Citizen's Corner is a regular feature where we select a newish Citizen and allow them to opine on current affairs and activities within the region. This month, our contributor is Gattoartico, a recent arrival to the region who won last month's "Wintreath's Finest" contest (previously known as Citizen of the Month). Here's what he had to say:

Quote:Hey guys, Gatt here! Over the past few months of my stay here I've gotten to know a number of you all through the many different things the region offers. I've organized Civ games and put effort towards a modded minecraft server, as well as win Wintreath's Finest, I find that no matter what you guys are one of the most accepting groups of people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

I feel proud to be considered one of you guys no matter what, and to be honest this is one the few places I go to pick up my mood after a bad day; from the antics of the majority, the teachings of the Holy Tuber( Starch be praised!) and the Potatoe Pope, and to Mathy's math related puns. You guys are incredibly fun loving in all the right ways!( Sorry, I couldn't avoid an innuendo)

Something new is always going on to take a look at, like Elb's Timed Prompts and Justinian's Wild Men of Witchita RP(HEIL KANSAS). Recently I've been feeling the itch to fire up multiplayer Civ as well as roll back into the Minecraft Server and pick back up with the Modded Server.

Now as I'm writing this I think of all the new folks that have come along since I got here. The new folks are what reminds me of why I picked this region, the warm and inclusive environment that we have, as well as the love of meeting new people. With all these new people the identity of Wintreath is constantly evolving and I think solidifying into a unique and powerful culture. I feel that for everyone who has, is, and will be here it will be like Mother Rome. For Rome was the first Immortal Empire, not because it would last forever, and not because its memory would, but because its mere existence is enough to shape the future forever. In my eyes Wintreath is the heir to that ancient legacy, one that simply says it will shape the future no matter what.

I feel like that got really heavy there so to lighten the mood think of this: A Flying Walrus with a French mustache and a beret, carrying a basket containing baguettes and French wine. Try not to laugh. Try it.

The April 2017 Underhusen elections have concluded! With 9 candidates running for 5 seats, the election looked to be close. In the end 13 people cast their ballots, not including at least one candidate, who though not mentioned by name was noted to be a symptom of a greater issue. To quote him "why should the Citizenry be interested enough to vote if the candidates themselves apparently aren't?"

The first event of note was the Fourth Annual Robin Steak Fry, in which only 3 candidates participated in, a record low number. Wintreath's perennial candidate and occasional elected official, Chanku, who further discussed his campaign of judicial reform and fixing issues within the Fundamental Laws and who said that the biggest problems facing Wintreath were inactivity, stagnation and legal flaws. He asked for his steak medium-rare. Secondly came North, who said that the new session should focus on activity, and that inactivity was the biggest problem in the region. He only specified that his steak should be cooked. Finally came Mathyland who said that he wanted to run to help with the inactivity in the legislature. He proposed fixing up any mistakes in the current laws and repealing Wintreath's treaty with Ainur, which our Monarch Wintermoot, had already proposed and written a bill for. He said that Wintreath's biggest problem was heresy. He wanted his steak steak flavoured. At the end there was much steak given out and joy was had. Unlike the previous steak fry, no candidates were ironically burned at the steak.

In the end, the 5 people who were elected were Laurentus, BraveSirRobin, Mathyland, North and Crushita. A summary of their campaigns are as follows:

BraveSirRobin ran a wonderful campaign, where he promised to be "an active, rational member of the Underhusen who will not let Wintreath down." He noted that he had pass experience in the Underhusen, though his legislative efforts were unsuccessful, and that he would try to solve the Underhusen's biggest problem, inactivity. Later in his campaign he proposed creating a dedicated page for community input into the legislative process, boosting RP interest and trying to further connect with "our people on NS." BraveSirRobin has also been elected speaker of this session.

Mathyland promised to spread the word of the holy tuber, setting up more churches in its holy name, banning heretical tomatoes. He also proposed building a wall dipped in gold and making Tomexico pay for it along with doing a grammar check of the Wintrean laws. He also promised a big door in the middle of the wall, which only followers of the holy potato would be able to cross through, that he would be active, and that he would remember who the speaker was.

