The Great Consolidation

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The Great Consolidation was a Shirerithian Revival Attempt which was proclaimed by Kaiser Mors V on October 26th 2007(ASC 3003).

The Great Consolidation

Preliminary Events

Toward the end of the Great Slump, Erik Mortis returned and declared himself Kaiser Letifer III, raising hopes of an end to the nation's bad times. However, when Erik remained inactive and the predicted renaissance failed to materialize, several nations began bidding for Shireroth's remains. Although Antica made a few moves in that direction, more significant was King Jeremy of New Britannia's claim to the throne as Kaiser Augeore I of the Line of Bellami. In response, Jonas, a new Shirerithian citizen from Batavia, claimed the throne as Kaiser Mahamantot I. And related to both claims, Scott Alexander emigrated and tried to officially declare Shireroth dead through the Malarbox in order to protect its memory. Luckily, just as all of these competing claims were going on, Erik killed off his Letifer III personality, took the name Kaiser Mors V, and became genuinely dedicated to recreating Shireroth. Augeore was declared an Antikaiser, but Mahamantot, because he willingly relinquished the throne to Mors and was only doing what he thought best for the nation, was given the honor of remaining an official Kaiser even though he only ruled for one day.

Forums and Duchies

Heartened by the appearance of activity, several citizens of foreign micronations joined Shireroth; these included Harald Thorstein, Ben Kern, Maksym Hadjimehmetov, Liam conToketi, and Andreas the Wise. Several other citizens who had joined during the slump but never really done anything also got a chance to shine, including Jacobus Loki and Jonas. A friend of Ari's, Neike Tesse-Tessaro, helped without ever immigrating, and Yvain Wintersong joined up around this period as well. These people compensated for the loss of many of the old Shirerithians, like Fax Celestis and Hypatia Agnesi, during the Slump.

Ari Rahikkala had a bit of an epiphany and devoted himself with vigor to the reconstruction of Shireroth's long-suffering forum. Various glitches had prevented easy creation and moderation of new forums, so Ari completely reworked the phpBB from the ground up, making controversial decisions like giving Erik full password control and stripping Scott of his monopoly on the Malarbox. The first new Malarbor message was:

'So, after a few dead Kaisers, we now have Kaiser Mors V. And apparently a "Great Consolidation" of positions and powers. Silly mortals. Thinking that I didn't plan this all along. For I am Malarbor! I know all! This is as I have foreseen!'

On the political side, Kaiser Mors ended the last scraps of New Feudalism and restored four of Shireroth's traditional Duchies - Brookshire, Yardistan, Kildare, and Elwynn. He also added an extra, Straylight, to reward Ari for his leading role in the Consolidation.

Politics

Though at first glance the Great Consolidation may appear to be nothing more then a fancy Oustfest, at closer look one can see that it was so much more; more potent and power; and frightening. Within the first days The Charter was suspended and the Landsraad dismissed, giving the Kaiser absolute control over the nation once again. All dukes, ministers and other officials were removed from power, except the Prætor who was retained. Next all citizens were required to reapply for citizenship into the nation, leaving the census rather small for a number of days.

However, these acts were not merely exercises of vital powers by the Kaiser. As people began to reapply for citizenship the Kaiser began to bestow lesser ranks to individuals and deliberate upon the new Dukes soon to be proclaimed. Another oddity was introduced into the Shireroth political system at this point, the idea of nobles in a subdivision but not of a subdivision. Jonas was proclaimed Baron in Kildare, while Ari Rahikkala was proclaimed Duke in Straylight. This had the effect of bestowing title without necessarily bestowing power.

On October 30th (ASC 3007) the Kaiser made Imperial Decree 270, which established new duchies reviving the Duchy of Brookshire and proclaiming new dukes. Jonas as Duke of Kildare, Mors himself as Duke of Brookshire, Jacobus as Duke of Yardistan, Ari Rahikkala (officially) as the Duke in Straylight, and Harold of Stormark as Duke of Elywnn. Lastly the Landsraad was once more called to session and instructed to create new voting procedures; with a Prætor already available, with was a simple task.

The next move done in Imperial Decree 271 was to reorganize the ministries of Shireroth, though no new ministers were appointed. The Ministry of Cartography and the Ministry of Research and Education where merged into the Ministry of Information, which aside from this merge was left unchanged. The Ministry of Military Affairs, Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of the Exterior were all left completely untouched, while the Ministry of Immigration, Naturalization and Tourism was restored to it's original title of Ministry of Immigration and Naturalization. Though not inherently altered, the Ministry of Trade was suspended from active existence.

The next two decrees 272 and 273 established Ari Rahikkala as Duke of Straylight and Minister of the Exterior respectively.

Within the Landsraad the Great consolidation took hold and produced several pieces of legislation aimed at restoring the old ways, and repairing the damage caused to the nations laws and infrastructure by the past year or so of mismanagement and neglect. The Lawbook reboot Act: 11-2-2007 was such a piece of legislature that sought to reconcile the various outdated copies of the Lawbook that existed at the time, and deal with the fact that there was no "Current" copy in existence. Other bills such as Procedures of the Landsraad 3009 restored new and simpler voting rules to the Landsraad. Other bills such as Welcome to the fourth millennium, MiniInt and The website, ShireWiki and its contents worked to restore some semblance of order to the various electronic medium that the nation used and prevent future problems.

Goals and Reasons

One of the main goals of the Great Consolidation was to remove all old institutions, laws and procedures that had hindered previous revival attempts. The Landsraad was a prime example of this. As it stood the Landsraad was inactive and dead. With the procedures and nobles of the time in place there was no way for the Landsraad to revive itself, but the Kaiser prohibited by the Charter could not directly interfere with the Landsraad and remove the procedures preventing its restoration. This and other needs of expediency are what prompted the Kaiser to suspend the Imperial Charter, with the consent of the Prætor. Further it was obvious that the current dukes within the Landsraad had fallen off the face of the world, and that new nobles would be needed if the Landsraad was to restore itself.

Though some might criticize the Great Consolidation to be a break from Shireroth traditions, other would argue that it was in fact a return to older simpler traditions from the early days of the Republic of Shireroth. For example the return to only dukes voting in the Landsraad, along with their only have 1 vote each. Combined with the return of the Duchy of Brookshire with the Kaiser as its duke, also known as Erik Mortis.
Indeed it was the goal of the Kaiser to return Shireroth to an earlier and simpler time and way of government to help promote it's revival, feeling that it was because of the complexities of it's own laws and precedures that previous revival attempts had failed. However we would be remiss to not point out the great effect the restoration of the forums by Ari Rahikkala had on the Great Consolidation.

Conclusion

The Great Consolidation gradually came to an end as the reign of Mors V moved on and the nation began to be able to once again move under its own power. The Kaiser moved onto side projects and his own personal issues, and allowed things to take their own course. Perhaps the last event to take place in the Great Consolidation came during the last days of Mors V reign when he announced that the Kaiser would no longer take as active a role in the day to day operations of the nation, and would delegate these responsibilities to the Steward of Shireroth who was hence forth to be elected by the Landsraad whenever there was a change in Kaiser or the Steward resigned, or in the rare event, removed from power. This plan however met with much disfavor and the Kaiser decided that he would not officially implement it, though he would encourage the election of the next Steward.


See Also: Mors V, Shirerithian Revival Attempts, Oustfest