Independent Republic of Silesia
Conspectus
As the world's youngest country,3, 4 the Republic of Silesia5, 6 is an odd daughter of Europe, and indeed the world at large. It stands as one of the first countries that carved itself independent after the fall of the Veil not through the power of institutional consecration upon the altar of the United Nations but from the will of its people. Born in the immediate aftermath of the GOC intervention in the Chaos Insurgecy-led Silesian Insurrection, Silesia remains as the first proper sign that the Coalition's way can be subverted and broken; that there is freedom still to be won amidst the order Undersecretary General al Fine so desperately imposes upon the world out of fear of another Occult War.7
But Silesia remains a symbol of much more than just revolution — it also stands as a promise. A promise to all the citizens of this world that magic will not die out, as we had so feared that it would not two decades prior; that nothing will stop the wonder from reclaiming the Earth wounded and plundered by Normalcy; that those who live in harmony with it will always stand truer to themselves and the world than those who stand against it.8 That our fight — the fight of all those under the our banner — to bring magic into the light and return it into the world was not merely a light show that came to be with the Veil's collapse, but a gift that will be accepted and cherished.
Indeed: Silesia is far more than a country — it is the first permanent symbol that we shall never again be chained to live in darkness, no matter what banner those who threaten it may fly.
Illustration
Territory of the Republic of Silesia (red) and other countries of the European Union (yellow), as of 2041.
Knowledge
Republic of Silesia
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| Flag | Coat of arms |
| Capital | Katowice9 |
| Official languages | Silesian, Polish, Modern Standardized Fae |
| Demonym | Silesian |
| Government | Unitary Parliamentary Republic10, 11 |
| Area | 41,692.33 km2 |
| Population | 13 098 237 (Total) 8 971 315 (Human) 2 893 771 (Fae) 732 123 (Yeren) 501 028 (Other) |
| Currency | Euro (€) |
Traits: Silesia is a unitary republic located in Central Europe, bordered by Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovakia. Administratively, it is divided into three major Voivodeships and a network of smaller counties
Legislative authority is vested in a unicameral parliament known as the Sejm, with the largest party currently represented by it being the Silesian Socialist Party (Left/Centre-Left) — the main child of the former big-tent Silesia United — in the current coalition government with the Sidhe Lounge (Centre-Left),12, 13 representing the interests of the Fae minority. Other bastards of Silesia United include the liberal Silesians Together (Centre/Centre-Right) and the conservative Silesian People's Movement (Right), both of which have significant but smaller presences. Among the minor parties are also Kapuza Bazyliszka (Far-Left/Left), originating from local structures of the Serpent's Hand,14 and various small but noticeable Neoinsurrectionists and Polish Reunificationists groups (Far-Right).
The President of the Republic holds executive power; however, the role is largely representative and ceremonial. The President is elected via a direct popular vote, with the position currently held by Ry'hle Kiera (of the Silesian Socialist Party), a figurehead of the independence movement who distinguished himself during the fights against the Insurrection.15, 16
The judiciary branch operates independently of the Sejm. A cornerstone of this system is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Silesia. This body was established to investigate war crimes and wrongdoings committed by the Insurgency, the Coalition, and the Polish Government, to ensure a fair and democratic reconstruction of the nation from the ashes of the conflict.
Nature: The Republic of Silesia is a developed country with an advanced social market economy, which is currently focused on rebuilding regions devastated by the recent conflict. It is a welfare state with a European social model, complete with universal healthcare and free-tuition university education — much like its astranged sister of Poland. It is also a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the Council of Europe and is currently in the process of integrating into the European Union, alongside the stabilization of its economic and political situation. Its main trading partners are the Czech Republic and the Republic of Poland, with whom it maintains peaceful but tense relations caused mostly by a small-if-persistant irredentist whisper going around some parts of Silesia. The country has a vibrant arts scene which has grown significantly as the region has fully embraced its own identity with the gaining of independence.
History & Associated Parties: The history of Silesia prior to the contemporary times and indeed its independence have already been better described in many other tomes which litter the bookshelves of this Library.17 Nevertheless, in as few words as possible here's the parts that actually do matter:18, 19 first a part of the German Empire, Silesia eventually got handed over to Poland with the country's "move" to the west following World War II and the re-establishment of its borders. This way the region has remained for almost a hundred years — right until 2039, when a failed Chaos Insurgency ritual gave everyone in the region a talent for magic, and which culminated in the largest military insurrection this side of the globe has known in half a century.
