The last 40 something days have seen bubbling away in the order of several concerns particularly by a newer group of players. I'm not going to name names as I've the feeling that I'm about to get an absolute pile on. I've been very vocal about my concerns with the region to those in positions of "power" and got nothing so I, like many others feeling down about things, have retreated to my own little clique where we feel comfortable. We essentially have two "leaders" in TIO, Beatrice as Grand Chancellor and Dave as RP Mod. I've been in touch with both of them continiusly since this first came up. If I give you a run down of my time in TIO you'll see where the big issues are and why others, who I hope will be more open, feel in the same way.

I was recruited in so to speak by Dave, the region had no formal "Hi welcome" type thing no clear or obvious way to get started, that wasn't a problem because I'm an experienced RPer and had got chatting with Dave over in NS so knew I could message him. The first impression when you join is no one gives a shit. I've seen it happen with other new people since, they introduce themselves and you can literally guess who will respond to them. Now I have reasonably thick skin but others don't. We've seen people being massively critical of things as soon as people start posting. Most recently "Oh not another Teuton" , or "Wow another monarchy not like we haven't got enough" or things along those lines. Straight away you feel like this is a community that has limits and constraints and you ask yourself if this is really the region for you. It becomes especially worse because you have no idea about the pecking order, geopolitics etc in the region when you join and you see that quiet often its people with masks on the forum or discord such as "Mod" or "Noble" that are involved so immediately you question your choices. If people stick with it though we have people like Rob, Dave, Nova and Markus that go out their way to help you get your direction and feel like you've some understanding of Mundus.

This then leads to the second issue. There is a very definite pecking order in the geopolitics of Mundus. That is how it should be, obviously in the real world their is too and so if we're simulating life there should be on Mundus. Just as in real life though that pecking order changes just in a RP region it should and must change quicker than in RL. We haven't got the 100 or so years to watch an Empire slowly crumble or the 15 years or so for election reforms. The problem is you very quickly get the idea that this order must be preserved in Mundus. Its backed by two alliances that since I joined just under a year ago have done nothing constructive. The CNN might as well not exist and the CSTO/CSU is fluffed with people who don't contribute anything to RP in the region. I could, and probably should just ignore them, but I want to be a good RPer and as such it would be impossible in real life not to take them into consideration. When I informed people that I'm in the middle of a plot that would create a kind of global network that could potentially stand up to both these established systems its prompted a message to the whole region that "Individual decisions, or actions of groups outside the RP leadership, will be reviewed and catagorized for what they are. There will be no gaming of the Orderian RP." I'm not gaming, I'm seeing the CSU/CNN etc as a problem for nations in the world and as a nation that wants to be seen as a global player I've started trying to do something. Now I'm not expecting a mega 20 nation alliance to spring up tomorrow but the very fact that I trusted someone with these details and rather than watching it happen the leadership have seen fit to send a message that the world order must be preserved reinforces my issue that we have a pecking order and I should know my place. I've been in touch with Beatrice and seen that she's offering to get rid of Rokkenjima etc, and while thats comendable thats not what I want. I asked Dave about the quality of RP in this region before I joined and he linked me to two people's RP stuff, quiet a bit on the old forum. One was Beatrice's, I think she's an amazing writer and story-teller, the other was Markus' Tamora stuff. Both those examples are what we should aim for as a region creating stories in reaction to others and not as we're becoming to preserve a position. I think the Rokkenjima of the old forum deservedly held a place as a super-power that nations respected. I'm now not of that opinion of Rokkenjima and as a result I think I should be within my rights to RP that Altona would perhaps do something about it, and that I should be allowed to RP that without being accused of gaming or told that anything I do to disrupt canon will be vetod.

