It won't be fantastic for her interests, when it proves biased as, of course, it will, but it won't be catastrophic. Who will she pick... Sergi? She'll have to have a more explicit conversation about trading favors for that. Count Vivas might work, but they haven't had any conversation.

She could counterpropose that the Queen's choices must be one elected and one sortition, and if she doesn't exercise them, the archdukes should elect them from among those on the existing committees, first from the chairs if they can come to an agreement that way.

...Honestly, she's a little more concerned with the fear of factionalism. Of course there's factionalism; you can tell because things are happening, instead of getting stuck forever. But she's noticed everyone who hasn't run a legislature finds it to be worse than death. This is probably drawing bad lessons from Galt, isn't it?

Oh, Galt is not Carlota's reference point for why factions are bad. Old Cheliax is. And what happened was that everyone died and the country ended up ruled by Hell. No factions.

 (Carlota personally exercising enormous unchecked political power is not factionalism, and is good.)

The core of the proposal is reasonable. He composes a response with a few minor suggestions — explicit language to the effect that days when the Convention is not in session don't count towards the total number of days a proposal or an amendment is posted, a provision directing the scheduling committee to schedule related proposals back-to-back, an extension of the amendment related rules to allow for any committee to put an amendment to vote by the floor, even if the original committee that proposed it does not accept the amendment.

He has more concerns about the proposed method of selecting the membership of the scheduling committee; it has not escaped him that this proposal might exclude every reasonable nobleman from membership. He dithers over how precisely to express this sentiment but ultimately settles on a suitably respectful and indirect phrasing of the idea that, as she says, he would of course be happy to support the proposal with a suitably wise and honorable slate of candidates, but would be reluctant to throw his support behind it preemptively; did the archdukes of Cheliax have anyone particular in mind?

The Inquisitor proposed one of his counts who is a Lawful Good priest of Abadar and a respectable married man who hasn't spoken on any matters before the convention, and Narikopolus one of his counts with a long history of service at the Worldwound and likewise no particular involvement in the convention so far. She's going to recommend to Blanxart that he choose Fraga, who of course has been more politically engaged but has earned the admiration of many and should not be perceived as too factional a pick. She doesn't know who Requena or Bainilus will recommend but emphasized to them that they should be sensible men of good character who will oppose factionalism and mob rule. 

Korva checks in with the Duchess de Chelam before heading to the Kortos Tavern, since, you know, the Duchess de Chelam is currently her boss, which is where she first hears about this.

She dislikes the racing, in fact; it is transparently leading to writing stupid laws that could be written better if nobody were writing them in a panic. This proposal... limits racing somewhat, and also gives the nobility almost total control over what measures make it to the floor. Ostensibly, they will also be represented by four churches (chosen, evidently, neither by number of seats nor by alignment, which makes the picks seem sort of arbitrary), but the churches hold fewer seats and their interests are extremely varied, while the nobility are advantaged by a lot of the same things. So, no, the committee is completely controlled by the nobility, giving the nobility the ability to block anything that disadvantages nobles as a class from ever seeing the floor at all. One can imagine a system that's even more controlled by the nobility - if current chairs get a backer vote, then Korva will get one, along with any other sortitions who have committees, though she doesn't think that's very many of them. But it's potentially very bad for the cause of less slavery, nobles being extremely obviously advantaged by things like slavery. Some of them clearly want less of it, and most of them probably want to take some particularly embarrassing teeth out, but it's hard to imagine nobles as a class looking at a proposal to end serfdom, or profoundly limit the obedience requirements of indentures, and going 'sure, that sounds like a fantastic idea'.

...it's a very hard fight to pick anyway, of course. It's just - also kind of the most important fight there probably is, for most of the country.

None of that is her first question.

"What would avoiding factionalism and mob rule actually consist of?"

"Oh, that's just to say that this is a response to the lions, which were embarrassing, and related things people associate with mob rule like proposals to abolish taxes or raise our own salaries.

 It is a rearrangement of the convention rules that gives me wildly more power over what comes to the floor and the only reason you have to support it is that I'll bring your bills to the floor. But I will, so I don't think you lose anything by it."

Well, de Chelam is more aligned with her on women's rights than... de Chelam thinks most other people are, anyway, and it wouldn't really be surprising, given de Chelam is a duchess. She believes that she'll bring proposals aimed at making men take care of children to the floor, and also bring proposals that act to preserve women's rights, even if she's preemptively given up on the latter.

