"Political Practices of Ymph" - Tieron Malatesta

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Political Practices in the Context of the Ymphian Colony

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or

Political Practices of Ymph


by Tieron Malatesta
Special Prologue Caveat by Asdon Garlin

Publication endorsed by William Bell Memorial Library Staff

First Edition

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Chapter of Contents

Prologue and Histories: How I came here, why I write this.

Chapter 1: Failures of Opposites: The Albedos Method, The Ortred Method

Chapter 2: Roles of the State

Chapter 3: Restructuring of Governance

Chapter 4: Outcome of Enactment, Learning for the Future
Yet unwritten!

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Prologue

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It was a contradiction of the greatest misfortunes that I had the destiny to arrive upon this mystical, dangerous, and wonderful land of Ymph. My family had been a month or so departed from our ancestral home, Sembia, a remarkable land of business, ambitions, and freedoms, with a fleet of eight proud ships with all of our family, possessions, companions, and hirelings aboard. After a week of ferocious storms, our navigators being unable to chart and the captains using all their might to keep us afloat and alive, the mighty Malatestan fleet was dashed upon the shores of Ymph, somewhere along the southeastern coast. It was a joy to find my family alive, but many of the crew and staff were lost, as were our possessions and treasures. Battered but not defeated, we rallied and marched through the wilderness to find safety. What we found was the settlement of lost souls, the pre-colonial Ymphian ziggurat.

We set immediately to work to accommodate ourselves, finding shelter in a cave not far from the Ziggurat. Cesare established trade contacts with Old Port, and our livelihoods were prepared for. During this time, I wandered and studied the life of the people. It was a desperate time, with people scavenging through wastes and barely resisting the imposing Nightriser forces. What I do fondly recall was the sheer will of the people to overcome the adversity of their situations, even without knowing the future. Hope was never lost, even during the darkest of nights.

It was during this era that Galleous Albedos and his people worked through the challenges of establishing a government. A guard was formed, however underfunded and miniscule in relation to the daunting task of protecting the people against the dangers of the island. Ideas were passed, some of which I was privy to through my cousin Hersilia. But, as Hersilia would later note, the Albedosians were doomed to failure and from the ashes of their attempts, the Ortred government stepped in.

Ortred, being a powerful man in a plethora of ways, established Ymph as a colony of Old Port and supplicated the failing colony to the authority of Sharbonethan rulership under his own vision and authority. A man of class, persistence, and severity, Ortred maintained cohesion between Sharboneth’s own guards, the powerful Stygian Armada, and the increasingly powerful (although still weak) Colonial Guard. Even after his death, it was the might of this union combined with the impact of the powerful holy soldiers of the Numinous Order, that the small colony of Ymph was able to withstand the brutal attack of an enormous Orcish army and then push back against the invaders to decimate their ranks and ensure a period of tranquility on the island. And here rests the political state of the Ymphian Colony.

After many weeks on the island, I had a vision about the future of Ymph. Although it was not like those granted by the Mists, I discussed it with many of the current admired thinkers of the time, all coming to the conclusion that it was notable, if not exceptional and pursuable. Ymph had the natural resources, the social qualities, and diverse interest groups to become something great. In accordance with this vision of grandeur and the physical potential, I beset myself to involve myself with this vision. I was confounded by the politics of the day, a dangerous time, when any contention had the potential to lead to greater strife during the process of survival against the foes of the Colony. On that note, I wish to make a clear warning to any whom wish to open the discussion for political or social improvement to take the context of the times into account, and never to exploit the temporary fallacies for the sake of a radical idea. But that is a note for the future beyond me, and for the present, I shall content myself with this text in the hopes of expanding both my own appraisal and understanding of the political clime of Ymph by assessing the errors and wisdom of the past, my opinions from them on the role of government in the lives of Ymphian people, and my assessment of the means and methods of arriving at the greatest possible future for the island of Ymph and of the people in maximizing her bounties.

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Prologue: Asdon Garlin, Oghman Historian's Reply

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This is certainly one of the more interesting pieces I've encountered in recent memory. I'll fill in the nuances of the colony's history as I am able, laboring on details when necessary.


