The United Republic of Tymaria
The United Republic of Tymaria was founded in 1461 AN as an attempt to merge the largest micronational powers of the time into a monolithic union. It enjoyed about six months of life before its fracture, during much of which it was the leading micronation in the world.
Contents
Foundation
The foundation of Tymaria dates from an attempt to merge Interland and the Free Republic. Other nations of the time, such as the Hegemony of Alexandros and the Rasinate of Q'attera-Macusiaa soon joined in, and, realizing the magnitude of the project, called a constitutional convention directed by Scott Alexander.
A number of proposals were discussed including a dual monarchy of Diga Makonnen and the Emperor of Pacifica were considered before settling on a broadly republican form of government developed mostly by Jason Rhode. The other question settled was the name. Tymaria was chosen above such proposals as Micronia and Mergistan.
Government
The leading position in Tymaria was the Prime Executive, who appointed the Ministries and served a general executive type role. The legislature was bicameral, with a House of Peoples working on a direct democracy principle and a House of Nations in which each state was represented by senators. Of these states there were originally eight - Shireroth, Hyperborea, Machiavellia, Tapfer, the Free Republic, Interland, Attera, and Argaal - the states of Akerbjorn and Jaris later brought the number up to ten. Tapfer's seat was nearly granted to Yardistan, but when suggested, Erik Mortis declined the offer stating that Yardistan while well known, wasn't a significant political entity.
History
Austi Scot was chosen as the first Prime Executive, and Knight Magistrate as the first Speaker of the House of Nations. The starting government was rather heavy on Atterans, more because they were known for their competence than for any particularly sinister reason.
The first threat to the government was the Yardistani Rebellion, in which Yardistan took over Shireroth (thus Yardistan replaced Shireroth as a state), the national government demanded that states hand over their weaponry to the military and Yardistan refused to do so. Eventually the national government retracted its demand and Yardistan fell back into line.
There were then a number of random squabbles between states. Edward Conway of Machiavellia tried to impeach Austi Scot over violation of a military technicality, but failed. Hyperborea dissolved itself (blew itself up, actually).
The largest and most influential micronation that had refused to merge into Tymaria, Babkha, had a poor relationship with Attera, and because of the Atterans holding high positions in the federal government, Tymaria-Babkha relations became strained as well. These relations reached a breaking point when the country of Morovia collapsed.
Both the Atteran faction in Tymaria and the Babkhans wanted to take over the shell of Morovia in order to have it as a colony and leverage its voting rights in the League of Secessionist States. Both sent in agents to try and turn Morovia into a puppet government, and both began highly detailed intelligence work there.
Relations between the Atteran element that held power in Tymaria and a more marginalized Alexandrian element had always been very poor, mostly because of very different ways of looking at micronationalism. Alexandrians in the military leaked information about the espionage to the press, and it was printed in the Apollo Fireball a paper at least partially in competition with the Atteran-run Tymarian Sun.
After some infighting, it was determined that the espionage operations were illegal and unethical, and Austi Scot was impeached and Diga Makonnen stripped of military command.
The nation then had a change of direction in which Alexandrians began to dominate. The second Prime Executive was Jason Rhode, the former Hegemon of Alexandros. Attera, angry at recent events, voted to secede, and eventually the House of Nations voted to let them. After Rhode was elected, he was active and productive for a brief time before disappearing.
In his absence, things began to break apart. The Free Republic was claimed by the new nation of Baracao, and the United Republic was sent into a prolonged diplomatic crisis trying to contest the territory. Jason Steffke, who had formerly helped lead the revolution against Austi, inexplicably turned against the country and founded the popular Anti-Tymar Council, whose platform was that Tymaria ought not to exist at all and its component nations should regain their independence. Other former Tymarians, most noticeably Bill Dusch, joined him in this enterprise.
Things came to a head when new Tymaria citizen William Jesmer was made Minister of Home Affairs. Jesmer figured (correctly) that using his power to update the website and provide interesting content would be less fun than using it to destroy the country, and so he deleted the Tymarian forums with his friend Philip Locke. During the crisis, called the 4-11 incident after the date it took place, Attera kindly offered their former parent state a place to meet on the Tymarian Defense Forces boards.
