Spiritus Foreign Update: Deck the Halls with Bits of Zombie
From jolly old VP Legonimis:
As 2015 comes to an end and NS settles down for a long winter's nap, Spiritus issues this Foreign Update while wishing everyone a festive December-January Holiday of their choice and a Happy New Year!
Spiritus Government Listing
Executive Branch
High Elder (President): Rogamark
Elder (Vice President): Legonimis
The Sentinel (Minister) of Morale (Culture): Feirmont
The Knight (Deputy Minister) of Morale: Wuufu
The Sentinel of the Shield (Defense): Sovreignry
The Knight (Deputy Minister) of the Shield: Blitze
The Sentinel of Outreach (Foreign Affairs and Information): Rogamark
The Knight (Deputy Minister) of Outreach: Blitze
The Sentinel (Minister) of Enculturation (Integration): Tim
The Knight (Deputy Minister) of Enculturation: Red Dusk
The Knight (Deputy Minister) of Enculturation: vacant
The Sentinel (Minister/WAD) of the Quill (World Assembly Affairs): The Salaxalans
Vice Delegate/The Knight (Deputy Minister) of the Quill: Wuufu
The Operations Officer (Regional Security Advisor): Lord Ravenclaw
Regional Assembly
Star Paladin (Speaker): Blitze
Paladin (Representative): greeter
Paladin: Legonimis
Paladin: Toms
Supreme Court
Head Scribe (Chief Justice): Wuufu
Scribe (Associate Justice): Sovreignry
Scribe (Associate Justice): Libertarian Librarians[/b]
Regional Assembly and Election Update 
Speaker candidates trying to resolve the gridlock in a more civil-than-usual manner The Regional Assembly unfortunately had two members resign from office during the previous term, both of which were the current Speaker at the time of their respective departures. First Speaker Feirmont, then Speaker RedDusk resigned; to fill their place, current Vice-President and former Speaker Legonimis was elected in the first special election; a relatively new member to the forum, greeter [sic], was elected in the second.
Following those resignations, three-term Representative Blitze was elected Speaker.
The RA considered some new legislation and reconsidered former bills as well. The Regional Assembly was given the ability to abolish an unfilled Regional Assembly seat, should one remain unfilled after an election. The Regional Assembly also made it easier to correct grammatical and language mistakes in already passed legislation; it is now unnecessary to draft an entirely new amendment for that purpose. The Regional Assembly then passed legislation defining the recall process in cases of lengthy or undeclared leaves of absence.
Also on the agenda were two appointment confirmations. First, Chief Justice Wuufu was reconfirmed for that position. Libertarian Librarians was appointed to the Archivist of the Library of Law, a position used by the region to add consistency to our Library of Law. Unfortunately, he resigned at the end of the term. Speaker Blitze declined to make another appointment.
Elections
Freedom of expression is of paramount concern to Spiritans, especially during election season Elections brought some new faces to government, though all incumbents who stood for reelection returned to office.
Deputy Minister of Integration Red Dusk and Minister of Culture Feirmont challenged incumbents Rogamark and Legonimis for the Hexagonal Office. The Redmont ticket would eventually end up losing the election, as the Roganimis retained their hold on the Executive government with 75% of the votes. This will be their third and last term, as they have now reached the term limit and will ineligible to run in the April elections.
The Regional Assembly saw six candidates facing off for four seats. Blitze, Legonimis and greeter were all attempting to be re-elected, while former Speaker Toms, former Regional Assembly Representative Arbiter08, and former President and Speaker Salaxalans were seeking return to the RA. Blitze, Legonimis, and greeter all retained their seats and were joined by Toms, who immediately challenged Blitze for the Speakership. After a brief stalemate, Blitze was again appointed Speaker, having made concessions and promises regarding improvements to the Library of Law and the Archivist position.
Executive Government and SDF Update
SDF soldiers listening attentively to the new Deputy Minister of Defense's inaugural speech It wouldn't be Spiritus without yet another cabinet reshuffle.
Blitze was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Minister of Defense after Guy and RedDusk had tendered resignations for the respective positions.
Wuufu and Feirmont swapped jobs in the Ministry of Culture to allow Wuufu to also take over the position of Deputy Minister of World Affairs from long term DWMA and now former Vice-Delegate Shimoda
The Spiritus Defense Force completed last term one of its greatest achievements: the elimination of all old TBR tags. In collaboration with the Ravania from the UDL, Storm and Blitze spearheaded the task. So great a victory will inevitably boost morale as well.
