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WA Delegate: Frattastan
Culture Officer: Deadeye Jack
Foreign Affairs Officer: Kyorgia
Outreach Officer: Bobberino
Media Officer: The Aligned People
Speaker of the Assembly: Marilyn Manson Freaks

We Had an Election or a Few…

In April, citizens of The Rejected Realms once again sprinted to their nearest polling stations to vote in the Officer and Speaker elections.

On the topic of the Officer elections, one random citizen exclaimed that “This will be the most important election in our lifetime or just for this month, I guess.” Speaker Altmoras declared the standing period for the election to be open on the first of April and after a grueling four days, five candidates came forward. The five candidates were Deadeye Jack, Jamie, Kyorgia, The Aligned People, and The Grim Reaper. Which all were running on very interesting platforms that no one actually read. Eventually, Speaker Altmoras put up the vote and after four days of hard fought battles, the results were in. Incumbent Officer Deadeye Jack was re-elected in the first round, incumbent Officer Kyorgia was re-elected after him, and new Officers Jamie and The Aligned People also ended up being elected.

At the same time as the Officer elections were going on, the less prestigious but equally important Speaker election was also happening. This race was not as hotly contested with only two citizens running for the role of Speaker of the Assembly. The incumbent Speaker Altmoras decided to not run, leaving Marilyn Manson Freaks and Xanderstralia as the only candidates running for the position. At the end of a very long night of results, it was finally announced that Manson had won the election over Xanderstralia.

After some hard thinking, Delegate Frattastan announced that the new cabinet would be Deadeye Jack as Culture Officer, Kyorgia as Foreign Affairs Officer, Jamie as Outreach Officer, and finally, The Aligned People as Media Officer. Soon after, the new cabinet started off working fast, but, unfortunately, Jamie announced that he would no longer have the time to fulfill his duties as Outreach Officer. This meant that the newly elected Speaker, Manson, had the important job of running his first election. This time, five new people ran for the empty Officer spot. Neop, Bobberino, Bormiar, Rom, and Xanderstralia, who previously ran in the Speaker election earlier that month. Nearing the end of the election, it seemed to be neck and neck, with Bobberino and Neop leading. However, Bobberino eventually amassed enough votes to win the election, beating Neop 15-10.


Disruption at the Citizenship Office


Libetarian Republics enjoying his first day of freedom

One very important aspect of the region that is not very often spoken about is the Citizenship Council. For years, the CitCo was run by three old sages, Frattastan, Guy and Libetarian Republics, but in March, LR announced that he would be going on a vision quest and resigned from his position. As per regional law, Speaker Altmoras nominated longtime citizen and former Delegate Catalyse to the Citizenship Council. After a nearly-unanimous vote in the Assembly, Catalyse was confirmed with 20 votes for her appointment to the CitCo, 2 votes against, and 3 abstentions.

Thought Transference Inducted into the Hall of Fame

Recently, the Assembly decided to be active again and inducted former Citizenship Councillor and all-around chill philosopher, Thought Transference, into the Hall of Fame.

TT, a longtime citizen of TRR, has been gone for nearly four years now. However, he was not forgotten! An interesting and calm player, he could probably be described as an NS rationalist. He approached both regional and international problems from a logical standpoint and was always considerate of the emotions of his fellow citizens and players. He was a voice of reason and a leader in chaotic times, one being Kandarin's departure and Naivetry's ascension to the position of Delegate.

During his decade in the region (2005-2015), TT never sought elected office. A modest character, he only ever served on the Council of Three (a temporary political body established to regulate Naivetry's power while the Constitution was still in the process of being ratified) and the Citizenship Council. He was one of the first three Councillors, and is one of the longest-serving. He was a Councillor for an impressive amount of time equal to about four years!

As you can most likely tell, TT fully deserved his induction. Love him or hate him, he surely impacted TRR in a positive way and brought his interesting thoughts and philosophy to the region.

Lost and Found Accords Ratified


Delegate Frattastan announcing the new treaty to the Assembly.

Delegate Frattastan and Officer Catalyse recently sat down with the government of our sister sinker Osiris to negotiate a treaty. After some initial difficulties translating hieroglyphics into Italian the discussions went well and a treaty was agreed upon. The treaty, named after that time an intern lost it at starbucks, was passed through the assembly in The Rejected Realms and The Council of Scribes in Osiris.

In other news

• The winners of The Reject Awards 2019 have been announced.
  
• A short story contest was held in the region with Nakari writing the winning story. The stories can be viewed here.
  
• A meme contest was held in the region with the theme being memes about the rejected realms. The winning meme was made by Kyorgia and all the memes can be seen here.
  
• The Rejected Realms' Historical Society has updated its government list to include all former citizenship councillors, former positions such as senator from the 2008 constitution, sub-delegate from 2003 among other roles. The historical society's subforum with a lot of interesting bits about The Rejected Realms history can be found here.
  

