Rhodes Palmerston

Rhodes Palmerston was a highly successful Prime Minister of the Tasnica Republic from 17-40 WR; he is currently Sovereign Executive of the Alliance Congress. He is best known for being the architect of both the Grand Army Charter and the New Peace, as well as massively expanding Tasnican territory and power during the Age of Imperialism.

Biological

Born: September 10, 30 WB, in Tasnicaport

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Brown Titles and Nicknames: Former Senator (1-17 WR); Former Prime Minister (17-40 WR); current Sovereign Executive (40 WR-present.)

Personal Stuff

Though seventy-five years old, Rhodes Palmerston still seems possessed of preternatural energy and vigor. Rhodes still gets up at the crack of dawn each day to plaow through as many newspapers as possible before breakfast.

A rabid sports fan, and although he know “speaks for the Alliance” he still hopes that a Tasnican team will take home the title in football (having been dominated by the Esper Conference). He has quite possibly the largest private collection of sports memorabilia in the Web.

Rhodes traveled a great deal as Prime Minister; he made a goodwill tour of Merge to shore up relations, and, significantly, was the first Web Head of State to visit the Arythian Five Great Nations (in an attempt to improve the public image of modernization; it also led to the founding of the Georgethor Institute of Magic); even today he tends to get around.

Rhodes is famously “seat of the pants” in his leadership style; it is said that one morning he woke up and, over breakfast, decided to claim the entirety of the Upperlands. Unlike some Prime Ministers he had a very sparse cabinet; he was effectively his own Foreign Minister, and he preferred to deal directly with the uniformed generals rather than his defense minister. A man of indefatigable energy, he attempted to single-handedly power the Prime Ministry and the Republic.

Palmerston has a justified reputation as an excellent orator. His enormous personal charisma no doubt contributed to his popularity in Tasnica, and he certainly drummed up popular support in other countries to bolster his diplomatic efforts.

Early Life

Born in Tasnicaport, from a very young age Rhodes showed a slickness that could get him out of almost any jam. He never got into trouble at school; he was always able to talk his way out of trouble. Although a follower of sports, he himself was not athletically gifted. He also attained only mediocre grades. Even though he was elected Class President, his counselor advised him to look into skilled blue collar trades, feeling that Rhodes might make an “adequate” electrician or plumber. Instead, Rhodes chose to pursue sports, getting his start working for free and eventually opening up his own sports representation firm.

This highly lucrative time for Rhodes began to grind to a halt, however, near the start of the Great War. More and more professional athletes began to be needed for the preparation for war; pro sports effectively ceased to exist during the War. So Rhodes decided to enter politics.

As Senator

In 1 WR, Rhodes decided to run for Senate, representing Tasnicaport. As a self-made man, he felt naturally inclined to run as a Conservative; the policies of limited government and maximal rights were all about encouraging entrepreneurship, innovation, and individual excellence, values Rhodes himself both espoused and exemplified. There was nonetheless some initial resistance—it is somewhat rare in Tasnica for someone with no college education to serve in the Senate. The Greens were beginning to gain some ground; the Liberals, as ever, had just enough strength to be irritating. (See Defunct Tasnican political parties). Nonetheless, Rhodes’s natural charm and tireless campaigning earned him a seat.

Rhodes was quickly recognized as a rising star in the party. He was often the party’s spokesman and often reached across the aisle to achieve results. In very little time he was able to land a seat on the Committee on Management and the Budget, one the most prestigious and sought-after committees; in this capacity he oversaw Tasnican efforts to recover military strength after the defeat at North Viper in 14 WR. He was unusually active in foreign policy for a Senator, serving as special envoy to Figaro and Doma to secure their support against NAMAC; his name often came up as a potential Foreign Minister.

