(A collaboration with [@Bright_Ops])

Signing a peace deal when you hadn’t actually fought a war was always a strange concept. When you hadn’t taken any land, hadn’t killed or lost any soldiers, and had, at most, been a minor inconvenience in each other’s lives, what exactly were you supposed to discuss? Sure, there was the time investment, but it just seemed churlish to demand gold and land over a little extra overtime.

This view was not shared by the Hobgoblin delegation, however.
“We have lost too good people to the constant, barbaric raids on our borders by these vile creatures!” the lead Hobgoblin delegate, an Amazonian hulk of a woman by the name of Shika, barked across the hall. “There can be no peace without the proper recompense for all the fallen you have taken from us!”

The “proper recompense” Shika described was no less than 25 metric tonnes of gold. A hefty fee, no doubt, but Hobgoblins did not take kindly to those who would spill the blood of their kind, and with the support of Bwca, they felt emboldened to make demands they wouldn’t dare make otherwise.


“You are not getting over twenty five tonnes of gold to justify your centuries of raids and slaughter of Tushina’s people.” Taler answered with a deadpan expression. “The offer on the table is for the bloodshed to end and a chance for a better life for both of our peoples going forward. The reason we’re even having this discussion on Bwca’s soil is because you would have tried to kill any diplomat we sent to you directly.”

Things weren’t going smoothly, but despite the outrageous demands of the hobgoblins, Taler was at least trying to be civil. After all, the reason they were even having this discussion was because he wanted to avoid having the blood of Shika and her people on his paws. “The topic of proper recompense is a matter that will have to be debated another time. Can we get back to the original topic?”

Shika only snarled in response. “You want the bloodshed to end? Pay up.”

This was going about as well as the goblins had expected. Shika didn’t know what the word “compromise” meant. With another greenskin, there might have been some wiggle room, but with a foreigner? No chance. She said what she wanted, and she wasn’t going to shift on it.

“We can negotiate payment later, Shika,” the Bwcan delegate said. His name was Brynn, and he had been chosen specifically because he and Shika because they were cousins. It wouldn’t be a miracle fix, but every little bit of leverage would help. “This is an armistice, not a peace deal.”

Taler nodded his head in agreement with Brynn, through he suspected that the negotiations likely weren’t going to get much better with Shika anytime soon. “We are trying to be reasonable here, but your people started this conflict and I don’t want to see it end because the hobgoblins of your nation were cut down to the last or driven from their burning homes.”
Seeking to find an ally in someone who was at the table, the small Too’ave turned his attention fully to Brynn. “And what is Bwca’s opinion on the proposal I am offering?”

Shika’s eyes flared with anger, and even Brynn glared at Taler for his over-the-top description. “Watch your tongue. If your mind is so oriented towards war, then we cannot expect to have peace.”

His words were calm, but inside, Brynn wanted to shout at the little Too’ave. He was making his job much, much harder than it needed to be. At this rate, Shika was going to invoke the Auld Alliance and have Tushina wiped off the face of the planet.
“We want a peaceful resolution to this conflict as much as you, but we will not tolerate any threatening language towards us or our allies. Am I clear?”

Taler sighed a little, reaching up to softly rub his temple as he explained “I am sorry, I do not mean for my words to sound threatening but you have to understand something important during these talks. The hostile actions of our hobgoblin neighbours against civilian targets have long been a point that the military caste of our people have championed as a reasonable cause to invade and put an end to the attacks once and for all… recently however, they’ve gotten support from the merchant caste due to a desire to open a land trade route westwards… this armistice is literally an attempt to stop a war from starting that will result in a great deal of needless bloodshed.”

“So please understand that if I fail to bring this to a peaceful conclusion, the results will be dire. I don’t want that and neither do you.” A sigh escaped him as he shook his head. “At the core, all we want is to no longer be attacked from our western border and safe overland trade routes. Is that an unreasonable desire?”

No. It wasn’t an unreasonable desire. But that wasn’t the issue that Shika was thinking about, and Brynn knew that. Her thoughts were firmly on all the dead and wounded as a result of Tushina’s raids, and she wasn’t going to walk away without a guarantee that she would have payment for their loss.

Rather than let her hurl some more insults at the delegate, Brynn decided to speak on her behalf. “No one begrudges you for wanting peace. But the losses to our clansmen will need to be addressed before a peace treaty can be signed.”

A sigh escaped Taler as he answered “The losses of the hobgoblins cannot be addressed if the hobgoblins will refuse to acknowledge the losses they have inflicted enough the Too’ave and Tushina in turn. As much as it would sting the pride of my nation to do so, I am prepared to wipe the slate clean in that regard if the hobgoblins will do likewise.”