It goes without saying that the earliest days of the Ziggurat were ones of turmoil. Desperate victims of the teleportation scrambled to survive during the day and huddled together fearfully for protection at night. Among those poor souls were a few people claiming to be from a fallen city of the Underdark, called Sanctuary. They were powerful allies in the early days, especially the few who were strong enough to rout the Nightrisers and bring some semblance of peace in their wake. While most were content to continue their lives, one took a special interest in the community. Bastian Vandermark, an older, white haired and bearded fellow, stepped up to form a force that could bring the poor souls that had came this way some peace. I recall him offering the more successful swordsmen of the early days positions of leadership in the Militia. He was willing to put aside petty fears and give men the authority they needed to do what was necessary for survival on Ymph. Though one might suspect my version of these events to have been romanticized, I contest it by recalling people such as the Archeologist Society's own Kazan Rhodes who stepped up to outline how the government would function and put limits on Vandermark's potential authority, such as naming him a Steward rather than a King, which Vandermark accepted. To this day, I feel that regardless of what Vandermark's heritage may have been, he more than deserved the title of Lord that I now bestow to him in recollection.


You may ask then, why are Lord Vandermark and Kazan Rhodes not remembered? Why did their government not last? Though men of honor and principle had been brought forth to us by the Ziggurat, so too were villians. You know well the fiend de Olid, I'm sure. He had several accomplices over the course of his tenure, but one was the snake Al-Hasaar, the would-be commander of the militia. Though I know not the truth of the event, I now firmly believe de Olid and Al-Hasaar conspired and killed Lord Vandermark, and then created some fabrication about his having been dragged off by goblin slavers. Al-Hasaar made moves to inherit the power left in Vandermark's absence but it quickly became apparent that Rhode's would also prove to be a problem. The scholar was slain and animated by de Olid and his cadre of thugs. A cult of the sun god Hauramous had sprung up in those early days, and when their High Priest Lancert attempted to take control in order to bring further peace, so too were they dealt with.


Albedos, a scholar like Rhodes, had survived the era of Lord Vandermark, but interestingly he did not support the Vandermark government and signed the popular anarchist pamphlet of the time. I thought his complaints childish at the time, and you can imagine how I chuckled when it was he, the passive rebel, who inherited the floundering militia. Although I had differences of opinion with the man on other issues and saw a great deal of hyprocrisy in what he said and did, his attempt to bring stability to the Ziggurat was noble. One scholar of the time published a book that faulted the people who did not move to support Albedos for the failures of his government, and I can even recollect one occasion the criminal de Olid decided to publically teach Albedos how to govern. Ultimately, Albedos failed because, unlike his inheritor Ortred, he did nothing to demand the respect of those that did not listen. He did not have the strength to end de Olid's criminal reign, and was instead forced to offer him public praise, undermining any effectiveness he would have had as a leader.


Thus, Albedos failed to lead because he himself was led by fear.


Governor Ortred, however, was a perfect monster. In everything he seemed to seek blood or obediance, the consumate Banite. Countless people, both well intentioned and criminal, fell to his blade when they failed to live up to his demands. He fought on the front lines in Red Elient. He even slew the long-lived criminal de Olid and unwittingly avenged Lord Vandermark, an act that finally convinced me the man, petty warlord that he may have been, was worthy of my loyalty. That this man’s life was claimed in the final days of Red Eleint is, I think, a true shame.


If there is to be a successful government, be it led by Paladin or Blackguard, that man or woman must lead fearlessly. They must confront every enemy of order directly, be they foreign or amongst us, and succeed. Once this is accomplished, even the unimaginative man without a mind for either diplomatic or economic matters can accomplish a great deal.

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Chapter 1: Failures of Opposites: The Albedos Method, The Ortred Method

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   Thus far, two primary methods of governance have been tried by the people of Ymph. While the Vandermark era should not be discounted, the brevity and lack of impact leave us unable to provide a solid analysis of its performance or potential. The first notable attempt that we can discuss with any reasonable scrutiny is that of Albedos, contrasted afterwards by the style of Ortred.

The Albedosan method was a liberalistic, freedom-first style that imposed so little upon the people that it was utterly ignored by them, even when participation in the government was necessary and requested. While he may have possessed the charisma to rally a few notable figures and sharp minds together, it was not sufficient enough to rally the people of the ziggurat. It is notable that those that supported Albedos were people who tended to be like the man himself—erudite, adventurous, and free-spirited.

