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You came back too soon.

Wait, I was almost a paragon?

Yep. In fact, I was planning on running for Underhusen on a platform of making you and Colby ones. Then you showed up again.

We can still make Colberius a Paragon though.

Goddammit.

I wasn't here for any of the points about the Underhusen having more power before, but I just had something to say on the point of cabinet posts.

@Wintermoot Although I suspect a whole lot of people woulnd't be jumping at the chance to head up one of the ministries, that doesn't mean those people don't exist. I think that the current executive set up in the region kind of discourages people to get involved in these ministries. Unless one of the current Jarls or Thanes leaves their post, there is no real turnover. In the RIA, the region I was in before this one, the newly elected delegate chose their new Ministers. Sure, often people cycled in and out of the same ministries, but there was room and availability for people to take the offices when this turnover happened. In Wintreath, that is not really possible since the Monarch appoints their officials and they are not replaced except for under extreme circumstances. I think opening up the ministries not only to greater turnover, but also perhaps a spreading the workload out so that the positions would be less stressful and more plentiful may help incentivize people to participate.

1. Think of Wintreath like a presidency.  Wintermoot is the president, the Cabinet is his...well, cabinet, the Underhusen is the House of Reps, and the OH is the Senate.  If anything, the storting wouldn't be the one to confirm the Jarls/Thanes...that would be the OH's job, as it's the Senate who confirm/reject the president's choices for his cabinet, not the HoR.  And since the OH is pretty much everyone handpicked by Wintermoot himself, that really serves no purpose having his own handpicked people confirm/deny his own handpicked cabinet.

I don't think this analogy really works. Wintreath's government is quite different form that of the US in many fundamental ways. Although the OH is technically the upper house of the Storting, like the Senate is of Congress, the Senate is not in any way picked by the executive branch. It is still a legitimate legislative check on the executives powers. Also, the Monarch is for life, unlike the termed President. I think it would make sense for the elected branch of the Storting, like the elected Senate, to have some control over the executive's appointments, especially when the executive is a monarch. That is to say nothing bad against Wintermoot, who I think is a legitimately wonderful ruler. But checks and balances must exist, and this seems like a logical one.

Thought I might throw my two cents in here.

It is ridiculously easy to advance in this region, if advancement is your only goal. Literally just show that you're interested in helping out, run for a few elections, and actually do something in the ministries you're involved with, and you can get quite far.

I will say that things have improved since Coco was a Jarl, at least...back then Citizens expected the Cabinet to run absolutely everything, and not only is that not sustainable, it's self-limiting since there's only so much a handful of people can physically do. Since then we've done more to encourage regular Citizens to take the initiative and do things they want, and while Gerrick does a great job of hosting events and coming up with ideas when he wants to, he's also encouraged people to take the lead themselves and tried to get people together with things like task forces and things like that. We've also introduced Cabinet positions with narrower portfolios such as the Court Scribe, whose sole regular responsibility is putting out the Orendi monthly.

As demanding as being on the Cabinet is now, I'd like to think that the period Coco is talking about was the absolute low point, just because the expectations on the Monarchy were insane at the time.

Yeah, this period was brutal. Sapphiron and I were only the thanes of culture back then, and even we got burnt out.

I'm happy to hear things have improved.

I think Point Breeze and Reon deserve recognition as paragons, too. They, along with Colby, might not have come up with some drastic system to improve one specific part of the forum, but they performed a job just as vital, if not more so: they greased the wheels and maintained the vehicle so it never needed fixing in the first place.