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Issue XLIV | May 16, 2018
Media Officer: Glacikaldr
Editor-in-Chief: Glacikaldr
Deputy Media Officer: The Church of Satan
Editor-in-Chief: Glacikaldr
Deputy Media Officer: The Church of Satan
Index
"15 Years of TRR and RRA Festival" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY Intern Relfa | EDITED BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr AND Delegate Catalyse
"Tolkien Fellowship Festival: A Journey Into Middle Earth" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY GUEST Escade | EDITED BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr AND Correspondent The Church of Satan
"Escadian Battleship" | FEATURE | WRITTEN BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr | EDITED BY GUEST Escade AND Correspondent The Church of Satan
" Interview with Kandarin" | INTERVIEW | WRITTEN BY Senior Journalist Marilyn Manson Freaks | EDITED BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr AND Delegate Catalyse
"Interview with Nephmir" | INTERVIEW | WRITTEN BY Senior Journalist Marilyn Manson Freaks | EDITED BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr AND Delegate Catalyse
"The History of NationStates April Fool's Day" | NEWS | WRITTEN BY Intern Xanderstralia | EDITED BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr
"Deputy Officers: To Reject or Not To Reject?" | EDITORIAL | WRITTEN BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr | EDITED BY Correspondent The Church of Satan AND Senior Journalist Marilyn Manson Freaks
"Reflecting on TRR's Flag" | EDITORIAL | WRITTEN BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr | EDITED BY TRT STAFF
"A Message from the XKI Regional Reserve: Want to Try a Taco?" | FEATURE | WRITTEN BY GUEST Kozmix | EDITED BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr
"A Note on Lazarus" | OPINION | WRITTEN BY Senior Journalist Marilyn Manson Freaks | EDITED BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr AND Delegate Catalyse
"The Big Game: The Rejected Realms Rejects vs. The Arkham Jokers" | SATIRE | WRITTEN BY Correspondent The Church of Satan | EDITED BY Delegate Catalyse AND Senior Reporter Glacikaldr
"TRR's RMB as Countryballs Cartoon" | CREATIVE | MADE BY ANON
15 Years of TRR and RRA Festival
NEWS | WRITTEN BY Intern Relfa | EDITED BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr AND Delegate Catalyse
Greetings, Cabinet, Rejects and Friends (and readers)!
As we approach the end of this month, it's time to celebrate a very important date to the the Rejected Realms (TRR). TRR is now 15 years old! A decade and a half of existence of our great region. TRR was created on April 27, 2003 and it has changed and grown throughout these incredible years, establishing itself as a stable democracy even with no Border Controls!
We are also celebrating another very important day to the region. The RRA Day. Every year we come together as a region on May 28 to celebrate the accomplishments of our great regional army, the Rejected Realms Army (RRA). This year our army is also celebrating 15 years of accomplishments, of defending our region and other regions in NationStates. We shall celebrate the success of our army throughout this month as well.
To celebrate these super important dates, we are having lots of festivities between TRR's birthday and the RRA Day. We hope that all of you can participate in these activities. We have things to do in the RMB; in our regional forums; we have polls; and lots of other stuff. There is a lot of work being done on these festivities, so I hope all of you enjoy this event.
So what are these activities?
- NOLA is Burning (choose your own adventure game) - A blood-soaked interactive noir thriller! Rescue your lover from the mob before dawn; more likely, die trying. But in NOLA, death is only the beginning.
- Rating Heroes Gone By - The Rejected Realms has seen a lot of great leaderships, real heroes of our region. Rejects will have the chance to rate their favorite delegates, RRA members and other important people of the RR.
- Return to Our Roots - It's time to remember those great leaders we've had in the region. Let's celebrate and remember important people and events of our region!
- 100,000 Posts Forum Party - Our regional forum is almost reaching a milestone of 100,000 posts! You are welcome to join a celebration where will be remembering the forum's best moments, memorable threads and some fun facts about it.
- Ultimate Werewolf Game(Star Wars Edition) - If werewolf games are fun, our forums games are the best! Join us in the forums to play a Star Wars-themed werewolf game!
- RRA Recruitment Poster Competition - With RRA Day coming, we shall make efforts to recruit for our Army. The Rejected Times is holding a competition to find the best recruitment poster for the Rejected Realms Army and you can take part of it. More information can be found here.
