The Dance of Civilizations [Diplo Game] [Story Thread Pt8 - April 2010]

[Byzantium (DoC)]

President Sayri Tupa, United T'oqrikoq of Peru,

Your recent declaration has caused much confusion and disturbance here in the Free Democracy of Byzantium. We can only conclude that you are close friend and neighbour is still suffeirng the great tauma of the Indian disaster from which we are now perhaps only starting to emerge. We stand alongside you as you struggle to recover from the terrible events which overcame the world and wish to offer you our friends any help we can with that.

The reason for our confusion is I am sure obvious. Byzantium has been the promoter and supporter of Peru for many centuries, indeed millenium.

- Byzantium supported Inca in its war with England many centuries ago, following to the letter the secret correspondance between our nations during that war.
- Byzantium has intervened on a number of occasions to help secure your bounderies against the English. Frequently the English threatened Peru over border disputes in your western territories, each times we stood by you.
- Byzantium intervened to the point of making clear it would go to war to protect you against the constant threats of the Koreans. It was the work of Byzantine diplomats which secured the opening of your borders with Korea to allow you free passage to your southern colonies.
- Byzantium has long supplied you freely with resources and more recently has build railways for you across your land and to improve the efficiency of your mines, at no cost to you, without your own workers being troubled.
- During the Indian war (which as you know we believe was a folly of Basil's) the correspondance is clear that Byzantium only ever requested that you supply us with a naval base - it was England who threatened to invade and capture your cities, and India which actually did that. Byzantium never made any threats simply requesting, which your former president chose to accept because of his hatred of the indians given what they had done to you. And since the Indian disaster we have removed all forces and government from the naval base, encouraging the people there to return to Peruvian government allowing constant 'revolts' there which will bring it back to your control as soon as possible.
- Peru was one of the nations who knew of the unrising in England before it occured - our friendship is that close. Peru cowed by English threats thought England invincible and worried that Byzantium might fail, but certainly showed no hestitation over the principle.
- Now your people's situation in the West is far better than in the past. When Hastings was English it pushed your own borders east, and the English constantly made threats about your expansion to include their iron hills. Now your borders stretch far west, and you are about to found a new city in the iron hills - a city on land which was English and which - as we both know - the English would have destroyed you if you had attempted to found when Hastings was English. Now, under generous Byzantine rule, you are welcome to found taht city there, for we support your desire for prosperity long denied to you by the English and Koreans.

My friend, you have nothing to fear from the Free Democracy of Byzantium. We have long worked for your good and prosperity and we continue to do so. We have great sympathy for the trauma you have suffered, and pray that you will recover before long - we are happy to send what aid we can.

Eustathius for the Free Democracy of Byzantium.

[Persia (DoC)]

this is a story about the Sha'Taoistic Republic Iran

---

Eustathius of Byzantium, We celebrate your election as the new leader of the Byzantine people and we hope that your election will open new possibilities to normalise the relations between Byzantium and Iran. We have intercepted messages sent by your predecessor, Makarios the Tyrant, to our allies. In response we have prepared ourself for large scale war, eventhough the informative attitude of our allies showed us that we do not have to protect ourselves against our loyal friends. We have also in response to these intercepted messages changed our long-term attitude towards your nation. I believe that we can leave this past behind us if you are willing to give complete clearance of the malicious actions of Makarios against Iran by displaying all his correspondence with our allies. I am looking forward to your cooperative answer and have as a sign of goodwill ordered to stop the research of our new civil weapons for now. President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad of the Sha'Taositic Republic Iran

[Native America (DoC)]

Nancy Ward called the chiefs for a Powwow. I want to leave a legacy; I want my nation to remember Nancy Ward as a powerful leader. I want them to remember me as a leader who brought prosperity and industry to the country. I want them to see something extraordinary and to marvel at it, to bring their children and their children’s children to see it and that it will make them think of me as a powerful leader..

It should also benefit the nation. So go and think of projects she told them. So they did.

[Byzantium (DoC)]

Eustathius, President of the Free Democracy of Byzantium, read the latest communication from Iran and laughed.

Shaking his head he remembered the hard times of the first great steel strike, the attempts by the Imperial secret policy to infiltrate the unions, the resistance measure to Indian espionage in the tank building factories in Antioch. "What sort of imbecile newbie does this President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad take me for? A free president maybe, but I am not daft."

"Its the oldest trick in the book - we used to try it on when we were 10. Proclaiming 'we have intercepted your secret messages, so we are annoyed and will only be happy if you reveal all your secret messages'. How stupid do you have to be to fall for that? Maybe people on Hascon do?"

