YEAR 5

Kingdom of Rok

Priest Zirt: "The time has come that you all bow down before the real master of Jotnjordh: DONAR! God of the roaring thunder! God of war! If you bow down now, Donar will grant you victory. Pleasing my Lord is easy: kill and destroy as much as you can. And he will protect you from death."

Advisor Bork: "I've seen no such God. And I know for a fact that thunder and lightning originate on the mountains to the north. It's the home of the Ettin god Urzgtharh. He accepts human sacrifices from fellow human eaters, and rewards them with great power. It makes more sense to worship him."

Advisor Ter: "Our master is Gagnorok! His roar is law! Everybody that thinks otherwise should be killed and eaten!"

Lienzo Republic

Minister Cayu: "The festival we had on the first year of the second age really showed how great Lienzo's cuisine truly is. How great the potential is, I should say. Most people do not have much choice in food, it's mostly black pudding and lard-covered bread. Other things are only consumed as exceptional treat. Therefore I propose we pump some money into local restaurants, so that poor people can afford great food too. Everybody should be able to have fine steak, cheese and wine every day."

Minister Hierro: "You realize we have spent a lot on health recently? I suggest we use this ongoing food-craze to fill our coffers a bit. Let's increase the tax on prize-winning food. It's only rich people buying it anyway, they'll still be able to afford it."

Minister Senagh: "I remember how it was before all these foreigners came here. All was better. I know we cannot evict them, that would go against our fundamental principles. But what if we increased the general tax for non-vampires? That way you don't force them to leave, but do give a push in the right direction. And the extra money can be spent on local restaurants, just as minister Cayu explained. So that every vampire can get a proper meal every day."

Slevadovia

Advisor Hussime: "I've heard many rumors about poor working conditions. These people dare not speak out themselves, because they are afraid of getting fired. I think we ought to set up some rules to protect our workers. Random checks and fines should enforce these rules."

Advisor Stojan: "The employers will not allow their workers to truly suffer, as this will hurt the working power of the staff. Additional restrictions will only lead to a reduced economic growth. That'll harm everybody."

Advisor August: "Indeed, it's not the poor, lazy workers that suffer here, it's the hard working gentility. Most gentlemen want to be exempted from the rule that prohibits unemployment. Wealth is a reward for hard work, but it's only useful if you have the spare time to spend it. What about giving people some sort of title when they reach a certain amount of wealth? And just allow those with the title to evade some rules that are clearly designed to keep the scum in line, not to punish the worthy?"

Austria

Minister Henricus: "Our nice city of Berlin is troubled by thieves. People are afraid, and business is bad. You just cannot step outside without thinking about these unlucky low-lives. Perhaps you can let soldiers patrol the streets. Authorised to use lethal force. That'll keep them in check."

Minister Gregorius: "These persons should not be killed. For Fortuna might have some purpose for them still. Bring them to the Abbey, my colleagues and I will turn them into exemplars, priests of the lot.

Minister Innocentius: "You are the upholder of our laws. Any crime against a citizen of Austria, is a crime against you. And as you are the high priest, any crime equals heresy. Execution is not the appropriate response. Not immediately anyway. They know damn well that they are not allowed to steal or to kill. And yet they act in a wicked manner nonetheless. Our goddess demands sacrifices. Demands pay back. We shall torture them using geomantic devices to choose the appropriate tool, and after each session choose whether to continue, or to end their unlucky lives."

Khemri

Advisor Chrimr: "Recently some middle-class Khemrians have died after the consumption of spoiled blood. We need laws to prohibit the sale of spoiled food, and allow the wraiths to enforce them."

Advisor Tanatei: "That's good and all, but we need to fix the real problem. We just do not have enough fresh blood to go around. What we need is blood farms. We can tie the elves or nords to the spot, and slowly drain the blood from them. If we don't drain them too fast, we can use them for quite some time."

Advisor Mawet: "In this world we have to consider other people's feelings. I don't want to sound too sentimental, but we cannot ignore that other nations are not going to like this. Let blood be an expensive commodity, fine. I'd rather have unhappy peasants than no peasants at all."

Zalfir

Advisor Thepoath: "In our society reputation is very important. If you have a good name, your stories are worth more. Some people in our society acquire good stories from unknown people for a low price, essentially thriving without doing the hard work. Therefore we need some law that prohibits this practice: a copyright law. To enforce it, we need an agency that compares all stories from the same author, and checks for consistency. If any inconsistencies are detected, we take further steps like secretely monitoring his daily activities. Eventually perhaps punishing through temporary excommunication."

Advisor Jawahir: "I do not agree with these monitoring activities. Where's good faith gone? Can't we just trust the other people to do the right thing?"

Solorya of the broken eye: "Trust. I would like to trust everybody, but the fact is that some just cannot be trusted. Some people lie. Period.

Honorable twins, you remember that you asked me to watch the scientist and his apprentices? I have discovered that they are developing something that could be redesigned into some kind of lie-detector. We could use this technology as a standard measure to determine the authorship of stories. With your permission we could use it for other law enforcement and intelligence business too."

Equestria

Advisor Snaeri: "Some of the dwarves have discovered a subterranean mushroom with very special properties. When consumed, all negative feelings are gone. You just feel great, and see flowers and rainbows everywhere. I propose we get some of our dwarves to grow these in farms, so that everybody can access these magical fungi. Think of all the happiness it can bring to our nation!"

Advisor Mentha: "I don't agree. Negative feelings have a function. They prohibit certain dangerous or unwanted behaviour. Otherwise we have Equestrians jumping in fires, push each other off mountains, all with a smile on their faces. I suggest we destroy all of these mushrooms, so that nobody can touch this mind poison."

Advior Feyte: "Let's not do anything rash just yet. Let's collect and store those we can find, and perhaps we can use them in the future. If we ever go into war we might want to give it to our soldiers, to increase their morale."