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Frattastan:

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WA Delegate: Frattastan
| Culture Officer: Deadeye Jack | Foreign Affairs Officer: Catalyse|
| Outreach Officer: Kyorgia | Media Officer : Marilyn Manson Freaks
Speaker of the Assembly: Altmoras
And the new Vice Delegate is...

While the most recent debate about the Vice Delegacy goes back to October, when the discussion was restarted by Frattastan, then still recently elected Delegate, the debate on the role the Vice Delegate should have in The Rejected Realms, how they should be chosen and wether the Vice Delegate should become a formal position, by being legislated, had been a topic of discussion during most of the year of 2018. During February of 2018, then Delegate Catalyse introduced a constitutional amendment into the assembly for consideration, though it never received quite the same attention than the most recently introduced, voted and passed constitutional amendment on the issue.

The topic was brought again into the limelight during Zaolat's delegacy, with the appointment of Marilyn Manson Freaks as Vice Delegate, the first time a new Vice Delegate had been appointed in several years but not the first time that there'd be two Vice Delegates, though with the announcement that the long serving Zyonn, who had been Vice Delegate since 2011, would be resigning the co-existence of two Vice Delegates would be cut short. The position was embroiled in controversy during the election season in late September and early October, with Manson being dismissed, replaced with the Church of Satan and then reappointed, leading again, to there being two Vice Delegates.

With the discussion starting in the Assembly several ideas were brought up. How should the Vice Delegate be selected? Some argued for an election, others appointment or selection by the Citizenship Council, or a mix of these. And should the possibility of two or more Vice Delegates remain open? Others still wondered why it was worth discussing this when it was unnecessary and the current formula for regional security had worked. An initial proposal to have the Delegate appoint one, or more, candidates to be elected by the Assembly, to serve as Vice Delegate, one or several, was defeated but a second proposal to have the Citizenship Council select the Vice Delegate passed through the Assembly.

The then still Vice Delegates Marilyn Manson Freaks and the Church of Satan were dismissed upon the passage of the constitutional amendment, and so far little information has come from the shadowy halls of the Citizenship Council. Citizens place their bids on the most likely candidate to be selected by the Citizenship Council, though some have placed their bid on there being no Vice Delegate at all. So, for now, we wait until we hear the words "And the new Vice Delegate is..."

The uneventful election event


A call-back from when Assembly debate and elections seemed to be more lively.

Elections, the ever present topic in foreign updates. December and January were election months for The Rejected Realms, but really, which month isn't election month in The Rejected Realms? Maybe February, or is it May? I'm not sure.

In late November, just a few weeks from the scheduled December elections, Officer Margiboof's resignation prompted Marilyn Manson Freaks to run for election, even if popular opinion seemed to be against having elections so close to the end of the term. Marilyn Manson Freaks was joined by John Laurens and Crazy Girl in these early elections, and Crazy Girl, the candidate that promised to act as if the election several would have wanted to avoid would have not happened at all, was the acclaimed victor.

December saw the election of four new, though not so new, Officers, with none of the elected in August, or from August until December, having chosen, or being able, to run, and also being the first general election under Frattastan. The only candidate from the most recent election to run again was Marilyn Manson Freaks, and none of the outgoing Officers chose to run again, and although it was not an highly contested election there were still several good candidates: Kyorgia, Catalyse, Vulturret and Deadeye Jack. The election ended in a tie between Kyorgia and Vulturret for the fourth officer seat, with the four officers eventually being revealed to be Deadeye Jack, Catalyse, Marilyn Manson Freaks and Kyorgia.

Then January came, and the Speaker elections came with it. Incumbent Vulturret faced returning citizen Altmoras, who after a long absence from The Rejected Realms chose to make his unannounced return. This election, much like the elections the month before, was poised to be pretty uneventful, though joke allegations about a TGW plot to take over The Rejected Realms, prompted by Deadeye Jack's recent election and Altmoras's candidacy, and Vulturret's reply to those allegations brought some controversy to the election. In the end, despite a successful term as Speaker, Vulturret had a cold reception in the elections and Altmoras succeeded him as Speaker.

