NationStates Jolt Archive

[OOC: In brief, this is where the Meritocracy is actually established, up to this point it was nominal. This is kinda in dept, its SEMI-OPEN. This is not a War RP, its primarily a political, diplomatic, and conspiracy RP. It may last only a few posts, it may last several. Hard to tell. But if you see an opening, feel free to get involved.]

Christendom, Jagada

Allen Rose walked down the alleys of Christendom. Since York got to power, all the alleys were lit up in an effort to reduce crime--and surprisingly, to some extent it was actually working. Christendom was prehaps the largest city in the Trinity Empire, and yet it actually slowed down and rested at night. Though the police were more active and patrolled a lot more a night, there was still the danger of getting mugged--even though no one had been mugged in the area he was walking in, in close to a year. Crime wasn't tolerated in Jagada, and York met crime with progressive policies, along with a iron fist in which most criminals were sold into corperate slavery to boost the economy. York would have used the death penalty, which he personally believed in, but the majority of Jagadians followed the philosphy of Jesus, "An Eye for an Eye, and the World goes Blind." A cold gust of wind came over Allen, it was nearing winter in Jagada, and he'd lost is jacket--go figure. He looked straight down the road at a moderate sized housed. There were only two vehicles there, and the lights were on--that was his destination. Allen kept this calmness, as in between himself and the house was about thirty police officers at various street corners. What he was going to do couldn't be considered subversive, but the less the government knew about these activities the better. Allen nodded as he passed the officers, whom returned the gesture with a similar nod. Allen walked up to the the door of the house, which was open. Thanks to the moral restraint placed upon society, unlike in other countries where keeping your front door open would be considered absolutely foolish because of the criminals, in Jagada it was very safe to do so. Though nobody just walked into a persons house, or he'd be filled with about three pounds of lead from the police. Allen knocked on the frame of the door and same came from around the corner. It was a woman, in her early fifities at least. He didn't know that because he knew her, he knew that because he was only thirty and she looked much older. Though from her experssion, she must have been expecting him.

"Hello, sir, you must be Mr.Rose," she stated, "The others are waiting for you in the living room."

He nodded and removed his hat has he entered, "Thank you miss..." said Allen.

"Mrs. Benjamin," she said, "Can I get you anything to drink? A nice glass of water prehaps?"

Allen shook his head, "No thank you mame."

Allen then followed her inside of the house, where she pointed out the living room. He immiedately felt like someone was watching him, and he was right. As he rounded the corner into the living room there sat seven other gentlemen. Allen walked into the living room, and an older gentlemen, in his mid-fifties stood and extended his hand to Allen.

"Mr. Rose, I'm glad you could make it," said the older man, "I'm Robert Benjamin. And these gentlemen are Mr. Tyler Lloyd, Mr. Les Bender, Mr. Franklin Pickett, Mr. Marty Owen, Mr. Jacinto Parrish, and Mr. Zane Rivers."

Allen then went about shaking the other mens hands, "Nice to see all of you."

Robert, seemingly being the oldest amoung them, sat back down and smiled, "Well, now that we are all here. I suppose its time to begin."

"Gentlemen, as you all know we are apart of a group known as the 'Merciful Knights'. Jagada has become cold and heart-less, crime is slowly rising again, and the corruption of overly religious zeal is beginning to creep into our society," said Robert, "The hearts of men and women are cold these day. The Fanatical Civil War almost destroyed the spirituality of this nation, at best the people today are nominally religious. If York had killed millions of Moslems before the Civil War, or even Remington. Then they'd have been killed by even their most loyal of guards. For centuries we've be one of the most tolerant nations on earth, we have prehaps some of the greatest religious freedoms as well. We must revive the spirits and souls of the masses if we are to remain truly Christian."

Allen decided it was time he spoke up, though being the youngest in this group the fact was he was apart of the group, "So is our original coarse of action, that being national revival, still the primary objective?" asked Allen. Robert nodded, "Yes, national revival is the only chance. Once the people get back into the Will of God, then tolerance will return and the nation will begin making progress again," stated Robert. The rest of the meeting went relatively well, they spoke mostly about personal issues or problems which may prevent them, and worked out the general Scriptures they would use to try to spark a revival. In the end, after hours of decision, it was time to leave--it being close to three o'clock in the morning. The eight men stood up.

"Mr. Rose would you lead us in prayer sir," asked Robert. Allen nodded and then the eight lowered their head.

