Wintreath

[Anabelle]

Wow, thanks for the update! Good luck to anyone who tries to solve it! I'm interested in seeing the solution for sure!

[Mathyland]

Wintreath Foreign Update XVI — June/July 2018



Realms of Wintreath
Wintreath - 278 nations
New Hyperion - 83 nations
Nowhere - 3 nations

Government of Wintreath
Monarch: Wintermoot

Jarl of Culture: Gerrick
Thane of Gaming: Gattoartico
Thane of Integration: Kane lives
Thane of LGBTQ Affairs: Pengu
Thane of Roleplay: Vacant
Thane of Werewolf: Pengu

Jarl of Foreign Affairs: Gattoartico
Thane of Dispatches: taulover

Jarl of Regional Affairs: Doc
Thane of WA Affairs: BraveSirRobin

Advisor: Chanku

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Sorting Out the Storting
A Recap of Recent Wintrean Legislative Events
by taulover


Image credit: Dmitry Valberg on Flickr Greetings, friends! It is I, taulover, Speaker of the Underhusen, here to bring you some quick updates on the state of our legislature!

In the June Underhusen elections, the incumbent term chose to lower to the number of seats to four, and five candidates stood for office:

• Chanku ran on a campaign of experience and legal reform.
• Mathyland cited his long-time incumbency and capacity for grammar fixes.
• Crushita did not campaign until late in the election, basing it on his experience and Spud religion.
• I, taulover, ran with no specific agenda except keeping the Laws page completely up to date.
• Doc had some various ideas, including defining citizenship within the Fundamental Laws.

Crushita ultimately lost the election, likely due to the delayed campaigning.

In the Speaker vote following the election, there initially appeared to be a possibility of a tie between myself and Chanku. We reached an agreement wherein Chanku would become Speaker pro tempore and be free to implement his legislative goals without any hindrance from myself. Additionally, I appointed Mathyland as Secretary.

Chanku's main proposal for the early part of the term was to create an officer system for the Underhusen. Under this new system, the Speaker could create various offices and appoint citizens to it. After some discussion (in which a proposal for giving the Monarch the duty to initially nominate a Speaker candidate was rejected), this amendment to the Underhusen Procedural Rules was passed.

Following this event, I created the Office of Information at Chanku's advice, and appointed Mathyland to lead it. This Officer position continued Mathyland's former Secretarial duties and also expanded them to include greater public outreach responsibilities.

Other proposals still remain in discussion, including one giving the Speaker the power to fix grammar errors in laws, and another establishing an explicit supremacy clause in the Fundamental Laws.

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The Culture Review
by Gerrick This is the fifth installment of the Culture Review, written by me, Wintreath's Jarl of Culture. I'll be talking briefly about some events going on in the cultural areas of the forums, such as Ministry news, forum games, and contests that took place from late April to early June.

Thanes (Vice Ministers) of Culture are elected positions that serve to manage and represent different areas of Wintreath. Along with the already established positions of Thanes of Roleplay, Werewolf, LGBT Affairs, and Gaming, in May the Ministry of Integration was dissolved and a new Thane of Integration was added to the Ministry of Culture. Elections for these positions were held at the beginning of June, and the roles are now filled by Pengu as Thane of Werewolf and LGBT Affairs, Gattoartico as Thane of Gaming, and Kane lives as Thane of Integration. There were no candidates for Thane of Roleplay who completed the necessary steps to win the position, but I will be on the lookout for someone to take it over. I look forward to working with this group and seeing what they can bring to their new roles.

Wintreath's Finest is the name for Wintreath's citizen of the month. Nominations are for those who stood out as contributing or showing dedication to the region or having been extra active, caused activity, or been a good influence on others. The winner of April 2018 Wintreath's Finest was Gattoartico for his hosting of the successful regional game nights playing Realm of the Mad God and Minecraft. The winner of May 2018 Wintreath's Finest was Wintermoot for all of the work he has done to update and redesign the recruitment system, the forums header, the newsfeed, and other areas of the forums. Other nominees for the two months were Elbbsas for creating and hosting the Wintreath Escape Room, taulover for organizing and getting the Orendi out regularly, and Hydra for designing each Orendi.