Canon is also another issue. Its based on stuff involving nations that are long gone. If they left TIO they left, get over it move on. Yesterday I saw my friend and Teutonic buddy Hassfurt leave because they felt ostricised by a region where on Discord people had been critical of their writing both because it was hard to understand (their Portugese and German is their 2nd languge, English their third and part of being here was to try and improve their English. So imagine how it sucks when people say they can barely understand you. I'm amazed at the quality that Markus writes when I believe he's Romanian, his RP writing is better than mine and I'm a native speaker) and because they had a RL negative view of the nation, probably correctly so. Hassfurt was an interesting concept that could have lead to so much cool RP but everytime anyone mentioned their name someone followed it with Nazi and people refused to interact with them. All RP doesn't have to be at the highest level of government and we shouldn't be expecting people, especially people new to the region, to be the ones instigating RP. Its up to the existing people in the region to help and nurture them. We all are here because we're interested in story telling, help people write stories. One of the most intriguing RP's to me at the moment is Nova and Lijiang's smuggling RP. Its something moving forward we can all have fun with but hardly anyone is doing anything in RP beyond diplomatic stuff and as a new nation it becomes hard to get involved. As a result you do something like a coronation, and two people turn up, which means you're vision of hierachy and cliques is reinforced. Now I don't think we should force people to attend but if we're going to encourage people to stay we need to make time to involve them in our worlds and we have to take that step not them. I think of TIO a bit like a house share, if you're the new person you don't want to steal someone elses place on the sofa so you wait for everyone else to get settled before you sit down and then after a few weeks you've found your feet.

Next we've the issue of the the RP rules. I've been accused of gaming because I'm trying to put together a group of nations that could work together to challenge the perceived intolerance/injustice/hypocricy etc that IC exists on Mundus. To me this is not a bad aim for a nation to have. I'm not forcing anyone to join, I'm not going to suddenly post an announcement that I've signed a treaty with three other nations. I intend to RP it out and quiet likely in the process if I'd pulled it off I'd have been seeing Altona being called quiet manipulative, which is what I aimed for. I jokingly the other day said Altona was going to try and buy all the uranium because its trying to monopolise the nuclear power industry and we kind of noticed during a discord chat a lot of uranium producing nations were not members of the MAEA. This sparked an arguement about the importance and history of the MAEA during this I jokingly messaged Maes and said "betting by the end of the week the CSU/CNN have a new source of uranium." Soon after its found in Clysperis. I get new resources can just be discovered in RL but to me as someone who had found a little niche in the world that could have made interesting RP it looks very suspect. Gaming is already taking place on Mundus people say something on Discord and suddenly something happens IC that puts someone in a better position to either take advantage, counter it or one up it.

Another concern is that we seem to be obsessed with arguing. A good example here is the Cool and the Dodo arguement. Dave had to go to bat for a good half an hour on the behalf of Cool who had written something interesting. The first thought on that should have been a) is it damaging RP b) is it likely to be doable c) is it interesting. For all I care Cool could have brought back the Mammoth as it'd have no impact on RP for me he'd just have some stupid looking elephants. Could he bring back a dinosaur, no cos that's just bizarre. Meanwhile we've navies and air forces rocking improbable looking equipment. I honestly believe we have people on discord that if someone said the grass was green would demand you open your window and take a picture with a copy of todays newspaper next to it. Some of the arguements don't even make sense. Yesterday I witnessed an RP post, or the poster I couldn't tell which, get called "Pathetic" with no more feedback given and then when asked by the author politely for some just ignored. The fact anyone would call either a poster or their work "pathetic" is awful. It was clear lots of research, time effort and thought had gone into the post. Now these issues are bad enough but when they come from people with titles of nobility and mods it becomes worse because they are, rightly or wrongly, seen as the government of this region. They are the people the Grand Chancellor has effectively given some form of power to which makes our region work.

Finally we have the manner in which I think this has been handled. I exchanged messages with Beatrice when this began, I know Rob did too. We engaged with consultations on the forum. We made suggestions. Now I've seen today I've effectively been told to go make my own region, that my RP will be blocked and that the GC's door is "always open" well I stepped through that door around 40 days ago. The problem with an open door policy is that if you only ever expect people to step through it and don't leave your office to go and speak to people you'll find people stop stepping through the open door.

Now Tytor said people need to make suggestions. He's right and I have several times both on the forum , in private and on discord. Here having reached this point is what I would do.

