20-10-2024, 02:54 PM
CODEX – History of Thallerism
Preamble
In this edition of CODEX we have made it our mission to explain and contextualize the history of Thallerism, an ideology which saw its rise in the early centuries of the 4th Millenium. We want to warn our readers that this volume contains topics which may be uncomfortable to read such as crimes against humanity, warcrimes and other instances of political violence. The making of this book especially the gathering of information has led us to dark places and even confronted us with dangerous situations. We have visited wine cellars somewhere on the countryside and dusty forgotten parts of archives. Lastly we thank all contributors and scholars who are the main reason this project was achievable.
1.[font=Times New Roman] [/font]Proponents and Origins
We want to start by explaining the origins of this ideology and its name giving family. Let us start with the family. The “Thallers” (von Thallers) origins are shrouded in mystery, according to the homepage of the “Thaller Industries” corporate conglomerate the family descends from Dundorfian land-nobility and has its ancient kinsmen have served in the military of the Dundorfian Reich. Others say that they have always been in Darnussia and just came up with a backstory to sell it to the public. There are no substantiated sources for the latter claim. The most likely possibility is their official story, there are certain documents we have seen snippets of which strengthen their explanations. Sadly the Thaller family has rejected our request to visit their ancestral family seat on a small island near the coast of Alkavon, which has been referred to as “Thaller Fortress.”
So to summarize, we know that the Thallers originiated from Dundorf and have moved at some point to Narikaton and Darnussia. According to documents from the archive of “Demokratie und Fortschritt” and institute which has gathered notable knowledge and sources from elections from the 4th Millenium, their first political emergence can be dated back to the 4070s where they were influential politician in a party called “Pan Dundorfian Union.” The platform the ancient party ran on already serves as a sneakpeak into the politics the Thallers were supporting and representing. Dundorfian (Hyper)nationalism and social conservatism. Pan-Dundorfianism is a vague term which has changed its meaning from age-to-age. Back then the term was coined by ethnicly motivated nationalism and sometimes more or less racist motives. It also marks an important pillar in the later ideology of Thallerism. Continuing their political tenure they’ve managed to be a dominant actor in the political landscape of Narikaton and Darnussia culminating in the first von Thaller monarch on the throne of the nation. While initially governing together with parliament, they’ve continued to build a cult of personality around their family and their leading figures which usually meant the monarch of head of government which has let them gather enough political capital to subsequently decrease the power of the parliament over time. Their ultimate goal being total control over the state and all its extensions. From these actions we can abstract another influence on the ideology, authoritarianism and an obvious focus on the family itself and not only one person. Now we can offer an ideological definition of the original or also known as “Orthodox Thallerism.” It seeks to install a Thaller in a position of total power over a state or state-like entity to ensure the victory of ethnic-dundorfians interest over others. With this characterization we can continue to give an overview over the other proponents of Thallerism.
The victory of the Thallers in Narikaton and Darnussia wasn’t long lived, multiple oppositional forces have arisen to challenge their order which have led the Thallers to actually promote their own ideology and plat roots for it among the conservative and nationalist electoral forces. So the birth of Thallerism was in the 4100s when the first challengers such as the “Imperial Democrats” and the “Englehart Party” came along and have empowered parliament again. These developments revealed the strengths of the new ideology, it is highly flexible and evolved quickly to adapt to the new status-quo. This also marks the time where the ideology first split into two ideological “wings” which effectively acted independently from one another in parliament but where united under one party. The party was split among the lines of economic policy, Orthodox Thallerism divided between Red Thallerists which were socialist in nature and Grey Thallerists which remained market-liberal. The split popularized the ideology internationally too and saw the rise of the first international thallerist movements for example in Rutania. This was the solution to the first challengers but once the party landscape of Narikaton and Darnussia diversified even further the opposition strengthened and managed to isolate Thallerists from all other political forces even other monarchists. This led to a cheap political campaign to paint Luthorians as the number one force against Dundorfians which slowly became one of the vital points of old Thallerism.
