Altys
Registered
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Discord
- Altys#4138
⤆ ⤇ ↺ ☖ | Secure | https://epns.mon.gov.caek/issue/2023/7.html
Contents:
- Guest Editor's Foreword
- The Language of Dreams: A Decade and a Commendation
- Community Spotlight: Gonggong
- Delegate's Update
- Vice-Delegate's Diary - July
- A Note from the New Minister
- Updates from Valsora
- Praesidium Report
Foreword
By: Eunopiar
By: Eunopiar
Before we get around to the meat of this edition, I'd like to thank all of our contributors to this edition. It is great to see a revival of the Eastern Pacific News Service, and a return to monthly output has been very encouraging to see. Currently, I am filling in for the talented Vussul, who will take on the mantle of editing the News Service from the next edition. He has written about his vision for the EPNS here, and I cannot wait to see what he will do. Beside that, we lead with New Leganes's article on their commendation, reflecting on their history within the game. I am also excited to see our first community spotlight on one of Urth's icons, Gonggong. Beside that you'll get updates from Delegate Altys, Cartographer Merlovich, Grand Vizier Aivintis and a column from yours truly, The East Pacific's Vice Delegate.
I hope you enjoy this edition!
"The Language of Dreams" - A Decade and a Commendation of the Land Where Kiwis Fly
By: New Leganes | Edited by Eunopiar
By: New Leganes | Edited by Eunopiar
- George R. R. Martin
I’ve always been told that I dream too much. I take a lot of time to write RPs and worldbuild, both due to real life and to my usual writer’s block. However, ideas don’t stop appearing and floating around in my mind, distracting me or, considered from another point of view, making me focus on what I can potentially create. This is how it always has been: the unavoidable desire to create something beautiful and the dilemma between having ideas and being able to voice and share them, which is a sentiment I know many RPers share. I guess a whole decade is enough time to overcome that. I’m very, very glad that my voice, after so much time and effort, has been heard and appreciated and, after being suggested to write these lines, I accept the offer very happily. This is the story of New Leganes, the country where kiwis fly and people speak weirdly. The story of a new commendation for TEP and its community.
Aivintis dedicates the first paragraph of the commendation to my work in the University of The East Pacific, a topic I’ll cover in a more technical manner than the rest given its different nature from my RP and recruitment work. It covered a full year between 2020 and 2021, a period quite blurry in my mind due to the pandemic, so I’ll now seek for the proper files inside the archives of my brain. When Serge/Libertanny was elected Delegate, his cabinet and, specifically, East Malaysia (Chief Minister of Regional Affairs) and Wonderess, appointed Chancellor of UTEP, took the task to revive a UTEP which had struggled, to my knowledge, for years. I was soon appointed as Deputy and Dean, and I could witness how the works were evolving. The concept was great: a place where RL and NS academic talks could happen, while keeping a professor/student learning structure inherited from the previous UTEP periods. The talks part was progressing slowly but greatly, but it wasn’t the case with the teaching side, around which the old UTEPs were based.
In November 2020, when I was appointed Chancellor, I had detected the issue UTEP had carried for such a long time, and my first policy was to get rid of the teaching concept and make it all more fluid, so learning processes would happen through discussion and not through rigid structures. In order to boost discussion, I created a role per knowledge area: each UTEP member would get the topics they wanted to be pinged about, and would be up to date with each discussion. I combined this with some major advertising both on servers and individually, and in less than a month, the new UTEP was having around three debates per day. There was so much activity that it was hard to moderate so much in such a short time, but I and my fellow Deans at the time (Nuswa, Jutomi and, later on, Aivintis) did an awesome job and helped a lot in this regard. I also opened up suggestions for agoras (slow-paced and well-structured debates) and we got three of them, if I recall correctly, all of which were a success and attracted the attention of many people from TEP and abroad; and I opened a permanent call for papers which brought many articles of all kinds to UTEP, up until this day, including several NSCards articles, “History of TEP” by Nuswa or “The Puffin Papers” by Bachtendekuppen. Later on, when all of this was well established and about the last of my terms, I was contacted to advise on the creation of the Free Nations Region University. While, due to the post-pandemic low activity, UTEP’s activity has significantly decreased two years later, the FNRU still holds periodical activity in a very similar way to the UTEP I created, and that fills me with pride, to have extended a vision that worked and that still works. To have an impact I never thought I would have.
It was my first time as Minister in TEP and in the game as a whole, and I accomplished most of the above in just a single term, four months: some people claimed that I had created a whole sub-community. I feel very proud of my work during those days and the good it would bring to the region until even these days. I’ve been told by fellow NSers that NS Universities are difficult to carry: I won’t lie, they are in certain ways, but what I did was purely due to love for TEP and to the community and it resulted in the success of an area over its failures in the past. I really wanted to serve as Minister in order to create something good, and I’m glad it still is perceived with those lenses two years later.
Then, the commendation goes into my recruitment work, one I have spoken about many times, but it always brings sweet memories: also my first job in the Executive, right after Fedele’s coup in autumn 2019. It was a slow-paced job, first as Deputy Minister of Manpower, then as staffer in Immigration, in which I had to contact every new citizenship applicant via telegrams and inform them about each of the ministries/RPs they had shown interest in, as well as guide them to our Discord servers. First I got many returning people after the coup: I can recall AMOM or Atlae among them; then there was a chill time, during which nonetheless I remember contacting newcomers as Acronis or Aivintis.
