Foreword
Sources include The East Pacific - Tapatalk - a NationStates roleplay community, https://forum.nationstates.net/styles/prosilver-ns/imageset/icon_post_target.gif
https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=36342243#p36342243 (and some unlinked ones), and the log of the group chat made by the coupers sometime in June 2019. Some of the facts here are also supplied by my memory, though rest assured I do my best to keep to the facts.
Anyone is welcome to correct any inaccuracies or notes (please provide direct links to resources).
This may get a bit messy since I’m trying to rush it, and just so much was going on! You’ll notice that a lot of the brief focuses on legislative discussions, because that’s mainly how they went about the coup.
Another thing that is important to note is that this source may be biased. I was not involved heavily in the coup until near the end, but it’s enough to make it difficult for me to try and get this out fast without having to separate my emotion from the subject. Hopefully, one day someone can create a purely factual source, but for now this is the best we’ve got.
I wrote this out so that TEPers may have a resource to learn more about what Fedele and his friends did, and their actions. Hopefully, more information will be released, and someone will take time to write a more clear, non-biased source.
[hr]
Beginning of the Soft Coup
(Where the cabal (name for Fedele and Co.) join the East Pacific and, based on their actions and statements, may or may have not already begun working together.)
2016
No one really knows when or why Fedele and company (Davelands, Aleister, Funkadelia, and in the early stages of the coup, Tim) decided to coup the East Pacific. While possible reasons and theories exist, the fact is that no one besides Fedele and Co. truly know why.
Fedele joined the East Pacific as a citizen under the nation “Enslaved Bigtopians” in Citizenship Application Thread - Page 16 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk. He was accepted four days later. Following his joining, he became active in the discussions of improvement prevalent in the East Pacific at the time. Something interesting to note is that at this stage possibly much before the coup, he was already https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=215&t=4101&p=155178#p155178 and How We Do It - Page 3 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk, both rhetorics which would be reused during his Delegacy and the coup itself.
Surprisingly enough, Aleister would also Citizenship Application Thread - Page 14 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk during the same year in November. He would go on to introduce himself, make multiple arcade posts, and subsequently fall inactive for the next two years until sometime in 2019.
2017
For unknown reasons, Fedele The (old) Citizen Application Thread - Page 13 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk and was accepted on the same day. We The (old) Citizen Application Thread - Page 9 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk in the same year. (Note: Tim was a previous Magister who resigned due to time commitments as Pharoh as Osiris. It’s reasonable to assume that his TEP nation CTE’d during this time, causing the new application.) Tim would also apply for the Magisterium https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=6461&p=184759#p184759, and would be accepted sometime in August, 2017. He would proceed to be an active Magister for the remainder of the coup.
Some time later, Fedele applied for the Magisterium and Vote: Admission of Scardino - The East Pacific - Tapatalk.
2018
After being accepted, Fedele became an active Magister, especially during the 37th and 38th Magisterium of the East Pacific. During the 38th Magisterium, he became Deputy Provost to Provost Verdrassil. The earliest known forum reference is found Vote: The Curia Act - The East Pacific - Tapatalk.
Fedele would then later on Delegate Nominations May 2018 - Page 3 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk and would soon Fedele for Delegate - The East Pacific - Tapatalk. While he would end up June 2018 Delegate Election - Page 4 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk, he gained a stunning 27% of all votes, foretelling future events. Soon after the election, Fedele would be nominated by Queen Yuno to become a Vizier, Vote: Appointment of Fedele as Vizier - Page 2 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk.
A few weeks before the end of Drachen’s term as Provost, Apply for Diplomatic Status - Page 5 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk. Within the next two weeks, OLD Citizenship Application and Welcome Thread - Page 41 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk, where he would vote on a [Vote] Proposed Amendment to Article E of the Concordat - The East Pacific - Tapatalk. Following this, Davelands goes inactive for the rest of the month as well as November.
Following the administrative ban of Drachen for matters not related to the coup sometime in October (near the end of Yuno’s third term as Delegate), Fedele became Record of Magisters - Page 4 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk.
