Pelasgia
Established Nation
Propontis, Optimatoi Prefecture
The Grand Patriarchal University of Propontis (MPPP), also known by its ancient name, Pandidacterium, was the oldest of Pelasgia's universities and, according to Pelasgian claims often debated by rival universities across the Claret Sea, the oldest European university in continuous operation. Housed in the Palace of the Magnaura, which had at various times also served as the Imperial Chancellery and the Senate House, the Pandidacterium had trained countless generations of Pelasgian scholars, intellectuals, academics, civil servants, statesmen and specialists. Though meant to provide an education for temporal officials, unlike the Grand Seminary of Propontis, the Pandidacterium was formally under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Propontis. In a clericalist country where most institutions of higher education (or, indeed, any level of education) were ecclesiastical, this was far from surprising or uncommon.
Dressed in the long dark robes of a professor, and with a matching short flat hat covering his head, Homerios Makripalamas, a Professor of History and Jurisprudence, sat in the restricted section of the Pandidacterium's Grand Library. Like most buildings of the university complex, the Grand Library was constructed in the medieval Propontine style, with large corinthian pillars and marble bases akin to those of classical Pelasgo-Tiburan edifices being combined with limestone and brick surfaces filling in the gaps of the ancient structures, reflecting the colder temperatures and reduced safety of the medieval period. Countless rows of ornate wooden shelves hosted innumerable leather-bound tomes, stretching out as far as the eye could see; indeed, the eye could not see very far in the late night hours that the Professor had chosen to conduct his study. This was for good reason: flanking him was his trusted research assistant, Alexios Kalokagathos, a third-year student at the Pandidacterium's School of Jurisprudence. Formally speaking, Kalokagathos was not supposed to be in the restricted section of the library; under normal circumstances, Professor Makipalamas would take out what books were needed, and then hand them to him. However, the Professor detested such bureaucratic constraints on research, especially when they prevented someone he trusted as much as Alexios from helping him.
The two men were engaged in a long silent study for quite some time before Alexios broke the silence of the near-empty edifice. "Master Professor," he said, "why did Emperor Ioannes VII prosecute the Pelasgian nationalists?" Homerios remained silent; he continued staring at the book before him, Tiverianos Protonotariopoulos' History of the Judicial Institutions of the True Empire of the Tiburans and of their Struggle with the Great Church of Christ in Propontis. Finally, after several moments of excruciating silence he formulated a response. It was not that he did not know the answer; he was, rather trying to determine the best way to formulate it, given his suspicions about Alexios' reasons for asking his question. "What is nationalism, Alexios?" he asked.
Alexios responded almost immediately, with complete confidence: "The idea that human beings constitute socio-political groups known as nations based on shared traits such as a common tongue, common faith, common ancestry, and common traditions, and that these naturally form the basis of political organisation." Homerios continued looking at the tome before him while he responded. "A standard modern definition," he said, "and therefore inadequate." Homerios' suspicions had been confirmed; that definition was drawn from the Grand Pelasgian Encyclopaedia of 1848, a decidedly liberal and nationalistic source. It appeared that Alexios had taken a bit too much of a liking to a certain classmate of his with whom Homerios had seen the young man frequently as of late; Despoina Renti-Psalida, the daughter of a Deputy of the Liberal Union. "Ideas," the Professor explained, "can never be taken in isolation. They must be perceived in the context in which they were created." He closed the tome before him, having carefully bookmarked the page where he was, and looked at the young man to his right. "Nationalism as we know it was birthed from the Aurarian Revolution. It is inextricably linked with the idea of popular sovereignty, and is therefore liberal by its very nature. Is it any surprise that an Orthodox Autocracy would suppress liberal political ideas?" Alexios was taken aback by the Professor's dismissal of his question. "But nations existed before the Aurarian Revolution!" he replied; "The Pelasgian nation, defined as those who share Pelasgian ancestry, religion, culture, language and customs has existed for nearly four thousand years."
