23 September 2024
In Groundbreaking Historic Moment, Emperor Creates 20 New Lines for Rodokans
NUVRENON– For seven hundred and twenty years, the entire history of the Kingdom of Tavaris, there have been precisely one thousand, one hundred and fifty two Tavari Lines. Today, for the first time in history, they will be joined by twenty more. His Esteemed Majesty Otan IV, Emperor of the Tavari, High Chief of the United Tribes of Rodoka and the Isles, and Chief of Nuvo, has by decree ordered that each of the twenty Rodokan tribes shall also be Tavari Lines, earning each of them a seat in the National Diet. This is a power that the Tavari monarch has always held but never used, as the pinnacle of the Line system and ultimate arbiter of who stands in which Line. It was Otan IV’s ancestor, King Utor I, the first King of All Tavaris, who finalised and formalised the Lines by ascribing their histories in the sacred religious text he wrote, the Tavat Avati, that forms the basis of the faith of two-thirds of Tavari citizens. In his declaration, Emperor Otan himself penned histories for the twenty Rodokan tribes but noted that they would not be counted among the books of the Tavat Avati, stating that “the history and culture of the Rodokan people is something separate from that of the Tavari, standing alongside it in comradeship, equal in dignity and honour.”
Effective the moment that the silver hammer struck the silver nail pinning the declaration to the teak announcement board in Palace Square, the twenty new Lines are: Hõbesepp, Kalamüüja, Karjakas, Kaupleja, Kivisüda, Koervaat, Lääneli, Laevasepp, Lõunama, Luulõikur, Moenarr, Puna, Puuhoidja, Selano, Silmaring, Vaalaul, Vaim, Vetevahel, Vibuteja, and Viha. Emperor Otan posted the announcement himself, escorted from the doors of the Palace out onto the Square by officers of the Rodokan National Police. Standing beside him was Presiding Chief of Rodoka, Ivi Puna Laar, who donned a ceremonial cape of whale skin and wolf fur for the occasion, with her face painted in the ancient tradition of Rodokan whale hunters.
“Since time immemorial, the Tavari people have divided themselves into clans we call Lines—literal lines of people, spirit and living, ancestors and descendants standing one behind another stretching back into our storied past and infinitely into our collective future. As Chief of Nuvo and Chief-of-Chiefs, I stand at the junction of all our Lines, the pinnacle and arbiter of this system, upon which we built our civilization, our country, and our democracy. It is my job to lead, guide, and safekeep these Lines, just as it is my job to guarantee our constitution and perpetuate our society. Never before has a Chief of Nuvo used this power, but each and every one of them since Utor I has held it, long acknowledged as one of the theoretical reserve powers of the Tavari monarchy that the authors of our written constitution in the late 18th century deliberately and explicitly avoided placing in the hands of the legislature. Today, in order to correct a grave injustice, in order to fulfil my obligation to uphold and guarantee the tenets and principles of the Tavari constitution and ensure the continuance of the Tavari state, I use my ancient and sacred power to create 20 new Lines, one for each Rodokan tribe,” said the Emperor in remarks in the Square.
The creation of the new Lines is the Emperor’s answer to the Rodokan Question that has roiled Tavari politics for two years but reached a new height of tension two months ago, when riots broke out in the streets of the island of Rodoka’s major cities in response to the Tavari National Diet’s passage of legislation that granted Rodokans resident in Tavaris only one Delegate, where for nearly 400 years prior to 2022 they had held twenty, one for each tribe. The Diet had tried and failed for over a year to come up with a solution that could reach the requisite two-thirds majority needed to enact constitutionally entrenched legislation, in what Prime Minister Žarís Nevran Alandar called “the most disgustingly blatant, self-serving politicking this country has ever seen,” with various political parties in the Diet taking the opportunity to enforce their own policy goals with Rodokan representation in the national legislature on the line. In the past two months, Rodokan rights activists in Tavaris and Rodoka have been discussing ending the personal union between Tavaris and Rodoka and even withdrawing from the Tavari Union entirely. Today, however, Emperor Otan announced to the world that he takes his role as High Chief of Rodoka seriously, and his plan has earned the imprimatur of his Presiding Chief, the Rodokan head of government.
“This is not the solution anyone wanted. This is not the solution that is the most fair, the most equitable, or the most respectful. This does not erase the utter failure of the Tavari legislature’s complete and total abdication of duty in failing to stand up for the democratic ideals enshrined in its constitution and allowing petty politics to result in the repugnant disenfranchisement of an entire people. But it does, at the very least, restore the prior status quo and grant a modicum of better representation for Rodokan citizens of the Kingdom of Tavaris in the national legislature,” said Presiding Chief Puna Laar. “Rodokan tribes are not Tavari Lines. They never have been. Our tribes come from our history and our tradition, separated from Tavaris by millennia of time and an entire ocean of space. The fact that we are forced to accept this designation in order to gain this still unequal representation is just one more example of Tavari imperialism, forcing us to fit into Tavari boxes so we can fairly advocate for ourselves in the legislature of this country we helped build and which hundreds of thousands of Rodokans chose and continue to choose to reside in. Nevertheless, it is better than what Žarís Nevran Alandar could do, and we thank our High Chief for doing what he can to stand up for what is right.”
