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Frattastan:

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WA Delegate: Deadeye Jack
| Culture Officer: Sarah Bread| Foreign Affairs Officer: Kyorgia|
| Outreach Officer: Bowshot118| World Assembly Officer: Bormiar
Speaker of the Assembly: Chimes
Double election bonanza
By Kyorgia


Kyorgia being announced as the winner of his officer seat

On April 5th Rejects once again headed to the ballot box to decide who would govern them for the next four months. However this election was different than most since there was elections for both officers and the speaker of the assembly.

The election was one of the most contested in recent memory with six people running for four officer positions and two people running for the speakership. incumbents Sarah Bread, Bormiar and Manson ran for reelection, with Bowshot, Kyorgia and Agalaesia also running for the position. Following a close vote Sarah Bread and Bormiar was reelected and Bowshot and Kyorgia also being elected. Sarah was made culture officer moving over from outreach the previous term, Bormiar was given the new World assembly officer role (you will be able to read about that later in the update), Bowshot was made outreach officer and finally Kyorgia was made the foreign affairs officer.

The speaker election was less contested than the officer but no less important to the region. At the end of the challenge period there was two people running for the position, Former speaker Fauxia and Chimes (also known as Jamie). In the end Jamie won in a landside victory of 14 to 1.

World Assembly Affairs: A new start for TRR?
By Morover


Officer Bormiar informing the region of the latest World Assembly resolution

The Rejected Realms has gone through a rather large internal change recently! In the recent officer election, candidate Bormiar ran and won on a primarily World Assembly Affairs-based platform. This has sparked a large shift in the internal structure of TRR, as the Media Officer is replaced with a World Assembly Officer - a vast expansion of the department of the World Assembly.

Applications for becoming a staff member of the Rejected Realms World Assembly Department have since opened, and the summarizations released by Morover prior to the election have been replaced with a more descriptive pros/cons list, the first few of which have just recently been rolled out. The WA Ping program which was in place prior to Bormiar's election is still in place, and you can be added to it by contacting either Bormiar or Morover with the request.

Alongside the new pros/cons list, there has been the addition of World Assembly logs, which track and congratulate people for discussing and voting on the on-site threads for at-vote World Assembly proposals. While it is still early in development, this addition should expand the activity of forumside interaction with the World Assembly.

How the Rejected Realms World Assembly Department will prosper and grow is yet to be seen - but so far, good things have come of it and better things still should continue to arise.

Internal discussion surrounding the Rejected Times
By Bormiar


Citizens calmly discussing The Reject Times matters

Over the past months, the Rejected Realms has been working on World Assembly development, including the creation of a WA Ping Program, WA Voting Awards, and a collection of pros and cons to assist voters. When delegate Dead I Jack decided that there was enough work in the World Assembly to justify its own officer position, he would have to replace something with it. Per the constitution, only four officers may be elected at one time. Of the contemporary officer positions, Outreach, Culture, Foreign Affairs, and Media, only Media had its own internal community that could manage the Rejected Times. Dead I Jack appointed Bormiar as World Assembly Officer and opened up a discussion in the Assembly for how TRT management will continue.

While Dead I Jack and the rest of the government had originally postulated that because the government usually runs TRT, the new head of TRT, the Editor-in-Chief, would be appointed externally from TRT, such as by election. The Grim Reaper quickly attempted to legislate a TRT head elected internally, but this came under fire as TRT was made by the TRR people and created by the government. Additionally, the elected head would have the power to edit the TRT staff members, thus being able to adjust the voter base to defend their position. The other side cited the RRA’s separation from the government (the RRA was created before the government, rather than by it) and claimed that they required editorial independence in order to create unbiased news (TRT is not independent). They also noted that the Editor-in-Chief was already a position, albeit not used. Other ideas, such as a treaty between TRT and government popped up. The delegate continued to manage all the different ideas to help the discussion.