When Covid hit in March 2020, we used to stay in voice chats for whole days on the Urth RP server. In the midst of the whole situation and the hard times that came after it, TEP was the way to evade reality for many of us, to stay in the world we had created while the world that had created us had turned suffocating; to stay within the boundaries of dreams in the middle of a nightmare. One of those days, around late April, I think it was Asendavia who told us that a relatively famous YouTuber, Drew Durnil, had made a video about NationStates. A few minutes later, several people started appearing all at once on both TEP and Urth’s servers.
Newcomers often need to be closely guided and don’t have much idea of what the game is about: Drew is a good proof of that, he didn’t exit the Matrix of issue-gaming and his nation died, as I did in 2014 after my first months in NS. These people, however, showed themselves incredibly active and interested from their very arrival. I coordinated myself with VW53a, Minister of Immigration, and with people as Asendavia or Dylan, and we came up with a system along these lines: community guidance on Discord, via answering questions and leading them to citizen applications, and when the latter happened, VW would accept their applications and then I would direct them where they wanted. I was fully engaged with this task, spending afternoons telegramming up to 50 countries.
People such as Shadow/Eastern Alksearia, mentioned in the commend and with such an impact on the region that doesn’t need any presentation, together with many other fellow RPers and friends, first joined the voice chats before anything else. Voice chats helped a lot in many ways: the first of them being providing social connections and evasion moments with hilarious games, conversations about each and every topic, all of which elements many of us and I needed personally in very difficult times, but that way they also helped in other matters, such as getting to know what every RPer’s nations and stories were like, staying up to date with every happening on Urth, and providing personalised guidance and making additions and connections in the community that have been kept through the years, and in whose making I have the immense honour of having taken a key part as recruiter during the first pandemic times and during and after Drew.
Recruitment wasn’t limited to just telegrams. When I became Chancellor, I used other tools to boost engagement and connection between the different subcommunities of TEP. When I needed new Deans, I opened applications and gave priority to newer members of the community who would show enthusiasm and fresh ideas. Nuswa was the perfect case of that, and so was Patchorisu later on, and this was the first of his many positions and contributions. The same applied to Professors, a position that worked as a third tier of UTEP leadership. Shadow also became one, together with people such as Sokala/Art, also mentioned on the commend. Sokala contributed actively to UTEP, to EPSA and to Urth, becoming later a great Forum RP Officer. Pledonia/Gio arrived after the Drewpocalypse, but with an equally quick rise: he became a great and long-standing MoFA in just a couple of months, and lately has been organising Urth’s World Cup and Aldanics (Urth’s Olympics). To be part of building integral parts of our community, and with people who have become integral to our community on themselves, is another work I would carry again for a thousand times, and I’m glad it’s been immortalised in such a way in a commendation that carries the name of New Leganes.
The Urthvision Songfestival, to my joy, also carries the name of New Leganes with it. It began in 2017, a time when I was not very involved with the RP community. After New Leganes was added to Urth in 2016, my work had been silent and focused more on my own worldbuilding of NL’s language, politics or geography than on interacting. I was shy, and my knowledge of English had only recently improved enough in order to not depend on Google Translate, as I had done since the creation of New Leganes back in 2013. I did interact a bit, though, which was enough for Blueacia to invite me to Urthvision III after I had shown a bit of Eurovision knowledge (I’ve been an eurofan since 2012, but I was embarrassed to show it at the time). NL ended 8th out of 18 on its debut and got some 12 points, and I remember being very excited about it, like being part of Eurovision in some way. I missed the deadline on the fourth edition, but this would get much bigger when on Urthvision V, NL ended second, only a few points from the winner, East Cerdani. I became obsessed with winning Urthvision from that point, and only two editions later, NL won its first edition, tied with Blueacia. We both hosted the next edition, Urthvision VIII, which took place ICly in Privétia Tauríllien, NL’s capital, and I had a time of my life roleplaying as Pétra Méde, the unsurprising Cukish1 version of RL Petra Mede.
Aside from some brief embassy RPs back in 2016 (Oan still remembers them!!), Urthvision was the first time I took part in and hosted a major RP, involving most of the community. Urthvision VIII equaled the previous record of 18 countries, and had such a reach that even people not quite active on RP, as Fedele, joined it. But I wasn’t done with it. I had such a fun time that I wanted to win again. And it is so that I searched for successful Eurovision and non-Eurovision songs that people could broadly like. NL then earned two second places and two third places, until the second victory arrived on Urthvision XIII, the first time any country had won more than once. After being so close to winning for two whole years, I remember celebrating that victory even more than the first one.