More games, more events, more Deadeye Jack

While the December campaign was uneventful Deadeye Jack's first foray into office in The Rejected Realms was warmly received, being the preferred candidate in the elections and with his campaign, centring on new and more activities and activity for the role that he was eventually assigned, Culture, being well liked, though his campaign was not without ideas for other departments.

As Culture Officer Deadeye Jack has brought new events and renewed interest in participating in them. While regular events like avatar contests on the forum and the ever present werewolf games, be they held on discord or on the forums for Rejectmas or other festive occasions, have been joined by other events. Rejectvision was followed by a music pop quiz held, while "spyfall" has joined the vocabulary of The Rejected Realms event goer, accompanying Werewolf in 2018's Rejectmas festivities. Sadly intellectual pursuits such as reading and thinking have failed to take root in the region and the regional reading club was forced to declare bankruptcy after Harmoneia abandoned the Culture office.

Frattastan:


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WA Delegate: Frattastan
Culture Officer: Deadeye Jack
Foreign Affairs Officer: Kyorgia
Outreach Officer: Bobberino
Media Officer: The Aligned People
Speaker of the Assembly: Marilyn Manson Freaks

We Had an Election or a Few…

In April, citizens of The Rejected Realms once again sprinted to their nearest polling stations to vote in the Officer and Speaker elections.

On the topic of the Officer elections, one random citizen exclaimed that “This will be the most important election in our lifetime or just for this month, I guess.” Speaker Altmoras declared the standing period for the election to be open on the first of April and after a grueling four days, five candidates came forward. The five candidates were Deadeye Jack, Jamie, Kyorgia, The Aligned People, and The Grim Reaper. Which all were running on very interesting platforms that no one actually read. Eventually, Speaker Altmoras put up the vote and after four days of hard fought battles, the results were in. Incumbent Officer Deadeye Jack was re-elected in the first round, incumbent Officer Kyorgia was re-elected after him, and new Officers Jamie and The Aligned People also ended up being elected.

At the same time as the Officer elections were going on, the less prestigious but equally important Speaker election was also happening. This race was not as hotly contested with only two citizens running for the role of Speaker of the Assembly. The incumbent Speaker Altmoras decided to not run, leaving Marilyn Manson Freaks and Xanderstralia as the only candidates running for the position. At the end of a very long night of results, it was finally announced that Manson had won the election over Xanderstralia.

After some hard thinking, Delegate Frattastan announced that the new cabinet would be Deadeye Jack as Culture Officer, Kyorgia as Foreign Affairs Officer, Jamie as Outreach Officer, and finally, The Aligned People as Media Officer. Soon after, the new cabinet started off working fast, but, unfortunately, Jamie announced that he would no longer have the time to fulfill his duties as Outreach Officer. This meant that the newly elected Speaker, Manson, had the important job of running his first election. This time, five new people ran for the empty Officer spot. Neop, Bobberino, Bormiar, Rom, and Xanderstralia, who previously ran in the Speaker election earlier that month. Nearing the end of the election, it seemed to be neck and neck, with Bobberino and Neop leading. However, Bobberino eventually amassed enough votes to win the election, beating Neop 15-10.


Disruption at the Citizenship Office

Libetarian Republics enjoying his first day of freedom
One very important aspect of the region that is not very often spoken about is the Citizenship Council. For years, the CitCo was run by three old sages, Frattastan, Guy and Libetarian Republics, but in March, LR announced that he would be going on a vision quest and resigned from his position. As per regional law, Speaker Altmoras nominated longtime citizen and former Delegate Catalyse to the Citizenship Council. After a nearly-unanimous vote in the Assembly, Catalyse was confirmed with 20 votes for her appointment to the CitCo, 2 votes against, and 3 abstentions.

Thought Transference Inducted into the Hall of Fame

Recently, the Assembly decided to be active again and inducted former Citizenship Councillor and all-around chill philosopher, Thought Transference, into the Hall of Fame.

