Addressed to: His Excellency, Secretary of state R. Edward Young
Your Excellency,
Our two nations have had little diplomatic contact so far and while there are clear differences between how our societies are organized, the values they aspire, the traditions they hold dear and the form of government they have chosen to lead their people, I do believe that there is room for a constructive dialogue which could lead to possibly future cooperation which will serve the interests of both our nations.
You are perhaps aware that the Tamoran Empire, alongside our friends and allies the Emirate of Royal Seleucid, has placed a bid to host the Mundus Games of this year. This is a first not just for our two countries but also for the region of MidAranye. I have started a continent wide tour with the aim of visiting the countries of the continent we both share in order to present to them the arguments why such the joint bid would be worth supporting and also listen to any objections or concerns that might be raised. It is for this reason that I would like to set up a meeting with our office and visit the Federal Republic of Centralia in the coming week which would allow us to talk in more detail about this. I have also attached an annex with the possible subjects which we might approach for discussions should you agree.
In the hope of future collaboration, I look forward to your reply.
Respectfully yours,
Alya SafavidHead of Foreign Affairs
Annex A: Topics proposed for discussion:
- Assessing the current relations between the Tamoran Empire and the Federal Republic of Centralia.
- Exploratory talks about opportunities to increase cooperation between the two countries.
- Discussions on the Tamoran-RS joint bid to host the Mundus Games.
- Exploratory talks about the possibility for our government to facilitate religious activity (including but not limited to missionarism) between our countries.
OOC: Since it was agreed via Discord that the host will agree for us to visit Centralia, I went ahead with the RP.
Preparations for the visit
The Tamoran Foreign Office had been very busy the last few months. Alya Safavid had visited more countries during this time than in the whole previous year and it was beginning to take its toll on her. However, she could afford to rest as she had plenty more countries to visit. The last few days she prepared intensely about the meeting with Centralia. While she was perfectly aware that the stakes were low and expectation of success were lower still that didn’t matter to her. She was preparing because her job was to represent Tamora aboard and she wanted to do that as best as she could.
She spent hours with her aids trying to understand Centralia as best as she could. Unlike most nations in Mundus, Centralia was not a monarchy and instead elected its leader. Yet unlike some republics it did not allow the people to elect just anyone as their leader and the country had a strong ruling elite under the name of Patriot Party whose leader was also the leader of the Republic. Alya liked the fact that Centralia had not succumbed to mob rule as she considered democracy and that the elites in Centralia had not abdicated their responsibility to rule, even if they did it with the pretext of a popular mandate rather than one entrusted by Divinity. Centralia was a Christian nation. Christianity was a minority faith in Tamora and although Alya was not very knowledge of this religion she was familiar with it. Like most Orthodox Manists, she didn’t feel comfortable attending religious ceremonies of other faiths and preferred people of her own faith/ However, she clearly preferred the Monotheistic religions of Midaranye, like Christianity, to the whole variety of polytheistic religions that spanned across Mundus.
And yet she there was much she didn’t know Centralia. For one it was not clear how close they were to Tytor and by extension to Rokkenjima. It was clear from the military hardware they had that they had at least good relations with Tytor at one point in time but the relative isolation on the Mundus stage suggested that at least now relations between Centralia and Tytor were not that close. Aside from the connection with Tytor, none of Alya’s advisors could come up with any other nations Centralia had connections with. They seemed content to focus on their domestic policies rather than international affairs. And yet their president found the time
to show his support for the terrorists in Clysperis.
Alya also had to consider what gift she would bring to the hosts. Since Centralia was a Christian nation and Christians were about to celebrate Easter soon, their most important holiday, she decided that holy water from the Jordan River in Vanora would be an appropriate gift. Some of her aids disagreed saying that a religious gift might not be fitting for a nation that was a de facto police state but she did not listen to them. Religion was central to Tamoran society so avoiding a religious gift for fear of offending them felt she like dishonoring Tamora.
Arriving to Centralia
Alya was informed by her staff that they would soon enter Centralia’s airspace. It was just in time as she had just finished her prayers. She rehearsed one more time out loud some basic phrases in English ”Thank you very much for your hospitality”, “It is an honor” etc. She pronounced them with a heavy Parthian accent. Like the overwhelming majority of Tamorans, Alya did not speak English. Parthian, her native language, was the de facto lingua franca in many parts of MidAranye and the Tamoran nobility studied the rest of the languages of the Empire as a sign of respect for the peoples of Tamora rather than learn foreign languages. Alya was no exception, she spoke Arabic and Seleucid but she had little knowledge of English. While she hand a translator with her, she did want to be able to express some words in the language of the hosts even if they were very basic.
After the plane landed, she got up and prepared to go down the stairs. She was dressed in a traditional
black abaya dress and hijab. She also wore silk black gloves. Tamorans considered inappropriate for men and women to touch in public and hand shaking with the opposite sex was frowned upon. Wearing those gloves gave her some comfort that should the hosts be too friendly and offer a handshake she could thus avoid a direct touch and not refuse them.
She looked around for the welcoming committee to see how she would proceed further.
(ooc: if the hosts are waiting for her at the airport she greets them if not she heads out to the point of meeting, I left it open for however you want to proceed).
