Neighbours of the GPR have reported that the clans have taken a much firmer stance on their place in the Confederacy this session, having put up with suspicion from the other sponsor clans for long enough. Apparently El Presidente has been making many speeches to his people, some excerpts from which have ended up on pamphlets being disseminated across the whole GPR;
“Again and again we make concessions, again and again the peace-loving people's of the GPR give-way and again and again the Earthborne make more demands. This must end.”
“We will co-operate, for the sake of peace. If the demands continue then we will bury them under the weight of historical inevitability!”
“Work with the assessors, give honest answers, but be ready for treachery and be ready for attack by the regressive forces of the Earthborne and any running dogs.”
“We will never start a war. Be assured, if there is one, we will end it.”
Considering the clan's closeness to the Citranos, some unrest after the tradgedies of the crusade were inevitable… but rumors of spiritual turmoil go beyond that.
Some say that there are doubts among the clans spiritual leaders about the nature of their god. They say that a rift is growing between those who worship the orange aspect, and those who worship the musical. The sour mood has only been compounded by Matthias reallocating the clan's personal narcotics to parts unknown.
Throughout the Confederacy this season, a joint team of Earthborne and GPR officials have been taking a census of every Clan within the Confederacy, in order to ensure that the ideals of the Confederacy are being upheld. Every Clan is tested for:
The O'Sheas and the Corvidae come out very well, as expected; their nature has always been to try every possible way of doing things, whether to find the greatest profit or to help defend the Confederacy. The clans of the GPR in fact seem to be OK, showing great independence in most categories except the last one. In fact they seem on a similar level to the Earthborne, among whom the survey shows a worrying similarity of religion and customs; all clans there seem geared around the reverence of the God-King Lemur, inhering their traditions and cultures from the original Earthborne clan with some minor permutations.
In the wake of this survey, the Eartborne have greatly reduced their pressure on the GPR to uphold Confederacy traditions, and have started looking inwards with a worried eye.
The Circus have put on another of their remarkable extravaganza performances, this time celebrating the life and deeds of the Glorious Leader of the People's Republic, El Presidente himself. The first act of this musical extravaganza opens on El Presidente's childhood, when he is orphaned by a herd of capitalist pigs, played by a herd of pigs in top hats (strangely at this point a few audience members are already leaving in disgust). They spare the life of the glorious leader, played by a 30 foot tall robot, because they need someone to make the tea.
In the haunting duet “There has to be a better way”, Il Presidente realises his destiny after a visit from a mysterious woman on a flying carpet, played with gusto by Bezeth the juggler, who explains to him how the capitalist pigs are pretending to use magic in order to keep him in chains, and El Presidente realises that if magic is impossible, then flying must be impossible, and therefore everyone must be on the same level. The mysterious woman wishes him luck and flies off again.
At the climax of Act 1, El Presidente confronts the Capitalist Pigs in a heart-rending solo entitled “All Animals Are Equal”. The pigs, moved by his rhetoric, agree that he must be right, and fly off into the sunset in a dramatic wire flight over the heads of the audience. Regrettably the pigs seem to have suffered some distress at this point, resulting in some rather unfortunate accidents that marred the performance somewhat for a few of attendees.
The second act focuses on El Presidente's search for a place to create his new state, and his rescuing of Comrade Ivan from an evil cabal of warlocks determined to sacrifice the intinerent scientist for using the outlawed rational explanation. El Presidente confronts the warlocks by explaining that their magic doesn't actually work, then breathing fire upon them as they attempt to curse him. (An audience member's hair was slightly singed at this point.) Comrade Maxim in turn is released from bondage in a salt mine, which he again destroys with an impressive fireball.
The final act of the play concentrates on the foundation of the Glorious People's State. The show ends with a medley consisting of El Presidente's powerful solo “Wouldn't it be a good idea if we all just did what I said?”, followed by a chorus of grateful peasants singing the upbeat “We don't Disagree (Not Even a Little Bit)”. The final climatic number is a rousing and cheerful ensemble piece called “We're all so happy”, where the massed ranks of the People nimbly leap between the legs of a cavorting, fire breathing, El Presidente.
Twice now, we have noted members of the Circus along with notable members of the Union and Fallen, taking transports onto the Earthborn's Fragment stack. We would like them to explain what they are doing there. Now.
Bergholt is looking to send messages through the storms, by using short bursts of storm enery, messages could be encoded and sent over long distances.
Vice president Trilililli has issued a statement in response to the GPR's criminal monopolizing of 'on fire'.
“We are shocked to see the GPR practising such poor implementations of the socialist principle of wealth redistribution. On Fire is an important part of the commercial system and to squander it on so many bonfires is a poor show. We have endeavored to correct the balance by reducing the On Fire in areas of concentration through judicious application of liquids… well, mostly liquids… especially after we've dropped them.”
“Nonetheless, our recent adoption of Socialist principles has not been much better. We still note several other inequalities relating to Stormic Currency which we will soon endeavor to correct as our numbers grow.”
“Equally we are also shocked to see the practise of magic among the GPR. The arcane craft known as 'walking', which our Hareppi sciencologist has proven to be impossible, is prevalent, and must be addressed soon.”