User Guide

85
and the negotiations are being conducted
by the two principal countries contesting
the succession. As you may recall, when the
ruler of a country with two or more royal
marriages dies, there is a chance of a succes-
sion war between those countries. The war
is concluded when one of the countries ac-
knowledges the other’s right to be the leader
of a new political union with the country
that lost its ruler. This is the peace term re-
quired to force that claim. If accepted, the
junior country of the personal union will
enter into a personal union with you (if it
isn’t already) and the defeated contestant
will relinquish his claim.
• Reparations:
The last of the special terms
is an agreement for the loser to immediately
pay an amount of gold to the victor. If the
victor is an alliance leader, any gold received
from the peace will be distributed evenly to
all members of the alliance. If a peace is
agreed to by an alliance leader on the losing
side, any reparations must be paid entire-
ly from the treasury of the alliance leader
(the other members of the alliance do not
contribute to the cost of reparations). Un-
like the other special terms, reparations are
commonly included in peace negotiations.
The war score value is determined by the
amount of gold being paid, and a country
may only agree to the terms if it is able to
pay the full amount of the demand without
taking a loan.
Sending the Peace Offer
You may include as many terms as you like in
a peace offer. Once you are satisfied with the
proposal and feel there is a reasonable chance
of the enemy accepting it, click the “send” but-
ton. Your diplomat will convey your message
and sometime within the next month you will
receive the enemy’s reply. If you change your
mind, you can click the “cancel” button to re-
turn to the diplomacy interface.
Receiving a Peace Offer
When an enemy sends you a peace proposal, a
message alert will appear near the bottom left
of the screen. You will have 30 days to click on
the alert, review the proposal, and respond. If
you fail to do so, the offer will be automatically
refused. Be sure to read the terms carefully be-
fore agreeing to them, particularly if you are
part of an alliance.
Peace
Once a peace is accepted, the terms of the peace
are immediately applied and the war will end.
Except for a white peace, there will be a period
of truce between the two realms that lasts for
five years. While it is possible to declare war
on that country before the truce has expired,
it will greatly upset your public and result in a
drop of your nation’s stability.
During the war, your provinces will have
experienced a slow increase in the risk of revolt
due to war exhaustion. Once the war is over,
this risk will slowly decrease as memory of the
trials and tribulations recede in the memory of
your public. This will take some time, though,
so be careful to check the war exhaustion value
before initiating a new war.
As soon as peace is concluded, any provinc-
es that are controlled by a former enemy are im-
mediately freed and returned to full control of
their owner. Any armies that are in the former
enemy’s territories must withdraw, unless they
have access as a result of the peace.
Espionage
There are a variety of hostile actions
that you can take towards a country
without directly declaring war. This
is the cloak-and-dagger world of the
spy. Most people would not consider espionage
to be a part of diplomacy, but we will discuss it
here since the Espionage Interface is accessed
by clicking on the “send spy” button that is lo-
cated in the Diplomacy Interface.
If you have a spy available in your pool, you
may send him to another realm to perform a