The Rundi handguide to Diplomatic Success
Welcome, to your first day working for the GA diplomatic serve. Your presence here is a great honor as you have been selected from thousands of your peers for outstanding prior service, and burgeoning career potential. From this moment on you will represent an important cog in a very large machine that keeps the GA running smoothly. It is important to understand that, while you are here, you will interact with many diverse and intellectually sophisticated species who all have different values than our own. This pamphlet was written by the upper echelons of our government to ensure that you have the best success in dealing with diplomatic occurrences between species.
A couple general rules before we get started. If you are watching this in video form, please refer back to your pamphlet and follow along with the instructions. Research indicates a higher rate of rule retention when the words are read and not simply listened t.
First : Compromise is at the core of everything we do. Your most advantageous position is never going to appeal to the opposite party. It is important to understand this, and begin with a series of midway compromises that will, in the long run, produce a desired outcome. Governments that cannot find compromise are governments that fall into collapse and fail. It is important to suffocate your pride, and subtly maneuver to your advantage.
Second make sure to always research the culture and traditions of those people with whom you are speaking. It will not do to treat a Celzex like you would a finnari, one will certainly be frightened and the other might declare war if such a snafu were to take place.
Thirdly: This is not a competition. Many governments are based around the idea that politics is some large game of chess where two bodies play against each other to gain power. Systems in which this prevailing theory resides eventually crumble to war and revolution. The best kind of government is one that understands that working together with other bodies is an important and necessary point of survival .
With those three rules out of the way, Lets get started!
This next section will be giving you an overview of the different species and general rules about how to handle them in a diplomatic situation.
Make sure to take notes!.
Vrul – Vrul are logical, guarded, territorial, and generally isolationist in nature. We know for a fact that they did not join the GA because they wanted to, but simply out of necessity for their own survival. Expect a vrul to do the least amount possible to complete any deal or diplomatic transaction. They are likely to be deceptive, haughty and cautious. We are aware that their government is comprised of some sort of Communist Oligarchy wherein the citizens have few rights and the council has full control over it's citizens. To deal with a Vrul, it is best to appeal to their sense of duty, their own safety, and what might be best for the communal whole of their race.
Gibb- Gibb are similar to the Vrul in most governmental aspects though their oligarchy seems a little more lax. Gibb are prone to paranoia and bouts of acute mental destress. Make sure to slowly introduce the idea of problems or danger, and make sure to appeal heavily to their sense of safety, it has worked well in the past.
Finnari- finnari have a long history of slavery in their background, as the slaves, but despite this they are known to be trusting and cooperative, primarily to those that they view as friends. They are governed under some manner of socialist government sharing their goods and resources I the same ways they did when they were enslaved to the Gnar'lak. For this reason Finnari are a pleasure to deal with diplomatically. They are courteous, kind , and intelligent. If you present to them your reasoning, and emphasize how it will help the state of the GA they are more than likely to agree with you.
Tesraki: If the economy didn't require some sort of regulation, I doubt they would have any form of government at all. As far as we can tell Tesraki subsist on some sort of shell democracy, which is actually an aristocracy or oligarchy depending on whose theories you subscribe to. Wealth brings power in the Rundi government, and though they do vote as a true democracy, the upper class heavily influences what happens to those votes, so it can hardly be counted as such. When dealing with Tesraki, it is important to phrase your concerns in terms of the economic benefits and deterrents the biggest diplomatic move in the galaxy was convincing the Tesraki that they could run the economy.
Bran- The bran are a little like the vrul in Temperment. They are generally reclusive and wish to be left with their own kind. They are ruled by a true democracy with everyone's vote having an equal effect on the outcome of what happens to their race. Their main interest is the mining of resources and will generally cooperate with you if they are given access to the means of acquiring the substances they wish, though it is important to appeal to their sense of caution.
Gromm- Easy to deal with. After the Burg war, they are simply relying on the might of the GA to keep them safe from another attack. Kindness perpetuated on them during the slime plague has led them to be remarkably cooperative as long as your actions seem reasonable.
