Need some RP advice

[thecrimsondawn]

First let me give some backstory.

So I am playing as a Warlord - a former general reborn into the world a few hundred years after his death. There are 3 major races(empires) that are left at this time - Elf, Human, and Orc. Some other races persist, but these 3 races are the major powers, and they have been at war with each other for as far back as records go.

A brief timeline of known events.
~Orcs and Elves where created by the first gods~
~Humans where added in later to try and balance things out between the two factions that went to war nearly as soon as they met~
~Humans where enslaved as they had not the strength of the orcs, nor the intelligence or magic ability of the elves~
~Humans plotted a rebellion over several years, waiting for the right moment to strike and I was one of the key players~
~Humans, overthrowing the orc slavers behind their lines took all the resources and power they could get from the orcs and used that to aid in freeing many other humans even in elf lands~
~I am reborn a few hundred years later. The humans have started doing far far worse slavery to orcs and elves, and the orcs and elves are also upping the anti in retaliation. It is safe to say that
my hero is at war with the concept of slavery and wants it to stop~
~The Orcs for over 100 years have been building an army that numbers in the hundreds of thousands, and they are marching to a castle where the first tri race peace talks where held. The orc great general of this army has come to said fort for a similar reason, he also sees that this endless war needs to stop, but his ideals do not fully match my own.~

The humans want no part in talking to "filthy" orcs, and the elves for the most part have cut themselves off from the rest of the war to stay out of it. However in this castle its sort of a bastion for those that want to change the racism based culture of the races. In this castle, humans, elves, and other races have learned to co-exsist peacefully, but due to how far north it is (orc lands are in the south) there are few to no orcs in the castle, so people still feel uneasy about that race.

Learning that one of the generals from hundreds of years ago is back after being rejected by the humans, he wants me to speak for the human race. This will all go down next game, and it will be very stressful and a whole lot of debating and talking. As a player I am god tier with tactics, but when it comes to laws, edicts, bills, ect - I find myself a bit lacking where my hero would not be.

Because of that I am seeking help and ideas from other players that I may be able to use to help turn this situation in my favor.

So here is what I am looking for.
-aid making edicts to protect all races, and not be bias to one more then other
-aid or ideas to help draft up ultimatums to help protect the lifestyle of the people living in the fort, as well as the surrounding towns.
-opinions on my various thoughts that I will post below this. If there are flaws I would like to know :3
-anything else you feel is worthy of note.


As a general, I know that since his army is enough to snuff out all the life in the area, the orc leader will try to use that as a major playing card. However this is the largest army ever made in history, and while we will not be able to "win" in a battle, this army does have major flaws. Those flaws are supplies, mobility, communication delays, and lack of major magic users.
I already have battle plans drawn up should war between us break out, and with the 7500 troops in this castle, I should be able to kill off around 50'000 with this plan, but that is about the upper limit before we are overrun. This army is large for a good reason as they are heading to the former orc HQ (now human HQ after the rebellion). Taking large losses will not bode well for him, nor will idling around a fort for a long amount of time before backup comes.

I feel that he is going to argue for the surrender of the fortress, but I will not accept that. Who owns the land matters little to my hero so long as the people are all treated fairly tho, so it is a card I can play if it comes down to it. It will stir up rebellions tho if I did that. What do you think I should propose? maybe a neutral zone owned by nobody yet protected by everybody? Any other ideas?

I have evidence that some of the most powerful merchants/politicians in the human HQ are very corrupt and want this war to continue and it is in my best interest to remove them from power by any means, as well as clear my name that they set up before I died the first time. To that end, working with the orcs is not a far fetched idea, but if they capture the HQ, then that makes things really hard since orc lands will border large amounts of human lands and could lead to major bloodshed.

Lastly I have no idea how the elves will react at all since they mostly have cut themselves off from the rest of the world, and the ones that do sail off their mainlands can not return. They are the most advanced with arcane magic and teck, but we know little more then that.

[Seto]

I'll be assuming that ending both slavery and racism is your end goal and that you make it your top priority. If your character has other values, my advice might benefit from some reconsideration on your part.



-aid making edicts to protect all races, and not be bias to one more then other
-aid or ideas to help draft up ultimatums to help protect the lifestyle of the people living in the fort, as well as the surrounding towns.