Surprisingly this strategy bore fruits which could only be explained by the sudden shift toward nationalism of the population in Narikaton and Darnussia. Thallers were once again in power unchallenged and were able to commit several of their schemes. First of all starting to oppress and systematically persecute ethnic luthorians and later ethnic nariks which back then were not considered Volksdundorfian and as such “citizens of second class.” During a very reactionary monarch called Cedrik Thaller slavery was introduced which has led to what we today call the final “Schism.” Social-Liberal members of the family have become popular and were targets for political hostilities. This caused them to flee their family seat to other nations especially those that had a negative attitude toward the rise of Thallerism, such as Istalia. It offered to house “Jens von Thaller” who is a decisive figure for the future of the family. He founded “Blue Thallerism” which eventually led to the reduction of the ideology to just a personality cult around the Thaller family. This final evolution of the ideology has now made it viable to internationally spread.
2.[font=Times New Roman] [/font]Exporting the Name
The first successful Thallerist movement not based in Narikaton and Darnussia was in Valruzia (~4200). A short-lived super-authoritarian technocratic government has used Valruzia to funnel family funds out of Narikaton and Darnussia. Some speculate that Valruzia also was a target due to its *back-then* technological advanced state and fame for electronic manufacturing. Around twenty years after the Thallerist Coup, the Valruzians rose up and ousted them from power. There are no documents telling us about the future of the involved people.
The second successful take-over was actually the long-standing Tsardom of Deltaria (4263-4636) which stayed in thallerist hands for hundreds of years. Several members of the family arrived with large numbers of foreign fighters and mercenaries (a tactic often used) and used the chaos Deltaria was in politically to take control over its most vital institutions leading to the formation of a Thallerist government over all of Deltaria. The Czarist-Thallerist regime in Deltaria marked the beginning of considerable family influence on the continent of Majatra. The society of the Czardom was strongly influenced by the values spread by Thallerism which also caused problems after the eventual dissolution of the system. In the wake of the so-called “Deltarian-Coalition War” the Czarist regime was completely dismantled and a “de-thallerization” took place led by ideologically hostile actors such as Istalia and Dorvik.
As already stated Deltaria was only the beginning for Majatra. The tendrils of the Thallers soon reached Kalopia, Barmenistan and Istalia. In 4259 infamous Malgus Thaller soon to be dubbed “Tyrant of Kalopia” took over the nation and ruled over it with an iron fist for 13 years until his untimely demise. Now we can confirm that foreign powers have made deals with the infamous tyrant and even tried to help him acquire weapons of mass destruction to strengthen his fear-based rule of Kalopia, among them the King-meddler Beiteynu. Some experts on Yeudi-Thaller relations speculate that this marks the beginning of their mysterious connection, allegedly Malgus stole one of the notorious “yeudi gems.”
Parallely to the ongoings in Deltaria, a brief dundorfian republic under the leadership of republican thallerists took over the unstable situation after the fall of the DDR but did not stand the test of time. Within ~50 years the nation fell back into a state of permanent regime-changes until the Federal Republic we still see today established itself as the dominant system. We’d like to add that during the brief thallerist experiment in Dundorf, Terra had developed a strong anti-thallerist sentiment eventually leading to a Condemnation of the regime in Dundorf by the World Congress Security Council.
Now in Barmenistan, the Thallerist rule was one of the more stable experiments. The Thallers responsible there have cleverly made friends with local nobles and the famous Banmek-Sntazed house and established connections to the pan-jelbic cause including an involvement in the creation of the “Treaty of the Union of the Jelbic Peoples” in 4275. This fact can still be used to explain modern Thaller support for Vanuku and all the peoples of Jelbic descent. While the initial rule of the Barmeni Thallers was dominated by harsh persecution of religious dissidents, the later years of their rule under the so-called “Twin-Sultans” Intrsmor and Jemrjkai have become more liberal. This may have also been a reason for their downfall by the eventual republican coup in 4297.
