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PE-WJ-Diplo [James Howlett]: TS Intentions
Date:Tue, 22 Feb 2005 15:47:36 +0000

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I've gotten several messages concerning the intentions of our new
alliance.  I just want to assure any leaders that have peace treaties
with us that you have nothing to fear.  If you'd like to extend any
treaties with us you have at this time then I'm sure all of The
Specialists would be willing to do so.  I'll shortly be sending out
personal messages to each of my border nations that have a peace
treaty expiring any time soon.

The issue with Bantumi is more of a policing action than anything
else.  Well before Nincompoop had any conflict with Acanthopis he
reported to me that Bantumi had tried to extort regions and/or troops
from him in exchange for peace.  Later on in a conversation with
Acanthopis I found that Bantumi had tried to do the same thing to him.
One was a smaller nation and one a bigger nation so there didn't seem
to be any rhyme or reason.  I'm sure that Nincompoop and Acanthopis
will confirm Bantumi's attempts at extortion.  I'm not sure but I have
to suspect that he has tried this with at least some of his other
neighbors as well.

After finding all of this out, Bantumi attacked a region belonging to
Nincompoop which gave him a border with me.  In the 5 turns since he
took that region he has never contacted me in any way until I attacked
him this past turn.  I broke no treaties and neither will any of my
allies.

I hope this clears things up for some if not all.

James


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PE-WJ-Diplo [Aachaan]: Region Claim
Date:Tue, 22 Feb 2005 19:03:52 +0000

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Since it would appear that the Lord of fire has abandoned his people,
the Darokin Republic lays claim to the region of Black City in order
to prevent the lands from falling into chaos.  If the fiery lord
returns, we will gladly return the region and compensate any losses.

	Aachaan of Darokin



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PE-WJ-Diplo [Bantumi]: RE: TS intentions
Date:Tue, 22 Feb 2005 20:12:55 +0000

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I would like to state my position regarding TS invading me.

First of all I would like to stress that I had no contact with
Nincompoop before Acanthopis has declared war to him. By saying no
contact I mean, that I got no messages from him and didn’t send
any to him as well, also I didn’t attack him and didn’t
get attacked by him. So the claim James makes that I have tried to
extort something from Nincompoop for peace is a lie. I have attacked
Nincompoop only after Acanthopis declared war to him. My reasons were
simple – I did not want to have neighbor I could not trust and I
wanted to lay a foundation for good future relationships with
Acanthopis by helping him. Note that I did not want to grow by using
this war; I had plenty of unexplored regions so it would be cheaper to
grow by using them.

Secondly regarding misunderstanding with Acanthopis. I really asked
him to give me five units in return for peace. But the only reason I
did it was because Acanthopis said that he will accept any
non-aggression pact. So I did it more as an experiment to see what a
stronger nation is willing to do in order to make peace with me. The
Acanthopis disagreed and I did not threaten him, or attacked. I simply
left things as they were. Now I see that this act of mine scared him
off and put me into situation I am now. I would also like to add that
we have cleared things out with Acanthopis and I hope he will publicly
confirm my words.

Thirdly I did get border with James and did not contact him. He did
not contact me as well. I believe that TS had no real reason to invade
me. Yes I made mistakes – I neglected politics. But to be fair,
I was fair.

So finally, I would like to publicly propose truce to TS. I had no
intention to attack them and see no real reason for them to attack me.
Maybe it is not too late to settle things using diplomacy. In the mean
time I shall defend myself.

Bantumi



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PE-WJ-Diplo [Acanthopis]: Oh my!
Date:Tue, 22 Feb 2005 22:46:10 +0000

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Dear World,

I try to keep these public notes to a minimum, but it seems that
things have gotten quite crazy over the last few days. You should see
my private e-mails: half the world wanting to make alliances against
TS, and when I refuse to join anybody, people getting quite upset with
me. I am being called all kinds of names now, by people who just a few
days ago wanted to make deals about supporting each other to the
death. It's enough to make a snake's head spin...

