Diplomatic Relations with Elinia Restored

DATELINE: Khazigur House Absolute, 29 Aishapriel's Month, 12090:
The Autarch's representatives today announced the restoration of full diplomatic relations with the nation of Elinia, on the northwest borders of Khazig. Relations had been severed nineteen years previously, in spring of 12071, after the collapse of that nation's central governance and the installation of a puppet king in the capitol at Leiden. This situation has changed dramatically in the past six weeks, when a major civilizing movement within the Drow collective, called the Drow Harmonium, eliminated the corrupt and exploitative leadership of that nation in an almost bloodless liberation, in which the king and several of his dukes were found to be Beholders and other evil creatures only masquerading as humanoid races.
In addition to removing the false leadership and restoring peace and order to the countryside, the Drow Harmonium has created an official diplomatic document that will serve as a treaty document between our empire and their nation. This document enshrines the rights of the common populace, outlines rules for local and national leadership, which will take the form of trustees and elected officials locally and Harmonium representatives regionally and nationally, and institutes objective standards for political and military behavior to ensure the integrity of the nation's existing borders, not only with the Empire but with its neighbors to the north and east, Inimsuji and Cekic, respectively. Inimsuji is of particular interest to the Drow Harmonium due to cultural disputes among Elvenkind going back more than twenty millennia, on an Elven time scale; for those of us without the benefit of a two thousand year lifespan, this provides a welcome buffer and additional partner in the border disputes with the cannibal snow elves.
While the Drow are not a single, coherent nation in the underdark, the Harmonium has been working towards this peaceful regime change for well over fifty years, and in all that time have patiently avoided conflicts with Imperial forces, despite a large number of opportunities to take a quicker but more violent route to their solution. As the Empire detests racism in all its forms, whether against citizens or foreign powers, the representatives of the Autarch issued strongly worded warnings against any violence or petty crime targeting any elf, Drow or otherwise, on the presupposition of guilt or inferiority, and vice versa, any violence or petty crime by an Elf, Drow or otherwise, specifically against other races or species. These amount to an escalation of punishment, with serious crimes as well as capital crimes now carrying death sentences, and minor crimes meeting with more lengthy beatings, imprisonments, or both.
Speculation was widespread yesterday that the Drow might even seek admission into the Empire sometime in the next century, based on the wording of some of their initial presentations, and the House Absolute was not opposed to the idea. However this would be a process requiring decades of friendly relations and close economic ties.
On the economic side, this renewed partnership and diplomatic recognition will bring billions of gold in trade and tax into citizens' moneypurses and the imperial coffers over the next few years, as Elinia is rich in timber and ores but in great need of other resources like textiles, horses, wheat, paper and refined metals which the Empire exports. The Drow also pledged to place an order with Pilaani Shipyards for a total of seven frigates and two destroyers in an attempt to update the almost nonexistent naval forces of the nation, as a requirement of their treaty with the Empire. In order to demonstrate the integrity of their borders and their ability to project power anywhere within their borders, the Drow are expected to provide their own internal military and militia forces against any remaining destabilizing influences such as deposed nobility or internal uprisings against the new regime. The population's response has been overwhelmingly positive but many individuals profited from the former corrupt government, and it will be up to the Drow Harmonium to maintain civil order inside their state, not the Empire. However the Empire did pledge to aid Elinia against any foreign threat that might seek to conquer it, and included a pact of nonaggression in the treaty of recognition, which is standard language.