Tim Montresor-Stark + Pharaoh = Yes

[Tim Stark]

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Introduction

أهلا وسهلا (Hello and Welcome) members of the Osiris Deshret, as well as citizens of Osiris. My name is Tim Montresor-Stark, and I am running to be elected as your next Pharaoh. My history with this illustrious region is extensive, and well known. Initially, I was unjustly imprisoned for an alleged attempt to coup the Kemetic Republic of Osiris, which was the government before the Osiris Fraternal Order. After four trials, I was given an option to take a plea bargain. As my plea bargain granted me double jeopardy protection, I took it even if it meant admitting guilt to a crime I did not commit, because a not guilty verdict would not ensure me double jeopardy protection. I was so eager to fight for Osiris prosperity that I accepted the penalty of a 6 month ban from the Legislative Body and a permanent ban from Pharaoh and Kai Repat (Vice-Pharaoh). This penalty was later rescinded by Pharaoh Madjack due to my exemplary dedication to the prosperity of Osiris. I stood with the community and on the front lines as we fought against the Dourian Coup and the Gatesville usurpers, I stood with the community through all conflict, and it was only due to being in the opposite faction from the Brotherhood of Malice that my time in Osiris was sadly interrupted. Now that I have returned to this wonderful region, I have served in as dedicated of a manner as some of our best Deshreti, promoting the glory of Osiris both abroad and at home. I like to think that it is not the activity of the man that should define him, but the character, and I think it is a more than fair assumption that my character is one of strength, wisdom, and a bountiful future for an Independent Osiris.

If anybody is curious what positions I served within Osiris, as well as awards I got, here is a comprehensive list of all the ones I can remember. Terms have been simplified, so Vizier -> Minister, etc:

• Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Minister of Defense (keeping the Sekhmet Legion raiding)
• Sepatarch (KRO Legislature)
• Two-Time Recipient of the Commendation of Osiris, for my service to the region.
• Forum Administrator
• Minister of Citizenship
• Deputy Minister of Citizenship
• Member of the Deshret

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Platform

I could write a "3 Pillars" platform, but I think everyone is tired of three buzzwords followed by empty promises. So, here we go:

Osiris needs to focus on becoming attractive to the outside world. We still have a bad stigma given all the dark shit that happened when the original OFO coup went down, and I'd like to fix that. I'd like to reconcile as many differences as we can, and make it clear that this isn't yet another regime that will die into the stagnancy that saw the KRO be removed from power. However, aside from the reconciliation of difference, this will be primarily focused on our internal affairs. Osiris is a great region, and the Egypt theme gives us plenty of work with in terms of culture! I'd say that the Culture area is our most active of the forums, which is great, and I'd love to see it become even better! Past that, my goal will be retention of re-founded nations. Many come in and are pretty confused on what they're doing. Getting them to stay with us, and joining the region is going to be a fantastic method of growing. A big part of this will be RMB activity, which currently shows posts from 1.5 days ago. My goal will be to always have the RMB show no post later than 6 hours from the most recent post, to show off our majestic activity! An active RMB means an active region and a more attractive scene.

In regards to military, I am a firm believer in R/D Independence for GCRs. This does not mean the Imperialist definition of Independent where you raid unless it's beneficial for you to defend. This means that Osiris will do what is best for Osiris. The Sekhmet Legion within the KRO, under leadership of individuals such as Madjack, Lyanna Stark, and myself, made a name for it as the only GCR military that managed to easily transcend lines and actively raid and defend. Not just stupid tag raids, or assisting UIAF, but actually holding its own regions on its own numbers. Even if beaten by Defenders, it would show that Osiris can do solo operations and would be a great way to show off the strength of our military. Will the Legion occasionally defend if I'm in charge? Yeah. Will it occasionally raid? Yeah. If you're a purist that wants one or the other, then don't vote for me. Osiris for Osiris, I say, and we should do what we deem best as a region.

Finally, I'd like to talk about the endorsement count. Currently, Osiris has 132 World Assembly nations. Of those, only 80 have endorsed the Pharaoh. Removing the Pharaoh from the count, that means 80/131 have endorsed the Pharaoh, a mere 60%. This is a worse percentage that any of the other sinkers, with only Lazarus hanging close to us in terms of Nations Endorsing %. I'd like to work to have non-R/D Osirans have their WA in the region, as well as actively working on having non-citizen WAs continuously endorsing the Delegate and their Guardians.

