"Hello! We're citizens of Ambaróna, which is a member nation of a galactic consortium called Vanda Nossëo. The universe has trillions of aliens, and we make contact with alien species based on who is the highest humanitarian priority and who has the best prospects of becoming a new member state. Membership in Vanda Nossëo confers economic and trade benefits, comes with guaranteed security against invasion or violent overthrow, and comes with limited access to some resources that are expensive even by the standards of advanced societies, like terraformed planets, immortality, resurrections, and teleportation.

We're going to present to your government the specific criteria for membership in Vanda Nossëo. But your government can't decide to make you a member state without a free, fair vote of the whole population, one vote per person old enough to write a ballot. So if they decide to go ahead, we'll be publishing information online about what this will mean for you and answering any questions you need answered in order to cast your vote with confidence. 

We're also offering aid to help with short term food and health crises, and we will look into the most tenable prospects for longer-term aid.

We want you to have free and unfiltered communications with us while we learn about your world and open normal diplomatic relations. Towards that end, we are employing a special technology of ours that allows us to get copies of any written messages addressed to us. To write us a message, please write 'Yvalta open channel' at the top of a piece of paper, and then write your message. We'll have a team reviewing these messages and taking them into consideration in making our policy recommendations. Vanda Nossëo member states all have absolute freedom of speech - you can never get in trouble for something you say - and the messages will be fully confidential and not disclosed to anyone here on Amenta without your permission. 

We're making this announcement in every country and in every language, and we were assured that this will reach everyone in Yvalta. If you know of a better way for us to reach anyone in Yvalta who might not get the whole unfiltered message this way, please write 'Yvalta open channel' at the top of a piece of paper and then write your note to us.

Questions?"

Messages start coming in.

- They don't mean reds, do they?

- Does membership involve freedom of movement?

- What are people without paper supposed to do?

- Reds can't vote, they know that, right?

- Food would be appreciated here and there and that other place.

- What are the preconditions for resurrections?

- What are their population controls like?

Every person old enough to fill out a ballot gets a vote in votes related to consortium membership.

Membership comes with freedom of movement for purposes of travel and work. Many member states take unlimited immigrants from any other member state, and some of the rest take immigrants with an annual cap. Member states that take immigrants get more limited resources like terraforming and immortality and resurrections. 

You can type it, too. 

Every person old enough to fill out a ballot gets a vote in votes related to consortium membership. 

Food will be delivered to those locations. 

Resurrections are available only to Vanda Nossëo member states. Within those, they're distributed based on a variety of factors and a typical member the size of Yvalta would get a thousand per Amentan year. Persons who are killed unlawfully by a citizen or subject of a Vanda Nossëo member state get resurrected at that citizen's expense, so if any Elf killed a Yvaltan the Yvaltan would get resurrected. 

Most Vanda Nossëo member states do not practice population controls of any kind. In some it's illegal to have children without demonstrating possession of adequate means to care for the child and lots restrict forking. 

- What's forking?

- No, seriously, reds can't vote. They're not people, do the aliens understand that part? They look like it but they're not.

- Thanks for the food!

- Reds can't have freedom of movement either.

- What if the citizen can't afford it? How expensive is it?

- Why don't they practice population control? That's irresponsible.

- Do they ever take immigrants from non member states?

Forking is getting a copy of yourself made. This Elf did it, four times, because there were lots of things she wanted to do with her life and she lives somewhere where that's allowed. 

If the reds are unable to fill out their ballots because of not being intelligent enough then those ballots presumably won't get filled out. Only ballots that are filled out will be counted.

Everyone gets freedom of movement. They can offer reds a generous contract where the reds stay in their district in exchange for payments, that's legal. There's one place where the aliens don't want to touch people of a different gender than them and this was allowed after aliens of all relevant genders were bribed into voting in favor.

Resurrections run fairly outrageous prices right now because they're so rare. You can get a payment plan if you don't have that much, or purchase insurance in advance that'll cover accidents. The insurance doesn't cover murder but if you're worried about being bankrupted you should just not commit murder.

