View Topic

A Production of the Ministry of News and Records

The East Pacific News Service

October, 2020

Foreign Affairs In the East Pacific
By Eunopiar

The East Pacific’s Foreign Affairs belief has caused controversy among many circles around NationStates. Many have expressed disdain around the Foreign Affairs style, with prominent players doing things from writing long posts to criticise the Foreign Affairs stance to stating “LOL TEP.”

Now of course, there obviously is a reason why The East’s foreign affairs stance has aroused so much controversy and criticism. This was an object of curiosity for me - I have disagreed with the East Pacific’s Foreign Affairs decisions before, because they seemed erratic and a little discombobulated. However, this does beg the question: is there a method behind the madness?

I interviewed the current delegate of the East Pacific, Serge (also known as Libertanny), and here’s what I found out.

One: TEP’S STANCE IS ABOUT MAKING FRIENDS OVER STRATEGICAL ALLIES

When I asked Serge how he would describe TEP’s Foreign Affairs stance, he replied:

“[...] my main approach was that, we [sic. are making friends, not strategical [sic.] allies. Because strategic interests change, and strategic allies fade away, whilst friends stay with you no matter what. And we can see it working - TSP, NPO, Thaecia or Free Nations Region. That's examples of where we went for friendship, and that's examples of perfect relations. So our stance in nutshell? Treat UCRs equally with GCRs, make friends, not allies & give a chance to promising regions, even if they aren't big.”

This makes the Foreign Affairs Stance of the East unique, to say the least. The “Friends Not Allies” philosophy is particularly prevalent in many Foreign Affairs decisions of the East Pacific an indeed regionwide - the regional government has passed many treaties and Non Aggression Pacts (such as the treaty with the Free Nations Region and The New Pacific Order) that seem to be wanting to find genuine “friends” over “strategical allies.”

The government of the East Pacific seems want to continue prioritising these long term “friends” alliances as well - in our interview, Serge has made it clear that they preferred mutually beneficial alliances, where both regions remain loyal and faithful to each other over a long period of time, with a sense of collaboration built up with , over short-term strategic allies where regions are purely  in a treaty to prevent a short term occurrence (such as a coup), or a treaty where regions are exploiting the other region through some way, shape or form.

Simply put, the government of the East Pacific prefers meaningful alliances over short term, pointless alliances.

Two: TEP VALUES GOVERNMENTAL AND REGIONAL COLLABORATION.

When I asked Serge about what the characteristics of a good treaty are, he stated:

“(A) characteristic is obviously (a) cooperative and active government willing to participate in different activities with us.”

This isn’t a new or groundbreaking idea, however, it is an important one.

Often, alliances in NationStates now become either political symbols of a region’s alignment or just simply fall inactive and don’t signify anything.

The delegate seems to be committed to ensure that treaties remain active, and mandated for several events to be organised as well, such as the three renditions of Paradoxical (the most recent one being the Viking Edition, that was organised with the South Pacific and the Rejected Realms).

Three: Quality > Quantity

Serge was insistent that he would seek to ensure that all allies are fostered and are in a good state before seeking new ones.

They stated:

“It's about quality, not quantity. We first have to take care of all relations we have, and then, we can talk about new friends. Once I feel like the situation is good enough, I will then consider making more friends.”

Four: GCRs are equal to UCRs

Again, this isn’t a new, groundbreaking or revolutionary idea, but Serge stated that they would like to ensure that all allies are treated equally, without any discrimination due to the nature of the region. Libertanny re-iterated that he would like to stay away from the elitist mindset that some Game Created Regions currently have, and do everything in his power to ensure that all allies are treated in a similar way.


In Conclusion

This Foreign Affairs modus operandi isn’t a new or revolutionary idea, however, it does provide an insight into the East Pacific’s stances on how they conduct Foreign Affairs: they value long-term, mutually beneficial relations.

1 Infinite Loop - the Legend Lives
By Evrigenis
Author’s note: This article is a synthesis of several sources, including but not limited to email correspondence, RMB posts, and discord messages. Narrative consistency has been privileged above verbatim responses and realism.

∞

You might have heard people declare that they are a “history buff” or a “math nerd” but you probably haven’t heard many say they are both. Besides, why would history and math have anything in common? Because why not? But more pertinently because the compass and square have had a long, illustrious history of being symbols of The East Pacific. And that history all started with a nation named 1 Infinite Loop.

∞

Even though I had only been wandering the multiverse for less than a year, finding my home in a small archipelago in the East Pacific meant that I had heard much about 1 Infinite Loop. It was a land steeped in eccentric traditions — a nation noted for its immortality and Japanese holidays and big Frenchness and high-tech investment and ability to make flags for nations in need and much, much more — that spread its ideals across the region, unifying the otherwise culturally barren lands. To a noob like me, 1 Infinite Loop was the name of a faraway fairytale. Fascinating? Definitely. Tangible? Definitely not. Something worth researching to procrastinate on pondering my Monday to-do list? No more questions needed.

So I ambled into my local library to find out more about the founder of the East Pacific. Strolling among the first aisle, I quickly found several volumes on the subject. What I could read was entertaining as expected. However, much of the history that I wanted was absent. A bit disappointed, I went to the information desk and asked if there were possibly other places to locate information concerning Loop. The Nekomini librarian gave me a couple suggestions. After finding them inadequate, she gave me a sad shrug, “Not here.” After a pensive pause, the clerk suggested I look elsewhere: “if you’re reeeeally interested, you just might find what you’re looking for...” she suppressed a chuckle as the corners of my lips turned up and my eyes brightened before finishing the sentence with three dread-inducing words “in the catacombs.” I shivered at the thought. Superstitions run high in October, and for good reason: the possibility of coming across an irradiated life form like a ghost or a zombie in the catacombs becomes all too real at this time of the year. However, my curiosity was piqued, and I asked for directions to the catacombs. She wrote them out while her eyes sparkled with amusement. After thanking her for her purrfect service, I descended.

∞

It didn’t take very long to get lost in the dark maze of dusty tomes. I was on the verge of giving up hope when I absentmindedly stumbled into a shelf, and it began to glow a faint orange. I rubbed my forehead expecting the light to dissipate — I had hit my head fairly hard — but the light continued to get brighter until it was a brilliant white. The Great Architect of the Universe seemed to have guided me to it.

On the shelf, two slim pamphlets and a book lay, pulsing with potential. Each had been written by the one and only Loop. I picked one up and flipped it to read its back cover, to read the autobiographical “about the author” section. To my surprise, it read “Email.”

I jotted it down as I noted my Monday to-do list was not already full enough. I teleported away to deal with the other items, but “What to say? What to say? What to say?” echoed in the back of my mind.

∞

After deciding what to write and sending it, I had zero expectation of receiving a reply. Loop was clearly busy in another realm. Yet it only took 20 minutes for me to get a “ding!” — even faster than my correspondence with Max Barry. Loop seemed in good spirits and was happy to accommodate my request for a meeting.

∞

A couple days later, I marched into Cupertino to meet a man almost entirely made of candy. I didn’t know what to expect, but I definitely wasn’t expecting to march out with him and several fleets of military-grade geo-shifting helicopters several hours later.

Nor, for that matter, was the EP.

Loop’s return temporarily turned the regional message board into a regional welcome back board, and I was terrified that he would blame me for forcing him to come back. And of course he did.

∞

Since then, “Loop” has become much more to me than the name of a land loaded with legends; he is alive. I am happy that he founded the community I have grown so attached to. I am happy to have a small part in his joining East Pacifican conversations on multiple platforms, learning more about the card game, and being nominated for delegate symbolically nearly a dozen times. I am happy to have heard his response to “What's one thing you would like every TEPer to know?” which cannot be altered: “that the EP is the greatest region in the game because of them they make it wonderful with every post every time they help someone new and every day they do it their way”. But more than that, I thank him for being part of the greatest region in the game; because of him, with every post every time, he makes it more wonderful in his own way. His additions to TEP grounded the region in its rich history, giving it a direction in the form of a compass, a square, and uncountably infinite opportunities for fun.

