After the Ashes: A Fire Nation Chancellor Quest

[digital2]

[X] "This is acceptable, general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days. Though, perhaps it would be wiser to only bring a single regiment into Caldera itself, the other hidden but near enough to reinforce. Ultimately, I leave it to your judgement."

[X] Plan: Interesting Times & Contacts
-[X] Contact should be established with collaborating earth kingdom individuals of influence to undermine the earth kings attempts at a unified demand for the territories return
-[X] Executions of prisoners should be halted pending review.
-[X] Looting should cease and discipline imposed upon those who continue.
-[X] Records should be verified to possess nothing that would imply dishonor.

 

[EagerListener]

Like, is there any particular reason we need to rely on Amari in particular to bring in troops to protect the capital? At the very least we should talk to Zuko about it so see if any alternative solution is possible.

 

[Limabot]

[X] "This is acceptable, general, but you should refrain from bringing soldiers into the capitol: such would make it appear as though we have something to fear."

While I would prefer to just trust Zuko and Aang on a moral level, I also know he is a very green leader, and thus needs to know all the facts beforehand so that he can take a coherent stance when it comes to peace negotiations.

[X] "They should fall back to positions better suited to sustaining a fighting defense; they should refrain from starting further trouble, but it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare them for it should the Earth Kingdom prove… less than receptive."

This would be good to allow Fire National soldiers to leave at least some Earth Kingdom territory without risking a major life-loosing rout.

[X] Plan: Interesting Times
-[X] "They should fall back to positions better suited to sustaining a fighting defense; they should refrain from starting further trouble, but it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare them for it should the Earth Kingdom prove… less than receptive."
-[X] Celebrations should be organized to celebrate the rise of Fire Lord Zuko.
-[X] Executions of prisoners should be halted pending review.
-[X] Looting should cease and discipline imposed upon those who continue.
-[X] Records should be preserved and kept in good order for review.

For the rest, this plan does basically everything I want from this.

 

[Randino Treviani]

Like, is there any particular reason we need to rely on Amari in particular to bring in troops to protect the capital? At the very least we should talk to Zuko about it so see if any alternative solution is possible.

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Zuko, is not familiar with individual regiments of the fire nation army, and cannot single out a veteran, loyal regiment from an easily corrupted conscript regiment. Amari gives us the best of the army working to protect the fire lord, and the rest of the army marching somewhat to our relative tune as things progress.

In general, it is not wise to back track and refuse to establish a power base with the military now that we have already passed on other options. There price at least aligns with our interests as a fire nation colonial, and squandering this chance we bought with the last vote will see us starting at a disadvantage.

 

[EagerListener]

Zuko, is not familiar with individual regiments of the fire nation army, and cannot single out a veteran, loyal regiment from an easily corrupted conscript regiment. Amari gives us the best of the army working to protect the fire lord, and the rest of the army marching somewhat to our relative tune as things progress.

In general, it is not wise to back track and refuse to establish a power base with the military now that we have already passed on other options. There price at least aligns with our interests as a fire nation colonial, and squandering this chance we bought with the last vote will see us starting at a disadvantage.

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Fair enough, there's really not a wellspring of people who would be particularly trustworthy or capable enough to carry out this task.

 

[Diadochi]

Unless I'm misunderstanding something don't we have to include the second vote as part of the plan ?

With that said I don't think Truth and contacts works?


I do really like the idea of working with prominent earth kindgdom individuals though. I am somewhat worried about doing it through the army but I guess they're the mechanism we have.

I will say during this time of uncertainty we probably really need to cement Zukos place as the firelord, both to work against coups from the militias, the military and to constrain Amari's options somewhat.


With that said I'll throw up this plan.

It doesn't immediately end the lootings but that should be something that should be somewhat mitigated by falling back to defensive positions. It will also make Zuko's control over the army more secure.

[X] Plan: Preparing for negotiations
-[X]"They should fall back to positions better suited to sustaining a fighting defense; they should refrain from starting further trouble, but it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare them for it should the Earth Kingdom prove… less than receptive."
-[X] Contact should be established with collaborating earth kingdom individuals of influence to undermine the earth kings attempts at a unified demand for the territories return
-[X] Executions of prisoners should be halted pending review.
-[X] Celebrations should be organized to celebrate the rise of Fire Lord Zuko.
-[X] Records should be preserved and kept in good order for review


In reguards to territorial claims. I think we need to support him to a certain extent if we're going to work with the army (which I do think we need to do) but we need to highlight that we need leeway to negotiate Zuko. Hopefully with this we can be a somewhat mediating force between Zuko and Amari.

