I approach you on the eve of a World War. I hope to appeal to what
common sense remains and to avert this war. In doing so, I may anger
some of my allies, and may hurt a few egos on all sides. For this I
apologize in advance, but I shall call things as I see them. I do
not speak for anyone but myself here, so please do not take this as
the official word from any organization. I fear I shall be a bit
wordy, but please bear with me.
I have spent the recorded history of our world as the leader of the
Republic of Southern Camaris (RoSC). We're a small, tightly knit
group of factions who hve established ourselves in the southeat
cormer of Camaris. I am in the process of resigning from that post
for personal reasons, but I had hoped to retire to a less active
role in our world. But the current world situation has me so
discouraged that I am seriously considering ending my time in this
world.
The RoSC has been and remains a part of a larger group of
independant states known as the Eagle Alliance. Eagle has been in
existance since shortly before any of us walked these lands. It
was not organised to be an agressive alliance, but rather a mutual
defense and information sharing organization. Our charter starts
out saying:
The Eagle Alliance is an organization devoted to the mutual
defense and support of the member cells and factions.
The Eagle Alliance was also set up with security in mind. It's
founders knew from the legends told of other worlds that if an enemy
doesn't know exactly who you are, they cannot effectively bring war
to you. This secrecy has not always served us as well as it might
have, as you may see later.
I myself, am not an aggressive person. I would not have been a part of
Eagle if it was an agressive alliance aimed at world domination.
I would prefer to fight against such an alliance. Those who know me
can vouch for this. There are some who, as the fates should have
things, are on the side opposing Eagle that can confirm this.
I do not attempt to tell you that what I have to say is unbiased,
for I have only seen one side of the conflict, but I will promise
that my purpose is peace, not to make one side or the other look
good or evil. Some of what I shall say is no doubt incorrect, since
I am not all-seeing. But all of it is the truth as far as I know
it.
The situation that I refer to is the conflict that has been going on
in the Yellowleaf area of Porvinia. I'm sure you've all heard of it,
it's made all of the papers. But for those unfamiliar with the
details, I shall relate events as I have seen them. Perhaps one of
the cooler heads from the other side will care to tell things as
they have seen them. I suspect we'll all see things in a different
light.
Most of you probably first heard of this conflict when you read the
Olympia Times, issue g2-34. The first blows were struck during the
month of Fierce winds, in the year 5 (turn 33), but it's origins
stretch back further.
Near the City of Yellowleaf, a group of factions calling themselves
the New Empire (the NE) claimed territory very early on. This group
was led by a man known as Fox. I'm sure you've heard of him by now.
The New Empire was also a member of the Eagle Alliance, and I met
Fox now and again in the Eagle Council chambers. Fox tended to
play his cards close to his vest, and we did not know how he ran
his Empire. You may or may not believe me, seeing as how it is in
Eagle's best intrest to deny knowledge of Fox's methods, but this
is the truth.
You see, Fox was apparently very aggressive his his diplomacy. We of
Eagle knew, of course, of his messages in the Times claiming the
land around Yellowleaf, but we did not know of the bullying tone he
apparently took in discussions with others in the Yellowleaf area.
Had we known, we would have objected. Our charter states that "Eagle
members cannot take offensive actions without the consent of the
council." It defines an offensive action as "any hostile attack by a
Eagle member on a non-Eagle faction or any provocotive or
threatening messages sent to a non-Eagle faction." It's quite clear
now that some of Fox's messages were indeed threatening.
Some time during year 4, Fox informed the Eagle Council that he was
stepping down from leadership of the New Empire, and introduced Mike
Hughes to us as his replacment as leader of the NE. Shortly before
Fox left, he also nominated The Illustrated Man as a new member of
Eagle, representing the Inner Circle (the IC) We accepted him
based on Fox's recommendation.
At the time, we did not know that the IC had been coerced by fox
into joining Eagle. The Illustrated Man never said anything, but
looking back, I find that understandable. He was given a copy of our
charter when he joined, and he must have seen that Fox was in
violation of it, so I expect he thought that we all thought little
of it. He may well have assumed that it existed merely for
propaganda purposes, and that we were all like Fox. In which case,
it would have been pointless, and possibly dangerous for The
Illustrated Man to point out Fox's violations. So the rest of Eagle
blithely assumed that the IC had joined out of free will.