The discussion brought forth a “Constituting Act of the Rejected Times” by the Grim Reaper to address the devoid lack of legal structure behind TRT. The legislation declares the Editor-in-Chief as the head of TRT who will be appointed by the delegate but has the ability to be challenged by a citizen and vacated by the assembly. The Church of Satan and Dead I Jack, two citizens who had originally been in staunch disagreement, worked to create this draft based on Grim’s original proposal that makes the amendation to force the Editor-in-Chief to have to be a TRT staffer, and only allows the EIC to be vacated by supermajority vote. Other proposals, such as one from Gorundu and the Church of Satan’s draft, which interestingly attempted to enshrine the rank system into law and appointed the EIC through senior staff members being nominated by the TRT staff and confirmed by the Assembly. Grim’s proposal gained traction, however, and will go to vote eventually upon a second by another citizen.


RRA promotions announced
By Frattastan


Commander Karputsk rallying the troops for a liberation

Taking advantage of Commander Wopruthien's absence the rest of the RRA's leadership seized the moment to purge him, reducing him to 'honourary' status and leaving him with a worthless thank-you note for his years of service and valuable contributions while treating him as the lowest common soldier.

At the same time a few promotions have been announced.
Karputsk of FRA fame, stellar liberation commander and arguably one of the best defenders around at this moment, is now devoting his full attention to the RRA after a few months spent in the wilderness. He has been promoted to Commander, the army's second highest rank, being the first person to achieve this in more than half a decade.
Sarah, best known as the incumbent Culture Officer of TRR, has been made a Lieutenant. While newer to gameplay compared to some other RRA officers and soldiers, she has shown more initiative and goodwill than anyone else, and we believe she will bring her superb organisational skills to the table, along with more traditional update-leadership abilities. And all this from a phone!

Finally, Jamie has been made a Sergeant. Returning to the game only recently and showing renewed enthusiasm, Jamie attended an impressive 64 updates between April and May, often taking the lead during major updates and trying his hand at triggering. This promotion is no surprise, despite his disturbing love of detags.

Karp, Sarah and Jamie have already been at work to build upon the RRA's current strengths, making sure we continue to be an effective force in the good fight, a fun place to be in, and that we can represent TRR well. Ongoing internal changes include a revamping of training materials and protocol, and a dubious commitment by High Commander Frattastan to use at least one exclamation mark in each statement.

Rumours that Crazy girl came back for a single day to declare herself as "Supreme High Commander" so she can "outrank everyone" are complete lies, also.

In other news:

[*]Between January 19th and January 26h the fourth edition of TRRs very own music show Rejectvision was held with Kyorgia being announced the winner with the song “typisk Norsk”.
[*]On March 12th another meme contest was held in the region with delegate Dead I Jack winning with this meme
[*]On March 15th a short story competition was held in the region with Nakarisaune being declared the winner
[*]The Reject Awards 2019 winners have been announced. Congratulations to all the winners![/list]

Frattastan:

Visit our Discord and our Forum

WA Delegate: Sarah Bread
| Culture Officer: Deadeye Jack| Foreign Affairs Officer: Catalyse|
| Outreach Officer: Robespierre| World Assembly Officer: Makdon
Speaker of the Assembly: Chimes
Delegate is Toast

Rejects's greatest fears have come true as #bread coup, a movement, and some would say conspiracy, that sought to replace every reject with a bread version of themselves, became a reality when on the 12th of July Sarah Bread became the new delegate.

The newly elected breadoligarch and former culture officer won with 20 votes on the second round, while the second place was awarded to Bormiar, former officer, known mostly as the "WA-person" and most likely a dog. Other candidates included perennial candidate, John Laurens, whose joke candidacy, much to the chagrin of joke candidate fans, did not get enough traction for him to win the election and resigning right after. It has happened before, maybe it could happen again.

A fourth candidate, and possibly second joke candidate, though their ways remain mysterious to us, so we're not sure if we should assign humorous intent to anything they've done, Puppet2 was removed from the ballot after under a different alias, Holor/Bataus Novak, attempted to gain citizenship, which led the Citizenship Council to remove their citizenship, and upon appeals, the removal was maintained.

Officer Elections

Summer is election season in The Rejected Realms, and soon after the election of a new Delegate, Speaker of the Assembly Jamie made the due preparations for the Officer elections, standing for ninety-six straight hours in front of the assembly hall playing a flute in an attempt to get the attention of any would-be candidate. His shepherding was successful, and eight candidates emerged from the Assembly's floor, albeit no incumbent officer was entranced by the Speaker's song.

