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Chapter CXXXVIII – It shall elevate thy dwarves, and thou shalt help their captain.
🕑 Added 2025-06-01 18:55:17 +0000 UTC17th of Spring 5860 Castle Casamonu, Casamonu John Brown was busy as usual, back in the comfortable office of the former count. Casamonu, be
17th of Spring 5860
Castle Casamonu, Casamonu
John Brown was busy as usual, back in the comfortable office of the former count. Casamonu, being situated between Libertycave and Karabush, was the perfect place for now to administrate the burgeoning republic. A burgeoning republic it was – complete with burgeoning piles of paperwork to sort through. The invention of the printing press was a catastrophe, at least for the poor sods who had to deal with paper.
For now, the paperwork was very simple – mostly letters sent to the Commander-in-Chief to inform him of what was happening. At least they were an indication that the mass literacy and education program was going well. Brown sat down, stretched his old bones a bit, and then got to work reading what was needed to be read. There wasn’t any standardized spelling to the language of Gemeinplatz, and some new learners tended to invent some really creative spellings for words, so he had to read slowly and patiently to get what was written.
First off was a simple report, on how the slave liberations were going in Karabush. It had taken a few days for the Republic to locate where the camps had been set up, and then another few days to actually visit the camps and liberate the people within them. Then there were the newly freed arrivals, some of them who didn’t even speak the Gemeinplatzish language, who had to be integrated into the Republic somehow. Thankfully, the freemen usually proved to be enthusiastic in their freedom. Most were happy to cultivate land when offered their own plot of land to own, or to make war against the Empire that enslaved them when offered a pike. Settlement into the towns, which there were three of now in the Republic, was discouraged since the food situation was dangerous.
The Republic needed more farmers, to mint more yeomen with the Homesteading Act, so that mass starvation wouldn’t occur next year. Unlike the industrialized society that Brown came from, there weren’t any fertilizers or machines to make agricultural work less labor-intensive. At most people had draft animals to help drive their ploughs, or hand-tools to make things a bit easier, but those were nothing compared to what the 19th century on Earth had achieved. Gemeinplatz was still a pre-industrial society to its core, with the vast majority of the population being subsistence farmers who could barely produce more than what they consumed. Changing that wasn’t exactly a priority right now, not when there was slavery to dismantle, so the boundless farms of Gemeinplatz were to remain for the foreseeable future.
Next up was a rough census, collected from old records, to be used for the 5860 General Elections. The Congress of Gemeinplatz had outgrown Casamonu and Libertycave, certainly now with Sir Inkwell and his associates being banned from holding office. Plus, the census would be pretty useful for the diminishing treasury of the Republic. The vast treasury of Karabush had relieved them a bit, but they couldn’t maintain a war-based economy forever.
Therefore taxation (with representation) was the next step. First were income taxes. Income taxes in the United States (at a federal level) weren’t a thing in Brown’s lifetime, in fact they were implemented in 1861 to pay for the Civil War that followed his passing, but a progressive income tax was a thing in Britain and proposals had been made to implement such a system in the US federally. He’d have to get Rabanowicz to crunch some numbers to determine how much money would make sense to take in Gemeinplatz; Brown hadn’t exactly gotten a chance to understand the value of the Gemeinplatz libra. Then there’d be a property tax, not that there was much taxable property in urban Gemeinplatz, but it was easy enough to record and collect.
Finally, a tax that had only become possible with the newly-manufactured printing presses, was an excise tax on alcohol and tobacco. Outside of Brown’s obvious puritan intentions on limiting “excess”, it would most likely prove a bountiful source of income considering how common alcohol was in Gemeinplatz. Such a tax was simple to implement: a seller of alcohol or tobacco would have to pay for and stick a government-issued stamp on any product that they sold. A bit of paper, a printing press, and some slime, and the Republic would have these up and running in no time.
Brown took a piece of paper, and quickly scratched himself a reminder to get together a few trusted people to set up an organization to enforce payment of taxes. It needed a catchy name like… Something that surveys, for the newly independent republic, the internal revenue that they make… The, the… The Independent Republic’s Surveyors! John Brown felt a lightbulb light up in his head, except he didn’t because he hadn’t lived long enough to see incandescent lightbulbs, and he quickly jotted down the name of the organization.
Now was the last item on the agenda, quite the miniscule item: the dwarves. Their letter was, in dwarven fashion, etched on to a small stone slab. It was a simple request: for the Republic to focus on their dwarven allies and help liberate Aroghlie from elven occupation. “A meeting, with the Union of Dwarves-in-Exile.” Brown slowly read, realizing that he had to change his plans for the day.
