Talk:Dwilight Daily/2008/May/5

The recent story by by King Arylon of Everguard requires a few responses.

1. The "peaceful" resolution to the Everguard/Caerwyn issue over the city if Eidulb was by no means a peaceful resolution at all. Everguard issued an ultimatum to the colonists in Eidulb: Relocate to Golden Farrow or be destroyed. Since the colonists in Eidulb were facing a a hostile army while they had no ruler, no duke, no recruiting centers, no incomes, etc. They bowed to the demands of the Everguardians against their will. There was no negotiation process. Demands were issued, and Caerwyn chose to comply with the demands rather than risk destruction.
2. The realm of Evergaurd has never made any public claim to the city of Libidizedd. The histories of Everguard clearly state the borders of their realm stop at the city of Eidulb. To quote from the official description of the Everguard territories: "... Everguard immediately began setting its eyes upon an aggressive expansion of its lands, and has since taken the adjacent region of Ygg d'Razhuul all the way to the city of Eidulb. The realm now plans on moving exponentially south and west, capturing new cities and territories wherever it can." I have placed emphasis on the key parts of this description: Everguard claims an easter boundary of the city of Eidulb, and that it shall expand only south and west of that location. The city of Libidizedd is clearly and obviously not south or west of Eidulb.
3. In regards to the supposed claims on cities to the west of Everguard, we would like to, again, point to Everguard's own description of their realm: "The realm now plans on moving exponentially south and west, capturing new cities and territories wherever it can. Everguard views the entire west as its manifest destiny, and plans on expanding its kingdom as far as it can possibly stretch..." First: "exponentially"? That hardly sounds like the self-stated "meager claim of land" King Arylon claims in his missive. If Everguard views the entire west as it's manifest destiny, then it would be odd indeed to say that it is limited in it's western expansion by claims of other realms? Or other nobles? King Arylon notably fails to mention which one has a claim. In either case King Arylon is pointing out that Everguard's claim on any region is negotiable, based on who makes competitive claims. Clearly King Fisc is using his own specifically limited definition of "Manifest Destiny" in order to fit the territorial demands he desires to make. The cities of Gaston, Chrysantalas, and Itau are currently unoccupied, and open for conquest by Everguard. If King Arylon chooses to not expand into that area, it is by his own choice. These cities have never acknowledged the leadership of a noble realm, and as such there are no prior legal claims upon them. Neither has any realm or noble made public such a claim to any know ruler upon the island of Dwilight. If King Fisc chooses to limit his expansion in that area, then he and Everguard should bear the consequences of that self-limitation. Indeed, what makes these unpublished, private claims on these cities binding upon King Fisc, when Astrum's own claim, supported by de facto ownership of the city of Libidizedd, intolerable? The most obvious, and undoubtedly correct, reason is that King Arylon and Everguard have already planned to seed all of these lands with realms of their own devising. Thus it is not that the lands are already occupied, merely that King Arylon's imperialism has already planned out who will own what for the entire western continent.
4. In his defense of Everguard's supposed claim upon the city of Libidizedd, King Fisc makes the following statement: "I would have assumed that the island of Libidizedd would natrually (SIC) be ASSUMED to be ours, given it is only a few miles off the coast and takes us a half day to travel there, and the port of Eidulb is the only way to get there in the west. But regardless - the absence of mentioning that tiny island specifically doesn't mean it wasn't claimed." Note that King Arylon states that by saying that they claim Eidulb, it should therefore be assumed that some other region, not mentioned in any way and falling outside all known regions of claim, also belongs to them simply because it is close to them. So what would happen if they were to take city of Lidizedd? Would that mean they would also, naturally, assumed to be claiming the city of Mimer, since it is the same distance from Libidizedd as Libidizedd is from Eidulb? Or that they do indeed claim the city of Golden Farrow, since it has a direct sea route to Eidulb? The claim of "It is ours because it borders us" is a very slippery claim. By simple extension it allows Everguard to claim any and every region on the island through a simple series of "Well this one is next to us, and that one is nxt to it, and that one after..."
5. King Arylon also repeatedly makes reference to the fact that Morek should have communicated the plan of a new colony in Libidizedd to him, since it borders his regions. At the same time he neglects to inform Morek of his plans to take a city that borders on the claimed lands of Morek, namely the city of Mimer, which King Arylon acknowledges is the property of Morek. An interesting fact is that Libidizedd is located between Eidulb and Mimer, and is actually closer to Mimer. The same method that King Arylon uses to justify his unpublished claim on Libidizedd, that it is close to territory that he has claimed, applies also to Morek with respect to Libidizedd's proximity to Mimer. And, in fact, Morek has a stronger claim on Libidizedd by the fact that Libidizedd is closer to Mimer than Eidulb. And what Morek does with land upon which it has a claim is none of the business of Everguard.

Regardless of how you look at things, it is impossible to find any point of view in which Everguard is a legitimate victim in any of these cases. What we have is a realm and a king that are extremely aggressive and hostile to all prospective neighbors. To the best of our knowledge both colonies were founded on land to which Everguard had no formal, published claim. And in at least the case of Libidizedd, lies outside the very specific, self-published territorial claims of Everguard. In both cases we have no knowledge of any threat or hostility shown by either colony toward Everguard. And in both cases we have documented, proven threats of war and hostility on the part of Everguard toward both colonies. Their peaceful resolution is not peaceful at all. It is "Give me what I want, or I shall destroy you." The only reason that the resolution was "peaceful" was that the target was in no condition whatsoever to defend against the threatened war.

There can be no doubt in any rational mind that in every case so far, Everguard has chosen the path of bully, and their victims have been the bullied. --Brance Indirik, Duke of Libidizedd