Kingdom of Coria

[Dante Silverfire]

I'm jealous of all this RP going on in Coria.

Roleplay messages on ATAMARA? Things are getting weird.

Wait, y'all don't roleplay? lol.

We don't roleplay all of the time, but I try when I can. Maybe we'll have more now if we can get people interested in it.

Props to Silverfire for trying to shake things up though. As Vellos mentioned however, it does seem several months late.

I'm trying, we'll see what happens. Frankly, I need more nobles to make it work. If Coria isn't strong enough noble wise to defend against those who may soon see Coria as a juicy target, due to Merlin's powergrab then it may collapse before it gets rolling.

[Sonya]

As they made there way through the crowd, one of the guards was attacked by a protester and the ordeal quickly spireled of of control with the guards now trying to forcefully quell the unruly populous.

Haha, sorry was saving that link for a while now....

[Gustav Kuriga]

Thank you for the propaganda Sonya.

[Azerax]

Wait, y'all don't roleplay? lol.

We don't roleplay all of the time, but I try when I can. Maybe we'll have more now if we can get people interested in it.
I'm trying, we'll see what happens. Frankly, I need more nobles to make it work. If Coria isn't strong enough noble wise to defend against those who may soon see Coria as a juicy target, due to Merlin's powergrab then it may collapse before it gets rolling.

This is called foreshadowing.

[Dante Silverfire]

Letter from Merlin Silverfire   (8 minutes ago)
Message sent to the Rulers of Atamara (14 recipients)
Esteemed Rulers of Atamara,

This will be the last letter which I write to you all as ruler of Coria.

When I was elected as ruler of Coria, it was with the intention to help Coria gain greater prominence across Atamara by helping to forge new relationships between all realms. An agreement such as one not seen since it was agreed long ago that council members be considered sacrosanct from infiltrator attacks. My Phoenix empire would be one not to fight wars or develop new alliances, but to help provide a guiding force on Atamara. A diplomatic association that would help enable realms to have limited wars without the all or nothing destruction conflicts we've had recently. To encourage realms to offer proper terms and reasons for their war when they declare it. Instead of forcing unconditional surrenders upon realms, which I consider a dishonorable practice, realms would be encouraged to state what they considered a reasonable peace terms to end the conflict from the very beginning. This would eliminate confusion from both sides, and allow everyone to know what exactly they were fighting for.

However, my plans were misinterpreted, warped, and shaped to fit the needs of those who would see harm come to my realm. My purely honorable intentions were made out to be ones of betrayal and backstabbing of my greatest friends and allies of Coria. I formally state for all to be clear: My empire was not planned as a militant organization and certainly not one with the intention of destroying, harming, or attacking the Cagilan Empire. I have had personal disagreements with the conduct of the Cagilan Empire, as well as everyone else in the League of the Eagle for some time now, and this includes Coria. However, none of these would have led me to become militant against my own allies. Coria has supported in the past, actions which involve the dishonorable treatment of realms and for that I am ashamed. I sought to unite the entire continent under this idea of improved honorable conduct, but now I face such opposition that to continue leading Coria will only lead to harm for my realm.

I cannot in good consciousness continue to rule Coria as to do so will put my realm into a worse position. Therefore, by the end of today, I will step down as ruler of Coria and allow a new ruler to be elected from amongst my realm.

I have made many mistakes over the past few weeks. I have said many things which should not have been said, and trusted many nobles which did not deserve that trust. I idealized Atamara as a better place than it truly is. It was my hope that every ruler of Atamara also felt that we should always strive to be better in all respects. Yet, now I feel so alone after seeing the truth of things. Liberty and sovereignty upon Atamara have died, and they died long ago. All I did was simply request that my realm be treated as a sovereign nation, and here I am forced to resign as ruler lest my realm suffer. A long standing ally of Coria abandoning our alliance without even a public explanation or reason, many rulers co-opting internal Corian politics and conducting their own undermining of my leadership through private correspondence with my internal opponents, copies of my private correspondence with the ruler of Minas Leon shared with CE's ruler after being being taken out of context, or doctored and forged to suit his needs, and now having received word that paid assassins from the Brotherhood apparently on orders from the empire to kill me are now on their way to my capital. All of these things have led to my downfall today. I don't even know if that last is true, but there are already three infiltrators within Coria's capital, and only my trained guards have kept me alive this long.

