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Hello everyone, I'm Furnifold, The East Pacific's Ambassador to your beautiful region. 

Two news updates are coming your way!

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The East Pacific News Service

November 22, 2017

 

Xoriet, Delegate of The East Pacific from late 2014 to early 2015, and former Overseering Officer of the Eastern Pacific Sovereign Army (EPSA), officially announced her departure from NationStates on November 11, 2017.

 

Xoriet explained why she abruptly left, citing personal circumstances, and gave a farewell. Later, she gave her farewell to the Regional Message Board of TEP.

 

Before Xoriet left, citizen Ramaeus nominated Xoriet for honorary citizenship. However, after considering that Xoriet, at the time, had no indication of returning to TEP, it was concluded that entry into the Hall of Heroes was the best way to honor Xoriet.

 

Xoriet returned to give a formal goodbye to everyone on NS, and in an RMB post described TEP as “the best,” with many in TEP expressing their goodbyes one last time.

 

Xoriet was inducted into the Hall of Heroes for her outstanding contributions to The East Pacific, and we in the EPNS hopes that she has a wonderful life ahead of her.

 

What is Going on in the Government?

The regional government in TEP has been rather active following the months after summer, and TEP has become the 2nd most populous region in NationStates.

 

TEP’s growth ingame has been attributed to the reintroduction of a welcome telegram, and to officials that are active on the Regional Message Board encouraging users to not leave to other regions.

 

In the Magisterium, after Respublika Bielarus became Provost, 7 more Magisters have joined the Magisterium, altogether a record 24 Magisters. Additionally, among others, Xoriet was inducted into the Hall of Heroes (see A Farewell to Xoriet), Elfine was confirmed as Overseering Officer of EPSA and EPPS, Greyghost was confirmed as Vizier (see Greyghost Appointed as Vizier), and the Amendment to Article A, Section 3 of the Concordat passed the Magisterium (see Concordat Amendment at Vote)

 

In the Conclave, Viceroy Dali went AWOL after suspending citizenship applications on August 27th, 2017 pending a citizenship audit. Yuno quickly got together volunteers to help do the citizenship audit, finishing it almost a month later on September 23rd, 2017.

 

Viceroy Dali was later removed for inactivity by the Magisterium and was replaced by Arbiter Hobbes, accompanied by Aelitia (whose seat was renewed) and Aeneas Prime (AKA Cain, replacing Yuno’s seat after Yuno became Delegate). After A Slanted Black Stripe declined a second term as Arbiter, their seat was taken by Halo. Aelitia was chosen to be the Viceroy.

 

The Conclave was notified of a problem - something that could have been disastrous to the new TEP executive - a citizen by the name of Tiber Septim had leaked allegedly sensitive and defamatory information (see Tiber in Trouble). Aelitia was selected as Presiding Arbiter, and a Pre-Trial was scheduled. The Conclave deliberated, and a full trial of TEP v. Tiber Septim was certified under two counts of treason.

 

In the Executive, government activity was buzzing after a long hiatus. Starting with Mexregiona’s rousing campaign, Mexregiona immediately filled the Cabinet with willing TEPers. However, Mexregiona unfortunately could not take the in-game Delegate seat, and went under a hiatus before eventually resigning, leaving Aelitia Acting Delegate, until Yuno was elected.

 

For the first time in recent times, the University of the East Pacific was accepting applications, with classes in TEP civics and a guide to R/D.

 

Concordat Amendment at Vote

On November 18, Viceroy Aelitia officially brought a proposed Concordat amendment at vote in a citizen referendum.

 

The amendment, which passed the Magisterium in an 11-4 vote, proposed the removal of a clause which stated that the Delegate had to represent the popular will in the World Assembly.

 

Before the amendment was proposed, there was a discussion about the role of the Delegate in the World Assembly, due to a string of WA resolutions that many nations voted for. These votes were attributed to an attractive title, though the resolutions themselves would later be repealed for an alleged lack of substance to them. The Delegate was often forced to vote for them, even though many users who read the resolution’s main contents raised many an objection, including the misspelling of the word “recognizing” as “regognizing [sic].”

 

Additionally, some proponents were concerned that the Delegate’s vote was decided by member WA nations who were not actively participating in TEP’s community. They believed it best if the Delegate’s vote was determined by the citizens’ WA vote, or if the Delegate chose how to vote themselves.

 

Some of the older, more experienced members of the community, like A Slanted Black Stripe and Bachtendekuppen, raised objections about the amendment. ASBS, most well known for liberating TEP from the Empire, wrote that “Lady Phedre [the illegitimate delegate under the Empire] skipped a lot of votes. The goal was to require the Delegate to do their job.”

 

Eventually, it could all be summed up to this question that ASBS phrased. “Is the Delegate elected to serve the region or lead the region?” And that question would be answered by the citizens’ vote on November 25th.

 

Tiber in Trouble

A user named Tiber Septim, who joined TEP on September 20, 2017, is facing two charges of treason and the Conclave issued an arrest warrant against them.

 

The trouble began almost immediately after Tiber Septim joined. They applied for citizenship immediately after joining the forum. Then, they made a few comments, and then applied to the Magisterium only five days after they joined the forum.

 

This did not go particularly well with then-Provost The Atlae Isles, but due to some heavy rules-lawyering, his application was accepted. When, in Tiber's Magister Candidacy thread, Then-Deputy Provost (now Provost) Republiska Bielarus inquired on Tiber's experience, Tiber tried to explain his plans for the Magisterium and sent PMs to Magisters imploring them to vote for him. However, due to lack of experience, many Magisters voted nay on his admission. Only 17 hours after the vote opened, Tiber sent a forum PM to then-Provost Atlae withdrawing their application.

 

Things mostly settled down after that. Tiber Septim joined the East Pacific Police Service, and applied to join the Ambassador Corps (Minister of Foreign Affairs Atlae did not respond), but trouble was brewing behind the scenes.

 

On October 19, Tiber released sensitive information. It was damning, questioning Yuno’s support in her Cabinet and various shady foreign affairs deals. The unedited version may be found in the pre-trial. Players who read the post responded negatively, culminating in Big Bad Badger outright accusing that Tiber was the leaker. One of those players was Altino, who said she would report Tiber’s activities to Osiris, where Tiber held a position. Tiber edited out the info on the post, and then used his main account to say that that statement is defamatory, and that he was immune, because he was in the EPPS. He renounced his citizenship from TEP and Osiris shortly afterwards. His account was banned from the Osiran regional forum shortly after.

 

Six days later, on October 25, the Delegate, Yuno, presented charges against Tiber Septim. In the resulting pre-trial, the charge of sedition was dropped, but the two other charges of committing treason was brought to trial.

 

However, Tiber Septim did not show up in his allotted time, so an arrest warrant was issued against him. Tiber’s nations were found to be deleted, and was possibly a Delete on Sight player.

 

Greyghost appointed as Vizier

Greyghost, former Overseeing Officer of the East Pacific Sovereign Army, was confirmed as Vizier by the Magisterium on November 17, 2017.

 

Greyghost, who resigned as Overseeing Officer of EPSA and EPPS on October 1, was later replaced by General Elfine.

 

On October 27, Yuno nominated Greyghost as Vizier, and the notion was brought to vote on November 10. Greyhost was confirmed as Vizier by an unanimous vote, bringing up the current amount of Viziers to 6.

 

Her addition was very popular among the Magisters, but some were concerned over the fact that the Regional Officer spots were at full capacity, so some Regional Officers offered to give up their posts.

 

Greyghost was glad to be nominated as Vizier, and now serves as a protector of the region.

 

Roleplay News

Roleplaying has been a vibrant activity and has played an important role in TEP. Here’s some of the things that has happened in said roleplay:

 

The Fire Pact Alliance has invaded the nation of Adumara, and after a terrorist attack in South Hills, South Hills is giving the FPA 72 hours to remove the terrorists from some islands.

 

The nation of Emberwood Coast invited various nations to a summit, which involves nuclear disarmament, counter-terrorism, and world peace. Multiple nations are attending.

 

A company in Free Syllvin, Dirt Cheap, is selling armaments from a catalog at a discount. Many nations have taken the chance to get weapons and military vehicles at a decreased price.

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The East Pacific News Service

December 31, 2017

 

A Message From the Delegate

By Yuno

Hai TEP! Feels weird to be writing something for the New Years release! Especially as your delegate. As you know this year we’ve done so much! We’ve been hiring an increasing amount of citizens when you look at the past years. Our Executive ministers are now more active than ever! With replacements lined up in order to keep them active. The transition to having myself as the Delegate was clean and easy thankfully! And lastly I’ve speared the full setup of having an Executive Government where confirmed citizens of TEP have the chance to get involved in one of our ministries to help progress our region!

 

I hope you all have a lovely New Year!

 

2017: A Year in Review

By The Atlae Isles

2017 was a busy year for The East Pacific, let’s take a look at what happened that year.

At the beginning of the year, Todd McCloud was Acting Delegate after the elected Delegate Aelitia was removed by the Viziers upon suspicions between Aelitia and another citizen. The suspicions were determined to be without merit and the removal was successfully appealed; leading to the re-assumption of the seat on February 8th. As Delegate, Aelitia issued 14 Executive Orders in total. Shortly after on March 15th issues arose with East Malaysia, a forum admin and a long-time resident in TEP was banjected due to surpassing the endocap, Aelitia received backlash before the Delegate election in which the incumbent Aelitia was defeated by the then-Viceroy Hobbes.

 

After overseeing the original N-Day on April 1st, Hobbes assumed the Delegacy April 27th. Hobbes first removed the East Pacific from CAIN (Coalition Against the Ideology of Nazism), calling into question the organization’s objectives. Hobbes then signed the Endorsement Caps Act, repealing the Simplified Endorsement Cap Act (Third Amendment), which was used in the unpopular enforcement of East Malaysia’s (temporary) ban from the East Pacific. Hobbes did not sign any executive orders, but he did develop the foreign affairs of the East Pacific, signing the Mutual Aid Treaty Between The Sovereign East Pacific and The Independent Order and the Best Pacifics Treaty between the East Pacific and the West Pacific.

 

In July, Mexregiona (also known as Mex) was elected Delegate. Although he never fully assumed the Delegate seat, Mex began the reconstruction of the East Pacific’s Executive, appointing many new players into government positions, and the University of the East Pacific (UTEP) was re-established under the Fourth Education Act. However, on August 15th, Mex found that he could not manage the Delegacy due to a lack of time, and resigned the Delegacy, so Aelitia, a Vizier, succeeding him in acting as in-game Delegate.

 

Then-Viceroy Dalimbar commenced a citizenship audit but disappeared before it was completed. Fellow then-Arbiter Yuno, among others, began finishing the citizenship audit after two weeks. A new Delegate election commenced in September, where Yuno defeated The Oan Isles and Aelitia in the election.

 

Yuno, as Delegate, re-organized the Executive originally set by Mex (see Executive Office Changes) and raised the endocap from 150 if one endorsed the Delegate and, 15 if they didn’t, to 200 if one endorsed the Delegate, and 20 if they didn’t. Article A, Section 3 of the Concordat was also amended, giving the Delegate the prerogative over World Assembly votes rather than being chained to the arbitrary will of non-citizens. Yuno has issued two Executive Orders and opened an Executive Internal Activities Thread in the name of transparency following the contested transfer of the regional Discord server.

 

2017 (12017 H.E./3754 A.A.) was also a busy year in our favorite roleplay community. After the consequences of the Four Days’ War, the SEPC (South-East Pacific Coalition)’s membership grew in size and reconciled with the FPA (Fire Pact Alliance), which it had fought against in the Four Days’ War, and grew in power.

 

Meanwhile, in the nation of Laitianburg, terrorists calling themselves “Al-Jaheed” took control of several territories, instilling a brutal regime of terror. When the organization metastasized to the islands of Yor located south of Aurora, the government of Xagrurg, as well as some other nations, deployed forces.

 

The unhappy military, disillusioned with a long conflict in the islands, as well as problematic government spending, launched a coup, causing the government of the Republic of Xagrurg to flee to Yor and the Greater Xagrurgian Empire (GXE) to be established. The Staynish-Caltharusian Empire (SCE), as well as its allies, then declared war on Xagrurg, launching the Auroran-Pacific War, which was far longer, far more costly, and far more widespread than the Four Days War.

 

Shortly afterwards, Rurik Lukin in Stratarin, an SEPC nation, was assassinated, allowing Mikhail Starikov to seize power from then-Premier Viktor Drugov and eventually lead to the fracture of the SEPC. Xagrurg invaded Kostoria-Obertonia and Yor, the Atlantian island nations of Charton, Kerlington, Liber Yourvus, and Minedestives declared war on the Atlae Isles, and the SCE invaded Ethalria after the assassination of the Staynish crown prince, Thadeus.

 

The war did not turn out well for Ethalria and the Atlantian nations that fought the Atlae Isles, Tretrid, Kuthernburg, and Nacata. After a bombing of the Atlaesian naval base of Fort Mercer, the Kerlingtonian Head of State, Viktor Borisyovich, was assassinated, leading to the inept Heinrich von Stadt to take power. Shortly afterwards, the Chartonian Carrier Fleet was completely defeated by the Tretridian and the Atlaesian navy in the aptly-named Operation Payday. Xagrurg and Kostromastan (which had declared its allegiance to the GXE) made peace with its allies, while the Ethalrian capital of Rivendell fell, and its Matriarch, Amalda Harriman, disappeared. Ethalria fractured into smaller states not a long time afterward.

 

After the end of the Auroran-Pacific War, which had lead to the Auroran Union (AU) to splinter off the Auroran Continental Assembly (ACA), and the Atlantian Alliance (AA) to form from former SEPC nations located in Atlantia.  In light of this, the nation of Emberwood Coast held a meeting about counterterrorism and Auroran reconciliation, located in the capital city of Aura, which was the city where negotiations ended the Four Days War one year earlier.

