The Rejected Times: Issue LXIV

by **Glacikaldr** » Sun Jul 12, 2020 8:56 am

Dear Reader,

Please be aware that, after an outstanding turnout for our latest 'Ranking the GCRs' Survey, we have decided to close the survey early. Outrageous I know-- but we decided it's best to not torture our number-crunching monkeys further (who we hired after their years of experience in Wall Street) and we also realised that Survey Monkey sucks (while I'd hate to blame the monkeys, they did play a major role in influencing the decision to use that service over others).

In future, we will be sure to use a different service, such as Google Forms, to run the survey and be able to properly view all your submissions without a 'free trial' cap (damned swindling monkeys!).

Thank you to the GCRs who helped advertise the survey. In future, we intend to reach out to the NSGP community over Discord as well. And, of course, thank you to everyone who submitted a response — we collected 53 responses in total.

Yours diligently,
TRT Staff

by **Agalaesia** » Tue Aug 04, 2020 6:52 am

Sign up for The Rejected Times' Subscription Service here.

Issue LIX | August 2020

Editor-in-Chief: Agalaesia
Deputy: N/A

The Truth Behind the Attempted Balder Coup
FEATURE | WRITTEN BY Bormiar | EDITED BY TRT STAFF

Editor's Note: Bowzin and North East Somerset have provided partially different perspectiveshere andhere, respectively

On March 5th, Fooooooooo released Balder Bugle Issue VIII, which informed NationStates of a Balder coup attempt perpetrated by contemporary Minister of World Assembly Affairs Griffindor13. As its name may suggest, Balder Bugle is not a regional newspaper whose claims belong to the author alone (like the Rejected Times). The Balder Bugle is “a publication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Realm of Balder”, the equivalent of a foreign update. Balder Bugle’s vague statement revealed only that Griffindor “[conspired] to overthrow Balder's elected Delegate, King North East Somerset”, before skipping to a very detailed account of the punishments. Upon further prodding, Fooooooooo personally revealed that “Griffindor13 proposed creating a private Discord server to coordinate military operations to ‘secure the Delegacy’ through unlawful means... Griffindor plotted to use his government position to gradually lobby for a series of initially small and then larger increases in the endorsement cap”. NationStates Today also wrote an article on the event, but the article did little more than echo Balder Bugle’s announcement. The article may have some bias, given the affiliations of its author, J.S. Talleyrand, who has been highly influential in the Land of Kings and Emperors, a region closely associated with Balder.¹ Balder Bugle has previously had and may still have treaty relations with NationStates Today.²

Despite the little information we were initially given, Griffindor unilaterally attempting to overthrow the government seemed plausible. Unlike other game-created regions, Balder has been the target of many empty coup threats over the years, such as the recent Popular Front for a United Balder. These could be inspired by the frequent criticisms of the region from prominent gameplayers. In an “Ask Me Anything” thread by Cormactopia Prime, an extremely influential retired player, Cormac frequently shared aspirations to “liberate” Balder, declaring that “the state of the region is just depressing”. Roavin, a prominent member of the South Pacific and the Order of the Grey Wardens, is well known for his dislike of Balder, having frequently criticized its (alleged) stagnancy and endorsed couping it. He gave TRT an excellent explanation for his dislike of Balder, which may give context to Griffindor’s and other would-be revolutionaries' motivations. The summary, available in the footnotes, cites a facade of democracy, a kangaroo court, Balder’s alleged imperialist rhetoric, and extreme security policy such as its proscriptions.³ Despite the diplomatic pressure usually put on endorsing a coup of a game-created region, neither of those players have received much diplomatic consequence for their words. In TRT’s recent “Ranking the GCRs” survey, Balder did exceptionally worse than all others. The popular criticism of Balder might have served to justify Griffindor’s attempt at democratizing Balder.

Furthermore, Griffindor (a member of the South Pacific, a democracy) has had experience which led him to believe in democracy. When detailing his Balder history in an interview with TRT, he explained how he helped to split a unicameral (one chamber) appointed legislature into a bicameral (two chambers) legislature where the lower house (Odelsting) would be open to all upon application. This allows any player, appointed or not, to be in the legislature. “I noticed a marked increase in activity on the forums (which is normally dead) as a result of the changes making governance closer to the people”, he added without prompt.⁴ He gave the impression that he truly believed in democracy.

Griffindor is allegedly no stranger to clandestine activities. In February 2018, Griffindor’s legislator (equivalent of citizen to most regions) status in the South Pacific was removed for using multiple legislator accounts, the other account being Lavoret. It is reasonable to consider both accounts owned by different players, especially because NSHistory logs show both players’ nations (Lavoret and Ebonhand) being in the World Assembly at the same time.⁵ As Glen-Rhodes (Sandaogao) clarifies in the thread, “the allegations aren’t that they’re the same person”. They likely believe that Griffindor was requesting that Lavoret vote certain ways, thereby voting through Lavoret. Griffindor informed TRT that he “was kinda bitter” after losing an appeal, and ended up in Balder after deciding to move to a different region. Griffindor denies the allegations against him to this day.

On the surface, it appears like Griffindor, a convicted criminal and democracy fanatic, unilaterally attempted to execute a military coup of Balder via increasing the endorsement cap. No wonder the media reported it as such. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Griffindor was not the only conspirator in the Operation Heimdall plot, as Balder’s announcement and NationStates Today’s subsequent article may lead you to believe. “Operation Heimdall”, as it was named, was coordinated by Ebonhand (Griffindor), Eriadni (Aquila), Adriatican (Dmofadriatican), and Bowzin.⁶ Aquila, Bowzin, and Griffindor were ministers, while Adriatican was a Deputy Talman, the equivalent of a deputy speaker.⁷ On January 28th, Discord logs show Bowzin approaching Griffindor to invite him to a newly-made Operation Heimdall server, where they would plot Balder reform.⁸ The screenshot also shows Bowzin implying that he previously recruited Aquila. Both Aquila and Griffindor confirm being recruited to Operation Heimdall by Bowzin.⁹ Adriatican was recruited by Griffindor.¹⁰ Bowzin, then Minister of Interior Affairs¹¹ but soon Statsminister (Balder’s head of government)¹², is clearly shown to be the catalyst behind the Heimdall plot.

Bowzin was the origin of the Heimdall plot

Operation Heimdall was not a military coup as was led to believe in Balder’s announcement. Griffindor seemed more interested in democratizing Balder via legal, legislative means, such as the aforementioned creation of the Odelsting. As Aquila told TRT, “Griff definitely was keen on the reform process, but he was more concerned with legislating such a thing. All of my conversations with him were about what bills we wanted to pass, and trying to democratize in a way that Onder and NES would agree too [sic]”. Griffindor confirms this, stating, “I intended to give the Odelsting (which was comprised of all willing citizens) more power and allow them to be able to control more aspects of day to day government (akin to the parliament of the UK where the House of Commons has nearly all the power, and the House of Lords and queen have no where [sic] near as much). My rationale was that the Lagting (upper house) was for the long serving and trusted members of the region was meant to protect the region from changing too fast or too radically. The king was further envisioned to be more of a figurehead with the Statsminister running day to day affairs”. Discord logs since the creation of the Heimdall server confirm this.¹³ In discord logs provided during Griffindor’s trial, North East Somerset asks Griffindor how he intends to legislate new power for the Odelsting when the Crown (i.e. North East Somerset) can veto any change to constitutional law, and Griffindor suggests that North East Somerset would eventually reach a compromise with them.¹⁴ This strategy is unlikely to have worked, even if they hadn’t been discovered. Such a plan is simply too reliant on the people you want to make less powerful.

That being said, the co-conspirators did say things that suggested they intended to use military force if all else failed. In a private discord chat, Bowzin and Griffindor both agreed that a “separate military server” may be required “if it comes to getting the delegacy secured in the future”.¹⁵ According to the defense (the equivalent of a prosecution to most people) in Griffindor’s trial, Griffindor said “This term we should work with the king to increase endocaps; ideally to in the hundreds, but baby steps first”.¹⁶ This is presumably how they would overthrow North East Somerset if need be. Other evidence provided by the defense (prosecution) was extremely flimsy, though there is merit to the idea that Griffindor may have tried to coup eventually.