Furthermore, as Mister Garlin pointed out, Albedos was hesitant to make sudden statements or acts, relying solely on the will of the people. This leaves bare the question: what is the will of the people, and how is it measured or understood? Without any proper sources, we can assume that Albedos merely supposed the feelings of the people as being one way or another. Considering his lengthy lists and calls for public action and consolidation it is clear that he reasoned the people to be indecisive. But it is equally reasonable to suppose instead that the people were simply unaware of his intentions, his actions in building a community, or instead uninterested. Although he showed himself to be prepared to lead, the people were perhaps unprepared to follow. Recall the states of the old world—Sembia’s ruling class did not have such direct ties to the people; their will was rarely imposed upon the general public in any specific way. Even when it was, in the form of forced conscriptions or rising taxes as examples, the citizens remained detached so that they were incapable of changing or escaping the obligation. Contrary to this way, Albedos’ voluntary citizenship failed to unite the people. Lack of community kept him from building and establishing the government. Without a community, one may as well build a citadel on sand.

There are many other important factors to consider, of course. Albedos directly stated that he would not rule, that another would be chosen instead. Yet, no example was every provided. How can one build a government without knowing full well its head, and more importantly, how can one trust the authority of this non-existent leader? Such an administration is impossible.

No single damning trait can be found or even agreed upon. The Albedosan method, for all the benefits it had to offer, lacked the fortitude to establish itself and exist, and such a trial in weak government could only be fitting for a pre-established, honorable state, if at all.

Ortred’s government reveals stark differences in public administration. The primary, notable factor in Ortred’s rise to power was his impressive empowerment of the fragile society by trading the independence of the people for the protection, bureaucracy, and funding of Old Port and House Sharboneth. The government emphasized survival, strict management, and the willful upholding rigorous laws, relative to the Albedosans. Freedom was a gift of the government to the civilians it protected, not a right.

This method produced a significant amount of public backlash, all of which was reduced by an empowered colonial guard, the hired Stygian Armada, and the Sharbonethan men themselves. Ortred himself put a number of seditionists to the sword, even hanging corpses of rebels outside his tower. A notable group of rebels remain at large, called The Seekers, who fled the colony for the woods shortly after a brief and reckless attack on a few Sharbonethans and Stygians.

A significant portion of the population remains adamantly supportive of the Old Port rulership. Without the assistance of the Stygian Armada, payed for by House Sharboneth, it is very unlikely that the colonial guards and adventuring population could have withstood a siege attack from the frenzied orcs and their Singing Spirit leader. Those who realize this gratefully recognize the Sharbonethan rule and grant that life under strict law is certainly more satisfactory than loss of it at the hand of orcish hordes. Thus, Ortred’s trade appears a tactful response to clear foresight of an unfulfilled need for the defense of the people.

Of course, the court of Ortred fell as soon as it rose. Although significantly more supportive of the people and notably more impactful than the Albedosans, why would such a government be so hastily diminished at the death of Ortred? The answer is simple. The power of Ortred’s rule lay in his personal might. His character, his actions, his combat prowess—all these things, he was a force to be reckoned with. Yet when that power vanished from within the government after his death, it was unable to continue to function at the same level as during his life. Such a government based on one man’s personal might endures only so long as the man himself. In the volatile atmosphere of Ymph, this is an unacceptable condition. And now, a man of much higher rank has been forced to fill in a position that is frankly beneath him. Lord Alemander Sharboneth is fit to rule a family of rulers, not a colony of victims and vagabonds. And yet, this is the outcome of the failure of Ortred to realize the weakness of his government by its overreliance on the individual combined with the overestimation of his personal fortitude.

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Chapter 2: Roles of the State

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Introductory note: In the following division, we will begin break away from the historical facts and begin to analyze the importance (or insignificance) of their application in order to derive a more perfect administration for the Ymphian colony. While the text prior to this has emphasized empirical data and its analysis, we will begin to delve into the theoretical realm. Feel free to use the data and discussion points provided to consider your own ideas as to what is best for the colony. Use the following concepts to guide you in analyzing the worth of your ideas:

         Cost - vs - Benefit/Effectiveness

         Equity - vs - Quality/Efficiency

By using these simple analysis tools, many debated ideas can be proved unworthy of consideration except in the abstract. Remember this, and you’ll be well on your way to more logical, functional policy discussion.