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WA Delegate: Kyorgia
Foreign Affairs Officer: Deadeye Jack
Media Officer: The Aligned People
Culture Officer: Sarah
Outreach Officer: Morover
Speaker of the Assembly: Marilyn Manson Freaks

TRR Elects New Delegate: Sometime Ago

Perhaps no one else has noticed, but The Rejected Realms has had a new delegate for little over a month now. Elected on the 12th of May, with thirty-three votes out of fifty-seven in total, Kyorgia is the 13th Constitutional delegate, the third one elected since the establishment of six months terms, though only Frattastan IV, Kyo's immediate predecessor, actually served for the duration of their fixed six months term.

The elections that saw Kyorgia elected started with nominations being opened up on the 1st of May, being closed on the 8th, when voting starting, which finally ended up on the 12th. While it was not the most uncontested election, with only four candidates running, while in the previous elections there had been nine candidates, it had an higher number of votes, fifty-seven in total, than the most recent elections. Kyorgia, Deadeye Jack and The Church of Satan all reached the ballot, but the fourth candidate, long-time member of The Rejected Realms and former Vice Delegate, Spartan Termopylae decided to exit the race before voting started.

At the closing of the ballots Kyorgia had thirty-three votes, DeadEye Jack twenty-one and The Church of Satan had three, which would have all transferred to DeadEye Jack. While the candidate with the lowest vote count, The Church of Satan has been a long-term amendment of the region, having served in several positions, including as Delegate before, and has become a presence in all delegate elections since he last served in that position, something that might put at stake Crazy Girl's staple as a delegate candidate, who seems to have missed this one out. The vote was however contested between Kyorgia and Deadeye Jack, whose only similarity of note are that they were both implicated in attempts to undermine regional sovereignty.

Deadeye Jack, along with fellow TGW member, Altmoras, who was at the time running a speaker campaign, was accused by an investigative journalist of being part of an organised effort to colonize TRR. Though this was at the time dismissed as a joke by most, the at the time speaker, Vulturret, who would be defeated in election by Altmoras, rallied to defend TRR's sovereignty from defender infiltration. Deadeye Jack is however better known by how many times he has been mentioned in previous foreign updates in connection to cultural activities, as, after being elected as an Officer in December, he led a concentrated effort as Culture Officer to improve activity in the region and has been involved in organising and managing several cutural activities, such as Rejectvision, or planning interregional events.

On the other hand Kyorgia had to wait to become Delegate in order to be implicated in subversion. Interregional observers did what they did best when they observed that many of those who voted for Kyorgia were self-professed raiders, though some others were also labelled as "I don't know.", "Who?" and "Scavenger", while Deadeye Jack's voters were mostly defender, bar one or two "They're still active?". Probably more damning than any accusations than being elected as part of raider infiltration are the charges of "being lazy", accusations from which we've been waiting for a response from Kyorgia for three weeks now. However if you forget accusations of treason Kyorgia is an all around great guy, having been a long-time member of the region, probably better known for having served as Speaker and for being a awarded the role of prominent token raider.


Hectic Days at the Ballot Box

General elections for TRR's cabinet were held in April, with Deadeye Jack, Kyorgia, Jamie and The Aligned People being elected as Officers. Out of these four officers, only Deadeye Jack and The Aligned People, remain in office today.

The first to abandon the ranks was Jamie, who resigned shortly into his term, after which Bob was elected on the twenty-first of April. A new election was triggered soon enough, as shortly before voting for the Delegate elections started, Invincible, or n-vince, challenged Outreach Officer Bobberino, and although Invincible was defeated with twelve votes against him and seven for, the outcome of the election, which the sitting officer had not contested, opened the constitutional question of if in such cases the incumbent should retain their position or not, and although the prevailing opinion was that they should, it was also the majority opinion that it should be further clarified.

Shortly after, with his victory in the Delegate elections, Kyorgia resigned from his position as Officer of Foreign Affairs, to which Deadeye Jack, his opponent in the Delegate elections, was appointed to. With one new vacant seat came one new election, in which Morover, Sarah, The Church of Satan and Flower Boy were the candidates, with Sarah emerging as the victor with thirteen votes, and was rapidly appointed to the Culture Officer, previously held by Deadeye Jack and to whom she had previously worked as a deputy and where she continues her predecessor's work in coming up with new activities and continuing old ones.

More recently, Bobberino chose to resign, triggering yet another election when new candidates challenged for the newly vacated office. Morover and Flower Boy again chose to run, and were this time joined by Twertis, otherwise known as Bormiar, on the ballot. And finally, on the the 19th of June, Morover, who had been for a time contributing to The Rejected Times was one of its most recent up and coming contributors was elected with 15 votes, quickly being appointed by Kyorgia to the position of Outreach Officer. With three Outreach Officers two months into them term, we hope the third time truly is the charm.

Rejected Radio Relaunched Successfully

Established in August of 2013 by The Church of Satan, Rejected Radio was originally conceived as an almost-indie news and music station. Early on, Rejected Radio mostly just played the music of independent artists and ocassionally chatted about international happenings until its revitalization and renaissance in 2015. Nearly six years later, Rejected Radio is back, better, and different.

