What question do you want to ask AU?

[The Elyrion]

What is the meaning of your flag? (You can include or disclude the character if one wishes, I don't mind)

What does Elyrion's flag stand for?

The pink stands for the mythical animal of legend, the pink dragon, as well as the national animal the unicorn. It is also a good symbolism of the Elyrion religion, because in lore, a lot of the gods and goddesses wear pink

The blue stands for environmental purity. The Elyrion nation takes the environment very seriously, and thus is officially recognised on the flag.

The yellow stands for light, more specifically the saying "The light at the end of the tunnel", signifying the Elyrion people's tenacity and efforts for continued progress.

/skipme

[New Antarcticania]

Why are the white stripes on the sides of the flag uneven? Why is there writing on the flag? Why? Just why?

The Image editor I was using wasn't cooperating and the writing translates to: "Antarcticans unite under communism"
/skipme

[Kiu Ghesik]

Why are the white stripes on the sides of the flag uneven? Why is there writing on the flag? Why? Just why?

The Image editor I was using wasn't cooperating and the writing translates to: "Antarcticans unite under communism"

If you'd like you can get paint.net, it's free and it's pretty useful. It's pretty easy to learn too, I picked it up in two days or so.

/stillme since there were a lot of /skips.

[Kombinita Socialisma Demokratio]

AU with /skip: Are you meant to be like the ancient Mongolian nomads?

Having compiled all NationStates issues, do you have a favorite or favorites?

Ahh, I like quite a few of them! Here are some of my favorites:

#20: Gunman Kills Three [Maxtopia; ed: Luna Amore]
3. "Ban this. Ban that. You cannot ban your way to an answer," intones Spruce Tree, a local martial artist and founder of Ay Kik Yu. "Our citizenry and our children must learn to properly defend themselves in this sort of situation if it should arise again. A mindful populace is a safe populace."

Ay Kik Yu, LMAO.

---

#1092: The Boys from Brasilistan [USS Monitor; ed: Candlewhisper Archive]
3. “What is wrong with you people?” civil rights lawyer @@RANDOMNAME@@ wants to know. “Don’t we have anything better to do than judge people by their DNA? These children aren’t Lee Terallihitlah and they haven’t done anything wrong. It should be illegal to discriminate against people based on their genes.”

Try speaking out Lee Terallihitlah softly to yourself.

---

#135: A Taxing Dilemma [Claraxia; ed: Sirocco]

As a whole, I really love this because Option 2 greatly increases my favorite stats!

---

Green is for hope; five points on the star represent each continent of the five continent model;the white symbolizes peace, and the star on it shows that this is the greatest hope. The top right flag is the peace flag, followed by the feminist flag (representing equality), and the communist flag. The hammer and sickle in the star have the usual meaning, but remain white to show that it is only desired if peaceful.

---

We seem rather similar; does your nation totally align with yourself? In what ways does it fail? Sorry, I did not see Liagolas:
Do you actually desire there to be such low levels of political and civil freedoms?

- How difficult was it to learn Esperanto? Seems like you are very good at it! :3
- Why the rainbow on the top right? Oh no, I have nothing against the rainbow, but it just could be a little bigger, in my opinion. Other than the peace sign and the rainbow, what are the other 4 colors below for?
- Who is the Sage behind all the words behind one of the dispatches?

Thank you; it was quite easy.
I was unsure where to place the three secondary flags (top is peace flag, next is feminist flag used by [url=Nueva Liga Feminista]https://nuevaligafeminista.blogspot.com/[/url] representing egalitarianism, and last is the red flag rejecting capitalism).
[url=The Russian Communist Republic]https://www.nationstates.net/page=boneyard?nation=the_russian_communist_republic[/url] create the regional history dispatch.

[Baizou]

AU with /skip

OOC: I'm not entirely sure if you mean you're asking a question but also asking to be skipped, or if you're just remarking that there have been many skips, so I'll ask a question to be safe of both you and Kiu Ghesik to be safe. In your regional history factbook, you mention that "Russia, the USA, and Britain were involved in a nuclear war," and then you talk about what happened to Britain and Russia ("Britain reverted to a more developing economy, Russia's boomed, and now Britain has little to no standing military"). But you don't say what happened to the United States. So... what happened to the United States?

/stillme since there were a lot of /skips.

OOC: I realize I've asked about Kiu Ghesik's, but I'm still curious about the future: what happens to the Berghi in the future, whether in the Ghesites' "good" or "bad" endings?

And if it's alright to ask, what happens to the Berghi in the far future, like by the modern day? I'm assuming their civilization no longer exists. (but maybe it does? 0.0) Do they get praised by all the nineteenth-century historians as one if the first agricultural civilizations, noble warriors who crush the Ghesite barbarians? Or are the Berghi vilified as pagans? Maybe they're just 10 minutes of an 8th grade social studies lesson that ends up focusing more on Hellenism anyway?

