Jahn Martin-Dau

Steim of the Stadconvente Jahn Martin-Dau

Among the most influential of the Hurrite leadership, Martin-Dau was a contemporary of Joren van Raaf and came to call the Council of Trelis which proclaimed the Bauern Republik. The Republik is a free peasant's republic and coalition of the cities of Heskia and Grezland. Martin-Dau was the first speaker of the convention and organized the defense of the nation but was ousted from power and executed by Hengst Piare-Kuleth.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Martin-Dau was noted for his breathing problems, largely attributed to inflamation of the lungs that he may have been born with.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Jahn Martin-Dau was the son family of merchants and judges in the city of Talpenval in northern Heskia. Martin-Dau himself was self-described as a sickly and soft boy with a strong affection toward his mother Siena. As a child, Martin-Dau was a very well-educated and attentive learner, something fostered by his mother. In letters to his brother Marc, Martin-Dau described her as "a thrifty and tight-pursed woman, yet for every coin remaining hers, she poured out for her children and never herself." As Martin-Dau's family was well off, he received a very good education but was noted for his defiant and bold behavior. One such story was of Jahn defending his friend Henkin Kutz from being struck by a rod. Martin-Dau defended his friend and spoke out against the act of corporeal punishment and for this, he was beaten instead of Kutz. Martin-Dau's speech allegedly made the head of his school ban the practice. Martin-Dau began practicing law at the age of twenty-four and became quickly known for his great oratory and persuasive skills, winning him many cases and making his name more widely known. In 651, when Martin-Dau was thirty-four years old, he met and befriended Emiel van Eijk, a fellow lawyer who introduced him to his sister Thea. Three years after meeting Thea van Eijk, she and Martin-Dau were wed just as the Hurrite Council of Stol was convening. All his life, Martin-Dau had been a staunch Ecclesialist, but after some time, he came to the side of the Hurrites and became an orator in Talpenval advocating the Hurrite message of removing clerical influence from government. For this, Martin-Dau was imprisoned inside the Hetgut prison for speaking against the Ecclesia. Martin-Dau however, was freed on the fifteenth of Marce when the Hetgut was stormed by Hurrite forces loyal to Katrien van Evre. Now freed, Martin-Dau was quickly put in control of many of the printing publications run by the Hurrites and became an indispensable advocate of the Hurrite cause as Minister of Information. He sponsored literacy campaigns in the major cities and countryside of Heskia and advocated strongly for the peasantry's inclusion in the Hurrite mission. Martin-Dau's belief in the role of the peasantry in the cause emboldened his supporters but also made many fearful of the future of the cause if the peasantry were allowed too much freedom within it. Among Martin-Dau's most ardent supporters was the popular Joren van Raaf, who benefited greatly from Martin-Dau's peasantry advocation as his armies swelled greatly from the publication of Martin-Dau's works. It is likely that without Martin-Dau's publications, the Hurrite cause would have remained a largely religious struggle and not taken on the revolutionary aspect is now associated with.
While Hurrite armies campaigned in the east and west, Martin-Dau remained in Heskia rallying support for the cause, though his advocates slightly stained his reputation during a pogrom of Ecclesial clerics in Reuzhevel and Tirpan in the summer of 659. The Night of the Bonfires was an event where fanatical Hurrites took to the streets, rounded up Ecclesial clerics, robbed them of their possessions, especially their priestly garments, and stacked them in the streets before setting them alight. Some cases during the night had clerics themselves being thrown into the bonfires, something that appalled Martin-Dau and fueled the fires of resistance to the Hurrite's enemies. However, by the end of the year, the Bonfires were largely ignored as Joren van Raaf won stunning victories in the east against the Menschan king Reiner Hohengoff. van Raaf's victories were highly praised by Martin-Dau and he instructed his publication to write appraisals of van Raaf as Martin-Dau made many speeches in public praising van Raaf and his noble eastern campaigns. When Roel de Hartin and his followers defected, Martin-Dau set about declaiming the traitors and led many public demonstrations in Heskia where effigies of de Hartin were burned in the street with the word Verrandur or traitor, written above them. The Verrandur demonstrations were a turning point for Martin-Dau, his popularity, which was sunk during the Night of the Bonfires, was now soaring high. However, with the death of Joren van Raaf in 670, and the Peace of 671 proclaimed, many assumed the Hurrite cause had won a permanent victory. Yet with religious violence occurring between Ecclesial and Hurrite supporters in cities across the continent, Martin-Dau remained steadfast in his belief that the conflict was not yet over. Martin-Dau spoke at the public funeral of van Raaf, his panegyric speech was among the most resounding speeches of his life and is seen as the catalyst for the resurgence of the Hurrite revolutionary cause. However, the cause did in fact diminish for a time as many assumed the Hurrites would reintegrate into ecclesial society due to the peace of 671 granting them religious freedom in Menscha and Jurane.
