What question do you want to ask AU?

[Tsarstvo Alyaski]

@ Las Palmeras: So I have talked about your drawings and I have to ask: Which parts or theme of a drawing you find the best? Like is it the scenery? Drawing a person? Objects? Do you suffer from not being able to draw hands, though of course, I'm much much worse.

How did you find out about NationStates?

Why did you decide on the cat/Neko theme? Oh I think it's pretty adorable, I'm just curious what made that decision.

Do you ever think you wish that you found this site earlier, i.e. when you were younger? Or you wish you find it later because of the old shame? Don't worry, I as a teen have awkward moments on Facebook.. multiple times!

-----

AN: What does your government spend the most on?

Perhaps other than Russian, do you have any other favorite Slavic languages?

What do you enjoy writing the most about?

(Which is why I said "Editing..." because I'm helping you out. Be patient.)

1st Question: The Tsarstvo Alyaski's current government spends the most on national welfare currently, then budgets for construction and national defense.

2nd Question: Honestly, I don't even know much about Russian or the Slavic languages that much. I... Guess Serbian?

3rd Question: Anything that isn't 'ordinary' so to speak. I love medieval fantasy, and I'm currently in the works of writing a novella, and alternate history, of course.

Thanks for the questions, and I will apologise for my comment, didn't know you were in the process of editing .
/skipme

[Hamatu]

1. When you read The Little Trashmaid, do you laugh or cry? (I ask, because I can never decide which... ^^;)
2. What itch does the Lordship of Trokondas scratch that Hamatu doesn't? Or do they seem to fulfill similar purposes?

1. I think of it mostly as an environmentally-minded comedy series, since most of the comics have had funny punch-lines recently, but I think it definitely started out a lot more... if not serious, then at least pointed with it's commentary- once they introduced Ricky & Spencer's will-they/won't-they, I think they had to shift the focus a little.
2. Tough question, honestly... Uh, I guess that, while they're both primarily just vehicles for characters, they're also both serving different purposes under the hood. So, Hamatu is primarily for Ilitu, who I like to be sort of a symbol of how, while tradition is often very important and can still be used to offer age old wisdom, in a quickly changing world (such as basically any time in the last 200 years or so) it can often get entirely erased by (or, alternatively, prevent) progress- Ilitu being sorta the tragic personification of this, I think. Meanwhile, with the Lordship of Trokondas it's sorta... well, I think it was actually you who said it, but it's kinda my hope that it portrays something of how public memory works, and how it can often brutally mischaracterize people, whether for the worse (Euphrosyne), the better (character hasn't been revealed yet, but one of Trokondas' advisors), or completely erasing them from the historical narrative (something of a spoiler, but Trokondas).

skipme/

[Quartia and Karafuto]

so, uh, on a scale of one to ten how worried should i be about the prospect of joining that discord you mentioned a while back?

as in, how long will it take for me to lose my sanity if I joined?

My question to Kiu: even though I know the nation doesn't represent your views, do you wish more people had a nomadic lifestyle in the modern day?

[Las Palmeras]

snip

@Tsarstvo Alyaski
The isle was an indirectly ruled Spanish client and never subject to settler colonialism, unlike Latin America IRL. So in a sense, though the Palmeran Isle was gradually "Hispanized" it retained an own identity. Demographically it helps that the Tohorinese already knew what Pox and the Plague. Secondly, much like IRL, a lot of the initial migration towards the Isle was made by single men who had kids with local women. However one big difference is that the Tohorinese peasantry were not patriarchal, illegitimacy was basically institutional so bastard children couldn't trace their lineage and this only nominally changed when the Spanish arrived. It also meant that it really didn't matter who the father was: if your mom is Tohorinese, you're Tohorinese.

Pretty much the main thing that kept Las Palmeras and Spain in alliance for so long was economic co-dependency centered around job creation in the Atlantic.

snip

@Valentine Z:
1.) I like the faces, trying to make them more or less expressive and attempting to make more variety in the features. And yes. Drawing hands is hard, but not impossible.
2.) Quite honestly, I forgot. I think my younger sis recommended it to me and I wound up staying.
3.) Definitely later. Awkwardness and all that obliges me to believe that certain themes present in roleplaying are best left to older people and allow for more immersive dynamics. And typos. Those are embarrassing.

so, uh, on a scale of one to ten how worried should i be about the prospect of joining that discord you mentioned a while back?

as in, how long will it take for me to lose my sanity if I joined?

My question to Kiu: even though I know the nation doesn't represent your views, do you wish more people had a nomadic lifestyle in the modern day?