- Escadian Battleship Instances and Diplomacy Games - Come to our regional discord server and participate in our Escadian Battleship Instances and Diplomacy Games.
Thank you for you time,
Culture Officer Relfa.
Tolkien Fellowship Festival: A Journey Into Middle Earth
NEWS | WRITTEN BY GUEST Escade | EDITED BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr AND Correspondent The Church of Satan
The logo of the LoTR Event as put together by Sp1Te.
Dates: Friday May 18 - Sunday May 27
This festival honors the fellowship between three marvelously allied regions and our shared admiration for all things Tolkien. The South Pacific (TSP) has previously hosted the Game of Thrones festival with the New Pacific Order (NPO) and is excited to once again revisit the fantasy realms that enliven and excite our imaginations. In addition, we have also previously co-hosted the CULT festival with the Rejected Realms (TRR), and that event was the first to put TSP on the map as the premiere host/co-host of the best events in NationStates. Color us excited over this TRR, TSP, NPO trilogy! <3
Join us in celebrating Tolkien's intricately detailed works, from the books (The Hobbit, The Lords of the Rings trilogy, The Silmarillion) to the movies and games inspired by his expansive creativity. Tolkien has had a substantive impact on the genre of fantasy (inventing, for example, the modern conception of elves) and has helped make fantasy more marketable and recognizable. The majority of fantasy writers following the works of Tolkien are, to this day, influenced by his vision. Tolkien did not just invent a world: he invented the maps, languages and history of a world in such a detailed, in-depth manner that it raised the fantasy genre into new heights. His devotion to his art had not been seen before, and is not so easily replicated. It is his delightful and detailed world that draws his millions of fans time and time again to journey into Middle Earth! Will you be joining us in our voyage?
This time around, we will be paying homage to the fantasy genre as a whole! Come and talk to us about your favorite fantasy books, movies, webcomics, games, television series and other mediums! From The Lord of the Rings, to The Chronicles of Narnia, to The Dark Tower, to The Eye of the World, The Magicians, Game of Thrones or many the other countless series - it's likely you'll find another NSer who loves the same fantasy worlds that invoke your fascination and those who share your fandoms! Even still, come find a new series to fall in love with alongside discussing and debating your favorite ones!
Sneak Preview of Events and Activities
The majority of events will take place on the TSP Discord over the weekends, unless specified, and events will cover as many time zones as possible!
First of all, on your journey through Middle Earth you will take a NS Themed Middle Earth Race Quiz and choose your factional alignment: from the elves, the hobbits, the dwarves, the humans, the wizards to the ents. Once you have joined a side, you will then be able to earn points for your team and determine who rules Middle Earth!
That's not all! We will hold Discord Voice Chats for most games, casual fantasy roleplays, fandom discussions, meme contests, and other fun events and activities that will help you immerse yourself in Middle Earth!
We invite allies, friends, well-wishers and all those who love Tolkien, fantasy and come with honor and valor!
xoxo,
Escade
Minister of Regional Affairs
The South Pacific
Escadian Battleship
FEATURE | WRITTEN BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr | EDITED BY GUEST Escade AND Correspondent The Church of Satan
An ancient, discoloured banner of The Scurvy Knaves of House Teararia.
Everyone who's anyone has heard about NationStates 'gameplaying', but what about the newest craze stretching far and wide: Escadian Battleship?
Well, the great minds over at The South Pacific's (TSP) Ministry of Regional Affairs, and notably the genius of the one known as Escade, had another one of their epiphanies. As some of our dear readers may already know, so too was this the day of the fabled battle now residing in scriptures among similar legends; The Scurvy Knaves of House Teararia met in the high seas with the Vikings of Violet. This resulted in an epic battle of which has legitimised the rule of the scurvy dargs over the high sea: ringing in our recent memories are the words of Escade that recount, "POWER LEVELS MEAN SCURVY WINS"! This twist on the Battleship board game, drawing inspiration from the XYZ game, shall from now on be referred to as Escadian Battleship by the Rejected Realms (TRR), and we invite our allies to do the same to celebrate the hard work of Escade as an interregional inspiration for expanding and sharing regional and interregional culture!