For that matter, I will admit that the Charter itself appears to be
taken lightly by Eagle, considering the number of typos and
misspellings in it. It's not that we don't take it seriously, it's
just that we got it to say what we meant, and then other matters
took our minds away from it so we never really polished it up. It
really does need a good going over for appearances. But we do take
it's meaning seriously, even if we haven't gotten it looking pretty.
But I digress...
In the mean time, Fox's aggressive nature was not going unnoticed by
others in the region. There was another organization known as PLATO
that also began in Yellowleaf, but had migrated over the channel to
the northeast part of Camaris. I'm sure you've heard of them as
well. I know a couple of members of PLATO personally, and I believe
that they are actually as well meaning as Eagle is. Some PLATO
members had been approached by Fox, and were not pleased with his
mannerisms. I may, perhaps, be putting that a bit mildly.
PLATO had decided that Fox and his New Empire were a threat, and that
they needed to do something about him, before he did something to
them. They claim that they know he had plans to attack them. I
cannot say if Fox had such plans, if he did, he never shared them
with the rest of Eagle. I find it hard to believe, since that would
have been a violation of our charter which he would not have been able
to hide, but I find it hard to disbelieve, because I do not really
think that the leaders of PLATO would be lying about that. I suspect
a misunderstanding, but accept the possibility that Fox really did
have plans for agression. I do wonder how he planned to deal
with Eagle regarding such an act, but don't doubt that he would have
had something up his sleeve.
So shortly after the IC joined Eagle, Mike Hughes reported a military
force approaching one of his cities. He sent a diplomatic courier to
the leader of the force, asking their intentions, and informing them
that Fox was no longer in charge of the New Empire. We now know, of
course, that this was the lead element of the PLATO invasion force.
PLATO easily defeated the NE's defense force. Apparently in part due
to Mike Hughes' reduction in military forces from Fox's pervious
levels. I would expect that PLATO was rather suprised with the ease
with which they defeated the NE.
Immmediately after the attack, various leders of Eagle's member states
received communications from the PLATO leadership, encouraging them
not to come to the aid of the NE. Of course, honor required that we
come to the NE's aid, but our insistance on secrecy kept us from
saying anything publicly. An agreement was forged between the various
Eagle members on Camaris and PLATO such that no conflict would take
place on Camaris (the Camaris Non-Aggression Pact).
Also immediately after the attack, the IC informed the Eagle Council
that they were leaving Eagle and supporting PLATO. This was seen by
the Eagle Council as vile treachery. We felt that the IC had only
joined Eagle in order to spy for PLATO. You may well understand why
Eagle felt justified in or subsequent attack on the IC.
However, we now have been informed of the circumstances under which
the IC joined Eagle. I believe that the IC did not join Eagle with
treacherous intent, but rather were forced. And I can hardly blame
them for leaving when the opportunity presented itself. I do wish
they had made things clearer to us when they left as to why they had
joined and why they left. It certainly appeared to us at the time
that they were being less than honorable. I cannot tell you for
certain their motivations for joining Eagle, but I do not now
believe that they were unjustified in their actions, given what I
have learned of Fox's methods.
So now (From Eagle's point of view), PLATO had made a unilateral
attack on one of our members, and the IC had aided an abetted them
while posing as a member of our Council. PLATO claimed that their
actions were for the greater good, but they kept also mentioning
little details like "expansionist plans" in their Times postings,
and in their messages to the NE they spoke of their "bloodlust" not
being sated. There were also message from various PLATO members
telling how much fun they were having hunting down what they thought
was the NE (but reportedly was more often newbies), and quite
proudly calling themselves warmongers. I'm quite certain that
PLATO is very tired of having those particular quotes thrown back
at them, but given the situation as we saw it, those quotes seemed
to be more accurate than their other stated reasons.
