EPNS Edition 13, November 2020


The East Pacific News Service
December 1, 2020

A Message From The Editor
By Tretrid
[hr]
It’s been a while since I last wrote one of these personal messages for the readers of the Eastern Pacific News Service. The last time I wrote something like this was the EPNS, Edition 4.5, April Fools' 2020 Special Edition - The East Pacific - Tapatalk edition, where I jokingly resigned my post.

Well, the last time I wrote a serious message was the EPNS, Edition 1, November 2019 - The East Pacific - Tapatalk, the first issue of a revitalized EPNS. It’s been a while since then, and I have now been at the helm of the News Service for about a year.

A lot has happened in that year, for sure. The EPNS has grown and has been given a life on its own. The November 2019 issue, which I considered long at the time, is dwarfed by more recent issues. The September issue was so long that the version prepared for the NS forums had to be submitted in two parts to accommodate character limits.

While the volume of EPNS articles has been growing, I find my personal contribution shrinking. After all, I used to consistently write two articles nearly every issue, but recently my main contribution has been editing together the articles into an issue and making sure the code works.

After all, I’ve been getting less and less time to work on the EPNS, and doing the same thing every month for an entire year can get pretty stale. As such, this will be the last issue I will be producing, as well as the last issue with me leading the EPNS.

You shouldn’t worry about the EPNS’s future, however. I made sure to inform Delegate Libertanny about my intentions well in advance, and the Ministry of News and Records is at the tail end of a transition of power by the time I write this.

The new EPNS editor, Eunopiar, is quite qualified to replace me. After all, Eunopiar (also known as Aga) is the current Editor-in-Chief of The Rejected Times, and has already given a comprehensive plan for the future of EPNS. He has largely learned the ropes of his new position, and was largely behind the production of the October issue. He has already produced a rather ambitious plan for the EPNS, so expect some significant changes to how the News Service is run.

I would like to thank everyone who has allowed EPNS to become what it is today. I’d like to thank Marrabuk for appointing me Minister and allowing me to rebuild the News Service, Atlae for creating, owning and running the Easter Pacific News Service nation, Em for producing the Midnight Star Magazine (which unfortunately stopped production after he became Chief Minister of Regional Affairs), Serge for being so helpful with the transition, and Eunopiar for ensuring that the future of the EPNS is bright. I’d also like to thank every contributor who took time out of their day to write an article, and I’d like to thank you, the reader, for investing your time and energy into reading these articles. I really can’t state enough how important all of you are.

Three Things to Expect from the Eastern Pacific News Service
By Eunopiar
[hr]
Not long ago, I was appointed as the Minister of News and Records by Serge, with a promise to execute a plan which will revitalize the Eastern Pacific News Service (EPNS). Some of these things have been tried and tested with other news organizations, and some of these things will take the EPNS into completely new territory. Anyway, here are three things you can expect from the News Service in the near future.

One: Article by Article Publication

Article-by-Article publication will be a key part of the future of the EPNS, and will be the largest change brought to the newsletter. Issues will still remain, however, and as opposed to compiling articles for the entire month to be published by the final deadline, any author can write an article whenever, and it will be published as soon as it is written and edited on our “live articles” dispatch, which will be created at a later date.

This is beneficial as it allows authors to start writing articles whenever, without being tied to a monthly schedule, and it spreads the editing work throughout the month.

Two: A New Magazine

The EPNS Editorial team are excited to announce the re-birth of the EPNS Magazine. Compared to previous editions, this will contain all articles that have been published by EPNS in the previous month. It will be published at the start of each month, and will hopefully bring some articles to life.

Three: More Writing Events

I believe that newsletters should do more to make themselves open. Therefore, the Eastern Pacific News Service will run many contests within the next few months to make writing for the newsletter of a Game Created Region easier.

I hope that all readers will join me in congratulating Tretrid for publishing twelve successful editions last year, and will also wish the News Service the best for the future.