His cabinet colleagues laughed with him. "Well remember President, its a backward country - they don't even have electricity there. They probably think that is sophisticated!"

Becoming more serious, Eustathius turned to his foriegn minister. "But what do you think is motivating this ... approach from Iran?"

"Well Mr President we have been running some options, and we think the most likely thing is what we call the OOC influcence."

"What is OOC?"

"OOC means 'On our cinemas' - there has been much OOC about joint Byzantine action with the Hascon nations to free them from Persian dominance. You know what the movie people are like. Always running away with ideas for great films. There has been quite a lot OOC on this theme recently, so the Iranian President has become paranoid and so it trying this kind of scam to find out if there is any truth in it"

"Well ..." began the president, then he saw the minister for war shake his head slightly, and he stopped remembering not everyone was security cleared.

"So minister for war, what is the intelligence on Iranian forces?"

"Well, sire. They are certainly building up an invasion army on the Russian borders. Here is the latest report."



"And the Russians have this information.?"

"Yes of course, the alliance with Russia, and the others, is working well. They know we will defend them when the long-anticipated clash on Hascon comes."

"So the Iranian military is strong?"

The minister for war smiled. "Strong? No. First, as we know, their military leadership is weak. But look at this. These are the reports from Persepolis, the site of one of the shrines, a key city, on the border."



"As you can see - there is effectively no defence. Just a small ceremonial guard. This shows the true weakness of the Iranian military."

The foreign minister butted in "Yes sir, so that is the context for this latest communication from Iran. All this talk of secret weapons and secert communications. They realise that they are woefully weak. Diplomatically - for their millenia of bullying their neighbours and their reputation for failure when their armies were destroyed by the so much smaller Russians, and more recently by the Indians - leave they friendless and fearful that soon their neighbours will take their rightful vengeance. Militarily too - as we have seen. So they are deparate."

"But what of this talk of research into special weapons?"

The intelligence chief responded "A straight-forward lie. All they seem to be developing at the moment is tyranical forms of government".

Eustathius smiled.

"And what should we say to Iran?"

"I have drafted a response, sir" said the foreign minister, passing across a sheet of paper. He read it and nodded, "yes, that is good. Now gentlemen, back to the real business at hand."

[Persia (DoC)]

this is a story about the Sha'Taoistic Republic Iran

---

Do Iranian soldiers know fear? "Farsa, are you awake?" "Yes, Shahammed." "Can't sleep either, can you?" "No. Some say it'll happen tomorrow!" "Are the rumours true?" "Yes, the Royal Guard of Igor is among them!" "And is General Marshev there?" "Yes, Koja Marshev himself is leading the army." "How many?" 20 units of infantry, well equipped for a city assault. 6 units of cannons. "Are the upgrades done?" "Yes, all Russian soldiers have received the latest equipment. Only the guards of the cities are carrying outdated weapons." "But those will not participate in the war, will they?" "Most probably not, no." "So, the Russian army is ready." "And well prepared!" "I'm scared." "You should not!" "I know, still I am. I don't want to die." "We will live, Shahammed!" "How do you know?" "Sha'Tao promised us. I was there when the battle for Ahmedjabad happened. I was among the lines of the brave Persian army, invading India. I was there when our superior troops were countered by the breath of Sha'Tao. I was barely able to escape." "Why would this comfort me?" "Sha'Tao is on our side now!" "And what about Hastog the Terrible? Will he not come to the aid of his children? Some say that the Russiand, not the Persians, have always been his favorite." "The days of Hastog are over. Now we fight, united by Sha'Tao! We will prevail, Shahammed! We will live! The Russians will not be able to harm us." "What about the rumours about the Ottomans and the Orb and the Byzantines?" "I don't know, I only know that Sha'Tao is on our side! We should not fear!" "Are we ready?" "Yes, we are ready." "So, it will happen?" "Yes!" "When?" "When Russia wakes up."

Iranian soldiers wait for the war to start Shahammed and Farsa during better times Farse flees from the New Russian battlefields The Russian army parades in front of the Palace of King Igor Shahammed fears the war

[Persia (DoC)]

this is a story about the Sha'Taoistic Republic Iran

---

Prayer to Sha'Tao Sha'Tao, The evening falls. The night has come. The day is gone. No sight of dawn. I'm scared. Will I live To see tomorrow Will I breath The morning cold Save my soul And save my body Pity me Oh righteous one I'm scared. Save my children and my wife Take their fear away. When they cry for daddy And daddy will not come. Will they live without? I'm scared. Oh Sha'Tao Heavenly god, I'm scared. My heart can't look past tomorrow. Will there be another day for me? I'm scared.

