Gunnland
FTR
Reflections on Oelarian Political Theology, Vol. I, J. Y. Halvbefaren
The Theologico-Political Problem of G. R. R. Sarcon, V. V. Perseifur
Modern Septentrionalism in Franconia, R. G. Geijer
"Paradoxically, Olmolungring is the most isolated and the most central of Europe's nations, a most extraordinarily strange country and the mysterious heart of what is commonplace in the region... ome historians have argued, therefore, that the Great War that defined the ordinary politics of modern Europe was in turn defined by an extraordinary and obscure political thinker, Gunnar Robert Robertsson Sarcon."
The Theologico-Political Problem of G. R. R. Sarcon, V. V. Perseifur
"Oelarian theologians have long argued the paradox that God on High was beyond the stars and simultaneously intimo interior meo, more intimately at the center of our being than our very selves... Sarcon argues there is a political analogy with Oelar, a mysteriously distant land nonetheless intimately close to the center of European politics."
Modern Septentrionalism in Franconia, R. G. Geijer
"According to Sarcon, a political dialectic between two poles, Septentrionalism and Quietism, defines Oelarian history and by extension that of the Christian North. The septentrionalists look to the pure Christian rulers, the Knytlings or Von Nareaths for example, as God's judges on earth and defenders of good people. The quietists tremble in fear at the thought and withdraw from political judgment entirely. The Sarconist remembers that there must be a balance. The Great War was a failure of forgetting Sarcon, of radical Septentrionalism."
Nokanawa
"Son of a gun." Ambassador Aethur sighed put down the printout from An Scrúdaitheoir na hÉireann, the first paper to report the Oikawan veto of Jurzan and Coronado for membership in the Council of Nations General Assembly.
"Atreifur Tomasson?" Kelsi Adamsdatter, his mistress, was characteristically formal as if to pointedly remind the ambassador at all times that they were not married. You could get away with such gross indiscretions when you lived in exile half-a-world away from Olmolungring. In fact, he was the only Oelarian ambassador besides the Ambassador to the Papal States to be outside Scanogermania proper.
He smiled at the pretty girl. "Nothing Kels, business." There was not much business as an Oelarian ambassador. Unlike the great nations, his embassy did not buzz with intelligence activity, espionage, counter-espionage. In fact, he was the only employee, although Kelsi sometimes pretended to be his secretary, although she was barely literate. Typically, Oelarian ambassadors would write occasional reports to the Foreign Ministry and, if they were Sarkonist-conservatives, to the Campanile. (In fact, Councilor Halvbefaren, the Lord Provost of the Capitollium and unofficial chief of the Campanile, was said to be generally better-informed than Foreign Minister Alvitr). Life had been lonely and boring since Gretchen Seumasdatter left him. But now... The foreign minister, he knew, wanted Olmolungring to finally join the Council of Nations. The Alvitrs are one big septentrionalist-progressive conspiracy. That was a pervasive theme of most Campanile cables.
Kelsi had come around from behind him to refill his coffee and looked over his shoulder with her big blue eyes at the paper. "Oh. Big bad Margarethe Hjovarthursdatter Alvitr is going to be worried. More work for you, dear?"
There was nothing wrong per se about joining the Council of Nations. Foreign Minister Alvitr, he knew, believed -- wrongly -- that the CON would put pressure on Olmolungring to reform its political structures. She also believed -- perhaps rightly -- that the CON membership could offer more opportunities for development assistance.
Of course it's more work for me. He smiled at Kelsi Adamsdatter. He did not keep her around, after all, for her intelligence. Intelligence was a reason to keep people away. Like myself, for instance, he mused, still with the Alvitrs on the mind.
"Yes. I will just have to dial one of Yoshikawa Katsu's people and see where we stand." Or, more likely, to assure the Oikawans two things. One, that Oelar was not about to be ruled by the pro-Franconian, progressive Alvitr faction. Or else I would be applying for Oikawan citizenship. Which would be more or less impossible, he knew. Two, that having a cautious and traditionalist nation sharing a long land border with Franken as an LFS ally, or at least a go-between for the LFS and EDF (because Sarkonists had always thought of themselves as a third way) would be a good thing.
The worst part of his job was navigating Oikawa's byzantine bureaucracy. He had seen a chart once that made his head hurt.