Interview with Tretrid
By Wille-Harlia
[hr]
This month, I sat down with TEP’s very own Minister of News and Records, the illustrious Tretrid, to ask him a few things. Tretrid’s job mainly pertains running the EPNS, which you, dear reader, are currently reading. Let’s get down to it, here’s the interview. Note: None of this interview has been edited, it is as it was when I asked him these questions in a Discord DM.

Wille-Harlia: First off, how did you discover NationStates?

Tretrid: There was an xkcd webcomic, I noticed NS on it, and I got curious and checked it out.

Wille-Harlia: Interesting. Was your first nation founded in TEP, or did you move to TEP sometime after you first started playing?

Tretrid: There’s actually quite an interesting story behind that. My nation was founded in TEP, but I ended up moving to some random UCR that died out, so I moved back to TEP. I then lost interest in NS and let it CTE, and then I rejoined a few months later and rejoined TEP.

Wille-Harlia: Very cool. When was this? And have you been in TEP ever since?

Tretrid: Well, I rejoined TEP around late summer of 2016, and I became a citizen in fall of 2016. I’ve been part of TEP ever since, except for an absence from late 2018 to October of 2019.

Wille-Harlia: And when exactly did you become the Minister of News and Records?

Tretrid: I applied to join the Executive almost as soon as I got my citizenship again in 2019. I applied to join the Ministry of Information and Communications, among other things, because I had written several articles for the EPNS back in 2018. Anyway, after then-Minister Mecovy resigned, Delegate Marrabuk appointed me to be Minister. Oddly enough, this was only a couple of weeks after I rejoined TEP.

Wille-Harlia: Now that’s a quick rise if ever seen one. Do you think that your appointment was a result of your articles for the EPNS, anything you did in TEP from 2016-2018, a combination of both, or something else entirely?

Tretrid: I believe my appointment was largely a result of my experience in the Executive, especially the EPNS. Throughout 2017 and 2018, I worked in multiple ministries in the Executive, and one of the things I did was help revive the EPNS in November 2017 (why is it always November). I ended up serving under then-Ministers Serge and Mecovy, and I contributed plenty of articles to it. When I rejoined the Executive in 2019, one of the things I really wanted to do was to help revive the EPNS again. Then-Minister Mecovy had the same goal and had made the first steps, and since my main goal of reviving the EPNS was the same (combined with my previous experience writing both articles and publishing issues), it seems like Marrabuk thought me the most suitable choice to replace Mecovy.

Wille-Harlia: Reviving EPNS sounds like a monumental task. How exactly did you go about doing that?

Tretrid: Well, I had created certain bbcode templates for formatting EPNS back in those days of 2017-18, and my first thought was to just copy over those templates. Of course, since the way Tapatalk implements forum code is different from the old forum system, Zetaboards, we had to make some changes. In the end, there were some changes in the ways we handled headers, and we also changed the heading banner of the EPNS to incorporate the new compass symbol of the new flag of TEP.

Wille-Harlia: And after that, it was merely a matter of recruiting writers?

Tretrid: Well, since I was appointed Minister around mid-late October, I decided that there was no way I could be producing an article in time for the end of the month, so I decided to aim to produce the first EPNS issue in November. This gave me quite a bit of wiggle room, and after some effort and recruitment I had enough articles to create an EPNS issue. However, I have to say that in the first several months, the most difficult part of running the EPNS was getting enough people to write enough articles.

Wille-Harlia: So, seeing how the EPNS has reached a decent activity level, with monthly issues containing 3-4+ articles, do you have any other plans for the Ministry?

Tretrid: Well, I’m actually going to be stepping down from my position as Minister at the end of the month, so if you want future plans, you should probably ask Aga.

Wille-Harlia: Interesting. I suspected as much, given how on the EPNS nation, the leader recently changed from yourself to Aga. Given that, what do you see yourself doing next in TEP, if anything?

Tretrid: I’ll probably step back and be doing less things in NS for now, though I plan on still serving as Vizier. Of course, I will probably continue participating in TEP Forum RP.

