Who Needs Harmony?: An MLP Empire Quest
- Thread starter Questor
- Start date
- Location
- Rapidly approaching your location.
- Pronouns
- Any/Morb
Well said! A slave/personnel retrieval squad option would be pretty cool. The brave people of our nation who go into hostile territory to free those who are bound. Sort of bloodless.
We could make it international, getting the other nations into this slave freeing operation!
*hatches bunch of mission impossible-esque forays into Maretonia to strategically weaken the grip of slavers and free our people!
- Location
- Italia
[X] Bear Any Burden
[X] Bear Any Burden
I would much rather invest these 5000 Gold into Intrigue Actions (Plus "Hiring Koryu's Illusionists" as a Diplomacy Action): Have a few (or more than a few) of the Slave-Owning Nobles assassinated (we know the worst from our spy briefings), frame other Slave-Owning Nobles for it if we can (that's where the Illusionists come in, in addition to infiltration and exfiltration) and start a minor civil war within the Pro-Slave-Ownership camp. Enough for the Queen to step in (and the greatest resistance to her is conveniently found dead) and giving us a stronger position of negotioation (maybe compose a list of all the days they died on, and the causes of death)
I would much rather invest these 5000 Gold into Intrigue Actions (Plus "Hiring Koryu's Illusionists" as a Diplomacy Action): Have a few (or more than a few) of the Slave-Owning Nobles assassinated (we know the worst from our spy briefings), frame other Slave-Owning Nobles for it if we can (that's where the Illusionists come in, in addition to infiltration and exfiltration) and start a minor civil war within the Pro-Slave-Ownership camp. Enough for the Queen to step in (and the greatest resistance to her is conveniently found dead) and giving us a stronger position of negotioation (maybe compose a list of all the days they died on, and the causes of death)
- Location
- Texas
For the retrieval we send captain kaboom and have him leave a crater in the market square.
- Location
- Moon-Station
[X] Bear Any Burden
It's possible their laws have some ridiculous war council-trick where the power is actually delegated to chosen noble generals so their main leader can focus on keeping the nation running, or something similar.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
If they go to war lead by a committee...
Ok now that i have had a bit more time to go over what we got on them I think i've got an understanding of whats going on here breaking it down
1. Political power struggle
Maretonia is currently in the middle of a massive political power struggle between the centralists, i.e. the queen and her supporters, and the non-centralists, i.e. the stronger nobles. this struggle is their primary focus at the moment over everything and everyone else. which brings me to 2.
2. both slavery as an institution and our diplomatic relations are being used in 1.
Slavery is a major issue for the maretonians as its a major source of power for the nobility and to a much lesser extent the queen herself. as such the nobles are trying to enforce slavery by any means necessary while the queen is either trying to ignore the problem to focus on other centralization reforms, to not set of/give ammo to the nobility, or put rules to weaken the power slavery gives the nobility. This would explain why she basically tried to ignore us, she didn't want to deal with the problem we have right now.
On top of this our presence is being used politically by both sides, the queen is probably trying to use our existence to put pressure on the nobility to give up more power and the nobility are trying to use us to force the queen to back off, either by using us to justify their power base or something else, which leads to 3.
3. Don't expect war any time soon, do expect lots and lots of raids
The political situation in Maretonia is such that organizing a major war would require one side to cave to/defeat the other, something neither wants to do/cannot do. as such I don't see them declaring war outside of extreme circumstances where they see us as so weak that we are easy pickings or as an existential threat, so far they seem to be leaning to the former rather than the later. As such i fully expect incoming deniable raids along the crystal empire and at sea to gather slaves but, more importantly, to probe our abilities and martial capacity.
Conclusions
If we want to avoid the situation from boiling over we need to put up a universal strong show against raids, both at sea and on land. sea is a lot more deniable so i expect that first however, with the Nyhpon and Cannon Ships i think we have that theater on lock down as the only threat i can see would be weather magic. we just need to keep building ships to contest the area, once we get steam powered ships its over. the far bigger issue is our protectorates land boarder, which is far less defended and far away. while its less deniable i fully expect raids here too and in increasing number as we secure the sea so we need to start militarize our protectorate, starting with a proper knight house, then watch towers. additionally we need trains to the front as soon as possible as the only alternative is boat or marching.
While this is happening we need to play diplomacy and intrigue very carefully. the same political instability thats causing this mess is also to our benefit, if we play our cards right we can put enough pressure on them to, at minimum, leave us alone and more hopefully stop being slaving jerks. avoiding war but preventing them from pushing us around should be the name of the game.
