[TWI-Only] [OOC] In the Dark

[Uprea]

In the Dark RP

IC / OOC

To say it with the words of Ainslie:
This roleplay is for members of THE WESTERN ISLES ONLY. If you are not on the map, you cannot participate in this roleplay. However, if you are about to come onto the map feel free to speak up in the OOC thread (this one) but please stay out of the IC thread until you become a member.

Intro

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I have wanted to do an RP like this for a while, so I thought why not now. To break the idea down to a sentence: Have nations react to the outbreak of an agricultural fungus pest. The Pest starts when several Trade Ships from and stopping in the San Leon, pick up the spores through infected crops (of course this origin remains unknown before someone figures this out). From there the Trade ships could carry the plague to any corner of the world. Reactions could stretch from simple precautionary measures like trade restrictions and intensive testing at the border in order not to bring spores into your nation, all the way to setting up teams of scientists, to find the origin and creating a cure, as well as having food shortages due to destroyed crops. The effect the pest has on your nation is totally up to you!

Early Stage Timeline

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1. Spread starts when Trade Ships from San Leon pick up the fungus and carry it to *several participating nations including Uprea*
2. Fungus spreads fast and begins to destroy crops in an even quicker manner. Any Measures to contain the fungus, like quarantine and strategic field burning, fail.

At this stage the RP is very variable. In my mind I would have a few nations (or even all participating nations) form a team of scientists trying to find the origin as well as a cure. RP Events could include (the test and fail of a potential cure, proposing new measures to contain it, difficult lab work, connecting the dots to find out that it originated from San Leon, sending a team to San Leon to find out more,...etc.)
Meanwhile every nation itself, would be fighting against the fungus on its own turf. This could be expressed in the form of news posts, TWItter posts, etc. This could be done alone but also in a collaborative manner, with two or three nations helping out one another.
In the end, I think the creation of a cure, after learning more about the fungus in San Leon, will bring the RP to a close.
So to sum up the current RP possibilities I came up with:
- the IC spread of the fungus (for example the POV of a trade ship crew bringing in infected crops)
- Finding out about the fungus in your country
- Putting measures in place
- Researching the fungus
- Collaborating with other nations on the topic of the pest
- Finding a cure for the pest
- Struggling with the effects of the plague (food shortages, fear from the general population, etc.)
The Fungus could be topic in any posting throughout the TWI RP World, from News Post, Forum Post in a future IC Thread of "In the Dark", TWItter Post, etc. Ideally however the future IC Threat would be used to make the RP more intricate, by describing the situation from a POV View of a fictive person.

So what now?

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If you are interested, simply write your thoughts on this in the forum thread here. As said before the RP is currently very much in the works and I want as many people to have a possibility to put in their own thoughts, as possible!

[Laeden]

Laeden would definetely be interested in participating in the investigation of the causes for the spread of this fungus, as well as collaborating to find out a solution for this crisis. Our economy heavily depends on agriculture, so the possibility of having a crop killer like that spreading to our territory would greatly concern our government. We'd most likely get in contact with our partners, like San Jimenez (and the Joint Agricultural Development Agency) and Veldhaven to figure out ways to contain this crisis.

Needless to say, the Laedenian government would quarentine any ship coming from San Leon too

[Kuwarkiistan]

I would be interested in this. I think that Kuwarkiistan would be a very good place for possible tests before it is found out that its from San Leon. As trade would make it spread easily and there is a big agriculture industry. I think this might lead to some more strict measures which would be interesting to see in the rp.

[Costavozka]

Costavozka would also be interested in the participation in the investigation, research, and cure of this fungus, as one of the biggest sectors in Costavozka's economy is agriculture. Seeing how this would concern the people and government of Costavozka, we'd be more than happy to collaborate with the rest of the isles, even going as far as to (temporarily) disregard any potential negative history between Costavozka and other nations/governments in order to put a stop to it. As for effects, I think, as for early countermeasures, all ships and trains with agricultural products entering and exiting Costavozka would be quarantined and decontaminated, once news of an outbreak abroad reached government ears. Plus, more frequent and intense border searches, looking mainly for plants. Of course, something will have to slip through eventually for the sake of the narrative (say a few days after discovery and measure implementation), and then the science teams would come out to play, and we would recommend the formation of an Isles International Virological Research Initiative- IIVRI for short- to combat this fungus.

