My campaign from six months ago largely persists, although I will re-summarize in a paragraph per point.
Head of State
The Delegate is the head of state of the Coalition of the South Pacific. The holder is, ultimately, a reflection of our region and our culture, and is representative of it at home and abroad. The following Prime Ministers can and should make full use of that fact, and I will encourage them to, especially as I’d like to throw a little more ceremony into our political life.
Regional Security
As a sitting member of the CRS, I am always concerned about regional security (and perhaps some of my comrades would have choice words for how I do that), but ultimately, the Delegate’s second role is to be the guy at the top of the endorsement list, always, until the next duly elected fellow comes along to relieve me. Our ally, Europeia, developed a highly useful endotarting tool and I would strongly encourage the next Prime Minister to formally request its usage for the Coral Guard and Delegate.
Growth and Activity
The recruitment bot is online and folks are using it. That shouldn’t stop, and I will continue to recruit with the power of the bully pulpit that is the Delegate’s seat.
Advisor
This is an apolitical role and I will fully remove myself as an advisor and member of any executive/decision-making channels. That said, the Prime Minister (or anyone) is welcome to come ask my opinion for things, understanding that I will not be taking a particular vocal stance on most things for the duration for my term.
It’s fairly hard to write a campaign for a position that’s very narrowly defined in law and in practice, but the election of our highest position is a cornerstone of our democracy, and I stand ready to defend the case so presented.
Conflict of Interest
Member, Citizen, Legislator, Councilor on Regional Security, Prime Minister of the Coalition of the South Pacific
Former Minister of Culture, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Prime Minister, Prime Minister of the South Pacific
Crown Prince of Selene
A while ago you were on the Coral Guard, which you resigned from. During your time on the CG you lowered its average endorsement count, and if I recall correctly resigned due to being unable to fulfill that duty of reaching/maintaining that large number of endorsements. Given that history, how do you plan to ensure that you will be able to reach and maintain the highest endo count of the region?
Do you have any plans related to continuing Griffindor’s fortnightly briefings?
What do you think of cakes and pies?
I am a little bit confused, is this about telling WA members of our region to use the tool and endorse more nations? Or is it about the delegate and coral guard to endorse more?
I’ve made some adjustments to how I do endotarting, and other changes on the RL side of the house to better support maintenance of the endo count. There are going to be some struggles here and there, but I’ve been off the Coral Guard list for months on months and still hold a top 10 endo count in the region, so the hard work is done. Just time for the regular work.
No plans.
Perfectly fine desserts, I just think ice cream is a king of kings.
Specifically this one, as a way to bolster the team’s endotarting capabilities.
So, you may have noticed me grilling your fellow candidates. I am about to do likewise here, we need to know if you really are the right person for the job.
You mention wanting to “throw a little more ceremony into our political life.” What specific ceremonial initiatives or traditions do you envision introducing or revitalizing during your term?
As a sitting CRS Councilor, how will you maintain separation between your Delegate responsibilities and your security policy perspectives within the CRS?
How do you plan to promote or facilitate the use of Europeia’s endotarting tool within the Coral Guard while remaining politically neutral?
In your view, what is the Delegate’s role in fostering gameside engagement beyond simply recruiting? Are there specific plans to bridge gaps between gameside and offsite communities?
You’ve stated your intention to avoid vocal stances during your term. How will you navigate situations where the Cabinet is divided and the Prime Minister explicitly asks for your guidance?
Given your extensive political experience, how would you reassure citizens and new players that your continued presence at the top won’t stifle new leadership or innovation within the region?
You’ve been both Prime Minister and Delegate before — how would you differentiate your approach this time to reflect current regional needs?
As Crown Prince of Selene, do you foresee any potential perception issues or conflicts of interest with external engagements? How would you address them if they arose?
What metrics, if any, will you use to evaluate your success as Delegate at the end of your term?
How would you handle a scenario where a foreign power or ally misinterprets one of your ceremonial or symbolic actions as a political statement?
I enjoyed the ceremony we had over the State of the Coalition, and while the ball was dropped on that, the Chair’s monthly legislator reports are another regular opportunity to inject a little fun.
I will not be starting or involving myself in CRS discussions unless specifically asked to by another member. Perhaps a good question for the Assembly is whether the Delegate should be privy to those discussions/channel at all, but as it stands, I will keep my access, and this is my solution.
I do not intend on promoting or facilitating it. I know it exists, it’s something the next PM can request (I chose not to, to avoid the appearance of bias coming into this election), but that’s about it.
The gap exists because we say it exists. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, and we are one community, the South Pacific. Could the CRS or the Cabinet do more to promote itself and its membership on the RMB/WFE/through telegrams? Sure, but there is no plural in “the South Pacific community”.
I’ve done this job long enough to know a bit of nuance, and intend to deliver exactly that as advice where possible, but if the Cabinet is split, it’s the PM’s decision ultimately, not mine. They’ve got to have the fortitude to make a decision and stick to it.