"Heavenly Father God, we come to you in prayer now, asking for your forgivness Father. We have sinned, and we have stood by and let sin go unoppose in our country. Our country which we know you have allowed to flourish. We ask now God, that you bless us and our mission. You saved Jonah from the belly of the Great Fish, and you saved Danial from the lions den. So we all come to you right now God and ask that you please save our nation from secularism and atheism which is slowly consuming us. Let us not loose all that we have worked so hard to gain. In Jesus name, Ahmen," said Allen before raising his head.

The other men smiled at his prayer. They are all felt a little nervous though, they and about a quarter of a million other men were about to go out tomorrow, since it was Sunday, and launch the greatest spiritual campaign to revival the most souls in Jagada since right after the Divinity Wars during the 1600s. They were about to start a Great Awakening...

Christendom, Jagada

Allen used a napkin to whipe the sweat off his forehead as he pulled his car into the parking lot of the Riverton Free-Willed Baptist Church. He pulled the car in towards the back of the parking lot, he liked to let the members getting the closer spots and since he wasn't disabled, he didn't see a reason to take a perfectly good parking spot away from others. He grabbed his Bible, and some notes of his, and stepped out of his car. The day was rather cool, but his sweat came from being nervious. He was about to deliever a message many wouldn't want to hear, and he knew that this would be his most difficult Sunday. After this, next Sunday the people would have had enough time to ponder and think on what he preached and would be less hostile towards the message. With that he said a short prayer, exhaled, and made his way towards the stone church. As he walked he was appoarched by some of the older ladies, who complained about the conditions of the church. Like always he did his best to tell them to please be paitent that change comes over time, and if happened suddenly then it would only spark more problems. Has he managed to break away from their complaining, he continued his march towards the doors of the church. He knew they meant well, but sometimes they went overborad.

"Pastor Rose," said a deep voice. Allen turned to his left to see the imposing figure of the forty-five year old, Rick Hale, a deacon at the church. Allen smiled and extended his hand to Rick. "Good morning sir, how are you doing?" asked Allen. Rick nodded and shook Allen's hand, "Very well sir, though if I may say so, you look at little off today."

Allen frowned, but kept his overall composure, "Its nothing, just a little light headed this morning. I missed breakfest."

Rick laughed, "Ah, thats it! How about then, after morning service, we go get something to eat? The whole family."

Allen nodded, "Sure."

With that the two men parted paths, as Rick went on to greet the other guests. Allen thought for a moment about how it would look to Rick once he realized what he was so nervious about. Even though missing breakfest wasn't a lie, since he didn't get home until four o'clock in the morning. He cast the thought of his mind and finally entered the door of the stone church, he felt a rush of cold air as he entered. And he immiedately knew that would mean he'd be getting a call from the older ladies about the freezing cold climate during the morning service. He sighed, but made his way to one of the front pews, which was generally reserved for the pastor, deacons, and others. He never asked for it to go threw, its just the congregation generally didn't sit in the pews. Allen sat down in one of the front row pews, since there was several collumns of them. Allen opened his Bible to Matthew and began reading about some of the variables. While he read the church slowly filled up, and he didn't even realize what he was doing. Most of the time he got up and walked around, shaking everyones hands and greeting the youth that regularly came, and making espically sure he greeted the visitors--not everyone in Jagada was religious, and even more were only nominally so.

He was cut short when the booming voice of Rick Hale was intensified by the mircophone he was speaking threw--Deacon Hale was also the music director. For just a moment, the human side of Allen came threw, he wished the Elders appointed someone else music director. Though as soon as the songs were being song he was on his feet and singing right around with the congregation. It was an espically unusual song service--no mistakes, or at least none that were noticable. As the songs ended, Deacon Hale signaled for Allen to go ahead. Allen, being a rather young senior preacher, the assistant pastor was around fifty--but the Elder's chose him, the young thirty-year-old to take up the burden of being a pastor. He got up to the pool pit and opened up his Bible and attempted to focus. He'd had a message planned out. He asked the congregation to turn with him to a place in the Bible*. His message was basically centered around forgiving your neighbors not only of their financial debts but their personal debts. Jagada had grown too 'lawsuit hungry', and that it was time for the people to restore the compassion in their hearts and to maintain fairness and kindness for all. That now was time to forgive the Jagadian society of what it's done to itself and others to move on, to restore the old ways, the ways which worked. To cast down intolerance, and to restore the ways of tolerance. His message went over the hour limit that the congregation was expecting, and even borderlined a two hour message. This even forced some people to walk out in outrage, but Allen didn't care--people didn't put a time limit on God. It was after that time that he closed his Bible.

