QUOTE:
To all courts of the known world,

We, the King of Poland, together with all our knights, are deeply sick of cheap sellswords calling themselves "mercenaries". We find that mostly cowards are hiding behind this title, which so far kept them safe from their, often vile, doings. This may not last any longer. We, the Kingdom of Poland, hereby declare that any army, naming itself mercenary, would be treated just as any other. It is against knights' honor to act as "mercenaries", and such doings prove the sellswords to be nothing more than plain cowards, afraid to take the consequences of their actions. As these people do not have enough honor to state their real status to conflicts in the world, we will help them. From now on, any country that will act as a mercenary, in any conflict - against the Kingdom of Poland or not, will be treated by our court just as those countries having enough honor, pride and braveness to join the conflicts with full responsibility of their actions.

To make it clear: Any country joining the war against anyone in the world, would be treated by the signees as country fully responsible for actions of its knights, even if joining calling themselves as "mercenaries". This do not apply only to knights, who have not sworn an allegiance to any nation, and are called the free knights.

Also, we hereby swear to not ever hire our proud knights to anyone, as our knights are loyal to their honor, not to the ones who own the money or power. Proud knights of our Kingdom will NEVER join any war hiding behind mercenary titles.

This declaration is welcome to be signed by any nation of the world, who is also tired of this dangerous habit of, most often, small nations who try to hide behind something called by themselves "The mercenary code". This declaration is welcome to be signed by any nation of the world proud enough, to deny selling their souls and swords for material belongings. We declare there is no such thing to us. Every country in the world, catholic or nordic, pagan or multicultural, muslim or orthodox, or of any other faith, is hereby invited to sign this document, to bring the balance back to our poor, tattered world.

With regards,
King Maria Leszczynska of Poland

Sweden agree with previous declaration, this declaration resume our own thoughts about this kind of actions, we already stated this here :
http://knights-honor.com/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,181/func,view/id,90251/catid,9/

QUOTE:
we will not be mercenaires, we assume our risks as a proud nation , we dislike those who hide as cowards behind mercenary status !!! Come here and fight as knights, not as thieves !!!

As far as I know in viking`s lands does not apply such a "mercenary code", we use only "lex talionis" = "The law of retaliation."
As a matter of fact when I did had my first discussion about this "mercenary code" with older vikings they didn`t believed me when i said that this "mercenary code" exist somewhere in the world, old vikings can`t accept that such cowards could exist, this kind of behaviour is totally against vikings beliefs

Long story short - vikings will not accept mercenary status anymore ... Any "mercenary" nation will be treated as enemy, but not equal with a declared honorable enemy because mercenaries are worse than enemies.

This is our statement, signed by me, as temporary regent of proud vikings of Sweden,
Zmeu

QUOTE:

To the known world and to the

Dishonourable Queen of Poles,

I understand your words since they show your hybris of power yet again. Small countries very often can only defend against Leviathan such as Poland with the help of mercenaries. That such a powerful Leviathan would indeed try to make the price for mercenaries higher makes sense if you want to gain more power on the cost of smaller nations and regulate the use of mercenaries. Yet this is not your decision to make unilaterally. You may negotiate this with other nations and in turn give them some reinfocements that you won't abuse your plentiful power.

Have you learnt nothing, dear Queen? At the moment a lot of nations have joined a rather small border skirmish as I would say. Yet even countries like Denmark joined against you as they are all sick and tired of Leviathan playing a "Divide et Impera" game with you. Do you really think other nations will be convinced that you use your power wisely? The spreading of this current war, which still amazes me to this point, should tell you something!

Mercenaries are the only way for small nations to reach a goal and be it just a mere defense. Rostov would have been toast without us.

If you really think, I am intimidated by your words. I am not. I won't stop and therefore: Declare war on Khazar. The price for peace might be high.

Dream on!

Humbly

Dorenn de Almhuin, Khagani of Khazar

QUOTE:
Dear Zmeu, King of Swedes,

may be you are not hiding behind the term "mercenary" but you are clearly hiding behind Poland, which is a powerful nation. Do you regard this as honourable? You are siding with the stronger side, where is the risk in this? We as mercenaries of Rostov are hunted by the Polish coalition and reacting and playing a cunning game of chess with them. So far we avoided being disintegrated but that may change soon.

