by Dinoium, Deputy Attorney General and Gameside Advocate
Views in this interview may not reflect the views of TNP's government
Views in this interview may not reflect the views of TNP's government
Darcania was happy to hear that they could get a redo interview after a year of a previously attempted interview.
Dinoium: Hello there and welcome to this month's The Spotlight. Today we will be interviewing Darcania! How are you doing this fine day, Darc?
Darcania: Well enough.
Dinoium: Great! Can you tell me a summary of your background in NationStates and The North Pacific?
Darcania: Well, Darcania was founded in The North Pacific right away, and while I looked for a good RP UCR to settle into I never found one that met my needs, and so instead I became a roleplayer in TNP. During my first stint here, I quickly became a Citizen and joined the NPA as well. I first rose to prominence when I was a Deputy Minister of Home Affairs under Andrew, reviving the decaying Mentoring program and helping to set some standards for it. Later on, I also became a Roleplay Moderator when that program was revived, and also served as the NPA Chief of Staff under Eluvatar. Unfortunately, a conflict with how RP was led and moderated led to me leaving NS for about a full year.
A year later, I came back after some prompting from Syrixia pointing out that RP leadership had improved since I left. While I intended to get back into RP, I never managed to really get back into it and become a mainstay of RP like before. Instead, I became more involved in the regional government, becoming a Deputy Minister of Culture under Syrixia and Goyanes, and one of Ash's many Deputy Attorneys General. I even ran for Delegate, though I withdrew my candidacy before voting.
After Ash left NS, I was elected into office for the first time as Attorney General, where I would serve for the better part of a year. It was also during Pallaith's first Delegacy that I was appointed into my first Ministry position, Minister of Defense. Nothing of note happened during either, though I was appointed a forum administrator during this time.
Soon after, I was elected Speaker in a special election, where I served with distinction, bringing much-needed speed and consistency to the office. Many were wondering when I would run for Delegate, though I never did. Soon enough I declined to run for another Speaker term to run for Vice Delegate, though, again, I dropped out of the race before voting began.
I then left NS for a second time about a month later, though this leave wouldn't last for a full year. I returned to NS and, while I had lost much of the influence I had during my heyday, I was still appointed for a second Ministership, once again as Pallaith's Minister of Defense. Though I resigned before the term was over, I remained to assist the incoming Minister, Bobberino, as he took the reigns for his first time. And here, we reach the present day.
Dinoium: That seems to be an impressive background. Which one do you think was the best position in your opinion?
Darcania: While I served well as Speaker, better than my terms as Minister of Defense, in my opinion, I also caused undue stress on myself due to undertaking all of its duties on myself, due to inactive Deputies. At the time, I also had to handle the majority of forum and Discord administration. I also failed to leave the office in any good state when I left it, leaving behind almost no resources that future Speakers could take advantage of, beyond Feyt's (now Madeline's) autorole functionality for the Discord server.
My second term as Minister of Defense was by far my favorite term in office. While there was still paperwork and spreadsheets to take care of, both of which I excel at handling if you'll pardon the pun, I also had to consider "soft" data as well, such as the state of my soldiers and our relationship with other military organizations. While I was unsure how well I would handle this coming into my second term, it proved to be a challenge that I overcame with zeal. The various challenges of a Minister position are a far cry from the sleepy days as Attorney General or the rote tasks as Speaker, and I enjoyed tackling these challenges and innovating new ways to handle them.
Dinoium: Interesting. Seeing how that was your favorite experience, who do you think was the best Minister of Defense in terms of leadership and merit?
Darcania: It's tough to beat the legendary Gladio. His experience in the position is unrivaled by any current NPA soldier, and even after a term in TNP's Security Council, his triggering remains top-notch. While most of the newer soldiers, including our current Minister of Defense, have never experienced Gladio in the position, I have, and his sheer consistency in the office is unmatched. Recent MoDs would have to step back after only a term due to how much work the office entails, yet Gladio managed to serve many terms in a row without tiring from it.
