The United Defenders League

[Milograd]

Congratulations.

[Mahaj]

THE NEW TESTAMENT


ACT I

In the Great Decline of NationStates Proper, The Messiah was born

Oh, the western winds blew the fog across the land of old Defenderdom. The swamps and moors of our birthplace had eaten and rotten the soul of its strength. It was mostly abandoned in these sad and miserable years; the decline had left the holy land, empty and disremembered.

The Defender Security Alliance had fallen; The Red Liberty Alliance had dissolved, so too, Northern Chittowa had just heard, did a similar fate follow for The E-Army of Old.

Northern Chittowa, our worried Caretaker, was one of three who founded the last remaining bastion of Lux aeterna. He was trudging quickly across the moors, his guiding compass in his left hand and a torch in the other. With the untimely fate of The E-Army set, Northern Chittowa knew what had to be done: he needed to visit The Tasseomancer.

The Tasseomancer lived on the outskirts of Ole Defenderdom in the Belgian swamplands, where The Innominate were said to have arisen, beyond the Gates of Ostendt and even, The Moonlit Islands, which now sat radiant, but idle forevermore. Contrary to folklore, The Tasseomancer was a she. Legend suggests defenders had called her crazy; powers of divination had long been disregarded as delusions of madness, but make no mistake: history had not seen the last of “Crazy girl”.

The hovel of The Tasseomancer was made from the trunk of a giant Oak, Northern Chittowa knocked on its door four times. Four times had passed, but no one had answered. No matter, thought our worried Caretaker, for he had already assumed he would be greeted by naught. Kicking down the door of the home, Northern Chittowa emerged, through the doorway of The Tasseomancer’s retreat and smelt its unrestrained stink of ground coffee beans.

There at her table sat The Tasseomancer, sipping a cup of fine Coffee. Northern Chittowa withdrew his sword and pointed it at the soothsayer, but the woman had predicted this and simply obliterated his sword with the gentle wave of her hand.

“Witchcraft!” scolded the Caretaker.

“Trespassing!” replied The Tasseomancer.

“Well, yes, I must apologize for my intrusion, “said Northern Chittowa, “but I come with great urgency. The winds from the west threaten to extinguish the light… our light ...forever”.

“Even if this were possible… and do not think for a moment that Lux aeterna could ever be extinguished, I know with great certainty that these westerly winds are not the winds of extinguishment: they are the winds of change,” explained The Tasseomancer.

“How do you know this?” said Northern Chittowa, his mouth widening in awe.

“Divine premonition,” said The Tasseomancer, closing her eyes to recount her hazy prediction….

“On the final weekend of May,
Two were born.
Much comes from this day,
Both objects of honour and scorn.

One, the blood-soaked traitor,
The other, the blessed savior,
Of ole defenderdom proper and mater. “

“So it is safe then? The westwind will not be final? The light carries on?” said Northern Chittowa.

“The light carries on, good caretaker … it grows stronger with the arrival of our savior,” assures The Tasseomancer.

“I will tell my men at once!” said the defender joyfully, “they will search far and wide for the messiah.. but how will we know we have found the savior for certain?”.

“I know only this: he will rise from his home which will be burned to the ground, but his spirit will never break. He will take the title of Arch-Chancellor for a short, but important term yet is banished by the holy moderators,” said The Tasseomancer carefully, looking almost distraught.

* * *

When Northern Chittowa, Arch-Chancellor, rode back to his barracks, he arranged a meeting with the three wise ones, Chin-Chillas, Sedgistan and Cocodian. They were ordered to span their search across the far reaches of the world for the young savior of defenderdom, born this year into obscurity on either the twenty-fourth or the twenty-fifth of May. When the messiah is found, defenderdom’s revival is imminent, they were told. The search was afoot.

Cocodian was first of the three to find one candidate. His candidate was Spartzerina from The Council of Narnia, where heroes were born under the seal of the Lion King. It was a proper and noble birthplace for the son of God, it was said. Spartzerina’s birthdate fell in the window befitted of the messiah and so he was trained by the rangers, under the watch of the Arch-Chancellor, to become the most accomplished defender of The Founderless Regions Alliance.