Delegate Election Rundown
By Art

The Delegate election of The East Pacific (TEP) has concluded with Libertanny winning another term in office. They ran against many other contenders, some of which ran on what could be considered joke platforms. Among Libertanny’s opponents were some familiar faces, including his predecessor Marrabuk, as well as Zukchiva (the former Director of the Bureau of Public Affairs and a cabinet advisor); SirShadow (the current director of the Bureau of Public Affairs); and Lerasi (a former Chief Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Culture and current Vice-Delegate).

Libertanny’s campaign mainly focused on continuing the work and projects that he had worked on in his previous term. During his first term, Libertanny changed the whole structure of the TEP government: Libertanny split the Ministry of Information and Communication into the Ministry of News and Records (BnR), and the Ministry of Publishing (MoP), and also introduced the Ministry of Virtual Enhancement and the Bureau of Public Affairs. Libertanny was also a driving force in the establishment of ‘The Consortium,’ a military and diplomatic co-operative between the East Pacific and five other regions. He steered TEP towards making alliances. For the future of TEP, he plans to enact several projects like creating a World Assembly Development Program, which is a program similar to The South Pacific’s SWAN, developing stronger relations with allied regions, translating regional dispatches into multiple languages to make the East Pacific more accessible and ensuring the improvement and continuation of Paradoxical, a multi-regional event organized by the East Pacific. Libertanny also plans to cultivate an active TEP, not just in government but in the region as a whole.

Marrabuk’s campaign was straight to the point. The former delegate was coming out of retirement “to set a clear path of direction for the region with consistent guidance that will bring out future leaders with decision-making skills and qualities”. Marrabuk felt that despite Libertanny helping increase the activity in the region, the activity wasn’t headed in a proper, solid direction. Marrabuk pledged to close down ministries that he deemed were unnecessary and attempt to trim the current government structure.

Zukchiva, who has been consistently running for the delegate position since 2019, advocates for the development of the MoP’s TEP Podcast, the creation of recruitment drives, the addition of more consulates, further development of Raising Eastern World Assembly Recognition and Development (REWARD), and many more projects. In the last election, Zukchiva and Libertanny had a very close race as the region was relatively split between the two.

Aivintis/Lerasi, an active member of the community who has served in almost all of the ministries of TEP, wishes to bring about ideas and projects that they see will help the TEP community.  Lersi presents the idea of transparency and accountability through Cabinet Dialogue Sessions and Monthly Goals/Reports, published and accessible to everyone. Leasi e also pledged  to get rid of the position of the Vice Delegate, stating:  “ I will not be continuing the tradition, because I believe it to be a potential liability in the event of another coup.” For the Eastern Pacific Sovereign Army (EPSA), Lerasi promised to introduce bookkeeping, a system of recording EPSA operations, and encouraging war games with allies to strengthen relations with our allies.

The last candidate is Eastern Alksearia, also known as SirShadow, who’s an up and coming member of the community. Joining TEP in May 2020, SirShadowalready has a distinguished history of service for TEP. SirShadowwas the first Minister of the newly established Bureau of Public Affairs. They pushed to not only bring the Forum Roleplay (RP) and RMB RP closer but also TEP and the government itself. For their plans for TEP’s future, they plan to work on a lot of projects but mainly a rework of the Bureau of Public Affairs. He stated: “I see BPA as a Ministry that could have a poll on government approval published once or twice a month, at tops.”

Perhaps the most debated topic during the election concerned the executive branch, with many criticizing its bureaucratic structure for lacking usefulness, including departments such as the Ministry of Virtual Enhancement, the Bureau of Public Affairs, and the Ministry of Publishing. Another common concern among citizens was TEP’s relations with its former allies, The West Pacific and Osiris. Libertanny was particularly pressed on whether or not their administration handled the situation as well as they could.

Voting for the election ended on October 16, 2020. The election tallied a total of 51 votes and ended with Libertanny overwhelmingly winning 32 (63%) of the 51 ballots voting in his favor while Zukchiva was able to garner 7 votes (14%).

Interview with Fedele
By Aivintis

It is worth noting that the following interview was more of a structured dialogue with Fedele, and that it took place back in June. The following account has been edited to preserve the flow and manage grammar, but the information itself remains the same. The contents of this interview are not necessarily objectively truthful, so readers are advised to take this with a grain of salt.

Lerasi: So I wanted to ask a few questions about the Rahl Family and hear what you had to say about the coup. When you're free, would you be willing to answer some questions?

Fedele: I can answer your specific questions if you have any.

Lerasi: So, generally, how would you describe the Rahl Family? Precoup and Postcoup?

Fedele: Well, the Rahl family no longer exists.

Lerasi: I'd like to know how it disbanded if it's not too much trouble.

Fedele: Rahl disbanded, I think, because there were differing opinions on what it was as a "family". Was it a bunch of friends? Was it people who always wanted to be in the same region as each other and working together? I think it started as the former and organically started becoming the latter. Rahls kept making Rahls pharaoh in Osiris, for example. I think Altino was the last person to become Pharaoh while in Rahl. Rigel used to be in Rahl. So was Lynxi. So it wasn't this ominous conspiratorial thing, but there was an obvious natural inclination to act on the trust and familiarity you have with the people that you spend a lot of time with. Then, you had members of Rahl who didn't want the friendship to affect the meta-game in NationStates. At least that is my take on it.

Lerasi: When did it disband? I hadn't known about it until last night.

Fedele: It never officially disbanded, per se, it just isn't around anymore. l'm still in the server, for example, but I don't see any activity since October. It had people dropping out here and there for a while. One person leaked details of a conversation into a chat with raider orgs. It had become obvious that you couldn't create a clear separation between friends speaking candidly with each other and the NationStates meta-game.

Lerasi: Are any of you guys still working together at all? Any successor groups or anything?

Fedele: For example, I didn't know Davelands before I joined Rahl. There's no successor groups but many people who were in Rahl were former members of LWU and still hang out in the #Baby_Seal_Club. Some are in the Sportsbook. Badger has a friend server where some are. We still keep in touch but there's nothing cohesive. Why? What's this about?

Lerasi: I'm just interested in learning more about it. For example, do you think you would be in control of TEP right now, if Tim Stark had stayed and Aleister and Funk left?

Fedele: Well, me staying in power long term wasn't the goal. A transition to a more inclusive government was the goal with on-site voting and a government more firmly grounded in the realities of site mechanics, keeping much of the concordat but borrowing aspects from TSP's elections and TWP's guardian system. Aleister and Funk are wildcards but Tim only left when he saw it wasn't working out.

Lerasi: But it could be argued that, since you guys basically controlled the Executive and Legislative branch, you could have made the region better yourselves.

Fedele: If we change your question a bit:

"Do you think the reimagined government of TEP would have worked out if Tim Stark had stayed and Aleister and Funk left?"

It wasn't necessarily dependant on Tim or really even Aleister or Funk or Dave. But, again, if I go into more detail, I'm going to start pulling in people who haven't been pulled in to the discussion.

Lerasi: I was mostly referring to how his large amounts of influence could have been used.

Fedele: Influence was not a limiting factor.

Lerasi: Interesting. I believe you still raid with LWU right? I'm sure I've seen you in Imperium of the Wolf.

Fedele: Imperium of the Wolf is one of those knock-off groups that seem to pop up and disappear once couple of years. I founded LWU in 2005. I don't have any official role there but I still hang around and I enjoy raiding with them.

Lerasi: Have you ever considered trying other aspects of NS like Defending or RP?

Fedele: I dabbled in RP in the East. I suck at it but I enjoyed it and I enjoyed the culture. In fact, I enjoyed the role-play community and culture in the East more than l actually enjoyed trying to RP myself because my work schedule and the responsibilities of being delegate made it hard to keep up.

Lerasi: Interesting. I've joined our forum rp but l'm mostly inactive because it's just so much culture and history etc. and l don't know where to even start.

How about defenderism? Have you ever seriously considered that?

Fedele: Nope. I'm old-school crasher and I keep the old prejudices. Crossing the river back then was anathema.

Lerasi: I've read Twobagger's speech about how fendas a while ago made out raiders to be ruthless game-ruiners and I don't know how much that opinion has changed, especially when I see people say that "Raiders ruin people's regions" and stuff like that. I see why you wouldn't want to try joining them.

