Professor Undilthorpe says, "Welcome, and thank you all for attending."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "For those who couldn't attend the previous lecture in this series, this is in fact part 2, but I've heard that a well transcribed copy of the first lecture is in circulation."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "While it's not necessary to have notes on the precise details of the first lecture, it will be helpful to at least understand the broad strokes of it, to put this one in its proper historical context."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "If any of you happen to be entirely uncertain of what this lecture series is about, it is meant to be a concise yet still thorough history of the organization we know today as the Estate Holders."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "The previous lecture covered the origin of the first Estate Holder Council, and how it came to be sanctioned by the governments of Zoluren and Therengia."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Now then, with that aside, the title of this lecture, for any who aren't aware already, is 'Early Expansion and Growing Pains.'"
Professor Undilthorpe says, "It will cover the time period spanning the years 121 A.V. and 350 A.V."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "So. Following the sanctioning of the Estate Holder Council by Prince Loraemor the First and Baron Falstad the Second in 112 A.V., it really wasn't long before the concept of such an organization began to spread within political circles."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Among the first to truly take up the cause, so to speak, of maintaining interprovincial peace, was the reknowned Lady Atladene Cherilosa, of Ilithi."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Lady Atladene was. Well, still is, I ought to say, no stranger to conflict, after all."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "She served alongside Nissa in the Resistance War, helping to overthrow Teiro, and later would remain a strong voice throughout the events that led to the overthrow of the Dragon Priest Empire in Ilithi under the leadership of Alec The Phoenix."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Even with so strong a voice in favor however, it was still a matter of decades before Alec could be convinced to permit the expansion of the Estate Holder Council's mission into southern Ilithi."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Omitting the political wrangling involved, it is worthy of note that unlike the conflicts and threat of greater internal strife that caused the monarchs of Zoluren and Therengia to recognize the Council in its original form, Ferdahl Alec was under no such similar compulsion."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Ultimately however, the wisdom and love of logic widely ascribed to the Elothean people won out, and Alec issued a proclamation of his support for the expansion of the Estate Holder Council's mission into Ilithi in 133 A.V."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "As the Elotheans have a somewhat different political structure than the other provinces, their approach to the Council was likewise somewhat different."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "With Elothean Houses being not a very direct analog to the nobility nor the Great Houses of Zoluren or Therengia, it introduced into the Council itself something of an egalitarian movement, that nobody had previously foreseen."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Also, as something of a side note, it was also by the graces of Lady Atladene that the Estate Holder Council itself would come upon its first independent landholding apart from those lands individually held by its members."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "This came with the agreement, in 153 A.V., between Lady Atladene and the Estate Holder Council, that the Council would take up ownership of the Lady's manor-turned-clinic, wherein she still resides and provides services for the benefit of Estate Holders in Shard, to this day."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Along with such changes came the notion that the Estate Holders, as an organization, ought to grow beyond the council itself, and into an organization all its own."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Chief among these ideas was the belief by many that the Council would only benefit by drawing closer in association with more prominent non-noble, non-land-holding members of society."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Trade being integral to maintaining any peace, it was strongly argued that merchants of note ought to be allowed a place among their number."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "It must be said that this concept met with considerable backlash on the part of many of the more prideful families among the Council at the time, and for many a year any effort to expand membership beyond the nobility and landed gentry, particularly within Zoluren and Therengia, was soundly defeated."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "As with any sensible notion however, over time support did build up within the community of Council Members."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "This ultimately led to the formation of the organization as we know it, for the most part, today, by way of the introduction of the concept of Estate Holder Associates."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Estate Holder Associates are those persons drawn from, generally speaking, the more reknowned populace of merchants and particularly those members of the provincially sanctioned guilds, who stand out and find themselves invited to associate themselves with the Estate Holder Council and its cause."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "It's become by far the largest arm of the Estate Holder organization in modern times, particularly with the reformation of the Council into a much smaller body than it had originally been."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Where once every member family had its own representation on the Council, it was ultimately decided that instead, each of those families, or in the case of southern Ilithi, the totality of the Elothean Houses, should have a single representative on the Council, answerable to its constituents."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "That aside, for those not familiar with the system, and even for those who are, much of the time, it can seem a rather fickle thing, being an Estate Holder Associate."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Because there is no requirement of noble blood, membership is entirely at the will, and some would say at the whim, of the noble families making up the Estate Holders proper."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "This is why, for instance, it isn't entirely uncommon for a seemingly insignificant street urchin to find themselves patronized into Estate Holder Associate status."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "Nor is it uncommon for an Estate Holder Associate to find their status revoked seemingly at random one day, only to have themselves reinstated just days or weeks later."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "I'm being formal here, so far, in continuing to refer to Estate Holder Associates as such however, as over the last couple hundred years it's simply become common place to refer to us all as simply, 'Estate Holders,' no matter our relations or backgrounds. Another of those little egalitarian touches, I suppose you might say."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "But I'm in danger of rambling more than I ought to at this point, and that effectively brings us close to the modern era in Estate Holder history."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "My next and last lecture in this series will involve itself with the modern expansion of the Estate Holders into Qi'Reshalia and Forfedhdar, and will touch upon the rather unique politics involved in the organization's involvement in those provinces."
Professor Undilthorpe says, "It will be titled 'Later Expansion and the Modern Day.'"
Professor Undilthorpe says, "And once again, thank you for attending. I hope to see some of you again if possible, at that final lecture."
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