So it is no secret that the current administration in Eliria and myself do not exactly see eye to eye on just about every issue at any conceivable level. Having said that, I can, and should, admit to appreciating their efforts in the maintenance of institutional continuity (rather more so than the 'communists') and the overall atmosphere of industriousness in regards to cultural output (very much more so than the 'communists'). However I do find the tilt towards full-on epic fantasy a touch retrograde in a state previously depicted as being more industrialised and cosmopolitan.
Now, of course, history is not without instances of advanced societies that have endured shocks and crises and responded by seeking a return to a romanticised 'volkish' golden age of neo-pagan yore, not always with happy consequences, so one would not deny the Froyalandish the right to believe themselves in a restored age of myth and magic but merely to observe that those of us who have been around long enough to consider themselves a part of Elwynn's tradition (Elwdom, if you will) would not always necessarily share those beliefs and might seek to offer a counter narrative.
I would have to ask Ric and Jack if they are really content with the process of change in Elwynn, which no less a personage as Krasniy characterised (perhaps mischievously) as a 'distasteful exercise in Froyalanite revisionism'? Not to begrudge Harald and Co for taking power when Ric offered it and turning their hand to reviving something that is obviously dear to their hearts but I feel that in doing so they are in danger of drowning out the older voices; mine (for what little it's worth), Ric's, Scott's or even Nick and Jack's more recent contributions.
So what I want to do is to be able to work with those whose conception of Elwynn is not that of the current regime to work upon and expound the differences so that the Elw language, the Tressian Religion, the distinctive Babki attitude towards inter-communal relations, the frecking ice-bears, are not altogether entirely forgotten. In that context the decision to deny me the right to reside (ergo post) as a citizen of Elwynn was disappointing. Perhaps Harald is concerned that I would work tirelessly and disruptively for the destruction and overthrow of all that he holds dear. If so he need not worry in that regard, I only ever work fitfully if at all.
Being barred from Elwynn is not however insurmountable, indeed it adds a layer of nuance permitting the simulation or representation of the viewpoint of an embittered exiled community established across the border and trying to make sense of its current lot, whilst still hoping for some fabled day of return (a bit like those Cubans in Miami who have so enlivened that city and lent such verisimilitude to that jolly little film 'Scarface').
Anybody who has made a half-hearted attempt to read the Golden Bough can have a field day with the reported religious practices of the ruling elite in Eliria without for one moment being obliged into actually conceding that their former homeland is currently ruled by knights-errant who gallivant around copulating with myriad goddesses (to paraphrase a rant that will be used at some point or another). Simultaneously those who have written up the ' Froyalanish Ancient Ways' are well within their rights to insist that every aspect of the Konungstekja in this fiction is a literal rather than symbolic occurrence, even down to the more ejaculatory particulars.
Of course Harald and Co have their own brickbats to throw back at me. I read for instance that "Elwynn is a much better place now, especially if you have womb or pointy ears or both" which was not strictly true in the local sense since women [1] and the Elfinshi [2] were always accorded more consideration than afforded in other more dystopian settings of my devising - mostly as a consequence of having to balance Ric's fondness for grand declarations regarding human rights. Why the coordinated state didn't even have a death penalty, which contrasted interestingly with the attitude of the current administration.
However this is all incidental, serving only to emphasise the richness of the variety and contrast of opinions regarding Elwynn and what it is to be Elwynnese. A debate and a discussion that can be continued as readily from a notional position in Goldshire as it could from a notional position in Elwynn. Hence this is why I have called it only the semblance of a dilemma; being frozen out of Elwynn prevents me from having a say on what is but the freedom of scope afforded by citizenship permits me to comment on the ongoing process of what is and also, via the wiki, to elaborate more fully on what was.
It is this that I hope will permit otherwise irreconcilable opinions to co-exist going forward.
I'm sure we can all get along.