He was never told of the legend that had been foretold of him, but Spartzerina always sensed an aura of mystery among the three wise ones.

Sedgistan, the most ambitious of the three, found the other candidate. His candidate was Unibot from the far and disrespectable islands of Dharma to the east. He was raised as a simple litigator -- not the distinguished defender that The Alliance would have hoped for… but the dates of his birth aligned with that of the savior, so the peasant could not be discounted. Unibot, like Spartzerina before him, was encouraged to serve defenderdom but never told of The Tasseomancer’s prophecy.

After both Spartzerina and Unibot were deleted by the moderators, it became clear that choosing which one was the savior and which one was the traitor would be a more difficult matter. Thus the three wise ones met once again with Northern Chittowa, who was now much older and frailer; together over candlelight and rum, they discussed which of the two to choose. Should they put their faith in the lion’s pedigree, Spartzerium or the backward litigator, Unibot? At the time, it seemed a simple choice: Spartzerina, knight of The Narnian Council, was one of many victims to the burning of The Narnian Council’s forum. Yet, Dharma, home of Unibot stood untarnished by the barbarians. Since The Tasseomancer had foreseen the burning of the savior's home, Spartzerina was the more likely candidate.

Sedgistan nodded in agreement with the wise ones, but he knew what they did not. His lover, The Tasseomancer, had told him in confidence that it was Unibot, not Spartzerina, who would be the savior of defenderdom. With this foreknowledge he had devised a cunning scheme… to force The Alliance to betray their own messiah, so that the legacy of Sedgistan the great would not be overshadowed, regardless of whether this meant the death of defenderdom itself!

The scheme would occur as such: Sedgistan would wait till Unibot became Arch-Chancellor of the defenders … then it would be time to strike. He would convince the leadership of The Rejected Realms, the crowning jewel of defenderdom, to help him and his lover coup the waters of The South Pacific. Unibot, the hapless idealist, would order The Alliance to defend The South Pacific against its own masked brethren. Just as Unibot talked of removing The Rejected Realms from The Alliance for their treachery, so too would the wise ones and others sharpen their knives and talk of impeaching their dear leader before he removed the valued region from their alliance. It was a shrewd plan, but Sedgistan had seen the same sharpening of the knives once before; when he as Arch-Chancellor, Sedgistan had ordered defenders to follow the westerly winds to The North Pacific and protect the northern people from the cold, bitter winter that was approaching... but as the winter grew harsher, his own colleagues had begun to question his leadership.

It was a perfect plan; as such, Sedgistan's scheme would all go as planned: the wise ones, Northern Chittowa included, led the campaign to oust Unibot as Arch-Chancellor. They declared Spartzerina their new Arch-Chancellor with the hopes that he would claim his destiny as defenderdom’s savior, but unbeknownst to them all, they had already banished their messiah to the depths of the Brachycardian Caves... the wasteland in the farthest southern corner of defenderdom, where the exiled were said to brood.

Not to worry, however, for everything was still as foretold. Sedgistan the great, Sedgistan the ambitious… had tricked defenderdom, but he had not tricked fate.

[The Mighty Warrior Horse]

HAIL
Goddammit Mahaj, what have you done?

[PrussianEmpire]

HAIL THE UDL!

[Afforess]

HAIL THE UDL!

Mahaj told me to.

[Hodori]

HAIL!

[The United Defenders League]

Want to be known in NationStates and meet new people? Click me to start the process to sign up for the UDL!

Hi guys!
Whew! An actual update! Turns out these things are hard to make… and that Unibot was really good at them, makes me miss him (yes, he’s actually gone, for real life business).

This summer has been busy, on both the political and the military front. First here’s Ravania, who will tell us what the UDL did all summer (and September!) on the battlefield:

Captain's log - Summer of '13

Well we've been quite busy all summer, mostly fighting newbies and small raider organisations.

