In that case, I agree with you, they seem to be violating the spirit
of the treaty. Why do I say the spirit? At first when I wrote this,
I originally wrote that I agreed that they were violating the treay.
Then I looked through back issues of the Times. and reread the actual
Yellowleaf Peace Accords (The Olympia Times, issue g2-52), and I find
no mention of Azrain being an open city. I do, however, distinctly
recall that PLATO was insistant about Azrain remaining open. It
would appear to be an oversight that a clause to that effect was
not written into the accord.
The accord *does* describe the division of New Empire provinces
between the Inner Circle and the Lords of the Crown, but the
description only speaks of provinces in rows cx-dg, not row dh
(which is where Azrain lies). The accord also states that no
castles may be built within 3 provinces of Yellowleaf.
So the Yellowleaf Peace Accord does not specificly say that Azrain
must remain open, but it also does not give the LoC any authority
over Azrain.
However, anyone who was involved in the peace talks will remember
that keeping the Yellowleaf vicinity as an open area for all
to use was certainly a PLATO priority, which is why I think the
LoC is violating the spirit of the accord.
> That's that.
>
> best wishes,
> Captain Arrr
>
> PS: BTW, the CoL also claimed that I was violating the treaty by even
> showing up in Provinia. But my understanding is that Plato's
> committement to leave Provinia was a short term one, designed to get the
> armies off the continent to facilitate peace. Peace having been
> established, there seemed no point to keeping our trders from that land.
Here's what the Accord has to say on that:
7) Plato and Camaris based Eagle Alliance cells will remove
all nobles from the continent of Provinia by the start of turn 55.
It doesn't say anything about coming back. On the other hand, I'd
say if either group had returned forces to the area immediately
after removing them, they would have been in the wrong. But sending
someone back months later to set up trade certainly seems
reasonable to me.
So my take on all of this is that the LoC is not technically
violating the accord, but they are violating the spirit of it,
and they *are* doing something which has been known to cause
people to get stomped upon in the past. And the accord does
not prohibit such stomping from occuring again.
I'd suggest that any who might feel that stomping is needful do
their stomping, make a declaration about what is to be considered
a "open" area (hopefully consulting all other powers inthe area
and coming up with something agreeable), and get back out.
And my suggestion to the LoC is to rethink their position on Azrain,
and do it quickly, before anyone has time to get their stomping
boots on.
These are just my opinions, and should not be taken as the opinions of
any group other than the Grey Company.
Andrew Grey,
The Grey Company