Now we turn to the purpose of this article: by explaining what Escadian Battleship entails. It is here that we will outline the rules for two possible versions of this game. A 'classic' gamemode, using the original rules that were reintroduced through Escade in the first ever game played by the NationStates community through discord (note: there were games using the classic rules and dubbed Submarine Warfare played via QuickTopic in the TSP inter-regional games, with the most recent of which being played in 2014 where the Basilisks were defeated by the ferocious Phoenixes), and an 'advanced' gamemode, of which features a more detailed set of rules, with a slightly larger and certainly more ambitious scale.
Classic
Reintroduced to the NationStates community through Escade and TSP, the classic gamemode involves "two teams competing with 4 to 8 total players". Each team must have an even number of players. The game is broken up into three phases. An assignment phase, where ships are numbered from 1 to a maximum of 4 on each side in order; a fog of war operational stage, where ships can move one space each turn, vertically, horizontally and diagonally, and destroy one another upon collision, without knowing where the enemy ships are; and, finally, a radar operational stage, which activates three turns following no combat after the first engagement and shows the positions of enemy ships.
Upon collision, the higher number ships destroy the lower number ships, unless the ships are the same number in which case a draw is declared, and moves are cancelled for that turn. The only exception is that the lowest number ship destroys the highest number ship i.e. 1 destroys 4 on collision. A 6x4 grid is used for the game board, with each player nominating where to move every turn in coordination with the rest of their team. The recommended game board layout is the following:
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| A1 | B1 | C1 | D1 | E1 | F1 |
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| A2 | B2 | C2 | D2 | E2 | F2 |
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| A3 | B3 | C3 | D3 | E3 | F3 |
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| A4 | B4 | C4 | D4 | E4 | F4 |
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Advanced
The advanced gamemode adds onto the rules of the classic gamemode. Total players range from 2 to 10, however having the full 10 players is recommended. The ships are broken into five thematic classes, with the 1, 2 and 5 ships having altered rules. The new rules include a boost ability for both 1 and 2 ships, which allow the ships to move two spaces in the same direction for the turn that it is activated. The 1 ships can boost every second turn, meaning that, after a boost is activated, 1 ships have a one-turn cooldown period for the ability. The 2 ships can also boost, but their boost ability has a three-turn cooldown period. A boost is never declared to the enemy ships and can be activated at any time other than during its cooldown period. As for 5 ships, they have a slow speed debuff and an artillery strike ability. The slow down debuff means that 5 ships must take a rest period of one turn after moving, however, while they cannot move, they can still fire during this resting period. While the artillery strike ability allows the 5 ships to shoot a location within a two square radius of its current location with no cooldown period, the 5 ships cannot move while firing. Additionally, the artillery strike ability is considered a combat move and resets the three-turn countdown to the radar operational stage.
Regarding collision rules, 1 ships still destroy 4 ships on collision and 1 and 2 ships destroy 5 ships on collision. In all other cases, the higher numbered ship defeats its enemy upon collision, and the same number rules from the classic gamemode still apply. A 5x9 grid is used for the game board, with each player nominating where to move every turn in coordination with the rest of their team. The recommended game board layout is the following:
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| A1 | B1 | C1 | D1 | E1 | F1 | G1 | H1 | I1 |
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| A2 | B2 | C2 | D2 | E2 | F2 | G2 | H2 | I2 |
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| A3 | B3 | C3 | D3 | E3 | F3 | G3 | H3 | I3 |
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| A4 | B4 | C4 | D4 | E4 | F4 | G4 | H4 | I4 |
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| A5 | B5 | C5 | D5 | E5 | F5 | G5 | H5 | I5 |
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As for the thematic classes of the ships, the following are examples for three different doctrinal periods:
1 - Longship, Submarine, Stealth Corvette
2 - Cog, Escort Destroyer, Frigate
3 - Hulk, Cruiser, Destroyer
4 - Carrack, Battlecruiser, Battleship
5 - Galleon, Dreadnought, Aircraft Carrier
Organising your own teams and themes beforehand is encouraged. For example, the Rejected Realms will be using The Scurvy Knaves of House Teararia.
Games of Escadian Battleship using these two versions will be run for both the LoTR event hosted by The South Pacific, the New Pacific Order and the Rejected Realms, and the "15 Years of TRR and RRA" festivities in the Rejected Realms.