Our military leaders would personally like to thank every SDF member who participated in the TBR detagging campaign: your valiant efforts to further the cause of defenderism are commendable. The SDF has a reputation as a prominent defender force; campaigns such as this do service to it.
Special thanks are addressed to Storm; her tireless efforts set a new SDF detag record.
Spiritus would also like to thank all other defenders who helped with the detagging campaign; we are certain that defenderdom will collaborate further on such noble projects.
Supreme Court
Another short supplementary brief by the defense Spiritus' policy of zombie non-extermination with with a bit of a controversy in the most recent Halloween Z-Day apocalypse. A nation was ejected after being warned mulitiple times not to execute the zombies, as Spiritus maintain a strict pro-cure policy. However, the nation belonged to a full citizen, who filed suit, alleging that the temporary ejection was a violation of his constitutional right to manage his nation as he chooses.
Delegate Salaxalans, the perennial Z-Day czar, was identified as the defendant in the case and was represented by Guy and Rogamark. The government's position was that the Z-Day event is a special event and not part of business as usual.
The Supreme Court has initially found in favor of the plaintiff, though the defense is mounting an appeal.
So contentious was this case that the RA attempted a remedy via a constitutional amendment. The amendment failed to find adequate support among the citizenry, essentially failing by one vote. Opponents felt the amendment was premature and/or potentially unnecessary.
Zombie Apocalypse
Spiritus once again participated actively in the Zombie Apocalypse. Spiritus did quite well in this event, with extra special thanks to RedDusk and Salaxalans, who sacrificed time and sleep to coordinate and maintain the Spiritus campaign for the cure. Their efforts paid off, as Spiritus finished 11th in Nationstates for most survivors without infected and 17th for most survivors. The diligent efforts of participating members of the region are to be applauded.
Words from the High Elder
[small]Rogamark's Remarks (or Words from the High Elder under our Brotherhood of Steel theme) are my personal comments, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Spiritan Government or Cabinet, nor are they my official presidential or ministerial opinions.[/small]
Friends of Spiritus,
lately I was reminded of a discussion from years ago, in the days of the (thankfully) ill-fated NationStates2. It was about whether or not defenderism is dead, whether or not we've entered a new era, the Post-Defender Age. This was obviously not the case. However, I was - and still am - intrigued by how often this claim came up over the years. Rarely has an ideological alignment in a game been talked down by its own followers with such regularity. But we're still here. Why?
Unlike in most other games, ideologies in NS are not just set arbitrarily to pit players against each other, nor are they modeled after RL ideologies. For as long as there will be people seeking to govern their own regions, there will be people trying to destroy it just because. And for as long as there will be people doing that, there will be people trying to stop them.
The right to found and govern your own region, self-determination, has always been the cornerstone of Defender ideology. It is the cornerstone of our Defender heritage. The discussion I remember must have taken place at least six years ago, but to this day, defenders still believe in the inherent right of each and every region to determine its own fate without outside interference. Nothing has changed.
Of course, NS is a very diverse game, offering a multitude of ways how to play it. It is perfectly normal that one way that's resonable and fun to one player, will at the same time bore, mystify, or even annoy the other. Let them. It's part of the game. But what's not to be part of the game is destroying other people's regions just because you can - only to then have the temerity to claim 'that's what makes the game interesting for them'. No, it is not, it's what makes them lose interest in the game.
Defenderism is deeply rooted in the idea of regional self-determination, which in turn stems from the very idea of the game itself. It would only die if there were no longer any people running their own regions (which would mean NS itself is dead), or no longer any raiders - likely story. That doesn't mean we shouldn't keep up our efforts to recruit people, to strengthen our militaries and to regularly affirm our commitment. The ability to help those who can't help themselves doesn't maintain itself. But if we were to pick background music for defenderism - considering the attitude of many defenders, we'd likely end up with a dirge. It would have been the wrong choice years ago, and it would be the wrong choice today. Much to raiderdom's chagrin.
Let's keep it that way. And do something about our attitude.
Thanks for reading the Spiritus Foreign Update!Authored by Deputy Minister Blitze and President Rogamark
Edited by Vice President Legonimis
