Killer Bob’s WCQ34 Match reports
MD7. Gnejs - Quakmybush: 1-1
They gained a point here. Or, they should’ve. Just look at this table, from the official hosts: two draws, one point.Team P W D L F A PTS
Bettia 7 6 0 1 31 16 18
Quak. 7 5 1 1 17 8 16
N. Caes. 7 5 1 1 14 8 16
Kiryu-Shi 7 2 1 4 13 19 7
Es. Intenso 7 2 0 5 12 16 6
Lovisa 6 1 1 4 6 15 4
Gnejs 7 0 2 5 7 18 1
What’s that about, Holy Empire? Very unprofessional. If this was one of my imaginary internet games, this kind of thing would be great RP inspiration starting a story arc about wide-ranging corruption within the governing bodies of international football and attempts to crush the spirit of an up and coming star. When it happens in real life, it’s just sad. I can’t recall any reactions back when this all occurred. Maybe it was quickly rectified and people didn’t notice. I’ll have to check in again on the table later. Game was fairly boring. Apart from the end, where a Dandelion fan put a whistle up to a megaphone and just let loose, making the bush people think they heard the final whistle. In the confusion, old hero Henrik Larsson scored and made it 1-1. Sounds ridiculous? It was, but that’s what happened, it’s all here on the tapes, and I think you’ll find the Quakmybush version of events corresponding as well.
What is a Rock of Friendship?
The rock is just any old rock, of course. Often a piece of gneiss, but it doesn’t have to be. Slate, marble or quartzite are not uncommon. Granite remains popular. The days when you subscribed actual magical qualities to the rock per se are gone (mostly), but those stories testifies to the deep significance and reverence that lies at heart of what the Rock represents. And what the Rock represents is something that endures.
The origin of granting another person a Rock of Friendship dates way, way back. Nobody could tell you specifically when or why the first Rock was granted, but there’s a consensus that the custom likely appeared when the land was still universally wild and brutish, but there were enough people around to allow strangers meeting one another on occasion. For many years it was said that the rock we dwell upon - Gnejs itself - came to be ages and eons ago, when some entity of a plane otherwise squatted and relieved itself in a distant corner of a vast sea. In other words, the island - The Rock - was thought to be of an esoteric and otherworldly origin, and any small piece of the great Rock carried within it a tiny speck of that quality.
Alas, you couldn’t expect to be awarded with some mythical power or fortune by simply hacking off a piece and calling it your own, although of course many did. There are numerous old gnejsian folk tales that details what happens to people like that (they all end with the person in question dying while screaming), and they can also enlighten us as to how the custom of The Rock was being practiced. If you could simply gain favor by stealing from the source, it would completely devalue its unique (perceived) power, and therefore a Rock needed to be given, bestowed upon one person by another. And not for any old reason, it had to be a significant gesture; to give a Rock in vain was tantamount to stealing and would likely be seen as risking the same kind of supernatural punishment. Several stories speak of how one person is rescued from great peril by another, and as a token of their gratitude they pick a Rock from the ground (they never remove it by force) and bestow it upon their savior. It is the act of giving the Rock that imbues it with power, and this giving also symbolizes the Eternal Bond of Friendship, which in turn is governed by the Customs of Friendship. We will get back to what these customs entail, but in short the act of giving creates a bond between giver and receiver, where the former pledges themselves to the latter in what could almost be dubbed a kind of fraternal servitude.
In the old days, it was often the receiver that was highlighted in the stories, because they had gotten a Rock and by extension a part of the original source, and would be most blessed going forward (and rightly so, due to their noble act). The part of the giver was never ignored, but often downplayed. It was expected that they behaved in accordance with, and honored, the Customs of Friendship. And they did. These traditions ran deep, and were not easily forgone. As times moved on, and the «age of magic» slowly abandoned majority society, the tradition of the Rock of Friendship endured, but with the focus now more heavily shifting to the obligations of the giver, and it was around these times that we can see the first traces of the Customs of Friendship being codified and documented beyond tales. The very first instance was an engraving of runes found in the west, spelling out «One does not deny a Friend», which of course to this day is one of the cardinal Customs.
