of the office should have at least Fifth circle."

Feather already knows Professor Coeliaris thinks the badger should be illegal! That's why she doesn't understand why she won't put explicit instructions in the law and wants to leave everything up to every future Spell Lord! Giving someone authority over all use of magic in the country without any actual laws saying what they should and shouldn't forbid sounds - not very Lawful? And not very Good or Wise either, when they don't know who the Spell Lord is going to be? None of the other laws of the conventions just - gave someone incredible power with no limits stipulated! 

...She can't get to the podium to say all that, though, or at least not right away.

"I think we should decide the new Spell Lord by having public wizard duels between everyone who wants to be Spell Lord. How else will we know who the strongest wizard is?"

(Plus, this way he'll get to watch a bunch of cool wizard duels.)

Hell! Yeah!

"Perhaps an exception for the wizards of noble birth and title. The duty to regulate their conduct falls to their liege, surely. This new office should not usurp the traditional rights of a lord over his vassals."

“If the president doesn’t want the role, we should send this bill back to committee. Either there is no backup planned, in which case it could use more thought instead of being hastily thrown together, or there is a backup plan and the fact that they aren’t willing to outright say who it is is very concerning. If they think we would not vote for the law if we knew who they had in mind, I see no reason to doubt them.”

"A noble wizard may have tools at their disposal to neutralize their liege; it is those situations that most call out for the Spell Lord's intervention. Additional watchers will lighten their liege's burden, not increase it. The bill is about how the government should be arranged; we agree that the army should have generals without knowing who all the generals will be, and I hope we agree that there should be someone charged with enforcing magical laws, even if we do not know who it will be. Because of the nature of magic, powerful wizardry is as much a requirement as upright character."

Carlota glances around the room to try to get a sense of how the vote'll go. Most of the room looks...indifferent. Note to self, you can accomplish a lot with process and appointments that no one cares that much about.

....also, the Duke de Fraga looks thirty years older. She thinks Alexaera would've mentioned if one of the party got hit with an undispellable terrible aging curse? Maybe it happened after he left.

She studies him. There's a spell up but not a familiar one and she can't guess what it'd do.

Duke de Fraga! We were relieved last night to learn that things had gone so well. Are you well?

He looks back at Carlota, catches her eye. Duchess de Chelam, I appreciate your concern, but I'm as well as I can be, given the circumstances. 

For a few seconds, he looks as young as his son did, from across the room.

But you prefer older men, don't you?

He's back to his aged appearance.

What an odd spell. She assumes also a useful one, he's a little too old to be purely showing off. 

With age comes wisdom and gravitas, she responds in the same half-joking tone. Does your spell do those?

It is the crowning achievement of my bloodline. He means that literally; but with his newfound wisdom, he doesn't believe the house annals until he gives them a careful reread. It is a strange thing, to suddenly remember the lessons of a lifetime without having learned them the hard way.

Congratulations, in that case. Wisdom is not wasted even on the already very wise.

Thank you, and thank you again for the invite.

He looks back to the lectern, smiling. She's being polite, of course; he hardly would have called himself very wise, before, and now can see many more of his mistakes.

She gets up. She directs her question at Coeliaris. 

"You said that for clerics, Churches would be able to self-regulate, but not all gods have churches that are organized such that They try to regulate Their clerics.  Could you clarify that this law would not apply to clerics in full generality?" 

She hopes that made any sense and also that she's right about Desna not having an organized church that regulates Her clerics and she hasn't just missed hearing about it. 

"I would gladly so clarify by the addition of 'Arcane' at the suitable place." She does so.

She sits back down. Maybe that was a stupid thing to say or maybe it was a selfish thing to say but she feels better about the law now that it says Arcane. 

She... probably will abstain from voting on it, if there aren't more arguments that make whether it's good or bad clearer to her? Maybe that she doesn't want to be registered means that she should be against the registration of all the third circle wizards, but... she doesn't think she's against all rules, she's just against bad ones, and this isn't an obviously bad rule. It's not obviously a good rule either, and she can't tell if something better or something worse will happen if this doesn't pass. So it's probably fine if she leaves it up to everyone else? 

"So! I call for Cloture for this proposed law. "

Passes!

"So, I call for a vote for this first part of our proposed law of magic, which does, if nothing else, recognize the great things that our Savior-Archmage has done for Cheliax."

In favor. She's not sure how she'd come down if she hadn't traded favors here, but she did, so. 