Fedele: You seem to have picked up on a lot of things that other people have largely overlooked, even if your aim is a bit off like with the question about Tim. I've been impressed with your questions.

Lerasi: Why thank you.

Fedele: In fact, Tim was really inactive and wasn't much of a factor around that time. Crashers are the Leviathan that churns the waters of NationStates. Without them, the game becomes stagnant.

Lerasi: I've heard that before I think. I'm inclined to agree. To an extent.

Fedele: Probably from me.

Lerasi: Yeah probably lol. People have heavily memed the whole Cthulhu thing. Why was it that you trusted him with BC?

Fedele: It wasn't that I trusted him, it was that there was 0 stakes at that point. Someone who had been involved for a long time had gotten cold feet.

Lerasi: Did you laugh when you were ejected?

Fedele: Yeah, I did. I thought that was pretty damn funny.

Lerasi: I did too lol. You've been in this game for a long time. What was your favorite operation?

Fedele: My favorite operation was when we invaded Hell many years ago, because the natives were an absolute blast to interact with. Instead of complaining or whining about having been invaded, they mocked and ridiculed us. It turned out over the course of the invasion that their culture and the culture of LWU had a lot in common. One of the LWU members in the Raider Hall of Fame, Ditzie Freaks, was a native of Hell that joined LWU after we left.

Lerasi: Oh that's cool.

It's well known that your "Cabal", as we call it back in TEP, considered their actions to be beneficial. Do you think you actually helped the East in the end?

Fedele: Well, it seems like it's an active and vibrant community now and it looks like some positive changes have been made but that's mostly side effects that I can't try to take credit for. We were working toward changes that would have been beneficial but they didn't work out. Overall, I would certainly say the East is in an indisputably better condition now than when I was first elected.

Lerasi: So why did you guys get into the public power struggle that we now call "the coup" in October instead of trying to get Davelands elected at a later date?

Fedele: Look at how Aelitia was treated during his delegacy. Where is he now? Look at what happened to McStooley.

When you say "the cabal" and "you guys", keep in mind that the people involved with me were not in communication with each other for the most part Aleister and Funk talked with each other a lot. They rarely spoke with Tim. Davelands spoke with Tim some but not very much. If I remember correctly, that's about the extent to which any of them spoke with each other. My idea was to keep it compartmentalized so that not everyone got burned if it didn't work out.

Lerasi: Yeah that's a strong tactic. I never really learned what happened to cause a stigma around Aelitia and I hadn't even heard of such a thing happening to McStooley. ‡

Fedele: So, at the end, I chose to make the transition then because felt Marrabuk was actually a good choice to lead a newly established government. Davelands couldn't win an election to save his life. He is plenty capable as delegate but has all of the charm of a Pax Fruit. Literally none of them save one unnamed person informed my decision.

Lerasi: I have to ask: What do you think about Libertanny as our new Delegate?

Fedele: That's a difficult question to answer because I'm not up to date on how the roles and responsibility of the delegacy have changed since I was delegate and I hope they've gone through quite a few changes.

Lerasi: There have been some changes as far as I am aware, but I didn't get interested in government until the October Elections began so I don't know much about how it was before. Looking through the archives I see there have been a lot of different stuff.

If you could redo the whole power struggle thing, what would you do differently? Asking for a friend [emoji unicode-emoji="1f440"]1f440[/emoji]

Fedele: That's a good question. Knowing what I know now, I would have just let the normal course of politics play out. There was no way at the time to know that people who were resolute would get cold feet. In fact, I might even say I was a bit naive to think that certain people had the stomach for anything more than status quo, despite their stated intentions.

Lerasi:

"Once upon a time, there was a man with a pet dodo bird. This dodo bird would ride on the man's shoulder and talk to him throughout the day, giving him words of comfort and encouragement. Every day, as he went about his life, the dodo bird was someone he relied on. One day, he met a pretty girl and introduced himself. They began talking and it was obvious that the pretty girl liked him. After a while, he realized he had forgotten to introduce his pet dodo bird and, when he did, she pointed out there was nothing there. Of course there was. This was the sole companion he had relied upon for years. She insisted that there was nothing there. He argued fervently until the pretty girl waved her hand over his shoulder where the pet dodo bird was and he suddenly realized the pretty girl was right. There was no dodo bird. It had been a figment of his imagination all along. A delusion. Angrily, he accused her of killing his pet. But the pet had never existed. It was one of the last dodo birds. But it wasn't real. Frightened and confused, he struck the pretty girl in the face and clawed at her neck until she was dead."‡‡

So what was this?

Fedele: I think it speaks for itself.

Lerasi: Interesting... When did you decide you wanted your group to hold power in TEP?

Fedele: You keep using the word "group" but it was really not a clearly defined group.

Lerasi: I just don't know what else to call it, to be honest.

Fedele: If you look at the people in my cabinet, the intention was for a lot of continuity in the transition period.

Lerasi: So when did the whole thing actually start being planned? Like what's the original timeline of how it all when down?

Fedele: I can't answer that question.

Lerasi: Okay. Interesting. Did you think the people that opposed marsupial purges were threats to your power?

Fedele: No, That was just a riff on obvious inadequacies in the Concordat That certain people did not want being discussed even though they had been exploited in the past and far more sinister ways Such as throwing people out that you didn't want before they had a chance to become citizen Also, it became a fun theme There were a lot of those intentional loopholes and ambiguities in the Concordat.

Lerasi: The Marsupial Purges are actually why I endotarted in the first place. Unfortunately, by the time I reached 200 endorsements l realized that it's not a very nice thing to do :/

Did you think it succeeded more than a WA Development program would? And do you think it promoted unity against a common enemy?

Fedele: Meh. It was specifically designed to only affect the people who typically create a nation and never sign into it again. I think it fostered a sense of community from people who liked it and people who opposed it and that it was mostly just a fun gimmick.

It did get quite a few people to start trading
endorsements.

Lerasi: Since that, there's been this new law that requires regional officers to record all bans with evidence and sufficient reasoning, and a law that says the Magisterium has to approve all RO appointments.‡‡‡ If these existed during your time, how much of a hindrance would it have been?

Fedele: It would have negated the whole reason that it started.

Lerasi: I think I'm running out of questions. There's still a lot I wish to know but there's not much I have in the form of tangible questions.

What's next for you? Do you have big plans or will you just stick with what you're doing? Then again, if you have big plans, can I really trust that you'll be able to answer the question truthfully?

Fedele: That's a good last question. Why would I tell you? I'm not sure that I have big plans in the meta-game sense other than to continue helping JoWhatup in any way he wants my help, but he's a really good leader. I have irons in the fire and just looking for where I can get involved. Nothing really stands out right now that l'd commit to.

Lerasi: Well I wish you luck in every region that I am not in.

Fedele: Hahaha. Thanks.

Lerasi: I do believe that's all I have to ask, unless there is something you want to say, like any opinion, advise, idea, or fact that I might want to know. Thanks for being so receptive to my questions. It's been enlightening.

Fedele: Sure. It was good talking with you. You've always been pretty thoughtful and level headed, even in disagreement. That doesn't go unnoticed.

Lerasi: Thank you.

‡: Since the interview, I have learned about Aelitia's accidental coup, which recent evidence has been revealed to be not-so-accidental at all.

‡‡: This is referring to a poll hosted by Fedele in the later stages of his delegacy. Marrabuk and Dreamersistan notably interpreted it as a piece of Rahl propaganda in which Fedele is the one telling The East Pacific that are practices are ineffectual, which The East Pacific responds to by opposing his attempts at reform.

‡‡‡: This law has since been amended, and now Regional Officers can be appointed as long as there is no objection from the Magisterium.

The Vice-Delega]cy - is it harming the East Pacific?
By Zukchiva

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article is not meant to insult the performance of our Delegates nor Vice-Delegates current or past. Instead, this is an opinion article from a writer focusing on why the position of Vice-Delegate itself harms the East Pacific.

The Vice-Delegacy is one of the most controversial positions in the East Pacific. Many believe its very existence to be prejudicial to the region's long term safety. So, what is a Vice-Delegate and why is the position so controversial?   

