Treaty of the Grand Triumvirate

Unless otherwise stated, all noble houses have agreed to each clause.

§1. Non-aggression clause. We have a non-aggression pact for twenty years. This pact was made in 4956 and will thus last to 4976 and, nota bene, including that year. An aggressive act against a triumvirate member during the year 4976 will be a breach of this treaty. Please also note that the non-aggression treaty is the fulcrum, the fundament of the triumvirate. If this no longer stands, no other agreements among us three stands (the Pancreator forbid!) with two exceptions:

I. The major trade pact is an agreement among all the noble houses, not only the members of the triumvirate, and stands separate from the triumvirate.

II. The agreement concerning the safety of noble guests, §10, has another duration time as noted in that paragraph.

We can, of course, extend the duration of any and all paragraphs of this treaty beyond the duration set here, if we can agree to do so.

§2. Mutual deterrence clause. As a confidence building measure, all noble houses have promised to declare war against any member of the triumvirate should he break the non-aggression and attack his fellow triumvir. This means that the Hazat shall declare war upon Hawkwood should he (which I do not for a minute believe) attack Al-Malik. Likewise Hazat shall declare war upon Al-Malik, should he (equally ridiculous) attack house Hawkwood. The declaration of war should take place as soon as appropriate maps have demonstrated who is the aggressor.

§3. Map exchange clause. As a further confidence building measure we have agreed on a recon alliance. This means that any triumvir can ask for any map from another player and should be given this immediately. The triumvir giving the map may request that it is not traded outside the triumvirate and the receiver is then obliged to respect this. Also, courtesy demands that you give as many maps as you ask for.

§4. Message exchange clause. To remove any remaining suspicions houses Hazat and Al-Malik have promised to send copies of all diplomatic messages to the other triumvirs. House Hawkwood has made a similar promise but only pertaining to messages sent from another triumvir.

§5. Secrecy clause. No single house shall reveal the existence or details of this triumvirate to a house outside said triumvirate. Should two houses agree on doing so they may choose to reveal as much or as little as they desire. First, however, they are obliged to ask for the opinion of the third house and wait for an answer for a reasonable amount of time. [Shall we say three days?] Though the third party may not veto a revelation, he must be given a chance to have his view heard. After such a revelation, all triumvirs should be informed of exactly what has been said. Please note, Elder Brothers, that such a revelation does not invalidate the secrecy

clause. Any further revelations (revealing the same thing to a new noble house or revealing more to the same noble house) must follow the procedure described above.

§6. Collective security clause. Should any house declare war on or attack one of the members of the triumvirate the other members are obliged to declare war upon the aggressor immediately. They should also help their assaulted Brother defend himself. My Elder Brothers should note that this is a defence pact. The houses are under no obligation to come to the help of a house that attacks, declares war upon or provoke an attack from a house outside the triumvirate.

§7. City exchange clause. Hazat gives up all their cities and engineers on Delphi to Hawkwood and all cities and engineers on Istakhr to Al-Malik. Similarly Hawkwood gives up all their cities and engineers on Aragon to Hazat and all their cities and engineers on Istakhr to Al-Malik. Al-Malik shall give up all their cities and engineers on Aragon to Hazat and all their cities on Delphi to Hawkwood. The owner may still do what he wants with his troops and resources. All are expected to leave a garrison of at least two military units, counting howitzers as two units, until the owner of the planet is ready to take over so that the city is not taken by a non-noble house. Engineers should be moved and used in accordance to the wishes of the owner of the planet. For instance, Al-Malik could order Hazat to disband the engineer and give him the resulting resources. They could also order Hazat to move it to any position and build a city of Al-Malik’s choice so that he can conquer it afterwards. The resources produced until he actually takes the city are Hazat’s, though.

Care should be taken to avoid inadvertently causing starvation and thus plague. We should also attempt to switch cities in a roughly even tempo so all give and take cities at the same time.

In this context it should be pointed out that it might be worthwhile if a noble house that is leaving a planet would sell many of their resources on that planet directly to the host instead of using the League as an expensive middle man. For instance, Hazat has a ceramsteel factory on Istakhr. This factory contains a store of the resources necessary to produce ceramsteel (trace, chemicals and energy). It is better for Hazat to sell this directly to Al-Malik than to sell it to the League. The price could be set at exactly in between the League’s buy and sell prices, so both parties benefit equally. The resources resulting from unit disbanding (food and iron primarily), could be dealt with similarly.

