Today, I would like to raise awareness on two points where the article “The Role of the Conclave” misrepresents the reality of the ConCrisis. With this, I hope to inform the discourse with what I believe is a more balanced take on the ConCrisis.
To begin with, let us first begin with this line:
“Under this ruling, the Delegate was illegally occupying the Delegacy, but so was the entire Court. They legislated themselves out of existence, and the undemocratic exclusivity of the Conclave meant there was nothing the people could do”. (Aivintis, 2024)
This is false. If we were to cite the original ruling, we can see that the ruling makes explicit several members of government who may still be considered legitimate:
This does not immediately render all government offices and officials illegitimate, however. Where officials are duly installed within the stipulations of the July 2019 Concordat they remain legitimate. For instance, Delegates elected after the February 2020 amendment may be legitimate up until October 2021, when Delegates were first elected under the current system of universal citizenship due to a Concordat amendment. Arbiters, similarly, remained legitimate until nominated by an illegitimate Delegate or confirmed by an illegitimate Magisterium. Therefore, Arbiters Eastern Alksearia, Nociav, and Wallenburg remain members of a legitimate Conclave, being installed to Conclave in a manner consistent with the July 2019 Concordat.
- Question on the Concordat (JR), 2022
The phrase “legislated themselves out of existence” implied that the Conclave took action without thought, that the Conclave made their rulings with no matter of the consequences. However, the original ruling goes against this, stating explicitly that a government still exists. While it was not mentioned, the fact that the Arbiters Shadow, Nociav, and Wallenburg retain legitimacy means the Conclave meant that the Judicial Decision created the precedent for the Magisterium and the Praesidium to have legitimate members.
Now, let us move on to this line:
“When the democratic will got a chance to speak again, on the reconfirmation of the Arbiters, they were rejected in favor of new applicants.” (Aivintis, 2024)
Here, the misrepresentation is more subtle, because it contains within it a half-truth, or perhaps a quarter-truth. First, a timeline shall be established:
August 9, 2022: The Judicial Review was published.
August 22, 2022: Aurora Yukihime was confirmed as Arbiter, presumably replacing Nociav, who disappeared from TEP soon after.
October 27, 2022: Aivintis was confirmed as Arbiter, replacing Shadow [1].
February 15, 2023: Halley resigns from their position, citing lack of will as well as rising “heat”.
March 2023: Bach, Shadow, Wallenburg, and Aurora were nominated for Arbitership. Wallenburg was rejected. Due to the tenure clause, Aivintis therefore retains their seat as Arbitership [2].
By the end of March, almost all of the ConCrisis Arbiters were removed from power. However, unlike what the article claimed, only one was actually “rejected in favour of new applicants”. The rest resigned, either because they were tired of the discourse [3], ran for a different office [4], or felt too much heat from discourse [5]. The democratic will only passed judgement on one of them, with the rest fading away.
We also must consider what these two statements did not say: namely, the side of the Arbiters. It makes no mention of Shadow, who was in fact a part of ConCrisis, for good or for ill. Shadow, in a way, is an inconvenient truth: that the democratic will accepted an Arbiter of the ConCrisis, which goes against the idea set in proposition two. If Shadow was accepted as an Arbiter, then why does the article wholeheartedly say that the democratic will rejected all of them? [6] The misrepresentation oversimplifies the ConCrisis, and lacks nuance in favor of a simplified look into the ConCrisis.
As Aivintis made it clear, the intent was to document the current state of the Conclave. This analysis aimed to show that this documentation was not nuanced enough, and that it simplified the matter to the point where it contributed some very serious ideas to the overarching article. It also shows how that simplification makes it difficult to understand the ConCrisis, to fully encapsulate how the ConCrisis affected our region, as well as the Conclave. If the article aimed to document the Conclave as is, and if the ConCrisis is a necessary discourse to have in that documentation, then it sets upon itself a standard of truth, in order to truly and fully encapsulate the Conclave.
Footnotes
[1] See Aivintis vs. Wallenburg, 2022. Aivintis and Wallenburg are both Arbiters, which made the case interesting. In the case decision, two Arbiters signed the decision: Halley, the then-Viceroy, and Aurora, the then-Viceroy Designee. This point is also supported by [4] as it is seen that Shadow was who nominated Aivintis.
