Armistice

260 AU

Having raged for fifty sweaty, uncomfortable years, the War of the Vassals was at last (almost) unanimously acknowledged to have thoroughly overstayed its welcome. No one had genuinely enjoyed a good day's frivolity in heaven knows how long, and frankly, there's only so much brutality society can endure before the whole affair becomes dreadfully boring. So it was that, at long last, the nations of Durant and Godrin agreed on something: enough was demmed well enough. Erecting a pavilion in the midst of the plains that had so graciously played host to the bloodshed for the past few decades, Erick Saint-Just and Alexander Grafton, both of whom had only recently taken their respective thrones, sat down to discuss the issues at the core of the matter. This could only take place after the rather unkind sacking of the now retired First General of Godrin, Graham Almsreich, who was in no way warm to the concept of surrender, nor to anything remotely similar. It was therefore with great trepidation that the two leaders met, neither having established anything truly amounting to a reputation in the skills of the statesman.

Three tense days, punctuated at regular intervals by feasting and, in the Durantian camps, manly frolicking, resulted eventually in the production of the document which would render the previous fifty years meaningless and condemn the continent to an indefinite period of nerve-wracking malaise. This armistice, thought at the time to be really quite reasonable and not at all a complete cop-out, consisted of the following terms:
 * No further (open) hostilities, especially upon the border zones which, naturally, were under a great deal of scrutiny.
 * The "tribals" are to be granted a plot of land on which to build a nation. This land was graciously provided by Godrin, though one may suggest that they were pleased as punch to part with the soggy, tree-tiger infested slice of hell.
 * The "final" definition of borders by which to abide.
 * Trade routes through which merchants of any and all nationalities may pass unmolested, save for the occasional tariff.
 * The composition of a list of "war criminals" forever exiled from their respective nations, or executed outright, as the situation demanded.
 * A Godrite representative MUST attend formal parties thrown by the Durantian nobility; it's rude to decline constantly.
 * In exchange for the above, the Durantians will stop foisting their poetry upon the Godrite populace. It's just cruel.