PLATO further compounded their bad image in our eyes by the diplomacy
of some of their leaders. They seemed to have a way of taking
things in a manner so as to see insult to themselves where none
was intended, and overreacting in their response. We were often
astounded by the responses we got from some messages sent to
certain PLATO leaders. I have not seen examples of Fox's
diplomacy, so I cannot compare them, but their diplomacy has
managed to keep some Eagle leaders ready to fight, regardless of
other cause. If you use Fox's bullying as a reason to attack, you
should be more diplomatic yourself.
Now, I read the last couple of paragraphs and find that I am being very
critical of PLATO at this point. I should point out that I do not
really think PLATO had tyrannical intentions. I believe they saw
what appeared to be a threat, and took what they thought was
appropriate action. And perhaps if Fox had remained in charge of the
NE, their actions would have been eitirely justified.
Where I do think they erred was after the attack, when it was pointed
out to them that Fox was no longer leading the NE, and the the
remaining members of the NE had not known of Fox's policies. As the
Illustrated Man can verify, the members of the NE did not even know
the details of a treaty that Fox had negotiated with the IC. If he
didn't tell them the results of the negotiations, I rather doubt he
told them how he was doing the negotiating.
There is no point in punishing the citizens of a country for the
actions of a dictator who is already gone, but PLATO apparently
made it a policy to eradicate the NE in punishment for Fox's
words. This I feel was a mistake on PLATO's part, and was largely
responsible for the enduring conflict. Had PLATO simply declared
their mission had been to remove Fox, and since he was gone their
mission was over, and left the NE to put the pieces back together,
it's very possible that everything might have been over. Eagle would
have had some ruffled feathers (if you will excuse the anology), but
would have been unlikely to pursue the issue in light of the Camaris
non-agression pact.
However, such was not the case. No doubt some of PLATO's leaders had
found insult in the NE's messages, or else they still honestly
thought of the Fox-less NE as a threat. I do not know PLATO's
motivations at that point, they probably meant well, but they did not
leave Provinia, which furthered the impression that their attack was
expansionistic, rather than simply to remove Fox.
Then there was the Toppe incident. It seems that there were two nobles
running about in the Yellowleaf area by the name of Bobo. One
belonged to the NE, and the other belonged to some newcomers to the
area. PLATO heard of someone named Bobo having been within the
Crimson Citadel, and when they encountered someone named Bobo, they
assumed it was the same one, apparently forgetting to check for any
sort of id. So they attacked this other Bobo, or some of his friends
(I'm not clear on the exact details), thinking they were attacking
survivors of the NE (who they had decided to run into the ground,
rather than allowing them to leave the area). When told that this
noble was not part of the NE, PLATO made accusations of lying,
thinking that they had seen this Bobo in the Crimson Citadel. They
then moved an army up to Toppe, where they found a castle and an
army waiting for them, belonging to Bobo and his friends, a group
known as the Fence. This resulted in a bit of a standoff. The
Fence's forces weren't enough to defeat PLATO's force in the open
field, but PLATO's force wasn't enough to defeat the Fence in
their castle.
PLATO eventually realised the mistaken identity and left, but their
aggressive attitude and bullying diplomacy had made an enemy of the
Fence, a group of newbies, the sort of people PLATO was claiming
to be defending.
At this point, Eagle was mobilizing forces for a counterattack on
Camaris. No plans were made for attacks on Camaris, although
defenses were bolstered in case of a PLATO attack (which has not
occured, of course). You may also note how long it took for Eagle to
prepare a counterattack. We were simply unprepared at the start,
having no intentions of going to war, and thinking that we had a
peaceful arraingement with our neighbors.
My own RoSC sent a small force up, which was spotted at sea by a
ship identified as belonging to PLATO. This was during Blossom
bloom, month 3, in the year 6 (turn 43). While we could have easily
defeated the Ponce, we were concerned about the vagueness in the
Camaris non-agression pact, and decided that it wasn't clear
whether such an action would be a violation. So instead we headed
for the nearest land, which happened to be in territory claimed by
the IC.
Now, I suppose it should be mentioned at some point that while PLATO
controlled the NE's castle, the Crimson Citadel, they gave (or
perhaps sold) some of the NE's land to the IC. This will come up
later, trust me.