Brynn looked at Shika, who snorted in disgust. “We didn’t start the fire, you furry fool. We were only defending ourselves. You started it, you can take responsibility for your own losses.”
A snort escaped Taler at her accusation. “Excuse me? The first time Tushina had contact with you, I seem to recall that the scouts were all found in various states of dismemberment. The following diplomates to try and work out what exactly happened to provoke such a response didn’t fare much better.”

“You send armed soldiers into someone else’s territory, that’s a declaration of war! Or are you in the habit of bringing swords into a strangers home?” was Shika’s retort.

“What are you talking abou-” For a moment, Taler paused mid word, his mind catching up with what she had said and actually jumping to a possibility that he hadn’t entertained before. “...When was the first time you encountered the Too’ave? Because the earliest recorded encounter we have was shortly after Tushina was founded as a nation almost one hundred and fifty years ago.”

The look on his face suggested that he was making a guess at something, but he would have been all that surprised if he was correct. “Just asking but… would your first encounter have been around two hundred years ago?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Shika snarled. “Two centuries ago? I’m not that old!”

Taler’s claw met his face for a second as he explained “...I don’t mean you personally, I mean historically.”


“Is now really the time for a history lesson?” Shika rolled her eyes, and Brynn couldn’t help but agree. Weren’t they supposed to be thinking about the present, and not the past?

“It’s important because if what I think has happened turned out to be true, it would explain [i]so[/i] much.” Taler answered easily enough… before taking a deep breath as he decided to get the history lesson over with. “Alright, quick background. The Too’ave were originally created by the ruling caste of the Forgotten Empire. We call it that because we don’t know what it’s original name was called, they didn’t allow us to keep written records and their own records are currently in the heartlands of the empire which is currently a magically cursed nightmarish landscape.”

“When the empire fell, it took the ruling caste with it… so the various Too’ave castes who existed at the time were completely devoid of leadership and had to work things out for themselves, a period of about fifty years we call the city state period per to the formation of Tushina proper. This is important because it meant that the legions of the military caste didn’t have a higher command to unite them and thus each individual legion had to decide what to do after the fall.” 

Shika looked over to Brynn and silently mouthed "I thought he said it would be quick?". The Goblin only shrugged in response.

Taking a quick pause to catch his breath and let his audience catch up, Taler jumped back into the tale quickly “While a number of legions ended up making arrangements with other Too’ave castes, be it via diplomacy or might makes right and forming the city states, an unknown number of legions travelled beyond the borders of what is now Tushina. We still don’t have a full record of them, but some travelled south to become mercenaries… while others either committed themselves to being marauders or sort to carve out a kingdom of their own elsewhere. So when I ask when hobgoblins first encountered the Too’ave, I do so to understand if it was after we had united into Tushina or if it was one or more of the rogue legions after the fall of the Forgotten Empire.”   


Shika rolled her eyes and yawned dismissively. “You say that like I’m supposed to care about your problems.”

“Shika!” Brynn admonished.

“Well, it’s true!” the Hobgoblin shot back, in much the same tone as a teenager would use to argue with an overbearing parent. “What difference does it make anyway? They came from his country!”

“That’s as ridiculous as blaming Nefmach for Uffern invading you because they’re both Goblins!”

“...If it helps, a fair number of the more… less diplomatic legions raided and pillaged Too’ave settlements before they buggered off south and west.” Taler offered, not really sure if that would help ease tensions or if Shika was just that stubborn about the situation, that she wouldn’t give a damn.

Brynn pressed his fingers into a steeple. If what the little Too’ave was saying was true, then this entire war - the embargo, the raids, the killings - it had all been for nothing. Shika had been chasing a phantom. Countless lives on both sides, sent to futile deaths, because of a mistaken identity. No wonder Shika was denying it. If she didn’t, then she’d have to admit that all the kills she had claimed in the name of the war had been in vain.

But perhaps there was still hope for peace. Shika wanted revenge. Perhaps the Too’ave could deliver it to her.

“Taler. These, uh, rogue legions you speak of. Are they still operational? Do you know where they are?”

For his part, Taler shook his head with his ears flapping a little from the motion. “Not really. I know of a couple of them that traveled down south to become mercenary companies that are still operational and there is always the occasional tale of marauders and bandits but…” He sighed a little as he reached up to scratch at one of his ears while subtly fixing its position up a little “... well, it happened centuries ago. We still don’t know exactly how many of the Old Legions existed around the time of the forgotten empire, let alone how many of them both survived the fall and decided to leave for distant lands.”

Of course they were, Brynn grimaced. [i]That[/i] would have been too easy. But there had to be something left behind, some stubborn hangers-on that they would need to dislodge. And if there wasn’t an enemy there, perhaps they could invent one.

“You’re certain about that? That there are absolutely none left behind in Tushina? At all?” Brynn insisted, hoping beyond hope that Taler was able to pick up one what he was implying.

