#I'm not gonna go into the evolution of Rusnak and Valerist theory

[alistonjdrake]

The Rusnak Party

Of Blood and Stone, The third book in The Saints’ Song Series,  showcases the Escana Empire on the verge of crumbling as a murdered king and a divided government threaten to tear the country apart. As some grapple for power and wealth, others decide to jump ship.

Season One World Building Posts:  1 2  3  4 5 6 7 8 9 10 

Season Two World Building Posts:  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

Season Three World Building Posts:  1 

Bonus Episodes: 1 2 3 

Main Wip Intro here 

People are never completely sure where Vito Rusnak came from. Born in 1698 (after the fall of our Saints), he was likely of Abenian origin or raised in Palogne. Both are usually considered, sometimes a combination of the two, for his supposed education and for his future work and attachment to Abenland as a country. Most of what is known about him was provided by the man himself as backstory during his involvement in the late 1730s riots that eventually lead to the creation of the Republic of Abenland in 1743.

In Rusnak’s own words, he was raised partially in a Dackten conservatory, a minority sect of the Santivian church which preached for the dissolution of of the “aristocratic” hierarchies of the church as well as holding all properties in common and the collective ownership of the “charity of Santivian men”. Presumably talented in music, Rusnak would leave this conservatory at the age of sixteen to attend Doxseth College in Nomworth, Palogne. He took his Dackten ideals with him. Nomworth, often being dubbed the city of scholars and made up of a supremely diverse population for its predominantly foreign students. It was not long, according to Rusnak, until he switched out of the school of music and landed into a study of law after joining a literature group where they read books likely continuing the criticism of the Santivian church’s power structure as well as antique philosophers (an assumption made on Rusnak’s future proclamations about primitive society and the happiness and richness of cultures and societies that had not yet discovered poverty, a claim also found in some antique writing).

At some point, Rusnak began writing his own work. His early pieces were reflections of the Dackten sect and their eventual prosecution by the more dominant Santivian groups throughout the east, but he eventually landed on writing what would later be called idealized pieces about egalitarianism, communal ownership, and the redistribution of property behind the world of the church. Rusnak was very likely influenced by the amount of failed protests going on in the east that was fueled by anti-monarchy sentiments and the increase of religious prosecution as Oskyan Orthodox Santivians rose to prominence in the region. 

Similar bodies of work to Rusnak’s work were outlawed by eastern governments in the aftermath of minor rebellions, but Rusnak sold his work as Utopian fiction and was able to bypass the book bans that targeted most of his colleagues, although any positive references to Dacktism had to be removed. 

Rusnak graduated in 1721 at the age of twenty-three with a law degree and moved back to Abenland where he struggled to find a job and would eventually find himself working as a music teacher for another conservatory. Although by the time he would return to Abenland, the Dackten groups had all been removed and he would instead find himself under the employment of Oskyan officials. As the Abenian government weakened, Oskyan influence in the country grew greatly. Many of the dukes of Abenland were paying for their favors. This was the spark of decades of uneasiness in Abenland, as the weakened government and the advantages taken by Oskyan officials allowed ruling dukes to get richer and gain more power while the rest of the country was stuck in a stagnant struggle. One that would eventually lead to the dissolution of Rusnak’s job as the commodification of education resulted in private tutors for the children of dukes instead of more open institutions. 

When the riots of the 1730s began, there was no such thing as the “Rusnak Party”. However, Vito Rusnak did become a prolific figure during them. It should be noted that while he was allied to many of the early leaders of the anti-duke and anti-Oskyan protests by the Abenian lower classes, he openly rejected armed revolution and instead advocated to “re-education” for the benefit of a classless society. However, due to the popularity of his writing at the time and the fact that he is credited with the messaging system rebels used to communicate, Rusnak is also usually to blame for the Kirdan Massacres.

The Kirdan Masscares is the term used for the event in which, as a reaction to the discovery from spies that many of the dukes had written for help from Oskyan forces (something that would surely squash the rebellion), so they planned a series of attacks on affluent dukes by smoking them out of their homes with controlled fires and shooting them down. Surviving members of noble families and those that fled the country in the aftermath of this event ultimately planned Vito Rusnak due to him being the most known rebel. As such, going forward all references to the rebels became dubbed as the “Rusnak party”.

The Kirdan Masscares are named after Arseniy Kirdan, the general of the Oskyan army at the time and the presumed receiver of the Abenian dukes’ letters. In the rebel party, they used Kirdan’s name to sign off all messages related to this plot. This event is also called “the Culling” by supporters and survivors on the rebellion side for obvious reasons. 

In the aftermath of this, the ruling party was so scattered and weakened, it allowed for the creation for what would be known as the Republic of Abenland in 1743. Rusnak was quickly recognized as someone who would help reframe and rebuild the country.

It should be noted, that not all of the nobility left. In fact, what is known as the Abenian Republic was actually a relatively small collection of its states united under the former rebellion council. The massacres only weakened them and further pushed the nation into poverty as the Oskyans pulled out in fear of similar attacks as it was clearly apparent to King Niclas at the time that they had no insiders in the party and could not predict their movements, and he had no reason to help Abenland if they could not pay him. 