Reannounced on June 5, 2019 by Manson, Rejected Radio came with an entirely new look. The new logo features a metallicized version of the phoenix on Kandarin's (a Former Delegate of The Rejected Realms) flag. This symbolism is meant to show that Rejected Radio is constantly changing and evolving, while staying true to its home region's roots.

In addition to being reloaded with a brave new look, Rejected Radio has taken other steps to keep up with the times. One being the creation of a YouTube channel! On this new channel, viewers can find and watch previous Rejected Radio episodes whenever they please. The first and current video on Rejected Radio's channel is the interview hosts The Church of Satan and Morover did with Anabelle I, the new Pharaoh of Osiris. You're free to watch it here.

Lastly, stay tuned! Rejected Radio's staff are currently working on two new releases. Make sure to subscribe to Rejected Radio's YouTube channel and turn on notifications if you're interested.

The RRA Roars Back Into Life

Spurred on by the return of High Commander Frattastan to active duty, the Rejected Realms Army has seen a surge of activity over the past month. The return of several RRA veterans including Catalyse, Karputsk & Neop has been complemented by an uptick in membership that includes more experienced heads such as Ravania and Lynxi, and newer faces that were invited to sign up as part of a region-wide recruitment campaign.

Over the past month or so the RRA has made a significant contribution to defender operations coordinated via the Libcord discord server and in tandem with our friends in the South Pacific Forces, the Grey Wardens & TITO. In the absence of significant raider activity up until recently, the RRA has participated and led forces in hundreds of detags, and countless smaller defences, liberations and supports. The RRA also deployed to its home region, The Rejected Realms, and Osiris, to assist with the recent delegacy transfers.

To reward recent contributions, several RRA troops received promotions. The new newly-promoted soldiers will assist in the day-to-day running of the army and updating of RRA procedures and guides. The most senior promotion was that of Karputsk to Lieutenant, who has proven his competency and experience at update, and was able to address some of the concerns about his activity. The other two promotions were of Rom and Neop to Sergeant. As two of the RRA’s most frequent updaters they will be expected to assist in training of newer members and to lead update operations in the absence of other commanders.

With this renewed activity, the RRA has improved upon its existing operational capability. It remains on high alert following the return of TBH and Lily to the battlefield and as Raidercon gets underway. With a healthy mix of experienced and newer players the force is looking to encourage opportunities for members to develop themselves as defenders and advance within the RRA’s hierarchy, and to foster long term activity and growth.

First Rule of the Rejected Realms Fight Club...

As part of an initiative to do more events and activities using NationStates features, Deadeye Jack unveiled The Rejected Realms Fight Club in May. The club makes use of the challenge feature and participants are supposed to challenge each other for position in the standings. Each week, based on the standings, epic cards are handed out to the nation at the number 1 spot in the Fight Club and to the nation that made the biggest jump up the leader board for that week.

After passing the month milestone, membership of the Fight Club stands at 35 nations ranging from levels as high as 70 and as low as 2. For the entire run, Turbeaux has maintained the top spot but many have jockeyed for position below that nation and one day a challenger will come along to snatch that number 1 spot.

If you’d like more information about how it works, if you’d like to join or if you’d just like to follow along, read the dispatch.

In other news

• The May Meme Contest winner was Nakari.
  
• Culture Officer Sarah hosted an Art and Photo Contest for the first time in June and the winner was Nequedum who narrowly edged past Ravania.
  
• Guy resigned from the Citizenship Council and was replaced by The Grim Reaper

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WA Delegate: Kyorgia
Foreign Affairs Officer: Deadeye Jack
Media Officer: The Aligned People
Culture Officer: Sarah
Outreach Officer: Bormiar
Speaker of the Assembly: Neop

Constitutional Confusion Finally Resolves

As some of you may know, the Rejected Realms has a rather unique electoral system where in addition to regular elections, citizens can challenge the Delegate or Officers for their position at any time, if they have the support of several other citizens. However, some confusion ensued around the system in May, when Bobberino, then Outreach Officer, was challenged, but he did not contest the challenge. Thus, under the Constitution, a vote was held to confirm the challenger, Invincible, which failed. However, Constitutional provisions did not state what happens if a sole challenger fails, and a debate ensued in the region on whether the Officer retains their position, or if the position becomes vacant. Then-Speaker Manson eventually decided to announce that Bobberino retains the position, but urged citizens to address this issue with a Constitutional Amendment.

After much discussion and several proposals by citizens, a proposal by Guy, a former Delegate, eventually gained the most support and made it to a vote. The proposal made it so that incumbent Officers will be automatically assumed to contest a challenge election unless they state otherwise, thus making the likelihood of a single-candidate confirmation vote much lower – for that to happen, the incumbent Officer would have to state their intention not to contest, and only one challenger decides to run. The amendment also clarifies what would occur in the case that a confirmation vote fails – if a confirmation vote for Officer fails, then that position will become vacant and open to challenges, while if a confirmation vote for Delegate fails, the incumbent Delegate would retain the position as the position is essential for security and must be filled at all times. Some questions were raised about this, as the most likely scenario for a Delegate confirmation vote is when an incumbent runs unopposed, which would mean that the incumbent retains the seat no matter the outcome of the vote. However, it was decided a re-run election would not make sense as it could lead to another one-candidate confirmation vote, and that the failure of the incumbent to be confirmed would serve to encourage others to challenge the position. Thus, the Amendment was passed by an overwhelming majority in August, ending the months-long Constitutional debate.

