Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries

Bohemia Interactive AAR: The Snem

Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
unmerged(4766)

unmerged(4766)

Serf
Jul 6, 2001
826
0
The Snem

Welcome to the Snem! Men of noble blood allowed only! While commoners may enter the room when the king is not present or when a secret meeting is not held, they may not speak out. Otherwise, the penalty is imprisonment for a looong time. :)

While you're at the Snem, take some effort to rephrase your words. Everyone here is nobility, and while nice manners are not very important in the 15th century, you still have to keep your reputation at some level.

OK, here's how it goes: the session opens on Monday, with the Speaker saying "The session is open" and is closed on Friday, with the words "The session is closed". After Friday your character may not speak anymore, and is expected to vote and leave the Snem. That's right, you vote only after everything has been discussed. You can speak about everything you'd like, and in the meantime you give your official proposal to the Speaker. You should highlight with large letters that it is a "Proposal", so that the Speaker wouldn't accidentaly ignore it. A list is made of all proposals. This list can contain a hundred proposals in theory; however, the Speaker has the power to throw out a proposal if he find it "unethical". Anyway, for more information check out the Rules page, or the first three pages of the OOC thread.

All OOC comments should be posted in [ ] brackets, while longer OOC comments should be posted in the OOC thread. If your character decides to leave the Snem, then you will have to post your messages in the Actions thread. You can always return to the Snem, or you can leave a representative there (has to be a noble). Anyway, you don't have to say it every time you leave the Snem; it is presumed that even nobles must take a leak :) You can exit the room, go home, pick up some important paper and return without mentioning it...
 
The king arrives

The noble's clamor was suddenly interrupted by the sound of ten trumpeters, as they announced the arrival of the king. Jan Polak, the head of the Royal Guard, commanded the ten soldiers present to the left of the room, while he stayed on the right side. As the nobles seated, the small door from the right opened and a middle aged man appeared. For some this was the first time they saw the king, unless we count seeing his facial cravings on Bohemian korunas. Those who remembered him could notice a slight change in his clothing. The Hungarian court was somewhat more splendid that its Bohemian counterpart, as proven by the bright necklaces around the king's neck, and the signet ring on his hand, made out of ruby. No wonder the king takes up a journey to visit his subjects in Prague so rarely!

The Speaker, who was a stranger to all of the nobles at this moment, followed the king. He was followed by ten more soldiers who closed the door and stayed on the right. The king went to the center, and he began his speech. He had a tired, tedious voice, immediately telling everyone that he would rather be some place else right now.

"Nobles and priests, great men of Bohemia! By the glory of God, it fills us with great joy to open this years' Snem, where our most loyal subjects may discuss their troubles and needs. As done by kings of ancient times, we are here to assure you that no harm will come to your lands, and that we shall take up all our arms to defend those against any invader, may God spoil their paths. [Aristocracy +1, no voting is needed this time]

As you might have heard, our ally, the great Emperor Friedrich V of Austria has been exchanging insults with the Karel II of Geldre. These are dangerous times we are living in, and we have reminded Friedrich that the Day of Judgment may arrive in just 8 years, and that he should repent his sins instead of causing new ones. While there have been no results so far, we are assuring the Snem that, by God's mercy, we'll broker a truth between these two men.

If that attempt, unfortunately, fails, then we have no choice but to assist our ally should he ask for help. That is why we would like to ask the noble men of the Snem to show some charity and hold another year with one-fifth taxes [treasury slider at 20%], as we may need the treasures in the future.

And last but not least, let me introduce you to your new Speaker. His name is Otto von Schwarzwald, a noble man of great wisdom and piety. I am sure he'll make your Snem meeting a pleasure. [check OOC thread for more info]

Let us pray now, brothers!

Bishop Vaclav Maly stood up and gave a short prayer, after which the king left the room and headed for his palace. He would stay there for one night, after which he will return to Hungary.

Otto von Schwarzwald, the Speaker, sat in the chair of his predecessors, and pronounced that the session is open.
 
