The Iniquity of Tyranny

Dear Emperor Uri Potenate Ocato,

Enclosed with this letter is a small excerpt from a book that has recently come into circulation within the city of Evermore, and its surrounding towns and villages. The author is a radical anti-monarchist, and when informed of her I laughed, and thought she was of little repute; but she has inspired certain others to take up her cause. With due respect, I request that the Council move to ban this book and all others of its kind, and arrest conspirators of rebellion, lest more take up the radical banner. We must not allow such revolutionary change as is It is for the good of the empire. So soon after the Crisis, I hope you can understand that we must ensure stability.

Sincerely, Councilor Rallaume Thierry, Baron Evermore.

The Iniquity of Tyranny, or, How We Solve Ill Rule A text by Alexis Aurmine, Poet Of the Revolution

Before laying out the solution to the problem at hand, I feel that I should remind the reader of the recent events leading to this solution. Barely a month has passed since the world-shaking events following the assassination of Emperor Uriel Septim VII; the scholars of Cyrodiil deem it the Oblivion Crisis, as tens of thousands of citizens and soldiers died at the hands of Mehrunes Dagon.

One of the main reasons for this is an ineffective government. Oblivion gates spread throughout Tamriel while the Elder Council in their White Tower bickered and complained that they had no emperor. The High Potentate did next to nothing to stop the crisis, even after the destruction of the second largest city in Cyrodiil.

An Empire with no Emperor is useless, and this is why we must not allow such a tragedy to occur again. We must eliminate the hereditary despots who rule over the plethora fiefdoms that make up the Empire.

We can see quite clearly the effects of rulers appointed by birth nowhere quite so well as Cyrodiil, where I spent my youth. In the city of Bravil, where I grew up, the people lived in homes that were little more than wooden shacks, and a pall of squalor hung in the air. Meanwhile, within eye-winking distance of the homeless lived the Count in a vast and opulent castle, his coffers stuffed with vast sums of septims that we never could have dreamed of. When I was fourteen, a large group of toilers went to the castle to demand that the Count either share his wealth or step down; when his guards ascended from the bloodshed on the castle steps, a dozen men had died.

Meanwhile, in the city of Skingrad, only miles to the west, the streets were lined with condominiums and manors; if there was a man in Skingrad who was poor, I did not see him. The shock of the wealth of Skingrad nearly made me retch; how could it be that one city was so poor while another was so rich? Because their count, Janus, was a better man than the wretch who controlled Bravil.

The income inequality of Cyrodiil staggered me, seeing that each city was more or less poor or wealthy than the last, and in each case it ended up being a combination of things; but above all, those cities with more venal rulers were the poorer.

And so it was throughout Cyrodiil, each city controlled by its own little dictator, either appointed by the Emperor or merely inheriting it. The people did not question this, but I could not see why; did the humans living under elven rule in Imperial-majority Cheydinhal not sometimes wonder why? Did those in formerly-Khajiit Leyawiin not protest against being forced under an Imperial count? Did the poor of Bravil not want to make their own decisions?

And so, brothers and sisters of revolution, my solution is a simple one. We must eliminate the various inefficient and inequal fiefdoms, we must eliminate the privileges of birth, and institute instead a system in which each woman and each man can say for themselves whom they want to lead them. The Elder Council will be elected; the Emperor, elected.

Rise up, sisters and brothers, and take for yourself what the tyrants now hold. Take for yourself and for each person around you power, and prevent another atrocity such as the Oblivion Crisis.