When North East Somerset found out about the Heimdall server, he appears to have requested that its conspirators confess to treason and declare loyalty to the Crown. In exchange, the players would be granted immunity. This is ostensibly a legal requirement per section 3.1.b of the Criminal Code. The law, provided to me by North East Somerset, specifically states that “any party, upon having made a reasonable attempt in a timely fashion to disclose [information regarding treason], shall have impunity of this offense”. The law appears to read as though anyone who leaked the activities receives immunity, while those who did not leak it but chose to cooperate still do not receive immunity, because that would not be made in a “timely fashion” or be a “reasonable attempt” at all. They were given immunity regardless, likely in order to facilitate their cooperation.

Aquila was indifferent (as he was with the entire debacle) to receiving immunity.¹⁷ Unlike his friend, Adriatican was not happy about the agreement. In a conversation with Griffindor, Adriatican explained that he and Bowzin were “forced” to condemn Griffindor’s actions and swear loyalty to the Crown. “NES has essentially rendered [Griffindor] unable to call a witness involved, as we would either have to perjure ourselves to side with [Griffindor] and get kicked out, or recant our condemnations to side with [Griffindor], and get kicked out”, he tells Griffindor. “He very much blackmailed us, or at the very least, seriously leaned on us in a way unbecoming of the Crown. [...] He forced us to choose between our collective citizenship and political careers, or the guillotine, and I’m honestly disappointed in myself, that I didn’t choose the latter”.¹⁸ ¹⁹ While the accusations directed at North East Somerset may be exaggerations, it is a major flaw of the judicial system in Balder that witnesses would be granted immunity in exchange for signing a statement that didn’t allow them to testify.

Aquila moved on from Balder easily, settling in The Black Hawks and The Communist Bloc. As North East Somerset said to TRT, “Aquila just gradually went inactive, lost interest. He was never really involved much to begin with.” Adriatican gave a bold farewell address, where he denounced Balder’s royalty and declared the courts corrupt.²⁰ He goes on to resign from all positions within Balder, including citizenship, and offers that other Balderans join his new region, whose name was edited out of the post. Adriatican later unsuccessfully tried to come back to Balder, demanding an apology, for whatever reason. Some have the theory that Adriatican is the player behind the Popular Front for a United Balder, an attempt at invigorating a coup of Balder.²¹ They deem the post, dated to April 23rd, was a response to a denied citizenship application from April 16th.²² The distinct poetic language is similar to the language used in the post where Adriatican announced that he was leaving Balder (available at the bottom of the article). For example, both posts describe the Crown as “smothering” (using that exact word). The tone and poetic language of both posts are extremely similar, so it’s certainly possible that they are the same player, despite the lack of hard evidence. Adriatican denies being behind the nation.

As you know by now, Griffindor did not get off as easy as Aquila and Adriatican. Rather than admit to treason, Griffindor attempted to protect their conspiracy. In an act of desperation, he piled up a series of major lies, which the defense (equivalent of prosecution) had a field day with. These lies include false implicating Danst in Operation Heimdall, and claiming that there was not a discord server, rather a three-way group chat between Adriatican, Danst, and him.²³ Danst had ceased to exist when Griffindor implicated him, and Griffindor knew this.²⁴ Griffindor admits to this lie and apologizes for it.²⁵ Griffindor also falsely claimed that Adriatican recruited him, rather than the other way around, which assisted the defense (i.e. prosecution) in arguing that Griffindor was the main catalyst and leader of Operation Heimdall²⁶, though that claim is dubious.

In his trial, Griffindor and the defense (prosecution) mutually agreed that Crown Prince Onderkelkia would preside over the trial. Aexnidaral, the Attorney General appointed by contemporary Statsminister Bowzin (and later reaffirmed by Fooooooooo / Fuzzy), represented the defense (i.e. prosecution). He defended Griffindor’s charge of Deception using the aforementioned lies, and proposed a 7 week ban for the act, the maximum sentence for such a crime. His defense of the charge of Treason hinged almost entirely on a conversation between Bowzin and Griffindor on potentially “[securing] the delegacy” if it comes to that (see paragraph 8 ). The other major piece of evidence was Bowzin suggesting “This term we should work with the king to increase endocaps; ideally to in the hundreds, but baby steps first” (see paragraph 8 ), but that was merely circumstantial, as there are many reasons one would want to increase an endorsement cap as low as Balder’s. Aexnidaral also pointed to Aquila creating a “Balder Revolutionary Government” flag, and a channel entitled “#gameside-operations”, which he treated as some kind of “proof” that the conspirators created a military channel. The plaintiff, Griffindor, claimed that gameside operation channel was used for “attempting to create gameside activity amongst the population” (far more likely, given the title and lack of discussion in the channel provided from Aexnidaral), and that the channel was created before his aforementioned discussion with Bowzin. He describes the revolutionary flag as shitposting and a joke. It’s most likely that Aexnidaral misled the court on those two pieces of evidence (as his job sometimes requires), and that the conversation between Bowzin and Griffindor is the only hard evidence they have. Aexnidaral proposed an 8 month ban followed by a year long ban from holding elected office.²⁷

Griffindor, the plaintiff, countered the defense’s argument by sharing that the real plan was to create reform via legislation, as detailed above. This was clear. As the defense pointed out, that doesn’t change the fact that he allegedly planned to coup the region. He proceeded to provide strong evidence refuting some of the defense’s claims regarding the deception charge, notably that Griffindor was the ringleader of Operation Heimdall.²⁸

It seems in Griffindor’s eyes, his trial was just as much a trial of him as it was a trial of North East Somerset and the Crown. He brought up the aforementioned statements from Bowzin and Adriatican, which Adriatican deemed as the result of “blackmail” (see paragraph 10). Adriatican believes this because he had to make his statement to qualify for immunity (i.e. not be prosecuted). Griffindor proceeds to accuse North East Somerset of baselessly requesting that Griffindor be removed from the Odelsting (lower court), as there had not been a resignation or court conviction at the time. When Griffindor’s removal from the court was later legally (it was not explained what made it legal) put to vote (before the conviction), the contemporary President Pro Tempore of the Lagting (upper court), Fooooooooo, joined the Odelsting. Griffindor suggests that the President Pro Tempore was an imported voter. ²⁹

In a gargantuan 5000-word “Onderwall”, Arbiter Onderkelkia preferred the defense’s arguments, convicted Griffindor of treason and deception, and sentenced him to 6 months banishment from the region and a year’s banishment from holding elected office. The 6 treason and deception sentences are to be served concurrently, which gives Griffindor the absolute minimum sentence. ³⁰

But it was not Adriatican’s words or Griffindor’s conviction or North East Somerset’s alleged crimes that are the most interesting part of the Operation Heimdall scandal. It’s actually Bowzin. Bowzin’s entire involvement in the affair is incredibly suspicious. Despite organizing the entire server, Bowzin was the only colluder in Operation Heimdall affair to get off without leaving the region or being punished. That means that he neither suffered legal nor major social consequences. This is likely partially because he leaked the Operation Heimdall event to North East Somerset, as confirmed by North East Somerset³¹, Onderkelkia³², and Bowzin himself³³. Bowzin claims, in an address to the region, that he left the scheme because “[he] saw it began to spiral out of control, as they planned ways to ‘secure the delegacy’”³⁴. That direct message³⁵ (i.e. only Bowzin and Griffindor) discussion involves Bowzin’s own participation, and was crucial to convicting Griffindor. It was dated to January 31st, just minutes before Bowzin’s statsminister election began.³⁶ The timestamp of the screenshot provided in the trial read as “Yesterday at 8:49pm”³⁷, meaning that Bowzin either sent the screenshot to North East Somerset on February 1st (in which case there would be a ten day investigation before NES pressed charges), or Bowzin was saving the screenshot in hopes of later revealing it.

If Bowzin did wait before sending the screenshot to North East Somerset, that condemns him of a series of extremely corrupt wrongdoings. Among them, treason. He would not have qualified for immunity if per section 3.1.b of the Criminal Code, because he would not have disclosed the information in a “timely fashion”. If he didn’t wait (and frankly, he probably didn’t), that complicates things. If Bowzin both created the Heimdall server and leaked it, what was his motivation behind the server in the first place?

