Taxing Circumstances (MP 1)

Subject: Taxing Circumstances (MP 1) Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:41 pm

Raising Taxes

The day comes much like any day would as the distant orange sun makes its way over the clear afternoon skies of Belcia drifting in a westerly direction. I find myself in the audience chamber of the clan manor which rests in the center of the city, hovering stories above the other structures of the vicinity as one of the larger building of the city. On top the multistoried European/Oriental hybrid manor, rests perched a large ice phoenix that rivals half of the building in size, reflecting the sunlight radiantly off of its form, animated as it watches over the city as one of its protectors. After a recent brief nightly excursion, I found myself much more relaxed than normal since the stress of running a mini kingdom had gotten to me. It had been nice to watch the Sabrian woman known as Lark perform in her various assets and skills and I found that it gave me a bit of a boost in my workings for the day; her stress relieving techniques were very thorough. Much like many of the days that had come before this one, going over city policy and a stack of paper work was in order. Luckily I had people to do work for me, so a major portion of what I had to do was approvals and hearings of various types. Thus, my table held several reports that I was to go over in the day’s length along with the various advisors that came with them. Their roles would be in explaining themselves and their reasons for being in my audience chamber, be it their job or a request of some type. My back rests against the large and study chair that supports me in front of the desk that rests upon the elevated platform of the audience chamber. The red carpet ran from this area to the large double doors that served as the entrance to the room; said doors open and a familiar and unhappy figure makes his way through the doors dressed in a the traditional black Kyoukou Batsu kimono and hakama with a white haori, not on his shoulders worn like a coat, but about his waist with the white obi sash with the shoulder of the kimono top pulled down and under him, like a traditional swordsman of the older style, so that he wore it in a half manner displaying his physique as well as his rank on the arm that was covered. He carried a sword resting on his shoulder in his sheath with the hilt within the grasp of his right hand. This man, known as Zuel and the general of my father’s armies, was the military advisor of the city. My gaze is on him as he makes his approach to the front of the audience chamber where I would be and remarks in an informal manner, “we got our asses handed to us.” At first, this catches me off guard as I wait for more, and after a momentary pause, he continues, “the battle to get Honkyochi back lead by the runt and the drunkard failed. They had to pull back because Al’Yak pulled some more troops out of their ass after the fort was won.” I pause for a moment after hearing his words, thinking about what I might say. “But… Tsurugi went…” I begin, wondering if I had put too much trust in him for a battle like this; but I had under estimated the Al’Yakians and that was a flaw that I would have to pay for. “I knew I should have went myself…” I begin with my mood quickly deteriorating. Zuel continues, “well, we’re going to have to supply them and come up with something, so the military’s going to need some more money. You’re going to have to handle that somehow.” It was a blunt way of stating that I had to go about compensating for the economic impact of a battle loss. With a nod, I inform him that I understood. I would have to talk with Tsurugi to see what all went wrong from his point of view. However, from that point, Zuel continues and briefs me on all of the information given to him from the scouts that were at the battle. After understanding all of this, I knew that I did not wish to pull funding from the research and development department; therefore the only choice I had at the moment was to raise taxes. I advise to Zuel that he and I would come up with a battle strategy a bit later in the evening and with that, he makes his departure to send aide to the deployed forces as well as prepare for the future. I summon my right hand man and second in command, Mahail Luca, to the audience chamber and it isn’t long before he arrives. I update him on what I’ve heard and it would seem that he was previously briefed as well, which saves on time. The closest to an economic advisor since the loss of Tyde, I inquire on the economy and ability to raise taxes. From his view point of our spending and income system the treasury that somehow obtained equilibrium of sorts with our closed economy working well between T’Som and the other cities of Kyrotoshi; but he also comments that a small marginal raise in taxes in advance of a recession would help keep that balance in the long run. With his okay and council on the matter, I decide to go ahead and give the ok to increase the citizen tribute by a small percentage as well as the tributes of surrounding villages within the sphere of our sub national influence. With that done, my mind wanders about future ways of working against this, since this would be only a temporary fix; I knew that I couldn’t always rely on one of the major things that separated Kyrotoshi from other nations; somehow, maybe, I could find a way to return us more so to our roots.

.: 1014 PWC Nation
.: 507 EXP

Subject: Re: Taxing Circumstances (MP 1) Wed Jan 28, 2009 4:29 am

Updated