Soo... Chris. You asked Ric (nicely, I believe) for an island that's placed on the map so that it'd be entirely appropriate for Tellia to have it if all that you considered was the geography. Ric made the request public. The people of Shireroth reacted to the request - a request for Shireroth to give away land - as posted by Ric. That's what happened, ay?
Also, as I'm sure you remember I have posted in Tellia before; I've read plenty of what's on your forum, and I like the place. I've been aware for a while that one of our citizens (a respected one, too) has a dual citizenship in Tellia, and I appreciate her for contributing to more than one nation. I really rather like Tellia. I still think that the merger with Vanderveer was unfortunate, but then again there's a certain nation I'm very familiar with that was affiliated with several mergers in its early history (circa 2001) and learned the lesson the hard way, so really, it's OK. Everyone makes mistakes, and young nations make them by the bucketful.
So, with that out, when I say that Tellia can't hold a candle to Benacia's uniqueness, I mean it
. If it makes you feel better, I'm sorry... but that doesn't make the comparison any more favourable. Maybe I'm just biased, but Tellia really doesn't seem that remarkable as a culture to me. You've got a nifty Italianish theocratic theme, you've got some attractions, I recall you used to do nifty stuff in your courts (though those are now closed up inside the archive forum). And... unless you're hiding something in a place where I didn't look, that's the majority of it. On Benacia, on the other hand, well, I gave the links earlier in the Island thread, and I'm sure you agree the place is unique, and more than a bit weird. And that it's got a lot of stuff going on that looks too weird to be worthwhile to an outsider. Maybe a hyperkinetic eight-legged chicken doesn't sound special to you, but then again... I'd like to see you come up with a more interesting mental image (Yes, it's a shame that we don't really do much to make old cultures easy to learn about in Shireroth. Even a few of our own citizens were ignorant about Benacia's history. But some of us do remember, and Benacia is a culture for Shireroth to be proud of.)
So, with all of that said, I'm not sure if you agree with us on the cultural value of Benacia, but the fact is, from a Shirithian perspective, independence for Benacia would be a fair trade. But, since you are a proud nation with nifty things to show for yourselves, obviously you're not going to give up independence. So, let's stop talking about Benacia. Let's forget you ever asked for it.
Let's pretend that you just asked Ric if he could lease some islands. For instance, some of the unnamed and mostly undeveloped ones between Florencia and Naudia'Diva. Naudia'Diva's got an important historical culture, Florencia has an ancient and mostly forgotten one, the Khaz Modan archipelago has significance in our fictional history, Amity and Mirioth have their own lengthy histories, and Yardistan... well, I hope you know what Yardistan means to us
. So, really, there's only one choice of an area without much history left to look for fresh developable land in.I don't know if Ric would lease anything. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't give you an island, and almost as sure he wouldn't trade one away (for instance, land trades really won't work - we're more interested in keeping the land we own than getting new land). But then again... who knows? Maybe if you try working with us again you might get results. Sure, some Shirithians are not going to be very diplomatic with you (unless you talk privately with Ric and ask him to consult his advisors instead of the entire public). Hell, Jess's going to hiss and scream at you, and possibly bite, but don't worry, he brushes his teeth every night. You'll still get better results by working with us than by getting insulted.
And even if you don't take this advise, please do consider opening up the archive forum for reading by the general public at least. I've found that it makes everybody's life easier to give general access to all material that's not specifically classified
.
