"Well, you can assemble the nobility easily enough. Once I've checked with Catherine that all of the necessary positions are filled with people who are not particularly committed to the service of hell, anyway."

"Catherine could have done it. We had our differences, politically, but if I'm already compromising on a constitutional monarchy – I don't suppose it could be done?"

"Do you want to talk to her about it? I talk to her about noble stuff all the time, I'm sure she has opinions."

"We'd better. She at least deserves to know what's going on."

"Sure. Should we circle the whole group, I hear Shawil is being made a noble. And at that point it seems sort of rude to leave Ione out. I suppose we might want to set up multiple meetings, though, with not all of us being equally on speaking terms..."

"Everyone except Alfirin, then? In any case it's probably good practice to start out without the monarch present, she'll have enough of a say in things as it is." 

"All right, I shall see that they're invited. Where do you think, here? I suppose here is the easiest place. We don't have the others over nearly often enough anyway."

"Lovely. We'll make it a dinner party. That's how all serious matters of state are handled in Galt." 

"How civilized."

So, a few days later, Naima will invite Shawil, Ione, and a ghostly Catherine to their home, for the purpose of discussing how to set up a constitutional convention. Unfortunate how Catherine can't actually eat the food without Alfirin also present; they're still working on fixing that. 

"All right," says Naima, when she's eaten two bites, "I have a guess at a preliminary model for assigning seats, but I think perhaps Elie and Catherine should start us off, as the only ones among us with firsthand experience of the process."

"Well, in Galt we had a mix of the local nobility, and representatives of the good churches, and representatives elected by the people. We've replaced the Chelish nobility, and brought back the good chuches, but I don't know what to expect from the people, if we let them choose delegates, and I'm a little bit worried about that."

"The nobility and the good churches were installed by us – if we limit the convention to them we might as well write the thing ourselves.

I'm going to – actually, I'm going to suggest we leave the nobility out of it, and the rest of you are going to overrule me, so let's advance directly to my second proposal: we ought to extend one third of the seats to the nobles and the church together, one third to elected representatives, and one third chosen by sortition." 

"Before I agree, I'd appreciate it if you could explain what 'sortition' is."

"Drawing lots." 

"That... seems like a lot of work for unclear benefit. How complete is the census?"

"Not, but I have been collecting school records, and I suspect we can assemble those or combine the two into something usable. Redraw anyone who happens to have died since their last recorded contact with the state, I suppose. Of course, school records will only get you the populations that attend school, if it's important to you to include gnomes or dwarves."

"They paid taxes, didn't they? That will help. It'll be work but it's work we'll need to do anyway if we're to have elections – and I do think it's worth having elections – but I share the concern that anyone who can manage to bribe or bully their way to a seat won't be worthy of it."

"It seems to me that elections are going to be an enormous hassle and result in a large number of delegates relying on old power networks to get into places we don't particularly want them, but I don't very well see how you can claim to be practicing democracy without them. And it's at least possible that some of the people selected will know what they're doing. I support Elie's second proposal, except that I think many of the good churches are currently de facto led by non-Chelish foreigners, which seems like a problem, and that I think you should give seats to some organizations that have continuity going back more than nine months that aren't noble houses. I think you should give the druids a seat, and plausibly the hellknight orders we didn't disband."

"Do the druids want seats? Don't they have to shun cities and governments?"

"Mazal didn't. I think under normal circumstances they actually interface with farmers on a fairly regular basis, and Cheliax has simply spent a century banning them from polite society. I'd like to at least let them know that the ban is over, especially since they'll be of tremendous help feeding people until the Church of Erastil recovers. I'll invite them personally, if you like, and if they say no at least we'll have extended them the opportunity."

"Some of the universities predate the civil war – and not just the ones with resident archmages, either. Even in Galt they had a little independence." 

"I did think of that, but I'm not sure they're currently full of either anti-Asmodean sentiment or any particular competence. Maybe the academy in Kintargo, but on the whole I'm not sure how much they help us."

"I don't know if they help us at all, but we have limited options for institutions which have a historical presence in Cheliax and are merely infested with diabolism instead of being built on it from the ground up." 

"I'm not sure I fully understand what you're hoping for here in terms of actual qualifications, but if I know academians, plenty will be happy to attend just for a chance to argue for how their pet theory is not only applicable to the topic at hand, but the perfect and only solution to whatever problem it is. It would at least dilute the population proposing Asmodeanism-by-any-other-name."

Shawil has been mostly silent, content to let the others argue the specifics. It isn't his country, after all, at least not in the same way it's Catherine's or Élie's. But once the more opinionated guests leave a lull for Ione, he waits for her to finish before clearing his throat.

"So far I've only heard mention of the Good churches. If we're going to have representatives from the gods, I expect Abadar's followers to be invited. Especially since they're going to be taking on a large role in the rebuilding process. And simply as a practical matter, having a Lawful—and also not Evil—institution involved in the country, especially when writing laws, will be useful."

"There shouldn't be any problem with Abadar's church sending some representatives, as long as they aren't themselves evil." Catherine is personally skeptical of the Abadarans' ability to legislate on any matter besides commercial ones, but if they exclude everyone with dubious legislative talents they won't have much of a convention left. She keeps her skepticism to herself, so as to not needlessly antagonize Shawil. "Not that I would expect Abadar to be unrepresented even without their own allotment of delegates, unless the Count of Egorian is disinclined to attend?"