CDS Alliances Prepare For War, A Second TCol Planned?

I've recently had the following mass mail sent to me from PTC (formerly DSA). It discusses plans for the CDS with regards to its war with Iron.

From: Pink Camo [PTC]
Subject: RE: NEW PLANS
Received: 21 Sep 2018 15:49
Original Message:

Greetings DSA!

I have some exciting news to share! DSA will be going through some  major changes. I am changing the name of DSA to PTC, Peaceful Traders Coalition. PTC will recruit peaceful players who want to trade, craft, hunt NPCs, and support TCol. Everyone will be REQUIRED to contribute and support. PTC's cities and members will also be in direct danger of being sieged/attacked. The reason for this is that as soon as the enemies of TCol find out that we are a support alliance, they will try to stop it. Because of the horribly placed cities due to sitting next to rare items that we harvest, TCol will NOT defend us. They cannot waste troops attacking on mountains and/or in forests. The only cities they are obliged to defend will be cities that are surrounded by plains, and inside of the CDS. 

The other part of my exciting news is that Zenorra will be leaving TCol to create a new alliance called TCol2. This new alliance will be filled with defensible cities (surrounded by plains), and instead of troops, they will have diplo forces like thieves, scouts, spies, saboteurs, etc. TCol2 will be the first of its kind in Illyriad. We believe that a well timed force of thieves has the possibility to wipe out huge amounts of armies.  All cities will be required to stay inside of the CDS land claim for defenses.

Please let me know your thoughts on this, and if you want to participate in the above alliances. Unfortunately, anyone who does not want to participate fully will have to leave. The days of a free ride is over.

Pinky

When asked to comment, Grombrindal said this:
On content, it is largely a brainstorm session that got send out too soon. We are trying to find a use for DSA, have been for years. DSA city placement has always been a liability. I can only assume this was meant to persuade some of them to fix it.

He also sent me an exchange between Agalloch and Pink Camo in which Agalloch referred to PTC as 'new targets' after one of them was found harvesting gear from the siege of Death INC.

UPDATE:
Further IGMs  between Agalloch and Pink Camo have been sent to me showing that they resolved the issue non-violently.

Author: Eowan

Responses to ~NS~ Follow Up Article

I got in touch with Grombrindal, Pink Camo and Myr about the follow up article on ~NS~ leaving CDS.
Pink Camo has not yet given comment but Myr did respond in the comments of the article:
'NS was without my leadership for awhile, this lead to misunderstandings and issues. No need to drag it out. While I personally have no beef with Ubi I would not have invited him to NS had I been there knowing the history he had with many former ptory players and then this whole latest explosion wouldn't have happened. When I have had time to work things out with Grom I will comment on the future of NS but until then I have no further comments. ~ Myr'

Grombrindal also responded to my request for comment, saying the following:
I am not entirely sure what to comment on since it contains a flood of little facts interwoven with lies and..erm...alternative interpretation. I am particularly confounded by the line about Gijak being loyal to Yuki. Had I known that, I would have cracked down on it much, much earlier (big bully as I apparently am). Gijak was in no way singled out after the war, and received the same grace period IGM all pTory members did (he did indeed respond in a hotheaded fashion, but I have no intent of dragging this up to play the man). I approved NS as an acceptable alliance for pTory members to members to join after the war, but it was pitched to me by Myr´s alt (then a loyal member of Tcol) as an alliance loyal to, and working toward, Tcol´s and the CDSs goals. The argument that pursuaded me was her insistence that these members were disgruntled not with Tcol, but with pTory leadership. If they had pitched NS as a refugee camp for pTory loyalists, anyone with a minimal knowledge of Illy politics can grasp that I would never have gone along with their revival as part of the CDS. 
Regards, 
Grom


Grombrindal's alt, Niccolò Minionvelli, has been invited to ~NS~ by Myr to help with discussing the options for ~NS~ players.

Author: Eowan

Death INC Razed.

Death INC, belonging to Tool of Iron was razed by Simba of TCol today at 02:57.

The town had previously been sieged by TCol as referenced in the article on the declaration of war between Iron and TCol.