The candidates were DeadEye Jack, culture and events maverick and previous delegate who refuses to give off of his culture policy decision making even after he's done being Delegate, Robespierre, who promised to revolutionize the way Foreign Affairs are done in TRR and to also do a head counting and see if there's any superfluous one, Lansaka, aspiring Outreach Officer and TRR's very own first let's player, Gorundu, who promised to terminate a very particular embassy, and other things too, he said, Mekhet, former Delegate and resident K-popevangelizer who vowed to enact a campaign of terror on the region's RMB, Catalyse, who due to conflict interest we have been informed we may not describe in very accurate and agreeable terms, Makdon, who is very not the same person as the former WA Officer, and Dolphin, whose only highlight is that we had no recollection they were a candidate prior to writing this.

After four days of interminable ballot submissions, one candidate abandoning the race and another never having appeared on the campaign trail, the results were out. The winners were DeadEye Jack, TRR's event oligarch was returned to his role as Culture Officer on the promise of following a very precise schedule of cultural activities, accruing enough votes to defeat all candidates on the first round, Catalyse, who won on the promise of keeping things very much the same in Foreign Affairs, Robespierre, who dueled Catalyse on the counting and recounting of votes and was assigned Outreach, and Makdon, who has continued former WA Officer Bormiar's program in the relatively newly established position of WA Officer.

"My cultural agenda is full right now, can we do something next year?"

Fresh back into a government seat after his Delegate term, culture maestro Deadeye Jack announced an ambitious plan to integrate several initiatives, old and new, into a weekly calendar of activities. Some happen onsite, others on Discord. Some were already staples of TRR's cultural scene, some had been done before not on a regular basis, and some are brand new.

The week starts with the controversial Wacky RMB Rule Day, an exercise in arbitrary tyranny where all messages not following a randomly made-up rule are suppressed. Some will say that it's the kind of idea that would have made Jeffersonborg proud, but I believe it's a reflection on how nonsensically oppressive power can get under the guise of 'law'. Whatever it is, watching people trying to make their posts rhyme or include colours can be pretty funny.

We move to Discord on Tuesday, where people fashion their avatars and nicknames for Theme Day, with the most original combination earning a symbolic recognition. Recent winners include Catalyse's killer car tire for the category 'villains', and Gorundu's impersonation of outboundstagnate for the theme 'orange'. If you don't remember outbound, lucky you.

If you consider yourself a problem-solver and love logic-based games you're certain to enjoy Puzzle Day on Wednesdays, when we publish a game of Boggle, sudoku or a cryptogram for anyone to solve. And lovers of NS cards should make sure to tune on Thursdays, when they can send to Jack a card that they own and that fits in a specific theme, with the first few people doing so earning an Epic card in return.

Fridays are for the time-tested idea of Community Nation Issue Answering, where people vote on how to answer issues for The Unicornian Isles. Many regions have done this before, but it never stops being entertaining. Contrary to the expectations of many, biker gangs haven't been spotted yet, but the industrious and fiercely patriotic Unicornians already live in a paradise of compulsory nudity and violent sports. Definitely how TRR would be if it were a nation.

Greater free time on weekends allows for more elaborate events.
Saturday is for Trivia Day, and our most famous trivia is Popmaster, the ever-popular contest (organised in turn by various citizens, or even non-citizens) where we gather in voice chat to listen to songs and guess artists and titles. Actually winning it is hard since you'll have to beat Nakari and Jamie's musical knowledge, but it can still be a nice way to pick up more tunes, goof around with your regionmates, and occasionally torture your family members. In addition to this, Jack has been trying to diversify a bit the scope of trivias, and we recently had runs for Cinemaster (guessing movies from stills) and a history trivia focused on the French Revolution.

Finally, on Sunday we all relax with some games on Discord, with Werewolf, Spyfall, and Codenames making an appearance so far. These are all well-known board games which involve deduction and a little bit of creativity, and a good way to bond with your regionmates (or maybe get angry at them).

Whatever you enjoy best, make sure to check The Rejected Realms. We'll be sure to have something for you.

Frattastan:

Visit our Discord and our Forum

WA Delegate: Sarah
| Officer of Culture: Nakari | Officer of Foreign Affairs: Nequedum |
| Officer of the World Assembly: Jamie | Officer Without Portfolio: Robespierre |
Speaker of the Assembly: Dyl

Birth of TRR's Diplomatic Corps in earnest
By Nequedum


Neq holding a press conference after a long meeting with his secretary, Ann

Although our ambassadors have long been referred to internally as our Diplomatic Corps, our recent embassy assignment overhaul and adoption of new expectations have led to the birth of the Corps in earnest.

