History 28: The First Presidential Election

Mercia has been through many different styles of government in the half decade it's existed. From the very beginning of the First Age of City-States, to the Senate of Mercia in 2nd Age; Politics have dominated Mercia. During the 2nd Age, construction began on the Congress Building of Mercia. The Senate had recently decided that High Rock, formally the Shopping District of Mercia, was designated to be a Government Area. There was to be a Defence Department, a Federal Reserve, a Court House and the aforementioned Congress Building. The plots were picked and work began terraforming the new area. This was met with heavy criticism from the Businesses that were there that hadn't agreed to the new Zone. Many attempted to challenge the Senate, some left and set up shop in Skargness. Only two, however, remained until they were finally destroyed at the end of the Fourth Age. After the land was terraformed, the famous Maclimara of Browns Construction was hired to erect the Buildings. He started with the Court House, finishing it in the early days of the Third Age. He then built the Defence Department and Federal Reserve, all without problem. Then the economic boom hit Mercia and, along with it, the infamous Taxes that plagued the Mercian Citizens. Maclimara, after having been hit with over $5,000 in taxes in one day, couldn't afford to continue building. As such, The Congress Building was never built. Perhaps even worse than that, though, was the growing problems within the Senate. Public outcry for new leadership grew to an all-time high and the corruption within was being exposed at an alarming rate.

As such, the Senate came up with a compromise; a puppet figure that the public could vote for. This person could in theory pass laws and have the final say but in practice the Senate remained in control. Unbeknownst to the people, laws were made to limit the Presidents power to keep the power for themselves while having none of the blame. So the idea was hatched. A Presidential Election! The Terms? The President would be in charge of spending taxes, collecting taxes, appointing new permits to businesses, making new Laws, and providing better living to the Players. Their term would last a Month and only non-government players could vote for them. It was off to the races and several players tried to run for President, but only two gained enough support to be in the Debate. Those two players were KelseyChloride and Maclimara. After having put out their plans for the Country, the people were ready to vote. Voting in the Third Age worked much differently than the Fifth. Instead of having multiple candidates with rounds of voting and multiple debates, there was only one vote and one debate. They both happened at the same time, so the players could switch their vote at any time during the debate and elect the one that made the most sense on the spot. Maclimara based his campaign on Business reform and giving out more Permits to players. He wanted less taxes for non-business owners and wanted more economic freedom when it came to materials. KelseyChloride wanted to return to the 2nd Age and bring back Guilds with Questlines. She wanted to bring skills back for the Players that worked hard to earn them, and wanted less of the economic Realm.

Over the course of the debate, both candidates pitched their ideas. The Vote swayed heavily over the course of debate. At one time, Maclimara had over 80% of the vote. Ofcourse, we know how it turned out. KelseyChloride won the vote 6-4 with players more interested in the 2nd Age style of gameplay. The following day, Kelsey was sworn in as the President of Mercia and signed the Constitution into Law. She ordered the White House to be constructed in place of the Congress Building, doing this she became the only President to never serve in the White House. She passed Laws that better represented the 2nd Age like Theft and Shop Laws, and abolished the Game Tax which every player had to pay whenever they logged on, equivalent to $10 Molidus. This didn't make the Senate happy. Remember, the President was never meant to be in charge of anything. They were meant to sign off on laws they submitted. This is when they hatched a plan to regain the money that the Game Tax supplied. The new bill proposed the single biggest Tax hike in Mercian History. It went from the equivalent of $1,700 per day to $12,500 a day in spending. This equated to nearly 7 times what the average player was spending, including taxing those who sold goods to Mercia from other Cities. The Bill was forced on KelseyChloride and on the 20th of December 2017, it was passed. This caused the player base to cut in half overnight. The saw this as abuse by those in charge of running things. It went from building skills and doing Quests to doing the most redundant jobs and being penalized for trying to play. It wasn't long after that Kelsey resigned as President and left the Server until the early Fourth Age. It may have been the Stock Market in lore, but it was this Tax hike and the Senates greed that caused the downfall of the Third Age and culminated in the Fourth.