Author Topic: The Dragon & The Cetus  (Read 1711 times)

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Offline Cass

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The Dragon & The Cetus
« on: August 22, 2021, 05:34:47 PM »

To: Dragon-Emperor Tielin II

It has been brought to my attention that over the last few weeks the so called "International Community" has attempted to strong arm your nation into a position on various issues that you may not wish to have taken. This is a concern we ourselves have and have taken steps towards attempting to limit the impact such a "community" can have upon our nation. If you would be prepared to allow a delegation from my nation to come and visit you I would like to discuss closer co-operation between our nations. I believe we are both capable of putting together an arrangement that would be beneficial to our homelands.

I look forward to your response.

Blessings of the Gods

Queen Atalanta II

Offline Lijiang

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Re: The Dragon & The Cetus
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2021, 06:24:19 PM »
The young Prince Chun had been given a significant task by his father for the visit of the Cassiopeians. The Dragon-Emperor knew the nation was one born out of their mythology and he himself knew little of it. Chun at 17 years of age would soon be expected to be involved in the Imperial administration and this little homework was a baby step. The meeting itself would take place at the Imperial Palace and Chun had been sent to greet the Queen and her delegation and bring them back to the venue. He was a little nervous and hoped his homework would turn out to be up to the mark.

Chun saw the guests plane land and taxi to a stop. The band nervously struck up their anthem and the black steel armour clad soldiers of the Imperial Guard came to attention with their long metal tipped spears. Chun bowed respectfully and then removed from the long baggy sleeve of his red robe a wooden box. "Your Celestial Majesty" He hoped he had phrased that correctly "We understand you are a nation born from the ocean, we present you with a gift of riches from our ocean as a symbol of friendship." Chun opened the box to reveal a necklace made out of glistening white pearls and silver. "My father is waiting for us at the Imperial Palace so if you would like to follow me." He motioned to some waiting vehicles, the traditional horse and carriage was gone replaced with more modern options. "I have tried reading on your nations mythology, the name of your land comes from a Princess yes?" He enquired having rather enjoyed the story, "Do you think the creature that threatened her could have been a water Dragon?" He perhaps thought that while racially they may be different spiritually they may have something in common if they believed in Dragons.

They reached the Imperial Palace rather quickly and Tielin accompanied by both his wives greeted the Queen. "I hope my son has been a good host. IF you excuse the explanation but he's been completing some politics homework." Tielin smiled as he gestured for the Queen to enter the Palace gatehouse.

Offline Cass

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Re: The Dragon & The Cetus
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2021, 05:56:27 PM »
The Queen was quick to put the necklace on, she recognised that the people of Lijiang saw within their Imperial family a power and prestige beyond its probable global reach. That was beside the point though as Lijiang was clearly a nation with some great potential and Atalanta wanted to be part of that. It was important also to show generosity and out of the aircraft hold a great stone amphorae was being lowered. "We have a gift for your nation too." She gestured to where some of her staff were now positioning the vessel on a stand with wheels. The outer skin of the stone amphorae was a bright pattern of glazed colours in the form of two Dragons curling their way around the giant flask. Inside it contained a vast amount of wine. "I have a gift of wine for your family, and your people. Some of the bounty our land has given us." She suspected the flask would be of more value to the hosts than the contents but it did seem a little ridicoulous to bring with them a giant stone liquid container without anything in it.

As they made their way to the Palace Atalanta was only too pleased to discuss her nations mythology with the Prince. "It depends entirely on who you read. You see Cassiopeia was a Queen who was sadly rather arrogant over her beauty and that of her daughter, Andromeda's. As such Andromeda was ordered to be given to the Ceten as a sacrifice to save the nation, a rather rash young warrior thinking he was doing the right thing rescued her, despite the fact the young Princess was willing to die to save her people. The Gods were so angry their sacrifice was taken they intended to destroy all mankind but Cassiopeia offered herself as sacrifice instead and this was accepted, so the land is named after her as a mark of respect. Now some stories speak of a creature like part serpent and part fish, others of a more dragon like creature, there are even a few stories that give the animal the head of a boar or even dog but the body of a dolphin or whale. Who knows then? It could well have been a Dragon."

Upon reaching the Palace she was pleased to meet the Dragon-Emperor who seemed good natured. "I would give him a Grade A, he seemed knowledgeable about our Realm and provided good company." She believed Chun had done a good job and hoped the report would please his father. "I'd like to thank you for agreeing to see me. I had some concerns seeing how you were treated over the MAEA foul up and your stance was a strong and brave one. I think that you are certainly a monarch I would like to work with and so taking some first steps are exciting for me. Perhaps then we could begin by discussing your nations progress with things atomic? Has it been working out for you?"