My final request is do not allow my personal mistakes to reflect upon my realm. It is for their reason and their reason alone I step down this day.

The Last Free Ruler of Atamara,

Merlin Silverfire
Consul Regnant of Coria
Royal of Coria
Duke of Frekpotis
Margrave of Barad Falas

So ends the Kingdom of Coria.

[Elegant]

Oh no...another bundle of lies from Merlin? Poor Jason is really pissed off.

Letter from Jason Elegant   (55 minutes ago)
Message sent to the Rulers of Atamara (14 recipients)
Esteemed Rulers,

Whatever King Merlin wrote to us just now was a bunch of lies. Here is what King Merlin just now claimed before all of us:

My purely honorable intentions were made out to be ones of betrayal and backstabbing of my greatest friends and allies of Coria.

And here is what he does behind our back:

If the timing works out, I could just ask King Kerwin to renege on his unconditional surrender, and we could have Coria join a new and united north and south against CE and Tara.


Are these honorable intentions towards allies?

King Merlin, if you continue to spread lies and accuse us that we misinterpreted you, then you are going to open up a whole new front of debate, just like what happened in the League. Your letter addressed to the rulers was a bunch of lies and I have enough proofs, even you know that I can prove it before all the rulers. I thought you are going to be honorable man towards your exit, but, as your letter tells, you are still spreading lies.

I could easily expose you here in rulers channel, but, I am not doing it. Don't try to take undue advantage of my silence in this channel.

Jason Elegant
Prime Minister of Cagilan Empire
Royal of Cagilan Empire

[Perth]

Elegant, that doesn't even make sense. Kerwin isn't even King of Eston anymore?

[Dante Silverfire]

Elegant, that doesn't even make sense. Kerwin isn't even King of Eston anymore?

He's pulling from Merlin's private letters which were sent weeks ago.

[Perth]

He's pulling from Merlin's private letters which were sent weeks ago.

Oh, like, you know, before the Phoenix Empire?

[Dante Silverfire]

Oh, like, you know, before the Phoenix Empire?

Yes, 22 days ago in fact.

[Munro]

As a player I had mixed feelings about the Empire, on the one hand I thought it novel, I also was excited by the response of other players who genuinely thought it may change things. On the other hand however, part of me though it was merely an expansions of the current 'Alliance, peace, war, hatred' system already in place. To some extent is also seemed an OOC motivation to 'spice' up AT and remove the dominance of the Central Alliance.

IG-wise, I think Merlin has been just as guilty as Saeculo of underhand tactics.

First and foremost was using the opportunity to change the realm to a Monarchy from a Republic. Isolating not only an extremely close friend, but a fairly powerful one at that, was one of Merlins primary mistakes (although we've discussed this OOC in private between ourselves and I sort of see the reasoning). Either way, it came across as a power-play IG and was thus strongly protested against by some of the Corian characters.

The revelation of the Protectorate (Saeculo revealed such "private" letters only once Merlin disclosed existance of the Protectorate. After that, as it was no longer a secret organisation, and neither were its contents as far as Saeculo was concerned).

If Merlin was so determined not to harm the CE, why in private conversation amongst close friends did he openly state so?

Additionally, the choice IC to lie to various rulers (or not tell the entire truth) was perhaps the worst move. If this was presented to the CE as a "we want to strengthen the Empire even more by joining other realms together, and I may have to use deceit to do this" Merlin wouldn't have lost all the trust he has from his allies who suddenly see that he wants to weaken and attack them.

Additionally, Saeculo, and from what I hear, Ravendon both tried to give Merlin a way out before the majority of these revelations. He could have retired as Duke and still retained influence within Coria. Perhaps even gone away, reformed his plans and tried again. Now, I'm doubtful as to whether Coria's allies would accept such a character being in a position of influence.

It certainly spiced the game up (at least in Coria), so on an OOC level I'd like to thank you for that. IC, I doubt Merlin or Saeculo will ever be friends again in the same way they once were. Though I'll be interested were these suicide RP's end up!

