I feel like we're talking a lot about solutions to theoretical or extrapolated problems. Unless my memory is being terrible again, as far as I know we haven't actually investigated enough of Nordland's stuff, so we don't really know for sure what the exact problems there might be, or how they might be solved.
Maybe we should use the EIC to investigate stuff? Even if you're in the "i dont care about Nordland, I just want to focus on the Waystone Project" camp, I feel like it would be wise to learn how much of a threat the Nordland/Laurelorn tensions may pose to the Project.
I don't think this is a secret.
The Grand Baron is upset because Laurelorn drove his subjects from their homes, killing some of them in the process, and cut off a very important source of income. Nordland is not a rich province, and the loss of those illegal settlements
hurt.
The powerful and hostile Elector Count of Middenland then proceeded to publicly humiliate the Grand Baron using elvish records that provided evidence of treaty violations. The Grand Baron lost respect and status among his peers, who now see him as a man who broke a treaty, lied about it, and tried to get the rest of the Empire to fix a problem he created.
In this case, the law is quite simple. The strong do as they like, and the weak suffer what they must. Once Middenland decided to support Laurelorn, it became possible for the Eonir to remove the illegal settlements. Nordland would have a dubious chance against Laurelorn alone; with Middenland on the side of the Eonir, the Grand Baron didn't have a chance. His only hope was to call upon his peers, who were less than enthusiastic about sending soldiers to aid a treaty-breaker in a war of choice.
Innocent people died, and more innocent people were driven from their homes. Peasants and cityfolk who didn't live beyond the border suffered and are suffering as a result. But common people don't have the power to do anything about this, and the Elector Counts are not themselves elected. They don't have to care about the hardships of the peasantry.
The reason I think the Eonir should have been hard-liners from the very beginning is that the Imperial nobility do not worry about a few dead peasants. I suspect the Grand Baron cares very much about the loss of money, possibly even more about the loss of respect, and very little about the widows and orphans of lumberjacks. Hindsight is 20/20, and the elves were trying to solve problems through negotiation, but sadly they probably would have seen better results if they just shot the first man to build a house on the wrong side of the river.
... You can report things after they happened. Isn't that great?
Large-scale lumber operations are not commando raids.
It is possible for a bold and skilled lumberjack to sneak across the river, cut down a tree, and try to bring it back. If he's good and lucky, he could make it. But the Eonir could and did tolerate that kind of minor treaty violation for centuries. They didn't want to lose the trees, but it wasn't that big a deal to them.
The real problem started when the peasants realized that the treaty wasn't being enforced, so they could cross over the river and create permanent logging camps. Those logging camps become villages, and some of the villages became towns, and eventually "a tree every now and then" became a cornerstone of Nordland's economy.
A permanent settlement can cut down far more trees than a few frightened men sneaking across the river in a boat. Even if the Eonir don't absolutely halt all logging operations, they can reduce them to the point that trees are replaced more rapidly than they're being lost. Mission accomplished.
Again, a logging camp is not
sneaky. A permanent village is obvious to literally anyone with eyes. The Eonir are able and willing to kill as many peasants as necessary to preserve their defense system. This is obviously not a kind or a good solution, since the lumberjacks are only trying to feed their families, but it is a solution.
