[AT VOTE] Repeal SC#501 "Liberate Eclipsis"

[Refuge Isle]

This proposal has been filed to the Security Council Repeals Board.
NOTE: at 1423 GMT on the 10th of December 2024, the second iteration of this proposal reached quorum with Floyssauu's approval, the 56th all told.
NOTE 2: I don't have the exact times to hand - I was, and still am, busy IRL - but the original version of this (see first reply) was approved by 93 delegates (10% of all delegates worldwide).

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Character count: 4,990
Word count: 805

Please don't hate me. (This is Draft #2; click here for the first draft.)

Hopefully, I will submit this in a few weeks; more specifics will be given closer to the time. West contributed a lot, and has been co-authored. Xoriet contributed a bit but asked not to be co-authored. And, of course, Lunarvi fully condones and approves this draft (although they also didn't contribute an awful lot) - they will post on this thread shortly to confirm their support, like they did last time.

Repeal "Liberate Eclipsis"
A resolution to repeal previously passed legislation.

Category: Repeal

Resolution: SC#501

Proposed by: Tinhampton

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Security Council Resolution #501 “Liberate Eclipsis” shall be struck out and rendered null and void.

THE SECURITY COUNCIL:

HAVING REGARD to the following paragraphs:

• §1: A Moment of Clarity: From time to time, Liberations are imposed upon regions in the hope that they will prevent raider Delegates and their Regional Officers from passwording them en route to refounding and destroying them, only for those regions to be annihilated regardless, their native spark having fizzled out. Unfortunately, Eclipsis is one such region. Its Liberation is therefore in desperate, perhaps even urgent, need of repeal. It offers a false promise - a promise that Eclipsis remains open; that it may one day be saved from its captors. Yet it is now under the indefinite control of those that, in actual fact, did do it immense harm.
• §2: Sunsetting Liberations: The belief that repeals of those Liberations described in §1 are themselves unnecessary and clog up the Security Council is proving increasingly popular. Yet in reality, this body has historically not hesitated to see such resolutions in a new light: it has acted to strike down the Liberations of [region=Wonderful Paradise] (via SC#66), [region=Free Thought] (via SC#69), [region=Nationalist Union] (via SC#106), [region=Land of the Liberals] (via SC#115), [region=Region of reunited muslim states] (via SC#117), [region=Alliance Against Nazis] (via SC#199), [region=The Place that has No Big Banks] (via SC#204), [region=Dank memes] (via SC#238), [region=Femdom Empire] (via SC#250), [region=Politics Amino] (via SC#280), and [region=Yessssss] (via SC#476) after their respective refounds.
• §3: The Stormclouds Gather: [region=Eclipsis] was founded by [nation=Lunarvi] - later its WA Delegate and foremost native - in December 2023. The region existed peacefully until April 7th 2024, when [region=The Brotherhood of Malice], in consort with [region=The Black Hawks], [region=Osiris] and [region=Sparkalia], opportunistically seized control. Two invaders are of particular note: [nation=North Nebula] (a vassal of [nation=New Sunville]) planned the occupation; while [nation=Asunnia] (a vassal of [nation=Valtarre]) wielded around 165 endorsements for its duration - an order of magnitude more than Lunarvi normally had - becoming the world's 16th-most-powerful Delegate.
• §4: Battle by Candlelight: Contrary to widespread belief, Eclipsis was never completely abandoned. The defenders of innocent regions worldwide shone their lights on Eclipsis while it was shrouded by the fog of war, in the hopes that they could save it from raider capture as they had done with [region=Sunland] the year before. No less than 70 troops from [region=The Order of the Grey Wardens], [region=The South Pacific], [region=The League] and [region=Concord], [region=Europeia], [region=The Rejected Realms], [region=10000 Islands], [region=The North Pacific], [region=The West Pacific], and elsewhere also sought to defeat the occupation by military force at an early stage, but were thwarted by sheer lack of numbers.
• §5: Midnight in Eclipsis: Those seeking to save Eclipsis from being overshadowed by raiders were further beset by the circumstances of its ruin. Asunnia had resided there for only two fewer weeks than Lunarvi, thus accruing sufficient influence to wreak immediate damage on the region. Declarations of dubious necessity on raiding itself and slavery were pushed by [nation=Evermoria] and [nation=Japuile], in advance of the takeover and in anticipation of any liberation efforts. Then, one week after the occupation began, the lights suddenly went out worldwide - an inexplicable development beyond any national leader's control; one with a similar scope to, and an even greater duration than, the tragedy described in SC#426 "The Holiday Apocalypse;" and one which made any practical resistance inviable for the following 13 days. Eclipsis' Liberation was, at one time, perhaps the world's best hope of preventing its destruction; by May 2nd, twelve hours after going to vote, it had metamorphosed into a vain petition of no effect, the region laid to waste.
• §6: The Morning After: Lunarvi neither desires to return to Eclipsis nor is able to do so; yet since their innocent homeland was subjugated, they have lit the spark of a new Frontier community in [region=Arborhaven], where they once again serve as Founder and Delegate. They supported an initial attempt to repeal the Liberation in October 2024, which was defeated by 6,233 votes to 4,931. They have also lent their support to this attempt. It would be unnecessarily cruel, and an unprecedented betrayal of the Security Council's usual deference to innocent natives, to deny them - the first and last known native leader of Eclipsis - the opportunity to determine the fate of its Liberation for a second time in short order.