Wille-Harlia: Nice. Just two more questions. First, what is your favorite part of TEP? Second, it seems to be a custom that TEP leaders are represented by animals. Marrabuk is a horse, Libertanny is a parrot, and Zukchiva is a duck. What animal do you think you would be?

Tretrid: A few months ago, I would probably say the Executive, but right now, I think my favorite part of TEP is forum RP. There’s something special about creating a realistic, internally consistent world and being very much a part of it. Also, if I were an animal I would probably be some sort of bird of prey. Though I have no intentions on adopting an animal persona anytime soon.

Thank you Tretrid for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer my questions, and thank you for your insight into your history in NationStates and your job!

Kidnappings and Executions: A Primer To The Second Alksearian-Balistrian War
By SirShadow
[hr]
The year 2020 has been an interesting time for the nations on Urth, and no country is safe from the curse. Alksearia and Balistria are no exceptions. In the RP thread, Of Bears and Elves, we see the Council of Viziers in Balistria holding a vote on what to do about Alksearia. As Balistria is a fanatic democracy nation, they saw the dual role of the monarchy and the Parliament of Alksearia as a threat to democracy. As the story unfolded, we see the King of Alksearia, Eldras VI, be contacted by a mysterious source where he goes to the Asendavian embassy and gets kidnapped.

From there, the world itself turned it’s eyes and attention on Alksearia and Asendavia. Most nations assume Asendavia kidnapped the King, while Balistria tried to maneuver the king out of Alksearia. Soon enough, we are introduced to the Asendavian diplomat to Alksearia and the leader of the conservative party in Balistria. The King learns of the plans that Balistria has while he is still held captive. Meanwhile, Princess Dorothea starts to run the country while acting like a regent. The Prime Minister of Alksearia tries to stick his nose where it doesn’t belong, and ends up being a suspect in all of this.

In the climatic ending, we find out that the Prime Minister helped Balistria kidnap the King while also taking money from Balistria. We also soon learn that the captors of the King are Asendavians, but being paid by the Balistrian government. The Asendavian Diplomat and the Conservative leader are found dead in a ditch, leading Dorothea to finally call Balistria and to call their bluff. In an act of desperation, we see the Grand Vizier hol;d the King for “crimes against democracy” and executed.

With the execution of the King, the gloves were off. The UCA (Union of Commonwealth Alliance) has shown an outpour of support for Alksearia, with the majority of them declaring war on Balistria. Asendavia, outraged by the death of their diplomat and the actions of the Balistrians, have joined in on the war. Volunteers from Meagharia are also coming to help out, as Eldras Vi started a non-profit organization that sought to help the veterans of Meagharia. Princess-Regent Dorothea, now Queen Dorothea, now finds herself as the monarch of Alksearia with a war on her hands. With the world’s attention on the Balistrian-Alksearian conflict, the world watches as Balistria will burn. What will rise from the ashes? WIll we see a new regime, or the destruction of a rogue nation? This roleplay has continued into a new one called From the Ashes… alluding to there being more at play after the war is over.

Why I stuck the East Pacific - reasons that I remained on NationStates
By Catiania
[hr]
I joined nationstates almost six years ago. I saw a friend playing a political simulator and, along with much of my irl group, decided to join in.
Over the next few years, all the nations but mine would find their way to the great pile of forgotten nations that is the boneyard. This is nothing to do with me, they died of entirely natural causes. Don’t look at me like that.