They have not discussed serfdom or contract law.

"Well, that seems fair, but - doesn't it also allow the nobility to prevent anything that disadvantages them from ever seeing the floor?"

"If I'm right about how the votes shake out - and I am being rather audacious, here, and might be wrong - the churches could bring something to the floor if they were unified on it, with either no nobles in favor or very few of them. Menador will vote with Iomedae, and I'll get two votes and place those with Iomedae, and the Longmarch will mostly align with Abadar except Anferita.

It does mean that nothing that both the nobility and Iomedae's Church opposes will ever see the floor, and I'm considering that a benefit. But - Tallandria, the nobility are not unified. There are those who want to preserve the ancient noble privileges, and this measure has to appease them, and there are those who want a free and modern Empire, and this measure is designed to actually empower them. This will probably give Requena and I the ability to block most things from coming to the floor, or to put them on the floor and schedule the debate strategically, and as we often agree with you that's in your interests."

That doesn't sound right, looking at it, but she needs to count up the votes. Requena is at least firmly against serfdom and in favor of getting men to support their children. She kind of has no idea where Iomedae's church lands on slavery writ large; she gets the sense that it's in favor but prefers that the teeth be dull and not sharp. Iomedae's church does have the benefit that they don't lie to people - or, well, don't lie about what their theology says, she doesn't think - so if she can track down someone from the convention she can possibly ask. This might be difficult.

"I need to speak to the rest of the sortitions, but I suspect that one of their major real priorities once they get talking is going to be contract reform, though I imagine lots of them haven't noticed that as a category yet." She only noticed it... somewhere between twenty four and five hours ago. "Limiting the number and character of choices that one can sign away and be held to by the signature, with serfdom probably being the particular kind of contract that disadvantages the most people and is most in need of limits if it can't be abolished. And all nobles benefit from serfdom, and from contracts that allow unlimited control, though I know Requena and Bainilus are in fact opposed to it anyway. I don't know where the dukes land."

"You don't need most of the dukes if you have the Church and Requena and Bainilus. I don't know if we'll win a floor vote to abolish serfdom entirely but we can bring it if you'd like to try, and limits seem straightforward. The slavery committee's doing some considering of that, though I've been wary of having anything too disruptive in the transcripts before there's a plan to win with it.

I think you could straightforwardly win that all contracts of obedience may be dissolved for cruelty. The conservative nobility don't think of themselves as in favor of cruelty."

"Well, that depends on what the judges consider cruel, which evidently varies enormously by person." Restoring civil courts and determining how judges are trained is also an issue that ought to matter enormously to the sortitions, although given she doesn't actually have a solution in mind yet she's not at all sure that she should say that.

"Yes, but there's no escaping that. If the courts are staffed by Mephistopheleans we cannot write laws good enough to get good results, and the way other countries get good laws is with plain language and then judges who aren't Evil. Maybe we can get them trained in Lastwall while we're starting out.

Anyway, there is no question that you are as the Galtans phrase it to the back of the house from me, but if you think you can win a vote on abolishing serfdom entirely, or on legal equality of the sexes, or on abolishing all privileges of the nobility, I'll put those on the floor for you. I won't allow through a debt holiday, and I won't allow through stupid half-formed lion proposals that will give the Queen a headache, and won't allow through more attempts to tighten up censorship unless there's some catastrophe caused by the existing censorship laws. I think this improves your position on the whole. Is there anything you'd want to bring to the floor where you think the Church would be opposed?"

"...I have not actually had time to study any of the Church's positions on anything." She is honestly still mostly judging them based on their behavior when taking Egorian. "It's not obvious to me whether they're generally against people having absolute control over others - or, uh, everyone having someone who has such control over them and most people having people over them who regularly exercise it - or only against people using that control in immoral ways."

"Technically no one in Lastwall has absolute power over anybody because there are a great many orders everyone with power is prohibited from giving, but I think they are broadly all right with people...joining military and religious orders in which their superiors have a great deal of power over them? Most people don't, though, most people do two seasons' service and then go home to their farms and many of those are freeholders."