 

An Interview with Overseeing Officer Elfine

By Tretrid

The following is a transcript of an interview I conducted with the Overseeing Officer of the East Pacific Sovereign Army, General Elfine:

Tretrid: For starters, are you generally satisfied with the current direction of the EPSA? Why or why not?

 

Elfine: I can say with certainty that I'm satisfied with how EPSA is being run at this time. However, there's still a myriad of changes the organization needs to go through to truly reach its potential. Going into 2018, I should like to see half of our troops being able to effectively trigger and lead ops, and a quarter of those troops in commanding positions.

 

Tretrid: If there was something EPSA needed to improve on, what would it be?

 

Elfine: Activity. We've had quite a few good ops over the past couple months, but I'm looking for operations that'll happen on every other day. Of course, getting to that stage is gonna take time and a load of manpower, but I know it's an achievable goal for the agency to reach.

 

Tretrid: What impact do you think Yuno's delegacy has had on the EPSA?

 

Elfine: Admittedly, as I wasn't a resident of TEP before Yuno, I can't pass comment on how it was before she came. However, Yuno's heavily promoted it, giving all of our troops opportunities to speak their minds, and allowing the higher-ups freedom in what they wanted to implement. She even went so far as to TG the entire region about our existence! So I'd say she's been great for EPSA.

 

Tretrid: What are your future plans for EPSA?

 

Elfine: Work on expansion and troop relations, mainly.

 

Tretrid: Will you continue letting the EPSA work closely with TWPAF?

 

Elfine: They're LIT and we're staying with 'em because we benefit from it so do they....I think. Maybe.

 

Tretrid: Do you have anything to say about The Black Hawks' latest record of 255 tags last major update?

 

Elfine: It was seriously impressive. I doubt many people on NS could match that if they tried, and it's nice to see that something came out of the Moneyness drama.

 

Tretrid: And finally, is there anything you would like to say to the readers of EPNS?

 

Elfine: JOIN EPSA AND YOU WILL BE MY SLAVES. AND WE WILL HIT REGIONS AND MAKE SWEET SWEET LOVE TO THE NATIVES. IN THE NAME OF YOUR LEWD AND SAVIOUR, AMEN.

 

Changes to Various Executive Offices

By Pendragonania

With the growth of the TEP member base, the Executive has seen new changes, new expansion, and new leadership. Recently,  we’ve had TEP’s Foreign Affairs Ministry revamped, with Cain now leading the Ministry. He has the following to say about his new ministry and what they’ve been up too:

 

The EPNS has also seen the merger of TEP’s radio channel into EPNS. Pendragonania, former radio chief, now works as the acting Deputy Minister of EPNS.

 

As a result of Cain moving into managing Foreign Affairs, he has left his previous post in the Ministry of Design absent, and replacing him as the Head of Design is Ike. Ike is an individual known for amazing design projects, immersive graphics, and creating flags for lucky TEP nations. It’s no question that Ike will be well-established in his new post, and will push the boundaries of TEP’s design to places that we’ve never imagined.

 

The Ministry of Immigration has had administrative changes, with Wonder Woman taking over as Minister and installing Pakitsk as her Deputy Minister. The duo has been toiling to revitalize the Immigration services to be made as efficient and effective as possible. Wonder Woman had this to say when we asked her for any commentary:

“From myself and Pakitsk, we here at the Ministry of Immigration wish you a Happy New Year! Our office is always open! I like to thank Yuno for giving me this opportunity, and I can't wait to see what 2018 has in store for TEP!!”

 

Final Words for the Year

By Pendragonania

2017 has brought a lot of change, for both the good and the bad. It’s another year where we all grow closer, working together to help support our region and reach achievements that are only possible with our collaboration. What 2017 may mean to each of you will be different, as every one of us has different experiences that we’ve had over the last 365 days. Some of us have endured hardships or encountered obstacles, while others may have been successful or experienced a pinnacle of life. However, we all share our community, the friends that we can share our experiences with, and the regions we call home. You may have spent your holiday season wrapped up warm with family, or with few and possibly alone. In looking back upon the year, it’s best not to linger on the events which anguish you, but rather celebrate what has gone right, and appreciate what truly matters. No matter the circumstances, New Year’s Day is for looking forward, for putting the past behind you and ensuring your previous successes only continue.
 

We wish you all the best, and until next time. Stay safe TEP!




 




 

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  • 3 months later...

Apologies for the delay; but here's Furni with TEP's news!

 

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The East Pacific News Service
March 31st, 2018

A Message From the Minister
By Pendragonania

Heya folks it has been an awful long time since I had one of these issues made up and published. For that I am sorry, however in the last three months since our new years edition a lot of exciting stuff has happened here in TEP. Below we will break it down in step by step but a quick summary for you all here; Yuno's been reelected as the delegate, Respublika Bielarus stepped down from Provost and in his place now stands Asendavia, we have two new Vizers in the form of Drachen and Cain, TEP had a region wide April Fools prank in the form of the SC resolution to liberate a 'coup' within TEP (which by the way was a prank, we hope some of you at least had fun).

Now for the fun stuff going on inside the News Service. We've dropped the idea of a radio being made for now, we don't believe that it is going to be practical to have such a thing at this stage. We're recruiting more people and standardising our application into the Executive Staff application made by our darling Queen Yuno. We're trying to push activity and having people join us to allow us to do more regular updates, which is great for everyone. We understand not everyone has the time to check the various discords and the RMB every day, so a lot can be missed so we hope in the future we can do weekly updates for those who miss a lot.


Delegate Elections
By Pendragonania

In these most recent elections the following individuals were nominated; 

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Out of these candidates the following made it to the ballot; Queen Yuno, Pax, Trukya, Marilyn Manson and Emperor Green II. Voting lasted four days for the first round however in an overwhelming shock victory one round was all it took for Yuno to take victory. Yuno won with an majority of 86.7% of the votes cast. Although with such an awesome delegate we kind of saw it coming.

Here is what Yuno had to say about her reelection;
Hai! You know it feels weird being here again to say something to you all as delegate, its been a fun six months so far and here's to more fun times to go! It honestly feels amazing that so many of you out there support me and what I am doing as Delegate and the only thing I can think to say here besides thank you, is I hope this next term brings so many more happy memories and an ever expanding Executive Staff team!


Farewell to Respublika Bielarus
By Pendragonania

Originally having joined the Magisterium in August of 2016, and then again in November 2016, Respublika quickly gained the respect of the people within the Magisterium. This was noted by many voters during his November Re Admission vote. Finally in January of 2017 Republika was elected as the Provost. And through sheer dedication we honestly believe he managed to expand the Magisterium from only a few members, to well over 20 which it currently stands at today. An honestly impressive task. Unfortunately a year after he was elected Respublika decided it was time to hand in the towel, shortly after being reelected in the January elections, he stepped down in February. In his time he made many friends in the Magisterium and was dedicated to the role he had, but like all great things they have to end at some point. 

We hope to see him return some day, however the Magisterium has been put into capable hands in the form of Asendavia;


Updates from the Roleplay team
By Furnifold

Stuff from the Roleplay team

Hey! The Roleplay Moderation would like to recognise the following great contributions to TEP Evolved (off site forum) roleplay:
Best Roleplayer goes to Neueburg
Best Roleplay goes to Decimation Book I: the Sanguine Horde (one player RP by Masuicca) and In the Wrong Hands (one player RP by The Three States of Fortuna)
Best News Broadcast goes to Fernsehfunk der VRN by Neueburg
Best Character goes to Queen Lilith by Queen Yuno

We would like to welcome Neueburg and Luthoayae to the roleplay community. 

If you want to join T.E.P. roleplay follow this easy steps: 
Apply for citizenship (http://forum.theeastpacific.com/topic/7015830/)
Apply for a place on the map (http://forum.theeastpacific.com/topic/5231687/23/)
Join our chat group on Discord (https://discord.gg/55RkAKJ)

For any further information read these resources:
Intro to TEP Evolved Roleplay https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=918273
Roleplay Guidelines (http://forum.theeastpacific.com/topic/986286/)
Cartographer's Guide to Map Claims and Rules (http://forum.theeastpacific.com/topic/7011090/)

Please contact the following players for assistance: Free Syllvin, Fortuna, Emberwood Coast, Hobbes and Furnifold.

We hope to hear from you!
The Roleplay Team


Induction of Cain as a vizer
By Pendragonania

Recently the Magisterium voted to add Cain to the team of vizers. Cain has a nation called Aeneas Prime and has been involved in the Executive Staff team for a long time now. The funny thing was he was who got me involved in the ES when I returned to TEP after 4 years so it feels great to be able to induct him into the hall of trusted members. Here is what he had to said,

 

NationStates has been a passion of mine going on 15 years. During that time I have been involved in a myriad of regions and organizations covering almost every aspect of the game proper. When I have been actively playing, my primary concern has been focusing on the people that drive everything forward. My fellow NSers. Thus, when I am a member of government, regional leadership, or that of being apart of a group of community leaders like I believe many have categorized me in with regards to The East Pacific, I use all that I know and have learned in-game to help as well as protect my community. I see it as a responsibility of those whom have the know how and capability to act to ensure that it is, and to the letter. Being nominated by Delegate Yuno came honestly as a surprise, but not in the way that most would expect. Time has honestly flew right past me. Sure, we have had battles in The East Pacific and have ran into some rocky patches during her first term in office, but I believe that we all signed up for this. Our only goal - my only goal, continues to be to ensure that TEP is able to achieve its full potential and that those within our region feel that they are apart of an intricate apparatus where they can directly affect change and have their voice heard respectively. To this end, I am both honored and humbled by the region that I have chosen to call home. I am glad that I decided to come back to the game in Fall of last year despite significant RL events that were then on-going consuming much of my time and energy. I hope that I can continue to honor the values and virtues that our community represents well into the future. 

Thank you. I love you all

Aeneas Prime AKA Cain


Induction of Drachen as a vizer
By Pendragonania


So far this year we have seen two new vizers be appointed to the region. Like Cain, Drachen, serves in various ministries within the region. She also manages most of the discord servers within TEP, no small task to do each day. Like with Cain I wont comment much here, but here is what she has to say;

My becoming Vizier was certainly something I would have never anticipated, even in the recent months. I cannot say how grateful I am to the Loligarch for believing in me so much to have not only afforded me all these other roles within the executive but also nominated me for one the region's most important positions. It truly feels as if I have joined some exclusive club of protectors whose membership will be recorded and remembered years down the road. It's nothing less of an honor. 

While it doesn't seem like I'll ever get to exercise my power as Vizier, which is fine by me because that would mean the region is facing a rouge delegate, I respect the position and the duty I have been given, Should the unfortunate moment ever come where TEP is threatened at the highest level, I will be there.


April Fools in TEP
By Pendragonania

So its hard to not speak about the elephant in the room, the coup d'etat. So what actually was it? The whole thing started when the SC published a liberate East Pacific resolution. So in the spirit of fun Queen Yuno took it upon herself to have some fun with the idea. Being good sports to make it more believable the RO was 'purged'. Which included at first the removal of Todd McCloud, Bachtendekuppen, and Aelitia Astor. Then in a way to try make it more realistic, I played the part of someone who was going to clamp down on it all and portrayed as a traitor and left the RO. Todd was restored afterwards as a show of loyalty for exposing myself. The Concordat was removed and replaced with the ELO (Eastern Loligarch Order). A few days went on it was becoming clear that it was getting out of hand. Insults were being thrown around on the RMB and the region started haemorrhaging endorsements and memberstates. This is when we decided to cut it short and highlight the fact it was merely a joke. The original idea was to reveal it on April Fools.

I'd like to take this time to officially apologise on behalf of the entire cabinet of ministers to all those negatively effected by this. We are back to a friendly democratic nation and we hope that if people who see this left the region, we are happy to have you back. We miss you <3

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  • 5 months later...
  • 7 months later...

Ack, so Isorta made a mistake.

 

Davelands (the dude y'all love) is still your ambassador! In my haste to establish in all the GCRs, I didn't check if we had someone here or not.

 

I'll still remain here and join the Discord as a backup should Dave be absent in the future, and I'm fine being demasked as ambassador if nessecary.

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  • 9 months later...

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The East Pacific News Service

February 29, 2020

Marrabuk Elected to Second Term as Delegate

 

By Tretrid

 

On February 15, Viceroy Zukchiva officially declared that Marrabuk had been elected to a second term as Delegate. Marrabuk’s first term started off with the turbulent end of the elections on October of 2019, when the Conclave was forced to postpone declaring the election results due to complaints made by Davelands concerning the election. However, in the last round of the instant-runoff vote, Marrabuk defeated Davelands by 8 votes. Marrabuk’s tenure got even more interesting after the outgoing Delegate, Fedele, attempted to coup the East Pacific. Marrabuk immediately got to work, writing a statement telling the nations of TEP to unendorse Fedele. The day after Fedele commenced the coup, he had been removed and replaced by Vizier Aelitia.

Things started to go back to some semblance of normalcy after that. The Delegate-elect finally became Delegate after the Delegacy spent some time flipping between the Viziers Bachtendekuppen and Aelitia. Marrabuk had put together a cabinet almost as soon as he was elected, even as the coup was commencing, to fulfill his plan to revitalize the Executive.

However, those events had passed. Four months later, Delegate elections were once again on the horizon. The Conclave ran the Nomination period from February 7 to February 13.

Nominee Response
Todd McCloud Nominated, Accepted
East Malaysia Nominated, Declined
Algerstonian Leader

Nominated, Declined

Pakitsk

Nominated, Declined

Marrabuk

Nominated, Accepted

McStooley

Nominated, Accepted

A Mean Old Man

Nominated, Accepted

Ramaeus

Nominated, Accepted

Zukchiva Nominated, Declined
Tretrid Nominated, Declined
VW53a Nominated, Declined
Atlae Nominated, Declined
Bachtendekuppen Nominated, Declined
Libertanny Nominated, Accepted
Angel of Charity Nominated, Declined
Rage Mage Nominated, Accepted
Sakana Nominated, Declined
Wallenburg Nominated, Declined
Polandball7878 Self-Nominated, Seconded
Asendavia Nominated, Declined

(Editor’s Note: Nominations that were not responded to were interpreted as declined.)

