Wintermoot

Hello everyone! We have been hard at work producing another puzzle for our fellow NS friends, and here is the result! https://soundcloud.com/taulover628/puzzle-5/s-GFL8S I hope you all have a wonderful time working alongside others in your region to crack the puzzle. Best of luck!

Invitation to our Fourth-Annual Summersend Festival! This year's theme, minus 'box'. Hey, we were lucky to find something that said Spooky Summer! Greetings to our partners and friends! It's a busy time of year for many of us, but that's what makes it a great time to take a break from it all and have fun for a little while. Here in Wintreath, we celebrate the waning summer and welcome the approach of autumn with the Summersend Festival, a yearly festival of fun activities and events that always showcases our culture and makes it a wonderful time to visit or tour. Consider yourself formally invited! This year's festival will run from Friday, August 17th to Sunday, August 26th on our forums, with the festival forum opening up on Wednesday, August 15th for event and booth hosts to begin setting up! Here's just a sample of events that have been confirmed for this year's festival: This Year's Theme: Spooky Summer Wintreath Escape Room 2 One Night Ultimate Werewolf Mage Wars 2 Spooky Themed RP Spyfall Murder Mystery Game And More! Each year the Summersend Festival proves to be a bigger success than the previous year, and we hope that this year will be no exception. I hope that you will have a chance to take a break and join us for some fun and games.