In the following October 2018 Delegate elections, Delegate Nominations October 2018 - Page 2 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk. He proceeded to post Fedele for Fedelegate - The East Pacific - Tapatalk, in which he made his famous promise to not run for re-election (and which he would later break). His campaign was consistent with the ideals of activity and work that he’d supported since he joined the East Pacific, and he was Delegate Election October 2018 - Page 5 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk in the same election. Delegate Election October 2018 - Page 5 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk
Delegate Election October 2018 - Page 5 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk
Following in December 2018, we a sudden burst of activity from Davelands, where he spontaneously Foreign Affairs Sign Ups - Page 2 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk as well as https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6495&p=206988#p206988. He would be Foreign Affairs Sign Ups - Page 2 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk as well as the Vote: Admission of Davelands to the Magisterium - The East Pacific - Tapatalk
2019
Following this, we see relatively stable and not startling activity from the coupers for the remainder of Fedele’s term. Davelands participates in some Arcade games, responds to foreign updates, and participates in Magisterium functions. However, we do see a lot of legislative activity from Fedele on many matters, including: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?p=205129#p205129 and The Conclave - The East Pacific - Tapatalk. An interesting note at this time is that here https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/awkward-t15920.html#p207420, which ties into Funk’s 45 Theses, which would be published right before the hard coup. Tim, by this time, has already been fighting for Concordat reforms.
Resignation as Minister of Immigration - The East Pacific - Tapatalk during Fedele’s first term was the resignation of Minister of Immigration Pakitsk. This would allow Fedele to appoint Tim Stark (who has been serving as a Magister) as the Minister of Immigration. While Pakitsk would eventually void his resignation and serve as co-Minister for the Ministry, we see that this enables Tim to hold more power in the government.
Another important event that occurred was Davelands being instated as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mod/admin requests - Page 143 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk, as the previous Chief Minister of Foreign Affairs was promoted to Chief Minister of Regional Affairs. The importance of this move should not be passed over: with this, Fedele placed another (now or future couper) into a large position of power. This switcheroo occurs sometime in January of 2019.
Delegate Nominations February 2019 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk Delegate Nominations February 2019 - Page 2 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=267&t=15944&p=207905#p207905 Interestingly enough, we can see in https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=267&t=15972&p=208162#p208162 that he, like Fedele and Tim, were advocated for Concordat reform. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/re-electing-fedele-t15971.html, though it was pretty much inactive with only three replies. But that did not have much effect, as Fedele would end up winning https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/delegate-election-voting-february-2019-t15973-s30.html#p208436
Just like before, Fedele remained active within the Magisterium. He participated in https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=15989&p=208806#p208806, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=15992&p=208835#p208835, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/change-to-the-endorsement-cap-act-t16004.html, and other legislative discussions. One important thing to notice was that Fedele ended up nominating https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?p=210546#p210546 as well as former Provost https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?p=210834#p210834 to become Arbiters of the Conclave, as well as renominating https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?p=210884#p210884. All three would eventually be voted into the Conclave, with Deputy Provost Davelands becoming https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/record-of-magisters-t6491-s45.html#p210329. While it is unknown as to the reasoning of promoting Asendavia and Hobbes, it’s plausible but not fact-proven that Provost Zukchiva was nominated to the Conclave for Davelands to rise to power.
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=16109&p=210893#p210893, we see that Davelands becomes Chief Minister of Regional Affairs while Marrabuk returns to being the Chief Minister of Foreign Affairs. We also see that Tim has been appointed as the East Pacific Police Service Commissioner.
After these changes, nothing new happens for a while, besides https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/standing-orders-discussion-t16100.html participating in a discussion in amending the Standing Orders, along with other legislative discussions. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=125&t=16110&p=210982#p210982, at this time, serving the rest of Provost Zukchiva’s term.
Whilst Davelands and Fedele are doing their things, we witness https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1652&p=210356#p210356 and https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1649&p=210411#p210411 where he would be accepted by Marrabuk. He would proceed to become a bit active within the East Pacific’s Executive, and join the Magisterium debate on the Standing Orders of the Magisterium as a citizen. A month after Aleister joins, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1652&p=210718#p210718 applies for citizenship and also https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/apply-for-the-executive-branch-of-the-east-pacific-t1649-s90.html#p211262 as well as https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=268&t=16014&p=211350#p211350.
