Illarion.org

Greetings

There were some questions regarding to my policy on different things:

EDWARD CROMWELL

Yes. I am not a nice man (quite the opposite). I have a sharp wit, ideas which are right and good for the most of the time and the bad habit of saying the truth in your face. I have a vision of how things should be done.. and what this town needs is a man with a vision and the necessary amount of guts and spitefulness to make it work. It doesn’t need another stagnated, friend-favoring and corrupt two-time loser who is just content on decorating his or her personal mansion with government money. I will openly admit that I consider democracy to be a weak institution.

If I am elected, my intention is to make the town a stable place, both politically and for the people of the town. I’d like to very much to make clear at this point, that as the governor I intend to be the man in charge. I will do what I consider to be best for the town. If I need an advice from the people, I will ask for it. If things are not broken, I will not invest any effort into fixing them. However, as most things in the town are more or less broken.. There is plenty of work for someone who is willing to change things. That would be me.


My four goals can be summarized like that:

AN INDEPENDENT TOWN
A town which benefits from it's alliances but is not dependant on them.

EFFICIENT ADMINISTRATION
That is capable of reaching its goals and can react rapidly to changing situations.

PROSPEROUS CITIZENS
The administration shall do its best to benefit the traders, craftsmen and ordinary citizens of the town.

ADMINISTRATION MADE OF LEADERS
Leaders who are not your buddies, who know better than you, but who will still think about your best when they make decisions. If not your best as individual, then at least the best of you and your fellow citizens in general


LAWS AND LEGALITY

Unlike everyone else who promises that the streets will be paved with gold, honey, justice and fairness.. I will only promise my best to make things work. If I can make that by being nice and fair, good enough.. if not, then you have to see my actions as means to an end. I will not pretend to follow the letter of the law and act fair.. only to stay silent and break my own laws, hoping that no-one would notice (Like one of the previous Governors). The law will be only another tool for me to achieve the goals. Hence I will reserve the right to change the laws by my decree, even regressively if I should for some reason deem that appropriate.

Laws to be removed (or which will stay out, under my rule):
Heresy: As long as not other law is violated, you can worship anything you want.
Disrespect of Authority: I have better things to do than police the ideas of every unsigned retard on this wall. Your opinions are not going to go anywhere even if I jailed you all.

The Testament of Siltaris shall be cleared once and for all. I look forward to personally discussing things with Jerimedes.

ADMINISTRATION

The Administration is composed of different individuals, all whom are appointed by the governor unless stated otherwise:
The Governor. He is the law, his word is final regarding anything within his realm.
The Chancellor. He assists the governor with matters related to citizenship list, diplomacy and treasury.
The High Judge. Except for the Governor himself, he is the highest authority when it comes to interpreting the laws. He is responsible for judging the claims of unfair treatment made by citizens. (My personal choice for this task would be Fooser. He is the strictest legalist who I know.)
Captain of the Guard/Militia. He is in charge of keeping the City guard working efficiently. He does not have to be the strongest fighter (even though, that is handy too) but the capability to organize things, execute orders and make people obey are the most important here.
Senators. (1-3) These are individuals who are elected by the citizens (I would possibly include some of the runner-ups of the elections, as they obviously have some interest in the politics and the town.) This position is unpaid, and they only act as advisors and a direct link between the governor and citizens. They can also assist if one of the other members of the Governing Council is absent for a prolonged time.

The intention is to craft an administration which is not crippled by loss of one member, but is able to keep on operating normally.

CITIZENSHIP

This is one of the most important issues. Under my rule, any person belongs to one of the three categories.

1. Citizen
Citizens are protected by the law. They also have the right to complain about punishments given to them by Guards.

2.) Registered foreigner
Registered foreigners are protected by the law to a large degree. This status is reserved for foreigners who either 1.) Pay a duty for the city or 2.) Gain this status due to diplomatic agreements between Trollsbane and their hometown.

3.) Other
Others are protected by the law only when it comes to the most serious, violent crimes. They are also subject to harsher punishment than citizens or registered foreigners. Most of the troublemakers are not citizens of this or any other respectable town. Until now they have been the causing the most work for the town guard. We should take the necessary steps to prevent the leeching of limited resources by people who do not contribute much for the town.

Foreigners and others will be allowed to serve in the guard and any position (during which they have the same legal rights as citizens) unless stated otherwise. Should there be a limited number of those positions available, a citizen is preferred over the foreigner. Foreigners will also be paid only a certain percentage of the money which citizens are making. Those foreigners who are serving Trollsbane will have no obstacles with gaining a citizenship if they are willing to give up the citizenship of their old home.

