To Aid the West Summary

So there's an area in the empire called Talador. It's in the far north of the empire, east of the Landing. They suffered some magical catastrophe that blew the whole area to high hell.
Two years ago Rohese had a conversation with the Mirror that lead to the Mirror agreeing to support Rohese's efforts to gather relief supplies for the children of Talador. This was long before I started playing so I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it ended in Rohese being sent as an official envoy into the Empire to open discussions. While there Rohese went missing (this was the story given when she left the game for a while)
The Mirror was upset at Rohese's appearance and held a meeting to discuss sending a second delegation into the Empire both to continue Rohese's work and to look for her. A second delegation was formed, and sent to Solhaven while the elves who remained behind  were to work on further fundraising efforts.
There was a lot of RP that happened in Solhaven with the elven delegation, though I'm not privy to most of it because Avawren is rather terrified of the Empire and doesn't go there unless she has to, even if Solhaven/Vornavis is considered the most forward thinking of the baronies.
The delegation was able to acquire permission from the Baron of Vornavis to land a single airship in Solhaven, where the relief supplies would be offloaded. On our side of the RP: an airship called The Midnight Heron was commission for the flight. It was filled with all the supplies we'd gathered, from seeds and magical things to heal the lands to books and supplies for the Illlistim to set up schools for the refugee children and also a shit ton of silver.

Everyone was invited to an inspection of the airship, and a meeting with it's captain just before it was suppose to fly but when we arrived we discovered that someone had somehow stolen the cargo. While it was docked in the middle of Ta'Ilistim. Players started an investigation and found clues that suggested the Emerald Forest. The captain took us all for an unscheduled ride and we flew out to the Emerald Forest where the cargo was found hidden, under the guard of a group of bandits.

Bandits were killed, cargo returned and we flew back to the city. The flight to the Empire was delayed until an investigation could be done but eventually it actually took off for Vornavis and landed safely.
The Baron of Vornavis sent his son, and a group of players, to Ta'Illistim to thank the Mirror for her help. (this was one of the court sessions that the Mirror held earlier this year.) That group brought with them a letter from Emperor Aurmont for the Argent Mirror. She didn't share it's contents.
For several weeks correspondence between the Emperor and the Mirror continued, as did some apparently heated discussion between the Mirror and the Council of Thrones (all the living former Argent Mirrors), until finally at another court session the Mirror announced that she and the Emperor would be signing a treaty of mutual respect. The Council of Thrones stood up, with the Argent Mirror still enthroned, and walked out. It was very scandalous.
And now here we are.

XXX Today at 1:31 PM
I don’t understand why a treaty is needed... but I’m sure that’s part of the whole thing.

AvawrenToday at 1:31 PM
It's not really a treaty, I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head.
They aren't at war, but it's the first step toward an official alliance.
"Let's stay peaceful and work together"

XXX Today at 1:33 PM
Like... a mutual non-aggression pact?
But those things are usually only really brought up when confrontation is suspected. As a means to get out in front of something.

AvawrenToday at 1:34 PM
I will have to dig through my logs to see what it was referred to, and there was some discussion around what it would be called in the real world but I can't remember at the moment.
These are former enemies. They haven't had open warfare, but Illistim aided the enemies of the empire (House Nalfein) in the middle of a war.
There's some other bad blood between the two groups that I'm not up on enough to detail, but they have been tense for a long time.
Emperor said "Let us end our hostilities and broker peace and mutual respect between our peoples" Argent Mirror said "yeah that will look good on my resume let's do it"
But it's JUST House Illistim.
And the second ruling body of House Illistim, the Council of Thrones, said no. But Myasara said "I'm the Mirror, I do what I want!"