About the edicts : off the top of my head, make the edicts apply to anyone regardless of race, BUT make sure they are not tacitly unfair to one race. Removing the mention of race is not enough : for example, if your edicts shape a society in which magic users are privileged, and the most prominent magic users are Elves, then it's biased towards Elves even though the edict does not explicitly say so. If it's about "protecting" all races, then what you need is mostly very harsh penalties for hate crimes based on race, and encouraging mingling between the races. Two big priorities are education (growing up with someone creates links) and military : if military forces are multiracial, this solves the "orc army clashes against human army" problem. This is probably the most important point.
Although I didn't quite get from your post what your resources, and more importantly your ambitions, are. You're in the multiracial fort, but who are your edicts for ? The fort ? Or do you intend to conquer nations and go global, fight racism worldwide ? And mostly, who do you send ultimatums to ? The orc army ?



As a general, I know that since his army is enough to snuff out all the life in the area, the orc leader will try to use that as a major playing card. However this is the largest army ever made in history, and while we will not be able to "win" in a battle, this army does have major flaws. Those flaws are supplies, mobility, communication delays, and lack of major magic users.
I already have battle plans drawn up should war between us break out, and with the 7500 troops in this castle, I should be able to kill off around 50'000 with this plan, but that is about the upper limit before we are overrun. This army is large for a good reason as they are heading to the former orc HQ (now human HQ after the rebellion). Taking large losses will not bode well for him, nor will idling around a fort for a long amount of time before backup comes.

I feel that he is going to argue for the surrender of the fortress, but I will not accept that. Who owns the land matters little to my hero so long as the people are all treated fairly tho, so it is a card I can play if it comes down to it. It will stir up rebellions tho if I did that. What do you think I should propose? maybe a neutral zone owned by nobody yet protected by everybody? Any other ideas?

I have evidence that some of the most powerful merchants/politicians in the human HQ are very corrupt and want this war to continue and it is in my best interest to remove them from power by any means, as well as clear my name that they set up before I died the first time. To that end, working with the orcs is not a far fetched idea, but if they capture the HQ, then that makes things really hard since orc lands will border large amounts of human lands and could lead to major bloodshed.

If you know that you'll lose in even the best-case scenario, you should make every effort to avoid open confrontation with the orc army. Besides, the fort is an extremely valuable asset in your plan, not only because of the fighting force it contains but because those guys are the result of the only successful experiment in what you're trying to accomplish. You say the orc leader has similar ideals, but differs on important points. You should try diplomacy. Show him that he has little to gain by conquering you, and that, even if success is likely, he'll suffer great losses. Offer him an alliance : the fort people are uneasy with orcs ? Well, this is the occasion : offer him joint direction of the fort with you, let people from the fort get to know orcs. There's gonna be reluctance, so be big on inside communication : orcs are the final piece that lets the multiracial society be complete, etc. If there are rebels (you should expect some) don't cut them any slack. Don't be tyrannical and make martyrs, but send them away until such time as they come to their senses and learn to play well with others. Who owns the zone is unimportant if you can get him on board with the big picture : create a worldwide united society based on something other than race.
Then, ally with the orc army to conquer and root out corruption in the human lands, and break down race-based borders and societies.

You'll have a hell of a lot of complications, changes like that don't happen overnight. They take decades or centuries. You'll have rebellions, cults, factions against you, possibly civil war. But that's the way to make your goals of rooting out slavery and taking steps towards the end of racism happen by yourself and quickly enough.

Lastly I have no idea how the elves will react at all since they mostly have cut themselves off from the rest of the world, and the ones that do sail off their mainlands can not return. They are the most advanced with arcane magic and teck, but we know little more then that.

You should probably ask the elves who live in the multiracial fort. They may not be up to date on their nation's agenda, but they're the most likely to make good predictions and guesses as to the elves' reaction. If you do decide to go worldwide and ally with the orcs to conquer human lands, do send emissaries to the elves and do what's in your power to make sure they won't interfere. Because they're next. (sorry, wrong color, we're ending slavery after all... with an iron fist).

[thecrimsondawn]

I'll be assuming that ending both slavery and racism is your end goal and that you make it your top priority. If your character has other values, my advice might benefit from some reconsideration on your part.

