The Galactic Alliance

[Amelia von Sorenn]

After careful reflection, I've decided to step down from the position of Major Faction Owner. While I was excited to take on this role, it's become clear over the past week that the timing and circumstances aren't aligning in a way that allows me to contribute effectively. I believe it's in the best interest of the Galactic Alliance to make this decision.

I'm grateful for the opportunity and the trust placed in me, and I sincerely wish the Galactic Alliance continued success.

With that said, you know the drill.

• Over the following three days, you can nominate others or yourself to become the next MFO for the GA in this thread.
• Writers must accept a nomination or they don't count.
• After the nominations, there will be a period of a week where members of the GA can vote on the next MFO.

I would like to nominate Valery Noble as the next MFO for the GA. Valery and I have spoken over the last couple of days, and she's willing to step back into the role of MFO. She has always been very passionate about the GA, and I believe she will keep the GA going strong.

 

[Kaelos Vryn]

Katherine Holt gets my nomination.

I've always been quite open about how much I like Val, however I worry that bringing back an old MFO is a step backwards for the GA. I genuinely believe Kat has the want to push this faction forwards and the ideas to back it up.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

 

[Valery Noble]

As Amelia von Sorenn mentioned, we did talk and I have a lot of new recharged energy and muse for some new ideas post-GE invasion.

I'd be happy to take the helm again

 

[Katherine Holt]

I accept Kaelos Vryn ‘s nomination, though I wish it had been under better circumstances. If given the opportunity I will endeavour to lead the faction towards needed change, come what may with the ongoing invasion. My intention will be to draw upon both old and new heads within the faction to collaborate towards the GA’s next steps.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

I’d love to hear what plans the nominees have for faction direction and story!

 

[Makko Vyres]

I’d love to hear what plans the nominees have for faction direction and story!

This please. I'd like to know for sure no one has thoughts of taking us Minor.

 

[Feridade Parthi]

I third Corazona von Ascania 's proposal. With how chaotic things are within GA, I think it is important that whoever is nominated/accepts their nominations outline their plans going forward so that a more educated vote can be made. Wouldn't want someone to be voted in and wanting to run a story/narrative where a majority of the writers aren't interested in writing.

 

[Tefka]

The self-inserts are never beating the allegations

 

[Caelan Valoren]

The absolute whiplash...

 

[Katherine Holt]

An excellent question on Cora’s part and point raised by Feirdade, given recent events. And no, I have no plans to take the GA Minor.

To start, I’ll talk about the more immediate plans:

• It’s clear from discussion earlier today amongst the faction, that should the GA lose Coruscant and the Core Super Hex, they want to see the faction remain defiant. To continue fighting tooth and nail be it until victory or defeat. This will involve collabing with the GE to tell a compelling ‘Core Wars’ story that sees the two factions in a back and forth conflict.
• Of course the next question is, what’s the plan if the GA comes out as the Invasion victor? If the GA was to win, we’ll of course continue the collaborative storytelling with the GE, but also focus towards internal stories too. Coruscant might’ve been the focal point of the invasion, but the rest of the Core won’t have been spared from the chaos. An overall ‘Stabilise the War Torn Core.’ All parts of the faction coming together to provide assistance and support to those affected planets. We’d also be reaching out to the faction to get an idea of what they would like to do as well.

So, what about after that? What do I have in mind for the future?

• I’ll be looking at where the inner groups within GA are currently standing. See what can be done to encourage more activity and raise them all so that their activity and story output is on the same level. Or outright breathe some life into, in the SIA’s case. The idea will be to continue having a member of the Staff oversee each groups’ running and function, but also taking on ideas and feedback from the faction itself.
• We will continue with collaborative storytelling with other factions, GE, TIC, ME, SO, to name those that have things in the works already. Though of course, we’ll be open to collabing with others, be they existing or yet to be made, that want to reach out.
• Don’t think it needs to be said really, but of course the Dominions, Junctions and the like will continue as usual.
• Maintain an open dialogue with the faction, to bring up and discuss ideas for threads.

What about even further into the future? Well I don’t want to go that far ahead just yet. With everything that’s happened as of late, I want to focus on the short-term, see which direction the GA will go post-invasion and go from there. The emphasis and priority however, will always be to give the writers that make up the faction a voice.

