The Sheenish Election

'My brothers, my masters!'

A man shouted at the meeting of the People's Directorate of the Sheenish Communist Party. The assembled communards quietened down a tad to hear what he had to say.

'Ever since the death of the class traitor and reactionary stooge, John Smith, we have seen the people waking up to the call of solidarity and class warfare. As we speak, the Tholish capitalist swine fight our socialist brothers in Sadalen, trying to crush them! While we can not help them directly, we must keep up the struggle here and bring about a revolution, be it peacefully or through force... As such, I wish to propose a five year plan to the party. One which should see our support in the public rise dramatically, starting with the establishment of youth groups and charities to help the poor and under-privileged. I have already had several comrades come forward and suggest that we establish women's groups, to help them manage their financials and educate them about their rights and potential. With the approval of the Directorate, we could even set up homes for those that have been abused by the patriarchal society in which we live.'

His words were met with a bit of a mixed response, as many who had seemed ready to cheer were now deflated at him not calling for violence.

'While I yearn for violence against those that have exploited us and stolen our labour, we must be patient. The poor and downtrodden are still hooked to the siren-song of capitalist and wealth, they still believe in the systems which keep them down. Until we have secured their loyalty, we must act with caution and in the dark, killing only those worst of traitors. Long live the eternal revolution!'

Having said all he had to say, he awkwardly handed out copies of his plan and sat back down.

With all the idiots now in slavery, the NLSDAP under their current leader Geoff Lucas von Marshall takes the lead.

Estimated mid term support:

Metropolitan and Liberal Party: 31% +1
NLSDAP: 33% +3
New Agrarian: 2% -2
Communist: 10% +1
Monarchist: 5% +1
Nationalist: 8% +0
Other: 11% -3


Remember that these are just estimates and are almost 100% wrong by election fortnight.

A man died in Sheen. A man died every day, but this was especially horrific. A comrade had been forced to murder her husband, after he had come back home from another night drinking. Despite his beating her and her being in a rough state, she had been arrested and charged with murder. Subsequently in the weeks that followed, she had been found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

'Comrades, we can not free dear Johanna from prison, not yet... But we can insure that nothing like this ever happens again!'

One of the communards brought forth two posters, rough mock-ups that got the idea across.



'We need to fight the twin poisons that are drowning our people, alcohol and tobacco! These drugs are the tools of the rich, they cause men to be violent and irrational, they keep us poor, and they rob us of our health! We need to stop these twin plagues and we need a means to protect people from those under their influences.'

'You're mad! We can't form a revolutionary guard now, we'd be rounded up again!' shouted a dissenter.

'And if we don't, we'll see the poor and down trodden killed or thrown in prison like Comrade Johanna! We don't need the guard to be directly tied to us, but we need one none the less. I am forming my Black Brigade without the People's Directorate if necessary, but please do not make me... We need to act. The Dunwikki mobsters are hunting us, women are being beaten by their husbands, how much longer until the Metro-Libs are bashing down our doors?'

After a few more hours of debate, it was decided to support the calls for prohibition on drugs. The Black Brigade was able to receive ninety-four percent of the Directorate's vote and as such was granted not only the body's blessing but the funds needed to begin procuring weapons and training soldiers.

With the political scene once more quietening down, the polls settle in favour of the NLSDAP.

Estimated mid term support:

Metropolitan and Liberal Party: 27% -2
NLSDAP: 35% +1
New Agrarian: 5% +3
Communist: 11% -2
Monarchist: 1% -2
Nationalist: 3% +0
Other: 18% +2


Remember that these are just estimates and are almost 100% wrong by election fortnight.

As the war rages on in Ostrea, so does Status Quo in the Association.

Estimated mid term support:

Metropolitan and Liberal Party: 31% +1
NLSDAP: 34% +1
New Agrarian: 5% +0
Communist: 11% -1
Monarchist: 1% +0
Nationalist: 5% +0
Other: 13% -1


Remember that these are just estimates and are almost 100% wrong by election fortnight.

'Stop the slaughter, join the cause!'