Therein lies the question of the Operation Heimdall scandal. Bowzin could’ve easily dispelled the discussions of military force, but instead he facilitated them by going along with Griffindor’s suggestions. He could’ve gone along with Operation Heimdall in order to fulfill his strong aspirations for a more democratic Balder, but instead he got rid of all his collaborators. “I have a hunch it was a setup from the start”, writes Aquila to TRT. “The only potential confirmation I have for that is this one specific conversation I had with [important Balder player] while this was going down. He mentioned Bowzin had joked about organising then exposing a coup attempt to gain favour with NES/Onder/the Lagting” (screenshot of their discussion below). The player who Aquila spoke to said he believes that Bowzin organized Operation Heimdall in order to get closer to the top.³⁸ Adriatican agrees, writing to TRT, “[Operation Heimdall] was seemingly orchestrated by Bowzin, and NES, for their respective political gains”. This is corroborated by an RMB message (screenshot) by Bowzin in which he said, “I'll go ahead and just say it at this point, it wasn't under their noses for a single second” in the heat of an argument. “For a single second”. It’s difficult to prove that Bowzin intended to set up his colleagues, as that would require either seeing his direct messages with North East Somerset or entering his head. However, that quote from Bowzin is a heat-of-the-moment confession. It certainly raises eyebrows.

In this depiction of the events, Bowzin may have assisted North East Somerset to conduct a sting operation against those who may have been seen as a threat to the Crown. Bowzin would’ve found the players who he knew expressed anti-Balder opinions, feign sympathy and agreement, and proceed to suggest reform. It was Bowzin who recruited Aquila and Griffindor. It was Bowzin who formalized Operation Heimdall by creating the server. He simply had to bide his time until one of the players messed up. Bowzin then provided the direct message (i.e. just Bowzin and Griffindor) logs which were crucial in convicting Griffindor. This scenario possibly implicates not only King North East Somerset, but also Crown Prince Onderkelkia, the Arbiter in Griffindor’s trial, as he works closely with North East Somerset. That would make Griffindor’s trial phony and unfair.

The other scenario is that Griffindor or Aquila discussed reform with Bowzin, and, in what could only be called opportunism, Bowzin decided to inform North East Somerset of a “coup attempt”, intended to weaken the Crown. Bowzin created the Operation Heimdall server, formalizing the idea of reforming Balder. He then waited for Griffindor to slip up, and they would have the evidence to convict. As his plan had come to fruition, Bowzin informed North East Somerset of the coup attempt. In protecting North East Somerset’s power, Bowzin would’ve likely solidified trust from North East Somerset during the early days of his statsminister service. This is by far the most likely scenario, as it is devoid of wicked conspiring with questionable likelihood for success, and fits all the evidence perfectly. It is also a textbook case of oppurtunism consuming a player.

Bowzin declined to speak with TRT. I invite him to comment again.

The NationStates Gameplay community was left completely in the dark on the Heimdall scandal. We were spun a misleading story of a fanatic attempting a military coup alone. The story is far more tame, complex, and fascinating. It is the story of a proponent of democracy making a bold, unlikely-to-succeed attempt at reforming his region via legislative means, who screwed up badly along the way. His first mistake was proposing a militaristic contingency plan. His second mistake was putting so much trust into an opportunist. He was not, however, a prospective couper.

-----

Further Reading

Trial: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QJn5HKPdE_gwk-Z58qUVjbqZkcZ2N9-RM--FzFOy2L8/edit?usp=sharing

Bowzin and Adriatican’s Statements: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X80cYQXIER4XpC8uDI341VEQhLbVs9eq0u1UshotHXk/edit?usp=sharing

Adriatican’s Farewell Post: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JEcYbzMJxS8qOqyPJMNSu3WEXSJev-Wkax7bqpIJdec/edit?usp=sharing

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Footnotes

¹ At the bottom of the article, there is a description of the author. It says, “J. S. Talleyrand has been on NationStates for over two years. During that time, he has been involved in many regions, most notably including The Land of Kings and Emperors. He served three times as Prime Minister there, as well as the region's ambassador to Balder, Europeia, United Kingdom, and The West Pacific at varying times. He is a Politics and Gameplay writer for NationStates Today.”

² Past Balder Bugle / NSToday agreement: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rk8 ... sp=sharing

³ Full reasoning from Roavin: “There are many reasons to dislike Balder. I could name the oligarchy that runs the faux-democracy of the region, or its kangaroo court with predetermined outcomes administered by the same oligarchy, but these sorts of claims are cheap and easy to make at any region's expense, true or not (even if they are demonstrably true in this case). There are deeper reasons to dislike Balder, however.

Balder is the largest outpost (and most significant conquest) of the fanatical Imperialist faction. This is the same faction that invented the Independent Manifesto, a document designed to mislead regions with clever rhetoric about being "independent" and serving regional "interests", cleverly shrouding the true purpose of the document and the faction. The truth is, the overwhelmingly dominant part of the Imperialist sphere (of which Balder is a part) is not even Imperialist in the true sense of the word, but rather simply anti-Defender; and whilst opposition to an organized capital-D Defender cause is at least a conceivable goal, their fanaticism extends the faction's opposition extends far beyond.

Balder is a very obedient follower of the fanatical "Imperialist" cause. A region that is too friendly to whatever they deem bad (i.e. anything that remotely smells of defender) will be sternly talked to by Balder. If that region doesn't cease its activity, Balder will then begin to diplomatically isolate them, and do so in a very public manner to attempt to pressure the region into compliance. Balder then combines the fanatical tendencies of the "Imperialist" cause with a strong realpolitik, a particularly insidious combination. It should not be a surprise that the only major region to support the Khanate and its anti-defender message in Lazarus was Balder.

But despite all that, Balder is incredibly insecure. It is one of very few regions that is afraid of having their laws in the open, they have the strictest endorsement cap of all the GCRs, and their proscription policy is "shoot first, ask later", except they don't ask or even say that a proscription has taken place at all; and last but not least, they are an incredibly overbearing ally if things don't go exactly their way.

In summary, for all of us that are not fanatical "Imperialists", what is there to like?”

⁴ Griffindor wrote, “I spent a few months as a citizen [in Balder] and slowly got involved in their politics. I ran and achieved membership in the (at the time) elected unicameral Storting a couple of different times, and eventually spent a year as minister of World Assembly Affairs. I eventually was elected Lawspeaker of the Storting and with the support of my colleagues reformed the legislature of Balder into a bicameral system with an open to all (upon application) lower chamber and a upper chamber that consisted of the nobility of balder. I also was the inaugural holder of the Talman position (successor position to the Lawspeaker) and spend a couple of months getting the Odelsting (lower house) on its feet. I noticed a marked increase in activity on the forums (which is normally dead) as a result of the changes making governance closer to the people”.

⁵ Lavoret's Log and Ebonhand's Log

⁶ Made clear numerous times throughout Griffindor’s trial. Discussions with other players, such as Griffindor and Aquila, were built on the assumption that this was obvious.

⁷ Also obvious. Made clear in Griffindor’s trial and discussions with Griffindor and Aquila.

⁸ https://imgur.com/a/DjW1R4z

⁹ Griffindor writes, “[Bowzin] organized the server and recruited me and the deputy Talman to it”. Aquila writes, “Bowzin approached me, approached dmo and, as far as I know, approached Griff”.

¹⁰ https://imgur.com/a/jVHWWJo

¹¹ Confirmed by Griffindor in his trial. Confirmed here: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1154685

¹² Common knowledge. Confirmed here: viewtopic.php?p=36797899#p36797899

¹³ https://imgur.com/a/W3OZLwN and https://imgur.com/a/PrP7AXl

¹⁴ https://imgur.com/a/0kBwOWf

¹⁵ https://imgur.com/a/bT67uZU

¹⁶ Trial is available in the “further reading” section.

¹⁷ From Aquila to TRT: “I was offered [immunity], helped Griff plan his defence, organised a really really shitty attempt to slow things down in the legislature. I'm guessing I got [immunity]. NES never confirmed after all of that and I left pretty soon after.”

¹⁸ https://imgur.com/a/9QaF50E

¹⁹ The formal statements from both players are available in the “further reading” section.

²⁰ Available in the “further reading” section.

²¹ North East Somerset made TRT aware of these theories. He provided the post of Adriatican leaving and the date of his later citizenship application.

²² See above.

²³ See trial in “further reading” section.

²⁴ Griffindor told TRT, “I unfairly and falsely implicated a former member (CTE) of the region for the sake of those that testified against me, it was wrong, and I apologized for it then, in my trial, and now.”

²⁵ See above.

²⁶ See trial in “further reading” section.

²⁷ Every claim in this paragraph is drawn from the trial in the “further reading” section.

²⁸ See above.

²⁹ See above.

³⁰ See above.

³¹ North East Somerset told TRT, “I wasn't aware of the affair until Bowzin told me about it, to be honest. And he only told me about it after the crimes had been committed”.