What is the most cliche trope or cultural trait that nations based off of Japan can have?

[Atheris]

Why is it always catgirls?

---

Many small things. Off-center flags not following a format, the misrepresentation of neurodiversity, the mispronunciation of the word/name sephiroth (if you're curious, the former is pronounced seff-E-rot and the latter is pronounced seff-E-roth), among others. The biggest is probably the second, though.

[Wochaystein]

Why is it always catgirls?

What is something that will instantly annoy you?

[Las Palmeras]

Why is it always catgirls?

@Atheris
Because cats are cute little balls of affection and unbridled bloodlust, just like the Tohorinese. Canines are far too noble and if I'd have chosen hyena-girls, the futa jokes would be never-ending. And because if you read the ethnography factbook, there's a little tidbit that says the cat-people aren't actually feline...they just have ears resembling them. Semantics. Yeah. /SKIP

[Reverberating Days]

What inspired you to create your factbook about "national info" that includes many unusual facts about Wochaystein?

BN: Any writing that's not academic writing is relaxing, which might be why I love it so much both to express myself and also create alternatives to reality. I also enjoy writing which helps readers feel emotion- particularly human desires as companionship and love and our fears such as loneliness.

[Kiu Ghesik]

My question to Kiu: even though I know the nation doesn't represent your views, do you wish more people had a nomadic lifestyle in the modern day?

Nope. I like my settled civilization as it is. I mean, my ideal civilization is a bit different from the present but I also acknowledge my ideal civilization is probably impossible.

What inspired you to create your factbook about "national info" that includes many unusual facts about Wochaystein?

Do you find writing to be a good way to de-stress, given that you seem to have a pretty busy life?

[The Lordship of Trokondas]

My question to Kiu: even though I know the nation doesn't represent your views, do you wish more people had a nomadic lifestyle in the modern day?

Nope. I like my settled civilization as it is. I mean, my ideal civilization is a bit different from the present but I also acknowledge my ideal civilization is probably impossible.

What inspired you to create your factbook about "national info" that includes many unusual facts about Wochaystein?

Do you find writing to be a good way to de-stress, given that you seem to have a pretty busy life?

1. Speaking of your ideal civilization, what would it be like?
2. I'm pretty sure I've seen you mention paint.net, what got you into that and how easy would you say it is to use for someone who is fairly bad with... that sort of technology?
3. For Palisade, is there anything you originally had planned for it that got scrapped? (This could probably work for KG as well, but I figure Palisade's might be closer to mind and more recent.)

[Zitravgrad]

I know this might sound weird but...

1) do you prefer writing male or female characters?
2) do you have MT/FT nations or are you exclusively a PT writer?
3) how many puppets do you have now
4) what on earth did Ilitu find in Felix Andreyevich Zhavaropov?

[Baizou]

An Answer:

1) I can kinda get that Baizou fills a geopolitical niche where they have to ride the tiger when it comes to siding with more powerful neighbors, but how much does the general populace actually give it their all? That is to say, how much did they cooperate with Imperial Japan despite being a British satellite for centuries prior?

OOC: As with many things in Baizou's history, It's Complicated. Different levels of society cooperate to different extents. For a simple answer, at the government level, Baizou's "ruling class" was pretty cooperative. The stereotype goes that "It is in the character of the Baizoan state to capitulate," and that was largely true in this case. Arguably, the government's cooperation with Imperial Japan was more at least a little more enthusiastic when compared to its cooperation with the British Empire, because at least the Japan are, well, Japanese. They speak the language, understand the culture (a little better at least), and they anti-imperial nationalism was catchy. Bureaucrats, representatives, and others in government mostly recognized the Japanese Empire as conquerors, and yet nevertheless looked upon them favorably compared to the British.

The civilian level is a different and mixed story. Some embraced anti-Western nationalism and believed the Co-Prosperity Sphere rhetoric (these Baizoans can be meaningfully compared to certain factions of postwar India on this point). This faction in Baizou also practiced produced some media promoting Sinophobia, Koreaphobia, and anti-Americanism—though such attitudes did not take in Baizou as strongly as they did in wartime Japan, in large part because most of the public remained sympathetic to Korea and China as fellow colonizees.

Which forms a decent segue: others in Baizou denounced Japan as a conqueror no different from the British, asserted that the annexation violated 600 years of precedents set by the Kamakura Shogunate and successive regimes (both shogun and imperial), and demanded an end to militarism and imperial rule (these Baizoans can be meaningfully compared to opposition parties and factions in wartime Japan). Such Baizoans denounced colonization in Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria; criticized the state for recognizing the Empire's claim to the island, and agitated against cooperation measures.

