A SUGGESTION TO SERPENTEYE, FORSAKEN ONE, AND JAMES. AND ANABSTERCORIAN (down at the bottom of the post.) ANY EVERYONE ELSE (by default!

)
Ok, I'm not the gamemaster of the 5th IR.
However, if I was, I would make the following rulings, based on the last 2 pages of posts:
Forsaken One retains his claim to the Red Kingdom.
Forsaken One receives his claim of the Ethergaunt as per their description, and Serpenteye's IC ruling (and maybe, they are more powerful than Serpenteye has ruled, and he will increase their strength! Horrors!

)
But ...
Forsaken One is disallowed from attacking anywhere WEST of the Celestial Imperium/Upper Khanate/Lower Khanate (that is, anywhere west of Venus' holdings) with the Ethergaunt from turns 1 through 3.
He may strike the Celestial Imperium, and Upper/Lower Khanate and Orcreich, but nowhere west of there (Erypt, Ellaves, the Tharquish Empire, Fireland, and the Barbarian Seameast are all west of there, and thus off-limits.)
The Ethergaunt are also barred from attacking the continents of Anakeris, Aquaria, and the Isle of the Phoenix, way off to the east. This prohibition is for turns 1 through 3, and on turn 4 drops. After that, the Ethergaunt may attack these places as well.
The Ethergaunt are also prohibited from striking Hyperboria and Polaris for turns 1 through 3.
The Ethergaunt MAY strike against Zingia, Nippon, and Hempmonaland, starting from the word Go.
Forsaken One may do anything he likes with the Red Kingdom. The Red Kingdom may act as it pleases on Turn 1.
Because of the nature of the Ethergaunt, the Red Kingdom and the Ethergaunt MAY NOT cooperate or associate with each other: Forsaken One must play them as separate powers, and as enemies.
- - -
Now, why would I make such a ruling, if I were the gamemaster?
Here are the IC reasons:
It is in the Flanaess and Baklunish lands that everyone is continuously shooting off their mouths, their arrows, and their spells.
It is in the Flanaess and the Baklunish lands where the heart of the scheming and conniving is going on.
The Flanaess and Baklunish lands are the place that are threatening to bring chaos and ruin down upon all of Greyspace.
In other words, guys, the Flanaess and Baklunish peoples are the Troublemakers, and Troublemakers tend to get it first.
The Flanaess and Baklunish lands are the most obvious, visible target, and the Ethergaunt would focus on them first. After all, if none of us OOC had ever heard of Lynn or the Red Kingdom before now, why should the Ethergaunt have heard of them IC? I ask you: honestly, wouldn't the Ethergaunt prefer to attack the choice targets first?
Everyone knows what Greyhawk City is, so the Ethergaunt would know also.
The Flanaess is just chalk full of massive populations sitting exposed and ready to be exterminated, whereas the rest of Oerik is less populated.
Remember that the Borg went after the planet Earth in the film? They didn't stop first at Vulcan, or Rigel, or Orion. Or even at Klinshai or Romulus. They went after Earth. Because Earth was the most highly visible target - it was the capital of the Federation.
Well, the Flanaess is the capital of trouble and chaos and population and scheming and warmongering in Greyspace. So the Ethergaunt would go there first.
In other words, the Flanaess and the Baklunish have been broadcasting one too many X rated films (or, let's say, the metaphorical equivalent) of gore and blood and mayhem to the rest of the universe.
And now, the rest of the universe has become annoyed with the quality of the television programming, and decided to ... shall we say? ... burn down the TV station. (And just think, one of these days, all that X rated stuff is going to awaken Cthulu and the Elder Ones, and then ... )
- - -
OOC, this solves a number of problems, and coincides with the desires of the players. Here's how:
Forsaken One wants to start this game with a bang. The Ethergaunt nuking the Flanaess and Baklunish lands first (which is full of powers and players, including ME) is the way to do it.
If I were playing the Ethergaunt as the gamemaster, I WOULD go after all the rest of you first, and go after isolated Lynn and the Mare Mysticum later. If you remember, in the 3rd IR that is precisely what Vecna did, too.
James wants a little peace on Turn 1. A more slow paced start. This guarantees that he gets that peace. He has a chance to orientate himself to the game, before the full load of assault and chaos reaches him.
(It does not guarantee that the Red Kingdom won't attack Lynn (James), or that ... I ... won't attack James, or that Melkor won't attack James, or that anyone else won't attack James ... but since we have the Ethergaunt to deal with, it makes it a lot less likely.)
And this way, James does not have to give up his very creative work on the Mare Mysticum and Lynn. And he can still have his claim in Polaria as well, since there is a land bridge to Polaria through Gigantea from the Mare Mysticum.
This brings instant excitement and chaos to those of us (including me) who desire it. I'm sure Melkor, William, and some of the others are just waiting for those Ethergaunt. And Creamsteak. And Anabstercorian. And Venus. And Zelda. And Bugbear!
We went through the 3rd IR. We KNOW what chaos means. We KNOW what it means to be nuked.
And we know how to answer such attacks. We know how to deal quite efficiently and ruthlessly with powers like the Ethergaunt! We know how to nuke back most efficiently and nastily!
The new players who are threatened by the Ethergaunt: Eluvan, Rikandur, Devilish, Knight Otu (I thought you were in the IR too, weren't you?), Guilt Puppy, Airwhale ... have powers that are sitting RIGHT NEXT TO (or directly above, in some cases) our Powers.
If the Ethergaunt attack their powers, they can rely on us to ally with them (at least, temporarily. A common enemy makes for strange bedfellows.)
Thus, we of the 3rd IR can join forces with the new players, and with our combined strength send these monstrous Ethergaunt running like scared rabbits back to the Astral Plane, then go after them there and hunt them down to the least and the last!
But ...
As you can see, if the Ethergaunt appear in all their force over the Red Kingdom, then Lynn and the Mare Mysticum are the first places they will attack, simply because they are the closest places around to the Ethergaunt point of entry to Oerth.
Unlike our powers, the Mare Mysticum and Lynn are isolated. None of us can really help them. It's not like the Flanaess where we are all breathing down each other's necks: James is isolated out there. Before we could send sufficient aid to aid him, James would be wiped out.
- - -
Now, you'all will say to me: this is unfair. Why should James be let off the hook, and we have to suffer?
Ok ...
1. I'm suffering with you. Most of my cities are in the unrestricted areas. In no way am I trying to get out of the brawl: I'm in the thick of it with the rest of you. And Hempmonaland is extremely vulnerable to attack. Those Ethergaunt could wipe out my Empire of the Yuan-Ti is a heartbeat.
2. James wants some fun. If giving him 3 turns of relative peace is required, then let him have those turns! After we destroy the Ethergaunt, THEN we will deal with his goody-goody faerie elves and slackers of Lynn! (evil grin)
I mean, the world is not going to end because the Ethergaunt can't attack the Mare Mysticum and Lynn for 3 turns. Nor will the Mare Mysticum and Lynn gain supremacy in those turns: it is physically impossible.
3: Forsaken One is trying to be creative. I see no problem with rewarding creativity. This is an IR. All the nasty, fiendish, blood curdling creativity of the most scheming, conniving minds in all of ENWorld went into the 3rd IR ... and so should it be in the 5th IR!

