People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road

lilac

Nearly three centuries after the Ankh-Morpork Civil War, the city groaned under the latest in a succession of cruel and unusual Patricians. (Well, grumbled mostly, with some whining.) Following Nersch the Lunatic, Frenzied Earl Hargarth, Deranged Lord Harmoni and Laughing Lord Scapula, Homicidal Lord Winder threatened to outdo the lot in madness and mayhem. It was often said that the office drove the incumbents insane, although for some it was only a putt. As the rising death toll and incompetent leadership began to threaten the city's prosperity some citizens considered a political change broader than the usual quick assassination followed by the election of a new madman. After the execution of Lorenzo the Kind, the city voted against democracy; they didn't want to be ruled by idiots like their neighbors. Now, however, something had to be done to stop the downward spiral. In the alleys of the Shades and the salons of the Isle of Gods, even outside the city plots formed, found others and grew. At street level, a group including the fiery Communard rabble-rouser Reg Shoe and some more pragmatic Seamstresses planned insurrection. Among the Great Families and VIPs from as far as Genua, some political powers decided to support them, to an extent - as demonstrated by the involvement of Lady Roberta Meserole. The Assassins' Guild was also involved.

Popular dissatisfaction and bureaucratic over-reaction came to a head on the night of May 24, 1957 UC(1) as barricades surrounded the rebels' territory and most of the means of support for the rest of the city: docks, warehouses and food terminals. The Glorious People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road was proclaimed! After some haggling over the motto, especially. Truth, Justice, and Freedom were generally agreed, but Free Love was flatly opposed by Rosie Palm's Seamstresses. Time-travelling Sam Vimes, in the corporeal guise of Sergeant-at-Arms John Keel, hoped for a hard-boiled egg, since he might actually get that. Eventually, the highest ideals of the Republic were "Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably-Priced Love and a Hard-Boiled Egg!"

The same night, Lord Winder was scared to death by young assassin Havelock Vetinari. The Guilds quickly installed Lord Snapcase as Patrician. Snapcase, unfortunately, didn't feel comfortable with the revolutionary spirit that remained (or that he feared might remain) and decided to destroy the "Revolutionary Army". His forces, led by the wily criminal Carcer, cut down Keel's little group of Watchmen and revolutionaries before Vimes caught Carcer and dragged him back to the future. Snapcase also demanded files be created on "up and coming young men in the Guild of Assassins" which, reading between the lines, would have meant the young Vetinari would have had to lie very low or leave town for a year or two. Would this have been a good time for Vetinari to embark on the leisurely coming-of-age Grand Sneer, customary to young men of his social class?

The Glorious Revolution's Glorious Republic lasted only a few hours, and there would be years of oppression yet under Snapcase, but it pointed to the rise of the first capable, visionary leader in generations, Lord Havelock Vetinari. Each May 25th, Vetinari joins a group of survivors, wearing the sprig of lilac that the revolutionaries once wore as insignia, to remember the fallen heroes of the Republic: John Keel, Dai Dickins, Ned Coates, Billy Wiglet, Horace Nancyball, Cecil Clapman, and Reg Shoe. (Reg, as a Zombie, is there as both mourner and deceased.)

(1) The date 1957 is conjectural. It seems to fit the most data, but is contradicted elsewhere.