1. Political power struggle
Maretonia is currently in the middle of a massive political power struggle between the centralists, i.e. the queen and her supporters, and the non-centralists, i.e. the stronger nobles. this struggle is their primary focus at the moment over everything and everyone else. which brings me to 2.
2. both slavery as an institution and our diplomatic relations are being used in 1.
Slavery is a major issue for the maretonians as its a major source of power for the nobility and to a much lesser extent the queen herself. as such the nobles are trying to enforce slavery by any means necessary while the queen is either trying to ignore the problem to focus on other centralization reforms, to not set of/give ammo to the nobility, or put rules to weaken the power slavery gives the nobility. This would explain why she basically tried to ignore us, she didn't want to deal with the problem we have right now.
On top of this our presence is being used politically by both sides, the queen is probably trying to use our existence to put pressure on the nobility to give up more power and the nobility are trying to use us to force the queen to back off, either by using us to justify their power base or something else, which leads to 3.
3. Don't expect war any time soon, do expect lots and lots of raids
The political situation in Maretonia is such that organizing a major war would require one side to cave to/defeat the other, something neither wants to do/cannot do. as such I don't see them declaring war outside of extreme circumstances where they see us as so weak that we are easy pickings or as an existential threat, so far they seem to be leaning to the former rather than the later. As such i fully expect incoming deniable raids along the crystal empire and at sea to gather slaves but, more importantly, to probe our abilities and martial capacity.
Conclusions
If we want to avoid the situation from boiling over we need to put up a universal strong show against raids, both at sea and on land. sea is a lot more deniable so i expect that first however, with the Nyhpon and Cannon Ships i think we have that theater on lock down as the only threat i can see would be weather magic. we just need to keep building ships to contest the area, once we get steam powered ships its over. the far bigger issue is our protectorates land boarder, which is far less defended and far away. while its less deniable i fully expect raids here too and in increasing number as we secure the sea so we need to start militarize our protectorate, starting with a proper knight house, then watch towers. additionally we need trains to the front as soon as possible as the only alternative is boat or marching.
While this is happening we need to play diplomacy and intrigue very carefully. the same political instability thats causing this mess is also to our benefit, if we play our cards right we can put enough pressure on them to, at minimum, leave us alone and more hopefully stop being slaving jerks. avoiding war but preventing them from pushing us around should be the name of the game.
- Location
- Rapidly approaching your location.
- Pronouns
- Any/Morb
I just hate the attitude of Olive Branch (ironic naming?). A diplomat who doesn't negotiate? That's just a bully!
Bully to our people to tolerating this riff-raft, I say!
Topple the slavers' grip on the crown! We demand audience with your Queen!
Bully to our people to tolerating this riff-raft, I say!
Topple the slavers' grip on the crown! We demand audience with your Queen!
- Location
- USA
Sure, sure, "we don't forget".
How's the search for Lady Nightingale going? Any turn now, right? Since we definitely remember that she stole our treasury and is raising the secret heir to half our kingdom.
BlackoutSampler
So Easily Forgotten
Having slept on this overnight, there were a couple things I thought of about the situation.
1) Despite how much Olive Branch pisses me off. To be fair to him, we kinda sorta did the exact same thing to Mareatona on our diplomatic visit that he did on ours. Albeit being less snobbish about guest hospitality. From the sound of things we were just as sneary over the slavery trade and other 'important parts of culture' as he was of ours. And we sort of just strolled up to their queen and made a straight demand of "hey, give us 'your stuff' or else." (Note: this is all from their perspective. I'm not going to condone slavery here.) That said, we have a damn good reason to act the way we did, Olive Branch does not.
2) I don't think a true Civil War is going to happen in Mareatona without a lot of help. The Queen might be butting heads with the Nobles over this, but there's a big gap between butting heads, and outright Civil War. Honestly our best bet to spark some trouble is probably funding their Abolitionist Movements, more specifically, the more extremist Abolitionist we can find. Getting the slaves to revolt is probably easier, and a better way to drive a rift in the two factions as well.
Also, since the Crystal Protectorate is between us and Mareatona. I wonder if we can pull a 'General Winter' on the Mareatonians if they ever decide to 'put the upstart Empire in their place.' Because if the protectorate is as much of a frozen tundra as it was shown in the show, then marching through that is going to be hell on any invading or raiding force. And if we can get the Crystal Heart to do the dome Shieldy thing, Siege the Protectorate is probably going to be the worst idea.
