The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been working on a project that will hopefully last beyond this iteration, one that will make a difference in filling the knowledge gap many players have with regard to gameplay events., a Foreign Affairs digest that takes major events and condenses them into essential details and points them in the right direction as to where they need to go to get more information, should they desire to learn more themselves. For the first issue, we sought to highlight the major events that have unfolded in the past year, hopefully providing some context to current events. In the future we hope these will be monthly highlights and updates to previously-explored areas. Whenever possible we would also like to go further back in time, and explore key historic events that are related to more current events, or that every TNPer should know. Not every single event will be covered, perhaps not even every one that you as a reader may consider to be significant. To some extent our work is subjective, and if you ever feel something is missing, we encourage you to speak up. That conversation is also educational, and can help this project expand even further. Other feedback, whether it be style, organization, formatting, whatever, please do not be shy to share your thoughts. We are starting something new but we would like it to continue, and your feedback helps the final publication be an even better and more useful one. I hope you find this enlightening, and maybe even interesting.
- Pallaith, Minister of Foreign Affairs
In order to accommodate the needs of some MGC partners to be more flexible in their WA voting, the sanctions were adjusted to allow for occasional abstentions rather than votes for or against that would normally be guaranteed by the sanctions. That changed after the invasion of Europe on February 11, however. In response to half the region being purged by a coalition of raiders led by The Black Hawks (TBH) and consisting of BoM, Kantrias, Astoria, Lair of the Dragon, The Communist Bloc (TCB), and Sparkalia, the sanctions were fully restored without reservation, and Sparkalia was added along with any treatied allies or territories of the sanctioned regions. The invasion of Europe was also the latest provocation by the raider enemies of the MGC, striking at a neutral ally for its association and occasional assistance to the compact. The invasion had a chilling effect, inspiring The Order of the Grey Wardens (TGW) to convert its frontier The Amaranthine Isles to a stronghold, and causing Europe to avoid any further entanglements with the MGC regions, especially assistance in the World Assembly. The Wellspring, already concerned with its security, ultimately shifted to a stronghold, a wise move considering the beginning of an attack was discovered by members of TL&C and swift mobilization caused it to be aborted. Later that year, at the end of September, the sanctions would be applied to their biggest target since the repeal of the condemnation of Ever-Wandering Souls: repeal of both condemnations of The Black Hawks. The old controversy over whether it was appropriate to take such actions erupted once again, and had the same outcome: successful repeals. The application of the sanctions to allies of the sanctioned regions also saw its most effective result with the region of Sophia, led by frequent WA author Tinhampton who found none of her proposals could pass with the sanctions applied. When Sophia ended its treaty with Sparkalia on October 13, it was the most visible instance of the sanctions having their intended effect. Tinhampton was rewarded with a restored ability to pass her resolutions, and a retaliatory invasion of Sophia in March of the following year.
The influence of the MGC was felt beyond its sanctions. The Altenberg Memorandum of Detente between TL&C and the region Talonia didn't just put an end to years of enmity, it created a powerful new ally in Talonia, which began to be more involved in the collective action spearheaded by the MGC. As it began to come into its own, Talonia withdrew from the frontierist pact known as FOCUS in November, only to become the newest member of the MGC the following month. Though responses to this were more muted than when TL&C had joined, it was just as strong a signal that the compact would defy ideological definition, and have more Independent-leaning regions than Defender ones. Relations with frontiers had already been strong among the MGC members, and having a prominent (soon to be top 3, in the months ahead) frontier in the alliance only expanded the compact's reach, especially a frontier that explicitly characterized its government as Frontierist, a new ideology that had raiding at its center and was not beloved by defenders. It also formalized a partnership that had been strengthened in the months since the repeals of TBH's condemnations, when Talonia assisted in the capture and defense of one of the new sinker regions (covered later). And despite their departure from the alliance, both NPO and TWP continued to partner with MGC regions, and continued to have common interests, particularly where the war with BoM was concerned. But the loss of trust deeply affected the quality of these interactions, and would eventually inform much of what happened in the following year.
This year marked AA's prominence in particular in the game as their treaty network spanned every sphere. By the beginning of the year they were even admitted into the Pax Polaris Occidens (PPO). The network also played a significant role in the fate of the General Assembly in the World Assembly, as the relationships forged in the past year laid the groundwork for the eventual Sovereign Seven alliance and the strongest streak of national sovereignty the assembly has seen in probably a decade. No longer was TWP alone in waving the banner - prominent UCRs and some GCRs, including TNP, who had had their own run-ins with the GA crowd, had grown tired of the apparent stagnation and cliquey nature of that aspect of the game. AA also centered many prospective authors and wanted to break into that space, something the NPO was increasingly championing during this time. These goals would sometimes not align, especially in the weeks before The Outback incident. The national sovereigntist fever has died down in these places, and the movement has had a lot of pushback the further the alliance has gone with its efforts to target high profile, long-standing resolutions in the General Assembly. But the network they built is strong, and still has the numerical edge, and for all the efforts to improve many prominent GA players have made, there is a stubborn antagonism that continues to fuel the fire burning in the nat sov crowd, and continues to restrain potential allies caught in the middle who might otherwise be inclined to help resist the Sovereign Seven's advance.
