The Foundation Of Strigia

[Margrave]

The Legion, pulled together during the chaos of the fall of the Second Hanseatic Finnish Republic, had held them together for some time; Indeed, the only thing that had held them together other than the Marchar’s Home-Seeking Dream. The Commandant of the Legion Christopher Khendon II, had grown older in the years since he lost his bride Natalia to the nuclear wastes of Helsinki; Grey hair ran streaks through his blond at the age of forty-seven; the scars that flowed over his body gave him the a startling and fearsome appearance. It was his political skill, his wit, and the ability to delegate that had seen the Legion succeed in fleeing the Hansa with a somewhat intact society; it was his various friendships and connections made in his youth that had made it easy to filter his people through Europe, and his impassioned pleas to the Athenian Empress that had won them succor and sanctuary.

But Christopher was old. Unsanctioned by the Marchar Council; he had never claimed the title of Keeper; indeed, he held with the purists who claimed the line had ended with Luis De Luit when he transferred his sacred duties to Hannah Asgeirson during the age of the Australian Empire. The Hansan’s, the newest addition to their traveling race, had joined with the darkling, white haired people descendent from Old Dranagg in the opinion that what was needed was a new democracy; others held that the Tintagyl line still held the original Oath of the Marchar, and that it was the duty of the people affiliated with the Wandering Folk to rediscover the bloodline and anoint a Tintagyl as ruler over them. The Fuyo-Clann joined in political allegiance with the Marchen (the “Royalist” Clan) and the Delian’s (The “True” Clan) to support a new monarchy.

But Khendon would do none of these things. Instead, he called together the General Assembly, the Legion, the Fraternal Orders, and representatives from cities and towns not yet invested by the Marchar, and locked them into the newly claimed Assembly Hall; demanding a government for the people before any could retire from their confinements or claim their territories.
The people of Trans-Croatia awaited the results with bated breath as rumors flew outside the new capital and debate raged within the Assembly hall. The Monarchists won, then lost, the Tintagylists were tossed from serious consideration early and sided with the Fraternal Orders and the Monarchists. Opposing them was a serious coalition of Social-Democrats, Directorate-Supporters, Martenists and Nordic-Socialists. Much was made of their neighbors; dramatic, ever-flaring Austria; the Nordic Empire of Dalmatia, looming over them as though awaiting their thought-crimes; and of course their dear friends in Athens, just over the sea.
But the Assembly would not agree; could not, in fact, until Khendon, who had moderated the entire ordeal, had proposed a system ancient in origin but new in fulfillment; a Keepership, lead not by him, but by new blood; a Monitor, himself, to serve a life sentence as the direct hand of the Keeper and to monitor the government. The General Assembly would be split into two parts; one, elected representatives from the provinces would make up the Assembly of Representatives, while the Warders (Marchar’s honored for service and given land and title) and the Chevalier (Title of servants of the nation given to non-Marchar, along with land and titles) would make up the Elect Assembly; together they formed the Diet. Finally, regional leadership would be by election; save where land had been granted to a family of the Warder/Chevalier’s.

But who would be the Keeper of this new line? The Khendon line had made many tributaries in it’s time; Christopher himself was convinced his great-grandfather had been of the lesser bloodlines and then seized power, but the Assembly wanted someone of direct descent. Christopher was old and infirm; the Khendon bloodline almost exhausted save for the long lost brother’s he’d once possessed. But the De Luit family was still strong; directly descended from Lewis De Luit himself, the second bloodline to posess the title of Keeper had ruled and ruled well in the intervening years. And so, with little fanfare, Mattias De Luit was crowned Keeper of the Marchar; Swearing his Oath and his people to Harmonia, the goddess of Serenity, and to the Christian God. Christopher Khendon himself was selected for Monitor; though irked with the idea, he accepted the position to ease the young De Luit into the pilot’s seat of a brand new government.





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A brief message would be sent to immediate geographical neighbors:

“To, all who shall receive these presence, greetings;

Know ye that We, the Legion of the Hansa, the People of the Marchar, and the Combined General Assembly, have formed a government within the environs of Trans-Croatia, what shall hence-forth be known as “Strigia”. We have appointed ruler’s and men of conscience to high office; we are now prepared to accept your diplomats. Our Capital, Split, has been renamed Orilieon, and our government has enforced law and order on its environs.


Signed,

Mattias De Luit, Keeper
Christopher Khendon II, Monitor
The General Assembly
The Elect Assembly.