Dear esteemed member of the Northern government,
You have been cordially invited to a discussion on trade policies between the South and the North. We need to establish better and more consistent rules for the exchange of goods. You would like to make use of our medallions and technology while we would like to make use of your metalborn. In addition, we think this meeting could be beneficial towards the general fostering of positive relations between all nations of the South. Thank you. Ple
We've had a couple players claim two medallions, so it's likely that the elims did indeed hand some out to start.
Having read the rules a couple of times, I'm still not sure how the Southern Scadrian ability to pass out medallions works. Do they merely submit a list of players, who then receive medallions at random? Or do they get to specify which medallions each player receives? The latter seems significantly more powerful, but also makes claiming medallion roles more reasonable.