Beyond the Pit [Pitboss Diplomacy Game] [Story Thread] . PART 7 (February 2009)

[Pitboss Rome]

Kukai, the Russians are my friends and allies. I find your slander of them distasteful and unproductive.

Augustus of Rome.

[Pitboss Greece]

Greetings, Ku Kai of Wonsan.

I need to correct you about your suggestion that there ever was a Piercian-Spartan alliance against Rome. There wasn't. Sparta invaded Rome, and Piercia took advantage of it by also invading Rome.

I hope that you are willing to correct this mistake.

King Orestes of Sparta

[The Capo]

TO: Orestes of Sparta, Augustus of Rome
CC: All Nations of Terra
FROM: Gojong of Silla, Emperor of Korea

Men of honor!

Firstly I would like to remind you that your missives were to be directed to me, Bak Moon, the Imperial Foreign Minister rather than the Monk Ku Kai. He is on a goodwill tour for the Buddhist faith, and was asked by the Emperor to offer a proposal for an end to the troubles in the north. We told him we would back whatever proposal he made no matter how contraversial he would be. We understood in doing so that we would be asking a man who is NOT beholden to the Emperor to speak his mind, a man who is high deliberative and thoughtful and a man who will pull no punches when describing what he sees. Of course we were correct in doing so.

I will first address the concerns of Rome, then Greece, and then make some statements on behalf of the Emperor.

Firstly to our Roman friends; while it is understood that the Russians are allies of Rome you can not argue with history. While I do not agree with the tenor Ku Kai used in his missive, it was very undiplomatic, I do agree with the subject matter of the findings he arrived at. You would be remis, and quite foolish to be honest, to try and deny anything he said. Of course you did not do that, you simply urged upon him that the Russians are your friends and allies and that he spoke dispariagingly of them. This is true, and while you may deem it unproductive it is productive in the sense that the true history and cause of the conflict must be gauged properly. Especially for all sides to come to true and final terms. As a diplomat I applaud the Russians and their skill, they managed to achieve a good end for themselves and that is the measure of a true diplomat. That said, and maybe I can put it in terms the Romans can understand, the CAUSUS BELLI lies in Russia. Because of this, and because Russia was delivered from the strife with nary a scratch, they should receieve no compensation from Piercia. With this I agree. I can do no more than apologize for some fo the words Ku Kai used to describe Russia, however EVERYTHING he said was FACT. In fact it is almost laughable that nations such as Rome, Portugal, Piercia, Greece, etc. (i.e. nations involved in the issue) haven't called them on it.

To our eternal allies the Greeks; I urge you not to make such hasty comments in public, especially when my office keeps records , do not attempt to make fools out of Korea's Foreign Ministry. For if you dropeth that card, we shalt picketh it up.

To the other nations of the Terra. Do not let politics get in the way of this war's proper end. As a Buddhist, I beileve that we must look through the false, the imaginary, and discover the truth behind everything. This applies to war as well. To ignore FACTS as our Roman and Greek friends are attempting to do is only going to sully any peace agreement they arrive at. It will only exacerbate the animice between the involved nations. Allowing lies and mistruths to exist without challenge, without question, is just as bad as telling these lies and perpetrating these mistruths yourself. Our ambassador Ku Kai has called out the lies, and has shown light upon the mistruths. In the interest of security, we will NOT divulge certain sensative documents. However if certain nations wish to challenge us, and challenge what is true, we will be forced to do so. But I implore other nations, particularly the nations of Portugal and the Wyandots; both close to, but not involved in, the conflict to please come to your senses and urge the Romans and Piercians to agree to this proposal.

Forgive them their actions; for they are urged towards them by hatred and vanity.

- Bak Moon, Imperial Foreign Minister of Korea

[Pitboss Russia]

Russia object against most of Ku Kai's observations!
Ku Kai shows that he lacks any knowledge about the history of the Roman-Piercian-Spartan wars!
I will once again tell the history of the conflict.

- Rome invades Russia and seized some cities
- Russia asked Piercia to help them fighting the Romans, Piercia agreed, Russia becomes a vassal.
- Piercia betrays Russia by forcing peace upon Russia, just when Russia has slaved an army big enough to recapture it's own cities
- Piercia then forces a deal upon Russia that hurts Russia more then it helps Russia
- Then suddenly Piercia declares war on Rome, pulling Russia into war with Rome again! This time again Russia is unprepared
- Rome seizes 2 Russian cities
- Russia renounces Piercians lordship because Piercia hasn't lived up to it's promises and failed to protect Russia
- Russia is able to build a large army, takes 1 of it's cities back
- Russia and Rome sign a lasting peace deal that is acceptable to both parties, ending ancient old hostilities. The peace deal is that good for both sides that they start to build up friendship.
- Piercia declares war upon Russia out of the blue.

