Joseph von Heyst

Joseph von Heyst is the first and current spokesman of the Rutanian Supremacist League. He formerly served as president of Rutania for two terms. He did not involve himself in party politics while in office and was held the more dearly for that.

Childhood
Jospeh von Heyst was born in the prosperous city of Klausenburg on the 15th of August 3073 the first of eighteen children. He displayed immense literary facility as a boy and in this he was encouraged by his father, Samuel von Heyst, owner of the Heyst Publishing House. During this period, young Joseph also showed an inveterate propensity for offensiveness and manipulation. His parents never sent him to school, but hired him a tutor some education being necessary for the operation of the family business. At the age of thirteen he was apprenticed to one of the printers at his father's company and developed a liking for productive tasks that do not require much physical exertion. He took up carpentering as a hobby and built furniture and repaired minor construction damages around the neighbourhood. He also built dollhouses for his younger sisters, an avocation which they recollect with no little fondness. He also began writing minor articles for the local newpapers—these he wrote under various pseudonyms. Later on his rise to eminence his opponents made an occupation of hunting down these adolescent diatribes and exposing them to the public. The extent of the damage yielded by this campaign is yet unknown, but it is purported to be great and factored largely in his losing the presidency.

Intellectual Development
By the time he was seventeen the family business was the largest publishing house in Klausenburg and the neighbouring reigions. His family became very wealthy as a result and was able to afford sending him to the Alderberg University in the Holy Luthori Empire to study business. He recorded the many idiosycrasies of the Luthori—its history, politics, learning and culture—during his stay. He compiled these essays into a single volume and published them under the Heyst Publishing House. The book sold well locally giving him a satisfactory independent income the proceeds of which he invested in fledgeling Rutanian companies he deemed worthy. He returned to Klausenburg during the holidays and summer vacations and attended to the family business as it became increasingly apparent that he was to become a partner. The larger part of his summers, however, were spent travelling throughout Terra. He visited countries he thought worthy of emulation and study, countries like Hulstria, Zardugal, Solentia and Al'Badara. He was often accompanied in these expeditions by his uncle, Henry Vogler, who introduced him to many influential personages—statesmen, nobles, writers, businessmen and the like—and cultivated his interest in philosophy, especially of the social and political kind. The literary inclined Heyst could not help recording his experiences during these trips and he soon filled up enough notebooks to comprise several volumes of books; some of them were published and gave him more income to finance his wanderlust. Sometimes his wanderlust extended only locally, and he roamed round Rutania. His uncle never accompanied him in these parochial excursions save for when he visited the nation's capital, Heyst. Here he was introduced to politican Reginald Blackburn to whom he took an immediate liking and who took to liking him in return. Blackburn fascinated the young Heyst, and he extended his visit to last two more weeks before returning for study in Luthori. The two are to maintain a lifelong friendship.

Political Development
The vigorous Rex Blackburn, as he was known to those with whom he was intimate, made Heyst the recipient of his magniloquent outbursts, expecially after a parliamentary session when he was at his most ebullient and wrathful. The older man also invited the younger to exclusive political circles (one of which was to later culminate in the Rutanian Supremacy Club) much to the youth's amazement. Heyst was introduced to, and embraced, social darwinism, and took to pamphleteering on the subject; though, he probably did this only to please his mentor. Heyst then became one of the foremost promoters of eugenics and joined the Rutanian Eugenics Society—at the insistence of Mr Blackburn. His quick adoption of the young, politically-minded cosmopolitan's role ended, however, with the death of his father when he was compelled to return to Klausenburg and mind the family business. He was only twenty-three years old.

Joseph von Heyst ran the business tolerably well—in fact, a bit better than his father had owing to his youth and ability—although he was immensely bored with it and did not even hesitate from saying so. Being the impulsive, capable youth that he is, he started a local chapter of the Rutanian Eugenics Society and became heavily involved in local politics. He ran for mayor of Klauseburg several times under the banner of the Rutanian Supremacist League, but always lost to a candidate from the Highazhell Party. It is a popular joke that it was during this time that he began to show his predilection for losing. It was also during this period that he began to publish large numbers of political tracts which were to shove him to the national spotlight.