"And yet," the Professor said, "at no point in those four thousand years has anyone thought of creating a Pelasgian National State.* Until some Propontine bourgeois read a bit too much of translated Gallian literature and decided to try and found a Pelasgian Republic." Alexios could not agree: "What about Anaxander and Cassander? Was their state not one meant to unite all Pelasgians based on Aristotle's writings?" The Professor seemed as unconvinced as ever: "Their states was meant to unite all Pelasgian states. This is why nationalism is not merely a belief that nations exist; it is the belief that nations own certain states; and since nations are groups of people, this directly translates into popular sovereignty. Anaxander and Cassander were absolute monarchs, just like Ioannes VII or our current Most Majestic Sovereign. The Pelasgian State does not belong to me or you or to the Pelasgian citizenry at large; it belongs to His Imperial Majesty, Theodore II Laskaris, Emperor and Autocrat of the Pelasgians and Augustus of the South. People used to remember this when it was still called the Southern Tiburan Empire."
*National State (Ἐθνικὸν Κράτος) is a term used by Pelasgian nationalists to refer to a state administered by the Pelasgian nation for its benefit, as opposed to a state that administers the traditional region of Greater Pelasgia and is broadly Pelasgian in culture but rejects Pelasgian nationalism.
"But then Attalos the Great reformed it into the Pelasgian Empire in 1957," Alexios proudly retorted. "And what came of that, Alexios?" the Professor asked; "It took twenty years for the Pelasgian citizenry to make his successors figureheads and to eventually abolish them. Pelasgia had to spend thirty years under a Regency by some General or another to regain its place in the world afterwards." Homerios could see his prodigal student conflicted on the inside: on the one hand he knew that Pelasgia owed its greatness to the Empire; on the other he wondered why the Pelasgians should not be "masters of their own destinies". Certainly, the latter option would endear him to Despoina far more than the former... "Pelasgia," Homerios begun, "is a state of ten thousand races, creeds, ideologies, classes, regions, dialects and tongues. If every single such interest group were to make a faction for itself, Pelasgia would dissolve instantly, leaving behind it a sea of chaos and blood. The only thing saving Pelasgia and the region at large from the doom such a collapse would entail is the whip.** The whip is not the result of simple sadism; it is a form of institutionalised, controlled cruelty that exists to keep a much greater, more brutal barbarism in check. Pelasgia cannot exist without the State of Steel. And the State of Steel must supress any form of nationalism, liberalism, or popular rule, for all it takes for Pelasgia to be undone is for there to be a single faction within the populace. Once that faction is created, all others will follow."
**Vourdoulas (βούρδουλας) is a sort of whip imported in Pelasgia from Azraq sometime in the 1500s. Due to its use in previous centuries to publicly punish dissidents and petty delinquents, its name is still used as a synonym for authoritarian rule based on force rather than reason or consent of the governed.
Alexios knew that quotation all too well: The State of Steel, the seminal work by Petros Tritantaphyllos regarding the history of the reactionary Militarist Junta that governed late Komnenian Pelasgia for nearly three decades before the Laskarid Coup of Attalos the Great. The Professor had merely substituted the word "Pelasgia" for "Tiburia"; otherwise, the quotation was exact. The Professor stood up, putting his hand on the young student's shoulder. "You are a young man, Alexios," he said, "it is normal for you to believe in great ideals. But you must know that you are not the first man to have such ideas; us elders have had them too, and the reason the world around you still stands is because we realised that great ideals are beautiful in theory but terrifying in practice. Ioannes VII was such a man. In this restricted part of the library you will find two books by him, written under the nom de plume 'Ion Vatantzes': A Theory of the Political Organisation of the Pelasgian Race Since the Great Crusade and In Defence of the Propontine Throne's Resistance Against Gallian Modernism. The first, written by a young Ioannes Komnenos who had not yet been enthroned, makes the case for Pelasgian nationalism; the second demolishes it, pointing out what horrors conflicting nationalisms across the Empire would unleash upon the Pelasgians and all other nations of the Empire. And, indeed, how Gallian liberalism would spell the end of Pelasgian culture and its assimilation into the once heretical and now atheistic West."
Alexios remained silent and still for a few long moments, before noticing that his master had begun walking away. "Are you leaving, Master Professor?" he asked. "Yes, I believe it is time I called it a night. Good night, Alexios. Please put everything back in place when you are done."