It's a fact of history that Russia never declared war on anybody.
Russia has never had an ally, except Rome since the peace of Pitrograd.
Piercia has betrayed Russia twice. First by forcing peace upon Russia when it had an upper hand. Then by pulling it into a new war with Rome.

Therefore I don't see any reason to Blame Russia for anything.
Still you, Ku Kai, present it as if Russia is the reason for the current Piercian situation.
You do this without any explanation.

I ask you to either explain your grieving words against Russia, or to correct them.

Joseph Stalin

[Pitboss Russia]

To: Bak Moon,

Can you please explain the exact wrongs done by Russia in the wars of the past century.
If you can list any wrongs made by Russia that harmed the Piercians, or anybody (outside the legal acts of war against Rome), then Russia will fully compensate the Piercians.

But if you can't name any wrongs, by fact, then I urge you apologize against Mother Russia.

Russia has suffered a lot by the wars of the past century.
Millions have Russians have died, both on the battle field and in the cities during the production of our armies.
Russia has never betrayed anybody, eventhough it was betrayed by the Piercians many times!

List the facts, and I will bow for you.
If you can't, then please apologize.

Joseph Stalin

[Pitboss Greece]

Orestes left Sparta and headed for the Gojong castle.
He was quite angered by the entire situation, and wanted to speak with his friend, Gojong, about it, trying to find a solution.

[The Capo]

The Korean Palace, Sparta...

Emepror Gojong spent a few weeks in the palace the Greeks erected in Sparta. It was a very nice palace, and a fine Greek attempt at Korean archetecture (although they got a few things wrong). Gojong was quite pleased with his trip to Greece. He was accompanied by General Kim Jong-seo while the Prime Minister was in Korea handling the Imperial duties. "General Kim" Gojong said, "you are a commoner correct?"

The Genral winced, he hated when he was called a commoner. As a General he was surrounded by nobility, nobility that took every opportunity to remind him of his station. This was the Emperor though, this was different, "Yes sir, I am not a nobleman."

"How did you get your emancipation General Kim? If you do not mind me asking?" the Emperor asked.

"Well my lord, my family's lord was Wang Geon in those days. I was freed from the land in order to fight in his armies." Kim said nervously.

"Is life so difficult as a common man Kim?" the Emperor asked as he fanned himself, it was quite hot in the palace.

"I wouldn't know sir, I was drafted at a very young age. My father worked hard though, and he told me there were times where food was scarce." Kim explained. "I have been a soldier for most of my life, I do not know of the plight of the peasants." he lied, much of his family was still in service to the nobility of Pyong'yang.

"Those were in much more meager times" the Emperor said, partially for his own benefit, "And we are no longer obligated to the Maya by blood."

"The Maya sir?" Kim asked, he was confused as to why the Emperor brought this up.

An Imperial Page entered the room, and bowed, "Emperor, and important missive from Prime Minister Bojong." he said handing the letter to the Emperor.

"Thank you my lad" the Emperor said tossing him some Greek currency, "Go buy yourself something nice." he said smiling. The page bowed and left teh room, "Yes Kim, the Mayans. They are in this stupid fight with the Greeks over emancipation. You know they have released their peasants from the land there, given them so-called rights." the Emperor continued opening the letter.

"Oh, I hadn't known" Kim lied again.

"Yes, very frightful, its as if they have no law there, no government at all. I say this because I was thinking of agreeing to the Greeks emancipation proposal, not that I have anything against the peasantry of course. But, it would do us a great deal in regards to making allegience with the Greeks, establishing our friendship again. I have no intention of liberating the peasant class. Without them the nobility will have nothing and the military will have all of the influence" he said as he looked at the letter, "Do you agree General?"

"Yes of course sir, that would be a terrible turn of events." Kim said.

Gojong looked at him, "You don't say much Kim, you are no fun! Sometimes I don't even think you listen to me," he smiled, "Now let's see what the Prime Minister has to say...."

By diplokorea at 2008-07-20

Your Highness,

It seems our choice of Ambassador may have been a minor mistake, and further our choice of Foreign Minsiter may have been as well. Initial reaction from Orestes and Augustus were not positive. I have enclosed Ku Kai's proposal along with this missive, while I think there are merits to it he does take a lot of time to dispariage the Russians. Further the Greeks took offense to charges that they were working on concert with Piercia. Whether this is the truth or not, and believe me we know either way, it was not tactful and caused rancor from Orestes. I understand you are in Sparta at the moment, so I urge you to talk to Orestes and ease his worries.

