Foreword
Sources include The East Pacific forums, various posts by NSers (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.

---

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 2016. 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 advocating for the banning of nations not contributing to the East Pacific and calling the government an oligarchy, both rhetorics which would be reused during his Delegacy and the coup itself.

Surprisingly enough, Aleister would also apply for citizenship 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 reapplied for citizenship in 2017 with his former citizenship nation of "Enslaved Bigtopians" and was accepted on the same day. We also see Tim reapply for citizenship 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 in that same year, 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 was accepted under the name "Scardino".

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 here.

Fedele would then later on accept a nomination to run in Delegate Elections of May/June 2018 and would soon post his campaign. While he would end up loosing to Queen Yuno, 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, and would be accepted by the Magisterium.

A few weeks before the end of Drachen's term as Provost, we see the first appearance of Davelands in his Davelands forum account as an ambassador from the West Pacific. Within the next two weeks, Davelands would proceed to obtain citizenship, where he would vote on a Concordat referendum as a citizen. 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 Provost of the 38th Magisterium.

In the following October 2018 Delegate elections, Fedele was nominated by multiple people and would accept his nomination. He proceeded to post his campaign, 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 elected for his first term in the same election. He would end up winning Delegate elections this time, with a 68% majority of all votes.

Following in December 2018, we a sudden burst of activity from Davelands, where he spontaneously applies for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the Magisterium. He would be quickly accepted into the Ministry as well as the the Magisterium.

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: the repealing of Honorary Citizenship in the Concordat and Conclave reforms. An interesting note at this time is that here we can see Fedele advocating for Concordat reforms, 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.

One important moment 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. This was done sometime in Janurary, 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.

In the February 2019 Delegate elections, Davelands nominates Fedele for the Delegacy, with the nomination seconded by many people. Fedele accepts his nomination. Davelands was also nominated and accepted his nomination. Interestingly enough, we can see in Daveland's campaign that he, like Fedele and Tim, were advocated for Concordat reform. Fedele would also post his campaign, though it was pretty much inactive with only three replies. But that did not have much effect, as Fedele would end up winning with a 67% majority of the vote.

Just like before, Fedele remained active within the Magisterium. He participated in discussions on the Viziership, Concordat amendments, changes to the Endorsement Cap Act, and other legislative discussions. One important thing to notice was that Fedele ended up nominating the current Provost of the time, Zukchiva as well as former Provost Asendavia to become Arbiters of the Conclave, as well as renominating Arbiter Hobbes. All three would eventually be voted into the Conclave, with Deputy Provost Davelands becoming temporary Provost. 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.

Following this change, 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 Provost Davelands participating in a discussion in amending the Standing Orders, along with other legislative discussions. He also becomes elected as interim-Provost, at this time, serving the rest of Provost Zukchiva's term.

Whilst Davelands and Fedele are doing their things, we witness Aleister reapplying for citizenship and apply to join the Executive branch 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, Funkadelia applies for citizenship and also applies for the Executive branch (where he is accepted by Davelands) as well as joining Forum Roleplay.

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

June Delegate 2019 elections 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. Voting opens on June 10th. In the chat, the cabal uses a few tricks in order to garner more votes. These include: having Davelands, who accepted a nomination, drop out of the race and support Fedele, question Todd McCloud, another candidate, about his inactivity issues, and stating that Marrabuk, yet another candidate, shouldn't be elected due to his naivety in gameplay matters. 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, NeeNee, Dalimbar, Ark, Greyghost, and North East Somerset 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 an election complaint submitted by Candidate Todd McCloud 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, Fedele would win the election, scraping by with 55% of all votes in the fourth round of counting.

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. We also see Fedele active in Magisterium affairs, such as discussions about the Standing Orders of the Magisterium, with Davelands and Aleister also being active within the thread. Here, we also see Fedele's statement of the Magisterium being a brood of vipers. 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 Aleister applies for the Magisterium. The tension mainly appears in his question thread, opened on June 28th, 2019, 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 Funkadelia joining the Magisterium as well around a week later.

The cabal would engage in many different legislative debates at the time, including but not limited to discussions about consecutive Delegate terms and a proposal to elect Ministers.

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 nominated for Overseeing Officer of EPSA 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 submits a question to the Conclave about the ability of the Conclave to deny citizenship. 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 a Concordat amendment 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 RMB post 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 a statement from the South Pacific 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 open. As a result, we see Davelands open up his campaign, Fedele refusing to run this election term.

Delegate elections also open during this time, for a period of two weeks.

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 move for the removal of Davelands as Provost (with this push being supported by the Small Magisterium Cafeterium, the group mentioned earlier), which would end up forcing his resignation.

We also see Davelands appointing a new Deputy Provost, Brotherlands,. 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 attempt to amend the Concordat. 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 45 Theses against the laws of the East Pacific. 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, Davelands submits an election complaint, 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 the results 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 Borimar's logs, as well as former TEP citizen the Vacationer's post. 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 Marrabuk is officiated as the legal Delegate-elect of the East Pacific. 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 against all the coupers, including Tim. In order to ensure the protection of the East Pacific, the Conclave ordered the ban 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 was granted for the pre-trial 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 legislation on Regional Officers, a large amendment to the Concordat, and changes to law dealing with regional security. 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.

---

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! ^-^

page=dispatch/id=1348281

[LINK TO TESTIMONIAL DISPATCH]

NOTE: I will mention some names here, but this is not an accusation. It's just my thinking. Sorry if I offend anyone, but I want to get these down so if evidence turns up later (as it usually does), people can look at this and verify my thoughts. Again, not accusing anyone here, NOT MY INTENTION, I'm just listing names I feel played a bit part in this event. I hold no bad will to any of the names mentioned below, IC nor OOC. Thanks :D

NOTE: This is also probably short in the sense that I can't write pages of material. X.x

LAST NOTE: This is simply my thoughts and thinking. Some of it will be theories, which is why it is not within the brief that I created, which tries to stick to the facts. Some will be explaining why I included what I did in the brief, aka why was a particular event was important. And etc.