THE VICE-DELEGACY: SECOND IN COMMAND

In general, the Vice-Delegate is the Second-In-Command to the Delegate, with the position’s specific duties varying every Delegate’s term..

During Marrabuk’s term, the Vice-Delegacy was not that well defined. However, what we do know is that the position served as an obvious Second-In-Command position. During Marrabuk’s first term, the Vice-Delegate assisted Marrabuk in doing various tasks like dealing with Foreign Affairs. As Marrabuk’s Delegacy progressed to its second term, the Vice-Delegate began to pick up more and more of the Delegate’s work.

Under Libertanny, the Vice-Delegacy’s position is more clearly defined: the Vice-Delegate holds the power of the Delegate when Libertanny is offline. This continues the idea of the Vice-Delegacy being Second-In-Command, but now it also gives a better justification for the position’s existence.

It is obvious from the past year that the Vice-Delegacy is a malleable office. What its job description specifically is is subject to change, but in general a Vice-Delegate is a Delegate’s right hand man. The position is obviously helpful for the Delegate by providing them someone who can be trusted to take over the Delegacy at any moment, who they can lean on, and who they can seek advice from. Additionally, due to its proximity to the Delegate’s daily tasks, the Vice-Delegacy is the perfect position to train future Delegates. This idea of the position of the Vice-Delegacy being a position for training is the exact problem.

PROBLEMS WITH THE VICE-DELEGACY

The Vice-Delegacy is one of the most influential positions within the East Pacific. Vice-Delegates feature prominently game-side as one of the Region’s primary Regional Officers and they are the Delegate’s “right hand man”.

The problem with this is that it gives a serious advantage to Vice-Delegates within Delegate elections, compared with other candidates.

Think about it. The Vice-Delegacy is usually given to one or, at most, two nations within the duration of someone’s Delegacy. The Vice-Delegate is now prominently featured on TEP’s in-game page (one of the places citizens who don't use the regional forums notice ). It also has built in experience from performing some of the Delegate’s day-to-day duties, giving them an edge over all other candidates. The Vice-Delegate also is probably the only person (besides former Delegates) to know exactly what the job of Delegate entails.

This advantage is not beneficial to our region’s democratic elections. The reason is that it gives a candidate an advantage few other nations have: experience in being Delegate. Sure, Ministers do some of the Delegate’s duties, but the Vice-Delegacy is usually only given to one person every term while there are multiple Ministerial leadership positions. While Ministers may display their leadership skills during their term, an active Vice-Delegate will have the supreme example of authority: literally doing some of the Delegate’s regular job. No Minister can really say their job lets them handle some of the Delegate’s day-to-day tasks, but the Vice-Delegate can.

This advantage of experience shows itself within elections where candidates have equally valid campaigns. More experienced/involved voters will probably choose the candidate who was a former Vice-Delegate since that candidate simply has more experience. For those voters less interested in regional governance, they will probably vote for the Vice-Delegate since they naturally assume that the Vice-Delegate is more prepared to take the Delegacy.

But there is a danger far greater than just making it harder for some people to win elections. The Vice-Delegacy can be used as a tool to train new heirs to the Delegacy, or in other words, allow a Delegate to select a “successor”. A monarchy hiding in the folds of a democracy.

It is true that Vice-Delegates still need to win elections, which does not always happen. Voters may sometimes prefer another candidate. However, the chances for not being elected are not that high, due to the aforementioned advantages a Vice-Delegate has: more widespread recognition and experience. This means that, while a Delegate cannot expect with a one-hundred percent  guarantee that their Vice-Delegate will be elected, the odds are in their favor.

Some people will argue that the simple act of voting makes electing a Vice-Delegate as Delegate a democratic choice.

But is it?

Delegate Incumbents win an election for a second or third time around sixty percent of the time, due to their know-how as Delegate and familiarity with voters. Both advantages which the Vice-Delegate also enjoys, leading it to be more likely for a Vice-Delegate to be elected.

This limits who the voters would reasonably choose, because of course most people will vote for the candidate with the most experience and a great campaign. In other words, the Delegate is hand-picking and artificially creating the best candidate possible and placing them in front of the voters’ hands. So voters are more likely to pick the Vice-Delegate. And this cycle repeats over time until it's common sense to (usually) elect the Vice-Delegate, just like nowadays it is common sense to (usually) elect the incumbent.

We have seen this type of succession be tried during the Fedele coup, with Davelands. While the Vice-Delegate did not exist back then, the Chief Minister of Regional Affairs was somewhat similar in influence (although limited to dealing with regional projects). Davelands was appointed as Chief Minister by Fedele, and subsequently failed to do anything in the position besides writing a daily news report.

Despite this, Davelands received a startling 34% of votes in the October 2019 Delegate elections, despite being highly inactive within the Executive. This number becomes more impressive when you consider that many people revealed that Davelands had broken the law multiple times right before the election. There may have been many reasons why Davelands received so many votes, but no one can deny that his position of Chief Minister of Regional Affairs most likely helped him out by a large margin.

While Fedele’s plans ultimately failed, his actions prove the idea that people will use high-level positions to gain popularity within elections. Given how much more respected the Vice-Delegacy is, we can be sure that the Vice-Delegate will get many more votes than an inactive Chief Minister would ever get.

In a nutshell: the Vice-Delegacy is detrimental to the fairness and openness of TEP’s Delegate elections. At best, it can break what would otherwise be a close Delegate election between comparable candidates if one was not Vice-Delegate. At worst, it can serve as a useful tool for those wishing to subvert TEP’s democracy.

THE SOLUTIONS

1) SWITCH ‘EM OUT

Instead of having one Vice-Delegate, Delegates could perhaps switch the Vice-Delegacy between 4-8 nations during their terms as Delegate. While the advantage of Vice-Delegacy still exists, at least it is spread out between more people who are likely to run in next elections.

2) ELECT THE VICE-DELEGATE

Another solution; elect the Vice-Delegate. Presumably, we would need a separate election and legislated duties for the Vice-Delegate. But this way, we can ensure that all the benefits of the Vice-Delegacy are secured (someone to rely on, a back-up, training future Delegates) all the while avoiding the negatives.

3) MAKE THE VICE-DELEGATE A VIZIER BY LAW

Make the Vice-Delegate a Vizier. This has some problems on its own, (like Viziers do sometimes run in Delegate elections, thus they still gain an advantage), but at least this way we can be sure they are trusted. Afterall, if the Viziers fall, the East Pacific is sure to fall soon after, so not much use going after the idea of an untrustworthy Vizier.

4) ABOLISH IT

Another equal solution is to just abolish the position. Solves all the problems, but on the inverse we lose all the benefits the Delegate gains from having a Vice-Delegate.


It is undeniable that the Vice-Delegacy serves a purpose. However, it is a part of our elections that threatens to change if not harm our Delegacy. Ultimately, it is up to every citizen to ask themselves whether the Vice-Delegacy is worth it. Are the benefits worth the risks? Is a right hand person worth an altered democracy?

An Overview of Libertanny's Term
By Wille-Harlia

Ever since being elected in June following the end of Marrabuk’s second term, TEP’s regional parrot, Libertanny, has accomplished a lot as Delegate. In June, Libertanny established the Bureau of Public Affairs, naming Zukchiva as the director. On June 24, the Consortium was finally implemented, after being discussed extensively during Marrabuk’s term. Towards the end of the month, the Cabinet, in a VC, discussed future policies and actions regarding the World Assembly Development Program, or the WADP.

In July, Libertanny reopened the University of The East Pacific, a place where people from all around the region can go and learn something new. This time however, the University, along with a forum board, also now has its own Discord server, where more casual discussion can take place. Castle Federation (also known as Wondoress) was appointed Chancellor.

In August, Libertanny continued Marrabuk’s work in making great overtures to the region of Thaecia, ending in a unique treaty between the two regions, as they shared many interests, such as democracy.