Bak Moon's reply was a little better, but he reiderated Ku Kai's assertion that Russia was duplicitous (although he was much more diplomatic about it than the monk was) and also challenged Greece again, although not in a very aggressive manner. This may be a huge foreign policy blunder for us, it is difficult to tell at this juncture. You should try to alieve the situation with Greece, do what you can.

Your loyal servant,

-Bojong of Wonsan

"...Damn it," Gojong muttered to himself as he crumbled the paper into his fist, "General, please invite King Orestes here, tell him to bring his emancipation treaty. And I shall write a private message for him, please bring this with you. His eyes only..."

EDIT: Damn it, bad timing! Now this certainly makes no sense does it? Actually if you don't mind deleting that post that'd be great, there's no way Gojong would act like that if you came at him in that manner.

[Pitboss Rome]

King Orestes, Friend

Please forgive my slowness in responding to your formal proposal of an anti-emancipation treaty. I sign up fully to the proposal.

Augustus of Rome.

[Pitboss Rome]

Joseph Stalin, greatest leader of the Rus, Ally,

I wonder if you have considered the anti-emancipation treaty proposed by Great King Orestes of Sparta. You are a free, noble, nation and can make your own decisions on such matters. However, I hope that this might be something we could agree to together. For while it is not formally part of the Pax Romana, it would make sense for the whole of the Pax Romana to be free of these radical ideas for our mutual benefit.

I hope that you might see it this way too. But if not, I am sure we will learn to understand each other's different approach.

Augustus

[The Capo]

King Orestes along with General Kim Jong-seo entered the palace, along with Orestes' retinue. He was furious that the Korean Foreign Ministry had offended Greece publicly. Yet again Greece felt publicly betrayed by the Koreans, which was astonishing to them in the wake of this new-found relationship between the two nations. Gojong was prepared, sitting at his desk to handle this situation. Despite the fact that he personally agreed with much of Ku Kai's findings, he felt that it was not good to state it publicly, and certainly not without first consulting the Emperor.

"Emperor Gojong, I trust these are not your personal feelings on the matter!" King Orestes fumed as he entered Gojong's chamber, there was no greeting.

"King Orestes, please, I implore you to listen to what I have to say." the Greek King simply nodded, his eyes were intense with anger, "This monk, Ku Kai, is a trusted religious advisor. But that is all, he is on a goodwill mission and we felt that it would be proper to send a Buddhist monk to handle this as our ambassador."

"And this is Korea's idea of goodwill? Ku Kai trashes the Russians publicly, in fact he nearly spends the first half of his proposal doing so, then he turns around and accuses Sparta of being involved in some scheme? Sparta does not scheme, we attack you face to face! Something Korea has yet to learn apparently!" he said, slamming the proposal on the Emperor's desk, "And then you expect US to send soldiers to carry out YOUR proposal."

Gojong took a deep breath, "King Orestes, you must understand that this was firstly done without my consent, but I will back the words of my ambassadors. It will be my place to deal with them when they return, having said that, I believe Ku Kai's proposal has merit."

"If you believe that this has merit, perhaps it is you that wants this conflict to continue. You insutled Russia, and have insulted Sparta!" the King began to calm down. He was warned about this, by his ministers, that Korea made brash public statements. And now he realized why there was an impasse between the two nations, "And after all of my hospitality, I have built you a castle this is the thanks you show me?"

"Again, good King Orestes, you misunderstand the purpose of the monk. He is there to accomplish an agreement, he did not travel there to make people feel good about themselves. Sometimes you have a break a few eggs to make an omlette. I urge you to support this proposal."

The King was shocked that this young Emperor would handle this entire situation like this, "Emperor Gojong," he began carefully, "We have enjoyed a marvelous time, your trip has done a lot to bring our nations together. But this can not be ignored. And then you ask me to SIGN THIS and agree to follow this proposal?" he shook his head, "And I thought the Koreans were supposed to be shrewd diplomats!"

"King Orestes, I understand it may be a difficult thing to ignore. But its something that must be put on the table, even if it were not true the Romans will believe it so. Do not think for a moment that the Romans have suddenly forgot they called you an oath-breaker. This is to assuage their thoughts, it only benefits our purpose to put this on the table. Whether it is true or not. If this crisis is to truly see a fitting end, we must air out our dirty laundry." the Emperor said standing up, and approaching the Spartan King, "Korea can not do this alone, we require Spartan soldiers to maintain the garrisons. Korea is far too weak to do this themselves, and if the Greeks agree this carries a lot of weight."

"So you need us to do this? If that is the case why the disrespect?" the King asked.