[The Hazat is willing to buy all iron and food on Aragon available for 11.5 firebirds per unit. They also buy trace at 23 firebirds per unit.]

§8. Research treaty clause.

a) Technology sharing sub-clause. All technologies gained should be given to the other members of the triumvirate. We should agree on what to research to avoid duplication of effort.

b) Research speed sub-clause. All noble houses of the triumvirate should strive to build one laboratory no later than year 4. Another should be built no later than year 6 and another no later than year 8.

c) "Line"-research sub-clause. Since the "line" physics-energy physics-electron microscopes-cyclotron-monopols-singularity tech-jump drives-freighter is of paramount importance and since it is of no use that more than one player researches along this line we have agreed that Hawkwood and Hazat shall "lend" a laboratory to Al-Malik for this research. Using one Hawkwood and one Hazat engineer to build the lab, Al-Malik takes over the lab and runs it. Each turn the Hazat and Hawkwood shall pay Al-Malik 500 fb for maintenance of these laboratories. When the triumvirate is at an end, these laboratories will be given back to Hawkwood and Hazat. Al-Malik will devote all his research to this "line". The laboratories paid for by Hazat and Hawkwood will count in achieving the number of laboratories mentioned in b) section of this clause.

d) Hazat and Hawkwood research sub-clause. We have agreed that as soon as we have purchased Physics from Li-Halan, Hawkwood shall proceed to research in accordance to the third alternative as described in treres01.doc. That is:

Hazat researches: Nanotechnology (requires electron microscopes), Close Assault Tank (requires ceramsteel and nanotechnology), Monofilement (requires only nanotechnology, may be prohibited), Wireblades (requires only monofilement, may be prohibited), Meditation (requires psychosocial engineering), Pranu Bindu and Tracker Legion.

Hawkwood researches: Ceramsteel (requires composite armour and electron microscopes), Cold Fusion Cells (requires monopols), Fusion Beams (requires only cold fusion cells), Neutron Cannon (requires only Fusion Beams) and Mastiff Mega (requires Ceramsteel, Neutron Cannon and Wireblades).

If either Hawkwood or Hazat ever find themselves unable to proceed along these lines because they do not have the technology necessary to proceed, e.g. if Hawkwood cannot research cold fusion because they have not yet received monopols from Al-Malik, the house who is unable to proceed should instead research meditation. This only requires Psycholsocial engineering and only costs 250 points so he can get back to researching the important things as soon as possible. This, however, assumes that Hazat has not already begun researching meditation.

e) External technology trading sub-clause. Technology trading with other houses may only take place if at least two noble houses agree to do so. The technology gained should be shared by all. Trading technology for something else may not take place unless all noble houses agree to do so.

f) Technology windfall sub-clause. If any noble house, somehow gets hold of a technology through a mean other than research or exchange of research (such as a monastery or a ruin) that house must immediately give his triumvirate brothers this new technology. He is not entitled to any special compensation for this.

g) Post-triumvirate sub-clause. We should strive to come to an agreement on how to handle the fruits of our joint research effort after the dissolution of the triumvirate. Otherwise we might find ourselves in a situation where we all try to sell this research to the other noble houses, creating a buyer’s market. [There is no hurry in this since, barring stupid treason, the grand triumvirate will last 20 years.]

§9. Common regency candidate clause. The members of the triumvirate should try to agree on a candidate for regency and distribute the ministries among themselves, if the triumvirate is still valid by the time we are reaching Byzantium Secundus with our nobles (which is very likely given clause 8c.)

§10. Guest noble security clause. The city swapping described above will result in several nobles being stranded on the home planets of other triumvirate members. These guests should be moved as the host requires, but may not be ordered to attack anything. The host should inform other the non-triumvirate houses of the sanctity of these nobles and that an attack on any of these nobles will constitute an attack on the host too.

The host may not harm his guest, unless the guest fails to move as asked to (given of course that the movement asked for is possible) or unless the guest attacks his host. Once space transport is discovered, the guest should be removed as soon as possible. Contrary to the previous paragraphs, this paragraph lasts until all nobles have been removed and may thus outlast the triumvirate. It may even outlast peace between the (former) triumvirate members.

§11. Planet reservation sub-clause. Each of the triumvirate brothers may choose one planet no more than two jumps from their home planet as a planet where the other members of the triumvirate may not land. The Hazat has preliminarily chosen Criticorum.