Has the archmage shown the slightest sign of wanting the title? But sure, why not.

Against, she already said why.

In favor, he’s hitched to Coeliaris one way or another other.

For! She wants to be a Spell Lord!

In favor on the basis of Estella’s recommendation, but Estella better have a good reason she explains later.

If she understood right, the Spell Lord is supposed to stop powerful wizards from being able to hurt people just because they're powerful wizards, and they have to be a wizard themself or the powerful wizards would just kill them. In favor. 

She doesn’t know anything about magic, but it doesn’t sound like it will bother her or any of hers… abstain.

From a selfish perspective she probably ought to be in favor but she doesn’t want to get in the habit of voting for laws on self interest instead of what’s right. Abstain.

She is of course very grateful to the Archmage. In favor.

In favor.  The wizards need to be kept in line somehow, especially now that the Archmages closed the Worldwound so they won't be sent off there anymore.  And it's not like anyone's been presenting a better idea.

He would really prefer there be less attention given to investigating what wizards are doing. Against.

Most of those do seem like things that ought to be regulated, and the Spell Lord model has been tested in Absalom without disaster. In favor.

Abstain, she doesn’t have a strong feeling either way. 

He'd rather not have important people deciding moment-to-moment law be rich powerful spellcasters. Against.

Sure, it's much easier to run a prison for mages if you have a single mage to negotiate with. In Favor.

For. 

Can't the archmage already do this? Well, making it clear he can is fine. For.

Wizards are so annoying. They should just obey the same laws as everyone else instead of wanting their own obnoxious titles and rules. Against.

In favor. He does wonder what they'll do with the position if Elie doesn't accept it, but they'd probably end up with something like this anyway.

In a country that has sane, and somewhat morality aware Wizards, this would be overkill. It is also unclear who will take up the office and be credible in it, if the Archmage doesn't. A single spellord sets pretty harsh requirements on both legal competence and magic competence, to avoid getting humiliated and avoid driving the countrys magic regulation into chaos.

On the other hand, this is Cheliax.

In favor.

Against.

It's barely a law at all, just a delegation of poorly defined authority with poorly defined goals to someone unknown. This is not how to Lawful. And she is unconvinced having a Spell Lord would have helped the badgers as long as the lich didn't make then his personal problem.

A Good wizard should have helped regardless of having a government office, but the Good wizards around here don't think badgers are people, so.

Passes with fairly low participation, 201-150.

"Thank you all. As the proposed section on Magical Education still has some controversy associated with it, we believe that it would not be best suited to go next, so we therefore continue with the proposed law, section IV:"

PART IV. — OF METATITLES

8. Establishment of Metatitles

(1) There shall be established a system of Metatitles, to replace the former Paratitles.

(2) Such Metatitles shall be sold for the benefit of the Major Magic Universities

(3) The basic cost of the Metatitles shall be determined and published by the Spell Lord

(4) Discounts shall be granted as follows: 

(a) Four per centum for each years military service to the Nation 

(b) Three per centum for each one years' teaching at a Major Magic University of Cheliax

(c) Ten per centum for each military award for Bravery approved by the Queen 

(d) One per centum for each Spell published and made public to all for no cost other than cost of materials.

(e) For participating in the liberation of Cheliax, Four Day War, on the side of liberty, Thirty Per centum

(f) For participating in the liberation of Cheliax, Four Day War, on the side of hell, not a discount, but an additional Fifty Per Centum instead.

(h) The Spell Lord's discretion: Up to half of the remainder.

(5) The total discount to be added. No discount to be greater than ninety per cent.

(5) Examples of Metatitles shall include:

(a) Metabaron (For third circle)

(b) Metacount (For fifth circle)

(c) Metaduke (For seventh circle)

(d) Metaprince (For ninth circle)

(e) The spell lord may at his discretion establish more Metatitles

(f) The queen may grant any titles at her discretion.

(g) The saviors of Cheliax are granted all titles.

"It is clear that the reborn cheliax does not lack for wizards, but it does lack for money. This is, partially, our answer."

"The proposed discounts here seem downright Asmodean. Four percent a year for military service? So if someone served twenty years in Cheliax's military, in service to Asmodeus Himself, they get an eighty percent discount, more than enough to completely offset the penalty for fighting on the side of Hell. Three percent a year for bringing up more loyal Asmodean wizards, and it stacks with the discount for military service. One percent for publishing a spell, with no mention that it can't be an Evil spell. Our army-wizards should've been put to the Final Blade, and even if we failed to do that we certainly shouldn't be rewarding them." 