[^ban^]

If Merlin was so determined not to harm the CE, why in private conversation amongst close friends did he openly state so?

I can't speak to the rest, but private conversation amongst friends is not an open statement.

[Dante Silverfire]

I can't speak to the rest, but private conversation amongst friends is not an open statement.

That is the main thing.

People in real life easily have crazy ideas and thoughts that they only voice with those they trust the most. They aren't really serious about them, but they need someone to talk them over with, and to just bounce ideas around as they come up. They may not actually want any of it, but if something comes up on the spur of the moment they might say it. Close friends won't be offended or want to change their view of you simply by a secondary thought thrown out there for consideration.

It helps to rationalize "how bad" a plan or idea is when they are able to put it to consideration by close friends.

[Geronus]

Additionally, Saeculo, and from what I hear, Ravendon both tried to give Merlin a way out before the majority of these revelations. He could have retired as Duke and still retained influence within Coria. Perhaps even gone away, reformed his plans and tried again. Now, I'm doubtful as to whether Coria's allies would accept such a character being in a position of influence.

He's pretty close to untouchable if he doesn't end up killing himself or voluntarily stepping down. He'll be a Royal, and thus unbannable, and he's a Duke. The options that do exist for getting rid of him are all somewhat painful.

[GoldPanda]

Postmortem:

Merlin had multiple objectives:

1. Make Coria a Monarchy and crown himself King.
2. Remove League support from Rieleston and destroy Rieleston.
3. Establish a diplomatic framework that encourages limited wars and prevent all-or-nothing realm-ending wars.
4. Decrease the amount of influence CE and Tara has on Coria.

All of these are sensible, if ambitious goals. Each of them should have been long term, multi-year projects. The fact that he pursued all of them at the same time belied an over-confidence that doomed everything from the start.

If he wanted to crown himself King, he first would have to be Consul for at least a year, while rebuilding his damaged relations with Jason and Ottar. More importantly, he needed to project an image of stability and competence (neither of which were on display in the past week). Eventually he could make the argument to Coria's nobility that they keep electing him, so they might as well crown him King.

If he wanted to destroy Rieleston, he first needed to repair his relationship with Jason, and convince Jason that Rieleston was a real and present danger to Coria. The faction that he completely neglected is Talerium, whose leadership also have good relations with Rieleston. More importantly, Talerium would be the ones who would value military access to BoM, and thus have a real incentive to be friends with Rieleston. I'd also like to point out that trying to destroy Rieleston is incompatible with goal #3. It's pretty hypocritical to talk about preserving realm sovereignty while secretly plotting to destroy a realm.

If he wanted to establish a diplomatic framework of any sort, he would need to (again) repair his relationship with Jason and Ottar. It's not strictly necessary, but getting CE and Tara AND Talerium on board with the plan would make things 10 times easier. Diplomatically isolating CE and Tara and Talerium, and then shaming them into accepting the framework, is theoretically possible, but seems like a moon shot to me.

If he wanted to free Coria from Cagilan and Tara influence, the only way to do that, I believe, is to betray the League and switch sides. (And like Perth said, it's a little too late for that.) Of course after that, Coria would be under Darkan and Makarian influence. There is just no way around it. If you are a realm in BattleMaster, you are always under some other realm's influence. A realm that thinks it does not need to answer to anybody tend to turn into a dead realm rather quickly.

Other mistakes:

Talking to every foreign ruler expect those of his own allies: This was interpreted as a snub directed toward his own allies. The other rulers also proved to be untrustworthy, and gleefully took the opening to assume control of the narrative. By the time Merlin was protesting about forgeries, it was already too late. All Jason, Ottar, et al., had to do to get their own nobles on their side was to ask, "Do you really want to put Merlin in charge of handling diplomacy for us?"

Having lost credibility, others began looking at Merlins actions instead of listening to his words. What they saw was:
* Phoenix Empire and Kingdom of Coria founded simultaneously.
* Phoenix design on new Kingdom of Coria banner.
-> Conclusion: Phoenix Empire equals Kingdom of Coria.

It wasn't so much that nobles were deliberately misinterpreting him. It was that nobles no longer trusted a word that Merlin says, and were drawing their own conclusions from his actions.