³² Onderkelkia wrote “Bowzin who reported the alleged conspiracy to the Crown” in the trial of Griffindor, available in the “further reading” section.

³³ Found in Bowzin’s statement to the region, available in the “further reading” section.

³⁴ See above.

³⁵ Proven to be a dm here: https://imgur.com/a/NVb1g6J

³⁶ https://imgur.com/a/NVb1g6J

³⁷ https://imgur.com/a/bT67uZU

³⁸ https://imgur.com/a/D7W3i9P

^{By Catalyse}

RANKING THE GCRs: RESULTS REVEALED
FEATURE | WRITTEN BY Glacikaldr| EDITED BY TRT STAFF

In Issue LVIII, we asked our readers to respond to the latest survey of our ‘Ranking the GCRs’ survey series. The author also made an effort to reach out to the Delegates of the included Game-Created Regions (GCRs) to see if their regional governments would like to encourage citizens and residents to take part as well. Unfortunately, due to arguably foreseeable difficulties with trying to maintain order over a team of monkeys, we were forced to close the survey early at 53 respondents. In future, we will use an alternative survey host such as Google Forms. Thank you for your understanding, and thank you to everyone who participated. At 53 respondents, we had a very similar turn-out to 2018, achieved over a much shorter time frame.

PLEASE NOTE: percentages reflect comparison to 2018 survey.

PLEASE NOTE: categories are scored out of five.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DEAD I JACK, THE OUTGOING DELEGATE OF THE REJECTED REALMS
INTERVIEW | WRITTEN BY Western New England | EDITED BY TRT Staff

1. When did you start playing NS and what region's have you been in?

I made my first nation more than 9 years ago in April 2011, when Vincent Drake told me about the game. My first region was European Union, and that was when it was one of the largest founderless regions. From there I started my own region with Benevolent Thomas called Fort Triumph. That was when I created Deadeye Jack and was my first foray into Gameplay and defending, but it didn’t last that long. From there I’ve been in Lazarus, Hogwarts, The Order of the Grey Wardens, and The Rejected Realms.

2. What previous positions have you held (Delegate of another region, former Officer of TRR etc.)?

Well in European Union I served in multiple positions (Premier Commissioner, Economics Commissioner) but they were mostly RP elected positions so they are quasi GP and hard to explain. I was an Officer in the Lazarene Liberation Army and briefly Minister Herald (Foreign Affairs) in Lazarus. Headmaster in Hogwarts. I was a High Constable in TGW for awhile and am currently a Commander. In The Rejected Realms before I was delegate, I first was Culture Officer for 6 months and then Foreign Affairs Officer for 6 months.

3. In your campaign you talked about stronger communication with Officers about their goals. Would you say that you accomplished this communication well and how did you do so?

I’d say it’s something of a mixed bag. Officer can be a high turnover position at times in TRR and it wasn’t any different during my term as Delegate. With every Officer I’ve had I talked to them about a base amount of stuff I wanted done and about other ideas they had and tried to support them as possible. That has led to some great regional innovations by some of the Officers that should become standard practice for future Officers, but I’ll always feel like more could have been accomplished and I could have done more to make it happen.

4. Another thing you mentioned in your campaign was getting newer and more motivated Deputy Officers. Did this idea lead to success in your opinion?

I’d say it didn’t really come to fruition in the way that I originally intended. We have had some good Deputies, some were old and some were new, but they weren’t always given concrete assignments to really get a chance to make their mark and shine. However I do think that there are some deputies who are ready to step into the role of Officer so that is a good thing. I would also say that even non Deputies took steps forward in getting involved in the government. One example would be the creation of the World Assembly Staff. Those staffers have been involved in many of the new things we’re doing out of that office and have knowledge and experience to carry it forward.

5. What was your biggest accomplishment as the Delegate of TRR? What are you especially proud of?

Well one thing I’m proud of (although maybe it’s a little selfish) is that during my Delegacy I set the record for most Endorsements in TRR ever. It got as high as the low 290s.

I think my biggest accomplishment as Delegate of TRR is overseeing the systematic expansion of our World Assembly community. I’ve long viewed the World Assembly as an underutilized driver of regional activity (not just in TRR but in many places) and had some ideas on how to make it work for our region.

It started with the targeted effort to elevate the quantity and quality of World Assembly resolution discourse through a variety of new programs. These initiatives were originally housed under the Outreach office through a basically autonomous WA-focused Deputy Officer, but the amount of work grew to be so much that in the April Officer elections I encouraged people to run for an Officer position solely focused on the World Assembly. This was a big deal because in modern tradition the Officer portfolios had usually covered Culture, Media, Outreach, and Foreign Affairs. Bormiar is the one that ended up with the WA Officer portfolio.

Right away we got to work building the bureaucracy of the Office through the World Assembly staff so it could become a mainstay of the portfolios assigned to officers. Under Bormiar, aside from all the initiatives we put into place previously and are still continuing, we’re now releasing our version of voter recommendations dispatches that lay out Pros and Cons, and these have been fairly visible on the first dispatch page.

I’d wager (maybe with some small bias) that TRR’s WA Community is one of the best in the whole game; 2nd maybe to only TNP’s. It’s something we should be proud of and keep pushing to be better at.

6. Overall, would you say you did everything you had in mind, or do you feel like you needed more time?

No I don’t think I was able to accomplish everything I wanted to. That’s life, though, I guess. There were some Foreign policy goals I wasn’t really able to advance. With more time I probably could have but there is nothing stopping the next administration from getting it done.

Overall I’m happy with the way my term went and think it was a good time to be a member of the TRR community, and you can’t ask for much more than that. Now it’s time for someone else to keep carrying us forward.

7. What are your thoughts on this next term?

Well A Leaf on the Wind (aka Sarah) has been one of our most active members and officers over the last year, and I think she will be able to bring that same energy and excitement to the Delegate position and will represent TRR well.

It’s hard to give a full outlook on the term because a lot of it is really dependent on the officers and we have elections coming up August 1st. Mainly I expect the next term will continue a lot of what the government was doing during my term, but maybe there will be someone running for Officer that comes up with a vision that injects radical new ideas and life into one of the typical portfolios.

8. What are your plans now? Will you be departing TRR, will you try out for another position , or will you take a break from responsibilities of NS?

I’m definitely not going to leave TRR. I love TRR and its community and most of my friends are there. I want to see it keep being successful and will contribute what I can to making that happen.

“What’s next?” is something I’ve been starting to think about over the last month and really there are a million different directions I could go. I am looking forward to being WA mobile again so that I can participate in some defender operations. I’m probably super rusty now but it’ll still be fun.

Originally I thought I was going to take a mini break from having designated responsibility, but honestly that was misguided and against my nature. Recently I’ve thought of some really interesting Culture related projects, in the process of developing them I was getting pretty excited over it. So who knows? Maybe I will go back to my roots as a Culture Officer.

An Interview with Sarah, the New Delegate of TRR
INTERVIEW | WRITTEN BY Lansaka | EDITED BY TRT Staff; Agalaesia

How did you find NS?

Ooooh! This is a weird story, actually. I was converting to Islam and I was in a server call Muslim Chat. Someone else was considering converting and we talked a bit. After a while he said something about joining his online virtual family. And my morbid curiosity hit me, so I joined. And that's when I joined my first NS family server. Then I joined NS and the rest is history. For those curious that person was Scott/Tawks/OneTruePi

How do you feel about having been elected Delegate?

It’s exciting! It’s my first time being a Delegate and I’m excited to see what the next six months brings.

What are some of the first things you hope to do when you take office?

Set everything on fire!
No wait …
Honestly, no real big plans to start off. Just want to dip my toes in the water and take it slow. With officer elections being soon, I plan on waiting until the next team comes in before starting anything too big.

What do you hope to achieve as delegate?

I'd really like to achieve some growth in Outreach. I feel like there's so much potential in that office and I'd really like to polish it and let that shine. Used effectively, that office can contribute to our growth as a region and get people involved.

Do you have any major FA plans during this term?

I'd really like to work on strengthening the friendships we have. Making sure to maintain them and grow with them. Really focus on those relationships and fostering more goodwill between us both.

How would you deal with threats of foreign interference during your time as delegate?

I think it would depend on the level of threat. My first thing would be to consult the trusted advisors. In times like that it's important to not act rashly. Take a breather, assess the situation, and discuss with your team. Work together and come up with a solution. Call our friends if we need to.

What are your plans after your term ends?