1) Have no GC involvement in determing what RP is permitted. The post today saying "Individual decisions, or actions of groups outside the RP leadership, will be reviewed and catagorized for what they are. There will be no gaming of the Orderian RP." is for me saying their is a non-changable RP hierachy that must be maintained. I now also no longer trust Dave fully to see to the interest in the community in terms of what RP is allowed in terms of a hierachy. I think Dave does a great job and frankly without him TIO would be dead. I think though for any RP to be veto'd now he's lost trust I'd want to see two of Nova, Markus or Rob in a position to work alongside Dave to make sure RP is fair. Dave should remain as RP Mod and does a great job checking realism, supporting players in terms of IC involvement.

2) The nobility must be scrapped. It means nothing and everything it did mean is irrelevant. It gives the impression a person is important or significant in the region and while at one time they may have been the set up now requires three roles. A Grand Chancellor, A RP Mod and someone for if the rules outside RP are broken. I have no issue with keeping the people in the jobs that currently do them. Beatrice has at times been the gold standard for what this region can be, Dave works tremendously hard and Achkaerin has a good knowledge of the rules of the region. They could be a solid team if they get the RP side of the region right and frankly thats why we are here.

3) Sort the mods out. If your new to a region you see the word "Mod" and think they are the people who will be supportive and helpful. We have Mods who are not actively engaging with people in the region. Now the arguement will be "their discord mods and are just people active to make sure no problems are happening on Discord." well we get once chance to make a good first impression and when the mods are inactive in the main reason why people join the region then its not a great look.

4) Consistency and being pro-active - We've seen huge knee jerk reactions to things. Today is a prime example. "Rokkenjima is a NPC", "I'm giving up my powers that'll show em."........moments later "Can someone mask me back with my old powers." When something happens we need to take more time before doing things. 40+ days on consulting on a change though isn't acceptable. Its no use saying my doors open and leaving it at that a good leader is someone who is pro-active. Beatrice has known for 40 odd days I'm one of those annoyed with the region. Never in that time has she asked if I've seen any improvement.

5) We need a community that isn't living in the past. Rayyu the other day calculated that we have just shy of 40 active nations, that activity ranges from people just active on Discord, to people posting maybe one RP a month and then Dave who posts several times an hour. I've seen more mention of SANE on the Discord and people discussing ideas with them despite none of them being active for a long time now. Meanwhile we've got things and groups actively trying to do things and no one cares. That is fixed not by some rule change but by people getting outside their clique. Once a month Dave, or someone helping him, should post a global incident. We could then post on NS maybe the response to it from various nations in like a news round up. So I've seen one of the Celts has  a volcano thing erupting, why not see if we can have like the Icelandic one that shut down air stuff, maybe get some tourists trapped etc. Instead though what will happen is it'll likely just become a news post thats interesting while people discuss what colour uniform boots their soldiers had in 1963.

I joined TIO hopeful of amazing RP. I've seen absolute gems of stories and ideas. If we want the region to last please change.

To:- Minister Mikhailov

We are grateful for your kind words on our scientists and engineers achievements. As a Kingdom we are proud of the work they are doing and hope that one day the whole of Mundus could benefit from the work.

Having forwarded your request to my government arrangements have been made for Prince Lukas to arrive at your convenience with Professor Jozef Thibaun of the Altonan Electrical Syndicate (AES) who are the nations largest operator of nuclear energy and have been conducting experiments into nuclear fusion. Joining them shall also be Professor Klaus Ragner of the  Illumic Shores Technological Institute (ISTI), a prestigious University in our nation which has been undertaking some of the more unique experiments with nuclear energy in recent months.

It is our hope that the two Professors will be able to answer any technical questions you have while Prince Lukas represents the royal family who have a 25% stake in both AES and ISTI.

We look forward to hearing a positive outcome of your meeting.

All the Best

Ambassador Joachim Mitte

With no one having opposed Altona's entry to MICA Rutger was pleased that he was seemingly its newest member, at least perhaps for a few minutes. Rutger was rather familiar with the system of government in Eskdale even if he did believe that it made very little sense. He did though want Eskdale in the organisation and the reasoning Keynes gave seemed to make sense as to why they needed this arrangement. If it was to be like other organisations debates could see people with a veritable herd of advisers and specialists accompanying them and often speeches were written by experts before hand. It didn't really matter then who spoke on behalf of Eskdale as long as they couldn't pool their votes and muscle the organisation to do what they wanted. "So long as Eskdale is only given one vote then I would support their entry into MICA. Internal politics is there concern and while it may take a few minutes longer in debate to get a wider range of views from those who live in the region is important."