[Aeteros]

Aeteros would be interested and heavily invested in any events in this thread. A large portion of the Aeterosan economy is based on agriculture, so something like this could have the potential to cause widespread disruption to the Aeterosan food supply as well as issues for potential trade partners. Aeteros would be all in on finding any potential solutions, and if they spore had not yet reached Aeteros, they would probably consider highly protective measures to ensure it did not arrive as any damage to the crop yields could do catastrophic damage to the Aeterosan population.

Also if we want somewhere to just get absolutely devastated by famine, Aeteros would be a prime candidate

[Scaedia]

I’m really interested in getting involved in this roleplay as Scaedia’s already struggling with a drought harming agriculture. This would be another nail in the coffin for a potential recession in Scaedia and the food supply consequences would be devastating. The role I’d see Scaedia playing here would be possibly the most dire crisis point where radical solutions would be tested, whether those solutions do more harm than good we could decide later. Scaedia would also be requesting a great deal of foreign relief while also placing heavy restrictions and monitoring on imports to avoid introducing more fungi to farms.

[Uprea]

In the Dark RP, Update I

IC / OOC

Greetings! Thank you to everyone who has voiced their interest in the RP thread so far! I am really looking forward to this RP and I hope you do as well. Here I have the first update to the RP, as well as the news that in fact I have the first IC post out for you to build off. Feel free to click the link "IC", now available, to check out the first post
The Intro focuses on giving an introduction on how the infected crop could possibly also get into your country. Now starts the first phase of the RP, in which you now get to set the scene for the spreading of the fungus in your nation. Import the crop from San Leon in similar fashion like in my post, receive it in your port/airport or truck stop, maybe even let Claudio stop by in your country, have it cross borders and come in contact with crops in your country, let it wreak havoc or let it infect only a few fields. All that is now up to you!

For now the RP should focus on the spread of the fungus. While the unusual sudden death of crops can, of course, be noticed by farmers and so on, in this stage of the RP there should be no detection by any official organization. Official detection and measures against it will be the second phase of the RP. So let sailors, farmers or other civilians wonder about the unusual black spots on the crops.

[Wellsia]

How does this fungus spread? Is it in fertilizer or what? Being in the wheat itself, while making people sick wouldn’t spread to the local farmland, since it would be sent to mills and then stores..

[Uprea]

How does this fungus spread? Is it in fertilizer or what? Being in the wheat itself, while making people sick wouldn’t spread to the local farmland, since it would be sent to mills and then stores..

Its not meant to be harmful to humans, only to the crop itself. I was thinking it would spread via airborne spores that would be carried by wind. Of course, it would not be transmittable across miles but would need to be in the closer vicinity (much like from crop to crop in a field). Its not in the fertilizer but of natural origin.

[Aeteros]

Do we have a decided origin of this fungus? If not Aeteros would happily volunteer

[Najimam]

I'm interested in participating in this RP. Najimam's agricultural sector has been reliable and doing very good numbers recently. A spreading infection would cause a major shift in the economic strategy of Najimam and force the government to look for other sources of income. I'm ready to take part.

[Wellsia]

Would the fungus also be in the stalk? If so then a good way for it to spread would be the stalk ground up and used for animal fodder. This would get the spoors being sent to farms or down rural roads where the spoors would be wind born for miles as it travels.

[Uprea]

Would the fungus also be in the stalk? If so then a good way for it to spread would be the stalk ground up and used for animal fodder. This would get the spoors being sent to farms or down rural roads where the spoors would be wind born for miles as it travels.

Yeah that could be a great possibility for it to spread even further. Such a discovery about the spread of the fungus would also make an ideal IC post in a later stage of the RP, when the fungus is researched.

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I'm interested in participating in this RP. Najimam's agricultural sector has been reliable and doing very good numbers recently. A spreading infection would cause a major shift in the economic strategy of Najimam and force the government to look for other sources of income. I'm ready to take part.

Awesome, yeah of course you can participate. As we are currently in the first phase of the RP, a good start would be describing how the fungus gets to Najimam in In-Character form (as I posted in the first Update of the RP just a couple of posts back).

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Do we have a decided origin of this fungus? If not Aeteros would happily volunteer

Since I already posted the first IC post of the start of the spread in San Leon, I think its best to leave the origin of the fungus in San Leon.