I honestly have no idea. That's so far away XD probably to just be a citizen and get back jumping with the RRA. I don't see myself jumping into anything too heavy right off the bat. But then Jack said the same thing, and now he is running a very ambitious Culture platform. So honestly, who knows!

During your term, do you think you might be able to help boost World Assembly participation within the Rejected Realms?

I absolutely think so. I think one of the best and easiest ways to help with WA participation is by being an active face. Just being seen helps a lot. People are more likely to engage if you engage with them. I plan on using this term to really up my engagement in the WA forum threads, and hope that leads others to up their discussions as well.

How do you respond to the rumors that you will be handing out bread to every country upon your inauguration?

I didn’t know that rumor was going around! This is now a bread free region, tyvm.

Lemon bread or banana bread?

Banana bread, for sure.

A Conversation with Candlewhisper Archive, Senior Issues Editor
INTERVIEW | WRITTEN BY Agalaesia | EDITED BY TRT Staff

Candlewhisper Archives is a very accomplished issues author. He has written the greatest number of issues, and has edited many more. I recently had a conversation with him about his career as an issues editor and an issues author.

Aga: How did you start writing issues, and how did you become an issues editor

Candlewhisper: I started playing this game late, but was immediately struck by the limited number of issues in the game -- just over 400 at the time. I thought I'd see what the process was like to add a few, so made a few drafts in Got Issues. Also I whined a bit about how after that many years there ought to be at least a thousand issues in the game. I was told that there just weren't that many submissions of worth, essentially, and that editing took a lot of time, but that the main thing was that good issue ideas were only drafted infrequently.

Aga: Do you have a favourite issue?

Candlewhisper: I've written and / or edited so many issues now, and commented heavily on pretty much every issue since I've joined. Net result is that my fingerprints are all over the issue base, and picking a favourite might come across as being self-congratulatory. I've not got a favourite single issue, but my favourite type of issue are the ones where there's a serious topic delivered with humour and silliness along the way.

Aga: How do you deal with a writer's block?

Candlewhisper: I try and help people through it.

I don't really get writer's block myself, and I don't entirely get it. You just think of what you want to write about, and you write it. If you can't think of something, you just turn on the news, or click on a clickbait site, and an idea will be right there. You then read what you've written, and you make it better. I mean, writing ain't hard. Playing the violin, that's hard. Renal medicine, that's hard. Being nice to people, that's hard. But writing, you just have to move your fingers and put stuff down.

Instead, its more of a struggle to stop myself writing, and to do other things in life. Nationstates is all very satisfying, but it doesn't pay the bills or improve the world in any significant way. It's just my favourite waste of time.

Aga: Are there any changes to issues that you would like to see, including features and player-made developments?

Candlewhisper: Sure, but if I see those things, I change them. Or at least, I raise them with the team, and get to change them about two-thirds of the time.

Aga: What makes up a good issue?

Candlewhisper: I'm sure I've already written a guide on this!

Basically though: storytelling, relevance, humour.

Aga: What's your favourite type of issue?

Candlewhisper: My favourite types of issues are ones where you have to think about what is the right moral choice. Many issues present moral dilemmas, but even the most divisive dilemmas are often ones that players find easy to answer because they know their own moral position. Right to life vs female bodily autonomy, euthanasia vs not, issues like this are big questions, but most of us already know where we stand.

My least favourite type of issue are ones about monarchy. I mean, I see their need, but monarchy bores me stiff, and people seem way too interested in it for the 21st century.

Aga: What tips would you give to a new issues author?

Candlewhisper: Use Got Issues. Don't rush to submit.

Aga: What are your thoughts on people looking up the consequences of the issue before answering them? Do you think it kills the spirit of issue answering?

Candlewhisper: As someone who plays video games with a guidebook open in front of me in order to maximise exposure to "best content", I can't say that I object to people wanting to get spoilers. I think the key thing is that it should be someone's choice how much they look at spoilers, and that spoilering should be led by fans and players, not by game developers. You should never NEED a game guide to play, but having one shouldn't ruin the experience.

by **Agalaesia** » Tue Aug 04, 2020 6:54 am

THE WORST FORUM SKIN CONTEST RETURNS
FEATURE | WRITTEN BY Agalaesia | EDITED BY TRT Staff

Just over half a decade ago, the Rejected Times ran "the worst forum skin" contest, in which the websites and forums of regions faced off in a bloody battle to determine which one is the worst. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_rr_and_rra/the-rejected-realms-worst-forum-skins-in-ns-histor-t2102.html

This year we bring back the contest, hoping that regions will fight to the death to be crowned the "owner of the worst forum skin on NationStates."

Here's How It'll Work

The contest will start of with a nominations phase. Every player can nominate two regional forums or websites to appear in an onsite poll.

To nominate a forum, please use the following form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf8iaQQUtngIOMUjGQRy57qS31mKI9i-rLiOQC9IGh_TDKEUg/viewform

Enter your nation name, and then enter the name of the region that you want to nominate, and then include a URL to the region's forum or website. You can only nominate two forums. THE NOMINATION PERIOD LASTS UNTIL THE 10TH AUGUST.

Once the nomination period has finished, TRT staff will look over all nominations, weed out duplicates and write a brief description about each one. Following that, all of the chosen regional forums will face off against each other in an on-site poll, where TRT will once again bestow the award of "worst forum skin" onto the region that wins. Updates will be posted in the TRT NSGP thread regularly.

Until then, good luck to all of the regions that may participate!

Kyorgia gives the NS world a tour of the norwegian culinary kitchen while talking about whatever came to his mind as he wrote it
RECIPE | WRITTEN BY Kyorgia | EDITED BY TRT Staff

Ladies, gentelmen and animals of all shapes and sizes welcome to the first instalment of a series of articles i have decided to give the simple name “Kyorgia gives the NS world a tour of the norwegian culinary kitchen while talking about whatever came to his mind as he wrote it”. In this article we will go over the classic Norwegian desert called “skolebolle”, this translates to “school bread” or “school buns”. Before doing my two minutes of research for this article i had no idea why it was named this way, honestly always seemed weird to me. We never even made it in school can you believe that! Anyway the main theory seems to be that the name comes from the 1950s after the war when the country was poor and people struggled to get enough food. Skolebrød was made in the school kitchens to give the students some more energy and calories in their day. Can you imagine living here before the oil adventure in the 60s sounds really bad.

Speaking of the oil adventure im reminded of a story my dad once told me. I have no references for this and im not about to fact check it but im gonna treat it as 100% facts. During the 60s and the 70s there was a big meeting between diplomats from norway, sweden and denmark to decide where the lines would be drawn in the north sea. On the day of the meeting the danish diplomat got piss drunk and showed up late. The norwegian and swedish governments took advantage of this and secured a bigger oil sector for themselves. Supposedly this was how norway got the oil rich ekkofisk field that started the whole petroleum adventure so suck it denmark.

Anyway back to the dish. What you want to buy from the store, because lets be honest if you have enough time to not only play this game but also read this article you are a student and dont have anything of this already, is:

4 dl of milk
50 grams of yeast
100 grams of butter
1dl of sugar
½ teaspoon of cardamom
and about 1dl of wheat flour

Now for the egg cream also known as the best part that my sister wont eat for some reason and ruin the whole thing! The dough is not even that good its like opening your christmas presents and throw the playstation 4 in the garbage while you play with the wrapping paper.

1 vanilla bean
4dl of milk
6 egg yolks
½ dl of sugar
About 1 tablespoon of corn starch

The first thing you need to do is warm the milk up to 37 degrees celsius or 98 degrees Fahrenheit. My cooking teacher in middle school would always say that you just need to dip your finger into the pot and if you feel nothing its the right temperature. While if it feels cold or hot its obviously either too cold or too hot. Which is really weird since when its 30 degrees celsius outside it feels way too warm. Recently here in norway we have had a couple of days with 30+ weather and i have felt like i was dying during all of them how do people live in warmer countries without hating themselves. Next you dissolve the yeast into the milk and add cooled melted butter. Add sugar, cardamom and flour to the mix and knead the dough in a mixer. Let it raise until about double in size.

While you are waiting for the dough to raise i would like to talk a little about my history with this food. The first time i tasted this heaven on earth i was around 9 years old. My family had just moved from my home city until a city closer to my mothers parents and i was really missing my friends, one of my new friends in the city took me to the store after school and bought me one of those buns and it was love from the first juicy bite of the egg cream. This ritual continued for a while and we would go to the store at least once a week to buy one and then go home to my place to play runescape. We played every day for 3 years and i still only ended up with 75 woodcutting with that being the primary skill i focused on. What in gods name we did in the game to waste so much time i have no idea.

