LithiumSedai

"A man must know to mind his betters," thought Egon von Alstreim to himself, reflecting on the pureblood Waldenian noble heritage of his ancestors - spanning centuries - before wiping the sweat off his immensely pale, aristocratic forehead. He planted a banner of Merryweather amidst the scores of peasantry slain upon Mont Collier by him and his knightly brethren.

"Weighty title, hm?" said the most senior of the Waldenian Electors. "When one is finally elected, let us hope he shall defer to the Vandalore." He shrugged and left the enforcement of the Compact, and all other intricacies of the Law, to the Emperor's landed principalities.

Egon Albrecht, clad in Sergeant's plate of the Black Banner of Alstion, fought his way through the tunnels and vast stone halls of the perfidious Dwarf, lodging the black flag of Merryweather-Alstreim between two cracked stones once the slaughter had subsided, much like his forefathers at the Siege of Kal'Tarak four hundred years ago.

[!] This wedding announcement is published within the Archduchy of Alba, and delivered, along with the list itself, to the following invitees: Family of the Bride and the Groom: His Lordship, Ezra de Senna, Count of Edessa, and His Esteemed House The Esteemed House of Alstreim, and the Representatives of the Elder Line in Calliopeburg-in-Exile Peerage and Landed Gentry of the Archduchy of Alba: His Serene Highness, Edward C. Alstion, Prince of Alstion, and His Esteemed House His Excellency, Parzival von Augusten, Earl of Constans, and His Esteemed House His Excellency, George A. Aldersberg, Earl of Dover, and His Esteemed House as represented by His Excellency, George E. Aldersberg, Lord-Regent of Dover Her Ladyship, Constance Devereux, Countess of Trier, and Her Esteemed House His Lordship, Henri Halcourt, Baron of Artois, and His Esteemed House His Lordship, Adrian, Baron of Owynsburg, and His Esteemed House as represented by Her Ladyship, Susanna Helvets, Lady-Regent of Owynsburg His Lordship, Rothwin Aldor, and His Esteemed House His Lordship, Niccolo di Rosavena, and His Esteemed House Her Ladyship, Brigitte von Rhoswald, and Her Esteemed House Lawful Electorate of the Waldenic Diet in Adherence to the Compact of Merryweather: His Princely Highness, Siegfried Barclay, Prince in Reinmar, and His Esteemed House Personal Invitations of the Bride and the Groom: His Lordship, Siegfried von Schwanstein, Baron of Schwanau, and His Esteemed House Sir Adrian Greye Lady Augusta Greye Lady Aurelian Greye Lady Mélissandre Kildrakken Lady Melisandra de Trastámara de la Casa Mendoza Cinnamon'Ox o'Nico His Excellency, Master Virvyn Verethi, Elected Syndic of the Salvian Syndicate of Fausten, Regent of the Perpetual Crown of Atheran Salvus, and His Esteemed House Sir Everett of Alba, Knight-Commander of the Black Banner of Alstion, and all Knights and Enlisted Soldiery of the Black Banner Sir Janos Ivanovich Sir Leoni Corvus Sir Inku Vierto Lady Genevive de Sylva