Anyway, I spawned, as I’m sure did many of you, in the one and only TEP. Rameus would have just entered the delegacy, but at that point I didn’t really understand the whole region thing, and focused on answering issues and sending telegrams to people physically a meter away from me. When I eventually noticed there were some mechanics outside, it was due to a zombie apocalypse, which no doubt concerned me greatly. My first post on the RMB, beautifully, is quoting someone saying ‘there is a zombie problem!’ with ‘we noticed.’
In my defense, it is hard not to notice being eaten by zombies.
My next post is ‘what are cure missiles’ which is a very practical response, and I am very proud of my past self. McStooley responded to this with
“Cure missiles are a despicable tool made by the living against the Undead Hordes of the Master. There exist much better ways than using dangerous missiles.”
Which presumably wasn’t particularly helpful, but I assume someone else told me what they actually are. It’s hard to tell, since it looks like McStooley was suppressing all pro-cure RMB messages (smh).
After this, my panic builds, culminating with ‘HElP I AM ALL DYING’. Which, fair enough. But I digress.
The point here, which I seem to have lost in the RMB history somewhere, is that despite not knowing anything about NS mechanics and talking only through the RMB, people in TEP cured me, showed me what was going on, and then I could help them. This, I think, was an early display of the cooperative, helpful and generally nice attitude that TEPers have towards each other, and especially newcomers. This is probably the most important factor that kept me in TEP.

I continued to answer issues and nothing else for five years, apart from the occasional event. How did I manage to avoid getting bored during this time? It’s… it’s hard to tell. I do not know what was going on in my head. About a year ago, there was a bit of a kerfuffle with the delegacy. You may have noticed. This was pretty confusing for someone who had never really noticed that there were politics, or even communities, on the website. But it was a lot of fun, and during this time when I first met some of the people I’d now call my friends. After Marrabuk drew a pentagram around the body of EPSA, chanted in Horse, and raised it from the dead, I was summoned to join a new EPSA server, and at this point I began to get sucked into TEP government. Sakana was the OO of EPSA, and the first person in TEP I really interacted with. This only continued my good experiences in TEP. Everyone who’s done R/D knows that it’s hard to be new and foolish, but the positivity was just as prominent in EPSA as I had found in other parts of the region, so that instead of it being hard and overwhelming to learn all the moving parts of R/D, I had a lot of fun!

After this, I was sucked into the black hole (a warm, fluffy black hole? Like being consumed by an alligator in a sort of affectionate way) of the TEP executive. Lo and behold, here too I was taken in by TEP’s community spirit, finding that the leaders of TEP were just as friendly as the citizens. Since then, I’ve only continued by the levels of niceness at all levels of TEP. TEAPOT, our cards organisation (and really, the cards community as a whole) encourages cooperation and sharing of information, turning what could have been a competitive and cutthroat part of the game into something wholesome and supportive. Our foreign affairs department is essentially an entire section of the government dedicated to making friends and memes, which are sometimes the same thing.

Factionalism and the Three East Pacifics: Bridging Gaps Between Communities
By Tretrid
[hr]
(Disclaimer: This is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Eastern Pacific News Service as a whole.)

There is a problem with the East Pacific that has been plaguing the region for years. One that made the region vulnerable to a coup, one that poses such a problem that multiple delegate campaigns have been run over it.

This problem is factionalism.

Of course, simply naming the problem won’t explain how or why it is dangerous. After all, there is a lot of context and history that needs to be understood to properly grasp the scope of the problem.

It is worth asking this question: what is the East Pacific? Yes, TEP is a feeder and one of the largest regions in NationStates, but beyond that there is not that much cohesive identity. Sure, TEP generally has a sense of humor and a love of memes, but if you ask two random TEPers what they think is the most distinctive part of the East Pacific, you’re unlikely to get the same answer.

This reflects how TEP’s regional identity is not particularly cohesive; TEP can just be thought up as three separate yet closely affiliated communities.

The Three East Pacifics

The first of the three communities was Forum RP, also sometimes called TEP Evolved. It found its origin in the formative days of The East Pacific, when the region was under the Delegacy of 1 Infinite Loop. At the time, it was perhaps the one distinguishing thing about the East Pacific.

Of course, TEP Evolved has, well, evolved significantly since those early years of the 2000s. The map evolved from a map of Asia split into plots to an entire world, dubbed “Urth.” Though for most of its history Evolved used mainly PMT and FT, there was a change in 2015 that lead to Urth being strictly MT.

