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As I said in the telegram, I want to make this a monthly thing like it was when the region first started. Not only was the Orendi traditionally an important way that people in other regions learned about Wintreath and what we do here, but now we're also using it as an internal dispatch to let our own community know what's going on. I imagine the schedule for this month will go something like this:

Now - June 15th: Ideas for articles, can start writing early if anyone wants to
June 15th - 25th: Finalize articles and put edition together
June 25th-ish: Release

News Ideas

• Repeal of Ainur treaty
• Underhusen/Delegate election activity (or lack thereof?)
• Expanded game back/contest

Soft Topic Ideas

• Citizen's Corner?
• Overview of some interesting discussion we have?
• Interview with notable person?
• Some sort of community survey/poll?

News in Briefs Ideas

• Orendi archive available
• Mobile-friendlier forum

So if anyone's interested let's start brainstorming and writing and put this thing together. [/list]

I think I'll start writing a monthly article about some of the cultural things going on, such as Wintreath's Finest, the Avatar Theme of the Month, and the recruitment contest (it's not really culture-related, but the Steam keys deal kinda is, so I can take over until someone more fitting (Integration?) does). This month's could also touch on the start of the newest game of Spyfall, the new Monarch's Game Bag deal, and the Paris Climate Agreement discussion -- that is, unless someone wants to make any of these their own articles.

Though it is culture-related, I think the new LGBT forum deserves its own article, especially since it's LGBT Pride month.

Speaking of the Monarch's Game Bag/Steam keys, I could bump up the deals to encourage more article-writing and recruiting if you would like/are ok with that.

If you want I can do an article on the LGBT forum.

I think they all sound like great ideas.

As a former Ainurian myself, I could try writing about the Ainur repeal treaty. I'll need some direction as to how much you want the article to focus on the treaty repeal itself vs the deteriorating state of Ainur as a whole, though.

As a former Ainurian myself, I could try writing about the Ainur repeal treaty. I'll need some direction as to how much you want the article to focus on the treaty repeal itself vs the deteriorating state of Ainur as a whole, though.

We don't really have an editor-in-chief or anything, so whatever article you write is up to you. But personally, I don't think it would really matter if the treaty repeal itself is the focus because how much can you really say on that? I'd think an article on the Ainur/Wintreath matter would be interesting coming from a former Ainurian, though.

The Culture Review

This is the first installment of the Culture Review, written by me, Gerrick, 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, monthly contests, and forum games.

The Monarch’s Game Bag is a list of over 150 spare Steam keys that Wintermoot and other citizens have donated to the region over the years. As the Monarch’s Game Bag used to only be rewarded to those who won the Monthly Recruitment Contest, which had no winner for a year, it had no real use, and the Steam keys were left unused. To help with this as well as to help spur civil service activity, a new system was put in place to reward those who take the initiative to make Wintreath a better place. All of the games were split into two categories: Gold Rewards (those that cost at least $10 each) and Silver Rewards (those that cost less). Silver Rewards are given to those who write 2 articles for the Orendi, gain 1000 recruitment points in one month, or win Wintreath's Finest of the Month. Gold Rewards are given to those who win the Monthly Recruitment Contest, gain 2500 recruitment points in one month, win Wintreath's Finest of the Year, or complete two of the Silver Reward tasks. Rewards will also be given out during festivals, so make sure to attend our Summersend Festival in August!

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 May 2017’s Wintreath’s Finest was Justinian Ezkantion, who was nominated for creating and hosting the newest roleplay, the Wild Men of Wichita. I had the pleasure of interviewing him about the RP in an article in last month’s Orendi. The other nominations for Wintreath’s Finest were Fortis_Scriptor, who has written several stories and pieces of lore for the world he and Crushita are building for a book, and Elbbsas, who has been writing short timed prompts to work on her creative writing. Both Fortis_Scriptor and Elbbsas have helped revitalize the Halls of Art and Writing and have inspired others to post their works as well.

The Avatar Theme of the Month is the theme that several forum users will adopt into their avatars for the month, whether that means using pictures or memes that have to do with the theme or Photoshopping the theme into their usual avatars. Nominations are typically related to current world affairs, historical dates, holidays, or happenings in Wintreath. The winner of June 2017’s Avatar Theme of the Month was a tie between the FBI (nominated because of the ongoing high profile FBI investigations) and the Battle of Midway (the famous WWII naval battle that took place in early June 1942). Other nominations included Skyrim, flags (nominated because of Flag Day in the US, which takes place in June), and June as a name (May as a name was a nomination in last month’s contest).

The Monthly Recruitment Contest is back after a year of having no winners. The winner of the contest must have the most recruitment points (with at least 1500) by the end of the month. Recruitment points are earned by manually sending out recruitment telegrams to new NationStates nations, using our recruitment tool. The winner of May 2017's Recruitment Contest was Mathyland, who recruited to 1578 nations. As the winner of the recruitment contest, he was then allowed to choose any game from the Monarch’s Game Bag, which he decided to be Sid Meier’s Civilization V.