Ultimately, however, the mixed opinions among the populace prevented a movement developing in either direction, and the stagnation generated a general degree of basic cooperation with varying levels of either enthusiasm or hostility.

But enough generalizations: what did Baizou actually do? Here are a few examples. The Baizoan state acknowledged the Japanese Empire as legitimately in control—though this got rolled back with the American occupation, it fomented Japan's sense of success and meant that Baizou was no obstacle to their continued war. Baizou also assented to exporting raw materials to the archipelago to feed the Japanese war machine. Though by the war's end this arrangement became much more strained (as resources in both Japan and Baizou became scarcer and scarcer, and the not-quite-subjugated sovereign questioned the imperial cabinet more and more), at least early on Baizou just sold crops and material to Japan without asking questions. Baizoan soldiers also served at the command of Japanese officers—though only on the island of Baizou. No Baizoan soldier ever served off the island. The Baizoan state also allowed the Empire to displace Koreans to the island. This was arguably one of the most egregious points of cooperation, as it meant the Baizoan government became a cog in the engine of displacement; from 1933 to 1945, some displaced Koreans would not see their families for twelve years.

Is this enthusiastic cooperation? Or is it reluctant concessions to avoid scrutiny? Historians today debate the question. But it's important to note that for a long time, no one even asked.

By the last year of the war, cooperation with the Empire was becoming obviously and increasingly counterproductive, the faction of unsatisifed Baizoans had become a full-blown majority, and even the government was agitating against the Empire. When Japanese authority abandoned the island to American soldiers' control, Baizoans surrendered en masse, and the sovereign throne surrendered as well (a surprising change of pace to American soldiers who were weary of enemy soldiers who kept trying to fight to the very last person). While American New Dealers appended Baizou's constitution, the state began promoting a different take on the nation's wartime experience. Now there was widespread agreement on vilifying the imperial state (though not necessarily the Japanese), and the Baizoan government perhaps too-eagerly repainted itself as a victim, rather than as an accomplice. Archives were left unread, records left unexamined, and reflection left largely undone.

Some voices and scholars and advocates, of course, chastised those in power, issuing reminders of the Commonwealth's cooperation with the Empire. But for most Baizoans, the war was blurred into a time of innocent victimhood. And while in a lot of ways that was the case for a swath of ordinary Baizoans, it it was not always the case for Baizou itself, or even for all Baizoans. In the grand scheme of Japanese colonization, Baizou by far got off the easiest, far easier than Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria.

It would be decades before the Baizoan public would, on a mass scale, re-engage with the state's complicity with wartime Japan: not until 1999, when the newly wed and newly crowned Princess Consort Yuu revised her dissertation into the book White Elephants and White Lies: The Pacific War in Baizoan Public Memory, a deconstructivist history that dismantled the most popular cultural myths about Bazoan victimhood to reveal an opportunistic state that was willing to profit off of the Empire's militarism if it meant avoiding scrutiny and penalty. Quite a way to introduce yourself to the public! But Baizoans have taken the book remarkably well, and it's popular enough that it got a second edition in 2004. Yuu does not quite answer whether this was a matter of foot-dragging without a choice or enthusiastically buying into the Imperial vision. But her book at least raises the question in the public consciousness, and it galvanized the further spread and adoption of attitudes in favor of liberation ideology and theology, reparative policy, and eliminating racism and vestiges of colonialism. For example, although the book is not directly related to Po-Usikwa questions, it has been argued that the self-reflection and cultural reformation the book prompted paved the way for the Aboriginal Recognition Party to successfully pass legislation recognizing the indigenous Po-Usikwa as a distinct ethnic group.

I'm digressing at this point, sorry. ^^;

To make a long story short: the state offered a lot of cooperation, but the public was a lot more mixed. By 1945, both the state and public became pretty firmly hostile to the Imperial regime.

Question for AU:

1. Speaking of your ideal civilization, what would it be like?
2. I'm pretty sure I've seen you mention paint.net, what got you into that and how easy would you say it is to use for someone who is fairly bad with... that sort of technology?
3. For Palisade, is there anything you originally had planned for it that got scrapped? (This could probably work for KG as well, but I figure Palisade's might be closer to mind and more recent.)

OOC: Me again! Hope that's okay! ^^; (By the way, super intrigued by what you said about how the Lordship will explore public memory.)

1. Why Anatolia, and why the 1200s? I guess I just mean to ask if there's any particular thing that interests you about this slice of the world's history.
2. Who is Ouaxamoas? Someone like Ibn Battuta, or is there something more specific planned?