 

[Valery Noble]

Right now, I think the perfect opportunity for the GA has presented itself. Internal stories, dominions and whatnot are fun sometimes, but they will not keep the faction afloat. Look at the last few dominions and you can clearly see a lack of overarching interest from the members. They are slow as hell.

But the invasion with GE has exploded our activity, and no matter the outcome, I think our future is in this story.

If we lose, we can fight back, work with other factions and build a story to either retaiate hard, or be forced to retreat because the invasion results Force us to. It's a natural, not pre-determined way of storytelling that will keep people on the edge of our seats. If we win, I would take the GA on a huge counter offensive to strike back.

And I have a ton of experience to make this work, and I have the muse to run this story with the Faction. So, most of all, I think we need a bigger focus on how we interact with the map and other factions. Right now, especially the GE because every invasion, junction or story there will have so much more impact than other stories.

I want to put our focus on something with actual consequences, whether we win or lose.

The rest is extra to mix things up, but should not be our focus anymore.

 

[Nulgath Zardai]

Q: Why do you want to lead?

Valery Noble Katherine Holt

 

[Jonyna Si]

I've crossed the bridge of no return at this point, so I'm not much interested in throwing my hat in the ring a second time.

My biggest concern as a GA member is slipping back into normalcy. One of my biggest complaints as a former staff member was the fact the GA had stagnated in a lot of ways, IMO due to the amount of push back anyone who put forward ideas got.

I think whomever takes over should try and advocate for a more open faction narrative. If people want to put forward ideas, try them out instead of shooting them down. Give people the opportunity to prove you wrong instead of immediately shooting them down.

 

[Valery Noble]

Q: Why do you want to lead?

Valery Noble Katherine Holt

For me, it's pretty simple. I'm not really someone who spreads thin and has alts in tons of different factions. I vibe a lot with the GA, which is why I write here as much, whether I'm MFO or not. So if I have the muse, I can dedicate a lot of time and effort into it and love to lead.

I stepped down because I lacked that passion and felt things were stale, and saw no real way forward for myself. But there's a lot of potential on the horizon now because of the GE invasion, regardless of the outcome. It has given me a lot of new ideas that I've been thinking about during my break/vacation, and with that comes passion to make things happen.

Though none of it will be forced or pre-determined. I hope we can let this story grow in a natural way, no matter where it goes. And I am confident I can facilitate it.

Tl;dr, I feel a strong muse for a story that will shake things up. And I have proven for 4 years that I have a lot of writing capacity and ability to make things happen of I set my mind to it.

My vacation and a lot of offline hours have also been a great mental reset lol.

 

[Katherine Holt]

Q: Why do you want to lead?

Valery Noble Katherine Holt

The reason I stepped up and threw my hat into the ring, is because I believe the GA needs a fresher head at the top. Jonyna has already mentioned it above, but a major complaint and concern is that the faction will just fall back into normalcy. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, there’s a measure of comfort in that familiarity. But it’s grown stale, boring and lacks excitement. It’s why invasions generate so much hype and activity. A perfect opportunity to raise some fisticuffs and tell a collaborative story with writers you might’ve never written with before.

Yes, there’s no denying that I lack experience. But I’d raise the point that not everyone will when stepping up to the plate like this. I might lack the years of prior experience as an MFO, but I’m no stranger being a part of a Staff Team. I’ve been there assisting and helping, learning and studying along the way. And that’s not just referring to the GA, but the other faction teams I’ve also been a part of during my years on Chaos. But of course, I won’t be doing this alone. I’ll have a team alongside me that can make up for that experience, and see to the creation of a more open faction narrative.

Valery did raise a good point about focus and muse. I’m quite the opposite when it comes to alts, predominantly because my head is often full of ideas that want out. It’s helped me personally facilitate exploring ideas, and most importantly kept my muse from growing stale writing the same thing for lengthy periods of time. And whilst I may have alts in other places, I can promise that my primary focus will always be on the GA. What I believe this would bring, should I become MFO, is building and facilitating connections with other factions. To help build a collaborative relationship for future threads.

Tl;dr, Fresher eyes will help keep the GA from falling back into its previous stale normalcy. While I may lack the experience, I won’t be doing this alone. And while I might not be as solely focused on the GA as Val, I feel having a more spread out focus will help the faction towards connecting and collabing with other factions.