Rhodes’s predecessor was Wilhelm Johannes Klinten, who, by 17 WR, was in trouble. Criticized for his persecution of the war (exemplified by Tasnican defeat at North Viper), as well as running an administration plagued by petty scandals, Klinten opted not to seek re-election and hoped that a new face for the Conservatives could fend off a strong Green challenge. The Greens were alarmed at the social consequences of industrialization and the creation of the “military-industrial complex”; their solution was to get out of the war, deindustrialize, and return to an agrarian society. Rhodes was a natural choice for his party’s candidate for Prime Minister (although around this time Damien Gavalian made him an offer of employment).

As Prime Minister

Rhodes’s election in 17 WR was highly competitive, though it began to herald an end of the Green’s challenge and ushered in an era of Conservative dominance that lasted until the rise of the Populists.

The Great War

Rhodes began to see the Great War as part of a larger struggle and no longer construed Tasnican strategy purely in terms of self-interest. He realized that national power was irrelevant in the face of the divine struggle; Tasnica could not rise as a nation until the Dark Gods had been defeated. He continued rearmament and banked everything on a very young, prodigal general named Celiose Cole, appointing the 17-year-old General of Artillery to lead the REF in the campaign to retake the Ice Country; Rhodes’s decision miffed several more experienced generals. Rhodes, always a bit of a gambler, hit the jackpot on that one.

Celiose’s stunning victories convinced many in the Web that the Ticonderans and the Dark Gods could, perhaps, be defeated; Rhodes Palmerston parlayed that sentiment in the Grand Army Charter, which he has often described as the “if we don’t stop shouting at each other we’ll all be dead” agreement. To convince the other GACA founding members of Tasnica’s good intentions, Rhodes committed the whole Tasnican military to forming the core of the new Grand Army; other nations felt obligated to put in significant commitments. The creation of a powerful army independent of any one nation’s control was intended to end the political problems and strife that had plagued previous attempts to oppose the Dark Gods.

As principle author of the Charter, and person most responsible for the creation of the Alliance, one would think Rhodes could rest on his laurels; indeed, Rhodes was somewhat inactive in military strategy during the war, largely serving as a kind of cheerleader-in-chief for GACA (he customarily chaired House of Lords meetings; typically, Rhodes would wait until having heard from others before weighing in. This would allow him to best position Tasnican support for maximum effect). Having played such a significant role in winning the Great War, there was open speculation that he might retire with his place in history assured. Rhodes Palmerston, however, ascribed to an old Tasnican saying: “Enough…is never enough.”

Palmerston’s Empire

The Great War had the effect of weakening nation-states as an institution overall. Tasnica launched a program of reconstruction and investment in many of the Web’s countries, and earned it some goodwill around the Web. Nonetheless, the discovery of Gate and its advanced technology heralded the dominance of the Gate Three. The dawn of the era of the four Great Powers was upon the Web.

Nonetheless, what would later be called the Great Rhodesian Expansion began when Rhodes claimed the Upperland forest for Tasnica; the forest had largely been depopulated in Dark Wrath campaigns there, so there was (at the time) virtually no one to argue. This move was seconded by the admission of Northtown, Southtown, and the Gold Isle to the Republic; longtime Tasnican satellites, these merely formalized the existing state of affairs.

Around this time Rhodes realized that the new Web would require that Tasnica remilitarize and created the Republic Marine Corps and began the construction of a space fleet (at first, subordinated to the RMC as the Republic Marine Corps Aerospace Arm). He found a GA drill sergeant, Revlan Kursdorff, to hammer the Marines into a real military; to bolster the ranks quickly Rhodes culled petty criminals from the jails. (This practice was later abandoned).

Militarization made new gains possible; in the Imperialist War, Tasnica did not hesitate to snatch up Winlan; new military force allowed them to negotiate for a chunk of the Veldt in Esper. The Tasnican corporations, themselves possessing a military, decided to conquer some territory near Kuvalla. Tasnica also launched an ambitious program of space colonization, although the Gate Three had an early lead.

What is remarkable about the Tasnicans’ expansion, as opposed to that of other empires, is the extent it was economic and political, rather than military. No sooner had a possession been added to Tasnica than the citizens enjoyed full rights under the Code of Belgememnon and representation in the Senate; Tasnican investment, driven by the AAA corporations, soon followed. The Tasnicans could easily co-opt local elites; sometimes, bribery was the preferred method, but often local leaders simply preferred the chance to be elected Governor or Senator.

