Sardonic

Are... are you calling us tsundere?

Ultimately, the primary users of the mercy board are the nations we raid, seeking relief from said raids. In truth, they don't have to do any of the terms at all, all they have to do is join an alliance. Barring VIP cases where the accused has materially wronged the alliance. I'm told an alliance called TKR has a similar system to punish people for botching trades.

Far from being a punishment, in truth a lot of people come to enjoy the mercy board. In other worlds, people who did the mercy board wound up joining GOONS. It is the purest form of creativity, purely voluntary, and an absolute riot. It is one of the defining aspects of our culture. It is not violence we seek, it is entertainment. I had my worries about transitioning to a discord version of the process, but I'm happy to report we have had great successes already, and I eagerly await what's in store next.

Suit yourself, seems like a waste of a lot of good stories though.

I dunno dude that sounds pretty interesting, i'd welcome them to try. Without that painful edge of loss we may as well all be playing dodgeball. Also the terms are considerably more forgiving than the treaty of versailles, but go off.

Whatever, fetus.

Put it to you this way. What is an alliance's most important asset? It's not cash. It's not the political goodwill of its allies. It's not even its ability to meaningfully project force in the world. It's the ability to generate entertainment for its membership through storytelling. The healthiest alliances entertain through actions in the world, generating stories, having the members feel part of a rich history. This engagement is the true lifeblood of alliances, and at its core, the alliance's story is the heart. An alliance can survive near total destruction, loss of allies, hell, in some worlds, even temporary foreign viceroys, but an alliance's story being crushed and made stagnant is the truly mortal blow. As I cast my eyes over the many empires of ash I see stories ending. Even the husks that remain, the lifeblood has been removed. I wonder how much life many would have left were a free peace reached immediately. I have fought the rot of a losing battle before, many times on a lunar world, colonized by many hostile to goonkind. We lost many wars, but never did we lose the story, and eventually, we gave it a happy ending. So the peace isn't free? So what. So some group or another might get left out in the rain? So what. A potential rivalry formed by such an action has tremendous storytelling utility, even if you are still forced to work with them by circumstance. You may think you're taking a bold stance, but from where I sit, you seem to merely choosing a needlessly early ending to your story, stubbornly refusing the inevitable. Again though, I have to say, I am enjoying this tremendously from where I sit. The black sun of GOONS has only just begun to rise over the horizon, and the longevity of this war only makes the glorious black dawn that much closer to reality.

You are correct, things that happened before GOONS' arrival do not interest me. I merely question the hill your coalition is literally dying on. Having seen the terms, posts like Charles' over there trumpeting defiance at all costs make little sense. But ce la ve. GOONS has always thrived on conflict. We have and will continue to benefit from this war greatly. My curiosity is more of an academic one really.

Your use of language like 'jerked around' reads to me like you still fundamentally don't understand your bargaining position. You are not entitled to white peace, hell, you're not even entitled to a reasonable peace. The winning side will always have more leverage in negotiations and have a better outcome than the loser. That's how it works. At any rate, I've seen the terms, and frankly, I think they're extremely reasonable. Beyond that, it's not my place to disclose.

OK cool so it's entirely your coalition's stubbornness with regards to the relative pittance asked of you holding up the peace process. Glad we finally got that settled, could probably have saved a lot of digital ink all around if your coalition were more honest about that fact instead of disingenuously whining everywhere about the length of the negotiations.

It is not, nor will ever be our responsibility to provide anybody with a "fair" fight.

And non-Binary Pals, of course

Irrespective of the veracity of any logs, you, personally, do not exist.

If it was in a nation or colony simulator, likely.

AppealDenied is correct, I misunderstood the scope of the term. The failure is my own. Your lectures are misplaced, pubbie scum.

I myself expect to be nuked repeatedly for bad posting unrelated to shark week.

Hardly. We are taking nobody's freedom of speech, we could not do so even if we wanted to. Freedom of speech has never been the same thing as freedom from consequence.

Of course not. This is a serious term, designed to improve the lives of the community at large by reducing forum pollution.

'Learn from their mistake and post better' is the idea.

It would farcical for us to imply that one coalition has a monopoly on bad posting. E: However in this case because of the nature of the shark week implementation, it will only apply to the losers.

Shark Week is a GOONS tradition.

Oh no not tiny amounts of money that are equivalent to what, a week's income for the alliances it's demanded of? Don't blame us for your inability to do cost/benefit calculations.

Just another bug on the windshield.

Maybe you could try, I don't know, not violating the rules? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. E;F;B

Well if nothing else, it's definitely a bold stance.