A Woman's Place is in the Resistance: the #WomensMarch
Sethshire Cottage,
First Month, Twenty-First Day
1011 Clans United
To the citizenry of the Third Continent,
While my Lord and Master, Our Good King Alasdair, has already made his feelings about hope for the future known to you, I was asked to offer something by way of a statement. Carrigh of course prepared something, but considering my particular situation, having been part of a resistance myself on more than one occasion, and have defeated all those who threatened to expunge our rights as Frewyns, it was roundly asserted that I should be the one to address you. I am no speech-maker in general; I much prefer to act and talk about it later, but my saying something to you about the success of our rebellion might encourage you to keep the Flame of Moral Insurgence alive. It will go out quickly, if not continuously kindled, but you have those amongst you, a certain public official for one, whose anger spurs what oppression might extinguish. Cling to those who fight; they are always the best suited to lead. Alasdair fought with us during the Galleisian War, and though the velitations of a courtroom cannot equal the bloodshed of a battlefield, he knows what it is to give his life to a cause than most.
The person he opposed was his brother Allande. Frewyn enjoyed sixty-eight years of peace and prosperity under our beloved King Dorrin, but when Allande became of age and was not allowed to sit on the throne, because he was a fractious and foolish child, he did what anyone incapable of ruling on his own would do: he made an agreement with our enemies. Gallei has been Frewyn's great antagonist since the beginning of our two nations, and rightfully so: Frewyn believes in peace and equality, and Gallei enforces servitude and repackages it as morality. They like selling absolution: they need do nothing for it except tell all their women that they must stay at home and serve their families, and if they should think of doing anything so unforgivable as gain employment or read a book, they should be flogged in public by their church and never allowed out again. You might think I'm being facetious, but every year hundreds of Galleisian girls are left at our borders, abandoned by desperate women who would rather leave their daughters to the mercy of an enemy nation than sell them to Sesternese slavers. Frewyn has always been an equal society: the notion of it being anything else is unconscionable to a nation that has just as many female Gods as we do male Gods, and in general, we disregard both equally. We were forced to when, over a thousand years ago, our Gods left us in favour of a more celestial life. The clan wars were becoming a bit too raucous for them, and we were left to learn how to get along by ourselves. It was work, but we did it, and since then, we have been great friends. Nothing unites a people faster than a common enemy, and when a people is faced with an obvious antagonist, they will stand like stone to the gales.
I have seen your antagonist; no one can miss him unfortunately. He is so busy talking about appendages and parts that do not belong to him, he has no idea how disproportionate his own are. Allande was rather the same in this respect, but I will not bore you with needless remarks on his person. Allande's fits at not being given the throne were enough to prove that he should never be allowed any position of power, and when his grandfather had decided to pass the kingship to Alasdair, Allande retaliated by letting the Galleisians into our courts. They killed King Dorrin, and Allande claimed the throne for himself. Here the resistance began: Vyrdin and Brigdan, along with the Royal Guard, began their schemes to save the kingdom and put Alasdair on the throne, but Allande, urged by his Galleisian friends, began to make changes in our kingdom, changes that would defraud us of rights that King Allun the First and the Gods gave to us. He altered the Dearbha, our constitution, he increased our taxes, he diminished government funding to health and education, and when the riots against his leadership began, he undid the agreement that King Breian made with Frewyn farmers five hundred years ago and enforced mandatory tithes in proportion to their lands. My father and our farm were directly affected by Allande's nonsense: we grew poor and desperate, and just when the farmer's of Tyfferim and Sethshire planned to march against the throne, Allande's friends became enemies: the Galleisians breached our borders, and the first insurgence began. To save himself from being killed by his own people for the crimes he committed against us, Allande declared war on Gallei, but Vyrdin and Brigdan and the resistance were already moving. We formed Tyfferim Company and various other rebel contingents within the Frewyn Armed Forces, and while we fought the Galleisians, we also fought against Allande, whose tyranny came to an end when a member of our resistance found him on the battlefield and sunk the love-end of a blade between his shoulders.
Allande the Vain, the whinging strain on democracy, was dead, and it was upon the people of Frewyn to rebuild everything we had lost. In just three years, Frewyn had gone from being a glorious aegis of liberty to a mire of misery and subjugation, and while it would take us at least ten years to regain ourselves, we would rally again. Many fought and died for our freedom, and we would have lost against the raging beast of tyranny had our resistance not been in place. Vyrdin and Brigdan's effort saved our kingdom, but as you well know, they left it to us to set everything to rights.
Rebellions cannot last or be successful without a collective effort, and the one you have all shown today is an attestation of your ambition to maintain your freedom. You must never lose that ambition. Vyrdin, who was born angry, never lost his will to destroy his enemies; he would put down anyone who dare obstruct the good of Frewyn Values. Equity, acceptance, kindliness-- these are the statues imbued in the foundations of our kingdom, they are our birthright, and if anyone deigns to take them from us, be they king or magistrate, it is our equal right to defend ourselves to the last. Your country must be treated with the same vigilance.
Hold fast to one another, and stand like a stone to the gales.
We come by aurora,
with a heavy and sovereign tread,
with the might of matriarchs to furnish our shoulders,
with the apricity of light to crown our heads.
H.C. Boudicca MacDaede
Royal Commission
First Month, Twenty-First Day
1011 Clans United
To the citizenry of the Third Continent,
While my Lord and Master, Our Good King Alasdair, has already made his feelings about hope for the future known to you, I was asked to offer something by way of a statement. Carrigh of course prepared something, but considering my particular situation, having been part of a resistance myself on more than one occasion, and have defeated all those who threatened to expunge our rights as Frewyns, it was roundly asserted that I should be the one to address you. I am no speech-maker in general; I much prefer to act and talk about it later, but my saying something to you about the success of our rebellion might encourage you to keep the Flame of Moral Insurgence alive. It will go out quickly, if not continuously kindled, but you have those amongst you, a certain public official for one, whose anger spurs what oppression might extinguish. Cling to those who fight; they are always the best suited to lead. Alasdair fought with us during the Galleisian War, and though the velitations of a courtroom cannot equal the bloodshed of a battlefield, he knows what it is to give his life to a cause than most.The person he opposed was his brother Allande. Frewyn enjoyed sixty-eight years of peace and prosperity under our beloved King Dorrin, but when Allande became of age and was not allowed to sit on the throne, because he was a fractious and foolish child, he did what anyone incapable of ruling on his own would do: he made an agreement with our enemies. Gallei has been Frewyn's great antagonist since the beginning of our two nations, and rightfully so: Frewyn believes in peace and equality, and Gallei enforces servitude and repackages it as morality. They like selling absolution: they need do nothing for it except tell all their women that they must stay at home and serve their families, and if they should think of doing anything so unforgivable as gain employment or read a book, they should be flogged in public by their church and never allowed out again. You might think I'm being facetious, but every year hundreds of Galleisian girls are left at our borders, abandoned by desperate women who would rather leave their daughters to the mercy of an enemy nation than sell them to Sesternese slavers. Frewyn has always been an equal society: the notion of it being anything else is unconscionable to a nation that has just as many female Gods as we do male Gods, and in general, we disregard both equally. We were forced to when, over a thousand years ago, our Gods left us in favour of a more celestial life. The clan wars were becoming a bit too raucous for them, and we were left to learn how to get along by ourselves. It was work, but we did it, and since then, we have been great friends. Nothing unites a people faster than a common enemy, and when a people is faced with an obvious antagonist, they will stand like stone to the gales.
I have seen your antagonist; no one can miss him unfortunately. He is so busy talking about appendages and parts that do not belong to him, he has no idea how disproportionate his own are. Allande was rather the same in this respect, but I will not bore you with needless remarks on his person. Allande's fits at not being given the throne were enough to prove that he should never be allowed any position of power, and when his grandfather had decided to pass the kingship to Alasdair, Allande retaliated by letting the Galleisians into our courts. They killed King Dorrin, and Allande claimed the throne for himself. Here the resistance began: Vyrdin and Brigdan, along with the Royal Guard, began their schemes to save the kingdom and put Alasdair on the throne, but Allande, urged by his Galleisian friends, began to make changes in our kingdom, changes that would defraud us of rights that King Allun the First and the Gods gave to us. He altered the Dearbha, our constitution, he increased our taxes, he diminished government funding to health and education, and when the riots against his leadership began, he undid the agreement that King Breian made with Frewyn farmers five hundred years ago and enforced mandatory tithes in proportion to their lands. My father and our farm were directly affected by Allande's nonsense: we grew poor and desperate, and just when the farmer's of Tyfferim and Sethshire planned to march against the throne, Allande's friends became enemies: the Galleisians breached our borders, and the first insurgence began. To save himself from being killed by his own people for the crimes he committed against us, Allande declared war on Gallei, but Vyrdin and Brigdan and the resistance were already moving. We formed Tyfferim Company and various other rebel contingents within the Frewyn Armed Forces, and while we fought the Galleisians, we also fought against Allande, whose tyranny came to an end when a member of our resistance found him on the battlefield and sunk the love-end of a blade between his shoulders.
Allande the Vain, the whinging strain on democracy, was dead, and it was upon the people of Frewyn to rebuild everything we had lost. In just three years, Frewyn had gone from being a glorious aegis of liberty to a mire of misery and subjugation, and while it would take us at least ten years to regain ourselves, we would rally again. Many fought and died for our freedom, and we would have lost against the raging beast of tyranny had our resistance not been in place. Vyrdin and Brigdan's effort saved our kingdom, but as you well know, they left it to us to set everything to rights.
Rebellions cannot last or be successful without a collective effort, and the one you have all shown today is an attestation of your ambition to maintain your freedom. You must never lose that ambition. Vyrdin, who was born angry, never lost his will to destroy his enemies; he would put down anyone who dare obstruct the good of Frewyn Values. Equity, acceptance, kindliness-- these are the statues imbued in the foundations of our kingdom, they are our birthright, and if anyone deigns to take them from us, be they king or magistrate, it is our equal right to defend ourselves to the last. Your country must be treated with the same vigilance.
Hold fast to one another, and stand like a stone to the gales.
We come by aurora,
with a heavy and sovereign tread,
with the might of matriarchs to furnish our shoulders,
with the apricity of light to crown our heads.
H.C. Boudicca MacDaede
Royal Commission
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