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Greetings. In the first of an occasional series I will be interviewing a select group of eRepublik players who have had or are having, an impact on the game. The first interview was an easy one to pick, and that is Talon Karrde, who with his government, has successfully brought eUK back into existence after a three month wipe.

This interview took place over two days, and rather than using the usual 10 set questions, we just took off and the conversation went back too and fro.

Let's begin:

Who is Talon Karrde, I mean, ReaLy?

Hey, and good question- we can often get so caught up in the game that we forget there are real people behind the aliases! I'm 21, from Yorkshire in England. I'm a Science teacher in real life, and very much enjoying that!

21! That makes me only 25 years older than you are....sad I know. Science teacher at 21? Did you bother going to college? (and yes that is my next question)

Yeah I went to the University of Leeds, to study Biology. It was great fun, I look back with fondness on my time there. Being a student is great, but now I'm in the world of work 😛 . And those 25 years extra were obviously valuable if you have a wife and kids! Someday I'd like that too.

Looking at your eRepublik page, you've been around for nearly three eyears now, got elected to parliament 6 times and are currently CP. Yet on a military end you've been BH 4 times, won a RW 3 times, and you don't even have a MM.

Are you, to coin a phrase from Michael Jackson, 'a lover and not a fighter'? In short, are a political animal first and the battlefield is a distant second place?

Yes, without a doubt I'm much more of a politician than a soldier. That's the side of the game I've always enjoyed more, and indeed continue to do so. Both are really important aspects of the game, but you're always going to get people that prefer one over the other. I'm very much a people person, so prefer talking to fighting. A minor reason why I'm relatively crap at the military side is that I have a lot of companies too, and that limits the amount I can fight.

I see, of course that's a side that I don't really participate in nor fully understand. Having said that, I'm smart enough to know that in the end, regardless of how great a tank you are, or how imposing a country's army is, it all counts for nothing if you get the politics wrong.

So tell me, and you'll have to forgive my limited understanding of UK politics, what were the circumstances leading up to your decision to become CP? Was it a case of it merely being your turn, considering your party has had successive CP's elected? Or was it a case that you had a plan and strategy and needed to be CP to enact it?

It was a plan and strategy thing, for sure. We'd suffered just over three months of complete occupation, so somebody needed to step in and do something about that, and I genuinely thought I was the best person to do so. Quite the opposite to it being my turn, I could have been CP months before if I had so desired it, but by no means did- still don't, to be honest. I've never been in it for power, but I got fed up of seeing us occupied so had to step in.


OK, but certain people would contend that the reasons behind eUK being back on the map were outside your influence, the spat between eBulgaria and eTurkey, the division in the Canadian camp, I guess you could claim that eSerbia's push into eFrance was part of a plan, but what I would like to know is what steps you actually put into place to be successful?

Was it not merely taking advantage of a set of fortunate circumstances?

It most certainly was taking advantage, yes. And as soon as those factors change, I'm sure we'll see France back in our regions again, it's just the way the game goes. That said, it required a certain amount of strategy and whatnot to take advantage in the first place. Interestingly, our push into France wasn't actually in our interests, but was mostly done in order to help our alliance.

The endpoint of this little foray into France will certainly be reprisals against the UK, so from that perspective an NE from us wasn't the best move. That said we do need to look out for our allies too. In my last answer though, I actually wasn't alluding to our southern success, but rather to removing one of the three fronts that we've been fighting on- specifically with Ireland. We got a great deal formed with them, and as soon as we can take them they're giving us Dublin and Louth, their capital and a fruit bonus region, which is pretty great.


Fair enough. As you can imagine the eIreland situation is of great importance to me and my readers. Considering the antagonism between both countries and their pasts, do you think the wiping of eUK helped broker a deal, as for the first time its citizens could understand how demoralising it is to be without a congress and a say in your own affairs?

Depending on who had been CP at the time it might have, though personally it wasn't a factor. Regardless of whether we'd have been wiped or not I'd still want this peace with Ireland, as I think it's a great deal for both countries. In times of peace it'll mean we both get an extra resource we otherwise wouldn't have had, and likewise that we both secure a border. It's win-win really.

There's a specific incident during the negotiations that I would like to raise with you, and would appreciate a straight answer. The Canadian CP, Acacia, has suggested that a deal was done between Canada, France and Ireland to keep you wiped. Acacia then asserted that you contacted him indicating that a peace agreement was made. The Irish CP denied this was the case and various accusations were made that people were lying, including you.

The upshot of it all was that the Irish CP did indeed to a peace deal with eUK and eCanada were not informed owing to previous indiscretions. Could we have a detailed synopsis of what actually happened during those confused times

It was no secret that I wanted to secure a peace deal with Ireland, Canada and France. To that end I'd been talking to all three separately in an attempt to get consensus, then bring them all together to finalize a treaty. I'd been told separately by the Irish and French CPs that they were up for it, and so that's what I told Acacia- to the best of my knowledge it was correct. After the fact it became quite obvious that Chewie wasn't up for peace at that point, and had been stalling me to buy more time for his Sweden campaign. All in all, an impressively clever, if a little harsh, display on his part.

You've put yourself up for CP again (so much for being a reluctant president!), but to a casual eye you appear to have caused a divide within the UK between those that support the peace treaty and those that don't. Is the reason why you're going for CP again is that you want a democratic mandate to support it?

I most certainly am reluctant, I'm running in part to ensure the treaty's success long term, and in part because I have unfinished business to attend to. The divide you mentioned already existed before the treaty was signed, but that event brought it to the fore in a more visible way. A democratic mandate would be useful of course, but my running again is much more about the mountain we have yet to climb.

Well I think that's for the future, you certainly have your work cut out. One final questions. Surely a young man in the prime of his life has better things to be doing than playing eRepublik?

😃 Yes I do have better things to do, and all the time. Thankfully I tend to be able to fit erepublik around my personal life quite well.