CONCLUDING that Eclipsis should not remain Liberated, as the Liberation serves no use and the region's foremost native wishes for its repeal:

HEREBY REPEALS SC#501 "Liberate Eclipsis."

Co-author: Westinor

[Tinhampton]

Draft submitted on December 2nd 2024 but withdrawn exactly a week later for the reasons outlined on Page 2. 4,999 characters, 811 words.

This draft is identical to the draft that ultimately reached vote, except as §3 is concerned.

THE SECURITY COUNCIL:

HAVING REGARD to the following paragraphs:

• §1: A Moment of Clarity: From time to time, Liberations are imposed upon regions in the hope that they will prevent raider Delegates and their Regional Officers from passwording them en route to refounding and destroying them, only for those regions to be annihilated regardless, their native spark having fizzled out. Unfortunately, Eclipsis is one such region. Its Liberation is therefore in desperate, perhaps even urgent, need of repeal. It offers a false promise - a promise that Eclipsis remains open; that it may one day be saved from its captors. Yet it is now under the indefinite control of those that, in actual fact, did do it immense harm.
• §2: Sunsetting Liberations: The belief that repeals of those Liberations described in §1 are themselves unnecessary and clog up the Security Council is proving increasingly popular. Yet in reality, this body has historically not hesitated to see such resolutions in a new light: it has acted to strike down the Liberations of [region=Wonderful Paradise] (via SC#66), [region=Free Thought] (via SC#69), [region=Nationalist Union] (via SC#106), [region=Land of the Liberals] (via SC#115), [region=Region of reunited muslim states] (via SC#117), [region=Alliance Against Nazis] (via SC#199), [region=The Place that has No Big Banks] (via SC#204), [region=Dank memes] (via SC#238), [region=Femdom Empire] (via SC#250), [region=Politics Amino] (via SC#280), and [region=Yessssss] (via SC#476) after their respective refounds.
• §3: The Stormclouds Gather: [region=Eclipsis] was founded by [nation=Lunarvi] in December 2023; Lunarvi went on to become its WA Delegate and, by some distance, its most important native. The region existed peacefully until April 7th 2024, when [region=The Brotherhood of Malice] - in consort with [region=The Black Hawks], [region=Osiris] and [region=Sparkalia] - opportunistically seized control. [nation=Asunnia], a vassal of [nation=New Sunville], obtained the Delegacy and wielded around 165 endorsements for almost the entire occupation; not only was this about ten times as many as Lunarvi normally enjoyed, but it also rendered Asunnia the 16th-most-powerful Delegate in the world.
• §4: Battle by Candlelight: Contrary to widespread belief, Eclipsis was never completely abandoned. The defenders of innocent regions worldwide shone their lights on Eclipsis while it was shrouded by the fog of war, in the hopes that they could save it from raider capture as they had done with [region=Sunland] the year before. No less than 70 troops from [region=The Order of the Grey Wardens], [region=The South Pacific], [region=The League] and [region=Concord], [region=Europeia], [region=The Rejected Realms], [region=10000 Islands], [region=The North Pacific], [region=The West Pacific], and elsewhere also sought to defeat the occupation by military force at an early stage, but were thwarted by sheer lack of numbers.
• §5: Midnight in Eclipsis: Those seeking to save Eclipsis from being overshadowed by raiders were further beset by the circumstances of its ruin. Asunnia had resided there for only two fewer weeks than Lunarvi, thus accruing sufficient influence to wreak immediate damage on the region. Declarations of dubious necessity on raiding itself and slavery were pushed by [nation=Evermoria] and [nation=Japuile], in advance of the takeover and in anticipation of any liberation efforts. Then, one week after the occupation began, the lights suddenly went out worldwide - an inexplicable development beyond any national leader's control; one with a similar scope to, and an even greater duration than, the tragedy described in SC#426 "The Holiday Apocalypse;" and one which made any practical resistance inviable for the following 13 days. Eclipsis' Liberation was, at one time, perhaps the world's best hope of preventing its destruction; by May 2nd, twelve hours after going to vote, it had metamorphosed into a vain petition of no effect, the region laid to waste.
• §6: The Morning After: Lunarvi neither desires to return to Eclipsis nor is able to do so; yet since their innocent homeland was subjugated, they have lit the spark of a new Frontier community in [region=Arborhaven], where they once again serve as Founder and Delegate. They supported an initial attempt to repeal the Liberation in October 2024, which was defeated by 6,233 votes to 4,931. They have also lent their support to this attempt. It would be unnecessarily cruel, and an unprecedented betrayal of the Security Council's usual deference to innocent natives, to deny them - the first and last known native leader of Eclipsis - the opportunity to determine the fate of its Liberation for a second time in short order.

