In brief, our negotiations on a border with Fox of the New Empire were
going terribly. He kept changing his mind, accepting and then rejecting
our proposals, and alternating between pleas to us to join his Empire,
boastings of his invincibility, and outright threats. Finally, it seemed
as if negotiations were going to break down entirely, and we felt ourselves
on the verge of a war which we did not expect to win. This wasn't a mere
dispute over a border; his exact words were
>It is your presence that I find most annoying.
The only "out" that he offered us was that he would accept our existence
if we joined this alliance of his. At the time, we thought he would in all
likelihood be our neighbor forever, and wanting peace if at all possible,
we agreed, and received "provisional" membership in the Eagle Alliance as
defined in its charter.
At the same time, we had also entered into a close working friendship with
PLATO. Some of our members had known them from g1, and we found them
helpful and cooperative, unlike Fox.
However, Plato (reasonably) did not trust us enough to tell us of their
plans for invasion. We first learned of it at the same time that the rest
of the Eagle Alliance did. We wrote to our platonic friends, and
discovered that, with the best of intentions, we had allied ourselves to
two nations who were irrevocably at war. Clearly, we had to choose. Given
the facts that
a) we had joined the Eagles under duress
b) PLATO seemed as if it would be a far more accomodating neighbor,
c) Fox had been rubbing us the wrong way from day 1, and
c) the New Empire seemed to be thoroughly trounced,
our choice was easy. Perhaps not quite as automatic as it would have been
if Fox had still been in power, but still, relatively easy.
If we had been the scheming traitors that Cendage portrays us as, at this
point we could easily have stayed as Eagle members for months after the
initial invasion, concealing our association with PLATO, sounding out the
Empire's military strategies, and passing everything we learned on to
PLATO. However, this was not our way. Less than a week after PLATO's
invasion, we sent in our letter of resignation to the Eagle Alliance.
One other thing. If the Eagles save their messages, they might look back
and note that there was a delay of almost two months (early August to late
September) between when Fox told us they had voted us in, and when we
finally wrote them to ask what was up, why hadn't we heard from them yet,
and were we members or not. If we had actually been trying to spy on them,
we would have been a lot more active trying to establish contact. As it
was, I think we were only actual members for two or three weeks, and
received no useful military or other intelligence of any kind (other than
Mike Hughes' message of "Omigod what are all those troops doing in
Trulion," which was useful in letting us know something was going on).
Just something that they, at least, can check up on.
For those who are still interested after all that longwindedness, our
resignation letter from the Eagle Alliance is copied below. It contains
the main details of our horrible relations with Fox. If the other Eagles
had told us at the time that they felt our explanation of events was
inadequate, we could have given further evidence of our version of things;
now, of course, it would be a lot more difficult.
The Exhausted Man
From: The Inner Circle
To: The Eagle Alliance
Greetings
Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to all of you, and Mike
especially, regarding the invasion of his homeland. As you may have
guessed by now, it was carried out by some long-standing friends of the
Inner Circle. We didn't have much foreknowledge of their assault, so faced
with the situation of our two main allies in the game engaged in a
full-scale war, you can imagine that we had to do some quick soul-searching
as to what position we would take. We did NOT wish to stay in the Eagle
Alliance under false pretenses, if we decided that our sympathies were
stronger with the enemies of the Empire. I am sorry to have to tell you
that this is the conclusion we have reached.
We wouldn't want you to think that we're bailing out just because the
Empire seems to be getting creamed, however (we've at least gathered that
its castle was taken). Accordingly, I thought I'd give you a bit of
background about our past diplomacy with them. I said in an earlier letter
that our relations with them had been uneven. Uneven was a euphemism for
terrible.
You should all realize that, as a diplomat, Fox might best be described as
inept. As far as we can tell, he antagonized every neighboring non-member
of his alliance with whom he came into contact. If he thought he had an
advantage on you, he was a bully. For several months, every letter he sent
us left us seething.
Near the beginning of the game, we brought up the possibility to him of
our settling in Elantir. His response was
>I'd feel rather unhappy seeing as it would be in violation of our six
>square perimeter. As such we intend to use it in the future. How does
>[da82] Attewelle or [dc83] Nantasarn sound though? They're a good ten
>squares out and looking good.
Later, after we had settled in Nantasarn with, we assumed, his
encouragement, one of his scouts ran into us. He sent us this response to
our claim of the area:
>That's very interesting. We had no idea you had decided to settle down
>in this area. Might I remind you that Nantasarn is within the area
>defined as Empire Lands in the statement issued in the Times several turns
ago.
>I believe that we are planning on expanding over the entirety of the area
>surrounding Yellowleaf.
The Times announcement claimed a six province radius. Note that Nantasarn
is a full ten provinces from Azrain.
Fox then proceeded to make threats:
>I have no doubt that the Empire is rather a
>lot larger, better organised and more powerful than the Inner Circle. So
>far we are the single largest land holder in the game and have
>successfully dealt with all problems within our chosen area. By claiming
>the area as your own you have directly violated a decree which was made
>very early in the game (Times issue six I believe).
Well, after several weeks of this kind of posturing, he realized that he
had been totally wrong about where Nantasarn was located. Doh! (This did
not give us much confidence in his leadership when he asked us to join his
alliance!) However, his embarassment over his mistake did not stop his
bullying. After I drew up a treaty, we ran into another snag: he had
forgotten that we were exploring the underworld. In his mind, this gave
him another excuse to bully us:
>There will be no treaty.
>
>I was not aware that the Inner Circle was part of the group which went
>into SubWorld through the sewers in YellowLeaf. This being the case I
>believe you were allowed a minimal presence on Provinia. A full base is
>not acceptable. I am not overly impressed....Your request for an
agreement >regarding the area defined is still denied.
Throughout our entire communication with Fox, he has been dictatorial,
threatening, and uncooperative. He was fond of making statements like this
one:
>It is your presence that I find most annoying.
that would have led us to declare war with him on the spot if we had had
the strength. Alas, we did not. The only alternative to war which he
seemed to leave open to us was to join your alliance:
>The easiest way around this is, of course, my original suggestion which
>is to have an alliance between our two organisations.
We truly felt that we were induced to join the Eagle Alliance under
duress, and with the threat of war as the only other alternative he offered
us. We were too weak at the time to win a war, so we took the only option
he gave us.
Now, however, circumstances have changed. Since we joined under duress,
we feel no qualms about withdrawing our (provisional) membership with the
Eagle Alliance at this time. From what we've heard you sound like a great
bunch, and the new head of the Empire may well be a reasonable fellow. No
doubt you didn't realize that Fox was using your alliance to straighten out
the diplomatic tangles he created. Nevertheless, the association with a
rotten bully like Fox has spoiled the rest of the barrel for us.
We hold nothing against the Eagle Alliance as a whole, and should we run
into you in other parts of the world we will endeavour to treat you fairly.
If you ever decide to kick out what's left of the Empire from the Eagles,
we would happily rejoin. But we've been itching to get at the Tyrant of
Yellowleaf's throat for a long time now, and since our other friend has
given us the opportunity, we will make use of it.
Speaking for myself, the one thing I most regret about this entire affair
is that my association with all the rest of you was so brief...
I remain,
The Illustrated Man of the Midnight Carnival and the Inner Circle