Eventually, the forum was restored, and Locke and Jesmer unceremoniously kicked out of the nation. They formed their own country, Freenesia, as a base from which to get revenge, and attracted the Anti-Tymar Council, Yuri Andropov, and other undesirable elements to their cause. There was a cold war between the two countries which Scott Alexander and others did their best to try and defuse, and defused it was - Locke, who led the Freenesian effort, had to leave micronations for real-life reasons. In Tymaria, accusations began to fly that Shireroth, formerly the state of Yardistan was becoming too powerful.
Shireroth's willingness to conduct independent foreign policy and even declare war on its own did nothing to quell these rumors, although the Shirerithian government did its best to try. Julian Starr, now back in the country, tried to form an anti-Shireroth faction, but the fact was that it was mostly only the Shirerithians who were doing the work in Tymaria now, with Scott of Alexander and Tony Au doing most government business illegally without the authorization of the absent Prime Executive.
Finally, Rhode's term expired on its own, and Tony Au beat Nicholas du Grifos in the contest to replace him. Au immediately offered all states that wanted to the opportunity to secede, and, excluding Machiavellia, they did. This marks the end of a strong, relevant Tymaria.
The country itself sputtered on for about three more months, with Tony Au, Scott Alexander, Ryan Caruso, and [[Sirithil nos Feanor]] as some of the only active citizens. Eventually, in a bid to prevent the Imperium of Menelmacar from taking the place over in Operation Jade Wolf, Au agreed to disband the country in 1472.
Culture
The Minister of Culture for most of Tymaria's existence was Bill Dusch, who tried to implement role-playing-game and fantasy ideas that were poorly received by the vast majority of the states, leading Bill to famously declare that "Tymaria has no culture". While perhaps an exaggeration, there was some truth in this - it was not until April 2002, six months after its foundation, that Tymaria even figured out what its capital city was supposed to be (the creatively named Tymaria City, now owned by Shireroth). However, a good time was had by all in the Tuna Fish Salad Lounge, which at one part was a major contributor to the interdimensional Grand Unified Bar run by Ari Rahikkala.
Effects
A proverb says that you can learn from anything, whether it's by taking it as a model or as a horrible warning. Tymaria falls into the "horrible warning" category, and has been used to discourage all sorts of mergers ever since its fall. Even today, years later, the mention of the word "Tymaria" is enough to send shivers up the spine of anyone trying an ambitious plan.
Tymaria changed the balance of power, allowing some nations to be disproportionately large after its collapse. It paved the way for the rise of Menelmacar and served as an incubator for a swollen imperialist Shireroth, which steamrolled out of the Union during Au's administration and has never looked back. Ironically, it is probably also due to Tymaria that Babkha has gained the intermicronational prominence it has; as the lone rival to a global superpower and one of the few countries that chose to maintain independence, it was accorded a high status in the eyes of many and leveraged its prestige into citizens, territory, and patriotic spirit.
Resurrection
On April 1, 2003, it was announced that the Imperium of Menelmacar, the Republic of Shireroth, the Atteran Empire, the Republic of Baracao, and the Oira Arnanore Menelmacariva were merging into a country to be called New Tymaria. This turned out to just be a very good April Fools'Joke.
Further Information
A History of the United Micronian Republic of Tymaria by Scott Alexander (http://www.geocities.com/giantsquid1_1999/Histories/Tymaria/Tymhist.doc)
A History Of The United Micronian Republic of Tymaria
From 1461 to 1467 AN By Scott Alexander Siskind
Introduction
Tymaria is the largest and most successful micronation of its kind. It has survived many scandals and conflicts that would have split lesser nations in two and miraculously managed to tread the delicate balance between not existing as a coherent entity at all and destroying the sovereignity and cultures of its components states. In these days of strife and conflict more than ever it is necessary to understand the forces which have formed Tymaria and the policies and structures it uses to sustain itself.
The main sources of information for this piece is the Tymarian board, for later history, and the Constitutional Committee board for earlier history. Certain things are also taken from the archives of the Apollo Fireball and Micronational Free Press, the boards of nations which have been, for better or worse, a part of Tymaria�s history, and my own personal experiences and ICQ transcripts.