"So I encourage all of you here today to forgive one another, and forgive anyone who had done you wrong, let us now embrace the ways of tolerance, let us return to God's Will," said Allen, "Would the choir please come up?"

That basically meant there would be an 'alter-call' where the people would be given a chance to come to the alter to ask for forgivness. Of coarse it wasn't required to obtain forgivness, just another way to go about it. As the choir sang a soothing song, Allen watched as a few people came up. One of the older ladies came up and wanted to pray with him, and after praying with her he raised his head and a large portion of the congregation was gone. He turned around to signal the choir to stop, and was shocked--the alter was full. People were weeping, quietly of coarse, as they all prayed together. Allen was shocked, but at the same time moved. He smiled and continued to pray with whoever wanted to pray with him. Within another half-hour the alter was finally clearing up, only two more gentlemen were praying. Darin Chapman, one of those two men, rose to his feet with his friend, Lee Roman, both were crying slightly and made there way towards the exit--the church was let go about fifteen minutes before they finished praying.

"You know, I think Pastor Allen is right," stated Darin.

Lee nodded, "Yes, I think forgivness is what this country needs."

The thirty year old Darin shook his head, "No. I mean the old ways were good. Democracy was good..."

[* I'm not a preacher, nor do I claim to represent the Will of God threw this or any other RP--that is why I didn't and won't include Bible scripture in the RP.]

Christendom, Jagada

Allen stopped--he had to breath. He was breathing deeply as sweat dripped off his forehead onto the cement sidewalks. He felt like he was going to pass out, but he held it together. His mind was clouded, due in part to being light headed from running, the other part being the honking of the hundreds of cars all around him. He looked up again, has he realized the great amount of people slowly coming past him going towards an intersection. What was going on? He now attempted to move threw the ever increasingly dense crowd of people. He should hear shouts and screams, chanting almost. He finally managed to get close enough to see what was happening. He couldn't believe his eyes, the news reports were accuracte. There was protesting in the center of the city! The crowd of people was large and they held signs and where throwing stones at the group of police officers, in riot gear, whom had encircled of them. Though unlike in democratic countries, these police were armed with Hali-42 Assault Rifles--protesting wasn't just accepting in the Trinity Empire. Normally the government didn't car, even York said he'd allow it, but not now. Not until stability has returned. Already dozens of rocks were laying at the feet of the Riot Police where they had be throwed in failure. The question of where these people got rocks in the middle of an urbanized center never crossed Allen's mind. He only wanted to know why these protest.

He tapped on the shoulder of a man, whom was in a business suit, "Sir, excuse me, do you happen to know whats going on?" asked Allen. The man didn't turn to Allen but did answer, "A Democratic Protest...these people want York to turn the country into a democracy," said the man grimly. Allen's eyes widened. "I saw it all happen. At first it was just two guys out here with a some signs, soon a group of teenagers joined them. About that time a few police officers walked up to them and ordered them to disburst. When they refused the police rushed the group. And after that...people just started attacking the police and quickly pushed them out. Though I think the cops got the two guys who started this," said a woman from behind Allen. Allen nodded. He couldn't believe this was happening, but it wasn't just here either, it was everywhere. In three other major cities, including Genisis, Edo, and Inn. The protests started around two o'clock in the afternoon. What could have caused them? Allen felt his knees begin to shake as he realized what was causing this protests. It was the Merciful Knights. The people took their messages as call to overthrow the government--to overthrow York.

---

"...and the democratic protests which started just a few hours ago continue to rage on even now. Riot Police have been called and in nearby garrison commanders have been put on alert, as the Crusaders stand ready to enter all major cities to restore order," said the female reporter on the television.

