Verdian's fascination with the modern world's advancements is well known, and it

was reflected in his rulership of Vaungur when he had yet to give himself the title
of Archduke - at least, from the late 18th century onward.

In the heyday of the revolutionary period, where both America and France cast off
the chains of Kings and Nobility, Vaungur, too, underwent a revolution of its own.
Most of its inhabitants had never been exposed to the world beyond their mountain,
but small contingents often left the city-state to seek out those they felt would
contribute to Vaungur's prosperity - and to expand the genetic diversity of the
city, as living isolated beneath a mountain range all but ensured that the
population would eventually have to resort to incest to sustain itself.

One such immigrant was Simon Allard, a young, optimistic student that had
participated in the beginning of the French Revolution and the abolition of the
feudal state and the establishment of the Republic - unfortunately he had found
himself a target during the Terror and had been forced to flee France for his life
- where he was offered refuge in Vaungur, along with a number of other French
refugees fleeing the political purges.

Naturally, they brought their political ideals with them, and this resulted in many
clashes with the established nobility, of which Allard was already quite disdainful
of for rather understandable reasons. The Duke himself was often the one to push
for compromise and peace - but things came to a head in 1799, a month before the
turn of the century.

Allard's cause had spread to much of Vaungur's commonfolk, and the nobles, in their
fear and in their arrogance, had armed themselves. Verdian was in the Americas at
the time, quietly observing the rise of the United States in secret, and paying his
respects to the recently deceased George Washington, when he heard that Vaungur's
two political classes were on the edge of open conflict. Violet had done her best
to calm angry hearts - but sexism was still a powerful force, even in a place ruled
by a benevolent immortal. The nobles were covertly supplying Vaungur's criminal
element, encouraging them to attack the homes of prominent revolutionaries, such as
Allard, hoping to incite enough "controlled" violence that Verdian would have no
choice but to banish the peasant "upstarts."

Written evidence of this plot was discovered by Allard's supporters the day before
Verdian's return - and there was no stopping the wave of violence that engulfed the
noble district. Many innocents had suffered from the increased power of Vaungur's
gangs - which had been normally been no more than street ruffians, but fitted with
enchanted weaponry from Vaungur's noble houses, grew greedy - and blame was cast on
the entirety of the nobility, including its two rulers.

Allard himself led the crowd that stormed Vaungur castle - but all of them had
miscalculated. None of them had known the extent of the power of a pair of nearly
four hundred year old vampires - and Vaungur's Royal Guard, the Wolf Knights. The
two were forced to drench the castle's halls in the blood of its citizens, both
those adopted and those born in its caves, bloody tears streaking down their faces
until finally the riot dispersed in a mad panic.

Simon Allard knew that death was a possibility - he wore a makeshift suicide vest,
the explosives within containing multitudes of silver shrapnel, and Verdian nearly
gave his life shielding his daughter from the blast. In the aftermath, the Duke was
bedridden for a month, and the City-State of Vaungur was in total lockdown, both
nobility and peasantry confined to their homes, as the Wolf-Knights, led by Violet,
rounded up all responsible for the violence - heads of noble houses and peasant
revolutionaries alike. Vaungur's criminal element, too, was not spared - and all
were tried at once in the public square, the day martial law was lifted.
Neither noble nor peasant nor thug was spared the noose - and as the final guilty
party was hung, the Duke emerged in the square - and he spoke.

I have had much to contemplate this past month, as I lay in my bed, tiny silver
shards pushing themselves from my body. I contemplated the fury of the oppressed -
those who felt they had been given an unfair due through a trick of birth, who
labored because their parents labored, and their parents, and their parents alike.
I thought of those who lived in elegance because they were born into elegance -
whose actions were nothing but. And those who wished to take that which was not
theirs, simply because it was not theirs.

And I thought of those that stormed my home because they thought me responsible for
their ills - for not stopping those that would do them harm simply because they
wished to better the lives of those that were not born with a silver spoon. Those
people - My people - Our people, who fled in tears when their ruler cut them down.
They were right. I am responsible, and I have failed them.

For hundreds of years Vaungur has lived
very little, whilst the world around us
why things are the way they are in some
Nobles, simply that they are. We do not
simply that is the way things are.
beneath the Carparthians. We have changed
evolves. We have - I have - not examined
time. We do not know why the Nobility are
know why the Peasantry are Peasants -

Today - as those that have brought us great suffering and ills are punished for
their crimes - let us resolve to never inflict such horrors on each other ever
again. Simon Allard was a flawed man with a righteous heart - he believed the
system of government had failed the people, both in France, and in Vaungur, and he
resolved to change it, despite the circumstances of his birth and his status as a
foreigner. He blamed me as he blamed his King, and I cannot fault him for that -
nor can I fault the methods in which he tried to change the status quo, when those
richer than he do everything in their power to keep their riches, their privilege,
and their status.

Do not mistake this for a wholesale condemnation of the Nobility of which I am

apart - there were those among them that tried to stop the madness, just as there
were those among the Peasantry that did not wish for violence - but the voices of
peace are too often drowned out by those that call for violence. Such was the case
in France - in the Terror that Simon Allard fled, beginning with the death of the
King and ending with the rise of an Emperor - the very thing that the Revolution
was aimed to stop, in my mind.

He was right to view that I failed. I did. I was not here to allay the concerns of
Vaungur's people - all of Vaungur's people, both rich and poor, noble and peasant
alike. I did not see how the commonfolk have suffered for centuries on end -
treated with kindness from their Ruler above, yes, but not the love they deserve.
All of Vaungur should live as opulently as their Duke. All of Vaungur should wake
up to furnished silk sheets and fluffed white pillows. They should never wake up
cold and hungry, and should never eat the scraps from the nobility's table. All
should be able to read the great works of our poets and writers. All should be able
to see the plays of our actors and actresses. All should not worry when they fall
ill, because they cannot afford to be cured.

Let us dedicate this day - the Day of Allard - to a new path forward for Vaungur.
Where every citizen - regardless of who they were born to or where - is a Noble.
Where every citizen can read, and write. Where they may pursue their passions
beyond the need to feed their families. Where all may share in the opulence of what
was once granted to only a few. Let us move beyond the divisions of the past and
march forward, together, into a bright future. A future where you are all Lords and
Ladies, Counts and Countesses.
This will not be an easy thing. These divisions between us - these things are
centuries old. But together we will move past them. We will take bold steps forward
into a new world where you are equal in the eyes of the law and each other. Where
you are all free to pursue your dreams, whatever they may be. Where justice does
not discriminate based on what street you were born on. Let this be the start of a
Golden Age for our people - one where we shall all benefit - and let it continue
forevermore, so long as we hold to this:

So long as you have a noble heart - you are noble in Vaungur.

That remains the city-state's motto to this day.

Atâta timp cât aveți o inimă nobilă - sunteți nobili în Vaungur.