Should there be democracy in Cruciland?

[Cruciland]

A recent downfall of another enemy democracy has lead several members of the Council and High Council to question Cruciland's Constitutional Monarchy. The debate has somehow turned into a raging inferno over last night's High Council meeting, which has divided Cruciland into three sides. One is for democracy, in addition to several new parties. Another is for the continuation of Cruciland's monarchy, but with political parties. The other side, however, enjoys the current sleek government. We are asking for YOU, NationStates members, to decide our fate! Here's three people to represent each side...

"Democracy is not too blatant," commented High Councilor Lucian, the newest member of Cruciland's High Council. "After all, some people want to do more than lobby, and even if we're vastly more intellegent thanks to upgrades, sometimes over-thinking a problem is hazardous." Pausing to drink some coffee, he continued, "If you'd like, we can always restrict the democracies if it's too hazardous towards our beliefs, like barring off major decisions. Still, I don't think a static country is an interesting country..."

"Pfft- I don't think democracy is going to help us," Scoffs High Councilor Oliver. "As the Emperor will tell you, democracy leads to a socially corrupt society, devoid of any substance, and always at risk for straying from Cruciland's righteous path. If we bolstered our constitution, it might work, but for now, we should only offer political parties. You know- to help organize the populace." 31 shrugged after this, then continued, "Again, we only need more parties, not a democracy."

Our Emperor, Emperor WWhiteSShadow, rose from his seat with one swift motion, before retorting smoothly, "Ladies and gentlemen, we all know that democracy corrupts. We all know that we stray from righteousness if we allow for outside influences to taint our ways. That includes the 'bad apples' of Cruciland." He interlaced his fingers, tipped with unimaginably long claws. "High Councilors, let us not forget that we are one voice, and one populace. No amount of division in political parties should be allowed, either. We are Crucilandians- not Democrats and Republicans. And we are kings and nobles, not presidents and civil-rights abusers. We are to remain above the dark ways of Earth, and that is final!" The Emperor saluted with three fingers- an honorary salute in our nation.

So, NS, what side should Cruciland take?

[ArghNeedAName]

Official Communiqué from the United States of ArghNeedAName

The United States of ArghNeedAName will strongly support the implementation of democracy in Cruciland if you choose this course. Democracy can certainly coexist with the monarchy provided that the current Emporer is willing to assume the role of a ceremonial figurehead rather than an active leader. The current situation could be described as semi-constitutional monarchy, rather than a complete constitutional one.

Winston Churchill once said that "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for everything else that's been tried". Yes, it has its drawbacks. The biggest issue is politicians doing what is popular rather than what is right.

In the debate it has been suggested that democracy leads to corruption. This is false. If you look on the attached maps, you will see that on average, democratic countries tend to have less corruption than authoritarian countries. Qatar and the UAE are pretty much the only authoritarian countries that have a corruption perception index score above the halfway mark, though poor countries with democracy still have problems with corruption.

Furthermore, democracy does not automatically change the social values of the population. A conservative population will vote for conservative parties. Democracy produces a government that represents the population.

The problem with having monarch as the head of government is that even if the current king or emporer is a good leader, his son or grandson may not be.

Signed
Bill Baxter

Documents Attached

Minister of State

[TurtleShroom]

HOLY REPUBLIC OF TURTLESHROOM
SUPREME GENERAL COURT
JUDGEMASTER OF THE COURT OF TURTLESHROOM
TO THE NOBILITY AND COUNCILS OF CRUCILAND

SIRE, SIR, AND TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Hello. I am the Judgemaster of TurtleShroom, leading the Supreme Court and the Congress. Your people have come to an important crossroads in your history that strongly parallels that of TurtleShroom.

Centuries ago, the church elders were fiercely battling over the power of the government versus the power of the turtles, mushrooms, and humans. God's preferred method of government is a monarchy that answers to Him, but such power is routinely corrupted by the sins of man.

Jones Found and the other Framers struck a miracle utilizing Plato's "Ship of State" theory, combining the power and freedom of a sovereign people with the holy wisdom and veto power of a king into one stable government that has extensive difficulty drifting into sin and vice, if it ever does at all.

We see that you are now debating to become like TurtleShroom, in being democratic but retaining a guided democracy to prevent the people from voting in vice and corruption. We have perfected that art in our Constitution and have been practicing it for over two hundred years.

If it pleases His Majesty, I wish to visit Cruciland and personally have the honor of schooling you in the arts of Guided Democracy and means to prevent evil from voting itself in my manipulating people.
-and no, His Majesty does not have to surrender his role as active ruler and become ceremonial. Not in our scenario!