And that’s when my host craziness began. I dreamed of hosting a contest as similar as posisble to a real Eurovision, so I contacted everyone I knew on TEP to get them to join Urthvision, even telling some people who weren’t on Urth and telling them to apply. After reforming the rules in order that people would be able to submit two countries instead of one, Urthvision XIV again hit the participation record, with 38 countries. Hosted again in Privétia Tauríllien, I wrote a Eurovision-like structure based on the Stockholm 2016 edition, with intervals and comments from the presenters; even some IC Urthvision memes! It was the first time with semi-finals: 10 countries would qualify from each semi-final and 6 were directly qualified to the final, including the previous edition’s top 5 and a special invitee. I announced the semi qualifiers and the special invitee by editing Eurovision 2016’s introduction, which we all watched together, and jumped out of excitement when revealing that the special invitee was no other than 1 Infinite Loop, who had just returned briefly from his retirement. I felt like I had completed a circle when I had included on one of my RPs like 75% of Urth and the founder of TEP himself, 1 Infinite Loop. I don’t know how I was able to keep that secret for about two months.
Urthvision XIV went awesomely, and it changed forever the way Urthvision was done. Kyrla won that edition with Kyrloth (breaking that way Kyrloth’s Urthvision Curse, a long-lasting meme on Urth) and edited a whole video to introduce the next edition, with a full render of the skyline of Azmarin/Zlovskaar, the host city, together with each country’s flags. Urthvision is equally valid with just the RP text, but I’m so glad to be followed in my mess and in such an epic way. Ever since Urthvision XIV, the contest’s numbers haven’t dropped from 25 participants, and all of the editions have had something special and remarkable. I was very happy with this outcome, and my Urthvision hunger was satisfied.
Before NL’s first victory, I had written a list of songs I would send to Urthvision. That list was very long, but my own taste and Urthvision style had changed from 2018 to 2022, so I felt like I needed a new list. Before that, I would send the jewel of the crown: a song, I thought, that wouldn’t be able to win from how famous it is, especially among Eurovision fans. That song was “Euphoria” by Loreen, one of my favourite songs of all time, if not the most: a song that means a lot to me personally and the one that made an Eurovision fan out of me. I don’t know why 2022 Sammy was thinking it wouldn’t win: of course, it did. The third Urthvision victory was one I did not expect, and so I thought this was the time to provide the definitive service to Urthvision and to Urth RP: to edit the whole edition into video format, finally achieving full resemblance with RL Eurovision. Additionally, by editing it all on video, I had the chance to show, beyond the black and white Discord/Forum/Wiki texts what New Leganes looks like in all colours and meanings: with the excuse of intro and interval acts, as well as each entry’s postcards, I decided to grab the opportunity to show NL’s main features on different areas. Those include displaying peiri2 chanting or several kinds of kóltar (Cukish bagpipes) from around several countries on the globe, regarding the traditional sphere; showcasing the Cukish geography, touristic landmarks and cultural aspects on each country’s postcard, taking care to cover all the different islands, archipelagos and cities of the country; acts about NL’s relation with water and the ocean, about its present pop industry, with the return of previous Urthvision artists, or even about the incoming Cukish space programs as a metaphor of Nepámir and Káril’s adventures in Nárilethál, the country’s foundational myth.
I began working on Urthvision XVIII on August 2022, and finished on March 2023, more than half a year that I spent on, first, designing a kiwi-butterfly logo that would be simple enough to be personalised per each country’s flag, a motto in Cukish (as in XIV), and gathering the most people possible, more than XIV if possible. And so I did: 41 countries joined the contest that time. I had to run against my time availability, against my lack of video-editing knowledge, and against my 11 y/o laptop’s issues, in order to edit a total of 7 hours of video, including intros, recorded commentary, country and song signs, postcards, intervals, semi-final qualifiers announcements, recaps, an interview with Kyrla and even writing Cukish lyrics for a song originally in Montenegrin. I wrote those lyrics on a train, and I remember the lady next to me looking at me weirdly, wondering what the hell I was writing; I don’t blame her, I think the same. I wanted to represent New Leganes in the most perfect way possible, to create the most complex RP Urth had seen, and to make everyone involved, by which I (with Kyrla’s help, given my laptop’s state) streamed both semi-finals, their qualifiers, the final and the winner announcement.
The result was 100% exactly what I had in mind, and these months I’ve returned several times to watch the videos again out of the pleasure it gives me to see everything so perfectly done. Every inch of Urthvision XVIII is full of meaning, both from a New Leganes perspective and from myself as RPer through all these years, and every time I describe what I’ve made inside those 7 hours of video (which actually were several whole days of editing), I’m truly staying short and saying very little. Urthvision XVIII is a portrait of New Leganes and of what I always dreamed about it: I’m so glad Aivintis and so many other people have considered this so well and that my feelings are shared. Sayyed, owned by Jess, was the winner of the edition, and she’s working on a similar format for Urthvision XIX: once again, Urthvision has changed forever, now becoming the biggest and most complex RP of Urth, and many great editions await us thanks to a dream that came true.
