The Fury
| The Fury | |
| Motto | Stability, Prosperity, Progress |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1.I.1702 |
| Type | Unicameral ducal legislature |
| Location | Drakorda, Duchy of Modan |
| Membership | Representatives |
| Speaker | Tinker Sprocket |
The Fury is the unicameral legislature of the Duchy of Modan. Reestablished by a new constitution following its liquidation by the State Committee to Review Ongoing Threats and Urgent Matters, the Fury has been consistently controlled through the 00s by the Modanese Inclusive Liberation Front or one of its splinter parties.
Function
The Fury is composed of 460 representatives elected from districts of equal population. The Fury selects a Steering Committee, which often, but not necessarily, also serves as the leadership for the ducal government.
A Speaker of the Fury is appointed by the Steering Committee to serve as the Fury's presiding officer. Tinker Sprocket was approved by unanimous vote to return as Speaker of the Fury, following his resignation in protest in 1691 AN.
Current Composition
| Party Initials | Party | Leader(s) | Ideology | Colour | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MftP | MILF for the People | Elliot Notchel | Social Progressivism, Anti-Supremacy Draconianism, Pro-Integration | Magenta |
150 / 460 |
| MfM | MILF for Modan | Meson Outener | Draconian Pride, Assimilation or Non-Integration | Maroon |
128 / 460 |
| MILF | Modanese Inclusive Liberation Front | Lucius Demoulin | Anti-Supremacy Draconianism, Integration-Skeptical | Magenta |
51 / 460 |
| DPP | Draconic People's Party | Haze Vachery | Draconian Supremacy, Anti-Integration | Purple |
43 / 460 |
| WRF | Western Rights & Freedoms | Jair Dingle | Rights for the Western Territories, Big Tent | Blue |
36 / 460 |
| BBP | Benacian Bagelcratican Party | Peter Faber | Social Progressivism, Free Trade, Anti-Supremacism | Green |
29 / 460 |
| LPP | Laqi People's Party | Malle Barandal | Laqi Rights | Grey |
12 / 460 |
| L&D | Liberty & Death | Gregor Mott | Thanatossian Pride | Black |
11 / 460 |
Elections for the 1720 Fury seating were particularly fraught. With no longer one but two splinter parties and stained by the reputation of the Unholy Bargain of 1718, MILF sunk to third place, barely gaining more seats than the Draconic People's Party. Other notable features included the rebranding of the Shimmerspring Patriotic Front to Western Rights & Freedoms, securing in the process a majority of the vote within the Western Territories on a big tent platform to secure the rights that had been guaranteed under the Integration of the West Act 1711 but undone by the Unholy Bargain.
In the end, despite MILF for the People succeeding in pushing MILF out of its stronghold electoral territory, it did not successfully gain a majority of seats nor was it able to successfully negotiate a coalition. Instead, MILF for Modan was successful in negotiating a coalition between itself and MILF, DPP, and LPP to secure a razor-thin majority. Meson Outener thus retained the Chancellorship, again at the cost of being virtually incapable of enacting MfM's particular agenda items. An attempted Second Unholy Bargain in 1721, which would have put a freeze on the integration of the Western Territories, maintained the internal border controls indefinitely, and frozen the composition of the Fury at 400 seats for Lakhal, Aquaraqua, Dragacht, and Sehmls and 60 seats for Shimmerspring, Thanatos, and So-Sara, did pass through the Fury; it was immediately submitted to the Court of Judges as evidence that the ruling coalition was violating the Instrument of Government.
In 1722, the Court of Judges ruled that freezing the evolution of internal border controls was not inconsistent with the precedent set by previous legislation on the issue on integrating the Western Territories, but that freezing the composition of the Fury was legislators electing their constituents rather than the other way around, and that these provisions violated the Instrument of Government. When their findings were submitted to the High Commissioner, John Hilding Waffel-Paine, he chose not to act on it. In 1723, the plaintiffs in the case filed an appeal to circumvent the High Commissioner and submit the findings of the Court of Judges to the Duke of Modan, Nathaniel Kalimatov of Waffel-Paine, directly.