Eager to hear your response,
-His High Honor, the Judgemaster of the Courts of TurtleShroom

[Cruciland]

(Image)

HOLY REPUBLIC OF TURTLESHROOM
SUPREME GENERAL COURT
JUDGEMASTER OF THE COURT OF TURTLESHROOM
TO THE NOBILITY AND COUNCILS OF CRUCILAND

SIRE, SIR, AND TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Hello. I am the Judgemaster of TurtleShroom, leading the Supreme Court and the Congress. Your people have come to an important crossroads in your history that strongly parallels that of TurtleShroom.

Centuries ago, the church elders were fiercely battling over the power of the government versus the power of the turtles, mushrooms, and humans. God's preferred method of government is a monarchy that answers to Him, but such power is routinely corrupted by the sins of man.

Jones Found and the other Framers struck a miracle utilizing Plato's "Ship of State" theory, combining the power and freedom of a sovereign people with the holy wisdom and veto power of a king into one stable government that has extensive difficulty drifting into sin and vice, if it ever does at all.

We see that you are now debating to become like TurtleShroom, in being democratic but retaining a guided democracy to prevent the people from voting in vice and corruption. We have perfected that art in our Constitution and have been practicing it for over two hundred years.

If it pleases His Majesty, I wish to visit Cruciland and personally have the honor of schooling you in the arts of Guided Democracy and means to prevent evil from voting itself in my manipulating people.
-and no, His Majesty does not have to surrender his role as active ruler and become ceremonial. Not in our scenario!


Eager to hear your response,
-His High Honor, the Judgemaster of the Courts of TurtleShroom

Turtleshroom, your request has been analyzed and accepted. We shall welcome you, Judge-Master, to Cruciland.

VOTES FOR GUIDED DEMOCRACY: 2
VOTES FOR ONLY PARTIES: 0
VOTES FOR AUTHORITARIANISM: 0

[SquareDisc City]

The view of the United Pokemon Types is that whether one is a democracy or a dictatorship has little to do with how good one's government is. We say this as a Nation where democratic and dictatorial states stand united, and where our own government has at times been dreadful.

[Western Visayas and Palawan]

We of Societas Libertatis believe in the guided democracy as a just form of government. Do not say that this is because we come from such a country, for our convictions predate even the Philippine Civil War that spawned WVP.

OOC: Would NGO's also be counted?

[Victorious Decepticons]

Normally, my response would be to say that you are insane for even considering a democracy - or as we typically call it, an idiocracy. As our name for it implies, what democracy does is give idiots who belong in the slag pit for being defectively ignorant a chance to run the country - into the ground!!

In most circumstances it is obvious that a nation should be run by a single ruler who has the intelligence to figure everything out, or in particularly difficult cases, to jack into an even more powerful supercomputer to access the CPU power necessary to quickly arrive at the correct decisions.

You, however, have also said that you want to reduce corruption! Why you'd want to do THAT, I will NEVER know! Even the power of the Domestic Intelligence Supercomputer cannot help me understand those who want to eliminate the ability to get ahead in properly creative ways...those who want to turn their own nations into boring seas of pablum.

Still, it is well known that Dictatorships are havens for corruption. Mine actually exists specifically to facilitate, among other things, the Decepticon People's ability to engage in corruption of all sorts without fear of foreign interference. With a dictatorship, you don't have to worry about whether you're above the law or not. You ARE the law. So if you don't want to be corrupt, just legalize whatever it is you plan to do.

Anyhow, if you want your government to be held accountable to peasants whose voice should really only be used to say "yes sir," you should choose a democracy.

Just don't cry when you can't make a response to a Decepticon raid because your new parliament can't get itself together enough to decide on a response before all your oil is gone.

~Signed
~Megatron, Leader of the Decepticons

[Cruciland]

FOR GUIDED DEMOCRACY: 3
FOR MULTICAMERAL AUTHORITARIANISM: 0
FOR UNICAMERAL AUTHORITARIANISM: 1 (from a very powerful nation)

(Image)

HOLY REPUBLIC OF TURTLESHROOM
SUPREME GENERAL COURT
JUDGEMASTER OF THE COURT OF TURTLESHROOM
TO THE NOBILITY AND COUNCILS OF CRUCILAND

SIRE, SIR, AND TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Hello. I am the Judgemaster of TurtleShroom, leading the Supreme Court and the Congress. Your people have come to an important crossroads in your history that strongly parallels that of TurtleShroom.

Centuries ago, the church elders were fiercely battling over the power of the government versus the power of the turtles, mushrooms, and humans. God's preferred method of government is a monarchy that answers to Him, but such power is routinely corrupted by the sins of man.

Jones Found and the other Framers struck a miracle utilizing Plato's "Ship of State" theory, combining the power and freedom of a sovereign people with the holy wisdom and veto power of a king into one stable government that has extensive difficulty drifting into sin and vice, if it ever does at all.

We see that you are now debating to become like TurtleShroom, in being democratic but retaining a guided democracy to prevent the people from voting in vice and corruption. We have perfected that art in our Constitution and have been practicing it for over two hundred years.

