Guten Tag, Greetings, Salutations and Felicitations!
I recieved four invitations to four different regions (Crazy Monkeywomen was the one who extended the invitation), and after thinking it over and weighing my options and the pros and cons over the past couple of days, I decided that this is the perfect region for my newly created State.
I am pleased and honoured for both the offer to join and my acceptance (pending?) into this most noble and truly appealing region, and hope to be a productive and helpful member in this regional alleigance.
To give you all a bit of background behind the story of my nation, I decided to type up a fair bit of information. Warning: this background information is long and somewhat extensive, though by no means tells the whole story in its full detail.
I'm still having trouble finding a good library of symbols, sigils, and such for use in a custom national flag, or preferrably a more banner like flag...not to mention I absolutely SUCK at microsoft paint....Was thinking of sticking with the colors of the flag I'm currently using: Scotland's Blue and White. Blue stands for Dependablility, as the State depends on the votes of the people to guide the actions and decisions of High Chancellor Matthias (Mah-TEEh-has) Collier and the Socialist Parliament. White stands for Purity, as in the purity of the new Democratic Socialist Parliament; a renewed and modified version of the first Democratic Parliament of the Confederacy that the aristocratic, richer members of the upper class ultimately took charge of, and began abusing their wealth to pay off necessary bribes or "gifts" and donations to certain canditates for "elections," which soon were almost always bought by the party with the most money, as the Confederate Republic (what the high-upper class--the "Elite"--officially named and turned the Democratic Socialist Parliament into) depended on electoral college votes as the primary factor in election-to-office. With their more influential opponents either bribed or simply out-bribed, the Elite used their purchased positions to enact laws carefully worded by sly lawyers and politicians to ensure the people wouldn't realize what truly was going on...until it was too late to oppose them. Economic oppression, budget cuts to just about any social service, mainly health care and education (to keep as much of the nation as dumb as possible, so they'd flock about and follow the corrupt Republic like fat, lazy, mindless cattle following the herd's steer without question...)
The High Chancellor is also known as "The Herald," which defines a messenger/teacher/mentor/guide; this was his title as Founder and Leader of the Confederate Democratic Socialists' Party. Founding the Party at a relatively young age of twenty-four, Matthias Collier was seen as something truly new; a uniquely passionate character with amazing, almost spell-binding oratorical capabilities, his speeches to the public often addressing the plight of the middle and lower classes, which at the time were almost indistinguishable from one another, and had essentially become what he called "an intended neo-peasantry of modern plebians," which was the truth at that point; also in his speeches were his perceived (and clearly accurate) accusations and perceptions of the "so-called Confederate Republic," a thoroughly and insidiously corrupted Senate made up only of less than one percent of the Confederacy's population: the High-Upper class buisnessmen, corporate shareholders and the like--whom he referred to as the "neo-aristocracy" and thusly termed this group as "The Elite"--and their slightly less-wealthy "vassals," equating the currently filthy-rich upper class rule over the ever-degenerating and ever-deprived middle and lower classes as the modern equivalent of a purely Aristocratically-based Feudal Dictatorship. At first, Collier's manner of public speech surprised and, in a few cases, even shocked his audience; the people had become used to rather drab, somber, apathetic and almost soul-less speeches of the Republic's Senate and Senatorial President (along with his "Cabinet of Executives"), in which the body remained virutally semi-comatose, drawling and almost arrogantly bored-sounding voice, monotone and without passion, with eyes almost constantly gazing at the pieces of paper they obviously read from (which they obviously took no part in writing and clearly didn't care for anyway). Collier's speeches were vastly, radically different with mannerisms and expression virutally unheard of in political speeches of the