Carlota honestly finds this whole slate of proposals very annoying and would generally oppose them. But she got the quick votes she needed yesterday and that's what matters.

"The argument for this proposal is straightforward: it appeals to those wizards who are very invested in their standing in high society, which is quite a few of them, and it is beneficial to Cheliax to have powerful wizards around, and it involves those wizards paying the state money, of which the state has great need. The argument for indifference is equally straightforward: the 'metatitles' currently have nothing at all behind them and confer no privileges. The argument against, I think, is that it is more convenient if wizards who desperately want noble titles have to get them the old-fashioned way by marrying nobles in financial trouble, and that it is vaguely embarrassing for the state to as a first resort start nakedly selling prestige to fund itself. Ultimately I am inclined to handle magical regulation by seeing whether powerful wizards are choosing to live and work here and adjusting course if they aren't. If this is a power that the Spell Lord wants and thinks will actually be useful, it is a power I am fine with them having the discretion to offer.

With one exception.

As written this would allow a powerful wizard of the old regime to become a Duke at a cost that he could almost certainly afford. I don't know if many of those are alive, and I am open to the possibility that some of them have overthrown Hell in their hearts and desire to serve their new, free country. But all of them have sold their souls, all of them attained their power in the willing service of the greatest Evil this country has ever known, and I would want more proof of their repentance than 'they paid a lot of money' before I would be willing to address them as 'your grace'. Or at all. I bear no ill will towards the men and women conscripted to serve in Asmodeus's armies, or towards anyone who spent their career at the Worldwound.

But there are names of the old regime I have only heard spoken in whispers, so afraid are people of them still, and I have no desire to invite those ones back."

The funny thing is that speaking only in whispers doesn't particularly help you evade any of the city-wide name listening spells. 

She kinda assumed all the really scary people were executed? Manohar was executed, right? If they got down to random Heartlands counts there's no way they failed to get through the Teleport wizards.

The thing about Teleport wizards, as opposed to random Heartlands counts, is that they can Teleport and most Heartlands counts can't.

This feels too much like diluting the power of the nobility, and the revenues all go to the crown; as Carlota points out, better to distribute them throughout the country and the many noble houses. (And if you're struggling enough that you need to marry a commoner, adding a wizard to the family is a good way to go about it.)

Maybe the meta-titles will encourage that, making it less shameful to marry a meta-count than a wizard? But no--better to have their wealth yourself, than have the state have it.

This is kind of petty, but she’s gotten the sense from the Education Committee that the state is desperate for funds, so this sounds like a reasonably tolerable way to raise funding.

"To expand on the Duchess de Chelam's point, Cheliax currently has an unusually large number of eligible nobility. Perhaps we should encourage current and future wizards of the realm to intermingle with them, but that is better done by a series of dinners, where introductions can be made and their fitness as partners and co-rulers can be carefully judged, not a simple rubric and a cash transaction. People who are bonded to specific places and specific families can be relied upon; a magical elite without responsibilities will not deserve respect. If the universities wish to honor them for their service or their donations, they are free to do so on their own terms."

He was going to give a speech about how this makes a mockery out of the very idea of the nobility, but the Duke of Fraga just said that in a way that the uppity peasants are going to be less insulted by, so instead he nods to the Duke of Fraga and steps out of line.

Much better to fund the state than the nobility. But his argument would weigh against it, not for, for assumed hellishness.

"I am not, myself, a vain wizard, but they are quite common. And this proposal clearly appeals to vain wizards much better than would marriage into a noble family. If I were to marry a Countess, my children would inherit her standing. If I were to purchase a Metabaron's title, my standing would be increased. Great wizards are not, typically, people who value their family line over themselves; if they were, they would make choices that made it easier to have a family, at the cost of avoiding danger which might propel them to higher circles. And Your Grace, if you do not believe they deserve respect, simply do not give it to them; the only cost that entails is reducing the attractiveness of the titles to those hungry for respect and acclaim."

"Requiring royal assent to the purchase of any title by one soul-sold - or whose soul is otherwise tied to Hell or the Abyss - seems like a reasonable accommodation for the Duchess's concern. Though with that established, there would be a question of whether it ought be open to other spellcasters; I understand Inquisitor Shawil has recently been giving full inheritable noble titles to strong clerics of Abadar, but when he runs out, others might wish to purchase the metastatus as well."

