Tooele Crisis
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The Tooele Crisis was a diplomatic crisis between the Republic of Cascadia and Utah which lasted from May 12 to 14, 2024. The crisis was focused on the ownership of a large building, Governor House, in northern Salt Lake City, which was disputed between Utah and the neighboring Cascadian town of Tooele. While preparations were made for the use of force to retake the land, the crisis was eventually resolved peacefully through the efforts of Cascadia and North American Union (NAU) diplomats.
Background
Utah Historically
The iteration of Utah as would become relevant during the Tooele Crisis has its origins with Jefferson and the work of then-former-Cascadian Moxiecodone. After fleeing Cascadia during the Battle of Oceanside, Moxie and a number of other mostly trans-women established the Basin Union, commonly known simply as "Basin", in Salt Lake City. The nation was primarily focused on being a place for Moxie and her friends to build, and had little activity in foreign affairs. On July 29, 2023, Basin and Jefferson formed the Western Democratic Union meganation, and on August 10, they become further united through the Sequoia Union meganation.
After Moxie temporarily quit the server in August 2023, Basin would be sold and transferred between a number of owners. On October 21, 2023, it was sold to Ewisawesome and renamed to Utah. On December 11, it was sold to CodeData and became a part of the NAU. 2 days later, it left the NAU and joined the USA (Olsar). On January 29, 2024, it again switched between the USA and NAU. On March 27, Gramassis bought Utah, left all previous alliances, and joined the ETRA. It is possible that other transfers existed in between this changes that were reported on as well, but at the bare minimum Utah traded hands at least 4 times before being bought by SwetMC in May 2024.
Cascadian Foreign Policy
During the Spring of 2024, Cascadia had developed a new foreign policy that met the demands of the Transatlantic Cold War and the fall in relevance of their previous international adversaries. At the time, this policy was coined as "The Raptor Doctrine", since it was spearheaded by Secretary of Defense Raptormm4. The policy focused on adopting a "speak softly, and carry a big stick" mentality to increase Cascadia's influence across North America. The policy was also concerned with rising colonial influences from European powers across the Western Hemisphere, especially the North Sea Republic, which contained the nations of Illinois and Norcallia (San Fransisco).
Settlement of Tooele
The town of Tooele was originally settled by Skeletonous during in early 2024 while CodeData was the ruler of Utah. In addition to the construction of several buildings in the small suburban settlement, Skeletonous also built a number of buildings in Salt Lake City, including a medieval building that he owned not far from the town limits. During the ownership of Gramassis, this building became known as Governor House. However, after Salt Lake City traded hands again, new owners were less interested in positive relations with Skeletonous, removing his trust and access to his buildings. This, combined with other complications, led to Skeletonous taking a break from EMC, returning shortly before Utah was purchased by another new owner in May 2024. According to Skeletonous, one of his friends had attempted to purchase Utah around this time, but was scammed and the nation instead went to SwetMC.
The Crisis
The crisis began on May 12, 2024, when Utah was transferred for at least the fifth time, this time to SwetMC. Amongst the first actions SwetMC took was to leave all previous meganations and become a colony of his home nation of Edesse, in the Middle East. He also explicitly left the Wagner Group alliance, which Utah joined as part of the USA in December 2023. He stated in a press release that this was because he learned that Wagner was an anti-Cascadia alliance, and he was hoping to avoid making unnecessary enemies.
The same day that SwetMC arrived in Utah, Skeletonous reached out to Cascadian Secretary of State Milgorn123, requesting that Utah be enemied so he could overclaim Salt Lake City, who overclaim shield at just run out. The previous evening, Skeletonous, President SergioTheCrafter, and Treasurer RAWRyoutube had developed a plan to receive funding from Cascadia for the operation, focused on the return of Governor House. Coincidentally, around this same time, SwetMC also opened diplomatic channels with Cascadia and requested a Non-Aggression Pact. Under the direction of Milgorn and Sergio, Cascadia refused to accept any deal unless Skeletonous was returned his property. More interested in a peace agreement than the building, SwetMC offered to sell the land for 128g. As would be pointed out by Skeletonous, this was roughly half the gold which would be required for Tooele to claim the land overclaim or not (240g). Skeletonous declined this offer, since it was going to cost him the same amount of gold to claim the land anyways and he was interested in revenge against Utah.
With Skeletonous opposed to the trade offer, Cascadia instead began to weight the options of a conflict. Most of the Cascadian government supported Skeletonous, since he had been scammed out of Utah and Governor House. Cascadian leadership also felt that the crisis was an opportune moment to flex their diplomatic muscle. In case of a military conflict, the Department of Defense began to construct small defended positions along the mountain ranges between Salt Lake City and Yellowstone.
Unbeknownst to Cascadian officials, SwetMC had also been in contact with diplomats from the NAU who were attempting to return Utah to their meganation. On May 13, SwetMC agreed to join the NAU as a member state, after being kicked from Edesse for his diplomatic problems with his American neighbors. The NAU then learned that Utah was on the verge of a war with Cascadia, something that Ghostyuu and other NAU leaders had very little interest in dealing with. SwetMC was told to find a solution and end the crisis. When a solution was not found by the evening of May 13, Kounter offered to buy Utah out and deal with the problem themselves. SwetMC agreed, and on May 14, Prongs became leader of Utah.
After the transaction was made, Ghostyuu informed Cascadia that they would be interested in seeking a deal to give Tooele the land they were after free of charge. Since Skeletonous happy with the proposal, and Cascadia had little interest pushing for a conflict with the NAU, Cascadian leadership considered the issue closed. However, no deal was ever reached, and Tooele was never returned the land.
Aftermath
A rivalry would persist between Tooele and Salt Lake City up until both towns fell into inactivity in late-2024. In early July 2024, Skeletonous would sell Tooele to Prongs for 1300g after a campaign of resident sniping and hunting. At the time, Cascadia was in the midst of the Great American War, and thus the fresh fighting in Utah wasn't considered a relevant concern. Skeletonous would later take Tooele back in August 2024, after Prongs fell into inactivity and his holder in Tooele 42ed. After Prongs retired from EMC and left Utah to successive residents, the rivalry continued, ultimately culminating in more fighting over the ownership of Tooele until 2 high-ranking Utah leaders were banned, with Utah's leader quitting the server soon thereafter.
Eventually, Skeletonous would move to his own nation, Newfoundland, where he stayed for the remainder of Terra Aurora. Tooele continued to be held by Skeletonous-aligned holders until collapsing entirely in May 2025. The latest version of Tooele was founded by Cascadian Melvinm04 on May 7, 2025, and remained in Cascadia until the end of Terra Aurora. It is now the county seat of Owyhee County. Utah would continue to trade hands until eventually being bought by Sometexan around June 9, 2025. It was ultimately annexed into the Republic of Texas on July 31, 2025, where it remains today. Governor House continues to stand as a significant structure in the northern part of the city.
The crisis remains an excellent historical example of Cascadian foreign policy during the Transatlantic Cold War, as well as the practicality of the Raptor Doctrine, as Cascadia successfully used diplomatic soft power and the threat of using force to achieve its goals. It is also a prime example used in criticisms of the Raptor Doctrine, as even Milgorn said at the time "I feel kinda bad I’m basically manipulating this kid that owns Utah." Ultimately, the Tooele Crisis was a relatively brief but quintessential diplomatic incident for the period.