Interview with Kandarin
INTERVIEW | WRITTEN BY Senior Journalist Marilyn Manson Freaks | EDITED BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr AND Delegate Catalyse
Kandarin was Delegate of the Rejected Realms (TRR) for a total of 2665 days from June 18, 2003, to October 3, 2010. Kandy is immortalised in memoirs across the realms, recognised through the regionally sponsored Kandarin's BBQ & Grill (a reminder that the Management is not responsible for any injuries, random chaos, or spam-related derangements). He was succeeded by Naivetry, who he had relinquished control of the nation to, yet he had recently returned to us for a short little while to share many the tale with Senior Journalist and Outreach Officer Marilyn Manson Freaks!
Welcome, welcome - sit down! Have you yet seen this establishment named in your honour? Oh also: I'm a journalist for the Times and I'm going to bombard you with questions now! What encouraged you to join TRR's discord server, of which has allowed us to set up this interview?
Heh… Nevadar messaged me on Facebook and said that they were doing a [NationStates] (NS) old timey discussion on discord. She did not say which discord [server]. And because I don't have push notifications on anything, I missed it by hours. This led to me randomly joining discords until I came across TRR's.
Wow. It's definitely nice to see you! I have a question for the ages.
Shoot.
The Historical Society has been studying TRR's former delegates for months, hoping to construct an accurate timeline filled with tons of information. I've seen multiple sources discussing a time where Jennivier attempted a coup of TRR, and many where he claims he didn't. One of the sources was a Free Pacific Army forum post from 2004. Specifically, it was your post. You asked readers to not trust Jennivier, and yet that everything was fine. I'd like the full details. How and why did Jennivier invade TRR? Was he really an New Pacific Order (NPO) operative?
In retrospect: he was not a NPO operative. He was just an opportunist, though I think he would have cooperated with an outside force if he knew how and stuck with it. He was part of the first attempt at a TRR civilian government, and tried to use a lot of endoswapping to make himself delegate and head that government.
He briefly succeeded until it sunk in that no one else in the actual active forum community supported him or much liked him and that the position didn't have banject power, so he lost interest and left.
That helps a lot. Thank you for telling me this. What do you think your greatest achievement in NS outside of TRR is?
Oh I don't think much of any one thing I did was a Great Achievement. I was very happy to be a part of the East Pacific and its government and roleplay community. In retrospect, I was quite simply terrible at TEP style roleplay, but they were/are a good group and it was fun. Which is kind of funny since the only reason I wound up as Delegate at all was fallout from TRR invading TEP, so they were actually the region I got ejected from.
What do you think would've happened if you were never ejected from TEP?
I was Viceroy of TEP for a while, and also maintained the RP map. The former of which I think mainly consisted of running elections at the time.
If you don't mind me asking, what other regions were you a part of?
Just those two.
Oh really? Those are my main two! If you could rewind time, what would you do differently as TRR's delegate?
I think [my] time turned out quite nicely.
How are you doing? Taking care of yourself, I hope.
Oh yeah. Life is a mix of good and bad but so it always is. I graduated from the university program, [which] was intense enough [that] I left NS over,... and am now working as an architect. Note: not coming back, I am very happy with when and how I got off this ride. But can visit folks sometimes.
Gaming wise I'm... admittedly I've never been a conventional gamer, I've been doing dev/admin stuff on another obscure little gaming project that I was always fond of.
Who's your favorite musical artist or band?
Oh goodness, I love every style of music. If I had to name a single favorite album of all time, it would have to be Gustav Holst's The Planets. Such a powerful range of emotions. A single favorite track of all time? It'd be one of these two:
Solar Fields - Monogram
The Promise of Living - Aaron Copland
Thanks for participating! It was nice of you to jump out of your sarcophagus for once.
Interview with Nephmir
INTERVIEW | WRITTEN BY Senior Journalist Marilyn Manson Freaks | EDITED BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr AND Delegate Catalyse
In the depths of Kandarin's BBQ & Grill, our fabled Senior Journalist and Outreach Officer Marilyn Manson Freaks - having wrapped up his interview with Kandarin himself, spotted the non-Reject reject gameplayer of legend, Nephmir, chowing down on a whole smorgasbord of greasy foods in the corner.
Hello, Nephmir, how are you doing today? I'm here to ask you some questions, if that's okay!
Of course. Hope you are doing well yourself.
I'm great, thanks for asking. I've been a bit busy in TRR though. How did you get into NS? What's your origin story?
Found the site back in 2013, in a government class. Ended up sticking around and stumbling across Gameplay, which interested me. Since then I left NS about a year ago and only recently returned.
