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One of the most fun articles I've written in a while.  If you want, you can claim this was taken from the "obvious tabloid magazine known as the Posh Penguin" since I plan on using this as an article in the next upcoming issue.

When Beeterflies Attack!
By Gabriel S. Penguon, continued by Iliana Vere, edited and finished by Griffin Alexander


Stock footage of a swarm of bees, since reporters kept getting attacked whenever they tried to get a picture of the beeterflies.  So just imagine these...but with butterfly wings.

Disaster struck just a couple of hours ago in a grove on the outskirts of Wintreath when a swarm of Beeterflies (bee-butterfly hybrids that travel in groups) attacked a group of construction workers that were reportedly working on the Monarch’s seasonal cottage.  It’s rumored that the Monarch had chosen that specific area, not aware that it was a hunting ground for the insects.

“When I was walking along one day, I caught wind of what looked to be a Betterfly fluttering about.  I had remembered hearing that if you followed one back to its nest, you were guaranteed a long, happy, and fruitful life.  So I told my men to follow the Betterfly.  I had no idea that it would lead them to an area populated with Beeterflies.” Monarch Wintermoot told reporters while resting peacefully on his throne in his castle.  “I am truly perplexed as to how these creatures of legend would do such a thing to such poor people.”

Local villager Laurentus Valeria had a different opinion.  “Most people have heard the actual stories: Betterflies lure people into dangerous situations.  I had a friend last week find a Betterfly just outside of Cain.  He was so entranced by its rainbow wings that he followed it.  I think that thing somehow knew what it was doing, because it led him right to a small clearing and just flew away as if it was laughing at him.  When my buddy regained his senses, he found himself surrounded by sleeping Sabertooth lions.  He was lucky to make it out of there without waking any of them.”

“I’m surprised the Monarch acts like he’s never heard any of this.” states the Monarch’s royal advisor, Chanku.  “I’m pretty sure I recall one of the nearby villages complaining about missing villagers that were lured away by these Betterflies, only to turn up dead after falling off cliffs, or being ripped apart by Snow Tigers.”  Shocking, to say the least...but what was even more shocking was the next thing this same advisor told me in a whisper.  “You didn’t hear it from me, but the Monarch did know of this danger, but he was insistent on having his cottage there.  And you also didn’t hear this from me, but he’s got a stash of Betterflies hidden away in the ca--”

We’re sorry to report that as reporter Gabriel S. Penguon and Advisor Chanku ended up disappearing during the report.  This was 10 days ago.  Last night, we had gotten wind that his notes were found in the snow, which we were able to gather together and put together this article.  Unfortunately, both his and Advisor Chanku’s bodies were found at the bottom of a pit of Minos...detestable scavenging creatures that pervade the sewers.  We can only conclude that the two were discussing something that wasn’t meant to be heard, and met a grisly end in the process.  I ask that the readers please take a moment to remember Advisor Chanku for his work for the Monarch, as well as Gabriel S. Penguon...former Count of Cain as well as avid article writer.  They will never be forgotten.

We’re sorry to report that former Count of Cain and avid reporter Gabriel S. Penguon, former Royal Advisor Chanku, and former reporter Iliana Vere have met their unfortunate end at the hands of Wintreath’s feral wildlife.  Please keep their families in your thoughts and prayers, and please stand with the Monarch to get us through this troubling point in time.  They will never be forgotten.

We actually had more ongoing games than recently finished, so this one is a little different. Let me know if I need to make any changes.

The Culture Review
by Gerrick
(Link to image)

This is the ninth 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 January through March.

Wintreath's New Regional Animal: For the over five years that Wintreath had existed, it had no regional animal. The introduction of a new Underhusen bill that laid out Wintreath's symbols, including naming the snow leopard fox, a fictional animal adopted by Wuufu's Discord bot Zaphyr, as the regional animal. This, however, brought up some debate as to what the regional animal should be since others wanted to give input. After the nominations of over a dozen different animals, there was a vote that led to a tie between (funnily enough) the snow leopard and the arctic fox/snow fox. Another vote between the two ended with a decisive win by the Snow Fox, making it the new regional animal of Wintreath.

Thanes (Vice Ministers) of Culture are elected positions that serve to manage and represent different areas of Wintreath. At the time of elections in early March, there were five Culture Thane positions: of Roleplay, Werewolf, LGBT Affairs, Gaming, and Integration. The roles are now filled by Pengu as Thane of Werewolf and LGBT Affairs, Excalibur as Thane of Roleplay, HannahB as Thane of Gaming, and Katie as Thane of Integration. Shortly after the elections and some talks in the Cabinet, the Thane of Integration position was moved from under the Ministry of Culture to the somewhat recently created Ministry of Regional Affairs as it seemed to better fit in that ministry.