Laurentus ran on a satirical, Trump parody of a campaign, preferring to rest on his previous credentials then any actual campaign promises. To quote Laurentus in his initial campaign speech "I no longer have any idea what's happening around here."

North ran a campaign on simply being there and resting on his laurels as part of his North Party. His most notable campaign promise was simply having a nice logo

Crushita ran a six word campaign.

Best of luck to the new Underhusen!

Justinian Ezkantion, who became a citizen of Wintreath last year during the Refugee Crisis of Ainur, has started up a new character roleplay: The Wild Men of Wichita. After a long drought of very little roleplay on Wintreath's forums, Justinian's new RP hopes to breathe new life into the RP Guild and the general RP scene. As Jarl of Culture, a member of the RP Guild, and a participant in the Wild Men of Wichita (as Frank "Punchy" Dennison), I sat down with Justinian for an interview.

1. Can you give a short introduction of yourself and your interest in roleplaying?
I'm currently the Lore Master of Wild Men of Wichita, and former Sovereign of Dellenaria, former Crown Prince of Ainur, and all sort of other fancy titles from regions that don't exist anymore.

I've been an active Roleplayer since about two years ago when I began participating in Ainur's forum RPs before starting my own in Dellenaria and now here. I tried getting into the RPs on the Site Forums, but I found the larger size to be a bit overwhelming, as there was less of a close community to plan around. I generally stick to Offsite Forum RPs now due to that.

2. Can you give a summary of the setting of the Wild Men of Wichita RP?
It's a post-apocalyptic setting following a catastrophic combination of the Great Depression and a second outbreak of the Spanish Flu which brought down almost all of the world's governments. The RP itself is set in the great plains where the eastern half of North America has united and is looking to "civilize" the continent once again while powerful gangs of cowboy-like raiders extort the common farmers for protection money and fight each other for control of said rackets.

3. The setting and lore is quite unique and extensive. Where did you get the inspiration to create all of this?
In many ways I was inspired by Fallout New Vegas to create the image of a seedier and more modernized wild west. I refrained from that series' retro future aspects though, in favor of emulating the gang culture of pre-WWII America.

4. What is your role as Lore Master (the Wintrean title for Game Master) in the RP?
My role is mostly to create an outline for the RP's plot to ride along, as well as to immerse players in the world through the narrative. But it's not all about making the actual RP. The day to day stuff includes making sure that players aren't breaking any rules, and if so how that situation should be handled. Plus I need to make sure the pacing doesn't slow down so much that players become disinterested or feel there's enough of a lull in activity to take a break for a while. After all, RP is for entertainment purposes, and it's my job to make sure that it's entertaining to the players.

5. As you're also the leader of the gang, can you tell us who the Wild Men of Wichita currently consist of?
"Jackknife" Jim Luckett - Leader of the gang and adopted son of the leader of the main crime syndicate in Kansas, Rufus Luckett. He's an irritable, womanizing, hard-smoking and hard-drinking autophile who gets the job done, no matter how gruesome of an act that requires.

Punchy - A hard hitting, tough as nails American gangster with a troubled past and a penchant for blowing people to smithereens with his trusty shotgun.

Dima - A cossack and former pirate that can hold his own in a drinking contest and a riding contest. He's the best locksplitter in the state, and wears his baggy cossack pants enough that Jim has taken to calling him the "Shiekh of Araby".

Chief - A silent, lumbering Indian with hunting skills that would make some big cats blush. Though he used to be called Injun Joe, Jim took to calling him simply "Chief" because it reminded him of his motorcycle, and he never forgets his motorcycle.

Annie McOakley - A surprisingly lethal dentist from Ireland whose real name is Cary, but Jim of course found a way to make her sound like some kind of discounted Irish version of an American celebrity out of spite. She is probably the only one in the group with the equivalent education of a college graduate.

