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Consulate of The Rejected Realms

I apologize in advance for the sporadic updates that will occur. This isn't me slacking off, we really just have that few updates This is our latest one:

Update no. 15, September 2013

Lots and lots and lots has happened!

But only because it's ten months since the last official update. In the meantime, the TRR Media Corp has taken over providing news/rumours/slander from the region. Unless you've been living under a rock (or in Wysteria), you'll have noticed a lot has changed lately. Most importantly, the Whamocracy has fallen, and we are now living under an iron fisted Frattatorship. All the Officer roles are filled, and we have a new(ish) Speaker after citizens protested Christian Democrats making public a number of private discussions without notifying the Assembly first.

PSSP

The Rejected Realms remains in the Pan-Sinker Security Pact; however, it's getting a little lonely here. Balder and Osiris have withdrawn in the aftermath of Douria's coup, considering the treaty a worthless document and leaving just Lazarus and TRR remaining. In fact, TRR and Lazarus are already allies through another treaty - the doubling up proves just how much we like each other. Petitions to the admins to create a new batch of more reliable sinkers have so far fallen on deaf ears.

NS Cold War

The Gameplay forum is full of tedious, tiresome and tortuous arguments between the NPO and the UIAF as the developing Cold War has hotted up. Citizens of the Rejected Realms have discussed the conflict, considered both positions, and - after a period of deep reflection - given a resounding no to getting involved. Nonetheless, the conflict has impacted on TRR, with the collapse of the PSSP related to it, and a number of exposés relating to the security of the region. Notably, current citizen North East Somerset has been implicated in pushing the Pacific to remove the supposed "FRA dominated" regime from the region. In response, citizens are considering booting him to the Really Rejected Realms.

Rejected Realms Army

The Rejected Realms Army has flourished of late under the command of Frattastan and Wopruthien, and nations flying the RRA flag have been involved in defences of a number of regions, including Capitalist Federation, Tibet, The New British Empire, The Great Green Federation, and The Republic of NationStates, as well as assisting in TSP's delegate transfer (and no, not in that way). The RRA Intel department remains fully active, and agent Onderkelkia continues to work his way up the ranks in The New Inquisition.

Fratt-naming

TRR is holding a competition to find the best nickname for delegate Frattastan. So far, we have:

• Frattle
• Frattiekins
• Fattiestan
• Fartastan
• Fratt boy
• Frattface

Feel free to post further submissions in this thread.
The best one will get mentioned in the next update.

Everything else

• Frattastan was appointed a Global Mod. So far he has failed to abuse his powers, leaving his peons worrying about just what he's got planned.
• Culture Officer Wopruthien has been running avatar/flag contests for a while now, with any resident being able to take part.

The winner of each week gets to choose the theme of the next one, with past themes including Disney villains, legends of modern music and historical characters.

• TRR's number one fanboy, Belschaft, has returned to apply for citizenship. We attempted to find out why, but he disappeared midway through answering.

IRC quote of the month

<@Asta> Kandyland yes
<@Asta> and Kandy's BBW
<@Asta> BBQ

Woo! I've already read this update elsewhere, but it just looks so damned good on here.

Thanks for posting it for us.

* Horse nods

Thanks, Camp!

Thanks, I look forward to posting a new update in a couple of months 

BTW, your own embassy has just opened up here: http://s8.zetaboards.com/The_RR_and_RRA/forum/3009364/

Excellent! We'll get started on writing our first dispatch soon.

Campinia is on a LoA, so I'm temporarily replacing him - only this time, to post this update.
Since it's a one-time thing, I decided I would avoid applying as ambassador.

Update no. 16, December 2013

Hallo? Hallo! Newly-elected Foreign Affairs Officer Guy here, with my first ever TRR update.

Officer Elections

In a response to inactivity by the previous crop of Officers, Delegate Frattastan proposed the holding of regular elections for the four positions. Officers are generally tasked with aiding the Delegate in his executive duties, with their roles being determined by him. Under the proposed amendment, drafted by Guy, elections are to be held every four months. The Amendment was carried without a lone objecting vote.

Previously, elections to the Officer positions, like the ones for all other political positions in the Realms, were conducted under the unique Challenge system under which an incumbent holds their office until they are successfully challenged by another citizen. Under the new system, while incumbent Officers may still be challenged, they will also have to face elections scheduled every April, August and December.

Wopruthien was the only Officer who sought to recontest his position in the first ever TRR Officer elections of the kind. Alongside him, citizens Unibot, Horse, Christian Democrats and Guy also vied for election to one of the four positions - meaning one was destined to miss out. Following a well-fought campaign, it was ultimately Horse who had to miss out, with voters turning to more familiar faces to the region - albeit some returning after a long bout of inactivity (or rather, activity elsewhere). The new crop of Officers, who all received the roles they requested from Frattastan, stands as follows:

* Christian Democrats (Internal Affairs)
* Guy (Foreign Affairs)
* Unibot (Media)
* Wopruthien (Culture)


Curbing the Delegate's Powers, ft. a new flag?

