Pajonia

New Astri

I'll lead with the most basic fact right off the bat here: We are closing embassies and treaties with The League, Thaecia, Europeia, and Balder. I'm going to start with the too-long-didn't-read summary, for those of you who are feeling a little lazy. The full foreign affairs update will be below it. I recommend that anyone interested in keeping up-to-date with the Bloc gives it a read.

TL;DR:

The League and Europeia have attempted to encroach on our regional autonomy in the past. They have now coordinated with Balder and Thaecia to attempt encroaching even further. We are cutting ties with them and seeking to form ties with regions that are more actively interested in having a positive and mutually respectful relationship with TCB. This begins with our upcoming treaty with the Brotherhood of Malice. The Brotherhood of Malice has been very respectful and helpful to TCB, and I personally encourage all citizens of TCB to vote FOR when the TCB-BoM treaty goes up to vote.

Full Update:

The news of four treaty & embassy closures is probably a very sudden thing to hear, so we want to emphasize that this was not the result of something just happening overnight. Our relationship with each region varied, but during these past few terms, the Bloc has not been very close with any of these regions. Although we had no negative interactions with Balder or Thaecia, we were not compatible enough to become especially familiar allies. There have been some issues with The League and Europeia. The League has been frequently judgmental and pressuring towards TCB due to our decision to participate in certain raids against rightwing regions, largely during private diplomatic conversations. Around the time we created a treaty with The Black Hawks--a region that has been very consistently considerate and helpful towards us--we even witnessed some statements by foreign affairs heads indicating that they would be attempting to sway independent regions away from having connections with raiders, presumably us included. Those of you who have been around for a bit may also remember Europeia's GreaterCesnica scandal, in which said important member of Europeia attempted to covertly run for Minister of World Assembly Affairs in TCB while intentionally avoiding disclosing that he held a number of World Assembly positions in other regions. Furthermore, he didn't even have a nation in TCB at the time he signed up. Other Europeian officials were evidently aware of this attempt to exert Europeian influence over our delegate vote. The situation remains an open secret to this day, with most other regions well aware of Europeia's habit of attempting to surrepticiously influence allied regions. The most condemning screenshots revealing this tendency of Europeia's tend to be kept in private circles to protect the identity of those responsible for sourcing them, but this very public thread in which Europeia openly admits to allying with regions solely to influence them is similar enough evidence. To quote the thread: "The ultimate objective of an Independent region’s diplomacy is to maximize utility for the region, as defined by the regional interests. It is clearly not in Europeia’s best interests for raiders to be so self-sufficient as to not need us at all." According to Europeians, Europeian diplomacy exists only to benefit Europeia, and regions which are not actively relying on, vulnerable to, or influenceable by Europeia are to be discarded.

Despite these issues, neither Ant nor I previously opted to confront or threaten The League or Europeia. Although we felt disrespected at times, we were willing to live and let live.

A few days ago, however, things escalated unpleasantly and unexpectedly. As some of you may know, Ant and I do not have a real distinction between our "OOC" and "IC" personas. We openly prefer that people don't treat diplomatic interactions with us like a form of roleplay, and we consider "roleplay" toxicity or insults to be the equivalent of real/"OOC" toxicity or insults. We were contacted about this preference of ours by one person speaking on behalf of The League, Thaecia, Europeia, and Balder combined. The people involved in the complaint strangely refused to disclose their exact identities or speak with us face-to-face despite Ant's repeated pleas to avoid having the conversation through a middleman. They did, however, make it very clear that they were upset with our stances on OOC vs IC action.

The group used cherrypicked screenshots to argue their point, and intentionally ignored both the extra context which they cropped out of their screenshots and the attempts Ant and I made to clarify. The way Ant and I approach gameplay is largely influenced by our neurodivergency. We are simply not capable of intuitively understanding or interacting with the arbitrary and harsh social rules that the governments of these regions have repeatedly tried to force us to follow. We repeatedly attempted to explain that we felt it was ableist and unfair of them to assert that only their perspective on the subject was accurate. In response, they condescended and dismissed us, refusing to even acknowledge our concerns about ableism. I can't help but assume that there is no reason why government members of these very diplomatically competent regions would want to hide their identities during the conversation unless they knew their conduct was wrong and did not want it easily traceable back to them.