Spyfall is an easy-to-learn party game of bluffing, probing questions, clever answers, and suspicion. In the game, one player is the Spy and has to try to figure out their location, while all other players try to figure out who is the Spy without giving away their location. We had already had five games since it was first introduced to Wintreath in early 2015. This sixth game was made up of eight players and took place in a cathedral to Wintreath’s unofficial religion, Potatoeism. The non-Spy players took on roles (such as Bishop, Beggar, and Tourist) to help them ask and answer questions in-character. The game ended up lasting from May 30 until June 13 when BraveSirRobin, the Spy, figured out the location and won.

My fluff piece! It's here!

Wintreath Does Yet Another Political Quiz

Over the course of the past month, members of the forum community have been taking the 8 values political quiz, which attempts to place you among four axis based on your responses to various political issues it asks about. Overall, the quiz determined that the forum community as a whole tends to be socialist, globalist, libertarian, and progressive. Even the most "conservative" member, Justinian Ezkantion, was described by the quiz as a centrist, with most members being categorized into libertarian socialism or social libertarianism. Overall, it was an interesting look into where individual members and the region as a whole stands on various issues!

Below is a description of each axis and the two values that comprise it as stated on the website, along with some information on where the region stands on each axis.

Economic Axis: Equality vs Markets
Those with higher Equality scores believe the economy should distribute value evenly among the populace. They tend to support progressive tax codes, social programs, and at high values, socialism. Those with higher Market scores believe the economy should be focused on rapid growth. They tend to support lower taxes, privatization, deregulation, and at high values, laissez-faire capitalism.

Most Socialist: Cinciri (93.3 Equality/6.7 Market)
Most Capitalist: Justinian Ezkantion (49.4 Equality/50.6 Market)
Regional Average 69.9 Equality/30.4 Market

Diplomatic Axis: Nation vs World
Those with higher Nation scores are patriotic and nationalist. They often believe in aggressive foreign policy, valuing the military, strength, sovereignty, and at high values, territorial expansion. Those with higher Globe scores are cosmopolitan and globalist. They often believe in a peaceful foreign policy, emphasizing diplomacy, cooperation, integration, and at high values, a world government.

Most Nationalist: Justinian Ezkantion (69.7 Nation/30.3 Globe)
Most Globalist: Crushita (22.3 Nation/77.7 Globe)
Regional Average: 37.9 Nation/62.1 Globe

State Axis: Liberty vs Authority
Those with higher Liberty scores believe in strong civil liberties. They tend to support democracy and oppose state intervention in personal lives. Note that this refers to civil liberties, not economic liberties. Those with higher Authority scores believe in strong state power. They tend to support state intervention in personal lives, government surveillance, and at high values, censorship or autocracy.

Most Libertarian: Aegon (85.4 Liberty / 14.6 Authority)
Most Authoritarian: Justinian Ezkantion (40.0 Liberty / 60.0 Authority)
Regional Average: 69.0 Liberty / 31.0 Authority

Society Axis: Tradition vs Progress
Those with higher Tradition scores believe in traditional values and strict adherence to a moral code. Though not always, they are usually religious, and support the status quo or the status quo ante. Those with higher Progress scores believe in social change and rationality. Though not always, they are usually secular or atheist, and support environmental action and scientific or technological research.

Most Traditional: Justinian Ezkantion (53.5 Tradition/46.5 Progress)
Most Progressive: taulover (12.2 Tradition/87.8 Progress)
Regional Average: 23.0 Tradition / 77.0 Progress

The Ainur Problem: A Lesson in Failure
A Microsope into Incompetence from Ainur's former Crown Prince

Recently the government of Wintreath has finally decided to terminate their formal relations with a region that has been dead for a very long time. Ainur, a region founded with a Lord of the Rings-esque theme and a strong community dedication to its regional government, was once able to boast of a couple hundred nations and a vibrant RP community which oddly enough rarely had anything to do with its theme. However, over nearly 5 years of existence it slowly withered away into a lifeless zombie possessed by ~20 lurkers and with an offsite forum that hasn't been touched since August.

To pinpoint when or how exactly this happened is pretty much impossible. A lot of events that crippled or should have crippled the region ended up being merely shrugged off by a still-dedicated core community. Perhaps Ainur can serve as yet another testament that no matter how dedicated your most loyal members are, things will decay without new blood no matter what. Really, some of the decisions that the inner circle of government in Ainur made (myself included) can be guidelines for what not to do when operating a region.

To begin with, a certain significant person in Ainur's government (who shall remain anonymous even though you probably already know who I'm talking about) believed everyone else wasn't going to do as good a job as he was doing, even when the region was starting to plummet in terms of membership. Thus he tried very hard to prevent giving power to anyone else, because he was afraid they might muck it up, or that they were going to commit some sort of petty vengeance on him. Paranoia from the most powerful people rarely leads to a successful and healthy community.

Secondly, as more and more of the core community (mainly those who had registered to the offsite forums) began to drop off as they grew older and started attending college, recruitment wasn't really very organized. You had one guy whose job it sort of was to recruit people through a legal API tool, and that job wasn't really being monitered very well. Whereas the region I currently inhabit, Wintreath, encourages manual recruitment as well through various rewards, there was no such system in Ainur at any point in time. In fact recruitment was such an enigma to me in Ainur that I didn't even understand how it worked until after I had left following two years of service in various positions.