Surprisingly, that was not the only Constitutional Amendment passed. The Assembly reserved for itself the power to regulate the Delegate's usage of Regional Controls and WA actions, which was previously entirely within the Delegate's prerogative.

As TRRers sought to establish their regional flag in statute, the realisation that our current flag is quite an antique hit the citizenry. Calls were made to replace the low-resolution flag with a more modern version. None of the proposed flags garnered much support, as they did not quite capture the feel of TRR's old flag.

Eventually, the Assembly passed the Flag Act, enshrining our current regional flag as the official TRR flag and requiring the Delegate to fly it.



Think you can do better? Let us know!


Endotarters

TRR has attracted a wide range of new endotarters to the region, most notably the (not so) mysterious Liegeois. Despite imperialists' best efforts to invade the region, which included mass-TGing all World Assembly nations around the NS world stating that they must endorse Liegeois (and not endorse frattastan) in order to participate in a faux World Assembly conference, Liegeois' endorsement numbers quickly dwindled, even with the addition of foreign troops to back him up.


The Rejected Times restarted!

Following his election to Officer, Unibot resolved to quickly restart the Rejected Realms' media department. The first issue of the new Times was a great success, featuring commentary on the developments in Osiris, an interview with Dalimbar, and assorted regional and interregional news. At the time of writing, a special Christmas edition of the Times is in printing.

Probably recognising his knack towards inducing controversy, Frattastan was overheard threatening Unibot that his role will be changed to "Huggling Fratt" should he slip-up. We wish Unibot the best of luck in his role.


New Face on the Citizenship Council

In-line with TRR's complicated system for appointments to its Citizenship Council (I deserve a prize for it), the senior-most Officer Wopruthien nominated none other than Delegate Frattastan to replace Abbey on the Council, tasked with processing citizenship applications. Frattastan was confirmed by the Assembly with a 17-3 vote. During the confirmation process, some citizens were concerned with a potential conflict of interests for a Councillor to simultaneously hold the position of Delegate. Nevertheless, the citizenry generally believe that it is not an issue, and that Frattastan is the "best man for the job".


Osiris

The Rejected Realms has come to the decision to suspend diplomatic relations with Osiris, due to the political instability which it has been affected by in the past year. We hope that we may restore relations with Osiris soon, and wish it all the best in the meantime.


Rejected Realms Army

In spite of a slowdown in late December, overall RRA activity has increased since our last foreign update, with defenders from the Rejected Realms protecting several regions threatened by invaders (Antarctic Alliance, Antifascist Allstars, Galts Gulch, Sapientia, Middle Earth, Deep Space and Christmas to mention a few), helping the natives of The United States in a refound, and assisting our longtime allies in Lazarus on two occasions.

Following Lazarus's decision to establish a defender military, the Rejected Realms Army has also been the first group to cooperate with them, running a number of joint RRA-LLA missions during the minor update.

IRC quote

We haven't really been that funny recently. Abbey has been dumping lots of glitter on me.

Ack! My laziness has been exposed again! Must make embassies ambassador + Citizen only! Must make people spend a post filling out a form!

Seriously though, thanks for the update.

Springtime for Wintreath
An Interview with Wintermoot
JOE BOBS | INTERVIEW

The respected defender sat down with The Rejected Times for a rare interview...

Hi Wintermoot, thank you for agreeing to take part in this interview.

Thank you for this opportunity!

To begin, could you provide a few sentences to describe Wintreath for our readers who unfamiliar with the region, and a few sentences on your role within the region?

Wintreath was founded last October with the goal of being a less political and more cooperative community with a community focus. We have a regional government of course, but we emphasize culture and community over politicking, which make these elections all the more successful, in my opinion. I serve dual roles as both founder and Monarch, which is the Executive of the region, and I see my primary purpose in those roles as facilitating the growth of the region, leading in its direction, and guarding its principles and values.

The recent round of elections in Wintreath proved to be very exciting. There were elections for the Jarl of Culture, Jarl of Foreign Affairs, Jarl of Information, and the Underhusen. First, let’s look at Jarl of Culture. The candidates were Drexyl Nox, Reon and Govindia, with Drexyl Nox emerging victorious. There was relatively little debate around this position, why do you think this was? Do you feel it invalidates the authority of the position to a degree?

There are probably several reasons for this. Jarlships (Ministers) are usually positions which I appoint, and this is the first time we've tried to fill those positions with elections. The Ministry of Culture has been vacant since the region was founded, and many of our Citizens have never been part of another region, so there may have been some uncertainty about what the Ministry of Culture is supposed to do. I had planned on creating a guide to those ministries before the election, but unfortunately I had other stuff happen and I wasn't able to do so.

I don't believe it invalidates the authority of the position. Ultimately, the position reports to me, and I have complete faith in Drexyl Nox. She has been part of Wintreath since the day it was founded, and has created and ran two successful character roleplays in the region. I was also happy to see that she named one of her opponents, Reon, as Thane (Vice-Minister), so actually it's the best of two candidates for the region.

I agree, it’s great to see people work together for a region. It’s interesting that you say many citizens have little NationStates experience. How does the region integrate people into the community?