Okay. When you were a young gameplayer what drew you to raiding? Was it the power, the trophy, or the fun?
I ended up finding The Black Riders (TBR) and wanted to oppose them as, actually, a Defender. I sought aid in the Defender community and found nothing I was looking for, so I ended up venturing out on my own and assuming a Raider alignment, though at the time against other Raiders.
I always thought the idea of multiple factions fighting over regions would be fun, and has been something I have been trying to achieve since 2014, in my attempts to create and rally another alignment and change the way people view Gameplay as a strictly Raider/Defender black/white game with nothing in between but natives.
You made a significant dent in gameplay with that logic. No longer are raiders feared and defenders idolized. More and more people are starting to both raid and defend. Before I WA-locked myself, I did both. When did you officially return to NS?
Perhaps so. If that dent were to turn into fissures then progress would be made. I returned at the turn of the new year, though I am not in any state of activity as I used to be... I have been doing what I can when I am able to.
Would you consider joining the NSGP public server?
I wouldn't see any harm in doing so once again.
Alright, thank you for your time thus far - and time for the last question! If you could only choose five people, who would be your biggest NS influences?
The way I see it is different. Gameplay is region based, and a region is effective only when it has multiple people in it running it efficiently. I therefore derive my influence from regions and not specific people.
Despite my former hatred for TBR and its existence being detrimental to Gameplay as a whole, I admired TBR for its efficiency; Kingdom of Great Britain for its recruitment; and many lesser known regions or regions that no longer exist that had their own strengths in politics, and even in stealth raiding. You can publish all that if you want as well, I don't mind either way, and it was nice talking to you!
Okay! It was nice catching you here and talking to you as well!
The History of NationStates April Fool's Day
NEWS | WRITTEN BY Intern Xanderstralia | EDITED BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr
The most recent April Fool's Day introduced Decks to NationStates (NS). It was much like trading cards; each nation had their own trading card, and nations collected trading cards and could trade them or junk them. There was no true end goal, however, so people made their own goals. Some goals included: owning as many Legendary cards as possible, owning as many cards as possible, having the highest valued deck, having the highest Bank, collecting sets of players, collecting game moderators, or having the highest face value deck. One card sold for 1472.21 units (Helaw, a Legendary card). Trading was paused a week into launch, but with the promise of eventually returning. Max Barry has confirmed that the minigame will return like many others, but with some additional restrictions, such as the Loot Box regeneration rate slowing down from 10 minutes to 1 day. Read more about it here, and leave feedback in the discussion thread over on the NS forum if you
Yet previous April Fool's Days were different. See "pranks". The first was the Population Reset in 2004. The reasoning behind this was a supposed "population bug" that turned out to be fake. The main effect was that it reset all forum titles and populations for a day. In 2005 it was the "Shutdown by the Department of Homeworld Security". 2006 was NationDates, which basically turned NS into a dating service. 2007 was to do with Regional Moderators where people randomly became Regional Moderators, effectively turning everyone into moderators within their own region.
2008 was the biggest April Fool's day of NS. On April 1, 2008, the NationStates United Nations (UN) "spectacularly imploded in a colossal fireball of extra-dimensional inanity", and the World Assembly we all know was created in its place. And the news on April 2, 2008? Well, it said "you've been no-pranked". The story behind this is that the real-life UN sent a message to Barry sometime in March 2008 to shut down the NationStates UN on the grounds of impersonation. Barry waited until April 1 to actually do so, hence making it initially seem like the year's April Fool's prank.
But I digress: 2009 was NationStates DS, and, as the name suggests, it made NS look like it was on a DS. 2010 was Conservative and Liberal NationStates, where the default theme and World Assembly categories divided into conservative and liberal. 2011 was Haxx0rs, the last actual April Fool's prank. NS was changed to make it look as if it was hacked. April 2, 2012, Barry apologized. After that, every single April Fools has been a minigame of some sort.