Dinoium: Yeah Gladio is a great Minister of Defense. Without releasing anything operation secret, what do you think is a great tactic to use when Raiding or Defending (i.e. Programs to use; strategies, etc.)?
Darcania: Most organizations by now, when requiring precision, will use a program to find targets, a program to find trigger regions, then use manual triggers from those regions. For looser operations like detags, there are also some programs that will figure all that out on their own for you, but nothing remains as accurate as manual triggering. As for the details, I believe they'd be outside the scope of this interview - so anyone looking to try them out should look around for these programs themselves or even join their local military organization (for example, the North Pacific Army) to get some hands-on practice in.
Dinoium: Alright then. Who in your opinion was the biggest mentor to you in NS?
Darcania: I can't particularly point to a single person who was a larger mentor than anyone else. Ever since I joined, I've generally acted independently and learned on my own, or from simple observation. Through various leaders in TNP I've learned from their successes and their mistakes, and I would often butt heads with these leaders due to my independent streak. However, my general laid-back attitude and friendly demeanor have prevented most of these incidents from damaging my friendships with these leaders. From MadJack to Raven and from Ghost to Gladio, there is no shortage of experience that a new player can learn from, nor a shortage of mistakes that a fresh set of eyes can see and resolve when they rise to the top spot.
Dinoium: That must be good to mentor yourself by observing successes and mistakes. Is there any specific advice you would like to give to anyone reading this on how to become as successful as you?
Darcania: I would say to start out by finding your niche, or niches. I started in roleplay, for example, and Bobberino found his niche in the NPA. As you devote your time and effort there, you will eventually find success, and from there, you can blossom out and find other areas you can succeed in. You'll already have a foothold in your home turf, so to speak, and as you gain more well-rounded experience, learn from more leaders, and gain a name for yourself in many areas, you'll quickly find yourself being talked about as a future Delegate. For example, I explicitly avoided anything law-based when I first joined, but as I learned more about it and made more of a name for myself as a legal mind, I now have a small measure of notoriety in that area.
That said, there's no reason to shoot for the high spot. In other areas of the game don't suit you, don't force yourself. There's nothing wrong with being a leader in your own spheres and niches.
Dinoium: How do you come up with the Floof/Fluff and why do you think has it made much importance.
Darcania: Well, it's a bit of a long story, but a long while ago, Yalkan and I would talk late into the night in TNP's main Discord server (making it the most active NS Discord based on the Heartbeat's data), and as time progressed our RPs together became more serious. However, after two years of RPing with the same characters, we realized that our characters had grown to the point where they had no character arc left, and thus were no longer interesting to RP. We retired those characters and brainstormed new characters, furred dragons from a waning dragon clan in the far tundras of the north. These new dragons were furred dragons, and of course, I changed my Discord avatar to match my character - and I chose a red and white dragon with a crown on its ear [picture seen above].
At the time, I also held citizenship in TWP, and they (mostly Altino) noticed right away. A short time later, I met TWP native Skymoot, aka Fedora Dan, and the two of us in a way helped to kickstart RP in TWP's Discord server. Skymoot later joined TNP's server, and he, Yalkan, and I managed to associate my NS persona with Floof by our conversations. It became a bit of a meme in TNP after that, and with my growing popularity and influence in TNP at the time, it rather quickly became a staple of my persona. As time passed it became on par with Flemingovianism among those members too young to remember its heyday.
Nowadays it's not as important, due to my own waning popularity after my own heyday. Yet, it retains some importance among some members, as well as some fond memories of my own heyday, and fluffy dragons at this point are too tied to my NS persona to warrant a change now.
Dinoium: Seems like Flemingovianism really had a competition huh?
Well, that seems like that's all the questions we have today. Is there anything else you would like to say?Darcania: Hail floof.
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