So, first, let me make something clear to everyone. I do not want to
join an alliance right now. I have nothing against any of you--I like
all of my neighbors except Nincompoop, but I just feel like being on
my own for a little while. I quite agree with you all that this may
relegate me to insignificance at some point in the near future when we
have two or more great alliances battling it out, but I would like to
pursue a different model. At some point later on if I am still
relevant I may propose an alliance, but not for some time yet. If you
all make alliances and I am left out, no problem: that's my fault.
Still, don't berate me for being stupid. Trust me to understand my own
self interest, and if I want to ignore it then just forget about me.

No alliances for Acanthopis. The world should be so simple.

Next, Bantumi rightly asks that I explain myself. OK. So, look,
Bantumi gets under my skin. It's probably no fault of his own, and in
his defense he has been quite nice to me lately. I have no beef with
Bantumi. Still, I regarded his actions in all of my early dealings
with him to be entirely one-sided. I began to consider Bantumi as a
potential threat, because it seemed to me like he was itching for an
excuse to pick a fight with me. My geopolitical motivation is to
neutralize threats. I considered Nincompoop to be a threat, so I put
my reputation on the line to remove him from my borders. I am working
on that now. People can agree with my decision or disagree, but I gave
public notice and acted as I said I was going to. Anyway, I had no
intention of letting Bantumi goad me into a fight, but I wanted to
make sure that I had my bases covered in case he got aggressive. So, I
contacted some members of TS (well before they had formed an alliance)
and asked: if Bantumi invades me, will you help me repel him. And I
explained why I was afraid that he might invade me.

Now, I never attacked him, nor did I consider it, nor did I look for
an alliance to attack him. All of my concerns were based upon fears,
and I do not consider them sufficient to start a war. I am not about
to go before the world and say "I am scared of Bantumi and so I am
attacking him", because I think a lot of people would then see me as a
loose cannon and quite rightly build an alliance against me. I will
make sure to have lots of options if I am attacked, but that doesn't
mean that I am going to go on the offensive.

So, what do I think about the TS "police action"? I just alienated
half of my friends, let me alienate the other half. I think that we're
all adults here and we understand that this is an offensive war
intended to acquire property. TS members may be ticked that I say that
publicly, but I can assure them that this is the general impression of
all of us bystanders, and I imagine that if they look deep into their
own hearts they will agree that it is a fair assessment. No problem:
you pick on folks who you think you can take. Everyone in this world
is going to be looking on to see what TS does next. I don't think that
they are strong enough that they can just choose to pick off another
victim after Bantumi, because that would cause panic among us
unaligned nations, and they'd surely have massive war on their hands.
Or, at least, they'd have to fear that. But it will be interesting to
see if Bantumi can work out a peace or build a sufficient
counter-alliance.

I will make one final statement, and I am making it publicly so that
people can judge me as they wish for it. That is that if any of my
neighbors become so weakened by invasion that they cease to be a
viable force, then I will join in the battle against them unless I
have explicitly promised not to do so. This applies to my TS
neighbors, it applies to Bantumi, and everybody else at this point. I
am not going to sit by and watch as another nation picks you apart and
grows strong off of the aggression. I am also not going to go to the
mat to defend another nation that I may or may not particularly like.
When you are beyond hope, I will confer with you (to let you make the
case that you still have some fight left in you or your alliance), and
then attack your regions, either with your permission or, after a
warning, without. I have thought a lot about this policy, and I know
that it will anger many. Still, I would only expect the same from my
neighbors, especially my friends.

I actually consider this to be something of an impediment to attack:
if you attack and destroy a neighbor of mine, you will be making me
stronger as well. Who the heck would ever want to do that; especially
now that I've said bad things about everybody! 

Don't get me wrong, though: I think this world needs more war. I am a
snake, after all, and enjoy the carnage.

-- Acanthopis