"Yes, but in Cheliax most people are contract workers, and most contract workers cannot easily leave their place of employment. And - most of them aren't legally married, but for any law that aims to change that it matters enormously whether general obedience is allowed or expected or required, and how far general obedience goes, and I'm not clear on what they want there either. It's not that I want to oppose them, it's just that - people being allowed to join religious orders doesn't really tell me what the Church means for most people's lives to look like."

Korva's reference classes for religious orders are pretty much being an Asmodean chosen and being a hellknight, which sure are extremely slavery-like and mostly compensated by being allowed to treat everyone else like they belong to you in turn. And getting to do work that matters. And being paid. Really there are a lot of differences between being a Hellknight and being a slave. They're just not differences in how much control you have over your life.

"I think the Church will vote with you on abolishing serfdom. I raised with the Lord Marshal the possibility of work on illegal orders in marriage and he thought it was a good idea given the state of Cheliax today, though it's not how things are done in Lastwall. More broadly....I think the Church wants most people to marry and work land, ideally land they own, none of them slaves and few of them indentured and only where it's legitimately in their interests, and the ones ill-suited to marriage to mostly join religious orders, some of them very small religious orders that are just eight women who live in a house together and do tailoring, and the Empire to not start most of the wars it'll be tempted to, and the nobility to be a check on the monarch's tyranny and vice versa. They'll back the proposal to fine bastardry, I'm nearly sure, Lastwall's one of the only places that treats male infidelity and promiscuity as a serious character flaw...have you visited Vellumis? Do you think you'd find it useful?"

Has she visited Vellumis?

"I've never been outside Egorian, before this."

"Well, let's go to Vellumis tomorrow. I meant to sometime this week anyway, to buy a bunch of Iomedaen commentaries for the censors here and hire a lady in waiting. While we're there you can go speak to the commoners and ask them about their lives and see what you think of the place."

What do you even say to that.

"Okay. Sure. Thank you very much."

"I think the Church has less enthusiasm than you for schools, and for books, and if you get me a complete list of things you want I'll tell you if there are any others. But overall I think this measure's in your interests, and I'd tell you if it were otherwise. ...and try to bribe you to support it anyway, as this is important to me."

She smiles a little despite herself. She cannot decide whether she believes it.

"I see. If you had a list of the dukes of Cheliax it would make assessing it a little more convenient, I don't know all of them."

"Certainly. You can take a look at my guesses about how the vote allocation will shake out." And she pulls out some notes. "This presumes that - since the votes are public - the dukes will mostly be loyal to their archduke's choice, except that I will not insult Blanxart too gravely by instead yielding my votes to my fiancé. So Requena's pick accumulates the other dukes in Sirmium, Blanxart's accumulates the other dukes in the Heartlands except that I am with the Church...Anferita might go with Fraga, because I don't think she likes the Osirians much, though also I meant to suggest to Narikopolus he marry one of his sons to one of her daughters in which case maybe she'll go with him - Lestdemarc might go with Bainilus's pick, or might be Bainilus's pick - so that's all the dukes allocated. And then you do all of the committee chairs. Bainilus gets to vote again, Requena gets to vote again I give my vote to the Church again, the Lord Marshal gives his to the Church, Fraga votes again - for himself, if Blanxart accepts my proposal to appoint him - Cerdanya votes for Fraga, so does Bellumar. Vivas and Ardiaca to Sirmium and I'll try to bribe Coelearis to join them. Pichot i Bordas is also in Sirmium so maybe we can get his too. Soler picks the Erastil delegate, Ramirez the Menador one, I'm not sure of any of the others.... 

If you want to analyze it in factional terms, the liberal nobility control eight to twelve votes, the conservative nobility control four to six, Iomedae's church controls eight counting Menador, the Abadarans control five or six. Sixteen for a majority. Though I am really trying to persuade everyone not to see it in those terms, so I can pitch this to the nobility in the terms you noticed - that nothing will come to the floor with the nobility opposed."

Hm.

It sounds like a probable improvement over lions. It's also, very fundamentally, being asked to give up actual legal power on the promise that the person who holds the card you gave them will use it to your benefit, which is usually a mistake.

...and, also, usually the only way to get anything you want, if what you want requires power or influence or protection, which is why it's a mistake that people make over and over and over and over.

"Thank you. I can write up a list of things I want right now, although I do expect to discover more of them as I talk to more people. It would still probably be informative."

"I'd be happy to take a look at it now and at additions later. I know there's the event at the tavern tonight, and we can meet after that if you'll likely have a longer list then."