On 15.IV.1723, Nathaniel issued an edict, nullifying the Integration of the West Act 1721, after hearing the positions of the plaintiffs (the Opposition in the Fury), the defendants (the Court of Directors), a summary of the legal conclusions of the Court of Judges, and an appeal from the High Commissioner asking that he allow the law to remain in place.
History of the Fury
Fury of 1714 AN
| Party Initials | Party | Leader(s) | Ideology | Colour | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MILF | Modanese Inclusive Liberation Front | Sophus Cordelier Elliot Notchel |
Social Progressivism, Anti-Supremacy Draconianism, Big Tent | Magenta |
213 / 450 |
| MfM | MILF for Modan | Meson Outener | Inclusive Draconian Pride, Pro-Raspur Pact, Forced Assimilation of Thanatos & Shimmerspring | Maroon |
123 / 450 |
| DPP | Draconic People's Party | Haze Vachery | Draconian Supremacist, Anti-Integration | Purple |
59 / 450 |
| LPP | Laqi People's Party | Malle Barandal | Laqi Rights | Grey |
21 / 450 |
| BBP | Benacian Bagelcratican Party | Francis X. Cross | Social Progressivism, pro-Natopian, Free Trade, Anti-Draconian Supremacy | Green |
19 / 450 |
| SPF | Shimmerspring Patriotic Front | Jair Dingle | Shimmerspringer Rights | Blue |
15 / 450 |
With the 1714 Elections concluded, MILF retained its status for the third election in a row as the dominant party. For the first time, however, they were forced to form a coalition government. Within days of the election results being announced, MILF and the Bagelcratican representatives met with the High Commissioner for the Ducal Throne to receive his blessing to form a government. The High Commissioner, John Hilding, initially questioned the coalition's razor-thin majority within the Fury, but accepted the representatives' answer to why they did not seek to include the Laqi and Shimmerspringer parties. MILF would spend the next few years attempting to expand their coalition with LPP and SPF, but these two parties, while willing to add their votes to specific legislation concerning the Western Territories integration process, were unwilling to sign onto the coalition itself.
Another new feature of this sitting of The Fury was the presence of the first MILF split-off party, who called themselves MILF for Modan (MfM). Their predominant body of supporters came from the extreme ends of the previous Fury's debate over the integration of the Western Territories, and their split from MILF proper indicated their dissatisfaction with the manner in which those territories would slowly be integrated over time. Their campaign pledge was to extend an inclusive form of Draconian Culture into Shimmerspring and Thanatos, arguing that integrating these territories without assimilating their populations into Modan's core culture was dangerous. Their appeal marked the final disappearance of several of the old now-marginal parties that had lingered from the Drak-Modanian Period, as the remainder of MfM's political platform was filled in with material taken from those parties.
By the end of the Fourth Ducal Fury, the task of integrating the Western Territories had caused considerable strain both within MILF and between MILF and its coalition partner, the Bagelcratians. Thanks to the 1715 Shireroth census, it became clear that the 50 seats allocated to the Western Territories had woefully underrepresented its population.
How to transition the Western Territories became the hot-button issue for the remainder of the term. Under the Integration of the West Act 1711, a compromise between partitionists and integrationists had established that, after temporarily increasing the size of the Fury to 450 seats (with 50 dedicated to the Western Territories), the 1715 Census would be used to distribute the standard 400 electoral districts proportionally across the entirety of the duchy. Once the reality of that agreement had set in, elements of MILF began opening a back channel with MILF for Modan, the Draconic People's Party, and the Laqi People's Party about drafting a replacement. Dubbed the "Unholy Bargain", 108 MILF MFs (including party leader Sophus Cordelier) voted with MfM, DPP, and LPP to pass the Integration of the West Act 1718.
Under the revised transition plan, allocation of seats would take place gradually over the next four Fury elections. Instead of returning to 400 seats, the Western Territories allocation would slowly increase, first to 60 seats in 1720 AN, then 75 seats in 1726 AN, then 90 seats in 1732 AN. The Fury would only reach proportionality in time to elect the Fury of 1738 AN, which would then have 500 seats that would *only then* be distributed in true proportionality according to the 1715 Shireroth Census.
