The Matriarchy of Charlae acted as a model of inspiration for many the women's freedom campaigners of the 1200's. Little was known about it at first save for the fact that women had seized power there; and it was dimly perceived that they were restructuring the country along rational and modern lines. This fitted in with what Christoté's more idealistic women believed, that a matriarchal society would automatically become more progressive and compassionate. However, there were few sources on the changes undergoing the country. It was an ally of Christoté but the Confederacy had no permanent embassy there until the 1270's. A few merchants had journeyed there and returned with a fairly black picture, but as all were men (and often men doing worst out of the Matriarchy than from the former Erish magnatery) their accounts were mistrusted. From the 1220's, many Christotan feminists yearned to travel to Charlae themselves. Many simply wished to travel the country and bring accounts of their findings back home, but a sizeable number wanted to emigrate their permanently to escape male oppression. The trend was given momentum by the ideological proselytising by the Matriarchy itself. Beginning at the turn of the century, this was really intended to stoke up rebellion in Erenland and Norisca, Charlae's traditional enemies. However, a number of pamphlets describing the idyllic life in Charlae found their way into Christoté, and in 1325 the first priestess appeared in the Cities and gave several speeches on the same lines. Working in tandem with the campaign was Charlae's encouragement of all like-minded women to settle in its lands. Huwdone House discouraged its citizens from visiting the country, which was undergoing incessant conflict and turbulence, but could do little to stop it. In the 1320's, 30's and 40's a sizeable number of women underwent the so-called Sisterhood Pilgrimages. The first few travellers were carefully controlled by Charlan officials; those who settled were given prestigious positions and the visitors were shown all the right, progressive sights and kept away from the unpleasant ones. They returned painting an even brighter picture of the land than existed before. However, as numbers on the Pilgrimages grew and the Charlan crown relaxed its guard, disquieting stories began. Some women brought back tales of a country far from perfect. Others simply didn't return at all, despite promising they would. It was first thought that they had so fallen in love with Charlae that they decided to stay; in fact, most had been captured by individual Charlan landowners and sold into slavery. This darker picture wasn't generally believed at first, but the balance was turned by Elzerbeth Maylin. Maylin was a young Elsan academic who had written several lucid pamphlets on the importance of gender equality. She had no great interest in seeing Charlae herself, but agreed to visit with several friends in 1234. On returning three years later she published Inside The Matriarch, which laid bare the myth of Charlae. Almost glossing over her own travails (her party were twice imprisoned on spurious reasons and were almost raped by a gang of runaway slaves) she set out in full detail the regular use of cruel, arbitrary punishment, the political turbulence and economic backwardness, the class-ridden society, the heavy use of nature-altering herbs and the fact that nearly a quarter of the population were slaves. Many feminists fiercely attacked Inside The Matriarch as being a fiction of the counter-revolution; others, however, said it illustrated the dangers of romanticising any situation. It became one of the most famous books of the decade and sparked off endless debates about whether matriarchal societies really would be innately superior to patriarchal ones or whether full equality and justice should be aimed at. It also changed the Sisterhood Pilgrimages. The numbers lessened year by year and the volume of bleak accounts brought back steadily increased and were generally accepted. Eventually the number of emigrants were virtually none and any travellers went almost to prove that they dared brave the risks. The 1256 civil wars in Charlae brought the Pilgrimages to an end. The crown closed their borders to virtually any outsiders for a period and was finally revealed as little different to any other repressive monarchy. Elzerbeth Maylin herself was almost as horrified by the fierce controversy her book sparked off as she was by Charlae itself. She retired to a small college in Elsey, wrote dense, apolitical philosophies for the rest of her life and didn't trouble history again.