Tim Montresor-Stark + Pharaoh = Yes

[Tim Stark]

I like Bacon on my Pizza

Your Bacon Pizza is here!

[Cormac]

Thanks for the very in-depth answers. Unfortunately, you're not done! I'm taking a page from Dali and asking a bunch of fairly difficult questions.

I'm going to be asking all of the candidates this exact same set of the following questions:

1. A coup d'etat takes place in The Rejected Realms, led by The Black Hawks and supported by the United Imperial Armed Forces. The Sekhmet Legion is asked to support the coup. How do you respond? How, if at all, does your response differ if the coup is instead led by the UIAF?

2. What is your favorite color, and why?

3. A coup d'etat takes place in The East Pacific, supported by the UIAF as well as raider regions with which the Legion has collaborated in the past. How do you respond?

4. If you had to choose a song to represent your campaign, which song would it be and why?

5. Osiris is approached about joining an interregional military organization of six initial regions: The North Pacific, Balder, Europeia, Equilism, Spiritus, and of course Osiris. How do you respond? Does your response differ if it is instead a trilateral organization with Balder and The East Pacific and, if so, how and why?

6. Do you know who your Vizier is going to be? You don't have to name him or her, I just want to know from each candidate, honestly, whether they know who they want for Vizier and whether that person has confirmed they're going to take the position. Not necessarily a deal-breaker, more a curiosity.

7. The highest influence Guardian of the Atef seizes the Delegacy and gives his nation to Biyah. The Empire of Osiris is declared, supported by pilers from hostile regions and various unflagged units. Within a few updates, you and your Vizier are ejected and banned, and no Guardian is anywhere within striking distance of the Delegacy. What do you do? How does your response differ if one or more of the other Guardians join the coup, and why?

8. Choose a Christmas carol to be the official carol of the Osiris Fraternal Order, and explain why.

9. A serious dispute breaks out between Balder and The East Pacific, prompting mutual severance of relations between the two. Both sides are pressuring you to cancel Osiris' treaty and sever relations with the other. How do you respond?

10. Two members of your Hedjet are embroiled in intense arguments. These arguments have been erupting, on and off, for two weeks, dominating the private Hedjet IRC channel and even spilling over onto the forum and into #osi on a regular basis. Both are your friends, both do their jobs well, and both are demanding you fire the other. How do you resolve the conflict?

Thanks in advance for your answers and, again, best of luck!

[Tim Stark]

Thanks for the questions, Cormac! It's really late and I just got back from Cincinnati a bit ago (2 hour drive), so if it's okay I'll answer them in the morning. I just don't want you to think I'm ignoring them! I also have a question Professor Henn of TSP sent me on IRC that I plan to answer after some sleep.

Sorry for the wait, folks!

[Cormac]

No worries. I didn't expect instant answers, they're long questions.

[Lord Ravenclaw]

Without a doubt, you have a history in Osiris. Much like Cormac and myself, that history is tinged with both highlights and negative events that have become entwined with Osiris and is part of the reason Osiris stands as it does now. I don't think there are many people in Osiris now who can say that.

The foreign policy of a sinker, of any region is generally dominated by its chief executive. That has been true in Osiris with one exception during George's reign under the KROwhen I was the primary proponent of foreign policy due to his RL. It has been the area of focus for most chief executives in Osiris, but I've noticed that you have decided to focus internally.

Some would argue that Osiris has received considerable damage to its foreign policy over the last six months with the last government not providing the robust attitude and visibility commonly associated with this region and as a result relations are weaker than expected with various regions. Some nameless figures have even commented that Osiris' decline has affected certain other regions with whom they share close ties. Do you believe that the "decay" in Osiris has actually affected other regions as a result of it? Or do you believe that the events of one region should not transcend the borders of another?

You noted a bit about the endorsement rate in Osiris, the numbers are not surprising given the history of instability in the region has left long term residents unwilling to endorse people. Long memories can be a pain in politics, after all. How would you see WA endorsement numbers increase? Do you think that there is anything that can be done to restore Osiran interest and activity in the World Assembly? Do you feel that the general apathy towards the WA reflects Osiran attitude in general given the recent decline in activity?

Thank you in advance for your answers, good luck.