1) Despite how much Olive Branch pisses me off. To be fair to him, we kinda sorta did the exact same thing to Mareatona on our diplomatic visit that he did on ours. Albeit being less snobbish about guest hospitality. From the sound of things we were just as sneary over the slavery trade and other 'important parts of culture' as he was of ours. And we sort of just strolled up to their queen and made a straight demand of "hey, give us 'your stuff' or else." (Note: this is all from their perspective. I'm not going to condone slavery here.) That said, we have a damn good reason to act the way we did, Olive Branch does not.
2) I don't think a true Civil War is going to happen in Mareatona without a lot of help. The Queen might be butting heads with the Nobles over this, but there's a big gap between butting heads, and outright Civil War. Honestly our best bet to spark some trouble is probably funding their Abolitionist Movements, more specifically, the more extremist Abolitionist we can find. Getting the slaves to revolt is probably easier, and a better way to drive a rift in the two factions as well.
Also, since the Crystal Protectorate is between us and Mareatona. I wonder if we can pull a 'General Winter' on the Mareatonians if they ever decide to 'put the upstart Empire in their place.' Because if the protectorate is as much of a frozen tundra as it was shown in the show, then marching through that is going to be hell on any invading or raiding force. And if we can get the Crystal Heart to do the dome Shieldy thing, Siege the Protectorate is probably going to be the worst idea.
Frozen Flame
Fragment of the Devourer
- Location
- The Darkness Beyond Time
I'm not going to lie, I don't have any clue what you're talking about. I checked persons of interest and she isn't anywhere on it, which is pretty odd given what you're saying would definately earn her a spot. Or on any list of actions last turn. Are you sure that you're remembering that right?
And in all fairness, it's been one mess after another for us. Better to make it so that we have a stable and loyal kingdom and allies than allow proven threats to cause issues while hunting down theoretical ones that can be dealt with later.
[X] Bear Any Burden
so can we send back a letter to the Queen describing in detail every single insult or breach of protocol Olive branch did to be read exactly like we did the list of who has our slaves ending with a polite mention that he clearly was violating her orders to bring a swift resolution in a blatantly obvious manner because he is nowhere near as smart as he think he is and that we are specificity not declaring war because he was so idiotically obvious in trying to start one?
We can't kill this diplomat but we can humiliate him in his court to the best of our abilities.
so can we send back a letter to the Queen describing in detail every single insult or breach of protocol Olive branch did to be read exactly like we did the list of who has our slaves ending with a polite mention that he clearly was violating her orders to bring a swift resolution in a blatantly obvious manner because he is nowhere near as smart as he think he is and that we are specificity not declaring war because he was so idiotically obvious in trying to start one?
We can't kill this diplomat but we can humiliate him in his court to the best of our abilities.
- Location
- USA
She was the one who tricked our people into civil war, our adversary's Ravenburg counterpart. After the war she disappeared from the known world, along with the other side's treasury. I'm speculating about her being pregnant with Brochard's heir, but it fits with her general vibe, and would explain why we never had to deal with his family.
- Location
- Rapidly approaching your location.
- Pronouns
- Any/Morb
Hey now one empire-shattering threat at a time please
[X] Bear Any Burden
- Location
- Venezuela
I want to go to war. Why? Simple, I want to reclaim their lands, make them part of The Empire and execute all the Noble that supports the slavery that remain.
Sounds expansionist? Yes. Does it sound a little cruel? Yes. Im really piss off? YES
I'm not saying we should make all citizens slaves, I'm just saying we should reclaim their lands as ours. If we let them be, they will sooner or later become a pain in our ass.
Also, we should give Libertia and some lands of Maretonia to Koryū, like 30%. As a thanks for his help or as a goodwill sign.
Sounds expansionist? Yes. Does it sound a little cruel? Yes. Im really piss off? YES
I'm not saying we should make all citizens slaves, I'm just saying we should reclaim their lands as ours. If we let them be, they will sooner or later become a pain in our ass.
Also, we should give Libertia and some lands of Maretonia to Koryū, like 30%. As a thanks for his help or as a goodwill sign.
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- Location
- Rapidly approaching your location.
- Pronouns
- Any/Morb
Woah easy there Mother Russia.
- Location
- Venezuela
Nah, no Soviet Russia level. Only execute those we know enslaved our subjects and those who are foolish enough to continue to support slavery.
Alternatively, we can also confiscate all his riches and properties...and then execute them (Joke).
- Location
- Rapidly approaching your location.
- Pronouns
- Any/Morb
I mean, stripping away people's power and privilege makes them forget the whole "slavery is part of our 'culture'!" thing pretty quick.
[X] Pay Any Cost