TT, a longtime citizen of TRR, has been gone for nearly four years now. However, he was not forgotten! An interesting and calm player, he could probably be described as an NS rationalist. He approached both regional and international problems from a logical standpoint and was always considerate of the emotions of his fellow citizens and players. He was a voice of reason and a leader in chaotic times, one being Kandarin's departure and Naivetry's ascension to the position of Delegate.

During his decade in the region (2005-2015), TT never sought elected office. A modest character, he only ever served on the Council of Three (a temporary political body established to regulate Naivetry's power while the Constitution was still in the process of being ratified) and the Citizenship Council. He was one of the first three Councillors, and is one of the longest-serving. He was a Councillor for an impressive amount of time equal to about four years!

As you can most likely tell, TT fully deserved his induction. Love him or hate him, he surely impacted TRR in a positive way and brought his interesting thoughts and philosophy to the region.

Lost and Found Accords Ratified


Delegate Frattastan announcing the new treaty to the Assembly.

Delegate Frattastan and Officer Catalyse recently sat down with the government of our sister sinker Osiris to negotiate a treaty. After some initial difficulties translating hieroglyphics into Italian the discussions went well and a treaty was agreed upon. The treaty, named after that time an intern lost it at starbucks, was passed through the assembly in The Rejected Realms and The Council of Scribes in Osiris.

In other news
[*]The winners of The Reject Awards 2019 have been announced.
[*]A short story contest was held in the region with Nakari writing the winning story. The stories can be viewed here.
[*]A meme contest was held in the region with the theme being memes about the rejected realms. The winning meme was made by Kyorgia and all the memes can be seen here.
[*]The Rejected Realms' Historical Society has updated its government list to include all former citizenship councillors, former positions such as senator from the 2008 constitution, sub-delegate from 2003 among other roles. The historical society's subforum with a lot of interesting bits about The Rejected Realms history can be found here.
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Frattastan:


Visit our Discord and our Forum!

WA Delegate: Kyorgia
Foreign Affairs Officer: Deadeye Jack
Media Officer: The Aligned People
Culture Officer: Sarah
Outreach Officer: Morover
Speaker of the Assembly: Marilyn Manson Freaks

TRR Elects New Delegate: Sometime Ago

Perhaps no one else has noticed, but The Rejected Realms has had a new delegate for little over a month now. Elected on the 12th of May, with thirty-three votes out of fifty-seven in total, Kyorgia is the 13th Constitutional delegate, the third one elected since the establishment of six months terms, though only Frattastan IV, Kyo's immediate predecessor, actually served for the duration of their fixed six months term.

The elections that saw Kyorgia elected started with nominations being opened up on the 1st of May, being closed on the 8th, when voting starting, which finally ended up on the 12th. While it was not the most uncontested election, with only four candidates running, while in the previous elections there had been nine candidates, it had an higher number of votes, fifty-seven in total, than the most recent elections. Kyorgia, Deadeye Jack and The Church of Satan all reached the ballot, but the fourth candidate, long-time member of The Rejected Realms and former Vice Delegate, Spartan Termopylae decided to exit the race before voting started.

At the closing of the ballots Kyorgia had thirty-three votes, DeadEye Jack twenty-one and The Church of Satan had three, which would have all transferred to DeadEye Jack. While the candidate with the lowest vote count, The Church of Satan has been a long-term amendment of the region, having served in several positions, including as Delegate before, and has become a presence in all delegate elections since he last served in that position, something that might put at stake Crazy Girl's staple as a delegate candidate, who seems to have missed this one out. The vote was however contested between Kyorgia and Deadeye Jack, whose only similarity of note are that they were both implicated in attempts to undermine regional sovereignty.

Deadeye Jack, along with fellow TGW member, Altmoras, who was at the time running a speaker campaign, was accused by an investigative journalist of being part of an organised effort to colonize TRR. Though this was at the time dismissed as a joke by most, the at the time speaker, Vulturret, who would be defeated in election by Altmoras, rallied to defend TRR's sovereignty from defender infiltration. Deadeye Jack is however better known by how many times he has been mentioned in previous foreign updates in connection to cultural activities, as, after being elected as an Officer in December, he led a concentrated effort as Culture Officer to improve activity in the region and has been involved in organising and managing several cutural activities, such as Rejectvision, or planning interregional events.

