Beech Williamson

The man who managed to successfully plan and orchestrate a rebellion, and keep his nation running for years to come after that. The man who created the constitution and formed Insomnia Central... The *real* founding father of Insomnia Central.

## Early Life

Beech Williamson was born in 1803 to Edward and Katherine Williamson, in the county of IE Yurning. At the time, all habitable land in Stevenis was controlled by The Insomnia Empire. The Empire was especially oppressive to commoners. Considering Beech Williamson was raised in an extremely impoverished town, he was a commoner, and therefore not considered a threat, but more of an inconvenience. The Empire was properly established in 1798, marking the end of 'The War of Threes' taking place between Elves, Dwarfs and Humans, with Humans raining victorious - slaughtering all other races. By the time Beech was 9 (1812), all other races (such as Goblins, Orcs, Halflings and Satyr's) were extinct, which Beech was especially angered by. When he was 14, he gave a powerful speech about the issue, which convinced the people of his village that maybe other races weren't so bad.

## Rebellion

### Founding

Beech Williamson was quick to get followers; his first being Alex Nicolas, a man who would later become his partner. Together they formed a group called 'The Objectors'. After convincing the County's Mayor, Milbert Levi, to let Beech host a public speech, he rallied together the people of IE Yurning, and convinced them that the monarchy system is extremely flawed, and that the Insomnia Empire was a corrupt state.

By 1820, (when Beech was 17) he had formed a large group of believers. He appointed Simon Levi (the mayor's son) and Duncan Pillia to his 'new senate'. In 1821, authorities knocked on Beech's door and tried to arrest him, ready for public execution. Fortunately, his group stopped the carriage he was being taken in, killed the driver, and Beech Williamson announced that 'The Objectors' were officially a rebel group.

### Early Rebellion

Originally, Beech Williamson tried to put violence aside. Whilst he still very much trained and prepared for a fight, he tried extremely hard to come to an agreement with the present leader of the Empire, Jacklin Print. All his efforts failed, until The Empire marched soldiers into IE Yurning, declaring that if they were not to hand over both Williamson and Nicolas, they would be forced to declare war. Nicolas ordered the rebels to attack, and they won the battle, with more than half of their soldiers left. So Beech Williamson declared himself Mayor, ordered men into the army, and executed proper training. He also set up a strong alliance with the island county of IE Wordsmith, They provided weapons that previously had been hidden from the Empire - more specifically the invention of a musket.

### War

Despite being seriously outnumbered and out-trained, the rebellion continuously won. They took less causalities than The Empire, because of the weapons they had manufactured: the invention of 'The Shellfire 3' pushed the war in Beech Williamson's favour.

Beech Williamson continued to pull off clever manoeuvres on 'The Insomnia Empire', but the tides changed when The Empire developed 'Regment 5', a cheaper, easier to manufacture, but less effective musket (1825). Beech Williamson knew that the Empire had no intention of standing down, so he suggested that he sacrifice his life, for the rebel cause. Publicity wise, Alex Nicolas and Beech Williamson were equals, but in reality Beech Williamson had a far greater input to the rebellion than Alex Nicolas, so when the idea for Beech Williamson to sacrifice himself was first suggested, Nicolas acted upon the plan, replacing Williamson with himself. Print accepted. However, by slight accident, Alex Nicolas ended up sacrificing himself - exchanging his life for the Rebellion. This officially marked Yurning as its own nation (1826).

Part of the deal included that the Livitas speaking areas of IE Alberat (today Shiverlous and Boarium) were ceded to the new nation.

## Presidency

Beech Williamson quickly got to work at having the people of Yurning's voices heard. He held large city campaigns asking for a name for the new country. Suggestions included: Williamshire, Nicolati, Nicoland, and Insomnia Central. Of course in the end, Beech Williamson and his 2 newly chosen senators agreed on Insomnia Central as the new nation's name (1826). Williamson was very devoted to his craft and it took him 50 years to create 'CAP' (Capitalist Alex Party)

Beech Williamson quickly split responsibility with the two other Senators, assigning them select parts of the country. He then established these 3 separate areas as 3 states: Williamshire, Leviavon and Pillia (1828). He also drafted the first constitution (finished in 1834), as well as creating the electoral system which is still in use today (created in 1882).

Williamson had a long running campaign for all of Insomnia Central to be united under a common language. Livitas was the dominant language in Pillia, whereas Somian was dominant in Williamshire and Leviavon. His policies included: all schools and universities had to teach in Somian (1838) and the publishing of books in Livitas was limited to 5,000 per year (1841). His campaign was successful. This caused a divide between the rich, and therefore educated, who the policies affected most, and the poor, and therefore uneducated, who were not as affected. Over time, Livitas' association with the lower classes also contributed to its decline.

### Alliances

* In 1829, Insomnia Central donated hundreds of troops towards Wordsmith's independence, which - thanks to the help of Insomnia Central - only took a year to establish (1830).
* Insomnia Central helped Dersat in their independence as well. After 2 years of war (1829), IC forces won the war in a single extra year.
* Beech Williamson set up alliances with Ariel, due to their joint alliance with Dersat.
* In 1834, he established a large trade deal with Wordsmith that involved the mass import of thousands of Shellfire 13's.
* In 1835, he successfully held a congress meeting with the leaders of Ariel, Wordsmith, and Dersat, deliberately excluding The Empire.
* In 1836, he successfully stopped a Second War with The Empire by making threats.
* In 1836, he donated massive amounts of weaponry to Faringway to help with their independence.

## Criticisms

Williamson's electoral system has been criticised by non-Alexists. They say that the senators being 'chosen by Alex' is untrue and simply used so the existing senate can choose whoever they wish to join.

Williamson's crackdown on the Livi language has been strongly criticised over the years. He has been accused of being prejudiced against Livitas speakers and erasing their culture. Others have argued that Williamson was more focused on his dream of a single language state than actually having a hatred for Livitas. Either way, his policies caused the decline of the Livi language, which is now only the majority language in some remote areas of Pillia. It has been likened to the Arielian government's eradication of Argost.

## Late Life

Beech Williamson died in cabinet. It was conveniently 5 weeks before the actual election was due to take place. He was not intending on running again, due to his old age. Unfortunately, Beech Williamson suffered a stroke, in his office, in 1888. The election took place as normal (except a few weeks early).