If it pleases His Majesty, I wish to visit Cruciland and personally have the honor of schooling you in the arts of Guided Democracy and means to prevent evil from voting itself in my manipulating people.
-and no, His Majesty does not have to surrender his role as active ruler and become ceremonial. Not in our scenario!


Eager to hear your response,
-His High Honor, the Judgemaster of the Courts of TurtleShroom

"The Judgemaster looked out from a window as a golden dropship descended from the skies, curiously not in a ball of fire. It landed in front of the window, and the doors opened. Inside, MJC soldiers looked at hi, through their unreadable helmet-visors. One took out a sword and cut a man-sized hole in the glass pane of the building, before carefully lifting it aside. He entered with MJC's soldiers into the vessel, the soldier welding the window piece back in place. The doors closed, and the ship again ascended into the clouds, shooting off to Cruciland's capital, Starboro."

[TurtleShroom]

His High Honor, Zodak Law, was the Judgemaster of TurtleShroom, and he had been for over fourty years. Appointed in 1971 to head the Supreme General Court and Congress, he was always considered totally neutral with few exceptions and revered as a centrist politician that never jumped into the fray. (Bias did show in his opinions on the Haizian Sad Days' War, but everyone slips now and then.)
Jurists and scholars overwhelmingly approved of how he carried his branch-spanning job, and indeed, he was considered the model for his office.

He had served for so long that most people never addressed him by name. Most simply called him "Judgemaster". He and the office were one, and those who paid attention to the upper judiciaries had trouble imagining his sobering, level-headed demeanor against the often fiery (and duly elected by the people) colleagues on both the Supreme Court and the Congress.

He was in his sixties now, having grown from a short, plucky young adult to a wisened statesman. As was required of him, Zadok was always wearing his black robe, trimmed in gold at the bottom seams and the sleeves, with its white sash draped over him from his left shoulder to his right hip. An ornate, multi-jewelled, golden pectoral cross hung just below his chest on a heavy, equally golden chain. The cross dated to the 1850s and was considered a very special relic to the judiciary, although Judgemasters throughout the years compared it to wearing a cow around their neck.


In appearence, Zadok was less absurd and more wisened than many of his people. He was shorter than many, at seven foot two, and he had long since become bald, with a silver horseshoe of hair encircling his scalp. His ears were bigger than most TurtleShroomers, and this was a routine joke in political cartoons. He had a center-aligned buck tooth, but it wasn't nearly as bad as many of his people, barely jutting out of his lip. Zadok had long learned that, in international summits, sucking in his lip and obscuring that tooth was very efficient at increasing the respect other world powers saw him as.

He was famously broad-shouldered (think Dick Cheney), but also very scrawny, as was customary of his people. His crimson red eyes were obscured by yhick, heavy, and black coke-bottle glasses, without which he was completely blind. The outer edges of the glesses and the temple pieces were embroidered with a fine line of gold, and they rested on his small, pointed nose.
Since must every TurtleShroomer needed such extreme spectacles, it was no real difference.



Zadok had been told that the delegation of Cruciland was coming to him. He stated he'd take a government high-speed train to the country, but they insisted to take him instead. He had assumed this was going to be in the form of an aircraft, but he was surprised to learn that Cruciland was a Future Tech nation, much like the dreaded C'Tan. They informed him to go to a remote building and stand at the top floor. He chose his personal three story, luxurious country villa down in the swamplands and informed them of this.

It was here, then, that he stood with the large ensemble of police officers, bodyguards, a court reporter, and his personal clerk, that he elected to bring with him. (They were notified of this, as well.)

That was when the spacecraft descended, and the Judgemaster stared in awe, refusing to go out on the balcony, as the machine that defied all he knew about technology hovered inches from said balcony. Creatures which the Judgemaster assumed were soldiers exited and stepped onto his balcony. He prepared to open the sliding door, but to his shock and awe, they simply cut a perfect shape into the glass! Gesturing for all of them to come, the Judgemaster led the way, and when all of his gaurds and friends entered with him, the glass was seamlessly re-inserted and the spacecraft blasted off into the heavens.


As the Judgemaster looked back on his home planet and realized just how Future Tech these guys were, he couldn't help but wonder, firstly, how these aliens became Christian, and second, what he had gotten himself into.

[Churchilland]

To those concerned:

We believe that a constitutional monarchy is a superior form of government, it allows a mixture of the traditional figurehead of the monarch and the existence of an elected parliament and government. We also has the experience of the monarch protecting the citizens when in 1937 the King at the time, King Thomas IV removed the National Motionist party from power which was drafting a bill to remove the Parliament and elected Government. If there was no monarch, Churchilland would today be a Motionist dictatorship.
Despite this, it is Cruciland's decision and we will support any decision taken as long as a majority of the people wish it to be so.

