[Beyond the Borders] Victory In Layem






Victory in Layem
Interregional Force of historic proportions captures problematic region

Written by John Laurens




Tonight, Layem is burning. An interregional force comprised of 108 updaters from all walks of life on NationStates surged into the Confederacy of Layem at major update on May 19th, bringing a formal end to the turbulent existence of a region known for its toxicity and bigotry.

The founding nation of the Confederacy of Layem, Layem (also known as Mauroa) was deleted by NationStates Administrators on May 14th for breaking site rules about commercialization. The invasion, led by the League Defense Forces. The remaining government officials of the Confederacy of Layem imposed a password in an attempt to defend the region, and evacuated the regional population to a backup region named Concord. This strategy was stymied by the declaration of Mauroa as delete on sight by the Admin team, causing Layem to lose Concord as a viable backup region. Consul of the League, Quebecshire, and Warden-Commander Luca, drafted a Security Council Resolution to Liberate Confederacy of Layem within hours of the deletion of Layem’s founder. NationStates forum administrator Reploid Productions expressed tongue-in-cheek disappointment - “That... actually took longer than I would have figured,” they said after seeing a first draft of the Security Council Resolution. Quebecshire apologized, saying “I had nothing pre-drafted. I wrote it on the Notes app on my phone then sent it to Luca and we went from there.”

The Liberation went on to gain 93.9% approval in the World Assembly, a landslide by any standard. Liberation resolutions remove passwords imposed on a region, so the resolution’s passage was a necessary first step before a coalition of interregional forces could invade Layem. In the lead-up to the inevitable passage of “Liberate Confederacy of Layem”, the League Defence Forces managed to amass a force of 40 updaters in an impromptu operation to seize Concord. With participants pulled together in mere hours, participating regions and individuals coordinated in the raid in the Voice Chat of the Inter-Regional Chat, of which Europeia is a founding member. The pursuit of Layem’s population was fierce due to recent very public attempts by Mauroa to antagonize the Gameplay world and use aggressively transphobic language in their interactions with other gameplayers. One notable incident saw Mauroa founded the region Trans and post a transphobic message that read “Sin must be eradicated or you will be consumed by darkness and degeneracy. This region is being protected by God loving Christians.”

The force that took Layem comprised a whopping 19 regions, including the Europeian Republican Navy and many mercenaries, all fighting to defeat fascism and bigotry on NationStates. Over 30 updaters, including some from regions with serious in-character disagreements, spent the hour leading up to the move into Layem on voice-chat. The mood was light and jovial, as the raiding force was overwhelmingly larger than any defense that Layem’s Delegate could mount. General New Makasta of the League Defense Forces said of the mood of the operation “It was rather joyues, we as a coumenty finnaly came toghter to rise up past the IC squabbles to burn down this fach hell hole. And it was gloruous”[sic].

As the dust settles, the League has declared the 19th of May to be V-L Day, or Victory in Layem day. Multiple participants in the raid have begun constructing embassies in the newly seized region, including The Order of Grey Wardens, the Brotherhood of Malice, and The Communist Bloc. A proposal to Repeal the Liberation of Layem has also been proposed to allow occupying forces to refound the region and secure it permanently.

Many Layemites have found refuge in Nordic Lands, a region known to have similar attitudes and beliefs to Layem, and another problematic region invaded by an interregional force, Sanctum. Many have pointed out the similarities in Sanctum and Layem’s stories, and note that the community of Sanctum never recovered from its invasion. Europeia played a significant role in the Sanctum raid. As a consequence of the Sanctum raid, that community suffered from splinter groups, preventing them from coalescing once again. Many Gameplayers anticipate that this is a fate that may befall Layem and something that may lead to the fall and invasion of Nordic Lands as well.
 
Good stuff. I had been following the Layem Gameplay thread for a few weeks now and their public behavior was.. not IC or OOC appropriate.
 
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