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FAQ

Q1. But Tim?! Haven't you been inactive, and fairly shit at actually paying attention to Osiris?
A1. Well, actually, I wouldn't agree. I have been very active in what I consider to be an important cultural sphere of Osiris, that being our IRC Channel. I have been a continuous presence there, happily talking away with other citizens of the region about whatever we may want to talk about. Just with that, I think I'm already more active than most people in Osiris. I simply choose to distribute my activity differently than others.

Q2. Tim! You're a subversive Defender, we can't trust you!
A2. I was a subversive Defender the last time I held Executive Office in Osiris, and I managed to keep our Military actively raiding where all other GCR militaries weren't doing anything. I think it's quite clear I can put aside my R/D opinions for what I think is in the interest of the region, especially given the fact that I don't have many morals when it comes to Raiding or Defending, I just do what I enjoy.

Q3. Are you Illuminati?
A3.

Q4. Why are you running?
A4. Because Osiris is still kind of cool, and it's inactive, and that pisses me off. I'm decent at making things work and be active and stuff, so I tossed my hat into the ring.

Q5. What's so cool about Montresor anyway?
A5. It's a pretty kickass family, lemme tell you. First of all, we got Xoriet over in The East Pacific being a great Delegate. Yeah, she's a Montresor. Then we've got Severisen, who was a great Pharaoh here. Yeah, he's a Montresor. Then we've got Zeorus who'd done tons of stuff. Yeah he's a Montresor. Remember Escade, former Delegate of TSP? Montresor! Really, there's just so many great Montresors out there, and I'm honored that they'd ever let me be in their family. So, um, yeah that's a pretty good tl;dr of what's cool about Montresor.

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Got more questions? Ask Away!

I hope to have your vote this election
-Tim[/size][/font][/size][/font][/font]

Spoiler

Vac, runs the Osiris Army:
[10:01:37] <+Vac> all hail tim
[10:01:41] <+Vac> next pharaoh of osiris o/

Sev, former Pharaoh of Osiris:
[11:09:18] <+Sev> I'm sure if we elect Tim he would never resign WA to go on a liberation. I mean...right?

The Grim Reaper, former Justice of Osiris:
[12:42:50] <@TheGrimReaper> Tim is the right choice for finally completing the reversal of Osiris' fortunes. He is a real NS rags-to-RP story.

[Seker]

Your name sounds bourgeois. How do you plead?

[Cormac]

This isn't a joke candidacy. That alone surprised me, pleasantly. I do need to note that your characterization of why your time in Osiris was interrupted is not entirely accurate -- you were at least perceived to be extremely close with Empire, if not a card-carrying member, whether or not that perception was accurate -- and I do have a few questions for you.

1. I don't think it necessarily matters if the Pharaoh is personally defender, but why would you want to be Pharaoh of this region, given the OFO's imperialist-raider history and predominantly imperialist-raider population, as a defender?

2. Glad to hear your focus would be on internal affairs, as that's needed, but can you go into more detail on what your external agenda (both FA and military) would look like? Are you committed to honoring Osiris' treaties with all of its current allies?

3. No offense, and I love you, but why can we trust you not to overthrow the government that initially exiled you, has a significant imperialist-raider population, and has signed treaties with a number of regions I think we can both agree you don't like?

Some tough questions, but I'm considering voting for you, so these aren't attack questions and some of the other candidates -- the ones I consider serious -- will also be getting some tough questions.

[Tomb]

Good luck on your campaign!

~ Tomb

[Zod]

I do like Free Pizza.

[Severisen Montresor]

Tim, thank you for standing for Pharaoh and not making this a joke campaign as you are known to do.

What do you feel are your strengths as a candidate?

What are your weaknesses?

[Tim Stark]

This is just a note that I've seen everyone's questions and will be addressing them as promptly as I can, with my schedule today. Thank you for the well wishes, and I hope to have your questions answered ASAP.

[Tim Stark]

Your name sounds bourgeois. How do you plead?

My name is the name I was given plus the one I adopted. It has no elitism in itself, only a combination of the hard working-class name of the Starks, who have always been known for giving their all for Osiris, and the working-class name of the Montresors, renowned for the effort they give to their projects. Furthermore, since when is this Lazarus? I plead guilty, however, for the bourgeois is the Middle Class, and I believe that there is no lower class within Osiris. We are all able to be prosperous, and are all fantastic here, and we all work hard for the success of this illustrious region.

