IMO the "spirit" of the agreement was that PLATO would withdraw all
interests from south-east Provinia. I suspect that we all have different
concepts of what the "spirit" was. For my own part I think we either stick
to the letter of the agreement, open it up for renegotiation, or discard
the thing and all rush troops back to the region.
mike
At 04:48 PM 4/12/98 -0400, Greg Lindahl wrote:
>> As to the current debate of "spirit vs. letter". I agree with Captain
Arr,
>> and others, that the spirit of the Peace Accord [and all treaties] is more
>> important than the letter.
>
>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
>
>