Smiley - An Irishman who might as well be Jim's twin. They're both womanizing, booze-drinking sons of the mob. He's the gang's best shot, or so he says.

6. What direction do you think the story will go? What should we expect?
I already have a general outline of the story progression, but all I can say here is that after the raiding campaign the gang is currently conducting in Kansas, there's going to be a big campaign that will wrap up the first arc of this RP. The east is pushing hard on the gangs, and like cornered rats they're beginning to panic, and the actions they're going to take may end up making things far worse than they ever were going to be...

[center][Image: wildmenofwichitagang.png]
A gang from the world of the Wild Men of Wichita.[/center]

After prolonged discussion last autumn, the Storting created an alternative five post per month requirement to maintain Citizenship for those who do not want to keep a NationStates nation. Originally proposed in August by Wintermoot, who pointed out that many members were moving away from NationStates, the issue was revived in September when long-time Citizens Laurentus and Pengu announced that they would no longer keep a nation because of they were no longer interested in NationStates. This prompted several bills for the Storting's consideration:

1) Skrifa HannahB made the first proposal, which would have allowed either the Storting or the Monarch to waive Citizenship requirements at their discretion. This proposal was supported by some who felt the nation requirement should only be dropped for long-time Citizens, but others, particularly Wintermoot, argued that all Citizens should have the right to not have to keep a nation, so long as they remained active.

2) Jarl of Defense Chanku then made a proposal that would have created a "restricted Citizenship" status for those whose nation had ceased to exist and had made an average of ten posts per day. However, it was pointed out a provision that restricted Citizens would not have the right to vote or run in elections may have been unconstitutional, that only Wintermoot would meet the post requirement, and that restricted Citizens would not have any rights or abilities over former Citizens.

3) Finally, Wintermoot proposed an alternative ten posts a month alternative to maintaining a nation, which passed after the requirement was modified to five posts. While some members preferred one of the other proposals, most saw this proposal as the most viable compromise which would allow Citizens involved with Wintreath but not NationStates to maintain Citizenship.

This discussion took place as part of a broader reevaluation of Wintreath's identity, in which many have come to see Wintreath as more of an organization that has a presence on NationStates than just a NationStates region, and expect Wintreath to eventually expand to other games and areas in addition to NationStates. By the following March, Citizen Doc summed up the sentiments of many when he expressed "...that this [the forum] is less the online arm of the Wintrean region and more that the NS region is more the NS arm of Wintreath".

Our Say What's On Your Mind forum topic, where members express thoughts about anything, drifted into discussion about Skyrim, which led to another topic debating the merits of the Skyrim Civil War. Not counting people who hadn't played Skyrim (yes, they apparently exist) or had no preference, an astounding 80% backed the Empire over the Stormcloaks.

Supporters of the Empire contended that a unified Empire would have the best chance of resisting any future war with the Aldmeri Dominion, and also pointed to racism within the Stormcloaks, particularly their treatment of Dunmer refugees in Windhelm. The Stormcloak minority, best represented by Jarl of Culture Gerrick, pointed to the successful Redguard resistance in Hammerfell against the Aldmeri as proof that Skyrim could also resist alone. He also pointed to other cases of racism within Tamriel to show that an Empire victory wouldn't make Tamriel less racist.

That's not to say that the Empire went without criticism, with Gerrick asserting that the forced ban of Talos worship within the Empire by the Aldmeri was evidence of the Empire's weakness, and Monarch Wintermoot comparing the Empire's forced cooperation with an enemy against a group of its own people to Vichy France during World War II. Based on his twenty minutes of gameplay in Skyrim, Thane of Information Crushita also pointed out that it was the Empire that was going to execute the player at the beginning of the game.

However, at least so far practicality has carried the day, with most Wintreans continuing to support the Empire.