Some species don't need population control because their birth rates are right about replacement and Elves don't because their children take a hundred twenty local years to grow up so their growth rate is glacial even though birth rates are reasonably high and some species rarely prefer to have children at all once they invent birth control and some species just have tons of space on their planet or planets and centuries before they will need to worry about that, by which time terraforming will have gotten cheaper.

There are countries that take immigrants from non member states. They're rarer but there are still hundreds. The recommended method is to buy yourself fluency in the language - they have a means of making people fluent in all known languages, it's available for sale or as a membership perk - and then go there for tourism and get some people to vouch for you and convert your visa. Amentans might be a good culture fit with orcs, who also like babies a lot and who have dozens of planets, or Mïr and its protectorates, some of which take non-member immigrants and which have extremely powerful technology that makes everyone there immortal and resurrections there free of charge. Elves take non-member immigrants who are a good cultural fit for Elven societies. They're not sure yet if that describes Amentans.

- Reds are smart enough to mark ballots they're just not people.

- What if a red did not take the payments and went around befouling the entire universe, it doesn't bear thinking about, if they won't prevent that then they definitely won't be allowed to grant "everyone" in Yvalta freedom of movement and all the actual people will suffer for it.

- How will all this interact with service contracts to Houses?

- How expensive is the language thing?

- What's Mîr? Why don't they share their extremely powerful technology?

- What constitutes a good culture fit for Elves?

Anyone smart enough to mark a ballot gets a vote. 

They will consult Yvaltan reds about their willingness to sign such a contract and if there's not universal support talk with them about proposed alternative solutions that do not distress everyone.

The aliens are unfamiliar with service contracts to Houses except insofar as they were explained online, which was not fully informative. Among the criteria for Vanda Nossëo membership is good labor rights, it's possible that some contracts will need to be renegotiated to be in compliance should Yvalta seek membership, in particular if they were signed while a party was underage, if there was coercion, if they are not readable to all parties, if they involve punishing terms for breaking the contract, or if their dispute resolution mechanisms don't meet galactic standards.

The language thing is often traded for political reforms short of membership in countries not willing to seek membership. If an agreement like that isn't reached it's expensive but you could get it in exchange for ten percent of a year's future earnings in the place you immigrate to.

Mîr is an empire closely allied with Vanda Nossëo and there are constraints on the reach of their powerful technology but they add new protectorates every month.

Elven societies are extraordinarily high-trust and the people best suited for them have good impulse control, are law-abiding and good neighbors, and make decisions with a lot of consideration for long-term consequences. Elves have a monarchy they're very fond of, which rules mostly through the free cooperation of its citizens. People who think that would suit them can apply by writing their open channel.

- Reds aren't "anyone" though.

- What counts as coercion? What counts as punishing terms? What are their standards for dispute resolution?

- What would happen if a House seceded from Yvalta, either to pursue membership on its own or to avoid it?

- Political reforms like what? Do they just drop it on everyone in cooperating countries?

- Elves are one of the ones with no population control, right?

Everything that walks and talks will get a ballot and if the ballot is filled out it will be counted. 

Those sound like details to discuss in talks with Yvalta's government. There are lots of intergalactic corporations with detailed arbitration systems, some of which might be to the liking of Yvalta's workers and Houses.

A new Vanda Nossëo member state would be protected by Vanda Nossëo against retaliation for having seceded from the rest of the country, with as much force as necessary. ...Vanda Nossëo does not lose wars. Recently an enemy put out some stars with inhabited planets in a war and Vanda Nossëo destroyed the enemy, put those planets in orbit around a suitable new star, and resurrected everyone killed in the panic this caused. In the space of twenty minutes. Lots of people join for the defense agreement. Secession to avoid membership could be negotiated in upcoming talks.

Political reforms like improvements to House contracts, maybe, or to the criminal justice system, or to the child credits system. They'd then be able to give it to everyone, yes.

Elves have no population controls.

- But not reds. They have to have some way to make exceptions.

- How big does a would-be member state have to be?

