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**Seraph** · 07-19-2020, 07:31 AM

The Southern Journal
The Official News Outlet of the South Pacific

Independence Day 2020: A History

By Roavin.

"Independence Day" - these two words in combination have many meanings. There are multiple movies with that name, even more songs with that name, and quite a few holidays in otherworldly realms. The reason is simple - the independence of people, be they represented by real bodies outside of this game or by the nations that participate in this slice of virtual reality, is incredibly important. It's not a surprise that it’s often celebrated, and we here in the South Pacific celebrate our own version of it.

But why do we celebrate it? 17 years ago, the Coalition of the South Pacific was a fledgling democracy fighting for its life in the volatile primordial landscape of our virtual world. It's a bit hard to imagine now, but back then, the various regimes across GCRs weren't as solidified as they were today. Many battles small and large were fought whose effects are still relevant. For example, even to this day, many NationStates players are at least peripherally aware of the August Revolution, in which the old government of the Pacific was overthrown and replaced by the New Pacific Order. The South Pacific was no exception, and we were subjected to quite a bit of turbulence in those days.

Let's set the time machine to 2003. In early June, the Coalition was founded, but soon faced significant troubles, as within the first two weeks the region was couped, owing to a game glitch, by The Xyz Affair. Our very own Tsunamy, then of tender years, reached out to other places for help, including the West Pacific where his plea was heard by LadyRebels of the Atlantic Central Command (ACC). ACC was one of the earliest invader groups and at or near the height of its power at the time. They quickly moved in and helped the Coalition regain control, but soon after placed one of their own operatives by the name of Alpha C into the Delegacy, who flew the flag of the ACC over the region. While they let the Coalition remain to manage the day-to-day operations of the region, ACC was the boss.

On July 14, 2003, Alpha C was ejected from the UN (which we now call the WA), and a few delegacy changes occured in the ensuing chaos, but ACC soon regained control. During the game update in the early hours of July 19th, none other than LadyRebels took the Delegacy. She wasn't just any ACC operative, but a very high-level member of the organization — so high-level, in fact, that she had been in the running to become the High Commander of the ACC, and lost that election by only a single vote.

The situation was not good for the fledgling Coalition, because, once again, ACC had one of theirs in the Delegacy. Holding the Delegacy meant even more then than it does now, because back in 2003 influence was not part of game mechanics, and the Delegate of a region could eject and ban with almost no limits; furthermore, ACC had a large network of nations to draw upon to support their operatives in the Delegacy, and the flailing little government of TSP could never muster the kind of resistance that was needed against the professionals in ACC. The Coalition was destined to play second fiddle to the ACC, left alive only for as long as it was convenient.

A few days after taking the Delegacy, Pilmour, the High Commander of the ACC, ordered LadyRebels to tear down the flag of the South Pacific and reinstall the Atlantic flag. LadyRebels wrote back:

"No."

The culture we all know and love here in the South Pacific today had its roots way back in 2003 even - silly by default, serious when needed; a family of artists and artisans, bickering in one thread while hugging in the other, and looking for a veritable good time for themselves and for others. In 2005, Sir Paul called us "Bleeding Heart Partying Isolationists (with lampshades)". LadyRebels became so enamoured by this aspect of the South Pacific, little though it was at the time, that she didn't have the heart to keep the Coalition under the boots of the ACC as a mere chess piece in these invaders’ evil machinations. Instead, she threw away all her clout and all her standing within ACC and rejected them, putting the Coalition first.

Many things have changed in those 17 years. People have come and gone. Not a single word of the original Charter remains. We've gone through several shifts in NationStates ideology - isolationist, manifesto thumpers, unaligned, now defender. We've had victories and defeats, we've laughed and we've cried, and we've grown a lot. Many have tried to overthrow or change us from the outside, or unduly influence us from the inside, but none of those attempts ever succeeded in making a long-term impact. We've made our mark on this game for many reasons, not the least of which is that we are the oldest extant democracy in the game, and the oldest extant GCR government. And even through all of that, at our core we've always been the bleeding heart party family, now as then.

Atlantic Central Command failed not long after. The region Atlantic Central Command is now in the hands of the South Pacific. And the Coalition? Well, we're still here, strong as ever, free and sovereign, and that was only possible because of LadyRebels' sacrifice in the form of those two letters almost exactly 17 years ago now, which gave us the gift of independence.