It's a story that everyone around the globe who isn't living under a rock20 has heard in the last few months: what most people might've not heard, though, is the fallout proper of that came in the aftermath of the shitshow. The first one to freak out, when the Saucer came down, was the Coalition; that the region had fallen firmly outside their grasp was tantamount to insanity. The Polish Government quickly followed in the GOC's footsteps, under a rationale almost identical to the one expressed by those with whom it didn't wish to share the spoils of war. For whatever differences might have split the two organizations at the start of the conflict, in the end a Silesian flag rising over the fallen Katowice, cleansed from the Chaos Insurgency which had plagued it for months, made both of their rotten hearts skip a beat.
Thus our international order did what it always does when things actually threaten to happen: it called a gathering. Meetings were held — which, as it was the Silesians who put this whole mess to an early grave, this time actually did involve the concerned peoples — and a clear plan was made: Silesia would gain independence, effective almost immediately. Nobody except the Silesians wanted this, of course, but what else was there to do? With the GOC stretched thin and the Polish Government facing the kind of PR disaster that made the US interventions in Middle East look like a cakewalk, it wasn't as if all the other major players had any cards to play on this particular table. Silesia United pushed hard (and with the war hero honors they had just received, it wasn't particularly hard), and the rest of the European powers did what they had liked to do best for the last few decades — made some speeches about unity and then went back home, happy to mostly remain uninvolved.21
All that was left then, to save the face of our pitiful contemporary mirage of civility, was to burn some witches for the Coalition to win back some favor with the people. None of their own22 — and none of the warmongers of the Polish Government or A.R.G.U.S. neither — were found guilty, naturally, but the trial that they held for the New Engineer was a spectacle to behold. The whole thing lasted months, and each day of it was televised for all the world to see. What a show it was, too, with Al Fine as its main director, parading right in front of the cameras.23, 24, 25, 26
Not that it got any proper conclusion, of course — where the accused had truly been locked away remains a classified secret for "security reasons"27, 28 — but by the very end it didn't really matter. The people had eaten their bread and were already growing weary of their circuses; all that they had cared about was that they were told that justice was served.
And for a very long while, that was that.
Approach: As is the case with all behemoths of this size, it is difficult to find a unified approach that we ought to have in regards to Silesia.29 Our Hand has mostly taken a seat back during the events which had allowed the country to come into existence — due to our own internal schisms as well as the nature of how we organize having changed in the last few years — but now Silesia is not a reality we can ignore for any longer.
You will hear some of our siblings suggest that despite this we should still stand back and let the international order30 do its thing: that this is not our fight and that to involve ourselves in it would be foolish. Others still will say that, if anything, we ought to agitate in favor of Silesia; that as a symbol of magic being reborn in the heart of Europe it should be our own Aurora.31, 32 And there are voices, too, which will be quick to decry the thing in its entirety as yet another spawn of the contemporary national way33 — a thing they claim to be just as harmful as it is artificial, merely recuperating in the existing status quo.
Whatever your own personal opinion may be, Silesia is a case to be carefully considered. Its existence may be good and it may be bad, but it is pivotal. It is significant. It is a sign that revolution may not be as dead in the wake of the 2040s as we had thought — a sign that we ought to study and understand, in all that we will do going forward.
Observations & Stories
I don't think you can really understand what it felt like in Katowice in October '39 if you weren't there, if I'm being frank. I really don't think that you can. Yes, the city was ruined, but it didn't matter — it was like a weight had fallen off of our collective shoulders, and you could feel it everywhere. On every corner, on every street: it wasn't quite happiness, but there was change upon the autumn breeze. There was relief that this generation hadn't yet known.
Of course, the very next day something else replaced it: determination. For a better life and future; for a country that we had to bring back from the ashes. We were most certainly aware there were battles yet to be won until we could rest — a whole city to rebuild and a nation to organize. But we were ready, the lot of us, and we were willing. We had already won one war, in spite of the odds: what was another one?
— Wiktor Mazur from Chorzów, human, 30-years old
I still remember where I was, when the news came that the Saucer had fallen. When they said that the red banner had been toppled and that the war was over. You don't forget the cold evening sun. The wind, blowing through your hair as each phone around you buzzes, all at once.
You most certainly don't forget the hope.
It was overwhelming at first, I remember, like something out of a fairytale. Out of a dream. That a war as drawn-out and bleak could ever end like this did not feel real. To me it didn't, anyway — I had no doubt that Silesia would meet the same fate as all others whose freedom had been usurped by armed parasites. But there we were, and there I was: hopeful for what felt like the first time in years.
