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The medical tests at this college for xc are no joke and they take ages. Week three of running solo…

At least I have the training plan…

Dawnbreak RP
Worldbuilding Wednesday #19

Today's excursion is about Édrien Vaurenne. He was the Chancellor of Morvainne - the head of Morvainne's national government (it is important to note that the Crown remains the head of state and retains important constitutional powers). The Chancellor chairs the Council of Ministers, proposes the national budget, coordinates national ministries, represents the government before the national assembly, oversees implementation of national law, coordinates the provinces on matters of national competence, advises the Crown on appointments and emergencies, and handles the day-to-day administration of Morvainne. The Crown formally appoints the Chancellor, but convention requires the monarch to select someone capable of commanding the confidence of the assembly.

Édrien was born in Saint Avel, a modest agricultural settlement in the province of Auvraine. His family had never been poor, but they were far from nobility. His father, Marel Vauranne, is an orchard keeper who also periodically served as a provincial agricultural assessor; his mother, Ilyse, works as a school teacher, and serves as schoolmistress. The Vaurennes had lived in the same valley for six generations, which is, truth be told, completely unremarkable. They had no titles, political connections, significant wealth, or famous ancestors prior to Édrien's rise to power. However, they have always possessed a significant sense of civic responsibility.

Édrien's childhood was almost unusually stable. He was raised by his parents, but his household also included his maternal grandmother, Seraine, for much of his childhood. Édrien's grandmother had always been extremely important to him. She taught him one of his later principles which became central to his political philosophy - that neither he or anyone else, for that matter, should ever let the government tell him that certain things have "always been done this way". His closest childhood friends were Lysanne of House Corvelle, the oldest daughter of a local physician, who later became a healer and, eventually, a provincial medical administrator; Maël of House Rennier, son of a cooper, who became a craftsman, joined a guild, and still runs a large cooperative workshop today; and finally, Tavian of House Aurel, whose family were minor landholders, the one and only friend of his who entered politics alongside Édrien.

His mother Ilyse recognized very early that Édrien was exceptionally intelligent. At 25 years of age, he was sent to a regional academy in Valeronne, and later attended the Royal University of Sombrana. His education was rather broad in a political sense, as he studied constitutional, civil, and magical law, economics, agricultural administration, history, rhetoric, accounting, public administration, diplomacy, and even statistics and philosophy. He also, remarkably, studied historical memory, and his habit of looking for the people history had forgotten eventually became a recurring criticism of him.

Édrien's parents instilled four principles. First and foremost, that work is not beneath anyone. Second: education creates obligation, or, to put it differently, intelligence was not to be seen as a privilege, but primarily a responsibility. Number three: the government exists to preserve lives rather than its own prestige. And, finally, which is a belief widespread through Morvainne: family does not excuse wrongdoing. Édrien took these lessons very seriously, and became extraordinarily principled.

He did not immediately enter national politics, notably. Instead, he spent almost 80 years in comparatively mundane administration. In similar fashion to his father, his first major position was as an agricultural assessor in Auvraine. This position involved evaluating crop failures, allocating emergency resources, resolving disputes over irrigation, administering agricultural subsidies, and maintaining provincial records. This job was not glamorous by any means, though Édrien loved it, especially because it gave him direct contact with ordinary people. He eventually became a regional administrator, a provincial legal advisor, and deputy minister for rural development. When he finally made it to the provincial assembly of Auvraine, he was already 102 years old, and this is where people began taking notes of him.

What distinguished him was neither charisma nor wealth, and not even magical talent. His prime characteristic was that he read everything. Whenever a farmer sent a complaint, he read it thoroughly. If a provincial official sent a report spanning 300 pages, he did the same. If a clerk attached a footnote saying "this has occurred repeatedly for decades", Édrien would find the previous cases. His breakthrough came during a major agricultural crisis, as a series of magical failures caused crop yields to collapse across several provinces, including his home province of Auvraine. The national government responded with an emergency grain program, which looked excellent on paper, but was, in reality, disastrously inefficient. It was Édrien who discovered that enormous quantities of grain were sitting in warehouses while some communities were experiencing shortages, because the distribution system had been designed around administrative regions rather than actual transportation routes. After having spent several months travelling through the affected provinces, he returned to Sombrana and presented the national assembly with an enormous report, which came to a brutal conclusion: that the Kingdom of Morvainne never truly lacked food, but the ability to distribute it accordingly. The public quickly took a liking to him - the government, unsurprisingly, did not, but they eventually had no choice but to adopt his reforms.