Saying that I would put this slightly modified option up.

[X] "This is acceptable, general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days. I may need to give some ground on the occupied territories however. I will steer as much as I can but i worry perhaps if we push too far the Rudder will break. There has been enough tumultuousness in the leadership in recent days. I fear for the nation and if in trying to act in it's own good we will shatter it.



also I somewhat support this option by Mishar but I'm uncertain what it means for the new territories.

[X] "This is acceptable, general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days. With the caveat between you and I that we are secretly willing to give up the occupied lands if it will secure the old colonies for the Fire Nation."


edit I do think that hiding a force just outside of the capital is foolish, that large of a force will be noticed. It's presence just outside the capital will be questioned.

edit
[X] Plan: Interesting Times

 

[Limabot]

To comment on the voting, I personally dislike the idea of trying to sabotage the Earth Kingdom in trying to set up a United Front in retaking the Colonies. While I understand why it's being done from a realpolitik perspective, it just feels like kicking someone who's already down (especially with how economically and politically devastated the region already is) in the name of holding land that the Fire Nation will (at best) barely keep a third of.

 

[Medicus]

[X] "This is acceptable, general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days. Though, perhaps it would be wiser to only bring a single regiment into Caldera itself, the other hidden but near enough to reinforce. Ultimately, I leave it to your judgement."
[X] "They should fall back to positions better suited to sustaining a fighting defense; they should refrain from starting further trouble, but it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare them for it should the Earth Kingdom prove… less than receptive."

[X] Plan: Truth and Contacts

 

[Randino Treviani]

Unless I'm misunderstanding something don't we have to include the second vote as part of the plan ?

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We are supposed yes. Most likely the none plan votes for it are just going to be ignored.

With that said I don't think Truth and contacts works?

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It does. nothing in the plan is contradictory to it's other parts, even if the accurate records is a bit against the overall spirit of the bind ourselves to the military and work towards mutual goals that's the main thrust of the overall intent of the plan.

In reguards to territorial claims. I think we need to support him to a certain extent if we're going to work with the army (which I do think we need to do) but we need highlight that we need leeway to negotiate Zuko. Hopefully with this we can be a somewhat mediating force between Zuko and Amari.

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It really doesn't need to be highlighted. This is a man who has been the foremost military mind in the fire nation army for decades. He's handled negotiations from a position of power with an uncooperative fire lord at some point in that time. He understands that between foreign influence on the prince and pressure from the earth king things may not go as planned. It's better to leave such things unstated and allow the difficulties to make themselves apparent through his soldiers reports.

To comment on the voting, I personally dislike the idea of trying to sabotage the Earth Kingdom in trying to set up a United Front in retaking the Colonies. While I understand why it's being done from a realpolitik perspective, it just feels like kicking someone who's already down (especially with how economically and politically devastated the region already is) in the name of holding land that the Fire Nation will (at best) barely keep a third of.

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We have voted to play a colonial fire nation citizen with a personal interest in the colonies being retained, and have just spent our golden opportunity to get some manner of faction on our side aligning with a military similarly interested in retaining the colonies.

At this point, looking to undermine the earth king interested in reclaiming those colonies for the sake of pride and spite, is simply in character exploitation of the same divisions which have kept the earth kingdom from repelling the fire nation in the first place.

On a meta level, the earth kingdom is going to descend into a state of internal strife and administrative neglect anyways do to the lowered faith in their leaders over these last 5 years of war with the exception of Bumi. Where just speeding it up for an easier, less conflict defined resolution, in which we overturn most of their land claims in favor of financial restitution and technological uplifting.

Dark Red = Old Colonies
Red = New Territories
Orange = Occupied Lands

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As we see here, the occupied lands fall a little short of 50% of Continental fire nation controlled regions. Keeping the old and new territories would be aiming to keep half, and give up other things instead. Things which will help the earth nation more than a group of slightly rebellious regions and a pride wounded fire nation military, especially since they'd only fight over them amongst themselves once they begin to squabble amongst themselves.

 

[Limabot]

We have voted to play a colonial fire nation citizen with a personal interest in the colonies being retained, and have just spent our golden opportunity to get some manner of faction on our side aligning with a military similarly interested in retaining the colonies.