Of the 21 to be nominated, 7 of them went onto the ballot. They were A mean old man, Libertanny, Marrabuk, McStooley, Polandball7878, Rage Mage, and Ramaeus.

One of the pressing issues of this election cycle was the matter of unity. Over the past 2 years, the RMB grew into a large community of roleplayers. They grew independently of the forums, and so were something entirely different from the already well-established forums. There was an animosity between the two communities under the administrations of Yuno and Fedele, but the efforts of Marrabuk, an RMB personality even before being elected Delegate, helped mend relations.

Several of the candidates addressed the issue of reconciling the RMB and forums. The incumbent, Marrabuk, doubled down on the slogan of “Our region, our home, our family.” He stated that relations between the forums and RMBers were better than they were under Fedele, and touted the idea that “at the end of the day we all belong to TEP and we should always have each other’s back.”

Other candidates had other ideas on how to best deal with the RMB. Rage Mage suggested prioritizing the RMB and using the forums mainly for government work, like “office buildings that are in another part of town.”

Four former delegates, A mean old man, Todd McCloud, McStooley, and Ramaeus were in the election. Although Ramaeus ran a joke campaign centered on becoming an AI overlord, A mean old man and Todd McCloud ran on ambitious platforms. However, after A Slanted Black Stripe (best known for saving TEP from the Empire back in 2008) asked the candidates why replacing Marrabuk was the best route going forwards, Todd McCloud suspended his campaign, essentially dropping out of the race.

 

Delegate_Elections_February_2020_Results

 

The voting period lasted from February 13 to February 15. After 34 votes and only 1 round of voting, Marrabuk won with a 20-vote margin.

Marrabuk has since reorganized the Cabinet, merged the Ministry of Manpower with the Ministry of Immigration, joined the Ministry of RMB Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, and expanded the scope of the Ministry of Information and Communications.

 

Slatos Angers TEP and TNP, Gets Region Raided

By Atlae

The saga all began with a nation named Slatos. After numerous complaints of flamebaiting, OOC drama, ban evasion, and harassment, it was banned and ejected from The East Pacific. The End.

Of course, this is not where the story concludes. It soon came to light that although Slatos was banned from the region, it had successfully infiltrated the region under the alias “Meddacah.” It had gained citizenship and joined the regional legislature, the Magisterium. A group of dedicated RMB RPers collected detailed evidence about the link between Meddacah and Slatos, eventually confirmed by a matching IP address on the TNP forums, where Slatos had placed the main nation.

Because Meddacah was a citizen of the East Pacific, a Public Conciliation Panel was held on February 4th to question the status of its citizenship. However, the nation Meddacah then left The East Pacific, automatically forfeiting its citizenship. The Viceroy Zukchiva recommended that any citizen who is found to be Slatos should have their citizenship renounced immediately.

By this time, Slatos’ namesake puppet storage region became a relatively large UCR, with a somewhat organized government. Its discord server reportedly featured a rant channel shouting “Death to TEP.” Its founder, Bear Territory (a Slatos puppet), had been DEATed by the moderators on January 23rd. The natives of the region endorsed its monarch, Arkoudan.

On February 9, Slatos (the nation) managed to anger its North Pacifican hosts when the Slatish (the region) military attempted to invade Stargate, a TNP ally. From then on, former EPSA Overseeing Officer Feu de Glace (aka Sakana) and The North Pacific helped organize an interregional coalition that included The Black Hawks, Karma, Lone Wolves United, Balder, and the Joint Task Force.

The operation began on the major of February 15/16. Sakana had a force of 38 nations whereas Arkoudan had 31 on its side. Thankfully, one of the Regional Officers, Phost Cel, was a TEP plant that had successfully infiltrated Slatos, a bit of ironic payback. Before the region updated, Phost Cel ejected 5 nations, significantly widening the margin. Shortly after the seizure of the Delegacy, the leaders, Slatos (under Arkoudan) and Opstan, conceded and moved to the region Opstan.

On February 22nd, the region was password-protected. Following the operation, Slatos has since been puppetswept and Opstan’s main nation was DEATed for OOC behavior. The region Opstan, left founderless, was raided by the North Pacific Army on the February 28/29 major. Slatos and Opstan have stated that they would “leave NS forever,” but have made a few appearances since.

 

Magisterium Stays Busy, Reforms Many Laws

By Gorundu

(Editor’s note: Links to each of the laws referenced have been added for ease of use.)

The Magisterium has continued bustling with activity, with a variety of legislative changes being discussed and enacted in hopes of further securing the region and its democracy for future generations.

Firstly, a flurry of new Magisters was welcomed, including Rage Mage and Aivinitis, both personalities on the RMB, McStooley and AMOM, both former Delegates, and several other citizens new to TEP. The admission process has been made easier by the newly passed Standing Orders, which allow citizens with WA nations in TEP to be admitted by the Provost, without the need for a vote by Magisters. The new Standing Orders also allowed non-WA citizens to join the Magisterium, further boosting the numbers. Overall, the Standing Orders have been much more simplified, removing redundant clauses and eliminating overly complex procedures, to make the Magisterium a much more friendly and efficient institution.

The introduction of important new laws began with the passing of The Regional Officers Act, proposed by Todd McCloud, which required the Magisterium to approve all in-game Regional Officer appointments except for Viziers. Originally written during Fedele’s administration, this was given renewed attention because of Fedele’s coup, during which he repeatedly dismissed important regional officers and appointed fellow coupers to regional officer positions with Border Control authority. Todd McCloud further authored an amendment to the Endorsement Caps Act, which gave Viziers the authority to set and enforce the endorsement caps instead of the Delegate, to prevent endorsement caps from being used by the Delegate maliciously, as well as granting Viziers four permanent Regional Officer spots. To finish, a third bill – an amendment to the Curia Act, which sets out the structure of the regional government – is also authored and passed by Todd McCloud, placing the Eastern Pacific Police Service (EPPS) under the jurisdiction of the Viziers instead of the Delegate, and leaving intelligence operations solely to the Viziers as they are Magisterium-confirmed security officers. (Editor’s note: At this time of writing, the thread for the Curia Act has not been updated with the most recent amendment. The version from September 2018 is shown instead.)

This is, of course, all prelude to the most monumental piece of legislation of all: a brand-new ConcordatOriginally Authored by Aelitia shortly after the defeat of Fedele’s coup, it was taken over by Provost Bachtendekuppen after Aelitia’s retirement. The most significant changes include a requirement for the Delegate to enforce any Conclave (court) orders, empowerment of the Magisterium to suspend Delegates, Viziers and Arbiters for suspicion of crimes committed, guaranteeing the right to legal counsel for all citizens, creation of the role of Grand Vizier, who represents the body of Viziers, and transfer of the citizenship process to Viziers from the Viceroy. It was passed by a unanimous vote of both the Magisterium and citizens in a referendum.

Lastly, the Magisterium has continued the work of processing Vizier and Regional Officer nominations, largely by near-unanimous votes. However, the nomination of one Vizier, Wiranath,  generated some controversy, as they were not well-known with many Magisters, not particularly active on the forum or Discord, where government members congregate, and did not show up to reply to any questions posed by Magisters. This was the only nomination to fail, and in response, Delegate Marrabuk nominated ArenaC (a relatively new player) and Meddacah (who was suspected, and later proved, to be a puppet of a banned player) as Viziers, citing the Magisterium’s apparent desire to appoint citizens who are active on forum and Discord as Viziers. However, it came under heavy criticism from Magisters and Marrabuk withdrew it shortly after, stating he was “trying to make a point”.

Looking forward, the Magisterium is debating a bill to regulate Delegate elections proposed by Viceroy Zukchiva, an idea that has long been raised and made possible by the new Concordat, as responsibility for regulating elections was previously placed solely with the Viceroy. Another discussion on term limits for Delegates has been initiated, as during the last discussion on the same topic, many opponents of term limits were coupers who may have skewed the discussion.
The growing Magisterium will continue to be busy into the future, undoubtedly with robust discussions on new bills made possible by the new Concordat.
 

The Square and the Compasses - Where lies TEPs true East

By Bachtendekuppen

A second term for Marrabuk was to be expected. Delegate elections proved utterly uneventful in our Eastern Pacific this February, with Delegate Marrabuk being elected to a second term with a very wide margin of 20 votes over the next contender, A Mean Old Man. Although 7 candidates contended the race, only 5 really campaigned and only three candidates got any votes at all. A second term for Marrabuk was to be expected as he won the Delegacy in October 2019 during the 2019 TEP coup, and wrestled Delegacy from the coupers with the aid of the Viziers and numerous allies of TEP.

 

A wave of reforms.


During Marrabuks first term as Delegate, TEP set out on a huge wave of reforms and an uptick in activity The Executive and Cabinet were restructured, new Arbiters were nominated to the Conclave and the Magisterium voted on an array of nominations for executive positions
and legislative changes, including a host of new Viziers, a re-write of the Concordat, the Magisteriums Standing Orders, treaties various changes to security related laws such as The Regional Officers Act and the Endorsement Cap Law. The Viziers are set to be restructured as a new branch of government following the Concordat re-write, with extensive security-related powers.

 

Exactly what you would expect post-Coup
 

TEP has been continuously adrift since the end of 2016. A rift in its cohesion and community caused weakness of vision, culture, structure and security. We stumbled on, from one crisis in the next. In October 2019, we survived yet another crisis. In their campaigns, candidates promised more of the same, focusing around further reforming TEP, unifying the region, and the security of the region. Exactly what you would expect post-coup in a GCR. As yours truly pointed out during the campaigns, none of the candidates formulated a vision as to what TEP should be and aim for in the future, other than patching up the government and chasing unity.

 

A vision for TEP?

 

We now try to arm ourselves better for the next one. But to what end? Other than trying to preserve what we think we know as the TEP of old, what is our vision for a future TEP?

Our lack of vision reveals itself on numerous occasions. How the government struggles to handle the RMB and the exclusively in-game community, as well as recruitment. How FA lacks clear direction. In legal bureaucracy. In responding to the sensitivies of allies. In dealing with the various new and not-so-new personas wanting to be part of a new TEP post-coup.

I do not place this at the feet of our current Delegate. His work was cut out for him in trying to rebuild the basics of the region and its government post-coup.

Yet without vision, our reforms will only go so far.

 



 

 

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The East Pacific News Service

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May 31, 2020

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The Magisterium is Grooving
By Zukchiva
During the past month, the Magisterium has seen an unexpected spike of activity. From anti-griefing policies to debates on governmental power, Magisters and citizens alike have been hard at work reforming the East Pacific’s body of law. The Magisterium has done a lot, so here’s an exhibition of some of its work!

ANTI-GRIEFING POLICIES

The East Pacific has always primarily identified itself as an unaligned region; it is a region that is neither raider nor defender. While the region maintains this political and military ideology, recent incidents have encouraged the Magisterium to pass anti-griefing policies.

The reasoning behind these policies is to prevent the Eastern Pacific Sovereign Army (EPSA) from irreplaceably damaging native communities, following the belief that while the EPSA can raid, it shouldn’t do so in a way that destroys regions. Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule, namely fascist regions and regions who have acted to damage the East Pacific.

These policies took the form of an amendment to an existing law. They prohibit the EPSA from various destructive behaviors such as banning natives, passwording regions, and refounding regions. However, the EPSA is still allowed to raid regions at its leisure, and also remove tags and embassies from regions, showing that the East Pacific doesn’t mind raiding to a large extent.

ENDORSEMENT CAP RAISE

With the Drewapocalypse hitting the region hard, discussions around raising the Endorsement Cap from 300 to 400 were abundant in all circles of government. After lots of discussion and debate, the Viziers proposed to the Magisterium the raising of the endorsement cap on May 7th, 2020. From there, the Magisterium supported the proposal and passed the cap unanimously, with Delegate Marrabuk signing on soon after.

With this higher endorsement cap, nations within the East Pacific shall be able to now endotart to levels similar to when Yuno was Delegate. The enactment of this higher endorsement cap and subsequent increases in endorsement levels indicate that the Drewapocalypse has really helped the East Pacific recover the vast number of World Assembly nations that were ejected during the Fedele coup.

LEGISLATING VOTING PROCEDURE

For many years, the East Pacific has relied on the voting system known as “instant-runoff voting”, or “IRV”, to conduct Delegate elections. Proposed by a Magister sometime in 2014, the voting system has since been used by all Viceroys of the East Pacific to ensure fair and democratic Delegate elections.

However, in order to prevent potential future abuse and to help clarify the processes around IRV, it was decided to legislate the voting system into law. This was done by amending the “Delegate Elections Act”, which is an already-in-effect law dealing with many Delegate election procedures. The bill passed Magisterium vote and was signed by Delegate Marrabuk, passing into law May 18th, 2020.

NEW VIZIER APPOINTMENTS

On May 6th, 2020, Marrabuk nominated two Citizens for the position of Vizier to the Magisterium. Said Citizens were Dylan and Tretrid, both long time roleplayers and Magisters of the East Pacific for a multitude of years. 

For the next few days, citizens showed up to give their support for the Viziership (though there were some concerns brought up with Tretrid’s role in EPSA). Nonetheless, the nominations were moved to vote after a few days, and the Magisterium quickly confirmed the nominees into Viziership.

Dylan and Tretrid have already proven themselves capable in their new roles, despite having only been Viziers for around a week. It is a definite hope within the East Pacific that more nations may be set to become Viziers in time. For now with 13 Viziers however, the region is more than capable of handling any external threat against its government.

THE REGIONAL MESSAGE BOARD ACT, 2020

The Regional Message Board Act was a bill proposed by Magister Lerasi to allow the government to try citizens for offenses such as spamming or harassment. From the get-go, the bill was controversial, with the hard question being whether or not the government has the power to legislate such “out-of-character” or “OOC” offenses. Nonetheless, the bill would eventually go to vote and receive a very high majority from the Magisterium.

