This will almost certainly repeat prior threads, but we are getting close to the publish date for peace talks. Probably worth settling some key questions.
1) Whose "peace" is peace talks about. Is this about ending the war with the Red Court?
On one level, this question seems stupid. The Red court is destroyed. But on another level, this question is very valid. The war was NOT between the Red court and the White Council. The war was between ALLIANCES. On one side is the White council, a few informed human organizations, Summer and Winter. On the other is the Red Court (destroyed), the Black Court, the White Court and probably some other unnamed lesser allies.
Under the accords, I suspect a formal peace treaty is required to end this state of war, at least from the perspective of Winter and Summer. I suspect all the warring powers would prefer that the "state of war under the Accords" be ended. The Accords apply completely different rules to nations "at war" than to nations "not at war" and those rules probably matter a lot to many of the participants. Therefore it is of considerable value to formally end the war under the Accords.
2) If the peace talks are about ending the war, what is the problem?
Again, in theory the peace talks should be easy. The White court wants peace and would be perfectly happy to return to the status quo. I mean that seriously - the White Court has done very well in the war and they are likely to retain most of their gains in power and territory by a peace treaty. Previous statements are that the black court is not a major power any more and I doubt any other formal allies wield great power. So the only real power opposing the White Council's alliance wants peace. In theory - this should make peace talks a slam dunk.
But it is pretty obvious that the Peace Talks will not be easy. So why not. The answer was pretty clearly stated in Ghost Story and in Aftermath: Power Vacuum. The reality is that the peace talks are not about ending the war, they are about dividing the spoils. And just like in WW1 or WW2, there are a ton of nations that played some minor role or jumped in at the last second and now want their own bit of the spoils. So these nations are participating in the peace talks to get their share of the goodies.
Then there are other nations like the Formor which simple took advantage of the power vacuum to grab territory/people. So any division of the spoils means the war powers have to enforce that decision on the Formor and other supernatural nations that grabbed some spoils even though they were not part of the war. These nations either need their "grabs" to be tacitly approved (aka - lack of protest = acceptance) or they need to managed (aka - included in the talks and convinced to support the collective division of spoils) or they need to driven out (another war).
I suspect the Formor are there as the White Council cannot ignore their activity (aka - grabbing spoils), but at the same time the White Council does not want another war. So trying to manage the Formor via Peace talks is the only option that might give the White Council what they want. I doubt many in the Senior Council believe this happy outcome is likely, but it is perfectly clear that most "lay wizards" are desperately tired of the war and willing to accept nearly anything that looks vaguely like a decent peace.
