"With respect" Finley began, "Our nation currently provides a garrison in Royal Seleucid to guarentee the safety of the Cult of Helus followers there, the prescence of our troops in the Celtic Protectorate being all that stopped East Moreland reducing them back to the stone age. We also have troops helping rebuild Scordisci which became part of our nation just over a year ago. We have commitments now to support Seaforth and then we have our CNN exercises, that is rather a lot to take on. We've seen many nations with little contact with each other agreeing to military exercises, their expensive and reduce abilities to respond to actual situations. Therefore while we find them useful I don't think at present we can commit to many more. If we have an officer exchange that would be more managable."

Damion then took over, "We'd happily try setting up distillaries but the issue is you're looking a good five years before we produce anything. Add to that you don't have the Lochs and glens we have here so essentially what we make will be completly different. That's not a bad thing but just means the place wouldn't make the stuff we're famous for. As for selling you our products we're happy to sell you as much as you want." The master distiller said proudly.

In 2015 my dearly departed wife Willa Sunbrek invited the world to Uppsala in what was then the Union of Nordic People to celebrate the first ever international Pride event. This event was designed to support the LGBT+ Community and at the same time celebrate advances made in civil rights. Since then the celebration has been taken to first Gowu, then Northfort. The spirit of Pride was also continued by the Morelander duo Melissa Lusk and Amelia Merriman when LGBT+ rights were taken away in KasierAdolf, a hastily organised music festival shone a spot light upon global issues. It is this spirit of mutual support and action we need to continue.

With this in mind the Willa Foundation was set up in 2017 to continue the legacy of the UNP's former Head of Longhouse and Pride Founder, Willa Sunbrek. The organisation sees itself as the custodians of her desire to create an inclusive world and continue her duty of supporting LGBT+ rights across Mundus. As such we are now seeking a venue for Pride 2018 which will take place in late July.

Any nation wishing to host the event may apply and a panel of judges will select the most appropriate venue. The Willa Foundation staff will be on hand to support with planning and sponsorship for the event as well as provide educational resources and use our media contacts to make this a truly global event. Any nation wishing to host should contact the Willa Foundation in writing addressing the following points.

1. Which city would host the event?
2. Why is your nation a fitting venue.
3. What would the theme of this years Pride be?
4. What would you do to entertain the crowds?
5. What impact would hosting Pride have on your nation?
6. What impact would you hosting Pride have internationally?

Any nation hosting the event should be prepared to host citizens from all over the world and provide a welcoming atmosphere.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Krista Rosendahl-Sunbrek
Patron of the Willa Foundation.

	Martja Larsson
Roles	Minister of Defence
Year of Birth	1974, Krokom
Positions Held	1995-2007 Officer in the Air Force (UNP) 2007-2010 Helicopter Instructor 2010-2014 Member of Parliament (UNP) 2014-2015 Special Advisor to the Minister of Defence (UNP) 2015-present - Minister of Defence (NA)
Education	Maths (C) Physics (C) Norse (C)
Family	Previously married in 1997 but divorced in 2003
Links to Important events?	Uppsala Crisis
Biography	Former Search and Rescue helicopter pilot for the Air Force she was persuaded to enter political service by Magnus Bakke and was a key part of the independence campaign.

	Stein Ulfsson
Roles	Head Gothi Gothi of Westerhafen
Year of Birth	1967, Westerhafen
Positions Held	Gothi 1998-present Deputy Minister for Education (UNP) 2004-2006 Head Gothi 2017-present
Education	Literature (A) Theology (A) Norse (A) BA(Hons) Nordic Literature MA in Nordic Literature
Family	Wife- Alicia Children:- Two daughters (1999 and 2002), One son (2008)
Links to Important events?	Uppsala Crisis
Biography	Gothi at his local shrine to Tyr and worked as a Literature teacher at a local secondary school. He is known to be a keen supporter of the arts and at one time was part of the Union of Nordic People's National Theatre Company. He is known for his outspoken views that education needs massive investment and has made this one of his priorities. He has worked in Uppsala during school holidays and helped establish educational centres there with support from East Moreland's Melissa Lusk.

