Breaking News: Havoc in Hartfelden
An Empty (?) Imperial Throne
Written by Astrellan
(May 21, Europeia) - In a surprise announcement yesterday, the Kaiser of the region of Hartfelden, Their Imperial and Royal Majesty, Kaiser Elke (commonly known as Aav), announced their resignation from their post just 6 days after ascending to the throne. This comes after Aav revealed they received a coup threat from TheOneTruePi (commonly known as Pi or Scott), who was the old ruler and founder, Kaiser Friedrich, and now roleplays as Arnfulf von Hartfelden, Aav's child and presumed heir to the throne.
Shifts in the region started happening when, on May 14, Kaiser Friedrich died, thus making an IC reason allowing Pi to abdicate the throne to his oldest child and heir. This appeared to be a shock to most residents of Hartfelden, with Pi quickly clarifying on their discord that he was too "busy" to keep the role he had since the region's founding, and that he "retired from NS so [he doesn't] have to be around." The role of the Kaiser is a very important one within the region, as, while there are distinct branches of government such as the legislature (the Reichsversammlung), the executive (a Kanzler and cabinet), and a judiciary (the Gerichtshof), they get their authority from the Kaiser, and the ruler has the power to create Imperial Decrees, similar to Executive Orders, but with unchecked power, being able to amend even the Constitution. Such a role also comes with immense soft power and, importantly, access to the founder account on NS, ownership on Discord, and the root admin to the forums.
Aav had been incredibly active in the region for an extended amount of time, gathering themselves many imperial titles and serving in a lot of positions, most especially being Regent for the region when Pi had a period of low activity. Despite the unexpected death of the Kaiser, Aav made for a natural pick to rule from the throne, and so ascended smoothly. No huge change had appeared to come over the region; Pi now roleplayed as the character of Arnulf, Aav's child, and had been appointed almost instantly to positions on the Electoral Commission, which handled elections, and awarded the imperial title of the Archduke of Rossmark.
Then yesterday, Aav posted this notice in Hartfelden's Discord server:
The notice announces Aav's, officially Kaiser Elke, abdication from the Imperial Throne, claiming its reason is due to the threat of a coup by Pi, the Founder. The notice reveals that Aav left the ruling imperial family of Hartfelden, the von Hartfeldens, for reasons unknown. Upon learning this, Pi, who was still the owner of the Discord server at this point, secured the Founder's account by changing the password, and messaged Aav demanding for their return to the family, else they would "have to take action." Fearing the threat of a coup, and "putting the region through a coup" as they mentioned later on Discord, Aav abdicated and resigned from every role they had in Hartfelden.
At this point, and at the time of the initial draft of this article, it seemed that Pi would resume the Kaiser role through the relation of Arnulf to Elke, and through their control of the founder account. However, in yet another shocking move, Pi messaged Aav with the details of the Founder account, transferred Discord server ownership to them, and left the Hartfelden discord, as well as other NS discord servers.
With such an abrupt turn of events, Pi left no explanation for their actions, and so we can only turn to speculation. Following Aav's announcement of their resignation, many members of the region became infuriated, with one member saying: "What the absolute [****] is wrong with some people," and another suggesting the idea of "do[ing] a revolution and turn[ing] this into a republic." A slurry of other responses followed, notably from people who were resident to the Discord server but not active in it, with the overwhelming majority of the comments expressing shock or anger at Pi's actions. Such an outpour from the community may have shown Pi that he did not have huge support in the region, thus compelling him to perform this transfer of power. The event was also posted to the NSGP server to generally negative responses, with one user stating their surprise that this happened "over a ****in ns fam too".
At the time of writing, the situation appears to have largely calmed down. Aav commissioned the creation of a "#conference" channel in their discord, where senior government officials debated the right course of action to the viewing of the public. There seems to be a consensus of Aav staying as Kaiser, with themself stating their intention of remaining in the role, though no official word has yet been made on that subject. They also agreed to put Pi on trial for treason, wishing to "set the records straight" and allow the region to move on from the event.
While the future of Hartfelden remains hazy, it's not clear yet if this event is a fatal one for the region. The writer wishes the best of luck to the community of Hartfelden in their recovery from this event.
