HyFy

There is an idea here somewhere.  I can feel it starting to come together.  I love the way TWP can just start rambling on and suddenly we all shout, "Yes!" as the perfect idea makes itself known.  We're almost there.
I'm seeing:
Fun, strong but not militaristic (except the military, of course), elements of fantasy prevalent, titles that are practical and descriptive, keep the current colors.
Also seeing...   Pirates, yes!  Pirates, no!  Hmmm...  Maybe this translates to:  We want to retain the idea of being a bunch of rogue personalities gathered together and loyal to one another.  It's just a guess on my part.  But I know we are getting close.  Keep arguing it out!  
This group never ceases to make me proud.
 
 
 
 

I agree wholeheartedly about the names. It makes it a bit harder for me to fill out diplomatic reports on Osiris since the Viziers all have silly titles like "Sandwich Enforcer" on the Osiris region page. I can still figure out who's who by looking on their regional forum to find out their real titles (Vizier of Gameside Affairs, Sub-Vizier of Community Affairs, etc.), but it would be a nightmare for me if all of their real titles were, in fact, names like Sandwich Enforcer or Pebble. I can imagine there would be a lot of  confusion amongst members of our region if our gov officials' titles were "Czarveich" or "Kung" or "ChiangChun."

I agree wholeheartedly about the names. It makes it a bit harder for me to fill out diplomatic reports on Osiris since the Viziers all have silly titles like "Sandwich Enforcer" on the Osiris region page. I can still figure out who's who by looking on their regional forum to find out their real titles (Vizier of Gameside Affairs, Sub-Vizier of Community Affairs, etc.), but it would be a nightmare for me if all of their real titles were, in fact, names like Sandwich Enforcer or Pebble. I can imagine there would be a lot of  confusion amongst members of our region if our gov officials' titles were "Czarveich" or "Kung" or "ChiangChun."

Howdy!
I want to start by saying both thank you and f--- you to Ark, Kawaii and OT for making this a hard choice. I like all three options and will be weighing each carefully in the next couple of days.
But why the theme change at all? Why not stick with tradition? Well, what even is traditional for us? As Westy mentioned above, we have taken plenty of different directions on how we wish to theme our government. We started out as one of the key pillars of the ADN, and proudly were one of the most effective forces in defenderdom, never mind in-game. We experimented with different themes since then, be it a committee-structure when Eli couped that one time to the various themes Westy listed above. We have had a great past couple of years and I don't think anyone wants to tarnish that legacy. Rather, updates and new priorities, such as the theme, peerage, point system, and Ministry of Education, can be made to help make us a better region.
What doesn't change are our core values. Delegate supremacy, meritocracy and community do not change. What matters most is that we have a fun time here and allow newer folks the chance to feel welcome and able to learn from those of us who should honestly be NS dead by now. There is a lot of work to be done on both sides, myself included.
I like the idea of a new theme. Right now as I mentioned above I'm not sure which way I'll vote, but I like having options. Our Delegate has made it clear that not all presented aspects will be included in the final theme design, which is good because we can talk about what is good about the general idea and what might need to be nixed. 
I echo the concerns raised about changing the titles of Delegate and Guardian. I certainly don't mind there to be a title made for them and other ranks, but I probably will still use Guardian as my job title  We don't need to go hardcore on the titles, but it is nice to have our own regional way of describing who we are. What we get with that is more of a cultural identity. I'm not necessarily saying that we'd get up to such status with a theme change, but I preferred the communist-themed Pacific over the bunny-themed Pacific.

I agree wholeheartedly about the names. It makes it a bit harder for me to fill out diplomatic reports on Osiris since the Viziers all have silly titles like "Sandwich Enforcer" on the Osiris region page. I can still figure out who's who by looking on their regional forum to find out their real titles (Vizier of Gameside Affairs, Sub-Vizier of Community Affairs, etc.), but it would be a nightmare for me if all of their real titles were, in fact, names like Sandwich Enforcer or Pebble. I can imagine there would be a lot of  confusion amongst members of our region if our gov officials' titles were "Czarveich" or "Kung" or "ChiangChun."