With Urthvision I’ve closed a RP chapter which must now be followed by another project which, actually, encapsulates all of my RP work: Qáhwia, which I like to call “my own multiverse”. The same term I now have on my Discord name, which would come to mean something like “the Kiwisphere” in Cukish. It refers to New Leganes and western-central areas of the Urth continent of Arcturia, inhabited by flying kiwis, the Cukish national animal. One of the first elements I built in those regards was the Cukish language itself, which I began building back in 2016, as the commend mentions, all by myself, without any online, offline, grammar or vocabulary help of any kind. I already covered the topic in a previous article, but it’s essentially based on my own phonaesthetic and my playfulness with mixing certain phonetic and grammar elements I liked from several RL languages, ranging from conscious and unconscious inspirations in Greek, Arabic, Akkadian or even Russian and Turkish to some other elements that just come into my mind and I decide to take, all to make a unique language with a recognisable sonority and structures that would be pleasant to be heard, to be talked and to be read. I finished its essential grammar in late 2020, and have since continued building its vocabulary. I’m very satisfied with my work here too: it has inspired multiple Urth people, such as EM, SocDyl, Gonggong, Shadow or Oan3, to make their own conlangs, many of which I have also helped on their making. I’m afraid I’ve made Cukish too recognisable: Oan has already built a couple of Cukish names all by himself! The Cukish language feels like a child that has grown enough to not being able to control it anymore: by the past October I was contacted by conlang collector Janko Gorenc to include the Cukish numerals into his collection4: that made me very happy, it felt as if Cukish had officially been declared a language on its own. Janko also asked me for the numerals in each Cukish dialect: when I get the dialects figured out, I'll send him the numerals again.
Ending with the commend, Aivintis mentions From Ashes to Eternity (FATE) and Nárilethál, my two epics for Qáhwia. FATE covers the story of Impelanta and her founding of the Impelanzan empire and of Tunseism, while Nárilethál (“The Song of the Forgotten One”5 in Old Cukish) is the story of Nepámir and the arrival of the Cukish people to the New Leganes archipelago. As a very inconsistent writer, it is a great thing to have their endings already publicly known and figured out, so there’s a lot of space for the big surprises that will certainly come out of these stories. If Urthvision and Cukish are already developed, mostly at least, these two epics are the project I have left to complete on Urth, and also the biggest, the most complex and the one that will encapsulate every single element I’ve built on this decade in NationStates. It requires a lot of effort, and will probably take a lot of time to make, but now I can fully dedicate my Urth time to them.
Nárilethál was born in 2018, when I was beginning to get more involved in Urth, and its original version was discarded, keeping only certain names and concepts as Nepámir himself, Káril, Tunsé or the Toré volcano. From these foundations, some time later, Toré became the marker between Urth’s Ancient and Middle Ages, by an eruption that ended with several civilizations; the goddess Tunsé I mentioned on this version would become the central entity of Tunseism, while Káril, who was the main character initially, would give this place to Nepámir.
While this version is not canon anymore, it gave me a bunch of ideas to work on when, suddenly, Tuva would DM me one afternoon in 2019 and tell me about making New Leganes and one of his countries, Puntalia, be part of an ancient empire called Impelanza. The name suggested to me the presence of a legendary founder or empress, Impelanta, and my brain began to work immediately. She would be born in a city called Arsal, in the region of Peragen Exterior, and she would overcome a tragedy in order to found the empire that would extend the Tunseist faith to New Leganes. I developed the whole first part during that year’s summer, and the lore I had created required the foundation of a new country in Arcturia. I called it “South Peragen”, then renamed it to just “Peragen”. I had no idea what these "Arsal" or "Peragen" names meant at the time, but I would end up deciding that Impelanzan, the language spoken there, would be some playful personal variation of Spanish and Latin, by which, as an example, Arsal would be derived from “altar” (‘shrine’) and “sal” (‘salt’), while Peragen would be originally a river with a name meaning ‘to carry constantly’ and "Impelanta" would mean something like 'Impel's image'. Peragen was, then, created by need, but I’ve been slowly building it, and it has become a well-developed entity, as well as the focus of most of my myths.
What about FATE itself? The acronym was not intentional at all, I swear. I was astonished when I found out that From Ashes to Eternity could be shortened to FATE, especially given that its main topic is Impelanta’s fate and her legacy’s one. Impelanta’s story is (and will be) about justice, about chosen families, about wanting to do good to your loved ones, and the price it carries for everyone, beginning by oneself. About power, the lust for it, and its consequences, including hate and war. How her compromise with everyone, from her family to her position as ruler, brought a legacy still alive on current-day Urth, but destroyed the person behind the queen. She’ll begin a journey seeking for the broken pieces of herself, and I’m wanting so much to reveal as soon as possible if she’ll achieve it. The RP has been temporarily halted in order to work on Nárilethál, but their shared lore will bring me back to FATE sooner than later.
Nárilethál, now the second and definitive version, covers a similar topic of “the people behind the legends”, but in very different ways from FATE. In Nárilethál, the journey is not as much of finding oneself, but about finding one’s place in the world, both geographically and personally. Nepámir will visit many different lands, in which he and his friends will get to meet different and diverse people, and consider whether they fit within his goals, his conceptions of the good, the bad, the greys in between, as well as within his community’s well being. He’ll discover that there’s secrets to either be revealed or better to remain hidden, and a universe which works a magic sometimes more logical than people can ever be.