Other than the people that came over with me, the vast majority of our community are people that were recruited as new nations. In our recruitment message, we're very detailed in what we offer as a region, then in our welcome message we highly encourage our new nations to join the off-site forums and become Citizens, and give them information on how they can participate in the things that we advertise. We also put out occasional regional telegrams about what's going on in the region, or explaining some of the things they can do as residents and Citizens of the region.

Now that we have a full Cabinet, I would like to look at individual nations, see what they want to do in the region, and help them get where they want to be. That was the original plan when the region was founded, but we quickly had so many nations moving in it was impossible to talk to them all one-on-one at that point. I would also like to start a mentor program to better assist our new Citizens and get them involved in the areas of the region they want to be in.

Moving on to Jarl of Foreign Affairs, in which the nominees were Chanku, Harry McClain, Horse and Govindia, with Horse as the victor. The debates here became particularly ferocious, both in the official thread and Harry McClain’s campaign thread. What did you think of the conduct of the debate?

I thought it was a lively debate that was interesting to read through. Since it was Charax's position before he had to depart from NationStates, I was glad to see people actually putting in effort to succeed him. You had Horse running on his experience and knowledge of other regions, Chanku essentially pledging to adhere to our more regionalist policies, Harry McClain offering a different perspective and new ideas, and Govindia giving his at-times controversial views. I think the fact that Horse didn't win by quite as much of a landslide as people did in some of the other positions shows that the debate was very successful, and most of the candidates distinguished themselves well.

It was certainly a great debate to watch. I always flick through election threads in the regions I visit and this one really caught my eye. As you say, there were some views mentioned that may have been considered controversial by some. Do you think this could cause any issues through the coming months?

I would hope not, as clearly these were opinions given as individuals in a debate for political office and not statements from the government. Although some of the opinions expressed were controversial, our Citizens have a constitutional right to speak their opinions, and I would hope that would not raise any serious issues, especially now that that race is over.

On to Jarl of Information, candidates Chanku and Govindia, where Chanku gained a landslide win. Again, there was relatively little debate around this position. Why do you think this was? Do you think it is indicative of the prestige of the position?

This is another ministry that has been vacant since the region was founded, and there may be some uncertainty about what exactly it does and what the people running it could get out of it, given the lack of candidates that ran for this position compared to some of the others. In a way, it's a shame, because in fact this is probably one of the most important ministries in the region, responsible for news communications sent to the region and for guides that are advertised to new players in our recruitment messages. I hope now that it has an actual leader, the importance of the ministry will become more obvious to the region. Chanku was one the first people recruited to the region as a new player, and has a very versatile skillset. I'm sure he can make the ministry into a success.

And finally the Underhusen, for which five positions were contested by Alterra, Ceardia, Chanku, Drexyl Nox, Govindia, Old_Namibia, Weissreich, BlackTudorRose and Harry McClain (winners Chanku, Ceardia, Alterra, Weissreich and BlackTudorRose). The election ended with a tie for the fifth seat, resulting in a run-off election. Additionally, several candidates mentioned reforms for the Underhusen in their campaign speeches. Do you think this affects the Underhusen’s mandate; does the Underhusen have the faith of the region behind them?

I certainly hope so, since the purpose of the Underhusen is to represent the voice of the people. I think people have ideas for reforms in every region, and especially in a relatively new region. Any issues within the Underhusen are minor and will be resolved in time as our region gains more legislative experience. I don't see how it would affect their mandate or make people have less faith in them.

As you mention, the region is relatively young. What do you think has caused Wintreath to become such a large and active region in so short a space of time?

I think it's definitely the friends that came over with me. I just can't overstate the contributions of people like Charax, Insenjar, Denth Rowan/Kasten, Nox, Reon, Horse, and so many others that were there from the start. They were there to start the community, to help out new players that have since come to be a great part of the community, to get our foreign affairs, culture, and military in order, and so much more. You just can't run a large, expansive region by yourself, and I couldn't have been successful in leading Wintreath without them.

The election received a record number of 23 votes, a record for the region. This is surely a great vindication of democracy in Wintreath. Is there anything about the election process you would like to see changed in future?

On my end, I would like to do more of the work of organizing the election before it starts, particularly when it comes to ensuring our Citizens know what role each part of the government plays and with organizing debates. We could have had even higher turnout, but several Citizens declined to vote because they felt that they didn't know the candidates or their positions well enough to make an informed decision. Getting people more involved in the region in general would raise turnout as well, and I hope to do that now that we have leaders for the Ministries of Culture and Information.

It certainly sounds like there is a lot of opportunity to build on what you have already achieved! Thank you very much for this interview Wintermoot, we look forward to hearing more about Wintreath in future.

Hehe...thanks for the interview again!

Great interview!

Greetings! In line with our Embassy Overhaul, your embassy has been successfully converted into a consulate, preserving all previous posts that were in the embassy. Again, thanks for your understanding of our reasons behind the changes to our embassy structure.

Thanks for not closing for inactivity

Thought never crossed our minds.