I’m deliberately pulling myself back from front-line politics for that very reason. I’m here in case folks have questions about our situation or my own history, but I do not want to be in the room where it happens while I’m in the big chair.
I have never been the Delegate before.
No, I do not. I am not active within Selene, nor does the South Pacific interact with the region at all at present, and to my knowledge, none of our plans include the region. If the next PM does anything with them, it is without my input on either side.
Endorsement count of the Delegate across the term, especially the percentage of WAs in the region to WAs endorsing myself.
I’d consult with the PM and their FAC on how best to rectify it. Every case is unique, it’s hard to give a blanket response to everything.
These are (mostly) great questions, thank you for asking them. Just #7 is on shaky ground.
(Please do not see my questions as attacks. I have poured my heart and soul into the Delegacy these last two years, and I want to make sure I leave it in the most capable hands possible. You are undoubtedly qualified according to the law.)
I don’t see it as the Prime Minister’s role to direct the endorsement policy (and method of getting them). That responsibility rests with our security body, the CRS, and its Coral Guard. I know that that tool is actively used by me and the Coral Guard daily (though I cannot say everyone uses it, I know the majority do). In fact…
The Charter also explicitly notes that you are “responsible for helping maintain the security of the region, promoting growth and activity”. The biggest security asset of the region is having lots of high influence nations that can assist in times of crisis. The Delegate is instrumental in boosting their own endorsements and the endorsements of the Coral Guard so that the average nation can, in turn, boost their influence (all of this through swapping endorsements). How do you plan to fulfill your charter-mandated duties if you are not at the front of the line trying to boost regional endorsements/influence, preferably by utilizing/advocating tools to make it easier?
The Charter also explicitly notes that the Delegate “serv[es] as an advisor to the forum-side government”. Additionally, these executive channels are where the Delegate receives many of their orders. How do you plan on fulfilling your charter-mandated duties if you intend to divorce yourself from them?
I find this answer to be a mistake (not a troubling one, just a mistake). I certainly do not expect you or any Delegate candidate to continue my Fortnightly Telegrams as I made them, but the region should and needs to be kept informed of regional happenings. The Cabinet has historically not been the best communicator (especially to the region at large), so the Delegate is a logical communication agent for the region. The Delegate also wields considerable soft power in the region, making communication more widely accepted. I would highly encourage you to reconsider your position on not communicating with the region, again, it doesn’t have to be a continuation of what I did.
It has been the informal policy of the CRS not to allow sitting Delegates to become CRS members. Obviously, you are already on the CRS, but the intention is undoubtedly to create a firewall between our Delegate and the security firewall during a crisis. Would you consider, and follow through on, resigning from the CRS for the duration of your potential delegacy?
Similar to what you asked of UDS, will you be resigning as Crown Prince of Selene? Inactivity there aside, I am more concerned with a candidate for Delegate having foreign regions on their Conflict of Interest Disclosure than a Prime Minister. The Prime Minister might make the government’s decisions and decide regional direction, but we hand the Delegate the literal keys to the Coalition.
I have a feeling that this will be more of a “when” scenario rather than an “if” scenario. You have more or less been leading the policy and government of the South Pacific for the last two years. That being said, your answer to this question gives me some pause. In real life (to put a sorta similar scenario), government workers are often subject to “revolving door” policies, which make them unable to join organizations that can influence the government. Similar to what I did, do you think there should be a “cooling off” period enshrined into the law to prevent hopping between the two highest jobs in the region and thus allowing obtained influence (soft and hard) to dissipate?
I’m going to preface this because, of course, RL > NS, always. That being said, your adjustments to endotarting might not be doing the trick. Despite being on the CRS and being able to freely endotart to a higher cap than Coral Guard members, your endorsement numbers have remained in decline relative to mine for well over a year, and even since your Delegate campaign this past January. This might just be me, but I would have definitely sought to close the gap as best I could if I had any plans to run again. All the easy nations have endorsed you. It’s a true slug fest to get the last 150+ nations that have to be individually telegrammed to endorse you. The last thing the region needs (for the sake of regional stability) is an extended Delegate transition or a Delegate having to meet the Delegate-elect somewhere in the middle of their two endorsement counts (thus sacrificing more hard-earned endorsements, and thus WA Influence, than needed). That being said, I’ll ask the same question I asked six months ago: Are you confident that you will be able to 1) get your endorsements high enough quickly enough so a potential transition is not lengthened unnecessarily? and 2) Will you be able to aggressively maintain (and even work on growing) your endorsement levels should you become the Delegate?
Agreed! Despite endorsement counts declining due to overall (sitewide) nation declines, the current WA Endorsement Ratio is just over 85%, which has literally never been that high before. Should you be elected, I hope you can maintain, or even grow, that number.
I’ll ask this more light-hearted question too:
As you have seen, Cake has only gotten more popular since the last time you answered this question, so I’ll ask it again: Will you pinky promise not to persecute Cake lovers (and also continue Anjo and my policies of persecuting pie lovers) should you secure election? Remember, a pinky promise is unbreakable!