Rutger wasn't entirely satisfied but there was enough in it to secure in essence what he wanted. "With this seemingly accepted then I would like to confirm that my Kingdom will be joining the organisation, unless of course there is a motion to block membership." He scanned the table carefully hoping this would not be the case, he knew he was going to ruffle Heyran feathers with his proposal but he hadn't counted on the Vaguzians being so against it. He was however confident that he would be able to secure the support of East Moreland and Bakkermaya at least.

If we're going to try and fix the problems this needs to be moved forward.

A few issues with the proposal which I was hoping this constitution might address.

1. Privvy Council - No idea who it consists of at the moment but it will be headed by CGJ who isn't active, and then made up of Dave and Ach, infact Ach holds two of the four positions and I've no idea who the Regional Affairs Liason is or what they do. I assume they'd be in the new constitution.

2. There is a lot of talk of "Foreign Affairs". Things need to be kept focused on sorting out this place first.

• Abortion: Only permitted if the life of the mother is at risk.

• Adultery: Not a crime but along with violence and neglect is one of the three permitted reasons for divorce.

• Affirmative action: Not practiced

• Age of consent: 16

• Age of majority: 16

• Artificial insemination: Permitted.

• Assisted suicide: Permitted only as part of a living will and with approval of two medical professionals.

• Bestiality: Illegal.

• Birth control: Widely avaliable.

• Childcare: Subsidised for 15 hours a week between 0-4 years of age.

• Concealed carry: Permitted with permit from the Police. This is granted after background and medical checks and successful completion of a range safety course which must be renewed every five years.

• Death penalty: Used only for cases of multiple murder

• Divorce: Permitted only if there has been violence, adultery or neglect within the marriage.

• Double jeopardy: Not permitted

• Drinking age: 18

• Driving age: 16

• Education: School is compulsory for  all between the age of 4 and 18. There are a wide choice of educational options.

• Eminent domain: Permitted for projects of "National importance"

• Equal pay for equal work: Yes

• Felony disenfranchisement: Anyone convicted of a crime is suspended from being called up to the Witan for a period of five years.

• Flag desecration: No rules

• Gambling age: 18

• Gun purchase age: 18

• Homosexuality in the military: No rules

• Human cloning: Illegal

• In vitro fertilization: Legal

• Marriageable age: 18

• Military conscription: National Service takes place via lottery. Currently there is a 1 in 3 chance of serving. An individual called up serves 18 months.

• Minimum wage: Established annually by the Witan

• Parental leave: If married a couple may claim a total of 18 months, this for example could see the mother take all 18 months, or a man take six months and the mother a year.

• Polygamy: Not permitted. While anyone following a faith that permits it is not punished under law only the first wife is considered legal.

• Pornography: Proof of age required for 18

• Prostitution: Permitted but only within licenced premises with strict rules. Anyone found involved in prostitution outside of these venues is liable to five years in prison.

• Same-sex marriage: Not religiously permitted however civil partnerships are considered a legal contract and are permitted.

• School leaving age: 18

• Sex reassignment surgery: Permitted if privately funded.

• Sex toys: Permitted

• Sexually transmitted diseases: No set rules.

• Smoking age: 16

• Sodomy laws:- No legal stance

• State ideology: Non established.

• State religion: Sigynism however freedom of religion exists.

• Stem cell research: Permitted

• Taxation: Sliding scale income tax complimented by a general sales tax and a few other forms of specific taxation such as on cigarettes.

• Torture: Not permitted

• Trial by jury: Six randomly selected people.

• Universal healthcare: For non-cosmetic cases paid for by taxation.

• Voting age: No elections take place as government consists of a randomly selected Witan.

• Women's rights: Protected in law

• Working age: A person may not work more than 20 hours a week and no more than four hours in a day until 16 years of age.

• Working week: Overtime must be paid after 40 hours have been worked.