2024
January: Treaty of the Olive (NPO and Lazarus); Modern Gameplay Compact (TL&C joined)
February: Unnamed treaty between The Red Fleet and Atlanticana; Treaty of the Isles (Sophia, Sparkalia) - February 13; Treaty of Divine Treasures (Astoria, Lair of the Dragon)
March: Unnamed treaty between Lair of the Dragon and Atlanticana
April: Enchanted Accords of the Sparkling Grove (Sparkalia, TBH)
May: Communion of Sparkling Angels (Astoria, Sparkalia)
June: Treaty of Belfast (Kantrias, TCB), Pact of Flame and Steel (Kantrias, Lair of the Dragon), Long Road Treaty (NPO, URA) - June 30
July: Treaty of the Shining Seas (Europeia, TSP) - July 12
August: Treaty of Serious Business (AA, TL&C) - August 31; Pamlico Accords (AA, Blue Ridge) - August 31
September: Infiltrators Make the Best Workers Wolfpact (NPO, LWU) - September 10
October: Puella Magi Augustinia Pacifica (NPO, AA) - October 4; Money Heist Accords (TEP, TRTHNBB) - October 14; Radiant Accords of Conquest (Kantrias, Sparkalia) - October 17; Accord of the Bankless Arboretum (Forest, TRTHNBB) - October 17; Alcoholics Anonymous (AA, LWU) - October 18; Hometown Banking Compact (Blue Ridge, TRTHNBB) - October 20
November: Unnamed treaty between Europeia and TRTHNBB - November 13
December: Arkana Covenant (LWU, Talonia) - December 17; Modern Gameplay Compact (Talonia joined) - December 23
2025
January: Treaty of Augusta Borealis (TNP, AA) - January 6; Treaty of Pine (AA, The Kodiak Republic) - January 7; Notebook for Eternally Enlightened Explorers (Blue Ridge, Starlight) - January 8; Everywhen Accords (TWP, The Outback) - January 14; Treaty of the Twins (Plains of Perdition, The Outback) - January 17; Liturgy of Atonement (Plains of Perdition, AA) - January 17; Song of the Desert Wolf (The Outback, LWU) - January 23; Sovereign Six (TWP, The Outback, Plains of Perdition, TL&C, Talonia, AA) - January 24; Treaty of Dayglow (TWP, Talonia) - January 28
February: Treaty of Hel (Plains of Perdition, Balder) - February 2; PPO (AA joined) - February 9; Luminous Accords (Plains of Perdition, Europeia) - February 28
March: The Small BAAnk Treaty (TRTHNBB, AA) - March 4; Pact of the West Cocytus (TWP, Plains of Perdition) - March 23; Treaty of Tahiti (NPO, Carcassonne) - March 25; Islands of Phelegthon Accord (Plains of Perdition, 10000 Islands) - March 30
April: Sovereign Seven (Balder joined) - April 3; Treaty of the Grouse (The Outback, Europeia) - April 28
There is another list, the list of treaties that were lost/organizations split up, and until a few weeks ago it would have been a relatively short list compared to the preceding one, but sometimes diplomatic events move quite quickly. That list is below. The year began with the collapse of diplomatic relations between Europeia and NPO, which also played into NPO's departure from the MGC. Public remarks from Xoriet later in the year (along with private ones that were leaked) would indicate she felt very strongly that the MGC as she had helped craft was rendered pointless by Europeia's switch to a defender region. Future Regent Syberis was in full agreement, and in the wake of that change the trust thinned away to nothing. TWP was of course a staunch ally of the NPO and also highly skeptical of the defender shift, and loyally followed suit when they left.
In March one of TNP's oldest treaties was ended when The East Pacific (TEP) chose to prioritize an embassy partner over an ally of 13 years. As part of our efforts prosecuting our war against BoM, we raided Warzone Trinidad for the second time, an act that was considered to be wholly unacceptable by the same region which opted not to take any action or speak on our behalf as we fight against aggressors who invaded our region. Tensions had existed for years, most notably increasing in the wake of the effort to repeal the condemnation of Ever-Wandering Souls. After months of associating with and establishing diplomatic ties to allies and supporters of BoM, the inevitable finally happened and our regions drifted apart. This also marked the end of our cooperation with TEP in the Heroes of Valhalla (HoV) project, which would ultimately become an initiative of the MGC at the end of the year.
For many, Talonia being the third largest and prominent frontier in the game meant that their departure from FOCUS rendered the organization functionally pointless, especially with The Wellspring's shift to stronghold months earlier. The alliance would survive and gain strength when changes to game mechanics would allow Carcassonne to rise to new heights and Vibonia to become a significant gameplay region instead of the largest among smaller frontiers. Talonia's presence in that sphere did not end with its departure from FOCUS, however the reason for its departure would remain relevant, as it demonstrated a skepticism for the sincerity and commitment of the FOCUS regions, best exemplified by its very public breakup with Vibonia just weeks ago and its criticism of the region, which briefly declared itself neutral to guarantee passage of an injunction in the Security Council, for not being a true frontierist region. The future of Frontierism is still being written, as the FOCUS regions rallied behind Vibonia, and whether Talonia's stricter interpretation causes any further division or shift remains to be seen.
Of course, the great unraveling of relations in the wake of The Outback incident defines the rest of this list.
2024
January: Treaty of Sericum (NPO, Europeia) - January 18; Modern Gameplay Compact (NPO, TWP departed) - January 18/19
March: North-East Security Treaty (TNP and TEP) - March 21
July: Pact of Orohena (TSP, Europeia) - July 12
October: Treaty of the Isles (Sophia and Sparkalia) - October 13
November: FOCUS (Talonia departed) - November 10
2025
February: Treaty of Democratic Unity (TSP, UDS) - February 12; Song of the Desert Wolf (The Outback, LWU) - February 20
April: Treaty of the Pirate's Den (TWP, LWU) - April 8; PPO (TWP departed) - April 8; Better Together (TWP, NPO) - April 12; Mythical Compact (TWP, AA) - April 12; Liturgy of Atonement (Plains of Perdition, AA) - April 15; Treaty of Serious Business (TL&C, AA) - April 19; Alcoholics Anonymous (AA, LWU) - April 21; Infiltrators Make the Best Workers Wolfpact (NPO, LWU) - April 21; The Small BAAnk Treaty (TRTHNBB, AA) - April 24; PPO (TNP, NPO, AA departed) - April 27; Pax Capricorn (TSP, NPO) - April 28
In fact, AA's membership in this bloc was probably a factor in the drama that has recently ensued. Membership in the bloc involves certain commitments, ones that some prominent AA leaders would be reluctant to execute due to the delicate balance between IntFeds and Nat Sovs in their regions. Knowing that, as we saw with the former MGC regions, there was room for distrust to form, causing the intentions of these allies to be questioned, and suspicion to take root. The prospect of AA being strongarmed by its friends in the Sovereign Seven would cause them to assume the worst about those players in other areas, and there's no doubt that mattered when lines were drawn over The Outback incident. And as the Sovereign Seven becomes more uncompromising in its messaging, and relies ever more on its numerical advantage, the resistance to them grows, and any meaningful or constructive feedback they do provide is translated into the most nefarious of intentions. And as these lines are drawn, it is not just the reputation of the Sovereign Seven in question. As it is confronted with these criticisms and faces its greatest existential challenge in many years, the GA regulars rely more and more on their institutional powers, in the form of Gen Sec. Before this digest made it to print, two prominent repeals have been marked illegal by Gen Sec, on rather flimsy grounds. The question in the minds of many is whether this was entirely above board, or inspired by their assumptions of bad faith engagement by the Sovereign Seven. This question of bad faith is then reflected on the arbiters of law and order in the GA, people who should be above reproach but, like their former member Wallenberg and his last minute legality challenges, find their actions under new scrutiny.