In September, Libertanny sided TEP with the faction of ATOMIC for N-Day, as the UPPERCUT GCR faction was not happening on N-Day 5. After nuclear obliteration, Libertanny awarded the Order of the Golden Ocelot, the highest distinction in TEP to eight individuals: Asendavia, The Atlae Isles, Dragons Blood, Marrabuk, Nova-Columbia, Tretrid, Tulvatastan, and Zukchiva. Lastly in September, three amendments to the Concordat, TEP’s constitution, were brought before the Magisterium. The first was a proposed rewrite of Article F, which guarantees the rights of citizens and residents, while the amendment simplifies the article. The second proposed amendment is to Article B, which details how the Magisterium works. The amendment will go into further detail to avoid potential abuse of the vaguely defined powers of the Magisterium laid out in the Concordat. The third amendment proposes a new Article A, which will lay out things that pertain to TEP’s identity, such as the compass being the logo of TEP, and green and yellow its colors. Libertanny has been exceedingly active in his first term as Delegate, and only time will tell where he goes next.

Thanks for the update!

The East Pacific News Service
December 1, 2020

A Message From The Editor
By Tretrid
It’s been a while since I last wrote one of these personal messages for the readers of the Eastern Pacific News Service. The last time I wrote something like this was the April Fools edition, where I jokingly resigned my post.

Well, the last time I wrote a serious message was the November 2019 Issue, the first issue of a revitalized EPNS. It’s been a while since then, and I have now been at the helm of the News Service for about a year.

A lot has happened in that year, for sure. The EPNS has grown and has been given a life on its own. The November 2019 issue, which I considered long at the time, is dwarfed by more recent issues. The September issue was so long that the version prepared for the NS forums had to be submitted in two parts to accommodate character limits.

While the volume of EPNS articles has been growing, I find my personal contribution shrinking. After all, I used to consistently write two articles nearly every issue, but recently my main contribution has been editing together the articles into an issue and making sure the code works.

After all, I’ve been getting less and less time to work on the EPNS, and doing the same thing every month for an entire year can get pretty stale. As such, this will be the last issue I will be producing, as well as the last issue with me leading the EPNS.

You shouldn’t worry about the EPNS’s future, however. I made sure to inform Delegate Libertanny about my intentions well in advance, and the Ministry of News and Records is at the tail end of a transition of power by the time I write this.

The new EPNS editor, Eunopiar, is quite qualified to replace me. After all, Eunopiar (also known as Aga) is the current Editor-in-Chief of The Rejected Times, and has already given a comprehensive plan for the future of EPNS. He has largely learned the ropes of his new position, and was largely behind the production of the October issue. He has already produced a rather ambitious plan for the EPNS, so expect some significant changes to how the News Service is run.

I would like to thank everyone who has allowed EPNS to become what it is today. I’d like to thank Marrabuk for appointing me Minister and allowing me to rebuild the News Service, Atlae for creating, owning and running the Easter Pacific News Service nation, Em for producing the Midnight Star Magazine (which unfortunately stopped production after he became Chief Minister of Regional Affairs), Serge for being so helpful with the transition, and Eunopiar for ensuring that the future of the EPNS is bright. I’d also like to thank every contributor who took time out of their day to write an article, and I’d like to thank you, the reader, for investing your time and energy into reading these articles. I really can’t state enough how important all of you are.

Three Things to Expect from the Eastern Pacific News Service
By Eunopiar
Not long ago, I was appointed as the Minister of News and Records by Serge, with a promise to execute a plan which will revitalize the Eastern Pacific News Service (EPNS). Some of these things have been tried and tested with other news organizations, and some of these things will take the EPNS into completely new territory. Anyway, here are three things you can expect from the News Service in the near future.

One: Article by Article Publication

Article-by-Article publication will be a key part of the future of the EPNS, and will be the largest change brought to the newsletter. Issues will still remain, however, and as opposed to compiling articles for the entire month to be published by the final deadline, any author can write an article whenever, and it will be published as soon as it is written and edited on our “live articles” dispatch, which will be created at a later date.

This is beneficial as it allows authors to start writing articles whenever, without being tied to a monthly schedule, and it spreads the editing work throughout the month.

Two: A New Magazine

The EPNS Editorial team are excited to announce the re-birth of the EPNS Magazine. Compared to previous editions, this will contain all articles that have been published by EPNS in the previous month. It will be published at the start of each month, and will hopefully bring some articles to life.

Three: More Writing Events

I believe that newsletters should do more to make themselves open. Therefore, the Eastern Pacific News Service will run many contests within the next few months to make writing for the newsletter of a Game Created Region easier.

I hope that all readers will join me in congratulating Tretrid for publishing twelve successful editions last year, and will also wish the News Service the best for the future.

Interview with Tretrid
By Wille-Harlia
This month, I sat down with TEP’s very own Minister of News and Records, the illustrious Tretrid, to ask him a few things. Tretrid’s job mainly pertains running the EPNS, which you, dear reader, are currently reading. Let’s get down to it, here’s the interview. Note: None of this interview has been edited, it is as it was when I asked him these questions in a Discord DM.

Wille-Harlia: First off, how did you discover NationStates?

Tretrid: There was an xkcd webcomic, I noticed NS on it, and I got curious and checked it out.

Wille-Harlia: Interesting. Was your first nation founded in TEP, or did you move to TEP sometime after you first started playing?

Tretrid: There's actually quite an interesting story behind that. My nation was founded in TEP, but I ended up moving to some random UCR that died out, so I moved back to TEP. I then lost interest in NS and let it CTE, and then I rejoined a few months later and rejoined TEP.

Wille-Harlia: Very cool. When was this? And have you been in TEP ever since?

Tretrid: Well, I rejoined TEP around late summer of 2016, and I became a citizen in fall of 2016. I've been part of TEP ever since, except for an absence from late 2018 to October of 2019.

Wille-Harlia: And when exactly did you become the Minister of News and Records?

Tretrid: I applied to join the Executive almost as soon as I got my citizenship again in 2019. I applied to join the Ministry of Information and Communications, among other things, because I had written several articles for the EPNS back in 2018. Anyway, after then-Minister Mecovy resigned, Delegate Marrabuk appointed me to be Minister. Oddly enough, this was only a couple of weeks after I rejoined TEP.

Wille-Harlia: Now that's a quick rise if ever seen one. Do you think that your appointment was a result of your articles for the EPNS, anything you did in TEP from 2016-2018, a combination of both, or something else entirely?

Tretrid: I believe my appointment was largely a result of my experience in the Executive, especially the EPNS. Throughout 2017 and 2018, I worked in multiple ministries in the Executive, and one of the things I did was help revive the EPNS in November 2017 (why is it always November). I ended up serving under then-Ministers Serge and Mecovy, and I contributed plenty of articles to it. When I rejoined the Executive in 2019, one of the things I really wanted to do was to help revive the EPNS again. Then-Minister Mecovy had the same goal and had made the first steps, and since my main goal of reviving the EPNS was the same (combined with my previous experience writing both articles and publishing issues), it seems like Marrabuk thought me the most suitable choice to replace Mecovy.

Wille-Harlia: Reviving EPNS sounds like a monumental task. How exactly did you go about doing that?

Tretrid: Well, I had created certain bbcode templates for formatting EPNS back in those days of 2017-18, and my first thought was to just copy over those templates. Of course, since the way Tapatalk implements forum code is different from the old forum system, Zetaboards, we had to make some changes. In the end, there were some changes in the ways we handled headers, and we also changed the heading banner of the EPNS to incorporate the new compass symbol of the new flag of TEP.

Wille-Harlia: And after that, it was merely a matter of recruiting writers?

Tretrid: Well, since I was appointed Minister around mid-late October, I decided that there was no way I could be producing an article in time for the end of the month, so I decided to aim to produce the first EPNS issue in November. This gave me quite a bit of wiggle room, and after some effort and recruitment I had enough articles to create an EPNS issue. However, I have to say that in the first several months, the most difficult part of running the EPNS was getting enough people to write enough articles.

Wille-Harlia: So, seeing how the EPNS has reached a decent activity level, with monthly issues containing 3-4+ articles, do you have any other plans for the Ministry?

Tretrid: Well, I'm actually going to be stepping down from my position as Minister at the end of the month, so if you want future plans, you should probably ask Aga.

Wille-Harlia: Interesting. I suspected as much, given how on the EPNS nation, the leader recently changed from yourself to Aga. Given that, what do you see yourself doing next in TEP, if anything?