Jakub Vrana stood up from his seat and told a short speech: "While I think it is a generous deed from His Majesty to stand between two foes, I must remind the Snem that the merchants from Geldre have seriously disrupted our trade in the past decades, while we were having our... internal difficulties. What I'm saying is that the Vrana family shall gladly offer 500 of its finest cavalry to the Royal Army, covering the expenses. I would like to ask the Snem, however, to vote against the one-fifth tax proposal. Our peasants are already paying too much a price for our allies' adventures. Instead, we should make an oath to aide His Majesty in case a war does break out!"
 
Vaclav II Stood up after Jakub finished and said:"I Have to support Jakub of the Vrana family on the matter of raising taxes as our pesants are already overburdened by taxes in our fair land.But i have not got the men to support the war with Geldre"Vaclav Continued:"So i ask thee maybe theres some other service i could provide"
 
Pavel Kladivo then stood, clearing his throat of phlegm with a wet cough.

"Before we rush to judgement on this affair, I would remind my esteemed colleagues of the difficulties involved in a war against Geldre. It is very far from here, across the borders of many sovereign nations. Then, even after we have routed their armies from the field, as God certainly wills, their capital can draw supplies from the sea and we are without navy. Forcing them to the bargaining table would probably involve a siege of some months.

"Though we must certainly take up arms with our allies against the Geldrelanders if they ask for our assistence, I do not believe that we should take precipitate action in this regard. In the event of war, I shall volunteer all that is at my disposal to the chastisement of the Geldrelanders. But until then I suggest that we refrain from making plans for war until that bridge has been crossed.

"As to the taxes, the Kladivo family has benefitted much from the just rule of our king, along with all in attendence here. I will not challenge his judgement, but I must also have assurance that this will be a most temporary state of affairs," Pavel continued with a light smile, "while the suffering of the peasants in my lands is not quite so legendary as those who live under the impeccable Lord Vrana, it would be unfair for me and them alike to struggle under such an increased tax burden for more than a short term."

The jab at Vrana brought chuckles from some of those in attendence.
 
Jakub Vrana said:
I don't want to argue with my fellow noble Pavel; what he said is true, Geldre is a far away realm. Yet we must consider our behaviour towards them, as it might dissatisfy our allies the Austrians. I would like to point out that if we do nothing, then the whole Catholic world shall laugh at the Austrians for chosing us for allies, which will cause them to be sour at us. We must act! - what is I'm trying to say.

If troops are raised, then please remember the plundering the Royal Army has done to the countryside in Silezia three years ago. We certainly don't want that to happen again.

As for the suffering of my peasants - noble Pavel, please remember what our Lord said, that those who suffer more shall enter Paradise earlier.
 
Martin Slezak stood swiftly after this remark. He was a tall, thin, mournful looking man, but his voice rang strong throughout the Snem, commanding his fellow nobles attentioni, despite how they scorned him for not having estates.

"Friends! A war with Gelre would be nowhere near what some of you are describing. Respect as I have for all of your positions, I am a general, and I can tell you, it will not be something we will or should be involved with. The logistics would be horrible! War is not a tale of chivalry as it was!

If we send troops to Gelre, then it would be a hard war, involving, as my fellows have said, a seige of many months. To feed the soldiers we would have to resort to pillage, and resort to that, and you have rebellions against the new authority, as well as starving troops!

The Austrians will be able to take on this war by themselves, we do not need to send Czech troops to get killed to likely no gain!

As for the tax law, I do ont see why not. If the state needs the money, then so be it!"

He resumed his seat and awaited a reply.
 
Bishop Vaclav Maly rose slowly from his ornate chair. He gave a "harumph" and the nobles near him fell silent.

"Geldre is a Catholic power and as such is under the protection of God our Savior. However, there is no justification for us to send our countrymen to their death for such a far off battle. Instead, we need to turn our might to bring more souls into the fold of our Savior Jesus.

If our mighty ally insists on going to a war in far off Gelre, then we must support them. However, we should not send our brave men off to die in the far off wasteland.