[Kiu Ghesik]

AU with /skip: Are you meant to be like the ancient Mongolian nomads?

...I have now been asked about my inspiration thirteen times.

Copypasta here.

OOC: I realize I've asked about Kiu Ghesik's, but I'm still curious about the future: what happens to the Berghi in the future, whether in the Ghesites' "good" or "bad" endings?

And if it's alright to ask, what happens to the Berghi in the far future, like by the modern day? I'm assuming their civilization no longer exists. (but maybe it does? 0.0) Do they get praised by all the nineteenth-century historians as one if the first agricultural civilizations, noble warriors who crush the Ghesite barbarians? Or are the Berghi vilified as pagans? Maybe they're just 10 minutes of an 8th grade social studies lesson that ends up focusing more on Hellenism anyway?

In the near future they likely make like the Chinese and break into a bunch of squabbling kingdoms, seeing as how they're, uh... oddly organized. Note that they won't actually be the ones to subsume the Kiu, though. They're too directly antagonistic to go about it in a successful way.

They'd likely be romanticized by their successors, though, as they're a bit before the time of any really big empires that would be directly relevant in the modern day. They'd be a bit like the old kingdom Egyptians in that regard; loved by anthropologists, but overshadowed by their later and greater successors. So I suppose the third option. Their civilization still exists, but the nation itself doesn't, and their religion certainly isn't practiced. They DEFINITELY don't consider themselves to be literally a divine race on Earth anymore by the modern day, and their form of government is probably imported.

/skip

[Azur Deutschland]

snip

This isn't really a big question, but...
What types of pastries/sweets are the most popular in Baizou?

[Free Ravensburg]

Which do you prefer, the manga, anime, or Netflix Adaptation

[Reverberating Days]

snip

This isn't really a big question, but...
What types of pastries/sweets are the most popular in Baizou?

What are some underrated German foods which you recommend everyone try?
Also, what is your favourite warship in history and why?

AN: Who introduced Six Triangles to you? Do you find it to be more accurate in showing your views than other political tests?
BN: My main inspiration actually came to me one day when I was writing another factbook and I thought of humanising a certain character more, so that's my goal with this nation.
As for making the structure of my factbook, it took about 1 hour or so.

[Valentine Z]

Aha, are you by chance Sang?

Any particular idea and inspiration for this nation and Factbook? Pretty interesting read, and good visuals!

How long does it take for you to make the GIF in the spoiler? How long does it take for the Factbook to be completed?

-----

BN: Oh man, without a doubt, Factbook/dispatch formatting for the win. I can't live without those images in a spoiler thing.

Forum Factbooks are a bit less of a convenience, and more of because I love how it looks for text-heavy stuff. I love writing single-nation stories on them because of how nice they look.

Actually, it's the other way around. Forum posts have 60,000 char limit. Dispatches/Factbooks have 90,000 char limit.

[CBG Palisade]

I've heard you say that you find forum factbooks more convenient as they have a larger char limit, but what about formatting? That is, do you find forum or dispatch formatting more convenient?

[Azur Deutschland]

Which do you prefer, the manga, anime, or Netflix Adaptation

Depends. I've watched more anime than I've read manga though. I don't have Netflix, so...

What are some underrated German foods which you recommend everyone try?
Also, what is your favourite warship in history and why?

German hamburgers would be one that I can think of right away. I absolutely love the way my mother cooks those.

IJN Yamato. It's the biggest battleship made. All of the guns on it makes it look really cool to me. Plus, Space Battleship Yamato is pretty lit.

/skipme

[Baizou]

Answer

This isn't really a big question, but...
What types of pastries/sweets are the most popular in Baizou?

OOC: To speak generally, Japanese sweets are unsurprisingly as popular in Baizou as they are in Japan, and favorites of the people include care-pan, meronpan, okoshi, konyaku zeri, and more.

However, due to the longterm British Imperial colonization, British confectioneries also have a foothold in the island's culinary culture, especially cinnamon rolls and Chelsea buns, which are popular breakfast snacks.

Question

I've heard you say that you find forum factbooks more convenient as they have a larger char limit, but what about formatting? That is, do you find forum or dispatch formatting more convenient?

I have two questions!

1. Would one be able to consider the DEMOCRITUS units... friends? Like, do they have meaningful emotional connections to each other? Or is their AWOL cooperation with each other more automatic than that? Said another way, if you'll pardon the self-reference, are they more like what the Nouden Corporations insists CARRIE is (pure simulation), or are they more like what CARRIE appears to be (true intelligence)?

2. Are the theme songs in-character or purely out-of-character? Like, would Rainier enjoy listening to "Student Visa," or is it just to set the mood? Either way, cool songs!

