Elvenesse Papers
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The Elvenesse (also known as The Elvenesse Papers) is a a collection of, as of currently, 5 articles and essays written by the young elven upstart Kardryn Oranor. The papers were written to give criticism on the laws (mainly the constitution) and policies of the government of the Dominion of Elvenesse. The articles and essays were sold at a small store called Oronar Goods & Industries which was owned by Oranor's uncle, Gilondir Oronar, as well as on the streets of Caras Eldar, the capital of the Dominion, by Oranor himself. Older issues of the papers would also be free for any to read at Oronar's store.
Inspiration
The name 'The Elvenesse' was chosen as the name for the article project by Oranor to simply be a shorter, and in his more catchy version of the full title: The Elvenesse Papers. Oranor was in his early twenties when starting the writing project, a mere child in elven culture. He had however a strong wish to change the world for the better in his life, a process he couldn't start soon enough in his eyes, for despite being an elf, he was running out of the amount of time he was given in his life. In his early youth Oranor developed a passion for writing and other fine arts, this combined with his aspiration to study law at Roswell college, the academy of Holm led to Oranor wanting to write about politics as he saw politics as a way to change the world, with writing being the key to it. This inspired the young mali to thus write The Elvenesse Papers.
List of Papers
What follows is a list of all of the The Elvenesse issues, quoted from how they were originally written by Oranor himself.
1: On our government's economical transparency.
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The First Seed, 1664, the High Prince issued his new Common Defence law. The law entails that citizens of our Dominion home must take up arms to help defend our nation in times of need, such as during a raid. If us citizens refuse to take up arms in occasions like these, we must pay taxes to the crown, with the exception of pregnant women, children and the severely disabled. Where do these taxes that he forces us to pay go though? In fact, not only these taxes, what are all the payments to the state used for? The minas we pay to the Treasury when buying a home or shop, the fines we must pay for our crimes? Where does the money go? What does our crown use it for? We need our government to be more transparent. How else can we know that the money of our taxes, treasury payments and fines is being used wisely and for governing purposes, rather than being used for the High Prince to go on a spending spree? There's a very simple solution to this problem that is the fog around our nation's economy, created by the government. The Treasury needs to keep a record of all the state transactions, all the income and expenses. These records need to be available for the public to view! We have a right to see where our money goes to and be asured that it's not used improperly. And for those who find this far fetched; look at the Silma seed themselves! They're living the fancy life in their big manor, their family being one of the biggest merchant families of Atlas, but does that wealth all come from trade? Or also from our tax money? Now I am in no way hostile to the Silma's, nor do I except them to be guilty of such activities, but there is no way to be sure of it unless our High Prince decides to create more transparency in his government. A lack of transparency eventually results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity. Transparency will lead to reduced corruption within the government of our nation. I write this short essay to ask for attention on the matter and to use this attention to set our government to work on changing it's policies for the better. We need to trust our High Prince, but trust rests on a strong foundation. One he needs to build. With great consideration, your obedient servant, K. Oranor |
2: On the connection of powers.
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The Domestic Charter of Elvenesse, written by the Communal Lords on the 16th of the Sun's Smile, 1659. The First Part of it, Article I, Section I reads: "The High Prince's duties range to all of the following: Exarch Supreme to rule over Judicial Proceedings, Leader of the Elvenesse, Commander of the mali folk, the Foreign Diplomat of the Communal Government, and the Monarch of the People (...)" This is the first section of our constitution, the constitution of our young nation of all elves. It is in this section that our High Prince's powers are defined. It is here that our constitution states how our High Prince holds the power to create laws, judge over these laws and take action against the trespassers of it. And thus, it is this section that makes our nation's leader a possible dictator. Loriens Silma is a kind and good-natured man, a proper man to lead our nation as our High Prince. But what if he was insane? What if he was a maniac? A madman? He'd have the power to do whatever he wishes to do. So what would we do against this? We can't do something against this. We can't do something for the High Prince holds the power to make rules, control them and enforce them, leaving the citizens powerless. So what went wrong here? The High Prince or in fact any ruler should not be an absolute ruler, an absolute ruler being someone who holds all keys to power. These keys to power are the positions to make decisions. The keys of making the laws, judging on the laws in court and executing actions against the offenders of the law are three keys that should not be in the hands of one person, for these three keys can together lock the door to freedom when in the wrong hands. Thus I hereby plead to divide these powers. It benefits our nation to have these powers seperated, to have one authority that makes the laws, controlled by the public, to have one authority that judges those who offend the law and to have one authority that takes action against offenders of the law. For when we split up these powers and keep those who hold them in cheque, we can significantly reduce corrupt governance and give a madman leader no chance. Now I ask our High Prince one thing: How long will it take him to put this divide of powers into place? How much longer will the mali folk need to live in a possible dictatorship? With great consideration, your obedient servant, K. Oranor |
3: On the unequal distribution of votes.