But it all started with the liberation of 'Das Imperium' on the 21st of June, a joint mission with FRA and SDF. An occupation that had lasted for a few weeks by Antifa forces who thought the region was fascist which it never had been. All involved received a nice ribbon (insert png here) and after a hard struggle to ban all raiding nations the region was handed back to the natives after 10 days. Since then they independently chose to close up their region to keep it from further harm.

In the meanwhile several regions were liberated by our updaters, amongst them 'Iraq', 'Alteran Empire', 'The Global Revolutionary Workers Union' and 'The democratic republic of Friendship'. Others were detagged and some were defended successfully like 'Benevolent Capitalism' on the 28th.

July brought us the end of the coup in 'Osiris' and UDL helped the natives to ban 'The Dourian Embassy', by pushing a high-influence member of the Osirian Government into the delegate position. Osiris could now freely work on their region, a work that is still in progress. (insert png Osiris-ribbon)
Regions like 'United Federation', 'EP United', 'The Pacific Northwest' and 'Velka Morava' were liberated in July and over 40 regions were detagged and defended.

August started with a crazy minor update, Chief of the Band Mahaj asked me to lib 4 regions and defend one in a single update. This resulted in



A lot of detags were left on the schedule at that point but by the 16th the schedule looked like this:


with the liberation of 'Spanish' as final fight on that day. For a whole week Nationstates remained as good as raid free with our updaters monitoring and countering every raid-attempt. On the 26th the schedule was emptied again after successful liberations of 'The region of Jollyland' and 'The United Social Democrats'.

But then came September and TBR kicked back into action with raids on 'the coffee house' and 'Death Star' but by the time we got our troops ready to liberate the founder returned to spoil the horsemen's party. They moved to 'Orion' but lost their lead... http://www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=3928870 Since then raiders have primarily returned to the use of spraycans and we've been detagging dillegently keeping the NS-world as clean as possible. However there has also been action in RORMS and Westeros, both of which have been liberated by the UDL!

Thanks, Ravania!

Let’s take a break to laugh a little!

[16:31] * @Luna pushes Horse over
[16:32] * Horse has fallen, and can't get up
[16:32] * Horse calls lifealert
[16:32] <Tano_Holland> Should've got life alert
[16:32] <Tano_Holland> DAMN IT

Heeeheeeee I can’t think of a funny quip :/

On the political front, we’ve reached out to a few regions to develop relations, which has succeeded in the creation of some new embassies. We’re also looking forward to treaties in the future with these regions.

The UDL also welcomed lots of new members, including Maklohi Vai, our new Press Secretary! He’ll have an article soon about the new members of the UDL, and we look forward to it! He’s done a great job so far.

Another appointee for the UDL was Feux as our Chief of Feeder and Sinker Affairs. Feux has been advising the UDL administration on policies regarding feeders and sinkers, and we will be publishing our policy changes regarding feeder and sinkers soon. We will also soon be publishing our policy changes regarding invader regions.

Some other notes: UDLers have won some monthly awards for their outstanding achievements over the summer, you can see the winners here; Cormac Stark has been removed from the UDL Hall of Honor; Act I of the New Testament of the UDL has been posted; Alyekra and The Saturnian Republic have been made the first two Senior Merrymen of the UDL, enabling them to take command of UDL forces in the absence of a lieutenant; Hodori was promoted to Lieutenant; Chief Mahaj has attempted to join the forums of all the UDL’s Embassy, please let him know if he has failed in this.

Let’s end with one final quote from when Johz came back to the UDL:

[17:00] <@Mahaj> Solm!
[17:00] <@Mahaj> Solm don't you see johz is here!
[17:00] <@Solm> Mahaj!
[17:01] <@Luna> I'm still snuggling him!
[17:01] <@Luna> Wait in line!
[17:01] <@Solm> Wat
[17:01] <@Solm> JOHZ
[17:01] <@Solm> JHZ!!!!
[17:01] <@Solm> JOHZ!!!!
[17:01] <@Mahaj> lol
[17:01] <@Johz> SLM!!!!
[17:01] <@Solm> JOHZZ!