Wintreath Foreign Update XVI — June/July 2018 Realms of Wintreath Wintreath - 278 nations New Hyperion - 83 nations Nowhere - 3 nations Government of Wintreath Monarch: Wintermoot Jarl of Culture: Gerrick Thane of Gaming: Gattoartico Thane of Integration: Kane lives Thane of LGBTQ Affairs: Pengu Thane of Roleplay: Vacant Thane of Werewolf: Pengu Jarl of Foreign Affairs: Gattoartico Thane of Dispatches: taulover Jarl of Regional Affairs: Doc Thane of WA Affairs: BraveSirRobin Advisor: Chanku Sorting Out the Storting A Recap of Recent Wintrean Legislative Events by taulover Image credit: Dmitry Valberg on Flickr Greetings, friends! It is I, taulover, Speaker of the Underhusen, here to bring you some quick updates on the state of our legislature! In the June Underhusen elections, the incumbent term chose to lower to the number of seats to four, and five candidates stood for office: [li]Chanku ran on a campaign of experience and legal reform.[/li] [li]Mathyland cited his long-time incumbency and capacity for grammar fixes.[/li] [li]Crushita did not campaign until late in the election, basing it on his experience and Spud religion.[/li] [li]I, taulover, ran with no specific agenda except keeping the Laws page completely up to date.[/li] [li]Doc had some various ideas, including defining citizenship within the Fundamental Laws.[/li] Crushita ultimately lost the election, likely due to the delayed campaigning. In the Speaker vote following the election, there initially appeared to be a possibility of a tie between myself and Chanku. We reached an agreement wherein Chanku would become Speaker pro tempore and be free to implement his legislative goals without any hindrance from myself. Additionally, I appointed Mathyland as Secretary. Chanku's main proposal for the early part of the term was to create an officer system for the Underhusen. Under this new system, the Speaker could create various offices and appoint citizens to it. After some discussion (in which a proposal for giving the Monarch the duty to initially nominate a Speaker candidate was rejected), this amendment to the Underhusen Procedural Rules was passed. Following this event, I created the Office of Information at Chanku's advice, and appointed Mathyland to lead it. This Officer position continued Mathyland's former Secretarial duties and also expanded them to include greater public outreach responsibilities. Other proposals still remain in discussion, including one giving the Speaker the power to fix grammar errors in laws, and another establishing an explicit supremacy clause in the Fundamental Laws. The Culture Review by Gerrick This is the fifth 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, forum games, and contests that took place from late April to early June. Thanes (Vice Ministers) of Culture are elected positions that serve to manage and represent different areas of Wintreath. Along with the already established positions of Thanes of Roleplay, Werewolf, LGBT Affairs, and Gaming, in May the Ministry of Integration was dissolved and a new Thane of Integration was added to the Ministry of Culture. Elections for these positions were held at the beginning of June, and the roles are now filled by Pengu as Thane of Werewolf and LGBT Affairs, Gattoartico as Thane of Gaming, and Kane lives as Thane of Integration. There were no candidates for Thane of Roleplay who completed the necessary steps to win the position, but I will be on the lookout for someone to take it over. I look forward to working with this group and seeing what they can bring to their new roles. 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 April 2018 Wintreath's Finest was Gattoartico for his hosting of the successful regional game nights playing Realm of the Mad God and Minecraft. The winner of May 2018 Wintreath's Finest was Wintermoot for all of the work he has done to update and redesign the recruitment system, the forums header, the newsfeed, and other areas of the forums. Other nominees for the two months were Elbbsas for creating and hosting the Wintreath Escape Room, taulover for organizing and getting the Orendi out regularly, and Hydra for designing each Orendi. Avatar Theme of the Month is the theme (or themes) nominated and voted on by citizens who then incorporate the winning theme(s) into their avatars for the month. Themes are often related to current events, though they may also include themes nominated at the random whims of citizens. May's winning theme was Anything That Rhymes with May, beating out other themes such as Minecraft, Han Solo, and Justin Timberlake. June's winning themes were a tie between Alaska and Cats. Crushita adopted an avatar that is unquestionably the most fitting: a picture of Mayor Stubbs, the cat who was the mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, for twenty years. Spyfall is an easy-to-learn forum game where the lone undercover spy tries to figure out the location of the game while all the other players, who act in their given roles related to the location, try to figure out who the spy is. Spyfall VIII, which was hosted by North, lasted from early March until May. The location of the game was the United Nations with players given the roles of ambassadors from different countries. Hydra, the Spy, ultimately did not successfully announce the location before being correctly voted off as the spy by a majority of the players, which was initiated by Doc, making this only the second time in Wintreath that the Spy lost. There were apparently some miscommunications as to how and when the Spy could make his guess, but everyone including Hydra agreed to have enjoyed the game. The Pandemonium RP Begins! by taulover ft. AJ Image credit: erzon77 on AdeptGamer Advertised as "a roleplay of possibly infinite possibilities, but also structured," Pandemonium is a Discord-based RP set in a dimensional cluster, ruled by gods. Here, AJ'BLarg, the GM, explains the setting: The existence of Pandemonium is built on a simple principle. Planes. The five main planes are the main realms of Bael'Kath, Olv'Thrane, Alissa, Santioc, and Xaelinoc. Pandemonium itself is a centralized dimension inside the capital of Xaelinoc, accessed by a single portal. Each of the six realms is vast, and each the size of an entire plane of existence. There's other planes that exist, and possibly will come into play. Each plane is vastly different. Xaelinoc is the plane of the demons, ruled by the mighty Demonous Clan. Santioc is the plane of the angels, led by the Fallen Angel Cardina. Olv'Thrane is the plane of the elves, led by the mighty Zermophium, who is said to have the power of the world tree of the plane itself. Alissa, led by the Draconic Maelikor, leader of the humans. Bael'Kath, the realm of chaos and horror, led by the monstrous Xernia. Pandemonium, the capital of the collective, led by Kessek Demonous, the God-King. If you dare to try your fate, possibly rise up in the ranks, come to the Multi-Plex of Pandemonium. Or perhaps lie in wait until your plane comes under the scope of the Multi-Plex. The possibilities are infinite in the multiverse. How will you fit in? AJ has much experience GM'ing roleplays online. On comparing RP'ing via forum and Discord, AJ stated his opinion that "Discord is an easier and less intimidating platform." It will undoubtedly be exciting to see the Wintrean RP community evolve as it takes on this new direction of RP'ing and broadens into new platforms. If you're interested in this RP, you can contact AJ#4382 on Discord. Wintreans Share Food That They Made! These are some potato wedges that I made! New potatoes cut into wedges, shredded Parmesan cheese, garlic powder and salt, and some parsley after it came out of the oven. I could have baked them a bit longer to crisp the outside more, but the flavour was fantastic, and went great with ranch dressing as a dip. It won approval in my house, at least. :D This is currently one of my favourite dinners. Bobotie: a mince dish, with copious amounts of fruit, curry powder, and milk-soaked bread. I have to start making it at a bit past one for it to be serveable by six, and the egg layer on top keeps consistently being runny, but I'm getting there! My take at raspberry fool, based on a recipe on Food Network and the ingredients that I happened to have. I actually decided to totally mix in the raspberries and cream to give it a uniform flavour. I'm not usually a big fan of raspberries, but it was good with ladyfingers. :D I also made this with strawberries yesterday, and it's very much my thing. :) Feel free to share your own favorite recipes at the Howling Wind Tavern! An Interview with Gattoartico about the New Modded Minecraft Server by taulover Gattoartico tours Furnace Lane, near the spawn of the modded server. Wintreath has had a thriving Minecraft community for many years, with a vanilla server dating back to 2014. Recently, however, Wintreath has expanded its scope in Minecraft to mods. Joining me today discuss this topic is Gattoartico, our Thane of Gaming, who has launched a modded server based on a custom modpack. Why did you choose to make the Wintreath modded Minecraft server? It partially spawned from a conversation with Trader on the Vanilla server. We were discussing plans for militarization of Castle Terrinian and High Castle, with missiles and sentry armies. As a result I started compiling the mods I already played with and asked for mod suggestions. It kinda became a desire of mine to see Spawn on Wintreath Server being nuked. We don't have that map but the one we do have is a close second! How did you decide what mods made the cut for the server pack? Some of them were mods I loved previously, like AbyssalCraft which adds in elements of Lovecraft to the game. As well as mods that others suggested. The existing server pack is one that I slimmed down to the largest pack that would put the least stress on the kind of crappy laptop the server is on. It's still pretty full but without any truly heavy hitting mods. What have been some of the biggest difficulties of getting the modded server up and running? One of the biggest issues was finding the right hardware and pack size. Occasionally I take the server down for "maintenance," which is just code for the me getting tired of hearing the fan howling. I do intend to upgrade the server hardware in the near future, as trying to run it off of a first gen i3 really isn't helping performance. What is the most interesting thing you've seen on the modded server? Definitely the building styles of the players. Everyone on the server has kinda the same Dwarven mantra going, "Dig deep, and then dig deeper." Outside of my constructs most buildings on the server go down and not up. Which can be seen with the construction of Deepholm, Crushita's dwarven stronghold in the deep. Out of everything it is still the second deepest structure on the server. The only thing that goes deeper is my Mortis Engine. And boy is that sucker deep. But then that may be warranted. After all, nuclear powers are on the rise server side. So digging deep may be a result of the expanding nuclear arsenals. Out of which mine still dominates the server at nearly sixty silos scattered across four dimensions. Do you prefer vanilla or modded Minecraft? I would have to say modded. I like the plethora of new and strange things mods add to the game. Alongside technology and magic I enjoy the variety of dimensions, creatures, and weapons you can find. What are you plans for the future of the server? The first thing on the list is upgrading the hardware. Ideally I want to to have an i5 or i7 as the processor and at the very least 16gbs of ram. Then the pack will go full and y'all will get the true world save. Where the server capital is a massive mountain range with sheer cliff faces. And the days prior to the server world and pack change I plan on dropping a total war scenario on y'all. Nuke each other and fight my dudes. Thanks for reading!

