Get them raiders. As a former resident of TNP, it brings me joy to see that you are taking action against the raiders who have harassed TNP recently.
The North Star - Issue XXX, October 2023
Lighting the Way to Truth
Magazine Version
Editor’s Note
Dear readers,
Once again I welcome you to this brand new issue of The North Star. It’s been an honour to present the last two issues to you and it’s my pleasure to introduce you to this one as well. This publication means a lot to me and the consistent effort put in by the writers and editors honestly make my day. Let’s take a look, shall we?
The North Star serves as one of the most notable newspapers in NationStates. The flagship of the North Pacific’s Ministry of Communications. We’re so proud of this issue but I, of course, could not have done it without the amazing staffers of the Ministry. You all are absolutely invaluable to the quality of this publication and I honestly cannot thank you all enough. A special thank you goes out to Delegate Kaschovia and Minister Robespierre for their leadership and to Picairn for being such an amazing writer and awesome to work with. Thank you all!
This issue is, of course, packed to the brim with exciting content. Such as a thrilling article on the war with the Brotherhood of Malice and The Communist Bloc, an explosive story about N-Day, an article about the Chess Arena II the West Pacific, a spooky article about our Spirit Halloween Festival with the Wellspring and Carcassone, and finally an exciting and exclusive interview with Vice Delegate Fregerson. Incredibly interesting to read, for sure! Have fun!
Finally, we, the Ministry of Communications, extend our heartfelt appreciation to you, the reader, for taking the time to read this issue of The North Star. I’ve said this probably a dozen times now but TNS remains a source of immense pride for us and we cannot wait for you to experience the same.
Cheers,
Halsoni
Executive Deputy Minister of Communications
War in the North
By 
Picairn
The North Pacific Declares War
On October 5th, 2023, The North Pacific (TNP) officially declared war on The Communist Bloc (TCB) and the Brotherhood of Malice (BoM). After a month of deliberation and 7 days of voting, the Regional Assembly – TNP’s citizen legislature – overwhelmingly passed both declarations of war against the former and the latter by a two-thirds majority. For the first time in 15 years since its last declaration of war in 2008, The North Pacific has found itself in a formal conflict with two notorious raider organisations as a result of their relentless provocations and attacks, culminating in the most significant assault on TNP’s sovereignty in recent history: a Delegate-tip of then-Acting Vice Delegate Pallaith to the WA Delegacy on August 27th, inadvertently toppling then-Acting Delegate Chipoli from the seat and disrupting a decade of TNP’s peaceful transition of power.
In direct response to this brazen act of aggression, Delegate Kaschovia announced an Exemption for Military Activity against TCB and BoM, as well as their allies and territories on September 26th, which lifted all limitations on members of the North Pacific Army (NPA) from performing Class A restricted actions against those regions. Six days later, the Regional Assembly also ratified a broader Exemption, which would remove all legal prohibitions on the NPA from performing Class B restricted actions on our designated adversaries. In simple terms, soldiers and officers of the NPA are now explicitly authorised to change World Factbook Entries, close Embassies, suppress RMB posts, apply passwords, ban and eject any nations native to TCB, BoM and their allies without their consent as military retaliation against their previous attacks.
TNP’s declaration of war soon followed after on October 5th, as noted at the start. After it had been approved by the Regional Assembly, Delegate Kaschovia published the statement To War in which he announced that a state of war now exists between The North Pacific vis-à-vis The Communist Bloc and the Brotherhood of Malice. Recounting the events of the August 27th invasion and subsequent continued provocations from BoM and TCB, our Delegate called upon all North Pacificans to arms, as well as allies and friends of TNP who had been similarly antagonised, to stand up against raider aggression. He also spoke of the “undying flame of democracy”, that great democratic spirit and bedrock of community that defines who we are, and sternly warned our malevolent enemies of the folly in challenging us: “It is not just The North Pacific who is taking a stand and fighting back today, and it will not solely be our victory when you are but a mere footnote in this game’s history.”
The publicised speech was received with widespread applause, not only from citizens and residents of The North Pacific but also from our allies, friends and the collective world, indicated by an impressive 268 upvotes after a mere 19 days at the time of this writing. In another strong show of support, Europeia and Balder – two of our valuable treaty allies – declared war on TCB and BoM in solidarity with our region.
Invasion of Solidarity
Although TNP’s formal declaration of war was only issued on October 5th, it was on October 1st, 4 days earlier that the first shot of the war was fired in Solidarity, a possession of The Communist Bloc. A great coalition, formed from the militaries of The League & Concord, The Grey Wardens, 10000 Islands, Europeia, The North Pacific and Balder, led by Consul of the Republic Quebecshire under disguise as Rhaza, invaded Solidarity at major update (12:00 AM EST) and seized the WA Delegacy from former Delegate Kavamkao. The invasion was codenamed “Operation Red October”, a reference to Tom Clancy’s famous 1984 novel.
For the next 17 days, Quebecshire would hold onto the Delegacy with the help of the coalition’s officers and soldiers against attempted recapture by the People’s Revolutionary Air Force (PRAF), TCB’s military arm. The offensive was greatly bolstered when an unprecedented array of 14 regions and several mercenary groups joined as pilers in the war effort. At the end of the operation, the final tally of 208 endorsements on Rhaza/Quebecshire broke the record for the largest anti-raider offensive in NationStates’ history, showcasing the true scale of the coalition’s unity and strength against raider aggression.
After successfully repelling numerous PRAF’s liberation attempts, on October 18th Quebecshire ordered all personnel to evacuate from the region and passworded it for a final 14-day conversion to a Stronghold, where he will serve indefinitely as its Governor. When the transition is complete around November 2nd, TCB will lose its colony permanently. The operation concluded as a decisive victory for the coalition, a welcome sign for our future struggles.
On another note, the support of NPA soldiers and militiamen for this operation was exceptional. As documented by Minister of Defence Comfed, nearly 70 soldiers and officers in total from the NPA and the militia participated in Solidarity, an incredible show of force and a testament to the North’s “undying flame of democracy”.
Brotherhood of Malice’s Infiltration
While TCB was trying (and failing) to retake Solidarity, the Brotherhood of Malice chose to watch on the sidelines. When pressed for a response, BoM’s leadership claimed that their friendship treaty with TCB only contained a “Do not raid” clause for Solidarity and they were not obliged to do anything more. This indifference sends the strongest signal to all other regions out there about BoM’s reliability as an ally: They will not help, nor offer even a token show of support for a distressed allied region, if the aid is not specified on paper.
Nevertheless, BoM has recently begun a malicious unendorsement campaign against Delegate Kaschovia with the goal of jeopardising regional security. On October 9th, two nations Palvatone and The Northern Boys – the former later discovered to be a puppet of Volstrostia, BoM’s Taskmaster – infiltrated our region and sent multiple telegrams to nations, asking them to unendorse Minister of Foreign Affairs Pallaith and Delegate Kaschovia and to endorse Chipoli instead, claiming the latter to be “the true Delegate” of TNP. The Northern Boys claimed they were from the “North Pacific Regional Security War Council”, while Palvatone claimed to be the “Minister of Domestic Affairs of the North Pacific”, both of which do not exist. Two of our Militia members were also tricked into supporting BoM’s raid on the region Empire of Australia on the same day.
To avoid falling for BoM’s deception, the Ministry of Communications strongly advises our readers not to obey any orders or instructions from suspicious unendorsement telegrams and to report them to the actual authorities immediately, like Delegate Kaschovia, Vice-Delegate Fregerson (PotatoFarmers) or members of the Security Council. The Ministry also encourages everyone to keep themselves up-to-date on the latest government roster of currently serving Ministers and other high-ranking officials in our government, to help identify BoM infiltrators and spies under the disguise of fraudulent “government officials”. By properly informing yourself and reporting all suspicious unendorsement campaign telegrams, you are helping to frustrate BoM’s plans of sabotage and protect The North Pacific’s regional security and stability.
Note: This article does not necessarily represent the views of the Government of The North Pacific. The author is accountable for any extrapolation and analysis that extends beyond the fundamental facts presented.
TNP-TWP Chess Arena II
By 
Kaschovia
It’s that time again! On October 29th, The North Pacific and The West Pacific, very in theme with the upcoming Z-Day, were infected with the chess bug and hosted the second iteration of the highly-anticipated interregional chess arena on Lichess! The last arena was a great success with seventeen players taking part in 122 games over three hours. This arena saw the thematic introduction of the horde variant, which meant players faced off against swarms of pawns instead of normal pieces. An incredible 22 players joined the normal arena, while 7 joined the horde variant, completing 105 games in 3 hours, marking yet another successful iteration of the event.
The player to dominate the points leaderboard this time was New United Common-lands with 40 points, a 69% win rate in 16 games, and a performance score of 1693. They were closely followed by Giovanniland, one of the hosts of the event, who scored 34 points, had a higher win rate of 82% over 11 games, and a performance score of 1871. From there, third placed player DrLeckDenStein scored 22 points, quite the drop from the top two with a 50% win rate over 16 games. In fourth place, New Estoniaball scored 17 points with a 50% win rate over 10 games, and in joint fifth place were The Perfection Isles and myself Kaschovia), though the former had a 100% win rate over just five games, while I somehow finished in that position with just a 31% win-rate over 16 games. In all honesty, it’s been a while since I last saw a chess board.
