A Balder Update 2016(1)

[Zander]

Queen - Rach Eriksen
Crown Prince - North East Somerset

Statsminister - Zander Cerebella
Statsraadet - Kajan 2.0 (foreign affairs), Shin (war), Helle Thorning-Schmidt (culture)

Lawspeaker - Arastaoir
Storting - Ninja Kittens, Zander Cerebella, Kajan 2.0, Helle Thorning-Schmidt

Balder Forum
Delegate Endorsements - 178 ~ Endorsement Cap - 15 ~ Forum Post Count - 100,795​

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This New Day

Sunrise over one of Balder's many forests.​

Between the months of February and September the citizens of Balder were deliberating major changes to Balders laws. These changes would see yet another structural change in how Balder would be governed. After months of discussion and a number of delays these changes were finally implemented in September and passed with a majority vote of approval from the public(10-1). Below is a list of the main changes;
- The monarch now serves a life long term unless they are either removed by a vote of no confidence or retire and call for an election to replace them.
- Balder's parliament is now called the Storting which has a minimum of 5 elected seats and a maximum of 7. The Lawspeaker is elected by the members of the Storting.
- The Statsminister is now elected by members of the Storting and can appoint ministers if they have been citizens of Balder for at least 1 month.
- Both Storting and Statsminister terms are 2 months in length, the shortest in Balder's history.
- Citizenship is now granted by the monarch rather than the government.

Balder is currently in it's second term since the new laws were introduced with Theoden Sebastian being elected as Statsminister and Zander Cerebella elected Lawspeaker. Below are the results of both Storting elections so far.

Term 1
Theoden Sebastian (14.5%) - Elected Statsminister
Helle Thorning-Schmidt (13%) - Minister of Culture
mcmasterdonia (13%)
Andrew (13%) - Minister of Intergration/Civil Service
Arastaoir (11.6%)
Zander Cerebella (10.1%) - Elected Lawspeaker, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Madline (10.1%)
Unstofam (4.3%)
Illand (4.3%)
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Ivo (2.9%)
Alichakal (2.9%)

Term 2
Zander Cerebella (22.4%) - Elected Statsminister
Ninja Kittens (20.4%)
Helle Thorning-Schmidt (18.4%) - Minister of Culture
Arastaoir (18.4%) - Elected Lawspeaker
*Kajan 2.0 (10.2%) - Minister of Foreign Affairs
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Old Sandman (10.2%)

*Kajan 2.0 elected after winning runoff by 4 votes to 2

Since term 1 Balder has given an opportunity to newcommers with 3 new faces as ministers and a new Lawspeaker, prior to which all Lawspeakers had been citizens who had been in Balder since the early days. The Statsminister hopes to create further opportunities for new faces to become more involved in the community over the coming months. Among these opportunities will be a change on foreign affairs as the Statsminister has plans both policy and style wise for the ministry and hopes to implement these in the coming weeks.

With activity back on the rise and recent military success Balder is on the road to recovery and it is Zander's hope that the foundations can be laid by the end of term 2 for Balder to push forward and regain the activity levels of late 2012 and 2013.

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A Return To Pillaging

Shin leading the Jomsvikings to success​

Earlier this month Balder's Jomsvikings realised that the supply of mead, silver and women was dwindling after many months on the sidelines. With this in mind the Jomsvikings were more than happy to assist long term ally Europeia in the conquest of Anarchy. The operation was a complete success with 7 members participating in the raid. Balder's supply of mead, silver and women is secure once again!

The lack of experienced full time leadership of the military is seen as the reason for the lack of operations performed by the Jomsvikings over the last year or so. However that has now changed with the appointment of Shin, aka Raging Zen Master, as minister of war. Upon appointment Shin made an address to the public;

Hello, and thanks for stopping by the Jomsviking section. For those of you who do not know me, allow me to introduce myself. I am Shin, known also as Raging Zen Master. I have been involved in the military aspect of NationStates gameplay for several years now. My experience ranges from tag operations all the way up to GCR delegacy transfer. Enough about me though, let's talk about the Balder Jomsvikings.

At any given time, Balder has thousands of nations currently residing in it. Balder is a powerhouse of player activity within NationStates and has been a major foreign affairs force for as long as it has existed. With the prominent position that Balder has enjoyed has come numerous opportunities for our region to demonstrate our soft power in various festivals and diplomatic levées for diplomats and dignitaries. Such events are crucial to maintaining the prominence that Balder has on the world stage.

Equally important to demonstrating such poise at cultural events is the demonstration of Balder's capacity to harness the numbers of those residing in our region. Demonstration that our positions are backed by our ranks. Demonstration that when our friends and allies are in need that we will stand by them and be of material assistance beyond words. Demonstration that our diplomatic capacity is matched by our organizational abilities. Demonstration of an ability to return to the forefront of NationStates military gameplay.

To that end, I have been tasked with assuming command of the Jomsvikings. It is a project I intend to see through, but it is a task to which I need your help. With the assistance of others currently involved in the region. To those currently with experience in the NationStates military gameplay, I need your experience and advice upon which to build a solid and long term foundation for what we set out to do. To those newer to Nationstates or so far not involved in the military side of things, I need your support whether through signing up to be involved in our operations, or to cheer on those engaged in such matters everyone has a role to play.

The immediate focus is to reconnect with our international partners and build up a solid membership base to be able to reliably conduct operations with. The involvement for such matters is of minimal time commitment and I am more than happy to chat with anyone seeking to be involved. Let's reclaim our place as a top tier military force in NationStates.

My first order of business to take stock of the resources we have available, as such I have begun a Roll Call for the current calendar month. If you are interested in being a part of this renewal, please stop by the thread linked below so that I can see who is willing to be being involved.

Shin's appointment has already seen some early success for the Jomsvikings with victory in Belgium, assisting the Land of Kings and Emperors in capturing the region. With these two very quick success the Jomsvikings taste for pillage is back and they look forward to storming the coasts in search of more loot in the coming weeks.

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The Almighty Jearl

Zander and his new title​

At the end of october titles of gentry were introduced for those who reached a certain post count.
- Marquess (Female: Marchioness): 5000 Posts
- Earl (Female: Countess): 2500 Posts
- Viscount (Female: Viscountess): 1000 Posts
- Baron (Female: Baroness): 500 Posts
- Baronet (Female: Baronetess): 100 Posts
At the time of these new titles Zander Cerebella fell into the Earl post count range, however under King Charles Cerebella he was given the title of Jarl. These two titles were seen as conflicting with one another so a new title was created, Jearl. 50% Jarl, 50% Earl, 100% awesome!

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Thank you for reading and Balder wishes you a very happy 2016!​

Author - Zander Cerebella

 

[Tomb]

Thanks for the update, Zander!

 

[St George]

Those certainly are interesting reforms!