Chapter I: The Prehistory Of Tymaria
The early history of Tymaria is the history of its component states, and it is necessary to explore how they came into being and in what way they interacted.
The Free Republic was created in August 2001 when a certain faction of the People�s Republic of the New Soviet Empire got into a conflict with the majority. They began by forming a political party called the Free Citizens to support their ideals, but quickly changed their tactics to a clandestine revolutionary organization. They were discovered rather quickly, and most of them left the Soviet Empire to deny the leadership the pleasure of kicking them out. Along with them were two countries belonging to members of the party � Chris Toke�s Norad and Dafydd Young�s Skerry Isles. They merged with the Free Citizen infrastructure to become the Free Republic. The Free Republic later became a part of the Atteran Commonwealth, an alliance of nations unofficially led by the Rasinate.
Interland had its origins way back in the mists of the twisted history of the Lyrican Sector. It was founded by Pete Krembs and originally had Lyrica as a mere province. But it died of inactivity before being refounded by Julian Starr and Sean Walker (who was actually the same person as Soviet leader Yuri Andropov) at about the same time as the Free Republic � August 2001. The Imperial Rasinate of Q�attera Macusia�a is incredibly ancient, stretching all the way back to 1980. But its current form was created more recently, in July 1999. Much of it was based in real life, around the military unit of its founder and leader, Ras Diga Makonnen, so its activity was not always evident online.
However, it had long been a leader in the international arena, and Ras Makonnen was the Secretary-General of the League of Secessionist States.
The Hegemony of Alexandros was the conclusion of two and a half years of Apollo history, and more specifically of the Commonwealth of Benacia, an international alliance between Shireroth, Hyperborea, and Machiavellia. It was led by Hegemon Jason Rhode, but the federal government was somewhat weak because of the strength of the duchies, or states. At the time the merger talks began, it had recently received a major power boost by the inclusion of the ruins of the large micronation of Jasonia. It was of a similar age to Interland and the Free Republic, being created in late August 2001.
Chapter II: The Merge Begins
The merge that created Tymaria had its origins in the Free Republic and Interland in mid-September. The two countries had been working together very closely for a long time, cooperating on their economic system and generally being allied. The time came when they hoped to merge completely, a merge which would have created an inordinately large nation. Officials from the Hegemony heard about this. They had always been a nation formed by merges, and were very friendly with the Free Republic and figured another merge couldn�t hurt. Not to mention that the Hegemon, Jason Rhode, had decided that Alexandros was too small for his ambition and he needed a new challenge.
This caused a problem for the Rasinate. The Free Republic was a part of their Atteran Commonwealth, but the other countries weren�t, and it was unlikely that they would join. Furthermore, although they denied it they were always something of the big brother in the Commonwealth with control over its affairs, and if the new merge was to join it would be much bigger than they were. However, the new country consisted mainly of their friends, and so they decided the solution would be to join in the merge themselves. This was a major step, since the Rasinate had been fiercely independent throughout its existence. It lent a major impetus to the pro-mergers, and encouraged everyone to go forward.
The legal issues of the merge began with the Union Acts, a set of proposals which would be voted on by all the nations individually. It called for a merge, said the specific structure of the country would be decided at a constitutional convention, and said the general structure would be a confederation of states with Ras Diga and Emperor Edward of Pacifica as monarchs. Everyone was very surprised � who had come up with the monarch idea? No one had ever even heard of Emperor Edward except for Julian Starr. This clause was eventually stricken from the Union Acts and replaced with them saying that everything would be worked out at the Constitutional Convention. This being done the Acts were approved. In Interland there was a brief flurry of debate over the fact that the process used to approve the acts may not have been legitimate, but it eventually died down, and the Constitutional Committee was set up.
Chapter III: The Constitutional Convention
The constitutional convention was not expected to be fun. Four different very stubborn nations had to agree on a system of government. The difficulty inherent here can be seen by comparing any two nations � say, the Free Republic and the Rasinate. One is a slightly communist republic with a Roman culture whereas the other is a barely constitutional monarchy with an Ethopian culture. And these are supposed to work under one nation and government? The Constitutional Committee forum was created by Eddie Guimont of the Free Republic in the last days of September. Scott Siskind was chosen the Recording Secretary, but he didn�t hear about the fact until weeks later and never actually did anything.