[Astralsideria]

Your Imperial Majesty,

His Imperial Majesty's Ministry is firmly of the opinion that democracy and monarchy are not mutually contradictory, but rather two complimentary elements of a proper governmental system. In Astralsideria, there is a comfortable balance between the stability provided by The Emperor and the democratic self-expression the people enjoy through Parliament. We believe such a balance would be able to exist in Cruciland, if it were properly fostered and encouraged.

His Imperial Majesty's Ministry, and I personally, wish to extend our sincere hopes for a peaceful and legitimate future for Cruciland, and an offer to do anything we can to help the facilitation of such a future.

Première ministre
La très honorable Nicklausse DE SAINT-JACQUES, OSV

[Teddy Bear Republic]

Official Communiqué of the Teddy Bear Republic Empire
The Government of the Teddy Bear Republic Empire, with the advise of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its capacity as representative of the people of the TBRE in overseas matter, would like to officially support a constitutional monarchy. On a basic level, it would appear to be the compromise solution and brings the best of both worlds from what we can see about Cruciland. Secondly, it would be easy to implement as it is already very close to the status quo, and therefore avoids bureaucracy or red tape which is often the case when changing government, and also prevents a potential power vacuum.

Alternatively, the TBRE would greatly appreciate it if the will of people is determined through a nationwide referendum, rather than on the advice of foreign nations which may have little or no idea on the situation in your nation. However, if this is not possible and the Cruciland government wishes to continue on as such, we have stated our vision above.

Sincerely,

Digitally signed by the Office of HM President

[Zokoria]

To whom it may concern,

The Zokorian government stands with the current Crucilandian government on that matter. These so-called "democratic reforms" and the formation of opposition political parties will only endanger Cruciland's stability.

Sincerely,
Steve Jensen, Foreign Minister of Zokoria

[Jinwoy]

---

Royal Jinwoyin Seal

---

The Office of the Constitution

---

We heavily disagree with becoming a constitutional monarchy.
We endorse the Democratic Multiple Party system, Democracy is the way forward and Hereditary Rule is the way back, and we here at the Office of the Jinwoyin Constitution want to push Democracy into your nation sooner rather than later, and would like to define Democracy in our terms:

• The Peoples Chosen Presidential Candidate is the Head of State,
• Defining the Head of State as someone who sits in the Head Chairs of the Military, Economy and Law Passing.
• The Presidential Elections occur once every 3 years, thus 3 years is now one term.
• Any President can only hold 3 terms in Office (9 Years).
• Laws passed by the President must then be passed on to a Council, and the laws will be put into effect when this council approves of the law. This is to prevent the President into passing laws that change the constitution.
• The said council should consist of atleast 25% of any national minorities currently present in your nation. (If you had a council of 100, than 25 would be represented by the minorities in your nation. If you had a council of 200, then it would be 50, and so on.)
• The democratic system must consist of more than 1 party.
• People must be older than 20 to vote.
• Presidential Candidates must be older than 35.
• If the President dies during his term, than his appointed Vice or the Prime Minister becomes the emergency Head of State, and Emergency Elections begin.
• The President is legally defined as the most Important Person in the State, his every need is to be met, and his defence is to be maximum.

We request a current plan of your constitution, so that we may review it, and suggest changes where necessary.

We are happy with your thinking of becoming a democratic nation, and we hope to work with you in the near future.

---

From the office of
Illia Tarung, head of the Office of the Constitution of Jinwoy.

---

[Cruciland]

FOR DEMOCRACY: 4
FOR HYBRIDIZATION: 2
FOR AUTHORITARIANISM: 4

His High Honor, Zadok Law, was the Judgemaster of TurtleShroom, and he had been for over fourty years. Appointed in 1971 to head the Supreme General Court and Congress, he was always considered totally neutral with few exceptions and revered as a centrist politician that never jumped into the fray. (Bias did show in his opinions on the Haizian Sad Days' War, but everyone slips now and then.)
Jurists and scholars overwhelmingly approved of how he carried his branch-spanning job, and indeed, he was considered the model for his office.

He had served for so long that most people never addressed him by name. Most simply called him "Judgemaster". He and the office were one, and those who paid attention to the upper judiciaries had trouble imagining his sobering, level-headed demeanor against the often fiery (and duly elected by the people) colleagues on both the Supreme Court and the Congress.

He was in his sixties now, having grown from a short, plucky young adult to a wisened statesman. As was required of him, Zadok was always wearing his black robe, trimmed in gold at the bottom seams and the sleeves, with its white sash draped over him from his left shoulder to his right hip. An ornate, multi-jewelled, golden pectoral cross hung just below his chest on a heavy, equally golden chain. The cross dated to the 1850s and was considered a very special relic to the judiciary, although Judgemasters throughout the years compared it to wearing a cow around their neck.


