A meeting of nobilities(Underath-Duchies Summit)
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A meeting of nobilities
The two helicopters set off on their journeys to Underath one with the High Duke Nikolai and Victoria his wife High Duchess Consort Victoria of Reitzmag and Foreign minister Arron Scott who had been approved to break the purdah for this trip by a vote of parliament given the importance of the visit since they were joining the EU.This was a strange one, they'd been to other cultures , countries of other religions and countries that have significant differences in standards of living like Gaddaland. But never had they been to a medieval level kingdom looking to develop but at the same time it was an oppurtunity but the most important thing was keep the waters tax free and free to transit for all and help aid the economy. They would offer a package of development. They got close to the nation and saw the houses of course very old style and also noticed the palace which was nice but also not nearly as grand as Cair Paravel , mind you what was really? However it was a lovely palace. The two helicopters landed with them looking forward to the greeting of the King of Underath.
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Two royal guards, expecting the High Duke and his wife, lead them to the grand palace of King Zagreus. The foreigners were amazed by the classy furniture, which seems as if they were in a museum.
King Zagreus awaited them in the room where his throne was. After they got in, King Zagreus stood up, hugging the High Duke, who was a little annoyed. After explaining that this was a typical Underathian greeting, they ended up just shaking hands. After offering them seats, Zagreus started talking.
"I am very pleased, through all summits that I have done this past few days, to finally meet some nobility. Apologies, but I never understood Democracy, and my ancestors, the Atlantians, never did either. A strong person is needed to rule their nation, to lead it to greatness, you can't just leave it to the people! That is why I am very happy we meet each other."
"I hope that you have done great things to your nation, just as I had conquered the leftover woltine clans, finally bringing the whole of my region under my swain. That was before we were discovered. And let me say, we were very pleased to rule over the whole world. But now it seems that wasn't but a small bit of it. And finally, Underath is not the top dog around. I would be interested in learning about modern day warfare. How is it being fought, and with what weapons? Seeing that you have such amazing machines, I suppose war nowadays will be hard and my soldiers will take time to get used to it.
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The y were glad of the welcome and greeted him saying "Thanks for the great welcome. Well United Duchies has a strong history of democracy, Indeed we were founded as a coming together of 7 Duchies as constitutional federal elective monarchy. I was only elected High Duke though I was in line to Ducal throne in my Duchy before my election . Democracy is really just about giving the people a say honestly in our system my role is to be the figure all unite around despite political differences so I don't take political sides in my nation but can back social causes which I do for Autism being Autistic myself."
He answered the question on warfare "Mainly with modern weapons like fighter jets that fly and navy combined with artillery and tanks. Artillery is like modern cannons. "
He then introduced the foreign minister. He said "This is our foreign minister Aarron Scott who has some interesting ideas on development. I believe he has some funds to offer in the way of vouchers you can spend with UD companies for development straight from our government treasury and also wants to discuss trade which I'll let him do as the government."
He would deal with the personal interaction while Aaron Scott dealt with the government stuff.The High Duke also introduced his wife Victoria saying "And this is my beautiful wife Victoria. High Duchess Consort and daughter of the King of Reitzmag and most importantly a beautiful woman inside and out!"
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@BrumBrum
King Zagreus bowed and kissed Victoria's hand, which made her smile. Although he thought as if h didn't take the answers he wanted, now knowing what a cannon, a tank, a fighter jet, or an artillery is, he skipped that. He focused on the proposal of the High Duke." If it is for the good of the people, I will take your funds to "develop" as you say. Though I do not know how. I suppose you want me to reach your height in technology but that will be very time-consuming. What Underath needs now is a way to grow more food, more easily, as our farmers work very hard in order to feed their families. We would also be interested in upgrading our most lucrative businesses, cloth making, ore mining, and weapon-making. I suppose making weapons is out of the table as it would be extremely hard to make weapons that you people actually want, but the rest would be things we could develop if your superior technology allows that to happen.