Forum RP is mainly centered around the Urth map, and the vast majority of Forum RP happens there. Since the community shares a planet, much effort is made to make a consistent, coherent, shared history, and worldbuilding is highly emphasized. There are AUs that have other technology levels and such, but they are significantly less popular than Urth RP.

The use of the forums as a platform for RP has also largely shaped the community. Threads allow people to focus on one RP at a time. The posts are generally long, but they often take a long time to write.

The Forum RP community is also highly centralized. The community itself largely revolves around its own Discord server, the “TEP Roleplay Centre.” The centralization of Forum RP can be seen through the use of Cartographers, who add nations to the Urth map, and the RP Moderator, who can forcibly retcon RPs and make administrative decisions relating to RP in unusual circumstances like godmodding.

Roleplay tends to be coordinated, and if they’re not an RP within one nation or between two nations run by the same user, the people running nations participating in Forum RP tend to coordinate and plan the RP ahead of time. This can be seen through the existence of “closed” RPs, where only certain people (decided ahead of time) can get involved, and the existence of “open” RPs, where anyone is free to join. Historical RPs are also somewhat common in TEP Evolved, as a result of the effort put into worldbuilding. Even if the results of these historical RPs tend to be predetermined, the specifics of what happens are usually written on the fly.

Forum RP also often uses the website TEPWiki, which, as the name may indicate, is a wiki for TEP. Most of the content on TEPWiki focuses on Forum RP, though there is a not insignificant amount of government content on there. TEPWiki implements the MediaWiki software, which is most notably the wiki engine used by Wikipedia. As such, articles are written in “wiki markup” (though there is an option of a WYSIWYG “Visual Editor”), which is incredibly versatile but somewhat difficult to learn.

The second of these three communities is the government. Much like TEP Evolved, the TEP Government finds its roots in 1 Infinite Loop, who created the first framework of TEP in 2003. Dubbed the “Articles of Confederation,” it refers to the members of TEP as “States,” showing how RP was basically intertwined with the government and how what we would call Gameplay (GP) had not been fully established yet.

The 2008 coup by the Empire, and the subsequent liberation headed by A Slanted Black Stripe permanently changed the course of TEP’s government. After that, TEP created a democratic government (as contrasted with the totalitarian rule before then) under the Concordat, which established 3 branches of government: The Executive (then largely just the Delegate and a few advisors), the Magisterium (the legislative body), and the Conclave (the court). The Concordat also established the office of Vizier, and the Viziers were expected to see to the security of The East Pacific against future coups.

Things have changed since the first democratic elections in TEP in 2009. After all, under Mexregiona, the Executive was largely overhauled and became much more than just the Delegate and advisors. This new Executive consisted of Ministries led by Ministers appointed by the Delegate.

The infamous failed coup d’état led by Delegate Fedele in October 2019 once again changed things. TEP relooked the way its government was run and saw many vulnerabilities, things that allowed the coupers to gain power in the first place and soften TEP for their eventual coup. As a result, the Concordat was revamped, most notably involving the creation of the Praesidium, the fourth branch of TEP’s government. In doing so, the Viziers were given some more powers, and they were given a formal power structure under the Grand Vizier and EPPS Commissioner. The Praesidium consisted of these Viziers and also ran the Eastern Pacific Police Service (EPPS).

The Executive is where most of TEP’s government activity happens. It is headed by the Delegate, and is split into the EPSA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Regional Affairs. Regional Affairs is further split (at the time of writing) into the Ministries of Culture, Education, Immigration, News and Records, Publishing, and Virtual Enhancement.

Each one of these Ministries has their own purpose, and is overseen by one Minister each. Under the Minister is (usually) at least one Deputy Minister, and they oversee the staffers.

The Ministers and the Delegate’s Advisors, as part of TEP’s Cabinet, are privy to sensitive information and classified discussions that are best not disclosed here. A certain subset of TEP’s Cabinet is also part of FA’s “Inner Circle,” where even more sensitive discussions take place about TEP’s FA policy and TEP’s relation to the wider GP community.