So, onto the minigames! 2012 was an Initial Public Offering shares minigame where NS got a stock market. 2013 was the first NationStates Z, which is now known to be when a zombie apocalypse occurs. NationStates Z now occurs every Halloween. 2014 was ByteCoin. And you guessed it, it had stuff to do with bitcoin. It's practically the same. 2015 was Cards Against NationStates, which is basically Cards Against Humanity but with all the terms replaced to things of note about NationStates (I removed a joke here while editing the article, but just know that the author wants to get us into trouble with user-created founderless regions). 2016 was the World Assembly Secretary-General election. The previous World Assembly Secretary-General retired the previous March, so of course Barry had to make it an April Fool's joke. 2017 was Nuclear Apocalypse, which now recurs every International Day against Nuclear Tests. And, as we have already covered, 2018 was dedicated to the Decks minigame. Happy minigaming fuddy-duddies!
Deputy Officers: To Reject or Not To Reject?
EDITORIAL | WRITTEN BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr | EDITED BY Correspondent The Church of Satan AND Senior Journalist Marilyn Manson Freaks
"Welcome to the Meatgrinder," greets Frattastan II as Dravkian becomes Marilyn Manson Freaks' newest Deputy in the Outreach Department of the Rejected Realms (TRR).
But of course, we wanted an explanation of such a greeting. Fratt went on to indulge us with the following, "The average life expectancy of a Manson deputy after their appointment is four days. Good luck". While Manson took it in good faith, and indeed found it rather amusing as was intended, it has in turn inspired me to return to a topic that is very close to my heart here in NationStates. I say it is very close to my heart, as the deputy system in TRR was what first got me involved in the NationStates community late last year, and what first got me involved in the political system of TRR and interregional politics, besides getting banjected after being found out in my girlfriend's school's unofficial, and yet passlocked and private, region.
The deputy system in TRR, prima facie, appears to be at odds with our democratic system, or theme if you will, of governance. A deputy is not voted in, but rather nominated and delegated power, by the democratically elected officer who was assigned their department by the Delegate. While both the Delegate and the Officers are democratically elected, the deputies are instead put into power in a department by the officer of said department, with permission from the Delegate. I speak of this from experience, as I have both been delegated power from an officer to become a deputy and have delegated power to a deputy as an officer. So, with this in mind, I pose the following regarding deputy officers: to reject or not to reject?
This article's existence does not owe itself to the actions of any former or current deputy officers - as aforementioned, I am one within their numbers - yet I do believe the system in place calls for introspection. As most reasonable people would accept that is correct before proven otherwise that a deputy system is at odds with TRR's government's democratic 'roleplay', or what have you, this article will intend to build a formidable theoretical defence for its continued implementation. If such a task proves far too daunting, or outright fails, then it is within the opinion of the author that the task is beyond the scopes of argument that can or should be achieved to justify a democratic experience in NationStates. That is to say, TRR should not, on theoretical grounds, have a deputy system, if we intend to govern ourselves using a democratic system, if this task is to fail.
To approach this issue of which requires the building of a theoretical defence, I will establish myself from the claim that the deputy system of TRR has merit in giving new players an opportunity to get involved in TRR. The argument for this appears to be straightforward for me, yet it is anecdotal. It is my own anecdote after all, and hence has me convinced that the system got me involved in TRR, and then should also work for others as well. Yet, this is flawed as it may not be the case. I may be the outlier, and think of all the people who fell through the cracks of our system? Additionally, anecdotal evidence might not be enough to convince you, or at least as quickly as my specific anecdote appeals to me. This begs the question: why not have more officer positions, or instead have the deputy officer positions be democratically elected?
To this end, I will rely on real life examples. Governments such as those of western democratic countries like The Commonwealth of Australia and The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have systems involving a chain of accountability, with elected representatives being assigned ministries. In turn, these ministers are assigned Heads of Departments, yet these positions are not held by elected officials. Instead, these positions are held by experts in their relevant ministry. In fact, they are employees to that ministry, and hence accountable to the elected representative turned minister. The chain of accountability goes far deeper down the chain of command than that, all the way down to the civil servants in public employment, however the idea of accountability being linked to the elected representative remains the same.
Similarly, there are other official positions in TRR, specifically those within the Rejected Realms Army (RRA), that are not elected democratically and instead awarded through meritocratic means. The deputy system in TRR is acknowledged as possessing further value in being able to meet this capacity if there is ever a time when a meritocratic position proves necessary through a publicly unfavourable - let's say slightly unfavourable, for the sake of argument and to maintain reasonable and persuasive premises - and yet skilled individual who deserves to be involved in a certain department. If the citizenry feels so strongly against this, then they are free in TRR's system to run someone who would not appoint that individual as a deputy. If that someone - who runs - succeeds in the election but does not live up to their promise, then the challenge system in place in TRR, which triggers an officer election against a specific incumbent Officer, can hold that someone to account.