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 December 2018’s Wintreath’s Finest was Doc for his good influence on the RMB as well being a generally great member of the community. At the end of each year, there is also a vote for Wintreath’s Finest of the Year, which is comprised of all of that year’s Wintreath’s Finests. This was a year for firsts as we had our first tie for a Wintreath’s Finest of the Year as well as our first two-time winner of the award: both Doc and Laurentus received the most votes and so became Wintreath’s Finest of 2018, and Laurentus became our first winner of two Wintreath’s Finests of the Year, having previously won Wintreath’s Finest of 2015. January 2019 Wintreath’s Finest was a close race as all four nominees received within three votes of each other, but the winner was Wintermoot for his creation of the new forum spam game Clickwar (read more below). February 2019 Wintreath's Finest saw a tie between Katie for her work as Officer of Information in the Underhusen and Ruguo for starting up the newest Escape Room as well as starting a new RP.

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. January 2019’s winning theme was Alternate History, nearly beating out themes like Surprised Cartoon Characters, Fictional Invaders, and Bad Life Choices. February 2019’s avatar theme was Frost for the cold temperatures that swept the US earlier in the month. March 2019 had a tie between Arctic Fox in honor of it becoming our new regional animal and Rejected Lucky Charms Shapes for St. Patrick's Day.

Clickwar is Wintermoot’s new spam game where every 30 seconds you can click a tile on the 5x5 board to earn a point, and the players with the most points on each tile gain ownership over them, accumulating “legacy points” every 24 hours they are held. Players then compete to own the most tiles for as long as they can to win. The first and most recent season ran from January 5 until March 15. After many changes in ownership of the 25 tiles, taulover had the most legacy points with 231,192 (beating the next player by 40,000), and Elbbsas had the most tiles owned with 9. Be on the lookout for the next season of Clickwar!

Arena is a turn-based RPG-themed strategy game, and the current game, which is hosted by taulover, is the first to include a new tiled board and movement. This match was a 5v5 team deathmatch where players worked together to destroy the other team. After 16 rounds and the deaths of two teammates, it became clear to the orange team that they were doomed to lose, so they surrendered, meaning the Blue Team -- Gerrick, Hydra, Kane lives, Wintermoot, and Syraj -- won the game.

Mutliverse Collision is a new RP hosted by Ruguo where characters from different universes and fandoms are abducted by an omnipotent being and thrown into a huge arena for its own amusement. Whether the characters fight each other or work together is yet to be seen. The RP has just recently started, and signups are open to all.

removed

Escape Rooms are text-based puzzle games where players work together to escape their prisons. The current game, which is the first to be hosted by Ruguo, will likely continue for a while longer and is still open to all.

HannahB is currently playing the turn-based management-style PC game Fate of the World and proposing different decisions for participants to choose and give input on as a sort of “Wintreath Plays” experience. The game just started and is open to all.

Wintreath Bleeds is the first roleplay set in the unofficially official RP world of Wintreath where four factions have sprung up to fight over the throne after the death of the king. Having started only a month ago, the RP is still in its beginning stages. Signups are open to all.

Werewolf is a forum game where undercover werewolves work together to kill the rest of the players, who are at the same trying to find and kill the werewolves. After the recent closing of a poll and a resulting tie, the theme for the next game has been decided to be a sure-to-be-comical mixture between a Valentine’s Day theme, the succession of the Papacy in the Potatoist religion, and a follow-up to the vampire vs. Van Helsing theme of Werewolf XVI: Those of No Reflexion. Be on the lookout for an invitation to the signups soon!

Citizen’s Corner
An Inside Look at the People who Make Wintreath Great
by Katie

Hey y’all, welcome to the Citizen’s Corner, where I ask one of our many great citizens to tell us their story about their time and experiences here in Wintreath. For this issue, I wanted to find someone who has a story to tell, someone who is wise beyond their years in all matters Wintreath. It is with that said that I ask y’all to give a round of applause for this issue’s guest…

Wuufu! He’s one of the founding members of this community who is also the Chairman of the Overhusen, Discord Moderator, and founder of Cynosure!

You all know the drill by now! I ask a basic format of questions and perhaps a few questions related to the guest. So, without further ado, let’s get right into the questions!