In return for those funds you are planning to give us, we can start trading goods and have some more transparency between our nations. Though do not get greedy. Remember that the only reason I am agreeing is because such deal would help the people, and if you can't guarantee that our interests would be fulfilled, there are no more reasons for further diplomacy.
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Aaron Scott who had developed the aid package handed the king a sattelite phone with some numbers already put in the the phone. He said "I understand and I know it will take time and it is important every nation develops in its own way and Underath will be able to develop how it wants to. We deal with nations with motorised transport and those primarily using horses as a way to get around. We can provide agricultural technology to make farming more efficient and boost yields by 10 times from traditional farming which means less land will be needed and more people can be freed up for creative pursuits. I have a satellite phone here you just dial in a number and press this call button or go through the pre-set ones to go to advisors who can help tell you what best suits your needs from Duchian products for what you want to achieve. But it will all be on your own terms and you can spend up to 10 billion dux libra in vouchers a year or about 13.8 billion Euros a year to achieve development. You can spend this how you wish and use the advice from peoples numbers in the phone to use it effectively."
He then continued "We have one proposal which would generate income for you and help you open up to the world more. We can put money in to develop hotels which are kinda like inns for people to visit your country and develop a modern port and possibly airport if you so desire. We can fund the whole projects while giving your a 50% stake and basically giving you 50% of any profits generated from the enterprise. It would be set up in a company like structure if you agreed to this but it would help you alot by making it far easier to get needed goods in but I must ask not to be rude or anything before we allow our people to come here what is your status in terms of resistance to diseases we don't want to accidentally introduce a novel disease to you that your people have no resistance to, we know some countries in the past where this happened 90% of the native populations died very quickly , that's not what we want here.Or doctors can help with any vaccination campaigns needed to protect your people now you are introducing yourselves to the world ."
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@BrumBrum
The King looked at the phone he was given with curiosity, before responding to the High Duke who he looked at with caution in his eyes"I don't think it would be good for the nation if a different nation 50% of the hospitals, ports, and airports. If you owned half those things that will become ever so important to Underath, Underath will then balance on a short rope as if you wished to, you could damage our economy severely. And even if the world is like our Kingdom, kind that is, and punishes you for that, the damage done to our people will be immerse.
I hope that you can understand that we can't take such dangerous trades so early on in our journey through the world. Though we could get some deal which is not dangerous for either party. We could sell you furniture, jewlery, and other Underathian decorations that are unique here at much lower prices than we will in the rest of the world. I am sure that your people will buy our things in droves as they will have never seen them before.
If we do start selling that to you, it would be more beneficial to yourself than to me if you built ports for us, since your products will arrive faster. But ports that we can control ourselves, that is. I really don't think i am being unreasonable here"
King Zagreus finished, and sat back on his chair, looking at the beautiful piece of technology he held in his hand as he took a sip of his wine. -
The minister understood the concern and have a plan for that that would solve the concern. He suggested an alternative arangement. He said " Okay there is a way we can deal with that you could have a 65% stake and 35% stake goes to us with a sellback clause to allow you first option to purchase any stake at a fair rate. That way you have controlling shares and can make all major decisions yourselves how to use it. We are intrigued by your jewellery and we can definitely encourage our companies to buy your products as the government tend not to have much to do with managing trade being a private based economy in general.Would that be a good compromise. "
The High Duke saw him looking at the technology and said "Its got a direct line to my number on their. So if you ever need a conversation or just want to speak to me on a personal level you can call that number" . He showed the number in the contacts.
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@BrumBrum
King Zagreus thanked him"That seems more like it. That way both our nations can prosper and there will be no danger of betrayal from either of us. I am thankful we could end up in a compromise. Could it be that we will have to sign a contract of some sort?
Well, either way, I am glad that the strait of Gibraltar will come to my use. And ships aplenty shall dock in my ports for trading purposes.