After filing the appropriate paperwork and acquiring the correct permits, thousands of communards had taken to the streets to protest ongoing Sheenish involvement in the Sadaler-Tholish War. They waved signs with all sorts of anti-war slogans, but most importantly, they waving around bits of torn and bloody lingerie, with a pig dressed up as a young lady with make-up and all being walked at the front of the protest by two men dressed as a capitalist-politician crossed with a butcher and the other dressed like a stereotypical king and a butcher. To the sides of the protest were men of the Black Brigade, in their characteristic all black attire and carrying musical instrument cases or boxes of soap.

Their goal was simple, stop the sales of weapons to both sides and also stop allowing foreign powers to recruit for their wars in Sheen. Some were actually pushing for it to be made illegal for Sheenishmen to fight in foreign wars, but the council had decided against going that far as it might not play well with the more liberal elements of society. As the group made their way to a park and began settling in for a long demonstration, some of the Black Brigade helped create clearings and in these clearings stages were set up. There, men dressed up as Tholish soldiers began beating beating and torturing Sheenish women dressed as Sadaler soldiers in a performance. Party officials would all the while give speeches about the evils of foreign wars and use speaking horns to be heard over everyone else, drawing attention to the displays.

One rather creative performance involved a woman being tied to a stake and then having the food piled around her set alight. They had covered all the wood with a fast burning accelerant after making sure to soak it the previous night in water, as well as placing strategic amounts of long burning coal in the mix for effect, to avoid a real burning at the stake occurring, but they had been just a tad too zealous and the flames ended up burning the actress around the ankles and legs by accident and some of the men putting on the show. Thankfully, the spokesman for the party noticed what was going on jumped into the fires to save the girl before she could be seriously hurt. This played extremely well with the crowd, not realising the actual danger.

With news of the upswell in anti-war sentiment spreading, the communards awaited the announcement of all foreign recruiting and weapons sales being banned. It did not come. To say they were miffed would be quite accurate, as they were certain Yerkes would see sense. As such, they wrote him a rather polite and brief letter.

'Pigs like you die first!'

After that, they filed the necessary paperwork and received the appropriate permits once more, and began a calm demonstration or two. Thousands of angry people gathered outside of his office and his home, lighting effigies of him on fire. Shouts and signs calling for him to resign or die could be heard and seen quite clearly, sending a message of calm disappointment in his actions.

The Divinian Council of Education, headed by Councilor Caius Beatrix, has gone on record decrying the efforts of Sadalen in seeking Hansa support of their conflict through underhanded manipulation of arbitration practices. In his report to the St. Helena Tribune, and articles subsequently offered to the Sheenish Press, he noted that,

“The Sadalers do not seem to care for the same peace that has allowed our continent to thrive for generations. They call on Placidian men, women, and children to die on foreign soil. And for what? The rights to mine? To further suppress their people so the wealthy may crush the common citizen? They resisted a meeting of the Hansa writ large, because they knew full well that the arbiters they selected would choose profit over the lives of their people. The current Sheenish policy makers, it seems, are of the same ilk. Knowing full well the continued support of the Sadaler cause means suffering for the people of Sheen, they have endeavored to seek profit over the common good. I do not claim to know the course of the Sheenish election, but I know I will always stand with the carpenter over the carpetbagger, the plumber over the profiteer, and the worker over the wealthy.”

While it had been a few years since the Raikh had been involved in Sheenish politics, it had become apparent that a soft hand was required to avoid disaster for the Raikh, Sheen, and Dunwik. A short but simple manifesto was produced, laying out the patterns of Tholish aggression. How they would send agent provocateurs to foreign countries or stage events in order to incite conflicts, then make outrageous demands to make themselves seem like the victims. The shooting down of a Sheenish airship over Tholish land was brought out, along with how the Tholes had invaded the Raikh twice, claiming each time to be the victims of improbable attacks by Dunwikki or other groups. Underlining all of this was a warning that the pattern was about to repeat again, this time in Dunwik. The Tholes had already started sending their spies and soldiers there as part of the 'Salvation Army' to provoke a war.

To end it all, a question was posed. 'If Dunwik falls, who's next?' Absolute monarchy would soon be coming for Sheen.