In appearence, Zadok was less absurd and more wisened than many of his people. He was shorter than many, at seven foot two, and he had long since become bald, with a silver horseshoe of hair encircling his scalp. His ears were bigger than most TurtleShroomers, and this was a routine joke in political cartoons. He had a center-aligned buck tooth, but it wasn't nearly as bad as many of his people, barely jutting out of his lip. Zadok had long learned that, in international summits, sucking in his lip and obscuring that tooth was very efficient at increasing the respect other world powers saw him as.

He was famously broad-shouldered (think Dick Cheney), but also very scrawny, as was customary of his people. His crimson red eyes were obscured by yhick, heavy, and black coke-bottle glasses, without which he was completely blind. The outer edges of the glesses and the temple pieces were embroidered with a fine line of gold, and they rested on his small, pointed nose.
Since must every TurtleShroomer needed such extreme spectacles, it was no real difference.



Zadok had been told that the delegation of Cruciland was coming to him. He stated he'd take a government high-speed train to the country, but they insisted to take him instead. He had assumed this was going to be in the form of an aircraft, but he was surprised to learn that Cruciland was a Future Tech nation, much like the dreaded C'Tan. They informed him to go to a remote building and stand at the top floor. He chose his personal three story, luxurious country villa down in the swamplands and informed them of this.

It was here, then, that he stood with the large ensemble of police officers, bodyguards, a court reporter, and his personal clerk, that he elected to bring with him. (They were notified of this, as well.)

That was when the spacecraft descended, and the Judgemaster stared in awe, refusing to go out on the balcony, as the machine that defied all he knew about technology hovered inches from said balcony. Creatures which the Judgemaster assumed were soldiers exited and stepped onto his balcony. He prepared to open the sliding door, but to his shock and awe, they simply cut a perfect shape into the glass! Gesturing for all of them to come, the Judgemaster led the way, and when all of his gaurds and friends entered with him, the glass was seamlessly re-inserted and the spacecraft blasted off into the heavens.


As the Judgemaster looked back on his home planet and realized just how Future Tech these guys were, he couldn't help but wonder, firstly, how these aliens became Christian, and second, what he had gotten himself into.

The ride was smooth, as the dropship glided to a peculiar location on Earth, located at 0 LAT and 0 LONG, where Northern Africa lay almost 50 miles to the northwest. It was a rather odd place, given that it was just ocean before. As they lowered from the stratosphere, floating golden structures could be seen. They had glowing undersides- tell-tale signs of powerful electromagnetic radiation heating up the metal as they struggled to keep the massive structures afloat. They lowered through several sky-bridges, then were inside the Earth's troposphere. Thick, heavy clouds blocked the ocean surface, and ahead of them came thousands of golden lances. As they flew closer to the structures, they came into focus. As it turned out, they were massive, miles-high skyscrapers that are piercing the clouds, and getting them stuck within their mass of neddle-like spires. One central spire speared through the clouds, a hundred times larger than the rest. It rose higher than many of the floating structures- its peak obscured by the morning sun. A gaping hole in its side revealed a spacecraft hangar, where the dropship slid into effortlessly and landed with a tiny bump on the cold, silvery floor.

[TurtleShroom]

There was no question now to the Judgemaster and his entourage that they had departed their planet and landed on... an identical planet? Gravy, this planet looked just like theirs from afar. Blue, lots and lots of water, diverse biomes, same axial tilt, large white clouds... though it seemed smaller and the continents were certainly shaped differently, but then again, the ever changing geopolitical structure of the Judgemaster's home planet and the active volcanism that made new islands ensured that a world map could never be fully crafted.

How many more earth-like planets where there? TurtleShroomianns were aware of three, if he recalled correctly: theirs, the Victorious Decepticon's Slave World, and at least one in C'Tan's galactic empire. (That being said, there may be many more that are classified as military secrets.) This would be a fourth.
He made a note to propose more funding to outer space research, alongside the obvious and new need for weaponization of space.


He couldn't help but marvel as the planet grew closer. Some of his friends were teary when looking at its beauty, and at least one said a silent prayer of praise to God for all the worlds He created and blessed. It made him wonder if their planet was the one Adam and Eve came from, but considering that Iraqistan, Israel, and other locations mentioned in the Bible were present on his homeland, he didn't really put much thought into it.


By the time the Judgemaster finished marvelling over the planet's beauty and eerie similairty, they had already rapidly descended into atmospheric levels that completely mirrored his own home planet's. The Judgemaster had the blessing of formal education as a child in the 1950s, but even so, it'd been so long since he learned about anything regarding the atmosphere or weather.

They descended closer to the earth's surface, which was about the time that the Judgemaster noticed they were fast approaching what had to be the planet's Equator.

"Cruciland is tropical?" thought the Judgemaster, as they suddenly veered slightly west and out onto the ocean. Confused, he turned his back from the window and asked some of those with him.

"Do you think Cruciland's an island?"