Édrien's political agenda was surprisingly simple: reduce bureaucracy to make government more effective; make provinces genuinely capable of governing themselves, boosting decentralization; prevent wealth from becoming political sovereignty; protect judicial independence; reduce rural inequality, especially through infrastructure, education, and market access; and, finally, limit monopolies. Eventually, his agenda changed: he believed for a long time that institutions mattered more than individuals, and later came to the conclusion this was not entirely true. After all, institutions are operated by people, and people can manipulate institutions. He became a lot more pragmatic, and, yes, he was loyal to the regime, but not unconditionally. He could be described as fiercely loyal to Morvainne, and, in similar fashion, to the Crown as an institution, and the constitution all the same, but not necessarily to select individual monarchs.

Édrien was never corrupt. He never accepted bribes, he never embezzled or enriched his family. He refused all political gifts, and actually became famous for making his personal finances unusually transparent. However, and this is an important distinction, he was not incorruptible. He developed political favoritism - not for friends, but for causes. He became convinced that certain reforms were objectively necessary and occasionally bent procedural norms to get them passed. Sometimes, he pressured officials, selectively accelerated legislation, exploited procedural loopholes, and even leaked information to members of the national assembly sympathetic to him - nothing of which was outright criminal, but some political spectators argue that Édrien occasionally became too confident that his own judgment represented the public good, which is certainly his greatest moral flaw.

Interestingly enough, his childhood friends remained important throughout his life. Lysanne Corvelle frequently challenged his health policies, while Maël Rennier did the same with his industrial reforms. Tavian Aurel, however, became a political ally, only to turn into his most important political opponent later on. Their friendship survived precisely because Tavian was willing to tell Édrien when he was wrong, and bluntly, at times; this led Édrien to refuse speaking to Tavian for six months, but, eventually, he invited him to dinner, and rekindled what was most likely the healthiest friendship of his life.

When Édrien Vaurenne was appointed Chancellor of Morvainne, he was 287 years old. His appointment was initially controversial; the aristocracy disliked him, industrialists even considered him dangerous. But even with all their doubt, almost everyone agreed that Édrien knew how Morvainne worked into every minute detail, including its people, its economy, its history, and even its contradictions. His greatest achievement was something he had not originally intended: he helped establish the National Stewardship Acts, a package of reforms that became the foundation of modern Morvaini economic governance. They established stronger anti-monopoly laws, worker protections, environmental standards, provincial resource rights, public infrastructure obligations, and limitations on private political influence, which infuriated several of Morvainne's richest noble houses. Édrien became famous for his "Doctrine of Stewardship".

Service changed Édrien in many ways. Young Édrien believed that government could be made rational; a hundred years later, he believed it could be made competent. It was only during his reign as Chancellor that Édrien learned that people are irrational, institutions are imperfect, and sometimes, compromises must be made that make neither side fully content. He became less idealistic, yet more compassionate, which made him a much better statesman.

One event in particular scarred Édrien. After having spent 9 years as Chancellor, a magical industrial accident in Velmora killed hundreds of workers. The facility had technically complied with every existing regulation, and it was this fact that devastated him, because Édrien had spent decades believing that proper regulation prevented catastrophe. The accident demonstrated that, terrifyingly enough, a system can be functioning correctly and still be inadequate. He personally visited the families, and spent months investigating the disaster. Afterwards, he pushed through a complete revision of magical-industrial safety law.

Decades of governing the Kingdom as Chancellor exhausted Édrien - not so much physically, but psychologically. He had been involved in government for more than two centuries by then; he had watched friends die, witnessed political movements rise and disappear, spent years negotiating with monarchs, and seen reforms he considered brilliant fail miserably. At the age of 341 - after 54 years of being Morvainne's Chancellor - he resigned, and left politics completely. He returned home - to Saint Avel, where he bought the orchard his father once worked. For the past 80 years - Édrien Vaurenne is 421 years old today, notably - he spent his life teaching local children history and helping maintain the irrigation system. Occasionally, he agreed to advise provincial officials, and he wrote an enormous memoir. By now, he has become increasingly unwilling to discuss his own political career.

Chancellor Édrien Vaurenne is remembered as a near-perfect example of Morvainne's political philosophy without having become its caricature: he loved the Kingdom enough to criticize it; he honored the Crown enough to oppose a monarch when he considered it necessary; and he believed in law enough to recognize that laws could very well be wrong. Even with his imperfections, he is still widely regarded as one of the most competent, if not the best Chancellor the Morvaini Crown had ever appointed; his successor, Kylian of House Noirot, only lasted for six years before losing a vote of confidence at the hands of the national assembly in devastating fashion. Kylian's successor, however, is no other than Tavian Aurel - Édrien Vaurenne's best friend - who is serving Morvainne as her Chancellor until this very day, meaning he has been in office for 74 years by now.

hello again horizon

Vlasjevia wrote:

hello again horizon

Hallo!