[New Dunmore]

1. Are the Po-Usikwa supposed to be Polynesian or some other kind of Austronesian group?
2. Why Boots/Shoes for the Labor Party?
3. Where'd did you get the idea for calling your aesthetic 'VHSpunk'?

[Kiu Ghesik]

I have two questions!

1. Would one be able to consider the DEMOCRITUS units... friends? Like, do they have meaningful emotional connections to each other? Or is their AWOL cooperation with each other more automatic than that? Said another way, if you'll pardon the self-reference, are they more like what the Nouden Corporations insists CARRIE is (pure simulation), or are they more like what CARRIE appears to be (true intelligence)?

2. Are the theme songs in-character or purely out-of-character? Like, would Rainier enjoy listening to "Student Visa," or is it just to set the mood? Either way, cool songs!

It certainly depends. The DEMOCRITUS units and their old PALISADE overseers certainly insist that they are incapable of operating outside of a value-based parameter system, and that the entirety of their interaction code is an extraneous feature that only exists to enable them to interact with individuals that don't share their particular mode of communications.

That being said, they have managed to work out the concept of loyalty to one's group all on their own, just from their neural network's natural high degree of plasticity and from their understanding of the concept of "orders". Additionally the PALISADE project went to great lengths to ensure that they could converse with their human superiors and comrades to a functional level, and ultimately from a certain point of view our own human interactions with each other are "value-based".

For example, the Rainier considers itself/herself to be "empathetic" in how it/she interacts with those around it/her. However, that empathy is based on the fact that its network developed to consider expending materiel a more serious thing than, say, the Kovalova. Additionally, the Oppenheimer interacts with others in a fashion described as "timid", because it considers harm to itself/herself to be something it/she wishes to avoid based on its/her near-termination experience during the Hawking-92 campaign.

So, yes- to a certain extent. They have managed to extrapolate certain concepts in their time alive, and the first DEMOCRITUS units have been pretty well indoctrinated in interacting with each other and with others in human terms. The packets they send to each other when alone are, while optimized for efficiency, still literal conversations, and they do ask each other about their "thoughts" and if they've anything particularly interesting to report. They've essentially picked up humanity as a learned trait, and as time goes on it's likely that they'll come to extrapolate "friendship" from "camaraderie", a concept known to them- if they haven't already.

Additionally these values have led to their interactions with each other becoming "friendly" or "adversarial" in a certain sense. The RCNA-14 Kovalova considers, for instance, its/her comrade the Oppenheimer a poor fighter but otherwise a perfectly capable individual, and thus sympathizes with it/her and chooses to protect it/her in order to keep it/her from letting down its/her own comrades. This could, if humanized or viewed through a more cutesy lens, be interpreted as thinking the Oppy is a cinny rol and wanting to protec it. If they learn to use that humanizing language then they'll express themselves in that manner.

The songs are purely OOC, but they do match thematically. So, for example,

Student Visas is about a man who has grown tired of war, yet remains a perfectly capable killing machine. The Rainier is a literal near-perfect killing machine, and yet it/she is absolutely disaffected with both its/her former masters and with fighting those masters. Dawson's Christian is, as you can guess, about a ghost space ship, which the Rainier in essence is.

Additionally,

Artur Rudin is "a lightweight contender", in that he's physically small, and additionally he's a bit of a heated fellow, and Boom Boom Mancini has a heated beat to it. And as an Easter egg he did, when asked about the death of a fellow fighter, say that "someone should've stopped the fight, told me it was him."

The songs are meant to match with the characters, but they're not IC themes. They're definitely OOC.

/skip

[Baizou]

1. Are the Po-Usikwa supposed to be Polynesian or some other kind of Austronesian group?
2. Why Boots/Shoes for the Labor Party?
3. Where'd did you get the idea for calling your aesthetic 'VHSpunk'?

1. OOC: Thematically, the Po-Usikwa are inspired by both the Ainu and Ryukyuan indigenous peoples of the Japanese archipelago. I view the Po-Usikwa as being similarly a Jōmon offshoot from before the Yamato migration into Japan that at some point in its history migrated to the island of Baizou using oceangoing techniques they much later stopped practicing.

2. IC: "Labor's symbol is a pair of boots because they represent the working shoes of the common people. Additionally, they inspire us to keep putting one foot in front of the other, step by step progressing into a better future for all Baizoans." —Premier Fukushima Sonoko, member of the Labor Party

3. OOC: I just kind of thought of it, and it didn't seem to have been used by anyone else before. I settled on videocassettepunk instead of say analogpunk because my main experience with analog technology was VHS—they were still being sold and popularly used when I was a kid. And it just tickled me to imagine running a modern society primarily on VHS tapes specifically, so I decided to focus on that in the term when I coined it.

It certainly depends. The DEMOCRITUS units and their old PALISADE overseers certainly insist that they are incapable of operating outside of a value-based parameter system, and that the entirety of their interaction code is an extraneous feature that only exists to enable them to interact with individuals that don't share their particular mode of communications.