"No, Your High Honor, it ain't no island; we'd have seen it when we were a-descendin'."

"So that'd make it an underwater utopian thing, right?"

"Maybe." one of his friends suggested.

"Oh! What if it's a portal?"

The others shrugged, if they had shoulders. The Crucilandites were chuckling at the TurtleShroomers' guesses. They were wrong on all accounts, and they were going to love the Judgemaster's face when he saw the answer.

-and, at that time, the Judgemaster was tapped on the shoulder. He turned around to face the window again, and his jaw dropped.

FLOATING CITY.


He did NOT excpect a Floating City. Colored as if of gold and above the surface of the ocean, it seemed to levitate completely on its own accord. He could not form into words the amazing capabilities of this amazing technology. TurtleShroom would be lucky to do this on a small scale in a thousand years; even now, "cutting edge" was a 1990s dinosaur cell phone that was as thick as a Pocket Bible. It cost the same as a RL I-Pad and was often too "high-tech" for the nation's creaky radio towers that were converted into cell phone towers in the cities. (Coverage didn't exist outside of most cities for obvious cost and poverty reasons.)


The Judgemaster exited his thoughts and turned to a Cruciland soldier.

"Sir," he asked hesitantly, "Is this all of Cruciland, like Yellow Apple is just a floating city? Or, is this but your capital, and your people have conquered the planet, like Victorious Decepticons? -and how did Christianity get here if it originated elsewhere in the stars? Israel is on my planet."

[Purpelia]

What would become of our world if the shepherd was not to drive the sheep? If the admirals were to take orders from sailors? Give power unto the people and take it away from its kings; Bring forth this tyranny of the masses; and thy shalt be remembered as the one that destroyed all semblance of civilization, culture and the righteous way of life. Do this and know that your name will be a curse word upon the lips of generations to come.

For your own sake and that of your people. You have been warned.

- Arch Duke Felix Purpelius

[The Multiversal Species Alliance]

"It is the opinion of the people of the Multiversal Species Alliance, that it is up to Cruciland itself, as a sovereign state, to decide whether to implement Democracy or not, we truly don't care, it's your nation, not ours."
Official Communique from the the Leader of the Multiversal Species Alliance.

[Kington Langley]

His Majesty's Government officially supports the so-called 'Hybridization' option, believing that it would create universal agreement among Cruciland's divided political elite. Maintaining the historic institutions of the monarchy while introducing democracy to the country.

[Constarus]

"Democracy is such a foolish idea! I advise that you stick with authoritarianism. It's worked so far for Cruciland, right? So there's no reason to change things.

...Maybe political parties could be a good idea? I mean, if implemented correctly. As in, forcing everyone to register with the political party of their choice and then... uh... you know, weeding out those who join the less-than-desirable political parties. Especially the communist party.

But that's just my two cents, mind you. Certainly, even if you don't do that, I still highly recommend that your nation doesn't become a democracy. Think about it, do you want average people running the country? People are idiots, you can't trust them to make sound, rational decisions. Nor can you expect them to support any ideas which limit their privacy or personal freedoms. Even if such an idea is completely necessary."

- Dictator Constantia Vostrikova

[Maolandia]

Let people have democracy, but only the elite can change the constitution.

[Cruciland]

For democracy: 5
For hybridization: 4
For authoritarianism: 5

There was no question now to the Judgemaster and his entourage that they had departed their planet and landed on... an identical planet? Gravy, this planet looked just like theirs from afar. Blue, lots and lots of water, diverse biomes, same axial tilt, large white clouds... though it seemed smaller and the continents were certainly shaped differently, but then again, the ever changing geopolitical structure of the Judgemaster's home planet and the active volcanism that made new islands ensured that a world map could never be fully crafted.

How many more earth-like planets where there? TurtleShroomianns were aware of three, if he recalled correctly: theirs, the Victorious Decepticon's Slave World, and at least one in C'Tan's galactic empire. (That being said, there may be many more that are classified as military secrets.) This would be a fourth.
He made a note to propose more funding to outer space research, alongside the obvious and new need for weaponization of space.


He couldn't help but marvel as the planet grew closer. Some of his friends were teary when looking at its beauty, and at least one said a silent prayer of praise to God for all the worlds He created and blessed. It made him wonder if their planet was the one Adam and Eve came from, but considering that Iraqistan, Israel, and other locations mentioned in the Bible were present on his homeland, he didn't really put much thought into it.


By the time the Judgemaster finished marvelling over the planet's beauty and eerie similairty, they had already rapidly descended into atmospheric levels that completely mirrored his own home planet's. The Judgemaster had the blessing of formal education as a child in the 1950s, but even so, it'd been so long since he learned about anything regarding the atmosphere or weather.

They descended closer to the earth's surface, which was about the time that the Judgemaster noticed they were fast approaching what had to be the planet's Equator.