Another Election, Another Report

TRR had its most recent Officer Election in August, and it was largely uneventful. Six candidates ran – Sarah, the incumbent Culture Officer; Deadeye Jack, the incumbent Foreign Affairs Officer; The Aligned People, the incumbent Media Officer; Bormiar, the incumbent Deputy Outreach Officer; United Massachusetts, a well-known World Assembly author, former WA Minister of The East Pacific, though a relative newcomer to TRR; and Harenhime, better known elsewhere as Ever-Wandering Souls of The Black Hawks, and a former candidate for Delegate.

Aside from Harenhime, everyone ran on a substantial platform. Sarah vied for the position of Outreach, pledging to reach out more to people on the Gameside, though promised to hold a theme region party if made Culture Officer again. Bormiar also targeted Outreach, emphasising a more personal touch and envisioning a mentorship program, with a side note of promoting trading cards as incentives, an area he’s knowledgeable on. Outreach was also the crux of United Massachusetts’ campaign, who wanted to use his experience to expand TRR’s presence in the WA, including publishing vote recommendations, building partnerships, and promoting endorsements. However, he also faced the most questions due to the scale of the plan, though he performed valiantly in addressing them.

Jack pledged to continue his previous work as FA Officer, with a focus on potentially setting up a WA bloc with other regions, and closer relations to The North Pacific, though he faced some questions on the lack of response to events in The East Pacific. The Aligned People ran again for Media, with a platform of expanding Rejected Radio to include press briefings, attracting more listeners to live recordings and interviews, as well as continuing quizzes for each issue and encouraging more feedback among writers.

In the end, UM didn’t gain enough support for his ambitious WA plan, and the elected Officers were Sarah, reassigned to Culture, Deadeye Jack, reassigned to Foreign Affairs, The Aligned People, reassigned to Media, and Bormiar, assigned to Outreach. UM was taken in as a Deputy Outreach Officer to focus on WA matters, though was replaced recently due to inactivity, so perhaps the voters chose correctly.

Kyorgia Becomes Newest Member of Citizenship Council

This year has been very crazy for the Citizenship Council. As some of you are aware, Councillor Guy resigned May 1st after years in the position. However, Guy's resignation and replacement by The Grim Reaper only marked another resignation from the CitCo. On September 2nd, Catalyse posted an extremely brief message announcing her retirement as a Councillor.

This came as a shock to many, considering she had only held the position since January following her nomination by then-Speaker of the Assembly, Altmoras, after Libetarian Republics decided that he didn't have the time anymore to serve as a Councillor.

After careful consideration, Speaker Neop boldly nominated sitting Delegate, Kyorgia. Some acknowledged this as a strange move due to Kyorgia's current position, however, this has occurred before. Under Frattastan's first term as Delegate, he was indeed nominated and appointed to the CitCo. In fact, he's still a Councillor on it today! After Kyorgia's confirmation to the CitCo via a vote in the Assembly, matters involving citizenship seemed to speed up almost as if magic. 

Who knows how long Kyorgia will serve on the Citizenship Council? Frankly, that doesn't matter now. The Rejected Realms is excited to finally fill the Citizenship Council once more, hopefully for a while!

TRR and XKI Fantasy Nerds Gather for Event

To celebrate the close ties between 10000 Islands and The Rejected Realms as enshrined in the Treaty of Friendship, the two regions put their heads together and planned a fantasy themed event to enjoy together: A Quest with TRR and XKI. The event was inspired by Dali's Drag Race, organized by the West Pacific in June, but the rules were adapted to fit the way things were going to be judged. Players were encouraged to make a new fantasy themed nation and join The Unicorn The Island and the Wardrobe in order to participate. Over 4 days people were asked to change their flags, mottos, currency, animals, and anything else they could think of to fit the daily theme, show off their creativity and impress the judges.

The over 20 people who participated did not disappoint. Photoshop skills were parlayed into Voldemort popping out of a wardrobe. Roleplaying prowess gave us a prolonged visit from Posion Ivy. And of course it wouldn’t be a party without *checks notes* Lord Farquaad memes. Everyone had a lot of fun with it including the judges. In the end the top 3 for the event were:

1.   Bowshot/Toerana
2.   Nequedum/Glacikaldr/PowerPAOK
3.   Thepeopl

In other news

• Sarah won Rejectvision 3 with the song Black Sheep by Metric
  
• The Rejected Realms hosted the Elysium Festival with The East Pacific celebrating art.
• Deadeye Jack won the August Meme Contest
  
  

Thanks for the update!