When the dough is double in size you will want to form it into small balls and and push a small hole in the middle (But not all the way through!). Then you let them raise some more on the baking tray while we start on the egg cream.

To start the egg cream you need to scrape out the vanilla seed and have them in a pot with milk, egg yolks, sugar and corn starch. Start cooking it on low heat until it thickens but make sure it does not boil! Cool the pot in cold water and stir sometimes.

i forgot to mention this at the start but its important: preheat the oven to 250 degrees celsius or 450 degrees fahrenheit

Put a good scoop of egg cream into the middle of each bun and bake them in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Let them cool out on a tray.

The next step is optional but would make them more authentically norwegian. Glaze it with icing sugar and enjoy probably one of the best desserts this great country has made. From my family to yours i hope you have a good day! xoxo

NOTE: The Rejected Times does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Rejected Realms or the Editor-in-Chief.

Write for the Rejected Times here.

A Dispatch Version of this edition will follow in the next 24 hours.

Find The Rejected Times Index here.

Forum Character Limits made me do two posts. Smh.

by **The Church of Satan** » Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:36 pm

Somehow I'm not surprised that Balder bombed in almost every category.

by **Qvait** » Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:56 pm

There are some very interesting findings in that survey.

by **Xoriet** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 5:59 am

The Church of Satan wrote:Somehow I'm not surprised that Balder bombed in almost every category.

Yes, it helps that the Balder hate train doesn't know as much about Balder as they know about the memes about the region and its leadership.

by **RiderSyl** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:20 am

TIL that Osiris is underrated

by **Numero Capitan** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:39 am

Xoriet wrote:
The Church of Satan wrote:Somehow I'm not surprised that Balder bombed in almost every category.

Yes, it helps that the Balder hate train doesn't know as much about Balder as they know about the memes about the region and its leadership.

I mean, there are still posts on the current RMB page from nearly three days ago, the only military operation they seem to have led in recent memory is against a region that was protesting their government and their leadership seem to regularly proscribe people happily ignoring them - over petty wars their leaders started in their heads before half their region and the region itself were born.

A quick look at their RMB shows people just discussing what other regions to go to instead and asking "Is there a regional government here?" (no response so far...)

Their ratings on 'acceptance and tolerance', 'activity', 'military presence' and 'civil and political rights' don't need a meme or hate train. But I'm sure they'll have got some mild respect from those who are happy to lick their boots, take their troops/WA votes and then laugh to themselves as they walk away.

by **Unibot III** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 8:35 am

Superb edition of TRT! The top story was very comprehensive and a good read. I enjoyed seeing the survey results and the 'three worlds' distinction. It's pretty clear from the graph that the results are starting to stratify into "bubbles". The "Democratic" sphere (TRR, TSP, TNP), the "Post-Franco" sphere (TP, TEP, TWP), and the "Developing Sinkers" sphere (Laz, Osi, Balder). It's a nuanced prism to look at the GCRs through to see where they stand, and it shows how the fall of the Rahls changed things from the last survey.

While Balder tanking the survey is funny as usual, I think the bigger story is actually how Lazarus and Osiris are struggling to break through the "mold" of a developing sinker region, and how far TEP and TWP has slipped in people's perceptions.

At one time when the OPI began, Lazarus and Osiris were regarded as two of the game's fiercest cultural superpowers - there were constant rumbles of tension between OFO and PRL. The end of the Cold War brought an end to that dynamic. OFO became a monarchy and Lazarus slipped into civil disarray. I personally think Osiris and Lazarus are undervalued in perceptions and with some surface-level changes to its image and brand they both could force a public reevaluation of their regions and what they have to offer to NationStates.

by **The Notorious Mad Jack** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 9:41 am

The funny thing is people taking the survey seriously, rather than something people intentionally manipulated and flooded.

by **Awesomeland012345** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 5:37 pm

hey, I invited Adriatican to my region! obviously had no idea about this... but they're pretty much doing nothing at the moment so hopefully nothing happens. Not like I really care if my region is destroyed.

by **Qvait** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:31 pm

Awesomeland012345, what does any of that have to do with this thread?

by **Awesomeland012345** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:44 pm

Qvait wrote:Awesomeland012345, what does any of that have to do with this thread?

viewtopic.php?p=37484676#p37484676
posted yesterday.
the article is "The Truth Behind the Attempted Balder Coup"; the first one.

by **Boda** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:58 pm

Awesomeland012345 wrote:
Qvait wrote:Awesomeland012345, what does any of that have to do with this thread?

viewtopic.php?p=37484676#p37484676
posted yesterday.
the article is "The Truth Behind the Attempted Balder Coup"; the first one.

He’s not gonna coup ur region lol

by **Bormiar** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 7:12 pm

Qvait wrote:Awesomeland012345, what does any of that have to do with this thread?

I think it's relevant. I wrote on him quitting the region, attempting to come back, and what he had allegedly done afterwards (the Balder party thing).

Adriatican gave a bold farewell address, where he denounced Balder’s royalty and declared the courts corrupt.²⁰ He goes on to resign from all positions within Balder, including citizenship, and offers that other Balderans join his new region, whose name was edited out of the post. Adriatican later unsuccessfully tried to come back to Balder, demanding an apology, for whatever reason. Some have the theory that Adriatican is the player behind the Popular Front for a United Balder, an attempt at invigorating a coup of Balder.²¹ They deem the post, dated to April 23rd, was a response to a denied citizenship application from April 16th.²² The distinct poetic language is similar to the language used in the post where Adriatican announced that he was leaving Balder (available at the bottom of the article). For example, both posts describe the Crown as “smothering” (using that exact word). The tone and poetic language of both posts are extremely similar, so it’s certainly possible that they are the same player, despite the lack of hard evidence. Adriatican denies being behind the nation.

by **Qvait** » Wed Aug 05, 2020 7:19 pm

Oof, forgive my blindness. I may need new glasses.

by **Qvait** » Thu Aug 06, 2020 9:02 pm

NationStates Today also wrote an article on the event, but the article did little more than echo Balder Bugle’s announcement. The article may have some bias, given the affiliations of its author, J.S. Talleyrand, who has been highly influential in the Land of Kings and Emperors, a region closely associated with Balder.1 Balder Bugle has previously had and may still have treaty relations with NationStates Today.

Just noticed this. As a staff writer for NST at the time, I remember this clear as day due to the unusualness of it. I did an interview with Griffindor on Talleyrand's behalf and gave him the transcript, but he then made the decision to nuke it and disclude it from the article. Looking back on it, a lot seems to make sense now.

by **Glacikaldr** » Fri Aug 07, 2020 4:15 pm

The Notorious Mad Jack wrote:The funny thing is people taking the survey seriously, rather than something people intentionally manipulated and flooded.

It's a piece detailing the perceptions of the people receptive to TRT, so if you're inspired to manipulate and flood the survey then that's indicative of the readership's opinion I'd say. No group of people entered the exact same vote over and over again from what I saw. Even so, that would likely still be a good indicator of a reader's perspective, or near enough.

by **Bowzin** » Wed Aug 12, 2020 2:17 pm

Hi, I can do a Bowzin tells all now if you want, I got spare time and less stress, as well as no plan on coming back to NS.

by **Lord Dominator** » Wed Aug 12, 2020 3:09 pm

Glacikaldr wrote:
The Notorious Mad Jack wrote:The funny thing is people taking the survey seriously, rather than something people intentionally manipulated and flooded.

It's a piece detailing the perceptions of the people receptive to TRT, so if you're inspired to manipulate and flood the survey then that's indicative of the readership's opinion I'd say. No group of people entered the exact same vote over and over again from what I saw. Even so, that would likely still be a good indicator of a reader's perspective, or near enough.

Personally, I'd be more inclined to view any bias in terms of population - that is, larger regions have more internal population that likely have positive views to balance out any external negative views, while smaller regions do not. Whether or not there's actually a significant difference is another question. Perhaps something for another time...

by **Agalaesia** » Fri Aug 14, 2020 9:57 am

Sign up for The Rejected Times' Subscription Service here.