Nay, Nay, Nay, I say! We should make a counter offer to the Austrians. We will support them in this war. We will offer to protect their rear from rebel scum. We should offer to loan them moneys to help in their effort. We may even need to raise taxes to support this effort. But no Bohemian should die in far off Geldre!"

The Bishop then sat back down to listen to the debate.
 
General Petr Kovar entered the chamber, late.

"I am sorry, dreadfully sorry, should have been here long ago. I was busy...however, the rumors on the street suffice to tell me what you argue about today.

"War with Geldre.

"Logistically, as my colleaugue has pointed out," Kovar continued as he pored over the Secretary's records of the meeting, "sending troops to Geldre would be disastrous. With no source of food we would turn to the peasants of Geldre, angering them. What my colleague apparently failed to mention was the fact that Geldre is hundreds of miles from here, and without marching through our neighbors' lands we will have absolutely no way of getting there.

"Further, even with a treaty of access tendered by Saxony, Hessen, and Münster, we will still be so far from home that should Geldre fall or the Snem call the soldiers back, news will take a week or more to travel back to the other end. It would be a communications disaster as well as logistics.

"So far from home it is militarily possible to subdue the enemy. However, we know very little of the geography and terrain of Holland and the Dutch lands, and thus our knowledge of how to use the terrain to our advantage, even our knowledge of where on Earth we're going, will be limited.

"It seems to me that the best idea put forward so far is to let the Austrians do the fighting in Geldre, but try to protect Austria from rebellions against warring leaders. If this is the best way to help our allies, I by all means support it. But we cannot possibly hope to win if we send any man into the Dutch lands to do battle."

Kovar collapsed in his chair after the lengthy speech and looked around for a water pitcher.
 
Viktor Slavnikovci stood up to be heard after the others had spoken to their content. Combing a strand of his dark hair from his youthful face, he patted his elegantly dressed sister on the shoulder.

"I agree with the words spoken by those trained in the military arts. Having been trained by Teutonic Knights, I can honestly say that their acessment is accurate."

He paused so that his words might sink in, scanning the chamber with his hard and rather cold gaze.

"I am under the opinion that our forces should be kept close to home. We should assist Austria in the war, but merely on a defensive capacity. If the armies of Gelre or their foolish allies come to this side of Europe, we should crush them.

But as for quashing the rebellions in Austria, I say nay and in fact find such a notion laughable. If Austria can not keep her house in order, why should we? Do you believe that Austria would send forces to quell our rebellions? No, the past has shown us as much."
 
Jan Polak, Commander of the Bohemian Royal Guards, stood beside the Speaker, eyes all the time watching for any trouble, yet at the same time keeping one ear on the proceedings in the Snem. As Viktor Slavnikovci finished his speech, Jan stepped forward to speak.

" My fellow Nobles, all of you have made valid points on what we should do should war break out, but the point is that we are not at war yet and war may yet be averted, so there is no point deciding what is our point of action in case of war. The motion now at hand is whether we should support the tax proposal and that should be the focus of our attention at the moment.

If I may ask everyone here, why are we raising taxes? where will the money go to? They will go to the training and equipment of our soldiers in the event of war. And who are these soldiers? These soldiers are the fathers, sons, brothers and husbands of the very people we are taxing. With these additional taxes, we are able to provide better training and equipment to our soldiers, so that they have a better chance to survive on the battlefield. If our people know the reason for the increased taxes, will they support it? I say they will, especially since they know it will allow their loved ones a better chance to return home after a war.

Hence, I support the proposal that the King has raised."

Finishing, the young Commander took one step back to his position and waited for the next person to speak his piece.
 
Vaclav stood up again.

"Jan of the polak family has a valid point but, This again is assuming war."

"The problem is that there most likely will not be a war, and if there is a war then there are issues we need to stress besides sending our men to the slaughter,"Vaclav pauses for a moment and then continues:"The likelyhood of a single enemy soldier marching on our land during this war is slim to nearly none.And the men that you plan to train, as i have heard from local gossip, are not even willing to fight, rather turn on us in the extreme case.So if we take them away from there farms, tax them more, then there is a likelyhood of a rebellion.Yes, even here in Prague."