The Cabal Unify
The Cabal form a group Discord chat on June 9, 2019 (the logs mentioned earlier). This chat becomes essential proof, showing that from this point forward, the Cabal/coupers were acting as one entity. From this point onwards, the events listed are confirmed by facts to be a coup.
NOTE: Much of the information listed below are from the “logs”. However, due to personal OOC information, these logs are not public. However, they are heavily referenced during the writing of this section until the October 2019 coup.
June 2019
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?p=211397#p211397 soon get underway after Funk sets himself up in the East Pacific. In it, we can see the cabal nominating each other and other East Pacificans for the position of Delegate.
On June 9th, in the midst of nominations, Fedele creates a group chat with Funkadelia, Aleister, Davelands, and Tim. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?p=211685#p211685. In the chat, the cabal uses a few tricks in order to garner more votes. These include: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/davelands-for-delegate-june-2019-t16148.html#p211638, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/todd-s-campaign-thread-t16161.html#p211691, and https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/marrabuk-for-the-people-to-the-people-with-the-peo-t16150.html#p211773 Something important to note is that these are very valid concerns and actions should they have come from a normal East Pacifican citizen. However, due to the cabal’s goals, these “concerns” and actions all served to get more citizens to vote for Fedele. We also see the cabal vote stacking, with the discussion of bringing in Greyghost, Ark, Dalimbar, NeeNee, and Northeast Somerset to vote. Eventually, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/june-2019-delegate-voting-t16162.html#p211695, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/june-2019-delegate-voting-t16162-s15.html#p211729, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/june-2019-delegate-voting-t16162-s15.html#p211735, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/june-2019-delegate-voting-t16162-s30.html#p211751, and https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=310 would all end up voting with Fedele as their first choice, and all besides Greyghost listing Davelands as their second.
On June 13th, we see https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/election-complaint-t16165.html about various issues with the election. From this complaint, the Viceroy decided to recount all the votes and check for any that were invalid. Despite NeeNee’s, Dalimbar’s, Ark’s, and and Greyghost’s votes being invalidated, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/june-2019-delegate-voting-t16162-s30.html#p211810
After elections, we see the cabal in constant communication for the next few days, as they begin to deal with regional issues and trying to set up TEP for life in the long run. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/standing-orders-discussion-t16100.html, with Davelands and Aleister also being active within the thread. Here, we also see Fedele’s https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/standing-orders-discussion-t16100-s30.html#p212267. This statement would end up increasing tension levels to a new high as well as the resignation of Magister Bachtendekuppen from all Executive positions. This tension ends up making a re-appearance when https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6495&p=212082#p212082. The tension mainly appears in his https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=16185&p=212216#p212216, where many citizens felt hesitant in letting someone with such an infamous history into the Magisterium. However, Aleister would end up becoming a Magister. We would also see https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=125&t=16240&p=214011#p214011
The cabal would engage in many different legislative debates at the time, including but not limited to discussions about https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/debate-consecutive-delegate-terms-t16196.html and https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?p=212068#p212068.
During this same month, we also saw the emergence of the Small Magisterium Cafeterium, a small group of TEPers who would begin running interference against the coup for the rest of Fedele’s term.
July 2019
We also see Tim being https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/oo-is-magic-t16201.html&share_tid=16201&share_fid=2068721&share_type=t on the 2nd of July, further increasing the cabal’s power over the East Pacific.
An important moment occurs early in July 2nd, where Bachtendekuppen https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/advisory-question-on-the-blanket-refusal-of-citize-t16199.html. The legal opinions laid out in this thread would end up saying that the Viceroy couldn’t deny citizenship. This, of course, was a large issue at the time.
