With my new job and other real life issues of which the Deshret and a few others are aware, I no longer have the time and energy to dedicate to serving as Pharaoh. The region deserves someone who can devote adequate time and energy to serving as its chief executive, and I hope someone will come forward to stand for election who is able and willing to do that. I couldn't have foreseen these circumstances or I wouldn't have run for Pharaoh in the first place, but it would be wrong to subject the region to a month of heavily reduced activity from the Pharaoh just to remain in office until the scheduled end of my term.
I also believe that I have made a series of significant mistakes that, while not my mistakes alone, have done damage to the Osiris Fraternal Order that can only be fixed if I resign and a new Pharaoh is able to fix them. These mistakes include declaration of war against the People's Republic of Lazarus, a reversal of Osiris' historic respect for the sovereignty of other Feeders and Sinkers, and termination of relations with several other regions for their attendance of the 2014 Regional Sovereignty Conference in Lazarus. I believed these decisions were in the best interests of Osiris, at least in light of the direction that most in the region wanted to see the region go, but I was wrong. I hope the next Pharaoh can end the war and restore relations with most, if not all, of the regions with which relations were terminated.
Finally, I can no longer pretend to support and continue to advocate the direction that the region has chosen for its external affairs since December 2013, if not earlier. The alliance of the Osiris Fraternal Order and its predecessor governments with imperialist regions has brought Osiris allies that regard us as at best a protectorate and at worst a colony in which to advance their own agenda to benefit their regions, not ours.
Case in point:
- When this region was considering a non-aggression pact with The Rejected Realms, our sister Sinker, those whose time and energy is primarily invested in other imperialist regions -- people like North East Somerset, Charles Cerebella, Cassius Cerebella, and others -- did all they could, up to and including attempting to force my resignation as Scribe of Foreign Affairs, to ensure that a simple commitment to non-aggression against a fellow Sinker, a region with which The Land of Kings and Emperors and The New Inquisition but not Osiris are at war, could not pass.
- At the very inception of the Imperial Sovereign Realms Army, that institution was used to further the aims and enhance the prestige of Balder in an unacceptable and unwarranted way, by giving credit to Balder for an operation that included only Osirans. This problem was caused, once again, by Cassius Cerebella, a problem that would have been averted if he and/or Seven Deaths had been willing to represent Balder on that operation, but instead they opted to represent UIAF and sought to have Balder credited for the operation anyway.
- When The New Inquisition decided to terminate its treaty and sever relations with The South Pacific on the grounds of their mutual defense treaty with The Rejected Realms, this was a major reversal of previous policy that was not discussed with Osiris or, as far as I know, Balder. Previously, The New Inquisition raised no objection to the multilateral mutual defense pact known as the Pan-Sinker Security Pact (PSSP) that included Balder, then an ally of The New Inquisition, and The Rejected Realms, then a member of the Founderless Regions Alliance with which The New Inquisition is at war, as well as including Osiris and Lazarus.
In terminating its treaty with The South Pacific due to its mutual defense alliance with The Rejected Realms, The New Inquisition was also sending a message to Balder and particularly to Osiris that we could not enter into such an alliance with either Lazarus or The Rejected Realms, and in so doing sought to subtly but quite clearly dictate external policy to this region. This is not how an ally behaves toward another ally, but rather how a colonial force behaves toward its subjects. - Again, in the midst of disputes between Osiris and The Black Riders, UIAF member regions made decisions that sought to dictate external policy to Osiris without any consultation with our government. Out of nowhere, and bearing in mind that The Black Riders had never previously signed treaties with any region, all three UIAF member regions ratified treaties with The Black Riders without even so much as notifying Osiris. This had the effect of forcing Osiris to cease its mutual hostility with The Black Riders for fear of disrupting three alliances, though North East Somerset did so graciously offer to place Osiris on the list of UIAF's protectorates to ensure that The Black Riders could not invade us. I declined.
- Very recently, Osiris was not invited nor even notified of the Independence Conference being hosted by Europeia -- a conference to which Europeia's other GCR and imperialist allies have been invited. When asked for an explanation, President Kraketopia stated that Osiris identifies exclusively as imperialist where the other regions that were invited identify as both imperialist and independent, citing this as the same reason The West Pacific, one of the pioneers of independence, was not invited to the conference. I suppose asking how Osiris identifies itself, rather than deciding for us, would have been out of the question.
Unfortunately, this bad decision making on my part and on the part of all of my successors has resulted not in Osiris becoming a respected member of the imperialist sphere, but a pawn to be used by other imperialist regions that have no respect for our sovereignty.
I began this term trying to create distance between the Osiris Fraternal Order and the imperialist sphere, by trying to expand our network of alliances and by trying to moderate our external outlook. These efforts were resisted by the Deshret at every turn. Finally, when the UIAF member regions decided to ratify treaties with The Black Riders and after all this resistance, I could see that it would not be possible to do what I was trying to do. That was not the direction the community wanted. So, instead, I seized upon comments made by Karpathos and cleverly revived the Empire bogeyman to justify war with the People's Republic of Lazarus, to solidify Osiris' raider-imperialist direction and provide a firm goal for the community to rally around. The decisions I have made, which so many of you now quietly ridicule behind closed doors, were made for you. I made them because this region wants to be raider-imperialist, and if this region is to pursue that direction it must have a clear defender enemy in order to justify and solidify that direction.
Let me be unequivocally clear: I did not and do not actually support war with Lazarus. I made that decision to give direction to the path that the Osiran community wanted to pursue, a raider-imperialist path. This was not the path that I wanted to pursue, nor the path that I believed was in Osiris' best interests in light of the way our "allies" had treated us, but I put what I wanted aside to focus on what the community wanted. I will not do that anymore, nor will I serve as scapegoat for all the interregional hate that should properly be directed at this community as a whole, not exclusively at me. I am done being Osiris' fall guy.
So, for all of these reasons, but primarily my lack of time and energy to devote here anymore, as stated earlier, I resign as Pharaoh of the Osiris Fraternal Order.
Although this is not strictly legal, I will remain in the Delegacy until a new Pharaoh is elected. Any attempt by the Vizier or any of the Guardians to take the Delegacy, regardless of what the State Code of Osiris says, will result in ejection and ban. I will not surrender the Delegacy to anyone but my elected successor. Otherwise, you have no need to worry about any coup from me. I've already considered that, in order to purge the imperialist opportunists and dissolve the treaties they use as weapons against our sovereignty, but I've ruled that out due to lack of time and energy on my part, and due to the certainty that this is not what the community would want.
I do, however, hope that the election that will follow this resignation will see the candidates for Pharaoh focused on the threat posed to our sovereignty by our supposed allies, the sole exception being The East Pacific which is a true ally. I hope that this election will also focus on how to end the war with Lazarus and restore relations with other Feeders and Sinkers. For my role in this damage, I sincerely apologize, but I thought I was doing what was in Osiris' best interests and what the community of Osiris wanted. As usual, I was wrong, and I regret the moment that I decided to run for Pharaoh in June 2013 and all the destruction that one decision has brought to Osiris. I wish the region well in moving forward and I hope it will have a brighter future than its past.
Like so many of my predecessors, I will be taking leave of Osiris when this process is completed. This region and its internal and external circumstances are not kind to those who decide to take on the responsibilities of Pharaoh, and this is the only word of caution I will offer to anyone who is thinking of standing for Pharaoh. I wish my successors the best of luck; they'll need it.
NO!