"Cruciland is tropical?" thought the Judgemaster, as they suddenly veered slightly west and out onto the ocean. Confused, he turned his back from the window and asked some of those with him.

"Do you think Cruciland's an island?"

"No, Your High Honor, it ain't no island; we'd have seen it when we were a-descendin'."

"So that'd make it an underwater utopian thing, right?"

"Maybe." one of his friends suggested.

"Oh! What if it's a portal?"

The others shrugged, if they had shoulders. The Crucilandites were chuckling at the TurtleShroomers' guesses. They were wrong on all accounts, and they were going to love the Judgemaster's face when he saw the answer.

-and, at that time, the Judgemaster was tapped on the shoulder. He turned around to face the window again, and his jaw dropped.

FLOATING CITY.


He did NOT excpect a Floating City. Colored as if of gold and above the surface of the ocean, it seemed to levitate completely on its own accord. He could not form into words the amazing capabilities of this amazing technology. TurtleShroom would be lucky to do this on a small scale in a thousand years; even now, "cutting edge" was a 1990s dinosaur cell phone that was as thick as a Pocket Bible. It cost the same as a RL I-Pad and was often too "high-tech" for the nation's creaky radio towers that were converted into cell phone towers in the cities. (Coverage didn't exist outside of most cities for obvious cost and poverty reasons.)


The Judgemaster exited his thoughts and turned to a Cruciland soldier.

"Sir," he asked hesitantly, "Is this all of Cruciland, like Yellow Apple is just a floating city? Or, is this but your capital, and your people have conquered the planet, like Victorious Decepticons? -and how did Christianity get here if it originated elsewhere in the stars? Israel is on my planet."

The Crucilandian was part of the nation's military, MJC, and his armor gleamed against the sun streamign trhough the windows. He eyed him and said in a warm tone, "There is more than just floating cities, Judgemaster. Our empire stretches out over the entire planet, with colonies dotting other planets in this system, Sol. What you see is part of the capital city, Starboro, where Cruciland began at." Behind his full helmet came forth a friendly air. "As for Christianity, this is planet Earth. Israel is located within the middle-eastern regions here, which I presume matches your own Israel, yes?"

Skyscrapers sprouted from the clouds, with a giant citadel rising many miles higher. They had entered one of its hangars, and touched down gently. The hangar doors closed, with eerie teal lights dotting the floors and ceilings of the silvery hangar. Another MJC soldier approached outside the ship, towards the door, and pressed a button on it. An intercom beep sounded as he prepared to speak to the dropship's passengers and crew...

[TurtleShroom]

The Judgemaster was thoroughly confused as he looked to a distant map in the hangar. Yep. That was Israel, all right.

"Two Israels?" he muttered, partially to himself and partially to his entourage, who shrugged.

A turtle chimed in. He was one of the theologians that had accompanied the Judgemaster, hoping to study the spread of Christianity across the galaxy.
"Perhaps Cruciland's planet, here, is a copy of ours? I mean, if they have the technology to transverse and colonize the galaxy, planet duplication don't sound as hard."

He nodded, fiddling with his glasses.

"-but that wouldn't explain how Christianity came to rise here. There was only one Jesus. Jesus was sent to one planet, to save one race- the Jews -then expanding to the Gentiles, and finally, to every other sentient."

"True." the Judgemaster replied.

"So to which planet did Jesus get sent to? Ours, or Cruciland's? I mean, the only other theory I have would be the atheists' 'infinite alternate universes' theory, which, I reckon, could mean that God sent Jesus to save all of humanity in the literal sense. Which, of course, would mean that He sent His son to die in every one of these 'alternate worlds' where humans dwell. Which also means that-"

A second theologian interrupted. This one was a mushroom.

"POINT'A DIVER-SHUN." the mushroom said. "It's an alternate his'try thang I'm sorta into in mah spare time. Basically, it's an Atheist theory that one universe splits off inta another at one specific time. Take them Crucilands fer instance: they musta split some time after the Romans sacked Jerusalem."

He looked to the Cruciland soldier to see if he was right.

"We, meanwhile, musta partially split when crea-chuhs like me n' the turtles were blessed by the Lawd with further intelligence."

The other theologian nodded in agreement.

"Which would negate the 'multiple Israel' theory by simply stating that Jesus died in Israel, and our world and Cruciland's world diverged from some point after the Holy Scriptures."

"By golly!" the mushroom countered as the Judgemaster and the others looked on. "You're right! So Christianity, having formed as the Bible said, ended up on multiple earth-like planets before them points of diversion. So I reckon the Lawd musta allowed multiple universes ta break aftuh He did what had to be done, so the rise pf the Early Church was essentially cloned across all these worlds."

The turtle agreed. "-and yet there is still one God, one Son, one way to Heaven, and one religion.."

