A PROGRAM OF SALVATION: ECONOMY [Pamphlet]

[Erudiche]

A PROGRAM OF SALVATION: ECONOMY

EPHIANS! At Kardesler we did unite as one to proclaim Holy War upon the Sibilant and the traitor. It now comes time that we must honor our sacred oath! Take heart! For all together now shall we march into this deadly fight, and I swear that Melek, Orentid, or foul killer shall not shadow our land again. This is the greatest struggle that the Well has known, faced against the ravenous specter of slavery, of necromancy, of the incarnations of darkness. This is our great struggle of redemption, that the sins of this blood-stained land might at last be avenged. We have cast down the gauntlet before the Wyrm's horde, and cried out that they shall have these poor souls only over our dead bodies. Let us see that it is their piled corpses that shall be trampled, that it is their lamentations which will echo into an empty sky, and that it is our banner which shall fly victorious and raise the sacred Chalice aloft! Forward, forward, and ever forward we must go in the name of the Sultan, the People, and the Wheel!

But we must prepare, dear Ephians! We must go armed not merely with the armor of righteousness, but send our sons and daughter dressed in steel! We must see them fed, see them watered, see them tended in their injury! And we have delivered the pilgrims and bond-slaves from their gaolers, we must see them housed, fed, clothed, and protected. Years of iniquity, corruption, and decadence weigh now on the shoulders of the living like so many eons of nightmare vexed, and the task falls to us today to clear the path, to realize years of progress in but weeks. But I know you, Ephians, and your grim determination. I know that this challenge pales before the great power here massed, and that with great majesty and excellence shall we force our way to a bright future for all in the world!

To this end, I have prepared the first of my Programs of Salvation, which will articulate those emergency measures necessary to preserve the Well through this apocalypse. To you who scoff, who sneer, who say that they will ignore me, I laugh! The Voice of the People attracts the ear of the powerful and the great, and against its great strength the mountains themselves tremble! Was it not such a pamphlet which put out a demand for a citizen register, and shortly later did not such a register appear? We shall take take shrieking from the void of never-could-bes and impossibilites the victory we seek today, and show to the world that the time of silence, of absurdity, of bad government, is over at last! We begin with the subject of Economy, and my proclamations are thus:

1. The State of Ephia's Well must introduce War Bonds, or Charity Certificates, to finance the war effort and the preparations necessary to prepare for the refugee influx. These bonds shall be issued with a face value, varying to promote purchase at all social level, as needed by the state. They shall be purchased for less than their face value, and may be redeemed at some point after the war is concluded for their face value, offering a modest return. The names and amounts shall be recorded, and a public leaderboard shall be established proclaiming the most charitable of donors. Especially generous donors might be recognized with membership in a Noble Order of the Well, for their invaluable contributions, and offered suitable regalia for their exclusive use.

2. The State must increase taxes. This need not be done to rob those already starving, or to squeeze blood from a stone, but must be devised and targeted so as to take from those who have wealth great enough to contribute. The State must also implore the generosity of the Sultan in providing aid and reasonable loans to His subjects. They must similarly implore the benevolence of the Temples of the Wheel, especially that of All-Mother B'aara.

3. The State must begin urgently preparations to expand the Shade to the areas surrounding the Well, to build a district for the resettlement of the Tonsured refugees. They must also begin, in these territories, the development of a domestic base of agriculture, so as to reduce our reliance on shipments from the great city of Baz'eel, in the event of a blockade by malevolent interlopers, such as vile Qa'im.

4. The loyal Sultan's Fourth Legion of Janissaries, the honored Magistrates of the Well, and the noble Legates, who shall shepherd as through this peril, must employ as the predominant mode of legal punishment the act of conscription, so that we might have as many soldiers as possible. Any unfit to fight shall be conscripted into a Production Corps of the Sultan's Fourth, to carry out necessary public works to prepare for the arrival of the refugees, or else engage in economically-productive labor for the Well's wartime functions.

5. Critical wartime resources, such as grain and water, must be recognized as the property of the State for the duration of our present crisis. Water must be recognized as a vital resource to the prosecution of war, and must be carefully protected and rationed. An Office of Survey may be established to take account of the Well's supply of water, not merely within the ground, but within the estates, fountains, and private reserves of residents. Gross and excessive water-hoarding is to be criminalized and punished with confiscation. The State might, in cases of non-criminal excessive hoarding of water, expropriate such reserves with compensation at its discretion.

6. The State must offer food and water rations to residents and refugees who participate in Labor Armies. Labor Armies are to be militarized, disciplined formations of workers, who shall be tasked to cooperate with the Production Corps in carrying out vital public works. Residents participating in these institutions should be offered opportunities for discounted housing, and other rewards, following the ward's conclusion, and shall receive badges and other decorations commemorating their participation.

7. The State must establish a War Supply Board, who shall be tasked with overseeing the wartime economy of the Well. The leading captains of industry, especially those of wartime significance, such as the smiths of the Rose, the guild of Alchemists, the experimental leaders of the Astronomers, should be brought forth to develop a wartime production plan. If circumstances permit, this Board should also see to coordinate the matters of the civilian economy.

8. Finally, the State must hold regular meetings of the Assembly, so that the Voiced may track the progress of the war and its preparations. These meetings must, at the very earliest ability of the State, put forth a ledger of the Well's vital strategic resources for the audit of the Voiced, as well as a transparent budget of the State's income and expenditures.

We must come together now in peace and love and brotherhood. We must surrender any antipathy towards our brothers and sisters in arms. We must deliver the desperate people who now depend on us, and to whom we have sworn ourselves to save. We must preserve this place against all who would threaten it, and to lay down our lives to their protection. All signatories of the Accord, and citizens of the Well, are to recognize that War is not a time of plenty. Sacrifice was promised upon the night we committed to the rescue of the Tonsured. Those who have cheered on the proclamation of Holy War are now asked to fight it. End your sectional struggles, put aside your personal animosities, renounce your material comforts.

I ask that you give to the people of the Well, to the Tonsured in exile, to the future of the world, but one thing: everything.