Let the creative be creative! Heh ... we will be creative BACK, and these Ethergaunt will rue the day they dared to take US on. Because we of the Flanaess are the nastiest, toughest, roughest, meanest, most devastatingly and horrifically destructive powers in ALL the multiverse (that's right, Cthulu, you better stay hidden. You better run. You better hide!)
4: If you feel that James still has an unfair advantage, because we are going to get nuked and he isn't, then ask Serpenteye for more ICs and Epic PLs to compensate you!
5: James will be happy. And he keeps the Mare Mysticum, Lynn, and maybe gets Polaris also.
Forsaken One will be happy. He has his (nasty!) race, they are coming to kick butt, they will kick butt, and the IR will start off with a bang.
And the rest of us, knowing that being nuked is Standard Operating Procedure for an IR, will simply exterminate these Ethergaunt, then go on to the REAL business at hand: exterminating each other!
- - -
Anyways, that's what I'd rule, if I were gamemaster.
Heh. But I'm not. Serpenteye is gamemaster! So, you must deal with him ... and hopefully, work with him and trust him, since he has an awfully hard job to do.
Serpenteye, what do YOU think of my proposal?
The rest of you, what do you think?
If you think it stinks, SAY SO. (heh: you always did in the 3rd IR, so say it now!)
If you like it, tell Serpenteye. He might just go for it.
James, Forsaken One, what do YOU TWO think of the proposal?
Fair? Reasonable? Does it satisfy what you both want?
- - -
Oh yes, I almost forgot:
Zindia, Nippon, and the Nippon Dominion are unclaimed.
And I'M claiming Zindia!
You heard it right. From the horse's mouth. Zindia is MINE.

Zindia will put my ICs on a level with those 600s and 700s I'm seeing on the charts.
Zindia is, of course, a large, prosperous, and wealthy surface nation. It's just chalk full of resources and people and greenery and mountains and whatnot.
Too bad it's people turned to the evil dieties (including Lolth, for some of them), isn't it?

Too bad they believe Eclavdra should be their rightful Queen, no?
Too bad the drow have ASCENDED to the surface and acclimated to the sunlight, in Zindia, and freely intermingle with the surface dwellers in peace and ... harmony (!!!)
You know, sorta like Dambrath in Faerun? Oh, you don't know? Trust me, you don't want to. Some things are best left undiscussed and unknown of. Wisdom is not always a good thing!
- - -
Anabstercorian, want to claim Nippon and the Nippon Dominion? You need the PL!
You and I can have a nice little messy brawl down there in the Pearl Sea, all to our ourselves.

(After we exterminate those pesky Ethergaunt, of course!)
Edena_of_Neith