Tretrid: I'll probably step back and be doing less things in NS for now, though I plan on still serving as Vizier. Of course, I will probably continue participating in TEP Forum RP.

Wille-Harlia: Nice. Just two more questions. First, what is your favorite part of TEP? Second, it seems to be a custom that TEP leaders are represented by animals. Marrabuk is a horse, Libertanny is a parrot, and Zukchiva is a duck. What animal do you think you would be?

Tretrid: A few months ago, I would probably say the Executive, but right now, I think my favorite part of TEP is forum RP. There's something special about creating a realistic, internally consistent world and being very much a part of it. Also, if I were an animal I would probably be some sort of bird of prey. Though I have no intentions on adopting an animal persona anytime soon.

Thank you Tretrid for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer my questions, and thank you for your insight into your history in NationStates and your job!

Kidnappings and Executions: A Primer To The Second Alksearian-Balistrian War
By SirShadow
The year 2020 has been an interesting time for the nations on Urth, and no country is safe from the curse. Alksearia and Balistria are no exceptions. In the RP thread, Of Bears and Elves, we see the Council of Viziers in Balistria holding a vote on what to do about Alksearia. As Balistria is a fanatic democracy nation, they saw the dual role of the monarchy and the Parliament of Alksearia as a threat to democracy. As the story unfolded, we see the King of Alksearia, Eldras VI, be contacted by a mysterious source where he goes to the Asendavian embassy and gets kidnapped.

From there, the world itself turned it’s eyes and attention on Alksearia and Asendavia. Most nations assume Asendavia kidnapped the King, while Balistria tried to maneuver the king out of Alksearia. Soon enough, we are introduced to the Asendavian diplomat to Alksearia and the leader of the conservative party in Balistria. The King learns of the plans that Balistria has while he is still held captive. Meanwhile, Princess Dorothea starts to run the country while acting like a regent. The Prime Minister of Alksearia tries to stick his nose where it doesn’t belong, and ends up being a suspect in all of this.

In the climatic ending, we find out that the Prime Minister helped Balistria kidnap the King while also taking money from Balistria. We also soon learn that the captors of the King are Asendavians, but being paid by the Balistrian government. The Asendavian Diplomat and the Conservative leader are found dead in a ditch, leading Dorothea to finally call Balistria and to call their bluff. In an act of desperation, we see the Grand Vizier hol;d the King for “crimes against democracy” and executed.

With the execution of the King, the gloves were off. The UCA (Union of Commonwealth Alliance) has shown an outpour of support for Alksearia, with the majority of them declaring war on Balistria. Asendavia, outraged by the death of their diplomat and the actions of the Balistrians, have joined in on the war. Volunteers from Meagharia are also coming to help out, as Eldras Vi started a non-profit organization that sought to help the veterans of Meagharia. Princess-Regent Dorothea, now Queen Dorothea, now finds herself as the monarch of Alksearia with a war on her hands. With the world’s attention on the Balistrian-Alksearian conflict, the world watches as Balistria will burn. What will rise from the ashes? WIll we see a new regime, or the destruction of a rogue nation? This roleplay has continued into a new one called From the Ashes… alluding to there being more at play after the war is over.

Why I stuck the East Pacific - reasons that I remained on NationStates
By Catiania
I joined nationstates almost six years ago. I saw a friend playing a political simulator and, along with much of my irl group, decided to join in.
Over the next few years, all the nations but mine would find their way to the great pile of forgotten nations that is the boneyard. This is nothing to do with me, they died of entirely natural causes. Don’t look at me like that.

Anyway, I spawned, as I’m sure did many of you, in the one and only TEP. Rameus would have just entered the delegacy, but at that point I didn’t really understand the whole region thing, and focused on answering issues and sending telegrams to people physically a meter away from me. When I eventually noticed there were some mechanics outside, it was due to a zombie apocalypse, which no doubt concerned me greatly. My first post on the RMB, beautifully, is quoting someone saying ‘there is a zombie problem!’ with ‘we noticed.’
In my defense, it is hard not to notice being eaten by zombies.
My next post is ‘what are cure missiles’ which is a very practical response, and I am very proud of my past self. McStooley responded to this with
“Cure missiles are a despicable tool made by the living against the Undead Hordes of the Master. There exist much better ways than using dangerous missiles.”
Which presumably wasn’t particularly helpful, but I assume someone else told me what they actually are. It’s hard to tell, since it looks like McStooley was suppressing all pro-cure RMB messages (smh).
After this, my panic builds, culminating with ‘HElP I AM ALL DYING’. Which, fair enough. But I digress.
The point here, which I seem to have lost in the RMB history somewhere, is that despite not knowing anything about NS mechanics and talking only through the RMB, people in TEP cured me, showed me what was going on, and then I could help them. This, I think, was an early display of the cooperative, helpful and generally nice attitude that TEPers have towards each other, and especially newcomers. This is probably the most important factor that kept me in TEP.

I continued to answer issues and nothing else for five years, apart from the occasional event. How did I manage to avoid getting bored during this time? It’s… it’s hard to tell. I do not know what was going on in my head. About a year ago, there was a bit of a kerfuffle with the delegacy. You may have noticed. This was pretty confusing for someone who had never really noticed that there were politics, or even communities, on the website. But it was a lot of fun, and during this time when I first met some of the people I’d now call my friends. After Marrabuk drew a pentagram around the body of EPSA, chanted in Horse, and raised it from the dead, I was summoned to join a new EPSA server, and at this point I began to get sucked into TEP government. Sakana was the OO of EPSA, and the first person in TEP I really interacted with. This only continued my good experiences in TEP. Everyone who’s done R/D knows that it’s hard to be new and foolish, but the positivity was just as prominent in EPSA as I had found in other parts of the region, so that instead of it being hard and overwhelming to learn all the moving parts of R/D, I had a lot of fun!

After this, I was sucked into the black hole (a warm, fluffy black hole? Like being consumed by an alligator in a sort of affectionate way) of the TEP executive. Lo and behold, here too I was taken in by TEP’s community spirit, finding that the leaders of TEP were just as friendly as the citizens. Since then, I’ve only continued by the levels of niceness at all levels of TEP. TEAPOT, our cards organisation (and really, the cards community as a whole) encourages cooperation and sharing of information, turning what could have been a competitive and cutthroat part of the game into something wholesome and supportive. Our foreign affairs department is essentially an entire section of the government dedicated to making friends and memes, which are sometimes the same thing.

Factionalism and the Three East Pacifics: Bridging Gaps Between Communities
By Tretrid
(Disclaimer: This is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Eastern Pacific News Service as a whole.)

There is a problem with the East Pacific that has been plaguing the region for years. One that made the region vulnerable to a coup, one that poses such a problem that multiple delegate campaigns have been run over it.

This problem is factionalism.

Of course, simply naming the problem won’t explain how or why it is dangerous. After all, there is a lot of context and history that needs to be understood to properly grasp the scope of the problem.

It is worth asking this question: what is the East Pacific? Yes, TEP is a feeder and one of the largest regions in NationStates, but beyond that there is not that much cohesive identity. Sure, TEP generally has a sense of humor and a love of memes, but if you ask two random TEPers what they think is the most distinctive part of the East Pacific, you’re unlikely to get the same answer.

This reflects how TEP’s regional identity is not particularly cohesive; TEP can just be thought up as three separate yet closely affiliated communities.

The Three East Pacifics

The first of the three communities was Forum RP, also sometimes called TEP Evolved. It found its origin in the formative days of The East Pacific, when the region was under the Delegacy of 1 Infinite Loop. At the time, it was perhaps the one distinguishing thing about the East Pacific.

Of course, TEP Evolved has, well, evolved significantly since those early years of the 2000s. The map evolved from a map of Asia split into plots to an entire world, dubbed “Urth.” Though for most of its history Evolved used mainly PMT and FT, there was a change in 2015 that lead to Urth being strictly MT.

Forum RP is mainly centered around the Urth map, and the vast majority of Forum RP happens there. Since the community shares a planet, much effort is made to make a consistent, coherent, shared history, and worldbuilding is highly emphasized. There are AUs that have other technology levels and such, but they are significantly less popular than Urth RP.

