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Oily Night (Mandatory listening)
Day 2571 of the New World
4 December, 2014



I have been campaigning for Deepchill for a couple of weeks now. I have never campaigned for a candidate other than myself ever before in this game. (I have written a few endorsements, but have never actually campaigned.)

Last night I decided to take a step back from campaign mode. I want to strip myself of my obvious bias toward Deepchill and do some journalistic reporting on what is undoubtedly the most interesting race since the Largo debacle, and is arguably the most interesting race since Keating’s narrow win over Tech, though arguments could be made for several races since then as well.

So the first thing I must do is apologize to my candidate Deepchill. Normally I would probably be writing another endorsement article to convince you why you should vote for him. I did write this one, of course, but it is already too old to affect the top 5. So my apology to Deepchill is this, please permit me to indulge myself in some old-fashioned reporting instead of thumping the stump for you. I know you well enough to know you’d say, “Go for it”. Because you have always wanted me to play my game, and that is why I love you.

OK, campaign hat off…



reporter hat on.





In order to fully understand the genesis of this month’s election, you really have to understand a little bit about the ancient past of this game.

There are not a whole lot of players with Birth Dates older than June 04, 2009. You can find them, but they are rare. Rarer yet are players with birth dates as old as June 04, 2009 who are still active. Rainy Sunday is both ancient and modern. But it is the ancient Rainy Sunday that, more than anything else, has catapulted her into contention tomorrow.

Rainy Sunday was a major figure among the early Dioist movement in eUSA. Before Whale-worship became a thing, Dio was the Emperor-God of eUSA. Frankly, a lot of players found the entire thing stupid and silly, but in a game that evolves organically as its players write the narrative, it was an obvious thing to have some form of eReligion. Dioism fit the bill. Legends were written involving the sands of Pakistan where Dio had his mystery-shrouded beginnings… And Rainy Sunday was a favorite player among those who used this cultural movement to make eRepublik an interesting game to play.


a match made in eHeaven?

All of this to say that Rainy Sunday is an epic player among those who have been around the longest. In a sense, she is the ultimate “Elite” – so much so that a handful of players who haven’t logged into this game in months or years (they are the forum-dwellers – players who still participate in the meta-community via the eUS Forum, but who have utterly given up hope for eRepublik as a game) logged in to endorse her candidacy. In truth, these elite players have been begging Rainy to run for years… Rainy just wasn’t ready yet…

Now don’t get me wrong. Rainy Sunday is not like those forum-dwellers. She has never quit this game like so many of her supporters have. She has not only “stuck it out”, she has been downright essential to the success of the USAF as it transitioned from several loosely-knit Military Units into one well-organized MU we now know as the “United States Armed Forces.” How do I know that Rainy was so essential? Because when I needed someone to make that transition happen, I called on Rainy Sunday to do it.

And so there has been this dance (probably) every month for years now. Only Rainy could truly answer exactly how often she has been asked to run for CP. If I had to guess, my guess would be in the neighborhood of 30 times. I’d love to know. But every month, someone will inevitably send her the PM saying, “How about this month??? PLEEEEEZE??? eUSA Neeeeeeds you.” And every month she has politely declined.

Until yesterday.



Meanwhile, eUSA has watched the quiet rise to prominence of one of its most favorite Citizens, Deepchill. Here is a guy without an enemy. I cannot imagine how a player can Command the most effective Military Unit in the country – and perhaps the most efficient MU in the game – without breaking a few eggs. I can say this because I was responsible for taking EZC from the #12 ranked MU to the #1 ranking… And I made some enemies along the way. Not so with Deepchill.

Somehow he has managed to lead a generally controversial Political Party, the USWP without pissing people off. Another trick few people have managed to do.

And somehow he was able to run the National Security Council without making a wall of enemies. Again, amazing.

(I must add that there are, actually a couple of butthurt people out there who don’t like Deepchill in NSC. Those people should actually be pissed at me, truth be told, because I was responsible for asking Deepchill to fire them. You’ll likely be able to figure out who I am talking about if they add their comments below!)