In the aftermath of the Unholy Bargain, it was revealed that Sophus Cordelier had authorized a secret visit to Shirekeep in an attempt to petition the Imperial Government to allow for the reabsorption of the County Palatine of Draconia into the Duchy of Modan, thereby allowing its population to counterbalance the inclusion of the Western Territories. Sophus Cordelier resigned the chancellorship. The succession crisis within MILF was especially frought, with Elliot Notchel attempting to seize sole control of the party but losing to Lucius Demoulin (who had himself supported the Unholy Bargain). In the end, Notchel declared a new political party, named MILF for the People, to which flowed all the MILF MFs who had opposed the bargain.
In the Fury, Cordelier's resignation resulted in a reshuffling of coalitions, with the remaining MILF MFs supporting Meson Outener's elevation to the chancellorship but opposing most of MfM's attempts to use the chancellor's seat to enact their party agenda.
Fury of 1708 AN
| Party Initials | Party | Leader(s) | Ideology | Colour | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MILF (P) | Modanese Inclusive Liberation Front (Partitionist) | Sophus Cordelier | Anti-Supremacy Draconianism, Big Tent, Anti-Western Territories Integration | Magenta |
164 / 400 |
| MILF (I) | Modanese Inclusive Liberation Front (Integrationist) | Elliot Notchel | Anti-Supremacy Draconianism, Big Tent, Social Progressivism, Pro-Western Territories Integration | Magenta |
132 / 400 |
| DPP | Draconic People's Party | Haze Vachery | Draconian Supremacist, Anti-Shirerithian Integration | Purple |
61 / 400 |
| BBP | Benacian Bagelcratican Party | Social Progressivism, pro-Natopian, Free Trade, Anti-Draconian Supremacy | Green |
12 / 400 | |
| MPU | Modani People's Union | Nationalism & Humanism, Conservatism, Populist, Pro-Raspur Pact, Pro-Benacian Union | Red |
12 / 400 | |
| SP | Solidarity Party | Centrism | Blue |
9 / 400 | |
| ATM | Agrarians & Tradespeople for Modan | Social Conservatism, Draconian Pride, Rural Concerns | Yellow |
7 / 400 | |
| BfB | Benacia for Benacians | Boghos Aygul | Reactionary, Anti-Raspur Pact, Anti-Natopian, Anti-Shirerithian, High Tariffs, Isolationism | Maroon |
3 / 400 |
As the Fury of 1702 drew to a close, it was clear that MILF was suffering from its own success. As a big-tent party, it struggled to fulfill its mandate of upholding the interests of the broad spectrum of political opinion that had sided against the Drak-Modani State in 1699. Unexpectedly, the defining fracture within MILF came from the administration of the so-called Western Territories, i.e. Thanatos, Shimmerspring, and portions of So Sara, which Shireroth had annexed following the Port Esther Summit. These territories were placed under the administrative jurisdiction of the Duchy of Modan.
The MILF coalition government failed to reach consensus on whether to integrate the Western Territories into the Duchy of Modan as fifth demesnes, or whether to govern the Western Territory as a protectorate and without giving it equal status as the majority population of Modan or representation in The Fury.
Entering the campaign period for the Fury of 1708, the two factions officially operated as a single party, yet often saw competing MILF candidates for the same local constituency. The Partitionist Faction, led by Party Leader Sophus Cordelier, made an appeal for keeping the Western Territories distinct from Modan proper, due to their distinct culture, undeveloped war-torn economy, and the chaos that would ensue if its population were allowed to relocate en masse to the freer, richer Modan proper. The Integrationists Faction, led by previously-unremarkable Representative Elliot Notchel from Twoggle, advocated for embracing the bold opportunity to redouble MILF's liberatory potential by flooding the Western Territories with Modanese labor, Modanese funds, and Modanese culture to radically transform the Western Territories into a model demesnes for the new Modan.
In the end, the MILF domination of The Fury expanded rather than contracted, at the cost of now having two MILFs, each with parallel party structures and pretending as if they remained a single party. Cordelier and Notchel went so far as to release a joint statement, titled "MILF is Love" about why, despite the differences on this one issue, the two wings will remain part of a single party to show how the politics of MILF can transcend the old ways. Detractors suggested that MILF didn't officiate their split due to the amount of bad blood it would cause, and that the lack of viable coalition partners meant that their only choice was to form a majority coalition with one another.