Now, apart from all of those, I would be interested in learning about your nation's culture, history, and most importantly, religion. You seem like a great nation, and I wonder how it all came to be. And what gods do your people worship? I imagine if your technology is something that only our gods could have used, then your gods will probably be even more unimaginable to our minds." he said, waiting for curiusly for an answer
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The High Duke Nikiolai III took over and said "We are a mutli-branch Christian nation so we have the Catholic Church like in Spain. I am a Catholic personally as is my family and then there is mainly Lutheranism which is like a protestant denomination with different beliefs on the Pope primarily and then there is many other branches though we all generally get along nowadays though it wasn't always the case, the main thing is we believe in a guy called Jesus dying or our sins and to most of us thats what matters, it's a highly Christian nation though respects other faiths too and cares more about your contribution to society and how good a person one is.
Our history is there was 7 Duchies of which the one I am from is one that came together to form a United Duchies where each Duchy has a good say in the nation. We elect a High Duke which is me currently for the life of that person and I live in a big palace called Cair Paravel which is really grand and big and houses many of the government functions including housing the PM in their own wing." He showed a photo on his phone.
He continued "Basically in 1801 we united to help defend each other from outside threats and have stayed together ever since. Basically we have developed into a democracy though with a house of experts as our upper house. Basically we have a legislature with a population based chamber called the House of Commons , and then the House of Duchies with same amount of seats for each Duchy and then the Imperial Senate which is made up of experts and specialists in various fields appointed by me . The first two are elected democratically elected. We've developed this system over 220 years or so. Basically our history is one of a coming together of different faiths and cultures and over the years we have done well with that. What about your nation I'd be fascinated to hear about your peoples heritage.I was actually wanting to invite you and your family to spend a week in the palace and on trips to explore the Duchies. We could arrange for helicopter or ship transport dependent on what you would like for travel."
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"Well, that all sounds peaceful and. Much different than Underath. Here, though, we didn't have kind people like your nation's. Many savage tribes of RavenSlathians, Bartholdians and primitive Woltinians, and Chijaiwas ruled the land we now call home. The only honorable nation was Kottonbrush, which Alexander, our founder, managed to unite with when he liberated our lands from the brutal RavenSlathians.
The centuries that followed were of constant war and development, that saw our great kings, one by one defeating the enemy tribes and uniting our region under Underath.
Our religion speaks about Ev, the god of everything. Of space and time. The one who made four children, alone, and gave them domains to rule over. Rea and Mol partnered and gave birth to San, god of light, and Berka with Rot partnered gave birth to Mia, goddess of darkness. Their two kids could not resist falling in love and gave birth to Noir, the god of nature. But their parents did not approve of their children's love, as they were complete opposites and wanted to kill their children.
So, Mia filled the sky with darkness, making space dark, and Sam filled this darkness with stars, and unlimited little lights so that their parents would be distracted, not knowing whic one of them housed the child they so desperately wanted to kill. And so Noir could survive and make the Earth, the humans, and the animals so he could watch over them and never be alone.
That is the truth and the truth only."
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The High Duke listened and said "Unfortunately alot of the past hasn't been peaceful with different nations so thats not unique to Underath. That is an interesting faith . I certainly hope our peoples can be friends. Maybe our Royal families and nobles can meet up twice a year when its practical once in each nation. They can then talk develop friendships and links. Just generally get to know each other? I think it would be good for our nobles and your royal family and nobles to get to know each other , I'd also like to invite you and your family to the High Dukes Dinner every year in Duchies. We could have a special relationship with each other as nations." Victoria chimed in " I think that would be grand to get to know everybody. I read about one of your family members doing well in a horse competition."
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King Zagreus gladly accepted the HIgh Duke's offer, and, having nothing else to discuss, he took the foreigners on a tour around the capital. The High Duke and his wife enthusiastically walked around the stone roads, seeing people on horses, brick houses, masonries, and local bussineses. Masonries, shoe cleaners, cloth industries, as well as going through the local market.
Having such a surreal experience that felt as if they walked through a set for a movie, they went to their helicopter and took off, leaving Underath.