I have detailed his biographical history elsewhere, I don’t want to repeat myself. The only brief recapitulation I will make is to say that over the past two years Deepchill has slowly added experience to his resume so that he has qualified himself for the Presidency through hard work and patient learning.

And so he began to target a December 5th run for CP somewhere back in August of this year. He lives a healthy personal life, and so was able to project that his RL calendar was conducive to great activity this month. He was asked to run a few times in the months prior to this, but he knew what he could do… December was going to be the month he would bid for.

Hard core planning began in very early November. He had his Secretaries identified right away. He had his deputies filled out two weeks prior to Election Day. He has been the paradigm of preparedness.

All of which contribute to making what happened next such a great story.



This is and always will be our game, despite Plato’s wicked attempts to wrest it away from us. And so when someone decides they are bored, all it takes is a well-written article to stir the pot and make things interesting again.

Enter Aramec.

Aramec is one of those ancient players of which I spoke. He was one of eUSA’s great writers before I even published my first word. He has quit this game, what 3 times I think? And then he returns. He’s an Elite in the best sense of the word. And he is one of those who bear the mark of days gone by:


one of Aramec’s Forum “awards”…

Aramec is a Dioist.

He is also one of the many who has longed to see Rainy Sunday in the driver’s seat for many months.

By now you know how this played out. He was bored. Oblige (who perhaps did not want to lose re-election to Deepchill) chose not to seek re-election. That would have been an interesting race at least. And nobody else had stepped into the ring. I would bet dollars to donuts that Aramec himself considered throwing his hat into the ring for a 4th (or is it 8th?) time. But Aramec has become famous for taking his losses somewhat hard… he may not have wanted to risk subjecting himself to the harsh disappointment in the case of a loss. Only he knows.

But he was certainly bored. And because this is as much Aramec’s game as it is everyone else’s he answered his boredom with an article essentially calling out Rainy Sunday to allow herself to be elected in December.

Another good friend named Paul Proteus was the next to join his voice. Once Aramec had been urged to put serious effort into the thing – seeking actual political party endorsements – Proteus drafted his article. More followed…



And that is how a grass roots campaign gets started.




What we had up until today was a very quiet Rainy Sunday winsomely accepting the nominations of her own AMP as well as WTP, but not in any way, shape, of form organized for the Presidency. Her handlers have been somewhat organized on her behalf – which is impressive. And so they find themselves, with two days left, needing to put together what Deepchill has had in place for weeks.

I know that these things are being done hastily in the Rainy Sunday camp. This is not a criticism, as there is no choice but to make haste. But I know it because when she published her first actual campaign article, it contained her cabinet… and at least several of the Secretaries hadn’t even been contacted about their availability or interest, myself being among them.

My point is not to criticize. The “story” is how this entire thing is coming together quite by the seat of Aramec and Proteus’ pants… Their role in this epic campaign needs to be written about some day in their memoirs. If it succeeds it will be beautiful.

And meanwhile Deepchill has kept his course. If he succeeds it will be equally beautiful. I would argue that no Candidate has faced a more difficult competitor since Blank Keating faced Technician in July of 2011.



If I had to guess, this is going down to the wire. I hope we won't be "counting chads".




Those observing this campaign season have to be terribly impressed at the lack of acrimony. That is rarely the case when two campaigns collide. There have been a few irregularities worth complaining about. The Rainy people could easily complain that with an hour yet remaining in the Federalist Primary, Rainy Sunday was not added to the ballot. The Deepchill camp could raise eyebrows about the extended time given to the WTP primary which would have normally opened and closed earlier than it did. But like the two classy individuals they are Deepchill and Rainy Sunday have just kept to their own message.

Tomorrow we will find out if the Dioists still have enough push to elect Rainy Sunday…
…or if the host of newer players who have been affected by Deepchill’s leadership will win the day.

Which way will you vote, America?

___________V___________



I opened this article with an apology to Deepchill for stepping out of “endorsement mode” and into reporter mode. I want to close this article with an apology to Rainy Sunday. While I have tried my utmost to be an unbiased reporter in this article, it is quite possible that I did not entirely succeed. And so I am sorry that I could not be 100% unbiased. All I can say is that I tried.

Good luck to both candidates!







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