[War Wombat]

Oh. I, too am pleasantly surprised. So many great candidates this time round!! I may have to make a spreadsheet to compare all of the platforms.

[Joshua Bluteisen]

Here's one question that I'm asking all of the candidates; how do you intend to deal with the relatively low amount of influence spread throughout the Atef?

Do you plan on making more appointments to the security council?

[Seker]

If so, who in mind?

[Tim Stark]

Thanks for the very in-depth answers. Unfortunately, you're not done! I'm taking a page from Dali and asking a bunch of fairly difficult questions.

I'm going to be asking all of the candidates this exact same set of the following questions:

1. A coup d'etat takes place in The Rejected Realms, led by The Black Hawks and supported by the United Imperial Armed Forces. The Sekhmet Legion is asked to support the coup. How do you respond? How, if at all, does your response differ if the coup is instead led by the UIAF?

2. What is your favorite color, and why?

3. A coup d'etat takes place in The East Pacific, supported by the UIAF as well as raider regions with which the Legion has collaborated in the past. How do you respond?

4. If you had to choose a song to represent your campaign, which song would it be and why?

5. Osiris is approached about joining an interregional military organization of six initial regions: The North Pacific, Balder, Europeia, Equilism, Spiritus, and of course Osiris. How do you respond? Does your response differ if it is instead a trilateral organization with Balder and The East Pacific and, if so, how and why?

6. Do you know who your Vizier is going to be? You don't have to name him or her, I just want to know from each candidate, honestly, whether they know who they want for Vizier and whether that person has confirmed they're going to take the position. Not necessarily a deal-breaker, more a curiosity.

7. The highest influence Guardian of the Atef seizes the Delegacy and gives his nation to Biyah. The Empire of Osiris is declared, supported by pilers from hostile regions and various unflagged units. Within a few updates, you and your Vizier are ejected and banned, and no Guardian is anywhere within striking distance of the Delegacy. What do you do? How does your response differ if one or more of the other Guardians join the coup, and why?

8. Choose a Christmas carol to be the official carol of the Osiris Fraternal Order, and explain why.

9. A serious dispute breaks out between Balder and The East Pacific, prompting mutual severance of relations between the two. Both sides are pressuring you to cancel Osiris' treaty and sever relations with the other. How do you respond?

10. Two members of your Hedjet are embroiled in intense arguments. These arguments have been erupting, on and off, for two weeks, dominating the private Hedjet IRC channel and even spilling over onto the forum and into #osi on a regular basis. Both are your friends, both do their jobs well, and both are demanding you fire the other. How do you resolve the conflict?

Thanks in advance for your answers and, again, best of luck!

Here are my replies to Cormac. The replies to Raven and Joshua are coming soon as well:

---

1. I hold a view for these situations that centers around GCR solidarity, as well as a general idea of avoiding aggression against our fellow Game-Created Regions. I would first like to establish the point that nothing in our treaties with the regions that would be involved in that invasion requires that we deploy on their request, and I would plan to utilize that here. Assuming, given that nothing in the situation appears to imply it, that The Rejected Realms has given Osiris no cause to deploy against it, the Sekhmet Legion would be staying put. Our treaties with the affiliated regions only prevent us from deploying against them, and we will honor that, but we will not be deploying in support of them. Our allies come before non-allied GCRs, but not to the point where we will choose to declare senseless war on our sister regions. Were UIAF the ones leading this invasion, very little would change, given that all the previous reasoning still holds solid. Support of one’s allies is not an unconditional thing, and I have no intent on dredging Osiris through more senseless conflict in situations where we can simply stay out of it.

Furthermore, given the fact that it’s a very unreasonable expectation for anybody to hold The Rejected Realms for more than 24 hours, given the lack of a ban button and the massive rush the interegional community would send in to counter (see Onderkelkia’s capture of it a few years ago), it would make little sense for Osiris to deploy and risk the Diplomatic Fallout that could happen for any regions involved, one way or another.

2. Since black is technically an absence of color rather than a color, my favorite color would have to be green. I like the color green, nature is green, my eyes are green, and I generally just find it to be a nice serene and tranquil color.

