“We have been born into difficult times. This is a transition, a liminal period between eons of peace. The old way, the way of superstition, violence, poverty, and misery, is over. The new way, the way of reason, peace, wealth, and joy, is opening. Our city stands like a beacon atop a spire, guiding all who see her into the idyll of our new order.

“The electoral and forensics process demands a well-informed body of citizens. Resources spent distributing speakers and pamphlets are resources not spent equipping and training our brave troops. Political will applied to elections and internal dissent is energy that could, energy that should, be applied to combating the forces of disorder and malevolence against which we are arrayed.

“Ours will be a short struggle. United under a single banner, the forces of progress wipe away the sins of the past. Every day, more islands join our banner and our coalition grows. In time, the whole of the Mother Countries will be unified, culturally, politically, and economically. Freedom will ring from the Southern Peaks and in the streets of Habadad. That time will not be long in coming.

“For these and other reasons, the governmental structure of the Eternal City needs be restructured. This temporary streamlining of the bureaucratic process will enable us to quickly react to the various threats, to combat them, and ultimately to triumph. For centuries the Most High has advised my predecessors. Now, for a short while, the Most High’s tremendous intellect will be used more directly by the nation; the Most High will command the ship of state and guide us through these shoals.

“I have every faith, and I urge my fellow-citizens to join me in praising the Most High, and in serving the Diamond Isle for the duration of this General State of Crisis.”

(Statement by the last elected Prefect of Ka-Rone, Of-Frentic, on the occasion of the transition of temporal power and civil authority to the Highness. The temporary transition was initiated on the seventh of Seventhmonth in the 311th year of the Eternal City, and has not yet been rescinded.)

SEE ALSO the Academy of Recognized Truth, the Most Highness, the Tower of Tongues