I do need to note that your characterization of why your time in Osiris was interrupted is not entirely accurate -- you were at least perceived to be extremely close with Empire, if not a card-carrying member, whether or not that perception was accurate -- and I do have a few questions for you.I do need to note that your characterization of why your time in Osiris was interrupted is not entirely accurate -- you were at least perceived to be extremely close with Empire, if not a card-carrying member, whether or not that perception was accurate

That is my fault, in how I worded it, and I've edited it accordingly. When I said that, I meant it in regards to the Osiris Spectrum, actually totally ignoring that of greater R/D. So, as you said, my removal was due to my association with the Empire faction within Osiris, and the suspicion that I was indeed a card-carrying member. Although I think there was some R/D influence on the split, it comes more due to simply where each ideology lined up on this issue rather than the very blunt idea of "Defenders get banned".

1. I don't think it necessarily matters if the Pharaoh is personally defender, but why would you want to be Pharaoh of this region, given the OFO's imperialist-raider history and predominantly imperialist-raider population, as a defender?

Osiris is a region I have put a lot of my time into in the past, and it still holds a special place in my heart for the first GCR I joined and ended up sticking around in on a continuous long-term basis. I've always loved the Egyptian theme, even though I do still advocate for us to move to a Roman-occupied Egypt theme, and the community has always been something special. Within GCRs, I tend to put aside my R/D beliefs and act as but another dedicated citizen of the region. Therefore, I really don't care what the alignment of Osiris is, within the simple confines of R/D. This is a region I have cared about, do care about, and will continue to care about; I want to see prosper, and I see little reason for me to not put aside R/D opinions when it comes to that. I believe my outline for military plans in my platform does sufficiently show that I'm planning on doing what I think is best for Osiris, not what I think is best for my ideology.

2. Glad to hear your focus would be on internal affairs, as that's needed, but can you go into more detail on what your external agenda (both FA and military) would look like? Are you committed to honoring Osiris' treaties with all of its current allies?

Of course, I'd be happy to. If you don't mind, I'll skip to the treaty question first, though.

First of all, I'd like to establish that I will honor the treaties that Osiris has with all of our current allies. I have looked over all of them in depth, to understand exactly what is needed, and believe that I'd be perfectly willing to honor all of them, within reasonable measure. A lot of those would go against my personal beliefs, yes, but treaties are treaties and they will be honored unless the signatory in question has given us reason to either abstain from action or terminate the treaty. Obviously, in situations where such events might occur, I would be actively discussing the issue with my Cabinet to make sure I am not making rash decisions based on personal opinion rather than what is best for Osiris as a region.

Regarding Foreign Affairs, my external agenda there will have a double focus; reconciliation, and the strengthening of friendships that we currently have. There are still clearly some wounds that haven't fully healed since the takeover of the OFO, and I would wish to fix those. This does not mean run to anyone who ever offended us to kiss their feet, but I'd like Osiris to be seen as a more open-minded sinker that is more focused on what Osiran Prosperity rather than upholding senseless old grudges. I would look to speak with similarly open minded regions with whom we lost contact so we may rebuild lost friendships. Furthermore, I'd love to continue building closer ties with our current embassies, whether that be through cultural ties or military cooperation. This does not necessarily mean more treaties, as that's a bridge to cross when we get to it, but I'd like to be able to look at each of our Non-Allied Embassies and be able to call that region, at the very least, a friend. Finally, I plan to review our current embassies for which ones might not be worth keeping anymore, whether due to inactivity or a deterioration of relations with the region. This does not count for symbolic embassies, so please don't lynch me out of fear that the LWU Embassy will be torn down. With regions that do seem inactive in their embassies, I'd run a check-up to see if everything is alright and if they are willing to still have relations with us. Obviously, I'd keep an open mind for new embassies, and pursue them as new regions pop up or new relationships blossom.

Regarding military, my agenda is very much focused on activity and growing independent from the traditional powers. If there's a specific raid we want to join, we'll join. If there's a specific liberation we want to join, we'll join. Obviously, given the Imperialist-Raider character of the Osiris Fraternal Order, it can be expected that a majority of our operations will be more invader, but it is always important to keep the door open for operations with the other side. For example, say an Egypt-themed region is raided. Assuming we're not the ones invading it, and it's not an ally, it would be cool to be able to have Sekhmet liberate it ourselves, or even counter-raid, because of our theme. It'd be even cooler if we're able to do it solo, though I am not above asking for help when help is needed. Along with my drive to bring in new citizens, I will be driving to bring in new updaters for the Legion. As much fun as it is relying on pilers, or piling for others, I believe that the most impressive thing for the Legion to do will be to complete operations by ourselves, proving that we don't need to rely on others for success. Finally, and obviously, I detest Nazis. I detest them in real life, I detest them in NS. I'm Jewish, I think it's more than understandable. So, obviously if Nazi raids something, we'll be there. If Nazi decides to let its Founder die again, we'll be there, and we'll carpet bomb them. However, aside from the big targets, we're ignoring them. Don't give them the time of day, because those shits aren't worth it.