Dogs are more honourable than you who is hiding behind her big sister!

"Scribe, if this Zmeu sends us another letter of his intellectual boredom, forward it to the famous Jester of Poland. He seems to be the only person on the other side, who has some brain!"

QUOTE:

To all courts of the known world,

Responding to declaration of King Maria Leszczynska of Poland and the present situation, I, Margiris Grand Duke of Lithuania, announce this to everyone, whom may it concern.

First of all, we have doubts about real status of nations, proclaiming theirself as mercenaries. Knowing connections of some rulers, it's hard to believe, that they are just selling their swords and didn't participate in planing. Also, Polish court revealed me demands of Rostov for a ceasefire and I noticed one interesting point:

QUOTE:
1.4 Official obligation that Polish armies under no circumstances unless given the explicit permission of Rostov , Smolensk, Pechenegs, and Khazar will cross the line mentioned in 1.3. Otherwise the four nations could consider this as a proper reason for war with Poland.

Why anyone should share their political achievments with someone, who didn't carry any responsibility and was paid to participate? It's obvious, that not everyone is just simple mercenary, or at least, isn't treated so by accomplices. So why others should?

But there are just unimportant examples, while the most important reason is here. I see enemy banners on field, but I don't see the difference why they came here - for money, honor, obligations or other reasons - their behavior is the same in any case.

If someone wants to participate in military activities by some reasons (money, revenge or etc), but wants to avoid present or future consequences with some nations, I would suggest to ask others to accept their status or make some agreements by explaining reasons, limiting participation or whatever seems important for both sides. Otherwise, they shouldn't be surprised, if someone decides not to accept such one-sided proclamations.

As Grand Duchy of Lithuania accepted call to arms of Kingdom of Poland, I announce that we will do everything to end this war, even if it means burning shires of attackers, despite the fact, that we have nothing against them. We will ignore statuses of mercenaries and may attack every attacker without any announcements, if we will think, that it's required to get advantage over attackers and end this conflict as soon as possible. So, some mercenaries shouldn't feel too safe, while some non-mercenaries shouldn't worry, as we will respect our agreements and promises, till they will do the same.


Magni Ducis Lithuaniae Margiris

QUOTE:
Dear Margiris,

I have to say, you seem to be a bureaucrat of some kind as I had trouble not falling asleep while reading your pamphlet. However I can assure you that we were not involved in any negotiations with Poland. I reckon these were preliminiary negotiations, so whatever was on the table was up for discussion.

Afterwards Rostov would have asked me whether that would be ok. I had a similiar involvement on the Balcans, where other leaders wanted me on board to enforce a peace treaty and for the sake of ending the war I agreed and signed.

But this is not necessarily the case. The Peace Treaty of 16 Nations was made without me for exact this reason: The one disadvantage as a mercenary is: You cannot negotiate no matter what unless you are explicitly invited. This makes haggling over paragraphs particulary easy since less nations have to be satisfied.

If you do not accept mercenaries, it's easy: Declare war an Khazar and Denmark and you will have two more unsatisfied disgruntled nations at the peace talk table.

We are not scared of you but rather make life simpler for negoriations and open small countries options as outlined before.

With cordial greetings and some food for thought

Dorenn de Almhuin, Khagani of Khazar

QUOTE:
Dear Dorenn de Almhuin,

Please accept my regret, that I forgot to insert some jokes to make it more interesting.

I don't know much about Balcan War and that famous Peace Treaty, which looks like worthless, as now it's abused and manipulated. I really don't care about your participation in that conflict and I mentioned your nation just as example. I have no intentions to attack Khazar or complaints towards you.

According to your point of view, Grand Duchy of Lithuania is also (or even much more) mercenary, as we don't want to participate in peace negotiations too. We don't even want to get any influence over other countries. I think, that Poland is capable of negotiating and we will not be bothered with that.

