Your Niftiness, I did not know about the census when I began this rebellion. I claim no legal sanction for my behavior. I claim only the right claimed by your royal ancestors, Letifer I, Mahamantot I, Mors V, and many others: the right to overthrow an incompetent leader and replace him with a competent one.
Your Niftiness, of the six citizens of Elwynn, four support the revolt, one is missing, and only one opposes it - that one being Iskander himself. It is your right to tell the vast majority of the Duchy who are tired of Iskander Mirkdale's rule that they have no other options, and that the Golden Mango Throne will not grant them succor. But I ask - is that truly what you want for your people? Can the law not be bent for a cause so manifestly just that even His Honor the Imperial Judex, the law's greatest defender in these realms, finds sympathy with it?
The law prohibiting rebellion has long been balanced, in spirit if not in letter, with a second law - that those rebellions which are manifestly just will come to fruition, aided by the Kaiser's benevolent will. It was thus that, instead of punishing Greg Russell for his revolt to become Duke of Yardistan, the Throne smiled upon it and granted him the position. If ever there was a time to invoke this second law, Your Niftiness, it is now. I quote from Nehani Eiserdion's address to the Elirian Council:
It has become appallingly clear to me that Baron Mirkdale's interests lie less in using his throne, then in holding onto it. In the past two days after our little rebellion has begun, Baron Mirkdale made twenty-four posts. In the entire two months before that, he made less than twenty. It is this sense that there is nothing to be done, that Elwynn can be neglected as already complete, that has shaken my faith in him. Iskander believes that all a Duke must do is make occasional Landsraad votes, and thus, that is all that has been done in Elwynn during his reign since the preliminary burst of activity when he first took the throne.
Andrew Allot, during his month-odd stay in Shireroth, has already made more posts than Iskander has in two years. And his posts are not mere yeas or nays in the Landsraad. In his own county of Araxion, he has already revived the worship of the goddess Elwynn. Elsewhere, he has passed the bar test and gained membership in the Guild of Lawyers, recruited a new citizen to Shireroth, become MiniInfo, restored the glory of Malarbor, opened a business, resurrected SSHIT, and started a radio station. I believe in meritocracy. And I believe that Andrew Allot has done more to earn the title of Duke than Iskander Mirkdale.
In his single day as claimant to the Ducal Throne, Duke Allot has already made new flags for areas long left flagless during Iskander's term, prayed for Elwynn at the Multi-Temple, and commissioned a history of the rebellion. Andrew Allot has done as much in one day as Iskander Mirkdale has in six months.
Throughout the land, even unto the Golden Mango Throne, there is a tradition that, after ruling a certain period a noble should step down in favor of an heir with fresh new ideas. Indeed, some historians have called this the very essence of Shireroth, saying that without the "three-month" rule placed upon the Kaisership our nation would never have become as vibrant as it is. Though no official three-month rule is placed upon the Duchies of the land, still this same principle has moved the rise and fall of the great noble houses. Erik Mortis is no longer Duke of Brookshire, nor does Scott Alexander rule Elwynn. Jonas has stepped aside as Dutch of Kildare, and Jacobus Loki given Yardistan to another. Ari still rules Straylight, true, but it is one thing for Shireroth's most active citizen, beloved of his subjects, to remain in a position, and quite another for Iskander Mirkdale to do so - and even Ari has frequently ceded his Landsraad powers to another!
I do not ask that the three-month rule apply to Duchies: this would be madness and a break with tradition. But I do think that the spirit that moves the rule - the idea that someone who has lost interest and activity should cede a position to another rather than grasping it ever the more tightly - still applies. It is thus that the Hyperboreans ceded the lordship of Elwynn thrice, and they shall do so a fourth time should it a fourth time fall into their hands.
Iskander Mirkdale has made no move to abide by this spirit. Rather, when he was asked to leave, he has in a fit of spite stripped away the lands and titles of those who did the asking. I wish justice not for myself alone, but especially for Rai Avon-El, the beloved conscience of the Elw, whose years of service to this Duchy were repaid by Mirkdale with the boot. The Duke has locked all threads in which the matter has been discussed, and sought to demand the Babkhan ritual of homage from his previously free subjects.
It is a tradition of this great land that there be no punishment for those who rebel. Even Kaiser Hasan I pardoned the Jacobites, and Kaiser Ayreon I pardoned the Jacobites who rebelled against his reign as well. And when Jacobus at last took power, he pardoned Ayreon's ties to Babkha. In all the history of the land, I know of only one man who has punished his subjects for a just rebellion, and that is Iskander Mirkdale. This does not cow the people of Hyperborea. It only makes them ever more committed to ending his control of our lands.
We the free Elwynnese come from all corners of the Duchy. We want the light of the White Orchid to shine once again in the halls of the North.
Your Niftiness, in these sunset days of your reign, you could do your legacy a great credit by heeding these words, and favoring our rebellion. If the law is too great a burden upon you for you to simply support us, I beg that you present the matter to the Landsraad, as it would give us a chance to plead our case before the assembled nobles of the realm.
If you do not, I pray that your wrath falls on me alone, as I was the instigator of this rebellion and the others have only listened to my words. Allot, Leo, and Ric deserve no punishment, and if you should deny my petition I ask that you at least ask Iskander to cease persecuting these good Shirerithians and restore any titles that he has stripped from them, nor ask them to carry out embarrassing homage ceremonies to him.
