Great War - The Echoing Misinterpretation

The Echoing Misunderstanding refers to the first Kushanese effort in the early outbreak of the Great War to make peace with their Goran neighbors. Although the Goran  were not involved in the conflict at the time, the Kushanese thought it prudent to lay the groundwork for when the expansionist power inevitably was drawn into a battle with what they expected to be the Tallet. The Kushanese, having no desire to engage either power, sought to gain the protection of the Goran Nation and use it as an insurance that the Tallet would stay on their side of the Kushanese Great Wall.

## The Emissary

Prior to the Bronze Syndicate's plea for aid, the Kushanese came to the conclusion that war would come to their border in the near future. In an effort to ensure that it would not happen, or at the least be against only one aggressor, the decision was made to approach the Goran Nation in an attempt to make a lasting peace. The finest of the Empress's diplomats was sent with an escort and tribute to ensure the dealings would be done thoroughly and favorably. Unfortunately due to their policies of isolation, the Kushanese were unprepared for speaking to the ab humans to their east.

The proposal itself was sound. The Kushanese would offer a yearly bounty for the Goran, open trade with them, a mutual defense agreement against the Tallet, and a non-aggression agreement between the two. The emissary sent brought this offer before the Goran leadership, in a series of very well-spoken words that will echo as the second greatest diplomatic blunder of Kushan.

*"My esteemed negotiators, I come to you as an ambassador of my people to seek you as an ally. We offer you peace, advisors, and friendship."* -Opening statement from Jing Lu Na'han, Emissary of Kushan

The Goran, enraged by the changed meaning of the Emissary's words in their own language, immediately laid upon him and purged him in the fire of Gor's purity for the insult he had offered to the Goran people. His charred corpse sent back to Kushan with a declaration of war for the offense. In the Goran tongue, the statement is roughly translated as:

*"My [unintelligible] demand you submit. I come to you as a harbinger of war on behalf of my people to seek your conversion to darkness. We offer you cowardly escape, deception, and great evil."* -Opening statement from Jing Lu Na'han, Emissary of Kushan

It is also noteworthy that the Gorans are never approached by any land's groups or people. Gorans approach them. From what the standing Right Hand of Gor could see, this was the greatest insult the nation had ever received.

## The Siege

Around the same as the Tallet, Syndicate, and Circle began their battles, the Kushanese found themselves in a battle of their own. The Goran armies had massed outside Kushan's northeastern wall and had begun constructing siege weaponry. A saving grace for the Kushanese was that the Goran had little experience dealing with such large and sizable defenses at this time period and had a number of their initial weapon designs fail. The delays cost the Goran's months of building, rebuilding, and preparation.

   The delay itself proved to be Kushan's salvation, not that their defense was able to be effectively strengthened, but by the time the Goran's invasion force was prepared to launch their assaults on Kushan's walls, a third of the Goran army had been re-deployed to the northern coastline against the Circle. The Goran army remained camped outside of Kushan and occasionally bombarded the walls, but otherwise held off their attacks for the return of their numbers. The expected return would never happen during the course of the Great War, instead the embroiled battles in the north drew significantly more of the Goran army away, leading to a standoff at the Kushanese wall.

## Ramifications

Later in history it is theorized that the Family Hearth , who had sparked the invasion of the Circle by the Goran, received rather favorable treatment by the Kushanese in their trade negotiations following the end of the war. The reason for this is suspected to be recognition of the fact that if the Family Hearth had not distracted the Goran with their quest for vengeance over the burning of their Great Library, Kushan would have fallen to the Goran invaders in short order once the hard outer shell of their walls and Royal Army was cracked. This generosity in those trade agreements is attributed to be one of the primary causes of the Family Hearth recovery from their losses in the war and their return to prominence as the second age of expansion began.