The Grämlins

= The Grämlins =

Introduction
The Grämlins are a small, invitation only, peaceful, heavily economic geared alliance in the green sphere who are most widely known for their aggressive trading in technology.

Charter
IMPORTANT NOTICE The information provided here is provided solely for information purposes only. It is non-binding, unofficial, and as it is freely editable, is not guaranteed to be either accurate, current or binding.

1. Alliance Statement The Grämlins are an independent and peaceful green Alliance. In order to preserve our independence we will generally not offer treaties, but in certain cases we may choose to discuss very special mutual defense pacts to groups who share our values of game play. We trust in the brainpower of our members as every Grämlin is responsible for any and all of his/her actions, including war (without official permission), financial deals and postings on boards. 2. Membership All members are required to be in the Green Trading Sphere upon their thirtieth day of membership. Membership of the Grämlins is by invitation only; new members must be vouched for by a current member of Zealot rank or higher. There are four ranks of Grämlins members: Recruit Zealot Templar Archon Specification for an Applicant see addendum I Specification for any rank see addendum II Specification for vouching see addendum V 3. Government The highest level of government is the Conclave, consisting of the Judicator, Praetor and Executor. The Conclave has the authority to speak on behalf of the alliance. The Conclave The Judicator (Internal Overseer & Minister of Growth) The Praetor (Chief Diplomat & Minister of foreign Affairs) The Executor (Head of Military & Minister of Defence) The Council of Archons The Council of Archons consist of 3 Archons, which support the Conclave in their work and are entrusted to lead the Grämlins Army in wartime or police actions approved by the Conclave. The Archons Only Archons can be squad leader in the Grämlins Army. The Prelates The Prelate of the Conclave The Prelate of the Council The Prelate of the Praetor The Prelate of the Executor The Prelate of the Judicator Prelates support the Conclave and the Council of Archons in their work. Emergency Situations: In case only one member of the Conclave is online and there needs to be an immediate decision, a member of the Council of Archons can replace any member of the Conclave temporarily until another member of the Conclave becomes active. In case only one member of the Council of Archons is active, a member of the Conclave can replace any member of the Council of Archons temporarily until another member of the Council becomes active. Such an emergency replacement has to be requested by the single remaining member of the Conclave or the Council who needs assistance in making an immediate decision. Specification for any Government position see addendum III 4. Elections Election for the Conclave Elections to the Conclave shall occur every two months starting on the 1st of September. The Judicator or any other Conclave member makes a candidate topic that has to be open for 72 hours. Votes will last 48 hours unless otherwise specified. Should a Conclave member leave the alliance or resign his position, an additional election for that position will be held immediately. For each position, the Standard Voting Procedure shall be used, and the member with the highest total of votes will hold the position. Members with a rank of Templar or higher may stand for up to one Conclave position in such an election. Standard voting Procedure For subjects put to an alliance vote, members will have votes depending on their rank: Recruit: 0 votes Zealot: 1 vote Templar: 2 votes Archon: 3 votes For matters requiring Conclave approval, each member of the Conclave has one vote. Election for the Council of Archons Elections to the Council of Archons shall occur every 2 months starting on the 1st of September. The Judicator or any other Conclave member makes a candidate topic that has to be open for 72 hours. Votes will last 48 hours unless otherwise specified. Should a Council of Archons member leave the alliance or resign his position, an additional election for that position will be held immediately. Only Archons can candidate and vote for the Council of Archons, each Archon has one vote for each of the 3 Council Seats. The 3 Archons with the highest total of votes will be elected to The Council of Archons. For matters requiring the Council approval, each member of the Council has one vote. Prelates Promotions to The Prelates shall occur every 2 months along with the Election to the Conclave starting on the 1st of September. Members with a rank of Templar or higher can be promoted. Board Administration Board Administrators need to be either founding members of the Grämlins or member for at least 120 days. A board administrator can only be replaced by another member who fits the requirements by request of the other administrators. If such a request is made, BOTH Conclave AND The Council of Archons have to vote with a simple majority of all 6 members of both bodies for such a replacement. 