Who Needs Harmony?: An MLP Empire Quest
- Thread starter Questor
- Start date
- Location
- USA
Yes but that's not to say we can't give one to the princesses personally. And assuming there not as industrial as we are which they shouldn't they would still have to buy from us. And even then the airships are not something that will be bought in great quantities enough to be one of our better exports.
- Location
- Italy
And really, even from the map it's obvious that Equestria is the biggest country we've found yet, AND ruled by two alicorns.
apparently the ones that defeated Discord.
An Airship and the plans aren't really that big a price, and the nice thing is that the immediately obvious use for them is to allow diplomats and traders to reach our lands, which is something they'd otherwise wouldn't be able to do without going through either Storm Country (BIG NO), changeling-land (better not), or Yakyakistan (and they're not really the most hospitable people, though they might make an exception for the vanquishers of Discord.
To put it simply: If we get Equestria on our side, we basically control the continent.
Maretonia is about to fall, and there's a decent chance of us getting some territory and/or a protectorate out of it.
Canterbury is secretly Changeling land. Depending on how things goes, I see three possible fates for it
1)We end up annexing it after conflict with the Changelings
2)We somehow end with Changelings and ponies coexisting more openly
3)At some point Canterbury gets annexed by Equestria.
Also it seems like an appropriate gift because, like it does for us, it allows their non-flying species to join the pegasi in the air.
I mean, there's 3 main things we can offer that I think make for decent gifts and/or trade goods.
1)Airships
2) Advanced technology in general (mostly steam-tech), but that's a bit vague, and giving them a comprehensive package is honestly a bit too much. They don't even need it all, really, as their magic allows them to cover at least some of it.
Most of it is not as awe-inspiring as airships though. A decent second could be trains, but they're both MORE expensive to establish AND less impressive, and what I really want here is the awe-factor.
3)Rune Magic. I'm a bit hesitant to offer it in our first meeting, and I'd rather get a scholar exchange program for it instead.
Well, yes, but they're hardly the only thing we have to offer.
Steam pumps for the mines. Steam Trains and Ships. Rune knowledge. Gems from the crystal protectorate. Raw metals. The magical reagents we use for runes.
Airships are simply so impressive, and so useful even just to allow them to actually interact with us more comfortably, that I'd rather introduce them to them immediately.
Enlightened self-interest: It's a great gift, but we also benefit from it. And it's not like we plan to have an hostile relationship with them, so we won't likely have much to hide from them.
The only truly off-limits things, at least for now: Changeling knowledge, Orichalcum (except maybe in small quantities for their research, to prepare against the yeti), the Sendak Manuscript.
and even if we taught them how to build them, it would likely take them years to catch up to us, and we'd likely always be ahead of them. Maybe they'd send ponies to learn from us.. but in that case we can also send OUR ponies to learn from them! Especially if we get Maretonia.
Generally speaking, we're at worst losing one point of leverage, but we have more, and with Equestria the Carrot is likely more effective than the stick.
- Location
- Italy
Changelings from what we know don't usually leave their hives much, except for the... whatever was the term for their proto-queens.
And they're often simply sent out to hopefully die so they won't challenge the ruler.
RoninSword
Sky God
- Location
- Canada
From what I remember, we voted to create militarized airships. I assume the one taken to Equestria is a custom built one (or at least had its weapons removed).
To clarify, Questor, is Sir Granite wearing Orichalcum armor, or Blacksteel armor?
- Location
- USA
Isn't black armor just refined orichalcum armor.
My main issue with giving the Equestrians an airship in my opinion is that we literally just invented them and giving one away to a country that we literally just met rather than the Neighponese, Canterbury or even theYaks might send the wrong message to our allies
Plus the economic advantages of having total dominance over the aerial trade, even just for a short while, shouldn't be underestimated
We can still be friendly with Equestria by having open trade without giving them their own airships
Plus the economic advantages of having total dominance over the aerial trade, even just for a short while, shouldn't be underestimated
We can still be friendly with Equestria by having open trade without giving them their own airships
We built an ordinary airship and then took an action to develop a military model, this one is presumably the former
Blacksteel is Orichalcum alloyed with steel. It's less structurally powerful and has less anti-magic than pure Orichalcum, but helps stretch what is a very rare and valuable resource. The only known pure Orichalcum items are the weapons of the Grandmasters and Imperial Family, and their former armor, which has been replaced with runic armor.