When we first started the Wintreath forums, I imagined many possibilities, including the one where the region never went anywhere. The one where just a few years later we would celebrate 100k posts seemed pretty far out, but with the support of the community over the years, that's where we ended up this month! Actually, we celebrated it twice: first when Aragonn made the 100,000th post counting deleted posts (which was post ID 100,000), and then later in the month when Matilda Love made the 100,000th post not counting deleted posts (which brought the post count on the forum front page to 100,000). Either way, this accomplishment is a testament to the constant activity the forums have enjoyed over the years.

It's not surprising that many of the top topics are general discussion and spam game topics; however several cutural and roleplay topics have also stood the test of time to earn a place in the top topics list, including the Werewolf VI game topic, the From the Ashes roleplay Out of Character discussion, and the Frostbite Tavern casual roleplay.

This accomplishment comes as I've placed an emphasis on making the forums simpler and easier to understand and navigate, particularly on mobile devices. It also comes a month before the region's annual Summersend Festival, which last year alone generated over a thousand posts. Along with the continued support of the Wintreath community, these developments will help the forums remain busy far into the future!

This is the second installment of the Culture Review, written by me, Wintreath’s Jarl of Culture. I’ll be talking briefly about some events going on in the cultural areas of the forums, such as Ministry news, monthly contests, and forum games.

Wintreath’s Finest is the name for Wintreath’s citizen of the month. Nominations are for those who stood out as contributing or showing dedication to the region or having been extra active, caused activity, or been a good influence on others. The winner of June 2017’s Wintreath’s Finest was BraveSirRobin, who was nominated for his efforts to starting up more roleplays in the region. He has taken the helm at revitalizing Wintreath’s most popular character RP, the Star Trek-influenced Wintreath Space Expeditions, by starting up talks for The Next Generation, which already has applications up and running. On top of Space Expeditions, BraveSirRobin has also taken the lead in trying to start up a new nation roleplay that will take place in a post-WW2/Cold War era alternate universe. BraveSirRobin was technically the only nominee, but as Jarl of Culture, I made no other nominations as I thought his win was well-deserved.

The Avatar Theme of the Month is the theme that several forum users will adopt into their avatars for the month, whether that means using pictures or memes that have to do with the theme or Photoshopping the theme into their usual avatars. Nominations are typically related to current world affairs, historical dates, holidays, or happenings in Wintreath. The winner of July 2017’s Avatar Theme of the Month was a tie between ‘MURICA and Canada 150 as both the USA and Canada have their national day in July. With the large number of Canadians and Canada-sympathizers in Wintreath, it was no surprise that it ended in a tie, and the rivalry between the two countries ensured that there would be no other nominations to spoil the contest for one side or the other. One proud Canadian-Wintrean, Crushita, even went so far as to turn his national anthem into a case why one should vote for Canada:

Oh Canada! 
The World Does Not Hate Us!
Adi-ition-ly,
We don't have Donald Trump!
Tous les érables poussent là où les França-a-is sont
Nous devons les apaiser, nous aider s'il vous plaît
Spud keep our land
Glorious and free!
Oh Canada!
We-e vote for thee!
Oh Canada
We-e vote for thee!

The Monarch’s Game Bag is a list of over 150 spare Steam keys that Wintermoot and other citizens have donated to the region over the years. It now serves as a reward for those citizens who perform necessary civil service duties for the region, such as recruiting and writing articles for the Orendi, as well as those who go above and beyond to be elected to win Wintreath’s Finest. This month, games were given out to two such citizens: Justinian Ezkantion chose Dragon Age: Origins for winning Wintreath’s Finest of May 2017 and writing two articles for the Orendi, and Gattoartico chose Purgatory for also writing two articles. We hope more citizens continue to follow their example and help out Wintreath to earn more free games!

Ashton Mercer, one of several former Ainurian refugees who moved to Wintreath last year, has been an active roleplayer ever since he became a Wintrean citizen. Last fall, he created and hosted a superhero RP called Super. Now he has started up a new, rebooted version called Empowered. As Jarl of Culture and a member of the RP Guild, I sat down with Ashton for an interview.

