With that, the interview was over, and I found a place near the palace where I was able to relax and wait for the opening ceremony that would come the next day. I decided not to try to send out any dispatches from the provincial capital, as there was no chance that there would not be some reading along the lines or some damage that suffered, and so I resolved to finish writing my notes about what I saw in this most remote of Bravian provinces before sending them to you, dread sovereign. Despite the remoteness of the capital of Cueva Septimus, it was a comfortable place to stay. The capital was well-stocked with food and drink, and given the semi-tropical feel of the area, there was a surprising amount of fresh fruit and juices that could be found, which I found very pleasant given that Bravia as a whole tended to be a meat and potato and vegetable kind of place for the most part when it came to its diet.

When I looked at the precedence list for the ceremony the next day, I was concerned about the place of our nation. While I must say that my general knowledge of the area was limited, it was disconcerting to me that my place was behind that of several other nations that I had never heard of, who were all clustered together as being nations of the first rank, and I was put at the front of nations of the second rank along with other provincial leaders and officials from the capital. I figured it would be better to see what was going on rather than make a fuss over it right away. There was no point in disrupting our good relations on a doubtful matter of precedence, especially since we were not yet in a treaty relationship with Bravia and had no idea about how they considered these other nations that I knew nothing about.

After resting, I got up and dressed in my nicest clothes and went to the area where we lined up to walk in our order of precedent in front of the crowd of people who had assembled together to take our seats of honor. I knew some of the people who were in our honor group and we greeted each other and talked with each other, and I got to know the names of the diplomats who were ahead of me, most of whom had rather elevated ranks like Foreign Minister, which indicated that they really were pretty high ranking people and not merely ambassadors. I wondered why nations would send their foreign ministers to attend a meeting like this one, because although that would justify a high precedence, to be sure, it was puzzling that a comparatively minor city like this one would attract such high attention. I was even more puzzled to hear about such matters ourselves, I must admit.

After we came to the front of the open space where seats had been provided, the governor was introduced by one of the other government people here and climbed the stairs onto the stage and stood in front of the lectern to give the following speech, which I have recorded as close to verbatim as possible:

“Good morning fellow citizens and friends of Bravia. For those of you who do not yet know me, I am Guillaume Septimus _______, Governor of this providence of Across-The-Eastern-River, and I am inviting you to the opening of my new home. I promise that I did not name the city after myself or my own family, but rather the name was chosen among the residents of the province, who thought it wise to honor my family, an honor for which I am very grateful. This is a humble city, a brand new town, built in the image and likeness of the capital of our great nation of Bravia, although it is a very remote town that is still more than a little bit rough around the edges.

I would like to begin my talk here today by speaking about the question of honor. Today is, at least so far, the culmination of many years in which I have sought to secure the honor of my family and my house. When I was ten years old, my family lived in a modest part of the royal palace, and my father called us all together one evening after a particularly dramatic meeting of the Grand Parliament in which one of the Amphoe representatives had proposed that those members of the royal family which did not have a permanent area of service would be removed of their honorifics of being called as members of the royal family but would henceforth be considered as mere commoners, not even included as possible inheritors of the throne, because there was a great concern of too large a family of useless royals taking up too large a percentage of the national income. As one might imagine, this deeply concerned my father, who wanted to make sure that my brother and I had the opportunity to serve our people and to demonstrate that we were not useless royals who sought to be supported by the people of Bravia without having offered them anything of service that would merit their honor and support.

From that moment, my brother and I dedicated ourselves to learning the language of the people of the forest, since it was clear to us that this was an area of Bravian diplomatic efforts and service that had been somewhat neglected. It took many hours and much practice to learn the language and ways of the people of the Forest, and more time to demonstrate to them that we were worthy of their trust and confidence, but after years of efforts my brother and I were able to demonstrate that the Royal House of Bravia was deeply concerned about the well-being of the people of the forest, what we now know as the Western Forest, and honored and respected their ways, different as they may be to our own. We saw that the common religious belief we shared and our common devotion to the well-being of our people and to the stewardship and dominion of humanity over creation gave us the ability to work in concert that was able to overcome our differences in language and history. As a result, the people of the Western forest agreed to live in free association with us under self-rule, allowing ourselves to expand our Commonwealth without the need to set up a burdensome empire in an area that was vital to our security but where we had no need to engage in micromanagement or replacement of the existing population.

