Peace and Diplomacy
How nations relate to one another outside of open war: alliances, non-aggression pacts, alliance blocs, the leverage system that prices peace terms, how negotiation actually plays out at the peace table, and how one nation can sit under another as a colony or vassal while staying a real, independent nation.
Relations
Every pair of nations sits in one of three relation states: ally, neutral, or enemy. Relations are set with /nation subcommands, gated by the MANAGE_DIPLOMACY nation permission, and most of the request/accept flows are sovereign-only (leader or co-leader) on the initiating side.
Requested and accepted with /nation ally request, accept, decline, and revoke; /nation ally requests lists pending ones. Declaration rules can weigh existing alliances before letting a war go ahead, and a server can turn on friendly fire prevention between allies.
The default relation. /nation neutral <nation> resets a relation back to neutral.
/nation enemy <nation> declares another nation an enemy as a relation state; it is not the same thing as declaring war, which is its own separate action.
The diplomacy history log records relation changes, non-aggression pacts, alliance bloc membership, wars, territorial changes, and governance activity, so /nation history shows a real timeline rather than just the current state.
Non-Aggression Pacts
A lighter commitment than an alliance: two nations agree not to declare war on each other without becoming allies. Managed with /nation nap request, accept, decline, and revoke, all under MANAGE_DIPLOMACY. Declaration rules can take existing non-aggression pacts into account alongside nation size, membership, alliances, active wars, minimum claims, treasury costs, and PvP preferences when deciding whether a declaration is even allowed to go through.
Alliance Blocs
A bloc groups several nations into one multi-nation alliance structure, managed with /bloc.
Leverage and Peace Demands
Under the negotiated war preset, war score converts into a negotiating budget called leverage. Every demand attached to a peace offer other than plain white peace draws against that budget, and an offer can never spend more leverage than the offering side actually has.
cost = cession% x weight + reparations% x weight + dmz% x weight
+ flat tribute + flat vassalage
Negotiating Peace
Peace during a war is negotiated through a proposal and counter-offer cycle, all under /war, gated by the DECLARE_WAR nation permission.
/war propose-terms <cede> <reparations> <tribute> <vassalize> <dmz> <nation> sends a full terms offer; /war counter-terms answers with different terms. /war terms shows whatever offer is currently pending, and /war accept-terms or /war decline-terms resolves it.
/war ultimatum <cede> <reparations> <tribute> <vassalize> <dmz> <nation> issues take-it-or-leave-it terms. A side needs a minimum self-dominance in the war before it can issue one, and the responder only has a limited grace window to accept before it auto-resolves.
/war mediate <cede> <reparations> <tribute> <vassalize> <dmz> <beneficiary> <other> lets an outside nation propose terms between two other nations at war, with a small amount of slack allowed beyond either side's own entitlement. /war mediate white <beneficiary> <other> mediates a white peace the same way.
A live terms offer with no ultimatum attached only stands for a limited time before the war auto-resolves it; a live ultimatum auto-resolves on its own, shorter grace window. Auto-resolution falls back to dominance-based default terms above a minimum dominance threshold, and to white peace below it.
White Peace
A peace with no demands attached at all: no territory, reparations, DMZ, tribute, or vassalage changes hands. /war propose-peace <nation>, /war accept-peace, and /war decline-peace are the dedicated white-peace shortcuts, and /war propose-terms white <nation> / counter-terms white reach the same outcome through the general terms flow. White peace never spends leverage and is always available, even with the economy disabled server-wide.
Hierarchical Nations
A nation does not have to stand alone. WN's hierarchy system lets one nation sit registered under another as a colony or vassal while remaining a real nation in its own right, with its own roster, its own claims, and its own roles - subordination is about the relationship between two nations, not a merger of the two.
/nation colony found <name> (warn, then confirm, leader-only) founds a new, real, non-sovereign nation off your own. Some presets ship a whole library of ready-made colonies this way, such as all 50 US states with their real capitals under a modern-US preset, that don't exist as nations until founded.
The other route into the hierarchy is losing a war: the vassalage peace demand forces the loser into subordinate status under the winner for a fixed duration, and blocks the vassal from declaring war on its new overlord while it lasts.
A subordinate nation can require its parent's approval on some of its own actions, such as renaming itself or submitting a new banner design, rather than being able to act entirely unilaterally.