Wednesday March 4, 1908

My television almost overboiled at the news; King Anthony has gone missing! He apparently never returned from his airship trip to the New World. There's no sign of what happened to the ship as yet, but I fear that it may have been captured by pirates. Or maybe the King himself was assassinated by ninjas (who else could get past his bodyguards)? Nobody really knows; I hope he's found safe and well soon.

Saturday March 7, 1908

Still no sign of the King as yet. Prince Ais523 has been appointed as the regent, to look after the kingdom in the King's absence. I hear he has plans to improve our industrial might; life is good at the moment, but a bit boring; today was yet another case of sorting through quota forms, working out how Lord Cartlesham should best allocate the coal and food. Nothing ever seemed to change under his rule! Not that anything really needed changing. Still, even though I'd rather be doing something else, this is what I was told to do and I have to do it; and my weekly coal ration was distributed today, at least, so I can go buy some more gadgets, and keep Fluffy my steam-powered cat running; she's so cute and fun to play with, and if she gets annoying I can just turn her off! Bit expensive on the coal, though.

Monday March 23, 1908

Apparently, one of the Prince's projects is starting today! I hear he's planning to start drilling in Northumberland; of course, it's likely he's just looking for more coal, but I wonder if he has something more interesting in mind? It would be nice if some actual innovation went on nowadays. I've been experimenting myself along those lines, actually; I'm wondering if it might be possible to use lightning for something, rather than steam? I'll have to find someone who knows about magic to ask.

Thursday April 2, 1908

I visited my brother, who lives up in Morpeth, yesterday; it was a long train journey, but worth it, just to catch up on the news. I saw the drill for myself; it isn't an ordinary drill, it must be at least a mile high, and they're still building it! It's dominating the sky for miles around, swirling with iron and wood and glowing with magic and spurting steam. My brother said that Prince Ais523 is planning to dig all the way through the Earth! I think he was joking, though.

Also shocking is the conditions he has to work under. Clearly, corners are being cut by the local Lord; the train actually derailed near the end of the journey (luckily, nobody was seriously hurt), but I don't expect that sort of disregard for the health of his workers. The state of the coal ration here is in tatters, too; sometimes people are only getting three or four lumps to last a whole week. I'm glad our Lord Cartlesham isn't like that; I'm worried that the new regent isn't able to keep control of greedy Lords.

Monday November 30, 1908

Things are getting worse. Lord Cartlesham is still managing to give us our regular coal rations, but I hear it's a real strain on his resources; relations between the various Lords have deteriorated badly, and nobody can make them work together, each of them carving out their own despotic reign. Prince Ais523 is doing nothing about it, but continuing to work on absurd projects of his own; I've heard that he bought an island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, and is building a tower high enough to reach the moon! I can't quite belive it myself, but it's apparently true; one of my friends can see the building sight from his farscrying glass, and that's never failed before. Apparently in a few weeks it might even be high enough for me to see it too.

Sunday November 21, 1909

I fear that this country is collapsing. Trade between this fief and the adjacent ones have all but stopped; and Lord Cartlesham has set nearly everyone working on the coal mines, in order to keep our coal rations at the same level. So now, we still have what scant coal we had before, but there's nothing to buy with it. Science is slipping out of our grasp, and the world is going back in time; while we can still power what devices we have left easily enough, there is nobody to hire to repair them. Fluffy sprang a leak; I miss her :(. It's worse knowing she could easily be playing with me once more, if only there was a skilled inventor around. It's motivated me to continue my work to learn science myself. If only I could get those lightning stones working!

I hear fearful tales from the surrounding land, though. A new sort of mechanized automaton is walking around, collecting taxes, killing anyone who disagrees with them, and conscripting people to work on yet another of Prince Ais523's insane projects. They listen to no reason, but merely carry out the word of his orders. What madness can have lead to this?

Thursday January 13, 1910

I today awoke to a horrible shock: it seems Lord Cartlesham failed to wake this morning. The police arrived, and they concluded that the old man had died in his sleep, but after talking to some of his servants, it seems they suspected something more sinister.

The executor of the will is due to arrive shortly, and he will arrange for oversight of the manor. I have made great progress with my lightning stones; I hope that this does not interrupt my coal ration. It was due today, but hasn't arrived yet.

Friday February 25, 1910

There was police activity at Cartlesham Manor today. It seems that what we had long suspected, that the death of Lord Cartlesham was no accident, was confirmed; and it turned out to all be the fault of his younger son, Anonyman! Apparently, we work under Sir Flurie now. I wonder if he will be a light in the darkness, as Lord Cartlesham was?

Still no coal ration today. My stores are running low, and I've had to resort to copying my diary on to paper the old-fashioned way to not lose a record. I doubt I'll ever again have steam to power my notepad; in fact, I fear that even heating through the cold winter months may soon be a problem.

Saturday February 26, 1910

I did not get long to see the aftermath of the promotion of Sir Flurie to a Lord. Just one day after he inherited Lord Cartlesham's estate, a team of machines, spouting steam as they walked, broke down the door of Cartlesham Manor and threw Lord Flurie out. I found him unconcious, stripped of his title, lying at the side of the road; it seems that the fief has been taken over by Mad Prince Ais523 himself, and Lord Flurie has been stripped of his title.

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Repeal all dynastic rules. (I rather wanted to keep the G-man rule, but instead it probably just needs reproposing; keeping it in its current form would mean that I could be contacted via Kevan's email address.)
Change “Guest” to “Commoner” and “Executor” to “Mad Prince”.