It was during this lull, between 671 and 680, that Martin-Dau wrote his most famous works, namely Revolutie en realisatie or Revolution and Realization, which was a short body of work hastily written that expanded on Martin-Dau's views on the natural progression of societies. Martin-Dau spoke of the stagnation of society on the continent, and how the repression of aristocracies and the upper classes stagnated cultural, social, and personal growth. Martin-Dau compared the people as they were, to domesticated animals, penned in and abused by their overlords but through will, numbers, and courage, could break free of their pens and shackles and rise up to destroy the organizations and powers that oppressed them. Revolution and Realization popularized an expression Martin-Dau called thought death, that being that a society becoming so downtrodden, so oppressed and so thoroughly submissive, that the thought of rebellion betrayed the self, as the self was deemed a part of the whole of society. Martin-Dau claimed that the oppression and power of the powerful had become so all-encompassing that the mere thought of revolt and revolution had become a crime in and of itself. Revolution and Realization, and works similar to it, came to be widely popular in Heskia and nearby Grezland where new thoughts of abolishing serfdom and the expansion of liberty and freedom now reignited the dormant Hurrite cause. In 685, Martin-Dau, with the backing of popular Hurrite leaders called for a meeting in the Heskian city of Trelis. The Council of Trelis was backed by the major Heskian and Grezlander cities and established the First Convention of the Cities or Stadconvente. Martin-Dau was made the convention's first speaker and he presided over the 400-person council. But the Convention's meeting was seen by Menschan nobility as an extreme danger to them and soon, the Graf Gebdhar von Leberecht led an Ecclesial force west in an effort to disband the Convention and end the resurgent Hurrites. As Speaker, Martin-Dau organized available forces and raised a Hurrite army that he placed command of in the hands of August van Kuzenval, a veteran of the eastern Menschan campaigns of van Raaf. van Kuzenval's stunning victory at Hemmingsdijk was a turning point in the now-burning revolution. The entirety of the Menschan nobility was either killed, driven off, or captured as Kuzenval himself died in the fighting leading a glorious charge. For his victory, the body of August van Kuzenval was entombed in the city of Vjerigron in a square that was renamed in his honor. Despite his popularity, Martin-Dau was becoming increasingly seen as a vanguard of the old Hurrite cause, something that was being seen as less and less in line with the revolutionary movement best exemplified by Hengst Piare-Kuleth. With a motion of no confidence, Piare-Kuleth replaced Martin-Dau as speaker of the convention and motioned to have the convention suspended, with a proposed People's council or Bauernraad, to replace it.
Hengst Piare-Kuleth was a ferocious revolutionary and a fiery orator who swayed the masses to increase the intensity of the revolution. He also stoked paranoia, as he claimed the convention had been secretly infiltrated by Menschan and Tiranese spies and agents. He packed the Bauernraad with his faction's loyalists and sponsored raids and pogroms on many suspected of being agents of the Menschan crown. Due to Piare-Kuleth usurping power from him, Martin-Dau was naturally antagonistic to the increasingly reactionary nature of the Bauernraad and spoke out firmly against many of the policies of his successor. Due to this and an alleged coup being plotted by Martin-Dau and his supporters, Piare-Kuleth ordered Martin-Dau to be seized and imprisoned. Jahn Martin-Dau was residing on his family estate, allegedly sitting alone in thought under a dead tree when he was seized by Heteng factional guards. He was brought to the forum in Vjerigron where his alleged crimes were read out before him and the people. Upon hearing the crimes he was being charged with, Martin-Dau become solemn and quiet, speaking in a disgruntled and irritated tone to his judges. When the court ruled that Martin-Dau had betrayed the Republic and was sentenced to beheading, the former Speaker rose and simply said "This court would drown reason in an ocean of blood so I say give me death for the path forward will bring naught but misery!" Jahn Martin-Dau was beheaded soon after, never uttering another word to his executioners nor giving them the satisfaction of seeing him beg for his life.
The cause of Jahn Martin-Dau was taken up, allegedly, by many who came to see him as a revolutionary martyr. His death was the most famous of Piare-Kuleth's Red Year, where many suspected counter-revolutionaries were proscribed, having their property confiscated by the Bauernraad and the victim declared an outlaw. In the aftermath of Martin-Dau's execution, Piare-Kuleth issued proscription orders on Carel Dantun Girond, the current commander of the Army of the East who it was claimed had conspired with Martin-Dau to overthrow the Bauernraad. Girond maintained the loyalty of his army and marched back west to Vjerigron, intending to do exactly what he was charged with conspiring to do. Panic soon overtook the fear of the populace but Piare-Kuleth refused to revoke the order. Only with the march on the Forum by a mob led by a cobbler named Karla Dumoiuz, did the Red Year end and Piare-Kuleth was finally ousted from power. When Girond arrived at Vjerigron, he was welcomed into the city and the members of the Bauernraad were publicly executed, with Piare-Kuleth being beheaded last. Girond however, was undermined by his political opponents, and amidst fears, he would install himself as a monarch or reinstitute the proscriptions, his friend Hendrik Splent murdered him in his home.