My intention was not to scary someone, but to clarify some points of view. It looks like, that we differently suppose what is mercenary, so our correspondence wasn't worthless.

With honest regards
Magni Ducis Lithuaniae Margiris

After few minutes of thinking if someone so small in honour should receive an official respons Zmeu decided that maybe there stil is at least a little bit of honour remaining in this world ... so maybe a new statement will clarify something:

QUOTE:

To all those who are not afraid to admit the truth:
If mercenaries status would be allowed further it will be extremely simple for one (let`s say for me) to take a free throne of a dead nation in the future and to hire 2-3 major powers (let`s say Poland and Serbia, just for the argument sake) in order to destroy .. let`s say Saxony ...
I ask you - how could this be fair ? How could any nation fight against many mercenaries ?

In our imperfect world is impossible to implement laws to limit the number of mercenaires, so I`m convinced this kind of behaviour is not a good one. Of course i`m expecting from those who are afraid to live like honourable mans to cry and to swear they are entitled to be dishonorable ... but i`m not impressed ...

This post scriptum was added only to the letter to Khazan:

QUOTE:
Btw, Deidre, if my intentions would have been to hide it would be much easier to act as a mercenary, don`t you think ? Also - my father used to say to me that only stupid people insult directly another warrior without a very strong reason ... I`m astonished you can do such thing ... I feel bad for your own shame ...

QUOTE:
To Zmeu, the Swedish Jester

you make me laugh real hard! But thank you for comparing the Khazars and the Danes with such powerful nations such as Serbia and Poland! Care for some more met?

As outlined before, small nations like the Khazars may help small nations like the Nation of Rostov to fight a HUGE nation like Poland so chances for not getting obliterated in no time are going to somewhat lower odds.

I think you had some bad alcohol in your met that is making you blind and dull like the divine spark from Iceland. Anyhow, you exampel is a bit ... lame.


But I tell you, what I would do: I would run, because if Poland and Serbia attack my little country, I am simply toast and it just would not matter whether I declare war on them or not.

So back to our situation: Since you do not like mercenaries, there are two ways. Either you stop complaining, you write your future complaints to Czesiek, the Royal Polish Jester, the Head of the Ministry of Unimportant Matters or I expect your declaration of war. It is as simple as that. Stop moaning!

With no Regards

Dorenn de ALmhuin, Khagani of Khazar

Code:

Dear Margiris, your latest letter was much clearer, thank you for clarification. So you understood the concept. I from my side have no problems to accept you as a mercenary on the Polish side. It is an honourable task. No regrets, you just do, what your master country tells you. No head aches about peace treaties as this is taken care of by others. You just fight and that's what we do best. Oh, and a few jokes here and there are quite good to catch your audience's attention! Since you are on the other side, I shall be looking forward to meet you on the battlefield! Wir high Regards Dorenn de Almhuin, Khagani of Khazar

To Khazan

QUOTE:
Only a small mind don`t understand what difference is between a simple example and reality ... I hope your intention was to twist an example, because I really hope for the sake of this world that complete idiots are not yet rulers of once-proud nations ...
As all of us know that Poland enemies, almost all of them ex-SRI members, are much more than Poland allies, so just stop crying and complaining about how small you are ...
In time many of you managed to steal some thrones of ex-free nations, many times with not-so-fair meanings (Sweden is just an example, your leaders almost destroyed us by treason) and now all of you crawl from your holes and attack all at once (of course, just a coincidence, it was not at all planned many time ago), claiming you are small so you should not fight with honor :)
You would make me laugh if i would not care about this world future ...
Prepare to meet us in open field, because, as i said, mercenaires are to be treated by us much worse than enemies :)

QUOTE:
Dear Margiris,

your latest letter was much clearer, thank you for clarification. So you understood the concept.

I from my side have no problems to accept you as a mercenary on the Polish side. It is an honourable task. No regrets, you just do, what your master country tells you. No head aches about peace treaties as this is taken care of by others. You just fight and that's what we do best.

Oh, and a few jokes here and there are quite good to catch your audience's attention

With Kind Regards

Dorenn de Almhuin, Khagani of Khazar