day; he would yell, shout, cry out, rant, his volume usually starting at normal stage presentation, then often rising and falling back to this original decibel, his tone always bold and upfront with a voice that managed to never crack and seemed immune to developing laringitis. He would stand at the pedestal or podium (in the early days, he had to hold his public speeches and early party rallies in small, public gathering establishments, the most popular of which were pubs, billiard halls and cafes), rarely, if ever, taking his eyes away from the masses of the people. Some at first feared the almost viscious ferocity of the physical expression of his passion; his head sometimes nodding sharply, jerking about, leaning back swiftly, even sometimes trashing about briefly in what spectators first commented as being "an almost feral, rabid manner, however brief," shaking his hands, waving arms up and down as his voice would rise and fall much like a conductor leads an orchestra in music. It rapidly became clear, however, that this relatively well-dressed, middle-class-born youth was not just your every-so-often raving madman that foamed at the mouth after losing his noodle upon finding his home evicted by the Republic vassals; this man was uniquely and fiercly passionate. A fiery, strong-willed and stout-hearted young man, who seemed to collect the supressed anger, discontent and rage of the masses he was just as much a part of and--using his apparently extensive vocabulary, his natural gift of ingenius use and application of his people's language, and a well-read and well-rounded base of knowledge and intelligence--unleashed the collective rage and malcontent of the masses for all of them to hear. Many began to claim to newspapers, "Its as if he can read not just our minds, but feel our hearts and sympathize with our souls." (A claim that he never responded to, as such romantic responses were not only becoming common as he gained notoriety, but also relatively less important than the movement he was seeking to create, to rouse the people into rising, standing up for their rights which were slowly being ignored, and ultimately taken away from them.)
Needless to say, the movement caught on quickly. The Confederate Democratic Socialists' Party was quickly and officially founded and registered, recognized by a slowly-evermore-wary Republic. They clearly very much disliked the young, fiery upstart, and liked even less the ever-growing popularity his very character seemed to draw like an ever more powerful magnet.
The DemoSoci's, as many short-name-minded and/or resentful, blind and ignorant supporters of the Republic began to call them, rapidly grew in the size, stature, and strength of numbers over the next five years. Refusing any offers from Collier to step down and allow a more organized and experience Party member to take his place, Collier was soon being referred to as "the Herald," which quickly gained the more formal entitlement of "Herald Collier," as if the Party members believed that no one else could possibly hold, let alone deserve the leadership. After a successful sixth year of rallies, protest marches, social petitions and institutionalizing of branches of the Party Headquarters in other major urban centers throughout the nation, Collier began speaking of what he called a "Social Revolution." An action of uniting as a people, marching on the capital, taking hold of the Senatorial Emporium (the House of the Sentate, basically), and demanding that the aristocrats renounce their abused, self-imposed and commercially-purchased positions of government and return power to the people, enabling them to create a nation of social equality and prosperity for the people. The march was attempted, Collier and his Chairmen of the party forming a single line, standing side by side as the massive throng behind them, wearing their Demo.Soci. Party armbands and carrying signs of both protest and, this time, demand. Upon meeting a military blockade at the end of the main street in the downtown urban city-center, Collier lifted up and bent out his elbows to the sides, the Chairmen following suit as they locked arms, and resumed leading the march; he had earlier informed the rest of the Party members who would take part in the march that any who could gain access to any form of self-defense, should do so and bring it along in the march--preferrably firearms, which were not to be drawn to fire unless the military actually fired first. Collier did not expect the Elite to give up their thrones so easily, after all.