Orendi XV As with before, we have continued to write our Orendi in a newspaper-style format! Check out our full PDF Version, or take a look at the pages in image form below.

After nearly two years since our last puzzle, we are back with yet another! Good luck, and have fun!

Thanks! We have one person that takes the articles and puts them in that format, so I'll let him know his work is being appreciated.

Orendi XIV: Vernal Equinox Issue We have continued to experiment with our new Orendi format, first introduced in our previous issue! Check out our full PDF Version, or if you cannot read it, take a look at the pages in image form below.

The Frozen Realm of Wintreath Invitation to Werewolf XIV: A Werewolf of Ice and Fire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDyz-j4_StA (Editing credits: Hydra) Hello, friends and allies! Wintreath is hosting a very special game of Werewolf, and you are invited! Let me present to you... Double-Elimination Werewolf! You see, when you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. Not always, though, for oftentimes you get to go north to the Wall, instead of being lynched and killed! But don't worry, it's an honor to serve on the Night's Watch. Definitely won't be anything going wrong there... I welcome you all to join our game. To sign up, head on over to this thread! If you're unfamiliar with Werewolf or Mafia, here's a good overview of the general workings of the game. I hope to see you all in the royal court of King's Landing for a fun game of Werewolf! —taulover (Game Host)

Orendi XIII: Special Summersend Edition We are experimenting with a new Orendi format! Check out the pages below, or if you cannot read them, check out our PDF Version.

The festival is now open, and as promised, the direct link to the festival is here! Additionally, we are also posting announcements here to help you keep track of events and deadlines for each day. Hope to see you there!

I look forward to seeing you, then! And thank you for the invitation to post on your RMB. It's very gracious of you.

