Renaku and Hozland

[Renaku]

To:- His Majesty King John V

Having inherited the throne recently and now undergone my required tour of our hill tribes it is time for me to begin expanding our nations international connections. With that in mind I look out across the Northern Sea and on the far side of it I see your own Kingdom. I am hopeful that the two of us can meet together as my first international state visit. If this is acceptable to yourself I am excited to meet at your earliest convenience.

Best Regards

King Timur

[EricaHozland]

King John was keen to meet the new young monarch of Renaku. The Northern Ocean was vast but the Hozlander was confident that the two Kingdoms could be useful to each other. The royal family had been told that they needed to attend en mass and show a strong united front, especially as they knew so little about the guest they now waited to welcome. King John and his wife Queen Emma would of course front the welcoming committee but they had ensured that each of their children had a role to play too. Across the airport tarmac a small honour guard of the Kings Household Fusilliars waited. The green jacketed soldiers each had a hackle behind their beret badge and while the eight soldiers stood with rifles their commander, Prince Rupert, carried a brightly polished silver sword as he happily chatted to his comrades. The two younger royal children waited behind their parents. Princess Helena dressed a smart blue pant suit while Prince Mark wore a crisp pin-stripe suit. "Renaku.....what they famous for?" Mark asked his sister.

"They've a real mix of tribes and I think they like a horse or two......or is that Jarglaant" she replied as they waited for the aircraft.

As the plane carrying King Timur approached Prince Rupert barked a few orders to get the honour guard into position. He had every confidence they'd put on a good show but still felt a few nerves. As the aircraft stopped at the designated spot the Prince marched his men over to meet the King at the bottom of the steps. The first person Timur would meet however was King John who offered a hand in friendship. "King Timur we're delighted to meet you."

[Renaku]

Timur was expecting something a little more glitz and glam for his first overseas welcome. Back home there would have been huge crowds to welcome the Hozlanders , mainly because people always came out to witness the Renaku King in their neighbourhood. Still Timur recognised that diffferent nations had different way of doing things and as such did his best to seem impressed. He had brought with him Abdülhamit Çelik a member of his Household Cavalry Division and the heir to one of the larger hill tribes. The King was trying to include several members of these tribes in his fledgling government so as to ensure he was winning favour with these militant and proud people. "King John" He shook the mans hand having passed through the honour guard and giving the Prince a respectful nod of the head in return for his salute. "Its wonderful to be here, allow me to introduce my friend, Abdülhamit, it is his first time outside of Renaku."

"Your Majesty" the man bowed awkwardly. He was a tall man with a rough beard flecked with white. "I am grateful to see your Kingdom" he added.

"I'm hopeful that we can succeed in becoming nations tied together by trade, and who knows a few other matters. I'm excited to begin our work today."
 

[EricaHozland]

King John was an exceptionally tall man, standing 6ft 6inches he towered over his rather more petit wife. He accepted the hand of Abdulhamit and then introduced his own family, first his wife Emma, then children. First Prince Mark and then Princess Helena greeted the King. "Please come this way" The King escorted Timur towards a waiting vehicle as Prince Rupert, his officers cap tucked neatly under his arm joined them falling into step sandwiching Timur between himself and his father. "You have already kind of meet my son, Rupert. He commanded the honour guard."

"Nice to be able to say hello this time" Rupert said cheerfully as they walked towards the waiting car.

"He'll be joining us for our chat, time he learned a little more than his military ways" the King added as his staff opened the car door. "After you please" John motioned for Timur to take a seat before joining his guest. As protocol dictated Rupert was left to travel in the vehicle behind with the large Abdulhamit. As the convoy left the airport a small group of well wishers waved flags and then cheered as Rupert waved at them. The Prince was popular despite some of the rumours that followed him. "May I ask what your role is in the King's government" Rupert asked the man sharing a car with him.

In the car ahead the King spoke with Timur as they went first through a large suburb of rather nice houses each within their own walled complexes. This was perhaps the most affluent area of Mahlham and home to many of the nobility, when they came to the capital. Soon the scene became more urban as they wound their way around the ring road which went through a few local commercial centres, at one time small town centres before the sprawl of Mahlham had swallowed them up, each however maintained their own identity and before too long the car entered the old city where the older medieval parts could be found. It was here the Palace was to be found and the cars swept through its black and red painted gates crunching the gravel drive-way as they did so. John had enjoyed the ride especially as he listened to Timur explain about how his tour had gone. As they exited the car and made their way into the Kings private office suite several aides offered to take jackets and briefcases, one taking Prince Ruperts uniform jacket and sword as they settled into sofas for the talk. "Tea?" John asked as he prepared to pour from a red tea pot that had been prepared. "You spoke about being excited to begin today's work, therefore might I suggest you let me know what's got you excited for this meeting?"