The RoSC force's mission was to raid the garrisons that the NE
controlled from the Crimson Citadel and to generally distract the NE
from the invasion forces approaching from other Eagle groups. So we
did not take any actions in the IC territory at that time, and
headed into position for our actual mission.
However, before the Eagle counterattack happened, the NE pulled off a
coup by sneaking a noble into the Crimson Citadel and bribing the
sole PLATO noble occupying it. I would be curious to see the messages
that must have flown between the PLATO leaders, but I imagine they
were none too pleased. Let this be a lesson to all, never hold a
castle with a single noble of fear or contract loyalty. Someone may
come and take it, cheap. Along with your entire defending force.
Shortly after this, the Illustrated Man contacted the NE, proposing
that the IC should be allowed to keep the land the PLATO had taken
from the NE and given to the IC. In the same message he requested
that the IC be allowed to continue some trade routes through NE
territory. In this case, I do think the Illustrated Man is in the
wrong. If he was going to recognize that the NE was now the owners
of the area, he should have realised that the land PLATO had given
him would be seen as stolen goods. Considering the amount of land
claimed by the IC, the few provinces gained from the NE were
insignificant, compared to the ethical situation of receiving stolen
goods. If your ally takes land by force and gives it to you, it's
still land that's been taken by force as far as the former owner is
concerned. Asking the NE to let them keep it was seen as an insult.
Shortly after this, PLATO landed some catapults and leveled the
Crimson Citadel. At this point things probably should have been
over, in my opinion. Mike Hughes had been speaking to the Eagle
Council of retiring due to the birth of a child, and the rest of
the NE had either moved away or retired, themselves. PLATO had
announced their intention to leave Provinia, but with a very, well,
unfriendly set of restrictions, including statements to the effect
that the NE would be stomped on if they tried to rebuild.
Now, up to this time, Eagle had made no public announcement of the
fact that the NE was a member of Eagle, and that we were planning
on helping them. In fact, Eagle had made no public announcement of
their very exisitance. So no one could see that there was any
organization opposing PLATO and the IC in their destruction of the
NE. It's generally agreed within Eagle that this was a mistake.
Secrecy might have been useful if there had been an oppressive world
power to hide from, but that wasn't the case (on *this* world).
It seems we were "fighting the last war" in this respect. A more
public presence might have served to avoid some problems. It
certainly would have fostered better communications.
At his point, some members of Eagle's Council were all set for a
fight. PLATO had been acting rather boorishly in their negotiations
at times, despite thier primary justification of their initial
attack being Fox's bad diplomacy. The IC had (as far as Eagle knew)
acted treacherously at the beginning of the invasion, and then had
had the nerve to ask if they could keep they land that had been
taken from the NE and given to them. Plus, there was (and still is)
the feeling that if PLATO wasn't made to pay (at least to some
extent) for their aggressive actions, why should we feel that they
wouldn't feel free to do something similar again?
So it was decided that since PLATO was pulling back to Camaris, and we
weren't going to be the first to break the Camaris pact, that we
would instead hit the IC. After all, in our eyes they were a traitor
who was occupying land taken from one of our members. I, myself
counseled peace. But when the decision was made to fight, I did go
ahead and send my troops into battle, so I cannot claim to be
completely pure. On the other hand, I did feel that we were quite
justified in punishing the IC for what we thought they had done to
us.
Now I feel that the IC was *not* a traitor, considering Fox's actions
towards them. I do still feel that they do not have a right to the
land taken from the NE, despite the fact that they didn't do the
taking, and despite the fact that they've held it for some time now.
Stolen good remain stolen goods, regardless of how long one has
them, or by what means they came into one's possesion.
As a sidebar to all of this was the Fence, who merged sometime along
here with the Lords of the Crown (LoC), represented by Sir Codric.
Now, Sir Codric had come to the Fence's aid some time around the
Toppe incident, so there was good feeling between them.
Unfortunatley, there was bad feeling between the LoC and a number of
their neighbors, including the Harn Alliance (HA). The Fence had
also received some aid from the NE, after PLATO was mistakenly
accusing the Fence of being a part of the NE, so some ties had been
made between the Fence and the NE. Mind you, I'm pretty sketchy on
the exact details of what went on between these various factions, so
I may have some details wrong. I'm sure the involved parties will
correct me if I got anything drasticly wrong, but please realise
that I'm not intentionally telling any mistruths here.