[The Saturnian Republic]

Woop! Shoutout!

Good stuff, person who writes our updates.

[The North Polish Union]

Regions like 'United Federation', 'EP United', 'The Pacific Northwest' and 'Velka Morava' were liberated in July and over 40 regions were detagged and defended.

Except that in Velka Morava natives (including the ex-founder, who had been DEATed for trolling) requested that the region be "raided."

Not that anyone cared when I actually posted the relevant information in the first place. It's too late now anyway, but I would appreciate it if certain defender organizations (and this is not just limited to the UDL) would get their facts straight and defend regions that are actually in need of it.

That is, any region which I'm not currently raiding

[Feux]

I'll post the new policy soon. Hail.

[Milograd]

Cormac Stark has been removed from the UDL Hall of Honor

He is now a part of an exclusive club. I'm curious as to why he was removed, though; I wasn't removed until I requested it.

[The United Defenders League]

Cormac Stark has been removed from the UDL Hall of Honor

He is now a part of an exclusive club. I'm curious as to why he was removed, though; I wasn't removed until I requested it.

He was removed because we didn't feel that he was honorable anymore and could not be honored by the UDL.



Also: I forgot to mention that Hodori is our newest lieutenant! He's already done really well in the job, congrats Hodori!

[Mad Jack]

Who are the UDL to judge who is honourable or not?

You were founded by Unibot for fuck sake. One of your lts leaked classified documents from one of your then military partners. Your current leader leaks from private government areas to people. The idea that the current UDL leadership is qualified to judge whether someone is honourable is ludicrous.

[Afforess]

Who are the UDL to judge who is honourable or not?

You were founded by Unibot for fuck sake. One of your lts leaked classified documents from one of your then military partners. Your current leader leaks from private government areas to people. The idea that the current UDL leadership is qualified to judge whether someone is honourable is ludicrous.

I'm not sure what your point is. Every organization ever has flaws, and is not perfect. If we held everything to the standards you suggest, we could never judge anyone, because we all are dishonorable at times.

Cormac is clearly closely associated with the Osiris raids, and the UDL can't stand by and let someone who supports destruction of regions keep their badge of honor, especially when it goes against the UDL core mission.

[Mahaj]

Who are the UDL to judge who is honourable or not?

You were founded by Unibot for fuck sake. One of your lts leaked classified documents from one of your then military partners. Your current leader leaks from private government areas to people. The idea that the current UDL leadership is qualified to judge whether someone is honourable is ludicrous.

Cormac's friends joined #udl to say things like

<Venico> Go shove it ya asswipes

and

<Koth|18thBday> hey guys im writing a news post and i wanted to get your input on how it feels to be the laughing stock of the defendersphere, faggots

(apologies for the words, these are direct quotes, read at your own choosing, nobody is being flamed.

Cormac then comes on to say great things like

<+Cormac> What Venico said.



____________________________________________________________
I doubt Osiris would appreciate it if an 'honored member' decided to participate in a drive by spamming and mockery of Osiris.


There are more quotes as well that demonstrate why it is inappropriate for Cormac to remain in the Hall of Honor.

[Eist]

I'm not sure what your point is. Every organization ever has flaws, and is not perfect. If we held everything to the standards you suggest, we could never judge anyone, because we all are dishonorable at times.

Yes, but some are more flawier than others...

I'm sure Cormac will be defending again by the end of next week and UDL can reverse their policy here again (and make him Chief or something). All is not lost!

[McMasterdonia]

Who are the UDL to judge who is honourable or not?

You were founded by Unibot for fuck sake. One of your lts leaked classified documents from one of your then military partners. Your current leader leaks from private government areas to people. The idea that the current UDL leadership is qualified to judge whether someone is honourable is ludicrous.

I'm not sure what your point is. Every organization ever has flaws, and is not perfect. If we held everything to the standards you suggest, we could never judge anyone, because we all are dishonorable at times.

Cormac is clearly closely associated with the Osiris raids, and the UDL can't stand by and let someone who supports destruction of regions keep their badge of honor, especially when it goes against the UDL core mission.