Founding myths or epics, as Aivintis explained well, haven’t been covered on Urth previously, and I want these to have as awesome of an impact as Urthvision or Cukish have had. I want to show what Urth is capable of creating: Todd’s commendation already mentions his Urth work, which has become his very own books. It’s such an immense honour that the second time Urth has been mentioned on a NS commendation is with New Leganes’s one, and it has boosted me a lot to continue working on what I have left to complete. Nárilethál and FATE will complete Qáhwia and expand it in ways none can expect yet. I wish I could tell them, but I want to keep the surprise and enjoy the moment when you’re all revealed with it. I’d dare to say nothing like it has been seen yet on TEP nor on NS, and this commendation, after a decade in this game, is just the start of everything. And it would be nothing without the community that has embraced me, inspired me, allowed me to provide all of this and taken part of it all in different ways. I hope this commendation serves as an example and makes visible the hidden talent this game has, so that New Leganes inspires recognition of worldbuilding, creativity, story-writing and community-making.
I never thought New Leganes would get commended. For many years, I was keen on the idea of becoming Delegate as the biggest service I could give to TEP. But a commendation falls over any of my previous aspirations, one I thought unreachable (one I didn’t even think of!), and one I will honour by continuing to work in the same language George R. R. Martin mentioned, the language of dreams, the language all I do is written in and the language our community is built upon. I wanted to write an article for NL’s 10th anniversary, but Aiv has already written it in the form of this commendation. He’s worked for months on this, and I feel very humbled by such a task. He knows me well, we’ve worked together in a million Executive and RP places, and I’m really happy that he has now authored his first resolution with no other than my country’s name. I hope he gets his own commendation one day, and I thank him eternally for this and for everything. Thanks to everyone who has worked with him, and thanks to EPNS’s editors for the goodwill and the help in publishing this.
So this has been a decade on TEP. There’s many reasons for me to have stayed in this place for such a long time, many of which have been explained above. If I can find a common factor in everything, it is that this place allows us to be whatever we want to be: it is in this community where ideas of any kind can happen, from intellectual debates or administration and law-making, to creating your whole universe on your own fashion and sharing it with everyone, or simply having a fun time with friends. I insist: this region is written in the language of dreams, the same language I will continue writing in for as long as it may be possible.
Congratulations TEP for another commendation: this is not just mine, this is ours.
1. “Cukish” shall be understood as New Leganes’s demonym.
2. Peiri chanting is originally a feature of the Taurílliener, the elven ethnic group that inhabited the New Leganes archipelago before the arrival of the Cukish. Peiri, together with the kóltar’s sound, holds a special place in the whole Cukish Tunseist beliefs, since it’s meant to be so loud that “the whole world comes together to its sound”. Very appropriate for a big international song contest.
3. Special mention is needed of Oan’s Packilvanian language, which has now reached incredible levels of complexity.
4. You can read more about Janko Gorenc and his collection here.
5. The etymology of this word is a bit tricky: nári, adjectivisation of ‘oblivion’, + archaic genitive -let (‘of’), + hál, ‘song’. It shall be pronounced “narilet hal” as two different words.
Community Spotlight : Gonggong
By: Eastern Alksearia | Editor: Eunopiar
By: Eastern Alksearia | Editor: Eunopiar
When it comes to Urth, it’s great to talk about what is going on, but it’s also great to sit down and talk with someone who is involved in Urth RP. I had the pleasure of sitting down and speaking with gonggong about their Urth nations and overall their experiences with Urth
[The interview was conducted over discord, but was reformatted to fit a more traditional interview style. Spelling mistakes were also corrected in editing.]
Shadow: So first, What is your name and your NS nation in TEP?
Gong: My name is Gonggong and my NS nation in TEP is Star Flowers!
Shadow: Awesome! How long have you been a part of Urth RP?
Gong: Ooo, that’s a good question! I think it’s been just under a year since I came to Urth!
Shadow: Wow, it has almost been a year already. What nations do you have on Urth?
Gong: Yeee! I joined Urth last summearound August I think! I own three nations! Kuduk, Nisserige, and Reijia! There’s one more nation called Jiduan, but that one is waiting for the acceptance of the cartographers to become official!
Shadow: Nice! Why don't you tell us a little bit about each nation?
Gong: Okie! Kuduk was my very first nation on Urth and it stayed my only one for a super long time! When I first created Kuduk, I wanted to make a country inspired off of the Tlingit in Alaska! Over time though, it’s drifted away from that concept to become something more unique!
My second nation is Nisserige! I created Nisserige to be a nation of gnomes! I never really see gnomes in fantasy settings all that often, nor did any exist on Urth, so I decided one day to make a nation with them as the main focus! I researched a lot on gnomes to decide things like Nisserige’s history, economy, and culture!
My last country is Reijia. Reijia is different from the other two, as I didn’t create Reijia initially! Reijia was a nation I adopted from Ben after he gave up ownership of a bunch of his countries. Reijia hasn’t changed since I adopted it from Ben, but one day I hope to develop it a ton!
Shadow: These are definitely some interesting countries! Can you tell us more about Kuduk and the changes you've made with it and some of the future plans you have?
Gong: Yee! Kuduk at first was just meant to be culturally homogenous and there were only meant to be 6 tribes! Overtime, the tribes multiplied to 36 and each of the regions of Kuduk became more and more culturally distinct from one another! The Hey and Anana Tribes retained a lot of the Tlingit influence that Kuduk started with, but the other 34 slowly shifted away from it to become something else!
I have a lot of future plans for Kuduk! The main thing I want to oversee is Kuduk's attempts at increasing the quality of life of the country by trying to prop it up economically! Recently, Kuduk had its first national election and elected its first Prime Minister! I also want the nation to participate in more international affairs and hopefully make more allies!