While Eagle was preparing for the attack on the IC, the Fence/LoC came
out and said they were planning on restoring the NE to their former
lands.
So when Eagle struck, and my forces started taking out IC garrisons,
the IC accused the LoC of doing it. This apparently made the HA
decide that the LoC was just too aggressive to be allowed to
continue, and the HA decided to attack the LoC (they haven't done so
yet, but they've made it clear that they intend to). It's not at all
clear whether the HA had been negotiating with PLATO and/or the IC
for a while towards that end, but I have reason to believe that the
HA was already leaning towards PLATO/IC anyway. I'm confused by the
reasons I've seen put forth by the HA, since they seem to object to
"aggressive wargamers", and the only people I've seen claiming to
view this as a wargame were from PLATO, and the only significant
attacks up to that time had been made by PLATO, but perhaps I
misunderstand the HA's reasons. It probably isn't the only thing
I've misunderstood along the way.
Anyway, so now Eagle forces have taken out 4 of the IC's garrisons,
the Illustrated man is making melodramatic threats about how he'll
be certain to be clear about conditions when he calls for
surrender (really, Bruce, even if you *do* have massive armies, you
should save that kind of posturing for when you've actually shown
them, it's a bit over the top at this point), the LoC have denied
any involvement in the attacks (which is true), various Eagle groups
either have forces about to hit IC territory, or are in the process
of raising many more forces, Eagle has *finally* made a public
statement, PLATO is getting ready to come back to Provinia with a
vengence, the HA is about to attack the LoC, and maybe Eagle (it's
not clear who all they're going to war with), and there are even
rumors that the Rimmon Musketteers (previously not at all
involved) may be coming down, but it's not at all clear on which
side. It looks like over half of the world is about to converge
violently on the area around Yellowleaf.
And why??? Because Fox, who hasn't been involved for nearly two
Olympia years was a jerk? Because no one can admit that the whole
reason for this mess is gone, and we're all just prolonging a feud
for no reason but pride and vengence?
Who has been wronged?
PLATO and others were threatened and verbally bullied by Fox.
The Inner Circle was coerced by Fox into joining Eagle.
The Inner Circle has been incorrectly accused of treason by Eagle.
Mike Hughes' New Empire has been beaten back to the stone age by PLATO.
PLATO took a few thousand gold, an elfstone, and the Imperial Throne
from the New Empire.
Both the New Empire and the Fence were called liars and were
threatened and verbally bullied by PLATO due to the "Bobo"
incident.
The Inner Circle occupies land that was taken by force from the
New Empire.
Eagle forces have killed 40 men in 4 Inner Circle garrisons.
I really don't know the roots of the conflict between the Harn
Alliance and the Lords of the Crown, so I cannot comment on who
has been wronged there.
PLATO has made themselves look like a threat to those around them.
Eagle may also have made themselves look like a threat to those
around them (I can't say how others view Eagle).
Anything I've missed?
Oh yeah, Eagle forces also managed to kill a PLATO noble, one
Cernennos (you may have heard of him as well). Hey, he made the
mistake of ending turn 49 in the same province as my very own
force, and with only 7 archers to defend himself. Can anyone blame
me, given the circumstances? :)
Is any of those sufficient cause for the World War about to begin?
As for "teaching PLATO a lesson"? Well, I may be wrong, but I really
do think PLATO had good intentions at the start. I think they made
some errors in judgement along the way, but so has Eagle. What's to
keep PLATO from doing something similar? Well, nothing that I can
really point to, but my gut feeling tells me that they would rather
avoid this sort of a mess as well. Despite some very vocal
warmongers (their word, not mine) in their alliance, they also have
some who are less agressive.
I think at this point most of the reason people want to fight is
because of various insults (or perceived insults) between
individuals that took place during various stages of "diplomacy"
during this whole mess. That and a bunch of misunderstandings.
Fox is gone, folks. If PLATO will quit reading insults into
everything they recieve from the NE, and if Eagle will put aside
prideful thoughts of vengence and teaching lessons, we can all
just walk away from this.