At this point, looking to undermine the earth king interested in reclaiming those colonies for the sake of pride and spite, is simply in character exploitation of the same divisions which have kept the earth kingdom from repelling the fire nation in the first place.

On a meta level, the earth kingdom is going to descend into a state of internal strife and administrative neglect anyways do to the lowered faith in their leaders over these last 5 years of war with the exception of Bumi. Where just speeding it up for an easier, less conflict defined resolution, in which we overturn most of their land claims in favor of financial restitution and technological uplifting.

As we see here, the occupied lands fall a little short of 50% of Continental fire nation controlled regions. Keeping the old and new territories would be aiming to keep half, and give up other things instead. Things which will help the earth nation more than a group of slightly rebellious regions and a pride wounded fire nation military, especially since they'd only fight over them amongst themselves once they begin to squabble amongst themselves.

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Putting aside how this is not a Villain quest (not right now, at least), actively destabilizing the Earth Kingdom in a time when it's already near its breaking point and keeping the New Territories are pretty terrible both from a moral and strategic perspective.

Not only having a bunch of smoldering warlord states at the border and New Territories with an angry majority be bad for long-term stability, it also feels bizarrely evil for a quest where we are (at least nominally) supposed to be helping ensure the first non-evil Fire Lord in a century can get rid of all the fascism without dying; the deliberate destabilization feels way too much like divide-and-conquer strategies used by imperialists to cripple native resistance, and the New Territories are literally Africa-style extraction colonies run by people who deliberately gave their bondservants crippling drug addictions to prevent revolt. Just giving out some tech and reparations are decent steps, but are not going to be enough to help anything if the Earth Kingdom breaks apart, especially at the hands of active destabilization. People aren't really going to get much value out of industry and capital if it's all being used by warlords to kill their rivals.

For a more meta thing, while I understand the appeal of being in-character as someone who lives in a proto-fascist state and believes at least some of what it hawked, it feels to me a bit like some people here are getting too deep into character, to the point where they seem to be losing sight of just how horrible the Fire Nation's "civilizing the world" dogma has been to everything and everyone. It may just be me, but the prospect of playing a character who is actively trying to ensure a genocidal empire gets away with everything basically scot-free (even if meta-knowledge says their doomed to fail) sounds deeply unappealing to me.

 

[Diadochi]

To comment on the voting, I personally dislike the idea of trying to sabotage the Earth Kingdom in trying to set up a United Front in retaking the Colonies. While I understand why it's being done from a realpolitik perspective, it just feels like kicking someone who's already down (especially with how economically and politically devastated the region already is) in the name of holding land that the Fire Nation will (at best) barely keep a third of.

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We're not (just) sabotaging the Earth Kingdom. We're also giving those who would be unrepresented by either side a voice in the negotiations.

t does. nothing in the plan is contradictory to it's other parts, even if the accurate records is a bit against the overall spirit of the bind ourselves to the military and work towards mutual goals that's the main thrust of the overall intent of the plan.

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I more meant because it doesn't include the strategic posture of the army as part of the plan ?

It really doesn't need to be highlighted. This is a man who has been the foremost military mind in the fire nation army for decades. He's handled negotiations from a position of power with an uncooperative fire lord at some point in that time. He understands that between foreign influence on the prince and pressure from the earth king things may not go as planned. It's better to leave such things unstated and allow the difficulties to make themselves apparent through his soldiers reports.

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It feels like even though it doesn't need to be stated it probably should be. As I would argue the statement itself is less about material realities but instead about how our mc is viewing them. Better to make clear where she stands in regards to them and what her lines in the sand are.

Specifically in regards to how far how she'll go when "managing" the firelord.

 

[Randino Treviani]

Putting aside how this is not a Villain quest (not right now, at least), actively destabilizing the Earth Kingdom in a time when it's already near its breaking point and keeping the New Territories are pretty terrible both from a moral and strategic perspective.

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No, it's not a villain quest, it's a politician quest, in which we are a character with a mix of nationalism and seperate colonial identity and very personal interests which we aim to pursue while not betraying our rightful ruler, without which our character, as established in quest canon, would be fine with the national endeavor, or war, continuing.

It is also distinctly not a fire nation redemption by falling on our swords for the other nations by submitting to claims made more of wounded pride than compassion and with general indifference to the people in the lands themselves.