"And there is one more thing you have yet to consider in this taxation and training policy. If we enact this rule and there is no war, then the pesants will surely think that you increased there taxes, wastd valuable time training men that could be used on farming and tending to other issues for absolutely nothing.So what would a pesant do. Rebel"

"So consider this... We enact the rule and no fighting happens that we prepared for we might have a rebellion or even a full scaled civil war on our hands, so i urge you to think this thro again and consider these consequences"

Vaclav sits down and starts listening to the other nobles, with a sereous look on hes face.
 
Jakub Vrana said, with an excited voice:
Are you saying that there is a plotting going on right now? That we are in danger? If so, then please don't say it so secretly, but warn us! Although the palace guards can protect us from a rebellion in the city, we need to raise troops or hire mercenaries in case of a rebellion. Friend Vaclav, please don't play with words, but tell us: are we in danger or not?

As far as I know, peasants are not likely to think about politics. That is our job! All peasants do is work, sing and sleep; and fight occasionaly. I don't think that new taxes should make them upset. At least not the peasants living on my lands.

Jakub sat down, proudly.
 
Speaker's note (with Bavarian accent)

Calm down now, fellow nobles! Das König has sent the Snem a map, showing our location, as well as Geldre's. Here, take ein look:
HRE_map.jpg


[sorry for the poor quality of the image, I forgot to set it on better quality]
 
Vaclav Stood up and said

"I can say honestly that i do not know if they are plotting against us,but i know that the locals are not happy with this war at all especially with the rumours of an increased tax burden"

"If so, it is totally possible that we face a risk of rebellion, even tho i cannot stake my honor on it for i know not for sure."

"As for your pesants, they are loyal as sheep thanks to your persuasion, but other pesants are angered and if word spreads your pesants might get wind of it.God knows what they are going to do then."
 
Vaclav said:
"As for your pesants, they are loyal as sheep thanks to your persuasion, but other pesants are angered and if word spreads your pesants might get wind of it.God knows what they are going to do then."
Click to expand...
Well, perhaps other nobles (looks toward Vaclav Moravec) should take up measures in controlling their subjects. We all know the law allows it! And although it is not mine to suggest how one lord should act with his subjects, I must state that if any rebellion breaks out and it spills over to my estates, then I will hold to responsibility certain types who think that "serfs should get more freedom". Let me remind you again, that the Bible commands men to be bonded by love, not freedom!
 
Last edited:
Jakub added: "Ehm, what I'm trying to say is that the world of today is too corrupt for everyone to taste the delights of freedom. That is why I think our main duty towards our subjects should be keeping them alive"
 
Jan Barta stood up. Knowing he was not well liked, he proceeded with caution.

"Do the Geldrians have allies? If so, who might come to their aid? Might the Turks take this opportunity of Catholic infighting to send their Jannissaries towards Budapest? We must know these things before embarking on Dutch adventures."
 
A page from Anna Polak delivers a letter to Vaclav Maly, Bishop of Prague politely inquiring if he is able to provide his services in aiding her in finding a suitable bride for her son Jan, Commander of the Royal Guards.

The Bishop read the letter. He took paper and quill from the page and quickly penned a reply.

"My dearest daughter Anna. May the blessings of Christ be with you. I hear the need in your voice. I believe that people in need should always be able to turn to the Church of our Savior.

I feel that I may be able to work towards a suitable union for your son.

If it would please you to make a donation to the Funds for the Needy, please send your donation back with the page and I will see what I can work out.

Yours in Christ,

Bishop Vaclav Maly

OOC: since the Bishop is in the Snem at this time, I felt that his letter would be generated in this thread.
 
As the morning session continued, Bishop Vaclav motioned for his aide.

"My good man, we must be off to the palace for our lunch meeting. Call my carriage."

Bishop Vaclav left the Snem and headed for the palace for his lunch audience with the King.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back