The Anvil Commune

Anvil is well known for the dark secrets it hides between the squalid seaside shacks that crowd its murky ports. But the darkest of places sometimes hold the brightest gems; sometimes, it may hide a whole host of gleaming jewels, hidden in the muck. The tale of the Anvil Commune provides ample evidence of this truth.

The story of Commodore Fasil Umbranox is well known among the citizens of Anvil today, as it is known with dread in the hearts of pirates who seek to assail the Gold Coast. By wiping clean the threat of piracy from the waters of Anvil, Umbranox was granted rights to seize the throne of Castle Anvil from Proditus Proventius.

Although a commander without compare on the high seas, examination of the historical record seems to indicate that his administration on land was less than spectacular. Little of the record from those long-past days remains, as many of the scrolls in the Castle’s chancery having been eroded by the salty air (or, perhaps, destroyed by unscrupulous Chancellors). It is known, however, by comparing fragments from the Castle chancery to Imperial Census and Excise documents, that the reign of Fasil Umbranox was only moderately successful at best.

The balance of trade shifted towards imports in grain as tenant farmers hoarded their harvest following a crop failure west of the Heartlands. This was a drain on city coffers, in spite of the increased traffic to the Anvil port. Taking advantage of the new administration’s reorganization, it seems that there was widespread under-reporting of taxable incomes. Regardless, the best preserved documents of that era report that the new Count was well loved by Anvil’s citizenry, due in no small part to a near complete decline in piracy and criminal activity along the Anvil docks.

Count Fasil’s successor, Baszario Umbranox, was much less successful in holding together the city. Within a mere 35 years, the dynasty’s rule over Anvil was showing signs of strain. Income under-reporting, before an unorganized activity taken on by profiteering merchants, became an organized racket, allegedly administrated by local Thieves Guild underbosses. Without the gold for guards to patrol the countryside (and collect rent from tenant farmers), the land around the Gold Coast became rife with banditry, while the people of Anvil began to feel deep pangs of hunger. In addition to these crises, Baszario, by all accounts, was a foppish decadent whose lavish parties painted a poor portrait against the background of an incompetent administration.

The hammer would fall upon the Umbranox family following a work stoppage by Anvil’s dockworkers. The Anvil Harbour Office, an administration created by Fasil Umbranox to place docks under public control, was responsible for the hiring and payroll of all dockworkers in Anvil. This policy vastly reduced incidences of stolen cargo and pirate attacks, as private dockworkers often had incentive to divulge manifests and shipping dates to informants. It did, however, make all dockworkers employees of the county, and after a full two months of delayed payroll, Anvil’s dockworkers placed a stoppage on all unloading and loading of cargo.

Fallout from the work stoppage proved disastrous. The Count, declaring martial law, made a fiery speech about the role of Argonian upstarts in inciting the work stoppage. Violence against foreigners increased; even the head of the Anvil Mage’s Guild, Tar-Rafee, was found impaled upon the Guildgate, with anti-Argonian profanities written on the wood in her own blood. Despite increased violence by guards loyal to the Count’s inner circle, dockworkers assembled outside the Chapel of Dibella, intent on presenting a formal petition to Umbranox. In perhaps the bloodiest event of Anvil’s history, the Chapelgate Affair, the Count ordered his most loyal personal guards to use lethal force against the convergence. This day, 26^th of Last Seed, 3E 305, was the true beginning of the Anvil Commune.

The slaughter at Chapelgate became a rebellion when young, idealistic mages from the Guild sought to exact their revenge for the murder of Tar-Rafee. In a torrent of fire and lightning the guards were routed back to the Castle, as priests from the Chapel tended to the wounded with their magick. Although his name is lost to time, the most unlikely man, a devout of Dibella and the primate of Anvil’s Chapel, was the one who organized the rabble into a force with a cause. Calling upon the love of citizens to each other, and citing the Count’s utter lack of love towards his subjects, he declared that Anvil was divinely prophesied to become autonomous; a true city of the Divines’ love. With a roar, the citizens of Anvil marched upon the castle gates.

The battle for Castle Anvil has not been well recorded, but it is known that much of the guard not directly responsible to the Count sided with the people of Anvil. They stormed the great hall and quickly overpowered the personal guard which had only just escaped the magefire outside. Baszario was found in bed with a Bosmer consort, entirely oblivious to the chaos he had created with his order mere hours before. He was hung naked from the highest tower of Castle Anvil, and the commune was declared.

The first act of the commune was to dedicate the entire city to the worship of Dibella and all of the Divines, in order to solidify the religious justification for the revolt against Anvil’s legitimate lord. A great council emerged from the wealthiest merchants and guild leaders, along with a petty council representing the dockworkers and labourers of the cities underclasses. The unnamed priest of Dibella became the unofficial spiritual leader of the city, and came to dominate the councils with his forceful personality. Emissaries were sent to the forts around Anvil held by the city guard, who quickly marked their banners with symbols of Dibella. A diplomat by the name of Silenus Varian was dispatched to seek escort to the Imperial City by the legion in order to negotiate terms that would grant Anvil the status of free city within the Empire.

Negotiations on behalf of the people of Anvil, however, were in vain. Emperor Uriel VI, eager to leave his mark upon history, had not yet been granted full license to rule by the Elder Council. They roundly rejected the proposal to allow Anvil commune status, but wished to avoid additional bloodshed. They proposed a city-wide amnesty for the rebels if Baszario’s brother, Sergius, was immediately reinstated as Count and all popular councils dismantled and banned.

Upon hearing the news, the great council readily accepted the terms, but the petty council was pushed to reject the terms by the city’s spiritual leader. The great council was arrested on suspicion of treason against the commune, and the primate of Dibella had himself elevated to the position of Lord Mayor Protector. This proved to be highly unpopular, as arrest of the great council was enough to convince most Imperial citizens that the commune was simply mob rule. Indeed, many of the testimonies given at the open sessions of the petty council indicate that the citizens of Anvil felt very much the same way.

The final nail in the coffin of Anvil’s commune, however, came when Relandel, a senior member of the Elder Council and an influential theologian, pressured the young emperor to place an interdict upon the entire city of Anvil, effectively excluding it from the Imperial Cult. The prominence of Dibella worship above that of the Divines equally was declared a heresy. Admittedly one-sided reports of tainted rituals to Dibella were disseminated as evidence of the impiety of Anvil’s commune, including descriptions of acts which remain far too tasteless to be rewritten here.

The Legion would arrive at the gates of Anvil the spring of the following year, magefire battering the Guildgate and Imperial Navy gallies filling the docks with soldiers. The great and petty councils were tried and summarily executed by General Meridius, their bodies subject to the same fate as the former Count and their heads being sent to adorn the walls of the Imperial City. The primate of Dibella was burned in front of the Chapel, his last screams being a curse against the Empire, Anvil, and all those who had prevented his holy reign. Mixed reports would follow of unburnt relics to be found in the ashes; given that the priest’s name was officially redacted from all written sources by Imperial order, it is unlikely we will ever know whether this is true.

Sergius Umbranox would be crowned the new Count of Anvil, and the Imperial Legion would be the guarantors of the city’s security until a new force of city guards could be recruited. For virtually all of Sergius’ twenty years as Count Anvil, the city would rely heavily upon Imperial subsidy in order to maintain order and keep the harbour open to commerce.

Roscius Corvanus, 4E202