Shadow: ooo, I hope Kuduk's modernization goes well! Can you share more about Nisserge and Reija? What plans do you have for Reijia following your adoption?
Gong: Ooo those are harder ones! I definitely want to do more with Nisserige in terms of its neighbors! Kaldrbuth and East Atlalandr are both nations that Nisserige could do interesting things with, both in the present and historically!
For Reijia however, I don't have any concrete plans! I did wish Reijia was in less of an awkward spot (because it's nearly completely surrounded by another country, but at the time that I adopted it that country didn't exist)! In the near future, I want to develop Reijia further and give it as much depth as Kuduk and Nisserige have!
Shadow: Can you tell us about the new nation you are creating and what inspired you to make it?
Gong: Places like India and Bangladesh inspired Jiduan! Though like Kkuduk, I expect it to slowly morph into something unique as time goes on! Jiduan is a super population-dense country and, if accepted by the cartographers, would become the country with the 4th biggest population on Urth!
Just before creating Jiduan, there was a conversation in the discord server about how Oan wished he had more active neighbors for Packilvania, so I decided to make one there! I made Jiduan be neutral toward Packilvania since I don't think Packilvania has any bordering nations that are officially neutral toward it! I really hope it gets accepted so I can do interesting RP stuff with Oan and everyone else too!
Shadow: Ooo, sounds interesting to add to that part of the world. What do you enjoy the most about Urth RP?
Gong: The community!! Everyone is very friendly and they were super helpful when I first joined last year! If I had to pick something other than community though, I would say making wikis! It's just super nice to spend a lot of time working on the wiki and then be able to sit back and admire the page you created!
Shadow: I also love the wiki pages. Do you have any that you would recommend to a reader?
Gong: Yeee! If you like conlanging, I would super recommend the Packilvanian Language wiki page! It's super in-depth and a good reference to look at when trying to make a language yourself!
Shadow: Awesome!!! Is there anything else you would like to share before this interview ends?
Gong: Yee! I hope everyone who reads this has a good day/night!
Update from the Delegate
By: Altys | Edited by Eunopiar
By: Altys | Edited by Eunopiar
Month of July
At the beginning of July we were invited to and attended Raidercon’s 2023 edition, where we joined and ultimately took over the antifascist occupation of NATO 2022 Frontier, for which a report which can be viewed here.! Related to this event, Vice Delegate Aga and myself recommissioned the civilian militia structure, which you can read more about here. Both these happenings saw the first use of the new #executive-updates discord channel, teased in the previous edition as the “get involved” channel.
During the entire month the cabinet and several citizens endeavoured to rework both the region’s welcome guide (called STEP) and parts of its dispatch network, both of which needed an update. While some dispatches still need to be uploaded, most of the work related to this has been completed already.
When it comes to events, we hosted a gaming weekend with our friends from Carcassone on July 22nd and 23rd which culminated in a Hunger Games where our precious regional goose Zukchiva won! This edition of the games saw a tornado kill a third of the tributes on its first day, which itself totalled 18 deaths out of 36 tributes, half of the total; quite the death toll! We also theorised that big farma was sponsoring the Games due to the suspicious amount of medical supplies tributes received from sponsors. That and some people called me bloodthirsty for being annoyed at some tributes holding hands instead of killing each others.
One week later a Stellaris multiplayer game was hosted on Saturday 29th! The highlights of the game include the “Fallen Empire Scare” where all players panicked at the sight of the Aeternum (a modded uber powerful Fallen Empire sitting at the centre of the galaxy) awakening when none of them were ready to fight it, the “energy tax” where I (Altys) taxed every player’s energy credits to try and delay the impending doom, which failed. Though it did not matter as once the Aeternum started attacking, the other Fallen Empires bitchslapped the Aeternum into nothingness.
For transparency’s sake, the goal I stated last EPNS of moving Foreign Affairs to main server was put on hold until further notice. Ongoing talks with and future plans from the community staff being the reason behind this.
That concludes big Government happenings for this month! Now onwards to my plans for August!
Plans for August!
For August I’d like to finish the Integration push started in July. Our one last major project in relation to this is reforming REWARD (our WA development program). As it stands discussions on the project tend towards modernising existing and adding new automated features to REWARD related to endorsements. Some QoL changes to the discord bot (ie adding a command directly telling us if X nation is a Hussar [endorsing the Delegate and all Viziers]) linked to REWARD were also discussed.
Past that I’d like us to work on standardising EPSA imagery and working on some propaganda for operation reports or for recruitment of new soldiers. Both with the aim to better advertise the army and make it easier to recruit new people to it, or to the civilian militias.
Finally I’d like for us to dedicate parts of our time this month to recruit newer members to the executive, be it for culture or regional affairs projects, to join the FA department to discuss interregional happenings, or help with UTEP! Getting new blood and ensuring new generations of leaders is something I’d like to see more of next month.
Vice Delegate Diaries
By: Eunopiar
By: Eunopiar
S Summer has once again been upon us again, meaning that a lot of the past month has been accompanied by somewhat of a lull as people enjoyed their vacations. Despite this, the East Pacific never stops moving, and nor does the Vice Delegate’s office. So, what have I overseen in July?