For you, this overhaul means either someone new has been assigned as your ambassador after preferencing your region highly or your continuing ambassador has had some of their prior ambassadorial duties divvied out and can now focus more time on our friendship with your region.

As for how our new expectations will play out, you are going to be seeing our ambassadors a lot more! Our ambassadors will continue to play their pivotal role of delivering our Foreign Updates, keeping you up-to-date on all things the Rejected Realms from upcoming events to the latest happenings, but they will also now be inviting you to our events in your RMB (and Discord servers) in a more consistent fashion. We want to build an enduring relationship with you that goes beyond posting infrequent updates!

We hope this more personalised experience will encourage more of our allies and friends to attend our regional holiday celebrations as well as participate in our interregional and invitational projects, such as The Rejected Times' Outlander Program. We look forward to seeing much more of you as well!

Officer Elections Conclude in the Rejected Realms
By Aga (from The Rejected Times)


Speaker Dyl removing Minsk after he was eliminated

The Rejected Realms' December 2020 Officer elections concluded on the 9th of December, with Nakari, Jamie, Robespierre, and Nequedum emerging victorious, in that order. Nakari was assigned the role of Officer of Culture, Nequedum made Officer of Foreign Affairs, Jamie given Officer of the World Assembly, and Robespierre assigned as "Officer without Portfolio".

The elections were highly competitive, with Kral and Minskiev also running. You can read more, including coverage on each of the elected Officers' campaigns, from The Rejected Times in Brief News III.

Your Invitation to Rejectmas 2020
By Nakari


Neq having a serious chat with Rejects about keeping AI Dungeon contributions PG this year

We invite you to celebrate another hairy and smooth Rejectmas with us!

Every year, from 26th December to 1st January, the Rejected Realms celebrates Rejectmas. This is a holiday to celebrate being a Reject! (Though non-Rejects are welcome to join in, of course.)

Activities will again be divided between gameside, discordside, and forumside (yes, discordside is a thing now, shush!).

Gameside we have the Lord of Misrule taking over our RMB, a Card scavenger hunt, and a flag contest where the winner will have their flag flown during New Year's Day! Discordside we have a Home Alone movie night on the 29th and a game of Popmaster on the 26th! And last but not least, forumside we are yet again decorating the Rejectmas Tree, adventuring thanks to AI Dungeon, and running our 4th annual chess competition!

Show Rejectmas 2020 some love by upvoting our dispatch, and keep an eye on the dispatch as links and updates are added throughout the holiday.

Sneak Peek: Harry Potter and the Festival of Friends
By Nequedum



Harry Potter and the Festival of Friends, this year brought to you by the Rejected Realms, 10000 Islands, Greater Dienstad, The East Pacific, and The South Pacific, will be taking place once again. From the 30th of December to the 6th of January, there will be everything you have come to expect and much much more!

Activities will include art and writing competitions, Yule Ball roleplay, a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game, multiple movie nights (I bet you can guess what we'll be watching), and a whole range of games!

The Discord server will be advertised on the 28th, allowing for sorting to commence—although Slytherin will no doubt win again.

In other news:
[*]Updated embassy guidelines and an improved FAQ have been released.
[*]The Discarded Card League, TRR's regional card program, has launched with membership open to non-Rejects.
[*]The Rejected Times' Outlander Program welcomes article submissions from non-staff and even non-residents! You may also like to subscribe to The Rejected Times.[/list]

Frattastan:

Visit our Discord and our Forum

WA Delegate: Jamie
| Officer of Culture: Nakari | Officer of Foreign Affairs: Glacikaldr |
| Officer of Outreach: Agalaesia | Officer of World Assembly: Robespierre |
Speaker of the Assembly: Dyl

TRR Government Unrocks the Boat
By Glacikaldr


Delegate Jamie sharing their family's experience the following morning.

Following the December 2020 Officer elections, former Delegate Sarah introduced the Officer Without Portfolio position in place of the Officer of Outreach to appease Officer Robespierre who had no interest in Outreach, assuming Outreach duties herself.