Hey I have another question, in my opinion, part of the reason Griff was so popular as a delegate was because they took the effort to engage with RMB goers who rarely get involved on the forums, until recently I was one of those people and Griff was a driving reason for me to actually get involved.
So getting to the point of this question, do you have any specific steps you’ll take as to personally engage with rmbgoers to get them interested and to bridge the disconnect between gameside and forum side that many users have felt at points?
To clarify, the tool I’m referring to is v1nage, and the PM manages our foreign policy. Unless the techies want to host it ourselves via our server and using the open-source software, requesting access to an existing server/one automatically maintained lay within the PM’s domain, not the CRS’s or CG’s or Delegate’s.
We have existing tools, that are publicly available, that I will be promoting, but I don’t believe that v1nage is in the same category as Calref’s Tart and Dot and our own SWAN dispatches. That’s why I didn’t intend to facilitate it, since it’s predominantly used by those in security organs already.
I don’t need access to cabinet-office or foreign-affairs-council to advise and receive orders. swan-lake is not where the big decisions happen and the PM or their duly appointed representatives can still issue lawful orders there. Members of government are free to reach out to ask questions. It’s not a sequestration of my access to every government channel, just the ones where actual policy is decided. I will work out specifics with the next Prime Minister.
I don’t disagree, to clarify, just that I had no plans to continue the every-two-weeks biweekly telegrams you did. That was your style, and I’m not sure what style I’ll settle into for the term, but it will likely be in less frequency, closer to 3/4 weeks.
I claim Crown Prince but it’s closer to a Co-Founder role, and not actually involved in day-to-day operations. I get pinged for the random admin kerfuffle and that’s about it. It’s a roleplay-only region. Crown Prince is just a old title from when the region was founded.
That said, I will be suspended from that duty, starting immediately and lasting for the duration of this election and potentially time in office, if elected. I spoke about it with the Founder, who agreed to do as such. I’ll link the dispatch here when it’s
I’m not sure what you mean by this entire paragraph, to be honest. Are you asking if I support a prohibition on elected office holders seeking another office after their term expires?
Yes, and yes. I’ve been actively endotarting every day I’m at home (work takes me away occasionally) since joining the race and will start to send telegrams out to existing nations I’ve endorsed before that haven’t endorsed me. I will be annoying. I will also note that I am the closest out of the 3 candidates to actually ascend to the Delegacy.
Never have I ever persecuted any lover of desserts solely for their dessert choice. It was always because of other charges we could land.
I keep hearing talk of a “disconnect” but the more we talk about it, the more it exists. What exactly do you mean by this?
Basically, forumside has lots of activities and most of the government stuff happens here, in the past Gameside has tended to be neglected and basically not given information about these things which contributes to that disconnect.
TSP RMB Posts by Ebonhand before becoming Delegate: 259
TSP RMB Posts by Sporaltryus to date: 840
It’s funny seeing statements like “Ebon bothered to foster a relationship with us” — it’s natural to remember things that way, but people can grow into the role
The delegate already doesn’t have access to those channels. However, thank you for the clarification. Perhaps making it clearer that you intend to resign from the PM-appointed advisor role rather than the delegates’ advisory duty would help.
Yes. Though it’s not really germane to this topic now that I think about it. You are free to respond or not. (Extra cake if you do!)
True, but they are at least trending up in endorsements. You are still heading the other way
cries in frosting
You forgot a couple of answers
Nevertheless, thank you for the answers thus far, they certainly clarified some of your positions.
I… don’t really know if this is true? Maybe it’s technically accurate if you pick the right time scale. But you could just as easily argue that Henn’s endorsement count has increased slightly since May 1, 2025 (I just guesstimated where our current population decline began), while our regional population has decreased by over 17% in that time.
Most nations will trend upwards in endorsements initially after starting from zero (as is the case for Virifortis from March 2025 and New Halo from May 2025) and most nations with a higher endorsement count will trend downwards as our regional population decreases. Looking at the chart, I think it’s obvious that endorsements will initially rise sharply because we have many folks who actively endotart for the SWAN leaderboards, but after things start to plateau, I would not describe these trends the same way you would
I answered the questions I saw, what did I miss? It was a hefty post. Sturdy. Good foundation to build a fence off of.
Let’s discuss it elsewhere, in the Assembly, perhaps. It’s not a relevant marker to the campaign.
The Delegate’s advisory duty is technically always active, regardless of what channels they’re in. A private message from PM to Del would technically suffice and what I would most likely envision as the primary method of offering advice.
Government is hosted on the forum so we can really specialize and get into the nitty gritty of a political simulation. Very, very, very hard to do that on the RMB, where it’s a single thread with little built-in support.
That said, this past PM term did have the RMB Mayor and they were a frequent communicator to myself, the Delegate, and the Minister of Culture on polls to run. They were entirely free to raise other concerns or bring up other events to run as well, and that continues to hold true today, and will be so during this Delegate term.
