High Exarch Minor Seraphi Ironheart

In the Methodocracy of Flandre, it is not just the strong who survive. The strong are often overconfident, so they don't prepare enough for eventual failure. Flandreans instead celebrate the crafty, who so often bring down the strong, and Flandrean institutions reflect that fact faithfully.

Methodocracy, or "rule by schemes," is by design a difficult-to-understand system of government. In fact, many of the protocols of the Methodocracy are kept confidential to prevent exploitation by external or internal powers. However, it is known that the High Exarch is chosen not on the basis of any personal merit, but based on whether their proposed solution to the current national crisis is more effective than the others. Nominally this would include a proposal from the current High Exarch, but High Exarchs have a habit of coincidentally winding up dead whenever a situation rises to the level of a national crisis.

You can read more about High Exarch Minor Seraphi Ironheart's ascension in Dr. Rubric's treatment of the Inordinate Number of Snakes protocol, but my topic here is Ironheart's conduct as High Exarch Minor.

Consider, for example, the case of a 12-year-old whose defense proposal was rejected by the Council. For most little girls, that would be the end of their political endeavors, for that is the way society tells them that the process works. Soon-to-be-HEM Ironheart instead traveled north to Kingsland—foolhardy in its own right—persuaded an eldritch abomination to participate in her scheme, and then barbecued half the Council with a flamethrower while riding atop said eldritch abomination. Rubric writes "they could not argue with the results"—indeed, indeed! It was a brilliant political move, for not only did she demonstrate the worthiness of her proposal, but she also boldly demonstrated that the Council didn't have a contingency plan for getting baked alive.

Now 14, Ironheart's leadership has remained no less decisive or flashy. Most controversial, of course, was her decision to establish a military base on the lip of the Missing Sea as a foothold for research and colonization. Ironheart correctly identified that Flandre was the only nation in a position both to exploit the resources on the open sea floor and to stave off the wrath of the whales that would follow such a course. And the public relations strategies she employed to address, mollify, rebut, and/or disappear her detractors once again demonstrate the deftness of her contingency planning.

While there are several obvious reasons of practicality underlying Flandre's resistance to the Disarrangement Act, proponents of the Act might consider that they do not want an irritated High Exarch Minor Seraphi Ironheart on their borders.

I've always thought the little brat's greatest achievement was whatever quantum bullshit she pulled to block off the universe where I wrote the article on her. I'm sure other-universe me tore her a new one.

Citations: High Exarch Minor Seraphi Ironheart

After the stunt she pulled in 986, the "whale bloc" of the Disputatious Assembly began planning for her eventual Exarchy, since someone who can decapitate a continent in an afternoon will end up ruling Flandre one way or another. The 988 snake invasion, therefore, became a matter of international concern, not only because it threw the Flandrean-headed anti-whale coalition into disarray, but also because the succession crisis threatened to bring Seraphi to power much earlier than anticipated. With Flandre's coalition leaderless, the Very Definitely Independent States, still smarting from Seraphi's machinations, motioned for the Assembly to respond by annihilating both sides of the civil war. The rest of the whale bloc gave its support, fearing the prospect of a recovered Flandre under a High Exarch Minor Ironheart. Flandre was at its most vulnerable, and if they did not strike while they had the chance, having another would be doubtful. The shaken coalition, on the other hand, feared the prospect of the whale bloc figuratively (or literally) rolling over them, and the ensuing political deadlock lasted long enough that Seraphi Ironheart could ascend as High Exarch Minor and settle the matter in the Assembly herself.

Citations: 986 Bring Your Daughter to Work Day incident / Buddy "Literally Made of Snakes" Johnson / The Very Definitely Independent States

"The ensuing political deadlock" is a bit of an innocent way to put it. The anti-whale bloc pulled every trick in the book to impede the progress of the motion. Dr. Christophy would know, because he has enough contact with the Ironhearts to know what goes on in the coalition, and he specifically instructed the Butterfly Effect Advisory Committee he chaired to take its time preparing an exhaustive report. Yet before they were near finished, Christophy was also appointed to the Disarrangement Act BEAC, despite this slowing the first Committee's work to a crawl. I submitted an official complaint to have someone else take over the 988 BEAC so it wouldn't be slowed down, but nothing came of it, and the point was moot when Seraphi Ironheart was coronated. Shortly thereafter, I had an unlikely series of very unfortunate coincidences, leaving me in my current position. I can't help but feel there's a connection there, but I'm a little scared of what would happen if I looked too much into it.