The points were closer from eighth to fifteenth position, ranging from 15 down to 3, where players won fewer games and did not utilize the additional points made available through the berserk mode. Former arena participants Martledola, Francois Isidore, and Inner Ryxtylopia secured 15, 12, and 3 points while new players Skaraborg, Recuecn, Eruistan, The Washington Federation, gvidaver, and scored 12, 10, 8, 8, and 6 points respectively. The players from 16th to 22nd did not play a game, and therefore scored no points. Once more, it was the players who were confident enough in their abilities to sacrifice half of their five minutes per game for extra points who built commanding leads and win streaks.
While the event fielded some respectable competition, the absence of FrontierJustice, the winner from the last interregional chess event, was noticeable. In fact, they only played seven games before leaving the event on 15 points. Whether or not FrontierJustice would have secured back to back arena victories if they had continued playing is a matter of speculation, but Giovanniland ran the gauntlet and topped the leaderboard for most of the arena before New United Common-lands saw a late surge in extra points through the time-sacrificing ‘berserk’ game mode. What began as a shaky start to the arena quickly turned into an eight game win streak worth 33 points, putting them at 40 overall.
A different picture emerges when we consider that FrontierJustice won both their games against the first place player, but lost both games against Giovanniland, the second placed player. Giovanniland only opted for the berserk mode 9% of the time, while New United Common-lands did so 31% of the time, potentially missing out on the points that would have put them in first had they won those games.
Judging the performances of both players in respect to their overall win rates and Lichess performance score, the gap between them seems fairly indistinguishable. While New United Common-lands beat Giovanniland in the only game they played, the latter boasts the higher performance rating.
There is certainly an obvious difference between the varying skill levels in each of these arenas, where the most skilled players seek higher pressure, higher reward games in match-ups that benefit them most, while the bottom half of the leaderboard sticks with safer, more drawn out games so as not to lose too quickly in succession. Ultimately, it was a battle of the titans at the top for first place, and a skirmish between those at the bottom to secure a top ten finish.
The horde variant, played for an hour and a half after the normal mode, offered a respite from the highly-competitive and fast-paced nature of the arena up until then. In what felt utterly comical, players with the usual pieces would face a swarm of pawns, five rows in strength, trying not to capitulate to the marching pressures of the least powerful piece in the game, in most cases totally unsuccessful. In cases where the swarm were beaten, just 36% of the time in 22 games, the victors quickly realized that reaching the back ranks was the key, where the pawns would have no defenses left to stop the queen or rooks from picking them off one by one.The structure of the swarm would quickly deteriorate, making victory certain for the other player unless they could get their own pawns to the end of the board and promote them to queens.
Overall, this second interregional chess arena provided the perfect timing for experimentation with a different gamemode, and allowed fans of the last event to come together once more for another round of games. With the number of players who joined the normal gamemode tournament reaching 22, compared to 17 in the last one, interest in these chess tournaments is definitely on the rise. Should both the West and the North cultivate more regularly engaged groups of players, perhaps in league style events, there’s definitely reason to believe that interest will continue to expand to other communities, and into coordinating more varied gamemode events such as atomic chess, or simply using different time controls such as rapid. Either way, chess is on the rise in both regions, with more of these arenas to come and more players willing to make their mark.
Nuclear Armageddon: N-Day 9
By Picairn
The events which had transpired on N-Day 9, which ran over a period of 24 hours from 5:00 AM October 1st to 5:00 AM October 2nd, 2023 (GMT+7), packed with action, excitement, and memorable developments in between, were nothing short of extraordinary. For the second time in NationStates history, Horsemen of the Apocalypse (HotA), the biggest faction by quantity and four-time champion of N-Day, was thoroughly obliterated by a grand coalition of the Potato Alliance (TPA or Potato), Kingly Heathens Asserting Neighborliness (KHAN), Anime Nations Against Liberals (ANAL), Starlight Brigade, and Jellyfish Elite Fighting Force (JEFF). The crushing defeat of the infamous Horsemen, who had menaced so many other factions before with their unstoppable hordes of puppets, marked the Potato Alliance’s greatest triumph since N-Day 5 and fully avenged our humiliating loss of N-Day 8 seven months ago. This remarkable achievement, a product of incredible coordination and strategic planning between three megafactions and two smaller ones, decisively ended HotA’s victorious streak and nuclear hegemony which they had enjoyed since N-Day 6.
After the Horsemen blight had been removed, the great anti-HotA coalition subsequently dissolved, now that its primary target had been destroyed, its chief purpose fulfilled. Soon, the Potato Alliance fired the first shots of the megafactions’ war by turning against Starlight Brigade, who was swiftly rescued by ANAL’s sudden attack on us. ANAL’s inopportune intervention, while we were targeting Starlight, sparked a significant controversy within our faction at the time on why its High Command decided to target the latter first. Fortunately, KHAN honoured their alliance with us by quickly joining the war on our side, while JEFF rushed to the aid of the Starlight – ANAL coalition. After fierce fighting with hundreds of thousands of nukes being exchanged, and a similarly enormous number of shields deployed, the KHAN – Potato alliance emerged victorious, occupying first and second place respectively, while ANAL was knocked down to third place despite a record 782,622 intercepts, JEFF finished fourth, and Starlight – incredibly enough – managed to stay in fifth place despite an average of 91.2 radiation per nation or, in other words, a nearly complete destruction.
How did it come to this? How did the megafactions successfully overthrow the Horsemen’s dominance? How did we weather the combined attacks of ANAL, Starlight and JEFF? What was the controversy behind the Potato Command’s decision to target Starlight?
Background
At a glance, the faction composition of N-Day 9 differed from the previous N-Day to some extent. Familiar faces like HotA and ANAL returned, but the former was smaller by 4,000 nations and the latter short by 2,000 compared to N-Day 8. Our faction also saw a decrease on the same scale as ANAL but we were, as our confrontation with them would later prove, still a force to be reckoned with.
JEFF, assembled from a disjointed group of dissatisfied UCRs with a united desire to see a non-puppeteering faction make it to the top 10 leaderboard, also made its return from N-Day 8. But unlike the previous defeat, through perseverance, diplomacy and good strategy, they would finish N-Day 9 at fourth place, an exceptionally good showing for a UCR-concentrated faction.
Two new factions entered the stage that day and would go on to make a name for themselves: KHAN, consisting of The West Pacific, The Pacific, Lone Wolves United, URA (United Regions Alliance), and the Augustin Alliance; and Starlight Brigade, founded by the nations of Refugia. Of these two, the former would win the nuclear war – an astonishing feat for a newly formed faction – and the latter would not only survive the megafactions’ onslaught but would also get in fifth place, an admirable performance for disadvantaged UCRs which possessed fewer resources and puppets.
A revolutionary change of this N-Day was the production boost for WA members. Announced by Chingis on Sept. 27, this feature would see nations with WA seats “accumulate Production 10x faster than non-WA members, and have their Production limits increased by 3x” per Testlandia’s dispatch. The motive for this addition was to reduce the oversized impact of puppets, which has long been criticised by players for sucking all the fun out of N-Day with their sheer numbers.
The Nuclear Massacre of Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The first hour of N-Day 9 at 5:00 AM Oct. 1 began with relative quiet between the megafactions. As to be expected, everyone spent their time at the start stockpiling nukes and shields first, and we were no different. The reason is simple: the damage inflicted by nukes would be far greater if fired in a mass volley, so as to overwhelm the other side’s shield wall, than if launched individually.
Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for, an opportunity to destroy the menacing Horsemen. 1 hour and 6 minutes into the event, Potato General King Platytato ordered the entire Alliance to begin targeting HotA, in conjunction with KHAN, ANAL, Starlight Brigade and JEFF. After a steady 24-minute buildup, at 6:30 AM the order was given to launch our first volley. In an amazing display of coordination, 120,000 combined nukes of five factions were launched at the Horsemen, who only had 72,000 shields at the time, and they suffered significant damage as a result.
But HotA was not going to accept defeat so easily. They responded to this attack with a counteroffensive of more than 40,000 nukes each for TPA and ANAL. KHAN was also targeted to a similar degree. After a furious exchange of nukes, our Potatoes suffered 9,300 Radiation points and KHAN 9,000. In contrast, ANAL escaped wholly unscathed thanks to their characteristically effective shield deployments – one still wonders how they managed to do that.
Despite their efforts, it became abundantly clear that HotA could not withstand the combined might of five large factions. The struggle of the Horsemen continued for the next five hours, but they were unable to overcome the relentless bombing. Wave after wave of nuclear missiles, HotA was essentially dead, 14 hours into the event, as the faction sat at 717,000 Radiation and a staggering negative score of -637,000. The joint Allied offensive was received with shock and dismay by the Horsemen, and their morale dropped to a low point. Thereafter small factions feasted on whatever was left of the irradiated carcass.