The Magisterium is also extremely active, and is often the location of legal debates and discussion on the best way to legislate. Pings in Discord to remind people to vote and discuss are so common that the Magisterium has been nicknamed the “Pingisterium.”

The third and most recent of the three communities is RMB RP. While early forms of attempted RP have taken place on the RMB for years, RMB RP didn’t truly take off until the creation of TAMDEG in 2017. These early RMB RPs were based off of sci-fi and were fraught with godmodding.

RMB RP saw a new increase in activity in early 2018, set in a world more like Earth. While it still used futuristic tech levels, it didn’t reach the sci-fi levels that TAMDEG used. The year also saw the creation of its first maps and the solidification of RMB RP into a proper roleplaying community.

RMB RP is highly decentralized, and uses more than one setting. One of the main worlds in RMB RP is Valsora, which is set in MT and sees a large portion of RMB RP activity. However, other people can set up other maps, and these other settings tend to see plenty of activity.

In 2019, the RMB RP community had a somewhat central Discord server, but nowadays most RMB RPers do the vast majority of their chatting on the RMB itself.

The RMB itself is very active, and for non-RMBers, it is better thought of as something more akin to an extremely active Discord server than the forum-like aspects of the RMB may indicate.

Why is Factionalism a Problem?

Factionalism appears to be a relatively recent thing. The renovation of the Executive in mid-2017 into a much larger bureaucracy led to more TEPers focusing exclusively on government and nothing else. Meanwhile, as the RMB became increasingly popular, more and more RMBers focused exclusively on the RMB and didn’t touch the forums, where a lot of government and Forum RP functions are. The result of this was a certain lack of communication between the three communities, but most pronounced around the RMB. This allowed for misunderstandings and such to happen.

Around this time, a very prominent government official (who was close to the Delegate at the time) antagonized the RMB, setting the government’s opinion (and Forum RP’s opinion to a lesser extent) against the community. This only served to aggravate an increasingly serious problem. When Fedele was Delegate, he tried to make those cracks in TEP worse, trying to make the region more divided and as a result more vulnerable. After all, if the three communities were busy hating each other, then who would be around to oppose the Delegate’s plans?

Fedele’s infamous failed coup proved something however. It showed that the communities were more united than they seemed, even if there were some differences. They all united behind the Delegate-Elect at the time, Marrabuk, and unseated the coup.

Even though it failed, the coup shows just how dangerous factionalism is. It is no fluke that Fedele and his co-conspirators did all the work they did to stir up animosity within the region. Factionalism makes TEPer hate TEPer, and can make TEPers distrustful of the government, which makes it vulnerable. While a united TEP is very formidable, a divided TEP is much more susceptible to attack.

Mending the Divides

Naturally, as factionalism was one of the main problems that led up to the coup, efforts have been made since then to try to end factionalism. Marrabuk used a slogan throughout his Delegacy: “Our TEP, our region, our home, our family,” which essentially became TEP’s motto in the Marrabuk Delegacy. It’s easy to see why, as its words ring true for all TEPers, be it Forum RPer, government worker, or RMBer. They emphasize how there is one East Pacific, and that we are all on the same side.

This motto mirrors Marrabuk’s efforts to make TEP more united. He introduced cabinet dialogue sessions to try making the inner workings of the cabinet more understandable to normal TEPers. Despite being Delegate, he showed up fairly often in the RMB to chat.

However, words can only get us so far. Though the results of the coup largely ended a lot of the open animosity between the communities, the underlying problems that caused it remain. There is a lack of communication between the three communities, and a lot of users stick to only one community due to how much goes on in each one of them. It is rare for any user to be active in all three at once.

The result of this is that the three communities are still rather separate. After all, they share very few people, and a lot of people are disinterested in joining another part of TEP.

At the beginning of November, Delegate Libertanny held a conference with representatives from these three communities to discuss the lingering divides. The representatives all found common ground, and all agreed that a lack of communication was the main factor in factionalism.

