Transcription of Opinion Speech
First Public Presentation: 17 Inaten, i1195. Irati Park, Pradita
Welcome, as always, to the assembled thought leaders of our dear city and those interested guests who have traveled to Pradita to engage in another afternoon of thought and intellect. It is a gift of our great city that the Living Autumn Mother continues to support and celebrate the tradition of Irati Park and ensures our safety and security while we engage and grapple with some of the most difficult and topical challenges of our time. In this unprecedented moment, the additional security forces surveilling the park and protecting us are greatly appreciated, and we thank these dedicated civil servants for their service to the city, the state of Pradita, and the Empire.
It is of service that I wish to speak today. It is a word that I think of often, and I have grappled with its definition and context my entire life. What does it mean to serve? For whom do we serve? To whom do we owe allegiance?
Some of you whisper rumors, and I will tell you the truth of them, verified by legitimate sources in the ranks of the Living Autumn Mother’s security detail. Two nights ago, seven people were arrested and are currently detained in Pradita Prison under suspicion of involvement with The Shroud of Freedom and their distribution of classified archival materials. While Praditan law prohibits releasing their names, the rumors that this includes individuals of notable rank within our civic administration and notable individuals from the royal families appear to be true. People who vowed under oath to serve the people of Pradita have broken that vow. People for whom we have given over our trust and the safety of our children, our families, our wealth, and our legacies have violated that trust. The Cheric Court has been infiltrated, and it seems only appropriate that for it to serve the people of Mankara, the wound on our government must be disinfected.
Last night, I sat at Gotha’s Teahouse and listened while those around me spoke differently. Words like “hero” and “sacrifice” bounced off the silk tapestries. It is easy for those in comfortable positions to say such things. But I ask again: for whom do they serve? These people with immense wealth built by the hands of thousands. I believe it is the people. Because The Living Autumn Mother is the voice of the people, because her family, the noble Goshaka, has served us faithfully for generations, I cannot support those who violate her laws, and neither should you.
The Dasholin Scholars of Eternal Library have been a positive presence in Pradita for more than a millennium, in fact, before the land of Mankara agreed to join the Empire. They are the repository of our knowledge and, since their arrival, have been an international font of wisdom, advising The Peacock Throne on everything from trade routes to warfare. It is the research they provided that ended the deadly Rice Famine that decimated the generation of our great grandfathers and provided the knowledge of industry and engineering that turned a once fledgling industrial port into the most prosperous city in all the world, the Free Cities be damned. The Scholars serve the people of Pradita and we trust them with our lives.
The Shroud has done little, if anything, ever, to earn our trust. We should keep this in mind. We should be mindful that legal pathways exist to address those issues that they see as inequities in society. It is an easy and simple response to address their concerns that would not violate the law:
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- The Shroud claims atrocities by the Living Autumn Mother but names not a single one. Bring forth your complaints to the Peacock Throne. Address them as all people of our land address their issues, publicly and legally.
- They claim the Peacock Throne does not support the Lhoda people. What we must not support are terrorists, including those hiding in the trees of Lhoda. On numerous occasions, the Living Autumn Mother has supported several charitable campaigns by Pradita’s royal families, who secured and sent aid to them.
- They claim arcane cults run rampant through our city streets and lay waste to crops, people, and industry. Can you name the last time this happened in Pradita? In Mankara? Bring forth your specific claims to the Cheric Court and make them public.
- Who among us supports the enslavement of the Hanaqi in Ería? Who among us supports Ería? The Treaty of Yuyacha has never been challenged, and the Verushan Empire maintains its severe economic and trade sanctions on that state. How dare they accuse anyone of such hate? Such baseless accusations are barely worth the breath needed to refute them.
- They claim that the Dasholin Scholars, through their work cataloging the knowledge of the world and preserving invaluable artifacts, are preventing the people of Valakarma from achieving their freedom. I say that liberation is in your own hands if that is what you desire. Do not look to others. Lace up your own sandals and achieve if you are so concerned.
I am sure there are those who have already determined how wrong I am. You might think me a singer for the Peacock Throne, and I am here at their behest. But in case you don’t know who I am. My name is Chaata Matua, the rock of my family. I am the son of Tachee Matua, whose head still rests on the pikes above the Midnight Gate placed there over a decade ago because of his own connection to The Shroud of Freedom. I was raised in the ruins of the Aparanka Vitti, that once great opera house, the illegally occupied headquarters of The Shroud. So you see, some may sit in Gotha’s Teahouse and speak romantically of a noble worker’s uprising, but I know The Shroud intimately. I can state here on this dias in Irati Park— unequivocally, firmly, and without a single drop of doubt— nothing will be noble about what they plan. With spade and axe, torch and brick, the streets of Pradita will run red with the blood of the very workers who seek their liberation. The Grand Army is indeed that. Well-trained. Well-armed. Legions of pikes and armored dejaaker that can carry a small fortress on their backs.
No. The Shroud of Freedom will not succeed. They are not interested in victory. They serve only violence. Only chaos. Only Terror. Their goal is a war with no end, waged no matter the cost. They care little about how many will die and how many lives will be ruined by doing so.
So, let us serve the people of Mankara. The people of the Pradita, the great Jewel of the Southern Coast. We do so by supporting safety and security. We serve by standing with our Living Autumn Mother, Nanpia IV, as she purifies our home of the disease too long allowed to fester. Let us cheer our honored soldiers who now take the fight into the Valakarma, to those who would destroy all we hold dear. Let us not flinch at the sight of men, women, and children bloody and in chains, for the ranks of the Shroud are filled with them all. Let us serve our city by bearing witness to the necessary justice that must be enacted upon all who seek to upend our society to threaten our way of life and our children.
A golden dawn is rising from this violence. A great one. We can rebuild the Valakarma. Remake it into a vibrant district with no walls. Homes and industry will be rebuilt and flourish. Untapped potential is beyond the horizon if only we have the courage to serve those marching towards it.
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