The WA has always been a significant aspect of FA, not just for TNP but for many regions, and how it is utilized have played a big role in gameplay events. Major gameplay regions have never formed this level of resistance and antagonism toward the WA. National Sovereignty has never had the numbers it has today. And the GA has never had this level of irritating and unsociable players. We are truly living history and wheat this ultimately means for the WA remains to be seen, but this is only heating up. Once again, TNP may find itself in the middle of angry competing forces where no compromise can be found.
On November 26 the game was caught off-guard by the sudden appearance of two new regions which were functionally identical to The Rejected Realms. As a consequence of this, the mechanics involved were also changed: at long last The Rejected Realms could ban and eject nations. There were limits of course, as all ejected nations would ping pong amongst the sinkers, and no one could truly be banned from all three. These regions would figure out how to cooperate and manage these mechanics. But when it comes to political cooperation, the situation is a bit more complicated. The new sinkers defy the classic R/D alignment, and can be said to be independent regions. But each one was developed with the aid of very particular members of the R/D split, and the players involved did not lend themselves to easy collaboration with The Rejected Realms. In those early days, the main goal on the minds of those who scrambled to respond was to prevent the sinkers from falling into the hands of the BoM sphere. It helped that BoM did not seem particularly interested in competing for these regions, but that could not be taken for granted. As a result, the major rival spheres, defender and MGC, and PPO, divided their forces. In practice this meant the MGC regions, save for TNP, joined with TGW and 10000 Islands in piling on Quebecshire, using his now more famous nation Rhaza, in The Plains of Perdition, while TNP joined TWP and LWU , and later Talonia and AA, in piling on Terannical and eventually Bran in The Outback. NPO opted out of participating, still afraid of reminding people of their past misdeeds, and as a result The Outback was significantly more vulnerable to potential attack in those early days. Perdition went above 200 and kept that level ever since, substituting its pilers for natives.
In retrospect it's not surprising this happened. The Outback did not benefit from partners who could contribute heavily to region-building - TNP was not able to contribute any talent to developing The Outback, outside of piling, while LWU's contributions were minimal, leaving the entire project to TWP's efforts. And when they changed their delegate a few weeks into the region's existence, the problem was compounded. Bran is well-known for his ability to energize and engage a community, but without any tools or a team of dedicated people keeping the gains of the new region, it was a slow-going affair. Communication was also fractured between the various parties trying to be involved, setting the stage for a very unfortunate disaster. Much has been said about what happened in The Outback earlier this year, in greater detail and at great length, but the basic fact is that the regions The Outback relied on for help determined its direction was a poor one, its leadership was to blame, and for them to continue to support the region, that leadership, in the form of Bran, would need to be replaced as delegate. When this ultimatum was delivered to TWP in particular, and The Outback only indirectly, and they refused to comply, LWU terminated its treaty and all regions ceased involvement. I would recommend you consult these sources for the details, as what this publication is concerned with is how these events fit into the events that happened before and since. And that begins with examining the secret BoM-TNP peace talks.
In November of 2024, Xoriet approached TNP with an offer to moderate peace talks between TNP and BoM, seeking an end to the war rather than let it continue indefinitely. Picairn, delegate at the time, was skeptical such a thing was possible, but he agreed to hold the talks and determine if peace was even possible, or if the talks would end shortly after they started, which the TNP FA team was largely in agreement with. The talks had more promise than initially expected, but there was a reason for this: Xoriet and TNP's MoFA, Hulldom, took a deliberate approach to the talks which were overly permissive and familiar. It is safe to say that most of the people in the talks would not care to have their discourse shared outside the space in which they took place, and for how great a risk this approach entailed, the results were not worth it. Ultimately no deal could be reached between TNP and BoM, and if not for Hulldom's decision to reveal to Xoriet private TNP deliberation about the talks, likely would have gone largely unknown. But it did become known, and impacted the trust among the spheres. And the very words that Hulldom leaked were themselves a symptom of the real problem: an uncertainty about how much the NPO could be trusted. Because the concerning language Hulldom shared happened the night that The Outback was taken, without NPO's help, when TNP and TWP grew closer together than ever. And seeing the movement of the raiders, and NPO's efforts to resolve the war, caused a question of motivations. These concerns could have, and should have, been aired directly, and following Hulldom's leak they were, but these different avenues of communication and approaches on what was a shared battleground inevitably caused friction among the actors involved.
The peace talks concluded and the leaked argument played itself out. The opportunities for moving forward in a stronger position were obvious, and looked ready to happen. The Outback provided TNP and LWU a chance to finally resume cooperation, and LWU's decision to publicly rebuke and separate itself entirely from BoM guaranteed the path forward. The possibility of a NAP, or even membership in the PPO, especially following AA's admission, were not out of the question. And The Outback's relationship with this sphere meant it could join them as another member, and with solid relations with Perdition, yet another bridge connecting the PPO and MGC spheres was being built. In a different world, this may be what happened, but too often these relationships are seen as a zero-sum affair, and if one region is building relations with others, it must be losing them with another that is on the other side. Such has been TNP's experience as the bridge connecting the MGC to the PPO, and the efforts to cooperate with them on the war.
Distrust between the NPO in particular and the MGC regions had only continued to deepen since they left the alliance, as has been remarked previously. This deterioration worsened after NPO first indicated support for the Souls repeals, then walked back on them, and when an effort to take over CCD was complicated by having two parallel channels of communication. When key passages from the peace talks were leaked to members of the MGC, these tensions reached a boiling point. These revelations also immediately preceded NPO, AA, and LWU's joint statement on The Outback, and involved NPO publicly apologizing and throwing their former empress under the bus just one week earlier. When suspicion about the leak led to an investigation with no resolution, that suspicion carried over to those regions' decision to exclude TNP from planning and releasing the statement, as they felt they could not trust the government there. But just as significant, the fallout of the leaks caused NPO to be extremely wary of the movements and motives of the regions who held them to account. This built on weeks of public needling and whispers about the actions taken by the regions involved in The Outback incident, and created a kind of digging in of the heels on the part of NPO, AA, and LWU, and a desire to push back against the narrative that was developing, and finally publicly unleashed when these regions took the first shot and posted their joint statement.