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WA Delegate: Deadeye Jack
| Culture Officer: PowerPAOK | Foreign Affairs Officer: Neop |
| Outreach Officer: The Pharcyde | Media Officer: Bormiar
Speaker of the Assembly: An_Dr_Ew

Rejectmas 2019: A Celebration to Remember


Deputy Officer Morover takes a quick nap on the floor of his apartment after a long day of cleaning Dramoon-colored stains out of the carpets of Capitol buildings.

The turn of the decade was greeted by the Rejected Realms’ annual hairy and very smooth Rejectmas Festival, flaunting a gusto that rivalled its popularity back when the event ran in conjunction with the NationStates’ World Fair. We invite you to learn more about the holiday’s traditions here or to consult our brief checklist.

With the regional holiday officially running from December 26 to January 1, our Culture Department prepared a series of ten activities for Rejectmas Festival 2019, hosted gameside, forumside and on our discord server.

Hosted Gameside, we had a poll-run popularity Unicorn Jousting tournament, where contestants came up with unique unicorns to represent their nations and competed in elimination play-offs. Congratulations to The Church of Satan whose sponsees, Rudolphon the Reindragon and Duke Christmas Goodknight, secured the title of Unicorn Jouster of 2019. The Lord of Misrule was also in full effect over on our RMB, causing what was essentially state-sanctioned chaos upon the region. Yet, do not let this description fool you, as the rules were strict and even more strictly enforced. A summary of the damage, in the form of suppressions and rule-inspired posts, as well as all the misrules throughout, can be seen here. Lastly, we also ran the Rejectmas Flag Guild.

Over on our discord server, we ran two games of Escadian Battleship. The first was played using the Classic gamemode, and was later converted into a dispatch that narrates and gives justice to the experience, found here. The second is where we tested an early version of the new expansion gamemode, which has now officially launched through The Rejected Times’ Issue LV as the Werewolf Expansion.

Turning our attention forumside, we saw the return of some old activities as well as some new and exciting additions; we saw the return of our old Rejectmas Tree, the return of Rejection Apologies, and our 3rd annual Rejectmas Chess Tournament, joined by the three new inclusions of Online Dixit, Pin the Tail uncovering the tail of the true Greymarshes’ Unicorn, and our popular group-led game of AI Dungeon. Congratulations to outboundstagnate for becoming our 2019-2020 Rejectmas Chess Champion, usurping Delegate Dead I Jack!

Unicorn Star Treaty Ratified

In a time of prosperity, The North Pacific and The Rejected Realms have come together again in order to draft a new treaty between the two regions. On December 9, 2019, with margins significantly in favor, The Unicorn Star Treaty was ratified.

A closer relationship with The North Pacific was a goal of the leadership of The Rejected Realms for quite some time. After cooperating with each other for N-Day, for the Epic Gamer Party, and to combat the coup perpetrated against our mutual allies,The East Pacific, it ultimately came to fruition this past December. Then Delegate Kyorgia and Foreign Affairs Officer Deadeye Jack worked with their TNP counterparts to write a new treaty that included mutual defense and built on the provisions of the old, non-aggression pact, The Unicorn Star Accord. In effect, the new treaty was simply a rise in relations to a formal alliance.

In the process of ratification, the treaty was very well-received on both sides, being ratified with 17 votes in favor and no against votes or abstentions in TRR, and 27 votes in favor, 4 abstentions, and no against votes in TNP.

We at The Rejected Realms are excited about this new alliance, and we are even more excited to see where the future will take our relationship with The North Pacific.

Electoral Dysfunction

The Assembly has been abuzz with various threads this past month. But, why? I'll take “Election Season” for 1000, Alex.

Several candidates lined up for the nomination/declaration processes, the first of which was for Officer Elections and began on November 30. Manson, New Wight, Glacikaldr (PowerPAOK/Nequedum), Neop, The Pharcyde, and Bormiar all made it through this process, but the latter four were the ones to come out victorious in the Officer Elections.

Not nearly as fiercely competitive, the Delegate Election was won by Deadeye Jack in a landslide victory. Early on in the nomination process, it seemed very likely of Jack to run unopposed. However, to combat this while retaining a sense of good sportsmanship, An_Dr_Ew (Gorundu) decided to run for the position of Delegate as well for the heck of it. Despite losing, An_Dr_Ew kept their chin up. This was not the last we saw of them in the election ring.

With the Delegate Election coming to a close on December 12, the Speaker Election was not much far ahead; its nomination cycle began on December 31. Two familiar citizens announced their candidacies for Speaker. The first being An_Dr_Ew, and the second being Morover. On January 9, the voting period had come to a close. With six votes to Morover's five, An_Dr_Ew had won the tightly contested election and filled the role of Speaker.

Congratulations to our newly-elected Officers, Speaker, and Delegate.

Flag History Project Launched


We're not even sure when this flag was flown over the region… (Flag made by Cuatela/A Raptor)

Regions change over time, and as a result of this, so do their flags. As far as many people are concerned, documentation is essential to the preservation of these remnants of a time long passed. It's evident that Culture Officer Glacikaldr (also known as PowerPAOK and Nequedum) had preservation in mind when he started The Rejected Realms' very own Flag History Project.

