"Your general intention was and is clear enough."

Since Plort dropped off the Board, it’s time to wrap this up.

This Council was held from the twelfth of July until the twenty-fifth of July in the City of Borrd.

Attendees:

Baron Huinesoron
Sar Iximaz (a baron of Plort) appeared briefly by magic
Baron Kaitlyn was present, but did not say a word.
Baron Neshomeh was still absent on a campaign against the Subjugator, but voiced her opinions through a messenger.
Baron PC
Protector Tomash of the Refuge of Ozerbord

Baron Eshakhar could not attend the council – apparently traveling in countries far abroad – but she sent a message accepting her barony.
Baron Phobos sent a messenger to announce that he had "more important matters to attend to" – but since there is certainly nothing more important than the Council of Plort, he may actually have been wounded and too proud to admit that he could not travel.

Non-deciding attendees:

Knight Ælcalen, mayor of L'Urque
The Djenni, messenger of Baron Neshomeh
Filius Caeli, a civilian from the City of Borrd in the Protectorate of Borrd
Frackles, messenger of Kwenaya, messaging nothing that needed to be discussed
Sir Hardric, a wandering knight
Sir Hieronymus the hermit, keeper of the records
Oopart, messenger of Baron Phobos had no instructions to bring up subjects or to vote in Baron Phobos name
Ye Scape-Grace, a knight from Keep De'endee and friend of the Diskord

Agenda:
A change of the rules of procedure (moved to top) – a proposal by Baron Huinesoron to let the archivists of the Commonwealth of Wechi, the Beytahs of the Riding of Sittorese, Protector Tomash of Ozerbord and the Mords of the Diskord participate in the Baronial Council as voting representatives of their respective nations.

A new nation – the Council is asked to acknowledge the establishment of a fifth nation, referred to as the Confederation of Diskord, which took possession of lands in the far east around La Wunj and in the west on the Geymez Plateau.

A new barony – per an invocation of the Edict of Bast, the newly created Baron Eshakhar receives the lands previously held by the permanently absent Baron Cassie, including the part that has last year been ceded to the now permanently absent Baron Thanasius Ampelius.

The relocation of Barony Huinesoron – a proposal by Baron Huinesoron to let him take the lands previously held by the permanently absent barons Araeph and July, but cede the territories south of the River Meibot – he may actually have meant the Meibot’s tributary Jid'ryv – back to Baron Neshomeh (west of the Auriantym Chain) respective Baron Juliette (east of the Auriantym Chain), making Neshomeh the only baron in Wechi again.

The disposition of Baron Huinesoron’s western territories – since Baron Huinesoron moves to eastern Borrd and the Riding of Sittorese, he intends to leave what is left of Ozerbord without a baron, but to cede his lands between the River Wep and the Wattuf Mountains, and the Geymez Plateau to Lady Iximaz, who, by another invocation of the Edict of Bast, would also receive the western part of former Barony Thanasius Ampelius.

The status of the City of Borrd – a move by Baron Huinesoron to exclude the capital from his new barony and let the Council of Borrd jointly take baronial authority over this city, as has been proposed on many previous occasions.

The Warden of Spelin – a move by Baron Huinesoron to appoint Ye Scape-Grace of De'endee as the warden of the Temple of Spelin.

New flags – Ye Scape-Grace used the opportunity to present the flag of the Confederation of Diskord (final version) to a greater public.
In the absence of any actual residents of the Riding of Sittorese, Hieronymus the hermit presented the flag of the Riding that, due to its difficult octarine colored part, had been in the works for two years.
Based on the national flags, Baron Huinesoron proposed a revised Union flag representing the Five Nations, the Five Eras of Rule and the Five Ages of Plort.

Decisions:
By votes of four to zero, Protector Tomash of Ozerbord and the Mords of the Diskord were invited to join the barons in the newly named Council of the Union of Plort.

Since there is a tie between two pro-votes and two contra-votes, no decision could be made concerning the representation of the Riding of Sittorese by its Beytahs.

Although three barons support the idea of having some sort of representation of the Commonwealth of Wechi that would be independent of the resident baron, and only one baron spoke against it, the barons’ actual intentions were left unclear. By not objecting to Sir Hieronymus speaking for all denizens of Wechi, Baron Neshomeh – who obviously is a denizen of Wechi – may have changed her mind from "invite the archivists" (apparently intending to give one vote to each archivist) to "let all denizens of Wechi have one collective vote". Either way, she would not be in agreement with Baron Huinesoron, who specified that "the archivists" should get one collective vote. Sar Iximaz’s "no objections to adding more voices to the council" is factually an abstain, since it might support whatever form of expanding the council the other barons decide to fit best, but there is no favored position. Thus, no actual decision could be made.

A new nation – Since the Mords of the Confederation of Diskord are now members of the Council of Plort, this nations existence has been acknowledged; no negotiation of borders was attempted.

A new barony – Since no negotiation of borders was attempted, Barony Eshakhar exists now within the borders as stipulated by the Edict of Bast.