In order to satisfy unwritten constitutional conventions that are considered to proscribe general “blanket” declarations, Emperor Otan had to individually name the members of each new Line—hundreds of thousands in each, taken from the voter registry rolls of the past two general elections. The Emperor acknowledged that these lists are “almost certainly incomplete” and announced that the Silver Court would be coordinating with the Rodokan government to create a method by which Rodokans can self-identify with one of the twenty Lines and, where necessary, be issued individual declarations by the Chief of Nuvo to attain proper registration. The full text of the declaration was thicker than a phone book and could not be posted to the announcement board, and instead—in another first—the posted announcement included a QR code to direct readers to the full text of the declaration on the Silver Court’s website, vta.gov.ta. In the meantime, only the individually named people will be able to register to vote in the elections for the Lines’ first Delegates. The Tavari government will need to schedule a date for those elections, which will almost certainly be after the elections for the “Rodokans Resident in Tavaris” delegate, created by the recent legislation, which is set for this Sunday, the 29th. This delegate seat is unaffected by the Emperor’s declaration, meaning that the Rodokans will have 21 seats in the Diet—one for each tribe/Line and one essentially “at-large.”
Rodokan civil society groups are not necessarily satisfied with the arrangement, and some noted that things like an end to the personal union and to Tavari Union membership are not off the table. “We now return to the still inherently unequal system of one Rodokan vote for 200,000 people compared to one Tavari vote for 20,000. The Tavari system of ethnic representation in the legislature is an inherent flaw in democracy and affront to sapient rights, it always has been, and for so long as it continues to stand, it always will be,” said Lennart Hõbesepp Piip, chairman of the Council for Tavari-Rodokan Advancement. “This will not quell all the calls for Rodoka to pull away from Tavaris, though it will at the very least bring down the intensity.” The Council for Tavari-Rodokan Advancement, like many Rodokan rights groups, has long called for the total replacement of Line-based representation in the Diet with geographic constituencies as used in essentially every other democracy on Urth, which the Rodoka Native Tribal Association used for its twenty seats in the National Diet from 1992 until the 2022 Ranat Accords repealed the Treaty of Sinajärv which had granted the Rodokans their separately-counted representation in the Tavari legislature.
The Emperor’s announcement was greeted with cautious optimism by many Rodokans on social media, as well as by many Tavari people, but a number of right-wing Tavari groups are outraged at what they see as a violation of ancient Tavari tradition and just one more example of “social engineering” foisted upon them from on high. Jaak Moenarr Vähi, the Rodokan ambassador to the International Forum who once held that same job for Tavaris, posted on Pigeon that “I am proud to see High Chief Otan stand up and use his power to correct this injustice. There were 1,172 chairs in the Tavari Diet from its very inception until 2022, there is no reason there cannot be again.” (Editor’s note: the Tavari Diet now consists of 1,174 seats.) Delegate Tazena Oren Inzar, Leader of the Opposition and president of the Tavari National Party, was far less pleased, posting “This is social engineering at its most disgusting. Without any public deliberation, without any discussion with anyone, the King has forced this change upon us and literally changed the very definition of who the Tavari are. Our identity has been taken from us. We have been violated.”
In expectation of high political passions, the Tavari Ministry of Defence has already declared a police action at Palace Square, meaning that no permits for demonstration can be issued and no gatherings are permitted. “Demonstration zones” have been established several blocks from the centres of Tavari government at Queen Melora Park and the King Zaram IV Exposition Centre in Nuvrenon, and several blocks of High Street in Lantaž, capital of Tavaris’ Rodoka Province, have been cordoned off for demonstrations well away from the municipal buildings. Aside from a written, unsigned statement from the Defence Ministry, the Tavari government and Prime Minister Žarís Nevran Alandar have been entirely silent in regard to the announcement. The Office of the Prime Minister stated that “no statement is immediately forthcoming.” Already at press time, crowds had gathered at the aforementioned demonstration zones, with people at each pressing up against the barricades and demanding closer access to the Square. Several major businesses in the central business district, such as Ranzalar Holdings, Zandria, KokoVoi, NuvoBank, and Avtatóva, announced early closures, all citing concern for the safety of their employees. At NuvoBank, workers could be seen putting plywood over the windows on the ground floor, while Zandria—the largest weapons manufacturer in Tavaris—armed guards were posted at the doors.
Emperor Otan seemed to anticipate opposition in his remarks in the Square. “For many people, I know this will be just one more change. Change is difficult, especially a change of something that is held so closely to the heart—to the very soul—for millions of Tavari people. But we have not always counted 1,152 Lines. Before the unification of Tavaris, the Lines and their Chiefs were ever changing, even uncountable. Several of my predecessors in office have considered making or even unmaking Lines in the past, and Queen Melora the Brave herself once considered taking the very same action I have taken today. I have done today what must be done for fairness and justice, which have always been Tavari values from the very moment King Utor I first set pen to paper in writing the Tavat Avati that tells us how Chiefs must mete justice ‘in the interest first and foremost of what is fair to the spirits and the people involved.’ Our country today looks different than it has in the past, but I beseech all my people everywhere to take a moment and reflect on what is the same. We have stood next to the Rodokans for four hundred years. These are our friends and our allies. They built our country with us. They deserve fair representation. Everyone in this country, everyone who takes part in the building of our society, deserves fair representation.”
In that last remark, other activists have dared to find hope. Ulyon Naast, chairperson of the Ayaupian rights and civilian police advocacy group Demilitarise NOW, posted on Pigeon “It is not only Rodokans who take part in the building of our society but have no voice in the legislature. If the Emperor can do this for them, I hope he can do this for us, for the Banians, for all of the non-citizen nationals. We are here. We are waiting. Please, do not hear only the anger. Please hear us.”