I agree. And the whole point of the Accord, to me, was to say that the
Yellowleaf area was to be an area in which resource collection, by
anyone, especially newbies, was not constrained. You've heard the
Illustrated Man relate how he was troubled by this in a previous life;
you've heard how other people were troubled by the now-departed New
Empire in the Yellowleaf area. Now we have returned to square 1:
territory adjacent to a starting city is controlled by someone that
you have to ask permission from before you collect resources. Sure,
they let newbies collect resources -- if they get permission. Yeah,
right.
Let there be no mistake: I explained this, repeatedly, to the Council
of Lords and the Inner Circle, before the peace treaty. Yet somewhere
in the middle of the negotiations this point was dropped from the
treaty. The object of the peace treaty is not to ignore simple things
wanted by one side; if you leave the same cause in place, you should
expect the same war to break out again.
I did like the bit of revisionist history regarding the Eagle
Alliance; I never knew PLATO's spies were so clever. For example:
> [...] felt that if Plato and
> Eagle Alliance wanted to wage war, they should do it on their own soil, read:
> Camaris.
Plato was fighting the New Empire. Period. That's why we had a public
agreement with groups such as the Crimson Alliance that there would be
no fighting on Camaris; we thought that was just a statement that
Plato was only fighting the New Empire and not anyeone else. It was
only later that we learned that there was an umbrella alliance
involved.
> [gentlemen of the above alliances, please correct me if I have
> mistated your position at that point in history].
You're welcome.
> The negotiations ref the division of former New Empire land and Azrain did not
> involve Plato or the EA and they were not consulted on them.
Actually, I believe I was the first person to contact the Inner Circle
and the Lords of the Crown and suggest that they peacefully divide the
territory once controlled by the Crimson Citadel. This was soon after
the Citadel was destroyed (on purpose) when I desired to engineer a
settlement which would allow Plato to leave Provinia yet prevent the
New Empire from re-establishing itself and a castle from which to
hinder resource collection near a starting city.
You can say that I wasn't consulted, but I was very much involved in
establishing the spirit of that agreement, not to mention the
opportunity to divide that territory.
> I personally believe closing Azrain to all outsiders, including
> newbies, is a mistake, and if true, I think they should reconsider. Plato's
> claim of protecting newbie rights is admirable, but misplaced.
Gee, thanks.
> I guess I'm asking Plato to come out from behind this "protection of newbies"
> shield they constantly erect. While it may truly be their goal, and a gift
> they really want to offer to newbies, it is not their gift to give.
We fought an entire war over it. You may not believe our motivations,
but you'll have a hard time explaining why we give a shit about such a
trivial matter such as the closing of Arazain, when it, economically,
isn't important to Plato. It's the principle of the matter that
counts. I'm sorry to see that your otherwise well-engineered peace
treaty failed to recognize this.
-- Oleg the Loudmouth