The use of the forums as a platform for RP has also largely shaped the community. Threads allow people to focus on one RP at a time. The posts are generally long, but they often take a long time to write.

The Forum RP community is also highly centralized. The community itself largely revolves around its own Discord server, the “TEP Roleplay Centre.” The centralization of Forum RP can be seen through the use of Cartographers, who add nations to the Urth map, and the RP Moderator, who can forcibly retcon RPs and make administrative decisions relating to RP in unusual circumstances like godmodding.

Roleplay tends to be coordinated, and if they’re not an RP within one nation or between two nations run by the same user, the people running nations participating in Forum RP tend to coordinate and plan the RP ahead of time. This can be seen through the existence of “closed” RPs, where only certain people (decided ahead of time) can get involved, and the existence of “open” RPs, where anyone is free to join. Historical RPs are also somewhat common in TEP Evolved, as a result of the effort put into worldbuilding. Even if the results of these historical RPs tend to be predetermined, the specifics of what happens are usually written on the fly.

Forum RP also often uses the website TEPWiki, which, as the name may indicate, is a wiki for TEP. Most of the content on TEPWiki focuses on Forum RP, though there is a not insignificant amount of government content on there. TEPWiki implements the MediaWiki software, which is most notably the wiki engine used by Wikipedia. As such, articles are written in “wiki markup” (though there is an option of a WYSIWYG “Visual Editor”), which is incredibly versatile but somewhat difficult to learn.

The second of these three communities is the government. Much like TEP Evolved, the TEP Government finds its roots in 1 Infinite Loop, who created the first framework of TEP in 2003. Dubbed the “Articles of Confederation,” it refers to the members of TEP as “States,” showing how RP was basically intertwined with the government and how what we would call Gameplay (GP) had not been fully established yet.

The 2008 coup by the Empire, and the subsequent liberation headed by A Slanted Black Stripe permanently changed the course of TEP’s government. After that, TEP created a democratic government (as contrasted with the totalitarian rule before then) under the Concordat, which established 3 branches of government: The Executive (then largely just the Delegate and a few advisors), the Magisterium (the legislative body), and the Conclave (the court). The Concordat also established the office of Vizier, and the Viziers were expected to see to the security of The East Pacific against future coups.

Things have changed since the first democratic elections in TEP in 2009. After all, under Mexregiona, the Executive was largely overhauled and became much more than just the Delegate and advisors. This new Executive consisted of Ministries led by Ministers appointed by the Delegate.

The infamous failed coup d’état led by Delegate Fedele in October 2019 once again changed things. TEP relooked the way its government was run and saw many vulnerabilities, things that allowed the coupers to gain power in the first place and soften TEP for their eventual coup. As a result, the Concordat was revamped, most notably involving the creation of the Praesidium, the fourth branch of TEP’s government. In doing so, the Viziers were given some more powers, and they were given a formal power structure under the Grand Vizier and EPPS Commissioner. The Praesidium consisted of these Viziers and also ran the Eastern Pacific Police Service (EPPS).

The Executive is where most of TEP’s government activity happens. It is headed by the Delegate, and is split into the EPSA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Regional Affairs. Regional Affairs is further split (at the time of writing) into the Ministries of Culture, Education, Immigration, News and Records, Publishing, and Virtual Enhancement.

Each one of these Ministries has their own purpose, and is overseen by one Minister each. Under the Minister is (usually) at least one Deputy Minister, and they oversee the staffers.

The Ministers and the Delegate’s Advisors, as part of TEP’s Cabinet, are privy to sensitive information and classified discussions that are best not disclosed here. A certain subset of TEP’s Cabinet is also part of FA’s “Inner Circle,” where even more sensitive discussions take place about TEP’s FA policy and TEP’s relation to the wider GP community.

The Magisterium is also extremely active, and is often the location of legal debates and discussion on the best way to legislate. Pings in Discord to remind people to vote and discuss are so common that the Magisterium has been nicknamed the “Pingisterium.”

The third and most recent of the three communities is RMB RP. While early forms of attempted RP have taken place on the RMB for years, RMB RP didn’t truly take off until the creation of TAMDEG in 2017. These early RMB RPs were based off of sci-fi and were fraught with godmodding.

RMB RP saw a new increase in activity in early 2018, set in a world more like Earth. While it still used futuristic tech levels, it didn’t reach the sci-fi levels that TAMDEG used. The year also saw the creation of its first maps and the solidification of RMB RP into a proper roleplaying community.

RMB RP is highly decentralized, and uses more than one setting. One of the main worlds in RMB RP is Valsora, which is set in MT and sees a large portion of RMB RP activity. However, other people can set up other maps, and these other settings tend to see plenty of activity.

In 2019, the RMB RP community had a somewhat central Discord server, but nowadays most RMB RPers do the vast majority of their chatting on the RMB itself.

The RMB itself is very active, and for non-RMBers, it is better thought of as something more akin to an extremely active Discord server than the forum-like aspects of the RMB may indicate.

Why is Factionalism a Problem?

Factionalism appears to be a relatively recent thing. The renovation of the Executive in mid-2017 into a much larger bureaucracy led to more TEPers focusing exclusively on government and nothing else. Meanwhile, as the RMB became increasingly popular, more and more RMBers focused exclusively on the RMB and didn’t touch the forums, where a lot of government and Forum RP functions are. The result of this was a certain lack of communication between the three communities, but most pronounced around the RMB. This allowed for misunderstandings and such to happen.

Around this time, a very prominent government official (who was close to the Delegate at the time) antagonized the RMB, setting the government’s opinion (and Forum RP’s opinion to a lesser extent) against the community. This only served to aggravate an increasingly serious problem. When Fedele was Delegate, he tried to make those cracks in TEP worse, trying to make the region more divided and as a result more vulnerable. After all, if the three communities were busy hating each other, then who would be around to oppose the Delegate’s plans?

Fedele’s infamous failed coup proved something however. It showed that the communities were more united than they seemed, even if there were some differences. They all united behind the Delegate-Elect at the time, Marrabuk, and unseated the coup.

Even though it failed, the coup shows just how dangerous factionalism is. It is no fluke that Fedele and his co-conspirators did all the work they did to stir up animosity within the region. Factionalism makes TEPer hate TEPer, and can make TEPers distrustful of the government, which makes it vulnerable. While a united TEP is very formidable, a divided TEP is much more susceptible to attack.

Mending the Divides

Naturally, as factionalism was one of the main problems that led up to the coup, efforts have been made since then to try to end factionalism. Marrabuk used a slogan throughout his Delegacy: “Our TEP, our region, our home, our family,” which essentially became TEP’s motto in the Marrabuk Delegacy. It’s easy to see why, as its words ring true for all TEPers, be it Forum RPer, government worker, or RMBer. They emphasize how there is one East Pacific, and that we are all on the same side.

This motto mirrors Marrabuk’s efforts to make TEP more united. He introduced cabinet dialogue sessions to try making the inner workings of the cabinet more understandable to normal TEPers. Despite being Delegate, he showed up fairly often in the RMB to chat.

However, words can only get us so far. Though the results of the coup largely ended a lot of the open animosity between the communities, the underlying problems that caused it remain. There is a lack of communication between the three communities, and a lot of users stick to only one community due to how much goes on in each one of them. It is rare for any user to be active in all three at once.

The result of this is that the three communities are still rather separate. After all, they share very few people, and a lot of people are disinterested in joining another part of TEP.

At the beginning of November, Delegate Libertanny held a conference with representatives from these three communities to discuss the lingering divides. The representatives all found common ground, and all agreed that a lack of communication was the main factor in factionalism.

The conference also provided some insight into the perspectives of the other communities. It was here that we discussed how the government seems opaque and inaccessible to the RMB, how forum RP and government rarely interact with the RMB, and how RMBers tend to dislike the forums.

A lot of healing can be done if we simply take the time to understand the other communities, and take the time to interact with them. And it’s quite simple, too. It could be as simple as going to the RMB and chatting for a few minutes every day. It could be as simple as joining the Forum RP server and partaking in some of the discussion or even some of the memeing. It could be as simple as popping into the Executive Discord Server and asking around.

And with these steps, we can truly move forward to a stronger, more united TEP.