3. Given that both The East Pacific and the regions comprising The United Imperial Armed Forces are our treatied allies, this certainly creates a bit of a pickle for Osiris. Given that both are allies, however, Osiris would remain militarily neutral throughout the situation. However, on the diplomatic front, Osiris would express a strong disapproval of the coup d’etat, and work to achieve peace and the restoration of the legitimate government of The East Pacific; that being the one that held power before being couped. Obviously, this also means that diplomatically Osiris would continue supporting and recognizing the legitimate government of The East Pacific. It would be my hope that the situation would end up resolving itself in an amiable manner, in which Osiris was able to keep all of its treaties and The East Pacific would be able to regain sovereignty over their region.

4. The song to represent my campaign would most certainly be The Next Episode by Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dogg. It’s a classic song and who doesn’t want to identify with such moving lyrics like “Smoke weed everyday”. No, to be honest, I think my campaign song if going to be the cover of You’ll Never Walk Alone by Gerry and The Pacemakers. Yes, I am a Liverpool FC fan, okay. Anyways, the song itself is very moving and I think it’s very effective at showing the character of the Osiran community. The opening lyrics
“When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There's a golden sky”
really sums up the history of Osiris for me. We’ve walked through many a storm, but have always held our heads up high and made it through to the end of the storm, where there is a golden sky of peace and prosperity. The song urges one to walk on with “hope in your heart”, for “You’ll never walk alone”. That last statement, You’ll Never Walk Alone, I feel does apply to Osiris. We’re a pretty close knit community, and we’ve always got some sense of friendliness and unity even in the hard times. Therefore, as I’d like to only see that community feel continue, it is the anthem for my campaign.

5. I think I smell SovCon, do you smell SovCon? I’m going to base my reply for this based off of the underlying ideas of SovCon, and therefore say I would not ever subject Osiris to something like that. For one, an interregional military organization would mean that our militaries would all work together, in some way shape or form. Just off the get go, Spiritus is a Defender region whose military will not be participating in raids. The Osiris military is not one that generally participates in liberations, unless they are against Nazi. You can already see how this would not work out. From there, it simply seems like something that’s far too entangling with far too little benefit coming from it. If we all remember how SovCon imploded, I’d rather not see Osiris involved in such another situation.

My response would not differ, to be perfectly honest, in its final call, but the reasons would be slightly different. Obviously this could logistically work much better, given that we already have a treaty with Balder and a treaty with The East Pacific. However, we have also seen the collapse of effectiveness of ISRA that led to its separation, and I don’t see much reason to re-forge ISRA with the addition of EPSA into it. The same problems would likely arise, and our militaries could be just as effective without needing to be bogged down in needless bureaucracy of combined leadership. Furthermore, given that EPSA does significantly more defending than the Jomsvikings and the Sekhmet Legion, it doesn’t seem like the best of matches for an interregional organization.

6. I do indeed know who I want my Vizier to be, at this point in time, and they have confirmed that they would be willing to take the position if I were to be elected as Pharaoh. Obviously, plans might chance and circumstances might shift, but I am very certain with my current Vizier pick and very confident that they’re willing to do the job.

7. If anybody remembers the time when The Dourian Embassy chose to hand over his nation to Gatesville and Durkadurkiranistan, I was actually involved in both the Cabinet of Osiris and the High Command for Liberation Plans for that situation, so I’ve unfortunately got experience with having Osiris held hostage by enemies before.

First of all, we need to establish a few things about this situation:

• The Highest Influence Guardian of the Atef after this election will be the current incumbent Pharaoh. As he knows, he has enough influence to ban the rest of the Atef in one fell swoop. This massively cripples our ability to liberate early on in any way shape or form. Whatever we’re doing here, it is going to be a long and drawn out attrition battle.
• We are going against the Empire. I don’t care how arrogant you want to be, how much you want to play their skill level down, the players behind the Empire (in this case we are going to assume that Biyah, Dalimbar, Neo Kerkoskia, and Neenee are all active and at the helm) are some of if not the most effective coup tacticians in the game, and a very effective team. One needs to only look back at the incident that got them their trademark name to understand that, and realize you’re not dealing with some noobs. With them on our side in the last coup, we still barely scraped a victory, and now we’re working against them. This is not exactly a recipe for a quick victory. Gatesville was one thing, Empire is a very different thing all together
• The tactic that won us the previous conflict will not work. If everyone recalls, we won the Usiris conflict through deception tactics that heavily relied on the United Imperial Armed Forces. They came into the region, passing off as supporters of Gatesville while cross-endorsed, and then ended up turning on Gatesville and granting us the advantage we needed to get to the negotiation table and get our region back.