Taler did get what he was implying, but he frowned as he looked at Brynn. “If you’re hoping for some hold outs, bandits or rebels to be a scapegoat, I’m afraid to inform you that the last of the rogue legions that stayed within Tushina’s boundaries were crushed or driven out centuries ago. Our rise as a nation was completely established when the last of them were dealt with.”

Brynn sighed. If they had someone else to blame, then maybe they could have abated Shika's wrath. Taler had just screwed all three of them over.

Up until this point, Shika had been listening and not talking. But now that Tushina's cards were on the table, and they had carelessly thrown away the only lifeline they had.

"What a coincidence. 'It wasn't us, it was these other guys that we managed to get rid of!'. A likely story!"
    
Talar’s ears twitched a little as he looked at Shika with a transparent expression. “Would you rather I lied to you? Sing you a fairy tale about how there was some conclave of bastards hiding out somewhere that if we both joined forces to slaughter, all the pain and death would be wiped clean and all sins forgiven? The world is rarely that kind Shika.”

He sighed a little. “The dead are not are masters. All that is going to happen if we maintain this cycle of violence and reprisal is that we will continue to create a cycle of pain, suffering and death until everyone is gone and it no longer matters who or what started it. All we can do is try and make peace with the past and create a better future… or willfully continue down a future soaked in blood.” 

Brynn groaned. That was a smart idea - tell a group of people who hold their ancestors in the kind of reverence the Bwcan goblins reserved for their Gods that the dead are not their masters. Why was he forced to arbitrate between two people who didn't understand realpolitik? All Taler had to do was lie, send the Hobgoblins a few traitors and criminals, and this whole thing could have been over. One little lie. Instead, he basically told her to deal with it, the dead would never be avenged. Was he mad?

He glanced over at Shika, who was fuming so hard he could practically see the smoke rising from her ears. 
"What you don't understand, Taler," Shika said, her voice deceptively calm "is that Hobgoblins pay blood for blood. It's all very well and good to talk about a cycle of violence. But what am I supposed to tell the families of the people your kind has killed? How do I compensate for that, hmm!?"

“By the fact that they get to live and thrive.” Taler answered back solemnly. “By the fact that by brokering this peace, Tushina would be willing to forgive the deaths of all those that [i]your[/i] people have maimed and killed because of a misunderstanding that took place hundreds of years ago. Because even as you protest your innocence, from where I am sitting your people are the one that started this war without any attempt at diplomatic action or desire to understand who you were fighting.”

“And from where [i]I’m[/i] sitting, it was you who marched in on us unprovoked!” Shika snarled back, slamming a hand on the table and making Brynn nearly jump out of his skin. “You can have your ceasefire when you deliver us the traitors or the gold. Until then, there can be no peace between us!”

Brynn had lost all hope of a peaceful conclusion to this meeting. Hobgoblins only spoke in silver and iron. Someone, somewhere, was going to have concede.

Taler ‘s ears drooped when he heard that demand. He knew this had been a diplomatic failure on his part… even if his own reputation back home would survive due to the fact that no one had  really expected him to be able to get the hobgoblins to the table, let alone get them to see reason, this failure was going to haunt him. 

“Then I will no longer waste words on someone who is unwilling to hear them.” He answered in a soft, saddened voice. However, there was still some degree of hope as he turned his head towards Brynn as he asked “And what of you? I trust that Bwca has a voice and opinion of its own.” 

Brynn looked at Taler, then at Shika, then back at Taler. He knew that this had all come from a misunderstanding. The right thing to do was to side with Tushina. But he was in no position to give the Too’ave any support. Siding with a foreign power against a Goblin state? He’d be called a traitor. Bwca would be a pariah among its peers, and even if it didn’t escalate to war, they’d lose just about every ounce of influence they had. It was more than his job’s worth.

“Bwca… stands with its allies,” Brynn monotoned. “We cannot, in good conscience, side with an enemy over a friend.” 

Taler nodded his head in total understanding. If nothing else, this venture had proven that while the hobgoblins refused to be reasonable, at least Bwca could be talked to. That was a victory in its own right. “I understand. I cannot fault you for maintaining your alliances, even in the face of one being to blinded by pain to see the truth. For what it is worth, I am sorry that a compromise couldn’t be reached.”

“And whose fault is that?” Shika muttered, just loud enough to hear. Brynn was more gracious. “As am I. I’m sorry that your time has been wasted.”

Taler made a small show of offering Shika a stare, as if to answer her question without words before he looked back at Brynn. “Truth be told, I don’t think anyone back home expected me to get this far or survive the attempt but… well, it had to be made, you know?”

Brynn could respect that. But he couldn’t help but feel that this had been the last chance for peace between Tushina and the Hobgoblins. Why hadn’t Taler taken advantage of that? And worse still, once word of the meeting got out, the other Goblin states would surely take advantage by pressuring Owca to escalate the war.

The little goblin sighed. This was not the last he was going to hear of Tushina.