REVOLUTIONARY WARS AND FLAME WARS.

Mitch was amazed, the nice construct had shown him what once had been the BAUD spell, and it was beautiful, he didn’t need a small sacrifice or a specialised ritual dial, and even though magic had multiple frequencies, he didn’t even have to set his to mode M, it just worked.

“The days of using a mouse and dialling up are long since past”, Addy (it turns out that was her name, maybe he should remember that) explained.

Thus Mitch found themselves in an overwhelming mass of data, and some of it *gasps* was wrong, and some even dared to suggest HE was wrong. After a brief exploration, he was introduced to a group called “living history” it was full of people who had been around almost as long as he had, including one user called D-Rex-b-Grark, who seemed to act like even he was a youngling and did have some interesting theories, but for some reason, nobody argued with them, not even when they reverted to incomplete sentences and growls. Then the history lessons (catch up edition) began.

Turns out that only people at the top had been particularly perturbed by his undead status. The problem is when people in charge are wrong, it can be a little hard to convince them of it. (Nobody likes being wrong, and the power to yell treason corrupts absolutely, especially when you are already crooked enough to walk through a corkscrew backwards.) The words “unsanctioned missions” explained a lot, and getting both sides of a story? More useful than he’d thought.

After his disappearance, people had lodged their objections, often in the form of pikes, and several heads of state had reached a head LESS state. Then a full-blown revolution had hit, all that money he’d given to the orphanages? Turns out that when people who weren’t him tried to take it back, things had gotten messy, and when you truly have nothing left to lose, then making those who keep taking from you pay (in one way or another) is a foregone conclusion.

A young girl named Shiobaun Von Harmsworth (why did that name sound familiar to him?) had apparently gone on something of a rampage, and then when pressed shattered the control unit for the collars and bangles worn by the people the bosses called Lower serfs nationwide. The resulting spell feedback had nearly killed her, but she went from an orphan with no backing to the symbol of the resistance, and a full-on revolution began in Earnest, Earnest street, to be precise. when a guard decided a kid of the same name was a tad too mouthy for his tastes and tried to shoot him. (According to eyewitness reports, the bow he was using was wrapped around his head when he was eventually, after a bit of kicking, of course, was turned into the so-called “proper authorities” who, when asked for justice, acted rather... well ... improperly, culminating in a full-on civil war.

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Of course, from there, the war became decidedly uncivil. With a city hall in every major population centre becoming home to some rather creative new decorations, courtesy of some (more) corrupt officials. Then came the invention of the guillotine, and some guy called Ross Perry who decided that what the previous administration needed was complete removal. Then there was some talk of consanguinity, and he by all accounts got rather chop happy. Decided that the world needed copies of the previous administration and ended up getting the same treatment himself. Turns out if you point the finger long enough, it turns itself around and points back at you, and in all that poking, people start to notice similarities between you and the previous guy, then comes the word dictator, and a very speedy reenactment of the entire process you invented for the situation.

Then the Emperor had learned that if you stomp on the civilians long enough, they start kicking back, and there were a lot of them. Soon enough, he found himself joining old Ross on the platform.

Eventually, though, as often happened with revolutions though, in this case, the circle began anew, and as a revolutionary leader, Von Harmsworth was installed on the throne (a fate she often bemoaned,) but unlike the old boss, she at least had the decency to set up a feedback system in the form of a parliament to keep her in check.

Surprisingly enough, as a queen, she set up a nomination policy and elections. But kept being renominated, so the Von Harmsworth family kept the role, somewhat stripped of power compared to the previous system, partially because they were good at it and partially because nobody else wanted the job badly enough to put up with parliament or the noble houses.

Now the only question is how much had changed? If the undead were still treated as they were previously, then any other changes made little to no difference and looking far back, nothing much had changed. He and his kind would still be treated like they were disposable, so maybe his skeletal swarm would still be needed.

Somebody eventually forwarded him to some more current events, in fact VERY current, as in parliament were still whingeing and bickering about them (then again, that happened about changes older than the kingdom, too, so it wasn’t really saying a lot.) Then eventually to a key point in time, specifically Tuesday, and the automota liberation act, which declared automata and constructs regardless of form as free individuals within the realm. This apparently included those of a more necromantic persuasion. He had to be careful reading here, though, after a number of human wizards had tried to seize back the ethereal network, particular discussions had been booby-trapped with a minor flame cantrip, in a practice the automata called “flaming”, and this practice was happening both sides, leading to a very heated discussion.

At last, though, he had an image of the person who was responsible for the liberation act, and it was time to take a quick look.

“Well,” he muttered as he stared at the image of the girl he had imprisoned recently. “This is awkward.”