I've always enjoyed the laid-back theme (or lack of such) in TWP as well, and I respect the opinion of those who wish to uphold it. But having the theme change generates some excitement, and having a set theme in general incites interest in newcomers. 
I'm thinking back to when TWPAF unveiled the new pirate theme. Before Altino took over, we lacked a clear theme there; closest thing we had was the omnipresent anime and pinkness. When the pirate theme was unveiled, even our existing members renewed their interest and got more involved. Alti complimented this with effective recruitment drives, and TWPAF was in better shape than it had been in a while, with new stars rising through the ranks.
By embracing a new theme, any theme, we would have a clearer direction and a way to engage newcomers. Have to remember that most new NS players come from my generation, and we're famously bad at staying interested for long. We need to give them a reason to be interested.
</rambling>

It was my initial intention to have all of the residents in TWP vote on the theme, but after many discussions, we decided that the citizens are the most active residents and they should be the ones making the decision.
Several other themes other than the three presented were also considered, but we thought these offered the greatest opportunity for advancement and recognition, while still reflecting some of the key elements of the region.
I think all three themes are terrific!
Many thanks to Kawaii, Ark and OT for the work they put into developing these!

Hey you guys! Sending some love out today! <3 I was talking to someone earlier today about a silly tag that we did with TWPAF back when Kawaii was Commander and I was just a First Commander in revenge on The Bee Movie! It brought back a lot of fun memories in TWP, so I wanted to share some of my favorite TWP times with you guys.  
 
The Spanish Inquisition - I've been on a ton of raids during my time on NS, but the most fun that I ever had with one was when Khanter helped us plan a big raid on Spanish-speaking regions. Like, ALL of the Spanish-speaking regions! We had just kicked off our pirate theme, so we needed to do something big and fun to really cement that direction, and between my Pirate Code, Ban's excellent Graphics, and Khanter's excitement to help with that raid, this put us in the perfect position to really sell it! I spent days hyping everyone up about a secret raid that we'd have coming up and screaming "¡SOMOS PIRATAS!" to anyone who would listen, Khanter made us a WFE all in Spanish for the raid, and Bran made us this cool image as a teaser: 

It ended up being a ton of fun and the beginning to my favorite military theme on NS! 
 
Punday Monday! - Listen, you guys, I am not in favor of puns, I'm honestly not, but thanks to Badger and Roavin have had to take on the title of Ocassional Punstress. Badger used to poke at me EVERY MONDAY to get my pun on with everyone on the RMB, and EVERY MONDAY I would grumble at him for it. But secretly, I gathered puns throughout the week and was always excited to post them and make all my friends groan! I don't think I ever ended up getting most likes for the best pun, but I'm pretty sure I came fairly close. 
 
Badgerbot - Idk how many of you know this, but when I first met Badger, I legitimately thought that he was a really, really well programmed chatbot. Something about his avatar, I don't know, seemed very botish to me! When I finally figured out that he was an actual person, I was really embarrassed, but had to tell him about it, and for the long day time after that I called him Badgerbot when I saw him! Eventually he created an actual BadgerBot to rule over TWP's Discord server and I was tickled pink! Now we have BadgerBot2.0 and it continues to be a weird, inside joke legacy that always makes me smile! 
 
Glitter Apprenticeship - Before I got really involved in TWPAF, I got really involved in TWP in the form of RMB shenanigans. This is where I met some of the old greats in TWP and learned to respect them! I was a wee noob, but I got friendly with BBD, YY, Medio, and a lot of the other Guardians at the time while I was there. I'm still upset that Medio didn't get unlocked until after I was done with TWPAF! I always wanted to raid with him. :c But my crowing achievement was one day convincing NeeNee to let me be her Glitter Apprentice. I spent like a week after that glittering everyone on the RMB and learning her ways. It was a great time.  
 
Bugging Forum Mods - I'm sorry to finally be admitting this, but I got... really into recruitment when I was running TWPAF and almost my entire motivation behind big numbers (besides pilers) was making tons and tons of posts in the mask request thread for the forum mods to have to do. :3 I just liked peeping in every day like "FIVE MORE MASKS FOR YOU, THANK YOU GUYS!" It was my own private little game. But every time I see someone join TWPAF now I get a little shot of glee that the mods will have to mask someone. xD Sorry. <3
 
Anyway, just sending out some love from me and Osiris! Hope everyone is doing well! What about you guys, do you have any really special memories with TWP that make you happy? What do y'all have going on! 

This embassy thread is created for Osiris.
*installs an ancient Osirian liquor cabinet found in Biyah's TWP storage unit*

Love the map put me on there

"WA locked" means that, for whatever reason (e.g. being the elected Delegate), a player must keep their WA membership restricted to a specific nation. Thus, they cannot use WA puppets, which are necessary for raiding.