On the other hand Kyorgia had to wait to become Delegate in order to be implicated in subversion. Interregional observers did what they did best when they observed that many of those who voted for Kyorgia were self-professed raiders, though some others were also labelled as "I don't know.", "Who?" and "Scavenger", while Deadeye Jack's voters were mostly defender, bar one or two "They're still active?". Probably more damning than any accusations than being elected as part of raider infiltration are the charges of "being lazy", accusations from which we've been waiting for a response from Kyorgia for three weeks now. However if you forget accusations of treason Kyorgia is an all around great guy, having been a long-time member of the region, probably better known for having served as Speaker and for being a awarded the role of prominent token raider.


Hectic Days at the Ballot Box

General elections for TRR's cabinet were held in April, with Deadeye Jack, Kyorgia, Jamie and The Aligned People being elected as Officers. Out of these four officers, only Deadeye Jack and The Aligned People, remain in office today.

The first to abandon the ranks was Jamie, who resigned shortly into his term, after which Bob was elected on the twenty-first of April. A new election was triggered soon enough, as shortly before voting for the Delegate elections started, Invincible, or n-vince, challenged Outreach Officer Bobberino, and although Invincible was defeated with twelve votes against him and seven for, the outcome of the election, which the sitting officer had not contested, opened the constitutional question of if in such cases the incumbent should retain their position or not, and although the prevailing opinion was that they should, it was also the majority opinion that it should be further clarified.

Shortly after, with his victory in the Delegate elections, Kyorgia resigned from his position as Officer of Foreign Affairs, to which Deadeye Jack, his opponent in the Delegate elections, was appointed to. With one new vacant seat came one new election, in which Morover, Sarah, The Church of Satan and Flower Boy were the candidates, with Sarah emerging as the victor with thirteen votes, and was rapidly appointed to the Culture Officer, previously held by Deadeye Jack and to whom she had previously worked as a deputy and where she continues her predecessor's work in coming up with new activities and continuing old ones.

More recently, Bobberino chose to resign, triggering yet another election when new candidates challenged for the newly vacated office. Morover and Flower Boy again chose to run, and were this time joined by Twertis, otherwise known as Bormiar, on the ballot. And finally, on the the 19th of June, Morover, who had been for a time contributing to The Rejected Times was one of its most recent up and coming contributors was elected with 15 votes, quickly being appointed by Kyorgia to the position of Outreach Officer. With three Outreach Officers two months into them term, we hope the third time truly is the charm.

Rejected Radio Relaunched Successfully



Established in August of 2013 by The Church of Satan, Rejected Radio was originally conceived as an almost-indie news and music station. Early on, Rejected Radio mostly just played the music of independent artists and ocassionally chatted about international happenings until its revitalization and renaissance in 2015. Nearly six years later, Rejected Radio is back, better, and different.

Reannounced on June 5, 2019 by Manson, Rejected Radio came with an entirely new look. The new logo features a metallicized version of the phoenix on Kandarin's (a Former Delegate of The Rejected Realms) flag. This symbolism is meant to show that Rejected Radio is constantly changing and evolving, while staying true to its home region's roots.

In addition to being reloaded with a brave new look, Rejected Radio has taken other steps to keep up with the times. One being the creation of a YouTube channel! On this new channel, viewers can find and watch previous Rejected Radio episodes whenever they please. The first and current video on Rejected Radio's channel is the interview hosts The Church of Satan and Morover did with Anabelle I, the new Pharaoh of Osiris. You're free to watch it here.

Lastly, stay tuned! Rejected Radio's staff are currently working on two new releases. Make sure to subscribe to Rejected Radio's YouTube channel and turn on notifications if you're interested.

The RRA Roars Back Into Life

Spurred on by the return of High Commander Frattastan to active duty, the Rejected Realms Army has seen a surge of activity over the past month. The return of several RRA veterans including Catalyse, Karputsk & Neop has been complemented by an uptick in membership that includes more experienced heads such as Ravania and Lynxi, and newer faces that were invited to sign up as part of a region-wide recruitment campaign.