The mushroom nodded.
"Yep. -and to them who didn't get the privilege of a point of diversion that allowed fer Jesus...."

The Judgemaster figured out what was next.

"The Great Commission!"

Both nodded and the other TurtleShroomers cheered lightly. Had either theologian been human, they'd have given each other a high five. The Cruciland soldier just looked on to the tall humans and shorter sentients with amusement.

"They said this nation was intellectually stupid?" he may have thought.

Having seen TS theology in action, the soldier's first assumption was that the spiritual prowess of TurtleShroom (top two hundred for Most Devout) compelled God to bless them with deep Christian insight... -but unlike them, it apparently didn't translate into great technological dominance.

[Cruciland]

The Judgemaster was thoroughly confused as he looked to a distant map in the hangar. Yep. That was Israel, all right.

"Two Israels?" he muttered, partially to himself and partially to his entourage, who shrugged.

A turtle chimed in. He was one of the theologians that had accompanied the Judgemaster, hoping to study the spread of Christianity across the galaxy.
"Perhaps Cruciland's planet, here, is a copy of ours? I mean, if they have the technology to transverse and colonize the galaxy, planet duplication don't sound as hard."

He nodded, fiddling with his glasses.

"-but that wouldn't explain how Christianity came to rise here. There was only one Jesus. Jesus was sent to one planet, to save one race- the Jews -then expanding to the Gentiles, and finally, to every other sentient."

"True." the Judgemaster replied.

"So to which planet did Jesus get sent to? Ours, or Cruciland's? I mean, the only other theory I have would be the atheists' 'infinite alternate universes' theory, which, I reckon, could mean that God sent Jesus to save all of humanity in the literal sense. Which, of course, would mean that He sent His son to die in every one of these 'alternate worlds' where humans dwell. Which also means that-"

A second theologian interrupted. This one was a mushroom.

"POINT'A DIVER-SHUN." the mushroom said. "It's an alternate his'try thang I'm sorta into in mah spare time. Basically, it's an Atheist theory that one universe splits off inta another at one specific time. Take them Crucilands fer instance: they musta split some time after the Romans sacked Jerusalem."

He looked to the Cruciland soldier to see if he was right.

"We, meanwhile, musta partially split when crea-chuhs like me n' the turtles were blessed by the Lawd with further intelligence."

The other theologian nodded in agreement.

"Which would negate the 'multiple Israel' theory by simply stating that Jesus died in Israel, and our world and Cruciland's world diverged from some point after the Holy Scriptures."

"By golly!" the mushroom countered as the Judgemaster and the others looked on. "You're right! So Christianity, having formed as the Bible said, ended up on multiple earth-like planets before them points of diversion. So I reckon the Lawd musta allowed multiple universes ta break aftuh He did what had to be done, so the rise pf the Early Church was essentially cloned across all these worlds."

The turtle agreed. "-and yet there is still one God, one Son, one way to Heaven, and one religion.."

The mushroom nodded.
"Yep. -and to them who didn't get the privilege of a point of diversion that allowed fer Jesus...."

The Judgemaster figured out what was next.

"The Great Commission!"

Both nodded and the other TurtleShroomers cheered lightly. Had either theologian been human, they'd have given each other a high five. The Cruciland soldier just looked on to the tall humans and shorter sentients with amusement.

"They said this nation was intellectually stupid?" he may have thought.

Having seen TS theology in action, the soldier's first assumption was that the spiritual prowess of TurtleShroom (top two hundred for Most Devout) compelled God to bless them with deep Christian insight... -but unlike them, it apparently didn't translate into great technological dominance.

OOC: For the record, Crucilandians are transhuman beings made of nanobots, ranging in height from 8 to 12 feet, and being often very thin. They look like majestic black pillars from a distance. The soldiers' power armor looks like fatter, golden pillars with red capes from a distance.

IC: The soldier nodded along, processing the information. There were only a handful of ways that quantums and atoms could form, so after enough lightmillenia, they could've bound to have run into another human race, and a clone of Jesus. The time for talking was over, though, as the intercom message spoke in an electronic voice; similar to that of the apparatus the MJC soldier spoke through...

"שימו לב כל הנוסעים חיילים, עיקור של כוכבבורו המצודה הושלמה. אנו כעת ללוות את הנוסעים אל המעלית."

...The doors slid open, and the eerie teal lights came in sharper and clearer to reveal a clean hangar. Two MJC soldiers beckoned for the delegates to follow them.

[Alticuz]

I support the Emperor. If people have a democracy, it will stain your nation, while the current constitutional monarchy of yours keeps your nation glorified. Go for a win- win. The people get certain rights like who to vote for as Emperor, free enterprise, and maybe free speech. The Emperor, in turn, gets to rule for life, but he may not make laws that interfere with religion, or violates peoples privacy and freedom. Other than that he has absolute power. Does this sound fair enough. Half democracy- half constitutional monarchy.