When I asked Agalloch and Grombrindal about the raze, they gave the following comments:

Sent By:	Agalloch [Iron]
Received By:	Eowan Splintspur [Cala]
Date:	24 Sep 2018 13:44
It took em 7 days to raze an isolated town that had 2.5k trrops in it originally with 0 level coomanders :) it cost them over 500k troops a confed oh and babyboy spend 300 prestige to change his name to Ihateyouall! i(s that the cherry on top?) P.S and as a bonus i got a couple players out of it :P

Sent By:	Grombrindal [TCol]
Received By:	Eowan Splintspur [Cala]
Date:	24 Sep 2018 13:47
Not much to tell about the siege. It was not one of out finest works, but we managed despite massive pres building and enemy support by Aesir and Saints. We really did not want to fight this war, but if Aga declares and leaves his alt in our back yard, we have little choice but to remove it.

Author: Eowan 

~NS~ / CDS Follow Up

After I published the article on ~NS~ leaving CDS, I received IGMs from Gijak Kafak which can be found here. Due to their length, importance and the fact that they deal not only with ~NS~ leaving CDS but other things as well, I have decided to publish them as a part of a separate article rather than an update added to the end of the previous article.

There are four IGMs and I shall give a description of their contents in each case. They detail a lot of the background to what caused ~NS~ to leave CDS, saying that much of what has been going on within ~NS~ has been at the orders of TCol.


The first IGM chain came with the subject about the spy' and it started with Pride of ~NS~ discussing his suspicions of who had leaked information to me previously in an IGM to Gijak Kafak.
However, it soon moved on to Gijak Kafak explaining a lot of the background to ~NS~ leaving CDS amongst other things.

The explanation began with Gijak Kafak describing an incident with Briann where Briann had gone 'off on a tangent about wanting to siege everyone in kesh that was not green on the map' which went against the order set out by the leadership of ~NS~. Gijak lost his cool with Briann who then 'went crying to Zen and Grom' about his treatment of Briann. Apparently Briann then doctored IGMs to make Gijak look bad.
He then went on to mention how TCol started to pull large members from ~NS~, citing Twitch as an example saying 'Twitch was the first with the lie he wanted to war. ( If Twitch wanted to war then why did he run from the war presented to him from SIN[...]). '
At the same time, Grombrindal sent Pink Camo to ~NS~ with Gijak claiming in the IGMs that it was an attempt to take direct control of ~NS~.
He goes on to describe arguments between him and Pink, the first of which was relating to members of BSH, nCrow and TCol settling in Keshalia which had been promised to ~NS~.

However, this argument does not seem to be what truly set events in motion that led to ~NS~ leaving CDS. It seems that a large part of the reason why ~NS~ left CDS was that Ubiquitous Feral, a returning player who was in pTory leadership during the first TCol/pTory war, was invited to ~NS~.
Gijak Kafak was in pTory during the events of the first war and stated the following:

"The next thing was to bring Ubi into NS. Ubi is a coward and trouble maker. He screwed Yuki over in Ptory, got everyone except a loyal few turned against her. Grom with all his pompous attitude that he is fair and never rude, is bullshit. I was the most outspoken on what was done to Yuki. So I was chosen as the scapegoat. Grom sent me an igm stating I had to move from Kesh or they was going to raze me. I went off and in rage typed most of the igm wrong. I tend to do that when I'm not thinking clearly. I immediately had incoming military attacks and diplo attacks to all 3 of my under 3k pop towns. My smallest town was only 6 or 7 hundred (so much for Tcol's word they do not attack small players). I am the type of person I don't bring my troubles to others. I started igm'ing friend to thieve me to keep Tcol's thieves from getting my stockpile. Myr was the first to respond. During this with all the attacks and diplos coming in Ubi sent a alliance wide igm stating anyone who sent help or tried to defend me would suffer the same fate I am receiving. Then he kicked me from Ptory. Myr took me in under force into NS, and here I am fixing to be under threat again by Tcol. LOL. There are other here in NS that Ubi screwed over and treated like shit. Grom and Zen knew this so they brought him into NS with the response that we were being childish by not accepting Ubi. When I press further that it was bs I got an igm from Pink that stated back them Ubi was following Grom and Zens orders and that we had no reason to hold a grudge to Ubi. So Tcol picked the player that supported Yuki the most and sentenced him death to make the rest become sheeple and bow to their demands and used Ubi to do it,"

Note: I have edited this to clear up typos amongst other things. The original text can be found in the full log of the IGMs.