[2] This extrapolation is more shaky, as I cannot find historical documentation on Arbitership. However, this is my most reasonable guess based on the Concordat Article C, Section 5.
[3] See In Defense of the Conclave, 2022. This piece by Nociav showcases a key detail: that Nociav was tired of being attacked for the ruling.
[4] See Aivintis for Arbiter, 2022, and Deledark 2, The Sequel Term. Annoyingly, I cannot find the original forum thread for Shadow’s initial Election Platform. However, these two sources act as at least proof that Shadow, at some point, ran for Delegacy, and won. In particular, this phrase from Shadow’s second election platform is the best proof I have:
I will start by saying: I will only be running for one more term. That’s it.
Greetings,I will admit. My first term as Delegate went less than smoothly. There were admittedly more fires than I hoped there would be, and then the ever creeping holidays just destroyed any and all hopes of having this thing called “free time”. But see, even through all of that, I had fun. I enjoyed being Delegate, and I got to see more regions and how they run, which means ideas!
[5] See My Hibernation, 2023.
[6] See Shadow for Arbiter, 2023. Shadow explicitly cites themself as “head of a Conkcrisis”. In other words, they have explicitly mentioned that they were a part of the ConCrisis. Despite this, Shadow had an absolute majority (100%, no Nays or Abstains) confirming them as Arbiter.
Primary Sources:
Altys, (2023). [NOMINATION] Shadow for Arbiter. Arbiter nomination thread for Shadow. Retrieved from [NOMINATION] Shadow for Arbiter - The Magisterium - Tep Forum.
Conclave, (2022). Case Decision of “Question on the Concordat”. Published by Viceroy Shadow. Retrieved from [Judicial Review] Question on the Concordat - #5 by Shadow.
Conclave, (2022). Case Decision on “Aivintis vs. Wallenburg”. Published by Viceroy Halley. Retrieved from [Pre-Trial] Civil Suit: Aivintis vs. Wallenburg - #4 by Halleyscomet08.
East Pacific, The, (n.d.). The Concordat of The East Pacific. Retrieved on August 23, 2024, from https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/the-concordat-of-the-east-pacific/1624.
Halley, (2023). My Hibernation. Retrieved from Morality.
Magisterium, (2023). Results of “C-2023-7 Confirmation of Bachtendekuppen to the Conclave”. Published by Provost CyberiumShadow. Retrieved from [VOTE] C-2023-7 Confirmation of Bachtendekuppen to the Conclave - #11 by CyberiumShadow.
Magisterium, (2023). Results of “C-2023-8 Confirmation of Shadow to the Conclave”. Published by Provost CyberiumShadow. Retrieved from [VOTE] C-2023-8 Confirmation of Shadow to the Conclave - #12 by CyberiumShadow.
Magisterium, (2023). Results of “C-2023-11 Confirmation of Albrook (Aurora Yukihime) to the Conclave”. Published by Provost CyberiumShadow. Retrieved from [VOTE] C-2023-11 Confirmation of Albrook (Aurora Yukihime) to the Conclave - #15 by CyberiumShadow.
Magisterium, (2023). Results of “C-2023-12 Confirmation of Wallenburg to the Conclave”. Published by Provost CyberiumShadow. Retrieved from [VOTE] C-2023-12 Confirmation of Wallenburg to the Conclave - #15 by CyberiumShadow.
Magisterium, (2022). Results of “Confirmation Vote of Aurora Yukihime to the Conclave”. Published by Provost CyberiumShadow. Retrieved from [NOMINATION] Confirmation Vote of Aurora Yukihime to the Conclave - #13 by CyberiumShadow.
Shadow, (2022). [NOMINATION] Aivinitis for Arbiter. Arbiter nomination thread for Aivintis. Retrieved from [NOMINATION] Aivintis for Arbiter.
Shadow, (2023). Deledark 2: The Sequel Term. Election Platform of Shadow. Retrieved from Shiro AU OOC.
References:
Aivintis, (2024). The Role of the Conclave. Retrieved from NationStates | Dispatch | The Role of the Conclave [ZML].