Great Engellex
Established Nation
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Wuffingas Court, Dulwich
May, 1957
Wuffingas Court, Dulwich, Angellex, the Engellexian Republic
It was a typically cool evening of May, 1957, and despite the vast expanse of halls, drawing-rooms, and corridors, the delicate elegance of the strings, playing celebrated Engell baroque composer
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, could be heard throughout - uplifting and haunting - Wuffingas Court, in West Dulwich. There had quite already been some thoroughly serious discussion on the erection of a new and properly established formal residence for the Lord-Protector of the Engellexian Republic, which would, they all desire, give great competition in both the prettiness of pennies and of the unbound splendour to those official residences belonging to heads of State in Europe's rather grander capitals; but in absence of any particular inclination on the part of the Lord-Protector-to-be, the ministers, senators, and other official Grandees of the Republic were all reasonably content to attend to the Lord-Protector-to-be in the dusty halls of the palatial sixteenth century Wuffingas Court, where the winter's chill of sixteen-ninety-two had snuffed out all hope of one's body ever being sufficiently warm. Privately Admiral-General Walter Drake cherished it for being a grossly intimidating and terribly inconvenient residence, thus hoping to forbid any actors of Republic importance from daring a step or two across the threshold of his somber domain; he was also quite drawn to it, hence his initial reasoning to acquire it for State Office, for its art, its history - including a solid number of famous beheadings, and the ability for the artistry of the Baroque Orchestra of Dulwich to be carried through its many, many rooms without any diminished and declined quality.It was within the week of the first sitting of the Council of the Republic of the Fifth Protectorship, and all members of that Council - the executive authority of the Republic - were being transported by all manner of means, and across many distances and environments - the Southern leaders, of course, crossing the great expanse of the Thaumantic Ocean to attend Dulwich, and with the greatest fanfare, too. To be conveyed by way of an entire fleet was quite a decision of imperialist fashion for Engell ambition and design over the Thaumantic, it had even been quietly humoured in the drawing-rooms of the Great Houses of the Republic that the Lord-Protector wanted a foreign vessel to approach the fleet, simply so that the Republic would have an opportunity of blasting something out of the water. Action for the Republic Navy has been rather thin, and quite the cause of much consideration of lesser estimates for it by the Senate and Bare Commons; the ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Republic to all capitals of Europe will no doubt be privately sitting down to suggest the Engellexian Republic is more persuaded to a style of gunboat diplomacy in these newer days than those previous. Of those attending Wuffingas Court the mode of conveyance was somewhat more honourable, and comfortably efficient, with the Stately black Rolls-Royce Phantoms IV assembled to deliver all number of guests and those invited for meetings - members of the Council of the Republic, the Republic's ambassadors from across Europe - yes, quite a few of them have been recalled, important members of the Senate, and a particular Pelasgian guest - attending on behalf of his imperial Sovereign, but only quietly so. The diplomatic shenanigans taking place in the middle of the first sitting of Council are to be held to a new standard of outward public silence, for many quarters of Europe are too confined to the tragically narrow interpretations of freedom and liberty to understand the First Republic's designs for Europe - designs which she hopes to persuade the Pelasgians to a joint enterprise on.
At this diplomatic meeting there were a number of people in attendance, representing quite a multitude of interests, and all sat on one side or another along the great table in the Hall of Banners. On the Engell side, well, the rather throne-like leather chair in the middle was a necessary reservation for the Lord-Protector-to-be, seated to his left - the Lord Governor of Elephant and Castle, then the Lord Lieutenant of Gewissex, the Lord Governor of Babbage, the Lord Lieutenant of Hwiccent, the Lord Lieutenant of Hammersmith, the Lord Lieutenant of the Gyrwassen Islands, the Lord-Guarantor of the Engellexic Thaumantic Company, the Lord-Guarantor of the Engell-Himyar Trading Company, and the ambassadors to Sheridan and the Socialist World Republic; from the right of the Lord-Protector-to-be sat the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Joint Committee, the Lord Lieutenant of Angellex, the Lady Governor of Henrietta, the Lord Lieutenant of Westellex, the Lord Governor of Somers Islands, the Lord Lieutenant of the Wergorent Islands, and the ambassadors to Pelasgia and Kadikistan. Immediately behind them stood a throng of advisers, including the two Captain-Generals of the two Armies, the two other First Lords of the Admiralties - Walter Drake being one of the three, and the Air-General of the Republic Air Force. Opposite the chair for the Admiral-General was Admiral and Sevastokratōr Theodoros Laskaris-Phouskarnakēs, half-brother of the Emperor of Pelasgia, and though it might seem without balance - the two sides along the table - the Pelasgian Empire was invited and encouraged to have a delegation entirely suited to its own estimation of the diplomacy to be had. Exactly at three - the bronze clock that sat imperiously centered on the mantle of the fireplace of stone did not finish striking - the Lord-Protector-to-be and Admiral-General of the Republic, the Viscount Walter Drake, entered in full service dress of the Republic Navy and adorned it was with the various medals of his recently acquired constitutional position as Lord-Protector.
