Solamînt els Fätsilors: a Timeline of Talossan History 2000-
NOTE: Dates are given in the Gregorian calendar (numerals), the year of Talossa (miniscule Roman) and the year of the Republic (majuscule Roman).
2000/xxi March: Wired magazine runs article on Talossa. A brief flurry of immigration in response, notably that of Gödafrïeu Valcádac'h.
April: After months of corrosive dispute over the nature of Penguinea, Glacâ, Schivâ and some others quit Penguinea.
King Robert divorces Queen Jenny, placing a bill before the Cosâ describing her as "filthy and frigid" among other scandals. Liberals oppose the bill and suffer a firestorm of abuse from the King in response.
June: Penguinea folds after almost three years of existence, to gloating response from King Robert of Talossa.
September: Gruber is given the highest Talossan honour - the order of Për la Naziun - by the King, mainly for his anti-Penguinean efforts.
2001/xxii Martì-Páir Furxhéir joins Talossa.
June: King declares that he will never appoint a TLP government, regardless of election results. In response, TLP members quit the nation en masse ("Second Exodus").
2002/xxiii Pope retires as Prime Minister, replaced by Valcádac'h.
King Robert marries Amy Durnford.
November: Talossa, after years of royal-inspired witchhunts of oppositionists, has become a stagnant one-party state under a series of PC Prime Ministers appointed by Royal decree. "Opposition" parties are only tolerated to the extent that they offer no real threat to Royal domination.This changes when Gruber and Talossan language guru Tomás Gariçéir form "Grey Congress Party" (GCP). Days later, King Robert and close allies also quit PC, reviving Wes Erni's "Black Hand" (MN) party from the late 80's.
2003/xxiv January: PC loses absolute majority in Cosâ for first time in ten years. PC, MN and GCP form coalition government ("the Valcádac'h Coalition"). In response to change in Talossan political atmosphere, ex-Liberal Anglatzarâ attempts to rejoin Talossa. His application is (illegally) vetoed by King Robert.
March 13: King Robert announces his intention to name Louis Guzmán, Queen Amy's five-year-old grandson, as the heir to the throne of Talossa.
July: Talossafest. Gruber drives from Florida to participate. Personal tensions between him and the Royal Family surface - after King Robert is said to have discussed Gruber as his "hand-picked successor" to the throne.
October: MN becomes largest party in Kingdom after Cosâ election. Originally seen as a "niche party", the MN has become more and more obviously a vehicle for Royal political domination along the same lines as the old PC. MN just short of an absolute majority; coalition partners together win 96% of the vote.
October 31: "Hallowe'en crisis". A burnt-out PM Valcádac'h resigns without properly appointing a successor. PC rejects a series of unsuitable MN candidates, eventually decides on Gruber as its own candidate, rejected by MN. MN quits coalition - PC and GCP form minority government.
November 12: Valcádac'h sacked by King, who appoints Maxime Charbonneau Prime Minister. Charbonneau is genuinely unpopular, and his appointment is to show both the lack of talent in MN ranks and the determination of the King to show no mercy to oppositionists, even those who have been loyal and dedicated Talossans for years.
"Noodles Summit" later in month between King and Metáirâ (the latter acting for the PC) reaches compromise. Valcádac'h returns briefly as Prime Minister before handing over to the MN's Quedéir Castiglhâ on New Years Day.
December 28: As part of "Noodles Compromise", the King had agreed to stay out of partisan politics. However, annual "Speech from the Throne" lambastes the opposition. In the bitter exchange that follows, King calls for Gruber to quit Talossa. Gruber responds by suggesting that the King should "do what [his] mother did all those years ago".
2004/xxv March: King Robert issues claims that Gruber has history of violence against women. It emerges that the King has gone so far as to look up Gruber's criminal records. Although Gruber convincingly rebuts the King's claims , this use of extra-Talossan material as a weapon in a Talossan political conflict provokes shock and revulsion.
April: Durnford, as Senator from Vuode, introduces bill designed to expel Gruber from Talossa as a "violent offender". Never comes to a vote after the Uppermost Cort issues an injunction against it.
April 13: "Black Tuesday": Longstanding Talossans Art Verbotten and Bill Cooper quit Talossa in protest at gutter-level political environment. Serious discussion begins among oppositionists about the necessity of "a Talossa without King Robert".
May: Cosâ election. Secretary of State Furxhéir causes uproar when he dismisses Ben Madison as his deputy. In previous elections Madison has been in charge of collecting votes of "offline" Talossan citizens - suspicions have grown among oppositionists that some of the "pocket votes" are not even voting and that the King is guilty of wholesale forgery. Furxhéir requires all voters to confirm their votes with him personally rather than Madison, survives Court case from King attempting to sack him.
May 19: A "compact" is signed among PC and GCP members to create a Talossan Republic.
I June 1 First Talossan Revolution / "Third Exodus". Taking advantage of a royal overseas trip, Gruber, Pope, Valcádac'h and eight other Talossans seize Wittenberg and secede with southern provinces (+ Cézembre) to form Republic of Talossa. Michael Pope becomes first Dean (head of government) of Republic. Ián Metáirâ is virtually only member of PC not to join Republic.
Other political refugees from the Kingdom (Furxhéir, Anglatzarâ, Schivâ and others) join soon after. Old sparring partners Gruber and Schivâ become close allies in shared experiences of Royal persecution.
