Karma: Change in Zenith Edition

[Karmic Diplomacy]

This thread serves as the official gameplay embassy for the region of Karma.
Discord | Region | Forum

What is Karma about?

Karma was founded on the 27th of May, 2017. Its founders envisioned a region free from the petty drama, one where new players could get introduced to the best NS can offer and reap benefits from the experience of the more established gameplay figures. True to its name, this UCR tries to realize and teach its residents the concept of "karma", the idea that good actions of a person are paid back to them, in one way or another.

Karma's ideals are reflected in its mode of government, called domestically the Meritocratic Oligarchy. The region is said to be an oligarchy, instead of a monarchy, because the highest power is not vested in one person but shared collegially by the members of the Council of Sages. The Sages in turn appoint Gurus, who are equivalent to the ministers in other political systems. Gurus answer to the Sages but enjoy a high degree of autonomy in undertaking their duties. Every resident of Karma is automatically recognized as its citizen (Jiva), but to ensure that the region is truly meritocratic only those that completed a proving task (Bodhi) are eligible to serve as a Guru. Every Jiva has the right to request such a task. Jiva who completed the Bodhi are called the Enlightened and besides being eligible for Guruship they also sit in the Karma's unicameral legislature, the Sangha. All of this is outlined in the Guidance, Karma's second governing document.

Over the years, Karma have developed a vibrant culture with many unique quirks. One of these is the Fridate, an RMB game held (big surprise) every Friday. Every week a different game is chosen, sometimes residents will write stories or poetry, sometimes they will exchange riddles or even pickup lines (that is how the event got its name). There also exist an active nation rp, based on the regional Discord server.

The Sages

These people serve collectively as our Head of State, the Council of Sages co-opts new persons into its ranks by a majority vote. There can be up to nine Sages, each new Sage chooses an unique title for themselves.

Zai Sage, Altino (Alti)
Tō Sage, Ghad (Peter)
Zen Sage, Zen Karma (Badger)
Kai Sage, Levont (Lev)

The Gurus

The following are our heads of the departments, these people have a ministerial level rank in Karma.

Guru of the Chameleons, Nova Vandalia (Nova)
Guru of Diplomacy, Sancta Romana Ecclesia (Paulus)
Guru of Entertainment, Ghad (Peter)
Guru for The Assembly, Takura (Taki)

The Karmaphala

The Karmaphala serves as Karma's court of law, it consists of Oshō (who is leading it) and two Bhikkhus.

Oshō, Vilverin (Vilv)
Bhikkhu, Sancta Romana Ecclesia (Paulus)
Bhikkhu, Zen Karma (Badger)

The Sangha

Sangha is the Karma's unicameral legislature, consisting of all the Enlightened and lead by the Prime Yogi. Prime Yogi has a deputy called Yogi.

Prime Yogi, The Wayfarer (Spirit)

Signatures of all Jiva that achieved the Enlightenment are available in this dispatch.

---

1. May 26th, 2020 - Anniversary Celebrations!
2. June 20th, 2020 - Nobody Achieves Enlightenment Alone
3. August 14th, 2020 - Even the Sages Deserve Some Rest

[Altino]

"3rd Anniversary Edition" oh no. Karma is old as heck and I didn't notice it.

Just like me to not do a GP embassy til 3 years later. :( Or really not do one at all and have someone else do one 3 years later *cough*

[Sancta Romana Ecclesia]

So, as you can see Gameplay, Karma now has an embassy thread! Only took us three years to make one. Alti ninja'd that joke from me.

But on the topic of three years, as you may gather from the title of this thread already, we are now in the middle of our anniversary celebrations. We actually turn three years old today (happy birthday to us!), on May 27th, but we are doing festivities for the overwhelming part of this week. On Monday our Jiva drafted a story together about the region's origins (in an alternative universe), one sentence at a time.

In a land far far away where no soul dared to travel, an owl lived away from people's sight, the owl wanted a place that she could call home, a place that accepted her and made her feel welcome. After all, this owl had felt very lonely her entire life, until one day, when she was visited by a mysterious group of travelers, people who could make her dream come true.

She greeted the strangers with open wings, but her hospitality was quickly abused as the strangers pinned her down and began plucking her feathers out, laughing menacingly. The owl winced as yet another feather was rudely plucked--and she rose up, eyes flashing fire in indignant rage towards the strangers as her energy surged. She did not attack, though, but rather screech and summon gusts of powerful winds from her great wings, banishing them from the lands. The strangers landed with inglorious thuds far away, seething in anger for they had ruled over those lands with their iron fists for years--who did that owl think she was?

