UPRAN State Visit to Pelinai

October 17, 9:00AM ETC+3. Cathedral of Saint Pelinai, Pelograd, Kingdom of Pelinai.

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding…

Queen Izumi could head the ringing of the bell tower across Cathedral Square, indicating that the time was now 9AM. The eastern light of the morning sun continued to filter into the large hall through its large purple, yellow, blue, and white stained crystalline windows and onto the sakura wood pews. Specially placed mirrors and prisms inside the the hall reflected some of the light from these windows onto the walls and ceiling, illuminating paintings of important events in Pelinayaka canon for the morning service. This great building, sized to accommodate a congregation of 10,000 people for important events, is the Cathedral of Saint Pelinai constructed in 1859 to commemorate the nation’s establishment in 1783.

It’s certainly not my usual tea room at the Royal Palace, but at least it’s a location that I’m familiar with. Perhaps I can bring up the windows or discuss Pelinayaka practices?

The Cathedral stands empty on Mondays such as this due to maintenance closures, and the only occupants at present are Queen Izumi and a handful of Life Guards. It is in this monument to Pelinese culture and history that Izumi is scheduled to entertain a state visit by the United Provinces, which extended an offer to visit after hearing news of Pelinese humanitarian aid to the League of Cordilia. Prime Minister Makarov and Minister Akirov have so far refrained from antagonizing the League as promised, but some tensions remain in its dealings with the Kingdom of Pelinai. The United Provinces at least seems interested in a more permanent reconciliation thanks to Pelinai’s display of goodwill in Doge Land and Ikaranara, giving a hope of fulfillment to Izumi’s wish that Pelinai refrain from attracting too much hostility abroad. UPRAN’s representative, Vice Prytanis Gisella, should be arriving shortly, and Izumi waits patiently in a pew on the eastern side of the Cathedral.

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October 17, 9:12AM ETC+3. Front Doors of the Cathedral of Saint Pelinai, Pelograd, Kingdom of Pelinai.

This would be the first time that Gisella would travel abroad for international talks. She was sent due to Prytanis Boutros and Lyssa Fiore having to administer the Rhaynan effort in the Rycco-Cordilian War. The travel by plane was horrible, but at least she got to enjoy the travel through Pelograd to the Cathedral of Saint Pelinai. She had never been in a cathedral before, just medium sized temples from the cities of Lake Kryó, so she was excited of visiting other locations.

She was so concentrated watching through the window of the back seat of the car the streets and locals of Pelograd that she took some seconds to realize that her driver already stopped the car in front of the cathedral.

“We have arrived Viceprytanis.” The driver said as the security guard of Gisella that was sitting in the back seat with her got out of the car and opened the door for her.

“Good.” She replied, getting a hold of her suitcase and stepping out of the car, then waiting for her assistant to step out of the car from the door of the copilot seat.

The Viceprytanis looked up and was impressed by the scale of the building.

I should do some more tourism later, now we have important things to do.

With the accompanying of her guard and assistant, she entered the cathedral and looked for Queen Izumi, then they saw her sitting in one of the pews.

They got closer and Gisella greeted her.

“Good morning Queen Izumi, it’s a pleasure to be in your presence.” She salutated while bowing.

Queen Izumi sets down a small notebook as she is approached by the UPRAN delegation. “Good morning, Vice Prytanis. Welcome to the Kingdom of Pelinai, and to the beautiful Cathedral of Saint Pelinai. I hope that you enjoyed your trip here.” Izumi motions for Gisella and the others to be seated.

“While I’m sure that you all have your diplomatic communiques and phrases well prepared, I find that some lighter discussion is more appropriate for the start of a conversation.” Queen Izumi retrieves her notebook and opens it. “You’ve certainly selected quite the location for our meeting, Vice Prytanis. Some of the most important events in Pelinese history have occurred in this church, such as the establishment of the Pelinese monarchy after Saint Pelinai’s death in 1862. It is also the site on which the Belogoran People’s Army surrendered to Pelinai in 1982. The crystal windows on that wall depict these events as well as others.” Izumi points to the western side of the cathedral as she says this. “Though it is my hope that our meeting here will end on less somber note than that day” Izumi says as she quickly checks her notebook. “Butterfly Day is three days from now; I should prepare a statement for it soon. Not that I should be bothering you with such matters. Tell me, what have your impressions of Pelograd been like during your stay?”

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Gisella and her assistant sit on the pew as the guard stays at a safe distance.