Finley leaned back on his chair as he took the document from Lapu. Meanwhile Damion spoke to the visiting King, "We'd be interested of course, but it wouldn't be anything like this, your water, the climate, everything will be very different but doesn't mean we can't bring whiskey production to your nation, it'll be a new market for us so we'll look into it. Thank you Your Majesty" the man topped up the drinks feeling rather cheerful.

Finley had by now read the document, "Clause 2 needs to come out, if your ambassador can't get his backside into my office within 24 hours then he needs to sort his life out. Frankly I have better things to do in my life than hang around waiting for some visiting diplomat to turn up at my office. There is also not a chance of a mutual defence clause, we don't really know you, I certainly am not about to send people like my brother into harms way for a nation with no track record of being our close friend, sorry but thats just the facts. Again I am not giving your navy access to our territorial waters by simply sending written notice, our two nations do not share spheres of influence and therefore I see no reason why I would need to move a Navy within 12nm of your nation on a regular enough basis to make it worth giving away this access. So what are your thoughts?"

OOC- Hey you guys let me get the name through, therefore it should stick.

Beside the bigger issue is that there is no viable route anymore I believe. Until such a time as one does exist I don't think we can in good conscience continue this. Imagine we say its built, then a months time some new member joins, RP's a poor , broke, backwards nation we either lose the route or they have something very out of place. I personally think we should just park the thread until that day comes when the route is viable.

Finley was slightly concerned by Therz talk, after all it was HIS space agency, it bore his nations name and that made it his, but the last thing he wanted was to be some kind of stumbling block. "Well I am one of the official patrons of the CSA....I'm even an honourary astronaut you know" The King said proudly, while it had been only an honourary rank he had attended a few days of astronaut training but mostly as a PR event. "I'll leave the signing to Seamus then, I'm sure among his many skills he can put pen to paper." The King slid the documents and a pen towards the leader of his space agency.

As they made their way to grab the ice cream Seamus was amused as the tone of their guest, it sounded rather more cool than it was. "All food on space missions has to be carefully produced, its essentially freeze dried, makes it light and can be stored for extremely long times. Once in space the astronauts essentially just add water to it or can eat it dried, like fruit. The ice-cream is rather popular though." They reached a room where several boxes of freeze dried packets of food were stored and Seamus found one labelled "Mint Choc Chip" he tore one corner of the packet and poured in some water before giving the thing a squeeze. He then used scissors to cut the top of the packet fully open and using a spoon took some out. It looked like a more runny version of ice cream, as though it had been out in the sun a few minutes. "I'll be honest its not that popular and on longer missions where weight isn't as critical we can use real ice cream. But feel free to try anything you want" Seamus laid out packets of various freeze dried food on the tables.

Talk began to turn to Heyran missions, it sounded like they had a decent partner lined up, "Well once you know what you'd like to take up we'll begin helping you adapt it to the vehicles we'll be using."

The largest Odinist temple in the world was today opened in Krokom by the Head Gothi Stein Ulfsson who revealed it will be named after former Head Gothi Daniel Stenberg, the first person to hold the role of Nya Åland's theocratic head of state. The all wooden structure was built by a team of 30,000 volunteers and will be able to accommodate 60,000 people in its sunken arena. The temple features an above ground feasting hall as well as a sub-terranian worship hall and a small administration complex. The underground nature of a great deal of the structure means that geothermal energy can be used to help heat much of the complex added to the fact the all wooden structure was made from sustainable woodland it is possibly the most environmentally friendly place of worship on Mundus.

The ribbon was cut by Stein Ulfsson who then invited the guests to the opening inside where the first worship took place. During the ceremony Ulfsson dedicated the temple to "keeping alive the dream of Daniel Stenberg to spread and protect the Odinist faith and the ideals for which it stands." The Head Gothi went on to give all in attendance the mission of "Showing Mundus that our faith is one not of submission, nor guilt, is not one of saying but is one of doing. We do not  bend our knee in supplication to the Gods & Goddesses. Nor do we beg them to do for us; rather, we ask them to empower us to do for ourselves. Self-realization and empowerment are at the heart of Odinism. It is known that that which made man & women 'human' was a set of divine gifts, bestowed by the Gods at the birth of humanity. Through these gifts, we know the Gods directly, for it is that gift that they shared with us. We are, in one way or another, descended from them, body and soul. We cannot "break with the Gods". Ours is not a contractual relationship - it is one of blood. So long as we exist, they exist. Our faith maintains that we neither need, nor ask for our Gods & Goddesses' forgiveness. We were not born into sin. We were born to be tested by our fate, to become the best that we can be. We were born to be great and we must seize that greatness."

