Senecio adn Tide II

[VisAnastasis]

" It might not be a bad idea for you to join us in this and give us a bit of unpaid labour then, if you are in the mood. You would be more useful to us for this than your Spirit companion, since there are no problems with quality of law offered, but a priority of reforms, and you are more qualified for that, having more insight into the urgency of different parts, " Ben explained with simple straightforward tone, despite the look of law student, his confident demeanor with the subject matching well with idea he was primed for a councilor. He waited until there was enough space for Erdel and Senecio to both sit before he continued, pointing over various spread notes as he explained. " First of all, the law suggestion you wrote is impeccable. It would pass with flying colours in an ideal world... But simply put, a lot of interests are at stake, and time is not on our side. If this were suggested a few years into Svarik's rule, we would have more leeway since a lot of other urgent matters would have already been passed, but right now we're in a mess of trying to reform a huge amount of things in small time, and we have to do it in a way that does not make other factions feel threatened. We are on thin ice, so any unjustified huge detailed change with countless pages on this level would feel like Svarik pushing other factions into doing what he wants without giving them leeway, so what would happen is that there would be a lot of pushback from all greedy bastards that would nitpick the hell out of every point, and it would be a process that would drag on for months. So, what we are aiming for is - having this be a very final version, that will be worked toward in smaller parts along with other reforms, sneaked in whenever possibly over the course of this year, " he firmly pointed around, indicating the whole document. " ... While our very first goal is to strip it down ot barebones safety and start of financial reform that we'll work out in a way that we give both military and nobleman faction part of the credit and merit, so instead of fighting for it for few months or forcing Svarik to go the tyrant path by pushing for it with pressure, we can pass most urgent parts in first few days when we get back to capital, so reforms can start right away and only be added on over time," he explained decisively - it seemed that justt like Erdel, Conrad also knew situation in theatre would be hard on Ben, so instead of having them face helplessness with no outlet, he was a step ahead, and gave them a task he trusted them to be able to do as well as he could, of working to protect the victims and assure their phisical and finanfial safety first. " Shorty summed up, first, we need a good explanation for choosing to do this first that will look like it focuses on the betterment of the empire, so it does not just seem like it is pushed for just because Svarik feels like it. Have to avoid any tyrant traps, as I said. For now our working idea is to tie it with the need for good public propaganda spreading now that after ten years of no emperor and great uncertainty, public morale is very low, and big cultural sites like theatres are a good way to oversee and control public opinion. Amount of propaganda tied plays increase in any case always, around time new rules is selected, and people that want to suck up to Svarik would increase and try to write and make art for him in any case, so we have good precedant to claim Svarik wants reforms because he is conscious about monitoring public opinion more closely. That way, if we pass barebones start of laws now, we will also have an excuse to, as soon as you publish the play about Bull, right away push into some more theatre reforms that will protect the right of speech. If we pull it off just right, we will be able to get Svarik to push for changes right now, but then also make him look more reasonable by pretending to yield to pressure he'll be receiving from all sides, and act like he's the one compromising by allowing more critical public speech, even though it's exactly what he wants, " he explained. " But to make first version pass within few days upon our return to the capital, we have to give two factions something tangible - military faction and nobleman faction. Falcon also said to what degree we could, including decentralisation of the military. Most important thing we need to include is proper protection for young actors, better oversight over health and basic financial support for each theathre. Now, for appeasing military, we plan to make money appointed for each theathre go through military appointed faction members, and make money larger than needed for running in order to allow a certain amount of embezzlement to make it profitable for them. It's unfortunate, and we'll have to weed out embezzlement with time, but we are basically giving more money everywhere so we can watch expenses carefully and get a better idea of how next year's budget will be adjusted accordingly. Also, to take care of health, we will appoint one reliable healer from capital per theathres, so they can also report regularly to Falcon and make sure military personal are kept in check. Now that capital has Simbel, me, and this bastard Erdel, need for healers in capital will drastically decrease, so this way, we will also make sure no qualified healer is out of work, and that we have Falcon's people to make sure nothing is without oversight and there are less chances for abuse to be perpecuated, by every faction being more concious of what they do because they are watched by other factions. Now, for appeasing the nobleman faction, we plan for decentralizing army more. Nobility fears the army's power and wants to lessen it, but they don't know yet that it's Svarik's plan, too, so it would look like Svarik is giving them a concession by lowering his own army power. Decentralising the army will be process done bit by bit, but for theathre purposes, we have an issue of protection - we need enough qualified people to employ at theathre for protection, but they also need to be someone local forces can not easily pressure, since they will only answer to central capital forces, not local forces. So, we basically plan to use middle rank military ranks that are more reliable and handpicked, and place a bit of them in each theathre, to scatter the armed forces a bit, and have them act as stationed forces. Long term goal for military pockets like those is to slowly turn them into a more elite guard force than currently underfunded local guards, but for now, we plan to wrap it up in some pretty glory ribbon, like putting it in a way that it's important to oversee public opinion for now so we can make sure the empire does not fracture in first years of Svarik's role. Something that does not feel trivial, but that also won't make anyone too zealous, more like safety precaution measures. Basically, plan is to trick all factions by giving them bit of carrot, while slowly stripping down power from army and turning its focus from war into protection of citizens, and directing nobility to focus on making profit instead of trying to grow their own military power to oppose empire official military, " man finally looked up from huge amount of papers, not being able to hide little more fiersty grin as he spoke of people he clearly did not have high opinion of, though his feelings toward Senecio seemed much softer and regardful. " .... So, summed up, people are bastards and we have to bleed them for their money's worth. So we are going protection route first - nothing is more important than enforcing that throughout land first, offering both safety and financial stability in the transition period. It's better for imperfect change to start right away, then to push for perfect change months away, now that we unfortunately have to look out for any tyrant alegations. Lot of this is in progress, and don't worry, everything we write will pass through Falcon before it gets before the council, but it would be good if you go through process with us, so that we don't push out from the first draft anything you deem most important. As shorter and smaller first law is, quicker we can pass it, but if it's something is important, it's okay to sneak it in if it only adds a day or two to how quickly we can pass it. " he looked at papers wistfully, as he admitted. " ... it is long overdue, so I really hope we get to make a version that gets to pass on the very first day back, but knowing bastards back home, three days is more realistic estimation... "