Question for the actual AU:

I know this might sound weird but...

OOC: Hello, Zitravgrad! I don't know if we've directly talked before or not, but in case not, nice to meet you.

1. Is the demonym Zitravian or Zitravgradian? I feel like I see both in your factbooks.
2. The spoiler boxes in some of your factbooks, like Feodora's and Mirsolavsky's biographies—what do those indicates? Are they non-public information? Or just a means of organizing sections?

[Zitravgrad]

1) It's a little complicated now but:
Zitravian refers to the people of pre-revolutionary Zitravia, as well as the ethnicity. Zitravgradian refers to the people of post-revolution Zitravgrad (the name changed) and mostly means the nationality rather than ethnicity. It's a little confusing indeed considering that the name change only happened in 2009-2010 lore-wise.

2) Spoilers in their bios are generic/non-personal information which can be reused in telling the stories of other characters/factbooks. More of organization than anything and easy to copy.

/skip

[Eisenstern]

Got any plans on further exploring the impact your rather unique brand of tech has on certain elements of the nation and its society? For instance, how all this new-fangled cassette stuff is integrated within the military, or how it changes the appearance and function of the average household. Considering the fact that you've essentially allowed for AI that run on magnetic tape of all things, I can see some pretty interesting potential divergences from OTL culture and national structure.

[Tohorin]

I'm a very materialistic person and I suck at writing about magic. What do you consider to be an important guide or anchor to making magic self-consistent in a setting instead of just being a way to quickly handwave problems?

[Baizou]

Got any plans on further exploring the impact your rather unique brand of tech has on certain elements of the nation and its society? For instance, how all this new-fangled cassette stuff is integrated within the military, or how it changes the appearance and function of the average household. Considering the fact that you've essentially allowed for AI that run on magnetic tape of all things, I can see some pretty interesting potential divergences from OTL culture and national structure.

OOC: I actually don't have much in the way of plans, to be honest! ^^; I haven't imagined Baizou as being that drastically different, which I realize is a kind of ridiculous thing for me to imagine when the well-to-do literally have AIs for their daily planners. But mostly I picture Baizou as being like 2004, but it's got a lo-fi aesthetic where you put a cassette tape into your Famicom or N64 instead of a cartridge, and every home release is a VHS, and people still remember to program their VCRs to record that episode they'll miss because of a late night at work. Technology is a little less sleek, a little boxier, and a little heavier. Smartphones as we know them aren't a thing, so that's something to consider as well—planning can't be as on-the-fly, and life's a little slower.

This is probably kind of a boring and slightly unrealistic answer! But I mostly wanted the aesthetic and the nostalgia of my VHS childhood (plus CARRIE, because she's a fun character, and I like talking "computers"). ^^;

/skipme; still Tohorin

[Eisenstern]

I'm a very materialistic person and I suck at writing about magic. What do you consider to be an important guide or anchor to making magic self-consistent in a setting instead of just being a way to quickly handwave problems?

This nation is actually a terrible example for internally-consistent magic, for several reasons (chief among them the fact that it allows for the existence of many, many independent 'verses with their own somehow-coexisting systems of magic and magic accessories). That being said, I generally write up magic (or not necessarily magic but magic-equivalent) systems as a sort of vehicle for something within the plot, and then work off that. It helps to have a general principle to base it all on - for instance, one of the most internally-consistent paradigms of "magic" within this nation in particular is that concepts are granted a sort of pseudo-form in the weird informationspace between universes. This is then "refined" into Daemons, which become characters, which become plot.

Similarly, your base concept could be something like "the Earth's magnetic field reacts to brainwaves in some small but notable way, and this can somehow be exploited". From there you could go any number of directions, develop your own system of 40k-esque psykers, or have people use vat-grown brain creatures as living magic weapons, or have entities that only exist as sentient magnetic fields - yadda yadda, the possibilities are basically endless. More importantly, this helps you establish a system of coherence and limitations - e.g. anything that fucks with magnetism fucks with the magic, it doesn't work in space, the magnetic poles and their movement affect it in some manner, etc.

Basically what I'm trying to say is - think of where you want to take your plot and/or worldbuilding, however vaguely. Then come up with some kind of basic, core concept that either violates or colourfully-interprets physics, or some convention by which we perceive the world today, or maybe by which we used to perceive it (humors, phlogiston, other wacky historical proven-false proto-science). Then just build off that, and everything should be fairly easy to internally equalize.

Mind you, this can cause problems if you take it into RP with other people with other systems of magic and physics and philosophy, but that's just one of the many pitfalls of multi-canon RP in general.

