Lavender Star

Lavender Star is a Statesman, Writer and Diplomat from the city of Manzig. An ardent Humanist, the Democratic Socialist ideology of "Lavenderism" was strongly associated with him and his time as the Left Opposition in the U.S.S.E. He also has amassed and administers over one of the largest and most extensive collections of books in Eldham. He is widely viewed as having popularized Pan-Serronaism.

Childhood
Born on a small farmstead in Batu to illiterate parents, Lavender was a sickly child who spent much of his childhood stuck in bed. He hated roughhousing and the "really dumb" games played by the other children. In hushed tones, his parents fretted over what they were to do with this deathly frail little child they were to give purpose.

Uncertainty bred anxiety, anxiety bred fear. With yet another bout of severe illness and a failing harvest, they had sealed his fate. At the age of 11, Lavender was sold to a wealthy Vulpinian estate and shipped off to Tildivul to be some nobleman's or noblewoman's servant.

He picked it up fast, he had to, with each burnt loaf or spot on the floor he was hit with a cane. Despite the odds, he thrived. By age 16 he'd become the assistant of the household's servant master. He'd miraculously learned how to read, curling up in bed burning the midnight oil while receiving lessons from a sympathetic Paige. Armed with this gift, he took to reading with a devote fanaticism.

In his reading, he discovered a book his mistresses had brought with her after she went with a delegation to visit Laria. She'd found the text repulsive and ordered Lavender to burn it. He kept it. It was a beautiful thing, with a crimson spine and bloody hard cover. It's golden letters shone. "Dei'Dakoroto: Xeroise Ronango'O ". He was hypnotized by the practically holy words of the book. It spoke of failure and triumph, of death and kinship, of struggle and of revolution.

It spoke of Socialism.

The very next night, the young ideolog leapt out the window onto the neighboring thatch roof, then the next, then the next. Shouts. The steely trampling of slavery approaching. A dive into the canal. Hours. The 19 year old woke up awash Manzig on the shore of Manzig.

Manzig and the U.S.S.E
Shuddering and shaking, Lavender was mercifully taken into the small seaside town by its Mayor; Mandes (lovingly referred to as “Bone-Man”). The quaint cobbled paths and towering Guildhouse possessed an enchanting beauty and an aura of magnificence that was unrivaled by any other city he’d ever seen. Admittedly he’d only really ever seen one other city in his life, but that's besides the point! Manzig was special.

Being led through the city’s back alleys and winding paths, he was given lodgings in an abandoned underground mine turned apartment complex dubbed “The-Crap-Hole” by Manzig residents. After asking to speak to The-Crap-Hole’s home owner association (there wasn’t one) he settled down into his cold bed and thought of what he could possibly do to contribute to such an already great city. In his tour he noticed to his great sorrow that Manzig didn’t have a library. When Mandes met Lavender the next day, Bone-Man was handed a messily written stack of papers with a shoddily bound cover reading: “SONG AND STRUGGLE, VOLUME 1”

Books and Travels
With that, Lavender started his work with a fanaticism rarely seen in Serrona. Having built a small little library in Serrona, he began a journey of the entire continent, from Laria to Sparport. He saw everything from a cult devoted to crossing the barrier to abandoned imperial capitals, met kings and peasants, raiders and conquers. All the while, he made maps and kept a diary of his travels, both proudly displayed in the Manzig Library.

After these travels and the friends he made, he'd become a U.S.S.E diplomat for Nova Azcoria and Vulpinia. He struggled and toiled incredibly to try to create a Pan-Serronan Confederation which ultimately fell flat because of a striking combination of unflinching stubbornness and a War.

Lavender also rapidly became the foremost collector and archivist of books In Serrona, compiling collections from Serronans (as well as a generous donation from a A.W.E refugee) into the largest collection on Serrona, if not all of Eldham.

Career in politics.
After he finished his tour of Serrona, Lavender ran for the National Assembly, hungry to put all of that theory he learned in his youth to create a better world.

After a minor bribery scandal, Lavender skimmed his way into getting a seat. With the same fury he had in his writing, he dedicated himself into rapidly becoming the most active member in the National Assembly.

