Elector Strauss Proposes “New Direction” for Province

[DeJaVu]

[24 December 3070; ANN] In an address today to business magnates in the capital, Elector Kalvin Strauss had strong words for the Lyran government. His message—although coated in obsequious metaphors and double-entendres—seemed to be one that many agitators on Novara have been mouthing for years: in the absence of direct control from the Archon on Tharkad, perhaps it would be better for the Alarion Province—and especially Novara—to look more to themselves for governing.
“In these troubled times,” Strauss declared at one point, “we cannot cling to old ways, old directions. When a forest fire burns it way across a path, you must seek a new path, a new direction to get clear of it.” His further comments were made along the same vein, and it doesn’t take a literary genius to parse the meaning behind his words. With the Jihad raging and Tharkad unresponsive, everyday Lyrans must make their own decisions, even at the provincial level, if necessary.
Strauss’ comments come just two days after his assistant, Lindon Ashley, was heard to remark that “…if the nobles of the Alliance want to leave us to our own devices when we’re most threatened, I say we remain on our own once the crisis has passed. Novara is a prosperous world, untainted with the stench of peerage like Tharkad and Alarion.” Should the capital remain under the thumb of the Word of Blake, it seems likely that Strauss and his supporters could rally enough votes to force Novara into direct rebellion against the Archon and the Estates General.