Gijak then compared his situation now to that of Ubiquitous' during the pTory/TCol war, saying he was just being used as a scapegoat in the clearing of Keshalia. He felt like Grombrindal had thrown him under the bus when Grombrindal had claimed he had no knowledge of ~NS~'s activities.

During this time, Myr apparently got into an argument with Grombrindal and Zenorra about ~NS~ being used as a puppet alliance. This then left to Pink leaving ~NS~ and returning to DSA, 'since she had accomplished what she came here for ,,, to tear us apart'.

Gijak finished his lengthy paragraph by saying 'I didn't want to clear small players . I was truly more comfortable dealing with the larger players that could defend themselves. But as it was I was following orders. I was again like Ubi made the face of the wrong doing and threw under the bus when there was complaints Tcol denied knowledge.'


The final IGM in the chain was the one addressed to me. In it, Gijak explained another example of TCol apparently interfering in ~NS~ business with regards to Urika leaving ~NS~.
'Urika left NS started an alliance and started moving towns. Within 8 hrs of leaving Grom Igm'd him and said move now or die since you left ns. But no Grom isnt a bully. I will send you Groms igm to urika i think it will be easy to find. Later on today. So urika came back to NS and quit. but no there is noone being a bully.'

The next two IGMs, with the titles 'Keshalia' and 'Ubiquitous Feral. has accepted' contain discussions that Gijak referenced in the first IGM. Keshalia relates to Urika leaving ~NS~ while Ubiquitous Feral. has accepted' relates to Ubiquitous Feral joining ~NS~.

The final IGM, titled 'One More thing.' was a single IGM addressed solely to me. It said the following:
'As far as land claims go. It was origanally pro-claimed land claims were for the BL, it was a unwrittten agreement. Land Claims in Elgea are wrong. The game spawns people extremely close to Tcols claim. The only way to enforce the claim is to bully everyone out. See the way it is , Tcol and the puppets can only start with the little ones. BSH is the likly choice for the new puppet Kesh bullies as they are moving in at a rapid pace. They will not attack the larger ones, hell they will not even talk to the larger ones. So hopefully soon there will be a revolt on this whole land claim issue. If there isnt then the entire game is as risk, because other bully idiots will get the idea that they can claim, eventually everyone will be forced into alliance they hate or be killed, where is the fun in that. LC in elgea should be banned and not allowed, only the devs can change and fix that, otherwise as it is the game will be doomed, as no one will want to play being forced to play someonelses way.'

This string of IGMs seriously alter the narrative around ~NS~'s recent actions. I recommend those who are interested to read the originals as due to their length, many details have been omitted here.

If anyone from TCol leadership, or indeed anyone from any high ranking position within CDS or ~NS~, would like to add further comment to this, IGM me and I will publish it.


Author: Eowan

~NS~ leaves CDS

The following mass mail was sent to me by an anonymous source in ~NS~:

Hello Squires,

I know I haven't been around much the past few months but I have been around on and off behind the scenes. Those of you who have been here a while may remember that NS was revived to give a home to members of pTory who were in Keshalia and didn't want to move. I made an arrangement with tCol to allow us to stay here. Unfortunately that arrangement is no longer working out. 

We are still working on the details but NS will soon withdraw from Keshalia. Here are your options: 

1. Join a TCol approved alliance or TCol itself if you are ready for war. 
2. Wait and see what alliance will replace NS as guardian of Keshalia and join that clan.
3. Move out of Keshalia.

Take your time and think over your options, ask questions. Once you have decided on your path I will be happy to help you get there. For those that chose to move we will work on an exodus schedule that you're comfortable with. 

Remember, this is just a game so make the choice that will ensure you have a good time in the game.

For those who will be departing us, it has been an honor to play with you and I wish you all the best.