The Launch of the NEW, PRO-LEVEL Civilian Piler Corps
A lot of the past month has been focused on unifying military branding - the military has the potential to be an engaging subcommunity - NationStates, after all, lacks a war mechanism, so making people feel like they are participating in a military is often a good way to get them hooked into the Eastern Pacific Sovereign Army and the Executive by extension. The first prong of our strategy here is the Eastern Expeditionary Forces, the Eastern Pacific Sovereign Army’s civilian militia. Members will go on expeditions and receive stamps for going on expeditions as a little souvenir. You can view more about the Expeditionary Forces here: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1911261
Besides this, we’ve “minted” our first stamp, which I am really proud to have designed. You’ll be able to see it in the report linked in Altys’s article.
GAMER WEDNESDAYS!!
I am really happy to announce that one of our up-and-coming staffers, Chaos, is now running a new thing called gamer Wednesdays on Discord. Every Wednesday we hope to play a new mini-game. This week it’s Gartic Phone - you can view the event here.
Dispatch and REWARD Re-Dos
Dispatch redos, thanks to the help of Vussul, Merlovich and others are now very close to completion, with full launch expected within a week of this edition’s release. Having a clean dispatch system means we have a clean way for citizens to interface with the region and the government, and this dispatch system is the cleanest we have ever had. Thank you to everyone who has helped make this possible.
I suppose this is where the “diaries” bit comes in: A lot of my role as Vice Delegate has lately been about stepping in for people when they are on Leave of Absence or otherwise cannot perform their role for personal reasons. Administrations with fallbacks are successful ones, and I am always proud to play my small part in making the government work. Executive duties can be rewarding, fun and important - if you want to join the executive, check out our #join-the-executive application form in our discord.
A Note from the New Minister
By: Vussul | Editor: Eunopiar
By: Vussul | Editor: Eunopiar
Last month I took up the reins of our newspaper, the Eastern Pacific Newspaper Service (EPNS). EPNS is a difficult project to work with. It depends on the contributions of generous Citizens. As such, its fortunes are fickle. Some issues become extraordinary, others suffer from mediocrity. I recently gave an interview in Thaecia's "The Reflection" reboot. Upvote it here. I want to expand on some of what I said there in regard to EPNS.
My vision for EPNS has three components.
Firstly, EPNS should inform the Citizenry and cast away the veil of obscurity that exists on government activities. It is difficult to discover what each branch is doing, what each subsection is doing, and what they plan on doing. To do so, you would have to contact the respective heads and ask directly. This is bad and inefficient. EPNS, if the heads of the government branches come together, can become a government broadsheet. This is what I want to see and what I effected in the last month's edition.
Secondly, that it entertains its readers. Simply so those reading want to continue reading. To achieve this, I have a few ideas. It would be well for EPNS if it can get contributions for poetry, literature, science, and so forth. Poetry can include unique poetry or analyses of poetry from other authors. Literature could include analyses of specific characters, worlds, quotes, etc. And science could include recent scientific advancements and what the author thinks of them, their impact, and so on. I imagine UTEP and the Culture department would take a keen interest in these ideas.
Thirdly, that it promotes TEP. I mean this quite broadly. Not only is EPNS a way to promote TEP abroad, we can also use it to promote individual TEPers who have deserved recognition in a particular sphere. We can also send region-wide telegrams for every issue to promote regional activity. If the other two are done well, telegrams would be a natural progression. Through these, we can encourage recruitment and promote meritocracy in our region.
That is all I have to say about my plan for EPNS. I thought about this well before I took over the June edition and it worked exceptionally. If all goes well, these plans will bring EPNS to its former splendour; an age where EPNS communicated the government's actions and incited activity.
WHAT’S ON IN VALSORA THIS JULY?
By: Merlovich | Editor: Eunopiar
By: Merlovich | Editor: Eunopiar
G’day folks, welcome to your monthly RMB RP installment. This month I thought I’d keep it simple: no existential crises, just a good old recap of the last month in the world of Valsora.
So, let’s get to work, we’ll start in the far east. The dissolution of Association for the Development and Security of Oriental Nations (ADSON) was the month's first major event, with the alliance crumbling to rubble within a mere 48 hours. The swift collapse was spurred on by human rights atrocities in Maneiras, which saw the massacre of Islamists and the establishment of martial law and political suppression in her newly integrated regions. This prompted harsh backlash from all members of the alliance and the wider global community and prompted a motion for Maneiras’ removal from the organization, led by Liaozhu. This motion, while initially entirely endorsed by ADSON’s members, soon turned into a fierce debate with Kianhua changing their vote overnight to defend Maneiras’ position, due to fears her dismissal would bring on the alliance’s collapse. With no middle ground immediately available, the Kianese made the sudden decision to abandon the organization, and immediately tendered their resignation, soon followed by a bitter resignation from Liaozhu, essentially dooming the alliance. In the following weeks, a diplomatic fallout has erupted between Kianhua and Liaozhu, with Liaozhuan diplomats summoning the Kianese ambassador to demand an immediate apology.
