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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The_Universe" data-source="post: 1869060" data-attributes="member: 8944">This need not be more than a jumping off point Rather than go back to the IC thread, which is probably long enough, I'll give you the summary of Jaine's intitial opnion of what she wants from the Bluestar. That opinion can be changed, but as for a baseline, her desires and reasoning are as follows:  Even if the Armies of the Watch and Prydein are forever lost to the King, his conventional forces still outnumber ours by a factor of at least ten to one, and probably more. Further, even his losses end with a net increase in his troop strengths, since the fallen, if not immediately destroyed, can be raised and pressed back into usefulness as undead thralls.  As such, we need to acquire as much as we can from the Bluestar. Tain is not fighting a limited war, and we cannot afford to fight one, either. He has loosed a force upon a citizenry that he is charged to protect that not only consumes, but transforms his people into something unnatural.  The Bluestar has equipment, and the ability to produce steeldrakes and other siege weaponry in foundries that the king does not control and probably cannot observe. Some of his troops are the walking dead, and some are not. The more troops we refuse to use, the less likely Jansten's rebellion is to succeed, so we want as many of the Bluestar's troops south of the wall as he is willing to share, including undead.  Though we will accept such troops, they must be employed carefully. If a force of undead troops can be gotten south of the wall, they should be used first at the Isle of Mourning, where we need not worry about corrupting those who could be our allies. That being said, any force used on the Isle requires intelligence, since part of their mission would be a search for the blades - a balance must be struck, something that can more than likely be taken care of after a basic agreement is reached.  A Hierarchy of Command must be established. We cannot expect the Bluestar to swear fealty to Jaine, and politically they are essentially equals. That being said, One of the two of them must be considered superior. Jane hopes that it can be agreed that the Phoenix king or queen can be considered the High Ruler, but expects that a deal would not allow it. If it does go down that way, She (and her rightful descendents) will be Sovereign in the lands that she rules, and He (and his descendents) in the land that he rules. Close advisors and nobles will likewise change position depending on where they are.  In contested lands (essentially anything currently controlled by Tain) the issue of command becomes more complicated. Each group must have immediate sovereignty over their own troops, but should a commander become incapacitated, a ranking member of the other "army" may take command. Since there's essentially no way to balance this systemically, ultimate command will have to be taken on a case-by-case basis.  In order to minimize potential command conflicts, the direction of the war (and when it "ends") must be clearly established by both sovereigns (and, of course, their advisors). Jaine's initial stance is that the surrender or elimination of the draconids, as well as the surrender and/or elimination of Tain would signal the end of the war. The Bluestar might have other ideas, but that's her initial stand.  As for specific forces and tasks, Jaine wants:  1) A force to help relieve/capture Caer Albion. 2) A force to slow the retrieval of the blades on the Isle of Mourning, or retrieve the Blades themselves. 3) Reinforcements/equipment for the force protecting Hyrwl and New Oceanus4) At least one other expeditionary force, to be used for other important targets that may arise. These tasks might include...---Retaking Oceanus---Capturing important places like Caer Melyn---Reacting to other Draconid invasions---Others?5) She also wants a naval force of some sort, but the Bluestar is unlikely to be able to provide one. For that, she may have to turn to mercenaries, privateering, or some combination thereof.  That's the stuff that she/I can come up with off the top of the head. She is, however, listening carefully to what you have to say, so none of these are set in stone. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> EDIT: She also wants forces to find the remaining spiritblades, as well as information as to why they are important.</blockquote>

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