Take care,

Myr

It should be noted that I have redacted a sentence from this due to personal information being shared that I felt was not my place to publish.

The IGM was sent on the 19th of September.

~NS~ has lost just over 25% of its members since the around the 11th when membership peaked at just over 40. It now stands at 30.

Notable leavers include ryder, who has abandoned both his main and Ice Man, and also Pink Camo who has returned to DSA.

It is not clear yet whether these players leaving is related to the events that caused ~NS~ to split from CDS.

I also have not been made aware of whether  ~NS~ has any plans for where they will relocate to currently.

When I reached out to Grombrindal, leader of TCol, he said the following:
I cannot comment. I want to ensure this divorce takes place as smoothly as possible, and sharing my grievances with the press would not further that goal. 

Myr has not responded to my request for a comment though Thorin Oakenshield has told me to 'Fuck off'

If and when I receive any further information on this, I will post an update here.

Author: Eowan

pTory at War With BSH and TCol

On the 8th of August, TCol declared war on pTory after after Arthur, who was in pTory at the time, sieged one of Bkka's cities.

Bkka is reportedly away from the game at the moment as a result of real life issues and as a result of this, they dropped out of TCol in order to remain neutral. This then apparently gave Arthur the impression that the account was unattached and available for sieging. When asked for comment, Arthur said the following:

'I was looking for a new town and stumbled across her account with flat lined growth, no alliance and decent pop. I captured a town and Tcol took offence since she was a former member. I had incoming attacks before an igm, and they declared war before I made my 2nd reply. Several ptory members had incoming/quit the alliance soon after the wardec so I left the alliance and told Tcol to focus on me instead, that it didn't involve ptory.'

The issue comes from the fact that as a result of a surrender agreement from an earlier war with TCol, pTory were not allowed into the CDS. Arthur sieging the town violated this agreement though as Arthur was a recent entrant to pTory meaning there is a chance he was not aware of this.

A peace deal was offered to pTory by TCol which goes as follows:

'I have talked to my counsil and to Bkka, as well as with Arthur. Since Arthur exo´d our city away, and has since left pTory we have deicded to take one of his cities in return for ours. Since it seems pTory had little knowledge of the fact beforehand, we will once again strive to be lenient. These are our terms for a (renewed) surrender agreement; 

1) 500 million gold, by way of fine for breaking your original surrender terms, 

2) A paragraph will be added and maintained on the pTory alliance profile explaining that its members are not allowed to enter CDS territory for any reason, as part of a surrender to Tcol (this is to avoid repetition of this incident, and I expect it to be written in respectful language. I don´t want to see the word bully or similar appear in this text).

3) pTory will apologize to Bkka for the transgression against her while she was ill. 

If you agree to these terms, please reply directly to this message stating that you accept. A peace offer will then be issued in good faith that you will fulfill your obligations, and Tcol will be ordered to stop all actions against pTory. Attacks on route will continue, but no new operations, diplo or military, will be launched.'

When I asked Grombrindal about the 500 million payment he said the following:
'Because I felt it would be an easy sum to pay, and expected it to be accepted in a heartbeat. It´s not our fault pTory doesn´t educate its new members on its political realities. Althought the other part of this surrender deal is that they do from now on.'

It should be noted that during this conversation with Grombrindal, he mentioned that the payment had already been made though by someone external to pTory saying that 'double' the amount requested had been paid.

During this, Grombrindal had a spy monitoring pTory AC and after the offer of a peace agreement was sent to Hellie, she sent out the following mass mail:

'I am doing my best to keep you all updated on every communication with Grombindl.  Please share your communications with tCol in our alliance wide.  It is aparent that tcol members are now bullying our members with private igms.  POST them alliance wide, so we can all see what the tactics are.

I do not want this to escalate.  We will not retaliate.  We are not at war, and have no aggresive intentions in this matter.  Arthur, the gent who seiged a town in mal moshta is paying the price for his actions.

We are negotiating a fair treaty, with resonable terms.  We have not been an agressor here, there has been no actions taken by our members to defend, they are only executing attacks that hide the bullying from global chat and abusing our integrety by breaching our alliance chat.