Why did the Cabal try to coup?

This is probably an interesting question for many.

The first thing we should probably consider is who was the ringleader of this coup? And the answer, I believe, is Fedele or Davelands. If nothing else, for the simple fact that both Davelands and Fedele they were both more active within the coup before Aelister and Funkadelia ever joined.

As show in my brief, Fedele first joined TEP in 2016. So if we look to that time period, we can see various improvement discussions and drives trying to revive activity in the East Pacific (Examples here and here.) This is probably the first reason in which the cabal decided to coup later on: inactivity is the best time for a coup to be attempted.

Why? Because when inactivity is the state of affairs within a region, less people will probably care/notice that anything is going on. And, by being active in an inactive region, the cabal would stand out and thus be able to get into positions of power easily without much work.

However, I also propose a second, more controversial reason along with the first. That reason being when Delegate Aelitia was removed by the Viziers and was set for a trial based on the idea of voter fraud. As a tldr;, Aelitia had a roomate/friend who they helped join TEP as a citizen and the Magisterium. What ended up happening was that the friend would vote in ways similar to Aelitia since they felt comfortable following Aelitia's opinions. (Note that Aelitia didn't ask, the friend did it themselves). Obviously, this was a large error on the part of the Viziers of the time. The tensions provoked by this event was further exacerbated when Aelitia was forced to engage in legal debate to get back the Delegacy.

The reason this event could be another reason the Cabal decided to coup was because this event most likely caused a sort of breakage in the trust of government. With the government taking vast measures based upon a misunderstanding, and thus creating a regional drama and ultimately did nothing, many people's trust in government was most likely broken.

An inactive region that was under pressure and tension from internal affairs? One of the best regions to attempt a coup in.

The Cabal has later claimed post-coup that they wished to coup in order to make TEP more "democratic" with a government that follows more on-site principles, as well as wanting to fix up TEP's OOC moderation environment, which in late 2018 had resulted in a largely toxic regional environment. While it's very likely these statements may not be true, the fact that moderation did well enough clean up its act in many ways during Fedele's delegacy, alongside Fedele's and Daveland's historic ties to the Rahl family which was known for being a part of the meritocratic sphere, could lend credibility to these statements. Tim has been recorded as saying he only couped to help the region.

So when did the coup start?

Following new theories, this section needs revision.

Why was Fedele and the Cabal so into legislation?

We see that Fedele and Co. were pretty much involved heavily within legislation, to the point that they would neglect Executive duties in order to participate actively in the Magisterium.

The reason Fedele and Co. did this was simply so that they could twist legislation to fit their own benefits. For some examples (and my personal reasoning as to why):

- Proposal to remove life-time appointment of Viziers.

While this may seem like a sensible proposal, the fact is that it ties heavily into the Cabal's plan to make vote-stacking the primary way they could hold power within the East Pacific. By enabling vote-stacking within the Magisterium, they could possibly get rid of Viziers not loyal to Fedele/not-in-on-the-coup, and instead confirm and reconfirm Viziers loyal to Fedele over and over again.

- Nominating then Provost Zukchiva and former Provost Asendavia into the Conclave.

At the surface, it would make sense for these nominations to have occurred. Who best to lead the judicial branch besides those most experienced with tangling the law?

But what I think is that the coupers probably had a more nefarious intention. By removing two Magisters from the Magisterium, they simply just made it for themselves to take control over the Magisterium itself. Also, by removing Provost Zukchiva from the equation, it allowed Davelands to assume the Provost spot (since he was already Deputy Provost, he was the obvious choice for the job), thus giving the cabal more power.

- Attempting to increase restrictions for applicants trying to enter into the Magisterium.

The reasoning behind this, in my opinion, is simply to restrict who can enter the Magisterium. The harder the Magisterium is to enter, the less number of natives who would enter into the body. This would give the cabal more control over the Magisterium.

While the restrictions would end up being lessened in the final draft, this shows another way the cabal tried to solidify their power.

- Consecutive Delegate Terms

Interestingly, the cabal was either against or neutral on this matter. The reasoning for this was probably simple: they wanted to make sure that they could switch Delegates at their leisure, not when forced too by law. So they managed to successfully debate away the proposal.

- Electing Ministers

The Cabal was heavily for this proposal. While not explicitly stated within the logs, it was most likely because doing so would strip power from the Delegate. Which means that even if the Rahls would end up losing the Delegacy for a period of time, they could attempt to vote stack Ministers of their choosing into power and maintain a grip on the East Pacific's government.

So I think it's clear why the Cabal focused so much on legislation! They focused on legislation so that they could change the East Pacific's legal structure to match their own needs.

Why did Davelands file the election complaint in October 2019?

What some people may wonder is why Davelands filed an election complaint during the case of October 2019, on the basis of his ejection "ruining" his image.

While I do believe it's obvious, it's most likely he was trying to get the election to be invalidated. This would buy the cabal more time to find out some way to try and get Davelands into the election spot a second time.

Whether this would have worked or not, should the coup have not ended so abruptly, is another matter. Personally, I don't believe it would've worked. It was obvious that Davelands' endotarting was something that needed to be taken care of, and he had repeatedly refused to listen to warnings of his being above the cap. Due to this, it was really Davelands forcing the Viziers to "ruin" his chance at winning the elections, and thus the complaint probably wouldn't have been successful.

What was up with the marsupial purges?

For those who don't know, a quick cap of marsupial purges is that they were Fedele's policy where he would banject and encourage banjection of new nations, who were no World Assembly, and had not changed their flag. This was regardless of whether they had just joined or not.

In an overarching sense, I do not believe there was a real purpose for them. They seemed to be just something to incite conflict, twist the legislature into making new law the cabal could corrupt, and in general just something to play around and troll the native population with. However, there were probably some benefits to the purges.

1. Drain high-influence natives of their influence

Per this statement and this statement by Tim, a former Cabal member, it's pretty clear that the marsupial purges were used to drain TEP natives of their influence. This would make it easier for the Cabal to conduct their coup by making it easier to ban natives and eventually the Viziers.