While my brother and I were engaged in efforts which are still ongoing to opening a way through the forest to the areas to the north of the forest where we may expand our settlements, other citizens of Bravia, who lived beside the Eastern River, were struck by the emptiness of the land across the river and its similarity to their own land, and so a private exploration mission was sent out that ended up confirming that a whole province-sized area to the east of the Eastern River was open for settlement. Once news of this had spread beyond the initial scouts, numerous efforts were made to settle areas close to the river to allow for a continuance of trade and an expansion of new lands for younger sons and others who had not been able to obtain sufficient land in Middle and North Bravia. From these hardy souls efforts at settlement were able to build several towns in a territory that had not even been organized, and it soon became evident that organizing this territory would be of great use to us, given that the territory could easily become a wealthy and populous one and one which provided a great deal of security for Bravia as a whole, seeing as it was bordered by a river upon which trade already was regularly conducted, forests that were like those which bordered North Bravia, and a mountain range that extended from the edge of the forest south to the swampy deltas of the Eastern River and another river so far unmapped that traveled on the other side of the range.

Efforts to organize this province became more urgent when people from North Bravia got in contact with forest people from what we now call the Eastern forest. While the language they spoke had drifted a couple of hundred years or so, we estimate, from that of the Western forest people, those of us who knew the language of the Western forest people were able to communicate with them and to establish relations with them on the same terms that we had come to with the people of the Western forest. This too allowed us to expand our commonwealth and also made it important that whoever was governor here was going to be able to understand the concerns of the people of the forest and also be able to handle rougher living. I was asked if I would be willing to serve as the hereditary governor of this province, to which I agreed. From that point, we scouted for an acceptable location for this capital, and found that the most suitable site, which we are now at, was a long way from the other settlements that were being established in the province, other than the smaller settlements of the High Bravians of the hills and mountains. This promises to be a land of promise, but a land that for some time will likely be full of austere living. We hope to make it a land which richly pays the effort it takes to built it up and develop, it though.

When my great-great-grandfather led the refugees who originally settled this land to this country, he spoke to them as they approached a situation similar to our own here and now. He told the assembled people who would become High Bravians, Middle Bravians, Low-Middle Bravians, and Low Bravians that God had not promised them wealth without effort, but had promised them that there would be a rich land which would require much effort but which would richly reward that effort. Those early settlers created the Free Port of Bravia as well as the Cueva Real and before too long had filled the areas of the land between the Eastern and Western Rivers with cities, towns, villages, hamlets, farms, fishing docks, and hunting and logging camps. This rich land that we celebrate the opening of today will offer similar opportunities for those who are willing to work and who seek a fair reward for an honorable work. Bravians have never been provided nor have sought to provide others with empty honor apart from honest work, but for who are able to work and live decently, honor is there for the taking. Let us hope that we are all available to reach out and to take hold of it for ourselves and for our children and for our children’s children, as long as people reach out their hands to call upon and praise the Eternal whose throne is in the highest heaven.

Today we celebrate the work that has been done by laborers to carve out of the mountains a suitable place where this province can be governed. Soon there will be efforts to build roads as well as trading posts suitable for those who wish to travel here on business from other parts of our great realm. Before long we hope that towns and villages will fill up suitable spaces within this province and allow us all to profit from honest labor and trade among ourselves. Much labor has been done over the past few months and years to make this territory capable of self-government and to take its place of honor among the more established Bravian provinces, and to set an example for those which are to come of how such settlement can be done in an orderly process. It is fitting and proper that we celebrate such efforts as have been done to bring us to where we are at this point. But much remains to be done, and we should not rest on our laurels, but rather rededicate ourselves to do what must be done to bring this land under the proper dominion of the fair and good people of Bravia.