However, Delegate Marrabuk vetoed the bill, marking a historic move as the second veto a Delegate has ever performed under the Concordat. The stated reason which Marrabuk stated in vetoing the bill is as follows: “I’m vetoing this because I don’t believe OOC stuffs should be engraved in IC laws.” Marrabuk would later explain his reasoning in a separate thread.

Soon after the veto, Provost A Mean Old Man would initiate a new discussion for the Magisterium regarding the vetoed bill. Debate has proven active, showing a diverse split of opinions over two pages of discussion. However, it is important to note that the discussion remains respectful and open to all Citizens; a testament to how the East Pacific as a community has grown since the Fedele coup.

CONCLUSION

These are the only most prominent legislative items in which the East Pacific has dealt with in the past month. There is no mistake that the Magisterium is filled to the brim with determined and loyal East Pacificans willing to reform The East Pacific’s law into something strong and new. The Magisterium is grooving, and working hard for the East Pacific’s future!

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An Interview with VW53a
By Tretrid
VW53a, who is often just called “VW,” is the East Pacific’s Minister of Immigration, and so is in charge of managing the influx of newcomers to The East Pacific. VW is also a member of the Citizenship Commission (CitiCom), which is the body that processes citizenship applications. VW also made a series of graphs showing the spike in new nations in the wake of Drew Durnil’s two YouTube videos regarding NationStates.

Tretrid: What do you do as Minister of Immigration?

VW: Well, to be honest, most of my work just comes down to processing the Citizenship Applications. That is probably about 90-99% of what I do. When my job started, back in October, that pretty much was my job. But since the Ministry of Manpower was integrated with Immigration at the start of Marrabuk's second term in February I should do a little more. I have also done a little research in November keeping tabs on the number of foundings in our region, movements into and out of our region, number of nations with WA or with Citizenship, and the number of nations Ceasing To Exist. Also recently I maintained a graph on the number of foundings per hour from a few days before the video of Drew came out up to early May. But still, far more than 90% of my time, as Minister of Immigration comes down to processing Citizenship Applications.

Tretrid: What was it like when Drew released his first NationStates video?

VW: Well, I think I heard it first from Sammy (New Leganés) who is my main member of Staff and who is mostly involved with sending Telegrams to nations whose Citizenship Application was accepted. So, a video about NationStates. Well, that has been done before I suppose. I thought nothing of it and I continued watching the TV program I was watching. During commercial breaks, I tried NS, Discord and our Forum on my phone, but everything seemed to be slow. I blamed my phone or my router. Later that evening, at the PC, I first noticed the high number of new WA-members, the increased number of masking requests on our Discord and then started checking how the influx of new nations was. That is when the magnitude of the influx really hit me and I started creating the graph to get a grip of how big the increase really was. Well, they have kept me busy for a few days. XD

Tretrid: What was it like to process all these new citizen applications from the Drewpocalypse?

VW: It was headache delivering. No, really. I did have help from you and some Viziers. I would especially like to thank Libertanny, who processed about 16 of them iirc. At one moment I saw almost 40 unprocessed  Citizenship Applications. However, I had to turn down about a third of them. Normally, I process them one by one. I decided to not take that route with this high number of CitApps. But that meant a lot scrolling back and forth to collect which application was accepted and which wasn't. It was quite a job. However, I believe the incresed activity is a good thing and I hope a lot of the "Drew people" found NationStates an interesting and fun game, and/or have found The East Pacific to be a fun and friendly region. For all we know, our future Delegate, Provost, Viceroy, or Grand Vizier, may be among them, and then my work hasn't been in vain.

Tretrid: How do you think these events will impact the future of TEP?

VW: Phew, that is hard to say. Like I said, part of the Drew people may have found their game and/or their home here. But some of  them will also disappear to other regions and a lot of them will CTE in one or two months I suspect. So the impact on the future of TEP is actually down to the characters that stay here. They get to leave their mark on TEP, on the RP (be it on our forum or our Regional Message Board), on our government, et cetera. It is up to how they evolve, how TEP will be impacted. However, I believe it will be in a good way.

Tretrid: What is it like to be a member of CitiCom?

VW: Hmm, I don't really know how to answer this. If you think it would make me feel proud or something, then you're wrong. I am not interested in status, or something like that. I do a job because it needs to be done, and that's it. So, being a member of CitiCom to me is no different than being only a Citizen, but with just a little more work to do.
I can say I found it difficult, certainly at first, to be the head of Ministry whose main task, or even sole task, according to a previous (Deputy) Minister was actually the task of the Citizenship Committee. When I started, the CitiCom was under the Conclave's control, and it contained about five members, not including me and the Immigration Staff. Recently, CitiCom has come under control of the Viziers (the Praesidium). I believe that CitiCom has grown too due to this. However, I guess I am still doing the first step in the process of 80% of the applications.

Tretrid: What is the most common mistake made on citizenship applications, and what would you like to tell new people so they can avoid this error?

VW: I haven't kept statistics on that. So, I'll take a quick look in a minute. I am pretty sure that when CitiCom was under the Conclave's control, the most common mistake was: omitting information. People mentioned for instance all their puppets, but didn't mention all the regions those puppets resided in. After CitiCom's control was transferred to the Viziers, earlier this year, the questionnaire in the application form was shortened. 
Looking over the new application thread that was made after the transfer, I notice that there were some errors in the beginning that seem to be less common now. At first many people didn't copy the entire form, so they skipped the ratification of the Concordat at the beginning, or they left out their pledge at the end. Then Grand Vizier McStooley changed the layout, so that the form could be copied easier, and after that we have not seen that error anymore.
[returns after a few minutes of absence]
Well, one mistake that has happened more than once, is that someone enters their TEP nation in their forum profile, applies for citizenship, and then move to another region before their Citizenship Application was processed. Of course, this is a huge mistake. Who in their right mind would leave TEP for another region? So this error can be easily avoided. Just stay in The East Pacific!
But the most common mistake is made here: If I have one, the name of my World Assembly member nation is: ....
Often people fill in their nation's name, even though they are not a WA-member (anymore), or sometimes haven't even applied for WA- membership.  But almost just as often people write here "None", even though the TEP nation they're applying with is a WA-member.
So people should check if they have a nation that is already admitted to the WA, and if so, mention that nation at this question. If they're not sure, they could just check all their nation's pages. (By NationStates, every user is allowed to have only one WA-member.)
If they're a member, there will be a green bar on top of that page stating "WA-member".
Also on the bottom of their page, they might see a list of nations that have endorsed them. (Non WA-member cannot give or receive World Assembly Endorsements.)

Tretrid: Lastly, is there anything you'd like to say to the readers of the EPNS?

VW: Yes, I would like to invite every resident of The East Pacific to apply for citizenship. It is your ticket to a very fun community. It is also your first step on a path where you get more acquainted with the laws that govern our region, and the people that create, maintain, uphold, and execute these laws. It is also your first step if you are interested in joining any such group.
One other major advantage of becoming a Citizen, is that you get to vote for a new Delegate every 4 months. This June will be one of those months, so you should apply very quickly! And of course, being a Citizen, you get more protection. But blah, blah, you were not going to break the law, now were you? However, what if someone else did? Against you? Anyway, hope to see your application soon. Just go to https://tep.li/citizenship and follow the instructions in the opening post there. 
If you are having trouble, or questions, you can always contact any of the nations in the Ministry of Immigration. Those are: Virgolia, New Leganés, Tretrid, and VW53ALand.

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Paradoxical: Electric Boogaloo
By Giovanniland
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The first edition of Paradoxical - an event jointly hosted by The North Pacific, The East Pacific, and Europeia - was very successful. With over 200 participants, roleplay competition, two multiplayer games and several spam games, it became a memorable event.. So... What if we told there will be a second edition, and it will have futuristic themes? That's right! Paradoxical'2.0 is coming! And the organizers hope that you join for many interesting competitions and other activities!

Paradoxical'2.0 is an event hosted officially by The East Pacific and Thaecia, with volunteers from several other regions: The North Pacific, The West Pacific, The Pacific, Europeia, and Caer Sidi. Furthermore, the event has two partners - one is The East Pacific Evolved Roleplay, a regional roleplay organization, and the other is NationStates Today, a newspaper about important NS events.

With a large and competent team, you'll see that Paradoxical'2.0 is perfectly planned to be an awesome interregional event, where many people will meet and have fun! The event starts at the 1st of June, and will happen through an entire week until the 7th of June. 

You may have noticed that I mentioned competitions - but what are those? First off, I'll talk about roleplaying.  There will be not one, but three types of RP, and you can choose as many as you want! We'll also have Art and Writing contests, along with a lottery, as the previous edition - all of them with prizes, this time however - they shall be a secret. That's not all, though! Many other activities will be happening, such as Trivia, Skribbl.io, Cards Against Humanity, and even a Minecraft server! 

Now, isn't that amazing? If you agree, don't hesitate to join! Competition entries will only be available at the first day - so don't wait, join the server now: https://discord.gg/8dWyTPB!

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Interview with Blueacia
By Zukchiva
Interviewer’s Note: This interview was conducted on Discord, so much of the interview is rather choppy in grammar and sentence structure. The interview goes over how Blueacia joined NationStates, as well as some parts of their experience as a TEP roleplayer. 

Zukchiva: Hey Blueacia, nice to meet you, and thanks for the interview! How are ya?

Blueacia: Good

Zukchiva: Awesome! So first question: could you tell me a bit about how you found NationStates?

Blueacia: Me and 2 friends started it some time back. We all wanted to have a simulator for our own nations. As we played Airline Empires a lot

I took the name Blueacia, one of my friends took the name Sicily and Naples, and the other friend choose Vaspor

Zukchiva: Y'know, your name is pretty unique as far as NS names go. Anyways, what did you and your friends do after joining? Did you found a region for yourselves, or did y'all do something else?

Blueacia: Thank you for the compliment about the name. Tbh I used a name generator like my friend who choose the name Vaspor

Zukchiva: Well, it was a good name generator >_>

A lot of name generators like NS have long and weird names :p

Blueacia: I don't know about regions, but we did a lot of issues, and laughed us sick sometimes about the results. And we tried to convince each other our government was the best

Zukchiva: That sounds pretty sweet and fun, actually. What happened to your friends? I haven't seen them around here. o.O

Blueacia: One of them (Sicily and Naples) was a hit and run on the map. He liked the idea of this, but didn't want to RP all the time. The other isn't good in English. So I wouldn't do him a favour asking him to join

Zukchiva: Oh, so they still play NS? 

Blueacia: I don't think so

Zukchiva: That sucks :/. But it seems that y'all did have fun when you played together. :P

Now, to the meat and gravy of the matter; what attracted you to coming over to TEP Evolved? What made you stray from issue answering, in other words?

Blueacia: Simply said, I didn't like the stats they were using on NS. I was already in the East Pacific region, answered the mail. And joined TEP in 2017. Always have been that 1 pixel island until few weeks back.

Zukchiva: Lololol, yes you have! So I notice that you have a masking as "Cartographic Researcher" on the TEP Roleplay Discord. Why do you have that role, what do you do under it, and do you enjoy being a Researcher?

Blueacia: I just make sure every nation on the map is also on the cartographical list with the correct info

Zukchiva: Do you like doing it? And how did you get that role in the first place? xD

Blueacia: Dylan asked who would do it, and I volunteered

Zukchiva: Heh, sounds pretty neat. So what made you decide to become the one-pixel tax haven you've been known for roleplaying as all these years? :p

Blueacia: "Known for roleplaying" ROFL. Like I only do Urthvision constantly, I don't RP that much. But I always liked the smaller nations on Earth. Vatican City, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra, Singapore etc.

I chose to become the Monaco on Urth. Because I am a big racefan. And watch the Formula 1 since 2004. And the GP of Monaco is the most famous. And they are a tax haven.

Zukchiva: Interesting! lolol. But now I have to ask, what makes you want to stay and hang out with everyone? If you don't roleplay much, then what keeps you active in the forum rp community? Is it the community itself? Friendships? What's the thing keeping you addicted (everyone has one if they play NS) :P

Blueacia: It's just fun to be around you guys, I always want top start and RP more. But it hasn't happend yet

Zukchiva: That's so sweet! I know everyone in TEP Evolved appreciates having you here. :p

Well, it seems like it's getting time to wrap this up. Would you like to say anything extra that hasn't been said yet? A message, perhaps?

Blueacia:  Everyone is welcome in the Blueacian casinos, see you there. *Thumbs up*

Zukchiva: Thank you for the interview, Blue!

Blueacia: You're welcome

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TEP Evolved: Roleplay Like No Other
By Dylan
TEP Evolved is one of the East Pacific's most premier roleplay. From Urthvision (our equivalent of Eurovision) to war, to a royal wedding to gunboat diplomacy, a lot of action happens on Urth, the roleplay's home planet. Here's a quick recap of some events! 

Very recently, we moved from a map where each pixel is about the size of half of Disney World, Florida, to a map where each pixel is the size of Gibraltar! (Woah, that’s 50km2 down to 6.3416km2). It’s our third iteration of the current map that was made in 2014, named Urth HR (hi-res), but actually our first maps were made all the way back in 2003!

Our most active roleplays going on at the moment is the Arkian Civil War. Created by Arkia, the roleplay is about a three-way civil war in a regional power between a capitalist democracy, imperialist monarchy, and union communists; it’s packed with fleshed out character role-play and in-depth battles that are funded and fought with countries from all across the world.

Our most exciting community roleplay that is upcoming is Urthvision XII, the twelfth edition of Urthvision, which is a song festival competition with representatives from any nation around Urth. Urthvision happens up to three or four times a year and it’s a great way to share our nation's favorite artists and music tastes.

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TEPWiki: A Catalog of Everything
By Dylan
TEPWiki truly is one of our greatest successes. We moved over to TEPWiki after we faced many problems with our old wiki provider, and it acts as a great Wikipedia style base for all national factbooks, characters, places, and other awesome pages. 

