Diplomacy

[OFaolain]

Can you declare war on someone your federated ally is in alliance with (or the ally of an ally, for that matter)?  Or can you not be allied with the ally of an enemy?  And on that note, would anyone be so kind as to explain the diplomacy system for me?  Kind of relevant to current gameplay in Corsanctum (and by "kind of" I mean "extremely").

[jaune]

This is a bit buttfeeling... cant guarantee this to be correct.

You cant declare war to ally of your ally, or ally of your federated partner.

[Anaris]

Jaune is correct. The following setup is supposed to be impossible (there have been loopholes that allowed it from time to time):

A is allied or federated with C.
B is allied or federated with C.
A is at war with B.

[Indirik]

Basically, you should not be able to trace an alliance chain around to the point where it effectively makes you allied to the person you are at war with. (Alliances/Federations being considered the same thing here.)

A bit of speculation here, but if Corsanctum is allied to Morek, and Morek is allied to Swordfell, then neither Swordfell nor Corsanctum can declare war on the other. One of the two of them will have to drop the alliance with Morek, or convince Morek to drop the alliance to the other. This kind of diplomatic blocking is a popular tactic, especially for smaller realms seeking protection, or for big realms trying to protect smaller allies.

Note that this restriction applies to both declaring war and declaring alliances. You shouldn't be able to sign an alliance with your enemy's ally.

[OFaolain]

Ah, I see.  So because Morek is allied with Swordfell, we couldn't declare war on them without breaking our federation first (or convincing Morek to drop the alliance with Swordfell).  That explains a lot about what is going on.  Thank you!