The tale of Coriolanus the eagle
Despite being an eagle lord from the Aviary, Coriolanus has lived an ascetic life. When he came of age, he was sent to Blackbark for schooling in the academy, where he focused on a field called bureauology. It is the study of the efficient organization of the Kingdom. It was a dull field concerned with trying to reorganize offices and procedures to add more efficiency. This appealed to Coriolanus as he has a very militaristic and machinistic mind.
Before finishing his years in Blackbark, he received news of the attack on the Aviary . As Lav’s Rebellion just started, the eagle lord was rumored to side with Lav, and was attacked to prevent this. Leopold didn’t think that Coriolanus, being a very conservative and militaristic hierarchic mind, would side with Lav. But, being proud and driven by revenge for his father’s death, he did.
He took the remaining birds from the ashen remains of the Aviary and flew to wage furious war on Leopold. His war victories were already folklore during the war and his machismo charisma sometimes won battles without fighting them – the population just switching over due to his legendary status.
The proud eagle
During the end of the war, after winning a decisive victory in Packs, his platoon was tired but they marched on and joined with Lav in the siege of Blackbark. Lav ordered them on a suicide mission to fly in the city to try and open the gates from within.
They failed and were captured and tortured. However, Lav managed to break the siege and free them soon.
Apart from being well-liked in the public folklore, he actually was an efficient soldier but too proud and too undiplomatic in the coming years.
After the rebellion, he continued as a scholar and was for a time in the kings inner council. Perhaps he is known personally by Herbert and both of Charles’ companions, Philippe and Andre.
Bureaology
While Herbert focused on rebuilding and improving the industry, Philippe with diplomacy, Andre with keeping order, Coriolanus the eagle was most focused on bureauology and efficient organization of the Kingdom. Usually, a dull field concerned with trying to reorganize offices and procedures, he has slowly used it to develop unorthodox ideas and explore different social systems.
The hitherto way the Kingdom operated at that time was by use of “bureaus”. These were offices where officials (usually those owning the land and militia and thus having the ability to implement laws) were appointed by the regional governors to rule the designated area.
Above the local bureaus, there were the five regional bureaus that oversaw larger territories. These are more commonly referred to as Regions of the Realm and correspond to the territories ruled by the tigers, leopards, cheetahs, lynxes, and lions. Above the regions is only the King, who (mostly ceremoniously) appointed the governors by following the rules of inheritance.
The research Coriolanus made regarding the bureaus is that they are often seats of despotic rule, often ruled by those incompetent nobles or stewards driven by the profit motive.
For example, he has praised the Scurries system of electing their own dreymaster as most efficient, and endemic in the Kingdom. He valued the autonomy of the local citizens to sort their own affairs as well as the nature of their nut (food) sharing system, which was traditional and not bound to monetary rules. In the course of his research, he was probably slowly introduced to works of other contemporary anarchists and was radicalized.
As time went on, he was more disgruntled by his inability to sway Lav’s opinion towards his ideas. During the 20 years in the council, he has written 14 papers, identically named “On the efficiency of local bureaus”, explicating in great detail the politics and economy of the various regions of the Kingdom. The meticulous data he gathered had woven a narrative of anarchy – where the citizens had the most power and decided in matters of economy and politics, the system was most satisfactory. Famine and poverty were lower wherever he found systems of communal decision-making and organisation, and he found the working conditions were better in places where forms of worker committees existed, regardless of their success.
Break with Lav
In this time he spent long years fighting an uphill battle and repeatedly trying to create a different set of rules for the monarchy, but being increasingly unsuccessful and frustrated.
In a break with tradition, his final research paper as a member of the king’s council, entitled “On the efficiency of local bureaus XIV”, has abandoned the scholarly language almost completely and was written entirely as a pamphlet. It contained subheadings such as “All power to the bureaus!” where he openly advocates for direct democracy and subjugating the royal bureaus to local municipalities. Other quotes include “The old ways die, they do not surrender” (discussing the changes after the rebellion and Lav’s unwillingness to make substantial changes) and “We have created the perfect system for producing little Leopolds” (discussing industrial relations in local towns).
Since the paper was less concerned with scholarly explanations and more with bringing about revolutionary change, the scholars have decided to call this Coriolanus’ brand of bureaology (which is less concerned with detailing how the system works currently and more with calls for its replacement) not scholarly and instead of a political movement – bureauism.
The piece spread like wildfire across the Kingdom and he became a legend of revolt against not only the king but all local rulers as well. He publicly asked Lav to sede the bureaus to the power of local citizens instead of ruling elites, or else he would resign.
After Lav declined, Coriolanus started gathering like-minded people. He spent several years brewing dissent in various regions of the Kingdom and publishing pamphlets. This went on for several years and is called “the eagle’s nesting”. He was captured in Streaks by Nicholas’ militia and extradited to the king, whereupon he got sent to the work camp at the colony for inciting insurrection and has stayed there for some time now, continuing his brewing revolution there.
His pamphlet still circulates in Pride and one can still hear his aphorisms there – “The old ways must die, they will not surrender”. He believes that real change needs forceful implementation, not a gradual change, and he has finally gathered enough strength in the colonial penal camp to mount an insurrection.
After leading a prison riot, he began the transformation of Colonial Internment Facility into a city called Caw Macaw, meaning (in the bird language) “land of freedom”.
Cherni’s panther militia was sent to stop him but due to his heroic status, the soldiers decided to lay down arms and protect him, escalating the situation beyond the governor’s control.
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