 

[Kaelos Vryn]

I didn't realise when I nominated Kat that this would become a Q&A but dare I say I think this has set a precident for how I think MFO nominations should be done in the future?

I do genuinely have two questions though, for both Katherine Holt and Valery Noble .

How do you both plan on handling relationships with other factions across the chaos board? Obviously we have the SO and GE but there's also a lot of other factions that want to write with the GA and probably members in the GA who want to write with these other factions. Talk us through your plans folks.

Secondly, thoughts on the new bounty system and do you think it can be used to enhance stories being told within the GA, or are you opposed to it entirely? Why?

 

[Valery Noble]

Kaelos Vryn

To answer the first, we have coordination chats with most other Majors to facilitate things. Even a coordination server with all Majors. Personally, I'm very open to collaborating with any faction, but ot do be pretty tough to have 4 or 5 other Majors that you actively write with at once. People can only handle so many stories at once.

So there will always be more focus on certain ones. In this case, you can't get around a focus on GE. But I would like to do more with our relationship with the Mandos and maybe also involve HR in the conflict if they are open to it.

When I stepped down, we were also talking to Diarchy about a thread!

To answer the second question, there is a reason I already put up two bounties targeting Sith and Dark Jedi I see a ton of potential for the SIA in the bounty board, especially. Warrants and maybe a most wanted list.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Three questions for the candidates:

The GA has had a major civility problem over the last week, to the point where it seemed to me to be genuinely unlikely for the faction to be able to continue together. It seems like there was a generalized license to be rude and in some cases outright abusive due to dissatisfaction around the staff change. There have been reports of innuendo and challenges to the motivations of individuals. My question is: is this something that you have a plan to address in the new administration?

Secondly, my experience with the GA has largely been positive, but one thing I think we struggle with is that the GA seems to function as a Jedi faction, but with other branches to give it the shape of a 'secular' (for lack of a better word) power. There have been efforts to get other branches to come into their own with varying degrees of success, but my perception is that the focus is the NJO because that's what's most iconic in Star Wars and that's what people want to write. Is this a fair perception? What are your plans to strengthen the other groups?

Thirdly, related to the second question, we have talked a lot about the Senate and about how to attract people to it, without empowering a largely un-vetted group of writers fundamentally alter the direction and aesthetic and values of the Galactic Alliance faction. How do you feel we can make writing Senators more attractive while still protecting the faction?

Katherine Holt Valery Noble

 

[Katherine Holt]

Buckle in folks, this is gonna be a long one.

Kaelos Vryn

1. As Valery has mentioned, there already exists coordination chats between us and most other Major Factions. Though this has primarily been for the bigger threads, such as Invasions. I’d like to see them be utilized beyond that, maybe for some cross-Faction threads that aren’t necessarily something like a Junction?

But it is a matter of finding the right balance, else it’ll become too much of a juggling act trying to coordinate with one too many factions.

To close up this question, and continue the topic on balance, I would like to leave a question of my own to the faction as a whole: What are your feelings on the faction’s thread cadence? Obviously invasions will shift focus and priorities, but outside of that. Too many Doms, too few general Faction threads? This’ll be something I’d bring up in a faction poll/discussion.

2. I think there’s a lot of exciting potential for the new bounty system. I know Bounty Hunters a whole were somewhat directionless due to BH-specific factions never lasting for long. So the new system is no doubt a boon to those writers. Obviously with it being new there will be potential issues and hurdles that need to be ironed out. But I am looking forward to seeing it continue to grow.

A potential revamp/shake up of the SIA could see a utilization of it, as Valery mentioned with Warrants.


Natasi Fortan

1. I’ll be frank, the past week has been a mess where preconceived notions, speculation and the like were getting thrown about, causing an even greater mess because people weren’t talking. Be it because feeling like they were being shut out/ignored, discussion getting shut down too early, or the facts not being laid out to get the situation set straight. My plan of addressing this is well, to do the sensible thing really. Address the situation, talk with those involved, gather the facts and bring it to the rest of the staff to discuss. All Staff should be part of the verdict before action is made, as there will no doubt be multiple opinions. Now, there are times where a response is clear cut, but there are also times where emotions are involved and mistakes get made. Those times have to be addressed with a more careful hand, as there are multiple different options to resolve a matter.