"This is how things were done in Asmodean Cheliax. I think very few things about Asmodean Cheliax should be carried over into the new regime, certainly not without at least admitting that's what they are. I am sure many of the Asmodean wizards are upset they no longer have their titles, but the decision to strip them of those titles was made deliberately, and I cannot support selling the titles right back to them. Cheliax needs wizards, but not the wizards it had under the Thrunes. I oppose this bill."

It's so annoying when Evil nobles make reasonable arguments against bad laws!! She will clap for him even though she doesn't like him.

Honestly it was also pretty normal for wizards to marry into the nobility in Asmodean Cheliax. He's got some. Including some soul sold ones. He's just not going to talk about any of that, since people seem unlikely to suddenly jump to stripping the existing titles from everyone without the deed to their soul.

"His Excellency-" Hopefully that's the right one, she thinks it's the one people were using for him earlier but for something they care so much about nobles sure do hate giving people a way to know their ranks "- makes a good point. I came up here to say that we should ensure the service discounts of this bill only take effect going forwards, because we do not want to be rewarding people for service to the Asmodean state, but at this point I do not think that would be adequate to fix it either. It justifies the paratitles to attract wizards and make revenue for the state, but many of the wizards it will attract are wizards we do not want and it undermines its own revenue stream at every step. I oppose this bill."

Between this, the previous votes, and committees, she's probably making an enemy of Coeliaris, but that was probably inevitable with how much their agendas here clashed and the support she's courting is almost certainly more valuable for her plans with the army.

"I'm fine with selling titles to the wizards. But I don't like how this law says all the money has to go to the wizard academies. We've got children starving to death in the orphanages because they don't have enough money to take care of them, and you want to spend the money beating students 'till they can cast spells? Either you fix the law so it doesn't say that, or no one should vote for it."

He's not actually sure whether or not more wizards would be good for Cheliax, and this isn't part of the bill he cares about. Maybe he should try to support it anyway, to make sure they get to the other provisions about magical law enforcement? But he's not sure what he would say.

"This is absurd. Noble titles come with obligations; the titles without the obligations are either entirely meaningless or are an Asmodean exercise in power for its own sake. If a wizard wishes to serve his country, and earn recognition thereby, maybe even a title awarded by the Queen, fine. But to sell them? You should be ashamed to propose such a thing."

He had been wavering on whether to say something… he wants to support Professor Coeliaris, but he cared even less about metatitles than her other proposals.  But the idiocy of that last comment gives him something clear to rebut.

“Powerful Wizards provide many essential spells and services: scrying for distance communications, teleports for rapid transport, and all sorts of utility.  Teleport wizards are essential for remote logistics like the worldwound.  Wizards are, like most valuable professions, are generally paid for their services, and all sorts of factors can influence how much payment they will accept: prestige, opportunity for specialized training, opportunity for social advancement.  An upfront payment for prestige is a simple standard way of tying them to the service of our great nation while letting them convert the services they have done for money into that prestige.  I will acknowledge the point that ongoing service plays a role in conventional noble titles.  So some form of yearly fee or tithe or service as part of maintaining the metatitle would be a reasonable amendment if this bill is found unsuitable by the convention in its present form?   And monetary payment is nothing to be ashamed of!  To those loyal to the Queen and to those that want to avoid new taxes, I would ask you to consider the recent turmoil and thus the need for funding Cheliax has.”

There, hopefully Coeliaris can recognize his suitability as ‘working wizard’ lackey.

That guy is a little confused but he’s got the right spirit.

Heh, now that he thinks about it there’s nothing saying people can’t resell the metatitles. That might be fun. Find some guy, stack up as many discounts as possible, sell the title and then buy it again … probably doesn’t work, definitely wouldn’t work for long, neat trick if it does though. 

What kind of self-respecting wizard would waste money on a metatitle? It’s not like it would make you better at magic. 

This is obviously a scam. Transmuting wizardly power into social status is cheap and easy: Lisandro’s name was right alongside the nobles this morning, being acclaimed for catching the lich. No payment to the crown needed. Even before that, a middling show of wizardry was enough for a noble girl throw herself, and a barony, at him. 

Lisandro thought Coeliaris had more dignity than this, but presumably tuition won’t be enough to fund her wizard schools. He and his proxy will stay silent. 

"Everyone wants to be powerful and important. This law just makes it so that titles aren't just for jumped-up Taldans who can't even fly, they're also for the people who actually matter."