The Fall of the regime in Barmenistan began the global decrease in Thallerist influence. Even back in Narikaton and Darnussia, the stability of the Thallerist regime was endangered by the ongoings in its sister-nations. But we will get to that in the next chapter. To finalize this part of the CODEX we are going to look at the last-ditch effort of International Thallerism to save face by undermining their long-time rival Istalia. In 4546 Julius von Thaller started a revolution in Istalia after a uncharacteristic time of political bickering and civil unrest in the Fourth Istalian Republic. The Thaller has seen the chance to abuse the vacuum of power by couping the government with the help of family-funded mercenaries and small parts of the istalian military which were bribed or influenced in other fashions. The regime already ended in 4548 as the result of the “Istalian War against the Thallerist Revolution” which ultimately led to the establishment of the Fifth Republic of Istalia and a victory for democratic forces, ending Thaller influence in Majatra and most other places in the world.
3.[font=Times New Roman] [/font]The Death of an Ideology
The end of Thallerism in its birthplace of Narikaton and Darnussia can be led back to two subsequent wars which have shattered public perception of the family and the ideology. The War against Malivia in the 4300s and the Trauerstein Coup the Etat (Civil War). The first conflict was a long-time coming war between the communist Malivia and the “Eternal Thallerist Empire of Narikaton and Darnussia.” Initially Malivian forces saw minor victories on the border but it quickly went into a stalemate. Loss of Life and humanitarian crisis have led the Kingdom of Dorvik to intervene and force the parties to the table after targeted military strikes both against Thallerist strongholds and Malivian positions. Dorvik’s intervention ended with the Conference of Ghacrow where the Treaty of the same name was signed, which led to the End of Thallerism and a dorvish-occupied Narikaton and Darnussia as well as reparations from Malivia.
The stipulations of a ban on Thallerist activities was a big hit for the already waning political power of the family and its followers. Nonetheless after hundreds of years of Thallerist rule, there were still structures where the cult of personality was so deeply entrenched that there was no going forward without. Year after year the restrictions of Thallerist activities were removed which led to a short revival in the 4400s. This leads us to the Civil War. The Trauerstein Coup d’etat or more commonly referred to as the Narik-Darnussian Brother War was a civil war taking place in Narikaton and Darnussia. Priorly building up political tensions have lead to an armed conflict which escalated out of proportions. In the beginning there was no clear alliance chain at work, it was a bloody free for all with the remnants of multiple political forces fighting against each other. The small remaining influence of the family was claimed by different actors of the ideological group. The beginning of Thallerist infighting basically marked the end to its political relevancy. After a long five-years of civil war the still Thallerist Deltarian regime won the conflict and stabilized the more Liberal Thallerist structures which gave birth to a very obscure sub-section of Thallerist ideology, which was Presidential System restricted to candidates from the Family. This system did not hold for long though. According to our sources in 4600 Thallerism was over. A few minor upstarts have tried over the next few hundred years but never managed to reach the power they once had. The subsequent liberal and more devolutionary regimes have started a systemic purge of Thallerist elements from Narikaton and Darnussia including a pacification of the ethnic conflict in the nation. During the Confederacy, the Thallers were actually persecuted politically and have been made responsible for the actions of their forefathers, leading to long prison sentences and the seizure of many of their assets. The only thing that has been left to them was their ancestral family seat on the already described island somewhere between the mainland and the Narik islands.
4.[font=Times New Roman] [/font]Modern Thallers
After their persecution ended, the Thallers resigned themselves to the world of private enterprise and were quite successful due to their past connections to the old-money elite and industrialists which usually were benefactors of their politics. The holding “Thaller Industries” and their multiple offshoots have made them incredibly rich. They’re one of the private sector entities with the largest amount of employees and trade volumes, their realpolitical weight cannot be understated. Their renewed positive public standing among the people of the Dual Republic and even some international actors especially in Beiteynu is currently leading to some sort of a revival in interest around their family name. Experts don’t expect a Thallerist comeback but are also not willing to completely reject the possibility.