Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

A Guide to Diplomacy

The Rundi handguide to Diplomatic Success

Welcome, to your first day working for the GA diplomatic serve. Your presence here is a great honor as you have been selected from thousands of your peers for outstanding prior service, and burgeoning career potential. From this moment on you will represent an important cog in a very large machine that keeps the GA running smoothly. It is important to understand that, while you are here, you will interact with many diverse and intellectually sophisticated species who all have different values than our own. This pamphlet was written by the upper echelons of our government to ensure that you have the best success in dealing with diplomatic occurrences between species.

A couple general rules before we get started. If you are watching this in video form, please refer back to your pamphlet and follow along with the instructions. Research indicates a higher rate of rule retention when the words are read and not simply listened t.

First : Compromise is at the core of everything we do. Your most advantageous position is never going to appeal to the opposite party. It is important to understand this, and begin with a series of midway compromises that will, in the long run, produce a desired outcome. Governments that cannot find compromise are governments that fall into collapse and fail. It is important to suffocate your pride, and subtly maneuver to your advantage.

Second make sure to always research the culture and traditions of those people with whom you are speaking. It will not do to treat a Celzex like you would a finnari, one will certainly be frightened and the other might declare war if such a snafu were to take place.

Thirdly: This is not a competition. Many governments are based around the idea that politics is some large game of chess where two bodies play against each other to gain power. Systems in which this prevailing theory resides eventually crumble to war and revolution. The best kind of government is one that understands that working together with other bodies is an important and necessary point of survival .

With those three rules out of the way, Lets get started!

This next section will be giving you an overview of the different species and general rules about how to handle them in a diplomatic situation.

Make sure to take notes!.

Vrul – Vrul are logical, guarded, territorial, and generally isolationist in nature. We know for a fact that they did not join the GA because they wanted to, but simply out of necessity for their own survival. Expect a vrul to do the least amount possible to complete any deal or diplomatic transaction. They are likely to be deceptive, haughty and cautious. We are aware that their government is comprised of some sort of Communist Oligarchy wherein the citizens have few rights and the council has full control over it's citizens. To deal with a Vrul, it is best to appeal to their sense of duty, their own safety, and what might be best for the communal whole of their race.

Gibb- Gibb are similar to the Vrul in most governmental aspects though their oligarchy seems a little more lax. Gibb are prone to paranoia and bouts of acute mental destress. Make sure to slowly introduce the idea of problems or danger, and make sure to appeal heavily to their sense of safety, it has worked well in the past.

Finnari- finnari have a long history of slavery in their background, as the slaves, but despite this they are known to be trusting and cooperative, primarily to those that they view as friends. They are governed under some manner of socialist government sharing their goods and resources I the same ways they did when they were enslaved to the Gnar'lak. For this reason Finnari are a pleasure to deal with diplomatically. They are courteous, kind , and intelligent. If you present to them your reasoning, and emphasize how it will help the state of the GA they are more than likely to agree with you.