Here are three pages, one belongs to a roleplayer who joined in 2016, and the other two from the Drew-wave. Alongside these, we will showcase one of our characters that the RP community wanted to show off:

https://tep.wiki/wiki/Great_Morstaybishlia
https://tep.wiki/wiki/Alksearia
https://tep.wiki/wiki/The_Democratic_Republic_of_Sokala
https://tep.wiki/wiki/Ikrisia_Levinile

Now the last one is very interesting, as Ikrisia has a storied history in the realm of the east, from soldier to world leader of a nation of fox-like people. The wiki page touches on this history, but it deviates rather sharply from the written books published by Todd. Which one’s the real Ikrisia? Tune in to find out!

___________________________

New Ventures: A Drew-wave Player’s Experiences
By Art
It has been exactly 30 days since I’ve joined the NationStates community. 30 days of roleplay, shitposting, and vibing in the Discord voice chat. The first time I joined NationStates was the most confusing and exciting thing that I experienced. I was assaulted by several telegrams with the great horse, Marrabuk, leading the charge. At first, I tried to reply to the telegrams in character as Prime Minister Aruto Sokala, a character I made in panic. By the end of the day, I managed to stumble into the Discord server and the forums, with me applying for citizenship in the end.

In the following days would be basically me getting to know the great people of The East Pacific and developing my nation’s wiki page. Even as a newbie, I became involved in almost every aspect of TEP. I became a frequent visitor of TEP Roleplay Center’s voice chat, became a magister, and begun helping TEP develop its laws and I became a junior diplomat for TEP’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I’ve learned a lot of things in the 30 days that I’ve been in TEP. I’ve learned to love roleplay, a hobby that I used to be afraid of. I’ve also learned that I can apparently wake up at 5 am just to talk to some Americans and Europeans from across the world. In conclusion, TEP’s been a great region for me as TEP helped me grow as a new player. I was not rejected and was instead accepted with open arms.

___________________________

So, You Want to Run for Delegate
By Inquisitive Examinations
(Editor's Note: This article is a work of satire. None of these views represent the view of the Eastern Pacific News Service as a whole.

On June 1st, The East Pacific will undergo a sacred tradition. It is a great one. It is something that is eagerly awaited every year. It is a time of celebration, to highlight certain members of TEP’s wondrous community. There will be great events to celebrate the occasion.

The East Pacific is preparing for Pride Month.

In other news, the Conclave is administering the election of a minor government official for a term of four months. But this seemingly innocuous thing is quite important! That’s because this is the election of the WA Delegate. There’s already some hubbub about the somewhat mundane job of being the puppet of the Rahls. A whole new channel in TEP’s Discord server was cordoned off for the sole purpose of discussing the Delegate Election.

Now, how does the election of this Christie Island bureaucrat work? The Viceroy of the Conclave, or the Designee of said Viceroy, will open a thread declaring that nominations are open for the Delegate. Citizenship applications will be suspended, and The East Pacific will go on holiday for a week! For 72 hours, any old citizen can nominate whichever person they like to be Delegate. In the next four days, the voting begins. Here in TEP, we use Instant-Runoff Voting if there are more than two candidates, meaning that there are ranked votes. And those are good because numbers are good.

Of course, there are rules about running. But talking about electioneering or vote stacking or election impropriety is boring, so let’s move on.

Now, some astute readers of the Eastern Pacific News Service may be quick to point out that Marrabuk’s summer vacation is conveniently scheduled for this month. You’re right, Marrabuk has promised not to run for a third term. Of course, we can’t take it straight from the horse’s mouth. Therefore, we must do something to make sure that Marrabuk cannot participate. We’ll be adding stairs to this election.

There have been questions raised about if this is the best way to select the most qualified candidate. Thus, a new selection process has been proposed in the dark depths of TEP’s Discord server. No longer will candidates simply “run” for the Delegacy. They will now be sprinting, jogging, and not galloping. They will be undergoing a triathlon, tightroping over a pit of lava, and surfing in shark-infested waters. Whoever wins (or is the last one still alive) becomes the next Delegate. 

This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the best way to elect a Delegate. Using knowledge obtained from the UTEP libraries from this Dahl’s Charwinuggles guy clearly shows that natural selection via trial by ordeal leads to the strongest, fittest Delegate to pass their genes onto the next generation. In addition, no one would dare coup TEP if it meant a large risk of falling into the lava. Only true, patriotic TEPers willing to die for their region would volunteer as tribute. Their love for TEP exceeds the risk of falling face first into shark-infested lava (the sharks are lava-proof, you see).

Now, if you’re considering running for Delegate, I have some advice for you. This is the one big trick that is guaranteed to get you elected, 30 day money back guarantee!

Be an animal. The East Pacific has had a rich history of animals being Delegate. Todd McCloud is a fox, Bachtendekuppen is a puffin, Xoriet is an ocelot, and obviously, Marrabuk is a horse. In addition, many top government figures are animals. Libertanny is a parrot, and Zukchiva is a goose; could they be contenders for the next election?

100% of the Inquisitive Examinations’ focus group (sample size, 1) has stated that they would vote for an animal candidate of a non-animal candidate, because they have none of the slimy characteristics of humans. Fedele wasn’t an animal. I’ll leave you with that fact.

Of course, if you haven’t won the election, despite the 100%* guarantee, don’t let that get you! If you’re really good friends with the Delegate, just let them appoint you as RO with all the relevant powers. Remove the winner and those who supported him from the region, since clearly they aren’t deserving of the Delegacy. Once you realize that you and your cabal don’t have enough influence, appoint a random person with a lot of influence to banject more people. And you’re all set!

Happy running!

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Hi guys! I'm back and I'm the new Ambassador from The East Pacific! *shows off nonexistent badge* Here's an update to what TEP's been up to this month. EPNS will be posted in about a week.

In the following thread, Vice Delegate Libertanny, known to most as Serge, won the Delegate elections with a 56% majority, narrowly defeating Vizier and Former Viceroy Zukchiva, who handled the loss with grace.

https://forum.theeastpacific.com/june-2020-delegate-elections-voting-t17165.html

After being confirmed by Viceroy-Designee Pakitsk, Delegate Libertanny has announced his new Cabinet, which is as follows:

Vice Delegate: Dragons Blood (McStooley)

Chief Minister of Regional Affairs: Sakana
Chief Minister of Foreign Affairs: The Earth Systems Alliance (on Leave of Absence until July 15)
Acting Chief Minister of Foreign Affairs: Virgolia (until July 15)
Chief Minister of World Assembly Affairs: Wallenburg
Director of the Bureau of Public Affairs: Zukchiva
Overseeing Officer of EPSA: The Atlae Isles

Minister of Information and Communications: Tretrid
Minister of Immigration: VW53ALand
Minister of Culture: Aivintis

Cabinet Advisors: East Malaysia, Pakitsk, Asendavia, Bachtendekuppen, A mean old man, Marrabuk, Todd McCloud, and Hobbesistan*

*Hobbesistan is yet to be confirmed

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The East Pacific News Service
June 30, 2020

Libertanny Elected Delegate, Horse Retires
By Tretrid


After the latest series of Delegate Elections, Libertanny has been elected Delegate of the East Pacific.

Vice Delegate Libertanny has run in both the February 2020 and the October 2019 elections, so it seemed natural that he should run again. It seemed like the path to the Delegacy would be clear for him, or at least it was until Viceroy Zukchiva entered the running.

Here is a list of all nominees, as well as those who accepted their candidacy:

Libertanny Accepted
Zukchiva Accepted
AMOM Declined
Todd McCloud Declined
Dragons Blood Declined
East Malaysia Declined
Bachtendekuppen Declined
Pakitsk Declined
VW53a Declined
Sokala Accepted
Dylan Declined
Sakana Declined
Aivintis Accepted
Asendavia Declined
Wiranath Declined
Eastern Alksearia Accepted
Algerstonia Accepted
Danelaw Scandinavia Declined
Marrabuk Declined
Pax Declined
Atlae Declined
Acronis Declined
ArenaC Accepted

Since Viceroy Zukchiva, who would otherwise have overseen the election, was himself running as a candidate, Viceroy Designee Pakitsk was instead administering the election. Also, it should be noted that Marrabuk had opted not to run for a third term as Delegate.

And so commenced the campaigns for the Delegacy. Libertanny focused mainly on foreign policy. Part of this was through the Consortium, an ambitious plan initially created under Marrabuk’s delegacy. Meanwhile, Zukchiva took a more general approach to improving TEP.

Not all of these campaigns were serious, however. In fact, two joke campaigns were run. Algerstonia based their campaign off of George Orwell’s celebrated novel, 1984. To be specific, they proposed basing TEP off of INGSOC and instituting the totalitarian government from the novel. And most importantly, they proposed ordering citizens to touch their toes without bending every morning.

Aivintis (or “Lerasi/Aivintis/Warris/Manganite Mangote Mangite Magnet Mangent Mangetithe/The Wolf/Oh My God Idiot Stop Changing Your Name”), on the other hand, proposed theming TEP after the Empire, the group that invaded TEP in 2008. Among other things, Aivintis also proposed making the founder of the Confederation of Corrupt Dictators, Jocospor, “Chief Minister of Laughing Affairs.”

Eventually, every candidate other than Zukchiva, Libertanny, and Algerstonia had dropped out of the race. It was a very competitive race, and for a lot of the time Libertanny and Zukchiva were either very close or tied.

However, eventually, Libertanny won the election with 30 votes to Zukchiva’s 24. The delegate transition quickly started. The Delegate-elect quickly started to create his own cabinet, nominate ROs, and start to institute his agenda. Meanwhile, outgoing Delegate Marrabuk has made a farewell statement, and has recently been confirmed as a Vizier by the Magisterium after his nomination by the Delegate-elect.

A Parrot's Platform of Promised Plans and Potential Policies
By Aivintis


Libertanny's campaign, called the #Libertanny4Delegate Program, promised to bring even more democracy, unity, and strength to The East Pacific. In case you weren't planning on reading through text wall that would put the Great Wall of China to shame, I reread it so you don't have to. Here's a little rundown of Serge's plans for The East Pacific and promised policies:

  • Approachability - Monthly forumside Cabinet meetings to be augmented by Voice Chat meetings on discord to answer questions
  • Cabinet Reform - Retainment of the Vice Delegate position, release of the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs into its own Chief Ministry, transparent records and goals for all Ministries, new Chronicler office to maintain even more records, and concrete layout for all 12 Regional Officer positions
  • Bureau of Public Affairs - New department akin to a Ministry that consists of an appointed Director, and elected "Ambassadors" to represent RMB RP and Forum RP and to act as middle ground between the RP community and the government, and to promote RP within the greater TEP community, with the possibility of mentorship
  • Ministry Plans - Staffer of The Month program to boost morale, even more cultural events and activities, a focus on education and assimilation, simplification of the Ministry of Immigration, maintenance of current WA voting procedure, and new World Assembly Development and Education Program run by the CMoWAA
  • Foreign Policy - Maintenance of the current foreign policy, a focus on UCR-oriented affairs without compromising GCR relations, Statesmus+ as a form of foreign exchange akin to Erasmus+, a treaty with Thaecia, guarantees of independence, and official establishment of the Inner Circle as the FA leadership council
  • Consortium - Foreign Affairs project forming a Cultural-Military-WA-Diplomatic Bloc with a select number of active UCRs that maintain close relations with TEP promote equality and cooperation and to pay attention to TEP's UCR allies

These potential promised policies and plans (phonetically fun to say) are apparently indicative an ambitious delegacy in which the rebuilt government will be built upon even more in new ways. Minor points like "Spreading The East" to other games, and maintenance of the current EPSA policy augment this platform.

Although it hasn't even been an entire month since Libertanny was elected, this is what has been accomplished already:

  • June 15th marked the release of Libertanny's first statement as delegate, naming his cabinet. A lot of the Cabinet stayed the same, but some of the changes included the appointment of Dragons Blood to Vice Delegate, the naming of Zukchiva as Director of the Bureau of Public Affairs, the promotion of Wallenburg from Minister of World Assembly Affairs to Chief Minister of World Assembly Affairs, the appointment of Feu de Glace as Chief Minister of Regional Affairs, and the appointment of Virgolia as Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs while The Earth Systems Alliance goes on a Leave of Absence.
  • Bureau of Public Affairs - Zukchiva was named Director of The Bureau of Public Affairs, and has since worked relentlessly on sculpting the new organization. On June 23, Eastern Alksearia, better known as SirShadow, was elected Forum RP Officer by Evolved RPers, making them the official Forum RP Ambassador to the Bureau. RMB RP Ambassador elections are being held as of the writing of this article.
  • Independence - Our first guarantee of independence was offered up to a founderless UCR with close relations with TEP and a promising future, however it was refused by their leadership.
  • Goals + Staffers - On June 17, Libertanny officially requested that all Ministers write up a list of Monthly Targets and keep an updated list of Staffers. This is still a work in progress for some Ministries.
  • Chronicler - Vanzeria was appointed Chronicler on June 17, and has proved to be a valuable addition to the Cabinet.
  • New Executive Application - Chief Minister of Regional Affairs Sakana reached out to Ministers on in regards to updating the Executive Branch Application with new descriptions and contacts, with changes to account for the Cabinet changes.
  • Festival of Tranquil Suns - On June 22, Libertanny opened the Festival of the Tranquil Suns, a festival that had been being planned for quite some time, with a speech written by Vanzeria and Aivintis.
  • Trello - Trello.com was adopted on June 22 as a new platform used by Cabinet as a place for various forms of task management. It has seen extensive use already by most of Cabinet.
  • Consortium - On June 23, the Consortium, which had been discussed before amongst TEPers and other regions, began development. Since, multiple regions have taken part in discussions and debates on various aspects of the Consortium.
  • New Festival - On June 24, Libertanny approved the planning of a new Festival with recent consulate Grace of Gaia.
  • WA Development / Cabinet VC - On June 25, practically the entirety of Cabinet gathered in Voice Chat to discuss the WA Development Program. In this chat, an agenda was followed and ideas were put out and discussed, making great progress for the WA Development Program. The next VC has already been scheduled for early July.
  • Foreign Affairs - Under the leadership of Acting Minister Virgolia, the Chief Ministry of Foreign Affairs has opened up a consulate with India, as well as reviewing all current consulates upon Libertanny's request and requesting aid in the delegate transition from a number of our allies. Talks have not yet begun with Thaecia regarding a treaty.