The conference also provided some insight into the perspectives of the other communities. It was here that we discussed how the government seems opaque and inaccessible to the RMB, how forum RP and government rarely interact with the RMB, and how RMBers tend to dislike the forums.

A lot of healing can be done if we simply take the time to understand the other communities, and take the time to interact with them. And it’s quite simple, too. It could be as simple as going to the RMB and chatting for a few minutes every day. It could be as simple as joining the Forum RP server and partaking in some of the discussion or even some of the memeing. It could be as simple as popping into the Executive Discord Server and asking around.

And with these steps, we can truly move forward to a stronger, more united TEP.

A Region Undivided
By Zukchiva
[hr]
In October 2019, the East Pacific was radically changed forever. The out-going Delegate, Fedele, attempted to coup the region. Anyone who was there could tell you about how various East Pacificans fought against the coup, serving as symbols of patriotism, or how the East Pacific’s allies worked hard to liberate the region.

However, how specific East Pacifican communities reacted to the coup is never examined. So what did each “group” in the East Pacific (government, Regional Message Board Roleplay, Forum Roleplay) do to fight against the coup? And just how deep did resistance against the coup actually run?

GOVERNMENT

One of the largest fonts for resistance was led by government-members. There were two “government” groups who helped fight off the coup.

One was the Small Magisterium Cafeterium. It was originally founded by Libertanny as a discussion place for legislative matters; however, it would soon turn into a group that actively discussed and fought against Fedele. The Cafeterium also managed to sow suspicion against Fedele, ensuring that more and more people became aware of what was really going on behind the scenes.

The second “government” group was the Viziers. The Viziers played important roles throughout the coup, advising both East Pacificans and foreign allies in their fight against Fedele and Company. By running interference, the Viziers also sowed distrust against Fedele, which spurred many East Pacificans to eventually condemn the coup when it happened. The Viziers also proved vital in terms of securing the Region from Fedele. Without them, it is doubtful that the East Pacific would have ever regained its sovereignty.

REGIONAL MESSAGE BOARD ROLEPLAY

The Regional Message Board also played an important role in fighting against the coup.

The first part of the “fight” was when many nations who mainly did RMB RP became Magisters (TEP’s legislators), at the encouragement of Libertanny and Marrabuk. These Magisters would help balance against a Magisterium heavily influenced by the coupers. These RMB Magisters were also a voice of reason and calm during the week preceding the coup as Fedele and Co. began to purposely increase tension in the East Pacific.

The second contribution of the RMB was to run heavy unendorsement campaigns against Fedele, and endorsement campaigns of loyal East Pacificans. The constant spirit of patriotism shown by the RMB played an important part in moving many World-Assembly residents to action, which led to Fedele losing nearly 200 endorsements in a single day.

Forum Roleplay

The Forum Roleplay community played a heavy role in fighting against Fedele as well.

One of the most important roles the Forum community played during the coup was its constant voice-chats on Discord. Through these voice-chats, roleplayers actively discussed the coup, helped the government plan against Fedele, and offered advice to many citizens. All of this helped raise distrust of Fedele within the East Pacific, which meant that over time the coup grew less and less effective.

Forum RP would also hold a massive voice-chat during the coup itself, providing a safe haven for many East Pacificans, away from the main server where Fedele and Co. were actively posting. In short, Forum RP helped to coordinate many citizens in fighting the coup, which further helped the East Pacific fight the coup game-side.

IN SUMMARY

Each sub-community within the East Pacific fought hard and valiantly against the coup in their own way. However, one of the most important aspects to note about the coup was that it united the East Pacific under one banner. No matter what sub-community they belonged to, each citizen and resident fought for their region.

The importance of this concept is simple: every East Pacifican was (and still is) willing to fight for their home. The differences between each other did not matter, only securing the region did. The day of the coup showed that despite all the divides that still exist today, the East Pacific is one united region. A coup could not change that. Because at the end of the day, every one of us loves our home. And that love is greater than any dividing force.