[Byzantium (DoC)]

The Byzantine "Korea Conference"

"So, foreign minister, you have called this special Korea Conference. We are here, but I for one don't understand why. We have peace and friendship with Korea - what is the problem? Explain"

"Thank you Mr President. The situation is confused and complicated. We have heard from many sources that Korea is petrified that we are about to launch an invasion of them. We have this from live assests, from intecept intelligence, from a variety of credible sources. These are confirmed from our own aerial phtography of the Korean navy."



"What wierd deployment!" exclaimed the minister for war.

"I know, but it is designed as a desparate attempt to stop a Byzantine naval invasion - though only one from the west, ignoring our naval base in the east, and attack from the oceans."

"But why on earth do they expect us to attack them?"

"We have no idea. We have had good though distant relations with the Koreans for centuries. We know that elements of the English government fled there when they abandoned Criel - we can only assume that they have been dripping lies into the ears of the Koreans. For the English know well the tensions between our nations, that there was never a single positive trade between us across all history, that they formed alliances against us with the persians and rejoiced to see us attacked by the Indians. The English know well that we only moved to free Byznatines living under English domination, and of course not a single Byzantine lives in Korea. But, the English have tried to persuade everyone they can that they were our closest friends whom we betrayed, and that Byzantium is some monster bend on world domination."

A mixture of confusion and amusement rippled round the table.

"We can only conclude that the English have lied to the Koreans, encouraging them to think that for some reason - God knows what - Byzantium might want to invade them."

Eustathius turned to the minister for war "And you can confirm this - that there have never been and are no such plans?"

"Of course Mr President. Why on earth would we want islands in the southern sea? Factually this destroyer shield is pointless and our armies could conquer Korea without a difficulty in an instance. Their army is very weak, and though their navy is strong, it is not a dififcult tactical matter to get troops to land. But why woudl we want to? The only conceivable reason our future planners have ever come up with would be if Korea invaded Peru - which they have threatened to do on various occasions - then our alliance with the nations on our continent woudl require our action, which obviously would be to repell the invaders from Peru though could I suppose in some way involve a strike against Korea. But that really is in the realms of distant speculation."

"And we returned to Korea all of the ships we borrowed?"

"Yes sir, every one, and to the Inca. There was a minor mix up with the right ships not always going back to the right people in terms of promotions, but the numbers and types of ships precisely.."

"Well, I have to conclude that yes this is Korean paranoia brought on by English lies. Write to the Koeans assuring them of our peaceful intent, and then ignore it. There is nothing more we can do".

[Native America (DoC)]

Nancy Ward was able to see her legacy in person. She viewed the magnificient hydroelectric dam from the hill overlooking Cahokia.

That night she died peacefully in her sleep.

[Native America (DoC)]

There was much mourning and weeping but also socialising as the chiefs gathered together yet again, this time to choose a new chief.

'This new power source for our factories gives us significant ability to increase our military hardware production', argued Crazy Horse. 'I say we invest heavily so that we can become a world power and earn the respect of those who encroached on Native American territory and hunting grounds'.

'I have starting building a military academy at West Point and when it is complete, I want all the chiefs present here to be the instructors'.

'All this, brother, so that we can truly take our rightful place in the Sha'Tao brotherhood.'

There was much celebration as the chiefs performed the famous ghost dance in honor of Crazy Horse.

[Byzantium (DoC)]

The Free Democracy of Byzantium sends brotherly greatings to the Native American People,

Although you are at the other side of the world from us, we hear of your great engineering triumphs, and stand in awe. Truly you are the greatest engineers this world has known. If your new ruler Crazy Horse is in any way the equal of great Nancy Ward, the American people will stand tall in this world in this next century.

Eustathius, President.

[England (DoC)]

An English boy protesting against the Byzantine oppressors and greatest backstabbers of history.

[Byzantium (DoC)]

[England (DoC)]

OOC Could not resist when i saw the boy. So cool!!

[India (DoC)]

Persian Brothers,


Do not care about your enemies, about war.. Care about your souls, pray for forgiveness for your sins in he past. While your weapons can fail you the God can not. So worship Sha'tur since the final hour, the judgement day is nigh.

Empress Shakti

[India (DoC)]

While in the non-Taoists countries the media try to either silence or ridicule the Sha'Tao prophecy, in the major cities people can meet more and more prophets of doom.
After several protester attacks the Indians have closed all their remained embassies, now all foreign contact they have is with the local Sha'Tao churches.