So in this short time, some of Libertanny's campaign goals have already been fulfilled and other achievements have been made, heralding a bright term for Delegate Libertanny. I, for one, look forward to next month's achievements, and the months after that. Hail Pacificus Orientalem.

An Honest Interview with a Parrot: A Talk with Libertanny
By Zukchiva


Interviewer’s Note: This interview was held with Delegate Libertanny on June 29th, 2020 via Discord Direct Messaging. As such, the grammar and spelling of this interview is riddled with typos and mistakes!

Zukchiva: Hey Lib, thanks for giving me the chance to interview you! I'm sure a lot of people have questions on what you plan to do in the next few months as Delegate, especially now that you've spent two weeks in office.

My first question (to ease into this interview), is simply how have the past two weeks as Delegate gone for you so far? Have you already come across strong obstacles and have you made substantial progress on your campaign goals in this short time?

Libertanny: Hello Zukchiva,

Well. When Marrabuk said, that being Delegate is basically having a second job, I didn't fully believe him. I was a Vice-Delegate for some period, and I was thinking on how is that supposed to be that different from being Delegate. But it is. It is very different. You can go to sleep and wake up with 20 pings and 10 DMs, alongside forum and in-game notifications. So in between of working full-time, being freelancer / setting up own websites related company and spending weekends away from home, I'm also doing my best to be the Delegate of the East. I hope I'm not doing that bad, but it's up to Citizens. But that's just a typical me, and you seem to know it the best :P

Speaking of what I have achieved (looks into his own campaign). We started creating Bureau of Public Affairs, we already have its leader (Zukchiva) and Forum RP Officer (SirShadow). RMB RP Officer elections are currently happening and I have contacted TEAPOT to have its representative in BoPA / Cabinet too. I have instituted McStooley as Vice Delegate of the East. We kind of changed idea for Organization, and we decided to use Trello, which is an awesome tool to organize Cabinet's tasks. I have nominated ROs. Ministry of WA Affairs has become and independent body (as in, not a part of Regional Affairs). We've had an awesome VC with most of Cabinet attending, during which we talked WA Development Program  and prepared business plan for it. We have also began working on Consortium (having already 5 regions + TEP  being interested in idea and server being created). We've also already scored a failure - the guarantee of independence of one of regions was denied by them.

Zukchiva: Thats... actually extremely impressive @_@

So that's one thing that caught my eye in all that is the WA Development Program! Many people would say that TEP is a bit behind on the World Assembly game, with GCRs such as TNP, TSP, and Balder having WA programs.

If possible, is there any special unique feature you plan to put into TEP's WA Program, which our fellow GCRs have not added within theirs?

Libertanny: I wouldn't say so. The East Pacific doesn't have its own resources to have a Development Program, so we are really relying on r3n from The North Pacific here. We're basically making a copy of TNP's program. What we are adding, however, is membership in EPSA as part of WADP. In order to encourage people to participate in EPSA without them feeling like losing cool badges from WADP, we will be adding EPSA related categories. Thanks to Evri, we now also have an autoupdating dispatch, that pings WA Residents not endorsing me once a day (if I'm not wrong).

Zukchiva: Well, for better or worse, having a World Assembly Development Program is gonna make our region stronger, that's for sure.

One important campaign promise you made is that you are willing to form a treaty with the region of Thaecia. How is the progress on that? If you haven't started negotiations, when do you plan too?

Libertanny: We haven't began talks yet, as we are pretty busy, as in, both regions are. Thaecia's just gone through elections and we started so many tasks at once. So I would say, as soon as situation gets calmer for both regions, we will start treaty talks with Thaecia. Hard to say when, excatly. But in less than a month, I hope.

Zukchiva: Mhm. Interesting!

One thing you've always been interested in is Magisterium activity as you've been a Magister for a long time before becoming Delegate, and in many other regions the crafting of legislation plays a big part in the executive leader's role.As Delegate, do you see yourself pushing for any specific piece of legislation, or general changes to our current law?

Libertanny: I don't think we should determine this per me serving our region as Delegate now. I have always been into Magisterium and I have always been more or less active there, even as non-Magister. And I do intend to be active, when some things calm down and I have more time. I do not support anything specific law as of now, but I am in general support of (1) making laws less complicated, (2) making laws shorter and more universal (i.e. no refenreces to Concordat or other Acts, unless totally necessary) and generally (3) laws to boost security and (4) laws to boost democracy.

Zukchiva: All of those are very strong goals regarding our legislation. o-o

Now to take a small shift in direction: what do you think has been the greatest challenge (insofar) as Delegate that you have dealt with in these last two weeks, if any?

Libertanny: Frankly. VC has been the biggest achievement imho. I havent seen such activity in Cabinet yet. And we managed to prepare a rather detailed idea for WADP during 90 mins. So it seems like something so simple, but yet so efficient and fruitful.

Zukchiva: The Voice chat was pretty cool, ngl! I especially liked the fun we had in it.

So, another question I have is, why did you decide to stick with the masonry theme and why did you make it a large part of your campaign? Many other Delegates in TEP have experimented with TEP's theme, why not you?

Libertanny: It is a very simple question and a very simple answer. Keeping masonic theme is remembering about past heroes of our region, that server under the Compass. We also remember about Loop, who is more or less the Father of current East. This also seems to be simply "our" Eastern theme. When you think about freemasonry, you think about TEP. And that's also because I'm a regionalist, so keeping traditions is kind of a part of my ideology.

And as a last note. Last time we changed theme we were couped :P

Zukchiva: Lol, yeah that's a pretty strong point ->-

Speaking of coups, it has only been eight months since the coup occurred. While TEP is pretty strong now, it may not be as security-protected in the future.

What do you think is the most largest long-term threat to TEP's security, how do you propose we solve it, and is there anything you plan to do now as Delegate to lessen said threat in the future?

Libertanny: Oh the solution is pretty simple. We need to stop making overly complicated laws and make them all more universal. What killed us the most were so many non-updated or overly complicated laws. Coupers didnt care and were doing their thing, whilst we were debating in Conclave and Magisterium things like "is stopping a coup legal?".

I dont have a direct solution, as I dont see a direct threat. We can never know what is gonna happen tommorrow. But having simple, universaland understandable laws is probably the main self-defence mechanism.

Zukchiva: Hm, that's quite a unique take. But, it does make sense.

This next question is a bit different from the others.

The Vice-Delegacy was a new position created by Delegate Marrabuk, in which you served for around a few months. Do you think that your tenure as Vice-Delegate has helped you acclimate into your role as Delegate? And do you think it has, in some way, prepared you for your current job, and if so, how?

Libertanny: Well. It for sure did help me prepare for Delegacy. But I wouldn't say it played an important role. It's role would be just equal to being Minister of Info in past, or MoFA or Magister. Delegacy is being fluent in or at least similar with a lot of spheres of GP. So that was a nice addition, but I don't think it prepared me for being Delegate more than any role I had before. What was awesome about being Vice-Delegate is that, you had more freedom in doing things, than when you were a Minister. So that for sure boosted my GP activity even more.

Zukchiva: And it seems I'm running out of questions, and we've both got places to be. So, it's time to conclude this interesting interview!

But on a last note, as is custom, do you have a general message you want to share with EPNS's readers?

Libertanny: Pax Fruits are a cheap replacement for Italian pasta. Gooses taste the best grilled.

Besides that. I think not.

Zukchiva: Well Lib, this has been a fine interview, besides the threat on my species and way of life O_O

Thank you for having me, and allowing me to bombard you with my questions!

Straight from the Horse’s Mouth: An Interview with Marrabuk
By Atlae


Interviewer’s Note: This interview was held with the outgoing Delegate Marrabuk on June 29th and June 30th, 2020 via Discord Direct Messaging. The following is an unedited transcript of said interview.

Atlae: On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your delegacy and why did you choose that number?

Marrabuk: 7. I chose that number because even though I felt like I have done well, there are always room for improvement and always more things to accomplish. As a matter of fact, I didn't even manage to complete the consortium project.

Atlae: Is The East Pacific better now than it was before Fedele?

Marrabuk: Personally, I believe so, yes. The region is more stable and unified. There are bound to have disagreements like all families do. But at the end of the day, we will die for one another.

Atlae: What was the best thing that happened during your administration?

Marrabuk: To be honest, there's too many to list. For starters, loyal TEPers banding together to help fight against the coupers was and will continue to be one of my fondest memories of our great united region.

Atlae: What was the worst thing that happened during your administration?

Marrabuk: There were a few notable ones. For instance, the whole AMOM being appointed as Senior Commander of EPSA and releasing an official statement has caused such a huge uproar amongst our allies and potential allies. We could've definitely handled that better, but I still believe we managed it well enough given the cards that were handed to us.

Atlae: What would you say is TEP’s position on the interregional stage?

Marrabuk: We have a treaty with every single GCR except Lazarus. A treaty with strong UCRs such as XKI and Europeia, building stronger relations with many stable and upcoming UCRs like Thaecia, for instance. So I say, we're pretty strong in the interregional stage

Atlae: What do you think is the general direction and outlook for the future of TEP?

Marrabuk: Reforms internall post coup has been tremendous. Activity has went up tenfold and the unity of the region is now unparalleled. Keeping our region's activity high, unifying our region further and strengthening our influence in the interregional stage via the consortium is the direction I feel our region need to continue.

Atlae: What obstacles will Libertanny have to overcome in order to be a successful Delegate?

Marrabuk: Libertanny has a tendency to work and focus on too many things at once. Personally, I believe Lib's biggest obstacle to prioritizing and recognizing what needs to be worked on first and be able to complete it before moving on to the next project.

Atlae: How will you stay involved in The East Pacific now that your term has ended?

Marrabuk: I have recently just been confirmed as a Vizier and have also been nominated for forum Global moderator role. I am still an advisor to the cabinet and my DMs are always open if Lib or fellow TEPers need advice and guidance.

Atlae: As of now, you have around 100 endorsements from the nearest Vizier, Zukchiva, as well as a boatload of influence. Will you repeat the decisions of your predecessor?

Marrabuk: Not sure, I understand this. What decisions did my predecessors do?

Atlae: What did your immediate predecessor do when he was leaving office :P

Marrabuk: Coup? Yes, definitely and I am certainly planning to coup. Thanks for asking.

Atlae: Thank you for letting us interview and thank you for the service to our region.

We’re a little TEAPOT
By Evrigenis


Within TEP, interest in NS trading cards has been brewing for several months, and it has found its culmination in The Eastern Association of Pacifican Ornamentation Traders (TEAPOT). The new body has struck out from existing cards organizations by deciding to be independent of regional government while simultaneously being the region’s official cards association. In addition to being able to sign up on the East Pacific’s regional forums, residents can apply by pinging the official TEAPOT puppet on the regional message board with the pledge to abide by the Charter. The full text of the Charter is available here.

How did the tea come to be?

On the 6th of June, the Vizier and Arbiter Goose Zukchiva fielded the idea to make the Association official. They then promptly wrote the first draft of what was to become the Charter. This spurred on many questions about what the foundling organization was to look like: Would it be part of the government or independent? How should leadership be structured? While the legislative debate was developing, another important question was asked: What should it be named? Feu de Glace, also known as Sakana, CAME UP with the current name to hearty approval. Rateafication on the 13th was unanimous. Thus, The Eastern Association of Pacifican Ornamentation Traders was born.

Who serves the communitea?

In the wake of the Delegate election, the cards community held its own tea party leadership contest. Nominations were plenteaful; however, the election boiled down to former Overseeing Officer of EPSA, current Minister of Regional Affairs, Feu de Glace/Sakana and Deputy MoIC and cards enthusiast Evrigenis/y0. The campaigns focused on who the Steward should be and how the Association would strengthen TEP, respectively. Both campaigns were well received, and on the first day after voting was opened, “abstain” led. In the final analysis, the results were 3 abstensions to 3 votes for Sakana to 4 votes for y0. With y0 taking a sliver of a lead, they became Steward.

How tea get started?

Evrigenis’ first action as Steward was to appoint Feu de Glace Deputy Steward. y0 also set up the beginnings of the structure for the TEAPOT, going through with their campaign promises to hold a contest for a new puppet and open a heisting reports thread. What’s next? We’ll soon find out!

RMB RP Spotlight: A Civil War
By Osterreich und Ungarn


During the month of June, an arresting development took place in the TEP’s Regional Message Board Roleplay. What occurred was a major geopolitical crisis in the world superpower Osterreich und Ungarn in the form of a military coup directly followed by a civil war. The Kaiser (the leader-in-exile) rallied his supporters and tried to fight the new military government, but a lack of professional soldiers along with a socialist uprising in the West quickly caused the Kaiser’s front to collapse and for him to flee into the wilderness.

After the Kaiser’s disappearance, the socialist faction and the military government continued to fight, causing untold amounts of destruction to multiple cities, small towns, and landscapes. The newly fledged military junta was, however, soon hijacked by an ultranationalist and expansionist group called the Honor Party, which rallied its supporters and took charge of the junta.

During the later stages of the war, the socialists began to run out of food, oil, and most importantly, morale. In a desperate attempt to salvage their goal, the socialists spread their troops out and consequently overextended their front. This decentralization of socialist forces allowed the Honor Party to crush the socialists once and for all, take control of the nation, and establish a new totalitarian state.

Now, the nation rebuilds itself as the world prepares to deal with the war's unprecedented outcome. Whatever may happen next, the future of Osterreich und Ungarn, both as a world superpower but also as a bastion of democracy, has now been irreversibly changed.