There is a great irony that the biggest fears the NPO had, that defenders would gain more influence, that Europeia in particular would get an edge over them, that their partners in TWP and The Outback would slip ever further away from them, and of course, that they would be seen as meddling nefarious actors like they were in 2018, all came true because of the decision to deliver the ultimatum to The Outback. Considering NPO was until then completely uninvolved with The Outback in any meaningful sense, the irony was heightened even more. Because the collective of Outback allies withdrew, defenders and Perdition filled the void. The PPO was fractured without any additional words being exchanged. There was no unity on how to respond to the fallout, or whether any reconciliation was even necessary. TWP and The Outback's natural graciousness for the assistance and the genuine bonds they began to build were seen as signs of twisted loyalties and manipulation. Their understandable sense of betrayal and venting of those feelings was seen as malicious and unfair attacks. And all of this was thinly veiled in public and the core details never shared, despite so many prominent gameplayers knowing most of the details. The rumor and passive aggressive jabs ate away at the perpetrators of the incident, including TNP, while we worked out our own understanding and response to what had happened. But even before the statements, the balance of gameplay, the lines connecting the major players, was shifting. The order of things was about to change dramatically, if the guilty parties refused to step away from the brink. This is, of course, what they decided to do, guaranteeing the shift in gameplay they never would have preferred, but made inevitable. These relationships could not survive a toxic combination of pride and factionalized mistrust. With TWP breaking away from its oldest allies, and leaving the PPO, that pact was as good as dead, as the obligations the other parties had to TNP's many allies would force them to be potentially compelled to act for parties hostile toward them, if not in reality than in perception. And if they refused to act as the treaty demanded, it truly was toothless. Underscoring that practical reality, of course, is the simple fact that any alliance eaten up by suspicion and mistrust is not long for this world. And these allies who worked hard over three years to build their own corner of the game could not continue to build together with so much trust gone.
No longer would the once unbreakable trio of TWP, NPO, and LWU be a constant in gameplay. No longer would the modern Independent sphere, even in its already fractured state, truly stand as an equal to the defender sphere. These events left that coalition in pieces. In their wake, the MGC was strengthened, with TWP now becoming a more natural partner with its old allies there than it was with its two closest allies. The Outback has benefited tremendously from the region building support it received following the incident, and is a stable and growing sinker with much promise. NPO and AA are closer than ever and form a partnership built around AA's initial network, following most of their respective treaty terminations in response to their joint statement, a coalition that will be very relevant as the Sovereign Seven's campaign against the GA continues to escalate, given that NPO and AA had focused more efforts on homegrown authorship and leaned more IntFed just before the diplomatic explosion in April. And LWU has found itself essentially isolated from all of gameplay, after already setting itself apart from BoM's majority of the raider sphere. In the minds of TNP, at long last, then, there is no longer any "good' raider organization to partner with. The page our allies have been on for so long is finally shared by us, and in many practical ways, TWP as well.
- Pallaith, Minister of Foreign Affairs
The Modern Gameplay Compact in 2024
The Modern Gameplay Compact (MGC) is a multilateral alliance that was formed in September of 2022, originally comprised of The North Pacific (TNP), Europeia, Balder, The Pacific (NPO), and The West Pacific (TWP). This pact was meant to solidify the Independent sphere (including small I independents) against the increasing aggression and disruption of The Brotherhood of Malice (BoM). It was the MGC that championed and conceived of the sanctions that would define their interactions not only with BoM but with other regions who sat on the fence or allied with them. Historically these regions were not always that close, but a common enemy brought them together. It could not keep them together, however. By the beginning of 2024, the differences proved to be insurmountable, with pressure coming from Europeia and Balder's increasing cooperation with the defender sphere, including Europeia's alignment change, and irreconcilable disagreements over how to handle the one major raider organization that was not collectively targeted, Lone Wolves United (LWU), as Europeia and Balder joined defenders in waging war with them. Both NPO and TWP left the MGC at the beginning of the year, after the NPO ended their treaty with Europeia, and while TWP would continue to enforce the sanctions, NPO withdrew from them entirely. In the wake of their departure, it was unclear where the MGC would go, especially as its members were now mostly involved in the defender sphere. Initially this seemed to be cemented even further when The League and Concord (TL&C) joined the MGC, and along with their admission, slightly adjusted the compact's language to explicitly acknowledge frontiers as well as the fact the alliance contained defenders, something it already did without using the word, but many in TNP feared by explicitly recognizing this the alliance would explicitly be a defender one. In practice, nothing changed, sometimes nearly to a fault. But the sanctions did still have bite, and would become relevant by the end of the year.In order to accommodate the needs of some MGC partners to be more flexible in their WA voting, the sanctions were adjusted to allow for occasional abstentions rather than votes for or against that would normally be guaranteed by the sanctions. That changed after the invasion of Europe on February 11, however. In response to half the region being purged by a coalition of raiders led by The Black Hawks (TBH) and consisting of BoM, Kantrias, Astoria, Lair of the Dragon, The Communist Bloc (TCB), and Sparkalia, the sanctions were fully restored without reservation, and Sparkalia was added along with any treatied allies or territories of the sanctioned regions. The invasion of Europe was also the latest provocation by the raider enemies of the MGC, striking at a neutral ally for its association and occasional assistance to the compact. The invasion had a chilling effect, inspiring The Order of the Grey Wardens (TGW) to convert its frontier The Amaranthine Isles to a stronghold, and causing Europe to avoid any further entanglements with the MGC regions, especially assistance in the World Assembly. The Wellspring, already concerned with its security, ultimately shifted to a stronghold, a wise move considering the beginning of an attack was discovered by members of TL&C and swift mobilization caused it to be aborted. Later that year, at the end of September, the sanctions would be applied to their biggest target since the repeal of the condemnation of Ever-Wandering Souls: repeal of both condemnations of The Black Hawks. The old controversy over whether it was appropriate to take such actions erupted once again, and had the same outcome: successful repeals. The application of the sanctions to allies of the sanctioned regions also saw its most effective result with the region of Sophia, led by frequent WA author Tinhampton who found none of her proposals could pass with the sanctions applied. When Sophia ended its treaty with Sparkalia on October 13, it was the most visible instance of the sanctions having their intended effect. Tinhampton was rewarded with a restored ability to pass her resolutions, and a retaliatory invasion of Sophia in March of the following year.
