Intergalactic Summit

Ah yes, treachery. The go-to accusation of the aggrieved oppressor.



Quite the little threat to toss in when attempting to refute a demonstration of just who the untrustworthy savages in this relationship are, don't you think?

Hey now, be careful. That's a fragile ego you're handling there.

But then they would be weakened enough to be picked off by the Drifters and the Gallente & Caldari. At the very least they would be eternally crying over the husk of their homeworld, which would be nice.

I mean, if we're throwing around idle threats.

You're clearly missing Miz's framework. Mitara's threat said nothing about retaliatory glassing. And it's not like the Amarr haven't demonstrated a proven history of 'you killed one person, we'll kill an entire planet'.

So if they start eradicating civilian populations, how do you think the rest of the cluster reacts? Do you think the Federation doesn't go to war? That puts the State in a very tricky position.

Without the Republic—and let's face it, if the Amarr are glassing the Pator system, we've already lost as a coherent political entity—the State and Empire have the firepower to roll the Federation. Let's face it, the lion's share of the formerly Federal worlds and resources go to the Amarr, because they're bigger and stronger than the State. Especially since I'm sure the Amarr will 'need time' to reorient the bulk of their military. The fighting along the Federal front will see the State taking the brunt of the losses.

End Result: the Empire winds up much bigger and stronger than the State, sitting high on their 'The Reclaiming Has Begun Anew™' horse, and there is nobody to provide the State with a balance of power like the one we have now.

And of course, it is their divinely-appointed duty. With no Jove, and no Federation, to stop them this time.

That's how the scenario might play out if the State blindly supports the Empire while the Empire is gleefully murdering civilian populations. It might not. But if you're the State... can you risk it? What if you come in against the Empire? What if you don't join war at all?

Well, then the Empire's on the losing end of the math. Even if it's just the Federation, mind you, because the State is more powerful, militarily, than the Republic, and the two sides are relatively balanced right now. 4+3 = 5+2, you know? So if the Republic's the smallest, the Federation's gotta be the biggest, or this whole 'balance of power' thing was a complete boondoggle from the beginning for the Empire (which, as we know, it wasn't). And the Feds will still have the support of whatever surviving Matari forces remain, too.

If the State sits this thing out, then the Federation will win. And be ginormous. That's no good, they're back in the position of 'those guys with a history of attempting to force people to do things their way are unstoppable'.

So the State needs to be accumulating power here, too. And the easiest way to do that is to start taking Amarr territories for themselves. Back-channel politics maybe spin it as 'saving' those systems, even as they let the Federal forces take the larger share of the losses in the campaigns. To the Feds, they can point out that Caldari control—as, after all, the people with the long relationships with the local Holders—likely means less civil unrest. There's a chance, at least, of maintaining the balance of power.

Do they do that? Is that how the math shakes out? If you're the Empire, do you want to risk it? Regardless of your answer, I promise, Her Imperial Catieness isn't that dumb.

So... no. The Amarr Empire can't afford to start glassing planets and just 'write off' a few hundred billion of their own people.

[quote=Pieter Tuulinen]As much as I don't want to get involved in the disputes between the Empire and the Republic on an unpaid basis
Yes, and I agree that this is reason.

If you were us, however, would you bet your very existence on international politics following reason?

We kind of already do, what with the alliance with the Federation.

I'll take it if she doesn't want to.

Well. Here's the thing. The Empire has been attacked on more than one occasion, by various parties, using weaponry that is in the same league as "glassing", by which I mean bioweaponry used on civilian populations.

And the Empire did not retaliate in kind, but instead used conventional military force to rout the attackers. E.g. when the Covenant attacked Mabnem, the Empire did not glass all the planets controlled by the Covenant in the Bleak Lands, instead using overwhelming force to eradicate the Covenant presence.

On that basis, were the Empire to begin glassing planets, then, something very, very, very bad has happened. And that's where my maths come from. If Pator has been attacked, then I expect more than one of the Throne Worlds to have similarly been attacked.

But the Empire can survive losing a Throne World.

Can the Minmatar survive losing Matar ?

Do the words "mutually assured destruction" mean anything to you, slaver?

Your money? Sure. Your dangerous ideas about cultural amalgamation and mob rule? Mmmmm.... let's just keep it at 'money', ok?