It's going to break anyways. If we sided with financial and traded all but the oldest colonies without struggle it would still fall, to the very internal strife and administrative neglect that plagued it before and after Avatar Kyoshi. The new territories are decades integrated rather than over a century integrated. It's very morally grey to hand them over to a nation primed to begin falling apart and have it's people fight over them internally should we hand them over, and very strategically foolish to tick off that much of the fire nation military and turn them against the peace by making it personally detrimental for them.

Not only having a bunch of smoldering warlord states at the border and New Territories with an angry majority be bad for long-term stability, it also feels bizarrely evil for a quest where we are (at least nominally) supposed to be helping ensure the first non-evil Fire Lord in a century can get rid of all the fascism without dying;

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We are here to support Zuko yes, but not to support him unconditionally, or to support him at great cost to the part of the fire nation we personally hail from. This is a fire nation chancellor quest. It's a lot more than just a help Zuko resolve the war as fast as possible quest or a zuko and us against the corrupt fire nation quest. The voters are actively in the process of voting for it to be more than that.

We've chosen for the race supremacists to be first on the chopping block, but we've also sided with the military, including the previous generation of soldiers who have settled in the new territories with there emigrated families. This is very much not as black and white as the show likes to paint things. This is where our choice thus far have brought us.

It may just be me, but the prospect of playing a character who is actively trying to ensure a genocidal empire gets away with everything basically scot-free (even if meta-knowledge says their doomed to fail) sounds deeply unappealing to me.

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We aren't going to be pushing to keep everything. Try to read between the lines a little better. Obviously, reparations need to be paid, and need to be big, where simply aiming to hold onto the territories and offload the burden of reparations elsewhere, like the supremacists coffers. Retain the territories but provide them with wealth, technology, and manpower for reconstruction that will mean more for the citizens rather than for the petty, divided lords above them.

We're not (just) sabotaging the fire nation. We're also giving those who would be unrepresented by eitehr side a voice in the negotiations.

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Precisely. There is an entire generation of military and fire nation citizens with lives and families in those territories, who we are becoming an advocate for within the fire nation's court

I more meant because it doesn't include the strategic posture of the army as part of the plan ?

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Huh. That's weird. It was before I think. 🤔

@Night_stalker @jwolfe_beta please integrate the following into plan Truth and Contract, in accordance with the voting guidelines outlined by the qm in the post following the most recent threadmark.

[] "They should fall back to positions better suited to sustaining a fighting defense; they should refrain from starting further trouble, but it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare them for it should the Earth Kingdom prove… less than receptive."

 

[Travler66]

[X] "This is acceptable, general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days."

[X] Plan: Truth and Contacts

 

[Randino Treviani]

[X] "They should fall back to positions better suited to sustaining a fighting defense; they should refrain from starting further trouble, but it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare them for it should the Earth Kingdom prove… less than receptive."

[X] Celebrations should be organized to celebrate the rise of Fire Lord Zuko.
[X] A freeze on communications between local officers should be implemented.
[X] Executions of prisoners should be halted pending review.
[X] Records should be preserved and kept in good order for review.

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All of this, needs to be formatted into a plan vote, in accordance with the voting guidelines set down by the QM in a post immediately after the thread Mark.

[X] "This is acceptable, general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days. Though, perhaps it would be wiser to only bring a single regiment into Caldera itself, the other hidden but near enough to reinforce. Ultimately, I leave it to your judgement."

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Please give my agreement write in due consideration.

 

[Temes1066]

[X] "This is acceptable, general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days."

[X] Plan: Truth and Contacts
-[X] "They should fall back to positions better suited to sustaining a fighting defense; they should refrain from starting further trouble, but it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare them for it should the Earth Kingdom prove… less than receptive."
-[X] Contact should be established with collaborating earth kingdom individuals of influence to undermine the earth kings attempts at a unified demand for the territories return
-[X] Executions of prisoners should be halted pending review.
-[X] Looting should cease and discipline imposed upon those who continue.
-[X] Records should be preserved and kept in good order for review.

They view you as an imposition, a degenerate mongrel whore plucked from the colonies by the eunuch and the boffin so they can cling to the coattails of a treacherous usurper for a few moments longer.

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Which of our "friends" is the Boffin and which is the Eunuch?

 

[Randino Treviani]

[X] "They should fall back to positions better suited to sustaining a fighting defense; they should refrain from starting further trouble, but it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare them for it should the Earth Kingdom prove… less than receptive."

Click to shrink...

This part.