2. Unifying propaganda

While nonsensical, the campaign against the "marsupials" was an extremely good propaganda piece. It would help unite the East Pacific under Fedele and become a strong characteristic of his Delegacy. And it served its purpose well. By giving the East Pacific a common enemy to rally against, many East Pacificans became absorbed within the propaganda and also within the government. It was a useful and fun theme, despite its nefarious purposes.

3. Encouraged people to join the WA

Another thing that the marsupial campaign did was encourage people to join the WA, which in turn would mean more endorsements for Fedele. This would happen through Fedele's "Marsupial Hunter" policy, in which he would grant any nation with 200+ endorsements two days as an RO, where they could ban multiple marsupial nations. This probably helped encourage many nations to begin endotarting.

What was up with removing the Viziers from RO slots?

I think the main purpose for this was simply to ensure that the cabal could prevent the Viziers from turning around and banning them before the coup even began.

However, one additional purpose could be for the cabal to push its propaganda that TEP's legal system was extensively flawed. In the hours before the coup, Fedele constantly argued that his removal of the Viziers from RO slots was meant as a legal point, to show that TEP's legal system needed to be fixed. This could have been a last-minute tactic to convince TEP citizens that maybe change for the region was needed.

This would ultimately end up failing, mainly because most Citizens despised the move and refused to do anything until the Viziers were re-instated.

Why didn't Davelands win the elections?

Now this is an interesting question. Because it is, without a doubt, why the coup ended spectacularly horribly. If Davelands had won the election, there's no doubt in my mind that the coup would have continued onward.

My thinking:

1. Marrabuk was much more active than Davelands.

I think that any citizen who wants to be elected should, after being efficient in their work, by active within the East Pacific and it's various sub-communities, whether it be forum rp, RMB rp, the government, or just the gang who hangs out on Discord. And this is probably Davelands's first fall-through.

In the months leading up to October, Davelands was generally extremely inactive. Besides his newspaper (where he mentioned an interesting national holiday), he wasn't on at all. While Marrabuk, who wasn't as active, was still hanging out in the Discord and the RMB, making sure his presence was known.

This ultimately meant that Marrabuk was much more friendly and relatable than Davelands.

2. Davelands was resigning as Provost after the Magisterium created a motion to remove him.

Due to being above the endorsement cap, Davelands was facing removal as a Provost. Instead of being forcefully removed, Davelands decided to save face by resigning the Provostship within the next two days.

However, this was not a good look for him at all. Resigning as a regional leader due to your own law breaking, in the midst of an election where another regional leader was being voted in, is not a very good look for Davelands.

3. The Executive was extremely inactive... besides Foreign Affairs.

Back when Fedele was Delegate in his third term, the Executive fell extremely inactive. Well, besides Marrabuk and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which probably helped Marrabuk win over the hearts of more voters.)

Guess who was the Chief Minister of Regional Affairs? Davelands. So it's most likely that this is another strong reason why many voters didn't vote for Davelands. If he couldn't handle the Executive as CMoRA, he probably couldn't handle the Executive as the Delegate.

4. Marrabuk was a familiar face in Delegate Elections.

We've seen Marrabuk run twice before in a less serious manner yet still trying to get voted in. By the October 2019 election, any seasoned voter would've seen Marrabuk's campaign multiple times and would've been very familiar with it. Based on the previous factors, this fact probably helped many voters vote for Marrabuk instead of Davelands.

Why did Davelands make Brotherlands Deputy Provost before resigning?

So before he resigned, Davelands named Brotherlands as Deputy Provost. Now, this may not make much sense to people reading about the coup years into the future, so let me explain why I think he did this:

Brotherlands is not the most active Magister in terms of debating proposals. However, he is very much consistent in voting. Thus, it's plausible that Davelands pushed Brotherlands into the position because he thought Brotherlands's "inactivity" would slow down the Magisterium.

And why would Davelands do this? Simple... probably because he just felt a spike of saltiness/hatred at that time towards the Magisterium. And thus, tried to hinder it for no other reason that just because he could.

However, and luckily for the legislative body, Brotherlands was very active on the forums despite not debating proposals many times. So when he saw this happen, Brotherlands quickly took control over the reigns and made sure that the next Provost was selected in a timely manner. Good work :D

What about the Rahls?

Honestly, a lot of people tend to say that the Rahls are those who couped TEP. I think it would be asinine to deny that the Rahls were, at least as loosely associated individuals, involved in TEP in some capacity. However, the Rahls were not responsible for the coup as an entity.

Instead, based on both the logs corroborating vote-stacking as given by Tim as well as additional evidence I've received elsewhere (but sadly can't share), I think it's very probable that many Rahls knew about the coup effort (and has been claimed by Tim in the NSGP Discord server). However, due to apathy or noting the OOC environment in late 2018 TEP at the time, it's very plausible that many Rahls supported or at least turned their eyes from the coup.

Or they could've just been excited to see a coup. Either way, what is clear is that many Rahls were called upon to vote-stack by Fedele, corroborating that many Rahls played some role in the coup, even if it was as low as a clueless friend helping out in an election.

TEP's had some interesting governments in the past. Thought I'd record 'em down here, and where I got them from.

Atlantic Alliance "Forward" Military Base (April 2003 to May 12th, 2003)
Source: Nociav's History of The East Pacific

---

History

The Atlantic Alliance was a large invader group that was prevalent sometime during the founding of NationStates, and after. Its primary mission was to form a large political block via conquering and growing what was seen as irrelevant regions, exercising said regions' potential.

The circumstances are unclear. But it's obvious that somehow the AA most likely played a part in the founding of TEP. Either way, they would come to take over TEP and password it.

Design

Given its small residency of 6-8 nations, its most likely that the "government" at this time was just the Delegate (Reubenlucy) holding onto the base following orders from AA command. The region either never had enough time to properly grow into what the AA wanted, or it was always planned to be a mere trophy region.

Farker Governance (May 12th 2003 to October 28, 2003)
Source: Nociav's History of The East Pacific, TEP Forums

---

History

The Farkers were yet another emerging invader group during the early days of NationStates. Using trickery and confusion, they already had a high count of regions they had already seized when they set their eyes on the East Pacific.