In lighter news from the east, another former ADSON member, Myehn has recently hosted the highly anticipated Shukumei Airshow! The event has welcomed 9 nations to its presentations this year, with stunning demonstrations and performances no doubt wowing crowds, alongside several corporations looking to put their products on the market. The Airshow is currently on its fourth day, with more action to come!
In arguably the month's biggest news, the long-held aspirations of many Usnistani’s finally blossomed into reality last week. One of the map's most influential nations, the Islamic Republic of Dabiristan, along with the allied states of Urattobristan, Savarastan and TRP merged to form the Islamic Federation of the Lafari. The new superstate spans much of North-Western Usnistan and stands as one of the most important players on a rapidly evolving global stage. While there will no doubt be teething problems for any such federation, it remains evident that the old era of colonialism on Valsora is well and truly at an end.
Back in Orientalis, yet another conflict looms on the horizon of Valsora with recent border clashes between the rival states of Liaozhu and Kamorye. The Liaozhuans, having recently claimed a vast array of territory stretching to the Kamoryean border in the west were met by gunfire in a misunderstanding at a border checkpoint in the town of Baoguan. With neither side willing to back down, the loss of lives in Baoguan has proven to be the spark to a wider conflict, which threatens to wreak havoc across the region. A Liaozhuan battalion was able to repel the Kamoryean’s at the border, but is likely to be repelled back into Liaozhu by a Kamoryean counter-offensive.
In Nonscio, a long-forgotten name has again sparked global attention. The ICJ (International Court of Justice) formerly headed by Volinovia (now Heimaeyja) has returned to Valsora. The organization has retained its lofty goals, seemingly continuing to challenge the notion that Valsora is ill-suited for large multinational diplomatic bodies. The ICJ comprises several elements, hosting economic, human rights, peace and justice councils. The ICJ isn’t the only thing Heimaeyja is cooking up, however. The VIFA Nations League officially kicked off this week, showcasing the best football Valsora has to offer. Voli has a continued legacy of creating great sporting content in Valsora, and it’s wonderful to see it continue into today, being one of the only things that can truly bring every nation on the map together.
Minor Events:
- Liaozhu hosts several diplomatic visits as the LDP announces a shift from an oriental-centric foreign policy.
- Rhouevelle looks to export Avant-Gardism to global relevance.
- Kampfia finally returns to the fray with a new RP post.
- The NDO has been founded in Atrocha, seeking to preserve international neutrality and pursue greater economic cooperation.
- A dispute regarding oil rights in contested waters has broken out between Kurikia and Belekria
- Yucanoa celebrates its bicentennial anniversary, 200 years since gaining her independence.
- Pangasinan prepares for the coronation of Felipe I
- Widespread anti-government protests break out in Atrocha
- Paeola enters the world stage with a whopping 2500-word introductory RP post.
Updates from the Praesidium
By: Aivintis | Edited by: Eunopiar and Altys
By: Aivintis | Edited by: Eunopiar and Altys
After unanimously being elected Grand Vizier and Eastern Pacific Police Commissioner, respectively, on July 6, Aivintis and Marrabuk declared big plans for the positions, and a desire to bring new life to the Praesidium branch. On 9 July, Aivintis designated East Malaysia (EM) and VW53aland (VW) as the Vizier Regional Officers to be appointed by law. EM was chosen due to his status as one of the oldest and most trusted citizens of TEP. VW was chosen due to his own high endorsement and influence count, and his constant reliability when acting as Delegate Pro Tempore during Delegate transitions.
Immediately afterwards, GV Aivintis began discussion on a new amendment to the Standing Orders. The face of the Praesidium, its own public forum, is largely inactive, whereas closed chambers discussions remain highly secretive, leaving the populace uninformed on Praesidium activity. As such, the Grand Vizier introduced discussion on the idea of amending the Standing Orders of the Praesidium — the governing legal procedures which bind the branch — to hold discussion on SO amendments in the public Praesidium forum. Upon discussion by the Viziers, the branch as a collective decided that maintaining privacy in all matters was preferable, provided controlled transparency reports on disclosable subjects would be posted. This being in line with the goals of the Eastern Pacific News Service, which had introduced branch reports into the monthly news update in June, the Grand Vizier accepted this outcome.
The Eastern Pacific Police Service has been busy as well. Commissioner Marrabuk has brought new energy to the Service, introducing a ranking system and announcing a call for citizens to apply for the Service and assist in the maintenance of TEP security. As of this report, EPPS members include Eunopiar, ArenaC, Vussul, and Distro-Spartica. With two pending applicants and a vision which encourages organizational growth, EPPS has been off to a strong start. Current ranks include, from highest to lowest:
- Assistant Commissioner (AC)
- Superintendent (SUP)
- Assistant Superintendent (ASP)
- Inspector (ISP)
- Sergeant (SGT)
- Corporal (CPL)
- Special Constable (SC)
The next item on the Grand Vizier’s agenda was rewriting the Standing Orders of the Praesidium, streamlining it to ensure that it is now more coherent and organized, making the Praesidium’s duties clear to the citizens of TEP. The contents of the rewrite are currently being debated in the Citadel, the private subforum for Praesidium debate.
Endorsement Tracker
You may also see the table below tracking Delegate (in bold green) and Vizier endorsements. As this is the second month such table is made, we can now see month-on-month changes!
Data collected July 31st
Data collected July 31st