With Rusnak’s familiarity with law, he was often called upon for insight on how to run the republic. It had its failings. The first being they had no money and the second being they were arguments about the future of governance. In the beginning, Rusnak wanted to turn to widespread Dacktism and political order based on popular sovereignty. He continued his criticisms about private property and in the injustices of unequal wealth and social classes, and while plenty agreed with him due to the bad taste left after the Oskyan Orthodox Consistory, there were few eager to back a movement fueled by religion.

The Republic also had many enemies since it’s creation. Many of the surviving dukes had fled to Oskya or Slovy and there were several attempted coups or the blocking of roads to isolate Abenians from much needed supplies. The remaining duchies also continually launched attacks in order to retake the Republic.

The Republic would crash in 1759 as a result of the failed assassination of Urs Felganhaur, a returned Abenian duke who had survived the massacres and had presumably captured someone with intel of the innerworkings of the Rusnak party. The shooter’s gunpowder would be too damp due to rain on the night of the plan and his capture would lead to the arrest of several of the republic’s key figures (including Valera de Martí, Rusnak’s mentee and then just sixteen going on seventeen). The invasion of Oskyan forces, now under the banner of King Vadik who took a much harsher stance against them, and the installation of dukes back to their abandoned duchies, killed the Republic and its leaders either went into hiding or continued to rebel in secret. 

This would result in the continuation of bloody altercations, affairs similar to the Kirdan event, planned food shortages, and mass executions of those considered to be part of the party. Vito Rusnak at this point likely gave up his ideals of revolution without arms as it would be said that going forward Rusnak rebels usually carried guns or would be to blame of bombings and other violent forms of protests. 

His books, along with the work of Valera de Martí, were banned and burned by the Oskyan forces. A jail sentence of four years was carried out on anyone to be found owning any of their writing, an increase of a year based on the amount of books owned. Rusnak himself went deep into hiding while his mentee spent much of his time in and out of Abenian prisons where he would write poetry, a brief history of the Republic, and further criticisms of the ruling class until he would be forbidden from having pen and paper during his repeated sentences. 

Vito Rusnak would eventually be found and arrested in 1767 after an increased Oskyan presence and the slaughter of several other rebel groups. He had time before his arrest to warn his own daughter, Darya Rusnak, and Valera de Martí to flee the country and the east before he was taken in by Oskyan forces. Some months later, Darya would be arrested trying to cross the border and she would give out the names and presumed locations of all of her father’s allies in exchange for her own life. 

in 1768, Vito Rusnak would be executed in Porsdal, Slovy in front of a crowd of Oskyan soldiers who would then take his head on a tour throughout all the major cities in Abenland to warn away any hiding or remaining rebels. 

Likely unbeknownst to the Oskyans at the time, the execution of Vito Rusnak only sparked a continuation of his ideology. 

Surprisingly, Valera de Martí escaped execution and was able to flee to Escan which exiled him instead of handing him over to the Oskyan government due to his being an Escana citizen. He is credited with spreading Rusnak Ideology to the west as he translated much of his mentor’s work and continued writing his own (before its eventual ban by the Escana government, much of his work was taught in schools due to his start in poetry). In fact, Valera was often more criticized for his open support of atheist beliefs. Much of Valera’s work was easier to swallow in the west, as even when he bemoaned about the things he thought was plaguing society the western (and importantly the Escana) powers saw it more as a criticism of the east instead of the inherent power structures carried by both nations. 

Rusnak and de Martí were not the only people who were critical about private property, social classes, and wealth distribution but they quickly became the most famous to the point where most writers and speakers from this era (and beyond them) either get lumped under Rusnak or Valerist theory. At their core, both ideals are the same except Rusnak and people like him tend to take a stance rooted in religious idealism whereas Valera, born from the pioneers of the Escana middle class, and the people who came after him tend to focus more of plights afforded to working and lower class people as well as mocking individualism or earlier sentiments that stopped at “common good” and “common wealth”. Most Valerists are considered to believe that that the Rusnak party was not ambitious enough and that a further step needs to be taken for the advancement of society.

There is however, very little record of just how much de Martí may or may not have disagreed with Rusnak as very little is known about their relationship beyond what Darya Rusnak said about them when she was imprisoned, claiming that her father saw de Martí as more of his own blood than her. Although, de Martí himself would go on to reflect on the Republic years later and would not be very kind to its leaders while he talked about all the missed opportunities. 

Even after Valera de Martí’s exile from the Escana Empire and the complete eradication of a rebellion in Abenland, the Rusnak party quickly spread throughout the continent and survives in much smaller but still active groups during The Saints Song series. All of the books outlining their early roots are illegal although a few are kept in university libraries in Palogne for the preservation of knowledge and it is also illegal for Rusnaks to assemble in parties larger than groups of four but whether or not that stops anyone is dependent on who you ask.