TRT Brief News I | 14/08/2020

Editor-in-Chief: Agalaesia
Deputy Editor-in-Chief: N/A

Brief News Releases are news summaries about happenings from TRR and around the world from TRT’s newsroom

OFFICER ELECTIONS CONCLUDE IN THE REJECTED REALMS
NEWS | WRITTEN BY Eastern New England | EDITED BY Editor-in-Chief

On August 1st the Officer Elections in TRR opened. The nomination period (https://rejectedrealms.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=10031603) lasted from August 1st till August 5th. The 8 confirmed candidates as August 5th were:

Deadeye Jack
(https://rejectedrealms.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=10031604)
Robespierre (https://rejectedrealms.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=10031605)
Catalyse (https://rejectedrealms.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=10031611)
Makdon (https://rejectedrealms.com/viewtopic.ph ... =100316090
Lansaka (https://rejectedrealms.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=10031613)
Wabbitslayah (https://rejectedrealms.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=10031614)
Gorundu (https://rejectedrealms.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=10031617)
DolphinsfanThe (did not publish a platform)

Voting(https://rejectedrealms.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=10031619) opened August 5th and closed August 9th. During the first day of voting, Wabbitslayah resigned citizenship in TRR, thus removing their eligibility to get elected officer and removing them from the ballots. Former Delegate and notable defender Deadeye Jack was the first Officer to be elected under the Preferential Block Voting system, being elected during round one, and subsequently assigned the Office of Culture by the delegate. After five rounds, Catalyse was elected and assigned Officer for Foreign Affairs, and during round 6 Robespierre was elected and assigned as Outreach Officer. The last Officer to be elected was SC author Makdon, who was assigned the roles of WA Officer in round eight.

TEP ANNOUNCE THEIR NEW CONSORTIUM IN A SET OF “LEAKS”
NEWS | WRITTEN BY Agalaesia | EDITED BY TRT Staff/Bormiar

The Delegate of The East Pacific, Serge (also known as Libertanny), has begun to release details of the “consortium,” in a series of posts in the East Pacific Discord server.

The Consortium was originally touted by former Delegate of the East Pacific Marrabuk and later mentioned in Serge’s delegate election campaign, where it was described as “an idea for a WA - Military - Diplomatic Bloc.” Serge seems to have delivered on his campaign pledges and made the following announcements in the East Pacific’s Discord Server:

“Yes, something big is around the corner, it’s here to stay, and it's not just another event.

If only we knew what the folks in The East Pacific, The Free Nations Region, Thaecia, Iwakusphere, Force, and the Kingdom of Great Britain are up to…”

This announcement was followed by another announcement that contained this image:

https://i.imgur.com/4osuDUG.png

This indicated that the East Pacific is building a voting Bloc with the above mentioned Regions.

To analyse, two of the regions on there (Force and the Kingdom of Great Britain) were or currently are raider aligned; The Free Nations Region is Defender aligned, and the rest are unaligned. At the time of writing, the regions in the Consortium collectively have just over 1000 endorsements, a little less than the North Pacific’s delegate, Prydania, currently has.

NOTE: The Rejected Times does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Rejected Realms or the Editor in Chief.

Find The Rejected Times Index here.

by **Sancta Romana Ecclesia** » Sat Aug 15, 2020 1:12 am

Agalaesia wrote:To analyse, two of the regions on there (Force and the Kingdom of Great Britain) were or currently are raider aligned; The Free Nations Region is Defender aligned, and the rest are unaligned.

A rather odd choice of partners if this is to be a military bloc, if you ask me.

by **Agalaesia** » Sun Aug 16, 2020 10:43 am

Sign up for The Rejected Times' Subscription Service here.

Special Release | 16/08/20

This article is a follow-up to the ”The Truth Behind the Attempted Balder Coup” by Bormiar. North East Somerset has relevant comments on it here.

TELL-ALL INTERVIEW WITH BOWZIN
INTERVIEW | WRITTEN BY Bormiar | EDITED BY TRT Staff

This article is a follow-up to the ”The Truth Behind the Attempted Balder Coup” by Bormiar. North East Somerset has relevant comments on it here.

Prompted by an article on Operation Heimdall, a failed reform attempt of Balder, Bowzin, one of the plot’s co-conspirators, offered to give a tell-all to the Rejected Times. The region’s ex-statsminister challenges both Balder’s culture and legal system, as well as prevalent criticisms of Balder in the gameplay world. Bowzin is leaving NationStates, so he likely has no reason to withhold information.

Hi Bowzin! We’re going to do the basic questions first. Your name is Bowzin. You have a series of other names like Zunden and Hepner. Do you have or have you ever had any nation(s) not publicly known to be your nation(s)?

Hepner was originally not known to be my nation. It was originally used as an infiltration into St Abby, where I managed to get an RO spot, but then Cormac had to go and negotiate and ruin the fun of what couldve [sic] been my first undercover op. Other than that, I've had the usual sleepers planted in random regions for TBH, but nothing notable

Ok. Why did you join Balder?

I joined Balder with the original intention to undergo a coup d'etat, however, it wasn't too long before I realized that was not as possible as I thought it would be.

That’s what I thought

. I’m guessing you were an NSGPer and started to hate Balder.

It's hard not to want to coup Balder, especially given my crowd. All you ever hear is negative comments, and how the current government is trash, and stuff.

Agreed. How did you intend to coup it? Just a “wait a while and become king thing”?

Well obviously I wanted to move up, didn't exactly have a specific set plan for it though. Mostly just wanted to work my way up, then figure out a plan later.

So you joined wanting to coup Balder, inspired by your friends’ comments. What happened from there? Could you just describe your general career in Balder?

Well, I quickly lost hope in moving up and in couping. I saw that, like most people believe, Balder really is controlled by its own inner circle. I was given no chance in the Storting election, and the same exact Storting was re-elected. (Think its [sic] called the Storting, can't remember tbh, feel free to edit in the right words) This made me angry and hopeless. Shortly after though I was offered a spot on the Statsraadet, which is the cabinet. From there, I figured I still had a chance to move up and make some changes. But at this stage, I was already sort of leaning towards reform over a coup, since that was more reasonable.

Ok. Is this where you devised Operation Heimdall or started considering it?

Operation Heimdall was interesting. I don't think you have all the facts straight on it.

At the point in which I created Operation Heimdall (and yes I created it), I knew there was no chance of couping, but I also knew I could keep moving up and making changes.

At this point I had also been talking with Griff, just about normal Balder business, and had seen he was very negative towards the Balder government setup and inner circle. On top of this, I was reached out to by Aq [Editor's Note: this is referring to Aquila] regarding Griff's intentions as well. Aq had said Griff had been planning a coup since he joined, after I told Aq I had been doing the same. This is when I realized Griff was trying to actively recruit people into his mentality.

[Editor’s Note: Griffindor denies ever wanting to coup. Either Aquila or Bowzin may have misunderstood his discussions on reform.]

Now where I went from here was complicated. For one, I knew Griff was a political rival that could be eliminated, as bad as that sounds, and I knew getting him implicated in a coup would potentially boost my own political status. I also knew that if there were people planning a coup, I wanted to keep an eye, cause information is everything. I started talking with Griff and Aq about potentially organizing.

However, the theory that I recruited both of them is just incorrect. They had already been in talks, and I shoved myself in as the leader to keep an eye on it. I forced myself in on their plot, rather than recruiting both of them to mine. The part about Griff recruiting Adriatican is accurate though.

Anyway, it wasn't until a little later that I created the Heimdall server, and at this point I had already decided I was going to expose the coup plot to NES [refers to North East Somerset]. I told him before creating the server, and told him I intended to create the server to keep an eye on them and gather more evidence. NES seemed pretty neutral at that point, not considering them a threat, or even considering it treason since it seemed more like they were trying to reform.

It wasn't until Griff decided we need [sic] a military channel and that we needed to consider military action that NES decided to get involved more. And this was all happening right as I was getting elected as Statsminister, which was perfect, since I could count on both the inner circle's support and Heimdall's since I was actively informing NES, but Heimdall wasn't aware yet.

From there, NES thought it best I kept the charade that I didn't know who leaked, but it's not hard in a group of 4 to narrow down the suspects. I didn't care anymore since they were mostly getting removed and I was still moving up in Balder, though.

Oh and to be clear when I say I was focusing on reforming, I still had coup in the back of my mind and was going to soft coup if I ever got Delegate legitimately.

Ok so I got some things right there. I can guess some of the people when you say “inner circle”, but could you name the ones you’re thinking of?

The nobility of Balder, so NES, Onder, Fuzzy, Linkin, Aex, and some others I can't really remember right now.

