Gornwing Sworstem

Gornwing Sworstem:

Narn of Bleingro.

(Using Bleinish naming conventions, it would be Sworstem Gornwing Sampi.)

He was born in 1905, in the Eastern wing of the country, in a small highland village two hours away from the nearest city. His father was the local Greng. His mother, who had extensive training in music, died when he was only 5, so he was mostly raised by his aunt. When he was 12, he entered training to become a Sams for his local religious order, embarking on his Tamar (experiential journey) in what was, to the outside world, 1921. In 1926 he completed his training and entered a Samsorn, where he specialized in calligraphy and srcipturing. He excelled at this, becoming a senior scripturer to the Narn in 1938.

On October 12, 1940, the island was first discovered by the outside world-by the Japanese, to be specific, who wished to keep their discovery secret. At first, they talked to the council of SwarGrengs, who they took to be the leader. Two weeks and three days later, the Americans found it and it was no longer secret. Then, in July 1941, the Narn died. Sworstem was the Narn-in-waiting by the written wishes of the previous Narn, so then he became the Narn. He persuaded a majority of the SwarGrengs to led them lead him, setting out a consitute about what powers he would have. So, when the Japanese invaded in early 1942, he held a position equivalent to un-majority-elected, slightly autocratic president of the country. He brilliantly manoeuvred the country through the war, until with the help of the Americans the Japanese backed away in mid 1944. But then, it became a colony of the US. He wasn't very happy about this, and led a series of mass protests (including hunger strikes) against it, which most of the country participated in. The turning point came when the UN was established. He took the matter to the international court and argued that the US should not have annexed the island. They agreed, so he then (in 1948) became the leader of an independent nation, leading according to a (slightly modified) version of the constitution that had been created eariler. He also appointed a new Narn (a FarsNarn), different to himself, to be the spiritual advisor of the country.

At first, his main focus was on industrializing the country and transitioning it to capitalism, with the help of the aid money the US had given the nation (there was a lot of it.) He passed many economic reforms to this effect. The transition all in all took 21 years, but by 1969, the country was fully capitalist. Additionally, early on (in 1949) he was accused of being racist. This was because, in the wartime, many Americans had settled in the country. However, he sent home certain ones, and not others. He also created many national parks and libraries for the good of society, throughout his reign. The largest of these was the flagship Bleingro National Library, in the capital city. It hosted over 12 million texts, a mix of Bleinish-written books and manuscripts, translated foreign texts, and untranslated foreign texts when it was first opened in 1962.

Socially (and, to a lesser extent, culturally), he was fairly conservative, believing that the philosophy of the RS and other, smaller traditional Bleinish schools of though should consider being the guiding philosophies for the Bleinish, even in modernity. However, he was not opposed to some socially progressive moves within the bounds of that. He reformed the education system completely, in 1958 instituting compulsory formal education for all boys and girls from the ages of 6-15, with an additional, optional three years of free, non-higher education after that. In this education, students would learn Bleinish, maths, science, history, sports, philosophy, literature and English, French or German. It was supposed to be rigorous and high-quality. He also instituted a number of reforms to guard against corruption "Now, Then and Into the Future".

He retired from his position in 1975, due to old age, intending to act as the Narn instead, abolishing the position of FarsNarn. At first, he intended for his country to be a democracy, but, a month later, he gave an impressioned speech convincing the people to let his son be the semi-dictator of the countrt, which he did. He died four years later, in 1979 at the age of 74.

He never married, although he had one illegitimate child when he was twenty (something which was socially acceptable at the time) who was raised by the mother and her husband. He was known for his love of science fiction novels in his free time. He did not like being photographed; as such, only about three photographs of him survive. He published a widely lauded autobiography in 1976.