To make a long story necessarily shorter, the march was a disaster; Collier had only lead the march another three steps forward before the blockade soldiers opened fire. Half of the Chairmen were hit by the gunfire; out of the original twelve, seven survived. Collier himself was hit in below the shoulder, luckly missing the top of his heart by a mere half-inch. The rest of those in the march were quickly ordered to fall back, providing covering fire as the wounded were quickly carried away. Collier himself, obviously not an experience combatant, was in a daze as he was, despite his half-concious protests, rushed to a car a few blocks back provided for just such a needed escape, and driven away from the rapidly dwindling and fading urban combat that had ensued (the "Battle of the Coup" lasting only twenty to thirty-five minutes). The others had, without informing him, planned to smuggle Collier to a bordering nation friendly to their Party's cause. He did, of course, manage to convince the driver--his personal adjutant at the time--that if he were to flee the nation, the movement would die completely. Arrests were made, the dead were counted, the wounded treated and then imprisoned. Collier and his surviving Party chairmen were tried for high treason, though Collier used his envigorating and audience-exciting oratory to use the trial as his own means of attempting to publicly expose as much as possible the clear corruption in the government. Even the most experienced judges found themselves at a loss to try and counter the imlicating, yet clearly true accusations Collier threw at them, using any and all available printed material and official sources to his advantage, citing quotations from political analysis texts and periodicals that the Republic and its juedges didn't even realize existed. Many of the lesser officials and reporters present at the trial became more and more endeared to Collier, and the judges--not wanting to incite any further risks of being fully exposed for the bribe-accepting and trial-skewing obstructers of justice that they were, nor wanting to give the crowd in the courtroom a reason to charge the Judicial board on the spot--sentenced Collier and his Party Chairmen to prison sentences ranging from six months to a year, with chances of parole after the first three months.
Collier and his coterie were out of jail by the time three months and six days of the sentence had been served.
From that point on, Collier did everything he could to reunite the all-but-shattered party, which had been banned from any form of public political association with the party for a month, using the excusing title of "Party Probation." It didn't take long (only about a year and a half) until the Democratic Socialist Party had become almost as strong as it once was.
Collier was, much to his surpise, not blamed for the failed coup. On the contrary, his old party comrades and supporters were quite happy to have the return of "their beloved Herald." He was always given the unanimous vote in the in-party elections, and never brought into doubt as the Herald, as he listened to any and all oppositions to any further proposals he made for the Party's future action; the Party felt so devoted to what they called "the Herald's Vision," that they didn't bother even nominating for the bi-yearly party leader elections, though "Herald Collier" as they called him, referred to himself insistently only as "a guide, a messenger of social equality and the Harbinger of the end of economic oppression and imperialism of the old Republic and the neo-aristocratic "Elite"."
This time using the tatic of "if you can't down the stag and his herd with open offensive with your pack, then convince him that you shall play along with his self-righteous and pompous game," Collier and the Party used any and all constitutional means to ultimately gather mass support from the people, forcing the Senate to surrender a number of their seats to Democratic Socialist Party nominees. Only three years passed when, at the matured and wiser age of thirty-five, publicly, on both live news and radio broadcast, brought forth the Senate (which by this time was over 2/3rds Demo.Soc. in its seats) composed accusations against the Senatorial President and his Cabinet, charging them with corruption, economic oppression, social injustice, abuse of state funds for personal gains of the Elite, over-taxing with under-declared numerics, enforcing oppressive policies upon the people through intimidation and violent coercion via law enforcement and military oppression placements, and several other charges against the individual Elites themselves. The entire remainder of the Elite in power were forced out of power, stripped of all their estates, with them and their families being exiled and deported to a bordering capitalist nation with only a third of their original economic resources, the remaining two-thirds of their various corporations and business and industries being absorbed into the government budget for social projects and welfare, the remaining utilities pressed into immediate service in employment of the State. Collier immediately declared the enstatement United Socialist States of Confederate Freedom, and signed it along with each and every other Party member, immediately abolishing the Republic and its Senate, replacing them with a Confederate Democratic Socialist Parliament.
The rest is clearly obvious, if you look up my nation. Sorry it was so friggin' long of a novellette; I put a lot of thought into the background of my nation and its founder. ^^; Anyhow, if anyone has any questions about my nation that this doesn't answer (I don't know how that would be possible, but it could happen), by any and all means, ask! I'm new to both NationStates and any NationState-based forum (this being my frist one).
Let me know what you all think, and thanks for letting me join the region! Looking forward to working with you guys!