Can you give a short introduction of yourself and your interest in roleplaying?
So, as most ex-Ainurians might know, I've been around the NS RP scene for a while. About five years, actually. Ever since I re-discovered Nationstates in 2012, I've discovered my enjoyment in crafting stories and characters. I've spent time in Albion, as well as other smaller regions, but my homeland and main haunt was Ainur. I did many RPs here and there, whether centered around a nation or a character, and near the end I was often leading them. About a year ago however, things began to fall apart, and people were looking to find somewhere else in NS to be. A lot of Ainurians left to join Wintreath, and I followed them here. The rest is good history. 

Can you give a summary of the setting of the Empowered RP?
The Empowered RP is set in a universe that is (pretty much kinda) exactly like ours, except that a certain segment of the population have fantastic supernatural powers, like the heroes and villains you would see in the comic books. It's a fairly easy setting to wrap your head around, yet it has the detail and potential for exploration that very complex settings do. It strikes that perfect balance that makes it such a perfect world to enjoy and be a part of.

What is your role as Lore Master (the Wintrean title for Game Master) in the RP?
The way I see it, when I am directing an RP that I don't have a main character in, I'm basically supposed to be a very lazy shepherd. Point everyone in a direction that I think is fun, and let them work it out from there. Right now, I'm closely guiding the only main storyline so that we can work out the OOC/IC kinks without jumping through pan-dimensional hoops, but I'm hoping that more unique threads and separate stories will spring up once Innocence Lost has run it's course.

You've come up with a unique idea to Wintreath where there will be separate threads for each story-line. Where did you get the idea, and how do you see it playing out?
To be perfectly honest, the idea for the storyline threads wasn't mine. It was proposed to me by Doc in a private conversation, who himself was inspired by the typical way that comic books are structured: different issues for different stories, but with the capability to keep characters and story arcs intact. We came to the conclusion that an RP structured like this might be able to provide everyone with an ability to have heir own storylines without the clutter and story fatigue that comes with keeping everyone on a single thread, as is standard for most RPs. Also, it made more sense for Empowered in particular, since the setting is so open-ended than, say, Wintreath Space Expeditions, which has a focus on one ship on one mission. I think everyone will like the results.

Who are some of the current Empowered characters in the RP?
We have a good variety of characters so far: a constantly drunken pyromaniac, a antihero version of Thor with terroristic tendencies, a level-headed circus girl who can materialize mirror-like barriers from thin air, an archaeologist with some ancient aliens technology, and many more. The center of this latest story is a missing kid named Andrew, who has a tragic backstory, intense powers of speed and strength, and some mysterious and potentially deadly connections. If you want to see more or want more details, definitely check the threads out. The character apps and the story are both worth reads.

Finally, what direction do you think the story of the current issue, "Innocence Lost", will go? What should we expect?
While I know pretty well what I am doing to the story right now, I have no idea at all how Innocence Lost will end up, which makes all of this very exciting. Of course, I have some ideas about the various potential endings and how the NPCs I direct will handle it, but it all really depends on the player characters' actions and how they effect themselves and the rest of the acting parties in this story. A few players have actually thought of an ending that I hadn't considered at all and their characters are already going after it, which is awesome, and I'm looking forward to see what they will do at the climax of this chapter. I definitely will try not to spoil anything and there are still a lot of uncertainties that haven't been played out yet in the story thread. However, I will say this: barring a total disaster, this won't be the last time we see Andrew or the FBI Agent McGrath.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Thank you for your time, and if any of this sounds interesting to you, definitely take a look at us and consider signing up!

 

• An all out brawl occured this month of the RMB where amateur RP enthusiasts of all varieties denounced one nation's decision to claim all of the Middle East.
  • The position of Thane of Information was abolished, replaced with a court scribe whose sole function is to make this newspaper in a timely manner (EDITOR'S NOTE: It's totally the diplomat's fault. Nope, definitely not me playing old BioWare games and crying at what EA has done to it. No siree)
    • AMAs have exploded in popularity on the forums for...some reason.