Invitation to Summersend Festival Venue construction is already ongoing! For the third year, Wintreath is hosting the Summersend Festival, our annual festival to celebrate the end of summer and the approach of cooler weather with fun and games for everyone! The festival will start on Friday, August 18th and run until Sunday, August 27th, and will include forum games, contests, discussions, roleplaying, scheduled gaming sessions, and more! Every year the Summersend Festival gets bigger and better, and I believe that this year will be no exception...if you have a chance, consider coming over for some of the fun and enjoy the festival with us. We'd be honoured to have you as our guest. We'll provide a link to the festival area as soon as it's open, but if you would like to make or update an account beforehand, our forum is located here. Hope to see you there!

Isn't it?! In this case, it's the original for the segment and best.

Orendi XII Wintreath Update 12 - July 2017 (a little late cuz mass effect marathoning takes time) Realms of Wintreath Wintreath - 228 nations New Hyperion - 77 nations Nowhere - 2 nations Government of Wintreath Monarch: Wintermoot Jarl of Culture: Gerrick Thane of Culture: Aragonn Thane of Foreign Affairs: Emoticonius Court Scribe: Justinian Ezkantion-Telcontar Jarl/Thane of Integration: Vacant Wintreath Celebrates 100,000 Posts! The wind and the snow has not kept us idle on the forums! 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. [spoiler=Wintreath Top 10 Topics of All Time]Top 10 Topics of All Time GENERAL: Say What's On Your Mind - 7185 posts SPAM: Double Post Game (Past Rounds) - 6829 posts SPAM: World Association - 4309 posts SPAM: Guess who will post next! - 2173 posts ROLEPLAY: From the Ashes: A Galactic Nations RP! (OOC) - 1522 posts CULTURE: Werewolf VI: Until Dawn - The New Chapter - 1497 posts SPAM: Spam Points (Past Rounds) - 1420 posts ROLEPLAY: Frostbite Tavern - 1092 posts SPAM: Count to 2,000 - 1014 posts SPAM: Count to 1,000 - 1004 posts[/spoiler] 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! The Culture Review 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! Interview with Ashton Mercer on his new RP, Empowered 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! News in Briefs Honestly, we really are too lazy to find another image. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 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. Thanks for reading!

Thank you! We certainly intend to do so.

