tried to bully the Empire into doing what it wanted (often by inventing fictitious agreements, which you would then make dire threats about what would happen if I didn't keep them),
I make friends once conflicts of interest are removed. I tend to state up front what these conflicts are, and how they could be solved. In this I am quite blunt, but honest. You may interpret that me stating there will be no friendship unless I hold Sicily as blackmail, I see it as a statement of fact and fair warning. If you prefer I lull you into a false sense of security and then stab you in the back, like others are prone to do, I can do that instead.
As for the 'agreements', if I ask something and the response is not negative I tend to see it as a glass half full. If you did not intend to give up your land in Spain in turn for me doing the same you should have said so.
then boasted about how well it's pushing the Empire around worked when the Empire did what it had planned to do from the start.
The preachy tone you adopted was pretty annoying as well.
I do indeed have a tendency towards bombast, one should not take it to seriously. I don't think I ever claimed to push the empire around however.
But it was the unpleasantness you deployed and your lack of trust in me - despite my heavily pro-Caliphate foreign policy - that were the key points that lead me to believe that I would be unwise to rely on your honour.
I see myself as quite honest, but yes my friendship comes with a laundrylist of conditions. A list I tend to state upfront, if they are fulfilled everything is nice and good, if not there will be hostilities at some point.
Jakalo was a very quiet, very menacing, very unpredictable figure. He always seemed to want something from you.
Indeed, I never got the feeling there was a way to get him to not consider plotting against me.
He's the one that sold me out to Jakalo
Wuh?
Frosty is far more Machiavellian and unscrupulous than he would like anyone to believe.
I set myself objectives. I inform my counterparts of said objectives. I then work implacably towards that objective through whatever means I find best suited for it.
My objectives change with the world around me. Players who find their interests in conflict with mine have choices; make sure I obtain said objective, present me an alternative of equal value, or oppose me.
I wished for a secure western flank, Oddman provided it, all is well.
I wished for a secure eastern flank, I planed to gain it by conquest, Foels presented security through friendship instead of taking Iraq of him, all is well
I wished for a secure northern flank, Jakalo denied me one, plotting ensued.
In this I am honest and blunt. If you ask I will not lie to you.
They did not secure a clause forbidding South Germany from interfering in Africa, and therefore that treaty has not been voided.
So treaties of friendship are valid even when there is no friendship but outright war, eh? Bugger all then.
As my last line of legal defence I note I cannot be excommed unless my player counterpart asks for me to be so. Jakalo has quit and so is no longer a player.