The Pent Have A Chat

## Context

'The Pent Have A Chat' is a piece of dialogue done by me, Squidco2658, as flavour text for RGOV15 research. It was written in late February, and it takes place the evening before the Day of Halves, as The Pent, at the time the original five leaders, discuss Calai's future and revelations surround The Old Western Empire and it's leader, The Great Uniter. The dialogue is no masterpiece, and is not essential to read to understand the inner workings of Calai, although it does characterise The Pent.

## The Pent Have A Chat

*Members of The Pent enter the room, with mock insults and laughter*

Noe: So, the illustrious Don have taken their wares somewhere east for a change

Sai: New markets are open, if that means trending on some Sial toes, then all the better

Noe: I would argue that this so called ‘ocean’ is in fact another lake, and you know lakes are Sial territory

Sai: You Sial spend too much time on anthropology, if you had the brains to spend some time on science then you would know by know Delthoria is a sphere, every where we go is west for someone

Emile: Both your arguments are equally absurd, if only one of you two would let the other take over on trade we could actually get something done

Noe: If you want more for your conquests go to the Sial, if you can get your bureaucrats to finally integrate them after fourteen years

Reyn: Honestly I quite like not paying taxes, more knives for more stabbing

Sebastian: You could of sent those knives after many more people, but yet you are still too scared to act without your precious crocodiles lending their armies

Reyn: Of course our Pentsynd phrases his insults with the most gravitas

Sebastian: I very much do, and I am becoming tired of banter

Sai: People really do lose sight of what is fun theses days

Sebastian: We are a group of friends, but we too are an executive of a government, I would hope you would all understand that after a decade

Emile: Look at these fancy words, ‘executive’, we started off as a Ofriþ study class Sebas

Sebastian: And we are no longer that. Your point?

Emile: You clearly have one, some of us are busy, please go on.

Sebastian: We need a change

Reyn: What sort?

Sebastian: So many, by the Uniter so many

Noe: Even you usually aren’t this serious.

Sebastian: I don’t think the Uniter exists

Sai: You see, this is what happens when you waste time on building temples, when you have faith you have crises in even the most absolute of facts

Sebastian: This is not a crisis of faith, Sai

Emile: Then what in the Bond’s name is then?

Sebastian: There have been excavations in Grand Calai and other parts of Calai. Together with some scholars from the lakes and Gwanoi, we’ve found information about the Uniter’s empire.

Reyn: The blood he must have spilled, this is beyond wonderful news!

Sebastian: It wasn’t just to the west of us, we were the centre of it.

Sai: Then how did our name pass down then?

Sebastian: The Uniter knew about the other continent as well, they were inhabited by an empire called the Sunscythians. We can only presume they knew each other well enough to designate her empire as the western one.

Noe: At least we won’t need a name change then.

Sebastian: The empire stretched not as far west as we thought, as you’ll gather from the name revelations. It seemed to stop at around Kosoman. But there was more pressing matters.

Reyn: Please just get on with it Vertig

Sebastian: The Uniter existed, I can be sure of that. I still have no clue which of the tribes is right on what they were, but we know of their fate now. The Uniter was recorded as being thrown from a large height, stabbed, starved, drowned and then given as carrion for the wingsloths.

Emile: This is going to do wonders for our morale.

Sebastian: They were then succeeded by an unnamed emperor, who watched as his first and only predecessor’s conquests ignore him, eventually leading him to run of to that old nation, Argenta I think it was?

Sai: So how the hell did we come about then?

Sebastian: Another tablet found describes a poorly integrated region of ‘lunatics’ between the western lake and the capital to have been so dedicated to the Uniter, who they had never even met, that they refused to believe their death, and reacted with hostility to anyone who claimed they had met their demise.

Reyn: To be frank dealing with this mess make me believe if ‘lunatics’ is still an apt description.

Sebastian: Another later tablet originating from Sunscythia was acquired from a colony of a nation called Nacafi, something to look out for actually. Anyway, the tablet then described the region of descending into war, with five major tribes conquering territory over religious disputes.

Noe: Poor anthropology, they should have figured out there wasn’t anything religious apart with your lot Seb.

Sai: So that’s the story of Calai then, we’re a bunch of deluded tribes, plunged into war for thousands of years because of ignorance, only saved because five people happened to have a chat with the nations far better than us. Just wonderful.

Sebastian: The Uniter is dead, our searches have been useless. But I think we all knew that anyway, has anyone even bothered with them after the war, I heard most teens these days are just searching in the prettiest parts of the continent, treating it as a holiday.

