Author Topic: Lukon vs Oritolon  (Read 44912 times)

Revan

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Re: Lukon vs Oritolon
« Reply #15: March 11, 2013, 08:04:44 PM »
I think we're learning more about Valakyrie's hypersensitivity on the diplomatic stage than anything that has happened in Oritolon ;-) When Malice called a referendum after the council vote it was because a handful of people were making enough of a ruckus that he had little choice but to hold a referendum. Another day of protests and Malice would have been forced out. And what would Lukon have done then? Probably assumed that Oritolon was saying no to empire. The first referendum was held for one purpose and that was to keep everything on track towards empire!

Of course, the outcome of that first referendum was a tie. It left Malice in a difficult position. He could have tried to force things through and damn the consequences, but it remained likely that would only lead to protests and trouble. So another referendum was started. It was then that Valakyrie started to get agitated and made sure no-one was under any illusions as to the consequences of a rejection. That's when things started turning against the idea of empire within Oritolon. The desperate act of Malice challenging Valakyrie was indeed a stalling tactic. But that's because almost out of the blue it became clear Lukon was about to declare war.

No-one in Oritolon had been expecting war. Valakyrie had been ambiguous enough (and to be fair, what Valakyrie told Malice in the beginning and what she was saying later on were completely different which didn't help much) that it didn't occur to anyone that Lukon might actually, seriously, declare war on Oritolon. The referendums had been about about making sure Oritolon was behind the empire. Only when it became obvious the second referendum was going to fail did Malice table the duel. It was mainly just to ensure Oritolon could make a half-decent effort at a defence before the Horde overwhelmed Alebad. The week that duel bought was just enough time for us to call in our nobles from across the realm, have them recruit and start heading toward Alebad. There wasn't time for militia placement. Maybe if the duel had forced a serious wound or a Lukon ruler election there would have been time but not otherwise! As I say, it was a desperate stalling tactic which Malice only resorted too once efforts to get Oritolon behind the empire were set to decisively fail.

I think given the way things have turned out, Malice did well to deliver a majority in favour of empire at all. But the old guard were never all that enthusiastic and Robin's caricature of Lukon got embedded in too many young minds. When Lukon's efforts of persuasion started getting ugly all it did was vindicate the naysayers and give more experienced hands the space they needed to change their minds on something they hadn't been all that fond of to begin with. That's the real problem. One or two former Giblot nobles didn't poison Oritolon against Lukon, Oritolon and Lukon simply drifted apart. Valakyrie might have all Valasts old contacts, but the old friendships and loyalties that used to underpin those links seem to have all-but disappeared. You can talk all day about how good everyone would have it under the empire but the peaceful division of Oritolon was simply asking too much.

If Lukon had been a bit more patient and less gung-ho in her communications, I still think Oritolon could have peacefully delivered on the empire. Oritolon never got the space to do it though. As things started getting fraught within Oritolon, Lukon started throwing wood onto the fire from outside. But even then, I suppose it comes back to the state of relations between Oritolon and Lukon. It's been a long time since Lukon had much faith in Oritolon's internal politics and that was reflected in Lukon's growing impatience and distrust. The truth is that the proposal of a Colonies empire came at possibly the lowest ebb in Oritolon and Lukon's shared history and war was probably always going to be the result.