However, this changed upon the election of Delegate Jamie on January 25, 2021. The former Officer Without Portfolio, Officer Robespierre, was now happy to take the Delegate's prior role, Officer of World Assembly. Agalaesia was later elected uncontested for the vacant position of Officer of Outreach.

Hence, the Rejected Realms' (TRR) is now enjoying a return to normalcy: where the Delegate may proceed with their duties unhampered by overseeing the Department of Outreach, which is now led by a dedicated Officer of Outreach instead, and the Officer Without Portfolio role remains no more. But were these both the right decisions?

Hypothetically, having a delegate also act as the Officer of Outreach can increase a delegate's emotional attachment to and personal stake in the successful integration of the gameside community into the citizenry. As for the Officer Without Portfolio role, it presented an unprecedented opportunity. The Officer Without Portfolio enjoyed the freedom of not having an established department to oversee, allowing for creativity to flourish.

Delegate Jamie, justifying this unrocking of the boat, explained: "Listen, it's late. To be frank, I simply made that decision because the currently elected Officers' interests lay in the more traditional Officer roles. I didn't forcefully get rid of the Officer Without Portfolio position! Can you please just leave me and my family alone now?! Hey, stop throwing rocks through our windows!"

In future, there may be an Officer candidate who stands with a first preference for Officer Without Portfolio. It remains to be seen whether the region will be able to reap much reward from such a role in action for a full term.

Meet the Partnership for Sovereignty
By Glacikaldr


The Partnership's logo, which invokes shields
forming a quasi-testudo, utilising the
color psychology of blue.

On January 26, 2021, the Partnership for Sovereignty was announced in a dedicated NationStates Gameplay subforum thread alongside its Charter.

The Partnership for Sovereignty is a Security Council voting bloc created to defend the values of self-determination, positive community, and respect for the World Assembly (WA) and its processes. Its member regions agree to collaborate to set voting recommendations in line with the principles of the Partnership and to coordinate campaigns on relevant proposals.

The Partnership's current member regions include 10000 Islands, The South Pacific, The Union of Democratic States, The Free Nations Region, Spiritus, and us, TRR.

Importantly, member regions are not required to have their WA Delegates vote according to the recommendations. As we attempt to ensure member regions generally share similar values, this was considered unnecessary. Instead, the real value of this voting bloc for its founding member regions comes from having access to the necessary infrastructure to run larger and more impactful WA campaigns.

If your region is interested in joining the Partnership for Sovereignty or wishes to explore possible collaborations, please flag this with WA Delegates from the current member regions.

Cards, Cards, Cards! Cards Everywhere!
By Jamie



TRR officially launched its card scheme on November 13, 2020. This scheme, The Discarded Card League, seeks to both complement and encourage the growth of the card community beginning to form in TRR. The scheme, open to all resident nations, relies on voluntary donations that, in turn, fund awards and competitions. However, as the scheme's founder, I also regularly 'farm' cards to keep the deck of our card nation stocked with a desirable selection of legendaries.

This scheme was created with a number of different purposes in mind, from adding to our festivals and foreign affairs' events to encouraging the development of TRR card collecting to the point of it becoming a new cultural activity in its own right. Although the NationStates cards community is already wide and varied, I intend to help TRR emerge as a major player.

We are now planning our first solo pull event, which will be of either Season 1 Crazy Girl or Season 2 Frisbeeteria. This has been inspired by the success we enjoyed co-hosting a pull event with 10000 Islands and The South Pacific as part of the Partnership for Sovereignty's launch.

But why am I doing all this? Well, see, my own experience with cards has been one of positive self-discovery. I began as a casual trader who just bought cards of friends as well as some legendaries that I came across from time to time. I later became a serious card player towards the end of last year. The current collections I’m working on include collecting Season 2 legendary cards and completing a ‘The Rejected Realms’ card collection. Working towards complete collections is a fun and fulfilling experience that I encourage anyone with an interest in cards to look into. Start off by pursuing a collection near and dear to your heart!

In other news:
[*]The Rejected Times' Outlander Program welcomes article submissions from non-staff and even non-residents!
[*]Subscribe to The Rejected Times here.
[*]Our weekly RMB Award Winners are announced here.
[*]See our embassy guidelines and FAQ here.[/list]

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