With society developing in a more «modern» direction, some of the details of the tradition also changed. Actually rescuing another soul from a pack of wolves or a bear attack was no longer the requirement for someone being entitled to a Rock, but more mundane acts could also qualify. Helping out a stranger in dire need, be it financial or otherwise, was one example, and a bastardized variety even developed where a group of people - say, a village - could bestow a collective Rock on someone who had done a great deed in ensuring the community’s survival and/or prosperity. However, the individuality of giving still remained the main tradition, whereas the collective gift was often perceived as a watered down and less obligating version. A stellar exception here is of course how The Rock came to be applied in regards to international relations, a subject which we will return to shortly.
While never codified into law, honoring the Bond of Friendship still remained a strong social rule well into modernity and the age of the rule of law. This could be evident in people sorting out wrongdoing «amongst Friends» as opposed via the official justice system, but the extent of these practices (and to what extent they still appear beyond The Interior) is a disputed subject. Generally, the giving of a Rock of Friendship remains as a tradition to this day, and the Bonds of Friendship very much matter. The importance placed on the Rock, Customs and Bond varies, however. While many in the older generations and rural communities continue to practice a fairly conservative approach, new developments in application and importance can be seen in the bigger cities. An often cited - and criticized - example is mutual rock exchanges in kindergartens and schools, where parents arrange for their kids to exchange Rocks with one another to promote social cohesion and foster “Friendship” within the group. These kinds of approaches often draw criticism as a way of devaluing the tradition and what the Rock and the act of giving represents, because it is precisely the unconditionality of the giving and how the one pledges him- or herself utterly to the other without expecting anything in return, that is key and what makes the rock actually mean something.
One notable exception where the importance of tradition and prudence of old fashioned interpretations have not waned is the area of Union diplomacy and international relations. To answer why it became a part of foreign policy to begin with, we need to go back in time again. In 1421 The Union was still a more or less completely isolated part of the world. While traders of the sea and the occasional foreign ships looking for safe harbor from the unruly sea were not uncommon, they represented the only contact with the world Off-Rock and The Union had no diplomatic relationship with any other state; a Rock sustains itself, as the saying goes. Any stranger setting foot on The Rock was to be met with common cordiality, but always kept at a healthy distance, viewed with a proper dose of suspicion and never ever encouraged to overstay their welcome. It was deemed of utmost importance to never get too close with the Off-Rock-Dwellers, get unnecessarily involved in their affairs or allow them to get tangled up in Union affairs. This very much mirrored how the people of The Union related to one another beyond extended familial and communal affairs and Friendship.
During the summer of said year, the southern coast began being scourged by Viking-like pirates who pillaged and burned where they saw fit, some even going so far as to outright occupy coastal hamlets and setting them up as a base of operation. Before local and state authorities managed to stage a credible counterattack, ships from a foreign royal navy in search of a harbor to rest and resupply came and swiftly ended the pirate nightmare. In a fit of ecstasy, the local amtsman bestowed a Rock of Friendship upon the navy’s commander, but proclaimed that it was not to be viewed as an individual gift, but that it tied The Union to his homeland in eternal gratitude, mirroring the «communal» approach to the tradition mentioned earlier.
It would be a great shame to renege on such a grand gesture, of course, and the leading elders of the time had no intention of doing so. And that was how The Rock of Friendship made its way into the heart of official Union diplomacy, where it resides to this day. What this meant was that the same kind of Bonds of Friendship, that had historically applied to interpersonal relationships, was elevated and transferred to interstate relations, with The Union taking the part of the giver who pledges eternal Friendship to the receiver. The governing bodies of the day instituted a special council to oversee relations with the new Friend, and over time this became the foundation for the Foreign Ministry of today. The world Off-Rock was sorted into two camps; Friends and Acquaintances. The former would be treated in accordance with The Customs of Friendship, whereas the latter would continue to be treated according to the principles of Courteous Non-Alignment.
The Union has later gifted subsequent Rocks to other nations according to the precedent of 1421, when their effort in aiding The Union in a time of trouble was deemed so great as to be impossible to ignore, but the list has remained short and the act of giving has been rare and sparse. The last Rock gifted to another nation was in 1836.
Oliveira 44' FT 
Nadli 90+6'