She thought, "Could she make these lands into her place of welcome?" "Yes", she answered herself and on that fateful day a plan was born in her mind, a plan that would change the world. But she couldn't do it alone. She needed help! And she knew exactly where to look.

She slowly began to change the land, growing and nurturing it so that it became a welcome and hospitable place for any wayfaring stranger that might pass by. The strangers would not give up however, with rage they turned back to the once desolate lands the owl kicked them out of--asking themselves what the owl could do that they haven't tried before? Owl prepared to defend her land, she would not allow it to fall into the hands of these maniacs again, so confident, she addressed the inhabitants to rally them to her cause. She cried out "Free punch and pie!", and followers began to flock to her.

A wide variety of characters arrived from all over the globe...from trees to cupcakes to dragons to ghosts and everything in between soon began making their homes near her, basking in her aura. Even a shy boy, who have run away from his homeland, found purpose at the Owl's side and ceased fleeing from himself; but despite having many followers and friends, Owl still knew that she wouldn't win the upcoming battle with the strangers by sheer numbers alone. So then, she prayed to the Gods above all night long, for days on end, and eventually, she had grown tired enough and fell asleep in the middle of her prayers, but as soon as she awoke, she found tons of alien battle armor, and spaceships waiting just for her!

The strangers saw the owl and her newly formed comrades from afar (including the aliens) and glowered--they smelled the punch and the pie, which was to them, a blatant attempt at outright coercion, for it smelled so damn good. Recognizing the strangers' weakness, The Owl led her followers to battle; but instead of blasting the strangers to oblivion, she playfully flung a large cherry pie into the face of their leader. As soon as it fell from his face he was infuriated! And scoffed,"YOU IMBECILE!!!" And then readied his pike to stab at her, she flew up and dodged with ease.

With an amused expression, Shinsoo the Great White Menace of a Dragon, promptly swiped the pike out of the leader's hands and bent it swiftly into a pretzel. This pike pretzel was then transmutated into an actual pretzel which was then generously shared with everyone present.The strangers admitted...the pretzel was awesome, not to mention the pie; could this Owl be on to something?

The owl won the battle easily, all thanks to her new friends from east and west, north and south, and even her friends from the above; The strangers submitted to the owl's rule after they saw their leader defeated so easily, and now that every threat to the owl had been dealt with, there was nothing stopping her from attaining her goals, following her dreams, and reaching to the stars; However, this was not the end of the owl's story, her story is far from over, she's only closing her first chapter, and beginning a new one; Her friends began helping the owl with her dream, they started building a city, a city for everyone and everything wholesome, a city for the kind and a prison for the cruel, and most importantly, a place that the owl could call home, and thus... "Karma" was born.
(this paragraph is one sentence, yes)
END

Today, on the other hand, our RMB is engaged in a game of Mad Libs (you pick random, or maybe not so random, words that will be used to fill in the blanks in a text you haven't seen) - this is also a form of storytelling! The results will be posted on the Karma's RMB tomorrow. Meanwhile on Friday the RMB will be kept busy by a classic Fridate. There's also a secret activity planned for the Saturday's RMB, but this one is so secretive that even I don't know what that's going to be.

But of course we don't just do all the stuff on the RMB, Discord will enjoy its own fair share of activities! There are actually two new channels there: #karma-memory-lane (for sharing all Karma-related memories) and #badgers-zen-den (where our Zen Sage, Badger, dropped some of his valuable insights on things). Discord will also see another storytelling activity, this time in the vein of Choose Your Own Adventure games.

All in all, we've devoted the current week to celebrating our founders, historic Delegates, and all things Karman, with a wide range of activities.

[Tinhampton]

the Guidance, Karma's second governing document

And what happened to the first one, then?

[Aynia Moreaux]

Karma + CS = UCR twinsies, our birthday is May 23rd of 2017

So glad to see you guys doing so well and I totally didn't realize you didn't have a gp embassy until now XD

A big happy burfday!!!!

[Sancta Romana Ecclesia]

"3rd Anniversary Edition" oh no. Karma is old as heck and I didn't notice it.

Just like me to not do a GP embassy til 3 years later. Or really not do one at all and have someone else do one 3 years later *cough*

The time flies rather quickly. I still can't get behind the fact that I've been playing NS for two years now. It's a weird feeling.

And shh, they didn't notice I hear

And what happened to the first one, then?

The Prime Karmic Law? It dignifiedly gathers dust somewhere. Karma is on its second iteration actually, so when the region restarted in April/May 2019, people in charge decided to make some tweaks to the Karma's system, instead of just taking the old regulations as they were.