Orendi XI Wintreath Update 11 - June 2017 (omg, monthly dispatches?!) Realms of Wintreath Wintreath - 286 nations New Hyperion - 76 nations Nowhere - 2 nations Government of Wintreath Monarch: Wintermoot Jarl of Culture: Gerrick Thane of Culture: Aragonn Thane of Foreign Affairs: Emoticonius Thane of Information: Crushita Jarl of Integration: Finrod Felagund Citizen's Corner Article by North From the Citizen's Corner recording studios... 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 North, who has been a Citizen since August 2015 and a constant presence in the Underhusen, the elected branch of our legislature. Here's what he had to say: Hello, Wintreath! I am a man who likes to keep things short and sweet and this is my first time writing anything like this, so bear with me here. I entered Wintreath a bit disillusioned with NationStates communities and was on the verge of leaving it entirely. I entered expecting another clusterfuck of epic proportions, another waste of time. And instead, I found a gaggle of some of the oddest people I've ever met, and I've met a man who cut off his thumbs for a bet (story for another time). But in spite of the oddity, the weirdness, and just about everything else this place has wormed its way into my heart. It'a a place of inclusiveness, a place for all to find a corner for themselves and a place worth protecting. So to anyone who finds themselves here, welcome and buckle up! This is a place for all and I hope in another year we can all stand together, stronger then before, and look upon a new, better, greater Wintreath! The Ainur Problem: A Lesson In Failure Article by Justinian Ezkantion A Microsope into Incompetence from Ainur's former Crown Prince Recently the government of Wintreath has finally decided to terminate their formal relations with a region that has been dead for a very long time. Ainur, a region founded with a Lord of the Rings-esque theme and a strong community dedication to its regional government, was once able to boast of a couple hundred nations and a vibrant RP community which oddly enough rarely had anything to do with its theme. However, over nearly 5 years of existence it slowly withered away into a lifeless zombie possessed by ~20 lurkers and with an offsite forum that hasn't been touched since August. To pinpoint when or how exactly this happened is pretty much impossible. A lot of events that crippled or should have crippled the region ended up being merely shrugged off by a still-dedicated core community. Perhaps Ainur can serve as yet another testament that no matter how dedicated your most loyal members are, things will decay without new blood no matter what. Really, some of the decisions that the inner circle of government in Ainur made (myself included) can be guidelines for what not to do when operating a region. To begin with, a certain significant person in Ainur's government (who shall remain anonymous even though you probably already know who I'm talking about) believed everyone else wasn't going to do as good a job as he was doing, even when the region was starting to plummet in terms of membership. Thus he tried very hard to prevent giving power to anyone else, because he was afraid they might muck it up, or that they were going to commit some sort of petty vengeance on him. Paranoia from the most powerful people rarely leads to a successful and healthy community. Secondly, as more and more of the core community (mainly those who had registered to the offsite forums) began to drop off as they grew older and started attending college, recruitment wasn't really very organized. You had one guy whose job it sort of was to recruit people through a legal API tool, and that job wasn't really being monitered very well. Whereas the region I currently inhabit, Wintreath, encourages manual recruitment as well through various rewards, there was no such system in Ainur at any point in time. In fact recruitment was such an enigma to me in Ainur that I didn't even understand how it worked until after I had left following two years of service in various positions. Thirdly, the amount of reach that Ainur had was dwindling constantly. While I was mostly in the dark about recruitment something I was quite aware of was how Ainur's projection through the greater NS community was shrinking. Our participation in the raider/defender game collapsed into nothing and the regional military effectively dissolved. While the game is hardly necessary to keep up a presence on the site, it certainly helped. The fact that we only posted perhaps once or twice to our site forums page, however, certainly didn't help. While some of those who remember the drama might point to the adoption of less noble individuals into our region causing regions to cut off diplomatic ties and ruin our reputation as the primary act of isolation, I would say that's simply not the case as diplomatic ties would be re-opened only a year later, yet the region was incapable of recovering its position. It was problems within, not without, that caused the reduction of Ainur's position. Due to the way that the government operated in its later years (Where a few people had a lot of power) when one person went inactive there were many, many functions of the region that suddenly ground to a halt. Responsibilities that were never given to anyone else, shoes that were never refilled, etc. For instance, when the Royal Chamberlain and the Newspaper Editor CTEd there wasn't a single regional update of any kind sent to anyone for months. The Ainurian government lost its functions as a sandblasted sculpture loses its features until it is naught but an unrecognizable pillar of stone. However the final nail in the coffin to any life supported region such as this comes when attempts to clean the slate and build anew are blocked by attachment to the old. When people become unwilling the change the region they've spent so much time in, they fail to breath new life into it, and the dissatisfied will simply seek greener pastures. Such is the case with Ainur, where almost every single member of government in the summer of 2016 left and never came back. While the immediate cause of the exodus, and with it Ainur's demise, was a series of unlawful bannings and regional drama, Ainur would have been able to recover were it not so insular, and that was a problem that had been permeating long before. May all this serve as a reminder, that no region is an island, and that even the closest of communities can collapse from within. Be warned, lest ye end up having to communicate on skype because apparently Discord is too complex my compatriots said while playing Dwarf Fortress. Signed, Eldarion III, King of Ainur (deal with it, Crush) Celebrating Pride Month with a New LGBTQ Forum Article by Gattoartico It's kinda like a digital version of this! I suppose something we are known for (not that I would know as this is my first and only region) is our LGBT community. In honor of Pride month we recently acquired an LGBT forum over here. Topics