The influence of the MGC was felt beyond its sanctions. The Altenberg Memorandum of Detente between TL&C and the region Talonia didn't just put an end to years of enmity, it created a powerful new ally in Talonia, which began to be more involved in the collective action spearheaded by the MGC. As it began to come into its own, Talonia withdrew from the frontierist pact known as FOCUS in November, only to become the newest member of the MGC the following month. Though responses to this were more muted than when TL&C had joined, it was just as strong a signal that the compact would defy ideological definition, and have more Independent-leaning regions than Defender ones. Relations with frontiers had already been strong among the MGC members, and having a prominent (soon to be top 3, in the months ahead) frontier in the alliance only expanded the compact's reach, especially a frontier that explicitly characterized its government as Frontierist, a new ideology that had raiding at its center and was not beloved by defenders. It also formalized a partnership that had been strengthened in the months since the repeals of TBH's condemnations, when Talonia assisted in the capture and defense of one of the new sinker regions (covered later). And despite their departure from the alliance, both NPO and TWP continued to partner with MGC regions, and continued to have common interests, particularly where the war with BoM was concerned. But the loss of trust deeply affected the quality of these interactions, and would eventually inform much of what happened in the following year.
Treaty Tension
The MGC and the treaty between Sophia and Sparkalia were hardly the only diplomatic entanglements of note in the year. In fact, a vast treaty network was formed in the last year, all the more impressive for how much of it has burned down as of late. Below is a quick list of all of the significant treaties that were established between regions in the past year. What is evident in this list is which regions became increasingly prominent as they joined existing major FA networks, and the impact that Xoriet's return to the game had on the NPO's moves in this period. Shortly after her return to the game as the new empress of NPO, she solidified an old alliance by forming a full partnership with LWU rather than the non-aggression pact they had previously had. Their efforts to solidify new relationships with prominent UCR groups also expanded the network in which they could operate, and gave them space to cover different ground than what the MGC or PPO alone could do. These relationships were central to the foreign policy NPO engaged in from Xoriet's ascension even into the present day, and it led to very significant consequences. What is also evident is the rise of key UCRs in the game, including the Augustin Alliance (AA), The Region That Has No Big Banks (TRTHNBB), Blue Ridge, and Talonia, as these new connections began to take on more prominence from the assortment of raider and Malice-sphere regions allying with each other. Also notable is the decline of the United Regions Alliance (URA), which was a more prominent group on par with AA years earlier but became fully diplomatically eclipsed. There hasn't been much space to mention URA's decline, but at one point it nearly ceased to remain a functional alliance. Recently signs of resurgence have come from them, suggesting a reorganization and return to wider gameplay, but outside of The Kodiak Republic (involved in a treaty and diplomatic incident this past year), they've been rather quiet.This year marked AA's prominence in particular in the game as their treaty network spanned every sphere. By the beginning of the year they were even admitted into the Pax Polaris Occidens (PPO). The network also played a significant role in the fate of the General Assembly in the World Assembly, as the relationships forged in the past year laid the groundwork for the eventual Sovereign Seven alliance and the strongest streak of national sovereignty the assembly has seen in probably a decade. No longer was TWP alone in waving the banner - prominent UCRs and some GCRs, including TNP, who had had their own run-ins with the GA crowd, had grown tired of the apparent stagnation and cliquey nature of that aspect of the game. AA also centered many prospective authors and wanted to break into that space, something the NPO was increasingly championing during this time. These goals would sometimes not align, especially in the weeks before The Outback incident. The national sovereigntist fever has died down in these places, and the movement has had a lot of pushback the further the alliance has gone with its efforts to target high profile, long-standing resolutions in the General Assembly. But the network they built is strong, and still has the numerical edge, and for all the efforts to improve many prominent GA players have made, there is a stubborn antagonism that continues to fuel the fire burning in the nat sov crowd, and continues to restrain potential allies caught in the middle who might otherwise be inclined to help resist the Sovereign Seven's advance.
2024
January: Treaty of the Olive (NPO and Lazarus); Modern Gameplay Compact (TL&C joined)
February: Unnamed treaty between The Red Fleet and Atlanticana; Treaty of the Isles (Sophia, Sparkalia) - February 13; Treaty of Divine Treasures (Astoria, Lair of the Dragon)
March: Unnamed treaty between Lair of the Dragon and Atlanticana
April: Enchanted Accords of the Sparkling Grove (Sparkalia, TBH)
May: Communion of Sparkling Angels (Astoria, Sparkalia)
June: Treaty of Belfast (Kantrias, TCB), Pact of Flame and Steel (Kantrias, Lair of the Dragon), Long Road Treaty (NPO, URA) - June 30
July: Treaty of the Shining Seas (Europeia, TSP) - July 12
August: Treaty of Serious Business (AA, TL&C) - August 31; Pamlico Accords (AA, Blue Ridge) - August 31
September: Infiltrators Make the Best Workers Wolfpact (NPO, LWU) - September 10
October: Puella Magi Augustinia Pacifica (NPO, AA) - October 4; Money Heist Accords (TEP, TRTHNBB) - October 14; Radiant Accords of Conquest (Kantrias, Sparkalia) - October 17; Accord of the Bankless Arboretum (Forest, TRTHNBB) - October 17; Alcoholics Anonymous (AA, LWU) - October 18; Hometown Banking Compact (Blue Ridge, TRTHNBB) - October 20
November: Unnamed treaty between Europeia and TRTHNBB - November 13
December: Arkana Covenant (LWU, Talonia) - December 17; Modern Gameplay Compact (Talonia joined) - December 23
2025
January: Treaty of Augusta Borealis (TNP, AA) - January 6; Treaty of Pine (AA, The Kodiak Republic) - January 7; Notebook for Eternally Enlightened Explorers (Blue Ridge, Starlight) - January 8; Everywhen Accords (TWP, The Outback) - January 14; Treaty of the Twins (Plains of Perdition, The Outback) - January 17; Liturgy of Atonement (Plains of Perdition, AA) - January 17; Song of the Desert Wolf (The Outback, LWU) - January 23; Sovereign Six (TWP, The Outback, Plains of Perdition, TL&C, Talonia, AA) - January 24; Treaty of Dayglow (TWP, Talonia) - January 28
February: Treaty of Hel (Plains of Perdition, Balder) - February 2; PPO (AA joined) - February 9; Luminous Accords (Plains of Perdition, Europeia) - February 28
March: The Small BAAnk Treaty (TRTHNBB, AA) - March 4; Pact of the West Cocytus (TWP, Plains of Perdition) - March 23; Treaty of Tahiti (NPO, Carcassonne) - March 25; Islands of Phelegthon Accord (Plains of Perdition, 10000 Islands) - March 30
April: Sovereign Seven (Balder joined) - April 3; Treaty of the Grouse (The Outback, Europeia) - April 28
There is another list, the list of treaties that were lost/organizations split up, and until a few weeks ago it would have been a relatively short list compared to the preceding one, but sometimes diplomatic events move quite quickly. That list is below. The year began with the collapse of diplomatic relations between Europeia and NPO, which also played into NPO's departure from the MGC. Public remarks from Xoriet later in the year (along with private ones that were leaked) would indicate she felt very strongly that the MGC as she had helped craft was rendered pointless by Europeia's switch to a defender region. Future Regent Syberis was in full agreement, and in the wake of that change the trust thinned away to nothing. TWP was of course a staunch ally of the NPO and also highly skeptical of the defender shift, and loyally followed suit when they left.