The Postmodern Diplomat: Cultures of The East Pacific
By Cassie
[hr]
I’ve had a long and lurky history with NationStates; I originally made an account about a decade ago when I was still in high school, and promptly forgot the password a few months later. But a few months into the pandemic lockdown, one of my guilty YouTube favorites—you know who—made an account on NationStates, and the subsequent rush crashed the website’s server. I didn’t even get halfway through his video before feeling the rush of nostalgia and being one of the hundreds making a new account. To my delight, my new nation spawned in The East Pacific, where Drew was located.

I was so happy to see not much about NationStates had changed over the last decade. There’s a newish trading card mechanic and Max Barry has written a few more books, but the navigation and nation pages are almost exactly the same.

To me, NS has always simply been about answering issues and seeing what kind of government I’d get. While I knew there was roleplay and nation factbooks and wikis, I really thought the meat of the game was answering issues. Why would I bother thinking about my nation’s culture when I’m just playing a politics simulator? For example, my nation name is literally my real-life name, plus “New” for my new nation, plus “Greater” because why the heck not. I’ve tried writing a factbook, but the results were meh.

As more time passed and the more issues I answered, I didn’t feel like I really belonged in the RP community. I’d been on the game for several months, and I was so nervous that people would be judgmental of the awkward lady in the corner. Until Libertanny finally convinced me to join Discord, another program I hadn’t used in a couple years, and I realized…

Well, crud. NationStates is way, WAY more than just issues and trading cards. There’s writing and friendship and magic…okay, maybe just the first two…and people here really get into world-building.

Which brings me to the point of my column: culture and The East Pacific. Enter Dylan and Great Morstaybishlia - TEPwiki.

This is a nation (or, more accurately, a group of nations including https://www.nationstates.net/nation=staynes) with a wiki that puts most irl countries’ Wikipedia pages to shame. In researching the culture of TEP, Great Mortstaybishlia was incredibly helpful in understanding just how deep culture, including cuisine, in our fine region runs. It’s much more than TEAPOTs and caek, for sure!

For example, Great Morstaybishlia has a long, tasty history. Ancient cuisine has been refined over the centuries by colonialism and trading, and further refined by wars and rations. Notably, the cultures of Acronis and New Leganes have heavily influenced Morst cooking; squid baguettes involve imported ingredients from New Leganes, which heavily evolved from simple roast meats and vegetables from ancient Morst societies. And of course, there are still the traditional dishes still beloved in Great Morstaybishlia today: hobstiberry pie is probably the most beloved Morst dessert, prepared from berries cultivated in South Staynes.

It’s clear much care went into Dylan’s worldbuilding of Great Morstaybishlia, but collaboration among other members of TEP have had a great influence. Like America and apple pie, it’s clear nothing can beat a patriotically prepared hobstiberry pie for the Morst. A national cuisine is more than the brainchild of one role-player; it represents a cultural identity and history, and unity and collaboration among TEP-ers. A collection of TEP cuisine, and even culture like literature, philosophy, radio, and much more, defines a community, something I was sorely missing when I originally rode the Drew-wave back onto NationStates.

I might’ve restarted NationStates because of Drew, but I stayed for Dylan, Libertanny/Serge, Aga, and all the friendly faces, erm, avatars? that have warmly welcomed me into their community.

While much of this article has been more about my personal existential musings rather than specifically the culture of The East Pacific, I would like to spend more time investigating the culture of The East Pacific. If TEP-ers are willing, I’d like to introduce a new monthly column to the EPNS highlighting national cuisines, highliving, literature and the arts, and perhaps a bit of role-played celebrity drama mixed in. PM me on Discord @Owltea, or shoot me a NS telegram, or send a carrier pigeon to Colorado, your choice. I’d like your nations’ recipes, or top tourist destinations, or heck, set up a time with me to interview your nation’s most beloved pop star. Whatever your nation does best, let’s build together the culture and faces of The East Pacific, and learn more about the people behind the politics.

And if you don’t PM me, I’ll probably be harassing you for more info myself.

Pinkies Out,
President Cassie Celeste
of Greater New Cassandra