The structure was a forum for general discussion, the first Tunafish Salad Lounge for the Off-Topic, and the actual C.C. forum for official discussion. This official forum was only accessible by appointed delegates, of whom each nation had three. The major issues involved were the government structure, the name, and the flag. The first was decided rather early in favor of democracy. Although three of the four nations involved were monarchies, none of the monarchs wanted another to get the king position, so that was out. There was another debate on whether representation should be direct or senatorial, and the usual bicameral compromise was chosen. The flag issue was solved by Ryan Caruso of the Hegemony, who made a very nice flag by combining those of the member states (although it borrowed from Alexandros a bit more than from the others, truth be told). Caruso also helped with the controversial name issue.
The proposals originally floating around were Micron/Micronia, after micronations and Bill Dusch�s fictional Micron race, the United Republic, and Mergistan (thank you, Babkhans). Caruso, though, proposed (from a dream, interestingly), Trimaria. The problem with this was that the tri implied three merging nations, where in fact there were four, and that it sounded suspiciously like Triparia, which was another micronation that wouldn�t be happy about its name being taken. Luckily, Ras Diga stepped in and amended the name to Tymaria. Later he revealed this was a combination of his nickname Ty (because he was tired) and his wife�s name, Marie. But, everyone liked it, so it stuck.
As for the actual government, the highlights here were doubtless Jason Rhode�s speeches on the various branches. In the tradition of everything associated with Rhode, the Alexandrian Hegemon, they were incredibly long and detailed. Realizing that they would have to actually read them before disagreeing, most delegates wisely chose to support Rhode�s proposals. What this ended out being was the bicameral legislature along with a relatively strong elected Prime Executive, not dissimilar to the American system with its Presidency.
The one snag before the constitution was overwhelmingly approved centered on (surprise, surprise) religion. Certain religious factions, such as Ras Diga, demanded a reference to God in the preamble, whereas certain non-religious factions, such as Scott Siskind, demanded that God be left out. The debate was solved by an ambiguous reference to �higher laws�, which you could interpret as God or just general natural forces and values. The final document was a collaborative effort between many people. Ras Bitwoded Charles Beard and Austi Scot deserve mention here for writing large parts of it.
The constitution was overwhelmingly approved and the nation created (appropriately enough, perhaps) on Halloween.
Chapter IV: The Beginning Of The Nation
The forum for Tymaria was created by Erik Mortis, a fact which is very important because it means he has permanent non-revocable administrative status. The creation of the new country was then announced around the world. Foreign heads of state were invited to visit, and an announcement was made in both of the Leagues (particularly the League of Secessionist States, since Ras Diga was their SecGen.) This led to the first issue the new country had to deal with � could they legitimately take the seats of the merging countries? In LoM, this was something of a non-issue, since �successor-states� were well established and it wasn�t too hard to join anyway, but in the LoSS, not getting successor-state status would mean having to wait six months to reach the requisite age.
It also meant that Lord Diga would be stateless and have to forfeit his position as SecGen, which would be a major setback for the fledgling nation�s international power and prestige. Luckily, a campaign led by former Rasinate people convinced both leagues to accept the successor-state claim, and Diga stayed on in his SecGen position.
As with most nations, the first few weeks were a scramble to get things set up. The official newspaper was started � the Tymarian Sun, edited mainly by Ras Diga, who was apparently very busy. Ministries were handed out in a somewhat haphazard fashion�there was a debate about whether it was legal or not, and, as with most micronational debates, the end result was �Who cares?�. Foreign relations were established with the standard set of countries � it appears Babkha was the first to recognize and be recognized by us, although the Foreign Affairs archives are something of a mess and I might be wrong there. The Ministry of Research and Education did a lot of good work at this time, setting up the University (hey, at least they tried) and the surprisingly popular Harry Turtledove Institute. The Culture Ministry got itself started with its religion system. The two Houses formulated their floor rules. And so on.