Now, clearly the situation doesn’t look good. Tossing it into realism with the influence of Ikand, we’re looking at a nation that is effectively unchallenged for the top. First and foremost, what we need here is communication. We keep the RMB full of what I will now dub as Free Osiris messages. We make sure that the region and the outside world know that we still have a presence. We do the same thing in Telegrams, frequently messaging the region with updates, even if they’re just short motivational blurbs. Empire will be using extensive propaganda tactics and we need to attempt to counter them at every turn. The forum, of course, has to also remain active so as to keep people’s confidence in us. Furthermore, this will allow us to run effective cross-endorsement and un-endorsement campaigns on our enemy. If we can get most of our native WA’s to un-endorse them and begin cross-endorsing on each other, we only raise our potential for victory. It forces them to start banning natives to keep us down, and that’s much harder to spin regardless of who’s running your propaganda.

We then proceed to contact all our allies, friends, and whoever else we may have. Similar to what we were doing when Milograd couped The South Pacific, though perhaps with more efficiency in the operations, we run attrition missions as much as possible. We need to keep wasting the influence the couper is gaining each update. I could also compare this to the significantly smaller scale, but similar, situation in Anne Frank in which we just piled in too many troops for the Nazi Delegate to deal with. Will we win instantly? Of course not, unless we can successfully pull off a 100+ updater liberation. However, we make it a pain in the ass for Empire to hold Osiris. We work intelligence operations as much as possible to find out who the hidden flag people are, and we out anyone we know is supporting Empire. We make it so intolerable to support Empire in Osiris, that those regions doing so cannot stay afloat unless they withdraw. I would also move to see the regions supporting Empire excluded from the Arnhelm Declarations of Recruitment Standards, so that they may see their members leached and understand that supporting Empire will not work for them. To make it simple, the plan is to make it utter hell for anyone supporting Empire and for Empire itself, while still avoiding crossing into OOC.

Eventually, and this is the hope, this will not become a sustainable operation for Empire. Either they will simply turn it over to us and we will claim a long fought out victory, or we will go to the table and agree on a compromise. Obviously Empire will be a bit smarter than Gatesville was, and expect us to fuck them over if we grant them the Delegate nation, but we do whatever we can to either win or compromise and get rid of them as soon as we can down the road.

As much as anyone might hate to hear it, the way to win this is through communication, attrition, and not underestimating the enemy. There is no noble updater horde that can win this for us, just constant battering away at their defenses. However, we could win it, and if the situation ever arises, we *will* win it.

8. Okay, so I’m Jewish so I admittedly don’t pay attention to most Christmas Carols outside of what we play for Orchestra Concerts and the like. I guess if we want to go traditional, I’d go with Carol of the Bells simply due to how nice it sounds. I’m really not trying to make much symbolism for this, in relation to Osiris. Osiris is badass, that song has some badass parts, it works. However, the true Christmas Anthem of Osiris will always be Christmas in Hollis by RUN-DMC. Technically that’s a Christmas carol, right? It’s a great song, and Osiris is a great region, so I think it’s a pretty great fit. Am I right, or am I right?

9. Having been on The East Pacific’s Cabinet when it was presented with this exact situation during the conflict between Osiris and Lazarus, I would be following a similar plan to the one The East Pacific chose to take. Osiris would abstain from the conflict, wishing to remain friends with both, and would attempt to mediate the conflict as possible. However, if one region chooses to take action or make threats against Osiris, demanding that we support them, then it is very likely that we would then support the other, much like The East Pacific ended up cutting its treaty with Lazarus after TEP and Lazarus leadership had a fallout in cordial relations. If both regions truly are our friends, I believe they would understand why Osiris would choose to remain neutral, and we would still be effectively situated once the situation blows over because we’d end up holding treaties with them both.