In March one of TNP's oldest treaties was ended when The East Pacific (TEP) chose to prioritize an embassy partner over an ally of 13 years. As part of our efforts prosecuting our war against BoM, we raided Warzone Trinidad for the second time, an act that was considered to be wholly unacceptable by the same region which opted not to take any action or speak on our behalf as we fight against aggressors who invaded our region. Tensions had existed for years, most notably increasing in the wake of the effort to repeal the condemnation of Ever-Wandering Souls. After months of associating with and establishing diplomatic ties to allies and supporters of BoM, the inevitable finally happened and our regions drifted apart. This also marked the end of our cooperation with TEP in the Heroes of Valhalla (HoV) project, which would ultimately become an initiative of the MGC at the end of the year.
For many, Talonia being the third largest and prominent frontier in the game meant that their departure from FOCUS rendered the organization functionally pointless, especially with The Wellspring's shift to stronghold months earlier. The alliance would survive and gain strength when changes to game mechanics would allow Carcassonne to rise to new heights and Vibonia to become a significant gameplay region instead of the largest among smaller frontiers. Talonia's presence in that sphere did not end with its departure from FOCUS, however the reason for its departure would remain relevant, as it demonstrated a skepticism for the sincerity and commitment of the FOCUS regions, best exemplified by its very public breakup with Vibonia just weeks ago and its criticism of the region, which briefly declared itself neutral to guarantee passage of an injunction in the Security Council, for not being a true frontierist region. The future of Frontierism is still being written, as the FOCUS regions rallied behind Vibonia, and whether Talonia's stricter interpretation causes any further division or shift remains to be seen.
Of course, the great unraveling of relations in the wake of The Outback incident defines the rest of this list.
2024
January: Treaty of Sericum (NPO, Europeia) - January 18; Modern Gameplay Compact (NPO, TWP departed) - January 18/19
March: North-East Security Treaty (TNP and TEP) - March 21
July: Pact of Orohena (TSP, Europeia) - July 12
October: Treaty of the Isles (Sophia and Sparkalia) - October 13
November: FOCUS (Talonia departed) - November 10
2025
February: Treaty of Democratic Unity (TSP, UDS) - February 12; Song of the Desert Wolf (The Outback, LWU) - February 20
April: Treaty of the Pirate's Den (TWP, LWU) - April 8; PPO (TWP departed) - April 8; Better Together (TWP, NPO) - April 12; Mythical Compact (TWP, AA) - April 12; Liturgy of Atonement (Plains of Perdition, AA) - April 15; Treaty of Serious Business (TL&C, AA) - April 19; Alcoholics Anonymous (AA, LWU) - April 21; Infiltrators Make the Best Workers Wolfpact (NPO, LWU) - April 21; The Small BAAnk Treaty (TRTHNBB, AA) - April 24; PPO (TNP, NPO, AA departed) - April 27; Pax Capricorn (TSP, NPO) - April 28
The Sovereign Seven
The latest multilateral organization of note calls itself the Sovereign Seven, and it is driving a lot of the gameplay so far this year, and not always just in the World Assembly where it typically sets its sights. The group, comprised of TWP, The Outback, Plains of Perdition, TL&C, Talonia, and AA, and eventually Balder, formalized trends that had been in the works for months. And as long as they were on good terms with the NPO and AA, they could rely on their increasingly common forays into the WA to be fruitful ones. But as soon as that changed, the full weight of this bloc was very apparent. New authors have become a welcome fact of WA activity in recent months, but many of those authors are the hatchet-wielding foot soldiers of the bloc. They came out swinging with the successful repeal of GA#8, World Assembly Headquarters. It was rightly seen as a mostly symbolic repeal, as it did not literally destroy the WA's foundation, but it was a historically significant resolution, and its repeal was a blow to the psyche of the GA regulars. There was a lot of good that came out of this conflict that now bubbled to the surface, as many in the GA crew made genuine efforts to advocate and imagine reform in the community, and join in fighting the excesses and bad habits that had come to dominate their culture. But the bad feelings and lingering antipathy between the key players in both groups only worsened in the weeks that followed, and promise ever-greater conflict and inability to reconcile. This has accelerated in the time since the NPO and AA became pariahs in gameplay, as the Sovereign Seven stayed their hand when they otherwise might have opposed their proposals.In fact, AA's membership in this bloc was probably a factor in the drama that has recently ensued. Membership in the bloc involves certain commitments, ones that some prominent AA leaders would be reluctant to execute due to the delicate balance between IntFeds and Nat Sovs in their regions. Knowing that, as we saw with the former MGC regions, there was room for distrust to form, causing the intentions of these allies to be questioned, and suspicion to take root. The prospect of AA being strongarmed by its friends in the Sovereign Seven would cause them to assume the worst about those players in other areas, and there's no doubt that mattered when lines were drawn over The Outback incident. And as the Sovereign Seven becomes more uncompromising in its messaging, and relies ever more on its numerical advantage, the resistance to them grows, and any meaningful or constructive feedback they do provide is translated into the most nefarious of intentions. And as these lines are drawn, it is not just the reputation of the Sovereign Seven in question. As it is confronted with these criticisms and faces its greatest existential challenge in many years, the GA regulars rely more and more on their institutional powers, in the form of Gen Sec. Before this digest made it to print, two prominent repeals have been marked illegal by Gen Sec, on rather flimsy grounds. The question in the minds of many is whether this was entirely above board, or inspired by their assumptions of bad faith engagement by the Sovereign Seven. This question of bad faith is then reflected on the arbiters of law and order in the GA, people who should be above reproach but, like their former member Wallenberg and his last minute legality challenges, find their actions under new scrutiny.