The East Pacific’s Urth Roleplay: A Newbie’s Perspective
By Art


Roleplay. According to Wikipedia, it is “an activity that is the changing of one's behavior to assume a role.” In NationStates, one assumes the role of multiple identities. You assume the role of not just the leader, the congress, or the senate of a nation but the nation as a whole. As someone whose only roleplay experience was playing at Garry’s Mod DarkRP servers where everything was basically just “make money and then shoot people”, Roleplay in NationStates, in general, was a culture shock to me. I was first introduced to NationStates by the Youtuber named Drew Durnil. As an RTS enthusiast, the idea of controlling a nation tickled my brain and led me to join NS. Upon fiddling with ideas for a nation name, I settled on the name Sokala and from then on I discovered The East Pacific(TEP)’s different roleplays. From Urth’s intricate history to Valsora’s futuristic world, TEP’s roleplays were filled to the brim with pages upon pages of worldbuilding and hours of effort by the creative minds of Roleplayers in the East Pacific. During my time roleplaying on Urth, TEP’s Forum Roleplay world, I found out three things that made Urth different from other roleplays in TEP.

The first thing that differentiates Urth RP from other RPs was that it had a very long history spanning almost two decades. Urth RP, formerly known as The East Pacific RP, was created by One Infinite Loop in 2003. Until today, lore created by nations in 2003 is still used in today’s Urth RP. One such example is the Urthian race of Nekomimis, a race of cat people made by Loop himself, which still populate many nations in 2020 Urth. Another example is that some nations like Bai Lung, Kelssek and even Xiopothos that were from the original map still exist today on Urth.

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A picture of TEP RP’s ‘Asia’ map. Est. 2004-2008

The second thing is that Urth has a very well-built world. Many established nations like Great Morstaybishlia, Asendavia, and Norgsveldet have very detailed wikis in TEPwiki, with details ranging from bios of the current presidents, to how a person from that nation speaks,  to even the daily common routines from a person from that nation. One great example of this intricate world-building can be found in Great Morstayishlia's Wiki page.
Last but not the least, Urth RP has one of the most newcomer-friendly communities I’ve ever seen. Right from the start, you’ll be greeted by the mods and current roleplayers then during which they’ll be guiding you every step of the way, from applying for citizenship to making a map claim. From personal experience, the people of Urth RP do their best to make sure newcomers feel welcomed and at home right from the beginning. Although other RPs like Valsora and Windsor are also newcomer-friendly in their own way, I think Urth is the best in the fact that everyone helps everyone, regardless if you’ve been part of the community for a decade or a second.

Urth RP is one of the best communities to be in NationStates especially if you’re new not only to NS but also in roleplay in general. If you’re a newly founded nation and are looking to participate in TEP, I strongly suggest joining us over at Discord.

The Megathread uprising of 2020
By La xinga


On the night of Sunday, Jun 21, 2020, Administrator and Senior Game Mod Reploid Productions locked the Right-wing Discussion Thread and the Left-wing Discussion thread, places which were meant for you to discuss about, well, left-wing politics and right wing politics! The mod's reasoning for the lock can be found here.

United muscovite nations was the first nation to post. UMN was a person who posted on the 4 and a half year old threads frequently. He even put in his forum sig: "Grumpy Grandpa of the LWDT and RWDT".
To quote UMN himself:

"Congrats on [REDACTED] over a huge portion of the user base. Think I'm gonna head off the site for good, since LWDT and RWDT were the only halfway decent things to do on this site. Go ahead and deat me so I don't have a reason to come back."

Once he realized the mods were not deleting him, he spammed and flamed his way into deletion. UMN was warned for spamming, didn't care, got a three-day ban for flaming, posted against it, and finally got the DEAT.

The first FOUR posts were different posters attacking the mods for their actions. People demanded that the mods say how they got to this decision, and also claimed GHRs don't work. People questioned: "What happens if a mod breaks a rule? Can't they just delete the GHR? Oh, admins answer them? What happens if Admins break the rule?"

Conspiracy theories ran rampant: Did the mods have some biased thing that no one knows about? The Archregimancy insisted that was not the case, yet, sadly, no one listened to Arch. People also claimed the mods didn't want people to chat, and one nation claiming that "the mods took smaller threads and merged them into bigger threads, and now they're getting rid of the big threads?

Two nations decided that since there was no more RWDT or LWDT, they'll create a less broad new one. Nouveau Quebecois created the Authoritarian Right Discussion Thread I, while South Odreria 2 created the Authoritarian Left Discussion Thread I, both immediately locked by moderator Sedgistan, since they didn't meet the guidelines for megathreads. Whether or not that was a bad thing to do or a good thing, the users of RWDT and LWDT were not happy. People wanted other threads in NSG locked, some not even Megathreads. Nations did receive warnings, bans from forum for a certain amount of time, and even a DEAT. Reploid Productions repeatedly stated: “Once again, the topic is the megathread closures and requests for review of other megathreads. It is not for loaded questions about unrelated cases, hence the continued removal of posts as bad faith.”

Yet again, when people are mad, they go over the line. People are free to criticize moderation, but mods are still players behind the screen, users that play NS too, like all of us.

The Enemy of the People
By Inquisitive Examinations


(Editor's Note: This article is a work of satire. None of these views represent the view of the Eastern Pacific News Service as a whole.)

On June 22, a scandal erupted that would change free press forever. Our step sister-twice-removed organization, NationStates Today, released information of a threat from Lazarene Prime Minister JoWhatUp not to publish a leak from a citizens-only channel about certain treaties.

JoWhatUp’s worst crime - besides the capitalization of their name - is that he expected that this threat to NationStates Today would not be leaked, saying “I trust this will not be leaked.” This is an outrage for any believer in free press, who have for years advocated the god-given right to leak.

One notable critic goes on to say that “[Lazarus] effectively criminalized routine investigative journalism,” which is verifiably true! According to NationStates Today, this leak came as a result of an article about the Better Together Accords and the Treaty of Skandia between the New Pacific Order and the regions of The West Pacific and Balder, respectively. These treaties were publicly posted in the Gameplay forum on June 10 and June 13, 2020. NationStates Today supposedly contacted JoWhatUp about leaked statements regarding these treaties at or around June 16, 2020, when JoWhatUp refused to comment on these statements and blackmailed NationStates Today. NSToday came forward with this behavior on June 22, and to this day there hasn’t been an article about these treaties yet. Or at least I can’t find it. I’m smelling censorship, though.

When NationStates Today came forward with these allegations, Gameplayers blasted NSToday for accepting the leak. Some even went so far as to call them a security risk, suggesting that they were inside governments and watching! This accusation is absolutely absurd. The trench-coat wearing NSToday reporters hanging outside the region’s government buildings are not dangerous! If you go to them and ask about their day, they will probably sit down with you and explain for hours on end showing you pictures of their spouse and kids, as well as their loyal pet, probably. None of these Gameplayers have asked these spies how they feel. These people that they’re calling security risks have lives too.

A young aspiring security risk walked into my office today. When they aren’t busy spying on other regions, they settle down in The East Pacific and write roleplay posts. I played Secret Hitler with another security risk, and although he was literally a fascist, I could tell that he enjoyed having fun and organizing the game.

These security risks interviewed GCR Delegates like Marrabuk in an interview for a podcast. They literally recorded every word they said and no one raised any objections over their Delegates being bugged.

If these people keep going on censoring the free press, who is next? The good people at Inquisitive Examinations will not bow down to this pressure and will continue to examine inquisitively!

JoWhatUp, don’t comment on this article. We in Inquisitive Examinations do not like comments from people with random capitalization.

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The East Pacific News Service
July 31, 2020

Mindful Horizons: The University Reimagined
By Wonderess (Castle Federation)


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Over the years, since 2011, I have spent in NationStates, I have realized that being here was never about the game. Of course, gameplay can be fun and fulfilling, but really NS gives us an opportunity to be a part of a community and contribute something we can be proud of. I am happy to be able to tell you here that yet another opportunity has blossomed in The East Pacific. The historic University of The East Pacific is open once again for everyone to enjoy and take part in. I am equally proud and humbled that I am the one that gets to speak to you about it. I am thankful to the Delegate for allowing me to become a new addition to the TEP community in such an amazing capacity as the Chancellor of the University. 

You may be wondering what is in store for the University, so I hope I can paint a full picture for you. UTEP is first and foremost a community. I have decided on a motto for the University which is Veritas per civitatem which translates to “Truth through community.” It is all well and good to learn through Wikipedia pages or readings through books, but knowledge really comes alive when we approach it through discourse and speak about our loves with those who share our passion. Truth comes through the encounter of the other, and so UTEP fully revolves around this premise. We have both forums for in character topics such as NationStates subjects, role play, TEP history, along with real-world topics like science, the humanities, and subjects you would find at a real-world university. We provide goals to work towards such as the creation of a department which through effort can thrive into a sub-community focusing on a specific topic. You may even find yourself promoted to professor one day heading that department. The UTEP balance is between openness to provide spaces and resources for the topics you love to explore and also keeping the structure coherent so that there are not a bunch of empty channels or subforums forever. 

The University mainly functions in two places. The forum is where academic works like papers go while the newly formed UTEP Discord is where conversations and casual learning take place. We are still getting things up and running, but I think the level of interest and excitement I have seen is very promising. I hope UTEP can be a place where all of NS can come and take part and actively bring growth to the TEP community as a prime intellectual hub of NationStates. 
If anything here piques your interest, then I invite you to join us. If you would like to be a part of the inaugural UTEP staff and come join our ongoing conversations then you should join our Discord: https://discord.gg/SFfHssK

Then just petition the Chancellor for membership in the Chancellor Petition channel, and you are on your way. Details about the university can also be found on the Discord in the Quick Facts channel. No matter who you are, there is something you can bring to our community that no one else can. I hope to see you come to take part soon! Thank you for reading, and here’s to a long-lasting and successful University!

 

Wonderess (Castle Federation)
Chancellor of the University


TEP RMB: A Fantastic Place to Be
By Zukchiva


By now many readers of our awesome regional newspaper have seen articles on both RMB RP and forum RP. And many may be wondering… “Really? Another article on this roleplay stuff? How is this relevant to anything I care about?”

Well, consider this article as an opinion, by me, Zukchiva, on why RMB RP is an awesome place for roleplay for your average newbie. Or in other words… a sort of recruitment article? Whatever, let’s get to it.

#1 REASON: YOU GET A MAP, YOU GET A MAP, YOU ALL GET MAPS!

Many roleplaying regions usually have one or two maps, in which people set their nations and roleplaying careers on. Maps are pivotal to most regional roleplay communities and rarely does roleplay exist in a region with no map to mark down land claims.

But here in TEP’s RMB, map limitations are nothing but a false construct. We’ve gone through multiple variations of maps and are still learning to this day what makes a jaw-dropping map and what makes a flop. In fact, you could consider the map environment of TEP RMB RP’s as something following Darwin’s theories of evolution; the maps that attract and keep roleplayers survive and thrive, those that fail to grab interest eventually die out and are forgotten.

But this world of tough love shouldn’t be discouraging to any intrepid cartographer! Roleplayers are forever seeking new opportunities to a) worldbuild, b) rule the world, or c) shitpost in new creative contexts. And what provides those very necessary opportunities? MAPS!

So the bulk of this reason is that TEP’s RMB RP is really a place for map experimentation. Roleplay in the (currently) three maps available, or maybe even make your own map and see what makes a good roleplay!

#2 REASON: DEDICATED COMMUNITY

Not everyone wants to roleplay with only themselves for company. Most people really want to experience the joys of nation-making with other flesh-and-blood humans. At the risk of toxicity, headaches, drama, and angst, roleplaying with other people is something that can be an enlightening and fun experience!

And that’s what TEP’s RMB RP roleplay has. An active, dedicated community focused on roleplaying (at least, when they aren’t meme-posting or discussing politics when the ROs aren’t prowling). It’s a community that’s been established for over two years, and it has been extremely vibrant ever since. (It’s also kind of taken over the entire RMB, to the point where “RMB” is a stand-in for “RMB RP”, but don’t tell anyone that.)

If you don’t believe me, just look at those page numbers! From 2011-2017, the RMB only had around 3,000 pages (sad). But then when the spark of roleplay hit, the RMB churned out nearly 40k pages in the span of 2018-2020 (nice). 

#3 REASON: BAD ROLEPLAY? WE’RE USED TO IT

A lot of times, people often fear roleplaying/writing in general because they think they suck at doing it. The fact is, however, that RMB RP is full of “bad” roleplay. Plot lacking, shallow characters, and godmodding are as common to RMB RPers as seeing roleplay posts are.

So is your low-quality writing holding you back? Are those large beautifully-written textwalls scaring ya from trying your hand? Well, don’t let them. Because lemme tell you: I was here when all of these roleplayers began writing their first roleplays. And while they all write beautifully now, they sucked when they first started out in their writing diapers!

So TEP RMB RP is perfectly used to “bad” roleplays. So come and grow with us! We won’t do much (besides decimating your country and take over the world).

ENDWORDS AND FAREWELLS

Roleplaying, in the end, is an awesome endeavor that occurs all throughout NationStates and the internet in general. But TEP’s RMB RP is one of the best places to begin your roleplaying career; whether it’s trying to get used to socializing with people on the Internet, improving your writing, or just wanting to talk about your nation to others.

You have to start somewhere, so why not start in a dedicated, experimenting, seen-it-all roleplay community? Because in the end, there really is no reason not to!

So come along down, old and newbie roleplayers alike, to TEP’s RMB RP. I promise we’ll take care of ya. Somewhat.

See you around! :D


Rewarding TEP
By y0 (Evrigenis)


Throughout my time in The East Pacific, I have found many aspects enjoyable—the region’s diverse RPs, lively government debates, and new trading cards organization have each been good reasons to start playing and keep staying. But I have found the best reason of all is its community. Our community is hard to define, but one of our core characteristics is that we are extremely inclusive and constantly improving. In the last month, we have initiated several region-wide programs to boost activity.