Lukas Sόlldorf was born in 1980 and is the eldest child of King Gottschalk and Queen Lucille. As with boys of the family he attended Altona Grammar School for Boys and graduated 33rd out of a year group of 49 students. He was not much of an academic and so voulenteered for regular military service rather than national service. He joined the Royal Parachute Regiment in 1998 and seemed to excel at soldiering. In 2003 he was transfered to the 1st Battalion which is in essence the elite of the Parachute Regiment. He served in that until 2010 when he took up a position in T Battalion which undertakes the administration of training new recruits. By 2015 he was Chief of Training for the unit. In 2015 he returned to regular service. Despite his father asking him to take up some government position he refused preferring to stay in the military.

In 2003 he married Kamille who was the daughter of a prominent Wildhόter of the faith. The pair of four children, Gottschalk who was born in 2005, Hans who was born in 2008, Victoria who was born in 2011 and Gertrude who was born in 2015. When not on base his family live at the Hunting Palace

After failing in the election for King Lukas he returned to the Parachute Regiment with the rank of Lt-Col. He manages T-Battallion and also acts as a Special Adviser on Military Matters for his brother.


RL- Johnny Mercer

Rutger didn't really understand the need to make a journey of such a short distance by car but this wasn't his event to host and so he did as requested. Rutger already had an interest in joining but it was interesting to see just how economically vibrant the area was. "If I may be first to respond" Rutger said "Obviously I can only speak on my own nations behalf but I'd be very interested in joining however I do have a concern. Since the organisation was set up each of you involved have evolved your relationships beyond the region. Heyra had a series of interests in places like Elysium, East Moreland have partnerships with TUNA, and of course Bakkermaya are a member of that organisation as well as this. While I think that is commendable I don't want to have Altona end up with effectively a one way street in terms of trade. What I mean by that is I don't want an arrangement where a car can be made in Paracambi and end up being sold tariff free in Altona having used the East Moreland-TUNA arrangement as a kind of back door. Meanwhile goods going from Altona to Paracambi face such taxes. I'll hold my hands up and say I'm no expert on each of the deals that govern things such as the Elysium arrangement or the East Moreland CSU deal for example. Therefore if Altona are to join I'd like to see a few changes to the charter."

With that Rutger presented each of the guests with a document.

We propose the current wording

2. All members agree to permit trade from MICA members tariff free so long as the following criteria are meet.

a) Companies abide by all local rules governing health and safety.
b) Companies abide by all local laws governing prohibited materials and substances.
c) Companies pay local taxes at the same rate as local companies.

Be changed to

2. All members agree to permit trade of products, goods and services that originate from MICA members tariff free so long as the following criteria are meet. For the purpose of this charter products and goods are classed as originating from a MICA member if at least 75% of the processes required to complete it are undertaken in a MICA nation. Services are classed as originating from a MICA member if they are carried out from a registered office within the borders of a MICA nation by a company registered for tax in a MICA nation.

a) Companies abide by all local rules governing health and safety.
b) Companies abide by all local laws governing prohibited materials and substances.
c) Companies pay local taxes at the same rate as local companies.

Having let those around the table read the proposal Rutger waited, "I await your decision."

Being honest here. Whenever I'm on discord I see people starting arguements because their writing RP aimed at messing with other people rather than writing a story, I see people in apparent positions of power wanting rules changing to suit them or their posse (i.e recently 7th provinces and retrospective nukes for some) , we've then constant moans about maps etc. Also if I'm honest since this blew up I had no idea the Grand Chancellor and Vice Chancellor were not just silly names for people who had moderation power on Discord. I also had no idea we even had a government. Since joining the only person with any title or such that has reached out to me is Dave. If we're supposed to have a government then surely we should see it doing things.

King Rutger was still unsure over MICA. He had spent several hours studying the charter and there were parts he liked but then again it was full of issues. The concept was something he knew the people back home would approve of though and with his reign still in its infancy there would be need to bring back something from this meeting. He had decieded to bring his elder brother Lukas with him and the pair had a trip to Portworth planned after the meeting had finished to check out the dockyards there as part of a wider idea the King had. The duo arrived first in Northfort and were slightly disappointed to have missed getting a boat with either Grand Duke Hugo or Prince Giuseppe.

"Good morning gentleman, Your Majesty, Your Graces." he did the rounds offering a hand to each person and then introduced his brother. "I look forward to getting to see whether we can work out something for our membership." he added.