   Government is necessary. Without it, the world would be utter chaos. Some radical minds may be of the belief that men would be better off without it, with each man leading no others but himself. This argument, however, is erroneous and easily broken apart. Consider the human (or dwarf, or elf, or halfling…) condition on Toril—we are a creature unlike any other. We were given minds far removed from comparison to the baser creatures. Even the noble lions live in anarchy and self-interested discord, and suffer from their circumstance. With human society, we are given the dual blessings of economic prosperity from individual specialization and the social communities to protect and defend ourselves. This sense of togetherness, and a rightful sense it is, keeps enriches our lives. Yet, togetherness cannot be capitalized upon without the discipline to maintain order, lest we return to a bestial state and instead of behaving in a manner befitting a man, we act as lions caged within city gates, rending and tearing each other for food, possessions, for this is where we return without the disciplining hand of law. This is not the proper way for man to live! For we are mankind, without claws and fangs of the wild, but armed with the greatest of strengths known only to our kind— wise reason.
      
   Thus having confirmed the undeniable truth of the necessity of government, we may proceed to consider the best course of its operation. Under the guidance of our wise reason, we accept a general rule of society. I will call this, the Rule of Reason. Under this rule, we compromise our selfishness for fairness. It is under this rule that we can establish one of the primary functions of government—the judiciary. Judges are perhaps the most important of society’s individuals, for they are the first to apply wise reason into the lives of the people. It is their insight that allows both sides of an issue to be considered so that an equitable outcome may be achieved and peace and order restored. From this important point, we establish the first and most important role of government.

   It is the first duty of government to establish and maintain order.

   After the judiciary, the crafters of law take a second seat. One might argue that those who draft the rules control the game—but I contest this notion, for he that controls the very definition of the rules truly controls the game. This provides an important insight, that the judiciary must be the most ethical of all the people; yet I digress. The crafters of law are perhaps unnecessary in the simplest form of society. Consider the tribes of the Stargazers. It is their traditions, upheld by their elders and notably their chiefs, that they maintain their crude culture. They do not require separation of the legislative and judicial, for what their chiefs ordain as the consistent upholding of their ways will remain true. And they continue to exist happily based upon this wise reason.

   The second role of the state can be ascertained by the study of the Albedosan failure, and partial success of Ortred. It is imperative that the state preserve the integrity of the community. We can reduce this as follows. A state is made of individuals. These individuals are made up of interconnected families. These families are connected through shared interests, and therefore, we arrive at the creation of a state. The diagram of this goes as follows:
Individual < Family Unit < State

Yet on Ymph, we are a cursed people, for we lack a crucial part of every other society on the face of Toril. The family unit has been removed from our society. Our allegiance leaps, unnaturally so, from the individual to the state, or fails somewhere in-between.

   Consider the normal affairs of life on Toril. We are brought into this world, given what possessions we have and passed the experience of our mothers and fathers, share the experience of childhood with our brothers and sisters, and become men and women bound to our kin and our land. Our land is our sustenance, the resources used to build, trade, and augment our lives. We belong to her, and in this way, bound to the culture of its people and our ancestors and even the government that rules it. These connections to the past and present, revolving around the family unit, must be preserved.

It is the second duty of government to protect and nourish the family.


The last of the roles of government is arguably the most and least important of affairs, and paradoxically most complex yet settled upon. It is necessary for government to preserve the sanctity of the individual and their choices in life. Without allowing the freedom of the individual to decide his or her own fate, order cannot be established. As it stands that men have reason, man cannot be caged and tamed as a beast so long as he remains true to his humanity and casts aside his bestial ways, namely the breaching of law and reduction of social order. He must have the freedom to be as he will, do what he shall in direct accordance with the society he inhabits.