On May 12th, as according to Unibot, the Farkers entered the passworded region (the password was leaked to them) and would take the Delegacy under Lothlanderamore. Sometime after the Farkers' self-installment, the East Pacific would be turned into a Game-Created Region by NationStates administration.

Sometime after TEP became a GCR, Lothlanderamore would give 1 Infinite Loop the Delegacy (this would happen sometime around the end of May, 2003), and then disappear off the face of NationStates forevermore.

1 Infinite Loop would go on to found the current regional forums of the East Pacific after becoming Delegate, with said forums being primarily (at first) used for his flag service rather than regional governance.

Government Design

Unlike the days of AA, the Farker Occupation was more similar/akin to a dictatorship than anything else, due to the now growing native population of the East Pacific that was not present when TEP was still a UCR. Presumably, Lothanderamore was the leader of the Farkers who took over the region, and chose a successor in Loop to take over.

Interestingly, the Farker government was built on the mindset of keeping the region as a trophy. It has been reported that when the East Pacific became a GCR, the Farker government would begin banjecting all nations, before decreasing banjections to primarily those who posed a security threat to the region.

The Articles of Confederation (October 28th, 2003 to February 17th, 2005)
Source: TEP Forums

---

History

On September 28, 2003, Loop would mention that TEP needed a constitution resembling those of a Confederation. He would officially propose said constitution on October 28th, 2003, and after gathering feedback, and would soon declare said government as established. The Articles of Confederation would set the tone for forum roleplay at the time, considering regional government and forum roleplay shared the same world (with all forum roleplay occuring in the boundaries of the East Pacific region).

Government Design

The Articles were generally broad and referenced a multitude of in-real-life items that do not exist within NationStates mechanics, most likely as a result of directly copying the Articles of Confederation. However, this did not make the Articles an inept document, considering the in-real-life matters they dealt with did exist in Forum Roleplay, where the Articles were considered canon. Ensuring the Articles were a Confederacy also allowed for forum roleplay nations to have large degrees of autonomy from the regional government. The Articles were thus a largely roleplay-esque document which successfully reconciled the idea of a "regional government" with that of said region having "resident nations" in a roleplay universe.

On the other end, the Articles were also a basic gameplay document that would set up a practical government for the East pacific. The Articles created a broad democracy with various checks and balances across three branches: a Legislature (which used to contain two houses but later on was merged into one), an Executive (The Delegate and their Moderators/Advisors) and a Judicial Branch called the Supreme Court that was staffed with nine Jurists.

Interestingly, the Delegate was never elected per the Articles. Based on interpretation, we could assume that the Articles identified the in-game Delegate as the legal Delegate - transferring the right of rule from Farker military structure to whomever holds the in-game Delegacy of the region.

The Charter of the East Pacific (February 17th, 2005 to September 2008)
Source: TEP Forums

---

On September 26, 2004, Free Pacific States suggested that the East Pacific would need a new constitution. The Articles, while serving their purpose for a small government, were too broad to serve as a constitutional document for the large government that had sprung up since the year the Articles had been made.

The above linked thread would also be where a select group of nations would discuss, and bring to fruition, multiple drafts of a new "Charter of the East Pacific". Eventually, said draft would be brought to the public for general consideration.

Eventually, the Charter would go to vote to the Senate (the Legislative Branch under the Articles), pass vote, and then go to resident vote. As such, on February 17th, 2005, the Charter was ratified.

The Charter would serve for a long time as the East Pacific's guiding constitution. However, in 2008, multiple people began talking about reforming the Charter amongst other ideas (example). The best reason is most likely that inactivity had, for the first time, become a chronic issue within the East Pacific - and many thought a change in government structure could help prevent further inactivity.

Unsurprisingly, this inactivity would cause a death knell to the Charter. Within that same year, the Empire would manage to coup the East Pacific, leading to the formation of two new governments running simultaneously within the East Pacific.

Lady Phedre, now known as NeeNee, would end up taking the Delegacy from the inactive Delegate of the time, Govinidah. Following that, the "Empire", which consisted of an aristocratic government with multiple ranks of nobility, would attempt to shuffle all regional activities within the East Pacific onto the Empire's forum.

At first, East Pacificans were willing to work together with the Empire for a strong future. However, as it became more and more obvious that the Empire was trying to completely dominate the East Pacific and insult the natives in "roleplay", a resistance grew. Eventually, forming into the Elders of the East Pacific.

Government Design

At first glance, it would appear that the Charter was a vastly different government compared to the Articles. In many respects, this is correct. For one thing, the Charter would strip away the Article's focus on roleplay, creating a much more purely gameplay-oriented government instead. The Charter was also a lot more specific with the duties and general procedures for each branch of government, ensuring less issues regarding ambiguity arose. It would also rename the branches.

However, at its basics the Charter was a similar government to that of the Articles. Both had three branches - an Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary. The Legislature was open for all Citizens (similar to the Article's House of Representatives), the Delegate was still appointed for the most part (although the Charter instituted elections for when there was no Delegate or the Delegate chose to hold elections), and a Court system existed to deal with regional offences, namely treason against the region. And like in the Articles, the branches of the Charter had an interplay of powers to help balance government functions and prevent corruption.

In short, it's very clear that the Charter is much closer to the Articles than it looks at surface level. Its concepts of a democracy with a monarchical delegate and roleplay rights for constituent nations were goals shared by both documents. The Charter merely specifies and makes clear many holes that were not resolved in the Articles.

The Empire (August 16 2008 - December 18 2008)
Source: TEP Forums

---

History

Following its invasion of the East Pacific, the Empire quickly instituted itself into power. At first, things were hopeful between the Empire and the native populace as negotiations were conducted to explore how things would be handled. However, things broke down - causing the Empire to begin banjecting those nations who posed a threat to its regime, and flooding the East Pacific with hopelessness even as the natives mounted a mostly futile resistance. However, lowering influence levels and IRL matters led the Empire to resign in late 2008, allowing the natives to re-capture the region and rebuild.