/skip

[The Lordship of Trokondas]

1) do you prefer writing male or female characters?
- I guess I prefer writing female characters- I think almost all of the major characters I've made, other than maybe two or three, have been female- because... I guess I just find it easier to identify with them that way? I don't know, I hope that isn't the entire reason, but I honestly can't think of any other reason for it. I also think my male characters always seem to be old, past their prime, and actually more jovial, which is something, I guess.
2) do you have MT/FT nations or are you exclusively a PT writer?
- I... actually don't think I've ever made a MT nation, and definitely not any FT. The closest I ever got to MT was an independent national-sydicalist Ukraine set in the mid-1930's, and most of mine are set in the 1910's or equivalent fantasy worlds. Honestly, I think it's just because I've always found modern stuff kinda... boring, at least aesthetically, and as for sci-fi... that's just a bit too far out of my comfort zone to write in, I guess.
3) how many puppets do you have now
- Ah, okay, so if we count all the ones I've ever made... probably a couple dozen or so. Currently active, just Hamatu and the Lordship of Trokondas, plus a couple others I'm keeping going just to keep them going.
4) what on earth did Ilitu find in Felix Andreyevich Zhavaropov?
- Yah, I didn't actually expect it go off as much as it did, either honestly. But, initially, I didn't want to write a whole list of Ilitu saying "I don't like you!" on that one post, and Felix seemed the most personable out of the leaders, with him being an apparently successful author and who other than a somewhat mad mortal who's living his own Lovecraft novel would an aquatic goddess who is really lonely fall in love with? ICly, I think the reason is mostly chance and timing, as she found someone who she viewed as intelligent, good-natured, and more aware of mystical matters, also being (to those who are an sorta omniscient goddess or otherwise have access to Google Image Search) an attractive young man, it just sorta happened.

1. Why Anatolia, and why the 1200s? I guess I just mean to ask if there's any particular thing that interests you about this slice of the world's history.
- Well, I set it at that point in time because it is right after the splintering of the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire into, like, five or so splinter states and a Catholic colonial empire ruling over Constantinople, and I figured it was a naturally interesting time period. That being the case, I was limited to Western Anatolia or Greece. I really wanted to have it feature an Anatolian linguistic group culture (which, admittedly, isn't really possible at all, going back some 800 years, but that's just how it is sometimes...) and the actual last Anatolian language was probably Isaurian.
2. Who is Ouaxamoas? Someone like Ibn Battuta, or is there something more specific planned?
- He is indeed based somewhat on Ibn Battuta and others of his type in format, as well as Anna Komnene in style. There isn't really anything particularly planned for him, he's more supposed to show the attitudes and world of Isauria 18 years earlier, when it was still at the height of its power, Euphrosyne was a child, and Trokondas was still a strong warrior with a great kingdom under his rule, but also the first signs of trouble are starting to show themselves.

skipme!/still Tohorin

[The Caleshan Valkyrie]

You go to a lot of effort to explain your flag, but I see nothing explaining why there are TWO marks at each cardinal point. Is there a meaning to that, and if so, what is it?

[Tohorin]

You go to a lot of effort to explain your flag, but I see nothing explaining why there are TWO marks at each cardinal point. Is there a meaning to that, and if so, what is it?

Oh yes, it's the simplest thing to answer: I think it looked neat...though I may have been subconsciously influenced by the Navajo Shooting Chant sand paintings. /SKIP

[Voxija]

You go to a lot of effort to explain your flag, but I see nothing explaining why there are TWO marks at each cardinal point. Is there a meaning to that, and if so, what is it?

You've been on NS for a long time. How did you join NS, did you ever take a break from this site, and how have you changed since first joining this site? Basically, what has your experience been like here?

[Reverberating Days]

Are you interested in learning Basque or Catalan by any chance?
BN: Classical East Asian languages, as well as Scandinavian languages.

[Voxija]

Are you interested in learning Basque or Catalan by any chance?

Nah. Too busy with the rest of my studies.

/skip

[Puppetalia]

Reverberating Days: what languages are YOU most interest in?

[Liagolas]

Whats with the unorthodox flag?

I didn't quite like the former flag, and I wasn't sure if Liagolas even should have a flag. If Dominion dogma holds that the entire nation is the only real person, does a flag serve a purpose? On the other hand, hard to imagine hyper-nationalism not having a flag. Maybe I'll make a new one sometime. But for now, it's just masks.

Questions for Puppetalia:

Do you plan to find GIFs for every single one of your nation's policies?

Is this nation for the puns, or do you consider yourself a puppetry fan? If so, any particular kind of puppetry?