10. I would tell them to both get over their differences, or both would be removed from office. Regardless of friendships or efficiency, I need a Hedjet that will work and won’t do such things. I will attempt the mediate the issue to the best of me ability, and hope that I can resolve it without any conflict. If the situation does not improve, and the hostilities continue, I would simply threaten to fire both of them and go ahead with that if the situation does not improve. There is no room for drama in the betterment of Osiris, and I would hope all my Hedjeti would be able to put aside their differences for the sake of Osiris.

[Cormac]

Tim, I've decided to vote for you. I would never have guessed before nominations started that you would be a serious candidate, let alone that I would also be voting for you, so I'm going to briefly -- which means, probably not briefly -- explain my reasoning for others' consideration. This can, essentially, be taken as an endorsement.

You, like all of the other candidates, have correctly identified that Osiris needs to focus on internal activity more than it needs to focus on external policy. You are, admittedly, less active than some candidates but more active than others, and I have regrettably ruled out two candidates based on activity alone. I believe that you will be active enough and will be appointing an active enough Hedjet to sustain activity throughout the term, but more than that, I think your understanding of the problems that face Osiris and how to deal with them will attract more people to our community and thus increase activity through community growth.

The questions I posed to all of the candidates were essentially a test. While the next Pharaoh's focus shouldn't be external policy, blunders in external policy -- my blunders -- are in part responsible for the inactivity that struck following my resignation. The region was demoralized by a horrendous external policy. Osiris can't afford a repeat of that. While all of the other candidates are great people and had impressive platforms, and I hope they'll stay involved and run for this office in the future if they don't win, you proved to me, in a way that the other candidates did not, that you understand the lessons that need to be learned from Osiris' past mistakes:

1) Unlike your fellow candidates, you were resistant to committing the Legion to support of a coup against either The Rejected Realms, a non-ally, or The East Pacific, an ally, regardless of whether the coup is perpetrated by an allied or non-allied force. If Osiris should have learned anything from the debacles of my term, it is that unprovoked aggression against fellow game-created regions is never in Osiris' interests and should never be pursued. You appear to be the only candidate to have learned that lesson.

2) Also unlike some of your fellow candidates, you have learned the lessons from debacles such as Sovereign Confederation and the Imperial Sovereign Realms Army and you're opposed to Osiris' participation in such interregional organizations. Fascination with interregional alliances and organizations has been a recurring blunder throughout Osiris' history -- from the PSSP, to SovCon, to Concord, to ISRA -- and in each and every case, participation in these alliances and organizations has brought Osiris nothing but trouble.

3) You seem to have the best grasp of how challenging it would be to deal with a coup by a high influence, high endorsement nation, and how integral communication and diplomacy are in dealing with such an eventuality. In most, if not all, cases, there is no purely military solution to a coup d'etat against a game-created region, and you seem to get that. I didn't quite get that impression from the other candidates.

Aside from this, it has come to my attention that North East Somerset -- the dear saint that I ejected and banned after my resignation, prompting Treize Dreizehn to force me out of the Delegacy -- has pressured at least one other candidate to withdraw from the race because he's afraid a split vote will lead to your electoral victory. If North East Somerset and people like him don't want you as Pharaoh, that is an indication to me that the rest of us, who actually care about Osiris, should at minimum be giving you serious consideration. They don't want you as Pharaoh because they see you as the most difficult to manipulate, and they have now been manipulating Osiris, primarily through her Pharaohs, for over a year.

As I noted earlier, I think that your election will do positive things for Osiris in that it will make our community more attractive to others who may have been reluctant for one reason or another to get involved with the OFO. Your election would demonstrate that the OFO has turned the page on the divisions of the past and is ready to reconcile with the Kemetic Republic of Osiris and those who were involved in it. Your election would also demonstrate that the perceived bias against defenders no longer exists, if it ever did. In short, your election would demonstrate that the OFO is interested in building a more open, inclusive, and tolerant community, where people of diverse backgrounds and viewpoints are welcome. As all candidates have said, internal activity will be key this term. I don't think anything could be better for internal activity than turning the page and, a little over one year later, taking the OFO into a new and more inclusive era.

I have every confidence that you will lead Osiris well both internally and externally, that you will maintain her independence, and that you will be overall a very strong Pharaoh. I'm very glad to be voting for you and I hope others will consider voting for you as well.