Slitherine

Really wish there was backstory on the Ambassadors and Itala Palomino.

Was there even a storyline for the Ambassadors

Leader quote

"The art of diplomacy is to say nothing. at length, to everybody. The art of espionage is to use the time that the diplomats have bought to make sure you get the right reply.
-- Secretary Itala Palomino. Nuovo Principe

Faction profile

The root of the ambassadorial class goes back to the bronze age, where the capability to not immediately kill an alien human was probably enough to get you classified as a diplomat. It continued into classical times, with the Phoenicians and Romans making effective use of travelers as ambassadors. But it was not until 14th century that Milanos Francesco Sforza established the idea of formal, permanent embassies between the endless-warring city states of Italy.

It was here that the international class really started to get established -- a group of internationalists whose allegiance was as much to the role that they had as to the state they represented. In time, like their Roman predecessors, they became independently wealthy and bred smartly across borders, tightening their networks of contacts, and increasing their value to whichever state employed them.

With the 20th century, a new addition to their bloodline emerged. Adding to the ranks of the bourgeoisie and aristocrats came spies, increasingly embedded in every embassy as ‘military advisors’. Though these spies also started by being recruited from the ranks of the educated, by the century’s end it was a meritocratic institution pure and simple. Still, both the spies and diplomats lived in notable luxury at the expense of the states that employed them.

Through the ructions of the 21st century, the embassies changed allegiances and structures repeatedly, as the states they were responsible to fell into weakness, obsolescence and irrelevance. Yet that international race of diplomats, though drawn from all the races of the Earth, had formed one class. They were wealthy as sin too, and loathe to lose their privileges and the lifestyle that they’d become used to.

They saw the state of Earth early, they saw its future early, and they formed a consortium. Gradually, a plan emerged. They took over key areas of the world, through loopholes in treaties they’d crafted themselves or the action of the spies who were now thoroughly integrated into the faction. They ruled little but wealthy city-state enclaves and troublesome lands that no one else could claim, initially as
peacekeepers then as de-facto rulers. Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Lesotho, Kaliningrad, Hong Kong, Monaco, Cyprus, Sierra Leone, Jerusalem, Kashmir- where there was war, they saw an opportunity.

Intro text

You are ltala Palomino, leader of the diplomatic Ambassadors. For generations your ancestors were envoys, consuls, attaches and spies, holding Earth back from the brink of war by whatever means necessary, and growing fat on state wages. Now with Earth lost, you've fled to Pandora. Here, you're attempting to keep peace amongst the reckless factions that survived Earth -- and quietly establishing your surveillance networks to make sure that they do...

Diplomatic: +25% standing in diplomatic negotiations
Subversive: +25% + infiltration attack and defense power
Parasitic: profit 25% from all research and trading pacts on the planet
Orbital Eyes: -66% cost and upkeep for satellite uplinks