The mood inside the Potato Alliance’s Discord channel was jubilant. We cheered for the destruction of HotA, and celebrated our greatest victory since the epic comeback of N-Day 5. It was the courage of our members, the leadership of our generals, and the coordination of five allied factions that took down the feared Horsemen and their puppet horde once and for all. This success alone will always remain one of our most notable coups in N-Day history.
War of the Megafactions
Its principal enemy now extinguished, its goals accomplished, its mission concluded, the great coalition had no cause to exist anymore, and thus collapsed. We returned to our stations and began re-stockpiling, as did the factions of KHAN, ANAL, Starlight, and JEFF, warily eyeing each other for the first move that would break the fragile peace. At the time, KHAN occupied first place, the Potato Alliance second, and ANAL third. The final confrontation was approaching.
It was the Potato Alliance that made a move first. At 6:40 PM Oct. 1, Potato General Potatcarus SPH instructed everyone to switch our attention to Starlight Brigade. At first, all of us were confident that we could easily wipe the floor with them. But then came disastrous news: ANAL started targeting us with tens of thousands of nukes, and the number was rising rapidly. The optimism and euphoria of victory, which had so permeated the atmosphere inside the war room before, turned sour as many blamed the Potato Generals for this apparent blunder and expressed their fears that ANAL was waiting for this moment to spring their trap when TPA turned on one of its allies. As this was happening, KHAN was sitting in first place unharmed and largely watching on the sidelines, while JEFF joined in the fight on ANAL’s side, targeting TPA with their own nukes.
The situation appeared hopeless. We were standing alone against three factions, and KHAN seemed like they were not going to help much. More bad news arrived: the number of nukes aimed at us had reached 200,000, and following ANAL’s strikes we were down to third, then fourth place. Many were dissatisfied with the Generals and argued that targeting Starlight was a mistake, that we betrayed our ally and walked into a trap that cost us our second place, and that we should have targeted ANAL with a coalition of KHAN + TPA + Starlight. Some defended the Generals’ decision, speculating that they made the order based on possible intelligence that Starlight was planning to attack us with the cooperation of ANAL and JEFF anyway.
Whatever the reason, fortunately we would not have to stand alone against this onslaught. KHAN soon proved that they still honoured the alliance and attacked Starlight in conjunction with us, while also helping to shield us from ANAL’s nukes. Thanks to a combined strike of 120,000 nukes at Starlight, which ANAL failed to stop, we managed to claw our way back to third place. After successfully annihilating Starlight, we turned our missiles against ANAL at 0:22 AM Oct. 2, and steadily degraded their shield wall with successive waves of nukes until they finally buckled under the pressure and dropped to third place with 92,000 Radiation. We regained our second place in a hard-won triumph, while JEFF escaped with a measly 39 radiation points by mass migrating to ANAL and helping to defend it in the middle of TPA’s and KHAN’s attacks. Starlight Brigade was severely devastated and almost wiped out, as the faction received a massive Radiation score of 102,872 total or a rate of approximately 91% of nations blown to radioactive dust.
Closing Thoughts
Taking in N-Day 9 as a whole, this was probably my most enjoyable N-Day since TPA’s legendary comeback in N-Day 5. Through extensive diplomacy and coordination, we bombarded the Horsemen to dust with our temporary allies, preventing their puppet hordes from overwhelming everyone else and ruining the fun of the nuclear apocalypse. The intense nuclear exchanges and shield deployments between megafactions, the celebrations of victory, the infectious enthusiasm of the Generals and soldiers, all of which were far more exciting, far more vibrant than the depressing atmosphere of N-Day 8, when we were promptly finished and ended in an early defeat at the hands of the evil Horsemen.
HotA has always rejected alliances, NAPs, and backroom deals as “the tools of the weaklings”. Instead, they relied on the numerical strength of their puppets to smash their way to the top in one-on-one battles against each faction. This is a viable strategy – even if it is diabolical – as long as other megafactions remain divided. But when they unite, as N-Day 5 and N-Day 9 have shown, not even the largest faction can win against the combined firepower of all other megafactions. The Horsemen thought they were secure inside their fortress of puppets, but all fortresses must fall when enough cannons arrive to blast them to pieces.
The controversy over the Potato Command’s order to attack Starlight has cooled down, but its facts remain a secret. No details that can inform us about the proceedings behind the Generals’ decision were published after the event, and all we have on our hands are unsubstantiated rumours and speculation. A frontline account from a JEFF war correspondent, New United Common-lands, revealed that a secret mutual defence agreement was made between ANAL, Starlight Brigade and JEFF in case of a joint KHAN – Potato attack on any member of the pact. That, however, is not conclusive evidence to confirm the rumour that the three factions were planning an imminent attack on TPA which some had floated on Discord, and we will likely never know the truth.
The WA boost was an excellent addition to N-Day 9, and it greatly assisted us in the fight against the Horsemen’s puppet horde. It was also nice to be able to participate more actively in the event thanks to the accelerated production rates, for which I am grateful. More reforms are being discussed at the time of this article’s writing, and while it is still too early to speculate on which feature will make it to the next event, one thing is certain: the future improvements are bound to only make N-Days more exciting from here.
Spirit Halloween Festival
By 
Arawi
“A harrowing energy begins to build, felt by all across The North Pacific, The Wellspring, and Carcassonne. Somewhere in the distance, a rumbling, low chanting touts the mystery and intrigue of some despicable gathering. It calls to you.”
Those were the words of Delegate Kaschovia as the three regions commenced a spooky event that would strike fear into the hearts of many… the Spirit Halloween Festival. We hope you had a good Halloween, but if you didn’t, it’s probably because you didn’t participate in this amazing event. The festival has seen spooky stories, ghostly competitions, and spine-chilling games that were hoped to give everyone who participated a spoopy good time, and they certainly did! On another note, this collaboration of regions has, politically, been sparked by the signing of two treaties: The Aude Alliance between Carcassonne and TNP, and The Treaty of the Northern Wells, between The Wellspring and TNP. Carcassonne and The Wellspring also happen to be good allies through FOCUS (Frontier Organisation for Cooperation, Unity and Security). Halloween has provided the perfect opportunity not only to celebrate the ghoulish holiday but also to celebrate our new relationship between the two regions.
The event began on October 21st, with the opening statements by Kaschovia, and then games of Among Us hosted by Icarus, which unraveled into a Discord gaming session with SketchHeads and land.io being played. Several terrifying spam games were also started including Tug of War, where players attempted to bring the number up or down depending on what team they were on, which ended on 17, much lower than the starting number of 50. As well as this, another event was guessing a fictional horror character, where the player was the Akinator that had to ask questions to figure out which scary character the guesser had picked. In addition to this, yet more events were spooky word association, where players picked an eerie word that was similar to the one before, which led to interesting words such as ‘Mormon’, ‘creepypasta’ and ‘stein’ being thrown in the ring, one-word stories, where each player took a turn to suggest a word to follow the previous word to make a scary story, which became scary not because of its plot, but more because of the surrealist way it was written, and finally, jack-o-lantern counting where players simply had to count to as high as possible as a team.
The event was initially scheduled to end on October 23rd but was continued until the night of Halloween to heighten the spooky, spiritual energy present in the air. While the spam games continued into the moonlight, several devilish contests were beginning, namely short horror story submissions, scary profile picture entrees, and frightening flag sharing! By October 31st, the festival had decided that Icarus’s profile picture of a ghostly witch penguin was the spookiest of all, which looked innocent, but would surely curse everyone that looked at it! At the time of going to press, the horror story competition and flag contest had not had a winner declared, with the flag contest unfortunately having a lack of entries, however the Horror Story competition was met with 3 entries which probably haven’t been decided on due to all three of them, including a Duolingo-themed tale, being very spooky!
On October 29th, the festival was also cordially invited to the 2nd Interregional Chess Arena, featuring The North Pacific and The West Pacific for three ghoulish hours of standard and horde variant chess. The blood-curdling board games ended with New-United Common Lands being the overall winner. This spine-chilling festival has been a massive success, and a fantastic celebration of the new relationships between the three regions. Let’s hope a similar event can occur to celebrate the terrifying eve of All Soul’s.
Interview with Vice Delegate Fregerson
By 
Chipoli
Chipoli: Hello, everyone! My name is Chipoli, and I’m delighted to host the latest edition of the Spotlight. We have with us today, the newly elected Vice Delegate of The North Pacific, Fregerson. Now that the general elections have finished up, we are eager to speak with Fregerson about their vision and plans for this term as they take on this monumental task. It is an absolute privilege to have you on the show today, Freg. Congratulations again on your election victory!
Fregerson: Thank you! I am glad to be invited for this interview.
Chipoli: I’m glad that you’re here as well, Freg. As I just mentioned, you recently won the General Election and became Vice Delegate of The North Pacific. What I would like to know is, what made you run? Why did you want to be Vice Delegate?