Iotins- haughty and self-important. The Iotins are loathe to allow anyone on or near their plane, so we are unsure as to their government though we believe it might be some hybrid of Autocratic colonialism? We cannot be sure. Just make sure to appeal to their vanity, pride, and allow them the means of production as they enjoy manufacturing goods like the Tesraki. As a side note, Iotin goods are of higher quality, but Tesraki are better at mass production on a large scale.
Drev:: as far as we understand, the Drev have no centralized government. They are ruled primarily by tribes ruled by Sentinels as military leaders and Magnates as religious leaders. Within each cell they can act as military dictatorships oligarchies or democracies and have no fixed structure but what the current situation calls for. Some arguments have been made for Drev living under a theocracy as religious leaders are so important to their government structure, and they are more than likely to follow the rulings of the current living saint, though she does not often utilize these powers. Generally speaking the generals are given power and fighting prowess determines who becomes a general. Drev are proud and warlike, though they are not unreasonable. It is important t appeal to their sense of honor, duty, and friendship as they prize those qualities highly.
Celzex: never have I seen a greater example of an autocratic military dictatorship with aristocratic tendencies. Lord Celex is the current ruling emperor of the Celzex and prefers to do all his own diplomacy. It is VERY important that only senior members of the Rundi and GA council deal with lord Celex as he is known to be easily offended, though his race is by FAR the most advanced. Flattery and subservience are the best ways to get into his good graces. Barring that they do have a similar attachment to honor, pride, duty and friendship that you might see with a Drev. Barring all of that Lord Celex is close personal friends with Admiral Adam Vir of the Humans, and will generally help him if asked.
That brings us to our last and final point.....
Humans...
...
As far as we can tell, the current system of human government can be described as a hybrid democratic republic. Representatives of each human settlement on earth and on colonies is democratically elected by popular vote. These lawmakers then behave as a sort of oligarchy as they make laws and pass bills, though they can be voted out from their positions, giving them incentive to do what the people want as a collective. Both representatives and the people vote for a 'president' or 'prime minister' who will act as the leading head of the government in place of the king, though the parliament or the cenote (whatever they call it) has the power to remove them. Popular vote is also counted in obtaining a president though representative votes weigh more in some cases. However this is all a bit of an issue, as human history has contained all and MORE governmental systems. They have had democracies, Autocracies, monarchies, oligarchies, and aristocracies for a very long time. Human history is particularly rife with aristocratic monarchies, though influence from philosophers in Greece started a tradition of Democracy that has maintained its hold until today.
That is where..... the complications begin.
You see, no one thing can describe humanity . I have no rule book by which you can judge humanity and make a call. Humans are simultaneously loyal and backstabbing and you can never tell which one they are going to pick, they are always maneuvering for economic advantages AND the means of production for both mass produced and luxury items, they are proud, and some of them base their actions on honor and duty while others are sneaky and downright prone to lying to your face. Even within the same human they can switch back and forth at a moment's notice. They can care about production one day, the economy the next, and their own pride the day after that. Some humans wish to be left alone and are distrustful of the GA, while other humans, like the finnari, are helpful and cooperative to the point where it is almost concerning. The human diplomatic representatives represent multiple different facets, one that gives rise to the illusion that humanity is a representation of the entire galaxy contained in one system, as it is all going to depend on what kind of background they have. One human might behave more like a Tesraki, while another behaves like a drev or a Celzex. Not to mention that humans tend to have political outliers': people who are not politicians but tend to have sway over how their people and government respond.
Admiral Vir is one of these outliers, and, luckily for us, is likely to behave with the cooperativeness of a Finnari, and the honor of a Celzex, which is why the council has a habit of subtly maneuvering problems in his way so he can solve them without governmental intervention and having to be diplomatic with the humans as diplomacy with their species is exhausting, time consuming and extremely stressful. Only top tier diplomats will ever be allowed to interact with humans, and even then turnover rate is so high from stress that we are having trouble keeping someone who will work with them. In many cases the chairwoman herself is the only one competent enough to stand against them.
If you take nothing out of this than at least take this piece of advice.
Do not attempt diplomacy with a human, unless you are willing to encounter every aspect of the universe all at once.