Click here to learn more about the Empire's history in TEP.

Government Design

The government design of the Empire was one that was split into classes. There were various ranks of nobility, with nobility being tied to the moderation permissions one received on the Empire's forums as well as TEP's forums. The highest officials were often titled "Lords"/"Ladies" to showcase their high-profile status, although lower positions were created to accommodate some TEPers suing for peace. While there wasn't much in the ways of formal positions, a position of "High Inquisitional", presumably a nation tasked when signaling out nations to ban, existed. Beyond those simplistic designs, the Empire did not have much government structure.

Interestingly, the Empire was a government that heavily relied on espionage, fearmongering, (in-character) belittling, and liberal use of the ban button to remain in power. It was, essentially, an oligarchy that had to struggle for control in any way possible.

The Elders (September 2008 - January 20th, 2009)
Source: TEP Forums (another link

---

History

Following negotiations with the Empire, it was decided to create a government that would co-exist with the government of the Empire. This "Confederate"/native government would suspend the Charter, opting for a more simpler form of governance as the Empire would handle many matters. Multiple proposals were fielded, with many being mere continuations of the East Pacific's democratic tradition. However, one proposal - suggested by Flemingovia - instead restructured the native government into a tribe, led by three Elders. This idea proved popular and was enacted.

The Elders would go on to lead as symbolic leaders of the resistance, although they would end up loosing hope as the months wore on. But in December of 2008, Lady Pehdre would resign from the Delegacy after banjecting 400 nations. This would allow A Slanted Black Stripe to temporarily take over the Delegacy, and strike hope back into TEP's heart.

Following this event, heavy discussion would occur, where many people would discuss a new constitution. After the proposal of two constitution drafts (here), it was decided that the draft which would become the Concordat would be worked on.

Following heavy discussion in Chatzy, an online chatting service of the time, the Concordat was ready for ratification. On Janurary 11th, 2009, a majority of those present on the forum ratified the Concordat, thus setting up the rest of the East Pacific's history.

The Elder government would oversee the first Delegate elections of the East Pacific under the Concordat. Following the election of the first Delegate, the Elders were disbanded.

Government Design

The Elder government itself was a simple one in concept, with three Elders (The "Delegate" being one, and two Elders to manage domestic and Foreign Affairs respectively). The Citizenry would form the Indaba, or the citizen's assembly which would discuss regional matters.

Initially, it is clear the Elders were to take a proactive role in the region's government. However as time wore on, they became more symbolic figures of the East Pacific's resistance due to their relative inactivity. By the time of the Concordat's institution, the Elders had taken the form of a caretaker government - guiding discussion and running the first Delegate election. As such, while the initial design was of a three-way-split Executive branch backed by a legislative branch, the Elders really became the equivalent of "Chancellors" or "Electoral Commissioners" found in many regions today - those who take care of background functions and represent the most trusted of the region.

The Concordat (January 11th, 2008 - Present)

---

The Concordat was another attempt by the East Pacific at democracy, with an Legislature (the Magisterium), an Executive (the Delegate), and a Judiciary (the Conclave). Over time, it would be amended a multitude of times, including the changing from the Magisterium being elected to just the Magisterium deciding how to accept applicants on its own.

Following the Fedele coup of 2019, Viceroy Aelitia would propose to the Magisterium a new Concordat. After heavy debate, the draft was passed through the Magisterium and would then be ratified on Feburary 13th, 2020

The current form of the Concordat differs from its predecessor mainly by the establishment of a fourth branch, known as the Viziers. The Viziers would be responsible for regional security and citizenship. Besides that and simplification of multiple clauses, the Concordat remains relatively the same establishing a basic democracy as the current form of governance within the East Pacific.

Here's some interesting things I've learnt after exploring TEP's past, regarding its capital, and the island it is on. (Note that in the past, TEP government used to be a canon part of TEP's forum roleplay world, but the government and forum rp eventually split away. So a lot of early forum rps mention TEP's capital. :P)

1. In 2004, a regional poll was voted on to decide TEP's capital city. The eventual city was named "Rillanon", and is to this day. Interestingly enough, it was introduced by Kelssek, who introduced it since Rillanon was the capital of a kingdom known as the "Kingdom of the Isles" (possibly a reference to TEP's capital city being placed on an island) as well as the Eastern Realm. The city, and its kingdom and regions, are found in the world containing the RiftWar Saga by Raymond Elias Feist.

2. The island that Rillanon is located on, Christie Island, was formerly called "000 Government Island", which was the seat of government that ruled over the East Pacific, back when government and Forum RP were one.

3. The island was renamed during the poll mentioned in fact #1, so as to honor a person who died, but was known by Loop and other TEPers of the time.

4. Over time, Christie Island was renamed into Capital District, so that it was easier for noobs to understand the name.

5. Rillanon, and for the matter Christie Island, still exist in TEP's map today!

6. Christie Island/Capitol District is a modern-tech roleplay nation that is neutral to all matters. In a sense, it's like the Washington DC of TEP.

7. Back when gov and rp were the same, TEP was an interregional confederacy! Which means that it was loosely viewed as one entity, but nations had high levels of sovereignty (think of the Confederated States of America). So forum rp usually was within the limits of the Confederacy, or TEP. However, once government split from rp, forum RP switched to roleplaying its map as an entire planet.

8. The government section on our forums is still named "Capitol District"!

So remember, our capitol is Rillanon (City), Christie Island/Capitol District (Island/Neutral territory the city, and government, is in), The East Pacific (now just our region).

Don't forget! :P

A constitutional convention is an important measure for any region to under take. Some regions have never had some in years, others have had conventions on an almost yearly basis.

Now, there's two types of conventions:
a) Those to refix a currently standing constitution.
b) Those trying to make a new constitution.

This small essay is on Type B conventions.

So let's dive into it, shall we?

When a Convention is Necessary

---

A convention is necessary mainly when the government can no longer function, or has proven so inept at functioning that a new one is required.

In general, this means instances of either invasion, coup, or mass inactivity.