I am the best candidate for Governor of this town. I have a vision. I have the will to make it work.

Edward Cromwell

It seems nearly unanimously, everyone else believes that the amount of officials in the Trolls Bane government should be increased, without noting the key downfalls of this. We couldn't even keep the three basic (Governor, Magistrate, Guard Captain) positions together and coherent, so how do they expect to add more people to the fray and expect to be efficient? Do they plan on taking the peoples and towns money to pay salaries for all of this? Having so many peoples also lowers efficiency. If the governor is relying on everyone else for information and approval, nothing would get done. And when these people come and go from the island, it would make it even more difficult.

Fooser fails to notice the key downfall of the overly centralized "One person" approach. The governor/king/whatever is just like everyone else, and if he holds all the power in his hands, his absence is going to cause the total collapse or stagnation of the government. The wages are being paid from the tax money of the town, which is not directly taken from citizens but rather from the merchants. The dependancy on the sole ruler remains, but is not as great when there are other people who know their position and responsibilities.

I agree Cromwell, My stance on this is written in my statement on the nearby parchment.

~Dain~Laiden~

Vote for Cromwell~Drink at the Fluffy Sheep

-Borgate

Dear Mr. Cromwell,

could you please outline your ideas, protecting Trolls Bane's traders and craftsmans relative to expartiates.
I feel, citicens of Trolls Bane should be served in favour by the capabilities of our nice town.

Banduk Robberhauf

Firstly:
The equipment purchases for the guard and construction projects will be done, when possible (and sensible).. from Citizen-Merchants or craftsmen.

Secondly:
The Citizens do not have to pay for the protection and have right to complain about the punishments they have received from guards (to some degree).

Foreigners have to pay for the protection and do not have a right to complain about the decisions. (At all, or to a very much smaller degree).If you are neither, then you are basically on your own unless someone charges at you with a broadsword.

Thirdly:
The Administration will cooperate with the merchants and aid them by organizing fairs, market-days and similar events which will bring more customers into the town.

Fourthly:
Depending on the size of the guard and the crime situation, it might be possible to provide guards for long distance caravan protection duties. For a modest price to cover the costs.

E. Cromwell

Mr. Cromwell wrote:

It seems nearly unanimously, everyone else believes that the amount of officials in the Trolls Bane government should be increased, without noting the key downfalls of this. We couldn't even keep the three basic (Governor, Magistrate, Guard Captain) positions together and coherent, so how do they expect to add more people to the fray and expect to be efficient? Do they plan on taking the peoples and towns money to pay salaries for all of this? Having so many peoples also lowers efficiency. If the governor is relying on everyone else for information and approval, nothing would get done. And when these people come and go from the island, it would make it even more difficult.

Fooser fails to notice the key downfall of the overly centralized "One person" approach. The governor/king/whatever is just like everyone else, and if he holds all the power in his hands, his absence is going to cause the total collapse or stagnation of the government. The wages are being paid from the tax money of the town, which is not directly taken from citizens but rather from the merchants. The dependancy on the sole ruler remains, but is not as great when there are other people who know their position and responsibilities.

Whether indirect or not, it's still the peoples money. It goes from the people, to the merchants via purchases, and then from the merchants to the government. And remember, the merchants are people of the town too, Eliza was one of the first settlers for this town. Outside of that, it doesn't matter too much if there's 1 other official, 3 other officials, or 50 other officials, if the governor disappears it's going to be bad no matter what. At least the governor has a sense that they need to be around for things to operate, and therefore they are more likely to stick around consistently than anyone else. Others have suggested numerous positions, including a treasurer. What happens if the treasurer disappears? Oops.

F

Sadly, the "One Official" approach does not work that well.

We have seen, that even with multiple officials (Siltaris and Callith) it is possible to reach a state of complete stagnation. A sitiuation where there is no-one to replace the governing leader of the town or take over his duties has been far too common in the past few years. Having been a guardsman in the sitiuation where the town leader is absent, there is little that the normal foot soldiers could do in that sitiuation with anything. At least with more responsible persons there is someone who can run the town should something happen to the governor. Will the loss of governor still affect things very badly? Yes. But it no longer is a catastrophy like during previous governments. If there had been someone with more authority over the actual governing of things than Taliss then there would not be such a mess with the citizenship-lists and other basic things as there is now.