One major component of this suite of renovations is the World Assembly. If you’re not familiar with it yet, here are some pages that may help you get context. If you are familiar, that’s great! To encourage region-wide participation in the WA, the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs has launched Raising Eastern World Assembly Recognition and Development. Wallenburg, TEP’s MoWAA, stated his primary objective for the program succinctly: “As Minister for WA Affairs, I am chiefly interested in getting people to join the WA, take interest in its mechanics, and become part of the WA community.” 
As a precursor to REWARD, TEP implemented an auto-updating dispatch to encourage WA members to endorse our Delegate, Libertanny. But that’s just the beginning. We have also begun discussion for a tiered reward system based on how many endorsements nations give and receive. But that’s not where REWARD ends. The World Assembly Development Program of TEP has made strides to publish region-wide opinions on resolutions. We are also in the process of building a mentorship program that connects experienced authors with newer members of the community.
 
If you haven’t already, you should join the WA community! I hope you’ll find it as rewarding as I do.
y0


Volinovia and Merlovich Talk About Each Other’s Maps!
By TechTag (Technocratic Tagalog)


Here in NationStates, every region has its own message board, or RMB for short, which is used for talking IC (In-Character) or OOC (Out-of-Character) stuff. But here in TEP, the RMB has another function, Roleplay!

But first, what is a roleplay? What is RMB? The Regional Message Board, or RMB for short, is a chat function visible in a region,( found by scrolling down on the region’s homepage). This aspect allows nations of that region or other people from other regions if they have an embassy there to communicate and displays their flag as well as allowing them to ‘like’ others’ messages and quote them. Roleplay is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role.
Now we have RMB RPs where people role-play in the regional message board. But what do they roleplay? Of course, there are people who have made specific maps and specific eras to fit the nation/player’s taste on roleplay! In TEP we currently have 3 very active roleplays, Windsor by Volinovia, Valsora by Merlovich, and Courisla by me!

Windsor takes place in the World War I Era of the 1910s to 1920s; Valsora features modern technology roleplay that is slowly advancing into future tech, while Courisla is a renaissance role-play that is also advancing in technology. But since there are lots of Regional Message Board Role-plays sometimes bad things happen including on which RMB RP is better or such, and this is the purpose of this article, to ask the owners/cartographer’s opinion about other RMB RPs throughout the entire region of The East Pacific, starting with Volinovia, the Owner and the Lead Cartographer of Windsor!

TechTag: *barges in Volinovia’s room door* Hemlo Volinovia! How are you? Are you doing fine on your vacation? I hope you get a keyboard soon. Anyways I’m not here for that, But I think you already know why am I here right?

Volinovia: Hello! Doing fine here, thank you though. And yes I do know why you are here in the middle of night barging in at my big mansion is totally not creepy.

TechTag: Okay, okay I am sorry to interrupt your beauty sleep. I will only ask a few questions about the RMB RPs then I will leave you alone. Is that okay?

Volinovia: Fine then. Ask.

TechTag: So, what do you think about Valsora?

Volinovia: I love Valsora, it was the map I really made the image of my nation on through kicking the NUSSR’s butt back when he was fledgling. I have always liked it through Zuk, Nova, and now Merlo.

TechTag: Okay okay, what do you think about Merlovich and Valsoran roleplayers? Instead?

Volinovia: Valsoran Roleplayers have always been my friends, I have always kept tabs on Valsora and the movement of things in the TEP, although I may be biased in thinking Windsor is better, Valsora is certainly not far behind and is an important piece of the TEP’s history.

TechTag: Hmmmm, okay. Last question. Are there any circumstances that you have encountered saying that “Valsora is better than Windsor” or other things that basically make Windsor and Valsora somewhat rivals? If yes, what would you do to show that it’s not rivals of some sort, and if no, what would be your response to it if it happens?

Volinovia: I remember in the first version of Windsor had a small running with a Valsora v Windsor rivalry. I don’t think that either map is “better”. Each RPer needs to find the map based on their RP style. While Windsor may be a little more Game like and in-depth, Valsora has its own charms that make it unique as well and nobody should be judged based on their choice of map. If a Windsor RPer went around toting that Windsor is better than Valsora and started being toxic I’d clamp down on them, I would expect and hope that Merlo and the Valsora staff would do the same.

TechTag: Thank you for your amazingly grandiose answers Voli! I know this may be short and somehow quick as it’s my first article and *sigh* woooo. This is somehow nerve-cracking! Anyways I shall barge out of your room now! Until we meet again! Woop woop! 

Woo! What an entertaining interview! Let’s go barge into Merlovich next! This will be enjoyable as well!

TechTag: *barges in Merlovich’s door* Hemlo Merlooooooooo! I mean no- Oi mate! howdy! What are you doing in this fine upside-down world today? Oh my god, it’s too hot here!

Merlovich: G’day m8, what brings you here in the middle of deserted Australia with lots of spiders, snakes, and emus?

TechTag: Ah yes, I came here to interview you! about…..*pants heavily* Windsor… Yes! Windsor. 

Merlovich: About Windsor? Hm sure, go ahead!

TechTag: Okay then if you say so, first question -- so, what do you think about Windsor?

Merlovich: I think Windsor is great, it's always interesting to look at other maps as a map owner myself. I like Windsor both as a conventional map, and admire the loyalty it's members show to it. Despite it's quieter nature recently, Windsor still has a great load of potential, and I'm eager to see where it goes.

TechTag: What a wonderful answer: very nice, next question! What do you think about Volinovia and Windsorian roleplayers instead?

Merlovich: I don't know a huge amount about individual roleplayers on Windsor, but I know that they're quite strongly tied with the map, and they enjoy it. As for Volinovia, that only goes to show how much he cares for the map, and how well he's done at running it.

TechTag: *is jungshooked* Okay, questionne la finale~ Are there any circumstances that you have encountered saying that “Windsor is better than Valsora” or other things that basically make Windsor and Valsora somewhat rivals? If yes, what would you do to show that it isn't at all If no, what would be your response to it if it happens?

Merlovich: I've heard from a lot of people that Windsor is either being run better or is overtaking or has 'overtaken' Valsora as the RMB's main RP map. I've seen a lot of people place Windsor and Valsora as direct rivals, which I'm not a fan of, and neither is Voli. Both these maps can work and live in peace with one another, and they've done so recently quite well. I dispute the claim that Valsora is any lesser than Windsor, while I admire the work that Voli has put into Windsor, and am impressed with its longevity, I'm still confident that Valsora is the main map for RMB RP. Valsora goes through ups and downs, it always has and the cycle continues no different, sometimes there just needs to be a spark to keep the RMB alive and running smoothly. Valsora is still going strong and will continue to do so. I love this map and have the utmost faith in it's continued success as TEP's main RMB map.

TechTag: What a long answer, anyways thank you so much for your time and such, I hope you have a good day mate!

Merlovich: Yeah, you too!


There we go, we basically got each other’s opinions on their maps. Both Cartographers say each other’s map is awesome and unique in its own way, having different roleplay styles. Both maps have their own life and fandom and should not get hate, as they are one of TEP’s most influential RMB RP Maps, and their purpose is to shed happiness and fun to its roleplayers, not hate. -TechTag


Technocratic Tagalog Interview: RMB’s Rising Star
By Art (Sokala)


1. How long have you been in NationStates?

Around 96 Days! And Yep, I’m one of those peeps who joined during the infamous “Drew Wave”.

2. How long have you been in The East Pacific?

I started in TEP So lol! Same day as my nation founded above!

3. What was the first RP that you joined? What made you join that RP?

Windsor, I was pretty much got interested with it as I talked with some RMB Persons that are included in the map which are; AzureanoVolinovia, and Distro-Spartica.

4. Are there any other RPs you are part of? What are those RPs?

Yep! I am also a Part of Valsora, My own map, Courisla, and now the forum rp, Urth! And some Roblox RPs

5. What are you RPing as in those RPs respectively?

Ah, in Valsora I’m just a simple republic there who is slowly rebuilding from the ashes of its past, I decided to go into that way since I’m inactive in Valsora, In Windsor, I am a Kingdom bearing the name of Valhalla, a powerful Kingdom with a pretty much worldbuild related to some real-life nations. And in Urth, I’m an Absolute Monarchy focusing on Technology.

6. Prior to NationStates, did you have any other experiences in roleplay?

I have been to a lot, I have also experienced roleplaying in such games such as; Roblox, Minecraft and other games but not this time of roleplay as a nation of course hahaha. And some real-life roleplays that I’m sure I don’t wanna talk about.

7. What are your thoughts on your rapid ‘promotion’ from cartographer to one of the admins of Windsor, a relatively powerful position for someone who’s less than a year in NS?

It was a damn emotional rollercoaster. In just a span of three months, I have already got into this position? Man, this feels like yesterday when I joined, to be honest. I don’t even know how I went up into this position starting as a Helper, I just did my own thing and moved with the flow, It's pretty much amazing if you ask me.

8. With Volinovia moving on from Windsor, what are your future plans for it?

Currently, I am still planning the last update that Volinovia was going to make for Windsor before he decided to leave, the culture and religion update in which Culture is now released, planning for religion. But I guess for now I don’t have many future plans for it but I’m sure there is a plan that might come soon.

9. You recently joined the Urth RP of TEP. Any thoughts on why you joined Urth?

I am a man of curiosity. I like to check out things when I have extra time and have nothing to do, I saw the server invite in the main discord server and joined, There are a lot of supportive people there like Sammy (New Leganes) and Dylan(Staynes) which really urged me to join Urth and here we are now, me having a fun time on Urth as well.

10. There are talks about you rebooting Courisla. Any comments on this?

Courisla just went from active to super dead when I lost my charger for 2-3 weeks, I started it as a joke as I am trying to hone my cartography skills without using a premade map by a generator and tried it. It turned at least pretty decent and joked about it on the server then, yeah some people do want the reboot. Who knows? Maybe in the near future if someone is still interested.

 


Looking through the Stained Glass Windows
By Inquisitive Examinations


Editor’s Note: The following is a work of satire and does not represent the views of The East Pacific.

As you know, we are currently in the middle of this [current world event], and no doubt it’s taken a big toll on people in this game and elsewhere. I’d just like to preface this with a reminder to stay safe and kind to each other at this time.

One of Delegate Libertanny’s most prominent actions this month was the Windows Defender theme, which confused many interregional onlookers. The posting of blue flags and blatant advertisement of Microsoft’s anti-malware program seemed completely out-of-character for the previously-vibrant green tones of The East Pacific. The July 12th announcement, prefaced with “Statement on Defender Alignment,” no doubt alarmed many in the R/D-centric Gameplay community. Some individuals concluded that this couldn’t have meant a defender ideology, since TEP law currently forbid such a move.

 

Spoiler

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Windows Defender Flag

Ultimately what was the Windows Defender theme and why did it take place? The earliest mention of Windows Defender seemed to take place a day previous, when Libertanny joked that The East Pacific was turning defender, shorty before complaining about setting up Windows 10. A connection between these two topics were soon made, with the Windows Defender joke being born.

Spoiler

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Libertanny’s arcane viewing device, which he uses to control TEP

 

What turned Windows Defender from a throwaway joke in the General channel into a theme for the whole region? In his statement, Libertanny cited the “NSGP rumors” about TEP’s “guilty pleasure.” It would seem the conventional reason would be that Libertanny was shrugging off these rumors by declaring that TEP would turn defender - Windows Defender.

But...something doesn’t add up. Why would Libertanny do this? It’s clearly not very funny. If you look under the announcements at the comments, you get a true representation of feedback, because looking at the comment sections is always a valid method to gauging opinion. You get some less than stellar reviews.

Clearly, Libertanny was paid to do this. Like all the Raid: Shadow Legends commercials, only money could have convinced him to post something as unfunny and meme-worthy as Windows Defender. This thus implies that some higher power has paid off Libertanny to be unfunny. Could it be the Rahls, whose presence has similarly plagued TEP and NSGP with rumors for years? The Illuminati, like we at Inquisitive Examinations illuminated in a previous article?

Spoiler

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(Artist’s Rendition: The Conjurer’s Ritual. We at Inquisitive Examinations called Libertanny’s election. :P)

 

I think it’s more than this. And before you ask what’s higher than the Rahls or the Illuminati, I need only remind you of the world’s richest man. He’s the one running all of this.

Bill Gates.

Spoiler

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As taken from WeeKeePeeDeeA

 

Wait, I hear you saying. Isn’t the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos?

Yes, technically. But it’s all a front, you see, so he’d be less suspicious. And also possibly because it took a lot of money to pay Libertanny off.

Of course it would be Bill Gates who did this. Windows Defender is a thing developed by Microsoft, which -- not a lot of people know this, but -- Bill Gates runs! Well, until a few years ago. But he’s still the person people think of when they think Microsoft and has a lot of money.

People complain that TEP doesn’t take things as seriously. Maybe this is the true reason because they have no reason to while they are being paid off by Bill Gates to advertise Windows.

This is an affront to the broader NationStates community. You can’t have all this handed to you on a silver platter! Yes, you can be in charge of a GCR, yes, you can have a constant influx of new nations and people, yes, you can have a boatload of WA endorsements and influence, and yes, you can have a ridiculous presence in the World Assembly and no one will call you out.

But this is where it ends. We at Inquisitive Examinations have decided to take action. Today, we have filed a subpoena with the East Pacific Conclave in Rillanon, Christie Island. We wish to divulge something very important to the true people of NationStates. The East Pacific will call it leaking. We call it investigative journalism.

We need Libertanny’s tax returns. There is no way that his salary as Minister of Foreign Affairs or even as Delegate of the East Pacific justifies his lavish behavior. Even with the heavy pension that birds get in TEP because they have all the power and influence. We will find the root of all of this, whether it be Bill Gates or the New Pacific Order. 

Join us in this noble and valiant fight, for the true people of NationStates. This will be long and grueling, and we will face many trials along the way. Legal challenges in the Conclave are very expensive, and as a newspaper, it is very hard to get funds as print media is dying. That is why we humbly request that you disable AdBlock and donate to Inquisitive Examination’s Patreon here. Your donation would be greatly appreciated.

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