Avatar Theme of the Month is the theme (or themes) nominated and voted on by citizens who then incorporate the winning theme(s) into their avatars for the month. Themes are often related to current events, though they may also include themes nominated at the random whims of citizens. May's winning theme was Anything That Rhymes with May, beating out other themes such as Minecraft, Han Solo, and Justin Timberlake. June's winning themes were a tie between Alaska and Cats. Crushita adopted an avatar that is unquestionably the most fitting: a picture of Mayor Stubbs, the cat who was the mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, for twenty years.

Spyfall is an easy-to-learn forum game where the lone undercover spy tries to figure out the location of the game while all the other players, who act in their given roles related to the location, try to figure out who the spy is. Spyfall VIII, which was hosted by North, lasted from early March until May. The location of the game was the United Nations with players given the roles of ambassadors from different countries. Hydra, the Spy, ultimately did not successfully announce the location before being correctly voted off as the spy by a majority of the players, which was initiated by Doc, making this only the second time in Wintreath that the Spy lost. There were apparently some miscommunications as to how and when the Spy could make his guess, but everyone including Hydra agreed to have enjoyed the game.

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The Pandemonium RP Begins!
by taulover ft. AJ
Image credit: erzon77 on AdeptGamer Advertised as "a roleplay of possibly infinite possibilities, but also structured," Pandemonium is a Discord-based RP set in a dimensional cluster, ruled by gods. Here, AJ'BLarg, the GM, explains the setting:

The existence of Pandemonium is built on a simple principle. Planes. The five main planes are the main realms of Bael'Kath, Olv'Thrane, Alissa, Santioc, and Xaelinoc. Pandemonium itself is a centralized dimension inside the capital of Xaelinoc, accessed by a single portal. Each of the six realms is vast, and each the size of an entire plane of existence. There's other planes that exist, and possibly will come into play.

Each plane is vastly different. Xaelinoc is the plane of the demons, ruled by the mighty Demonous Clan. Santioc is the plane of the angels, led by the Fallen Angel Cardina. Olv'Thrane is the plane of the elves, led by the mighty Zermophium, who is said to have the power of the world tree of the plane itself. Alissa, led by the Draconic Maelikor, leader of the humans. Bael'Kath, the realm of chaos and horror, led by the monstrous Xernia. Pandemonium, the capital of the collective, led by Kessek Demonous, the God-King.

If you dare to try your fate, possibly rise up in the ranks, come to the Multi-Plex of Pandemonium. Or perhaps lie in wait until your plane comes under the scope of the Multi-Plex. The possibilities are infinite in the multiverse. How will you fit in?

AJ has much experience GM'ing roleplays online. On comparing RP'ing via forum and Discord, AJ stated his opinion that "Discord is an easier and less intimidating platform." It will undoubtedly be exciting to see the Wintrean RP community evolve as it takes on this new direction of RP'ing and broadens into new platforms.

If you're interested in this RP, you can contact AJ#4382 on Discord.

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Wintreans Share Food That They Made!

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These are some potato wedges that I made! New potatoes cut into wedges, shredded Parmesan cheese, garlic powder and salt, and some parsley after it came out of the oven. I could have baked them a bit longer to crisp the outside more, but the flavour was fantastic, and went great with ranch dressing as a dip. It won approval in my house, at least.

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This is currently one of my favourite dinners. Bobotie: a mince dish, with copious amounts of fruit, curry powder, and milk-soaked bread. I have to start making it at a bit past one for it to be serveable by six, and the egg layer on top keeps consistently being runny, but I'm getting there!

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My take at raspberry fool, based on a recipe on Food Network and the ingredients that I happened to have. I actually decided to totally mix in the raspberries and cream to give it a uniform flavour. I'm not usually a big fan of raspberries, but it was good with ladyfingers.

I also made this with strawberries yesterday, and it's very much my thing.

Feel free to share your own favorite recipes at the Howling Wind Tavern!