York sat there, almost laughing, at what he was hearing. Democratic protests? He must looked like a fool to the dictatorships of the world--he'd so fanatically supported the ideals of benevolent dictatorship that having a democratic protest in his own nation must make him look like the Iron Fisted Dictators he stood against. Then again, Jagada had never been truly a dictatorship. Governors and Provincial Assmeblies existed and free and fair elections took place--albiet only candiates which York supported could run, but it was a form of democracy. He sighed, and sat down on his bed. He undressed himself from his church clothes, he didn't wear his typical military uniform to church--he wore a nice business suit. After placing on his royal blue uniform with had several medals placed on it including stripes, he made his way towards his office. He didn't have a wafe, or kids, he'd devoted his whole life to God and Country. Such obligations didn't permit a wife and kids, primarily because he didn't want to abandon them when duty called--not to mention a post-war radioactive country was much to deal with and took a lot of his time. He'd lost count of the various 'fan' mail he'd got from single women in Jagada asking him to marry them. Most of the time he'd smile and write them a kind 'decline', but to soften the 'no', he'd also make sure some flowers were sent. Weather was only made things worse or not he didn't know--and right now didn't care. He entered his office and saw a manila folder which was thick with documents in it, and also his second-in-command Field Marshall Halibard who was sitting in a chair--though not York's personal chair--and watching the events of the protest unfold on the big screen television York had bought for his office. The story behind buying the television was something else--one would be surprised how hard it was for a dictator to buy something from a store in his own nation.

"Field Marshall Halibard, glad to see you're already ontop of the situtation," said York jokingly.

In a split second Halibard swung the chair around and was on his feet. Already in military uniform, he snapped to attention and gave a crisp salute. "Sorry, sir, I need to speak with you," stated Halibard.

"At ease. So how was church this morning?" asked York.

Halibard hesitated to speak, and as York finally reached his chair and sat down he knew he'd given Halibard enough time. "So, your's was unusual too?" asked York. Halibard exhaled, "Yes sir, the preaching was very different from what my preacher usually...well...preaches about," stated Halibard.

"Same here," replied York. York went to a different church every Sunday, and sometimes when to Bhuddist temples and Jewish Synagogues, and rarely he went to Mosques. Though at the Temples and Mosques he didn't pray, and if he did, he made it clear to himself (quietly) that he prayed to his God. York strongly believed in Christianity and believed that Jesus was his Saviour. He went to the temples of these other religions because he wanted to show he cared about all of them--which he did. Though he did enjoy going to the synagogues more so than the Temples or Mosques--if only because he prayed to the same God the Jews did. Though this was all besides the point. He'd been to Halibard's church and he knew his preacher followed a pattern of: salvation, redemption, and faith. If he went off that coarse then something was up. York had found the church that he went to, which he'd gone to before and knew the pastor there, he also preached simple sermons with little 'force' behind them. Even he was preaching like he'd been filled with the Holy Spirit.

"Sir, do you think thats prehaps something happened in the churches which had caused this," asked Halibard.

York rested his chin on the palm of his hand as he walked the events unfold on the television, the rocks being thrown and democracy being promoted. Could this be some internal revolution by religious extremeists. Then again, the pastor of Halibard's church had never met the pastor of the church York went to--if only because they were located fifty miles apart. Then again if they wanted a revolution badly enough, he was sure a fifty mile trip wouldn't be too hard to make. York sighed, turn back around to his desk and opened up the thick manila folder. The first paper he saw was one with the photo of a thirty-year-old man, and anther man in his mid-twenties. York pulled the paper, which he found to be a stack of papers stabled together. He read the names of the two men: Darin Chapman and Lee Roman. Has York scanned threw their files he found nothing out of the ordinary. Neither men had any known mental illnesses, so insanity was ruled out, both were hard working men. One worked at a construction site, actually rebuilding a destroyed church, and the other man was a driver for a delivery company--neither occupation would bring them into contact with democratic revolutionaries from other countries--espically since immigration to Jagada was halted following the Fanaticial Civil War. Both men had families, and neither had any criminal records. Example citizens--yet from what these papers said they were the original two who instigated the riots. York scanned threw some more meaningless pages about background, family tree, and favorites foods and items. Until he found something meaningful, something that should have been on the front page of this whole thing. The reason they protested. York was a little surprised to find that their reason was that their preacher told them to go back to the old ways and to restore tolerance and compassion. York was now a little angry, something was up and he was in the dark about it. He went threw more meaningless pages of rubbish which was of no real concern. Then he found what he was looking for, the name of their preacher--a Allen Rose.

York turned to Halibard, "Field Marshall, I need to speak with Allen Rose." York then handed Haliberd the the sub-file on Allen Rose which 'The Eye', the Jagadian Intelligance, had given him.

"Yes sir," stated Halibard has he then made his way out of the room.