Lisandro’s proxy does want to say something. 

“Why’s it called a meta-title anyway? A metabaron would mean a baron who’s the baron of barons, not a wizard who doesn’t even have a barony?”

Okay, now it looks like I’m going against the professor. This isn’t even a political opinion, it’s a grammatical one. 

Yeah but I’m right, right?

Fine. Wanting laws to use words properly, instead of making changes just because the original word reminds people of political enemies, counts as a political opinion. 

A less Asmodean person might point out that it's a bit perverse to make a big fuss about disapproving of people for defending their own cities against surprise invasions from foreign soldiers bent on rape and murder, or indeed to reward those soldiers for the rape and murder, which was really most of what happened, as there wasn't exactly much of an organized military engagement in either Corentyn or Ostenso.

To say that would be to suggest that she expects the audience to care more about good and evil than about sucking up to their latest masters, though, and she knows her countrymen better than that. Let's all heap meaningless honors our conquerors, why not.

... It is definitely a proposal. It would bring the crown money. But do they need more people with lifetime privileges marching around, even if they were to be wizards?

Anonymously, for obvious reasons:

"Besides providing funding, how does this law help make Cheliax a better country? I wholeheartedly believe that their heightened intelligence and significant wisdom makes Wizards good rulers, but the proposed titles do not even grant them anything to rule! I can see the point as honorary pronouncements, but their value in status goes down if anywizard can just purchase one."

The King-In-Irons strides up to the podium. "It gets Cheliax more wizards! Foreign wizards will want to come so that they can buy the rank of count and take precedence over barons in all the parades that Her Majesty's government will no doubt be hosting, in which all the nobles who feel like it parade in order of precedence." It is really hard to tell how ironic he's being. "Then these foreign wizards will kill monsters and craft magic items, two activities which the state would quite like to occur here instead of in Absalom."

"Really, though, let us be honest, here: The state needs money. To solve this, the committee has therefore decided to sell the rights of the nobility without the territory of the nobility to powerful wizards. While I personally consider trying to buy power gauche, I suspect some wizards will take the convention up on its offer, and this will provide the state with money. There seem to be no reasonable arguments against it - besides, of course, Delegate Mont's nomenclatural one - that don't amount to 'a handful of arrogant noblemen are unhappy because they want to be special, and giving more people rights makes them less special.'" His staff will arrange nonlethal duels outside of convention hours.

No, the problem is that a lot of the "rights" of the nobility are the "right" to hurt innocent people and get away with it! But of course Delegate Ibarra is in favor of powerful wizards being able to hurt whoever they want and never ever get what they deserve.

...do the titles come with rights?

There are currently legally not actually any rights of the nobility, not that she really wants to get into that argument here and now.

And yet, if Victòria chased another delegate through the convention hall with a sword for insulting her, she'd hang for it.

Maybe, just maybe, the proper thing for a country to do is not have a ‘the rights of nobility’ at all. Give rights to everyone, or no one, it’s not complicated.

Yes, the wrong answer is often uncomplicated.

Safe Roads is going to gently introduce some obvious rights of the nobility but they can word them to not apply to Metatitles anyway; they'll be about what a lord can do in his own territory.

If the metatitles bill goes back to committee… Fernando has thought of modification that will act as a bribe for nobility to vote for it.  And it will indirectly associate metatitled wizards with territory!

"Noble and Great Delegates! None of us are here without goals. I run a school for wizards. I would like Cheliax to be like the Cheliax of the past, the Great Cheliax before hell got its claws in it, the Cheliax many of you remember. A state that does not have wizard universities is a state that is weakened. Education should be voluntary, but it is certainly sad when clever urchins spend their time distributing filthy pamplets rather than learn to cast [Ant Haul] and work as laborers."

"Cheliax used to have powerful wizards that spent their wealth here. Many of them have left- and this might bring them back. The state has need of money, and this will put coins in the pockets of our Noble Queen. Men enjoy titles- look at what adventurers will do for them, and this will grant them to them for a fixed sum of money- speak to the Abadarans of the benefit of fixed prices. It is frequently difficult to know what a wizard might accomplish, and putting the imprimatur of the state on the capabilities of specific wizards would be beneficial."

"In all- this is something that this convention can create, for free, to be able to sell.  It is rare to be able to create money with no effort, and we should take the opportunity." 

"I call for cloture on this proposal."

Passes.

It's going to be a lot harder to stop the schools if there's enough money to pay for them. Against.