Over the past month or so the RRA has made a significant contribution to defender operations coordinated via the Libcord discord server and in tandem with our friends in the South Pacific Forces, the Grey Wardens & TITO. In the absence of significant raider activity up until recently, the RRA has participated and led forces in hundreds of detags, and countless smaller defences, liberations and supports. The RRA also deployed to its home region, The Rejected Realms, and Osiris, to assist with the recent delegacy transfers.

To reward recent contributions, several RRA troops received promotions. The new newly-promoted soldiers will assist in the day-to-day running of the army and updating of RRA procedures and guides. The most senior promotion was that of Karputsk to Lieutenant, who has proven his competency and experience at update, and was able to address some of the concerns about his activity. The other two promotions were of Rom and Neop to Sergeant. As two of the RRA’s most frequent updaters they will be expected to assist in training of newer members and to lead update operations in the absence of other commanders.

With this renewed activity, the RRA has improved upon its existing operational capability. It remains on high alert following the return of TBH and Lily to the battlefield and as Raidercon gets underway. With a healthy mix of experienced and newer players the force is looking to encourage opportunities for members to develop themselves as defenders and advance within the RRA’s hierarchy, and to foster long term activity and growth.

First Rule of the Rejected Realms Fight Club...


As part of an initiative to do more events and activities using NationStates features, Deadeye Jack unveiled The Rejected Realms Fight Club in May. The club makes use of the challenge feature and participants are supposed to challenge each other for position in the standings. Each week, based on the standings, epic cards are handed out to the nation at the number 1 spot in the Fight Club and to the nation that made the biggest jump up the leader board for that week.

After passing the month milestone, membership of the Fight Club stands at 35 nations ranging from levels as high as 70 and as low as 2. For the entire run, Turbeaux has maintained the top spot but many have jockeyed for position below that nation and one day a challenger will come along to snatch that number 1 spot.

If you’d like more information about how it works, if you’d like to join or if you’d just like to follow along, read the dispatch.

In other news
[*]The May Meme Contest winner was Nakari.
[*]Culture Officer Sarah hosted an Art and Photo Contest for the first time in June and the winner was Nequedum who narrowly edged past Ravania.
[*]Guy resigned from the Citizenship Council and was replaced by The Grim Reaper

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Frattastan:


Visit our Discord and our Forum!

WA Delegate: Kyorgia
Foreign Affairs Officer: Deadeye Jack
Media Officer: The Aligned People
Culture Officer: Sarah
Outreach Officer: Bormiar
Speaker of the Assembly: Neop

Constitutional Confusion Finally Resolves

As some of you may know, the Rejected Realms has a rather unique electoral system where in addition to regular elections, citizens can challenge the Delegate or Officers for their position at any time, if they have the support of several other citizens. However, some confusion ensued around the system in May, when Bobberino, then Outreach Officer, was challenged, but he did not contest the challenge. Thus, under the Constitution, a vote was held to confirm the challenger, Invincible, which failed. However, Constitutional provisions did not state what happens if a sole challenger fails, and a debate ensued in the region on whether the Officer retains their position, or if the position becomes vacant. Then-Speaker Manson eventually decided to announce that Bobberino retains the position, but urged citizens to address this issue with a Constitutional Amendment.

After much discussion and several proposals by citizens, a proposal by Guy, a former Delegate, eventually gained the most support and made it to a vote. The proposal made it so that incumbent Officers will be automatically assumed to contest a challenge election unless they state otherwise, thus making the likelihood of a single-candidate confirmation vote much lower – for that to happen, the incumbent Officer would have to state their intention not to contest, and only one challenger decides to run. The amendment also clarifies what would occur in the case that a confirmation vote fails – if a confirmation vote for Officer fails, then that position will become vacant and open to challenges, while if a confirmation vote for Delegate fails, the incumbent Delegate would retain the position as the position is essential for security and must be filled at all times. Some questions were raised about this, as the most likely scenario for a Delegate confirmation vote is when an incumbent runs unopposed, which would mean that the incumbent retains the seat no matter the outcome of the vote. However, it was decided a re-run election would not make sense as it could lead to another one-candidate confirmation vote, and that the failure of the incumbent to be confirmed would serve to encourage others to challenge the position. Thus, the Amendment was passed by an overwhelming majority in August, ending the months-long Constitutional debate.