Emile: I would ask why we all seem to be taking this with less sadness than when Fabrice’s dog died, but I feel we are just desensitised to everything at this point. For Uniter’s sake we’ve been discussing the cultural future of nations and the conquest without blinking an eye. How is the population going to deal with this information?

Sebastian: The general population is not for us to worry about. That is precisely why I called this meeting. We need a sixth.

Emile: I know we have my brother in Kjeropan, but are you really planning to add him through annexing them? Even I wouldn’t suggest that.

Sebastian: Fabrice isn’t the sixth. The Pentsynd can’t be one of us.

Noe: I get that you want a representative for the people Seb, us Azir and Sial have the same mindset on a lot of things. But we have this five person set up fro a reason. We are a Pentarchy, we need someone to be the deciding vote on matters.

Sebastian: That is because we won’t just be a pentarchy anymore.

Noe: What?

Sebastian: We’ve been planning expansion for a while, but it’s been based on us taking over. We know what happened when the Uniter died now. We know why her empire collapsed. Because it was an empire.

Reyn: You don’t want to resurrect the imperial legacy, I know we’ve had some revelation but you want to drop everything we have planned?

Sebastian: Calai must grow, that is true. But we won’t be an empire, those always fall eventually. Calai will take those we conquer into our fold as equals, as Calains.

Emile: That’s a lot of people Sebas.

Sebastian: That is why we will need a separate Pentsynd, someone not connected to us, someone who can represent us and those who join us, but mostly the general population. You earlier comments inspired me Noe, I have a name.

Noe: Uniter, what have I done now?

Sebastian: Calai of Three Lakes.

Noe: West of Three Lakes sounds a bit odd, don’t you think?

Sai: No one bothers to learn Common Calain, even most of our population will just think of us expanding.

Sebastian: Calai will expand, but we will do it with compassion. We will step back as full leaders for a bit, and let our elected Pentsynd take over some matters. We will set out a legislature for all of Calai, expanding as we annex. We will utilise the diplomatic skills we used with our colonisers to talk to the nations of the lakes and beyond.

Reyn: What can we do with diplomacy where spilt blood won’t work?

Sebastian: The west is united in one **ideology,** we all believe in the same thing, the unity of the continent, it’s advancement, and it’s prosperity. We have already talked with Tzoytek, we can do this wit more. Monarchs could be writing their wills and testaments, and elections could be campaigned with on a promise, of joining Calai of Three Lakes.

Reyn: Bloodshed is inevitable.

Sebastian: I won’t deny that, as much as I hate it, war will be declared on those who do not join. But even those we conquer we treat with compassion. they will be resented in The Pent, and in the legislature, where parties will from, and politics can happen on an inter-tribal basis. Together, the leaders of the nations of Calai and it’s people, behind the Pentsynd, we can work together to surpass any who have come before us.

Sai: We are the ones known for creating something new.

Emile: Even if it will leave us behind.

Sebastian: None of our nations are actual democracies, we’ll be fine in our positions in The Pent until we die.

Reyn: Well, when you put it like that.

Sebastian: We still be part of both the legislature, executive and even local judiciary.

Noe: Doesn’t that go against that new theory that’s been popping up, what's the name - separation of powers?

Sebastian: We are the founders of Calai.

Noe: We really are right proper bastards aren’t we.

Sebastian: We are the right proper bastards who bought a nation to prosperity and now the most advanced governance in the world in under two decades. We can afford to be a bit more relaxed about all of this.

Emile: At least you’ve brightened up Sebas. To be frank, I expected a lecture on why we are degenerates who desperately need to retire.

Sai: So that’s it, we’re now the democratic something-archy of Calai of Three Lakes.

Sebastian: Yes, that is the route we’ve chosen to go down.

Sai: Uniter, the new government buildings are going to cost too much.

Reyn: Guess the new Pentsynd won't miss some Peals spent on drinks then.

## Closing statement

Well, I guess I do not need to write fan fiction, I have conveyed cringe through the English language with this. Although part of the reason was the communicate the immaturity of The Pent, and that, while it can be nice to have relaxed political leaders, that is not necessarily the best way to run the country. After The Day of Halves The Pent became a great deal more mature, and used to sharing the burdens of rulership across a much wider group of people. Their discussions here however laid the way for widespread democracy in Calai, and the intent to create a multination Union, present now in Calai of Three Lakes.