are already pretty great, from a discussion on a college course about all this to a thread about Drag Queens. I myself am responsible for at least one thread, one I intend to use as a place for members to introduce themselves as them. So that new and old members can find others who share similar experiences or just need a little guidance to help them find themselves. Wintermoot has started a thread chronicling his time taking Stanford's Transgender Inclusiveness course, a thread that is quite interesting to be perfectly honest. And another user created the thread on Drag Queens as they work towards becoming one. A great thread that I thought was pretty nifty so there. As well as quite a few others I just noticed to be perfectly honest with you. Quite a few others. Like, a lot. Like legit I don't think you comprehend how many here. A literal lot of threads. I feel like this is an important part of Wintreath that we often overlook. Which if I recall correctly is part of the reason Wintermoot made the forum. So, out of what little kindness remains in my black heart I elected to write this article. I've reached the point in this article where I've said all that I wanted to say but I still want it a little longer. So as a final note this particular part of our forums is always open to new and interesting threads, from personal experiences in life to maybe a thread discussing RuPaul's Drag Race. I honestly don't know what will crop up. But I hope to see it become an integral and active part of the region in the future. The Culture Review Article by Gerrick That's kinda what we do around here. This is the first installment of the Culture Review, written by me, Gerrick, 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. 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. As the Monarch’s Game Bag used to only be rewarded to those who won the Monthly Recruitment Contest, which had no winner for a year, it had no real use, and the Steam keys were left unused. To help with this as well as to help spur civil service activity, a new system was put in place to reward those who take the initiative to make Wintreath a better place. All of the games were split into two categories: Gold Rewards (those that cost at least $10 each) and Silver Rewards (those that cost less). Silver Rewards are given to those who write 2 articles for the Orendi, gain 1000 recruitment points in one month, or win Wintreath's Finest of the Month. Gold Rewards are given to those who win the Monthly Recruitment Contest, gain 2500 recruitment points in one month, win Wintreath's Finest of the Year, or complete two of the Silver Reward tasks. Rewards will also be given out during festivals, so make sure to attend our Summersend Festival in August! 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 May 2017’s Wintreath’s Finest was Justinian Ezkantion, who was nominated for creating and hosting the newest roleplay, the Wild Men of Wichita. I had the pleasure of interviewing him about the RP in an article in last month’s Orendi. The other nominations for Wintreath’s Finest were Fortis_Scriptor, who has written several stories and pieces of lore for the world he and Crushita are building for a book, and Elbbsas, who has been writing short timed prompts to work on her creative writing. Both Fortis_Scriptor and Elbbsas have helped revitalize the Halls of Art and Writing and have inspired others to post their works as well. 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 June 2017’s Avatar Theme of the Month was a tie between the FBI (nominated because of the ongoing high profile FBI investigations) and the Battle of Midway (the famous WWII naval battle that took place in early June 1942). Other nominations included Skyrim, flags (nominated because of Flag Day in the US, which takes place in June), and June as a name (May as a name was a nomination in last month’s contest). The Monthly Recruitment Contest is back after a year of having no winners. The winner of the contest must have the most recruitment points (with at least 1500) by the end of the month. Recruitment points are earned by manually sending out recruitment telegrams to new NationStates nations, using our recruitment tool. The winner of May 2017's Recruitment Contest was Mathyland, who recruited to 1578 nations. As the winner of the recruitment contest, he was then allowed to choose any game from the Monarch’s Game Bag, which he decided to be Sid Meier’s Civilization V. Spyfall is an easy-to-learn party game of bluffing, probing questions, clever answers, and suspicion. In the game, one player is the Spy and has to try to figure out their location, while all other players try to figure out who is the Spy without giving away their location. We had already had five games since it was first introduced to Wintreath in early 2015. This sixth game was made up of eight players and took place in a cathedral to Wintreath’s unofficial religion, Potatoeism. The non-Spy players took on roles (such as Bishop, Beggar, and Tourist) to help them ask and answer questions in-character. The game ended up lasting from May 30 until June 13 when BraveSirRobin, the Spy, figured out the location and won. Wintreath Does Yet Another Political Quiz Article by Wintermoot Cause it's not like we have better things to do, right? Over the course of the past month, members of the forum community have been taking the 8 values political quiz, which attempts to place you among four axis based on your responses to various political issues it asks about. Overall, the quiz determined that the forum community as a whole tends to be socialist, globalist, libertarian, and progressive. Even the most "conservative" member, Justinian Ezkantion, was described by the quiz as a centrist, with most members being categorized into libertarian socialism or social libertarianism. Overall, it was an interesting look into where individual members and the region as a whole stands on various issues! Below is a description of each axis and the two values that comprise it as stated on the website, along with some information on where the region stands on each axis. News in Briefs Honestly, we're too lazy to find another image this time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Wintreath was featured on NationStates' "The World Page" on June 30th, which led to over a dozen nations finding their way to the region! If for some reason you find the urge to read all the past Orendi editions, you can now do so in our new Orendi Archive, which includes every edition ever published along with its date of publication. Wintermoot has been making efforts to make the Wintreath website more mobile-friendly, although this is an on-going effort. Based on feedback, our Citizenship App was changed to include a space for new Citizens to introduce themselves and to separate NationStates-related questions to a separate section (being involved in NS has been optional for Citizenship since November 2016). Could Stellaris games be in Wintreath's future? Thanks for reading!