As apparent as the connection between the first duty of government and the third, so too is the third inseparable from the second. Family is the domain in which man and woman has the greatest influence. They must control it utterly, without the direction nor imposition from the government, for to do so is to distract or restrict the individual from the most valuable of assets, an asset from which the government is the second most benefactor. To debase the family unit is to cripple the very foundation of government. On this, there is little room for compromise.

The third duty of the state is to ensure the liberty of the people (within the context of the first and second duty of the state).

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Chapter 3: Restructuring of Governance

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Having established the three primary functions of a government basing itself around the establishment and growth of society, we probe the application of these ideas; we move away from the abstract to the tangible. The answer to this objectivity progression is complex and, similarly to the theoretical, debatable. So begins the analysis of how to best streamline the government for greater efficiency, economic output, and social development.

The standing government of the Ymphian Colony, in the context of the first duty of government, has performed admirably. Amidst the chaos of the orcs, Nightrisers, and assorted furies of the island, it has remained steady and constant, strong and capable. There is but a single facet of chaos that remains, one that has been famously treated as a symptom by Ortred and his legacy, yet not as a disease. That ailment is the public unrest. While a small amount of public unrest will always exist due to the inherently brutish, unmanly nature of the least of our kind, the sum of the discontent amidst even reasonable minds leads to the question of permanency; how long will it be ignored until reasonable minds find a flaw so apparent as to lead the colony into revolt, the ultimate lack of order? Thus, the peace of the Colony and the order within must be maintained, but the second and third duties of government must be well attended as hastily as is practical and feasible.

It is of the greatest misfortune that a colony be built around a gathering of men without family. This remains as the root of the misery of the colony, people lacking the community and connection to what has shifted to be their new home. One might see a comparison between innocent prisoners, locked away without a key and our own condition on the island of Ymph. This metaphorical view of the situation of the victimized people of Ymph may seem to be a vision despair. Yet the endurance of its people to not only live but to thrive is ever more apparent in the framework of the figurative prison, the island of Ymph. Thus anguish for the inability of government to nuture the family unit is incomprehensible. For in its place, there are alternatives that can be taken in order to ensure the slow rehabilitation of the people into the traditional family structure.

 In the stead of family, it is necessary that a suitable replacement be found. Indeed, without the interference of government, the replanting of the people into family units has already begun. In lieu of families, men and women of Ymph have sought to be nurtured by the different groups, organizations, and factions of the colony; thus having no family to devote themselves to improving, the factions have matured and blossomed at a speed that would be otherwise impossible in our homelands. Thus, in the context of the factionalization of Ymph, the government must allow the creation of the factions and nourish them to provide the basic hearth needs of mankind.

Leading back to the strength of the Sharbonethan colony in the preservation of order amidst a chaotic environment, it is important to realize the necessity of liberty. Liberty and order are not necessarily contradicting ideals, unless taken to their extremes, their unreasonable limits. Reason must be understood as the great equalizer for liberty to be respected. As it stands, there is little reason to see flaw with the Sharbonethan rulership. Without their influence and investment, the colony would not have stood against the hordes of orcs or Nightrisers that has threatened it before and will continue to bully it, particularly in the absence of the Sharbonethans. Having made this substantial investment, is it not the right of the lender to ensure the acquiring of returns? Thus, seditionist activity against Sharboneth is not in the right. On the same token, it is unfair for rulers to hear nothing from the people that they govern, to act against their better interests. To do otherwise is a sort of slavery by law. The rulers can overcome this, and consequently remove all room for cries of inequity, but hearing the petition of the individual and relying on the superior reason of rightful dominance to ensure their repayment.

To apply this, one simple method would be to grant the people a right to public petition to the judiciary in the exact manner of settling civil dispute, to act as a filter for the reasonable petitions and the perverse. Having been strained of inappropriate petitions from the sensible, they must proceed to a fair medium who can consider installing such a rule. Sharboneth remains distant from the people, having well established their good name in Old Port. Why should they be focused here on Ymph? They need no other than a governor to oversee the fair and reasonable growth of Ymph. Ortred was a fine example of what a governor should be, in the sense that he was intimately attached to the island and its development. But, in the same sense, Ortred was still under the influence of Old Port, restraining him from rampant disregard for the interests of House Sharboneth.