[!] A letter is delivered to the Serene March of Cerulia via raven. @mika1278 ((Please do not metagame and RP the contents of this letter unless they are shared by the recipients.)) o Mika of the Elfen House of Anarion, and of Clan Goldhand, and of the Uialben Family, Margrave of the Halfmen Vassal of Cerulia, Trade Prince, Traitor and Usurper of the Sutican Free State, Khagan of the Cerulite, Lurinite, and Uialbenite tribes, the Silver Lubba, and his subjects of the tribes aforesaid of what degree and rank soever, greetings. I am Egon Albrecht of the Elder House of Alstreim, Honourable Sergeant of the Black Banner of Alstion and ever faithful subject of His Imperial Majesty, Hadrian of the Dragonblooded House of Horen. I stand as the firstborn inheritor of the glorious victors of the Whisperwood and the Rhine, and heir to the rightful sovereigns of Ceru by the grace of the Lord; Jan Sigmar, Venerable Corwin, Saint Ottomar and Venerable Lina Johanna. I am certain that this lineage remaineth well known to those among ye who have subsisted upon this Terra for many centuries, as is common among those cursed with Elfen heritage, or to those few scholars of yours well-versed in history as I am in the chronicles of your peoples. Verily, the tale of the Uialbenite is the rejection of mercy. The persisting desire to live a base, unworthy life, devoid of the grace of our Creator, yet rife with degeneracy, did always linger in the mind of the Lurinite. The Cerulite tribes have sought to thrive amidst ruin and chaos, ever since the defilement, and ultimate abandonment, of the Taharian creeds of Order which had once bound them. Sordid tales of your immorality and debauchery spread from the reaches of Vailor to the isles of Axios. Ye rejected the selfless assistance and good will of my storied ancestors at Blackwater, and refused their rule and Renatian grace in favour of harlots, murderers and addicts to the arcana. When the Venerable King Corwin imposed order upon you nevertheless, and banished banditry, necromancy, and wanton murder from your lands, ye chafed underneath his reign, and sought to end his life, underhandedly and with vile magicks. At the zenith of one of the greatest victories known until then to Man, the scourging of the lobster-tailed redcoat at the Whisperwood, ye squandered the hard-won Peace of Merryweather and plunged the Free State back into the darkness of civil strife, upon which the Holy Infant Ottomar, the rightful heir, was greeted by martyrdom by your blades. From the brink of slavery to the Orenian Empire, ye sought instead the yoke of Urguan. The King did not rebuke you, and he allowed you to persist in your squalor, and in his final days, it was said, he did forgive you. And when the Venerable Monarchs, Georg and Johanna, arrived to your lands in force to shield you from the slaughter of the High Elf, and once more offer salvation and redemption from your sins, ye recoiled from their mercy, showed no gratitude; instead ye rose up in rebellion and were promptly crushed in your insolence, scattering like roaches and seeking refuge in the realms of your master and enabler, the Dwarf. Nevertheless, the lords of Alstreim and Barclay never pursued you beyond the borders of the Sutican Commonwealth, nor sought to bring your regicides and offenders to justice; you were, once again, allowed life and freedom. At the Rhine, Haeseni knights did spare the life of Margrave Mika, the sole rebel survivor of the battle. Your perfidious overlord, once the benefactor of the Holy Imperium and now a once-defeated and humiliated adversary, hath now forfeited your safety and lives in this fruitless struggle. He hath urged you to once more lay claim to what no longer belongs to you, and what, in truth, never did: the destiny of the Crown of Sutica was ever to be redeemed by the Elder House of Alstreim, and ever safeguarded afterwards by the Grand House of Barclay. Yet I write to you, spurred on by your needless act of defiance, not in malice, but as a final act of clemency. I cannot deign to speak on behalf of the Holy Imperium, which is loath to reward a once-refused offer of clemency with anything but deserved death. And, make no mistake, death it shall be: true, final and all-encompassing alike Goldleaf, to the very last Cerulite, and there shall remain no place upon the continent to claim as refuge. There remaineth no outcome in which ye shall be the lords of Sutica, now or ever, should ye fight this war. But if ye should renounce your folly publicly, lay down your arms, and reject the madness of your puppet-master, I swear upon mine honor as a Sergeant, aspirant, lord of Waldenian blood, and the descendent of your rightful liege lords, that I shall plead with the Prince of Sutica that he should spare you his wrath, and the eternal shame of perishing by his hand and those of his Reinmaren hosts as vile pretenders. Consider this the Alstreim’s final mercy, and be wise to accept it.

"Wowee," says Egon von Alstreim, Imperial war hero, laying the Opal Crown of Sutica upon a copy of the Compact of Merryweather.

"Bless the wise Kaiser," uttered Egon Albrecht, shedding a tear at the beautifully worded missive.

Egon Albrecht, kinsman to the Daels of Gromach, heir to the Alstreim namesake of Prince William, inheritor of the venerable Alstreim martyr of the Nauzica, whistled a Daelish tune as he perused the historical account.

I think the strangest thing about the staff mindset @ wars is the dissonance between wanting to prevent pure conquest/destruction wars, but refusing to enforce any consequences beyond PRO transfer and eviction resulting from conquest. These are two opposing viewpoints whose clash ultimately leads to preventing wars altogether, even though that outcome, ironically, also results in RP being affected through OOC command and barriers - the primary excuse for refusing to empower non-annexation outcomes through the force of OOC rules to begin with. It's been mentioned already in this thread that pursuing lower-stakes war goals left the winners without any capability to actually enforce them without escalating the scope of their invasion to annexation. I understand that the belief is that any staff enforcement of RP outcome does veer into anti-RP territory, but what is the alternative? Conquest, as such, also depends upon staff-enforced PRO transfers and evictions, and the utter (also staff-mandated) inability of most RP actors to engage beyond mechanical systems. If it's anti-RP to compel a PRO to OOCly uphold a non-mechanical treaty, or introduce staff-mandated consequences for breaking it, then, following that logic, enforcing conquest is no different and any defeated group should be able to perpetually resist their displacement until they're physically removed by continuous CRP/PvP on live. The conclusion and discussion nobody's ready for is to fundamentally remake the mechanics of tile and region ownership, of course. But until that can happen, I see no point in not altering the war system to support non-final outcomes of war.

[!] Unbeknownst to the Knight-Commander, a copy of this missive, pinned to a noticeboard gracing a remote Alban village, was counterstamped with a simpler, crude reply: ┼┼│ · ╡┤║┤─╪├╪├ · ║│╪├┼╡┼╞├ · ├┼╪│ · ═│├┼╞│ · │═││╡┤

Roy Mor (rightful King of Daeland) spotted... Held his own until he was bailed out by the Milen whirlwind. Better times.

Egon Albrecht, a scion of Alstreim recently come of age, vowed to read and archive the works of his kinswoman - a theologian, it seems, more prolific than Saint Calliope, and worthy of appreciation despite the renunciation of her ranks.

The knightly aspirant's firstborn, Egon Albrecht, lit three candles at the grand cathedral of Saint Godwinsburg in prayer for his father's success. "O Saint King Ottomar and Saint Calliope the Maiden, wardens of our Blood- Saint Edmond, protector of knights, grant him victory in this quest and glory immeasurable."

Sir Daris Verethi consulted the Imperial Calendar Reform Act of 1679. "I think the other guy made more sense," he confided to his shipmate, Sir Helsuren, after reading both decrees. @argonian