- Location
- Space between realms
- Pronouns
- He
[X] Plan Audience with The Sun and Moon
- Location
- Florida
[X] Plan Audience with The Sun and Moon
Mm yea, also against gifting them an airship right off the bat, it's too much. Instead lets gift them light for the night and trade with other items of interest, I like our technological edge and air superiority too much to give that up so soon.
Though I think everyone is forgetting, what's their religion like and their opinion on mushroom beer?
Mm yea, also against gifting them an airship right off the bat, it's too much. Instead lets gift them light for the night and trade with other items of interest, I like our technological edge and air superiority too much to give that up so soon.
Though I think everyone is forgetting, what's their religion like and their opinion on mushroom beer?
- Location
- Italy
I'd agree, if... well.. they didn't defeat Discord.
I imagine we'll share the Airships with Neighpon soon enough anyway. Yaks.. eh, we already repayed them a hundred times over for everything they did for us, I doubt they'd have a problem with this. They might even not be interested in the skies!
Getting the best first impression possible with two immortal rulers should also not be underestimated.
Celestia and Luna won't die of old age. That means anything we gain today, every good impression, will continue to pay off for potentially 1000+ years.
I understand if you disagree, but to me it seems like we'd be giving up a moderate advantage that we'd likely share at some point anyway in exchange for the best impression possible with two very long lived demigods.
That rule the only country that could honestly stand against us, if it truly came to it. Which it won't, because by the gods I don't want a war with Equestria.
And that's without considering how they control the Sun and Moon.
They claim to have defeated Discord but we don't have any solid proof of that right now
Honestly I'm somewhat against sharing them at all for at least a little bit considering how useful they are, at the very least we'd want a situation like with the trains where theoretically our allies can reproduce them but the Empire is already so dominant in the field that there's no point really trying to outdo us
I get where you're coming from but we've already made a very good first impression and have plenty of ways to improve relations with them without handing over something so valuable right away
Plus Celestial and Luna are savvy enough rulers to recognise it for the blatant bribe that it would be
To be fair, that reasoning also would apply to Neighpon, whose ruler also appears to be immortal, or close enough. Hey, more friends for Koryu!
[X] Plan Audience with The Sun and Moon
- Location
- Italy
Admittedly I'd like to see the statue first, and possibly get some proof.
The Canterbury queen DID tell us she "saw" two alicorns defeating him, though, and here we have them.
Of course she could have lied... but what would be the point?
By the way, that's moderate evidence for Changelings having been here in the past, though it's also possible she actually had a legitimate vision.
Well, bribes don't stop being effective just because they're obvious. And I imagine the gratitude would be genuine, and the gift is STILL genuinely valuable.
Enlightened self interest: we would benefit from it, but that doesn't mean the gift or the sentiment are fake.
I do get your point, in the end is simply about what we value more: a larger technological lead in one field and a monopoly of the communication routes to Equestria for the near future, or this kind of long term investment in reputation.
oh, yeah. If we know they're sort-of-immortal we should definitely mention Koryu.
Also our dragon daughter/future regent
RoninSword
Sky God
- Location
- Canada
In quest Celestia and Luna themselves are only just starting to understand how they are ageless. IC we have no indication of that ourselves yet.
I would also argue that it isn't a case of one or the other, there's plenty of things we can do to establish a good relationship with them other than giving them airships, such as open trade with them, establishing embassies, sharing other less groundbreaking technologies, etc
Wait a second...is Equestria bigger then us! How dare they! We must rectify this! We need to do some annexation guys! Deus Vult!
Sadly I think I'm a little too late to propose my own plan but I will at the very least make some points I think would be smart to emphasize specifically.
- The devastation of the Crystal Empire and our massive investment to rebuild it
- The mass adoption of Crystal Ponies including by the Royal family.
- If the current war is brought up Pegicles' Atrocities in detail including the Hurricane and Burning of Rhoam.
- Also our support for refugees throughout the Civil War in Maretonia
[X] Plan Audience with The Sun and Moon
- Location
- USA
[X] Plan Audience with The Sun and Moon