The Grand Patriarchal University of Propontis (MPPP), also known by its ancient name, Pandidacterium, was the oldest of Pelasgia's universities and, according to Pelasgian claims often debated by rival universities across the Claret Sea, the oldest European university in continuous operation. Housed in the Palace of the Magnaura, which had at various times also served as the Imperial Chancellery and the Senate House, the Pandidacterium had trained countless generations of Pelasgian scholars, intellectuals, academics, civil servants, statesmen and specialists. Though meant to provide an education for temporal officials, unlike the Grand Seminary of Propontis, the Pandidacterium was formally under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Propontis. In a clericalist country where most institutions of higher education (or, indeed, any level of education) were ecclesiastical, this was far from surprising or uncommon.
Dressed in the long dark robes of a professor, and with a matching short flat hat covering his head, Homerios Makripalamas, a Professor of History and Jurisprudence, sat in the restricted section of the Pandidacterium's Grand Library. Like most buildings of the university complex, the Grand Library was constructed in the medieval Propontine style, with large corinthian pillars and marble bases akin to those of classical Pelasgo-Tiburan edifices being combined with limestone and brick surfaces filling in the gaps of the ancient structures, reflecting the colder temperatures and reduced safety of the medieval period. Countless rows of ornate wooden shelves hosted innumerable leather-bound tomes, stretching out as far as the eye could see; indeed, the eye could not see very far in the late night hours that the Professor had chosen to conduct his study. This was for good reason: flanking him was his trusted research assistant, Alexios Kalokagathos, a third-year student at the Pandidacterium's School of Jurisprudence. Formally speaking, Kalokagathos was not supposed to be in the restricted section of the library; under normal circumstances, Professor Makipalamas would take out what books were needed, and then hand them to him. However, the Professor detested such bureaucratic constraints on research, especially when they prevented someone he trusted as much as Alexios from helping him.
The two men were engaged in a long silent study for quite some time before Alexios broke the silence of the near-empty edifice. "Master Professor," he said, "why did Emperor Ioannes VII prosecute the Pelasgian nationalists?" Homerios remained silent; he continued staring at the book before him, Tiverianos Protonotariopoulos' History of the Judicial Institutions of the True Empire of the Tiburans and of their Struggle with the Great Church of Christ in Propontis. Finally, after several moments of excruciating silence he formulated a response. It was not that he did not know the answer; he was, rather trying to determine the best way to formulate it, given his suspicions about Alexios' reasons for asking his question. "What is nationalism, Alexios?" he asked.
Alexios responded almost immediately, with complete confidence: "The idea that human beings constitute socio-political groups known as nations based on shared traits such as a common tongue, common faith, common ancestry, and common traditions, and that these naturally form the basis of political organisation." Homerios continued looking at the tome before him while he responded. "A standard modern definition," he said, "and therefore inadequate." Homerios' suspicions had been confirmed; that definition was drawn from the Grand Pelasgian Encyclopaedia of 1848, a decidedly liberal and nationalistic source. It appeared that Alexios had taken a bit too much of a liking to a certain classmate of his with whom Homerios had seen the young man frequently as of late; Despoina Renti-Psalida, the daughter of a Deputy of the Liberal Union. "Ideas," the Professor explained, "can never be taken in isolation. They must be perceived in the context in which they were created." He closed the tome before him, having carefully bookmarked the page where he was, and looked at the young man to his right. "Nationalism as we know it was birthed from the Aurarian Revolution. It is inextricably linked with the idea of popular sovereignty, and is therefore liberal by its very nature. Is it any surprise that an Orthodox Autocracy would suppress liberal political ideas?" Alexios was taken aback by the Professor's dismissal of his question. "But nations existed before the Aurarian Revolution!" he replied; "The Pelasgian nation, defined as those who share Pelasgian ancestry, religion, culture, language and customs has existed for nearly four thousand years."