Rhodes was relatively uninvolved in the Omnisent Conflict, although initially he professed support for its aim and causes. Indeed, Tasnican law and Conservative ideals would’ve made it hard for him to take much action against a group of people whose only crime was to belong to a certain organization. Although the Cylinder attack on Centwerp changed attitudes, the law still made it difficult for the government to take much action. The Celpo handled most of the Senter hunting in Tasnica; they had no qualms about supposed “individual rights” or “legal due process”.

In 35 WR Rhodes would face his strongest electoral challenge in years from Kenny Brackhaven, who had reformed the Tasnican Socialist Party into the Populists. Rhodes still won by a landslide, but it was the first time in some time he had had to face a viable opposition candidate. (One should note that the Tasnican Senate can, be four-fifths vote, extend a Prime Minister’s term by a year; Rhodes received this emergency extension three times, an unprecedented number. Although Tasnicans made much of the fact that their nation was one of the few in that era to elect their leader, it is not without reason that Rhodes has been described as a ‘democratic dictator’.)

Rhodes’s reputation as a diplomat reached a new height when he negotiated a settlement that heralded the breakup of the Gate Three. Atreus had decided to pull out of Gate’s colonies, a move which offended Guardia greatly; Rhodes, realizing that Atreus, as a corporation, cared mainly about its investment, and Guardia was a stickler for sovereignty, proposed a compromise whereby Guardia would assist in constructing new Atreus colonies in return for Atreus pullout. (Tasnica, in the long run, was the real winner, as when Atreus later declined they inherited several colonies). It is interesting to note, however, that when the rival Great Powers fortified and formalized their alliances in treaties (GATO, the Communist Protectorate, and the Fascist Pact), Rhodes kept a more open-ended and freewheeling system of diplomacy, as suited his style. (It is questionable that someone besides him could’ve pulled it off).

Rhodes would also come out on top (despite being seemingly uninvolved) in the Leviathan War. As the joke has it, the Tasnicans won the Leviathan War. By signing a mutual defense pact with Guardia he assured that neither nation would be attacked; by pursuing a policy of aid to the Esper Union he maintained the counterweight to the Scandian League; by not involving Tasnica in the war outright he limited his losses. After the war Rhodes had strong relations with Guardia, Esper, and many nations of the Core; Tasnica’s economic might soared to a new level.

Excluding space colonies, Tasnica was the second largest country in the Web after Ticondera, and was the Web’s most populous and wealthy. As of 37 WR, partly through avoiding disasters that had befallen the other Great Powers, Tasnica was the pre-eminent nation in the Web. Still, for Rhodes, enough was not enough.

Palmerston’s Peace

Not only was Rhodes leader of what was then the Web’s most powerful country, he also had a reputation as an elder statesman. Realizing that he stood at a unique moment in history, Rhodes decided to commit to building a new order in the Web: the New Peace.

The New Peace included numerous proposals to restrict war and build community among the nations of the Web: the Hosluftgrad Conventions and the Alliance Congress were among the most significant, but even the re-institution of professional sports leagues in the Web was phrased by Rhodes in terms of the New Peace. Famously, he claimed, “More than an end to war, we seek an end to the beginnings of wars.” We was able to reach out and engage the Communist Protectorate and Travin Rumanski, realizing that the Esper Union would not commit to anything that did not also bind the communists. He made significant Tasnican concessions to build support for the movement, ceding Albrook (already a de-facto international city; this also neatly avoided the Esperian refugee problem), and repealing the Extraterritoriality Act (largely in response to pressure from Meres and elsewhere).

Rhodes’s critics have pointed out that even during this period he indulged in expansionism: his solution to chronic instability in Carrion was to annex it, and when the Federal Security Bureau’s attack on Abdilene caused the collapse of Ticondera, the Tasnicans grabbed as much territory as they dared. The New Wraith’s involvement in provoking this attacks somewhat exonerates Rhodes. Still, it should be pointed out that to Rhodes Nova Pax was intended to be a Pax Tasnica; a stable, peaceful Web presided over by a benevolent Tasnican hegemon that would benefit from the trade and prosperity a relative lack of war entailed.