Taunting, and goading are a war tacticis  that I abhore, I will not willingly partiipate in.  Please refrain from being dragged into the muck in global chat.

Any personal igms you receive, that are a threat or veiled attempt at subverting our council should be posted alliance wide, to ensure that you all are kept in the loop and that we can provide you with appropriate council.  Please mark these notes in the subject line with ''alliance wide''.

To our Traitor, 1.  good show, several have left this alliance, two have abandoned, and i lost an hour of my life trying to save another, she will abandon shortly: congratulations. Best of luck poaching our elgean members, nothing like a hostage on your team.   2.  you are still with us, you must really have a thing for ptory?  isn't your own alliance fun and filled with positive encouragement? and 3. most importantly #3, when you are copy and pasting from our a/c , ensure it is accurate.  as the first note you sent to Grmbrindle was inaccurate and out of context.  I said ''hold on, Bianca..... I'm thinking...... and it hurts.'' it was a joke.  

For the rest of you Purgatorians...... move your towns, use the resources that I have set up in Chulbran.  I'll make it fun and a game, to see who can get their towns there the fastest!

Hellie.'

Grombrindal then reportedly sent the following IGM to several pTory members:

'Hail pTory ,

This mail is going out to several, or all, of your roster because once more Yuki (that´s Hellie for you poor new pTory members) has chosen to complicate a simple matter with unnecessary drama and an approach of mock transparency. This mail will address why Tcol declared war on pTroy, and why we think our surrender terms are more than reasonable. It will also serve as an introduction for a request I will make of you at the end.

Last year pTory was led into war with Tcol and TA2IN (then 2 separate alliances) by Yuki. She ragequit shortly after, leaving it to Ubi to negotiate a surrender. The surrender terms were mild, with Tcol only demanding that pTory permanently leave the CDS landclaim, and laying claim to Yuki´s (now abandoned) cities in that area. After this occurred, TomR returned and claimed leadership of pTory (I will not go into the injustice suffered by Ubi after this occurrence, you can ask your leadership if you are interested). Upon being asked, TomR reaffirmed his compliance with the surrender terms agreed by Ubi.

Since this event, no further conflict (or even contact) was had between Tcol and pTory. Until last week, when a pTory member entered the CDS claim to capture the city of a hospitalized Tcol member. Not only was this a cowardly act of aggression, but it clearly constituted a breach of the surrender terms agreed last year. 

Trough dialogue with all involved parties, Tcol reached the tentative conclusion that pTory leadership did not have advanced knowledge of the act committed by Arthur. In this light we offered a set of 3 very mild surrender terms; a round sum of 500M gold, paid not for the city, but as a fine for breaking the earlier treaty; a clause on the pTory profile to avoid future incidents, and an apology.

Now, it has come to my attention that your leadership considers 500M too steep a price. New players in your AC are quick to agree, not understanding the merely symbolic value of such a sum. To put things in perspective for those, yet poor, players; most Tcol members keep at least 100M in each city to offset goldburns of several tons. To further put things in perspective, pTory has a trade rank of over 20 Billion, and former pTory council members that have been in Tcol since the previous war assure me pTory could easily get together 5 Billion. 

I notice, to my dismay, the usual Yuki rhetoric involving bullying is emerging once more. Tcol does not recognize itself in such descriptions, and we will not be pulled into one of her drama queen episodes again. Therefore I hereby request that you remove Yuki (Hellie/Thumper) from these proceedings. If you wish to continue peace talks, have Dendro, or anyone else trustworthy you have left, contact me.

We are not bullying; we were wronged, a surrender treaty was broken, and a price must be paid. 

Kind Regards,

Grom'

He also sent the following IGM to Bianca BoeHammer (Willd):

'Please stop spreading nonsense. pTory isn´t  being asked to pay 500M for one city, they are being fined because they broke their peace terms. The alliance has a trade rank of over 20B, so it will certainly not cost anyone real money. Think very carefully about how you proceed because my mood is not improving with this charade you are putting up in AC. '

Some in pTory are saying that this shows that Grombrindal is policing their AC saying that what is said there is none of Grombrindal's business.