- Did the people miss their old stars?

- Negotiated in upcoming talks against what background assumptions though.

- What are they thinking they'd approve about the contracts?

- Yvalta does permissions, not credits.

- What's wrong with their criminal justice system?

- The following several thousand people wonder if perhaps they would be good enough neighbors for Elves.

There is deliberately not a way to make exceptions because if there were, a planet this Elf recently visited would have wanted an exception so women couldn't vote and this one an exception so slaves couldn't vote and this one an exception so homosexuals couldn't vote and this one an exception so members of this hated religion couldn't vote and all of them would have been wrong so you can't have exceptions.

If there were less than a million people for a would-be member state they might encourage them to try becoming a protectorate of an existing one instead. 

Some of them did! Some of them were pleased to have thereby jumped the line on alien prioritization. Some of them are suing Vanda Nossëo for not having executed that enemy much sooner when they suspected he might be a problem. 

Background assumption is that a non-coerced contract is one made where both sides have a tolerable alternative available to them, are fully informed, and are of age and educated in how to read a contract. In addition it's usually not legal to make contracts that are enforceable by demanding specific performance for more than a year or two and it's typically not legal to make contracts with nonmonetary penalties. 

The aliens are concerned their criminal justice system might be biased. Maybe against the reds, who they keep getting told are not people. 

Uh, people who want to live with Elves should specify why specifically Elves and not one of the other societies that take immigrants, and Elf immigration authorities will read their petitions and get back to them shortly.

- But those exceptions are stupid, maybe except the religion one if it was a really dumb religion, and the red exception is not stupid.

- What is the meaning of "tolerable" here? House contracts mostly last much longer than that.

- Reds don't interact with the justice system.

- They've heard of them and have a way to apply now and not "shortly". Also pretty. And their society sounds soothing.

None of those people thought their exceptions were stupid. No one ever does. There are no exceptions. 

Uh, there should be another way to not starve and have kids. That is a concerning but not disqualifying fact about House contracts. 

...what happens if someone commits a crime against a red, or if a red commits a crime?

Elf immigration officials are reading their applications. Submitting a way for them to contact you with followup questions is a good idea.

- Does being able to pick a different House count?

- There aren't any crimes against reds and if reds commit crimes the cops take care of them without bothering a judge.

- Does email count?

...depends whether they collude or anything.

...so it's legal to torture and murder reds?

Email counts.

- People are unsure how much they do that.

- ...it's not illegal. You could get got for disruption of services or pollution violations if you were careless though.

- Here are some emails.

"...that's horrifying," says an Elf at the reds answer. 

        "What do you even have a society for if it's not illegal to murder innocent people?"

"I think maybe Amentans aren't suited to live with Elves if they don't think torture and murder should be illegal."

        "They probably don't all think that. We've said how we do the voting so probably the ones who want to live with us are ones who are all right with the fact Elves think that's horrifying."

"...maybe."

- Also there aren't even any reds on Elf planets, right?

No, but if they want to immigrate they will be allowed to and torturing and murdering them will not be allowed.

- the no torturing and murdering them is one thing but Elves can't just make the entire universe uninhabitable, that would be an atrocity.

Elves are very eager to find an arrangement that keeps everybody comfortable, but this will probably require some concessions on the part of non-red Amentans, like letting them vote and paying them adequate hazard pay for their contaminating work and treating them as people. They are after all asking red Amentans to make the extraordinary concession of not travelling freely or emigrating, ever, despite the existence of abundant societies that would treat them better. 

- Is that a threat.

- Are they trying to extort Amenta into doing stuff they want or else the universe gets made uninhabitable forever.

- That's evil, the aliens are evil, aaaaaaaah.

By Elven standards it is not a threat to say you won't prevent someone else from exercising their legal rights even if it will make other people sad if they do.

- But the reds don't have those legal rights because like hell is anybody going to vote to be a member state if they have to let them run amok.

Maybe all the reds can leave and go live some place that doesn't hate them, and then member state votes can happen with that out of the equation?