Yet, comparing real life to NationStates is not always reliable. That is, for this case in particular, the so-called experts of a relevant ministry are also the ones who are usually voted in as officers in NationStates, or at least in TRR. Officer elections as of late have been targeted towards specific departments, and Delegates have usually tried their best to honour those wishes following the election. Hence, the deputy officer position is usually given to whoever that officer favours or believes is of better, equal, second-best or prospective worth as an officer for that department. Deputy officers positions are seen as training to newer players, to get them involved in TRR politics and better understand the department, and consolation prizes to players who already have experience or current involved across the many facets of NationStates.
Nevertheless, there seems to be enough correlation to suggest that, if an officer appoints a deputy officer, that deputy officer is still accountable to the officer. This concept is practically reinforced by the way in which an officer can choose to remove their deputy, or, as is more usual to occur, the officer's higher up, such as TRR's Delegate and TRR's government's administration, legitimised via CitCo - the Citizenship Council - in most cases, can remove the deputy officer themselves. This is similar to the way in which a chain of accountability works in real life, justified by its commitment to the citizenry of which is also the case in TRR.
In TRR, citizens elect both the Delegate and their Cabinet, who are the Officers; and the Speaker of The Assembly of TRR. Yet, this does not mean that deputy officers have no place in TRR's system. Instead, this gives more legitimacy, along the chain of accountability, to the elected officials. If deputy officer appointments are favourable to the Delegate and their Cabinet, but not to the citizenry, then the challenge system in place in TRR allows for the citizenry to hold their elected officials to account. Thus, it seems sound, valid and persuasive to keep the deputy system, even if that means the rare so-called Manson deputy here and there in practice.
Reflecting on TRR's Flag
EDITORIAL | WRITTEN BY Senior Reporter Glacikaldr | EDITED BY TRT STAFF
Another article specific to the Rejected Realms (TRR), but what can you do! You should always write about what you know - and, most importantly, you should write about what you feel passionate for. And, it is fair to say that I am passionate about the flag of my region, as someone who wants to continue to show that TRR is a region to be respected among the NationStates community. The flag is our symbol, but our current flag has is a symbol with connotations that carry the last four years of our region, having been implemented following the successful ratification of an amendment to the Flag of the Rejected Realms Act passed in The Assembly of TRR on the 15th of July, 2014. This flag, TRR's current flag, was designed by Milograd, on the 19th of March, 2014, from what can be gathered on TRR's forum.
The main debate at that time, at least unofficially, can be seen here, where designs were submitted that had been influenced by the first legislated flag. Milograd's design, initially with a border as shown here, went up against Almonaster's design found here, as well as Unitbot's design found here and the first legislated flag designed by both Blackdreams and Greymarshes as shown here, of which only a pixelated copy still existed. Furthermore, both Milograd and Unibot had other designs that they had the citizenry critique. Milograd first proposed this bronze design and later a design with a blotched background, as opposed to the spotted background that he finally settled with, and of which can now be seen as the current flag of TRR, with a similar spotted background to how the background was with the first legislated flag of TRR. As an aside, Unibot also proposed a few designs, including the now relatively infamous fat cow of the Moojected Realms: seen here.
Of note is how the final designs of both Almonaster's flag and Unibot's flag are seen as more faithful recreations of the unicorn associated with TRR, which will now to be referred to as TRR's unicorn. They both feature TRR's unicorn with its head raised high, evoking a sense of pride just like the first legislated flag, whereas Milograd's design features the unicorn's head bent down, expressing a far more sombre and reflective tone. Nevertheless, a popular justification for changing the flag raised during this period of time, even going so far as to be attributed with initially dragging this debate into centre stage, was in regards to how the first legislated flag is of a low quality, and hence far too pixelated to be practical in cases that demand a larger sized flag. Another interesting fact, as initially pointed out by Unibot here during the flag submission phase, is that all the flags submitted and taken seriously, at least over on TRR's forum, used the United Federation of Planets logo from Star Trek as a background behind the prominent and recognisable TRR unicorn, as is the case with the first legislated flag.