In a brief interview with Grombrindal, he had the following to say about it:

'Meh, Willd was an old friend. I tried to get her to reverse course...I wouldn't call that policing them'

Bianca BoeHammer and her partner Heavy Hand have both abandoned their accounts and could not be reached for comment.


The following mass mail was then sent out to TCol:
'Hail Tcol, 
Peace has been agreed on with pTory, and seperately with Arthur. Please halt all actions against pTory members, and Arthur, recall what you can, and resume operations against Saints and Aesir. 
Victory to Tcol! 
Grom'

It seems that these orders were followed as some blockades that had been placed on Walela's town of Silent Corner have been removed.

However, the peace offer with pTory has since been withdrawn, when asked why Grombrindal said the following:
'Because they did not accept it, and didn't communicate with me directly once. I only talked to <redacted> and received no official surrender....This, to me, is unacceptable. As such, pTory is now at war with Tcol indefinetely'

BSH, a supporting alliances of the CDS, declared war on pTory at 10:37 server time today.

Skorg refused to give comment and when asked for comment, Hellie sent the following IGM from Grombrindal:
'Deal is off. We will not talk again.'

I've received several IGMs about this which are not included here. This is due to the fact that while they are relevant, their inclusion would lengthen an already quotation heavy story and they do not directly add events that were already discussed in other IGMs.
I've also redacted the name of the person who paid pTory's surrender. This is because they originally asked for privacy in this when they told me about it before I had received any news of it from other players. If they wish their name to be made public, I will do this at their request.

EDIT 1:
As I published this article, the following IGM was sent to me by Hellie:

Just a quick update:

Peace was offered between Tcol and pTory, all terms were met. 

The offer has now been recinded.  There was a hidden time clause for the offer, I am sorry, Purgatory, that was never communicated to me.

BSH have now declared on pTory.

Do not retalliate, nothing has changed, we did nothing wrong.  To retaliate gives them fuel.  Bullying will stop in Illyriad if we talk about it.  We have lost many players from our alliance because of this. 

Bianca/Willd/Heavy's Other Hand has been bullied personally, and abandoned - a huge loss to the game, as she was one of the most active g/c players, and supplier of newbies - shame.

Your council are still working as a team, Bahar, Guilliem, Dendro, Gromp, Tomr, Mon Mothma and I are working on resolving this untenable situation.

H.

EDIT 2:
After the publishing of this article, Grombrindal got in touch saying that a key aspect was missed out and this was the complete reason for his decision to withdraw the peace offer. He said that it was because pTory, rather than accepting peace, were seeking out dev intervention to have the war undone rather than ended via a peace agreement.
He said the following:
'Its the combination of things. They did not negotiate, <redacted> handled it all. I accepted because I really wanted to be done with it. And then they say, meh we´ll wait to see if the devs come to our aid instead.'

A source also sent me a pTory AC log showing pTory leadership discussing this after publication.

Author: Eowan

Hucbold and TCol Update

More IGMs have been sent to me in relation to the Hucbold/TCol story posted on the 20th. Hucbold initiated the exchange with the following IGM:

I am informed that you are briefing people that I called you a nazi. 
For the record, I did NOT call TCol Nazis. I did say that they performed two acts of ethnic cleansing. The term 'ethnic cleansing' to me comes from the Yugoslav wars not WWII. It had to do with the breakup of Yugoslavia into its constituent republics and some of them wanting more territory and pushing out indigenous populations and sometimes even killing them. However the main characteristic was removing people of the wrong 'brand' from territory. When TCol set up their land claim, Aesir had one player there, JoeK4, with 2 towns. He had been there, peacefully, for years. He was told to get out or be eliminated. I intervened at Joe's request and tried to persuade Joe to leave but while that was going on sieges landed and Joe was eradicated. Joe quit the game. I think 'ethnic cleansing' is an exact description of that. 
None of that amounts to me calling TCol nazis!
 I reserve the right, if there is an answer, to publish it, circumventing the game rules, if I think I can spin it in my favour. 
If, on the other hand you wish to pursue the offer made in my previous message, which could lead to exactly what you want, without prejudice to the final outcome and in confidence, let me know.