Thirdly, the amount of reach that Ainur had was dwindling constantly. While I was mostly in the dark about recruitment something I was quite aware of was how Ainur's projection through the greater NS community was shrinking. Our participation in the raider/defender game collapsed into nothing and the regional military effectively dissolved. While the game is hardly necessary to keep up a presence on the site, it certainly helped. The fact that we only posted perhaps once or twice to our site forums page, however, certainly didn't help. While some of those who remember the drama might point to the adoption of less noble individuals into our region causing regions to cut off diplomatic ties and ruin our reputation as the primary act of isolation, I would say that's simply not the case as diplomatic ties would be re-opened only a year later, yet the region was incapable of recovering its position. It was problems within, not without, that caused the reduction of Ainur's position.

Due to the way that the government operated in its later years (Where a few people had a lot of power) when one person went inactive there were many, many functions of the region that suddenly ground to a halt. Responsibilities that were never given to anyone else, shoes that were never refilled, etc. For instance, when the Royal Chamberlain and the Newspaper Editor CTEd there wasn't a single regional update of any kind sent to anyone for months. The Ainurian government lost its functions as a sandblasted sculpture loses its features until it is naught but an unrecognizable pillar of stone.

However the final nail in the coffin to any life supported region such as this comes when attempts to clean the slate and build anew are blocked by attachment to the old. When people become unwilling the change the region they've spent so much time in, they fail to breath new life into it, and the dissatisfied will simply seek greener pastures. Such is the case with Ainur, where almost every single member of government in the summer of 2016 left and never came back. While the immediate cause of the exodus, and with it Ainur's demise, was  a series of unlawful bannings and regional drama, Ainur would have been able to recover were it not so insular, and that was a problem that had been permeating long before.

May all this serve as a reminder, that no region is an island, and that even the closest of communities can collapse from within. Be warned, lest ye end up having to communicate on skype because apparently Discord is too complex my compatriots said while playing Dwarf Fortress.

Signed,

Eldarion III, King of Ainur (deal with it, Crush)


Rough draft, how you like?

seems a little passive aggressive, which is probably not for the best if we're disseminating this to our friends and allies
also, what skype I was never invited to this skype clearly you all don't value me

seems a little passive aggressive, which is probably not for the best if we're disseminating this to our friends and allies
also, what skype I was never invited to this skype clearly you all don't value me

So you want me to get rid of the whole Discord rant and telling crush to deal with it?
(also dude i have no idea what your skype is)

I don't really like Discord...I gave it a try, but the funny thing was the fewer Discord servers I was in, the better I felt overall. Maybe that's just me being a recluse, but can't we all go back to IRC?

Anyways, I think the article is good...it leans a bit more toward an opinion piece than news, but I don't see a problem with it. I think it's good to have some articles of news and some of perspective and opinion and various things, especially from people who were on the inside or have unique perspectives.

So you want me to get rid of the whole Discord rant and telling crush to deal with it?
(also dude i have no idea what your skype is)

Well, partially that, but I meant that your article as a whole seems a bit hostile. Certainly that hostility isn't directed at any of the people who are probably reading it, but still, it might send the message that we sort of take things personally. Which isn't the message we would necessarily want to send out on diplomatic channels.

And I mean, I'm not a fan of skype either, I largely said it as a joke. But I'd join a discord of Exiles (which shall henceforth be the fancy shorthand for 'everyone who left Ainur after the weird coup-that-was-sort-of-a-counter-coup-at-exactly-the-same-time').

I don't really like Discord...I gave it a try, but the funny thing was the fewer Discord servers I was in, the better I felt overall. Maybe that's just me being a recluse, but can't we all go back to IRC?

Anyways, I think the article is good...it leans a bit more toward an opinion piece than news, but I don't see a problem with it. I think it's good to have some articles of news and some of perspective and opinion and various things, especially from people who were on the inside or have unique perspectives.

That's what I was going for mostly. I can change around the subtitle to make that more clear that it's just my take as a former Ainurian if you'd like.

So you want me to get rid of the whole Discord rant and telling crush to deal with it?
(also dude i have no idea what your skype is)

Well, partially that, but I meant that your article as a whole seems a bit hostile. Certainly that hostility isn't directed at any of the people who are probably reading it, but still, it might send the message that we sort of take things personally. Which isn't the message we would necessarily want to send out on diplomatic channels.

And I mean, I'm not a fan of skype either, I largely said it as a joke. But I'd join a discord of Exiles (which shall henceforth be the fancy shorthand for 'everyone who left Ainur after the weird coup-that-was-sort-of-a-counter-coup-at-exactly-the-same-time').

Unfortunately for you and me, the community doesn't really like discord as a whole. I tried setting up a server but it didn't go anywhere. Everyone is on skype, though we post rather infrequently you can get a conversation or three every week out of it.

Hey! I like Discord!
I left because it was literally just me and you though

Also I will not "deal with it." on the other hand Ainur is a dead region so I don't care if you claim to be its King, its a meaningless title