Cirran I of Lacre
| Cirran I Ⰰ ⰃⰫⰓⰡⰐⰠ 1 Gurāṇ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cirran Miranzion as Dictator, 1959. | |||||
| Lacrean Emperor | |||||
| Reign | 1960–1977 | ||||
| Election | 1960 | ||||
| Predecessor | Zamor (as Chotarian Emperor) | ||||
| Successor | Supreme Council of the Regency Cirran II (as Emperor) | ||||
| Lacrean Dictator | |||||
| Office | 16 Nollonger 1958 – 1960 | ||||
| Coup | 16 Nollonger 1958 | ||||
| |||||
| Dynasty | Mirantsevid | ||||
| Religion | Vesnite | ||||
Bīrō Mīrānci Gurāṇ (1914–1977; Vaestic years 2:141–206), more generally known in Messenian studies as Cirran Miranzion or Cirran Mirantsevid, was a Lacrean army officer and the leader of a group of such who took control of the crumbling Lacrean state in the autumn of 1958, after the death of the renegade Emperor Zamor. Initially declaring himself merely “emergency ruler” or Kēṇūr, a title typically translated as “dictator”, he assumed the title of emperor in 1960, under the style of Cirran (I) (Lacrean 1 Gurāṇ, Lekēr valadār), as he steered the war-ravaged country back to a tenuous acceptance among its peers in Outer Joriscia before he was murdered in 1977.
The last days: Lacre falls
Confused and often contradictory reports surrounding the disappearance and likely fate of Zamor began to circulate in Lacre by the first day of Nollonger. The emperor’s apparent death tore apart most of the few remaining struts which were holding Lacre together. Sizeable parts of its military ceased to function, with many on the front lines – already sorely depleted by Zamor’s misjudgements – refusing to obey orders from Kozrat or simply abandoning their posts and deserting. Attacks from Agamar, Terophan and Zemay met little counteraction worthy of the name; one Agamari commander described attempted Lacrean resistance in Ephgil as “having all the strength of toilet paper; and we did to them as one does with such”.
It is perhaps an irony that Miranzion – who had been diverted into second-order commands because of his unwillingness to swallow the neo-Chotarian line wholeheartedly – became, by sheer persistence and visibility, the leading figure in an increasingly scratch-built Lacrean high command. Aims of saving the country very rapidly gave way to simply preserving it in an at least reasonably viable condition. Miranzion was probably the first to acknowledge that it was now pointless to waste more lives by fighting, and communicated his willingness to surrender on 13 Nollonger, requesting a cease-fire to cover the whole of the following day. Officials in Terophan agreed almost immediately, with the others coming around within a few hours.
Representatives of the three attacking states convened late in the morning of the 16th in the small town of Kolafalva, some fifty kilometres (32 miles) east of Kozrat along the main eastbound railway line. The chagrined Miranzion – elevated by acclamation to a general’s rank for purposes of parity – met these delegations in the home of the town’s railway stationmaster, commandeered for the purpose; here he signed the documents of surrender. The Terophatic general Ede Chengery accepted it on behalf of the allies. In this process Miranzion became the new Lacrean head of state. He stressed his intent to rule only while the state of emergency lasted – making an analogy to the role of the Interrex’s status against the vacant office of Universal Prophet – but he still received much hate across the country as a tool being wielded by Vsevolod, the Emperor of Terophan.
Pick up the pieces: the Miranzion junta
In the eyes of much of contemporary Vaestdom, the events of the Thrall (as Zamor’s outrages in the Prysostea became known) were the largest manifestation of a deep-rooted sickness within the Lacrean state apparatus – a continuing theme over the next two years which would effectively culminate in an unprecedented character tribunal over the Sixth Chotarian Empire during the Congress of Kethpor in 1959. Certainly, Vsevolod agreed with that stance – and, to a large extent, prosecuted it as part of the emerging post-war Pax Terophatica. As part of this process, one may claim that Vsevolod co-opted Miranzion as a somewhat unwilling ally, beginning with a drastic shake-out of the remaining functional parts of Lacre’s military. The hard core of neo-Chotarianists were forced out, and in many cases received long prison sentences, but a good number of lower-level officers who were prepared to make statements of recantation – and who, in fairness, would have to form most of the officer corps of a new Lacrean army – remained in the ranks (even promoted in a good few cases) of a new Army for the Stabilisation of Lacre.
The purging fit well enough with the thoughts of Miranzion, who acknowledged the extent to which neo-Chotarianism had poisoned the country. That said, the anti-Chotarian drive was viciously handled, with a hastily-assembled army investigation department – put in place as opposed to the dissolved Bureau of Censuses and Records, which had been very much a neo-Chotarian hotbed – using the assignment as broad licence for more wide-ranging repressions. The Kēṇūr may have been seeing progress at home; but, functionally summoned to Kethpor for the Congress – there was very little pretence that Vsevolod was “inviting” the Lacrean delegation – Miranzion had to let himself be the lightning rod for all the opprobrium being rained down on Zamor’s Lacre, and had to accept the crippling punishment meted out, including the seizure of the country’s Seranian lands, and the severing of large parts of Lacre proper.
To a degree, the punishment handed out at Kethpor was enough of a catharsis that Lacrean society could start to mentally regroup and move on. The direct Terophatic involvement in the country was steadily dialed back during 1959 and 1960 as Miranzion’s administration worked out accommodations with Axopol; it helped here that he was pushing forward – and, where needed, cracking down hard – in a manner which Terophan found acceptable. Vsevolod remarked on one occasion that “Miranzion is not the obedient dog whom we wanted, but he can at least intimidate as we want”; and the “dog” was thrown some appropriately tasty bones. Lacre was granted some preferential access to lines of credit from the Consortium of Measures, and trading links with the former Lacrean Serania – now in Terophatic hands – were slowly re-established.
This reconstruction, however, did not extend wholly to Lacre’s formal relationship with the Prysostaic Council. The traditional functioning of the Banner-State relationship remained very largely in suspense, even though Miranzion was persuaded to accept an imperial title – pointedly “Lacrean” rather than “Chotarian” – which he took up late after somewhat perfunctory Debates in 1960. In questions of faith and doctrine, the new Emperor Cirran had to yield to the supervision of a Council-appointed heresiologist – the Captain of Lacre, as he waa styled.
Following the death of Vsevolod and the recession of the Ascendancy, Cirran stayed within the Terophatic camp despite overtures from Agamar and Azophin, preferring the known sponsor to the unknown, and even as the Constellation Crisis developed over the course of the 1970s he stayed firm in this conviction. On 12 Estion 1977, however, Cirran was attacked and killed by a Recalcitrant terrorist during a visit to the western provinces. In the absence of a clear successor, his death created a struggle for power that spiraled into the Lacrean emergency.