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| Action Id: 3120 | Crisis: | Participants: Saoirse, Alaric, Selene, Donella, Desiree, Sophie, Sabella, Zara, Gwenna and Berenice | |
| Status: Resolved | Submitted: Feb. 7, 2019, 1:06 p.m. | Public: True | GM: Apostate |
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Economic Resources: 105 Military Resources: 355 Social Resources: 1105 |
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Action by Saoirse
The Great Road. What a cock up! Saoirse Velenosa has been tasked by the King to find a way to fix it. She and a team of diplomats are going to work to find compromises via a signed accord between the Houses along the road bringing them together in the spirit of cooperation. For this first stage, the Great Road Negotiators are going to meet with houses along the road to hear feedback and propositions in regards to possible treaty issues. Saoirse is generally sending lords and ladies from the assorted fealties to handle their own, to listen and be seen. In addition to listening to Houses' wishes, Saoirse will also propose to the houses a toll on the roads, paid in part for the upkeep and safety of the road and in part to the houses that are along said road.
The ultimate goal of the Treaty will be to establish a broad base of support that brings the houses on the road together with tangible benefits and expanded cooperation.
Action by Alaric
As a diplomatic sort himself, Alaric is quite happy to lend some assistance to the project he has set before Saoirse of identifying the benefits merchants and Houses are getting from the Great Road and assigning Crown personnel to go out and get input to find out what's working so it can be made better or easier, as well as put together a wish list of things they'd like to see to help commerce develop, and also float some ideas by people to see if anything gets traction. A standardized system of barrels and crates for easier goods transfer and inspection? Traveling veterinarians paid for by a collective donation? A system of amnesty for bandits that give themselves up to be sworn to the Knights of Solace for training and posting elsewhere? Ultimately the goal is to find out what sort of things have enough widespread support to form the basis for an accord spanning most of the Road itself.
Action by Gwenna
Gwenna will travel the affected areas in the Northlands, especially those along the contentious borders with the Oathlands. She does /not/ go as an authority figure, Voice of House Redrain, seeing as she believes quite strongly in the autonomous nature of Houses, but as a diplomat who also happens to be born of Houses Redrain and Laurent. While she can not fix what has been done, she will speak to the positive history between the fealties, of alliances forged by marriages after bloody wars. Princess Marian, now a respected War Chief of House Redrain, for example, came to be known after a marriage that started in such a way with House Valardin. Lastly, she pledges to make this trip a yearly one going forward should things settle, visiting each of the Houses and hosting small banquets with them, if they allow. In sum, she will be a firm but soft voice requesting negotiations and peace.
Action by Donella
Donella is a pragmatist at her core. There are plenty of people talking to the folk along the road where havoc is having a heyday, so she focuses on touring the nearest neighbors of impacted holdings to make them understand what their skin in the game is. She can only be in one place for a given amount of time, but changed or empowered minds are there all the time to put the pressure on. Donella is saying that if the Road endeavor fails, then it will continue to be difficult, costly, and slow to move manpower, materiel, and intelligence across Arvum. And that equals death, deprivation, and darkness for damn-near everyone. If it succeeds, everyone benefits-- defensively, economically, and strategically. She can also point out that the High Lords of Sanctum, Bastion, and Maelstrom are going to be taking as dim view of vassals' violent incursions on the holdings of their allies, just as Darren Redrain does. So let's calm things down, shall we?
Action by Zara
Zara has never thought the roads idea was bad, but she as many knew that with any advance there were by setbacks as the people got used to the ideas and sadly others would take advantage of the change and unrest follows. That is what Zara will be helping with. Soothing the fears, offering suggestions on personal levels and in general putting people at ease for the houses she steps in front for, and doing the same in the background//in support of the others Negotiators.
Action by Desiree
Desiree will talk to the people and listen to what they have to say. She will do what she can to put their mind at ease and see if she can help them work something out.
Action by Sabella
While Sabella still doesn't believe the Great Road was a failure or a bad idea, she is all for going out and talking to people about it to try to keep bad feelings down to a minimum. She'll listen, talk to people, put a positive spin on everything, and then either delegate to the proper vassal houses to go deal with their people or go out to talk to people herself. Focus on the positive!
Action by Berenice
Diplomacy? It's not actually Berenice's /foremost/ strength, but getting people to agree to compromise? That is something she is very, very good at. The more intricate details of treaties and the like are often beyond her: instead, she focuses on finding ways to give people what they want -- and compromise what she needs them to compromise. She'll be there to ply her whims on the heads of the various houses they visit, so very attentive to their hopes and wishes, and finding those points where she needs them to give a little. She's not above fluttering her eyelashes where she needs to. (She is, in fact, so far below.)
Action by Sophie
Sophie, the Mother Mercy of Arx arranges Mercies to accompany the diplomats on their missions in an attempt to both reduce the loss of life, and to help drum up goodwill with the Abandoned tribes along the road. The Mercies will provide healing to all who need it, regardless of fealty, and they will share knowledge of healing techniques with any abandoned healers that wish it. The Mercies throw their support behind this effort to bridge the divide between the compact and the abandoned tribes along the Great Road.
Action by Selene
Selene seeks the most vocally opposed and stubbornly resistant to the Great Road, banking on the reputation of Whisper House as quiet negotiators between troubled parties. Any particularly troubling snarls are where she wants to be, playing the compassionate listener, patient diplomat, and only then proceeding to address the concerns. Organizations she takes a direct hand, noble houses she sends words and messengers with, offering to help mediate any concerns. She will speak to ongoing economic and social advantages, using examples of the Empyrean Trade Route, interest expressed by merchants, and similar infrastructure projects in other lordships or realms. Point out the positive, downplay the negative. Groups that need further encouragement how they might benefit, she'll offer ideas or suggest connections to proper parties like the Scholars for research or the Crafter's Guild and Silver Consortium. She presents a sympathetic, willing ear to their worries and problem-solver par excellence as need be.
Result
Does anyone in the Compact know how tedious and difficult it is to get literally scores of different houses to agree to a uniform anything? Probably not, but everyone involved in this treaty effort now does. It is excruciating to get dozens upon dozens of proud (the diplomatically polite version of 'obnoxiously arrogant') lords to agree to nearly everything, as virtually all of them expect special treatment where of course every -other- domain should be taxed endlessly, and be forced to make massive commitments of troops to keep their roads safe, but by virtue of their own importance they should be spared any such considerations. Fortunately, this effort has ten of the finest diplomats in Arvum involved, and they are able to make progress which would have been hopeless for anyone else. That they are almost all leaders, exceptionally important in their field, and supported by the King helps. Also, that they are almost without exception charming and stunningly attractive doesn't really hurt either, since most of the leaders they are dealing with are not and very not.
In the end, Saoirse and her team manages to create a sprawling treaty of hundreds of pages dealing with a million exceptions for the Mill That No One Cares About Except Baron Stubbornface and similar circumstances, while creating some very, very basic rules for dealing with territorial disputes that come up from the Great Road, and basic guidelines for uniform tolls paid by travelers that can contribute to upkeep and increased patrols to increase safety.
More importantly, while most of the brushfire conflicts already in progress continue, the diplomatic team has headed off, by their calculation, probably several hundred wars started by total idiots. Preventing something from happening is, when you get down to it, a vastly underappreciated triumph.