When the Lord-Protector-to-be entered through the doors of the Hall of Banners the attendees of this particular diplomatic occasion had already just been seated along the great table. There was no given reason why the Admiral-General should not have arrived earlier, for he had enjoyed breakfast a good number of hours previous, and had lingered afterward over a selection of important state papers in the Scarlet Chamber with red silk damask walls and two-hundred year old furniture. But, more to the point of actual reasoning, why he dawdled over official papers, because he is a strategist, and thinking over an engagement to come often gave him a subtler positivity and focus than he could realise from simply just attending on time. This was especially the case when the engagement was a delicate affair, as his engagements now usually were, and this particular occasion the moment he pondered and considered was so extraordinary and required such care that - well, if he had timed his arrival in accord with every other attendee, and importantly the Pelasgian, he may not have entered the Hall of Banners with a more focused, and collected mindset than that which he did upon entering just now. Clutched to his breast was a blue leather-bound file with the words Ère des Trois Tiburs (Era of Three Tiburs)* etched on the front with gold lettering, and, like the title, the entire contents of the diplomatic file was documented in French*, since an unalterable and unquestioned law of Engell international texts required that the Engell documents of civilised diplomacy engaged with those in Gallia and along the Long Sea be written in French for the proper understanding of the Engellexian Republic Parlement for when they are taken in the context of previous, and possibly historical, diplomatic treaties and accords. This to the Engellexian Republic was seemingly as natural as all the other conventions on which the affairs of the country were moulded; such as the Senate conducting affairs in Engelsh, and the Bare Commons in both Engelsh and Modern Engellisċ, and the Constituent Assemblies in a variation of both.
It would appear that from the most honest of persuasion, that the Republic is pulled from her isolation, declared the Lord-Protector-to-be, with the subtle charm of triumph, to his assembled delegation and, of course, Theodoros Laskaris-Phouskarnakēs, as he pressed the leather file further onto his being. No expense had been spared on this occasion, which the Engell ambassadors, recalled and in attendance, acknowledged to be quite more elaborate than any setting of diplomatic discourse they have themselves attended in the countries they had been dispatched to. The walls of the cathedral-like Hall of Banners were very recently hung with golden silk damask - a colour thought most appropriate and in common between the Republic and the Empire. In the centre of the Hall, and with a stretching length of eighty-five feet, was a single mahogany table of great size, enough for one-hundred people, and finely but simply decorated by a fifty-piece setting of eighteenth century silverware service with its seventeen imposing and illuminating candelabra. Gigantic, well, considerably large flags - two, one of the Republic and one of Pelasgia - were hung majestically above the setting for the diplomacy, and were crafted to the highest of quality and of material, no industrially mass produced rubbish for Wuffingas Court. About the Hall, footmen, in scarlet velvet pattern jackets and white cotton breeches, and antiquated powdered wigs, affected a careful comprehension of the desires and instructions of all those in which they are there to serve, whether by word or glance, they - all seventy-five of them - attended dutifully, swiftly, but gracefully.
We've had our disagreements.. we certainly have had our disagreements, spoke the Lord-Protector-to-be languidly, as an actor would a stale part, and complacently seated himself upon his proper chair at the table. But, but.. long held I have indeed that we - the Engellexian Republic and the Pelasgian Empire - have been honest collaborators to the cause of an appropriately, if not an excellently, civillised Age for Europe. And though a number of differences have undone any hope of notable partnership, there exist - just - two nations in which I could only perceive to be adequately proper toward the greatest scheme of European advancement as to be in agreement for terms to be found to in time exist between the Republic and them, in equal and prominent collaboration, for the empowerment and obligation to a most civilised cause - the Pelasgian Empire and the Grand Duchy of Bourgogne.
Those grey, terribly cool days of many years past.. of the most splendid reserve to international considerations are quite happily at a close, and taking their place the First Republic will, quite well do so, I am sure, and am confident you will also find in time.
But, I daresay, not one of us - Republic, Empire or Grand Duchy - shall taste the bread of idleness, for there is much rumour and intrigue on whatever conventions have been had in Touyou, between those of Touyou, and in their own words - for Touyou. There can be not any doubt that they did discuss and arrive to terms for a binding treaty that would not simply neglect to serve our interests, but seek to forcibly dislodge them. It would have been quite the marvel to have been honoured with an attendance there, if only to affect the.. style of its prose, said the Admiral-General without alteration of his tone, beneath the politeness and affected concern of which mockery and even irony could be discerned, but for his own sharper delegates who at once were found smiling by the humour of his less than delicate jab toward the Touyou nations.
I do believe, Admiral and Sevastokratōr, Theodoros Laskaris-Phouskarnakēs, that any document of binding agreement that has surely emerged from the decrepit Courts of Touyou will be sufficiently compromised by a document we, here can reach terms on and be quite confident.
A document, to be writtern here, establishing binding collaboration between the Republic and the Empire, that will aid in the establishment of stability and permanent legality, quite essential to the preservation and extension of civilised Power in Europe. And from it a breach, I should see it prove, to the integrity, the command of the Revolutionary ideals, which from it shall pour the forces of moderation and respectable society, and deliver us from the barbarity and corruption of the Revolutionary aggression.
And while I am certain we will continue to disagree a great deal - the Republic itself founded on that particular liberty - still we must prevail if only to prove the Revolutionary States wrong that we will not reduce ourselves to irrelevancies by force of our arms over any disagreement that we should look to agree are lesser to the greater scheme. We have seen ourselves take steps back, but we must forget petty rivalries and march forward, in step, else the consequences for Europe are quite terrible to consider.
It is no small trifle to seek a new, a better Europe. We have our Republic, and you - your Empire, and we must always endeavour to keep them.
Foreign affairs and diplomacy, spoke he before a moments pause to observe a line or two from the carefully and properly prepared diplomatic document - the Ère des Trois Tiburs - which all at the table had been presented. I am increasingly persuaded that the oceans should belong exclusively to those that can Master* them, that other nations have no given right to challenge that possession - unless they can muster sufficient arms. We sincerely do believe that no nation has a right to command another, but the right to challenge another nation through arms is a right entirely distinct and separate.
[[OOC: *This French is quite possibly incorrect.. but one must try. *He refers to Engell and Pelasgian mastery of the seas, exclusively, and the Pelasgian delegation would be aware of that.]]