We asked multiple times how we could materially solve the problem they had with our beliefs--we offered to step down from office, we offered to refrain from commenting in gameplay spaces again, and we offered to listen to whatever method of resolution they had in mind. It quickly became clear that the only resolution they would be willing to accept was Ant and I completely changing not only our beliefs, but the ways our brains work, to agree with them. There were multiple of their critiques that I listened to, agreed with, and stated I would implement! But they would not accept anything other than completely passive agreement with literally everything they said.

Obviously, Ant and I did not decide to pretend to compromise our self-respect and morals to appease people who had just been treating us and the Bloc unfairly. We have completely accepted the decision to break formal ties between these regions and TCB. There are absolutely wonderful members of each region, and nothing about their overall cultures is inherently bad! But the most important members of their government acted unacceptably, and ultimately, that means we can no longer hold connections with them. These regions have now not only attempted to assert unearned influence over our military decisions and World Assembly votes, but over the way our government members think. My only regret is that I do not know specifically which people treated us with such derision and casual ableism. Again, they unfortunately refused to even grant us the basic respect of knowing who we were talking to.

With the announcement about the shift in TCB's foreign affairs out of the way, let's talk about where our new foreign affairs are going! Your First Minister and I are actually completely satisfied with the current situation. We have effectively just pruned unnecessary, unwanted, or unhealthy treaties and embassies. It's like cutting the dead branches off of a tree so new, stronger, and healthier ones can sprout in their place. These regions, which effectively had no interactions with us on a daily basis, coordinated to attempt controlling not only our alignment but our thoughts. We absolutely do not need the connections with them! This is an opportunity for TCB to stop stagnating with inactive and ineffective foreign connections. We are moving in the direction of actively picking and choosing allies who treat us with the same respect and kindness that we give them. This is not a failure, this is a natural result of the Bloc growing and finding our very own spot on the world stage.

Our next step in making that happen is working to open a completely new treaty with--drumroll please--the Brotherhood of Malice! They're very lovely people, despite the name. The ominous, shadowy cloaks are really just a fashion statement, and they've never used those incredibly sharp daggers on us.

For those of you who haven't previously heard of the Brotherhood of Malice, it might be helpful for you to know that BoM is an ally of The Black Hawks, a region we are already good treaty allies with. BoM has also been fantastic to us, and so we'd like to form some stronger ties with them as well! The terms of the BoM-TCB treaty we're about to take to vote explicitly ensure that we are not obligated or pressured to participate in any raids that we are not comfortable with. We will not be guilted for our military alignment. Instead, we're simply committing to mutually aiding each other when we both find it beneficial, to culturally becoming friends, and obviously to avoid attacking each other. I encourage all TCB citizens to vote FOR this upcoming treaty! I don't want to spoil anything, but I can tell you that, to show appreciation for how much help TCB gave BoM with the raid on EmbassyRegionia, BoM has generously offered to lead two raids on bigoted/anti-leftist regions of my choosing! Our very own PRAF will be coming along, of course. Both operations are currently being planned, and one is scheduled to launch right after our treaty passes. That's just a brief sample of how making new military alliances can help us expand our ability to push bigots, fascists, and anti-leftists off the site.

As always, thank you all for being members of the Bloc. I'm excited to have you with us as we take on this new journey together!

- Written by Iota, Second Minister & Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Read, edited, and approved by Ant, First Minister

(Bit of a late edit: Someone did point out to me that the phrasing used here could absolutely be interpreted as asserting that the government members of TL/THA/Balder/Euro are ableist people. To be clear, our intent was to express that this one interaction we had with them went poorly, not to accuse the individuals themselves of being bigots. I am very used to being in social spaces where bigotry is seen as something fairly universal in society, something which everyone will unintentionally perpetuate at one point or another. As a result, I view pointing out bigoted actions or statements to be a casual act that doesn't necessarily mean the person who is being critiqued is being viewed as a bigot or bad person themselves. I have no idea who we talked to, and I'm sure that they generally hold the same firm anti-bigotry stance that the rest of NS does! We wanted to express that this isolated interaction felt like it involved ableist treatment, but this is ultimately supposed to be an explanation for TCB residents as to what's shifting in our foreign affairs, not a call-out document or declaration against anyone.)