Tl;dr, Address situations properly, and be transparent with the faction when issues arise.

2. Yeah there’s no denying that the NJO are the largest of the faction’s inner groups, which leads to the GA looking like a Jedi faction. It’s a very fair perception, and an inevitable fact due to the popularity/fantasy of writing one. I have briefly touched on this in a previous answer, but the plan is to enact an overview of GADF, SIA & the Senate, see where there are flaws and weaknesses, what can be done to solve them, be it through a full revamp or a reshuffle. The ideal would be to get those groups to a point where it incentives writers to write within them, to increase their activity. Will they ever match the NJO? Probably not, the power of RPing a Jedi is too strong.

To give an example with the SIA: Potential revamp, integrate the Bounty Boards warrants/most wanted list. Reach out to factions like the GE to coordinate some Spy vs Spy action.

3. Now the Senate, it’s a part of the faction I’ve only ever dipped my toe in. But I am aware it’s had its issues that’s had the unfortunate effect of making it feel stale at points. So what can be done to make being a Senator more attractive? We make it a more involved thing. Because let’s be real, right now all you have to do is find/pick a planet, fill in a form and wait for a thumbs up. That’s not very fun, nor very in the theme of politics.

So what’s a potential solution that will both make it more attractive, but also protect the faction? Well after having looked into how some of the other factions have handled it, I say we could learn a thing or two. Let me provide an example of how it could potentially work:

A writer wants to be the Senator of Chandrila. They have to approach an existing Senator ICily, petitioning themselves, and strike a deal to secure their support. This has to be a total of 3 different Senators (One to put the bill forwards, two to back it and support it).. Once they have done that, the writer has to complete a number of threads (let’s say 2-3) that proves through the story why their character should be the Senator of Chandrila.

[Note: The order in which this is done isn’t necessarily strict. The writer could do the threads first, then seek support, or vice versa].

The application is then officially made, and someone from the Faction Staff will look over it and vet it. Ideally one of those first three Senators would be someone on the Staff to make the process smoother. From there it’s down to the writer if they want to secure more support via IC deals, or leave it to the Assembly and hope they get a majority vote in their favour.

[Note: To ensure the vetting process, the Senator who originally puts the bill forward has to take responsibility if the person decides to suddenly try and submit a bill that goes against the faction. It’s similar to how bounty sponsors have to hold responsibility of who they sponsor].

Again, this is just a single part of how it could be revamped. Ultimately it’ll be a larger discussion and brainstorm with the Staff to figure out all the details.

 

[Fal Gore]

It's me again, your pal, Fal.

You might remember that I ran against Auteme in the First Chancellor election three years ago to the day, though I was unfortunately kidnapped before the debate by psyop blackhats and Auteme fanatics and replaced with a cyborg. I'd like to nominate myself for election to Major Faction Owner and Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Alliance. Take a seat, while I've got your ear. I've got some things you might like to hear.

What are my policies?

What's Fal Gore's Day One Look Like?

Easy peasy.

OOC FIVE STEP PLAN

1. I'm firing the entire Staff team, again.

Reason: I would have done it anyways, but my predecessor having done it really greases the wheels for what I call "digital waterboarding". If we're honest with ourselves, nobody really wants them there anyways. Why even have a Staff team? We have a Senate. Just run for a Senate chair, and piss everyone off with bureacracy that way. This way, everyone's equal. Except for ol' Fal, I'll be right at the top.

2. I'll never step down or relinquish OOC power.

Reason: Doesn't this get boring? By electing #moregore, you'll never face the burden of making your own decisions again. This way you're all free to roleplay to your heart's content and can all hate me equally without pointing fingers at each other. Also, I don't have any friends, so you don't have to worry about favoritism! I hate you all equally too.

3. You'll never get a break from war.

Reason: You will never have to worry about boring OOC discussions again but I'll make sure we get locked in eternal war. GE, the Mandos, High Republic, the other dozen Empires - they all want a bite of us and I'll make sure their stomachs explode before I'm done. Complainers complaining about bored? We'll never run out of threads attacking us and OOC narratives painting us in a negative light. They'll have to start Dynobot banning the word Alliance from their Discords, they'll be eating so much. I'll even surge and pander to self-insert narratives that make the Alliance look weak, to make sure we're always everyone's target. It won't be hard, and I'll always fast track invasion narratives by just saying yes to everything and ignoring the mental health of Alliance writers.

