Interview with Ravenclaw: The Makings of a New Osiris

[Unibot]

"Prosperity, Fresh Starts, Equal Opportunities" - The Makings of a New Osiris
INTERVIEW | UNIBOT

Unibot interviews Lord Ravenclaw, who has been newly elected as Osiris's new pharaoh.

Congratulations on the successful election - after you won, how did you feel?

Thank you, and it was nothing but shock - I knew that I'd be an important candidate in the election due to my history but winning it came as a complete surprise to me, as I was convinced that I would not win.

You've been a member of Osiris for sometime now, you were regularly a member of the Osiran cabinet before OFO - others involved in that regime haven't been nearly as trusted by OFO as you. So my question is... why? Why can OFO trust you?

It is because I have been there for that long, and they also know that I've experienced some horrific treatment whilst as part of the Osiran cabinet. When I was told about the OFO - about 10 minutes after Venico announced it by a frantic message spam from a member of the region, I came on thunderously (I was asleep and Steam was logged in on my phone for some reason) to confront Venico and Cormac over it. I was absolutely livid, if anyone has ever seen me truly angry you'll know that I do not mince words, and we had a very frank discussion over the reasons for WHY the OFO was needed, and by the end of it, I hadn't just agreed with him, I'd offered my services. After understanding his point of view and thinking about why we needed to fix Osiris, and start afresh, I decided that I would do whatever I could to help him... and then, eight hours later my choice was confirmed even more when I got called "a piece of shit" by Biyah.

I suppose that you could say that they can trust me, because we have a completely honest friendship, and as long as we treat each other as equals and don't attempt to play the same games that Osiris suffered from in the past, then that friendship will remain strong.

I think we've all learnt a lesson from that part of Osiris, and seeing what happened with Asta and how the situation was tightly controlled by one or two people was an eye-opener for me.

As a reporter, I've been covering The Empire for a long time and I have to say it was infuriating because Osiris has this fantastic way of building a kind of protective bubble around outside criticism -- any rumors were largely denied (even by detractors of The Empire). So when OFO came out, I and many others were really shocked to learn of the transgressions of The Empire in Osiris. I was wondering if you could give us a rare window into what it was really like to be a high-ranking member of Osiris at that time?

Under Empire? I'm surprised you aren't aware of my feelings when part of the cabinet. I served in the KRO's cabinet from October 2012 until July 2013 first as Deputy for Foreign Affairs under Lyanna Stark, and then as Minister under Mad Jack, and under that time I experienced my first real coup - Osiris by Empire in December, the rise and fall of SovCon, and the Socialist Republic of TSP by Milograd.

Politically: it was a very high stress role, and not always enjoyable. I have a sense of duty a mile wide, but at times it felt that I was deliberately excluded or left out of things, including cabinet discussions or given the wrong information to make me look a fool. Culturally: well I'd have to ask what culture? The only major RP Osiris had died very early on (early 2012) and attempts after that really made no headway. Our spam areas were active, but not many other areas of the region had any strong attempts at fun or enjoyment - there weren't enough things to reduce the massive amounts of tension in the region, and the things that were attempted didn't go very well and just caused more arguments.

Do you believe this is a new era for Osiris and if so, what defined the last era and what do you believe will define this new era?

This is most certainly a new era. The old era could be categorised with factionalism, decay, mistrust. Whilst so far the community appears to be more united than ever before, we've got a new constitution, an active RP scene, an active regional mapping project, with every aspect of the region working to build a better community for us all... so if I have to give a few things what the new era will be known for? Prosperity, Fresh Starts, Equal Opportunities.

What will be your main objectives for Osiris during this term?

I want to give Osiris a regional identity again, to give us a reason to be a community. I'll be focusing on culture - including a mapping project which I hope will see us gain a new, interactive map which will link to the various cities we use in Osiris. I've also started work on a house and guilds system, which will be used to promote internal aspects of Osiran culture and give more things to get involved with in the region. The next priority will be Security, namely the setting up of a new regional security council to guard the delegacy in-game from any threats as well as working internally to keep our forum and community safe from those seeking to harm us. Finally, I plan to focus on integration - alongside the plans in Culture, to work on recruiting new people to our community from the region, and giving them reasons to say. In the past two days we've already seen two people join the community who have been long standing residents of the region but were put off by all the strife in the past.

Will your competitors, Hileville and Cameron, in the last election, play a role in your future government?

Hileville is already Scribe of Integration, and is in the process of being confirmed. He was originally appointed by Venico but has agreed to remain in his role. Cameron is working on a roleplay in The Honoured City of Giza and I hope that he continues to contribute well to Osiris.