3. No offense, and I love you, but why can we trust you not to overthrow the government that initially exiled you, has a significant imperialist-raider population, and has signed treaties with a number of regions I think we can both agree you don't like?

Let's be honest right now, there is very little I can say here that will re-convince people who are already convinced that I'll simply purge and coup if I win. If anybody reading this is one of those, then I'm sorry that you feel that way, but your opinion is yours to have and you've got a right to it. Anyways, here's some stuff that might convince those that are on the fence. For one, I'm a Founder and MoDef of a sizeable UCR that I've poured hours of my life into. No way in hell am I willing to hurt its the reputation of Spiritus by association simply to get back at a Sinker that underwent a regime change. Furthermore, I'm pretty involved in The East Pacific. I adore TEP, and it's an ally of Osiris. Getting banned from there would suck, and I'm certainly not okay with that happening. Believe it or not, I'm really not into the whole "coup and purge" ideal, and it's been quite a while since I have been. Will I joke about it? Yeah, who doesn't? Will I do it? No, of course not.

Finally, OFO is more stable right now than KRO ever was in its waning hours. I like people in the OFO. I like Osiris to much to coup it. I can go on and on, alright? Yeah, it's no secret I don't like some of the regions we have treaties with. So what? I'm allowed to have a personal opinion, and I will continue to have it. I'm more than able, however, to put that aside for the betterment of Osiris rather than hold it as some sort of silly grudge. There is no reason to ruin all the work that has gone into the rebuilding of Osiris since the fall of the KRO. An overthrow of the government would lead to more chaos, and would destroy the dream of prosperity that I hope to see Osiris achieve.

What do you feel are your strengths as a candidate?

I think that my experience within Nationstates, particularly involving my time with R/D and my extensive time spent in Osiris as well as other GCRs gives me an appropriate repertoire I can use to effectively govern the region of Osiris. Furthermore, having founded Spiritus, formerly the 18th largest region in NS, now significantly lower because stamps cost money and money is hard to come by, I believe I've gained valuable experience that will help be build activity back up in Osiris, particularly on the front of retaining newly refounded nations and then bringing them onto the forum, or at least into the WA. I also like to think of myself as pretty friendly, diplomatic and approachable, which I believe will allow for me to better communicate with our friends, as well as reconcile with our former friends. Furthermore, I'm very easy to reach. Plenty of NSers have me on Facebook and Skype, and a smaller number also have my phone number. Therefore, even if I'm not IRC, it's very easy to reach me in a moment of crisis as my phone is on me 99.9% of the time. Finally, I don't take NS seriously these days, which some might take as a bad thing. I however think it's quite good. There's very little that'll make me go offline and simply leave, and I'm usually able to keep a clear head and think proactively because of that regardless of the situation. This allows for me to be particularly effective in event of a crisis, or so I would hope.

What are your weaknesses?

It's no secret I have sporadic moments of inactivity, though that inactivity should be mostly gone as of January 1st once I've sent out each and every single final college application I have left. However, I do still have a busy RL, and there would be times when I'd occasionally have to delegate matters to my Cabinet because I simply can't attend to them immediately. Furthermore, I'm a bit of a troll. I like to joke around, and usually on IRC unless it's serious business, I'm joking around. Apparently this offends some people, so I think I've got to list it here before someone brings it up. Clearly if I win, I'll scale it back on the jokes and trolling; can't be Pharaoh and be 100% fun, right? I also haven't been involved in Imperialist regions for a reasonably lengthy amount of time, so it will take me a bit of time to get used to some of the differences from the Independent (TEP)/Defender (Spiritus) spots where I usually hang out. Finally, and I think this is my greatest hindrance here, I'm obviously not the most liked individual among Imperialists and Invaders. Some of that is justified, some of it confuses me to no end, but there are more than likely individuals out there who don't want to see a Defender leading an Imperialist-leaning region. I personally hope that I'll be able to prove that those concerns are baseless, especially given the precedent of trustworthiness and integrity that Severisen and Cormac have continued to have in Osiris, even after going Defender.

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I hope that adequately answered everyone's questions, and I encourage follow-up questions, more questions, or requests for clarification.

[Tim Stark]

I do like Free Pizza.

I did forget to reply to this one, though! What pizza would you like?
*pulls out an order pad*

Oh, and quite obviously, thank you again for all the well-wishes from everyone else. It's strange not running a joke campaign, but I hope I'm doing it well enough

[Zod]

I like Bacon on my Pizza