CONCLUDING that Eclipsis should not remain Liberated, as the Liberation serves no use and the region's foremost native wishes for its repeal:

HEREBY REPEALS SC#501 "Liberate Eclipsis."

[One Small Island]

I was thinking "this reads like a Westinor proposal" and then I saw the coauthor. Very "Commend Sunset" coded.

[Tinhampton]

I was thinking "this reads like a Westinor proposal" and then I saw the coauthor. Very "Commend Sunset" coded.

The paragraphing format was my idea! As were all the paragraph titles. (I've tried it before - in 2018, to be precise.) Funnily enough, this went through two rounds of drafting before it got put up on the forums; "Sunsetting Liberations" is the only paragraph title that survived the process, all the other ones I reinvented after West gave me some much-needed historical context which led me to actually rejig the paragraphs.

[Lunarvi]

I confirm my support for the repeal, yet again.

[Rudastan]

Interesting how quickly you put up another draft, after repealing your treaty with Sparkalia. Did you cave in to defender pressure so you could strip raiders of badges?

[The Kharkivan Cossacks]

Just stop, the first failed and I don't give a damn. Most don't.
Just drop it.

[Tinhampton]

Interesting how quickly you put up another draft, after repealing your treaty with Sparkalia. Did you cave in to defender pressure so you could strip raiders of badges?

I do what I want, not what the defenders want. Not a single defender approached me about the Treaty of the Isles in the weeks before I took action to dissolve it. Not a single defender explicitly asked or encouraged me to redraft this proposal at any time. I actually approached Westinor voluntarily about this proposal, because I believed that her insights and her sense of style would help improve this proposal - since I know there were concerns about the quality, arguments, and presumptions of the original repeal that was at vote the other week.

To wit, every single word I have written in this thread has been written in the interests of the natives, of the Security Council at large, and of the preservation of history (I feel as though this repeal adds a good deal of information about the raid of Eclipsis that was, for various reasons, absent in Makasta's original Liberation) - and not in the interests of either defending or raiding.

[Bhang Bhang Duc]

Against due to author. No surprise there.

[Outer Sparta]

Obvious no to this.

[Adkissa]

I mean, It’s better than the first, but is this really necessary?

[Omnicontrol]

I confirm my support for the repeal, yet again.

Against due to native support.

[Tinhampton]

I mean, It’s better than the first, but is this really necessary?

Yes. Please re-read §2 and §6 for more information.

[Army of Revolutions]

I mean, It’s better than the first, but is this really necessary?

Yes. Please re-read §2 and §6 for more information.

The second clause is nearly entirely fluff and the sixth clause is essentially just saying, "it failed the first time but we will try again" so to me there's still no reason to repeal this

[Tinhampton]

§2 is not fluff. It's there to clear up the specific misconception of "Repealing Eclipsis' Liberation is a waste of SC time and space."

§6 is a bit of a postscript about what Lunarvi's doing now and what they think about this proposal (they're a massive fan ofc).

[Tinhampton]

Still working on this. One thing I'd be interested in would be a legality ruling from the moderators about whether my references to the site outage that happened this April - especially in §5 "Midnight in Eclipsis" - are legal. I know that The Holiday Apocalypse didn't have any legality issues swirling around it, so I imagine I should be safe, but as this describes an OOC non-gameplay event that nevertheless affected the entire site, I'd appreciate the absolute certainty that would come with a legality ruling.

[Opiachus]

not in the interests of either defending or raiding.

Support, we need more independent resolutions

[One Small Island]

I was thinking "this reads like a Westinor proposal" and then I saw the coauthor. Very "Commend Sunset" coded.