But, of course, the big draw was elections. The most important position in question was, of course, no less than the leader of the whole nation � the Prime Executive. Three candidates emerged � Ryan Caruso, the leader of a small territory in the Hegemony of Alexandros known for speaking out against Hegemony policies; Jason Rhode, the former Hegemon and an instrumental figure during the Constitutional Convention; and dark horse Austi Scot, a mid-level figure from the Interland government.
The elections were very well done, with complex surveys and an ICQ chat debate. Caruso became somewhat inactive, and some people were turned off by Rhode�s overly formal manner, so, to the surprise of everyone, Scot won eternal fame as the first Tymarian PE (the final vote was 10-6-4, with Rhode getting second).
The next major position to be elected was Speaker of the House of the People, who although technically an administrator actually has a lot of power over the actions of the Legislative Branch. The candidates were Ras Bitwoded Charles Beard, a leader in Attera; Scott Noseworthy, leader of the Interland military; and Knight Magistrate Chrystotom, who was somehow associated with Attera in a difficult-to-understand way. Interestingly enough, the race ended in a three-way tie. A plan in which the three winners rotated each month was proposed and accepted. Knight Magistrate Chrystotom got the Speakership first, but ended up getting to keep it � the other two candidates either got too busy or left micronationalism.
Chapter V: State Struggles And The End of 2001
[Author�s Note: I was on an extended vacation during this period, so all of this is from second-hand sources, and thus the quality of my information may suffer]
While there was no defining event during this period as there was, say, in the next one, I�ve chosen to base this part of the history around conflicts between the states. The first of these conflicts is what was deemed the Yardistan Rebellion. Yardistan was a subdivision of the state of Shireroth which was best known for randomly annexing stuff. Joe Whittaberg, the Tymarian Minister of Justice, didn�t understand the basically humorous nature of the annexations, got mad, and started threatening Yardistan. Yardistan (particularly Anarch Nick, their leader) responded by saying he had a spam cannon and knew how to use it, as well as randomly declaring a Holy War.
The Tymarian Defense Forces, following to the letter the infamous Hanson Two-Step All Purpose Action Plan1, took this as a threat to the Federal Government and the Ministry of Justice ordered Nick to hand over the cannon (to which Nick rightly responded that that was rather stupid because it was a computer file he could just copy). Everyone started arguing about this, and it even seemed for a while that Shireroth might secede (seceding is something of a Shirerothian tradition) and Ras Diga actually recommended just kicking them out. After a little while everyone realized that you can�t hold Yardistan responsible for its actions, and so they stopped bothering them, and Yardistan grew tired of their Holy War and calmed down (at least as much as could be expected from them. We shall hear more from them later.
Another interesting thing to happen around this period was that articles of impeachment were brought up by Edward Conway against Prime Minister Austi Scot. Scot had been doing a generally good if uninspiring job at this point, responding to most issues quickly, although without having any real brilliant new insights on them. But Conway�s impeachment articles were over a specific incident � he had banned certain people from the forum without a trial. Scot�s supporters, which appeared to be slightly more than half the country, used the argument that technically the Constitution just says you can�t ban citizens. After a lot of talk, everyone agreed he deserved another chance, and Conway decided not to go through with the impeachment process. This affair lasted a little longer behind closed doors in the Tymarian Defense Forum, where certain members of the military thought he should be stripped of his position for acting against someone who was technically his Commander-in-Chief. After some thought, Marshal Diga Makonnen decided not to remove Conway from the forces. In the next chapter we will see he will have cause to regret this decision.
Getting back to the subject of states arguing for little apparent reason, Scott Siskind, before he left, allowed Shireroth to annex the state of Hyperborea. Although technically this would take a vote of all Hyperborean citizens to do, Scott asked, and, as one would expect from a country no one else had even looked at for months, no one protested. Shireroth was happy and started a mining operation there, but Ryan Caruso, a former Hyperborean was very unhappy with this. This sparked a big conflict which annoyed Scott, so he simply declared that a volcano had erupted and sunk the whole state. No one was happy with this solution except Scott, who returned to his temporary retirement without being troubled.