Ulfsson went on to explain that the nation will not be joining the Network of Republics as many believed would happen, "The Network is not set up to promote an ideology, it is set up as an organisation serving no purpose other than to have created a backdoor for actions against the Bene Gesserit. That much is clear and while we do not share Mountjoy's world view on many things we saw their actions there as honourable. Furthermore we shall be shortly joining East Moreland in their actions against potential human trafficing of child soldiers, using those not yet at an age to make all decisions for themselves as war slaves is dishonourable and must be opposed."

It was confirmed last night that Princess Mary of Cantabria and Ui Cenneslaig, the wife of Prince Lennox is missing in Lodja. The 43 year old Princess and mother of one was living in the Lodjain Royal Palace with her husband who is the nations ambassador for the whole of Albion. The Princess has now not been seen for over 24 hours and there have been no sightings of her. A Royal Guard unit has been carrying out a search of the Isle of the Goddess and there have been various searches of the outcrops that make up the cliffs. So far there has been no sightings. Prince Lennox is said to be "worried sick" and is "receiving all the support possible by the Lodjain government."

Simon spent the next few minutes giving Ronald a lesson in how to fly fish finishing with the explanation, "It takes minutes to teach the technique, but years to master the art."

Meanwhile King Finley was speaking with Lapu, his counterpart from Quintelia, truth be known he had meet the Pope before and found the man a little odd, but then again he did everyone who was deeply religious. He was a spiritual man himself but it didn't rule his life, and his morals certainly weren't taken from any religious text. The King noticed how this monarch only spoke of one fifth of the membership of the CNN, and that one a probationary member. He wondered what kind of man would expect foreign soldiers to potentially come, unconditionally, to the aid of his people without any bond between them. "Meetings are however a neccesity we're born into" Finley said as he continued to fish. "We'll have an hour at this and then head back" he announced as he turned the conversation to more mundane things.

As the hour ticked by they gathered up the fish they'd caught and Simon hefted the bag containing the beautifully fresh caught fish and the group headed back to the house. "They'll be a chance to freshen up and then we'll head out for a few hours, dress comfortably but we'll be in doors" the King added as he disappeared for a quick shower and change. He reappeared in the lounge twenty minutes later, a rough kilt on above black boots, a white shirt with blue stitching making a grid pattern, and above it a rough wool green sweater. He waited for Lapu and then lead him outside to where a Landrover was waiting, the King got in himself and two similar vehicles took up position in front and behind. "This beast may be old" he said patting the dashboard of the fading green vehicle, "But nothing better for lambing season" Finley said proudly as they headed out the estate gate and onto the country road. They drove for about twenty minutes beside the fresh water Loch before turning into a car park.

A red stone building, no bigger than a small single story house was all that was visible, as Finley exited a man wearing a pair of jeans and a red t-shirt approached, the man looked no more than 30 years old. "Gramps sends his regards Your Majesty" the man smiled as he extended a hand, "Had one of his funny turns again." the boy man grimmaced slightly, "Dad's away in Cantabria" he added as he was introduced to King Lapu.

"This here is Damion McArthur, heir to one of the largest distillaries in Ui Cenneslaig, been in business what 200 years?" Finley left it as a question.

"304" Damion smiled as he lead the King into the building, it was essentially a small shop but in the corner was some kind of cage like structure, Damion opened it and waited for both men to step inside, once they had done so he hit a button and the contraption descended through the floor for what must have been two floor depth before a brightly lit series of rooms came into view. "This is the distillary, carved out of a old tin mine in the 1700's" he said proudly, "Great, great, great, ect, grand-dad McArthur believed the water through these rocks would be a superb quality, and we've the Loch too, loads of fresh peat and heather to use. They walked down a long corridor, hundreds of barrels either side, "We use a wide variety of barrels, some oak, some cedar, old port barrels, old brandy ones" he tapped a particularly hefty looking one, "That'll be opened in 30 years from now" he smiled as he produced a key and unlocked a door. "Your Majesties" he stepped aside and Finley held the door for Lapu to step in.

