Elthrol Calamegil

Elthrol i Calaquendi Elrosion carte Calamegilo Haryon Hísilómë
Date of Birth 1 Yávië 1 Corana in Atanvaryall (1 August 1780) Place of Birth Anor, Hísilómë Political Affilliation Ardatomani Party Position in Empire Supreme Cordon, Lord Chancellor

Lord Chancellor Elthrol Elrosion, Supreme Cordon of Tomania, Grand Duke of Hísilómë and Eregion was Supreme Cordon from 1809-1882, being one of Tomania’s longest Supreme Cordons. Calamegil is the first of the Three Calamegil Cordons, before the Ardatomani collapse of 1972, during his Cordonship, Elthrol, concerned himself mainly with reforming the education, freeing the serfs, and bureaucracy of the Empire.

Social Policies

Cordon Elthrol Calamegil began a twenty-year program in which every major city in the Empire would have a university and a library, since then he was known as “Elthrol the Grand Educator.” He was a man of many teachings and thought and wanted all the people of the empire to be educated, ironically, however, he would only allow members of the Calaquendi, Umanyar, and the Vanyar Castes to go onto University studies. He attempted to reform laws, allowing more freedoms to the lower classes, though the Falmari and the Avari castes rebelled against the Ardatomani. They demanded quicker reform and more social liberties, he had the rebellion ruthlessly put down and Calamegil re-tracked all his progressive reforms and began to instill new laws further suppressing the rights of the lower castes.

Ending Serfdom

Though he carefully guarded his autocratic rights and privileges, and obstinately resisted all efforts to push him farther than he felt inclined to go, Calamegil for several years acted somewhat like a constitutional leader of the continental type. Soon after the conclusion of peace, important changes were made in legislation concerning industry and commerce, and the new freedom thus afforded produced a large number of limited liability companies. At the same time, plans were formed for building a great network of railways — partly for the purpose of developing the natural resources of the country, and partly for the purpose of increasing its power for defense and attack.

Then it was found that further progress was blocked by a formidable obstacle: the existence of serfdom. Calamegil showed that, unlike his predecessor, he meant to grapple boldly with this difficult and dangerous problem. Taking advantage of a petition presented by the Ithilien landed proprietors of the southern provinces, and hoping that their relations with the serfs might be regulated in a more satisfactory way (meaning in a way more satisfactory for the proprietors), he authorized the formation of committees "for ameliorating the condition of the peasants," and laid down the principles on which the amelioration was to be effected.

This step was followed by one still more significant. Without consulting his ordinary advisers, Calamegil ordered the Minister of the Interior to send a circular to the provincial governors of the Empire, containing a copy of the instructions forwarded to the Consular-General of Ithilien, praising the supposed generous, patriotic intentions of the Ithilien landed proprietors, and suggesting that perhaps the landed proprietors of other provinces might express a similar desire. The hint was taken: in all provinces where serfdom existed, emancipation committees were formed. The deliberations at once raised a host of important, thorny questions. The emancipation was not merely a humanitarian question capable of being solved instantaneously by imperial consuls. It contained very complicated problems, deeply affecting the economic, social and political future of the nation.

Calamegil had little of the special knowledge required for dealing successfully with such problems, and he had to restrict himself to choosing between the different measures recommended to him. The main point at issue was whether the serfs should become agricultural labourers dependent economically and administratively on the landlords, or whether they should be transformed into a class of independent communal proprietors. The Emperor gave his support to the latter project, and the Tomanian peasantry became one of the last groups of peasants in Gemini Exterro to shake off serfdom.

The Reformer

Other reforms followed: army and navy re-organization; a new judicial administration; a new penal code and a greatly simplified system of civil and criminal procedure; an elaborate scheme of local self-government for the rural districts and the large towns, and a new rural and municipal police under the direction of the Minister of the Interior.

However, the workers wanted better worker conditions; national minorities wanted freedom. When radicals began to resort to the formation of secret societies and to revolutionary agitation, Elthrol Calamegil felt constrained to adopt severe repressive measures.

Calamegil resolved to try the effect of some moderate liberal reforms in an attempt to quell the revolutionary agitation, and for this purpose he instituted a Tarya (Imperial Edict) for creating special commissions, composed of high officials and private personages who should prepare reforms in various branches of the administration.

Discontent from the Serfs

Even though Calamegil freed the serfs, reformed tax laws, and brought more sanitary industrial conditions to the empire, the lower castes were still very unhappy. A movement known was the Hrívithrim (“Novermberists”) organized in the imperial province of Ithilien and rebelled against Calamegil’s Adratomani government. Calamegil sent the army in stating “Shoot all rioters, in the Holy Name of the Emperor, kill all those who appose His infallible divinity!” 45,0000 Ithiliens were killed and the army burnt the fields and destroyed the towns in the area another 3 million would die of malnutrition and diseases in the following months.

Flourishing of the Arts

Art and music always flourishes in the Tomanian empire, however, during the reign of Supreme Cordon Calamegil the arts came to a new era. Calamegil’s new taxation methods provided enough revenue within the Empire to keep the large standing army, pay for the committees and to build a new Opera House in the capital. Calamegil began the construction of the Imperial Nessa the Valie Opera House a thirteen year project costing well over §20 billion. Within the large complex the main Opera house surrounded by four smaller houses, a large plaza with a golden fountain in the middle for outside festivals, three conservatory halls and two dance studios. A 50 acre squared garden with over three hundred fountains, athousand kind of flowers, trees and rocks surround the complex, the Nessa Opera House is a phenomenon in beauty, even for Tomanian standards. The Supreme Cordon also commissioned an Art Museum to house all the works of Tomanian artist from that time and before. He also built the Vairë the Weaver Legendarium, in which Tomanian mythology, history, and art is displayed.

Calamegil’s Brutality

Though a reformer, the brutality of Calamegil’s reign cannot be overlooked. Though, he tired to reform the Empire, freed the serfs, reformed taxation and re-organized the bureaucracy. He also waged many wars against Tomanian neighbors, his invasion of the Laiquendi kingdom left a people of over twenty million to have a mere 100,000 and were kicked out of their land and deported to the other side of the Great Exterran Desert. Ironically, enough the Marduuk used the Acrananian genocide against the Laiquendi to justify their actions for invading Acranania. When the Novermberists rebelled Calamegil has it brutally put down. His own cabnet tried to remove him from office because of his liberal reforms, he countered it by having them all hung for treason. After freeing the serfs and reforming laws the people became unhappy with the slow reform, he then began to pass some of the most repressive laws in Tomanian history.

Foreign Affairs

Calamegil is one of the few Supreme Cordon to have a foreign policy; he officially allied Tomania with Dracoriana and ended Tomania’s long isolationism by invading the areas of Númenórë, Anórien, and Hyarrostar.

After the regorinzation and further industrialization of the Empire, Calamegil felt comfortable enough to begin a large military build up. In fact he doubled the size of the Tomanian Imperial Navy, and almost tripled the size of her Imperial Amry. With the new recruits and reasourses Calamegil began his four year war against the Laiquendi (another ethnically Quendi and cousins to the Tomar) controlled provinces of Númenórë, Anórien, and Hyarrostar. However, much to his surprise his four year war only lasted two.

Ketzia Rossi, the Praetor of Morindira, had aspirations to support the Confederacy in the American Civil War. Rossi, one of three (the others Natolya M'Kai and Mahalia Kelladai) Morindiran Praetor to visit Tomania, spoke with Calamegil about supporting the Confederacy. However, Calamegil was too concerned with the Empire’s new provinces to support such an idea, and declined the offer.