We see Magister Tim take quick action to propose https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?p=212899#p212899 in order to fix this issue, by allowing the Magisterium to define naturalization requirements. This amendment would end up passing both Magisterium and citizen vote. The most important part of this moment was that we begin to see Fedele’s pattern of trolling, or breaking regional law, start. This is shown in an https://www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=35864823 made by Fedele, trying to ratify the Concordat and thus attain citizenship on the RMB, which was against regional law at the time. This pattern of “misbehavior” would continue on in the future.
Also within this month, we would see https://www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=35864823 against Fedele’s marisupial purges, as well as the then-Delegate of the Rejected Realms, Kyorgia, reaching out to Fedele to levy private concerns of the purges. These actions indicate that the East Pacific’s allies were beginning to be concerned about Fedele’s actions, and mayhaps a possible coup.
August 2019
Falling into August, we begin to see mass-inactivity plague the Executive. Cabinet discussions become spotty, whilst nothing much happens within the Executive. The Cabal logs end during this month, and it’s plausible that the cabal simply created a new group chat. We also see Tim ceasing to participate in the coup during this time (as made in statements from him), mainly since he believed the coup was failing and decided the better move would be to leave.
While this inactivity plagues the Executive, the Magisterium remains active with the cabal constantly posting in multiple threads to push legislative reform.
September 2019
September would simply prove to be another inactive month for the Executive, with nothing really happening. However, something important to note is that here we see Fedele telling his cabinet that they should exceed the endorsement caps and replace the Viziers, further showing Fedele’s breakage of the law.
During September, we also see Delegate elections begin abnormally early (due to a mistake on the behalf of the Viceroy), with nominations beginning to https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=267&t=16292&p=215143#p215143 As a result, we https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?f=267&t=16298&p=215257#p215257, Fedele refusing to run this election term.
Delegate elections also open during this time, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/delegate-voting-october-2019-t16316.html#p215771.
Build up to the Coup
The cabal begins to take extreme actions.
October 2019
October is where things begin to pick up again in terms of activity. On October 5th, we see Fedele remove Viziers from Regional Officers, another action which goes directly against East Pacifican law. This would end up pushing tension levels to an entirely new level.
We also see Davelands beginning to exceed the endorsement cap, and continuing to endotart, despite notification from the Viziers. This prompted the Magisterium to https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/motion-for-provost-removal-t16347.html (with this push being supported by the Small Magisterium Cafeterium, the group mentioned earlier), which would end up forcing his https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/notice-to-the-magisterium-t16349.html.
We also see Davelands appointing a new https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/new-deputy-provost-t16348.html. Brotherlands would end up helping to enact the first Provost elections after the coup and continue to serve as a Magister afterwards as well.
At the same time the Davelands-fiasco is going on, we see a Citizen, pressured by the situation, to https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/viewtopic.php?p=216121#p216121. However, he faces intense pushback from many East Pacificans who were unwilling to amend the Concordat during times of regional tension.
A few days after discussions on these matters end, we see Funkadelia post his https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/forty-five-theses-disputation-on-the-laws-of-the-e-t16360.html. In these theses, we can see a common rhetoric of the forum and government being an “oligarchy”, an idea startlingly similar to those Fedele first revealed when he joined TEP in 2016.
In the midst of voting, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/blatant-election-interference-t16352.html#p216394, detailing that he was attacked during the election and that him being ejected from the region (due to being above the endorsement cap) was a move by his opponents to discredit his campaign. The complaint forces the Viceroy-Designee to unofficially present https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/delegate-voting-october-2019-t16316-s45.html#p216635 of the election, which couldn’t be officiated at the time in-case the complaint called for a new election.
The Coup
Or as what it really is, the end of the coup.
[NOTE: We have to go back a little bit in October to understand what was going on. Note that for this next part, most of what is happening is no longer focused around the forums, but rather NationStates itself as well as Discord. Also, since people may want to learn more detail about this part of the coup, you can check out [url=https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=36342243#p36342243]Borimar’s logs, as well as https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=36331683#p36331683. It’s important to note that a lot was going on behind the scenes, with pretty much every single part of TEP running endorsement campaigns for people to unendorse Fedele. However, this is a brief, not an outline, so I can’t include everything. :P]
On October 12th, we see that Fedele officially removes all Regional Officers from their positions, minus Marrabuk (who was winning the Delegate Election at that point) as Keeper of the Flame. This happens along with Funk posting his 45 Theses (as mentioned earlier).
