Concluding Recommendations: Dr. Herbert Jones

It is the highest honor, great Sovereigns, to present to you once again. I hope that you have found this report enlightening and that it will guide you to choose with the wisdom I have seen in this hall time and again. I hope also that despite my lowly station you will accept my gratitude for the fine work you have all done in leading your respective countries so well.

Now, let us turn to the task at hand. Many who undertake to write about the Disarrangement Act have seen fit to fall into absolutist camps—an example I will not follow here. I believe that perspicacious individuals like yourselves will recognize the nuance of this topic. So, although I believe that the Disarrangement Act is, on balance, not worth the costs, let's take a moment to acknowledge the good things about it. There is much to be learned, I think, from such a vision of international cooperation, with the Disputatious Assembly coordinating to design a better world for us all. I should think such an attitude fulfills the vision of High Exarch Kantamon in founding the Assembly in the first place. Nevertheless, I remain convinced that the actual execution of the Disarrangement Act would be perilous. I believe my colleagues have done an excellent job of illustrating that peril; however, as is observed in the Armmaker translation of the Book of Schemes, "It is a fool who plans for success." So let's suppose that the Act passes. In that case, I have a number of concerns which must be observed at any cost in the execution of the Act:

• When moving the countries of the world, the Assembly must not under any circumstances interfere with the Barcu region. No one fully understands the Barcuvian physical laws (save perhaps Dr. Stafford), and the methods used to move entire chunks of the planet will surely use massive stores of energy. The responsible position is to expect that using these methods in Barcu would result in unexpected consequences, and that those consequences will be catastrophic. To be safe, the Assembly should extend this zone of caution anywhere from ten to a thousand miles from the Barcuvian border.

• As an addendum to the above point, the Missing Sea should be disturbed as little as possible. In addition to the caution necessary to deal with Barcu, there is a possibility that disrupting the Missing Sea too much will also disrupt the seal upon Zor Olo and release whatever is trapped there.

• Speaking of Zor Olo, do not put any countries on Zor Olo. Not only is there the possibility of creating a second Kingsland, there is no air up there. The entire country would be dead in minutes. I confess I do not understand why I keep running into this suggestion.

• Returning to the general prohibition on interfering with Barcu, the Assembly should not interfere with Flandre. While I understand that this is politically unfavorable for some, the fact remains that most of the country is tied into an asynchronous energy network, and the theoretical consequences of severing that connection range from disastrous to apocalyptic. While I cannot speak to the justice of High Exarch Minor Ironheart's use of her country's resources, I beg you to turn your attention to the justice of blowing the planet open.

• Although it is a difficult decision to countenance, the Assembly must not let Kingsland escape. If their gods become unhappy, we might see the horrors of Kingsland visited upon the rest of the world.

• In fact, the Assembly should probably just refrain from interfering with Iurezza in general, as that might result in breaching the quarantine on the electric undead and starting a new infestation.

• Given the massive logistical requirements the Disarrangement Act would introduce to the global community, I agree with Professor Hazard McKinley's argument that the Assembly should delay implementation of the Act until such time as transportation has been developed that would not put an unendurable strain on the environment.

• The implementation of the Disarrangement Act must not proceed in a way that precludes our ability to defend against hostile attention from space. General Gorson had the right of it when he said that an alien threat is of more concern than any terrestrial matter; what we've learned from the Vulterland ruins certainly seems to corroborate this point. This prohibition would extend to prohibiting interference with the Panark Fleet, who carry the responsibility for maintaining Taurus Research Station as an orbital defense platform. Also included here are any number of precautions to prevent sabotage from the Botherhood, who might see sabotage of such a great undertaking as pleasing to their notional alien masters.

• However the Act unfolds with respect to the Careless Continent, great care must be taken not to open Joran Lake to the ocean. Joran Lake is unnaturally deep, and its blackest reaches have been open to unchecked metafishics for over a hundred years.

• On the topic of metafishics, the Assembly must ensure that as the continents are shifted and the ocean grows silty, some mechanism is deployed to observe the parts of the ocean which would otherwise be hidden to us. Ideally this technology would be able to penetrate groves of Ravenous Squid-Trees.

• Under absolutely no circumstances should the Assembly use symphonic warp traversal as a means of transportation during the implementation of the Disarrangement Act. Warping mass on this scale has never been tested in atmosphere before, but my physics contacts inform me that the theoretical best-case scenario detonates the entire atmosphere.

• Perhaps this is the old rocker in me speaking, but per Sneezing on the King Eternal's Iurezza, the Assembly should not involve the Ultimate Dragonopolis in the implementation of the Act. In the event that the Act passes, seekers after the Dragonopolis (particularly Captain Gunnerson) should be grounded until the process is complete.

• Finally, we do know (via Kingsland) of the existence of multidimensional entities who wish to consume our reality. There is the possibility (raised by Dr. Hanson in her excellent article on Zor Olo, although she seems to have forgotten it in writing her concluding recommendations) that the exact shape of the continents is what keeps them from doing so. In the interest of avoiding dimensional predators, the Assembly should endeavor to change the shape of the globe as little as possible.

Now, as I'm sure you've noticed, the logical consequence of abiding by all of these considerations would be, effectively, to act as though the Disarrangement Act had not passed. I hope it is a little clearer why I do not recommend that the Assembly vote in favor, whatever pressing issues seem to hang on its success. But that decision is, of course, up to you.

In any case, this report is now concluded. I hereby discharge the duty placed upon this committee by the august Assembly and wish you happy deliberations!

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Dr. Herbert Jones
University of Eyesland
Professor of Cataloguing Various Things
Heinrich Stafford Chair of Arrangement
PhD in Miscenallia