The Imperium of Cognito and Lac Glacei petitioned to join Tymaria, and was accepted. There was originally some controversy over this, because due to reasons shrouded in the mists of Cyberian history, virtually all Cyberians and most Lyricans hated Jacobus with an uncommon passion, and Cyberians can be very vocal when they want. In fact, this may have been what led Austi to ban Cyberians Hickey and Krembs, which instigated the impeachment effort.
In what would become something of a repeated theme, Bill Dusch complained that Tymaria was organized wrong. He thought there should be only one perfectly democratic house of the legislature, and that the House of Nations was obsolete. Certain states rights factions strongly opposed this, and the most extreme (including Machiavellia) threatened secession if such a thing happened. This was the first source of a strong dislike of Dusch that would play a major role in later events, although to be fair we have to mention the second source, which is that he had a bad habit of behaving like a spoiled kid.
The territory of Jaris decided to join Shireroth in January. This was all nice and well except that they were already a part of the state of Interland. Joe Whit, their leader, said he could do whatever he wanted, whereas the Interlanders said he had to stay with them because he had already committed. Since Julian Starr was involved, it was inevitable that fifty somewhat disconnected and incomprehensible threads were posted on the subject, but eventually it was settled rather peacefully (to the surprise of many) when Interland agreed to sell it for a payment of Tymarks.
A lot of other things happened between this and the events described in Chapter VI, but none of them were big enough to deserve their own blurb. People complained about forum titles (as always), Attera made themselves a nice little new forum, Amerada claimed Interland and then backed down, the FR had one of their periodic flare-ups of the conflict with Yuri, a nation called Akerbjorn was founded by someone named Phillip Locke who would, much later, play an interesting role in things, and so on. Tymaria, in short, was proceeding slowly but steadily, which of course meant it was time for the Gods of Micronationalism to throw a horribly divisive and pretty much unsolvable crisis at them, in the form of:
Chapter VI: The TYSOG Incident
It is necessary at this time to examine Tymaria�s foreign relations. Ras Bitwoded Charles Beard was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but he had had to take an extended vacation due to personal reasons, and there was no one willing to really fill his shoes. The only country even close to being of comparable size to Tymaria in its general region was Babkha, a Persian monarchy led by Shah Babak XXVI. Relations between Tymaria and Babkha had traditionally been strained, because two of the states that went into the United Republic, the Rasinate of Q�attera Macusia�a and the Free Republic, had bad relations themselves, and they got into periodic squabbles with the Babkhans that they were only too happy to reciprocate.
An additional source of Babkha-Tymaria conflict was the Babkhans harboring Yuri Andropov, who the Free Republic accused of being a terrorist hacker (no one in Tymaria, in fact, really liked him very much, except for the iconoclastic Interlanders). The Prime Executive, Austi Scot, felt very strongly about Babkha and Tymaria being in a �cold war�, and the ever-paranoid Defense Forces agreed.
The nation of Morovia was old and prosperous, but Tymaria had not initiated relations with them before their King, Vincent III, left and the nation degenerated. A Morovian called Yarl Berg took over the leadership and made a small Morovia that was something of a shadow of the country�s former self. Babkha initiated diplomatic relations with this new Morovia, and the two countries became close friends.
The ever-vigilant Tymarian Defense Forces worried that Babkhan expansionism would lead to marginalization of Tymaria in this �cold war�, so they decided to see if they could do away with the Morovia-Babkha friendship. A couple of Morovians disagreed with Berg�s policies, specifically that of keeping the nation running when the King had wanted it closed. They had formed a weak but annoying revolutionary movement to destabilize the Morovian government. The Tymarian Defense Forces stepped in and decided to covertly aid this revolution so as to either get rid of Morovia or install a less pro-Babkhan government. The situation broke out into something resembling war, with Tymarian-backed revolutionaries fighting Babkha-backed loyalists. At the same time, the TDF decided to plant a spy in the Babkhan military. Edward Conway volunteered, and joined Babkha under the name Amir Assad. He got a relatively high post in their military.