October 14th sees more action coup-side. Early in the morning, Bachtendekuppen and Todd McCloud are ejected from the East Pacific by the cabal (who at this point are reappointed as Regional Officers). While Todd ends up updating in The Rejected Realms and looses his endorsements, we see that Bachtendekuppen successfully update surfs (meaning that he avoided the update by moving to a region that had already updated, which meant that the game hadn’t changed his endorsement levels in the East Pacific).
We also see, later on in the day, the ejection and banning of Marrabuk from the East Pacific by Fedele. This action causes many allied regions, and a few non-allied regions, to release statements officially against the coup as well as closure of embassies with the East Pacific. It is at around this time that https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/delegate-voting-october-2019-t16316-s45.html#p216678. At this point, Funkadelia has already begun banning nations who were endorsing Aelitia, including soldiers from regions who were fighting against Fedele.
At this point, we see various local resistance groups form within the RMB, forums, the Viziers, as well as the Small Magisterium Cafeterium.
Two hours after the officiation of Marrabuk, Fedele names a native nation, named the Great Cult of Cthulhu, as a security officer with RO. Cthulu would end up ejecting Fedele and clearing the ban list, which would allow Bachtendekuppen to return to the East Pacific, as well as the return of Marrabuk.
After this, we generally see the coupers begin to resign RO positions and leave the East Pacific. Aleister bans East Malaysia from the East Pacific before leaving himself, and the rest of the cabal leaves the East Pacific.
On October 15th, Aelitia seizes the Delegacy from Fedele, ending the coup.
Aftermath
What went on after the coup ended in terms of the trials and legislative reforms.
After the coup ended, Delegate Marrabuk quicky instated Todd McCloud as Commissioner of the East Pacific Police Service. Following his appointment, he filed charges https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/recommendations-for-charges-t16391.html#p217155. In order to ensure the protection of the East Pacific, the Conclave https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/recommendations-for-charges-t16391.html#p217171 of both Fedele and Davelands, who were still residing in the East Pacific.
Following this, the trials delayed for two weeks due to the Viceroy Aelitia suddenly going inactive. After an extension https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/recommendations-for-charges-t16391.html#p218905 date, the trials would continue as normal. Eventually, Fedele, Funkadelia, Davelands, and Aleister would be charged with some form of treason and permanently banned from the East Pacific. Due to his assistance during the end of the coup as well as leaving the coup sometime in mid-August, Tim was charged with Omitting to Prevent Treason and was banned for three years.
From a legislative standpoint, a lot of important changes went about as well, including https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/bill-voted-the-regional-officers-act-t16173.html, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/concordat-bill-approved-proposal-for-a-new-concord-t16379.html, and https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/bill-passed-curia-act-epps-revision-t16359.html https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/bill-voted-revisiting-the-endorsement-cap-law-t16358.html. The most prominent rising from these changes is the formation of the Viziers as a fourth East Pacifican branch, and many functions being given over to the Viziers (like “ownership” of the East Pacific Police Service from the Delegate, and the ability to oversee citizenship naturalization from the Viceroy).
In the Executive, Marrabuk has managed to incite activity that disappeared under Fedele, doing many things like finding active Ministers and increasing relations with the East Pacific’s allies.
[hr]
That’s the end of the brief. If you want to learn more, do some research yourself! Look around on the TEP forums, and in terms of Nationstates gameplay forums, check out threads made from October 9th- October 17th, 2019.
Below, I leave links containing notes + theories. When I feel that the notes are complete, I will publish them in a sister thread right here on the forums, but for right now they will remain in dispatch form as I work on them. Please note that, unlike the above, I stray AWAY from facts and rely more on my memory and tidbits of knowledge I know and have come across in logs and such. The above is mostly fact, the below is mostly theories, thinking, and feelings. Read at your own risk! ^-^