The relocation of Barony Huinesoron – There was no opposition against Baron Huinesoron moving into eastern Borrd, but Baron Neshomeh objected to Baron Huinesoron taking possession of the parts of former Barony July east of the Larninkurv Mountains, claiming these lands for herself. After some discussion, Barons Huinesoron and Neshomeh agreed that they should both hold lands in the Riding of Sittorese, their border following the River Jid'ryv from Goch't to Flayme, and its tributary Jid'auks from there to the Larninkurvs. Barony Neshomeh now extends into the Riding, and the new Barony Huinesoron exists in eastern Borrd and in the Riding between Baronies Eshakhar and Neshomeh.

The disposition of Baron Huinesoron’s western territories – Barony Iximaz is unchanged.

In case Sar Iximaz did not want to expand her territories, Baron PC suggested to let him take baronial responsibility for the lands in western Diskord. This was supported by Baron Neshomeh, Baron Huinesoron and Sar Iximaz (actually speaking of all lands suggested to be placed under their control). Thus, Barony PC now includes western Diskord.

In case Sar Iximaz did not want to expand her territories, Baron Neshomeh further suggested to let the "northern parts" of Baron Huinesoron's former lands pass to Baron Phobos. (Since she agreed to let Protector Thomash represent the baronless nation of Ozerbord in the council, but opposed to the Beytahs of Sittorese representing the Riding that is already represented by its barons, she may not actually have attempted to expand her husband’s barony into Ozerbord, which would not get any support by other members of the Council.) Baron Neshomehs move was supported by Baron Huinsoron, specifying east of the Wattufs, and implicitly by Sar Iximaz not wanting any of those lands. Thus, Barony Phobos now extends to the Wattuf Mountains.

The status of the City of Borrd – Lacking any further discussion, the barons of the Council of Borrd obviously accepted their joint baronial authority over the City of Borrd.

The Warden of Spelin – Without objections Ye Scape-Grace is now the warden of the Temple of Spelin, but her claim to represent the will of the goddess in the Council was downright ignored.

New flags – The revised Union flag, based on the flags of the five nations, was accepted without dispute.

This document is still open for corrections, in case the keeper of the records got something wrong. If no objections occur, copies will be sent to all libraries of Plort for easy access.

Hieronymus the hermit, part-time knight of Wechi, archivist’s apprentice and keeper of the records

"But even ignoring all details, like who exactly should be considered a Beytah of the Riding of Sittorese, or whether the Beytahs are truly representative of the Riders, only you and Baron Huinesoron are in favor of letting the Riding have a say in the council, while Baron Neshomeh and Baron PC clearly said no to any kind of representation other than through Barons who hold lands in the Riding."

The hermit moved uneasily in his armchair. "In the case of Wechi, I’m afraid the details matter. Although I would appreciate to hear more voices in the council, I don’t see how what has been said could be twisted into a majority for one specific way of letting Wechi have a say in the Council." He sighed reluctantly. "Anyway, the subject has been closed."

((Actually, you and Neshomeh probably supported Huinesorons original proposition, which wasn’t clear itself, but probably meant "one vote for Protector Tomash, one vote for each Mord, one vote for each representative of the archivists of Wechi, and one vote for each Beytah of the Riding who bothers to show up at the Council" ...

*** Thinking very hard *** Oh! Okay, I’m going to finish the intended argument first.

So, concerning the details, you and Neshomeh may, much to Baron Neshohmeh’s dismay, have outvoted Baron Huinesoron, who was tricked into saying that the delegates of Wechi should only get one collective vote for the nation they represent. You may also have outvoted Baron PC, who spoke against any form of representation for Wechi other than through Baron Neshomeh. But saying that you two outvoted both of them, because your opinions match and theirs don’t, would still be a stretch, and the keeper of the records won’t go there.

As long as we don’t agree that in-universe, everybody who took residence in Wechi is an archivist, making the archivists represent Wechi would collide with Wechi’s pure democracy, and supporting this would be OOC for Hieronymus the hermit. Also, since Baron Neshomeh only voted "yes" for domestic political reasons, by sabotaging Huinesoron’s attempt to expand the council further while in-character advocating more democracy, the archivist’s apprentice stealthily fulfills his master’s secret wish.

Only while typing this, I realized that I didn’t pay sufficient attention to the details. "Let the archivists of Wechi send their representatives" doesn’t actually require said representatives to be acknowledged Archivists. If I hadn’t manipulated Huinesoron, we would have a vote of three to one, and any denizen of Wechi could try to claim that they, by the Common Rule of Non-objection, are representatives of the archivists of Wechi .

Could I still tweak this, so that you and Neshomeh implicitly supported any more detailed specifications Huinesoron came up with only after you spoke? I guess it’s too late, and it doesn’t matter anyway. There is nobody else in sight who might have tried to speak for Wechi, and not being allowed to vote never stopped me.

HG))