Fregerson: I have been TNP for around 3 years now. During this long period, I had my fair share of experiences, working with various people, whether as an Executive Staffer, a Deputy, as a Minister, or during my time in the Speaker’s Office. These various experiences have helped me shape my perspective of how things worked in TNP, and also gave me a clearer view of things in TNP. I didn’t exactly come into the election thinking I would run for Office once again, but I have received some nominations and support calling on me to run for this office. Taking into account all the experiences I had, I decided this was a great opportunity for me to step up, to explore a position that I have not done previously, and hopefully use my experience to help TNP tide through these trying times.
Chipoli: Very interesting! The people wanted you, and they indeed did get you. You mentioned that your time in TNP has shaped your perspective and gave you a good idea of how things work around here. You’ve been in the Executive, Legislative, and Security branches - you’ve done it all! Can you give us some insight on how you got to this point?
Fregerson: As I said - it has been a long time. I started off with a vested interest in Roleplaying and the World Assembly, and I was picked up by then-MoWAA TlomzKrano. And with my contributions in writing IFVs for the GA proposals, I quickly became a Deputy for some time. The second turning point was when Delegate McMasterdonia wanted me to helm the then Minister of Communications. It was a difficult position due to the difficulties surrounding Communications back then, but that Executive Council exposure helped to change my perspective of how things continued to work. I started to read up on the gameplay side of things, and then took a short trip in the Speaker’s Office which wasn’t as successful as it should be. But I quickly found back my roots in the MoWAA, and this time with knowledge of both the GA and the SC, the rest is history.
Chipoli: TNP is well-known for having many opportunities for success, and you’re clearly one of those success stories. However, it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows for you. What I love even better than success stories, is comeback stories. You of course, ended up being recalled as Speaker last year in a very close vote. That must have been very frustrating for you. However, you bounced back, and have since served as MoWAA, MoFA, and of course, Vice Delegate now. What made you want to keep going after such a setback? How did you persevere?
Fregerson: For me, I realised how important it was to go back to my original motivation to serve. I saw the different positions as platforms for me to showcase my experience and lead different groups of people to complete different tasks. And I treated each position as a different learning experience. Yes, I got recalled from the Speaker’s Office and that will forever be a stain on my record, but the vote was not one-sided, and there was a portion of the region who believed that I deserve a second chance, and trusted in me to learn from my mistakes and bounce back. And when I think about those people and their faith in me, I used it as my motivation to prove them right. I got an opportunity early on when I was offered to rejoin the MoWAA leadership team, which was where my journey started, and everything just fell into place after that.
Chipoli: That’s quite inspiring! I too, have faced difficulties in my time in TNP during the climb to the top, so I know how that feeling to serve is like. It is common for those who rose through the ranks to have someone guide them along the way. Who was that individual for you? If anyone, who would attribute your success in TNP to?
Fregerson: I don’t have one particular name, but I had a few people who gave me different opportunities across my entire time. First it was Tlomz, who back in 2019 found me off the WA forums and gave me an opportunity to become a Deputy MoWAA. Then it was McM, where I got my first opportunity to look at what it means to be a Minister and how things worked in the Executive Council. In recent months, Hulldom and Pallaith were there to give me some advice and encouraged me to take on the new challenges, whether it was being the MoFA under such difficult times, or becoming Vice Delegate currently.
Chipoli: Hulldom and Pallaith have been very crucial to my own journey, and it must be very helpful to have two former delegated by your side! They will hopefully continue to assisting you in these challenging times. Speaking of these times, as Vice Delegate, you are tasked with being the chair of the Security Council and to keep an eye out for security threats, both internal and external. Let’s talk about how you intend to do that. What are your plans for the rest of the term? Will you completely lock in to help defend us from our adversaries or are they any other objectives you will be pursuing?
Fregerson: While we continue to deal with an ongoing external war, we need to accept the fact that our internal regional security continues to be a pressing issue. We are entering into the 2nd month, and yet we are far from completing the transition. A key priority would be looking at how we can restart the infrastructure of the WA Development Program and try to keep the endorsement counts up as much as possible, while making sure we have border control on the lookout to ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes that led to our delegate tip the last time out.
Chipoli: Those objectives are going to be crucial to achieve over the next, especially now that we are at war with the Brotherhood of Malice and The Communist Bloc. We need to prevent a delegate tip from happening once again, which is partly why I joined the Security Council. How does the Security Council plan to increase the gap between 1st and 2nd in endorsements? Additionally, how can we speed up the transition of Kaschovia to the in-game seat?
Fregerson: I think we have lots of ideas in mind. As of press time Kaschovia would have published the World Assembly Report, which is the first step in trying to rebuild our entire WA Development Program system. Regaining the Keepers system and the incentive to be a Keeper would definitely be something that needs time looking into, and unfortunately that is not the easiest to achieve. With some time, I am pretty sure we can look at closing the gap by the middle of November, and then hopefully we would have some level of WADP infrastructure up going into the second half of the term.
Chipoli: Absolutely. You have a lot on your hands this term, such as continuing to rebuild our tech infrastructure, completing what is quite possibly the longest transition in history, and keeping an eye out on our regional security with the external threat being at an all-time high. It will definitely be interesting to see what comes of your plans, Fregerson. It has been a pleasure to interview you.
Thank you for reading!
Publisher: Kaschovia | Executive Editors: 
Francois Isidore and Halsoni
The North Star is produced by the Ministry of Communications on behalf of the Government of The North Pacific and is distributed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs externally and the Ministry of Communications internally.
Except where otherwise indicated, all content represents the views of the Government of The North Pacific.
Thanks for the update, boss.
The North Star - Issue XXXI
Editor’s Note
Dear readers,
As always, here I am to introduce you to this brand-new issue of The North Star. It’s always so wonderful to work on these with the Ministry, and despite my inactivity due to real-life circumstances, the team finished everything regardless of said inactivity. Amazing! Let’s get into the November edition of The North Star.
I honestly don’t have a lot to say about this issue. Due to my, as previously mentioned, lack of activity I wasn’t very closely involved in the process of this issue. Huge props to Delegate Kaschovia for stepping in and managing it in my place. He is such an amazing and involved leader and I honestly could never have wished for a better Delegate in terms of Comms. I would also like to thank Minister Robespierre for his consistent support during the making of this issue and to the amazing writers, editors and other staff who helped create this issue. You all make this possible.
As always there’s a lot of content in this issue of The North Star. Starting with an article about our recent judicial elections, very interesting! A progress report on how we’re demolishing TCB and BoM. We also have articles about both Blue Day and NationStates Day and finally a very interesting interview with our very own Delegate Kaschovia. If you wish to see something specific in the next issue of TNS be sure to contact me via telegram or DM me on Discord (@ruuuuuuuuben).
Finally, the Executive Staff of the Ministry of Communications would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to you, the reader. We pour a lot of time and effort into these issues, and it’s lovely that you take time out of your day to admire our hard work. Again, thank you, and we hope you enjoy reading another TNS issue.
Cheers,
Halsoni
Executive Deputy Minister of Communications
The War Rages On By Picairn
On October 5th, 2023, The North Pacific (TNP) formally declared war against The Communist Bloc (TCB) and the Brotherhood of Malice (BoM) for their August 27th Delegate-tip, the most significant attack on TNP in a decade. The infamy of that invasion will go down in NationStates’s history - our democracy was attacked, our sovereignty violated, and our dignity insulted with relentless raider provocations. Faced with this brazen aggression, our citizens stood together and overwhelmingly ratified the declaration of war against these two raider organisations, as well as their allies and territories. Many even took up arms and enlisted in the North Pacific Army (NPA) or the Militia despite having no previous raiding/defending experience, their enthusiasm and willingness to defend the region unrivalled by anything else.
Since then, TNP has gone through its first month of war with frantic military activity, as our gallant NPA soldiers - in close cooperation with our defender allies - fought vigorously to drive back the raider menace and liberate innocent regions from their clutches. The operation in Solidarity concluded with complete success on November 2nd as the region transitioned to a permanent coalition governorship, depriving TCB of a major colony and recruiting ground. Fresh from victory, the NPA conducted joint expeditions with the defender coalition into Asia, liberating the Far East Oriental Federation from the insidious Black Hawks and carrying out multiple sieges in the Philippines against the occupying force from Sparkalia and its allies.
From the Far Eastern Plains…
On October 22nd, 2023, just as the Solidarity operation was winding down, The Black Hawks (TBH) launched an invasion of the Far East Oriental Federation (FEOF) with assistance from several allies: BoM, LWU, Osiris, Sparkalia and Ijaka. Led by Joiklandia, the raiders jumped into the region late into minor update - around 11:46 PM GMT+7 - and seized the WA Delegacy from native Delegate Awesomeness. Refusing to surrender, Awesomeness and another native Namvosk took up arms to resist raider occupation and contacted the defenders for help. In the end, a staggering alliance of 15 regions and many mercenaries stepped up to liberate the region and restore the Delegacy to its rightful native Delegate, an incredible display of the defender coalition’s strength and coordination.