Revealed to the public on December 12, 2019, the Flag History Project is a program dedicated to archiving and documenting each notable flag flown over the region, at one time or another. Striving for accuracy, Glacikaldr has begun to list details about the flags that some would consider unnecessary. For example, he has collected information on when the flags were first flown, when they were made, and who crafted them.

Historically, The Rejected Realms is a storied region. The Flag History Project has seemed to be a worthy cause and does well in its initial task of making citizens knowledgeable about our past as a region. Here is what a couple of citizens had to say about the program:

I believe pursuing knowledge of our historical change and continuity is essential in understanding of The Rejected Realms' culture, and that the Flag History Project, while it may be difficult, is a beneficial way of achieving this.

Vexillology is as much an artform as it is a field of study. One only need look at the continued appeal of heraldry to understand that symbols and images continue to be one of the most effective ways a person has to convey, at a distance and in a moment, who they are, and for what reason they are here. The basic rules of vexillology, well-known to any of the game's RP communities, are designed around the idea of a flag as a self-descriptive, self-contained, immediate identity-in-motion. It is no small coincidence that here on NationStates, our least-used rule is the one that 'flags must be flag-like' - they continue to be a statement more of ourselves than of the game. The Flag History Project is a groundbreaking initiative that continues on what, so long ago, was recognized by defenders - that flags are worth preserving. It recognizes the reality that a flag is, uniquely, its own interpretive context, and in continuity with each other an evocative timeline of TRR's personality and collective identity. An image is worth a thousand words, but a gallery is an entire history.

No matter where the future takes The Rejected Realms, we must not forget our past. Mementos such as flags are not the limit. However, they're an excellent place to start.

Other news

• Two horrific reanimated corpses have been found wandering around The Rejected Realms harassing citizens. Oh wait, it's just Sedge and CG!
• Popmaster has made a comeback.
• >_>!

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WA Delegate: Deadeye Jack | Culture Officer: Sarah Bread | Foreign Affairs Officer: Kyorgia | Outreach Officer: Bowshot118 | World Assembly Officer: Bormiar | Speaker of the Assembly: Chimes

Double election bonanza
By Kyorgia

Kyorgia being announced as the winner of his officer seat

On April 5th Rejects once again headed to the ballot box to decide who would govern them for the next four months. However this election was different than most since there was elections for both officers and the speaker of the assembly.

The election was one of the most contested in recent memory with six people running for four officer positions and two people running for the speakership. incumbents Sarah Bread, Bormiar and Manson ran for reelection, with Bowshot, Kyorgia and Agalaesia also running for the position. Following a close vote Sarah Bread and Bormiar was reelected and Bowshot and Kyorgia also being elected. Sarah was made culture officer moving over from outreach the previous term, Bormiar was given the new World assembly officer role (you will be able to read about that later in the update), Bowshot was made outreach officer and finally Kyorgia was made the foreign affairs officer.

The speaker election was less contested than the officer but no less important to the region. At the end of the challenge period there was two people running for the position, Former speaker Fauxia and Chimes (also known as Jamie). In the end Jamie won in a landside victory of 14 to 1.

World Assembly Affairs: A new start for TRR?
By Morover

Officer Bormiar informing the region of the latest World Assembly resolution

The Rejected Realms has gone through a rather large internal change recently! In the recent officer election, candidate Bormiar ran and won on a primarily World Assembly Affairs-based platform. This has sparked a large shift in the internal structure of TRR, as the Media Officer is replaced with a World Assembly Officer - a vast expansion of the department of the World Assembly.

Applications for becoming a staff member of the Rejected Realms World Assembly Department have since opened, and the summarizations released by Morover prior to the election have been replaced with a more descriptive pros/cons list, the first few of which have just recently been rolled out. The WA Ping program which was in place prior to Bormiar's election is still in place, and you can be added to it by contacting either Bormiar or Morover with the request.

Alongside the new pros/cons list, there has been the addition of World Assembly logs, which track and congratulate people for discussing and voting on the on-site threads for at-vote World Assembly proposals.

While it is still early in development, this addition should expand the activity of forumside interaction with the World Assembly. How the Rejected Realms World Assembly Department will prosper and grow is yet to be seen - but so far, good things have come of it and better things still should continue to arise.

Internal discussion surrounding The Rejected Times
By Bormiar

Citizens calmly discussing The Reject Times' matters

Over the past months, the Rejected Realms has been working on World Assembly development, including the creation of a WA Ping Program, WA Voting Awards, and a collection of pros and cons to assist voters. When delegate Dead I Jack decided that there was enough work in the World Assembly to justify its own officer position, he would have to replace something with it. Per the constitution, only four officers may be elected at one time. Of the contemporary officer positions, Outreach, Culture, Foreign Affairs, and Media, only Media had its own internal community that could manage the Rejected Times. Dead I Jack appointed Bormiar as World Assembly Officer and opened up a discussion in the Assembly for how TRT management will continue.