Another Election, Another Report

TRR had its most recent Officer Election in August, and it was largely uneventful. Six candidates ran – Sarah, the incumbent Culture Officer; Deadeye Jack, the incumbent Foreign Affairs Officer; The Aligned People, the incumbent Media Officer; Bormiar, the incumbent Deputy Outreach Officer; United Massachusetts, a well-known World Assembly author, former WA Minister of The East Pacific, though a relative newcomer to TRR; and Harenhime, better known elsewhere as Ever-Wandering Souls of The Black Hawks, and a former candidate for Delegate.

Aside from Harenhime, everyone ran on a substantial platform. Sarah vied for the position of Outreach, pledging to reach out more to people on the Gameside, though promised to hold a theme region party if made Culture Officer again. Bormiar also targeted Outreach, emphasising a more personal touch and envisioning a mentorship program, with a side note of promoting trading cards as incentives, an area he’s knowledgeable on. Outreach was also the crux of United Massachusetts’ campaign, who wanted to use his experience to expand TRR’s presence in the WA, including publishing vote recommendations, building partnerships, and promoting endorsements. However, he also faced the most questions due to the scale of the plan, though he performed valiantly in addressing them.

Jack pledged to continue his previous work as FA Officer, with a focus on potentially setting up a WA bloc with other regions, and closer relations to The North Pacific, though he faced some questions on the lack of response to events in The East Pacific. The Aligned People ran again for Media, with a platform of expanding Rejected Radio to include press briefings, attracting more listeners to live recordings and interviews, as well as continuing quizzes for each issue and encouraging more feedback among writers.

In the end, UM didn’t gain enough support for his ambitious WA plan, and the elected Officers were Sarah, reassigned to Culture, Deadeye Jack, reassigned to Foreign Affairs, The Aligned People, reassigned to Media, and Bormiar, assigned to Outreach. UM was taken in as a Deputy Outreach Officer to focus on WA matters, though was replaced recently due to inactivity, so perhaps the voters chose correctly.

Kyorgia Becomes Newest Member of Citizenship Council

This year has been very crazy for the Citizenship Council. As some of you are aware, Councillor Guy resigned May 1st after years in the position. However, Guy's resignation and replacement by The Grim Reaper only marked another resignation from the CitCo. On September 2nd, Catalyse posted an extremely brief message announcing her retirement as a Councillor.

This came as a shock to many, considering she had only held the position since January following her nomination by then-Speaker of the Assembly, Altmoras, after Libetarian Republics decided that he didn't have the time anymore to serve as a Councillor.

After careful consideration, Speaker Neop boldly nominated sitting Delegate, Kyorgia. Some acknowledged this as a strange move due to Kyorgia's current position, however, this has occurred before. Under Frattastan's first term as Delegate, he was indeed nominated and appointed to the CitCo. In fact, he's still a Councillor on it today! After Kyorgia's confirmation to the CitCo via a vote in the Assembly, matters involving citizenship seemed to speed up almost as if magic. 

Who knows how long Kyorgia will serve on the Citizenship Council? Frankly, that doesn't matter now. The Rejected Realms is excited to finally fill the Citizenship Council once more, hopefully for a while!

TRR and XKI Fantasy Nerds Gather for Event

To celebrate the close ties between 10000 Islands and The Rejected Realms as enshrined in the Treaty of Friendship, the two regions put their heads together and planned a fantasy themed event to enjoy together: A Quest with TRR and XKI. The event was inspired by Dali's Drag Race, organized by the West Pacific in June, but the rules were adapted to fit the way things were going to be judged. Players were encouraged to make a new fantasy themed nation and join [region]The Unicorn The Island and the Wardrobe[/region] in order to participate. Over 4 days people were asked to change their flags, mottos, currency, animals, and anything else they could think of to fit the daily theme, show off their creativity and impress the judges.

