Ainur

[Cormac]

Consulate of Ainur

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This consulate is hereby established for Ainur on 22 June 2014.

Welcome to the diplomat(s) from Ainur![/center]

[Augustus Anumia]

Thank you very much for establishing our consulate (though of course we hope that it won't be a consulate for very long )

Here is our foreign update:
Third Foreign Update
of the
Kingdom of Ainur

Dispatched on: X June 2014 The Current Ainurian Government
HM The King: Augustus
HRH The Prince Consort: Aubrey

Steward of Ainur: Bayard Smythe
First Minister: Galleria Marlon
Gamemaster of Roleplays: Firebrand

Speaker of the Senate: Ashton Mercer
Senators: Bayard Smythe and Firebrand

Ainur Lives!
First of all, we would like to make a sincere apology for our long period of absence from our wonderful friends' and allies' forums. Ainur has been through a very tough few months, but we're coming out of it stronger than we've been in a long time. After our last update, Ainur experienced a collapse in population and activity which necessitated the declaration of a state of emergency in which the government was more or less suspended.

That situation lasted between November 2013 and late-April 2014, but now the region is finally on the up again. Our population has doubled from a meagre 64 nations to 128 at the time of writing and the future continues to look bright for Ainur.

We thank all of you for maintaining relations with Ainur during our dark ages. We're going to attempt to issue punctual monthly Updates from now on, though I am sure you will forgive us if we're a little late, we're still getting back on our feet!

In the mean time we hope there's all the information you could want on Ainur, but if you want to drop by and talk to us personally, you're more than welcome to visit us on our forums!
For the First Time in a Long Time...
That's right, election season has once again whirled through Ainur, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake (not to mention, a new government!). Elections were held to the Office of the Steward and for three Senate seats. The election for Steward was contested solely by former Steward Bayard Smythe, who comfortably won election against the dreaded Re-Open Applications.

The Senate race was similarly one sided; it saw Bayard Smythe, Ashton Mercer and Firebrand pitted against the "potato platform" of Crushita and Maximilian. Unfortunately, since there wasn't much in the potato platform, Crushita and Max were thoroughly roasted by the voting public.

As the Senators and the Steward were appointed into their offices, the state of emergency officially came to an end and the government well and truly resumed.
The Government Reports
The new Government has launched itself into activity on all fronts. Our executive has been busy with a thorough review of our embassies (if you're reading this, congratulations, you made the cut! ) and preparing this Update.

In addition to that, Galleria Marlon, (styled the First Minister of the Crown) has been tasked with creating our most ambitious RP yet, but more on that later on! Firebrand has been appointed as the Gamemaster of Roleplays.

On the legislative front the three Senators have, on the request of His Majesty, considered an amendment to the Criminal Code which would criminalise spamming. A long time in the works, a similar amendment was proposed in October 2013 but the Senate did not take any action. This time around the Senate unanimously passed the Resolution giving the administrators the power to warn users and creating the crime of "aggravated spamming" for those who disregard official warnings.

At the time of going to press, the Senate has begun to consider the Conditional Citizenship Decree which was passed during the state of emergency and which must now be confirmed or rejected by the Senate.

More recently there has been talk of establishing an assembly which would allow citizens to debate and refer legislation up to the Senate and the King for consideration. Planning for this is at a very early stage, though a formal proposal is expected shortly.
Honours and Awards
Last month saw the establishment of several orders of merit in Ainur, the King is pleased to announce that the following awards have been made:
HRH The Prince Consort was appointed Grand Master and Principal Knight of the Royal Augustan Order.
Grevendal Saxton was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of Ainur, entitling him to use the style "Sir Greyvendal".
Ashton Mercer was appointed a Commander of the Order of Ainur.
Bayard Smythe was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Military Cross.
And Finally
We leave you with news that the Knights of Ainur ride once more to strike terror into the hearts of founderless regions everywhere! Following a fundamental reorganisation under taken by the King as Grand Marshal and the Steward as Knight Commander, the Knights rode in and conquered their first region, The Dancing Sharks Region.

Big things are expected from the Knights in the coming weeks and months, so watch this space!

[Cormac]

Thanks for the update! It's good to see Ainur back up and running again, and congratulations to the new Steward and Senators.

[Augustus Anumia]

A Link to Our Forums

We hope to see you all very soon!

[Cormac]

I'll be there.

[Augustus Anumia]

Fourth Foreign Update
of the
Kingdom of Ainur

Dispatched on: 24 July 2014 The Current Ainurian Government
HM The King: Augustus
HRH The Prince Consort: Aubrey

Steward of Ainur: Bayard Smythe
First Minister: Amanae Smythe

Speaker of the Senate: Firebrand
Senators: Crushita and Sector ZYX
Greetings from Ainur

Hello again! A lot has happened in Ainur since the last update; our regional population has remained fairly steady, but we've gained a lot of new members on the forums! The Government have been passing laws to facilitate our new colonial systems, the Knights are a-raiding, and the RPs are a-RPing! We recently celebrated our 2nd Anniversary, and were happy to see some of you there! Without further ado, the update!

Come stop by our forums!
Elections
Our first regularly-scheduled elections since the end of the State of Emergency were held between 13 and 15 June for both the Senate and the Steward.

