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Xastoru
Excerpts from Towards a Reconsideration of Authority, by Johnathan Cook, a book described as Culturally offensive but perhaps valuable by the Thessalian government:But we must ask ourselves, who was Xastoru, truly? Although our government has now decided that publishing or speaking his true name is a crime - and what a ridiculous damnatio memoriae this is, for who doesn't know the true name of the man who led us for forty years? - it is folly to say that he was just a dictator, or that he was a dictator at all! Was he not democratically elected, again and again?
...
Although perhaps it could be said that our lives were more dangerously lived under his reign, more easily and quickly terrifying, perhaps horrifying, it cannot be denied that, in essence, Xastoru made Thessalian into what she is today - this frightfully powerful economy, this intensively pervasive welfare state, the insistence on providing for the citizens! There were all initiatives put forward by Xastoru, all in an effort to improve the problems that he himself knew, so well, from growing up in the dangerously underfunded banlieues of Kallisti. For all that people may call Xastoru tyrannical now, it is pure fact that he only wanted the best for the common citizen, something that we more surely cannot say for the previous, corruption-ridden administration of Antoine La Fumée, who was found taking bullion from the treasury to fund the construction of his stables!
...
Indeed, in the time of his administration, Xastoru never dealt with civil unrest unfairly, although he did not let the people rule over him. No, as a fair administrator must, he never answered peace with violence, and rarely did he answer violence with violence. Did he not help write a new Constitution before his death, to ensure the peace that we have had in our time?
...
The allegations of his wrongdoing are, most assuredly, just allegations - for how could such a man, a man who would consistently come into the Pavilion of Lawmakers and arrest himself those who had been abusing the law, how could he ever not respect it himself? His Grace Erasmus's insistence on government transparency and fairness are, again, mere continuations of Xastorian policy, same as, I believe, most what we Thessalians hold dear to our hearts.
...
Has not the Grand Duke held onto power for longer than prescribed? And yet we still welcome him with open arms. In time, it is my wish that we give Xastoru the due that he is deserved, this honor that we can give Erasmus, and someday, to once again refer to him by his proper name, Noël Achin, instead of being forced to call him something as ridiculous and barely pronounceable as Xastoru.
...
Although perhaps it could be said that our lives were more dangerously lived under his reign, more easily and quickly terrifying, perhaps horrifying, it cannot be denied that, in essence, Xastoru made Thessalian into what she is today - this frightfully powerful economy, this intensively pervasive welfare state, the insistence on providing for the citizens! There were all initiatives put forward by Xastoru, all in an effort to improve the problems that he himself knew, so well, from growing up in the dangerously underfunded banlieues of Kallisti. For all that people may call Xastoru tyrannical now, it is pure fact that he only wanted the best for the common citizen, something that we more surely cannot say for the previous, corruption-ridden administration of Antoine La Fumée, who was found taking bullion from the treasury to fund the construction of his stables!
...
Indeed, in the time of his administration, Xastoru never dealt with civil unrest unfairly, although he did not let the people rule over him. No, as a fair administrator must, he never answered peace with violence, and rarely did he answer violence with violence. Did he not help write a new Constitution before his death, to ensure the peace that we have had in our time?
...
The allegations of his wrongdoing are, most assuredly, just allegations - for how could such a man, a man who would consistently come into the Pavilion of Lawmakers and arrest himself those who had been abusing the law, how could he ever not respect it himself? His Grace Erasmus's insistence on government transparency and fairness are, again, mere continuations of Xastorian policy, same as, I believe, most what we Thessalians hold dear to our hearts.
...
Has not the Grand Duke held onto power for longer than prescribed? And yet we still welcome him with open arms. In time, it is my wish that we give Xastoru the due that he is deserved, this honor that we can give Erasmus, and someday, to once again refer to him by his proper name, Noël Achin, instead of being forced to call him something as ridiculous and barely pronounceable as Xastoru.
