And you will note that they spent the last 10k years slow-boating it to the current era in quasi-hibernation getting to look at everything going to shit in fast-forward. Please keep in mind that the MTA is a 28K Nation in 40K.
Nope. A major part of their currently dominant interpretation of their faith is that All Sophonts Deserve Their Dignity Enshrined. Yo offering to take the humans "should they give you trouble" was perceived as you saying "you cannot follow through on a Major Tenet of your faith" by the Diplomats there. Count into that part that the majority of humans currently in the sub-sector knew either Chaos or the Mashan when not under a Human Government, and there just hasn't been any incidents without Chaos involved.
Again. Diplomats. Cross-Species Psychology and Language Barriers. Diplomacy. People do be saying stuff to get shit.
This just strikes me as terrible diplomats on both sides. Unless this is showboating so they can use the leverage gained for "forgiving the insult" to get us to make concessions elsewhere. That's the lens we need to be looking at things through.
Any diplomat approaching an alien species that knows very little about them (which
both of our sides should have) should be capable of finding out their basic tenants of civilization (especially when we
do have basic information on them) and couching terms appropriately. Similarly, diplomats being insulted that we wanted to triple-check they weren't going to mistreat people is silly, since it's so easily explained by us not understanding their culture.
If anything, us asking to ensure that they're going to treat people well should be a point for us, because it was high up on our priority list and that means we share values with them.
They aren't tho? This is their First Salvo to get you to back down and for them to gain MAXIMUM GAINZ.
And since everybody's got their dick now on the table with the hammers out, people can start arguing more calmly about what they want and how.
Like people already suggested, you can now apologize for a misstep and offer context, argue about legalities, needle for minor concessions to get greater ones once you let them fall, and all the wonderful wonderous things diplomats do that make everyone mad they didn't get everytthing but not mad enough to start a war because they got enough.
This is an important point to get across. This is them being maximally aggressive. We don't need to cave here. They're
intentionally downplaying how much we helped in order to justify why they should get more shinys. That's not being mean, that's realpolitik. We need to turn around and play that too if we don't want to get walked over now, and get a reputation for being easy to walk over in the future.
We're not shooting at each other, but we're not allied and don't have a history of friendship. That comes later.
One other point to add - WE KILLED THE CHAOS LORD. US. NOT THEM. US. (or at least our god did. Whatever). That alone qualifies us for a seat at the table.
Edit: QM word is that we don't know we did this, boo. Still, we can claim credit for killing off a major chaos sorcerer.
How about this?
[] Plan: Context and Acceptable Compromise
-[] First, apologize to the Mashan delegation for the unintended insult. And give some context about why the Federation offered what it did (the general poor state of the galaxy in terms of shit being fucked)
-[] Second, give context for the Federation's entry into the war into 621- the Neon Protectorate and its fall and the sheer slog that it had been to push through to 621.
-[] Third, explain the origin of the Federation and its relationship with the Lamenters space marine chapter.
-[] The Federation proposes the following compromise:
--[] Offer a compromise for Yivv system- the Shipwrights Alliance can have claim and control over Love's Huff and Broken Line but the Federation claims control over the planet Fixxy and Tom. This is in part to try to learn how to cleanse and reclaim territory that had been so corrupted by the Enemy.
--[] Support the Mashan Authority's compromise offer over Murrs.
--[] Support Weznicritt and Kalikrax being returned to the Shipwrights Alliance
--[] Offer civilian trade agreement between the Shipwrights' Alliance and the Glimmering Federation.
--[] Set up embassies in the Federation by both the Shipwrights' Alliance and the Glimmering Federation.
--[] Zentraneum will be a Federation Protectorate, but in exchange, the Federation will offer to help repair the damage on the Shipwrights' Alliance worlds caused by Chaos.
Far,
far too permissive. This will mean they try to walk us over from here on out. We could
beat the shipwright's alliance in a war, this is them puffing themselves up to get us to back down.
[] Plan: No. And Yes.
-[] Straight up refuse all demands for Yivv. Have the Temple Authority back you, or try to win their support in this.
-[] Similarly, Zentraneum is not theirs, even if it's not yours either in the sense of exploitation.
-[] Sure, I suppose you (Alliance) can have Weznicritt and Kalikrax.
-[] Civilian Trade with Shipwright's Good.
-[] Embassy with both good.
-[] The Temple Authority can have Murrs, they've offered the better price, also suggest them backing our insistence on holding Yivv and the neutrality/protectorate stuff with Zentraneum, or at least try to use the agreement to surrender Murrs to them to spur cooperation.
Much better.
I would also push for both us & the Temple Authority to each get a planet of Weznicritt. They can have Kalikrax. I'm happy to offer ISC help with this, it would be nice to actually partner with these guys later on and the best way that happens is if we build up trust and partnerships with them over time. A closed border just makes war more likely in the future, which is a point that we should be able to get across.
[] Plan: Yes, but Actually No.
-[] First, apologize to the Mashan delegation for the unintended insult. And give some context about why the Federation offered what it did (the general poor state of the galaxy in terms of shit being fucked). Then politely ask for trade contacts, especially with the context of our ISCs.
-[] Second, give context for the Federation's entry into the war into 621- the Neon Protectorate and its fall and the sheer slog that it had been to push through to 621, as well as outlining the fleet & ground force commitments that were made. In that context, we
were a major player in the war.
-[] Third, explain the origin of the Federation and its relationship with the Lamenters space marine chapter, as well as our continued support of them over the centuries (including the provision of stealth ships to even reach the Shipwright's guild).
-[] Fourth, we killed a major chaos sorcerer as he tried to infiltrate our holy places.
-[] All of that said, Straight up refuse all demands for Yivv. Have the Temple Authority back you, or try to win their support in this. Similarly, Zentraneum is not theirs, even if it's not yours either in the sense of exploitation.
-[] The Alliance can have Kalikrax, and at least half of Weznicritt.
-[] Propose that each of the Temple Authority & Federation gain a world in Weznicritt, but in return offer help from the ISCs the turn after next. The stated purpose here is to build up goodwill, knowledge and dependency to encourage harmonious existence and prevent war that would only hurt our peoples.
-[] Civilian Trade with Shipwright's is good, and should proceed.
-[] Embassy with both good.
-[] The Temple Authority can have Murrs, they've offered the better price, also suggest them backing our insistence on holding Yivv and the neutrality/protectorate stuff with Zentraneum, or at least try to use the agreement to surrender Murrs to them to spur cooperation.