Knowing that you originally came from Spiritus along with the founding members of this community, why did you come? Why did you not stay in Spiritus?
I was actually Wintermoot's Vice President back before the founding of Wintreath and was there during the time he left to create Wintreath. I found being a Brit in a US-centric government (that is nearly all its members were based in the US) quite a challenge to keep on top of things, and as such don't feel I had much of an influence on happenings but looking back the cause seemed to have formed from a major clashing of personalities.
When Wintermoot left, I retained my place in Spiritus and went on to become President there for a few terms, but I also see Wintermoot as one of my most influential mentors in the NS-sphere, and it was him that pulled me also to join Wintreath. He is naturally charismatic in that way! I'm now one of the few people who still retain joint citizenship of both regions, alongside my third region Cynosure.

What have you learned since joining Wintreath? How has it applied to the way you run your other region, Cynosure, and has it had effects on your real life?
Wintreath is more than just a region. It's a community, a family. It's what draws people in and keeps them around, coming back to get involved deeper in the region. I've taken this to the way I founded my other region, Cynosure, by making the Prime Directive of the region be that of finding fun and entertainment in all things. We come to our NS regions at the end of the day to relax in a community of friends, and I think Wintreath does this so well. I'm hoping Cynosure can achieve a similar ethos.

What are some ways in which you've contributed to the community of Wintreath?
My proudest contribution to all three regions I'm in is the deliverance of chat bots. This started back in IRC and has expanded into Discord. While I still have plans for Zaphyr, and I would love to see his game modes used more often (he can host Cards Against Humanity and Poker currently!), I think he continues to play an integral part of the community almost as much as any human member.
I've also participated in the Overhusen, though this is again due to Wintermoot's charismatic draw who pulled me in. My personal goal in Wintreath has always been to not get too deeply involved in governmental activities and just become "an ordinary joe"; but I have, and continue to, enjoy my time as Chair of the Overhusen. The legislative scene is the most active of all the regions I'm in by far and has been for a long time, and it's good to see so much involvement!

What would be your advice to a new person trying to get involved in Wintreath?
Wintreath is a community first. This is different from every other game out there in that we haven't formed around the game, we've formed from the game. So the community is unique in that NationStates is actually a very small part of what we do, and there are a lot more things happening on the forums.
So look for what interests you! Wintreath has a ton of things going on, and it can be overwhelming, but just find something that looks interesting and put your energy into it. By getting involved in that activity, you become a member of the Wintreath community and then you can expand to other things that interest you as you get more comfortable.
Finally, join us on Discord. A lot of the fun happens in the conversations that go on in the Discord channel, and even if you lurk and enjoy the happenings as I often do, it's a great place to hang out!

What is your favorite experience in Wintreath so far?
Honestly, the number of awesome forum games people put out! I'm currently playing a game where I'm a dog exploring a room, and it's great fun. All my favourite experiences have been focused on culture; it's why I'm so interested in the cultural aspects of regions, and why I was Minister of Culture of Spiritus back in the day.
Unfortunately, as you age, you tend to get more and more responsibilities that take up more and more time, while having less and less energy, so I'm leaving the cultural creation to others and participating where and when I can.

Do you have any future goals or aspirations in Wintreath?
Other than continuing to improve Zaphyr and continuing to help out as Chair of the Overhusen, nope! I'm just here to enjoy the community and the culture it produces and maybe, if and when I have time for it, add to it. Who knows!

Thank y’all so much for tuning into the Citizen’s Corner. Be sure to look for me in the next Orendi where I’ll interview another lucky citizen. Until next time!
@taulover

@Gerrick apologies, but since we've been delayed a significant bit, a lot of the events ended up going underway or ending, would it be possible to update the Culture Review? Thanks!

Hmm, yeah give me a bit, though, since I'll need to rewrite quite a bit of it.

Ok, I've updated the text.

My first time working on the Orendi composition, big thanks to @Hydra for teaching me the ropes of InDesign and for creating this wonderful design!

https://imgur.com/a/1DRWARg
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fT4e3agcklawxGhxvfiSoUebf_qPMHNo/view

My first time working on the Orendi composition, big thanks to @Hydra for teaching me the ropes of InDesign and for creating this wonderful design!

https://imgur.com/a/1DRWARg
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fT4e3agcklawxGhxvfiSoUebf_qPMHNo/view

If it's absolutely possible, my citizenship nation is no longer Gihuodaho and is now Rikutsar. If it's not changeable it's fine.

My first time working on the Orendi composition, big thanks to @Hydra for teaching me the ropes of InDesign and for creating this wonderful design!

https://imgur.com/a/1DRWARg
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fT4e3agcklawxGhxvfiSoUebf_qPMHNo/view

If it's absolutely possible, my citizenship nation is no longer Gihuodaho and is now Rikutsar. If it's not changeable it's fine.

Sorry, started working on it before you changed your citizenship nation and forgot to change it. Unfortunately would be somewhat of a hassle to change, especially since Moot's uploaded it already.