The WA has always been a significant aspect of FA, not just for TNP but for many regions, and how it is utilized have played a big role in gameplay events. Major gameplay regions have never formed this level of resistance and antagonism toward the WA. National Sovereignty has never had the numbers it has today. And the GA has never had this level of irritating and unsociable players. We are truly living history and wheat this ultimately means for the WA remains to be seen, but this is only heating up. Once again, TNP may find itself in the middle of angry competing forces where no compromise can be found.
Quicksand and Quagmire: The New Sinkers
Understanding the current state of the game requires understanding the consequences of the newest GCRs brought to the game. And given how often they have been brought up in the earlier sections of this publication, we need to dive into them. Both new sinkers, mechanically identical to The Rejected Realms and removing what made that region unique the same way the sinkers of old shared an identity with the once-lonely Lazarus, were captured within one update and continuously held first by the initial forces that captured them and then the communities that their leaders formed in the days and weeks that followed. They have remained remarkably stable and have refreshingly been quite unlike the last new GCRs introduced back in 2011. Initially that led to some disappointment among fans of chaos and discord, a kind of frustration that the game had not been shaken up because of them. They need only have waited a couple of months to see how wrong they were.On November 26 the game was caught off-guard by the sudden appearance of two new regions which were functionally identical to The Rejected Realms. As a consequence of this, the mechanics involved were also changed: at long last The Rejected Realms could ban and eject nations. There were limits of course, as all ejected nations would ping pong amongst the sinkers, and no one could truly be banned from all three. These regions would figure out how to cooperate and manage these mechanics. But when it comes to political cooperation, the situation is a bit more complicated. The new sinkers defy the classic R/D alignment, and can be said to be independent regions. But each one was developed with the aid of very particular members of the R/D split, and the players involved did not lend themselves to easy collaboration with The Rejected Realms. In those early days, the main goal on the minds of those who scrambled to respond was to prevent the sinkers from falling into the hands of the BoM sphere. It helped that BoM did not seem particularly interested in competing for these regions, but that could not be taken for granted. As a result, the major rival spheres, defender and MGC, and PPO, divided their forces. In practice this meant the MGC regions, save for TNP, joined with TGW and 10000 Islands in piling on Quebecshire, using his now more famous nation Rhaza, in The Plains of Perdition, while TNP joined TWP and LWU , and later Talonia and AA, in piling on Terannical and eventually Bran in The Outback. NPO opted out of participating, still afraid of reminding people of their past misdeeds, and as a result The Outback was significantly more vulnerable to potential attack in those early days. Perdition went above 200 and kept that level ever since, substituting its pilers for natives.
In retrospect it's not surprising this happened. The Outback did not benefit from partners who could contribute heavily to region-building - TNP was not able to contribute any talent to developing The Outback, outside of piling, while LWU's contributions were minimal, leaving the entire project to TWP's efforts. And when they changed their delegate a few weeks into the region's existence, the problem was compounded. Bran is well-known for his ability to energize and engage a community, but without any tools or a team of dedicated people keeping the gains of the new region, it was a slow-going affair. Communication was also fractured between the various parties trying to be involved, setting the stage for a very unfortunate disaster. Much has been said about what happened in The Outback earlier this year, in greater detail and at great length, but the basic fact is that the regions The Outback relied on for help determined its direction was a poor one, its leadership was to blame, and for them to continue to support the region, that leadership, in the form of Bran, would need to be replaced as delegate. When this ultimatum was delivered to TWP in particular, and The Outback only indirectly, and they refused to comply, LWU terminated its treaty and all regions ceased involvement. I would recommend you consult these sources for the details, as what this publication is concerned with is how these events fit into the events that happened before and since. And that begins with examining the secret BoM-TNP peace talks.
In November of 2024, Xoriet approached TNP with an offer to moderate peace talks between TNP and BoM, seeking an end to the war rather than let it continue indefinitely. Picairn, delegate at the time, was skeptical such a thing was possible, but he agreed to hold the talks and determine if peace was even possible, or if the talks would end shortly after they started, which the TNP FA team was largely in agreement with. The talks had more promise than initially expected, but there was a reason for this: Xoriet and TNP's MoFA, Hulldom, took a deliberate approach to the talks which were overly permissive and familiar. It is safe to say that most of the people in the talks would not care to have their discourse shared outside the space in which they took place, and for how great a risk this approach entailed, the results were not worth it. Ultimately no deal could be reached between TNP and BoM, and if not for Hulldom's decision to reveal to Xoriet private TNP deliberation about the talks, likely would have gone largely unknown. But it did become known, and impacted the trust among the spheres. And the very words that Hulldom leaked were themselves a symptom of the real problem: an uncertainty about how much the NPO could be trusted. Because the concerning language Hulldom shared happened the night that The Outback was taken, without NPO's help, when TNP and TWP grew closer together than ever. And seeing the movement of the raiders, and NPO's efforts to resolve the war, caused a question of motivations. These concerns could have, and should have, been aired directly, and following Hulldom's leak they were, but these different avenues of communication and approaches on what was a shared battleground inevitably caused friction among the actors involved.
The peace talks concluded and the leaked argument played itself out. The opportunities for moving forward in a stronger position were obvious, and looked ready to happen. The Outback provided TNP and LWU a chance to finally resume cooperation, and LWU's decision to publicly rebuke and separate itself entirely from BoM guaranteed the path forward. The possibility of a NAP, or even membership in the PPO, especially following AA's admission, were not out of the question. And The Outback's relationship with this sphere meant it could join them as another member, and with solid relations with Perdition, yet another bridge connecting the PPO and MGC spheres was being built. In a different world, this may be what happened, but too often these relationships are seen as a zero-sum affair, and if one region is building relations with others, it must be losing them with another that is on the other side. Such has been TNP's experience as the bridge connecting the MGC to the PPO, and the efforts to cooperate with them on the war.