Thus it becomes apparent that a ruler must first have twin interests at heart. This is a difficult situation, to be a slave to two masters? One must be subordinate to another in the mind of the servant. Therefore, it is necessary for both the best of the colony and of the interests of Sharboneth that the executive role be split. As the investor, Sharboneth’s interests must be elevated above that of the colony, as it would have no value being subordinate. On the other hand, in order to maximize the potential of the colony, the task of running the operations must fall into the lap of the colony itself; a head of a body would never seek to harm its own self. Therefore, let there be a Sharbonethan governor whose sole interest is to overturn any actions of a colonial leader, chosen by the body, who will act in the best interests of the colony within the confines of the interests of House Sharboneth or his actions be overturned.

Of course, man is not infallible. The Sharbonethan governor will act in accordance with his position or risk the wrath of the House. A colonial leader has no oversight. Something must keep his actions in check. Democracy is itself a proven failure, as any member of a democratic township can recall from the rule of the mob. Yet wise leaders always arise amongst the people, even more so with the aforementioned factionalization of the Ymph colony. These family units are the most suitable of entities to keep in check the leader. Thus, let any unit that has a ten percent committed membership of the colony citizenry from the most recent census (committed as in, unable to be a member of another eligible entity/unit/faction) be allowed a member of the colonial council. Should only two such factions meet this quota, then the next highest shall be placed upon the colonial council and it shall consist of only three men. This system will, at most, lead to ten voices to compete, cooperate, or comply. This council will have the sole obligation of checking the actions of the colonial leader so that he may not act in a tyrannical way, but enforce his actions to be for the best of the people. In addition, the colonial leader and colonial council must be changed with every census every five weeks. This shall be unalterable until a time when this system must be reconsidered due to inefficiency from too many people, at the sheer discretion of the governor.

Thus, there is one primary governing and legislating member of the settlement, the colonial leader, with a fall back being the colonial council. The will of one man, chosen by the people, will lead the settlement and a council, chosen by the family structure of the colony, will ensure his actions are consistently for the best interests of the colony. The system is efficient, defensive against tyranny, and distributive of power without crippling the aforementioned efficiency.

Another particular change that ought to accommodate the implementation of this simple new system is the privatization of any additional government functions. It is the efficiency of competing business that will streamline the cost of government. Ymph and Old Port are of sufficient sizes for most businesses, such as construction, dockyard management, and banking, to be competitive. The only specific charges that, for the sake of their ethical practice, must remain a function of the government are the judiciary, the policing force, and the postal communication system. Even the military should remain privatized so as to ensure the greatest efficiency. With greater privatization, the potential for poor fiscal management becomes significantly minimized, enhancing the available capital and resources to be spent on colonial improvement and thus strengthening the economy, enriching both the citizens of the colony and the Sharbonethan investors.

Special section: Codification of Laws

   The passage of laws will be as follows. The governor will not pass law, as it ought be unnecessary as he can simply overturn any action of the colonial leader or council. The colonial leader, who from now on shall be referred to as the “mayor”, will pass law known as an “Edict”. His name shall be tied to his edicts so that he is always held directly accountable, and the edicts shall forever be removable by any council present or future by a simple majority. The council may also pass law by a simple majority, and this will be known as a “Policy”. It is the ideal situation that policies are unnecessary, that the mayor will pass it as an Edict, thus the passing of Policy should be done only out of necessity. According to his position, the governor will always be eligible to overturn an Edict or Policy. The mayor’s only check on the council will be the bully pulpit, the discretion of reading the transcripts of council discussion, and having the ear of the governor to express his distaste of a Policy.

   For the ease of the barristers and judiciary, all laws will be codified. Each subsequent Edict and Policy will be numbered, with no number being used twice. The letter of E for Edict of P for Policy will precede the numbers. This shall read as follows:

E001 – this is the first of all Edicts and Policies

E002 – This is the second, another Edict

P003 – The third passed law, a Policy

Particular divisions of Edicts and Policies can be referenced as follows:

E002.3 – Referencing the third section of the second law passed in the colony of Ymph.

   While this may at first appear cumbersome, over the period of years, each law passed by the government will become easily recorded and retrievable to the great relief of future lawmakers, barristers, and judges. This particular style of coding is taken from the manners of Hillsfar and Waterdeep.