The over 20 people who participated did not disappoint. Photoshop skills were parlayed into Voldemort popping out of a wardrobe. Roleplaying prowess gave us a prolonged visit from Posion Ivy. And of course it wouldn’t be a party without *checks notes* Lord Farquaad memes. Everyone had a lot of fun with it including the judges. In the end the top 3 for the event were:

1.   Bowshot/Toerana
2.   Nequedum/Glacikaldr/PowerPAOK
3.   Thepeopl

In other news
[*]Sarah won Rejectvision 3 with the song Black Sheep by Metric
[*]The Rejected Realms hosted the Elysium Festival with The East Pacific celebrating art.
[*]Deadeye Jack won the August Meme Contest

[/list]

Frattastan:

Visit our Discord and our Forum

WA Delegate: Deadeye Jack
| Culture Officer: PowerPAOK | Foreign Affairs Officer: Neop |
| Outreach Officer: The Pharcyde | Media Officer: Bormiar
Speaker of the Assembly: An_Dr_Ew

Rejectmas 2019: A Celebration to Remember


Deputy Officer Morover takes a quick nap on the floor of his apartment after a long day of cleaning Dramoon-colored stains out of the carpets of Capitol buildings.

The turn of the decade was greeted by the Rejected Realms’ annual hairy and very smooth Rejectmas Festival, flaunting a gusto that rivalled its popularity back when the event ran in conjunction with the NationStates’ World Fair. We invite you to learn more about the holiday’s traditions here or to consult our brief checklist.

With the regional holiday officially running from December 26 to January 1, our Culture Department prepared a series of ten activities for Rejectmas Festival 2019, hosted gameside, forumside and on our discord server.

Hosted Gameside, we had a poll-run popularity Unicorn Jousting tournament, where contestants came up with unique unicorns to represent their nations and competed in elimination play-offs. Congratulations to The Church of Satan whose sponsees, Rudolphon the Reindragon and Duke Christmas Goodknight, secured the title of Unicorn Jouster of 2019. The Lord of Misrule was also in full effect over on our RMB, causing what was essentially state-sanctioned chaos upon the region. Yet, do not let this description fool you, as the rules were strict and even more strictly enforced. A summary of the damage, in the form of suppressions and rule-inspired posts, as well as all the misrules throughout, can be seen here. Lastly, we also ran the Rejectmas Flag Guild.

Over on our discord server, we ran two games of Escadian Battleship. The first was played using the Classic gamemode, and was later converted into a dispatch that narrates and gives justice to the experience, found here. The second is where we tested an early version of the new expansion gamemode, which has now officially launched through The Rejected Times’ Issue LV as the Werewolf Expansion.

Turning our attention forumside, we saw the return of some old activities as well as some new and exciting additions; we saw the return of our old Rejectmas Tree, the return of Rejection Apologies, and our 3rd annual Rejectmas Chess Tournament, joined by the three new inclusions of Online Dixit, Pin the Tail uncovering the tail of the true Greymarshes’ Unicorn, and our popular group-led game of AI Dungeon. Congratulations to outboundstagnate for becoming our 2019-2020 Rejectmas Chess Champion, usurping Delegate Dead I Jack!


Unicorn Star Treaty Ratified

In a time of prosperity, The North Pacific and The Rejected Realms have come together again in order to draft a new treaty between the two regions. On December 9, 2019, with margins significantly in favor, The Unicorn Star Treaty was ratified.

A closer relationship with The North Pacific was a goal of the leadership of The Rejected Realms for quite some time. After cooperating with each other for N-Day, for the Epic Gamer Party, and to combat the coup perpetrated against our mutual allies,The East Pacific, it ultimately came to fruition this past December. Then Delegate Kyorgia and Foreign Affairs Officer Deadeye Jack worked with their TNP counterparts to write a new treaty that included mutual defense and built on the provisions of the old, non-aggression pact, The Unicorn Star Accord. In effect, the new treaty was simply a rise in relations to a formal alliance.