While Dead I Jack and the rest of the government had originally postulated that because the government usually runs TRT, the new head of TRT, the Editor-in-Chief, would be appointed externally from TRT, such as by election. The Grim Reaper quickly attempted to legislate a TRT head elected internally, but this came under fire as TRT was made by the TRR people and created by the government. Additionally, the elected head would have the power to edit the TRT staff members, thus being able to adjust the voter base to defend their position. The other side cited the RRA’s separation from the government (the RRA was created before the government, rather than by it) and claimed that they required editorial independence in order to create unbiased news (TRT is not independent). They also noted that the Editor-in-Chief was already a position, albeit not used. Other ideas, such as a treaty between TRT and government popped up. The delegate continued to manage all the different ideas to help the discussion.

The discussion brought forth a “Constituting Act of the Rejected Times” by the Grim Reaper to address the devoid lack of legal structure behind TRT. The legislation declares the Editor-in-Chief as the head of TRT who will be appointed by the delegate but has the ability to be challenged by a citizen and vacated by the assembly. The Church of Satan and Dead I Jack, two citizens who had originally been in staunch disagreement, worked to create this draft based on Grim’s original proposal that makes the amendation to force the Editor-in-Chief to have to be a TRT staffer, and only allows the EIC to be vacated by supermajority vote. Other proposals, such as one from Gorundu and the Church of Satan’s draft, which interestingly attempted to enshrine the rank system into law and appointed the EIC through senior staff members being nominated by the TRT staff and confirmed by the Assembly. Grim’s proposal gained traction, however, and will go to vote eventually upon a second by another citizen.

RRA promotions announced
By Frattastan

Commander Karputsk rallying the troops for a liberation

Taking advantage of Commander Wopruthien's absence the rest of the RRA's leadership seized the moment to purge him, reducing him to 'honourary' status and leaving him with a worthless thank-you note for his years of service and valuable contributions while treating him as the lowest common soldier. At the same time a few promotions have been announced.

Karputsk of FRA fame, stellar liberation commander and arguably one of the best defenders around at this moment, is now devoting his full attention to the RRA after a few months spent in the wilderness. He has been promoted to Commander, the army's second highest rank, being the first person to achieve this in more than half a decade.

Sarah, best known as the incumbent Culture Officer of TRR, has been made a Lieutenant. While newer to gameplay compared to some other RRA officers and soldiers, she has shown more initiative and goodwill than anyone else, and we believe she will bring her superb organisational skills to the table, along with more traditional update-leadership abilities. And all this from a phone!

Finally, Jamie has been made a Sergeant. Returning to the game only recently and showing renewed enthusiasm, Jamie attended an impressive 64 updates between April and May, often taking the lead during major updates and trying his hand at triggering. This promotion is no surprise, despite his disturbing love of detags.

Karp, Sarah and Jamie have already been at work to build upon the RRA's current strengths, making sure we continue to be an effective force in the good fight, a fun place to be in, and that we can represent TRR well. Ongoing internal changes include a revamping of training materials and protocol, and a dubious commitment by High Commander Frattastan to use at least one exclamation mark in each statement.

Rumours that Crazy girl came back for a single day to declare herself as "Supreme High Commander" so she can "outrank everyone" are complete lies, also.

In other news:

• Between January 19th and January 26h the fourth edition of TRRs very own music show Rejectvision was held with Kyorgia being announced the winner with the song “typisk Norsk”.
  
• On March 12th another meme contest was held in the region with delegate Dead I Jack winning with this meme.
  
• On March 15th a short story competition was held in the region with Nakarisaune being declared the winner.
  
• The Reject Awards 2019 winners have been announced. Congratulations to all the winners!

Thanks for the update!

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WA Delegate: Sarah Bread
| Culture Officer: DeadEye Jack| Foreign Affairs Officer: Catalyse|
| Outreach Officer: Robespierre| World Assembly Officer: Makdon
Speaker of the Assembly: Chimes

Delegate is Toast

Rejects's greatest fears have come true as #bread coup, a movement, and some would say conspiracy, that sought to replace every reject with a bread version of themselves, became a reality when on the 12th of July Sarah Bread became the new delegate.

The newly elected breadoligarch and former culture officer won with 20 votes on the second round, while the second place was awarded to Bormiar, former officer, known mostly as the "WA-person" and most likely a dog. Other candidates included perennial candidate, John Laurens, whose joke candidacy, much to the chagrin of joke candidate fans, did not get enough traction for him to win the election and resigning right after. It has happened before, maybe it could happen again.

A fourth candidate, and possibly second joke candidate, though their ways remain mysterious to us, so we're not sure if we should assign humorous intent to anything they've done, Puppet2 was removed from the ballot after under a different alias, Holor/Bataus Novak, attempted to gain citizenship, which led the Citizenship Council to remove their citizenship, and upon appeals, the removal was maintained.