A coup or invasion shows that whatever set-up the past government had was not enough to prevent the coup. Should the native population emerge victorious against a couping authority, they should consider if a new government is necessary.

General inactivity means that the government is no longer producing the activity it requires. In these instances, the current government needs to shift its checks and balances across its branches and/or create/lessen the number of positions available.

An inactive region generally leads to a coup, which is why constitutional conventions are so important to traumatized natives. For a government who's failed to both maintain activity and protect the region is a gross violation of the government's responsibility. Thus, a new government is necessary to ensure the region's activity and security is guaranteed.

And the third, and most important reason, a Constitutional Convention is almost always needed post-coup is because it represents new beginnings for the region. A coup is often, though not always, preceded by drama and inactivity, both ideals which cause regions to be inhospitable. A Constitutional Convention gives natives the chance to start over, to reboot the region and hope for the best.

So why TEP doesn't need a convention

---

Couple of reasons for this one.

First: The East Pacific has managed to rework its security.
The main reason the coup almost happened in the first place is because there were only three Viziers with not high enough levels of endorsements, and therefore low levels of influence. Which meant that, if the coupers played their games right, they could eject all three Viziers and take over TEP. Which they nearly did. However, for whatever reason, they failed and caused the coup to turn into a one-day thing.

This addresses point one of why a constitutional convention may be necessary. Security nearly failed. But here's the thing: it was not a structure of government that caused said failure, but rather the region's culture.

The reason we had only three Viziers prior to the coup is because back then, being a "Vizier" was considered a position constituting an extreme level of trust. We only felt comfortable with active government officials who worked in TEP for years to be Viziers. Anyone else wasn't trusted enough. Additionally, since 2010, traditionally there had always been around 3-5 Viziers. That was the number considered enough to stop a potential coup and maintain continuity of government, and therefore the nominating of any more Viziers always brought in the question "Do we really need this many Viziers?"

But now we've realized our mistakes. We've fixed them, see our 13 Viziers. Of course, Vizier numbers will dwindle with time, but then we'll nominate more at that point. I believe that, should our region not become too inactive, we'll always seek to maintain a high level of Viziers.

So while our security failed, it's been repaired.

Second: TEP has maintained activity for the past 9 months and continues to do so.
Post-coup, the hard work of Delegate Marrbuk and Delegate Libertanny, along with countless staff and Ministers, as well as strong roleplay leadership in the RMB and Forum RP, has pushed regional activity to a new level.

Activity is, of course, never guaranteed. And our government structure has caused inactivity to emerge before, primarily in the years of 2016 and 2018.

But the thing to consider is this: all regions eventually fall inactive. What decides if a region is couped or not is a) how inactive said region becomes and b) how fast the region pulls out of inactivity. Government can speed up the onset of inactivity, or it may slow it down.

My opinion is that our government has proven very much and able to maintain our region's activity. It has fallen flat a few times, but it has not failed enough for me, at least, to consider replacing it.

Third: TEP already had it's "new beginning"
I mentioned that a Constitutional Convention has an important psychological effect of providing a "new beginning" of sorts to residents.

But the thing is, TEP already had that beginning. We rewrote the Concordat (though not as well as we would hope, we did do it), and activity has picked up. Our Administration Team and Government have pulled their acts together. Our roleplays are booming.

We don't need another.

Fourth: The intense work of 50+ Magisters over 10 years has to be considered.
The Magisterium and the Citizenry have spent 10 years refining the Concordat. Tweaking ideas of government, making the Concordat make more sense, and etc.

One thing I like to thing of TEP law is, "TEP Law works until it doesn't." TEP isn't made up of smart and strong lawyer types (though we do have a few lawyers in our midst). Our law isn't perfect, it never will be. The Concordat is a shining example of that.

We keep amending the Concordat as we notice something that doesn't quite fit into how TEP operates today. If we create a new constitution, we ditch 10 years of work for nothing, and we just continue this process.

This government has existed for 10 years. To throw it away in favor of something new requires a very strong reason to do so. Which brings me to my next point:

Fifth: If the government is too complex, we can just amend our law and the Concordat until it isn't as complex
Our government is a little complex, but it isn't so complex so as to be obtuse.

If there's really a want of simplification, then go ahead and try to simplify it through our amendment process. We can even repeal whole laws and enact new ones, if we want.

As for Concordat simplification, just do another rewrite. It doesn't require another constitutional convention, just a few weeks and some strong debate will suffice.

Endword

---

None of this means I'm not willing to undertake the work of a Constitutional Convention. I am quite willing, if the need proves be.

However, as far as I can see, there is no need for such a thing. Our government, as it is, is operating fine. Yes, it can be simplified, but we do not need a new constitution to do so.

Peace.

This is a short abbreviated history about the RMB. I've forgotten a lot of things, and will continue forgetting them, so setting down a record will help keep everything in its proper place.

So let's start. Apologies for any inaccuracies.

TAMDEG (2017-early 2018)

---

TAMDEG was probably not the first organized roleplay on the Regional Message Board. But given its proximity to RMB RP's beginnings, I feel it deserves a mention.

TAMDEG was the name of a science-fiction roleplay began in 2017, between the nations of Trukya, Talitoa, Astoria, Morolock, Davaron, Euricanis, Gaylanders, and Stellar Colonies.

It began with Stellar Colonies (roleplaying as a multi-galactical + dimenion-traversing empire known as the Confederacy) sending "care packages" to Earth. These care packages were actually bombs- leading to the aforementioned nations besides Stellar to form a new alliance, TAMDEG, to fight the Stellar menace.

Thus began a roleplay that was primarily godmoddy and hilarious, yet had a somewhat established lore (maintained by Stellar). The roleplay focused on these nations fighting ridiculous threats, such as Albert (RMB Chuck Norris), Jar Jar, and a Bee Movie Script Virus. TAMDEG was a fun roleplay for its participants, but ultimately it began to die off in early 2018 for unexplored reasons.