Some have pointed out that the effect of the New Peace was simply to make wars more regional and local; but Rhodes himself always envisaged this as a long work. (“Never accuse me of being an idealist,” he once told Franklin Yeats). The fact that Rhodes convinced much of the Web to (rhetorically at least) commit to building an era of peace and ushered in a system that prevented Great Power war for at least a decade is no small accomplishment.

End of an Era

Polls going into the Tasnican election of 40 WR showed Rhodes a prohibitive favorite to win, should he choose to run. Despite the fact the Populists were a growing opposition and making inroads in the Senate and the governorships, they showed little ability to defeat the most popular Prime Minister in the history of poll data.

It is ironic, then, that Rhodes was ultimately ousted not by losing an election to an opponent, but by pressure from within his own party. Many Conservatives had begun to feel that Rhodes had become so focused on international politics and his personal reputation that he had totally ignored domestic developments and the plight of his party. A sizable faction, led by Franklin Yeats, began to believe that Rhodes considered himself too big for the party. This faction used Rhodes’s relationship with Rachela Daren to pressure him out of running for office. Rhodes decided not to campaign for any Conservative that year, choosing only to speak at ConserviCon (a decision which totally vindicated the rationale for ousting him.) Nonetheless, many Conservatives felt that ousting someone as successful as Palmerston was a mistake, and the division in the party that resulted no doubt contributed to the Populist victories in 40.

Rhodes briefly toyed with the idea of a quiet retirement, visiting his friend Gallus Heylin at his orchard. Rhodes concluded that such a life would bore him, and decided that “if I’m going out, I’m going up.” He then declared his intention to become the first Sovereign Executive of the new Alliance Congress; in effect, the political leader of GACA. Partly, this was in realization of the fact that for the post to be strong and significant, it would require someone who had a strong reputation and career already to build it. In Rhodes’s mind, there was no one better than him. Facing essentially no opposition, Rhodes became the first Sovereign Executive even as his term as Prime Minister ended in 40 WR.

As Sovereign Executive

Rhodes as Sovereign Executive has worked to ensure that the Alliance Congress functions properly, negotiating compromises whenever that organization reaches an impasse as it did over the admissions guidelines dispute. His ability to keep the Congress from becoming deadlocked allows this central institution of the New Peace to keep chugging.

Rhodes has also realized that although war between the Great Powers is now less likely, regional and local conflicts remain very much a part of the Web, and all it takes is access to powerful technology or magic and a lack of scruples to make them much larger problems. (The Xenos, after all, were more of an irritant than anything until gaining Defiling magic. To this end, Rhodes has personally involved himself in many of these areas. Most notably Rhodes assisted Medina in the drafting of its new constitution, and also appearing in the trial of Janus Cage.

Legacy

It is perhaps unusual to discuss the legacy of a man still living and involved in Web politics, yet Rhodes Palmerston is an unusual case. Any scholar attempting to study and analyze him is confronted with contradictions: he was the consummate empire builder who declared an “end to the Age of Imperialism”; he was the “man of peace” who nonetheless engaged in numerous wars; and a proud Conservative whose reluctance to help his party led to a Populist government. Whether Rhodes will be remembered more for creating the Web’s largest empire or creating the Web’s largest alliance is an argument that is only just beginning; although, of course, for Rhodes himself there was no contradiction. Reconciling Tasnican national greatness and peace in the Web is a feat of skill that, sadly, someone only of Palmerston’s skill could accomplish. Upon the end of his reign as Prime Minister in 40 WR, this epitaph was written: “It was said, of the kings of this world, he was the best to his people, the most courteous man, and most eager for fame.”

Preceded by:	Prime Minister, Tasnica Republic	Succeeded by:
Wilhelm Klinten	17 WR - 40 WR	Kenny Brackhaven

[[category: Cel's Characters