"And yet," the Professor said, "at no point in those four thousand years has anyone thought of creating a Pelasgian National State.* Until some Propontine bourgeois read a bit too much of translated Gallian literature and decided to try and found a Pelasgian Republic." Alexios could not agree: "What about Anaxander and Cassander? Was their state not one meant to unite all Pelasgians based on Aristotle's writings?" The Professor seemed as unconvinced as ever: "Their states was meant to unite all Pelasgian states. This is why nationalism is not merely a belief that nations exist; it is the belief that nations own certain states; and since nations are groups of people, this directly translates into popular sovereignty. Anaxander and Cassander were absolute monarchs, just like Ioannes VII or our current Most Majestic Sovereign. The Pelasgian State does not belong to me or you or to the Pelasgian citizenry at large; it belongs to His Imperial Majesty, Theodore II Laskaris, Emperor and Autocrat of the Pelasgians and Augustus of the South. People used to remember this when it was still called the Southern Tiburan Empire."
*National State (Ἐθνικὸν Κράτος) is a term used by Pelasgian nationalists to refer to a state administered by the Pelasgian nation for its benefit, as opposed to a state that administers the traditional region of Greater Pelasgia and is broadly Pelasgian in culture but rejects Pelasgian nationalism.
"But then Attalos the Great reformed it into the Pelasgian Empire in 1957," Alexios proudly retorted. "And what came of that, Alexios?" the Professor asked; "It took twenty years for the Pelasgian citizenry to make his successors figureheads and to eventually abolish them. Pelasgia had to spend thirty years under a Regency by some General or another to regain its place in the world afterwards." Homerios could see his prodigal student conflicted on the inside: on the one hand he knew that Pelasgia owed its greatness to the Empire; on the other he wondered why the Pelasgians should not be "masters of their own destinies". Certainly, the latter option would endear him to Despoina far more than the former... "Pelasgia," Homerios begun, "is a state of ten thousand races, creeds, ideologies, classes, regions, dialects and tongues. If every single such interest group were to make a faction for itself, Pelasgia would dissolve instantly, leaving behind it a sea of chaos and blood. The only thing saving Pelasgia and the region at large from the doom such a collapse would entail is the whip.** The whip is not the result of simple sadism; it is a form of institutionalised, controlled cruelty that exists to keep a much greater, more brutal barbarism in check. Pelasgia cannot exist without the State of Steel. And the State of Steel must supress any form of nationalism, liberalism, or popular rule, for all it takes for Pelasgia to be undone is for there to be a single faction within the populace. Once that faction is created, all others will follow."
**Vourdoulas (βούρδουλας) is a sort of whip imported in Pelasgia from Azraq sometime in the 1500s. Due to its use in previous centuries to publicly punish dissidents and petty delinquents, its name is still used as a synonym for authoritarian rule based on force rather than reason or consent of the governed.
Alexios knew that quotation all too well: The State of Steel, the seminal work by Petros Tritantaphyllos regarding the history of the reactionary Militarist Junta that governed late Komnenian Pelasgia for nearly three decades before the Laskarid Coup of Attalos the Great. The Professor had merely substituted the word "Pelasgia" for "Tiburia"; otherwise, the quotation was exact. The Professor stood up, putting his hand on the young student's shoulder. "You are a young man, Alexios," he said, "it is normal for you to believe in great ideals. But you must know that you are not the first man to have such ideas; us elders have had them too, and the reason the world around you still stands is because we realised that great ideals are beautiful in theory but terrifying in practice. Ioannes VII was such a man. In this restricted part of the library you will find two books by him, written under the nom de plume 'Ion Vatantzes': A Theory of the Political Organisation of the Pelasgian Race Since the Great Crusade and In Defence of the Propontine Throne's Resistance Against Gallian Modernism. The first, written by a young Ioannes Komnenos who had not yet been enthroned, makes the case for Pelasgian nationalism; the second demolishes it, pointing out what horrors conflicting nationalisms across the Empire would unleash upon the Pelasgians and all other nations of the Empire. And, indeed, how Gallian liberalism would spell the end of Pelasgian culture and its assimilation into the once heretical and now atheistic West."
Alexios remained silent and still for a few long moments, before noticing that his master had begun walking away. "Are you leaving, Master Professor?" he asked. "Yes, I believe it is time I called it a night. Good night, Alexios. Please put everything back in place when you are done."
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