17th of Spring 5860
Union of Dwarves-in-Exile Hall, Libertycave
Brown stepped inside a hall, which upon second look he realized was in fact all carved stone. The chandelier at the top, the seats, the table, it was all just part of the mountain still. He couldn’t help but admire the architecture, though right now he had other matters to deal with.
“Greetings, Miss Whitebeard.” Brown had to kneel down to extend a handshake to the dwarf who was sitting at the end of the table. The table was surrounded by dwarves, who were eyeing the Commander-in-Chief carefully.
“Glad to have you here, Sir- Mister Brown.” Whitebeard was always miffed by the fact that Brown seemed to eschew “noble” titles, but she wasn’t exactly in a position to negotiate for a higher title. The old man was weird, refusing to be called sir, or chief, or anything. If she was in his position, as a human with so many loyal subjects, she’d have crowned herself queen already. “You arrived here pretty quick.”
“Thanks to the new road, they’ve finished the one between Azdavay and Casamonu as well. I extend my gratitude for helping us with the engineering.” Brown sat down at an empty seat, though he had to shift around comfortably for a bit before realizing that it was futile. The seat was simply too small for him to sit comfortably.
Meanwhile, Whitebeard was walking around him, hands crossed behind her back, perhaps a bit nervous as her hand shook up and down. “If you’re here, then you’ve already heard of our request, and I won’t waste your time by trying to avoid the point. While we’ve extracted and saved many of our comrades from Aroghlie, who are all very grateful for your hospitality, we still wish to return to our home. The army of Leafblower is quite grand, and she doesn’t seem intent on leaving anytime soon, so…” She took a deep sigh, and then let go of a whole load of dwarven pride “…we’d like to request the help of the Republic, our allies.”
Brown paused, cleared his throat, and said what he had planned for a while now “I’ll be honest, I’m a man of the Lord, not a man of Machiavellian politics.”
“Maky… Maky- excuse me?”
“…it makes sense that word wouldn’t translate over. What I meant was that I quite dislike politicking. The Republic is, obviously, in a much superior position in this negotiation. It’d make sense for me to demand something in return, maybe some would see it as fair even, if I asked something in return for us sacrificing our lives for your people.”
The dwarves around looked much more nervous. Their eyes were on brown, their hands on the desk, ready for a disapproving bang, and they knew they couldn’t do anything but disapprove. For all they knew, they were about to be subjugated and vassalized in exchange for returning home. Humans were scary, not because of their stature, but because of what was inside them.
Brown, in return, extended a smile “Lighten up, gentlemen – and, ladies. I’ll only ask you to join your Union with our union. Become a state, an equal part of the Federal Republic of Gemeinplatz. This isn’t an ultimatum – I do think that the invasion of your home is unjust, and we’ll still end up clashing with the Imperials and liberating your home no matter what you say to my proposal.”
The dwarves around the table immediately relaxed, some took flasks out of their pockets to have a calming drink. Whitebeard voiced the question in everyone’s mind “In all honesty, why should we join the Republic then?”
“Because it’s beneficial for both parties, though if you accept, we’ll both be the same party. I’m sure you’ve taken note of how well your business has been faring for the dwarves in Libertycave. If you wish, you can isolate yourselves in your mountain as you have done for generations, you have the liberty to do that. However, as part of the Republic, you’ll have many trading opportunities, an army to protect you, and you’ll also get representation in the Congress as equal citizens. I’d say it’s a much better deal than what you had with the Empire, with having to pay tariffs and taxes to countless lords just to get your goods delivered, without even receiving protection or representation in return.”
Brown’s eyes were drawn to the table itself, etched with intricate decorative details, true art carved just in stone. “The Republic needs diligent, crafty folk like you. I’m sure you can achieve much more when you have the entirety of Gemeinplatz as a canvas, and what we have already achieved in Libertycave is proof enough.”
Whitebeard looked around the room, to her fellow dwarves. At this moment, there was only one thing she could do “Raise your hands, all who are in favor of our Union joining the Federal Republic of Gemeinplatz as its third state.”
On the 17th of Spring 5860, the Union of Dwarves, and Zon’guldac along with it, joined the Federal Republic of Gemeinplatz as its third state.
Comments
Dinomannick
Man this story is moving along greatly! Hoping an updated map with the borders redrawn is on the tables soon.