A room about five meters across, ten meters high and ten long in the centre was surronded by barrels, each marked with a tag. "The Royal Reserve" Finley said proudly, "My family have had the McArthurs distilling special stuff for us here for as long as the place has been opened, he picked up one tag and looked, "This one was laid down in 1973, the year of my birth" he picked up the barrel, no bigger than a rugby ball and placed it on the ground, he made his way to a chest stored at the side of the door, removed three linen wrapped tumblers and proceeded to carefully tap the barrel, he poured each of them a dram. "Its tradition here when every royal is born they get twenty barrels laid down for them, here is mine, my brothers, my two sisters, and my son's" he tapped each of them. "We then get things made on special occasions, such as when I married, when I was coronated, we even have....." he looked at the label carefully blowing some dust from it. "This one is from when my great-grandfather was married" he smiled, "That'll be close to what....100 years old. You want to try it?" he asked Lapu, "Damion, any chance of some cheese and meats while we have a few glasses" with that the owner disappeared off to get some snacks. "So, what can we do to start helping you en route to a CNN application?"

Colonel Graeme Cavanah tossed the brown folder back onto his desk, things were spiralling out of control in Seleucid. So far they'd had two strikes, one by each side and now a submarine caught lurking. The people within the 60 square kilometer piece of land was a haven for the small Cultist population of Selucid, some 250,000 of them now after the attempted genocide, and while not all of them could squeeze into the Protectorate it was in some ways reassuring to know that the Cenneg military force was close by if they needed it. "What word we have from home?" Cavanah asked his 2nd in command.

"The King's sending a fleet this way to suppliment the Frigate and the Amphib." The Captain scanned the paperwork, "We're getting the Cormac carrier, two Destroyers and the Aid Command ship. The plan is for incase we have to evacuate anything"

"Excellent, I think we'll stage some deployment exercises, let people remember we're here and what we're up to." the Captain scribbled down some details and then set about transmitting the details for public consumption.

---

Notice is hereby given that forces from Ui Cenneslaig based in the Celtic Protectorate of Royal Seleucid will be conducting a series of military deployment exercises. This will include four naval vessels from our homeland joining us. It is hoped that the passage of these vessels is not impeded. Furthermore it is expected that aviation assets will be joining us in the coming days. As these exercises take place we urge the nations of Royal Seleucid and The Unified Iwi to stand down their own forces and resolve their differences by talking.

The Ríocht de Uí Ceinnselaig forces remain committed to the Ipsus Agreement signed between the Celtic Protectorate, East Moreland and Royal Seleucid and would, in the spirit of international co-operation urge all nations to abide by the agreement.

Signed
Colonel  Graeme Cavanah
Military Governor of the Celtic Protectorate

To All Nations and Corporations of Mundus

In recent years we have seen just how quickly the world can change. With global warming, natural disasters, man made tragedies and various other threats to the world we put ever growing pressure on our ecosystems. During the tragedy that befell Uppsala we saw the loss of the Nordic Seed Bank, one of the worlds largest depositories of genetic seed material designed to ensure the long term diversification of genetic groups, many of which we depend upon for our food. With this in mind we have completed the construction of a new seed bank for our nation, the Jaholm Seed Bank, however with thought of a future global tragedy we have made it far bigger than it needs to be for our own nations use. It is with this in mind we propose that the Jaholm Seed Bank become a backup of national seed banks, and thereby becomes the worlds largest collection of seeds. We therefore propose to form the Global Seed Bank Organisation (GSBO)

The vault is state of the art and built into a mountainside in a former mine shaft, the vault is "Doomsday Proof" and temperature controlled to ensure that seeds can be stored for extensive periods of time with little worry. We shall offer use of the Seed Bank to all corporations and nations who agree to abide by our organisations charter.

We look forward to working with the world in order to preserve our planet and who knows some of these seeds may one day find themselves taking their species into the stars.