-[X] Contact should be established with collaborating earth kingdom individuals of influence to undermine the earth kings attempts at a unified demand for the territories return
-[X] Executions of prisoners should be halted pending review.
-[X] Looting should cease and discipline imposed upon those who continue.
-[X] Records should be preserved and kept in good order for review.

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Should really be incorporated into this plan vote

the first vote, the one relating to his deal, should be voted on freely. The second and third vote, those relating to the strategic posture of the army, should be handled in a plan vote as they directly relate to one another.

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In accordance with the QMs directions. I've mentioned this to others voting for plan truth and contact already over this same issue.

Which of our "friends" is the Boffin and which is the Eunuch?

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I believe Qin is the Eunuch, being a man who loves his trade and little else, while Saojo is the Boffin.

 

[wildwill]

[X] "This is acceptable, general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days."
[X] Plan: Interesting Times
-[X] "They should fall back to positions better suited to sustaining a fighting defense; they should refrain from starting further trouble, but it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare them for it should the Earth Kingdom prove… less than receptive."
-[X] Celebrations should be organized to celebrate the rise of Fire Lord Zuko.
-[X] Executions of prisoners should be halted pending review.
-[X] Looting should cease and discipline imposed upon those who continue.
-[X] Records should be preserved and kept in good order for review.

 

[jwolfe_beta]

please integrate the following into plan Truth and Contract

Click to shrink...

Done, thanks for that.

 

[Temes1066]

Should really be incorporated into this plan vote

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It is in a plan vote

 

[IamtooSleepy]

In my opinion, the choice of whatever to bring in the regiments is choice between whatever we intend to "keep the peace" by either (1) mobilisation of as much loyalist as possible in the capital to either scare the opposition from seizing power militarily or be able to oppose it or (2) reducing the pressure on those opposition to minimise the chance that they will start a rebellion because they thought they are going to get purged.

The "bring one regiment in, leave the other hidden nearby" is an attempt to balance these two concerns that I fear will result in failure. Even putting a single regiment is already likely to put domestic force into panic since they will see it as direct attempt to replace them. In that case, it would be imperative that any possible uprising be crush immediately through overwhelming force to minimise the damage to Firelord's legitimacy and the window of opportunity for other disloyal force outside the capital rebel. In such circumstance, the time it take for the other regiment to arrived might be the different between whatever we hold or lost the capital. The only way I see this work out is as an extremely high-risk high-reward strategy as an attempt to lure disloyal forces into rebellion while betting on the other regiment to be able to join the fight in time.

Given that we have move against the Yamaha's domestic force in the most direct possible way, I fear they will attempt to start armed conflict anyway, as such, while the move might implied that we have an weakness, which is a problem of it's own, the fact is that we need as many people we can trust to not depose Zuko as possible in the capital.

[X] "This is acceptable, general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days."

As for the rest, everyone already agreed on defensive posture and I have no opposition against that. I do wish to point out that the 4 actions we can take are pertaining to the military not a general actions. Attempting to reach out to influential Earthen folk seem to be under mandate of either Colonial, External Relation, or Foreign Intelligence, none of which we can particularly trust to do it job correctly, given the personality of their ministers. I also not quite sure if the army which so far focused on organised looting of occupied territory as much as actual fighting will be able to do something as delicate as an attempt to create civil support base for an extremely oppressive imperial regime.

[X] Plan: Interesting Times

 

[Sleech]

[X] "This is acceptable, general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days."

[X] Plan: Truth and Contacts
-[X] "They should fall back to positions better suited to sustaining a fighting defense; they should refrain from starting further trouble, but it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare them for it should the Earth Kingdom prove… less than receptive."
-[X] Contact should be established with collaborating earth kingdom individuals of influence to undermine the earth kings attempts at a unified demand for the territories return
-[X] Executions of prisoners should be halted pending review.
-[X] Looting should cease and discipline imposed upon those who continue.
-[X] Records should be preserved and kept in good order for review.

 

[Aliya]

[X] "This is acceptable, general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days."

[X] Plan: Truth and Contacts

 

[Randino Treviani]

The "bring one regiment in, leave the other hidden nearby" is an attempt to balance these two concerns that I fear will result in failure. Even putting a single regiment is already likely to put domestic force into panic since they will see it as direct attempt to replace them. In that case, it would be imperative that any possible uprising be crush immediately through overwhelming force to minimise the damage to Firelord's legitimacy and the window of opportunity for other disloyal force outside the capital rebel. In such circumstance, the time it take for the other regiment to arrived might be the different between whatever we hold or lost the capital. The only way I see this work out is as an extremely high-risk high-reward strategy as an attempt to lure disloyal forces into rebellion while betting on the other regiment to be able to join the fight in time.