To which Grombrindal of TCol responded with the following:

Hail Hucbolt (Spartacus?), 
We have little else to say to you. If you somehow believe it is better to compare us to the Sebrenica massacre than the concentration camps, all hope of educating you on the sensitivities of these events seems far gone. 
The case of Joe will be remembered as a colossal failure in leadership from your side (promising that a player will move without consulting the actual player), which we nonetheless tried to solve in a diplomatic and humane manner. Joe eventually quit because he felt betrayed by his own, a lesson you may wish to take to heart. 
As for your renewed efforts to push your previous offer, we have already made clear our objection. Our sovereignty is not subject to negotiation. It is willingly and without precondition acknowledged by those who wish friendly relations with the empire (we will spare you a listing of venerable and ancient they are). 
At this point our trust in you is so tainted by your vicious and unfounded accusations, and your obvious disregard for the truth, that we are uncertain if we, even with the best of intentions, could ever consider you a friend. Your threat to publish our correspondence to spin it to your favor is downright laughable. By now you have more than proven that you could not spin a merry-go-round if your life depended on it. 
On behalf of her imperial majesty Zenorra and the united people of Mal Motsha, 
Grom


I asked Hucbold for a comment on the exchange of IGMs and he sent back a list of complaints about the TCol's handling of the situation

1. People do not refer to the Srebrenica ethnic cleansing, they refer to the Srebrenica massacre. 
2. I defined my understanding of the term ethnic cleansing - the forceful removal of people of the wrong 'brand' from a territoty, JoeK was forcibly removed from MM because he was Aesir. I applied the term correctly. 
3. In the case of Joe, he asked me to intervene on his behalf. I offered TCol to move him, and got a semi polite answer from TCol declining my offer of an NAP. I sent Joe copies of the IGMs. Without further notice TCol sieged and razed Joe. Joe sent me and others equipment and resources, told me that TCol had been completely unreasonable, was offered no choice but 'go or be razed, without reference to his lengthy friendly presence there ' and no time to achieve an exit. He chose to leave his towns where they were and quit the game. Tcol subsequently sent me an email compliaining that Joe was attacking them and a short reply when I replied incredulously. 
4. The three messages mentioned above are the only interactions I had before the ones that TCol seem to feel at liberty to publish. There is no underlying hostility between us that I am aware of. 
5. When I offered TCol an NAP (in the first communication) they responded that they were not interested in diplomatic relations with anyone. They subsequently entered not just NAPs but full confeds with alliances in the SINDICATE. 
6. My approaches to them were genuine. I was trying to give them what they said they desired and to keep them out of the war. To be clear here, the risk is that a Ta2in town in MM might launch an attack against one of our confeds. Since the empress asserts her primacy in the use of military force in MM, that could be interpreted as her allies declaring war on her behalf. Observers will note that this was one of the issues I sought clarification on. 
7. In Illy as in RL, everything can be negotiated. Seeking clarifications about the intentions of a new entity before endorsing it is not unusual. Indeed in RL, countries frequently raise issues about human rights or the military intentions of other states. It is the normal practice of diplomacy. 
8. The concerns raised could hardly have been described as unreasonable. 
9. The deliberate insults in the replies are of concern - mispelling my name - the Spartacus taunt - criticising my leadership - and so on. This is not diplomatic language - nor is the fact that communications sent leader to leader are being answered by someone else. 
Hucbold (with no t)

As a comment on points 1, 2 and 9, I'd like to point out that the Srebrenica massacre was part of the Bosnian Genocide to which Hucbold had earlier referred. I'm not going to go into much detail into the genocide because there are things I'd much prefer to do with my time than research things like this. However, this is a quote from the wikipedia article on the Bosnian Genocide: ' The ethnic cleansing campaign included unlawful confinement, murder, rape, sexual assault, torture, beating, robbery...'. Given all this, I'd consider Grombrindal calling him Spartacus and spelling his name wrong to be a somewhat mild response.
I'd also consider the 'Empire Ambassador' responding to IGMs from foreign powers on the behalf of the Empress to be a somewhat standard state of affairs.


-Eowan The Short.