Vanda Nosseo lands on a world that fights a lot of wars.
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Yes, who are the same as the people who dropped off humans on this planet in the first place.

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Wolcyn remains Skeptical that these strange artificial people are religiously relevant or that they would talk to the Admiral if they were.

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They can remain skeptical all they want, though they could ask the angels if they want visitors form here.

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They... will do that.

They suggest getting the Admiral and the President to both appoint representatives to work with a Vanda Nosseo writer to produce a pamphlet acceptable to all parties, which can then be signed by both of them and distributed where they arrive.

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Sure! Here's a public relations specialist who can help them with that.

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Then Wolcyn will try to find some really, really good writer who is willing to work with one of Montrege's people for the cause of persuading people to overthrow their kings and join Vanda Nosseo.

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As will Amraterre, mutatis mutandis!

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(And Admiral Montrege will shrug and, hey, it worked well while it lasted! And he'll put someone good on this, too.)

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And some small work is done trying to negotiate a Congress of the Powers! The armies are absolutely still in the field, though; Simolya, several of the minor powers and the three most important Coalition governments-in-exile are presently discussing important details of national representation and permissible instructions and organizational composition, a pattern which some might suspect is mostly filibustering, but every element has some delegation that insists it will die on that element's hill.

Will the Ljudizem Vanda Nosseo membership referendum be delayed to accommodate a peace conference, or do they intend for it to proceed as planned, i.e., As Soon As Possible?

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No compelling reason to delay has appeared!

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And while ballots go out and the election takes place, the armies campaign, Dinot and his army of Ljudizem marching west as the forces of Gerontmarkh and its Coalition allies move east to meet them. Marek Gerontmarkhen presses hard, overruling the advice of his allies, hoping that if he can break the Prince of Scars Ljudizem will fall; the reinforcements still traveling to support him flag, airships slow to travel in the clouded skies and too slow to arrive before the vote. Dinot gives ground and gives ground, gradually withdrawing and withdrawing, letting the Golden King push further into Ljudizem, letting him burning the land and burn his name.

(Those killed for political purposes, Vanda Nosseo will resurrect. Dinot knows this rule and knows it very well.)

Because the armies are a distraction, today. A distraction from what really matters: the votes.

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The small town of Kepice has 60 residents, if you count the farmers with adjoining fields, and holds a market once a week. Anywhere outside the houses and fields is slightly marshy wooded swamp, and the houses are one-room wooden huts, barring the one that belongs to the local squire and his family, a Gerontine third-son-of-a-third-son who is really regretting ever coming here.

(Kepice is west of the line that Dinot's army can defend; if it was east of it, anyone from Gerontmarkh would have been strung up already.)

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In come the Vanda Nossëo poll workers and any local representatives who wanted to come with them! They go around handing out little video players loaded up with a recording of Princess Elspeth explaining the voting process and what the results of the votes will be, edited and cut together to suit the local situation. Everyone is notified that the recording is slightly mind-affecting - it helps people remember and comprehend the contents and cuts down on people later claiming they didn't understand that murder was illegal in Vanda Nossëo or whatever, but they're welcome to instead get their explanation from a pollworker who isn't using any magic besides translation if they're uncomfortable with that and confident they can remember that murder is illegal without magical help. The videos explain where to mark the ballot for any of the standard options (do not join, join as an individual or family and leave the area for a stabler Vanda Nossëo polity (this option is subsidized as a concession to some governments' interests), join as a village under any of these several schemes to make that less silly, join as a province, join as Ljudizem, join as Gerontmarkh), and they can also write in on the back, or, if illiterate, ask a poll worker to do it for them.

They can have as many ballots as they want and fill them all out if they want, but only one will be counted; if they're worried about the vote-counters being confused they can mention on the back that this is the correct one or that this one is invalidated or something, but destroying them doesn't work to invalidate a vote. In fact, destroying them is a great way to dispose of the ballot after it's fully filled in. No one should look at their filled-in ballot except for a poll worker! That's because they can decide WHATEVER THEY WANT, all by themselves - men and women and children alike, if they're competent to mark checkboxes. They are allowed to lie about what they voted and the poll workers will never tell, they'll just tabulate the results. Everyone should have a while alone, or with just a poll worker, or a poll worker plus a chaperone who is rendered temporarily unable to hear and doesn't have a visual angle on the ballot if that is culturally desirable.

The vote will not be valid if too many people don't fill out their ballots at all. But the province- and national-level votes are being held simultaneously all over the place, so if they don't want their village to be incorporated as part of Ljudizem, they should get in enough ballots to make that clear.

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The people of Kepice are very surprised to see the Vanda Nossëo poll workers, since they are really not used to teleportation! But they will listen, especially since the local representatives with Vanda Nosseo include someone who grew up in the town, who is happy to explain to everyone that this is ridiculously powerful allies of the angels who are here to fix everything. (For some odd reason, in this town the only representatives are from Ljudizem). All they need to do is listen to the speech, then choose, "We want to join Ljudizem," and they'll be fantastically rich and also safe from Desnau and Gerontmarkh and all the other imperial powers, with their country properly back again.

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They can also be fantastically rich and safe without specifically joining Ljudizem, to be clear.

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... Which thing are they supposed to pretend to do while the scary people are present do, they would like to know?

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They are supposed to CHOOSE! Out of their own free will and according to their interests as they understand them! That's very important! If this is confusing the magical recording may help.

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What's confusing isn't choosing it's guessing which is the choice they'll be punished for making sure, magic recording.

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The magic recording says basically the same things but it's so helpfully magic.

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... Wait, they mean it that they can just join any country and then be safe? By "no murder" they're including all lethal violence? They actually have the power to stop all crimes so there actually won't be any violence after the vote? And if the vote doesn't go their way they can re-vote whatever way they want?

Wow. Aliens are weird.

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Yes they are! And they really mean all the weird alien things they're saying!

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How bizarre!

Various illiterate people will ask poll workers for help, or their neighbors; various literate people will either help or fill out ballots.

Since the village is pretty tiny, it really doesn't take long before everyone's ballots are filled out.

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Great! They'll have the results tabulated with everyone else's so they can announce the results across the entire polled region; some places take longer to get through than others. In fact many of the poll workers will now disperse to supplement their fellows in more complicated zones.

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... Such as the one over the Desnauen border where nobody is willing to talk to the poll workers, and if pressed they all insist they don't want ballots and want to stay in Desnau?

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Wow. Well, voting isn't compulsory. This doesn't look like a result you'd get based solely on everyone wanting to stay in Desnau, though. Are they aware they can vote to not join Vanda Nossëo and vote to stay in Desnau? Are they aware that nobody will ever know what they wrote down? Are they aware that small children and the mentally infirm may vote, which incidentally has the effect that if there is some noise in the tabulated results contrary to expected unanimity, the children often suffice to explain it?

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