While TAMDEG and modern roleplay did intersect at a point, TAMDEG did not have a viable effect on modern roleplay besides the creation of the Eastern Union, an alliance created by a nation named Marrabuk to oppose TAMDEG. While TAMDEG eventually disbanded, the Eastern Union would transfer easily into modern roleplay, and become an alliance superpower. We also saw the formation of the Jaelurian Union during this time- another alliance that would migrate into modern RMB RP.

MODERN ROLEPLAY FORMS + DIBERGIA (early 2018-mid 2018)

---

So then modern roleplay began in earnest, as it always tends to do: nations began to attack each other. The most notable amongst these nations was the Kampf Empire, who would begin attacking various nations. One could argue that Kampf formed the push to move RMB RP into a cohesive roleplay.

Regardless, RMB RP experienced a small "rebirth", separate from TAMDEG (and indeed, most TAMDEG nations no longer roleplayed in this modern RP world). Nations began to wage war against each other, but not much in the way of politics occurred. The Jaelurian Union and the Eastern Union were recruiting and growing larger as defensive blocks for nations, but neither really mattered too much yet.

During this time of relative un-politicalness, the Dibergia map is introduced. It quickly becomes the regional map of RMB RP, although never gaining official status. And this map played an important role for two reasons: a) combined with other factors, led to RMB RP becoming a community instead of another failed RP and b) set up the precedent that cartographers maintain full power over their maps.

Anyways, RMB RP began in full swing. Nations began to engage in full-scale warfare with each other, and many thus joined the Eastern Union, the Jaelurian Union, or the (later founded) NWL (some long name I can't remember, those are the initials). Also during this time, we see an uprising of an "imperialist" faction: nations hell-bent on gaining as much land as possible.

This time is also when RMB RP established the concept of hegemons, or super-powered nations who were typically "evil" empires attempting to take over the world and establish influence.

All told, this combined to make the world a precarious place for new nations (often called fledglings). Especially considering that there were now fully fledged empires like the Kampf Empire or Osterreich und Ungarn, fledglings were often at risk of being conquered and turned into protectorates. Thus, they started to flock into the EU, JU, and NWL.

So many fledglings flocked to these alliances that eventually everyone was in one. And for the first time, RMB RP experienced political stagnation. No imperialists could declare war on fledglings, because then they either attacked their own alliance, or would bring the force of another alliance against them. It was a no-win situation for imperialists, and roleplay dwindled as a result. That is, of course, until imperialists began to ignore NWL orders, the EU began letting members fight each other in planned conflicts, and the JU withdrew from the spotlight.

It could be said that this stagnation eventually caused these alliances to break down. The NWL soon disbanded, as did the JU. The EU did keep going, but its activity slowly decreased.

By this point, more fantastical technologies were becoming the norm in RMB RP. Gone was the modern roleplay tank warfare (somewhat), and in its place came things like steam-punk mechs, gigantic sea creatures, and other various technologies. This all meshed in with RMB RP's common WW1 fighting style (which was how "modern" RMB RP functioned back then), and nations began building up on various technologies to increase regional power.

But then something happened that shook the fundamental pillars of the roleplay community...

THE MAPPING CRISIS, STAT-BASED ROLEPLAY(early 2018-late 2018)

---

Sometime in late 2018, following complaints about there being a lack of map space, the cartographer of Dibergia (me!) called together a small council of people to make a new RMB RP map, those people being Zukchiva, Nova-Columbia, Libertanny, Volkstkn (I can't spell their name), and Sarkis.

The group set out to create a new RMB RP map- one that was not stolen from a free wiki (like Dibergia was). And so they worked together. Libertanny designed the map, and the others helped to worldbuild it and prepare it for release. And after a month or two of hard work, it was ready.

But then the map was rejected by the community. Many didn't want to leave Dibergia, so they didn't go onto this new map (which is now called, as it was then, Valsora). This led to the Council abandoning the project, although some nations had already joined Valsora. This left the RMB in an awkward place, with no central mapping authority. While a new map was launched by some others (named Pacifica), it ultimately failed. What could one do without a map? And so RMB RP continued to roleplay, but activity dropped due to nothing being achieved. We also witness the abrupt death of imperialism during this time- with imperialism never able to make a comeback.

ELEMENTIA

Now, during the days of no maps until quite near Valsora's rebirth (more on that later), there existed a nation known as Elementia. While their name is often seen as something to be readily forgotten due to massive dramas that won't be retold here, to do so would be forgetting a small but substantial amount of history. And so I say their name.

Elementia was a gigantic space-faring empire spanning galaxies. They took over the title of "hegemon" from Kampf, and basically sat as an overseer watching the Earth. In a sense, RMB RP stagnated for a third time under this period, because roleplaying under a nation that could destroy yours wasn't the most fun thing to do. Politics lost a lot of meaning, and so the world turned to power-guaging and often world-building roleplays (political marriages and "shipping roleplays" becoming a norm).

An important bit to remember about Elementia is that they based their claims to power upon NationStates statistics- primarily the Scientific Advancement and Defense Forces stats. By using these, they argued, roleplayers could measure up against each other and see who would come out stronger in a war. There would also be technology limits, based upon one's SA.

This pretty much transformed RMB RP for a short period, creating a statistics-based roleplay. This put a check to the formerly fanatic technologies running around in Dibergia, as nations now had to have a specific SA to maintain a specific technology. This was patrolled by both Elementia and the community at large, and quite handily enforced. This led to RMB RP becoming a statistics-based roleplay for a short while. Alliances like the JU and NWL were gone by this point- all that remained was the omnipresent empire watching the world. Even the EU remained dormant.

But even empires fall eventually, as did Elementia, who left (due to the dramas mentioned before). But luckily, something else was in store for the RMB.

VALSORA'S REBIRTH, THE SANADAN AND CHARITIAN CRUSADES, MODERN RMB RP (late 2018 to mid-2019)

---

In late 2018, Nova-Columbia (with the permission of the former Council), took over Valsora. They were frustrated about their work being wasted, and thus wanted to use the map for something. But then, slowly but surely, Valsora began to dominate the landscape. Nations began to flock towards it, and establish themselves within it. It grew until one day, Valsora had replaced Dibergia as the de-facto RMB RP map. And so, Valsora was born.