All of this was kept completely secret from anyone not in the Tymarian Defense Forces. But the Tymarian Defense Forces were not the most selective group in the Universe, and word trickled out from a couple of people who were dissatisfied with the morality of the military�s actions. The first to protest was Bill Dusch, who gave classified documents on Operation Triple Motives, the situation in Morovia, to a few of his friends from the Apollo Sector, but asked them to keep it secret because he didn�t want to be fired. The other person to reveal information was Edward Conway, who was coaxed into sending classified threads to the press by sharing some of Bill�s info and the need to brag about his Amir Assad stunt.
When the story broke (in the Apollo Fireball) there was outrage by all of the populace � but not at the same thing. About half of the populace was outraged that Tymaria was spying on and destabilizing other nations we had peace treaties with without the public�s knowledge or consent. The other half was outraged that the military was so riddled with �traitors� that the press could get a hold on information that would possibly give the Babkhans an edge. For the next week, very little was talked about except a debate over who was right, but the anti-TDF people gradually got the upper hand.
This spawned major political ramifications, of which three had lasting importance. One was the impeachment vote and subsequent resignation of defense minister Diga Makonnen. He was succeeded by military second-in-command Scott Noseworthy, who had also supported Triple Motives. The second was the impeachment and removal of Prime Executive Austi Scot, and his replacement with Chancellor Jason Rhode. When he was removed, Scot declared the Union to be dissolved, but no one listened to him and the High Tribunal declared his proclamation�well�not unconstitutional, but more unworthy to be followed, which was good enough for people.
The third, and most important, was the secession of the state of Attera. Attera was the home of many of the supporters of the military in the incident, as well as Marshal Makonnen, and it was angry that the nation as a whole seemed to oppose the military and side with those they thought to be traitors. Thus, they applied for secession, and when the House of Peoples denied it to them, they seceded illegally (later, the House reconsidered its vote and legitimized the secession for the right to keep the state of Argaal). By about mid-February, things got back to normal, and although there was still lingering resentment between the two camps and strong anti-Tymaria feeling in Attera, the nation was ready to once again go on with its business.
Chapter VII: Return To Normalcy
Rather soon after the TYSOG scandal came the elections. Surprisingly, the events of the past month didn�t figure much in them, as all of the major candidates took the same side (that is, anti-military). For Prime Executive, the candidates were Jason Rhode, Daniel Dreesbach, and Jason Steffke. The difference between them on the issues (of which there were few) were slight, but their personalities were totally opposite. Rhode was given to long speeches and acting like a real politician. Steffke was given to being short, stubborn, and often sarcastic, but was generally well-liked. Dreesbach acted like he was controlled by pod people. Another difference was that Rhode was rarely around to respond to questions, whereas the other two had no life outside micronationalism.
The campaign was rather quiet. Scott Siskind made Steffke a campaign site which was nice but probably didn�t change any minds. A couple of people asked questions which the candidates avoided answering as required. During the end, polls showed Steffke and Rhode in a dead heat with Dreesbach trailing behind, so Rhode promised Dreesbach the Chancellorship if he joined forces with him, and Dreesbach accepted (Steffke had originally made an earlier deal with Rhode, but Rhode changed his mind) The vote was very close, but the final result will never be known because Steffke decided to drop out before it ended. He cited the fact that he changed his mind and, instead of leading Tymaria, would rather work for its destruction. Rhode became PE, and Steffke became the head of the Anti-Tymar Council, an organization dedicated to the URT�s destruction.
The election for Speaker was between Bill Dusch, Joe Whittaberg, and Kevin Brenneman, although the last two only joined so Bill wouldn�t be running alone. Dusch won, but after very little time in office, he resigned, and the Speakership passed to Tony Au.
A new person called Phillip Locke joined and immediately started a Communist revolt for no apparent reason. No one else seemed to support it, and the military told him to stop, so he did. If only all of Locke�s future plans had been that unsuccessful, Tymaria today might be a much happier place.
Most of the cultural happenings in this period didn�t last particularly long. The University was briefly revived and then reverted to its semi-moribundity. Machiavellia started a new culture on its fora which went the way of most such enterprises. There was a big debate over the HoN and the HoP which seems sort of silly now. Jason Rhode started some new precedent for the PE by giving a State of the Union speech, which was very nice. The former Jasonians celebrated the second anniversary of the founding of Jasonia.