Alright, so this seems like a good time to transition to Balder’s laws and court system. Obviously I don’t have access to the laws, and neither does the public. Are they made to prop up the inner circle?

Certainly. Even after they reformed the legislature to add an all citizens house, the upper house consisted of only nobility. The nobility is a list that NES directly controls with no checks, so he can assure those who are on it vote in a way he prefers. Any legislation or nomination needs to be confirmed by both houses to pass, meaning the upper house can maintain status quo and reject and [sic] laws or nominations they do not like, aka laws or nominations NES doesn't like. Furthermore, NES has an insane amount of veto power.

Besides all of this, I don't mean to paint NES in an evil way. I really do believe he had Balder's best interest at heart, I just don't think he's quite capable of getting Balder to a better place right now.

Do you believe the Crown having this much power could be (in any way) good for Balder? How does it hinder the region?

I mean theres [sic] some obvious hinderance in the fact that they don't favor new blood. New blood is pretty important for a region. However, there are some benefits, especially for a region like Balder. When you aren't exactly popular to the rest of NSGP, you need to consider the fact that people do want to coup, and they've built a system that prevents that. Even if the system is a big part in the desire to coup, removing it wouldn't remove the coupers, and would leave the region exposed.

So is Balder in a catch 22, where NSGP hates them for keeping all the power, but they can't relinquish the power because NSGP would overthrow them?

Pretty much, yes. Balder is stuck between a rock and a hard place, and most people don't want them to just reform. They want NES and Onder out, and you can't just expect them to do that, so I think NSGP should be realistic about that.

So, if you were in their position, how would you try and fix Balder?

I mean, what they were trying to do with me and Vamp and such is probably the best route. Taking in new blood from other spheres and allowing them to move up is the only real way to show you aren't hogging the power in the region, and then as tensions lower, they could possibly move to lessen their grip on the region. However, I have probably put them in a position now where they'll never feel safe to try that again.

This seems to be a good time to bring up regional proscriptions. Do you believe they hinder Balder's ability to bring in new blood? Do they exist for genuine security concerns?

I honestly think their current list of proscriptions isn't poor [sic] choice at all. Regions whos [sic] officials outwardly state they want to see Balder fall shouldn't be allowed to grab citizenship in Balder. They really only have proscribed 5 regions, none of which seem outlandish.

Do you remember what those regions are? (Bowzin copy and pasted here)

The South Pacific
29 July 2017

The Order of the Grey Wardens
29 July 2017

The Rejected Realms
23 April 2018

The Empire of Mare Nostrum
31 August 2018

Founderless
19 June 2020

Thanks. So do you have any general problems with Balder's FA?

Besides the usual issues of it being controlled by the inner circle, not really. They actually had been making good moves since I joined, such as lifting a majority of PNGs and reworking some regional relationships.

Great! Let's move on to courts (we've covered legislation and FA thus far). Balder has been accused of having a kangaroo court; i.e. an unfair court where results are predetermined. Do you have any reason to believe this?

The court system is a bit wonky, but I don't know about unfair, to be honest. Normally, Onder would preside over it, and I think Onder takes his positions on legal matters to [sic] seriously to make corrupt choices. I mean, he's been Chief Justice in Europeia for who knows how long, and has never once been accused of any sort of corruption there. Balder rarely even has court cases, the only one in a long time being Griffs, and to be honest, Griff was guilty as can be. His claims that the court was corrupt are nothing but salt. In fact, they even let the two sides agree on a judge, meaning Griff agreed to have Onder as the judge with Aex, so he has little room to call the system corrupt there.

I found it funny -- and somewhat peculiar -- that the defense was the equivalent of a prosecution, but I didn't notice anything corrupt when I read that trial. As for your time as statsminister, what did you accomplish? Were you given as much leeway as you wanted?

I was given a decent amount, but I would've liked more for sure. I still had to answer to NES, and I didn't have a choice with a few of my Statsraadet members. For example, NES said I had to appoint Fuzzy as FA, and I had to appoint Aex to something to keep him around. And yeah the whole defense-prosecution sh**t really confused me, too.

What's special about Fuzzy and Aex? Royalty?

Yeah, they're both well known to NES, people he can trust. Alongside the fact that the FA issues the Balder Bugle, and he probably wanted to control a publication like that.

So NES is pretty public about some players having preference? Or is this something he would rather keep hidden?

It definitely was not public, and he would probably rather not be caught actually showing preference to specific individuals, but I doubt NSGP will care or be surprised in the slightest.

Were you part of Balder's military?

Yes, as Statsminister I helped oversee it, even, with Vamp as my Minister of War.

How is it doing?

Not too hot. It got involved in a few operations, but we weren't invited to much and didn't have any spectacular numbers, despite joining it being practically a requirement for citizens. I tried to host some operations under the Balder flag, but Onder was unwilling to take even the slightest risk. If the operation wasn't guaranteed to have multiple GCR's support, as well as TBH and Europeia, then it was a no go, as he was afraid that failing any sort of operation would destroy Balder's public image or something, as if it wasn't already a terrible public image. I think Onder has an issue where he is so afraid of failure he is unwilling to take any sort of risk, even just a measly military operation.

It sounds like Balder is rather insecure from that. Would this be a fair description?

That's the perfect description.

Wow.

Insecure in all the wrong places, and overconfident in all the other wrong places.

Could you give examples?

They have a sort of superiority complex, I feel. Not sure if I have specific examples, but they think they have such a tight lockdown on intelligence and security and the such, as if they were the most aware people on all of NationStates

Interesting. Are there any other criticisms you have with Balder's culture?

Not that I can think of at the moment.

Anything good about them?

I do think that a lot of them really want what's best for Balder, like I said before. That's really the most important thing when running a region, and NES and co really do want to make Balder a strong region. They're in a rut that they're having a hard time getting out of, but that doesn't mean their intentions are necessarily bad.

Balder is often called inactive and stagnant. Is there merit behind that claim?

Definitely. The discord and forums barely see any activity, especially not from the general population of Balder

Many players may be under the impression that Balder’s elite is corrupt, judging from GP criticism. Have you seen, been solicited to, or speculated on any corruption within the region?

I mean if you consider the things I have described to you corrupt, then yes.

Does anything else stand out?

I think using an inner circle to maintain a constant grip on the region is all that stands out to me

What direction do you see the region going in (including staying the same)?

I definitely think its gonna stay exactly as it is...stagnation is Balder's middle name lol

Why are you leaving NationStates?

NationStates is a toxic cesspool. I am pretty sure everyone that plays agrees. And I started to realize that I was no longer playing for fun. The game actually stressed me out if anything and I didn't need that in my life. In addition, I realized the reason I was playing was an attempt to inflate my ego, and that's not exactly a good reason to keep doing anything.

I feel that. Anything else you'd like to say on Balder or something else?

I just really hope someone else can come in and pick up where I left off. With the reform that is, not the couping. But also maybe with the couping.

Well, thanks for doing the interview, Bowzin!

After the interview, Bowzin informed me that he had told North East Somerset that Cormac had been a co-conspirator, sharing, “Cormac was knowledgable [sic] about my intent to coup and was happy to finally see Balder getting what it deserved. Evil Wolf was also aware towards the beginning...its an interesting combination of co-conspirators…”

In the interview, Bowzin backed many perceptions on Balder within GP, describing Balder as stagnant, paranoid, and designed to strengthen its “inner circle”. He admits to joining Balder with the intent to coup, but he soon realized that reform would be a better alternative. Bowzin also admits to the accusations brought against him in the “Operation Heimdall” article.

However, he believes that the inner circle’s intent is benign. He also defends the region’s court system as genuine and its proscriptions as reasonable. His interview provided interesting perspective challenging both Balder and its critics

NOTE: The Rejected Times does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Rejected Realms.

Find The Rejected Times Index here.
Read this in a Dispatch here.

by **Bormiar** » Sun Aug 16, 2020 10:56 am

It's a special release not because it's breaking news, but because it was finished quick and we see no reason not to spread out reading for you guys.

by **Numero Capitan** » Sun Aug 16, 2020 11:43 am

Cute that Balder felt the need to proscribe our little region but when your leaders are too scared to take military action, you don't really need to worry about spies.

Couping Balder is a pointless endeavour, its like breaking into a prison just to throw out the people you don't like in there. Better to leave them locked up and enjoy your freedom.

The Rejected Times: Issue LXIV

Closing the 'Ranking the GCRs' Survey Early

TRT ISSUE LIX - Part One

TRT ISSUE LIX: PART TWO

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