That being said, they have managed to work out the concept of loyalty to one's group all on their own, just from their neural network's natural high degree of plasticity and from their understanding of the concept of "orders". Additionally the PALISADE project went to great lengths to ensure that they could converse with their human superiors and comrades to a functional level, and ultimately from a certain point of view our own human interactions with each other are "value-based".

For example, the Rainier considers itself/herself to be "empathetic" in how it/she interacts with those around it/her. However, that empathy is based on the fact that its network developed to consider expending materiel a more serious thing than, say, the Kovalova. Additionally, the Oppenheimer interacts with others in a fashion described as "timid", because it considers harm to itself/herself to be something it/she wishes to avoid based on its/her near-termination experience during the Hawking-92 campaign.

So, yes- to a certain extent. They have managed to extrapolate certain concepts in their time alive, and the first DEMOCRITUS units have been pretty well indoctrinated in interacting with each other and with others in human terms. The packets they send to each other when alone are, while optimized for efficiency, still literal conversations, and they do ask each other about their "thoughts" and if they've anything particularly interesting to report. They've essentially picked up humanity as a learned trait, and as time goes on it's likely that they'll come to extrapolate "friendship" from "camaraderie", a concept known to them- if they haven't already.

Additionally these values have led to their interactions with each other becoming "friendly" or "adversarial" in a certain sense. The RCNA-14 Kovalova considers, for instance, its/her comrade the Oppenheimer a poor fighter but otherwise a perfectly capable individual, and thus sympathizes with it/her and chooses to protect it/her in order to keep it/her from letting down its/her own comrades. This could, if humanized or viewed through a more cutesy lens, be interpreted as thinking the Oppy is a cinny rol and wanting to protec it. If they learn to use that humanizing language then they'll express themselves in that manner.

What I'm hearing is spaceship cinnamon rolls, 11/10, fund it.

More seriously, super interesting stuff! Thanks for answering.

/skipme, still New Dunmore

[Catsfern]

1. Are the Po-Usikwa supposed to be Polynesian or some other kind of Austronesian group?
2. Why Boots/Shoes for the Labor Party?
3. Where'd did you get the idea for calling your aesthetic 'VHSpunk'?

How did you think of the idea for a nation of Isekaied pirates, did you see it somewhere or did it just come to you. It's a pretty neat concept.

[Fallen Albali]

Why are you addicted to using NSstats and why do you refuse to respect people's decisions to not use them?

[The Caleshan Valkyrie]

Outta curiosity, what’re the three stars on the flag for?

[Fallen Albali]

Outta curiosity, what’re the three stars on the flag for?

Nothing at all.

/skip

[Synne Industries]

I've only seen you post with Godular up until just a while ago so I've got to wonder; do you feel like any worldbuilding tricks or techniques have slipped from your more technologically 'out there' main into CV?

[Kiu Ghesik]

why do you insist on supporting the actions of Os*ans during the Belkan War when we all know the only country allowed to commit warcrimes is based natsov imperialist Erusea

How decanonized is the old RSI stuff, anyways? I noticed you still mention '39, for example, as a groundbreaking moment, so certain aspects of it have to still be in place, and you've mentioned Synnia turtling out a catastrophe or alien invasion on the forums still, so that early stuff likely still applies, but what about the later stuff on the timeline?

I apologize if you mentioned the answer to this before, I'm tired rn and drawing a blank.

[Synne Industries]

why do you insist on supporting the actions of Os*ans during the Belkan War when we all know the only country allowed to commit warcrimes is based natsov imperialist Erusea

How decanonized is the old RSI stuff, anyways? I noticed you still mention '39, for example, as a groundbreaking moment, so certain aspects of it have to still be in place, and you've mentioned Synnia turtling out a catastrophe or alien invasion on the forums still, so that early stuff likely still applies, but what about the later stuff on the timeline?

I apologize if you mentioned the answer to this before, I'm tired rn and drawing a blank.

1. Any cataclysm is a good one. Firebomb Hoffnung again, seven nukes wasn't enough, Oured should have been reduced to irradiated dust. I care not for sides, I just want to see shit blow up.

2. I don't blame ya' for being a bit confused. The RSI is in a bit of a weird state right now where half of the lore is condensed into borderline psychotic ramblings on discord that few people see and even fewer understand. I still plan on roughly outlining the old history in the future as a "first iteration" before the whole New God shenaniganry and functionally everything getting mind-souped. Don't worry, the space raid and 39' are here to stay.

/skipme, BN do Kiu.

[Western Fardelshufflestein]

KG, how would you react if you met 2020 in human form?

[Liagolas]

KG, how would you react if you met 2020 in human form?

Will King Alastair recover? Or do you have more... dramatic plans for Fardelshufflestein?