Dr.Ulf Gren
Manager of the GSBO

Finley cursed as he got a bite but the fish swam off, meanwhile Simon looked like he was about to laugh at the foreign guests minister. "I'm the Head of the King's Security detail, we served together in the Pathfinders of the Royal Airborne Commando Regiment back in the day" he rolled his sleeve up to reveal the winged horse emblem of his former unit. He was forced to bite his tongue and simply ignored the man's statement and cast a rod only a short distance away, he flicked the rod back expertly winding in the line in quick time ensuring a splash of water got Ronald square in the face, "Oops" Simon said , "You should really get a worm on that" he motioned to the empty hook before launching his line again, this time it sailed effortlessly to a good distance up the river.

Finley meanwhile was back to casting, "I'm always happy to have an excuse to get out around the estate, even better when it means having special guests, so it should be me thanking you getting me out of meetings with Ministers, or worse opening a bloody hospital or something" he chuckled as he began reeling his line in as a fish fought against him, he could tell it wasn't very big as its efforts hardly taxed him. "As for the CNN the issue is simple, we have four, soon to be five member nations, to gain admission you need three to support your bid. I'm sorry as things stand I can't see you getting in, I mean if I've just voted against Somerset and their a fellow Celtic nation, our kin if you will, then I can't be seen to support the bid of a nation we have no formal ties with. That is however as things stand at the moment, I'd be happy to explore ways of our nations coming closer together during your stay, but then you need to think what formal ties do you share with the Morelanders, cos where the Morelanders go traditionally the Queen of Lodja has followed, but maybe this new Queen may change that. The Maori are a nation of fiercely traditional people, they'll not easily offer friendship unless you've worked for it. The CNN didn't grow out of a need, it grew out of a friendship between the four monarchs forged through Viktoria and David, four monarchs, a love of rugby and a love of nations co-operating for a bigger purpose ensured the CNN existed. So where do you stand with the other members?" Finley asked Lapu as he examined a small salmon. "Just a nipper" he removed the hook and held the fish gently in the water gradually loosening his grip until it swam off with a splash of its tail wetting the King's chest. "Guess I deserved that." he rebaited his line and cast once more.

OOC- Joint post

"With respect only two nations are calling them terrorists" King Finley began as he peeled the crispy skin from his fish. "Kaitaine, which is bloody biased for a start. Then we've East Moreland, and they have to tread carefully, after all their CNN allies with ourselves, they'll not want to rock the boat as we're the ones making sure the Cultists in Seleucid are watched over. Then we have Rokkenjima who frankly don't seem to know their arse from their elbow on this thing, one minute granting them status as a faith, then rescinding it, then calling to support East Moreland. As I see it if we took a global vote on whether the Bene Gesserit are terrorists the majority would say no." Finley began chewing on the crispy skin.

"Thank you Your Majesty" Niklaus said warmly, it was pleasing that they had the backing of such an influential man. "As for Miss McGregor, I've no idea who she is, you have to appreicate that many Bene Gesserit in hiding use fake names, hell I was Niklaus O'Hogan for my whole life up until a week ago."

"Much better name than Corrino" Finley teased before spearing a potato with his fork.

"Indeed Your Majesty" Niklaus said sarcastic before continuing, "In terms of, how did you say, getting to someone, I'm not sure how you think I can help, I'm not in any position to carry out a political assassination or something" he shrugged this type of politics was new to the Bene Gesserit man, he'd known a world of business, academica, his faith and hiding until the faith went public. "Would there be anyway to get her to Mountjoy during an upcoming Bene Gesserit festival. We could then perhaps have some of our people question her about this McGregor and who knows what else?" he looked for advice to Finley who seemed more concerned about a piece of fish bone caught in his teeth. "As for the Moreland question, we have had in the past an attempt to blame something called the Swordmasters, an off-shoot of the Truthsayers, but I don't think anyone took that announcement." Niklaus shrugged and took a bite of his own food.

"Personally" Finley began, "I'd say we stick together, throw support behind the Bene Gesserit, demand a high standard of proof, some knives and dead bodies isn't really proof of anything" he said not really sure he believed that, "Maintain this is some rouge element or perhaps an attempt by the KGB to destabilise the Bene Gesserit faith globally. See what happens?" Finley suggested.

May her majesty reign forever