“It’s a beautiful and certainly particular city, I’ve always had a soft spot for different cultures, and specially architecture. I’ve never seen a building like this in person, we have a pretty specific architecture for ancient and even recent buildings back home. I wonder how this place looks when it’s full. The streets are also pretty lively. It would be definitely one of my first places to travel to if I ever get a free day.” she laughs.

She looks at her briefcase and frowns a bit.

“Anyway, now that the ice is more or less broken, we should discuss the matters at hand, shouldn’t we?”

She motions for her assistant to pull out some guide documents.

"It’s always sour to talk about politics, but I’m hopeful this meeting will solve things.

First, we are greatly grateful to the Kingdom of Pelinai for taking the right decision of sending human aid to the attacked members of the LoC instead of standing out of this war or being against our right of self defense, and I think I’m talking in the name of everyone in the League when I say this, we can’t say all nations of the world have done that."

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Izumi closes her notebook to listen to Gisella. “Of course, Vice Prytanis. The Kingdom of Pelinai has firsthand experience with the horrors of large-scale chemical warfare, and it will not allow the Ryccians to inflict such needless and excessive suffering upon Cordilian civilians. Thankfully, though, the Junta seems to be on its way out; we can only hope that the Ryccian government begins to stabilize into something somewhat resembling a functional state after the war is over.” Izumi frowns slightly before speaking again. “But that’s a bit of a tangent to what we’re here for. Your offer of a visit mentioned that you had some points that you wished to clear up with Pelinai regarding the League of Cordilia; did you wish to elaborate on them?” Izumi says as she opens her notebook again and retrieves a small fountain pen in order to take any necessary notes. “Pelinai’s rift with the League seems to have stabilized for the time being, but I’d like to have Pelinese-Cordilian relations a bit more normalized before Huawan or anybody else gives Prime Minister Makarov a justification to take more substantial economic and diplomatic action.”

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“Sure, that’s one of our first missions as a union. We would never want to have a second Junta, so our job as one of the participants of the war is to offer economical and social support to Ryccia to give them the opportunity to decide their future democratically and fairly. Once the ryccians retrieve their rightful power over their lands, we will offer them the possibility to ask for membership in the Union, so they can continue enjoying of the developing of Cordilia.”

She puts aside her documents.

"All of nations in Central Cordilia have had a rough start, in one way or another. We wish to make the best out of the continent we all share.

But with a war being declared to one of our allies just some days from our alliance, accusations being made against our cause because we had a violent starting point, and obvious threats against Cordilia self determination being shown in this war when the Junta invaded the frontiers of our allies because of bases of a nation outside the continent.

We would like to get in good terms with nations, we don’t wish, and neither is in our agenda for nations to believe our union is some kind of militar, power-hungry alliance, because we are using our legitimate right of self defense against a dictatorship that has already produced so many deaths. In any case the economical decisions should be taken against the Junta and Izaakia, they were the ones who started a war in a nation that wasn’t theirs."

She takes a sip from her bottle.

“Anyway, we just wish this war ends soon and the world finally understand the true reason why the League of Cordilia exists.”

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The United States of Izaakia. Even Izumi understood just how much of a problem it could be in the future, given its recent and imperialistic actions in Bailtem and elsewhere. Scenarios involving the repelling of a regime-change or colonization operation by a foreign power are popular in RPN war games, and Izaakia ranked high in the list of simulated opponents. Minister Akirov mentioned once that the League of Cordilia could potentially be used as a counterbalance on Izaakian power or a distraction for its attention, and that keeping good diplomatic relationships with its members would make it easier for Pelinai to nudge the League over so slightly in an anti-Izaakian direction. And while Izumi didn’t have a perspective quite as realpolitik-heavy as her Foreign Minister’s, she still saw value in a rapprochement with some of the League’s member states.

“Of course. It has always been my wish that the Kingdom of Pelinai and the League of Cordilia can peacefully coexist without undue strife. Tell me; was there anything else you wanted to discuss here?”

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“I think this would do for the moment, there’s a lot of things we have to do and sadly I can’t spend as much time as I would like too, but we will definitely be looking forward to more international relations between Rhayna and Pelinai, and maybe even Cordilian. But we’ll have to see after the war.” She replies, tidying up her stack of documents and giving them to the assistant to put in the suitcase.

“Regardless of politics, it has been a pleasure and an honor to talk with your person, Queen Izumi, but it’s time for us to go back home, I hope I’m able to visit Pelinai again in the future.”

Gisella stands up and bows before her.

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