At major update on October 23rd (11:00 AM GMT+7), the first landing force was assembled in Artificial Solar System with 105 updaters participating in the operation, and further bolstered by 22 sleeper endorsements on Awesomeness in FEOF. Around 48 minutes in, the order was given for the major vanguard to jump into the region. But having an insufficient number of endorsements and getting hit with ejections left and right, they failed to dislodge Joiklandia from the region’s Delegacy. Nevertheless, a substantial beachhead was established, paving the way for a successful liberation later on.
Undaunted by failure, the defenders tried again at minor update (11:00 PM GMT+7) on the same day. This time, 90 updaters formed the second liberating force, on top of the major vanguard holding the beachhead. With just under 140 endorsements, Awesomeness successfully retook the WA Delegacy from Joiklandia at 11:48 PM, and the raiders were sent fleeing back to their nests. Upon returning to the Delegacy, Awesomeness publicly expressed their thanks to the liberators and began to restore the democratic native government. The operation ended in total victory for the defenders and the NPA, the latter of which contributed 22 soldiers and officers to the coalition.
…To the Philippine Jungle
Five days after the successful liberation of the Far East Oriental Federation, early into major update on October 28th, the raiders once again struck at an Asian region, the Philippines. Commanded by Batac (or known as Timiskrane/Nova Vinelandia), the invasion was primarily spearheaded by Sparkalia’s army with allied reinforcements from TCB, TBH, BoM, Osiris, Ijaka, Lily, Kantrias and Astoria. The raiders jumped into the Philippines at 11:03 PM GMT+7 and seized control of the regional Delegacy from native Delegate Berlande, who was ejected and banned 2 weeks later.
For some time before, the region had fallen into a period of inactivity, its community silent and its government absent from foreign affairs, which led to its removal from the United Regions Alliance. Nonetheless, the Philippines was a close-knit community with a rich history - it survived numerous invasions from the days of antiquity and was eventually refounded nearly 13 years ago by its now absent founder, Puan puri naduk. Vulnerable as it was to external attacks, the Philippines nevertheless supported full regional sovereignty, with its Philippine Defense Force having worked to protect other regions. The raiders claimed they would not burn this historic region to the ground and would instead reinvigorate it with a new government, but as it was their habit to raid and destroy so many other regions in the past, this was extremely difficult to believe. Not to mention the fact that the invasion was illegitimate by itself: a foreign army of invaders coming in and overthrowing the native government by force.
With that in mind, the defender coalition rapidly organised to liberate the region from raider control, with the active participation of the NPA. At major update (11:00 AM GMT+7) on October 29th, the first liberation force was assembled from 85 updaters and led by Hand of Heaven. Five minutes later, the major vanguard landed in the region but just like at FEOF, they failed to remove Batac from the Delegacy. There was a large disparity in the number of endorsements: at the time Batac had 161 while Hand of Heaven only had 85, or a difference of 76 endorsements.
What followed in the next 36 hours was a grueling series of sieges, as the defenders tried to close the gap. Although Hand of Heaven eventually reached over 100 endorsements after 4 sieges (including the first one), there was still a long way to go. Not only that, TCB brought in additional pilers to reinforce Batac’s position, making it particularly challenging for the defenders. With Z-Day approaching, the liberation attempt was eventually called off after October 30th’s minor update - the raiders could password the region during the event without costing influence.
But the defender coalition did not give up so easily. Two proposals to injunct and liberate the Philippines were written by Westinor and quickly brought to the Security Council on November 1st, to prevent the occupation force from fully taking control of the region. These proposals passed with a four-fifths majority, which is not surprising since the SC has long had a strong commitment to regional security and sovereignty. But the final goal to liberate the region was still far off, and the next three weeks passed without significant military activity.
In the interim, the raiders formed a new regional government, but it could only be described as a farce, a façade of democracy with no native support. Two were elected co-Presidents of the Philippines via open polls - a raider sleeper and another raider - and the government’s Cabinet was predictably filled with top officers of the occupying force.
The raiders finally departed the region shortly before major update on November 21st, claiming to have fulfilled their objectives. Defenders swiftly moved in and removed the illegitimate government, banning its officials from the region. The Philippines was returned to the natives after nearly a month under occupation, and a native Delegate was elected. Meanwhile, the illegitimate government was sent into exile and created a new region for itself, still attempting to claim it was legitimate and had native support the entire time.
In the aftermath, Minister of Defence Comfed awarded two ribbons to the NPA and Militia soldiers and officers that took part in the FEOF’s and Philippines’ liberation operations, and made several promotions to soldiers who had actively participated, including the author of this article himself. The turnout for the Philippine sieges was particularly notable with 33 soldiers and officers in total who joined. These numbers show how strong and united the North can be, and as long as we can maintain this kind of enthusiasm and spirit, we will stand tall against anyone who wants to attack us.
Judicial Elections by Arawi
The Court of the North Pacific is a hard-working and relentless institution that sometimes goes unrecognised by the TNP community, however is very important, as it provides clarity on some of the more complex elements of the law. Despite this, it is an institution that has had many issues recently, with high profile cases such as The North Pacific v. St George, and The North Pacific v. KEKISTON, GrandEngland both being prime examples of the region’s justice system, but also shedding light on some of the Court’s biggest problems. Voters in the recent judicial elections were looking for solutions to some of these problems, but also ideas, strategies and forecasts for the future of this complex institution.
The nomination and declaration period for the elections opened on the first of November. TNPers started to be concerned with the low level of candidacy confirmations and the general lack of enthusiasm for the election that shadowed over the first few days of the nomination period. However, the nomination period ramped up near its end, with five individuals declaring candidacy: Lord Dominator, Bobberino, Wymondham, Just a Lore and Eluvatar.
Let’s start with Lord Dominator. Now, LD is no unfamiliar face to the Court. They launched a short but sweet campaign, promising to ‘operate as a responsible Justice, in operation of their duties and in trying to ensure that others can fulfill their duties (and legal need) in the future’. Later, they stated their views that prosecutorial discretion is more of an RA matter, that voluntary recusal is useful, and that the primary reforms that are needed are those that will simplify trial procedures, particularly evidence submission procedure.
Next, Bobberino. Bob is less familiar to the Court, but reassured voters that his legal knowledge will be reliable as he has a legal dictionary in real life! Bob’s slogan was ‘Bridging the Gap’. He pledged to ‘make it a game again’, as he sees the position of Justice and the criminal justice system in TNP to be overly verbose and litigious; Bob pledged to make the rules clearer and for residents to be notified when rules are changed.
Let’s go to Wym. Wym was elected in the Special Judicial Election a couple months ago and was vying for a full term in office. Wym was very conservative in their campaign; all of their promises were already articulated in their campaign for the Special Election, and they were less emphatic about reform as some of the other candidates. However, they did also explain that they had warmed towards the reform plans formulated by Attempted Socialism.
And finally Eluvatar, who like other candidates, is not a stranger to the Court. They referenced their previous campaign in July in their campaign this time, which overall reiterated the legal theory of the North Pacific, and emphasized the Court‘s solemn duty to provide fair trials, seek truth, offer space for debate, and receive evidence for careful deliberation, which he believes upholds TNP’s commitment to democracy. When asked about Attempted Socialism’s reform proposals, Elu said that they believed in their direction, but acknowledged that some of them would need consideration in the RA.
Voting then came, and lasted for five days. 70 citizens voted out of around 155. In the end, Eluvatar, Wymondham, and Lord Dominator were elected as Justices. The ballot paper uses the ranked-choice voting system. Elu was the most popular candidate put in the top spot, being put on the top of 58% of voter’s ballots. Wymondham was actually the third-placed candidate in terms of being included on the ballot, being included on 51% of ballots, however they were more commonly placed higher on voters ballots. Lord Dominator was included on 68% of ballots. The Court then decided that Wymondham would serve as Chief Justice. Now, the elected Justices have a lot on their plate to reform the Court, to improve one of the institutions we are most proud of as a region, and to keep the region’s famous democracy flowing through our Court.
NationStates Day 2023 By Kaschovia
The North Pacific is one of the largest and most historical communities in all of NationStates, its origins stretching as far back as 2002, when the site was first launched. With so many decisive moments by which to credit its current democratic existence, there’s a certain gratitude felt for the NationStates multiverse by default which calls for celebration and heartfelt reminiscence. For many players, this multiverse has provided years of memories, connection, and enjoyment which is genuinely hard to come by in a lot of other online communities, especially in the political simulation category. As we all find our place in this game over the years, the picture grows larger, the shoulders of those past nations upon which we stand today continue to soar higher, and the overarching timeline gets longer. There’s something enriching about being a part of that, which deserves recognition and ultimately is why we celebrate NationStates Day in the first place.
This year, our celebrations kicked off with a regional poll appropriately titled ‘NationStates Day 2023’, and asked nations what their favorite part of the game was. The results were as follows:
Answering issues and improving national rankings got 109 votes, roleplaying with fellow nations and belonging to the overall community both got 29 votes, trading and collecting cards got 14 votes, taking part in military gameplay and or the NPA got 12 votes, something else got 7 votes, voting on or writing World Assembly resolutions got 6 votes, being part of the executive staff and helping ministries and going to regional events both got 2 votes, and anything related to regional law and justice got just 1 single vote.
