The Invasion of the Empire of Greek Pirates

Dietrich Square is dusty and quiet in the night-time meeting, its elegant Baroque buildings cloaked in ebony, its grandiose statues and memorials soaked in dusk. With the swiftness born of experience, film crews are completing the set-up of cameras, live links; final touches are applied to makeup and to cinematographic angles. Theses are professionals, and, mustered for the imperialistic swan song of Duetaria, they are determined to make a spectacle of events.

On a lone platform stand Charles Wenzel von Mettenburg, Chancellor of Ravenburg-Morovia; Lamberto Raimondi Prasca, Prime Minister of Romardia; Dame Helena Bonham Carter, Lady President of the Chamber of Ministers and Luschian Head of Government; Fritz von Eulenburg, Premier of Darmsburg-Gotha; and Richard G Vogt, President of the Executive Council of Upper Morovia-Carinthia. Some of these veteran statesmen have been here since Duetaria's blood-steeped inauguration amidst the ruins of Lower Schlovowia - others have risen to high office since those fateful two days in March. War has rocked the gallion of Duetaria, storms have swayed it from its Centrist course, but never have these politicians let their great region down.

Chancellor Mettenburg steps forward. He clears his throat in the crisp Summer twilight as cameras flicker to life. Mettenburg glances, oh so briefly, towards his colleagues in the gathering crowd. Dieter Hochkatzenburg is there; so too are Trauttmannsdorff and Sohm, Richtenburg and Prittwitz-Berchtold; standing tall are Amy Adams and Meg Ryan Duchess of Ditzyton; apprehensive yet eager are della Casa Volpe and Roatta of Romardia; Thurn and Quitzow of Darmsburg-Gotha; von Amsberg and Hofstadter-Reinhardt of Upper Morovia-Carinthia. Saubaudians and Ponte-Emilians are there too - envoys of Pope Lucius Innocent XXV and Princess Isabeau I, respectively.

"My Friends, my Duetarians, my Colleagues, my Guiding Lights," begins Mettenburg solemnly, yet grandiloquently, "this is our eulogy to Duetaria, our revenge for countless Greek Piratical assaults upon our liberties. The virtues, values and valedictory symbolisms that we hold sacrosanct shall ne'er perish in this land of Democracy and Learning. The Greek Pirates may say 'We shall smite you with our force!', and yet still shall we shout back 'Any man, or woman, that stands between you and the peace, and the prosperity, and the justice you need I shall strike down with a meataxe - somebody hand me a meataxe!' Hail Duetaria! Hail Democracy! Hail Peace! Hail Victory!"

Rampant cheering explodes across the square. More crowds, of Potato Farmers, of Karkelbanians, of Telegram Operators, of Catoagoans, throng into Dietrich Square. They lift Mettenburg up onto their shoulders, screaming for victory, cheering the watchwords of Duetaria.

"Hail Duetaria! Hail Democracy! Hail Peace! Hail Victory! Hail Duetaria!"


The Duetarian War Cry - Viva la Vida

"We must keep a sharp sense of propriety - and of good, haute cuisine, taste of course" - HRH King Henrico III of Luschia on the Graceo-Duetarian Hostilities, Saturday 26 July 2008

"A war made inevitable by us? No, no, the cause is far simpler - events, dear boy, events" - Charles von Mettenburg on the outbreak of the Graeco-Duetarian War, Tuesday 29 July 2008


"Patricians can remember" - Charles Wenzel von Mettenburg, Chancellor of Ravenburg-Morovia


"Each man a Prince" - Lamberto Raimondi Prasca, Prime Minister of Romardia


"On the Wings of Fate" - Dame Helena Bonham Carter (right), Lady President of the Chamber of Ministers and Head of Government, Luschia


"Serve only Duetaria" - Fritz von Eulenburg, Premier of Darmsburg-Gotha


"And there shall be fire" - Richard G Vogt, President of the Executive Council of Upper Morovia-Carinthia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcmeV83K02E&feature=related
Luschian Liberal Senator Richard P "Willie" Starke speechifying, 29 July 2008


"I stand here a man of the people" - Dieter Hochkatzenburg, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for Equalities, Ravenburg-Morovia


"Listen to me, you hicks" - Senator Starke in the Luschian Senate, Monday 28 July 2008

"That was when I ruled the world" - Clemens von Rechburg-Hofmarck, former Ravenburger-Morovian Chancellor, on the Lower Schlovowian War (16 - 18 March 2008)

"I could make campaign promises - if I wasn't too busy making arrangements to keep them" - Lamberto Raimondi Prasca, after re-election as Romardian premier on Sunday 27 July 2008