Offline Lijiang

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Re: The Dragon & The Cetus
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2021, 10:41:41 PM »
Tielin was pleased that his son had done a good job. Prince Chun was just months away from graduation and he would then be expected to dive into the world of politics, even taking over as High Lord of his home province leaving his uncle to step down and hopefully become a useful envoy to Tielin. The Queen's words flattered him slightly , he saw his stance with the MAEA as a bit of an embarrassment, saying one thing then another, it had made him look indecisive, perhaps though that was unfair as the u-turn had not been of his own making. "I thank you for tour kindness, the stance though was one born out of need not want. My people have certain expectations about what a Dragon-Emperor should do and how we should act. That defined our path more than most things. As for how the atomic programme is going we have material that would allow a plant to be built, we have talks with Altona over the technical element of the project. I'm confident that if all goes well we can have a Lijiang nuclear power station in the near future. I'm interested more however into how you believe you need to limit global impacts on your nations stances, is that a major issue for you moving forward? To be seen as apart from Mundus?"

Offline Cass

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Re: The Dragon & The Cetus
« Reply #4 on: October 12, 2021, 08:21:08 PM »
The Queen took a moment or two to martial her thoughts before answering. "It is not so much as limiting global impacts, we welcome the interest and involvement of other lands within our nation. That is so long as they seek to do so as equals and friends. The various big treaties have a nasty habit of putting power over certain situations into the hands of a select few. Take for example the issue with this Cartier character involved in the Marseilles conflict. It would seem as it is presented that he has murdered Alanders and citizens of Marsailles during the war there. Now he currently is in the hands of Achkaerin while they determine what should happen. The Uppsala Convention is currently stopped those from Nya Aland and Marsailles to be denied justice or to have justice on the terms of Achkaerin or the Uppsala nations. What right do they have to tell people of Nya Aland their sons don't deserve justice? This may be a simplistic view of that situation but it explains why I mistrust these treaties. Now should the two of us agree between us something then that is no problem. If you then go and join something like the CNN that still would be no issue between the two of us, you have made your choice and we have made ours. The relationship that would follow can still be determined by ourselves and that is how the world should be. We are keen to be part of Mundus but on our terms, not the terms of those who seem to think they speak for an international community which several years ago was the majority of Mundus but is now a clear minority. The question is therefore is there anything to prevent our two nations striking an agreement to our own making and if not where should we begin."

Offline Lijiang

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Re: The Dragon & The Cetus
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2021, 07:55:55 PM »
The Dragon-Emperor was impressed with Queen Atalanta's response as it shared a sense of his own values. "There is nothing to stop us completing arrangements between ourselves. For my part I am keen to achieve two things. The first of those is to ensure my nation can trade as easily as possible. The second is to secure investments that will support our own growth.  To that end we tend to offer nations limited removal of tariffs. We have found so far that while we excel in primary industries our new trade partners tend to deal in secondary and tertiary sectors, as a result we can offer deals based around that. I hope that perhaps may be a similar arrangement that could work here."

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Re: The Dragon & The Cetus
« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2021, 04:15:48 PM »
Atlanta was encouraged by what she had heard. "In terms of trade I can offer you perhaps a huge step forward. As you will be aware the Sovereign Union of Nations has a section of its charter dedicated to cutting tariffs and trade barriers. We would be happy to put before you two options. The first is that we take this part of the charter and have it applied to just the two of us or we could of course seek to put together an arrangement where Lijiang gains recognition to allow it to access the SUN arrangement."

Spoiler: Option 1 - Lijiang & Cassiopeia • show


The two nations agree to the following measures.

a) Both nations shall put in place steps to ensure that eventually their is trading without tariffs being in place between them.

b) Tariffs between the two shall be set at a lower level than for non-treaty bound nations.

c) There shall be an appointed person at each nations embassy to help streamline this process of parts a+b

d) Both nations agree that they shall not undertake any practice or action designed at weakening the economy of the other nation.

e) Any product in which 75% of the manufacturing process is undertaken in member nation as being a "Native Product"

f) Native Products may, so long as they comply with local health and safety laws, enter any member nation with no tariffs even if  they are then moved to a third nation within 30 days.


Spoiler: Option 2 Lijiang and SUN deal • show


The following arrangement is in place between Lijiang and the Sovereign Union of Nations.

a) Lijiang is recognised as a preferred trade partner.

b) As a preferred trade partner they are to face tariffs at a lower rate than non-member nations. These tariffs will be set on a reciprocal nature.

c) So long as an item complies with local laws it may enter any other nation covered by this treaty with no limits.

d) Companies may offer investment in any other nation on the same conditions as local ones. These companies will comply with local employment and taxation rules. No taxes will be charged on top of local taxes on funds taken out of the nation.

e) Lijiang will be permitted to have a non-voting representative on the FTA of the Sovereign Union of Nations.

Offline Lijiang

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Re: The Dragon & The Cetus
« Reply #7 on: November 15, 2021, 08:29:40 PM »
"If possible I would like to see an arrangement between ourselves and all the members of SUN. How would we go about ensuring this happens?" Tielin asked.