Rotheleyism

The Founding of Rotheleyism

Lord Clement Rotheley expends great wealth on the construction of a new university, intended to foster a grand space of ideological and political education. Despite making no exclusionary rules, the school is successful at attracting thinkers and theorists. No new boon to immigration is seen due to this decision, as peasants broadly do not care or are not informed enough to care about some pompous noble engaging in political dialog with his peers.

Unfortunately, politics of this kind without restrictions on the type of ideas being taught can lead to undue consequences. Lord Rotheley received exactly what he wanted. New theorists from the liberal school, building on the ideas of their new sponsor, create a resurgent strain of pro-democratic and anti absolutist thought. They name it Rotheleyism, and many of them begin building new social institutions to debate and expand support for their mode of thought.

Among these new theorists are the intellectual heirs to the Plaitignon Family, republicans full of fervor who desire to legally bring about the Reveian Republic. The Rotheley School quickly earns a reputation for jacobinism across the Heartlands, and the nobles fear it. While Clement Rotheley enjoys popular support, the ideas of his school proliferate in the lands of House Verrador, where a young man by the name of Nathan Hayes founded the Second Cohort, a group devoted to the debate of new political ideas. Sine’s courtiers plead that the Second Cohort be shut down, and House Rotheley reprimanded for their open promotion of these ideas.

The Second Cohort attracted the support of many in the Rotheley School as an organization lobbying for republicanism in the Empire’s subsidiaries. They compile a platform based on regionalism, where each region is granted semi-independence from the Emperor, who they see as unable to effectively govern the whole of his territories.

The most backlash is felt north of the Veridian, where inquisitors seek open war with these figures and ideas. They seek their prosecution for heresy and questioning the divine ordination of the nobility. Specifically, they wish to target the following thinkers:

Nathan Hayes

Eloi Pelletier

Charles Favre

Nicholas Chambers

Philip Cooke

Each has taken a public position in favor of new Rotheleyist ideals. In the Greenwood several Dornovan lords express their concern, publicly rebuking the Rotheleyist ideas and requesting that House Visegrad take a similar public stance against it.

The Comingswell Barons excise House Rotheley from their alliance coalition. They grow closer to House Verrador who approached them regarding the recent moves from House Rotheley. While Clement draws new support from partisan militias, he now stands diplomatically isolated as the aristocrats entrench to stop him.

The Theorists and their Theories

Nathan Hayes and the Morney Boys

Nathan Hayes grew up a man of poor means, a peasant in the Heartlands doomed to till the fields of his ancestors. His education when compared to the others of the Rotheleyist School is lacking, and some of the more elitist voices often cast him aside as a rabble rouser and a savage opportunist. What he is known for is the establishment of the Morney Commune, a collective farming venture greenlit by the local fief. His skill in demonstrating the self-managing virtue of private property has informed the viability of the Rotheleyist movement as a long term societal fix.

Eloi Pelletier, the Heir of Plaitignon

Eloi descends from the Plaitignon Movement, a truly educated radical when compared to his peers. Yet, he eschews the pragmatism of the School in favor of targeted violence. Much of the disapproval from the landed peerage stems from Eloi's inclusion and position. Still, Eloi attracts partisan support from across the realm, from the mountains in the Cliffs to the Grapeland fields. Many who share the sympathy for democracy cheer on his name in the quiet corners of taverns and households.