From his standpoint, he did his best to free the humans for really bad odds, and then he finds out later when he is revived that his reward was that he was framed and humans started to do far worse. From his mindset, he does feel a sense of unease to the orcs due to a mild ptsd from the slave camp he grew up in. However being able to witness the actions of every nation without being a part of any one nation a few hundred years later has given him a larger picture of what needs to be done. He is fully aware that to keep fighting will be the death of everyone. There are so few towns, so few people, that the wild beasts of nature out number them now and no travel is safe. So many weapons of war have been made, and some are dangerous on a planetary scale. In a way you could say dealing with these issues is also on his agenda, but many go hand in hand.
Lastly as a warlord, I am the owner of all the cursed objects the party has found. I have enough magic items on me to be visible with detect magic from space right now. These items like said above are thought to be a product of weapons of war, but far far older. 3 of the items are epic level magic items (we are level 6) and I wont even bother going off with how much trouble we had to go through to deal with them so far. Its become part of my agenda to purify them since their magic is far far too dangerous to allow to be left alone.

Ending both is my goal, all tho I will not live long enough to see the change, I will make sure I live long enough to set the world upon the path. I can not end war since the concept will always be around in some form, so this geneva style convention is my best bet.



About the edicts : off the top of my head, make the edicts apply to anyone regardless of race, BUT make sure they are not tacitly unfair to one race. Removing the mention of race is not enough : for example, if your edicts shape a society in which magic users are privileged, and the most prominent magic users are Elves, then it's biased towards Elves even though the edict does not explicitly say so. If it's about "protecting" all races, then what you need is mostly very harsh penalties for hate crimes based on race, and encouraging mingling between the races. Two big priorities are education (growing up with someone creates links) and military : if military forces are multiracial, this solves the "orc army clashes against human army" problem. This is probably the most important point.

The trick is going to be avoiding any loopholes. While there are major and minor races, if you really think about it, who should benefit? In the world of pathfinder - even a highly custom world such as the one I am in, so many creatures have high INT. The rules look at anything with an INT score of more then 2 as an intelligent being. Where to began and where to end ya know. The world civilized could be used, but then another entry would be needed to define civilized to prevent that from getting out of hand. I need to make sure one of the edicts allows for the ability for people of any race to have the ability to gain land and power too, and that is going to be a hard one with the Monotheistic orcs, but maybe a bit more easy with elves and humans since they already have a government system that is closer to a senate.
Im glad you wrote that because education is one of the largest factors in changing the culture one grows up in and I overlooked something this important even this I live and breath things like this IRL. The largest factor if war is averted is the culture shock between the 3 vastly different races. In this world Elves can be compared to Arabia as they live in the desert lands, and have a more eastern/Egyptian culture. The orcs are more Japanese with their honor bound society. They have master craftsmen and wonderful architecture, yet are very prideful and the smallest things can set them off (think Samurai)


Although I didn't quite get from your post what your resources, and more importantly your ambitions, are. You're in the multiracial fort, but who are your edicts for ? The fort ? Or do you intend to conquer nations and go global, fight racism worldwide ? And mostly, who do you send ultimatums to ? The orc army ?

The fort is a major location like you said. As the worlds first and only tri race council has been held there, and its one of the 2 known cities that are even trying to get along with other members of the major races. The edicts are for all the land and all the races. I do not have the power to speak on behalf of every human in the world, but I am no king, I am a general, a conqueror, and one of the best in the world at that. Making a city fall is as simple as breathing to me. The Human HQ will need to adapt or fall as they can not hope to stand to face an army of this size, even more so if someone is on the inside and ruins everything for them :3
What matters here is a cause is known. A massive orc army would spread true terror, but if word spread across the world that this army is going around fighting for ethical causes, this will cause their support and acceptance to grow, even more so if this fort joins. As for who these ultimatums are for, its for the leaders in this tri race council, mostly the orc army at the moment. He will try to push with the pressure of his army breathing on your necks, but we wont give in, and if the other members of the council try to give in then I will just have them step down as they are not fit to be in such a position if they put themselves above the world. Still, I have high hopes for these talks.

To your point about the elves, you are right. By not taking part in the major conflicts in the war, they can grow their numbers, and practice their crafts. I have no doubt that they have something akin to tanks and airships, and that would be a huge issue if a showdown came to be. The good news is that they dont want anything to do with this war, even tho they remain at war, so ending the war and opening up trade routes for materials and luxuries is a VERY powerful motive for any country.