Employment

Heskian lawyer and orator in Talpenval
Hurrite minister of information
Speaker of the Stadcovente

Accomplishments & Achievements

Very successful law career
Major advocate for the peasantry
Sponsored literacy campaigns
Led the denunciation of Roel de Hartin
Author of Revolution and Realization
Organized the Council of Trelis

Failures & Embarrassments

The Night of Bonfires

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Protect and safeguard the revolution and the Hurrite cause

Virtues & Personality perks

Honorable
Diligent
Tolerant
Just
Temperate

Vices & Personality flaws

Cautious
Forgiving
Short Sighted

Social

Religious Views

Martin-Dau's religiosity has grown more complicated in the years since his passing. While not a secularist, he did often advocate a more radical Hurrite vision of completing the separation of the Ecclesia from political and social affairs. He was personally religious and occasionally referenced religious texts in both his publications during his time as Minister of Information and also in his work Reolvution and Realization where he made claims of freedom and equity being divinely ordained.

Social Aptitude

Jahn Martin-Dau was a gifted linguist and orator, capable of making his words persuasive and both well-versed and passionate. His career as a lawyer made him astute at legality and circumstance allowed for his talents to transfer to his revolutionary work. He was also an effective organizer who fueled the passion of the Bauern Revolt due to his effective and organized leadership on the homefront. While the Hurrite and Bauern armies ravaged their neighbors, Martin-Dau did similar damage to their enemies through his written word and his organizational skills.

Ethnicity

Heskian

Life

617 A.E 689 A.E 72 years old

Circumstances of Birth

Son of a mercantile family in Heskia

Circumstances of Death

Executed on the order of Hengst Piare-Kuleth

Birthplace

Talpenval, Heskia

Place of Death

Vjerigron, Heskia

Quotes & Catchphrases

"To be victorious is to be insolent, to be rational is to challenge, and to be remembered is to be immortal."

Aligned Organization

The Bauern Republik of Vjerigron

Other Affiliations

• The Hurrites

Character Prototype

Revolutionary Cicero

(Katrien van Evre, prominent Hurrite and leader of the forces that stormed the Hetgut prison and freed Martin-Dau)

(Roel de Hartin, the Verrandur and the subject of Martin-Dau's Anklagen speeches)

(Joren van Raaf, victorious and unbeaten commander during the Hurrite Wars)

(Hengst Piare-Kuleth, the leader of the Bauernraad and executioner of Martin-Dau)

(Girondists, led by Jerome Hoenderman, led a purge in the aftermath of Girond's assassination)