Returning from holiday to a shattered Kingdom, King Robert appoints Gary Cone - now a Talossan citizen - Prime Minister. King resorts to drastic measures to restore citizenship base, including lifting virtually all the controls on immigration imposed in the early days of cyber-Talossa. Crucial to these plans are Fritz Buchholtz, game-store owner and long-term associate of the "old growth" Talossans. Buchholtz is accepted into citizenship and made Immigration Minister. King also takes unprecedented step of rewriting official Kingdom history to "dehabilitate" Gruber.
September: Gruber, Schivâ and Furxhéir form Social Democratic Party (PSD). Constitutional Convention, chaired by Schivâ, begins work on a new constitution for the Republic. The final document will have several innovations based on the Republican's experiences under the monarchy, including secret ballot voting, a new electoral system and strict prohibition of cross-membership between several important offices.
In the Kingdom, Louis Guzmán is formally adopted by King Robert under Talossan law and named Prince Louis, heir to the throne.
November: New Republic citizen Dieter Vercáriâ (ex-Penguinean) founds Movement for Republican Peculiarism (MRP). Buchholtz founds Conservative Loyalist Party (CLP) in the Kingdom. Metáirâ dissolves PC and joins CLP.
December: Chris Gruber defeats Michael Pope with 58% of two-candidate-preferred vote in nationwide election and becomes second Dean of the Republic. King Robert enforces copyright to deny Schivâ and other Republicans the right to publish Talossan language materials - this begins split with language enthusiast Gariçéir.
2005/xxvi February: MN wins Kingdom election. King appoints Marcüs Cantaloûr, long-time loyalist, Prime Minister.
April 12: New Constitution of the Republic of Talossa unanimously approved in referendum.
May: First Chamber of Deputies (legislative) election in Republic: PSD wins half the seats over opposition from MRP and Pope's Guelph party. Informal PSD/MRP coalition agreed; Schivâ becomes first Prime Minister of the Republic.
II June : Defeating Michael Pope with 53% of two-candidate-preferred vote, Chris Gruber becomes first President of the Republic.
King Robert begins to become disturbed at large levels of CLP support among new Kingdom citizens, and at CLP's refusal to repudiate and shun all contacts with the Republic. Sniping breaks out between CLP and MN.
August 13: Kingdom Prime Minister Cantaloûr attempts to impose a moratorium on immigration. CLP see this as a blatant attempt to sabotage their party. Amid resulting storm of controversy, Gariçéir quits Kingdom over Royal plan to keep developments in Talossan language secret (to foil Republican language enthusiasts).
August 15: King Robert I, Queen Amy and Prime Minister Cantaloûr quit the Kingdom. King's concentration of power in himself and close allies means that this almost brings Kingdom to a halt. Dan Lorentz, as Chief Justice of Uppermost Cort, eventually becomes provisional Regent of the Kingdom, appoints Buchholtz caretaker Prime Minister. The seven-year-old Prince Louis is now legally King Louis I. (This process is later known as the "Quiet Revolution", to distinguish it from the more noisy process which gave birth to the Republic.)
September 1: In the Republic, PSD win overall majority in Second Chamber of Deputies over MRP - Guelphs don't stand. Schivâ re-elected Prime Minister.
September 15: In the Kingdom, Uppermost Cort throws out Erni/Madison lawsuit claiming that CLP voters became citizens improperly. Ex-King Robert I declares "Talossa is dead", a line which he spends the next year publicising in every macronational media contact he can find.
October 15: In the Kingdom, CLP win overall majority in Cosâ election. Fritz Buchholtz is now democratically elected Prime Minister of Kingdom. Negotiations begin in private for a Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the two Talossan states.
November: Dr. Greg Rajala confirmed by the Ziu of the Kingdom as Regent for King Louis I.
December 10: In the Republic, MRP deputy Bill Cooper dies after a long bout with cancer. He is the first Talossan legislator to die in office.
2006/xxvii March: Miestrâ Schivâ elected to a third term as Seneschál of the Republic. PSD again win more than 60% of the vote for the Third Chamber of Deputies against MRP opposition. The Republic's newest political party, the Union for Talossan Progress (UTP) don't field a candidate.
May: Chris Gruber steps aside from the presidency of the Republic after a single term. Dieter Vercáriâ, endorsed by both PSD and MRP, is elected second President of the Republic, defeating Gödafrïeu Valcádac'h with 64% of the vote.
III August: In the Republic, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) breaks up. Seneschál Schivâ forms new party, els Zefençadéirs dal Repúblicâ Talossán (ZRT - the name is a reference to the old Kingdom's ZPT). In an election marked by several technical hitches, the ZRT wins 67% of the vote for the Fourth Chamber of Deputies and becomes the new Government.
November: Seneschál Schivâ announces intention to step down in favour of ZRT co-founder Diarmuid Crovâ.
November 28: Samuél Tecladéir, Seneschál of the Kingdom, issues a joint policy statement with Republic Seneschál Schivâ, committing both Talossan states to cordial relations and co-operation on the Talossan language. Official end of the "Talossan cold war".
November 29: The Uppermost Cort of the Kingdom, acting as legal guardian of the eight-year-old King Louis I, tender his abdication. The Kingdom of Talossa now enters a period of interregnum.
December 4: Miestrâ Schivâ officially steps down. Chamber of Deputies elects I. D. Crovâ as second Seneschál of the Republic.