Curate, connect, and discover
The bats are a breakaway sect of the royal family of a new rebel nation. The revolution was a long time coming: the country had been full of corrupt leaders, bribery and theft, crumbling with rot from the inside out. It was ruined to the highest levels and there was simply no hope for reform.
So the rebelled with everything they had. And they won.
They won, and now they're the new kings. And by God they're not going to let it go to waste.
They have their hands full, too. Between securing their independence, reconstruction, trade agreements, and creating policy to navigate their growing power on the international stage, they're almost always busy.
But it's still slow coming.
In some ways, really slow.
The only thing they're lacking is... well, actual recognition. As far as they've come, as much change as they've made, the older countries still won't see them as anything more than a child's rebellion. A mistake to be fixed in time.
It makes everything else harder. No one wants to trade with a rebel group, or recognize their borders, or ally with them, or allow inter-country civilian travel. Everything gets put in slow motion because of that one little lacking piece: legitimacy.
It's annoying. It's irritating. it's demeaning and belittling and downright incorrect. But it still does so, so much damage and there's no much they can do but work with it.
Except, when a faraway, powerful nation offers a trade agreement in exchange for one of the children's hand in marriage. A rich warrior nation with a relatively new king was looking for a trade foothold and a bride.
(This is a misunderstanding. They thought that the bats would demand it to help their legitimacy, and the bats thought they were demanding it to have a true-blooded royal marry into their warrior nation's family.) (Which is basically both of them thinking the other wants to marry them for recognition reasons which is funny but anyway lol)
And Bruce opposes it. Oh, he tries to tear up the official letter more than once, especially after his kids start to really consider it. It was ridiculous!
But it was true, that they worked so hard for this. Their people trusted them and counted on them. This trade would stabilize their economy and the marriage would give them power and legitimacy, everything they wanted.
It was all in the palm of their hand. Everything. Everything.
All they had to do was... well.
Put on a ring.