The Tragedy of Redmont

To Janey, Ashley, Anna, and all sinners that couldn’t be themselves.

"The more we delve into the essence of personality, the more we learn that in this world, certainly rich with natural beauty and things worthy of seeing, nothing is more attractive and worthier of knowing and experiencing than people."

" End has abused his position as owner to silently delete the page documenting the 6/7 protests and edited the protected main page of the wiki to remove the article from the "Featured Article" section. End is not an employee of the DOE, and these permissions are restricted to senior staff and specific department leadership. The only way End could have gotten these permissions is from his position as owner. Using these same permissions, he has also modified multiple other protected pages on the wiki to rename them against our style guide. Upon an unsuccessful attempt at handling this privately through a staff report ticket, we have no other choice other than to voice our disagreement by striking."

Zeus Strikes Down Artemis

It’s the early hours of June 7th, 2026. Artemis’ computer screen is as bright as it could be and they have opened a ticket in the DemocracyCraft Discord server. The ticket is simple and short, just a request to remove their deadname from the forum’s records, a standard practice that had been done numerous times before. Talion, a staff member, says they will look into it. The ticket is left unattended for one or two hours until xEndeavour or “End” presents himself to the chat and denies their request due to supposed “administrative burden.” After an appeal to another staff member, Eenza asked Talion to see if it was possible, but her message was removed by End.

Artemis, shocked by the objectively false reasoning that End had provided, decides to go to the global chat in the Discord server as a way to call attention to this matter. They are only met by the silence of the night and no one is there to help them. A couple of hours later, they resigned from all political positions they once occupied. Seeing this, Tech removed Artemis’ deadname from the system quickly, causing people to question why End didn’t just do the request. A ballot protest and sit-in at the polls occurred due to End’s behavior; a simple gesture, nothing grandiose.

Thinking the problem was solved, Artemis went to bed at around 4AM and probably planned to continue playing DemocracyCraft the next day, this time without a stain on the forums. This, however, would not last. While they were asleep, End attempted a self-coup; banned them and their friends TheSnowGuardian and Cassie; Angryhamdog reverted these bans, only to be removed as a staff member and gaslit into thinking he resigned; End deleted Scassany's resignation and then Tech woke up and regained control. Negotiations between Tech and End had begun to lessen the powers of the latter.

An agreement between both parties had been reached by morning. Artemis thought they could simply log back into DemocracyCraft and enjoy the game once more, but they had been rebanned, alongside Cassie and Snow. Staff was silent on this matter and End personally took over the unban ticket. Nothing had truly changed. The agreement was theatre and all Artemis could do is look at the ban message and logoff.

Pink, Blue, and White

It is a fact that being trans in the current socio-political climate is like being trans in the socio-political climate of 1930s Germany. Your rights are being taken away by the minute, politicians call you slurs doing committee hearings, your medicine is blocked, all you have left is the internet. Most spaces in there, however, have been infected by a transphobic mania, so you have to go search for your own communities or, if you can’t find them, communities that will at least accept you for who you are and treat you fairly. DemocracyCraft was supposed to be this accepting community, and it was supposed to have trans players being able to achieve the highest levels of power.

The problem lies in the fact that even if a trans player reached the status of President of Redmont, they would still be subject to End’s will. He would have actual final say over what one can do. This, of course, makes sense in theory; the server owner should have complete authority. This would make sense if the owner wasn’t a power-hungry man blinded by his own preconceived notions. The owner removing articles on the wiki that he doesn’t agree with, without consulting the people running it, is not what a “democracy” is supposed to look like. The owner ignoring the will of the people is not what a “democracy” is.

Is it required of me to tell the reader what the etymological origins of the word “democracy” are? It comes from Greek dēmokrătĭ́ā, dēmo- meaning “people” and -krătĭ́ā meaning “rule.” Therefore, the word stamped in the very name of this server means “rule of the people,” yet the people do not seem like they have actual power; trans people seem to have even less. DC is a pitiful sham of a safe space and an even more pitiful sham of a democracy.

To say that End, and only End, is the reason for the dire situation that DemocracyCraft finds itself in is to minimize the complicity of the rest of staff and, specifically, of Tech. To this point, Tech has been seen as the more reasonable owner, he was the one that deleted the deadname after all, but Tech is complicit in End’s behavior by not attempting to stop him. Tech is complicit because he has resigned himself to the position of caring only for the backend and having End get free rein over the public front of the server.

I do not believe DemocracyCraft has a way forward. End has danced around the question of whether he will fully delete the server if he has his powers lessened. Absolute monarchs playing a democratic theatre. Democracy dies not as a bang, but a whimper; a single shutdown in a server room, a bit and a byte changing from on to off.

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Article originally written by emmythegremlin and published by the Redmont Trans+ Network