The Senate election saw an interesting race which involved newcomer Sector ZYX against Senate veterans Firebrand and Bayard Smythe, as well as Crushita looking to make his return as a legislator. In a closely-fought race, the election concluded with Bayard Smythe losing his Senate seat to Sector ZYX. Although this proved to be somewhat of a surprise at the time, it's not affected the functioning of the Senate, and has led to an infusion of new blood into the place.

In the Steward race Sector ZYX challenged the incumbent Bayard Smythe for Steward. Both candidates addressed a variety issues important to the region and offered a fair number of proposals in their well-written manifestos. Sector ZYX, an accomplished raider, focused on expanding the Knights of Ainur and discussed engaging citizens in some of the newer or less-used areas of our forums; especially the Politics and World Assembly subforums.

Bayard Smythe's manifesto included a proposals for the planning of the 2nd Ainur Day festival, as well as benchmarking for foreign affairs and cultural aspects of the region. Both candidates articulated their positions well with solid arguments. Ultimately, voters chose to continue with the known and the trusted, electing Bayard Smythe by a tally of seven votes to one. The performance of ZYX in the campaign and his subsequent activity in the region leads us to believe that we will be seeing much more from this promising young upstart in future elections.
The Knights of Ainur Ride Into Battle!
The Knights of Ainur have swept through NationStates! During the past few weeks we have captured, refounded, and created a colony of The Caucasus. Just for laughs, we also stopped by Warzone Australia, creating a poll for the natives and generally having a decent time with them.

Following hot on the heels of a short mission in Austria was our latest raid, that of The Banana Republic. Sadly our presence in this zanily named region was short-lived. The return of the founder meant an unfortunate early end to proceedings when our forces were expelled.

Despite this minor setback, the Knights continue to make progress on the world stage, with several raids in the pipelines.

The following Knights were instrumental in the operations:
The Causasus – Firebrand, Sector ZYX, Maximilian, Bayard Smythe, Galleria Marlon
Warzone Australia - Sector ZYX, Maximilian, Bayard Smythe
The Banana Republic - Bayard Smthe, Sector ZYX, Firebrand, Charlie Sheen

In addition, the following Knights have been promoted to the rank of Private:
Firebrand, Maximillian. Sector ZYX has been promoted to the rank of Sergeant.
Legislation
In our last Update we spoke of the Conditional Citizenship Decree and whether is should become law (as it was enacted during the State of Emergency). In the end, the Senate decided not to formally enact it, and it ceased to have effect on 19 June, thus making it one of the very few pieces of legislation passed in Ainur to be effectively repealed.

In anticipation of the upcoming 2nd Anniversary, the Senate passed the Ainur Day Resolution, establishing 30th June as a regional holiday, to be celebrated by joy and merriment between Ainur and her allies at the festival grounds. The festival went off without a hitch, as you can read below!

To encourage military participation and activity, the Knights of Ainur Recruitment Resolution was passed, to establish a program to recruit members of the region into the Knights of Ainur. Since the passing of this resolution, two new members have joined, with many more to follow as the program gets on its feet.

The biggest legislation to come out of the Senate would be the 4th Constitutional Amendment, giving the King the power to establish colonies and colonial governments. The first colony to be affected by this amendment is The Caucasus, being refounded by the Knights of Ainur and on its way towards becoming a functional colony. The King is expected to make Royal Decrees related to the government of the colony shortly.
2nd Annual Ainur Day Festival
Earlier this month, we, and some of you, celebrated the 2nd Anniversary of the founding of Ainur. Two years is a long time for a region to exist, much less than thrive as we have! The festival grounds were visited by members of the region, as well as diplomats from abroad. Taking eternal glory with him, HM The King, Augustus Anumia won the "Festival Points" thread, wherein every post adds one to your score, winning with a grand total of 15 in a tight race against Bayard Smythe.

The other active topic of the festival, "Count to 100 before a Royal posts" was beaten within the hour, whereby the king raised the limit to 1000, before taking mercy on his subjects and lowering it to 200. The number was reached with a tiny bit of help from the King on the last day!

The biggest attraction of the Festival had to be the awards show though. The winners were voted for by each citizen, and the results for each category are as follows:

Best Newcomer: Sector ZYX
Best Politician: Bayard Smythe
Best Roleplayer: Ashton Mercer
Most Congenial: Aubrey
The Potato Award for Most Entertaining Ainurian: Who else but Crushita!
And last, but certainly not least, the award for Ainurian of the Year went to
Greyvendal Saxton.

The 2nd Annual Ainur Day Festival was a rousing success, and we hope to see you all again at our 3rd, 4th, and every year after!
The Caucasus
The view over the vast icy wilderness of Ainur's first colony.

Recently, members of the Ainurian government have taken in interest in imperialism. With the passing of the 4th Constituional Amendment, The Caucasus has become the first colony of Ainur. More ideas are being brought up every day on what should be done in the colony. Stay tuned for more!
Events, dear boy, events
So many things happened in Ainur over the past month and a bit that it's been difficult to condense them all into this update. Mindful of not wanting to bore our friends and allies, here's a quick run through of some major events that haven't been made into articles:

Amanae Smythe joins her husband Bayard in the Executive of Ainur, taking over as First Minister from Galleria Marlon. She is responsible for a whole gamut of things in Ainur, including the proofreading of this Update!

HRH The Prince Consort has been appointed and confirmed as Ainur's 2nd Chief Justice (and the first under the Monarchy).

Thank you for taking the time to read this update from the Kingdom of Ainur, we hope you've enjoyed it!

[Jack Dawkins]

*claps*

[James]

Thanks for the update!