It is unsurprising that the answer chosen most by respondents was about answering issues and improving national rankings. For most nations, this is the bread and butter of what makes NationStates great. Slowly working on your national rankings, encountering new issues, and climbing the leaderboards is an intrinsic element of political simulation and nation building, and so it’s understandable that this is what most nations consider their favorite part.
In second and third place on the same points, roleplaying and belonging to the community both got twenty-nine votes. The roleplaying scene in NationStates almost always takes on a life of its own separate from governmental aspects and is home to many thousands of active roleplayers. It makes a lot of sense that this is second, since roleplaying worlds provide a total escape for a lot of players where anything is possible. Alliances can form, built over the years, wars can be fought, characters can take on detailed personalities of their own, all at the hands of those who roleplay and write, collaboratively or individually.
And of course, belonging to the community is also a no-brainer. The North Pacific has a real community spirit, no matter what aspect of the game nations choose, they’re still united under the banner of TNP its history and identity. That sense of community and the belonging which it brings is also personally my favorite aspect of the game. I’ve had some fantastic experiences over the years, only made possible by this community and by those who call it home.
In third and fourth respectively, trading cards got 14 votes and military gameplay 12 votes. Since its introduction to the game a couple of years ago, trading cards have been a mainstay for many nations. The competitive nature of trading, tracking prices, making profits, and completing collections has been a consistent draw, and in many ways military gameplay is the same. Advancing your R/D abilities, climbing the ranks, and leading others into battle is something many nations take part in every single day. Shared experiences with fellow soldiers, such as historical sieges, or winning over a rival military force, can be incredibly rewarding.
Voting on or writing World Assembly resolutions got six votes, which I think accurately reflects the degree to which players generally prefer the World Assembly to any other part of the game. It’s a complex area, requiring determination and grit in order to succeed, but I can imagine those who do succeed find it immensely rewarding drafting, debating, amending, and rallying for a resolution to pass after all the time and effort put into it. This only scratches the surface, with many layers of discussion, rulings, precedent, and questions about which direction the World Assembly could, or should, go.
The last three in terms of votes were being part of the executive staff and helping ministries, going to regional events, and anything related to regional law and justice. I can definitely understand why executive work and regional law may not be ranked as highly as the others, first and foremost because they are umbrella descriptions for a whole range of tasks and responsibilities, the enjoyment of which can vary dramatically depending on which area and which task we’re talking about. Those who voted for either as their favorite part of the game are likely to be specialists in that area. Going to regional events is also quite a vague description for what the choice could potentially entail, and I do understand this might be lower because events do not happen as frequently as the other options. Nevertheless, two respondents feel that they are their favorite part of NationStates!
Continuing celebrations for NationStates Day into the following week, the Ministry of Culture organized for the theme of the week, typically starting on Thursday, to be NationStates-related memes or images. The winning submission was an entry by Great Bights Mum, which was a picture of a bouquet of TNP flags on a desk, receiving the most reactions. The second placed submission was a throwback to N-Day by Dantek. There were additional plans to do another survey asking for favorite memories and quotes, but did not materialize in the end. For just a one day celebration, we got an insightful poll, a Theme Thursday with some great submissions, and this article!
Part of the beauty of a game like NationStates is that it really is whatever you make it. The sub-communities and regions which make up the NS player base provide spaces for many types of players, whether they’re casual issue answerers, hardcore military strategists, or anything in between, the true lasting strength of this browser-based online political simulator is in the variety it offers to those who play for long enough to find out, and I believe that is definitely worth celebrating.
Blue Day: An Ode to the Forums by Kaschovia
If you read the previous article on ‘NationStates Day’, then you’ll notice this article has a similar feel, but dedicated to a different, yet just as important, facet of life in The North Pacific: the regional forums. Blue Day is celebrated on the 23rd of November, which is the same date that The Twoslit Experiment, a former Delegate of the region, joined the first ever regional forum as a member. He’d created the forum via an administrative account around a month or so prior, yet this would mark the beginning of a whole new era for the North. It is an acknowledgement of this momentous period in our history, through which the lawlessness of unelected delegates and insecurity quickly disappeared and gave way to the stable democracy we now enjoy.
To have a regional forum in the early days of NationStates signified the start of more organized regional governance, at least when Discord was thirteen years away from its release. It meant that specific topics could be explored, roles could be designated, and laws could be officially ratified. It also brought members of the community closer together in out-of-character forums, events, and games. As I wrote in a previous TNS article Echoes: The Past Delegate Series (2003): “No time was wasted in moving the gameside population across to the forums, and before long it became the birthplace of a vibrant Out-Of-Character scene, the foundation for the regional forums used so ubiquitously today, and the stage upon which future governments would shine.” This is essentially why Blue Day exists, because without the forums, our region would be vastly different.
The first regional forums would see the creation of a Diplomatic Corps just a day after its creation, then a subforum for Delegate Campaigns, discussions, and so much more which served to enrich the experience of the average North Pacifican.
To have an agora of sorts, where ideas could be exchanged and priorities could be laid down, meant the community could collectively decide on matters of importance outside of the Regional Message Board, where conversations would inevitably overlap. This clarity of discussion would eventually lead to the pursuit of those top priorities: formal elections, a first constitution, and a legislative body. The foundations were in place for democracy to thrive.
Blue Day this year was celebrated in a variety of ways. Firstly, a poll was released asking members of the community what their favorite movie from 2003 was from a list of the highest grossing films that year. The options were LoR: The Return of the King, Finding Nemo, The Matrix Reloaded, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl, Bruce Almighty, The Last Samurai, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. By the end of the poll, the results were in. These were the North Pacific’s favorite films from 2003: In first place, Finding Nemo won with 60 votes, then it was The Return of the King on 32, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean on 17. In fourth was Terminator 3 on 7 votes, then Bruce Almighty on 5, The Last Samurai on 3, and in last place was The Matrix Reloaded on just 2 votes.
Next, an announcement was put out commemorating the occasion in the regional Discord, also acknowledging the celebration of Thanksgiving for those who celebrate it. The Theme Thursday for that week was going to be anything related to the year 2003, so a handful of ministers and members of the community changed their profile pictures and Discord avatars to images from 2003. We saw Jim Carrey as Bruce Almighty, the Australian team victory in the 2003 ICC World Cup, a gobble teddy bear, and a picture of the film Finding Nemo. It’s always great to see members of the government getting involved with Theme Thursdays and sharing moments or images from that time period which are important to them.
In the spirit of the out-of-character shenanigans which define the earlier years of the first forum, spam threads were encouraged to boost the post count of the current forum. The OOC culture on the forums has been thriving for years, where regulars have started their own games, helped the activity of others, and generally provided a place for members of the community to relax and express either their creativity or their silliness. The total post count of the forums currently stands at a staggering 1,018,876 posts, so with 12,013 members, that makes the average post count per member approximately 85. While the week following Blue Day did not see a flurry of spam as encouraged, the OOC subforums remain a welcoming and enjoyable place for everyone.
There have been plenty of groundbreaking moments for The North Pacific throughout its history, whether we’re talking about the ratification of the first constitution or the liberation of the region from rogue forces, the establishment of the first forums are up there with some of the most important events ever to happen in our region. We have to be conscious and grateful for the behemoth efforts from TNPers past to make our community what it is today, and so from me, the current Delegate, and from everyone who shares the same interest in our beginnings, we say a sincere and heartfelt thank you.
Interview with Delegate Kaschovia by Chipoli
Chipoli: Hello, everyone! I am Chipoli, and we are here with a new edition of the Spotlight, a series in which I have the opportunity to sit down and speak with some of The North Pacific’s finest minds. This individual is certainly one of them. I am incredibly excited and honored to welcome the Delegate of The North Pacific, Kaschovia! Welcome!
Kaschovia: Thank you for having me! It’s great to be back on the Spotlight and I look forward to answering your questions.
Chipoli: That is wonderful to hear. I believe it would be best if we started from the very beginning. You have obviously built a very storied and respectable career, but we all had to start somewhere. Kasch, can you give us a bit of insight into your origins in NationStates?
Kaschovia: My origins in NationStates are fairly standard, I would say. Back in 2016, which astonishingly is seven years ago now, I found NS the same way many new players do: simply by wanting to play some kind of game where you rule a country, make your own laws, and watch your population grow. I had absolutely no idea what more was in store for me, in hindsight, but that’s the really great thing about NS. I distinctly remember being curious at the time about what the biggest region in the game was, which inevitably led me to The North Pacific. From there, I joined the forums and met such wonderful members of our community as FrozenTopHat and Bootsie, joined the North Pacific Army, and started to get to know the active TNPers of the time. I find it quite endearing reading all of my old posts back because you can almost sense in my writing that there was this glint in my eye, an unfiltered fascination with the region and the game. That fascination remains to this day, all this time later.
Chipoli: I can understand what it is like as a newcomer to be excited and curious about so many aspects of the game, and I do see that same fascination in myself during my very beginnings in NationStates. That curiosity ultimately naturally led to you receiving more and more opportunities to grow as a player, all the way up to being in charge, which we will discuss later on. When did you first get involved with our government?