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The idea is to limit the disruption to Caldera by not flooding the city with too many soldiers, without putting Zuko at risk if the Supremacists are actually foolish enough to still attack.

Though the latter idea would be a brilliant pay off if they were to attack. Frankly either any kind of veteran force is going to deter an attack, or their always going to attack. Them attacking and being cut off and encircled by reinforcements would be preferable to them retreating to potentially flee the fire nation and cause problems in the colonies or earth kingdom, but ultimately I am hoping to avoid looking to weak and keep the number of soldiers to a minimum, and the option does leave the final choice in the generals hands.

 

[Model DC.14F]

[X] "This is acceptable, general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days. Though, perhaps it would be wiser to only bring a single regiment into Caldera itself, the other hidden but near enough to reinforce. Ultimately, I leave it to your judgement."

[X] Plan: Interesting Times

 

[BoSPaladin]

[X] Write In
-[X] "Excellent. The two regiments publicly swearing Loyalty to the Fire Lord will discourage opportunists, and also set him at ease that these troops are for his own protection and do much to help remind him that loyalty flows both ways. Thank you for your support general; I will ensure he understands the situation and stress the importance of retaining the territories in these coming days." (as accepting, but with the Caveat that the troops publicly swear to Serve Zuko, something which will also be of use to remind Zuko that his Troops, who've fought and bled for the fire nation, deserve the rewards they have earned.)
[X]Plan Pausing the frontlines to allow proper negotiations.
-[X] "They should fall back to positions better suited to sustaining a fighting defense; they should refrain from starting further trouble, but it would be irresponsible of us not to prepare them for it should the Earth Kingdom prove… less than receptive."
--[X] Executions of prisoners should be halted pending review.
--[X] Looting should cease and discipline imposed upon those who continue.
--[X] Records should be preserved and kept in good order for review.
--[X] Write In
---[X] Contact should be established with individual earth kingdom states to undermine the earth kings attempts at a unified demand for the territories return

So, yes, the two regiments in the Capital to secure it is a good idea. Let's have them publicly swear Loyalty to Zuko. This effects not only other figures within the military who might seek to make a play, but also gives us a lever to say to Zuko that, you know, these troops are loyal to you, and you will need their support in order to see off the warmongers who'd want to continue the war. But that does mean accepting some realities, that like, troops need pay, and not only that, but that it is much easier to reward them if we can hold onto land to parcel out for their retirements.

Stopping executions and looting are both good. And preserving records. So that we can make very good arguments that "Here is where the borders are. We acted in good faith to end hostilities so that negotiations can go forwards. But that, *if* we're attacked and our troops defend themselves, we're not the aggressor, any earth kingdom attackers were well inside fire nation borders and would be well justified in defending themselves.

Also. Slight edit to the writein about influential individuals and collaborators. Whom the earth king would be incentivised to paint as traitors and so on. As much as possible, I'd want to negotiate with the earth kingdom states and provinces. So that if we're able to secure any ceasefires and so on, they have actual officials signing off on it and a deeper weight of legality.

All in all. Secure the capitol and the fire lords safety (and our own position) (while also taking some steps to tie the general and his troops to Zuko's admin.) And yeah, the Generals requests aren't unreasonable. I think we can throw our support behind keeping at least some of the colonies and claimed territory.

To that end, a good faith effort to end hostilities, and in particular the executions of any prisoners now that they're no longer enemy combatants in a war, but instead 'criminals' and earth kingdom nationals who can be returned to the earth kingdom, or otherwise handled gently. Records, where the borders were/are exactly. What the troops have been and are doing, and if there were any abuses having those ready so that those responsible can be punished to the Avatars satisfaction rather than the fire nation as a whole taking the blame for any dishonourable wartime conduct. And, yeah. The support of the people of the colonies, but also, let's make the end of the war official with messengers to the neighbouring provinces. The actual negotiations can be worked on. If/what gets given up by the fire nation. But we do want to get the first word in such as it was, that, the fire nation won't be expanding further. And if we can get any nearby earth kingdom provinces and states to agree to the end of the war and the current borders, it strengthens our hand in future negotiations relating to what, exactly we may end up offering in concessions.