Distrust between the NPO in particular and the MGC regions had only continued to deepen since they left the alliance, as has been remarked previously. This deterioration worsened after NPO first indicated support for the Souls repeals, then walked back on them, and when an effort to take over CCD was complicated by having two parallel channels of communication. When key passages from the peace talks were leaked to members of the MGC, these tensions reached a boiling point. These revelations also immediately preceded NPO, AA, and LWU's joint statement on The Outback, and involved NPO publicly apologizing and throwing their former empress under the bus just one week earlier. When suspicion about the leak led to an investigation with no resolution, that suspicion carried over to those regions' decision to exclude TNP from planning and releasing the statement, as they felt they could not trust the government there. But just as significant, the fallout of the leaks caused NPO to be extremely wary of the movements and motives of the regions who held them to account. This built on weeks of public needling and whispers about the actions taken by the regions involved in The Outback incident, and created a kind of digging in of the heels on the part of NPO, AA, and LWU, and a desire to push back against the narrative that was developing, and finally publicly unleashed when these regions took the first shot and posted their joint statement.
There is a great irony that the biggest fears the NPO had, that defenders would gain more influence, that Europeia in particular would get an edge over them, that their partners in TWP and The Outback would slip ever further away from them, and of course, that they would be seen as meddling nefarious actors like they were in 2018, all came true because of the decision to deliver the ultimatum to The Outback. Considering NPO was until then completely uninvolved with The Outback in any meaningful sense, the irony was heightened even more. Because the collective of Outback allies withdrew, defenders and Perdition filled the void. The PPO was fractured without any additional words being exchanged. There was no unity on how to respond to the fallout, or whether any reconciliation was even necessary. TWP and The Outback's natural graciousness for the assistance and the genuine bonds they began to build were seen as signs of twisted loyalties and manipulation. Their understandable sense of betrayal and venting of those feelings was seen as malicious and unfair attacks. And all of this was thinly veiled in public and the core details never shared, despite so many prominent gameplayers knowing most of the details. The rumor and passive aggressive jabs ate away at the perpetrators of the incident, including TNP, while we worked out our own understanding and response to what had happened. But even before the statements, the balance of gameplay, the lines connecting the major players, was shifting. The order of things was about to change dramatically, if the guilty parties refused to step away from the brink. This is, of course, what they decided to do, guaranteeing the shift in gameplay they never would have preferred, but made inevitable. These relationships could not survive a toxic combination of pride and factionalized mistrust. With TWP breaking away from its oldest allies, and leaving the PPO, that pact was as good as dead, as the obligations the other parties had to TNP's many allies would force them to be potentially compelled to act for parties hostile toward them, if not in reality than in perception. And if they refused to act as the treaty demanded, it truly was toothless. Underscoring that practical reality, of course, is the simple fact that any alliance eaten up by suspicion and mistrust is not long for this world. And these allies who worked hard over three years to build their own corner of the game could not continue to build together with so much trust gone.
No longer would the once unbreakable trio of TWP, NPO, and LWU be a constant in gameplay. No longer would the modern Independent sphere, even in its already fractured state, truly stand as an equal to the defender sphere. These events left that coalition in pieces. In their wake, the MGC was strengthened, with TWP now becoming a more natural partner with its old allies there than it was with its two closest allies. The Outback has benefited tremendously from the region building support it received following the incident, and is a stable and growing sinker with much promise. NPO and AA are closer than ever and form a partnership built around AA's initial network, following most of their respective treaty terminations in response to their joint statement, a coalition that will be very relevant as the Sovereign Seven's campaign against the GA continues to escalate, given that NPO and AA had focused more efforts on homegrown authorship and leaned more IntFed just before the diplomatic explosion in April. And LWU has found itself essentially isolated from all of gameplay, after already setting itself apart from BoM's majority of the raider sphere. In the minds of TNP, at long last, then, there is no longer any "good' raider organization to partner with. The page our allies have been on for so long is finally shared by us, and in many practical ways, TWP as well.
The Molehills
Not every event in NS is earth-shattering or even all that significant. Some feel big in the moment but prove not to be so. This is the space for the assortment of events that had their fifteen minutes but were just bullet points in the list of history.- A bunch of regions threatened anyone who attacked Atlanticana after Quebecshire said something snarky, allowing defenders a few weeks off while raiders piled on the region; Atlanticana would ultimately leave NS anyway
- Quebecshire (who unfortunately is in this particular section a lot) was also put in charge of Balder's military and then stopped doing it at some point
- BoM delegate-tipped Concord and the raiders who participated were proscribed by TSP
- Astoria tore itself apart after its own governor shut it down and closed its offsite properties. This one they really tried to turn into a mountain.
- Warzone Trinidad eventually came under new management thanks to some TWP affiliates, following a third and final raid from the NPA on the region, which finally convinced them to move to a safer place
- Alcris suddenly became known by a lot more people when it was revealed its founder had used multiple puppets to control its government and act like the community was larger than it was; it has now sunken back into obscurity
- Prominent Lazarene Debussy was actually the nation Feux, who has since been allowed to continue to be involved there
- A rowdy bunch from another game made a pass at expanding to NS and making connections with key gameplay regions under the guidance of a former TNPer, and proceeded to be rejected by the world when it took a peek behind the curtain and rattled its saber a little too loudly in a place it did not understand.
- BoM got in trouble for something outside of the game for once, and it cost them a few members and led LWU to finally publicly cut all ties and association with them.
- The new governor of Covenant Shores and Quebecshire, once of TL&C but now of The Plains of Perdition, collaborated to bring down the region which had devolved into a bigoted, fascist-friendly environment. Refugees from this region would go on to form the much larger region Christians, featuring all the worst things you can imagine from believers of that stripe. They haven't really done anything notable yet other than have more endorsements than anyone would want, but time will tell.
- Caer Sidi also left NS
- Last but not least: with the cooperation of defectors within and our allies in the NPO, TWP, TL&C, and Europeia, we finally took over the Confederation of Corrupt Dictators, ending a minor saga in our history between us and the region which infamously sought to infiltrate us. They were mostly dead and irrelevant, and it was a smooth operation, but it finally provided closure and took another blight off the world stage.