I think the point is that they have not removed other people before for the same thing.

In any case, I agree with most of your post. It is rare to find any "influential" player whose honour is not tarnished in the eyes of some. Honour, respect and trust can be hard to build up once it is lost. It becomes more difficult when you prove again that you cannot be trusted, respected or considered to have honourable intentions.

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain. - Plato

Some care about what people think about them - others do not. I honestly don't think that Cormac cares that the UDL doesn't like him or considers him to be no longer honourable, I am sure the feeling is mutual. The argument should be raised that this was a decision made by the leadership of the United Defenders League and that Cormac most likely still holds the respect of many other members of the UDL due to his other various achievements in gameplay and his contribution to the defender region of Spiritus.

While we should not ignore someones achievements completely, even when they do things that we don't like, a reasonable person would expect their achievements to be somewhat overshadowed if they act in a dishonourable way, or in a way that is contrary to what people expect of them. Milograd was a very successful Delegate of the South Pacific before the coup. The coup is what most people remember the most now, having worked with him closely before that, I feel that he did an excellent job as Delegate and was very involved and engaged in the region. Likewise with Detective Figs. The success and the mistakes of the her leadership in Osiris will be considered by some to be far more important than any achievement that she has made in all of her years in nationstates.

It's a simple fact that a lot of people play dirty to achieve their political ends. If you think your record is clean, accuse someone else of being dishonourable. It won't take long for someone to point out the stains on your honour. As demonstrated in this thread today.

What the United Defenders League thinks of Cormac and his honour is irrelevant to anyone other than themselves and how they do business moving forward. What matters is what the Osiris community that Cormac serves thinks of him, and what he does to continue to prove their trust and faith in him to be valid and justified.

The comments in #udl are regrettable, yet I am sure a lot worse has been said in any active IRC channel.

[Mahaj]

I'm not sure what your point is. Every organization ever has flaws, and is not perfect. If we held everything to the standards you suggest, we could never judge anyone, because we all are dishonorable at times.

Yes, but some are more flawier than others...

I'm sure Cormac will be defending again by the end of next week and UDL can reverse their policy here again (and make him Chief or something). All is not lost!

Yeah, um, no.

[Afforess]

I'm not sure what your point is. Every organization ever has flaws, and is not perfect. If we held everything to the standards you suggest, we could never judge anyone, because we all are dishonorable at times.

Yes, but some are more flawier than others...

I'm sure Cormac will be defending again by the end of next week and UDL can reverse their policy here again (and make him Chief or something). All is not lost!

You can't judge a person on what they might or might not do, that's downright silly.

You have to rely on existing facts.

[Feux]

Who are the UDL to judge who is honourable or not?

Because it's their hall of honor.

[Mad Jack]

Who are the UDL to judge who is honourable or not?

Because it's their hall of honor.

Their hall of honour, actually.

Well, shouldn't that be our hall of honour, Chief of Feeder and Sinker Affairs Feux?

[Feux]

Because it's their hall of honor.

Their hall of honour, actually.

Well, shouldn't that be our hall of honour, Chief of Feeder and Sinker Affairs Feux?

Doesn't matter, and yes.

[Benevolent Thomas]

Yes, but some are more flawier than others...

I'm sure Cormac will be defending again by the end of next week and UDL can reverse their policy here again (and make him Chief or something). All is not lost!

You can't judge a person on what they might or might not do, that's downright silly.

You have to rely on existing facts.

Well it is a well known fact that Cormac has changed sides multiple times. I'm sure that Eist is not the only gameplayer that believes that Cormac will change again.

[Afforess]

You can't judge a person on what they might or might not do, that's downright silly.

You have to rely on existing facts.

Well it is a well known fact that Cormac has changed sides multiple times. I'm sure that Eist is not the only gameplayer that believes that Cormac will change again.

Do you think you deserve a commendation for something you might do? If not, why are you asking the same of the UDL?

[Ambroscus Koth]

Mahaj never did tell me how it feels to be the laughing stock of the defendersphere