Yet, this author believes that the debate was settled unfairly. See, an on-site poll was conducted, open only to residents, around the same time as the debate on TRR's forum took place. The poll is viewable here, yet the result were barely discussed over on TRR's forum at the time. The poll started on the 9th of June, 2014, and it was Almonaster's flag that led the poll with 16 more votes than Milograd's flag by the poll's conclusion on the 24th of the very same month. This means that the poll was allowed to run for 15 days, and therefore gave everyone an appropriate amount of time to cast their vote. Additionally, there is no clear sign that there were any puppets skewing the vote in favour of Almonaster: instead, all the votes appeared legitimate. Furthermore, Unibot's flag only got 2 less votes than Milograd's creation. In other words, Almonaster's flag got 21 votes, Milograd's flag got 5 votes and Unibot's flag got 2 votes in the poll. What does that say about the popular opinion at the time? Among the citizenry, the results were the following for the unofficial vote: Milograd's flag bet Almonaster's flag by 5 votes, bet the first legislated flag by 3 votes and bet Unibot's flag by 7 votes. The unofficial vote is viewable here. As for the official amendment of the Flag of the Rejected Realms Act in early July, seeking to change TRR's flag to Milograd's design as seen here, there were 10 votes for, 5 votes against and 0 abstentions, which works out to be less votes for the amendment than there were votes in favour of Almonaster's flag compared to Milograd's flag on the poll, and the same 5 vote difference that was present in the unofficial vote over on The Assembly. Should the flag of TRR not represent the Rejects who would be considered natives by any other standard of inclusion, besides TRR's strict rules for citizenry: residency?
Recent sentiment has not always been so favourable, nor proud, of the current flag. For example, it is a rare occurrence for the Rejected Realms Army to actually fly the current TRR flag. In contrast, RRA Commander Guy and yours truly fly Almonaster's flag for RRA deployments. While I like to think we respect the legitimacy of the current flag, there is a sense that it has overstayed its welcome for some Rejects. I am sure everyone who wants to see the flag changed has varying reasons for it - maybe they could even be as simple as wanting to spice things up - but for me its a simple question. First, some context: to my understanding, TRR, and especially its established government, has suffered through a period of inactivity sometime between the later half of 2014 to late 2017. Yet, I now believe that under our new Delegate, Catalyse, we have moved beyond this temporary lull in activity. That being said, our current flag, in my mind, has become symbolic of this period of inactivity; the very same period where we have been deemed inactive and no longer worthy of being called a sinker or perhaps even a Game-Created Region by the more aggressive enemies of TRR, even though we are mechanically - according to the game itself - both of those things. It is time we change our image to show that we have matured as a region, and put this lull behind us.
It is important to note that during Guy’s Delegacy of TRR in 2015, specifically in August, the flag was changed from Milograd’s design to Almonaster’s design as a trial run. As seen here, this was done under the justification of the on-site poll weighing heavily in favour of the latter as aforementioned above, yet it was met with more negative than positive feedback from the citizenry. The reoccurring complaints included how the flag was initially changed due to the first legislated flag being pixelated, how - according to the Flag of the Rejected Realms Act - the flag can only legally be changed temporarily "for cultural purposes", and how the purple featured in the former gave TRR more of a unique identity to the other Game-Created Regions. Here it is important to note that, while Almonaster’s flag might not have been preferable among the citizenry in both 2014 and 2015, it was certainly not the favourable flag when considering the opinions expressed by all Rejects, both citizens and non-citizens, back in 2014. It may also be the case that a Delegate breaking TRR’s laws is not looked upon favourably by TRR’s citizenry. All things considered, it is not the opinion of the author to impose or keep having amendments until TRR has Almonaster’s design as its legal flag. Instead, this author is of the opinion that TRR should strive for a flag that is favourable for all Rejects, both citizens and non-citizens. Furthermore, TRR should look into a new flag that does not carry the negative connotations that now follow Milograd’s design, as well as Almonaster’s design. TRR is no longer a region with its head down.
All this doubt in the popularity of the current flag of TRR makes our flag situation worthy of review in this author's opinion. This is reinforced by an understanding that the realms deserve a new flag to symbolise their renewed vigour as a region; a vigour of which has overcome the doubt cast upon the region during the lull in activity that was prevalent only just last year, reinforced through a flag that shows how TRR has moved forward into a new age. Thus, I pose the following question to my fellow Rejects, as well as the NationStates community at large: is it not time for the Rejected Realms' unicorn to raise its head in pride once more?