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An Interview with Gattoartico about the New Modded Minecraft Server
by taulover


Gattoartico tours Furnace Lane, near the spawn of the modded server. Wintreath has had a thriving Minecraft community for many years, with a vanilla server dating back to 2014. Recently, however, Wintreath has expanded its scope in Minecraft to mods. Joining me today discuss this topic is Gattoartico, our Thane of Gaming, who has launched a modded server based on a custom modpack.

Why did you choose to make the Wintreath modded Minecraft server?
It partially spawned from a conversation with Trader on the Vanilla server. We were discussing plans for militarization of Castle Terrinian and High Castle, with missiles and sentry armies. As a result I started compiling the mods I already played with and asked for mod suggestions. It kinda became a desire of mine to see Spawn on Wintreath Server being nuked. We don't have that map but the one we do have is a close second!

How did you decide what mods made the cut for the server pack?
Some of them were mods I loved previously, like AbyssalCraft which adds in elements of Lovecraft to the game. As well as mods that others suggested. The existing server pack is one that I slimmed down to the largest pack that would put the least stress on the kind of crappy laptop the server is on. It's still pretty full but without any truly heavy hitting mods.

What have been some of the biggest difficulties of getting the modded server up and running?
One of the biggest issues was finding the right hardware and pack size. Occasionally I take the server down for "maintenance," which is just code for the me getting tired of hearing the fan howling. I do intend to upgrade the server hardware in the near future, as trying to run it off of a first gen i3 really isn't helping performance.

What is the most interesting thing you've seen on the modded server?
Definitely the building styles of the players. Everyone on the server has kinda the same Dwarven mantra going, "Dig deep, and then dig deeper." Outside of my constructs most buildings on the server go down and not up. Which can be seen with the construction of Deepholm, Crushita's dwarven stronghold in the deep. Out of everything it is still the second deepest structure on the server. The only thing that goes deeper is my Mortis Engine. And boy is that sucker deep.

But then that may be warranted. After all, nuclear powers are on the rise server side. So digging deep may be a result of the expanding nuclear arsenals. Out of which mine still dominates the server at nearly sixty silos scattered across four dimensions.

Do you prefer vanilla or modded Minecraft?
I would have to say modded. I like the plethora of new and strange things mods add to the game. Alongside technology and magic I enjoy the variety of dimensions, creatures, and weapons you can find.

What are you plans for the future of the server?
The first thing on the list is upgrading the hardware. Ideally I want to to have an i5 or i7 as the processor and at the very least 16gbs of ram. Then the pack will go full and y'all will get the true world save. Where the server capital is a massive mountain range with sheer cliff faces. And the days prior to the server world and pack change I plan on dropping a total war scenario on y'all. Nuke each other and fight my dudes.

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Thanks for reading!

[Altino]

Wow, looks like you guys have a lot going on! Our Minecraft server was a ton of fun, hopefully yours will be as well. Thanks for the update!

[PapaGatto]

I’m just posting this for Mathy quick, I’m the Jarl of FA :p.

Hello everyone! We have been hard at work producing another puzzle for our fellow NS friends, and here is the result!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0L06zPWTDo

I hope you all have a wonderful time working alongside others in your region to crack the puzzle. Best of luck!

[thechurchofsatan]

Orendi XIX: Vernal Equinox Edition
Our magazine-style Orendi has just published its latest issue! Check out our full PDF Version, or take a look at the pages in image form below.

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[thechurchofsatan]

Hello hello to all of our friends and region-mates out there! It's time once more for a rousing game of Werewolf! For the 18th installment, the theme was put to a vote by Wintreath's citizens. The votes were close, but Choose Your Own Werewolf IV was the winner! That means that you'll choose how the game goes based on how you answer a set of questions...this time asked by a simple English gentlecat who just wants to make you tea and biscuits. So stop by Wintreath for some tea, and take part in a friendly game of Werewolf! The signup thread can be found here, and signups will conclude on June 10th at 8PM Pacific Standard time...so there's plenty of time to sign up. I hope to see you there!

[thechurchofsatan]

Orendi XX: Dog Days Dispatch
Our magazine-style Orendi is back for another issue! Check out our full PDF Version, or take a look at the pages in image form below.

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[Anabelle]

Thanks for posting!

[thechurchofsatan]

Greetings to our partners and friends!