There aren't a whole lot of reparations to be done if Mike Hughes is
dropping from the game. If he sticks around, then maybe some are
due to him. He was in no way responsible for Fox's excesses, since
he never even knew about them until after the fact. Other than the
NE, no one has lost anything of real significance, except maybe a
bit of pride here and there.
Maybe if Mike Hughes sticks around everyone could pitch in and help
Mike rebuild a castle in some city other than Azrain, since a
castle next to Yellowleaf seems to give some PLATO members the
heeby-jeebies? I hardly think PLATO need worry about a threat from
what's left of the NE. I think Mike would also like to have his
elfstone back, but you should check with him on that. As for the
border between the New New Empire and the IC, that's open for
negotiation. Personally, I think the Illustrated Man should take a
long look in the mirror and see how he really feels about hanging
onto stolen goods, it seems to me that he's the only one that's
profitted from this whole mess, and he can probably afford to give
a bit up for the sake of ethics and goodwill, but that's just my
opinion.
There's going to still be mistrust. There are those in Eagle who feel
that PLATO will attack again, given the pro-war attitude a number of
individuals within PLATO have repeatedly put forward. There are
probably those in PLATO who have the same fears about Eagle. I know
a couple of PLATO members personally, so I can vouch that not all of
PLATO is looking for an excuse to fight. I also know the Eagle
leaders fairly well by now. None of them has ever suggested
attacking anyone, except in cases where Eagle was attacked first.
Of course, you only have my word on that, and since I'm admittidly
part of the Eagle leadership (well, soon to be former part of the
Eagle leadership), that's probably going to be taken with a large
grain of salt.
Either that, or you all can just go ahead into a World War. One that
will never stop, since you can't really destroy a faction in
Olympia, they can always spring back up and continue the fight.
One side might eventually gain the upper hand, and spend the rest of
their existance watching out for guerilla fighters striking them
where they least expect it, and having to oppress the rest of the
world, just to try to keep themselves safe, since they'd never know
who was a neutral and who was an enemy. Kinda like an old world
we've heard legends about. But what kind of an existance is that?
Just step back, take a deep breath, look in the mirror and try to find
anything, *anything* you might have done wrong and apologize for it.
Yeah, I know that there's something in your throat that keeps getting
in the way, that's your pride. Just swallow it.
I'm sorry I killed Cernennos. Really I am. Honest. Oh hell, maybe I'm
not sorry, but I apologize for it. I won't do it again if we can
just have peace. I'll even tell you where the body is. :)
I apologize for ordering my forces to take out some of the Inner
Circle's garrisons. But it did give us all a chance to see the
Illustrated Man's big suit with all the buttons on it. No, wait, he
was wearing that before the attack. nevermind. I still apologize,
though.
And I apologize to all of those I may have insulted in this, or to any
who feel that I should not have taken this step with out their
approval. I suspect I've violated the Eagle charter's secrecy
clauses here and there, but we've seen how much good staying quiet
has done, and I had to make one last attempt before giving up and
going to my final rest (at least on this world).
I also apologize for the length of this monologue. I probably could
have made it shorter, but I'm damned if I can figure out which words
to delete. Every time I go over it, it keeps getting longer, not
shorter.
Keith Hearn
AKA Andrew Grey the Long-Winded
The Grey Company
Head Talking Guy for the Republic of Southern Camaris (retiring)
Member of the Eagle Council (retiring)
Not Shy (nor retiring)
Getting silly (probably lack of sleep)
p.s. Please don't take this lightly, even though I got silly there at
the end. I'm actually quite serious about wanting to end this whole
ugly situation. Nobody will come out ahead if the war goes on.
p.p.s. Ok, now I can spot some words worthy of deletion. Like the last
9 lines. I apologize for the silliness here at the end as well. It
*is* just a game, though. right?
p.p.p.s. I also apologize for all of the apologies. They're getting a
bit excessive, aren't they?
p.p.p.p.s. I also apologize for all of the postscripts. Enough is
enough, already! I'm going to bed now, I've been writing this for
over 5 hours now.