October Crisis

The October Crisis was a period of upheaval in the Alliance following the September 2010 election in which former Alliance President Nate Saathoff of Escambia was defeated by Thomas Ketteringham of Cattala and Daniel Raffaele of Arcacia was elected Vice President.

September 2010 Election
In September of 2010, the Alliance of Independent Nations elected a new government. Nate Saathoff was defeated in the race for President by Thomas Ketteringham 16-6, after running for his third term. Daniel Raffaele was elected Vice President 19-2. Tyler Dix was elected Chief Justice 16-1 and Bruce of Duwamish was elected AIN Deputy 16-1.

Coup d'Etat
Shortly after the election, both Thomas and Daniel found they had been stripped of administrator powers and a court case alleging "treason" had been entered into the Alliance Court by former President Nate Saathoff, who had declared himself acting Executive, and Tyler Dix of Lisieux, who had been appointed de facto Vice President.

The initial case alleged that Thomas had acted outside of his powers in granting Daniel administrator powers, despite his holding the office of Vice President. An ensuing argument saw the admin powers eventually reinstated and the case dropped, with Thomas Ketteringham returning to the office of President and Daniel Raffaele returning to the office of Vice President.

Discovery of Constitutional Tampering
It was shortly thereafter discovered that Nate Saathoff had secretly amended the constitution to allow himself, as an administrator, to overthrow an elected government for any reason he saw fit. The amendment came in the form of a section that had not been part of the original document when it was ratified. Since ratification, no subsequent changes had been approved by a referendum. Nate Saathoff had logged the change as a "minor edit" claiming he had "fixed [a] grammatical error."

Countersuit
Following the discovery of the constitutional tampering, Nate Saathoff was charged with High Treason and Tyler Dix charged as an accomplice. Both had their administrator powers stripped immediately. An evidentiary discovery campaign was then launched with transcripts of conversations, and a number of other documents coming to light.

Despite this evidence, pressure from battle weary members saw this case eventually dropped as well, though administrator powers were never returned to Nate Saathoff or Tyler Dix.

Departure of Escambia, Lisieux and Duwamish
Shortly after the case had been dropped, Nate Saathoff and Tyler Dix decided to withdraw from the Alliance due to subsequent distrust from members. Escambia and Lisieux left the Alliance, along with Duwamish and a few other members, to reform the Confederacy of Free Regions. Nate Saathoff privately stated that he intended to destroy the AIN.

However he tried to convince some members of the AIN to quit the Alliance and join his new alliance, member states including Syldavia, Illu'a and Roumeli. It worked with Roumeli but the President figured out after some time that Saathoff was a dictator in the new union he created with his axis partners, former AIN members. So Roumeli leaved to come back in the AIN and merged some times after with Cattala.

Aftermath
A heartfelt plea for calm from the executive was posted, asking members to remain united. The plea did not fall on deaf ears with the majority of members remaining with the AIN, determined that it should continue.

Cyber Attacks
Shortly after the exit of Escambia, Lisieux and Duwamish, the Alliance's Wikia site was hacked by Duwamish's owner, Bruce. Several pages were vandalised, with some deleted. The attack was discovered quickly and, following evidence gathering, the pages were restored.

Lifetime Bans
Following on from the cyber attacks and several uncivil encounters between Nate Saathoff and remaining members, it was decided that punitive action was warranted. Close to the end of 2010, members voted unanimously to ban Nate Saathoff, Tyler Dix and Bruce of Duwamish from the Alliance of Independent Nations for life at the Cattala Conference. All three were requested to attend but declined.