A Region Undivided
By Zukchiva
In October 2019, the East Pacific was radically changed forever. The out-going Delegate, Fedele, attempted to coup the region. Anyone who was there could tell you about how various East Pacificans fought against the coup, serving as symbols of patriotism, or how the East Pacific’s allies worked hard to liberate the region.

However, how specific East Pacifican communities reacted to the coup is never examined. So what did each “group” in the East Pacific (government, Regional Message Board Roleplay, Forum Roleplay) do to fight against the coup? And just how deep did resistance against the coup actually run?

GOVERNMENT

One of the largest fonts for resistance was led by government-members. There were two “government” groups who helped fight off the coup.

One was the Small Magisterium Cafeterium. It was originally founded by Libertanny as a discussion place for legislative matters; however, it would soon turn into a group that actively discussed and fought against Fedele. The Cafeterium also managed to sow suspicion against Fedele, ensuring that more and more people became aware of what was really going on behind the scenes.

The second “government” group was the Viziers. The Viziers played important roles throughout the coup, advising both East Pacificans and foreign allies in their fight against Fedele and Company. By running interference, the Viziers also sowed distrust against Fedele, which spurred many East Pacificans to eventually condemn the coup when it happened. The Viziers also proved vital in terms of securing the Region from Fedele. Without them, it is doubtful that the East Pacific would have ever regained its sovereignty.

REGIONAL MESSAGE BOARD ROLEPLAY

The Regional Message Board also played an important role in fighting against the coup.

The first part of the “fight” was when many nations who mainly did RMB RP became Magisters (TEP’s legislators), at the encouragement of Libertanny and Marrabuk. These Magisters would help balance against a Magisterium  heavily influenced by the coupers. These RMB Magisters were also a voice of reason and calm during the week preceding the coup as Fedele and Co. began to purposely increase tension in the East Pacific.

The second contribution of the RMB was to run heavy unendorsement campaigns against Fedele, and endorsement campaigns of loyal East Pacificans. The constant spirit of patriotism shown by the RMB played an important part in moving many World-Assembly residents to action, which led to Fedele losing nearly 200 endorsements in a single day.

FORUM ROLEPLAY

The Forum Roleplay community played a heavy role in fighting against Fedele as well.

One of the most important roles the Forum community played during the coup was its constant voice-chats on Discord. Through these voice-chats, roleplayers actively discussed the coup, helped the government plan against Fedele, and offered advice to many citizens. All of this helped raise distrust of Fedele within the East Pacific, which meant that over time the coup grew less and less effective.

Forum RP would also hold a massive voice-chat during the coup itself, providing a safe haven for many East Pacificans, away from the main server where Fedele and Co. were actively posting. In short, Forum RP helped to coordinate many citizens in fighting the coup, which further helped the East Pacific fight the coup game-side.

IN SUMMARY

Each sub-community within the East Pacific fought hard and valiantly against the coup in their own way. However, one of the most important aspects to note about the coup was that it united the East Pacific under one banner. No matter what sub-community they belonged to, each citizen and resident fought for their region.

The importance of this concept is simple: every East Pacifican was (and still is) willing to fight for their home. The differences between each other did not matter, only securing the region did. The day of the coup showed that despite all the divides that still exist today, the East Pacific is one united region. A coup could not change that. Because at the end of the day, every one of us loves our home. And that love is greater than any dividing force.

The Postmodern Diplomat: Cultures of The East Pacific
By Cassie
I’ve had a long and lurky history with NationStates; I originally made an account about a decade ago when I was still in high school, and promptly forgot the password a few months later. But a few months into the pandemic lockdown, one of my guilty YouTube favorites—you know who—made an account on NationStates, and the subsequent rush crashed the website’s server. I didn’t even get halfway through his video before feeling the rush of nostalgia and being one of the hundreds making a new account. To my delight, my new nation spawned in The East Pacific, where Drew was located.

I was so happy to see not much about NationStates had changed over the last decade. There’s a newish trading card mechanic and Max Barry has written a few more books, but the navigation and nation pages are almost exactly the same.

To me, NS has always simply been about answering issues and seeing what kind of government I’d get. While I knew there was roleplay and nation factbooks and wikis, I really thought the meat of the game was answering issues. Why would I bother thinking about my nation's culture when I’m just playing a politics simulator? For example, my nation name is literally my real-life name, plus “New” for my new nation, plus “Greater” because why the heck not. I’ve tried writing a factbook, but the results were meh.

As more time passed and the more issues I answered, I didn’t feel like I really belonged in the RP community. I’d been on the game for several months, and I was so nervous that people would be judgmental of the awkward lady in the corner. Until Libertanny finally convinced me to join Discord, another program I hadn’t used in a couple years, and I realized…

Well, crud. NationStates is way, WAY more than just issues and trading cards. There’s writing and friendship and magic...okay, maybe just the first two...and people here really get into world-building.

Which brings me to the point of my column: culture and The East Pacific. Enter Dylan and Great Morstaybishlia.

This is a nation (or, more accurately, a group of nations including Staynes) with a wiki that puts most irl countries’ Wikipedia pages to shame. In researching the culture of TEP, Great Mortstaybishlia was incredibly helpful in understanding just how deep culture, including cuisine, in our fine region runs. It’s much more than TEAPOTs and caek, for sure!

For example, Great Morstaybishlia has a long, tasty history. Ancient cuisine has been refined over the centuries by colonialism and trading, and further refined by wars and rations. Notably, the cultures of Acronis and New Leganes have heavily influenced Morst cooking; squid baguettes involve imported ingredients from New Leganes, which heavily evolved from simple roast meats and vegetables from ancient Morst societies. And of course, there are still the traditional dishes still beloved in Great Morstaybishlia today: hobstiberry pie is probably the most beloved Morst dessert, prepared from berries cultivated in South Staynes.

It’s clear much care went into Dylan’s worldbuilding of Great Morstaybishlia, but collaboration among other members of TEP have had a great influence. Like America and apple pie, it’s clear nothing can beat a patriotically prepared hobstiberry pie for the Morst. A national cuisine is more than the brainchild of one role-player; it represents a cultural identity and history, and unity and collaboration among TEP-ers. A collection of TEP cuisine, and even culture like literature, philosophy, radio, and much more, defines a community, something I was sorely missing when I originally rode the Drew-wave back onto NationStates.

I might’ve restarted NationStates because of Drew, but I stayed for Dylan, Libertanny/Serge, Aga, and all the friendly faces, erm, avatars? that have warmly welcomed me into their community.

While much of this article has been more about my personal existential musings rather than specifically the culture of The East Pacific, I would like to spend more time investigating the culture of The East Pacific. If TEP-ers are willing, I’d like to introduce a new monthly column to the EPNS highlighting national cuisines, highliving, literature and the arts, and perhaps a bit of role-played celebrity drama mixed in. PM me on Discord @Owltea, or shoot me a NS telegram, or send a carrier pigeon to Colorado, your choice. I’d like your nations’ recipes, or top tourist destinations, or heck, set up a time with me to interview your nation’s most beloved pop star. Whatever your nation does best, let’s build together the culture and faces of The East Pacific, and learn more about the people behind the politics.

And if you don’t PM me, I’ll probably be harassing you for more info myself.

Pinkies Out,
President Cassie Celeste
of Greater New Cassandra

Thanks for the update! It's certainly a feel-good edition.

Catiania's experiences with Z-Day are why I love the event...it seems like every year Z-Day brings people out you don't normally see and everyone works together in some sort of common cause (or maybe not so common in their case if someone was suppressing cure messages, lol). I wish there were more minigames in NS that brought people in regions together, I think it would be a huge boon to regional communities.

I think most communities have had issues with factionalism...in our case, it was a contributing issue behind the Schism, a three-month period where two factions developed and had a falling out with each other, fueled by a malicious actor who invented and spread rumors about people on both sides to stir up anger, hatred, and chaos. As with TEP's experiences, a lack of earnest communication between the groups also contributed heavily. We've always been aware of the dangers of factionalism, it's one reason why there's never been a real political party in the region, but obviously that didn't stop it from happening...it's interesting how on some level, no matter how different the communities are, they all face some of the same problems at some point.