4. I will focus all my energy on making the Senate supercharged with IC bureaucracy.

Reason: Mad at writers mainlining Discord bumps, constantly plotting and yapping about their plans for corruption? Tired of Sith/Imperials rolling alts to join the Alliance just to further their own meta goals for their other characters/factions IC? I'll not only make it easy for them to continue to do that, I'll encourage it. If you had any hopes of getting anything done in character on your senator, good luck buddy. Your days are numbered with the advent of #FalGoreMoreGore2025.

5. Constantly tired of paying attention to Discord?

Reason: Don't worry! I'm not going to delete it. But I am going to close all channels, private and public, and leave one channel remaining called #FalGoreMoreGore, and all roles are going to be deleted too. Also, we're going to give everyone permission to @everyone.

IN CHARACTER CHANGES

1. I'm literally just going to start invasions (but I'll make the other MFOs do all the work, in exchange for me completely capitulating to all their requests.)

2. The Chancellor's personal guard will be replaced by my child soldier army.

3. I will ensure that if I am ever killed or assassinated, or die of old age, that there's a crazy amount of rules in the Senate to elect the next chancellor. Also, our faction vote will be completely in character, and not a Xenforo poll. This will stop all the self-insert nobodies from trying to conflict it, because they're all too boring and lazy to actually roleplay with us to do it.

4. Again, because we're built different, I'm probably going to force the Senate to vote IC for the new MFO, in a RP thread, because the rules totally allow for that to happen.

5. Lastly, I'll probably enshrine in our rules, because we're the most legally bound litigious faction, that our rules always require the election to be completely in character because every time it's OOC shit gets weird and people with all sorts of OOC motivations begin voting stupidly and nominating themselves frivolously. Like, they might have written an entire platform for their election in one OOC post, but does that really mean they're equipped to lead us? An absurd notion.


CROWD QUESTIONS

Q: Why do you want to lead?

I'm the best there is and ever was.

The GA has had a major civility problem over the last week, to the point where it seemed to me to be genuinely unlikely for the faction to be able to continue together. It seems like there was a generalized license to be rude and in some cases outright abusive due to dissatisfaction around the staff change. There have been reports of innuendo and challenges to the motivations of individuals. My question is: is this something that you have a plan to address in the new administration?

I would deport all my opposition day 1.

Secondly, my experience with the GA has largely been positive, but one thing I think we struggle with is that the GA seems to function as a Jedi faction, but with other branches to give it the shape of a 'secular' (for lack of a better word) power. There have been efforts to get other branches to come into their own with varying degrees of success, but my perception is that the focus is the NJO because that's what's most iconic in Star Wars and that's what people want to write. Is this a fair perception? What are your plans to strengthen the other groups?

The focus on NJO doesn't need help, my focus would be on everything but them. They'll be fine. The Senate would be my focus. It's the biggest grab bag of targets in all the galaxy, aside from the boring subjects like Mandos, Sith, and Jedi. Having an active political scene in Star Wars would be dope.

Thirdly, related to the second question, we have talked a lot about the Senate and about how to attract people to it, without empowering a largely un-vetted group of writers fundamentally alter the direction and aesthetic and values of the Galactic Alliance faction. How do you feel we can make writing Senators more attractive while still protecting the faction?

You can't get the good without the bad. The focus is creating and maintaining the scene. And hell, the bad apples sometimes reinforce the popularity of the good apples. The focus is the scene. People will absolutely try to detract them. I will secretly let them while publicly denouncing them, both OOC and IC. Every time it happens OOC, and you all get mad in discords, I need you to remember that I probably literally encouraged that dude to be an asshat in DMs. I want you guys mad. I want them mad. I want everyone mad.

If people want to put forward ideas, try them out instead of shooting them down. Give people the opportunity to prove you wrong instead of immediately shooting them down.

Absolutely not, have you seen some of the stuff people come up with. I'm more likely to deport people who make suggestions.

I'd like to know for sure no one has thoughts of taking us Minor.

We would go minor if I'm 1) dead or 2) our last hex is taken, after I instill courage and frenzy in literally the entirety of the Galaxy.

Vote Gore for #MoreGore2025.