Save money for construction projects? Very good, yes. That is, assuming there is someone who is there to oversee the construction of things. I do remember once, as a guardsman, waiting for the east gate to be repaired for two dwarven weeks because the one in charge at that time was nowhere to be found. One person rule is too vulnerable on kidnappings, assasinations, or just random disappearings which happen rathe often. Is there a way to ensure that the whole government doesn't disappear? No. But the chances for the entire government to disappear and for the town to be completely paralyzed due to that are much smaller with more than one person. As for the cost of the government, I would assume that we could work with roughly what siltaris alledgedly paid for herself from the town budget in the extreme case. However, under no circumstance would the pay for the civilian management exceed double that nuber.

That would be three people for the price of one. Less, if I would be able to recruit the kind of people who are willing to settle for less.

As much as some of the candidates make big noise concerning large construsction projects, there have been little mention of projects which would actually generate income (and not just cost in the form of insurance payments) for the town.

Armoury? Alright.
Shelter? Very good.

Rentable row-houses for the citizens (and others) within the town? Even better.

That would be one project with a high return on investment possibility. We should focus on viable building projects and not just build for the sake of building things and then pay premium for their insurance until the end of time.

It also seems that I am the only one to take any interest in settling the ownership issues concerning the properties within TB territory (the testament). I would also seek to re-open the Arena, should I become the governor.

E. Cromwell

I once jailed Edward and even struck him in the back of the head a few times, though in truth he is not such a bad landling. He has a few good ideas and I leave Trollsbane with only few cross thoughts of him.

~Taliss

Did you already have certain persons in your mind for your government positions?

-Midrusio

Governor - Edward Cromwell
High Judge - Fooser
Chancellor - To be decided from citizens
Captain - To be decided from citizens

As for the Senators,
I would be willing to make at least Dantagon, ot Gwendolin Cad'ell one.

I cannot say at this moment who would be the most suitable candidate for Captain or Chancellor, so I will not make any promises regarding anyone. Saying that you don't know for certain at the moment is better than suggesting someone who you have never met or don't know for such an influential position as those two.

E. Cromwell

As other candidates have begun to suck up voters and appoint them into high-ranking positions, I will simply state that there is no way in hell, no way that I would place someone into a position of authority just because they have expressed their interest in something. As "Dan" said, he doesn't have a goddamn clue of who or what Banduk is, but he is going to make him an treasurer anyhow.

Bollocks. That is insane.

If Banduk, or anyone else for that matter, chooses to vote some of the candidates because they would promise them a position in the government.. they can go to hell for all I care. I will be handing out no freebies for anyone only to regret it later. If you want to be a part of my administration, we will talk about it after I'm done with these annoying formalities and reign supreme.

E. Cromwell

Promises only lead to bad things, I mean, Look at Siltaris. She promised Evan Ross a position of Captain of the Guard, Then when she went back on her word where did she end up? Dead of course. See what happens when you make promises you can't, Or won't keep?

~The note is unsigned~

Aye, great point Edward. I pointed this out in my own parchment. It was a awkward attempt at getting a vote, easily noticed by many. The only reason I said he would be my candidate was to prove a point.

Julius Rothman
Knight of Gobaith
Warrior of Malachin

I am not promising a postion for anyone in goverment. I am saying that he would be my nomination. If he doesn't vote for me, well, then he doesn't vote for me. No one is being promised a position, just recommended for it. Though in all honesty I would rather trust a merchant with numbers than a knight any ol' day.

Sir Dantagon Marescot

Ah? Are you serious? I thought you and your Knighthood were the great philosophers of the isle? The men of great wisdom who can do anything with the mind but not exactly with a blade? But you can't do basic math concerning money? That's an area where my father was quite good at.

Julius Rothman
Knight of Gobaith
Warrior of Malachin

Ur, bloody hell! Just half a year ago, this man... Cromwell, was nothing more than a measly drunk and a lesser guard. And now, see citizens of Trolls Bane! This is what flattery and seduction gets you!

~Rankor Deathronk

Julius, you are ignoble at the most. I am not sure who your father is. Though I do know that Stephen Rotham was a man of wisdom and strength. You dishonor that man. Further on the topic; Grant Rothman was adopted by Stephen Rothman. Stephen Rothman had no blood-line children that would be anywhere near your age.

The writer that addressed Siltaris' promises, I believe people have to look at the past mistakes and take large strides to do better than those before them. If you believe Cromwell's promises will not be full filled, then by that logic you believe no candidate's promises can be full filled. That kind of thinking will get no one anywhere.

I will admit it seems I will not be a candidate in the election, but I still wish to better Troll's Bane. Every candidate has written things that, if done, will better Troll's Bane at least in some way or another. After reading through all of the candidates proposals I find myself believing Cromwell the most. Of course you will not agree with every issue a candidate believes in, but think about Troll's Bane, think about Gobaith, think about more than yourself.

~Dain~Laiden~