The Summersend Festival is our annual festival to celebrate the end of summer and the coming of winter with many fun games, contests, events, and friends, you you are invited to join us! For more information, check out the graphic below, and to check out our festival forum, just click here or on the graphic! Hope you can find the time to join us.

[thechurchofsatan]

Hello there! Tired of embassies just having invitations and updates? Yup us too. Embassies are pretty boring so we thought we'd use ours for something more. Embassies are also a place of outreach. A place for one region to introduce their community to another region. So why is nobody doing that!? Well we are and hopefully you will too in the spirit of fun and good will towards other regions. That's why Wintreath is sending this out. The rules are below so you can read up on how this works as well as what's a no go.

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1.) Keep it pg-13.

2.) Maintain common decency. No hate speech, don't disparage mental illness or its patients, don't make it pornographic (while the genre of the story is up to you, it cannot be pornographic....yes we felt this needed to be said twice) and all that other common sense stuff that you already know.

3.) You and every region you send it to needs to include with the post you send to other regions, a chronological list of where your specific story has been so that readers (and yes us as well) can keep track of where it has been and verify that the story hasn't been hijacked or something in order to break the rules. Basically your post should look like this:

1.) Wintreath
2.) Your Region

[the rules]

[First paragraph of the story]

[Your region's addition to the story

Then you send it to another region with your region added to the list who will add to the story and do as you did, and so on.

3a) If you're forwarding this via dispatch then do one of the following: mention the nation with the previous dispatch, pin their dispatch in your region, quote their dispatch on your RMB or telegram Club Stoic with a chronological list of where your particular version of the story has been, including links to where each part of the story was originally posted.

4.) No story can be sent to a region it has already been. In theory there will be several different stories going around that have been to places another story hasn't. So if Story A has been to Regions 1, 2 and 3 it cannot be sent to those regions again, but if Story B has only been sent to Regions 3, 4, 5, and 6 then it can still be sent to Regions 1 and 2.

5.) The genre(s) is up to you, the writers! Wanna make it a Crime Drama/Occult story? Go ahead! Tech Noir/Fantasy? More power to ya! Sky's the limit!

6.) Who writes your region's addition to the story is up to you. Wanna include the in-game residents of your region instead of just the off-site community? We strongly encourage that. Wanna make a contest out of it? Go ahead and have more fun with it. Make a poll to decide? By all means. Whatever you do just have fun and remember to pay it forward by sending it to any one region you have an embassy with. We cannot stress enough how important it is to send it out to only one region. Otherwise the stories could end up deadlocked amidst absolute chaos during its dispersal.

Go ahead and spoiler the rules and guidelines to save space. Just make sure it's obvious that the rules are there and need to be read so that they may be observed.

Prologue
When I was assigned this case I thought it would be easy and that I would finish it quickly. Just talk to the witness, learn what happened, learn who did it and let Homicide or Commercial Crimes take it off my hands. I expected to be home in time for dinner. What they didn't tell me is that I needed to be a therapist to make any progress. I mean I am a therapist but only because I got a degree online so I could get a raise. I'm not even a decent therapist. I am detective Brock Shepherd and this is my report. I'd started bright and early as usual. Well as bright as it gets in Medford, Oregon. As I passed through the gates of Rogue River Pines Asylum I could tell it was more dreary there than any rainy day could make the town. I flashed my badge, showed the director the warrant and made my way towards patient #67, located in Room #33 of the trauma ward. On the way there the director told me about his preliminary examination, "Mr. Parry Laeddis is in a fragile state right now, sir. What he experienced, the things he saw, the trauma was so great that he can't talk about it cohesively or coherently. If you aren't careful in your questioning he'll just shutdown. I cannot allow you to question him without my supervision." I thought he was overstating it at the time. Coddling the man even. I admit now that I was both careless and insensitive when I first spoke to Parry Laeddis. I walked into the room so arrogant and impatient. At the time I had no idea what kind of damage my brash attitude towards Laeddis would do. Even when I left the room having seen the look in his eyes I didn't regret that first encounter as much as I do now. I don't think that anybody who'd seen and endured so much pain would make it out alive. Looking back I'm not even sure he really did. The following is a transcript of my first line of questioning: