Lo-da'i again, Miss Maris.


In the initial response to your inquiry, it was assumed that you were alone in your curiosity. In the month that has followed, however, it seems as if your question inspired similar inquiries from a rather odd assortment of citydwellers and rogues.

As such, it seems perhaps most appropriate to share the response that was offered previously, though this time hopefully with fewer scribing errors on my part.

Please note: for any others seeking to read further that this will not be a short missive.

When we refer to the Verdant Republic, we are most often either referring to the Eleusian state itself or to the unique blend of religious and secular governance that are found within Her village.

In the case of the former, it exclusively refers to the village after its rebirth as the centre of Nature itself in Daedalan, 882 AF. The village before this date - and the system of secular democracy that it maintained from the abolition of the monarchy to the birth of the Verdant Republic - is known simply as 'the old village' or 'the second village' (in reference to eras, with the first village being the monarchy under the Tsol'aa after Keleus' founding, and the third village being the modern republic.

In the case of the latter, it remains quite unlike any other system of mortal governance that has yet been attempted on so large of a scale. To understand this most fully, I believe, we must examine first what precisely the role of mortals is upon the Earthmother's world.

In Her eyes, mortalkind is a pestilence. Our growth, our decay, our victories, our defeats - all generally irrelevant to Her realm save for the ways in which our self-centered mindset causes us to trespass, do harm, or to take without reciprocity. Throughout all but seventeen years of mortalkind's history, even the greatest of naturalists were held at arms' length - we were adjacent to Nature. Allegedly in service to Nature. But not part of Nature ourself, and - at best - deeply misguided on what being a part of Nature would even entail.

In the village, the Queen has many things - one of the larger aspects of this is that the village is, in essence, an experiment of Hers to help solve the question as to whether any mortals can truly come to live in harmony with Her. If the most devoted Eleusians cannot - and it remains to be seen on this front - then it is likely that mortalkind has no hope of being anything more than unwelcome trespassers at best.

In this, we see the philosophical underpinnings of our unique system of governance; were it that She wanted an enslaved army, She could simply will it so. She could, if She so chose, choose to water down Her realm and teachings into a sort of dogma that could simply be spoon-fed and regurgitated, much as Miss Maris and I once learned to do during our respective stints in the West and the East. She could, given Her authority, choose to simply appoint Speakers with dictatorial powers or replace House Lords on a whim.

And yet, She does not - why would She?

To do these things would bring no benefit and spoil the experiment; they would prove nothing about Her villagers save that we are as weak and malleable as the rest of the gurgling pestilence known as mortalkind. It would require Her to turn Her attentions from Her realm to attend to the petty matters of mortal existence.

In Her divine wisdom, she encourages Her chosen people to learn, to explore the unexplored, to grow - but with the agency to determine our own path, roughly, as well as the heavy burden of responsibility that goes along with it.

To this end, we have been granted the Verdant Republic - democratic theocracy. Mortals are allowed to elect most of our leaders, generally decide upon our own approaches and policies, and most often determine our own areas of focus when dealing with other mortals. She will always have the right and authority to override such decisions, or to provide guidance in the moments where our best judgment is not good enough, but by and large we operate with a level of autonomy and civil rights that simply do not exist in the dictatorships.

Another aspect to the Verdant Republic that contrasts with the old village's secular democracy is the shift away from the focus on executive power - with the Speaker having fairly broad authority and scope - to a more communalist approach, one where everyday citizens are more often invited to directly vote on matters of import and where the council of hierophants, not the Speaker, is the mortal root of authority within Her village. In all of this, we see a unique mix of theocracy blended with communalism, republicanism, democracy, and a slew of other systems that afford mortals far greater autonomy - and risk - than authoritarianism.

Politically speaking, this change has also seen the rapid destruction - by circumstance or by active choice - of most of Eleusis' oldest centers of political power, such as the old Eleusian families or the clannish co-conspirators of Truax Valeth's circle. It has also seen the rapid transformation of almost every area of Eleusian life more broadly; seedlings planted in the present whose fruit will not be known for decades. .

The changes are often painful, but necessary in ensuring that new life would be able to arise and adapt in the wake of the old life's death and destruction. This has swiftly led to a marked radicalization and increased boldness of the Eleusian electorate - the village has elected the most militant and radical council in its centuries-long history, and there at present is little to indicate that the populace has soured on these ideas.

We will make mistakes, aye, and we inarguably have a harder time figuring out the best way to serve Nature than do the followers of, say, Good and Evil. And yet this is by Her brilliant design as well - we are learning, however slowly, how to fail and still survive within Her realm. In time, as we continue to get to
know Her realm better, the failures will become far less frequent, and the successes far more so.

This is all a great many words to say that we have something odd, unique, strange, and entirely our own. Biased though I may be, I have lived a long life, and much of it elsewhere; the Verdant Republic and its democratic theocracy seems to deliver the best of both worlds and the worst parts of neither. While I myself was initially a strong proponent of Eleusis become a military dictatorship under Her rule, over time I have seen firsthand the myriad benefits of this unfamiliar system. Far me it from one of Her knight aspirants to question wisdom whose value is so plainly apparent upon even the most cursory inspection.

Apologies for the great many words - I am hopeful that this look into Her village's workings will make up for the minor inconvenience incurred.


Laiq tsuura,

Aodfionn Wintermourne
Speaker of Her village



Penned by my hand on the 9th of Miraman, in the year 899 AF.