Valsora was a post-modern roleplay from the get-go. While initially based upon statistics, statistic usage died out thanks to Elementia no longer enforcing them + community discontent. Of course, politics rebounded eventually, and nations were back in full swing, waging war, backstabbing each other, forming alliances (although none as powerful as the EU-JU-NWL monopoly), etc. As time went on, it became clear that Valsora was a map that would stay.

THE SANADAN CRUSADES

In the midst of this roleplay revival, another nation (named the Sanada Clan), entered the East Pacific. Having been involved elsewhere within TEP, they decided to bring their RMB RP from the North Pacific to the East, by bringing in "Lady Lala", an invader who utilized magical ice powers. (Good time to mention that Valsora, whilst banning most futuristic technologies, allows magic to a limited extent.)

This invader began what would be known as the Sanadan Crusades, with there being a First and Second Crusade. Both times saw a revival of intense politics as nations chose their side, siding with the invaders or with the East Pacific. Massive wars were fought, coalitions emerged, and the Sanada Clan established themselves as a hegemon well known to all.

Of course, this roleplay wasn't exactly the most popular. Especially during the Second Crusade, many nations simply didn't want to join in the roleplay. While this wish was respected, it represented a fundamental shift in roleplay thinking: no longer could one force another nation into war. This was a developing norm for some time, but the Sanada Crusades definitely reinforced this as a social rule, which still exists to this day.

Another effect of the Sanada Crusades was the emergence of text-wall roleplays. Most roleplays prior to Sanada's Crusades were typically short paragraph roleplays, but with the detailed textwalls of Sanada, others soon followed suit and led to textwalls becoming a more popular form of roleplay.

THE CHARITIAN CRUSADE

Of course, Crusades were always the best roleplay. The Angel of Charity, a long-term roleplayer by this point and a nation who proved their military worth during the Sanada Crusades, soon launched a Crusade of their own. Whilst not as big of a general "roleplay" in RMB history, it nonetheless saw substantial changes to how the RMB functioned.

The first was the establishment of Charity as the new hegemon, although in a manner different than previous ones. Previous hegemons typically took direct pieces of territories from those conquered, and eventually let the still-having-autonomy parts of the conquered nations let go. This let the old hegemons gain power, whilst letting many roleplays keep their nation's sovereignity.

In contrast, Charity focused on building a large alliance, subservient to their nation. Utilizing both nation and alliance mechanics of the roleplay, this eventually gave Charity both IC influence (as their alliance expanded across the globe in ways not seen since the EU) and OOC influence. The way Charity came to victory was simple: they used modern war tactics. Remember that until this point, the RMB had treated war in a manner like WW1- a battle of attrition. By bringing modern war tactics and goals to the RMB, Charity singlehandedly changed the face of RMB warfare forever, as well as conquering nations in the process.

A big social effect of Charity's hegemony was the centralization of an active RMB RP Discord server. Formerly alliance headquarters, the server turned into a defacto place for the RMB to congregate on Discord. Angel's server is probably one of the longest running RMB servers, although its activity in today's times is much less than in the past. Regardless, Angel's server pushed RMB RP further from the intense, political, heated, totally IC roleplay of older times to a more calmer, planned, and less IC-intense roleplay common to today.

RULESET IS ESTABLISHED

Another big thing preformed by Charity is the formation of the RMB RP Ruleset, still in use today. The ruleset formed a cohesive guidelines for roleplay, and was enforced by "RMB Moderators", with their authority backed by the Cartographers of Valsora.

With these four elements in place (ruleset, war for story not for winning, modern war, textwalls), modern RMB RP was finally formed.

VALSORA DIES, NEW MAPS RISE, VALSORA RETURNS (Mid 2019 to 2021)

---

Eventually, Valsora began to stagnate for the next two years. This began when Charity themself went inactive, but had the empire still intact. Charity eventually dismantled their own empire on purpose, but the damage was done: due to the Empire's stifling presence, roleplay had fallen inactive.

Of course wars kept on happening, and newbies kept on joining, but overall there became a lull in activity that was different from the highly active periods of the past. Many nations were afraid that Valsora was dying, especially since often times it took a while for their claims to become accepted.

Regardless, Valsora still was highly political. Some most notable events was the Cold War (which was a stimulated Communist vs Capitalist fued) that tried to get roleplay on track. This fued eventually died, but it did see its revival of alliance-mechanics for a while, as well as a lot of wars. We also see the formation of notable alliances (like Safehaven and the Red Dragon Pact), and new political schemes conjured (such as Kampf's creation of a New World Order during the Cold War, which would've been a RP-changing event if it had succeeded). But the large-scale conflicts of the past were done.

RMB RP began experiencing a sort of "renaissance" in character roleplaying as a result, outside of the bounds of Valsora. Not the shipping roleplay of the past, but rather a roleplay where these characters represented the players, with unique powers and abilities.

Then in 2020, more maps began to emerge as Valsora's stagnation was becoming apparent. The first was Windsor- a map created by Volinovia- that focused on a more RTS-style roleplay with specific mechanics. The map ended up being cut off after issues arose with many nations having bludgeoning economies, and measures being taken to limit said economies. A revival was attempted, but it fell short and ultimately did not last that long.

Another notable map was Courisla, which was ran by Technocratic Tagalog. While it copied many of the mechanics of Windsor and had an active Discord community, it also eventually died into nothingness. However, (like Windsor), Courisla was important in that it helped retained many newer roleplayers in RMB RP, giving way to future community growth.

But roleplay on Valsora began to grow again. Wars became more common fought, politics re-emerged, and many older roleplayers (like Danelaw Scandinavia and Aivintis) returned to engage in worldbuilding. This small rebirth of Valsora led to the activity we see today: nothing like the past RMB RP, but definitely notable in terms of activity. A roleplay built by the players, RMB RP continues to thrive. Despite all odds! Isn't that cool?

---

And that's it! If you want to add to this history, feel free to reach out~