Karma + CS = UCR twinsies, our birthday is May 23rd of 2017

So glad to see you guys doing so well and I totally didn't realize you didn't have a gp embassy until now XD

A big happy burfday!!!!

Oh gosh, I wasn't aware of that! Happy (belated) birthday to you and thanks!

[Technocratic Founder]

Welcome to the land of GP embassies, Karma! It's about time, eh? 3 years... wew. Merry birthdaymass as a region all the same, and may the light of meritocracy always shine on us all

[Altino]

the Guidance, Karma's second governing document

And what happened to the first one, then? :P

Paul is just being nice. I couped it! Democratically. Karma took a long hiatus for a while, we're just now getting back up and running again. :) This time with a significantly less British-monarchy looking government.

Welcome to the land of GP embassies, Karma! It's about time, eh? 3 years... wew. Merry birthdaymass as a region all the same, and may the light of meritocracy always shine on us all :P

Thank youuuuu!

Karma + CS = UCR twinsies, our birthday is May 23rd of 2017 :P

So glad to see you guys doing so well and I totally didn't realize you didn't have a gp embassy until now XD

A big happy burfday!!!!

Oh my gosh, I didn't realize! We could've had a party together. :(

[Sancta Romana Ecclesia]

Oh, sheesh, thank you all for your comment- Hey, what's that flying over there! points in an unspecified direction and sneakily edits the info, because the date was wrong, except it wasn't, so sneakily edits it again to what it was before Oh well, I guess it's no longer there.

Happy birthday to Karma, once again!

Oh my gosh, I didn't realize! We could've had a party together.

Party of the twin UCRs sounds awesome.

[Sancta Romana Ecclesia]

Heyah all! We've thought to give y'all an update on the most important happenings in our region.

During the last month in Karma...

1. The Sangha passed legislation increasing the requirements for the Enlightenment. Enlightenment our citizens a place in the legislature (Sangha) and the right to govern the region. Currently, to be granted a Bodhi (a task, the completion of which results in Enlightenment) our residents need to find a Sponsor in a Sage, Guru (head of the department) with whom they work, or head of the legislative. It is hoped that this change will drive the governmental involvement and give a tool for the public officials to push promising citizens into the higher positions.
All in the interest of Meritocracy \o/

2. Experience proves that sometimes you need a blazing rock to fall from the sky to put things right. Or maybe this applies only to the rp... In any case, Karma's RP was sent back to the middle ages with a meteor impact.
But this was not the end of all civilization in Karma. We're quite sturdy folk ^.^ Set 600 years after the impact, medieval tech Karma RP is all focused on the civilization slowly rebuilding itself from the catastrophe. Players can explore the remnants of the old world (and find their neighbors along the way!) via the expeditions mechanics.

3. Thanks to the combination of various tarting schemes (and because we moved all of our extra puppets out of the region), we're (as of writing this) 6th region in the world in average World Assembly endorsements. According to the World Census, an average nation in Karma reaped 18.77 endorsements, more than 4 times higher than the world average. Our Delegate is leading way in the tarting ofc, Takura has so far acquired more than 140 endorsements, a record number!

[Sanjurika]

*happy dance*

[Fuentana]

Love it!

[Jakker]

Karma is doing so many wonderful things. Killing the game!

[Sancta Romana Ecclesia]

There is a beginning and an end to all things. At the beginning of August, three Sages voluntarily stepped down from that role - those being Halo, Rigel, and Kitty. All of these helped make Karma what it is now, either by lending it their artistic skill, helping in early recruitment, or playing a crucial role in the development of regional culture or diplomacy. In their capacity as Sages they were the chief leaders of the region, responsible for organization of its government, as well as its security. As they served Karma well over a very long period of time, their regional legacy is very extensive.

It is therefore not a surprise that the Sangha (our parliament) decided to decorate these former Sages with many of Karma's Orders of Distinction. Motion to do so was passed unanimously, with 24 votes in favor, on the 9th of August. Though the granted honors are less impressive than the actions that warranted them.

The Council of Sages has now three newly emptied seats, reducing our number of Sages to 4 out of the legally allowed 9. For the time being these seats will remain empty, Karma did not encounter any problems based on the reduced size of the Council (it didn't only decrease in size during this year either, a new member - Lev - was admitted in April). One thing ends, another begins. But as we enter into a new period of our history, with a changed ruling body, we will always look back to remember those that helped us get here. And we hope that this is not the last we have heard of them!