5. Promotion/Demotion and Expulsion The Conclave has the right to promote a member to a rank, except to Archon rank, the the member does not fit the requirements for if this member has served the alliance with extraordinary behavior or services. The decision for such a promotion has to be 2:1 by the Conclave. The Conclave has the right to promote a member to Archon rank even if said member does not fit the requirements for Archon if this member has served the alliance with extraordinary behavior or services. The decision for such a Promotion has to be 3:0 by the Conclave. The Conclave has the right to demote any member even if he fits the requirements for a specific rank if this member has violated the charter, broken his oath or shown behavior unbecoming a Grämlin. The decision for such a Demotion has to be 2:1 by the Conclave. The Conclave has the right to immediately expel any member in case of a major crime against the charter or if the Grämlins oath was broken. The decision for such a expulsion has to be 3:0 by the Conclave. Should the member be an Archon or be in the Conclave, all Archons have to vote with a 2/3 majority to expel an Archon or a Conclave member from the Grämlins. Specification for any Promotion/Demotion/Expulsion see addendum IV 6. Freedom of Speech Every Grämlin is entitled to free expression of their opinion, internally and externally. No such expression should be taken as a statement on behalf of the alliance unless it includes the official Grämlins banner and is signed by the Conclave. Every Grämlin is required to represent themselves and their alliance respectfully and without flaming or trolling. The Conclave will punish any abuse the right of free speech. 7. Freedom of Business Every Grämlin has the right to do business with any nation, which is not on the alliance blacklist. Such business is not considered aid for the purposes of interpreting treaties. Any business with a foreign nation(s) that are involved in hostilities are required to check with a Conclave member to avoid diplomatic difficulties. In the event of failure to get this approval and diplomatic trouble arises, the Grämlin in question has to repay any damage made by his business transaction. 8. Military and War The Grämlins are a peaceful alliance and will not declare war without a valid reason. Valid reasons include but are not limited to, a declaration of war against a treaty partner; spying; wearing Grämlins alliance affiliation without authorization; any other clear and present threat to the security of the alliance. Member nations are not forbidden from declaring unsanctioned wars, but if they do so they will receive no alliance support. Negotiations for reparations or other war-related subjects should be conducted with the nation in question in the first instance. In case of negotiations fail any Grämlin can ask for diplomatic or military assistance. The Conclave will decide whether to grant assistance or not. An attack on a Grämlin is an attack on the alliance and we reserve the right to, and most certainly will, use all available means at the alliance's disposal in response to any aggression against a Grämlin. If a member of the Grämlins comes under unprovoked attack, the attacking nation has time until the next update to send a peace offer and agree to terms of surrender, including reparation payment. Failure to do so will result in a counter strike with the intent of causing maximum damage to the aggressor nation. If a member of the Grämlins come under attack by a nation that is member of an alliance we have no treaty with, we will attempt to establish contact with that alliance before the beginning of military action. However, if there is no reaction before the update, it is Grämlins policy to retaliate with full force. If a member of the Grämlins come under attack by a nation that is member of an alliance we have a treaty with, the situation will be dealt with on a case by case basis. '''8a. Nuclear Policy''' The Grämlin's arsenal of nuclear weapons was built to ensure the liberty of our members. The Grämlins will use nuclear weapons to defend themselves against attacks in the case that negotiations with the attacker fail. Negotiations are declared as "failed" if the attacker has not sent a peace offer within twenty-four hours and has not agreed to terms of surrender, including a reparation installment agreement. However if contact to the offenders alliance has successfully been established, the deadline may - in a case to case ruling - be extended. Offensive use of nuclear weapons on unaligned, rogues or nations on Grämlins "Feed after Midnight" list is not allowed, if not at least one Council or Conclave member allows and no Council or Conclave member veto it. Offensive use of nuclear weapons on aligned nations is not permitted unless the Council and Conclave have voted with a 2/3 majority. 9. Changes to this Charter Changes to the alliance charter must be approved by the Standard Voting Procedure by a majority of votes, and approved by the Conclave. Changes to the Addendum I – V need not a majority vote of all Grämlins. The Conclave can change it when needed with a 3:0 decision.