Thank you guys for the kind words!

Orendi XWintreath Update 10 - May 2017 (Very, very late)Realms of WintreathWintreath - 302 nationsNew Hyperion - 80 nationsNowhere - 2 nationsGovernment of WintreathMonarch: WintermootJarl of Culture: GerrickThane of Culture: AragonnThane of Foreign Affairs: EmoticoniusThane of Information: CrushitaJarl of Integration: Finrod Felagund Citizen's CornerArticle by Gattoartico, winner of Wintreath's Finest April 2017From the Citizen's Corner recording studios... 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: Elections for the 21st UnderhusenArticle by CrushitaServing up steaks and politics 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 logoCrushita ran a six word campaign.Best of luck to the new Underhusen! Interview with Justinian Ezkantion on his new RP, The Wild Men of WichitaArticle by GerrickGerrick (right) sits with Justinian Ezkantion for an interview. 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... A gang from the world of the Wild Men of Wichita. Wintreath Reconsiders Nation RequirementsArticle by WintermootWintreath. Live it. Now without the nation requirement. 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". Wintreath Debates Skyrim Civil WarArticle by WintermootThis was the re-enactment portion of the debate and totally not us actually fighting about it. 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. News in BriefsBeen waiting on Charax to freshen this bit up for a few years now. In a contest to rename the Minecraft Server, the server's current name, "Official Wintreath Minecraft Server" beat out 15 other suggestions, narrowly winning over "WintCraft" and "Wintreath's Blocky and Frosty Paradise". The server will retain the current name. The first regional Diplomacy game recently concluded, with a draw between xXTheHydraXx (Russia), taulover (France), and Elbbsas (England). The Wintreath Facebook Page reached 50 likes in April, and currently has 53! Wintermoot dissolved the Ministry of Defense in March after months of ministry inactivity. Discussions about the future of the region's participation in NationStates R/D are ongoing. Development of a new statistics page on the website is ongoing. When finished, the new statistics area cover various stats and will allow for better, data-driven decisions to be made. Thanks for reading!

Before you is ANOTHER coded message, one you may find more difficult to solve but will certainly take you places if you do! Good luck. We're thrilled that so many regions enjoyed the last puzzle. I hope that you will enjoy this one as well. PS: With Colberius having gone awol for awhile now, we may be sending a new ambassador your way soon.

Looks like you got it! ^-^ This has been very popular in most regions, so there will probably be another puzzle in the next month or so. Be on the lookout!

Greetings! Colberius X has presumably become busy with real life, so I will be posting this one.

Hello! I think Colberius has been busy in real life lately, so I'll field this one. Our goals for the immediate future were detailed in my recent State of the Region Address, and includes developing our culture even further, maintaining and expanding our diplomatic network, and making sure the two compliment each other. I'm not sure that we have goals for specific regions other than maintaining active embassies, but if TWP would like to pursue closer relations we're open to the possibility.