[Renaku]

Timur was pleased to meet Rupert. He had heard of the man being considered a national hero of sorts and therefore someone he suspected would one day make a good King in his own right. "Well Rupert I am only delighted to be part of this learning experience" the King nodded to the Prince before they entered separate cars.

In the car with Abdulhamit and Rupert the Renakuan answered the Prince's question. "At the moment I suppose you could say I have no official role as such. I come from the Çelik tribe who live in the hills, we're the third....maybe second...biggest of the hill tribes and our new King is keen to try and include people from tribes like ours in his government. As of yet though he has not named any Ministers or Council so I believe this may be an audition of sorts. Normally though I, just as you do, serve in uniform. I'm rather unsurprisingly a cavalryman, we ride ceremonially and then drive round in IFV's. I was one of the tribe that helped deliver His Majesty into the capital following the short lived coup attempt so I think this visit with you is almost like him paying our tribe back. I've high hopes for him." He beamed as they pulled up at the venue.

Inside Timur accepted the tea and blowing on it gently tasted it. The liquid might share a name with the beverage he enjoyed back home but this was different, less sweet and no hint of mint or some other fruit such as apple. It was still a refreshing taste. He sipped while he thought of an answer to give King John. "What makes me excited is that we have a unique oppurtunity. Look at the rest of Mundus and almost every region, body of water and continent have systems and groups in place that have supported each other. The Northern Ocean has seen a lot of influence from outside of it laid in those waters. I see the start of my reign as laying an oppurtunity for us to reset a few things. I want to establish a kind of new long range trade route, From me, to you, to Neu Urburzis and Gusano. Then if my plan goes well East Moreland to give us a jump off into the Alucard, the Krimeon and the Karifan. I've begun balls rolling with some of these parties already and believe that a Renaku and Hozland partnership gives the whole idea a very firm foundation. But is this kind of network something Hozland is interested in?" 

[EricaHozland]

King John had to agree with the young monarch. The Northern Ocean nations had kind of allowed the world to simply use their neighbourhood at will. They hadn't looked out for each other and as he thought of those nations and places that strung out from Renaku to the confluence of the Illumic he knew that should they be able to get a group of some sort together they could do great things. There was though one blatant issue. "The fact that you talk of this being about establishing a long range trade route assumes merchant shipping doesn't take this route already. It does what we need to do however is encourage it to be used much more. The ports to become home to regular visits from merchant vessels from each nation. What I think we should do therefore is nominate a port in each of our nations. This port to be earmarked as the preferred trade centre and as a result offering some kind of beneficial arrangement. What I would suggest then is that we put in place arrangements that we say any goods entering those ports are allowed to do so with next to no tariff. I also would hope that we can find an arrangement to lower fees for using these ports. Our own ports are run by mainly private corporations but we maintain a guide of prices they can charge. As such we would be arranging vessels flagged from Renaku to go onto a different scale of fees that would make the trade more favourable. In addition I think we could probably do something that would also make it easier for us to conform to each others port rules."

[Renaku]

Timur was encouraged by what John had said. He had hoped to use the network as the beginnings of a wider co-operation but John  seemed like he wanted to proceed at perhaps a faster rate than he had anticipated. "I think some of these ideas are sound, I however would insist that the set up be favourable only to us. For example I know East Moreland and Neu Urburzis have a close friendship, as does part of the Charterlands. What I want is us to ensure that this benefits us, not our friends of friends. I hope though not only can we look at an arrangement on supporting trade we could make some kind of scheme to ensure maritime security. I'm vaguely aware that the Illumic was once a hot-bed of piracy, they've disappeared from there but that simply would mean they've relocated perhaps. I don't want our new trade network to thrive only for something like piracy to cut its success short. So do you think our two nations navies could form some kind of co-operation?"

[EricaHozland]

King John had to admit there had been an absence of the piracy in the Illumic and that in some ways worried them a little. It was not the case that pirates tended to just disappear and if they'd been chased out the Illumic they'd likely be in the Mhorish or Northern Sea. While so far Hozland had been unaffected by such matters it could be something that started up without warning and John would prefer to be prepared for all eventualities. As such he was inclined to agree with Timur. "I think we could perhaps look at a schedule where you send a navy to our waters and then after a say a week patrolling together with our navy here your forces can enjoy some shore leave here. While thats happening we'll send a navy fleet to your waters and we repeat the process. At that point we would have a solid working pattern set up and can have our ships constantly moving back and forth acting as a kind of deterent."