Foundations
The foundations of The Grämlins lie within the forums of the German Starcraft: Broodwar site, Broodwar.de, where, in September 2006, approximately 60% of the current The Grämlins's member-states' leaders originally met and decided to form a small, private, invite only, economically oriented cybernations alliance.

"As we joined CN, we did this (the basic structure of The Grämlins) almost all together within some days or weeks. We wanted to create our own alliance, because we knew nobody around here and we didn't want to be 'just numbers' in one of the >500-member-alliances. Also, we knew each other, and wanted to act together as best as we could. Since we are experts in business measures, we grew amazingly fast in strength and reached the realm of nuclear powered nations with only one and a half month's work. This was achieved without any help from the outside (our top nations had efficiency ratings above 200)... We are strictly neutral when it comes to inter-alliance wars. Therefore we do not sign MDPs with any larger alliance that is organized in a great MDP-Web (LEAGUE, INITIATIVE, GUARD, etc...). We offer NAPs to everyone out there to ensure fixed rules in case one of the members of either alliance is accidentally attacked, so retaliation can be avoided and reparations payed without delay." - (DAC)Syzygy of New Syzygia, 11 March 2007 --This last quote is now outdated. Grämlins are proud to be a part of The Citadel and The Continuum.

Hardships
In an incident in January 2007, the cybernations administrator deleted both of The Grämlins' most powerful nations (combined nation strength of over 35,000.00) due to suspicions over the contents of private in-game messages. This caused the alliance an immediate loss of approximately 100 million dollars and cut the alliance's strength in half. Even after the administrator confirmed that this was a mistake and removed the ban of the user accounts, he refused to restore the deleted nations. Rebuilding these nations cost over 6 weeks of time and hundreds of millions in finances.

Tech Selling
Until May 2007, the Grämlins funded their high rate of growth by selling large amounts of technology. By building a reputation as reliable and professional sellers, they won recurring contracts with many of the world's largest nations at that time, resulting in a guaranteed income that was invested in infrastructure.

Below is the state of the Grämlins tech trading business recorded a little after the end of selling: Currently reaching over $1,250,000,000 business cashflow in a single month and with well over 6,000 levels of technology sold during the short run of their technology selling business, The Grämlins are one of the most advanced technology dealers in Cybernations. Several member nations have been known to buy/sell over 500 tech per week. Single orders for hundreds, or even thousands of technology units at once, placed by or for leaders of the top 100 nations, are commonplace. All the customer needs is to have the cash and enough open aidslots. Ensuring means: if, for whatever reasons, a Grämlins dealer can not deliver (under attack, nuked, banned, deleted, resigned from CN...), another Grämlin will deliver for him without question or delay. This is managed internally so there is no hassle for the customer. Dealing with The Grämlins is therefore an entirely different experience to buying cheap tech from new nations - with The Grämlins, the experience is pure fun: relax and enjoy. Prices are not higher than usual for the open market - but extremely cheap when compared with the extra service and security provided.

In the end the success of the business was its downfall, and by June 2007 every Grämlin had increased to a size where selling tech was no longer profitable. The 'no recruiting' strategy meant that no new small nations were being introduced, and as individual nations grew from selling tech to buying it the remaining sellers were involved in internal deals. The tech shop was closed in early June, and is unlikely to ever reopen.

Grämlins strictly purchase technology now; no technology is sold.

The Grämlins Today
The Grämlins, who still do not recruit, continue to focus on the economics and politics of the cyberverse - specifically the technology trade business, efficient growth, and establishing diplomatic relations with other alliances around the cyberverse.

Business
The Grämlins are now proactive buyers of technology, seeking out long term deals with reliable sellers – perhaps fueling the next generation of rapid growth in partner alliances. Technology purchases amount to several thousand units per month.

Interesting Grämlins Facts
The Grämlins presently have four nations in the Top Ten: Nuevo Cabezon, New Syzygia, Hanse and MOTU-Maniacs. Fully forty percent of the Top Ten nations are made up of Grämlins, more than any other alliance.

The Grämlins own over 2,100 nuclear warheads; that's more nukes than each of the twelve sanctioned alliances except the New Pacific Order. It is also more nuclear weapons than the bottom five sanctioned alliances, Sparta, Mostly Harmless Alliance, Atlantis, the Global Alliance and Treaty Organization and the North Atlantic Defense Coalition combined.

The Grämlins have one of the highest average nation strength indexes in the cyberverse and a higher average nation strength than any of the sanctioned alliances, almost doubling the next closest, the GPA.

The Grämlins do not wish to become a sanctioned alliance but hope to remain a small, exclusive band of friends who, if necessary, will fight to the death for each other.

The Grämlins, on September 28, 2007, joined The Citadel, a bloc of like-minded alliances to assure the mutual defense of the signatories. The Citadel presently includes The Grämlins, Fifth Column Confederation, Old Guard and The Order of the Paradox.

The Grämlins, on December 8, 2007, joined The Continuum, the newest and most powerful bloc to ever grace the cyberverse. For a list of Continuum signatories, see the table at the end of this section.

The Grämlins, on February 7, 2008, officially merged with members of the Federation of Neutral Force. Basically the Grämlins remain the same and simply "absorb" the former members of Federation of Neutral Force, their knowledge, their financial prowess and looks forward to continuing growth with their new comrades.