In his two terms he tackled a frankly absurd amount of issues through bills and referendums. One day he'd ban slavery in the country, the next he'd make food a right, the day after that he'd establish a national bank and budget all the while drafting a bill billing bill to ensure all of these bills were being discussed sufficiently. The fact that there weren't any slaves, starving citizen, economic criseses or administration to support a national bank was irrelevant.

During his tenure, he served as the catalyst for the left opposition in the National Assembly, creating a Democratic Socialist reformist movement known as "Lavenderism", advocating for a Pan-Serronan Confederation, greater political freedom and centralizing the economy around Consumer CO-OPs

General Secretary Chelovek Serebra at the time called Lavender the person who single handedly gave him the greatest volume of headaches. He was quite proud of that fact.

Far less proud he was of his two failed election bids for General Secretary.

Lavenderism and the Executive Branch
The first time he was inexperienced, it was really his fault, he quit the race after only a week due to failing health and the sheer popularity of the incumbent Chelovek.

The second time he was far more upset about it. Running a competent campaign on the principles of Lavenderism he was undercut at every step. The opposing candidate Van'la had the endorsement of Chelovek because of their exceptionally similar policies. Same old same old. Supporters of Van'la started a leaflet campaign, mass printing shoddy and crude personal Jabs against him and Lavenderism.

When he started to print his own painstakingly designed posters, they were at first just plastered over but then torn down. To make things worse, the General Secretary "accidentally" poured gasoline on the Manzig printing press and dropped a lit match next to it, burning all of his campaign posters.

With his health failing once again, Lavender withdrew from the race and resigned from all political office despite pleas from both his allies and opponents.

Van'la threatened to withdraw from the race if her supporters didn't stop sliding campaign leaflets under Lavender's door at night.

The Academy
After his fall from grace, Lavender once again dedicated himself to the arts.

With the kind donations of friends from all over the U.S.S.E, he built what he hopes to become the catalysis of all culture and art in Eldham; a towering granite behemoth that he very humbly dubbed: "The Lavenderist Academy".

The Academy is still under construction. What it shall become will have to be seen...

The Second Great Humiliation
Lavender had read about the Kunir war and the great Humiliation in cankered scripture and dusty books. He'd never thought he'd have to live through something like it.

It was devastating. Barborossan pirates utterly defeated the U.S.S.E in the open field, leaving Manzig and the territory of Manzland at threat of invasion because of incompetent Foreign Policy.

What was to be done?

He'd be twice hired and twice fired as the commissioner of culture of the U.S.S.E, fired by one word telegraph message. Lavender tapped out replies to his charges of espionage and treason for a week at the telegraph office. The next week a message came through.

''MESSAGE. RECEIVED. SEND. TWO. CRATES. OF. HEALTH. POTIONS. AND. WILL. BE. REINSTATED.''

He managed to avoid paying the bribe.

What was to be done?

Lavender knew that the U.S.S.E was dying. The once vibrant National Assembly stagnated and died, commissioners bickered and insulted but only stood in the way of one another. Fatally, though Lavender did respect her personally, Van'la had plunged the nation and their people into misery and chaos.

If you asked two citizens where she went wrong you'd get 3 different answers. But everyone did in fact agree that something went demonstrably wrong. Lavender blamed communication, or rather the lack thereof.

It was to be done.

The Strike
After a night of mournful drinking in the Black Flag tavern, Lavender, Ursa, Bone Man and Fredrich (all admittedly quite inebriated) decided to start the long rocky road to a free independent Manzland. Though the province had lost a lot in wars and in National Donations, Manzland still stood as an industrial bastion of the U.S.S.E, with it’s EXP farm providing much of the Nation’s wartime economy.

The Daily worker commuters from Kazkaya were just as surprised as some of the workers of Manzig who weren’t in on the whole affair to find that the Manzig Pit was boarded up. Bright Lavender leaflets with the fateful bright white speckled letters on them. “THE MANZLAND GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES A STATE OF GENERAL STRIKE”

There of course was outrage, insults, vitriolage. No other workers had worked for the oh so long 78 hours straight the Telegraph workers did during the crisis before or since then. It seemed for a moment that all was doomed, that armed conflict was inevitable between the two brotherly states.

Yet on that fateful day, the die of humanity rolled favorably.

Talks were held. Cooler heads prevailed. Manzland and the U.S.S.E stand proud.

A new dawn stands.

Lavender Star’s heart might yet beat easy.