[Najimam]

Understood thank you very much.
When can we start posting in the IC thread?

[Uprea]

Understood thank you very much.
When can we start posting in the IC thread?

The first IC post, done by myself, is already accessible in the IC Thread, so you can start posting right away if you like. The IC Thread can be accessed through the link in the very first post in this thread. As we are in Phase 1 of the RP, the post should focus on how the fungus gets from San Leon into your country. You can orientate yourself on my post or make up another way of transportation for the infected crops.

[Najimam]

Posted my POV of the first phase of the RP in the IC thread. Please let me know if I need to modify anything or add further information. Uprea

[Kuwarkiistan]

The first IC post, done by myself, is already accessible in the IC Thread, so you can start posting right away if you like. The IC Thread can be accessed through the link in the very first post in this thread. As we are in Phase 1 of the RP, the post should focus on how the fungus gets from San Leon into your country. You can orientate yourself on my post or make up another way of transportation for the infected crops.

I've started working on the first arrival of the grain with the fungus, should be posted tomorrow or Wednesday.

[Uprea]

Posted my POV of the first phase of the RP in the IC thread. Please let me know if I need to modify anything or add further information. Uprea

Looks really good!

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I've started working on the first arrival of the grain with the fungus, should be posted tomorrow or Wednesday.

Sounds good!

[Costavozka]

I have a post ready to launch, but I'll wait until the 7th in order to give it enough IC time for the cargo to arrive from Welsia.

[Kuwarkiistan]

I'm almost done with my post, is it ok if the fungus is first discovered in Kuwarkiistan?

[Uprea]

I'm almost done with my post, is it ok if the fungus is first discovered in Kuwarkiistan?

We are still in the early first phase of the RP, as such one should focus their post on how the fungus gets to your nation and how the infection of crops starts. Discovery and measures will be part of the Third Phase, so please hold back on discovering the fungus until the third phase.

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I have a post ready to launch, but I'll wait until the 7th in order to give it enough IC time for the cargo to arrive from Wellsia.

Sounds good!

[Costavozka]

Decided to fire off the post a day early. Travel time for the ship should still be semi-realistic.

[Ainslie]

Since Ainslie has relatively strong biosecurity controls and low agricultural imports, I’d imagine the fungus is likely to get to the country pretty late. I’m thinking of doing an IC post where a sample gets intercepted at the border and no one really knows what it is so it’s sent off to the national laboratory for further observation (but no research of a cure at this point). Soon after that, there’d be an IC post and a news post announcing exclusion zones after the fungus is identified on Ahnslen farms - likely in and around the stretch of agricultural land between Mandara and the Wesland border near Asherton. That being said, Ainslie would likely contribute to the race for a cure though OOCly I don’t think there’s much benefit in me being a leader in this area - as such it’s likely ICly we’d be a strong but by no means a leading contributor to the research until someone needs to produce the vaccine or the cure at scale - now that’s what Ainslie would get in on, most likely, under some sort of licensing scheme.

[Uprea]

In the Dark RP, Update II

IC / OOC

Greetings,
first of all, sorry for the delay in the timeline. I was under a lot of stress these past couple weeks and couldnt get to updating this RP like I wanted to.

Now that the fungus has reached your country it is time for Phase II of this RP. Just to make it clear, just because we have left the first phase, does not mean new nations cannot still join. New nations can get infected at any point during this RP, thats how it is in real life and thats how it is here. So if you are new and want to participate, simply state your interest in the OOC and explain how the fungus gets to you (whether that be from the origin or another infected country) in the IC Thread.

Now on to Phase II. This is where farmers would see the infection spread throughout your country. People can notice the death of their crops, animals not getting their food because its rotten, whole fields of crops showing the black spots and particles coursing through the air. Describing the whole magnitude of the infection, gives you the possibility to determine the level the fungus is going to be affecting your country. Please hold off from involving authorities in your story just yet! That will be part of Phase III.

I myself will have a post ready in a couple of days, but I wanted to get this update out to give you a heads up first.

[East Lankia]

East Lankia is heavily Dependent on Agriculture, so I think it would be interesting to join, the fungus is airborne, yes? If so, then I wanna say Spores from the Fungi travel in Convection Currents through the Air spreading over East Lankia.

Also, if it’s not airborne, then I’m gonna say probably trade ships accidentally bringing it in.