Orendi VII Wintreath Foreign Update Government of Wintreath Monarch: Wintermoot Jarl of Culture: Amalya (Pengu as Acting Jarl) Jarl of Defense: Chanku Jarl of Foreign Affairs: Wintermoot Jarl of Integration: Point Breeze Jarl of WA Affairs: Reon A Message from the Monarch Just another standard photo op for the Monarch. Article by Wintermoot. Greetings, friends and allies of Wintreath. You may have noticed that this is the first Orendi to be dispatched in quite a few months. As we have worked to overhaul our foreign affairs program, it has become apparent that it takes a great amount of time and effort to put this dispatch together, and because of that we will be scaling the Orendi back from a monthly dispatch to a seasonal dispatch, with each edition covering events from the season before in detail. Between releases, we will continue to send smaller dispatches covering everything from events going on in the region to interviews to tidbits about the region. We feel this is the best way to maintain active relations and embassies with all of our diplomatic partners. I hope that you enjoy reading our latest Orendi, and that relations between our regions continue to grow and prosper. Judicial Reform Perplexes Wintreath The fight over Judicial reform! Article by Wintermoot In a region that has seen few political divisions, the debate and continued failure to come to agreement on judicial reform stands out. While most Citizens agree that the current judicial system isn't working, there are a wide variety different ideas on the system that should replace it. Proposals have included the creation of a jury pool of Citizens whose members would be selected to hear cases at random, the creation of an elected Supreme Court, the transfer of judicial authorities to the Monarch, and the abolition of the judiciary entirely. While the debate has been on-and-off since June, to date no proposal has passed the Storting with the 2/3 supermajority required to amend the Fundamental Laws, the Constitution of our region. Given that proposals most also pass a referendum by the same supermajority, it goes without saying that any judicial proposal has a harrowing journey to passage. To better understand the diversity of ideas and the mindsets behind them, I've approached some of our current and past members of government that have advocated a particular solution with one question: why do you feel your stance is the right one for Wintreath over the others? Reon (Underhusen Skrifa): You have recently authored and introduced the Omnibus Judicial Repeal, stating that it was in anticipation of another amendment bringing judicial authorities to the Monarch. Why do you feel this is the best approach for Wintreath? Joshua Bleuteisen (Underhusen Skfria): In the current debate, you have openly supported abolishing the judiciary and going as far as stating you wouldn't support any other judicial reform proposal. Why do you feel abolishment is the best approach for Wintreath? Wintermoot (Monarch): You authored the first judicial reform attempt, the Administration of Justice Amendment Act, which would have created a jury pool with members selected at random for each court case, but withdrew support for it after it failed in the Storting not once, but twice. Why did you feel this was the best approach for Wintreath? Chanku (Underhusen Speaker): To date, you have opposed all proposals for judicial reform and have instead recently proposed two Acts, the Judicial Offices Omnibus Amendment Act and the Case Selection Procedure Act, both of which aim to fix the current system. Why do you feel fixing the current system is the best approach for Wintreath? Games, Games, and more games to come! A collection of Wintreath's many games to play! Article by Pengu If there's anything that we know anyone loves, it's games, and this may be something that is slowly becoming what Wintreath can be known for. What started as a single Werewolf game has exploded into much more because of the astounding participation from both our citizens and residents, as well as our growing tourist population. In fact, as of writing this, Werewolf is in the works of its 4th game with one of our newest citizens, Laurentus, taking the helm. Spyfall was also introduced into Wintreath, and was met with much enthusiasm. Now, our acting Jarl of Culture is working on more ideas to cook up on what to bring to Wintreath in the form of regional games and contests. Some of his ideas include Clue, Resistance, 20 questions, and even an interactive form of Choose your own Adventure. We're looking forward to see just what other games will be popping up around Wintreath, and we hope to see all of you taking part when they do. Citizen of the Month Contest Established, Amalya First Winner Citizens discuss what makes someone a Citizen of the Month. Article by Wintermoot. Wintreath recently had its first Citizen of the Month election, where Citizens can nominate and then choose an outstanding member of the community that has had a great impact on the region and the people in it. The Citizen of the Month then gets a special forum mask with the colour of their choice and the opportunity to be interviewed so everyone can get to know their Citizen of the Month and their reflections on their time in the region. The first person to be recognized by our Citizens is our Jarl of Culture, Amalya, who is someone I can safely say has touched so many of us in the community for the better through her openness, honesty, charm, humour, and strength to stand up for who she is and what she believes in. She's been a true role model for everyone here, and it's an absolute honour to be able to interview her. It's the Great Election Day Wintermoot! This new election term is already full of surprises! Article by Pengu. Last term, we had a list of candidates run for office, though none of the candidates had campaigned. It was something that was dreaded to happen in the future, because it was something that had potentially foreshadowed what the term itself was going to be like. This term however, has proved quite the opposite! Very shortly after elections had opened, candidates began to pop up like daisies. And in an equal amount of time, campaign threads began to pop up as well! While only half of the candidates have started campaigning as of writing this, it's definitely a welcome change compared to last term. And it's proving to be quite exciting so far too! Almost immediately after campaign threads came up did questions start pouring in for our candidates. Between answering those, the debates being sparked in the campaign threads, and the action that it's sparked in candidates taking the initiative to do things in other parts of the forum...let's just say it's been quite an exciting election process so far for Wintreath, and no matter who gets elected this term, it'll be an election to remember. News in Briefs Happy news makes for happy briefs! Wintreath held a successful festival with The North Pacific which lasted from February 8th to the 13th and included a AMA for Wintermoot and McMasterdonia, an event to match people up with new friends from the other region, and an icebreaker that led to discussion of everything from hobbies to music. Wintreath committed to eventually adopting a regional currency later in the spring. A regional contest gave us the name of this future currency, the Krone. A Sunshine Policy was announced regarding discussions of the Riksråd, the regional Cabinet. Cabinet discussions will now be made public after one year. Acting Jarl of Culture Pengu brought Werewolf (Mafia) games to the region, which have become a huge success and has thus far resulted in three very fun games. Plans are under way for a fourth game hosted by new Citizen Laurentus in the near future. Wintreath entered into a treaty pact with The Rejected Realms in November, and just recently entered into a treaty of friendship with Ainur. Since the publication of the last Orendi, Wintreath has established relations with Taijitu, Mordor, and The South Pacific(again). Hello, new friends! Thanks for reading!

You get a whole month off for spring break?