Kaschovia: I first got involved in the government of The North Pacific shortly after I joined. The Delegate at the time, Lord Ravenclaw, offered me an opportunity as Minister of Gameside Affairs, which I suppose was a sort of precursor to the Gameside Advocates, albeit there were definitely some differences. At the time it was very exciting to have that minister title and to take on more responsibility, so I really took it in my stride and did whatever I could to help out, despite having much less experience than I do now. From there, I just wanted to keep improving my skills and learning more every day.
Chipoli: That is quite fascinating! Your first real opportunity in high-level government here in TNP, was managing a ministry that does not exist any longer, albeit later revamped to what we know today as the Gameside Advocates. If I recall, you rose up the ranks quite quickly in your early days and managed to attain the position of Vice Delegate around 5 to 6 years ago. The security state of NS was vastly different from what it is today, as the Security Council was. How would you describe your experience in that role? How have things changed since you left office?
Kaschovia: Honestly, I don’t remember a massive deal from my time as Vice Delegate. As you said, the term was five to six years ago so what I can recall is quite minimal. However, I do know that I got a good grasp of what it takes to fulfill the basic responsibilities of the position, whether that was security checks, correspondence with the Security Council, or putting together the WADP dispatches. It allowed me to more formally make a case for myself in terms of leadership positions and definitely provided a launch pad of sorts for the years to come.
Simultaneously, I can say that I struggled when it came to the more complex elements of the role, such as information disclosure processes, the finer laws surrounding the office, and answering questions on those aspects in the election cycle where Siwale was elected to the position. I feel that my ambition and willingness to encourage new ideas, or ways of operating within the role, showed that I was capable, while the weaknesses inherent in my lack of experience probably made it clear that I still had a lot of room to grow and learn. In terms of what I think has changed, I wouldn’t say all that much. The basic expectations of the Vice Delegate remain similar, although activity levels and engagement with other areas of the executive are highlighted more today than they were back then.
In a more modern context, the Vice Delegacy and the regional security landscape have definitely changed with the introduction of frontiers, falling endorsement levels, and broken technological infrastructure, so it’s more important than ever for the SC and VD to be alert, engaged, and willing to try new things, but also to expect more activity from its members so that the region is informed of our current security challenges.
Chipoli: I’m sure that was a very useful learning experience, and I can say the same for myself, having been a former Vice Delegate. I’d say you ended up adapting to that role pretty well and even briefly served on the Security Council. From there, you stepped down from our government for about a year and served for a term as Minister of Communications 3 years ago, at a time when the Ministry was struggling for activity and it was hard to get results out of it. Fast-forward to this spring, when you were re-appointed to the same position. This tenure was a vast improvement over your previous one, and Communications was regarded as one of the highest performing ministries in TNP. How did you get back into the rhythm you were looking for? What inspired you to make a comeback to TNP’s government?
Kaschovia: So, I knew I wanted to come back to NationStates and The North Pacific earlier this year, and I noticed Communications was no longer a ministry, which definitely piqued my interest. At the time, a lot of dramatic events were happening, but the two that I remember most distinctly were the repeal of the Aurora Alliance and the introduction of frontiers. It just seemed like a waste of creative potential not to have people writing about everything that was going on, so I put together an issue of TNS which, graphically speaking, broke new ground in terms of what we could do sustainably and repeatedly each month. The start of NBS came after, and I just pushed some ideas for Communications which resonated and built a new staff base. Finding my rhythm came more from being consistent with things myself. It can be easy to put things off sometimes, but real progress is made in those everyday commitments to work on the things you enjoy, and so I did, which has led me to where I am now. The inspiration to come back to the government was simple - I like overcoming challenges even if I have to put a lot of time into them. I think, as a region, we’re facing many different challenges at the moment, and so for me, I guess I wanted to help address and overcome as many of those as I could.
Chipoli: I know that anyone who has gotten the chance to work with you knows how passionate you are about the ministry, and your passion certainly paid off. Comms did have a lot of creative potential given the drama occurring in NationStates at that particular time, and that potential was tapped into. I can totally understand your enjoyment in taking on challenges and the process of overcoming them. Later on, your work led to a successful bid for the Delegacy in September, even after you resigned from your position as part of a mass cabinet resignation. At what moment, did you realize you finally had a real opportunity to lead this region and become its Delegate?
Kaschovia: I think I realized I had an opportunity to lead the region once I’d finished drafting up my platform. I knew where I wanted things to change, and how I was going to implement that change, so it was just a matter of putting the platform forward effectively and answering questions well. The moment it really hit was when I actually won the election, though. I massively respected your platform and the votes felt close between the two of us for a large part of the voting period. There was a mixture of relief, anticipation, and pride, but I knew the real work was still ahead.
Chipoli: Winning an election has to be one of the greatest feelings a player can experience, and I congratulate you on your victory once more. You published a platform with extensive plans on how you will lead TNP into a time of change. It has now passed the halfway point of the term. Can you lay out for those who don’t know what you set out to accomplish? How do you feel about the progress towards those goals that have been made so far?
Kaschovia: I think this term has seen a lot of rapid change. In Defense, we’ve engaged High Command much further in the training process, created the militia, and seen so many promising new recruits begin to rise through the ranks. A lot of the incentives I spoke about in my platform are now a part of what the NPA uses to retain recruits, but most importantly I think we’re seeing our military more often and in more places.
On the Foreign Affairs front, some of the smaller objectives I detailed in my platform have fallen by the wayside for the more important considerations such as the war, new treaties and diplomatic discussions. I’m definitely looking to get those staff level objectives done still, but I am very pleased with how our FA approach has worked this term.
In Culture, we set out to do more events consistently, and I think we’ve done that. We’ve held multiple interregional events already and we invest time into our weekly events too. There are still some things that I think we should be exploring, and I need to communicate with those who are passionate about making game nights, for example, to make them happen.
In World Assembly Affairs, Magecastle has done an excellent job bringing new technologies and ministerial infrastructure to the forefront and the new MoWAA Simone has been as consistent as ever, which has been great to see. We’re trying to push for several commends of TNPers through the Heroes of Valhalla program, which I think is what we need to start seeing more of. In terms of things like the Gameside Engagement Program and the World Assembly Acceleration Program, I think more discussion is needed in order for us to move forward, but we’re still trying to see what works.
Home Affairs has been operating at really great levels under Lionsroar, but a lot is still happening behind the scenes. We have solutions which would complete our trident recruitment strategy, but it’s just a matter of time before they are implemented.
And finally, I have been super happy with how Communications has been doing post-revival and I think we have some really solid foundations in place to keep the ministry going. Radio has been extremely active, new writers are impressing, we’re trying new methods of news releases, and the leadership team has been excellent.
Overall, I am really happy with our progress so far but I know there is still a lot more to do before the end of the term.
Chipoli: I think we can all agree that this has been a successful first half of the term, and your ambitious plans for The North are being realized with remarkable progress and tangible results. Building on this momentum, your administration will now be focused on sustaining the positive trajectory the region has taken. Looking ahead, what are the key priorities and goals for the remaining term, and how do you plan to navigate any potential challenges that may arise?
Kaschovia: I’ll be going off the top of my head here, but one of my key priorities for the remainder of the term is to complete the delegacy transition. We’ve landed on difficult times in terms of WA numbers, and there are multiple factors responsible, from the frontiers update to broken WA infrastructure, but we’re very close now and it is something I want to complete before January. Then, I would say continuing to expand our military, advancing our war goals, creating the next generation of talented leaders, restoring our regional infrastructure (API and manual recruitment are both a part of that), maintaining our robust Foreign Affairs approach, innovating more in Culture, realizing our goals in World Assembly Affairs, and ensuring the continued success of Communications. Navigating challenges is a daily element of this position, and I know that every challenge can be overcome with the right team by your side and enough work ethic to see problems through until the end. I know we have that.
Chipoli: Those look like some very promising plans, Kasch. I’ll start with your goal of completing the delegate transition by January. You currently are in 2nd place for endorsements, and sit 32 endorsements behind current WA Delegate Pallaith, which can certainly be gained by your target date. I would like to ask you this - How will you combat the declining WA Numbers and the issue of the broken infrastructure? What steps are being taken to ensure a quicker transition?
Kaschovia: Okay, so combatting declining WA numbers is going to be essential over the next few months, and there are a couple of ways we can do so: firstly, I’d like to see the return of more regular cards giveaways with legendaries and epics on offer every week or so, especially to keepers. In that vein, I’d like to experiment with new monthly leaderboards and rankings for endorsements alongside the weekly reports, if I can get something coded to put such a dispatch together. I also want to increase the number of non-WAs who join the WA, so specific messaging can help achieve that. Overall, there are various ways of combating declining WA numbers, but it’s going to take a little bit of time to feel the effects of those solutions. To answer your second question, ensuring a quicker transition is happening through these weekly reports I’ve been putting out, which I do think has helped. I also endorse daily, telegramming everyone who hasn’t endorsed me yet. The GAs have been advertising the transition and the importance of endorsing both myself and Fregerson, but like I said, this was always going to take some time given our current circumstances.