The paragraphing format was my idea! As were all the paragraph titles. (I've tried it before - in 2018, to be precise.) Funnily enough, this went through two rounds of drafting before it got put up on the forums; "Sunsetting Liberations" is the only paragraph title that survived the process, all the other ones I reinvented after West gave me some much-needed historical context which led me to actually rejig the paragraphs.

Interesting!

2018 was before my time, but the titles of the paragraphs and the way it was laid out put me immediately in mind of Commend Sunset.

TIL

[Ambroscus Koth]

Support due to naming the raiders.

[Tinhampton]

Support due to naming the raiders.

Thanks As I said in the NSWA server a few months ago: "my approach to writing resolutions has always been: I'm a new nation with five million population that just joined NationStates and I've decided that the SC sounds fun, so I'm going to look through their archive of resolutions. if I read this resolution by Tinhampton, will I be more or less informed about what was going on in that particular corner of the world at that time?"

I try to keep to this principle whenever I can. The two times I've forgotten it - Commend Sacara (12/2021) and Repeal "Liberate Eclipsis" (10/2024) - the proposal was defeated due to its perceived lack of detail/necessity. On each occasion, I took action to ensure that the full spectrum of achievements and general history was made clear in the redraft, such that everyone can be made clear as to why the proposal was written in the first place. Commend Sacara 2.0 (01/2022) passed; we'll see about this one.

The raiders are named here not to give them undue attention - you'll note I name the raiders in §3 just as I name the defenders in §4 - but instead to educate people who may not be familiar with the Eclipsis situation what went down, how it went down, with whom it went down, and why its going down was important at all. (As well as to fill in the obvious gaps in history left by the original Liberation!) We've all seen that a barebones repeal just won't cut it in this instance, as it did for - say - Femdom Empire.

(You'll also note that I named the raiders in SC#385 "Repeal "Liberate A Liberal Haven"" - for a couple of years the most popular SC resolution ever - after Moonfungus and Andy didn't.)

[Opiachus]

my approach to writing resolutions has always been: I'm a new nation with five million population that just joined NationStates and I've decided that the SC sounds fun, so I'm going to look through their archive of resolutions. if I read this resolution by Tinhampton, will I be more or less informed about what was going on in that particular corner of the world at that time?"

I try to keep to this principle whenever I can.

I like this. This actually describes my attitude towards SC resolutions and how I internally evaluate their quality as well. But I was never able to summarize it in words until I read this.

How I mentally described it before I read this was, in the context of the debate on raider badge repeals, "NationStates itself does not have in-game team markings in the form of red and blue markers on nations and regions denoting which team is which, and things like Commends and Condemns are, I assume, what was originally intended to be those, so that new players don't have to just figure it out themselves." This actually helps me express some of my distaste for raider badge repeals, although again I haven't been able to articulate it until now.

And as for how it applies to this resolution, I agree. I've said previously that resolutions should be written for the entire WA, not just a "clique" of gameplayers or "WA elites", they should actually describe in detail events that happened rather than avoiding naming parties as if they were Voldemort or something and confusing the average non-involved WA member.

[Tinhampton]

Love you, Opiachus.

I believe that I will be able to submit this proposal on November 3rd, the Sunday before the US Presidential Election. This is, however, an uncertain timeline that depends on various factors, including what people think about the written text of this draft and whether I've accidentally done the big naughty in §5. I will update the thread title with a definite submission date once I have one!

[United Calanworie]

Still working on this. One thing I'd be interested in would be a legality ruling from the moderators about whether my references to the site outage that happened this April - especially in §5 "Midnight in Eclipsis" - are legal. I know that The Holiday Apocalypse didn't have any legality issues swirling around it, so I imagine I should be safe, but as this describes an OOC non-gameplay event that nevertheless affected the entire site, I'd appreciate the absolute certainty that would come with a legality ruling.

It's legal as written.

[Tinhampton]

Still working on this. One thing I'd be interested in would be a legality ruling from the moderators about whether my references to the site outage that happened this April - especially in §5 "Midnight in Eclipsis" - are legal. I know that The Holiday Apocalypse didn't have any legality issues swirling around it, so I imagine I should be safe, but as this describes an OOC non-gameplay event that nevertheless affected the entire site, I'd appreciate the absolute certainty that would come with a legality ruling.

It's legal as written.

Thanks!

You should still expect me to submit this proposal next Sunday. If plans change, I will let you know. All the more reason to leave feedback, then.

[Apatosaurus]

The all-caps look somewhat jarring; just normal sentence case (even without italics or other formatting) should do.