In the process of ratification, the treaty was very well-received on both sides, being ratified with 17 votes in favor and no against votes or abstentions in TRR, and 27 votes in favor, 4 abstentions, and no against votes in TNP.

We at The Rejected Realms are excited about this new alliance, and we are even more excited to see where the future will take our relationship with The North Pacific.


Electoral Dysfunction

The Assembly has been abuzz with various threads this past month. But, why? I'll take “Election Season” for 1000, Alex.

Several candidates lined up for the nomination/declaration processes, the first of which was for Officer Elections and began on November 30. Manson, New Wight, Glacikaldr (PowerPAOK/Nequedum), Neop, The Pharcyde, and Bormiar all made it through this process, but the latter four were the ones to come out victorious in the Officer Elections.

Not nearly as fiercely competitive, the Delegate Election was won by Deadeye Jack in a landslide victory. Early on in the nomination process, it seemed very likely of Jack to run unopposed. However, to combat this while retaining a sense of good sportsmanship, An_Dr_Ew (Gorundu) decided to run for the position of Delegate as well for the heck of it. Despite losing, An_Dr_Ew kept their chin up. This was not the last we saw of them in the election ring.

With the Delegate Election coming to a close on December 12, the Speaker Election was not much far ahead; its nomination cycle began on December 31. Two familiar citizens announced their candidacies for Speaker. The first being An_Dr_Ew, and the second being Morover. On January 9, the voting period had come to a close. With six votes to Morover's five, An_Dr_Ew had won the tightly contested election and filled the role of Speaker.

Congratulations to our newly-elected Officers, Speaker, and Delegate.


Flag History Project Launched


We're not even sure when this flag was flown over the region… (Flag made by Cuatela/A Raptor)

Regions change over time, and as a result of this, so do their flags. As far as many people are concerned, documentation is essential to the preservation of these remnants of a time long passed. It's evident that Culture Officer Glacikaldr (also known as PowerPAOK and Nequedum) had preservation in mind when he started The Rejected Realms' very own Flag History Project.

Revealed to the public on December 12, 2019, the Flag History Project is a program dedicated to archiving and documenting each notable flag flown over the region, at one time or another. Striving for accuracy, Glacikaldr has begun to list details about the flags that some would consider unnecessary. For example, he has collected information on when the flags were first flown, when they were made, and who crafted them.

Historically, The Rejected Realms is a storied region. The Flag History Project has seemed to be a worthy cause and does well in its initial task of making citizens knowledgeable about our past as a region. Here is what a couple of citizens had to say about the program:


--- Quote from: Bormiar ---I believe pursuing knowledge of our historical change and continuity is essential in understanding of The Rejected Realms' culture, and that the Flag History Project, while it may be difficult, is a beneficial way of achieving this.
--- End quote ---


--- Quote from: The_Grim_Reaper ---Vexillology is as much an artform as it is a field of study. One only need look at the continued appeal of heraldry to understand that symbols and images continue to be one of the most effective ways a person has to convey, at a distance and in a moment, who they are, and for what reason they are here. The basic rules of vexillology, well-known to any of the game's RP communities, are designed around the idea of a flag as a self-descriptive, self-contained, immediate identity-in-motion. It is no small coincidence that here on NationStates, our least-used rule is the one that 'flags must be flag-like' - they continue to be a statement more of ourselves than of the game. The Flag History Project is a groundbreaking initiative that continues on what, so long ago, was recognized by defenders - that flags are worth preserving. It recognizes the reality that a flag is, uniquely, its own interpretive context, and in continuity with each other an evocative timeline of TRR's personality and collective identity. An image is worth a thousand words, but a gallery is an entire history.
--- End quote ---

No matter where the future takes The Rejected Realms, we must not forget our past. Mementos such as flags are not the limit. However, they're an excellent place to start.


Other news
[*]Two horrific reanimated corpses have been found wandering around The Rejected Realms harassing citizens. Oh wait, it's just Sedge and CG!
[*]Popmaster has made a comeback.
[*]>_>![/list]

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