"Again, I did not tell the monk to say this, these are his personal findings. I will reprimand him when he returns from his goodwill tour. Now, I understand you are angry, but perhaps I could convince you otherwise. It is no secret that the latest news from Maya bothers me. They were once under a King who was my cousin, and now they are ruled by the mob." the Emperor explained, "I would like to think if I signed your emancipation decree, if Korea agreed to its terms, that you would sign this deal and supply soldiers to occupy the Piercian territories, and give regular status reports to Rome."

The King eyed the young Emperor down, "We can agree to that, but will you truly follow the agreement? Can you truly break your deals with the Maya if they do not comply?"

The Emperor turned towards his desk and picked up the Korean proposal King Orestes had thrown there, "I will do my best to get them to comply, but of course I can not control what they do. I of course shall comply with your agreement, and make this intent public once I return to Korea when you sign this agreement and publicly state you support Ku Kai's proposal. You may even publicly say you disagree with his findings, or particular findings. But it is imperative that we get agreement on this proposal. This way Piercia, and Rome, and Russia can finally end this terrible crisis."

King Orestes looked down at the paper, he then looked up at the Emperor, "Do you have a pen.....?"

[Pitboss Greece]

Orestes looked at the pen he had just received from General Kim Jong-seo.
Then he took some deep breath and said: "My anger has influenced my words. Looking back at our conversation, I must say that my anger was more directed at your minister's words then a the monk. It's not the mistakes people make, that anger me. I was angered by your minister's response when I tried to send some correction."

Then he looked at the pen again.
"Sparta is willing to send some observers to Piercia, but I doubt that the Piercians are willing to accept Spartan observers. Piercia recently has broken all contacts with Sparta. But I have the intention to send some observers, if you ask me to."

Then Orestes signed the pacts.
He gave the pen to Gojong. "Please sign the anti-emancipation treaty".

[Pitboss Russia]

Great Emperor Augustus, leader of the most splendid nation on earth,

Russia does not desire emancipation.
All people in Russia desire only one thing, to serve Mother Russia.
Russia is everyone and everyone is Russia.
We currently enjoy the fruits of the Caste System and we do not seek anything that harms this great way of living.

I have waited for your decision regarding this Anti-Emancipation pact.
I did not want to sign it without knowing your position.
Now you have signed it, I will sign it as well.

Joseph Stalin.

To: Orestes of Sparta

King of Sparta, I do hereby sign your anti emancipation treaty in the name of Mother Russia.

Joseph Stalin

[Pitboss Persia]

To : Gojong of Silla, Emperor of Korea
From : Aun'O Es'Ther Per'Hyl of the Piercian Empire

Greetings, Emperor

I rejoice at the sight of the purposal of your monk. The boudhists seem not to be affected by the mental desease that apparently got Rome. His description of history is accurate indeed. I read that you trust his judgement and for that you are quite a wise man.

However, there is a formal mistake in his writings. The city of Mee'Ting is the one Rome has renamed "Oath City". And it is Rough Kho'Per, aka "Guard City" that I claim back. You will notice how creative the Romans are for naming cities.

I have declared war on the Rus. Yes, for that I am fully guilty. However, if, Rome makes Russia pay for this war as she should do, I would retract my war-declaration and simply close my borders to them. As we speak, they send knights to our city of Por'Per, hoping to be hidden from the eyes of the world in the western jungles. The won't cause us any threat however. I just thought you might wish to know about this.

Theese are the only comments I would have to add to your monk's purposal. I fully agree with the rest of it.

It is good to see that one still has friends in such difficult times.

Aun'O Es'Ther Per'Hyl

[Pitboss Russia]

Auno Esther Peryl,

Can you finally explain to me why Russia has to pay?
And can you also explain why you apparently are displeased with the existence of Russian knights in Piercian territory, after Piercia has declared war upon Russia itself?

I am still willing to sign peace.
I have no terms for this peace.
But you are stubborn and you desire war.

Let the Koreans know this, Russia is willing to sign peace! With everyone!
And yes, Russia is willing to pay for all damages done for which Russia is to blame.

But despite the many words in which Russia is blamed, nobody has been able to describe why Russia is to blame.
Tell me all about our wrongs, and I will pay.

Now Piercia, shall we sign peace, or do you want me to send a larger army to Piercia?

Joseph Stalin

[Pitboss Persia]

To : King Orestes of Sparta
From : Aun'O Es'Ther Per'Hyl of the Piercian Empire

King of Sparta,

You have streched my patience in theese last days and angered me alot.

However, I have heard you are willing to cooperate with Korea in order to find a solution to the current crisis. Theese are good news.

I won't block off your good will. However, as a small favour I would ask you to help me in spreading Boudhism thoughout my Empire. Please, spread it to Wild Kho'Per or Por'Per, and I will retract my last decision regarding Sparta.

I hope we may come to something productive here.

Aun'O Es'Ther Per'Hyl of the Piercian Empire