You said you wanted Osiris to have a regional identity - what did you have in mind with this?

Well the primary aim is to work on actually being consistent to the Egyptian theme, the old forum was a mash of Arabic, Egyptian, English and various other titles, which made it difficult to navigate at times. Osiris as a community needs to have a shared identity which unifies us, I believe that the best way of doing that is by shared values, in this case, dedication, a sense of achievement, determination to improve, and to remain a welcoming community where everyone can be accepted into the fold regardless of their alignment, or views that they hold. I'd like to see a unified Osiris and from what I can tell, we're already on the road to being stronger than Old Osiris ever was under the KRO. The best ways to promote the regional identity I feel are to continue what we are already doing - working hard in every area of our region to change how we seen by some in NationStates "as the failed sinker" or "Empires pawn", which may have been true in the past, but is not anymore, we need to focus on what we've achieved, and where we can go from this - and that means giving things Osirans can be proud of, and that is what I want to do, and will be doing when I am Pharaoh of Osiris.

I bring it up because a common criticism of the KRO was that Osiran culture was deferential and inward. I'm wondering if you see that criticism as legitimate and if so, how do you plan to go about realizing the regional identity in a different way?

Yes, I'd agree with that. You tended to keep your mouth shut when someone who was more respected than you decided something wasn't going to happen, and for the most part you knew that if you did step out of line and weren't part of that persons faction, there'd be trouble. It was very deferential, especially to our celebrity leaders and there were personality cults which developed around our executive, and it was very much like a shadowy game of "jockey for power", with the result of being ostracized if it was ever revealed that someone who was "outside of that group" was even considering running for any position of power. As for whether the culture on deferring to the Pharaoh on everything was bad, that depends on your ego I suppose, I don't want people to go "HAIL Raven" every time I enter a channel, I don't want people to not give their views to me because I'm the Pharaoh, in fact the opposite is true - I want peoples views of how we're doing BECAUSE I am the Pharaoh. I cannot decide the path for Osiris on my own, and nor would I wish to, and that is why we have a community, a regional government - and legislature that will have a say in how Osiris progresses. I view it as the sign of respect - honest communication throughout the region designed to help us all work better and for me, or my successors, to decide what is working and what isn't working and make changes accordingly to ensure Osiris continues to prosper - as any leader should.

Are there still fears of retaliation from The Empire? Or has the threat subsided?

I'd like to say that the threat has subsided but at this time, I do not feel that I can give an adequate answer. The situation is being monitored. And we will continue to do so for the coming months. It is not in Empire's nature to give up, although I've spoken to Dali amicably recently, and NK has refused to have anything to do with Osiris at present to my knowledge.

It must be worrying though when a player like Biyah seems to have gone off the map, so to speak?

He hasn't gone off the map, he reappeared on IRC last night, so we're definitely watching closely. I just hope that his choice of channels didn't indicate his next target.

What channel did he join, out of curiosity?

The South Pacific.

Yikes! Well, on the subject of a different kind of threat: VF has been caught insulting Osiris and other sinkers with some controversial ad campaigns. How can we expect Osiris to respond?

We are consulting with our fellow sinkers on appropriate methods to respond. I am incredibly amused at the tactics that they have resorted to, and think that they must have nothing better to do than insult various governments who have done nothing to deserve their scorn.

As a diplomat, rule 1 should be not to pick a fight. It seems that their own diplomacy training is lacking somewhat, and I am considering sending them a guide on how to be a diplomat.

Well, thank you so much for the interview, Ravenclaw. I wish you well on your term. Good luck. It was pleasure talking with you. If you have any final remarks for our readers, you have the floor!

Thank you Unibot, it's been an interesting event. Over the next few months I want to rebuild Osiris, and I want to let the other regions who have assisted us so much over the last month and a half know that not just I, but Osiris itself is extremely grateful for the help they have given us to ensure that we are free of Empire and can begin to plot our own course from now on.

[Bhang Bhang Duc]

Good article - shame it appears that there is some discord suddenly appearing again in the region.

[Westwind]

Biyah is not the only one that's been noticing popping up in TSP.

[Consular]

Anyone else see VF insult half the world in gameplay?

[Charax]

VF are imbeciles. They don't really know any better.

[Eli]

VF?

[Westwind]

Versutian Federation (Delegate: The Black Hat Guy)

 

They tend to remind me of the arrogance of Capitalist Paradise.

[Charax]

Accept without the coding skills or brevity to make them of any use to the world.

[Eli]

yeah those folks are a pain no doubt