Altona votes for Keepton

To:- The Dual Monarchs of Hassfurt

I am writing to you to request that your nation permit representatives from our nuclear energy industry be permitted to host an exhibition of our work and products within your nation. We believe that a cross Illumic partnership would be possible and that showcasing to the nations of Alba Karinya our potential we could help all nations of your continent with their energy production needs.
We hope that you will grant this request.

King Rutger of Altona

To:- King Heydar of Royal Seleucid

I am writing to you to request that your nation permit representatives from our nuclear energy industry be permitted to host an exhibition of our work and products within your nation. We have read about the Blue project serving as a showcase for cross nation enterprise and believe that it may be a perfect venue for us to discuss the regions electrical generation needs.

We hope that you will grant this request.

King Rutger of Altona

"A loose co-operative of nations would find more support from ourselves. We though wouldn't just be willing to support "nuclear sovereignty" without question. For example should Slava Lavosk style situations come up again then I believe the international community should stand together to ensure such programmes never get up and running. Should nations like Lijiang however, nations that have not threatened anyone for at least 120 years and since then sought only friendship and co-operation with the world, seek nuclear development then we would. I think the issue is taking a blanket approach is dangerous in both regards. We will though watch any attempts you make with interest."

"Now in regards to the Lake all that would be going into the lake is fresh water from the mountains. Now in regards to shale gas beneath the lake I think a project to perhaps map the gas deposits would need to take place. Naturally you take what is yours and we take what is ours, an alternative way would be that we establish a company between ourselves to extract the gas. With natural resources like gas not respected the cartographical boundaries of Mundus perhaps we could determine the extent of a shared gas field if any exists. Should for example that project determine 55% of the field sits in Lakhzovia you get 55% of the new company and we get 45%, or whatever the percentages are. We then get to ensure we fairly extract gas without taking resources which would be fairly described as the others." Rutger was no geologist but he didn't imagine a pocket of natural gas would suddenly stop at a border post and perhaps this was a fair way of dividing things.

"In terms of communications links remember that our nation is much much smaller just 8.5 million of us and most living in the sprawling city of Altona here. Once away from the Illumic coast we've a series of small villages that are home to what I think you'd best consider frontiersman who desire the isolation. It is going to be necessary as we hope to expand our nation to be connected and roads and rails will be a necessity. We however have no immediate rush for large scale development. We can however see the idea of a rail line being of importance for freight in the short term so perhaps this could be a priority."

Rutger found the twist in the conversation rather surprising. He had the impression that Lakhzovia and Rokkenjima shared some connections through the Cross Straits various bodies. The fact that they were so openly considering a rival organisation to the Rokkenjiman pet project of the MAEA was interesting. "We had a conversation between the three of us who could have become monarch about the MAEA. We think on paper its a great idea however like any treaty it only starts off on paper. It then  almost gains a life of its own. We saw the way the Rokkenjimans treated Lijiang just over the matter of where to build a HQ, our conclusion was that the MAEA therefore would be used to feather the bed of certain nation. Our fear was that the clauses of the treaty that are supposed to ensure safety could be manipulated to stop nations using certain partners or designs forcing the market to favour certain nations. Rokkenjima have been offering nuclear power to people yet no one has taken it up, meanwhile ourselves and Fleur are offering partnerships based on a business model that have seen interest. The difference being we are not tying people into a closed market. The MAEA makes nuclear power a closed market and as we see with oil prices that can be easily manipulated to disfavour nations such as yours or Lijiang. My fears for an alternative organisation is that we find then a threeway approach to nuclear energy, two power blocs using influence to manipulate what should be an open market, and then those who believe each nation should be responsible for its own trade decisions.

 In the short term as soon as we can construct power lines and infastructure we can start sending our surplus energy your way. I would also ask that the lake upon our border be given some permission for us to do some work on the Atonan side of it. We have an idea for a hydro-electric power plant that would take water from part of a small lake in our hills about 15km from the border. We'd build a pond from there, drop the water vertically down through a series of turbines and then along various turbines in pipes until it was depositted in that lake. As such we'd be able to instantly have generation in times of high demand, possibly either side of the border. Naturally I do not want actions taken at the lake to have an impact on relations between our nations."