But here's the thing about hope: it's like a drug. And just like any other drug, once you get your first fix, there's only two things you can do: either get another, or let the comedown slowly kill you. You understand what I'm saying?
— Lurís Faolhán from Bytom, Fae, 25-years old
You want to know what I really think? That you can take the whole damn country and shove it up your ass for all I care! That's what I think! That you and everyone else in that government of yours can go fuck themselves!
I think that I had a son before this all went down, one with a wife and two beautiful kids. One who wasn't lucky enough to live somewhere else when the fire came. One who didn't have it in him to leave his home to be plundered; one who took up the arms and went to fight for the kids he knew al Fine wouldn't let out of the carnage.
I had a son. And they let him die in there, the Coalition, locked inside the perimeter like a dog. Worse than a dog: a dog you'd show mercy. A dog you'd show understanding. All they gave him is a public announcement to stay away from the Insurgency until they could come and liberate them all.
Do you want to know what I really think, of all those who come and tell me how proud I must be? That maybe when they say how tall their new country makes them feel, they should look down and see who it is that brought them this high. Whose corpses they stand on, each day they get to walk this earth.
What use have I got for this? What use?
— Zuzanna Tomasiak from Katowice, human, 47-years old
Doubt
There has certainly been much said and done throughout the many years in regards to Silesia — many verdicts were given and many judgments were rendered, here amidst these tall halls. We have listened to the voices of separatists and we have heard the anarchists; we have seen the words of the armed interventionists and read the declarations of the reformists. And now here we stand, amidst a Library that still seems to be booming with their echoes; amidst a topic that remains just as lively as it ever was.
But what's done is done: Silesia's is a tale that has already been told. There is no going back and changing its author or indeed its story — but its ending may not be so fixed in place. The final sentence may yet be uttered; it is one thing for a country to be born, and a wholly another for it to survive. For it to prosper amidst the continent which it has wrought. Europe remains stable for now, this much is true, but what about the future ten years? What about fifty? Will the order which has been challenged and changed for Silesia to come into existence remain, or will it crumble under its own weight?34, 35, 36 Under the lines which it itself has drawn on a map, a society that will never forget that which was done unto them? Under a country that, for better or worse, has blossomed in the heart of the once-stagnant Europe, forged in fire and ready to do anything to stay as it had come?
Yes, the prize of peace weighs heavy upon the Old Continent — and so do the people which are meant to upkeep it. The fact of the matter is that, no matter the truth of their intentions, the men and women37 who have returned home from this war will never be the same. And not just because most of them have now come to bear an arcane talent38 they had never borne, but because they have seen the face of bloodshed. They have fought and they have killed — and not all of them may have the strength to return to the everyday ennui that inevitably awaits them.
Worse yet, even those who have not lived through the war seem shaken, all around the world. There are whispers from the offices of eurocrats through the Kremlin walls and the People's Great Hall to the White House of what the respective governments could and should do, if a similar event were to occur on their ground; it is not quite paranoia — not yet, anyway — but it is persistent. And that is the worst thing an issue can be — for if it remains in the air for too long, it will no doubt find its way into ears that are better left occupied by other issues.
Let me make one thing clear: that this whole mess has occurred far beyond our borders does not mean it isn't of concern, to all of us. What we have witnessed was how the insanity of political radicas tears yet another beautiful country apart. And as if the same kind of lunatics all throughout the West weren't enough, Poland has now proven that it isn't safe from this madness either. But who can be surprised, truly, with how lenient they have all been on who they let pervade their country in the last few years.
Still: it is a shame. A shame which, I can assure you, our United States will never know. I will not allow this vermin to take root in our home. Not under my watch.
— Gen. Thomas Bowe, Sr. Extraordinary Resources Advisor, PENTAGRAM39, 40, 41, 42
Between that and other just as equally discouraging words coming from all around the globe, it is increasingly more difficult to see Silesia as just a symbol of hope, and not an omen also. The more optimistic among us will no doubt say that once again the prophecies we have seen during the Impasse of it heralding final Occult War43 were proven wrong (or at the very least were postponed) and that we have lived to die another day, but the rest may have a different outlook: that we have outsourced the passing of the ages to war, to capital, and that Silesia proves we have merely replaced the chains of Normalcy with those of the industrial military complex and the capital which it serves. That we have permanently bound any chances of change and monetized bloodshed together, in the world that is to come.
Whatever the case, only one thing can be said to be certain, truly: that nothing will ever be the same in the history of our post-Veil times after Silesia again. Whether for good or for bad, this is a turning point — one that will bring forward a world the likes of which we had never before seen.
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