It was a relatively peaceful time, and a happy one.
Chapter VIII: The Gathering Storm
It is a universal rule of history books that there must be a chapter called �The Gathering Storm�, and this is where I have chosen to place mine. It corresponds to 1466, and was marked by the desertion of some of the Apollonians and the formation of the Anti-Tymar Council, the retirement of much of the Tymarian citizenry, and crises in Shireroth. The new state of Akerbjorn was added, and sat around and plotted in the darkness.
Bill Dusch, who had been with Tymaria since its founding, decided to leave. His reasons mainly centered around a paranoia that everyone hated him and the fact that he thought Tymaria was unwilling to accept his cultural plans (to be fair, both of these were, to a degree, correct.) Not very good at staying away from micronations, he returned twice, but each time remained barely a day before leaving again (to the derision of certain elements in the country who had reason to enjoy his humiliation). His main conflict was that he wanted the state of Tapfer, which he had led before and during its entrance to the Union, to secede with him, but the House of the People would not allow it. He tried a few secessionist schemes, but none of them worked very well, and Kevin Brenneman took over as Tapferite leader (although he didn�t do very much). Dusch joined with his old friend Steffke in the Anti-Tymar Council.
This latter organization deserves further mention here. The ATC believed that Tymaria was oppressing its states and was detrimental to micronational culture, and therefore sought to destroy the country. They never really made any plans public, and indeed Mr. Steffke informed me in a private discussion that he really didn�t have any plans, but took things as they came. Originally they met in a bunker of an abandoned Audente military base, but when that was discovered, they took to not formally meeting at all. The ATC never did anything obvious completely independently, but they were happy to work behind the scenes and to add to the chaos created by anything else. One conflict in Tymarian government at that time was whether to declare war on the ATC or at least ban Steffke � it would probably be good for security, but would it be a violation of free speech, or even just plain stupid?
Tymaria lost many of its citizens to retirement and general inactivity. Julian Starr was one, and since Daniel Dreesbach rarely did anything without Starr, he could be counted as another loss. Nick the Yardistani abandoned Tymarian citizenship, although he paradoxically kept citizenship in Shireroth. Erik Mortis said he was going on one of what he calls his �sebbaticles,� which just about halved activity, although his replacements as Kaiser, Ari Rahikkala and new Shirerothian citizen Fax Celestis were competent enough. Emperor Jacobus also left, although he seemed to have been inhabiting a parallel dimension most of the time anyway. Eventually he came back and founded the Quantum United Imperium of Tymaria, but for whatever reason, that didn�t get very far. In a non-Tymarian context, the Shah of Babkha also departed, leaving control of the nation to Ardashir Osmani Khan, from thence on known as Shah Ardashir. Activity reached something of a low point � this period covers only about two pages worth of threads on General.
Erik came back from his sabbatical with a bang. He declared himself Kaiser Mors I of Shireroth and made a vast number of decrees (a number of which directly contradicted federal laws, but no one seemed to notice or care). He then built Shireroth, in the space of a week, from barely active to the biggest and most powerful state in the entire country. It was an interesting period to be a Shirerothian citizen, and most people came out of it with either a Dukedom, a high-ranking job, or a at least a slightly dazed look.
Akerbjorn was created by revolutionary Philip Locke along with his friends Brian Goldye and William @#%$. Like most micronations, it saw a bit of early activity and then died off, and as was the habit of dying micronations at the time, it applied to join Tymaria. To the annoyance of the MCS people, after being accepted it changed its name to Lothlaria and reorganized its provinces and cities. Then, as I may have mentioned before, they plotted in the darkness.
Epilogue
Well, that�s not a very satisfying ending, is it? How the PRH can I end with a chapter called �The Gathering Storm�? But I started this in early April and said I would only record history from September 1 to April 1, and I will stick to that promise. Perhaps another work will come around to record what happens when the storm finally breaks, or perhaps that shall be a history........
As Posted in Fri Jan 30, 2004 by Gryphon Avocatio