[For Release] The North Star XXX

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[b][color=#1D2C7C][size=200]Issue XXX[/size][/color][/b]

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[box][b][size=175]Editor's Note[/size][/b]

[align=justify][size=110]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,

[nation]Halsoni[/nation]
[b]Executive Deputy Minister of Communications[/b][/size][/align]
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[box][anchor=ARTICLE1][b][size=175]War In The North[/size][/b][size=120][tab=10]By [nation]Picairn[/nation][/tab][/size][/anchor]

[align=justify][size=110][b]The North Pacific Declares War[/b]

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.

[b]Invasion of Solidarity[/b]

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”.

[b]Brotherhood of Malice’s Infiltration[/b]

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.

[i]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.[/i][/size][/align]

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[box][anchor=ARTICLE2][b][size=175]TNP-TWP Chess Arena II[/size][/b][size=120][tab=10]by [nation]Kaschovia[/nation][/tab][/size][/anchor]

[align=justify][size=110]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.[/size][/align]

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[box][anchor=ARTICLE3][b][size=175]Nuclear Armageddon: N-Day 9[/size][/b][size=120][tab=10]By [nation]Picairn[/nation][/tab][/size][/anchor]

[align=justify][size=110]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?

[b]Background[/b]

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.

[b]The Nuclear Massacre of Horsemen of the Apocalypse[/b]

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.

[b]War of the Megafactions[/b]

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.

[b]Closing Thoughts[/b]

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.[/size][/align]

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[box][anchor=ARTICLE4][b][size=175]Spirit Halloween Festival[/size][/b][size=120][tab=10]by [nation]Arawi[/nation][/tab][/size][/anchor]

[align=justify][size=110]“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.
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[box][anchor=ARTICLE5][b][size=175]Interview with Vice Delegate Fregerson[/size][/b][size=120][tab=10]by [nation]Chipoli[/nation][/tab][/size][/anchor]

[align=justify][size=110][b][color=blue]Chipoli[/color][/b]: 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!

[b][color=red]Fregerson[/color][/b]: Thank you! I am glad to be invited for this interview.

[b][color=blue]Chipoli[/color][/b]: 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?

[b][color=red]Fregerson[/color][/b]: 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.

[b][color=blue]Chipoli[/color][/b]: 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?

[b][color=red]Fregerson[/color][/b]: 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.

[b][color=blue]Chipoli[/color][/b]: 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?

[b][color=red]Fregerson[/color][/b]: 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.

[b][color=blue]Chipoli[/color][/b]: 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?

[b][color=red]Fregerson[/color][/b]: 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.

[b][color=blue]Chipoli[/color][/b]: 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?

[b][color=red]Fregerson[/color][/b]: 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.

[b][color=blue]Chipoli[/color][/b]: 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?

[b][color=red]Fregerson[/color][/b]: 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.

[b][color=blue]Chipoli[/color][/b]: 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.[/size][/align]

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Publisher: [nation]Kaschovia[/nation] | Executive Editors: [nation]Francois Isidore[/nation] and [nation]Halsoni[/nation][/color]
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