Officer Elections

Summer is election season in The Rejected Realms, and soon after the election of a new Delegate, Speaker of the Assembly Jamie made the due preparations for the Officer elections, standing for ninety-six straight hours in front of the assembly hall playing a flute in an attempt to get the attention of any would-be candidate. His shepherding was successful, and eight candidates emerged from the Assembly's floor, albeit no incumbent officer was entranced by the Speaker's song.

The candidates were DeadEye Jack, culture and events maverick and previous delegate who refuses to give off of his culture policy decision making even after he's done being Delegate, Robespierre, who promised to revolutionize the way Foreign Affairs are done in TRR and to also do a head counting and see if there's any superfluous one, Lansaka, aspiring Outreach Officer and TRR's very own first let's player, Gorundu, who promised to terminate a very particular embassy, and other things too, he said, Mekhet, former Delegate and resident K-popevangelizer who vowed to enact a campaign of terror on the region's RMB, Catalyse, who due to conflict interest we have been informed we may not describe in very accurate and agreeable terms, Makdon, who is very not the same person as the former WA Officer, and Dolphin, whose only highlight is that we had no recollection they were a candidate prior to writing this.

After four days of interminable ballot submissions, one candidate abandoning the race and another never having appeared on the campaign trail, the results were out. The winners were DeadEye Jack, TRR's event oligarch was returned to his role as Culture Officer on the promise of following a very precise schedule of cultural activities, accruing enough votes to defeat all candidates on the first round, Catalyse, who won on the promise of keeping things very much the same in Foreign Affairs, Robespierre, who dueled Catalyse on the counting and recounting of votes and was assigned Outreach, and Makdon, who has continued former WA Officer Bormiar's program in the relatively newly established position of WA Officer.

"My cultural agenda is full right now, can we do something next year?"

Fresh back into a government seat after his Delegate term, culture maestro Deadeye Jack announced an ambitious plan to integrate several initiatives, old and new, into a weekly calendar of activities. Some happen onsite, others on Discord. Some were already staples of TRR's cultural scene, some had been done before not on a regular basis, and some are brand new.

The week starts with the controversial Wacky RMB Rule Day, an exercise in arbitrary tyranny where all messages not following a randomly made-up rule are suppressed. Some will say that it's the kind of idea that would have made Jeffersonborg proud, but I believe it's a reflection on how nonsensically oppressive power can get under the guise of 'law'. Whatever it is, watching people trying to make their posts rhyme or include colours can be pretty funny.

We move to Discord on Tuesday, where people fashion their avatars and nicknames for Theme Day, with the most original combination earning a symbolic recognition. Recent winners include Catalyse's killer car tire for the category 'villains', and Gorundu's impersonation of outboundstagnate for the theme 'orange'. If you don't remember outbound, lucky you.

If you consider yourself a problem-solver and love logic-based games you're certain to enjoy Puzzle Day on Wednesdays, when we publish a game of Boggle, sudoku or a cryptogram for anyone to solve. And lovers of NS cards should make sure to tune on Thursdays, when they can send to Jack a card that they own and that fits in a specific theme, with the first few people doing so earning an Epic card in return.

Fridays are for the time-tested idea of Community Nation Issue Answering, where people vote on how to answer issues for The Unicornian Isles. Many regions have done this before, but it never stops being entertaining. Contrary to the expectations of many, biker gangs haven't been spotted yet, but the industrious and fiercely patriotic Unicornians already live in a paradise of compulsory nudity and violent sports. Definitely how TRR would be if it were a nation.

Greater free time on weekends allows for more elaborate events.
Saturday is for Trivia Day, and our most famous trivia is Popmaster, the ever-popular contest (organised in turn by various citizens, or even non-citizens) where we gather in voice chat to listen to songs and guess artists and titles. Actually winning it is hard since you'll have to beat Nakari and Jamie's musical knowledge, but it can still be a nice way to pick up more tunes, goof around with your regionmates, and occasionally torture your family members. In addition to this, Jack has been trying to diversify a bit the scope of trivias, and we recently had runs for Cinemaster (guessing movies from stills) and a history trivia focused on the French Revolution.

Finally, on Sunday we all relax with some games on Discord, with Werewolf, Spyfall, and Codenames making an appearance so far. These are all well-known board games which involve deduction and a little bit of creativity, and a good way to bond with your regionmates (or maybe get angry at them).

Whatever you enjoy best, make sure to check The Rejected Realms. We'll be sure to have something for you.

Thanks for the update!

Thanks for the update, @Liana! If you are TRR's new ambassador to us, please remember to apply for ambassador masking here.

Having a calendar of events is something we've been slowly building on as well, though we haven't made much progress on. We have Cards Against Humanity on Friday nights, and we have ideas floating around for a trivia night on the Discord and a Minecraft night on the server. It seems like TRR has built a comprehensive schedule of events though.

Also, I will admit that there was some interest expressed in the Cabinet of having a Wacky RMB rule day too. It just sounds like so much fun!

Hello friends. I'd like to share the latest Foreign Update from The Rejected Realms:

Click Here For Dispatch



edit, because I boogered up the font stuff the first time.

Thanks for the update on here as well! I appreciate you posting it on the forums and Discord.