This is part of her secret plan to get two votes in the Senate. For!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

(Abstain.)

They shouldn't make it even easier for powerful wizards to just go around hurting whoever they want. Against.

This proposal seems to fundamentally misunderstand the concept of nobility. Against.

The point of nobility is to be useful. For.

Mask guy's insults were funnier yesterday but sure, Conradí'll vote for this. 

For. She said she would.

Against, of course.

Against.

Against.

Having a metatitle to rub in people's faces sounds awesome. For.

The point-ear didn't change the law to put the money towards the orphanages. Against.

Antoni has no interest in being expected to treat any rich third-circle wizard with pretensions as equal in rank to him, not that anyone would actually expect him to. Against.

No one is actually going to take the metatitles seriously, but sure, if there are wizards who want to waste their money on a metatitle they can donate it to the wizarding schools.

This law seems underspecified in a number of particulars, as evidenced by the number of speakers who disagree about what it would actually do. This is admittedly true of many of the laws they've passed, but Marit feels particularly unequipped to evaluate this one. Abstain.

Usually when Taís is confused about how she's supposed to vote it's because there are a lot of people on both sides saying things that she might be supposed to listen to but this time it's because none of the arguments on either side really seem important.

Abstain. They didn't punish her for it yesterday.

Money from proud wizards is money that isn't taxes. For.

He's not entirely sure what he's supposed to do now. Maybe just enjoy his Big Bag of Money? Abstain.

More people with noble titles is bad.  If they paid enough money it meant less taxes that would be one thing, but it sounded like this was a one time sale?  Against.

For.  Even if he had a reason to be against he can’t risk Coeliaris checking with detect thought if he’s going to continue to be aligned with her.

Feather thinks Cheliax could stand to have fewer wizards and has no idea what downstream effects this law would have. Abstain.

For.  She’s learned on the Education Committee how desperate the funding situation is.

Against. For semantic reasons.

Oh, for, why not?

Of course not, it makes a mockery of the nobility.

Crush the Asmodeans. No.

In the privacy of his own head, for. They need the money and they need the wizards.

For! Let's make Cheliax strong!

Stop rewarding godless sinners for their evil actions. Against.

Extremely economically valuable. Yes.

If it keeps taxes low... Yes.

Not sure which side the boss is on, he didn’t make a speech either way, so abstain.

For.

Against.

No.

The sorceress that bought his vote is for, so he is as well! He's less afraid of the other people that he sold his vote to, they probably can't check with the secret ballots now. (The price for votes is lower, now, but that just means you need to sell it more times to make up the difference!)

"Metabaron" completely sucks, she needs to go adventure or something before this is relevant, for.

This one is even more strongly in her favor, but the idea of some of the asmodean wizards coming back as counts is something she really doesn’t want. Adventuring a bit more and becoming a metabaron isn’t worth it by far. 

Against.

Making the archmage a metaprince sounds good! In favor.

Well, it’s kind of lame to be actually aiming for a meta title, but maybe this will get more wizards to come back to Cheliax. In favor.

He spoke against it; he will vote against it. May they bring something he could vote for instead.

No. For all the reasons before, and also it would mean putting more nobles in the army and they can be corrosive to chains of command.

He doesn’t really care if other people want to have metatitles even though they’re stupid, certainly not enough to break his record of abstaining on every vote. 

For, no reason not to. 

Against, wizards already cost too much, if they get titles it will be even worse. 

For? If it fails Coeliaris might not get to the part about the Hellknights. It's not like he cares very much about who is or isn't a noble.

Against, a hundred times over. If a wizard wants to be a noble they should either cultivate sufficient virtues an existing noble is willing to tie their dynasty to them or else perform a sufficiently meritous deed to the state that the crown disburses some of its land to them on the merits.

Very suspicious about what this actually does, and whether it gives a ton of third circle wizards a bunch of legal privileges. Against.

For. Whatever the silly discount conditions, the money goes to the right place.

Even with all the arguments against, they do really need good wizards. And money.

And she could get a title.

For.

She continues to struggle to have an opinion in either direction here.

Abstain. 

Fails, 158-282.

Darn. 

No one's allowed to complain about how much a proposal costs now because they voted down a fundraising measure! This is definitely how politics works. Another big win by the magic committee.

This is great, if any of his ideas for revisions work to get it passed, he will look really clever to Professor Coeliaris!

Professor Coeliaris withdraws from the podium at this point, in order to speak again with the magic committee.