The two factions spent the better part of two years working out a compromise package for the limited integration of the Western Territories: the Fury of 1714 would be expanded to 450 seats, with 50 seats allocated to the Western Territories until a proper census could establish the correct apportionment, a robust economic recovery package to rebuild and modernize the cities of Malokati, Mortis Mercatoria, and Jugensk but nowhere else, and the retention of the internal passport system until the Western Territories had become fully integrated as a demesnes.
By the opening of the campaign period for electing the Fury of 1714, the Partitionist/Integrationist division within MILF had all-but-healed, though an unholy alliance had formed between more extreme members of both factions to produce the self-described "MILFs for Modan". During the MILF party convention in 1713, MILF (M) attempted to launch a highly-disciplined takeover of the party and its platform. When they failed, they loudly proclaimed their departure from MILF to form their own party, MILFs for Modan (MfM) under Meson Outener, a firebrand Representative from Bajkir.
Fury of 1702 AN
| Party Initials | Party | Leader(s) | Ideology | Colour | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MILF | Modanese Inclusive Liberation Front | Sophus Cordelier | Anti-Supremacy Draconianism, Big Tent, Social Progressivism, Pro-Shirerithian Integration | Magenta |
269 / 400 |
| DPP | Draconic People's Party | Haze Vachery | Draconian Supremacist, Anti-Shirerithian Integration | Purple |
81 / 400 |
| BBP | Benacian Bagelcratican Party | Social Progressivism, pro-Natopian, Free Trade, Anti-Draconian Supremacy | Green |
19 / 400 | |
| MPU | Modani People's Union | Nationalism & Humanism, Conservatism, Populist, Pro-Raspur Pact, Pro-Benacian Union | Red |
13 / 400 | |
| ATM | Agrarians & Tradespeople for Modan | Social Conservatism, Draconian Pride, Rural Concerns | Yellow |
9 / 400 | |
| SP | Solidarity Party | Centrism | Blue |
5 / 400 | |
| BfB | Benacia for Benacians | Boghos Aygul | Reactionary, Anti-Raspur Pact, Anti-Natopian, Anti-Shirerithian, High Tariffs, Isolationism | Maroon |
4 / 400 |
Despite overwhelming approval, MILF chose to form a national coalition, seeking representation in the Fury's Steering Committee from each party that had qualified for seats therein. All agreed except for the Draconic People's Party, a hastily-created political party that reflected the interests of hardliners from the previous regime.
By 1704 AN, the national coalition had begun showing signs of fracturing, including a major fracture within MILF itself, on the question of integration of Shimmerspring, Thanatos, and So-Sara into the Duchy of Modan, as well as the overall direction for Modan following the first two years of reconstruction under the watchful eye of the Golden Mango Throne. The minor members of the national coalition exploited the factionalism within MILF for their own benefit, hoping to see a return of good fortune in the 1708 Fury Elections after MILF fell apart.
Drak-Modani Fury
During the period of Draconian Supremacy, the Fury was composed of 400 representatives, with four token representatives elected from the Straight Protection Zones. It selected two co-chancellors to serve as the country's head of government and as the Fury's presiding officer, though this role was often delegated to a Speaker of the Fury.
Tinker Sprocket was Speaker of the Fury from 1672 until 23.VI.1691, when he resigned in protest against the legislative and parliamentarian abuses he felt that the Committee for United Modani Solidarity was perpetrating against himself and The Fury. On 24.VI.1691 Lia Gelashvili, a Committee loyalist and regional director, was appointed as the Speaker of the Fury.
During the 1699 Drak-Modani attempted coup d'état, a large portion of the Fury's membership was killed and their bodies hurriedly disposed of, once it became clear that they would not support the coup. The revelation of their fate helped galvanize opposition to the coup regime, leading to a series of bloody engagements in the streets of Drakorda.
The final Fury under Draconian Supremacy was governed by a coalition of the Solidarity Party and the Modani People's Union, called Committee for United Modani Solidarity.