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The Dominion of Elvenesse, the land of mali, is since 1659 a meritocratic commonwealth, meaning those with skill or good abilities get to hold power. Our High Prince stands as the lead of our nation and thus gets to appoint the leading class of this oligarchy. To compensate for his power and to give the people a say too, there’s the ability for citizens to vote on a new High Prince when one is to be elected, bringing a small bit of democracy into our oligarchic system of government. But why is it then, that this compensation for the citizens is essentially useless? This is very simple, as all citizens of Elvenesse, no matter how many of them vote, get combined into one singular vote. It is true, and it’s a scandal. Whenever our government gives us the ability to give input on a matter, all of us together get 1 vote while each member of the sitting government gets a vote PER PERSON. Even more ridiculous is the fact that the High Prince gets two votes. This means that essentially, our democratic compensation for this oligarchic government, is useless, as we citizens of the Dominion get too little input to make a difference. That is why I hereby plead for this to be changed. It is a problem that us citizens of the Dominion don’t get a proper say in electing a High Prince, for this High Prince can appoint whoever he wants to have in his administrative court, meaning he could simply pick individuals who vote for him. And with the administrative court having three times as many votes as all citizens in Elvenesse, it is clear why this is a ridiculous problem. Thus, by publishing this paper, I ask the citizens of Elvenesse as well as the government to stand up for change. We must have a proper election for choosing a new High Prince. An election where every individual gets one equal vote per person rather than having them all combined. If we are supposed to have a say in picking the leader of our nation, then let us have a proper say in the matter, and not one that isn’t heard by the government because it isn’t loud enough. Why should the Treasurer for instance, an individual appointed by the High Prince and his government, have just as much say in choosing a High Prince as all the citizens that inhabit, work and live in this prosperous nation? Both the situation created here by our constitution and the fact that nobody does anything about it, are ridiculous. With great consideration, your obedient servant, K. Oranor |
4: On the contradictions of our constitution.
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Our constitution, or at least the writ that ought to be labelled as such, and has been labelled as such in my earlier papers, has been written by Azoth Hawksong. Some may consider this constitution to be a work of art, and mister Hawksong to be a genius. Most individuals however don’t think as highly of the man who wrote our ‘constitution’, for the constitution, as with it’s writer, is odd, to say the least. Not only does this set of laws written by Hawksong, who nonetheless is a professor of Legal Studies at the academy of Holm, include all the issues that have previously been adressed in the Elvenesse Papers, it also holds with it a great set of contradictions, some of the clearest of which can be seen within Article 5, also known as ‘The Communal Government’. It is this article where the limits of our government are specified. Not at all an unimportant piece of the puzzle. Though it is also this article that throws overboard any logic that captain Hawksong carried on his ship known as our constitution. For instance, the second ‘rule’ for our government is, to quote: “The government shall not enforce Law upon the entire land without the MASTER VOTE.” Now maybe professor Hawksong isn’t aware, but a government’s purpose is to enforce law. Of course, those who put any thought into their reading of said rule realize that it means that the government is not allowed to make laws without the MASTER VOTE approval, though this is NOT what is stated, and thus this can easily be misinterpreted. Furthermore, to quote rule seven: “The Government shall allow equal say to the People.” Now those who have read the previous issue of The Elvenesse Papers already know this, but for those who haven’t: our constitution does NOT grant equal say to the people. Not in the slightest. The people only get a say in one matter, the MASTER VOTE, and even there the voice of the public is outscreamed by the many more voices that the government itself poses. Thus this is another fine detail of professor Hawksong’s artwork, another contradiction to add to the bunch that exists in a work that should hold none. It is possible for us to continue on about many more of these obvious mistakes made by Hawksong, though to keep this paper short we will end with the best, if comedic value is concerned, one of them all. This is, to quote rule four: “The Government shall not seek to sow deception in the People.” Thus it pains me to see, that with this work of his own, Hawksong breaks his rule. With great consideration, your obedient servant, K. Oranor |
5: On the protection of our economy.
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Some stalls scattered across the city, an occasional shop or two and… that’s it. That is essentially all our economy entails. A few small market stalls or shops. Nothing more, nothing less. Now this seems fine, but our economy’s increasingly stalling. Why is this and what does this mean? It means that our economy isn’t growing, it’s growth is slowing down as the market gets saturated. Why is it so easily saturated? Because nothing is done to promote economic growth. But more importantly, no measures are taken to protect our already fragile economy from being ruined. No laws exist to ensure fair prices, to keep healthy competition or on the contrary, the lack of competition. There’s no restrictions on what can be sold and there’s nothing to protect the everyday consumers, which includes you and I, from being monetarily abused by the merchants and companies that provide us the goods that we buy. So, what ought to be done? Firstly, there should be restrictions on what goods are to be sold and what goods aren’t to be sold. Would you want drugs to be sold in an environment where children roam around? Should it be sold at all? Note that drugs are just an example here, there’s of course much worse items that, at the moment, can be freely sold on Elvenesse’s streets. Think about items that hold dark magic for example. Restrictions on what can be sold would prevent these goods from simply being bought at the grocery store, making it harder for one to get their hands on them. Furthermore, there should be restrictions on how many outlets are allowed to sell a certain good. This prevents a certain good from flooding the market and sets a bar for joining the market. Say if you wish to sell iron. If there’s going to be dozens of shops selling iron, it’s likely that you won’t sell your iron, because the market is flooded, oversaturated. There’s to much supply for the demand, making the prices drop dramatically or else there won’t be sales.Now this is good for the consumers of course, cheap iron! But this is horrible for producers, for they will barely make any profit or no profit at all, causing them not to wish to sell on the market of the Dominion. The last protective measure that we will address and that our government ought to instate is making the formation of cartels illegal. A cartel is an agreement between companies or producers about fixed prices. Say, for example, that there are 10 companies that sell iron in Elvenesse. These 10 companies could come together and agree to sell their iron for a minimum of 15 minas, setting a high price so that they make more profit. Because all companies agree to this, there’s no competition between the companies, thus they won’t feel the need to lower their prices to compete with their rivals. This is of course a horrible way to abuse financial power to the consumers’ disadvantage. Thus cartel formation should be made illegal, to protect our economy along with the other measures I described and possibly many other measures that could be taken to protect our market, but simply aren’t taken by the government, for whatever reason. With great consideration, your obedient servant, K. Oranor |
