Part 14: 1330: Diplomactic Overtures

You can make the text over a picture disappear by pushing the space bar. Sometimes the text covers an important detail, so when playing on your own I suggest always doing it once.





The Fire season, fifth season of the year, marks the end of the planting. The fields are full and there is little work to be done, but the sun is beating down on Kuchulainn, making tempers short. This is the season for war.

The Kuchulainni know nothing about their neighbors, though, so instead they have decided to spend this first year of their new history ending the feuds of the old.



The Fire Quartz hold us in low esteem. They won't want to see our emmisaries, but might at least listen to an offer to end the feud.

We should try to make peace with the Jenestai clan.

Most of our ring is worried about how little food we have. We are right before the harvest, so this'll change pretty quickly in any case.

This is the diplomacy screen, where we can send diplomatic missions to the various clans. There are a fair number of clans--seven of which we owe favors to, seven of which owe favors to us, two of which we're feuding with (Fire Quartz and Jenestni North) and one of which we're allied with, the Anzarni. Alliances let us call on them for favors whenever we want, even if they're not in debt to us, but the reverse is also true. You get favors through random events or by gifting them exorbitantly.

You may notice a list of our treasures. Right now, we have one treasure: Blacktail the Bull, the world's horniest cow. Having him increases the rate at which our herds grow, and also suggests that we're desperate to have anything you can call a treasure. We could send blacktail to another clan, either to sell or trade for a treasure of theirs, or we could simply buy their treasures with cows and goods.

The Goal is actually the side-purpose of the mission. While you're there you can also trade the various goods and services you've obtained for some of theirs--and by completing a successful diplomatic mission, you increase the likelihood that they'll engage in mercantile exchange (which is all behind-the-scenes, computer handled stuff) which is good for our economy.

Our diplomats are Asskicker General Korstardos and another Issarite who isn't on our ring.



The second best bargainer in the clan, this guy is the short list for replacement if Korstardos gets eaten by a dragon. For now, he's going to be spending a lot of time away from the clan.


Behold, the map... with borders! The color of the clan names tells us our general relations but doesn't show grudges. We can see that Wolf isn't any redder than the clans around it, which means it's not particularly angry at us--they must have liked the way we treated their buddies the cow cultists.

I'm going to send two diplomatic missions out of our lands--the question is, where to? Shall we send gifts to our immediate neighbors to curry their favor? Should we end the feud with our enemies before they attack? Open relations with clans between us and our enemies so we know when they're coming? Ask for the food our ring leaders want so much?