Chipoli: I think anyone can tell that you’ve gone to great lengths to complete what is likely one of the longest transitions in TNP history. I wish you luck in that regard, and I do very much hope that you will be in the seat come January. I believe your weekly reports have certainly helped with the transition, and they will surely continue to do so. Moving on to the next portion of your plans, you mention that to look to continue to expand our military and advance our war goals. Now, you’re Commander-in-Chief of The North Pacific Army and have oversaw TNP’s first inter-regional conflict in over a decade. Would you call the beginning phase of the war a success? As for expanding the military, how do you plan to approach recruitment efforts? How much time will you spend looking to engage our gamesiders, such as pointing them to the TNP Militia?
Kaschovia: To answer your question about the beginning phase of the war being a success, I would say absolutely it has been. Not only in terms of securing our war goals but also in terms of advancing our domestic goals too. We have secured multiple crucial victories where BoM and TCB have been involved, we proved that we can outnumber them alongside our allies when we took Solidarity, and the creation of the militia has significantly boosted our piling capabilities. We’ve had to adapt to a larger, more active military over the last few months, which means we’ve had to iron some things out, but overall I’d see the beginnings of this war as a massive success. In terms of recruitment efforts, we had a lot of momentum at the peak of the Solidarity operation recruiting for the NPA and putting out promotional materials, so that energy needs to continue. Defense must keep brainstorming and thinking about how soldiers can be rewarded for their service if we are to scale our military up further, for sure.
Engagement is always very important with recruits, R/D can have a steep learning curve so it’s vital that we communicate with new members and show them the ropes to the best of our capabilities. When it comes to engaging gamesiders and potentially pointing them to the militia, I think our outreach so far has been consistent enough through such channels as the GAs, and I know High Command has been doing a really great job managing integration and training factors, too. We’ve seen a lot of new recruits over the last two months, which is awesome.
Chipoli: Absolutely. The NPA has taken a huge step up when it comes to training, recruitment, and integration. Since the war began, the number of new recruits has skyrocketed to levels many of us have never seen before, which certainly proved a handful of people wrong who were skeptical about the war effort. Let’s move on to Foreign Affairs now. Recently, we’ve taken a much stronger foreign affairs approach, as shown by our response to the delegate tip and our declaration of war on the Brotherhood of Malice and The Communist Bloc. Do you think this approach has worked in our favor? What are your future plans for TNP in the diplomatic landscape looking like?
Kaschovia: I do think a stronger approach to Foreign Affairs has worked in our favour, yes. It’s important that we’re making our diplomatic boundaries clear on the international stage so we can balance our external and domestic affairs. I believe we’ve been firm and practical, allowing ourselves to prioritize our goals at home and abroad without sacrificing too much of our energy in the process. In terms of future plans, I’d like for us to continue reaching out to more frontiers for diplomatic relations, and emboldening some of our more recent relationships, for example with The League, The Wellspring, and Carcassonne. I’d also like to see us reaching out to existing allies for potential collaboration on more events and festivals. Addressing our diplomatic plans in terms of war, we’ve already been limiting the potential for TCB and BoM to bait members of our community into the sorts of arenas they prefer, such as the gameplay forums, because I think our community has realized that it’s not worth our time when we could be improving our state of affairs where it matters. It’s vital that we continue to channel the words put down in ‘To War’, because that’s our stance, and let our enemies know that we will stand by that until the end.
Chipoli: The North Pacific has strongly communicated its feelings on foreign policy and has stood firm and held its ground, which is an approach I strongly agree with and have advocated for. It has been a very busy last couple of terms for us FA-wise, and it will continue to be. I can only wish you luck in tackling these challenges at this extraordinary time in history. Let’s shift our focus to the more internal ministries - Home Affairs, Culture, and Communications. How are things going there? Are our goals being met? In what ways can we improve?
Kaschovia: Let’s start with Home Affairs. I have to give huge credit to Lionsroar for stepping up and managing the ministry brilliantly this term, especially with mentoring, welcoming, telegramming, and the GAs. Without his hard work, there’s a sizable hole in our executive output. Home Affairs has pursued the restoration of key recruitment infrastructure, for example, the API recruitment script which Sil Dorsett has been perfecting and should be complete soon. We also have a pending solution for manual recruitment which will be explored this month. We’re looking at improving rewards incentives for staffers, and there’s much more on the horizon to come for HA.
Culture has been chugging along, doing regular weekly events such as Music Mondays and Theme Thursdays, and we’ve also had some really great events this term, so overall I think things are going great and I’d say our goals have been met. However, we do still need to explore diversifying games on Discord and pursuing alternative cultural events.
As for Communications, I am immensely proud of how the revival has been continued and upheld. We’ve been consistently releasing editions of TNS, albeit a few days later than scheduled, and we’ve been coordinating high-quality radio shows. TNN has seen a slight adjustment in its process, which I think has worked thus far. I think if we invest our energy in the right areas, those which staff enjoy the most, then more progress will be made.
Chipoli: We’ve already established that this has been a productive term so far and that our ministries have been operating at high levels as usual, but we obviously still have plenty of work to do. Let’s look at the big picture now. You’ve just given us all some extra insight into what our government has been up to, but now I would like to ask for your thoughts on it as a whole. Which ministry has been the most successful? What about the least?
Kaschovia: On the whole, I am pleased with our progress but constantly aware of the work that still needs to be done. There are areas where we can improve, from staff numbers and engagement, to making sure dispatches are up to date with the latest information. As for which ministry I think has been the most or least successful, I think they’ve all done very well in their own area of the executive and have proven that while great progress can be made, there is always room for further improvement down the line.
Chipoli: Well, that really is what I think we all can take away from this discussion. The North Pacific has thrived under your leadership thus far in your very first term, and I very much hope we can continue to do so under your onward light. I would like to thank you once more for taking the time to sit through my questions - it was quite intriguing to hear from the perspective of the individual who is leading us through one of the most turbulent times in our region’s history. It was a pleasure, Kasch.
Kaschovia: Thank you, Chipoli. It’s been a pleasure too!
Thank you for reading!
Publisher: Kaschovia | Executive Editors: 
Francois Isidore and Halsoni
The North Star is produced by the Ministry of Communications on behalf of the Government of The North Pacific and is distributed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs externally and the Ministry of Communications internally.
Except where otherwise indicated, all content represents the views of the Government of The North Pacific.
Thanks for the read, boss.
Kaschovia Elected Delegate of The North Pacific
For immediate release.
Kaschovia has been re-elected as Delegate of The North Pacific as of 11 January 2024. He received 69 votes coming in at 93.24% of the popular vote, while his opponents Osk!ebot and Vapia received one (1.35%) and four (5.41%) votes respectively. Seven people abstained, and seven voted to re-open nominations, representing 8.64% of voters. He will be the first delegate to serve two consecutive terms since Pallaith, who served from May 2022 to January 2023.
In his opening address to the region, Kaschovia stressed that he “[believes] in all of us to pull together and show the world what it means to be a part of The North Pacific,” and emphasized continuity with the growth and advancement of the past term. His cabinet is as follows:
Minister of Defence - Robespierre (Francois Isidore)
Minister of Foreign Affairs - Comfed
Minister of World Assembly Affairs - Simone (Simone Republic)
Minister of Culture - Nutmeg The Squirrel (The Anddoran Commune)
Minister of Home Affairs & Lead Gameside Advocate - Lionsmeow (Lionsroar)
Minister of Communications - Halsoni
He is also joined in government by Speaker Arafuttio and Vice Delegate Chipoli. Arafuttio received 58 votes, with 23 abstained and 25 voted to re-open nominations, representing 30.86% of the voters, likely because they ran unopposed. The Vice Delegate race was certainly the most exciting of the three, with three candidates - Hulldom, Chipoli, and Nutmeg The Squirrel - entering the fray. However, Hulldom dropped out of the race during the voting period, leaving just the last two candidates. Ultimately Chipoli prevailed with 50 votes, 70.42% of the ballots, while Nutmeg The Squirrel received 21 votes, 29.58% of the final count. 10 voters abstained and 13 (16.05%) voted to re-open nominations.
Election Commissioners Gorundu and Simone supervised the election.
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Appreciate the update, and congrats to the Delegate and Cabinet!
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I tried to post the latest issue of TNS, but it was so long it spanned three consecutive posts, which I guess got flagged as spam or something, because they’re now gone. So here’s a link to the dispatch version which unlike mine, has no formatting errors:
https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1979660
Edit: I see what the problem was. I posted the update in the Assembly somehow. I apologize for that. Thought I knew how to use these forums. May be stupid <_<
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Welcome! Here’s a llama 
.
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Welcome, Ambassador!
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)Very cool, everyone should read this (not unbiased at all)
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Thanks for the update!
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With everyone in shock after the Great Hamster Revolt, I assume a lot of people are confused and don’t know what to do next. While I do not have all the solutions, I do bring at least one.
Reading our latest The North Star! Right here: NationStates | Dispatch | The North Star - Issue XXXV, March 2024
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