Embassy of The Rejected Realms

Catalyse

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Forum Move Announcement

To escape the dreaded Tapatalk, The Rejected Realms' official forum has been relocated to https://rejectedrealms.com.
Accounts have been converted, so if you were previously registered on the old forum you can reactivate yours with a simple password reset.
If you are experiencing any technical issues don't hesitate to contact one of the administrators on NationStates or Discord.

The Delegate has retired: Long live the Delegate

Frattastan plotting his return as TRR Delegate.

The Rejected Realms has held a Delegate election, leading to retiring Delegate Wabbitslayah being replaced by Frattastan. Proceedings kicked off with a challenge by Canton Empire against the seating Delegate Wabbitslayah. As rumours abounded that Wabbitslayah is unlikely to recontest, no fewer than nine candidates stepped up to challenge for the position in total, a record for TRR Delegate elections.

Spurred by the high number of candidates, the campaign was a vigorous and well-contested one, drawing much attention from both within and outside the region. Early frontrunner PowerPAOK/Nequedem/Glacikaldr was hampered by a dispute with Wabbitslayah regarding a supposed agreement regarding the timing of his challenge, having echoes of being TRR's own Granita Pact. The candidacy of prominent invader Souls was sufficient to bring NS Gameplay into overdrive, with various commentators opining that his candidacy is either the biggest danger or the best thing to happen to TRR in its existence.

The lack of a clear frontrunner led to a second round of candidacy declarations as Marilyn Manson Freaks, Wopruthien and Frattastan engaged the citizenry with their visions for the region. The various candidates were mostly differentiated by personality and experience rather than serious policy differences, and the outcome of the election appeared as uncertain as it ever was.

In the end, for the second time in as many elections, the final outcome was determined by one vote. A surprisingly strong showing by insurgent candidate Marilyn Manson Freaks was good enough to make this a tight contest throughout the voting period, leading to frantic googling about TRR's voting system and a 200% increase in the viewcount for Wikipedia's article on it. Manson and Frattastan had dominated the voting, but it was the latter who emerged victorious.

This is Frattastan's second stint as Delegate, the first being a highly successful term in 2013-14. His platform set out a detailed agenda for the region, particularly in the areas of Foreign Affairs and the World Assembly. Work is already underway to implement Frattastan's policy programme, with the hope of harnessing the activity and energy that the region is capable of when it works together.

Written by Guy

Not Steering Clear of VD (Debates)

For a long time barely noticed by the citizenry, the Rejected Realms Vice-Delegacy became a recurrent topic in Assembly discussions this year, and even turned into a contentious a topic in the most recent Delegate election.

Originating in August 2011, when Sedgistan appointed three Vice-Delegates as endorsees who could back him up at a time when there multiple swappers threatening the delegacy (including the infamous Rejected Redeemer, whose identity was a source of controversy), the position had almost been forgotten, with no new appointments since 2015, and one of the original endorsees continuing to maintain it despite her decreasing activity.

In part this lack of institutionalisation occurred due to the uncertainty concerning the necessity and the purpose of a Vice-Delegate in a region without ejection powers, where maintaining high endorsement and influence level is not as vital as it would be in other feeders and sinkers.

This February, then-Delegate Catalyse proposed to add the Vice Delegate as a member of the government, but the discussion died down without any consensus on the proposed change.
Her successor wabbitslayah sought to do the same, "promoting" outgoing Officer Marilyn Manson Freaks to the position of Vice-Delegate, with concurrent cabinet access for the first time in TRR history, and envisioning him as a general advisor and aide to the head of government. This move should have been paired with legislation allowing for the Delegate to appoint new government members, in addition to the four elected ones that make up the Cabinet right now, but the relevant constitutional amendment failed to pass by a single vote, continuing to leave the Vice Delegate office in a legal limbo.
To add to the confusion, in a quick and somewhat confusing succession of events in the last days of his term, wabbitslayah fired Marilyn Manson, appointed former delegate The Church of Satan, and then reappointed Marilyn Manson.
In the most recent Delegate election campaign several candidates stated their views on the VD issue. Eventual winner Frattastan asked that the position should be codified and returned to its original limited role as backup endorsee or abolished altogether, with some voters showing uneasiness at the latter prospect.

Local anarchist icon The Grim Reaper, self-described "NS equivalent of like a CEO you call in to handle a corporate dissolution and then you fire them for incompetence with a beefy golden parachute" and "really good at this whole legislature thing", submitted an alternative proposal meant to establish Zyonn as the first person behind the Delegate in any order of precedence, and allowing her to take over the region at will, but this suggestion seems to have been largely ignored despite the increasing religious devotion towards 'Lady Zyonn'.

In typical Reject fashion it's expected that the issue will be talked to death until there's a consensus. If ever.

Written by Frattastan

Less than Diplomatic

For the past several months, the Rejected Realms has been gripped in crisis. No fewer than 22 players have made and broken alliances, plotted schemes -- often behind their friends' backs -- and backstabbed each other when expedient. With the struggle for power as vicious and the stakes as high as ever, the question on everyone's minds has been "who will emerge on top?"

That's because TRR has been playing Diplomacy, a popular 1950s boardgame that is set in the run up to the Great War. Six games have already been played, following the formation of an official Diplomacy league within the region. Participants take control of one of seven European powers, with the goal of taking over the entire continent and being crowned the Diplomacy champion of TRR. Wopruthien has taken an early lead with one solo victory and one draw, and Souls is close on his heels in second.

Any player is free to join the league and become involved in the brutal games of Diplomacy. You also have ample opportunity to stab Frattastan in the back. Now who wouldn't want that?! Or if betraying Frattastan is not your cup of tea, maybe you can gain revenge on Souls for his NS transgressions. Whether a citizen, interested observer, or ambassador to sign up register your interest in the TRR #Roleplay Discord channel.

Written by Wopruthien

Invitation to TRR's CYOA Game: "Fallout Arizona"

War. War never changes. Even with the Old World rushing off to its doom, there are those who still safeguard the values, lessons, and convictions of America from the ruins of the atomic fallout. In the West, the values of democracy and the rule of law, and, in the East, the lesson to never repeat the same mistakes. The clash of the Bear, the New Californian Republic, and the Bull, Caesar’s Legion, was inevitable as their quests for glory consumes them. What remains by 2897 is a shell of both, as the NCR prepares to push back against the final holdouts of the new Caesar. First Sun City in the ruins of Phoenix, and then the final march to Flagstaff. A swift victory is promised by Mason Salvatore, one of the two possible candidates for presidency within the NCR’s upcoming election in the senate. All that stands in the way of the reborn crime family’s rise to power is candidate Aaron Hanlon, the nephew of retired Chief Hanlon of the NCR Rangers who is facing waning support. The NCR-Legion war has become a final opportunity for the many schemes of the Old World to take root. Will the conquest Arizona be what finally allows the NCR to remake America, or will the legacy of Caesar be one that forever changes the NCR’s very values? You enter Arizona as a Reject (not like this though, sadly), watching helplessly like the many other casualties of this war as the senate decides America’s future and the Legion does its best to make them pay dearly. Will you correct America’s path; or will you be its downfall? Or maybe you might just end up dying to an extra sneaky bark scorpion.

Ultimately, you decide, in the Rejected Realm’s Choose Your Own Adventure Game: “Fallout Arizona”! The polls will be made daily—or as regularly as I can remember and am able to make them—and will be open for the entirely of the interregional community, resident or otherwise (not that we would ever banject or eject you, or could for that matter, even if you did move in a puppet just to vote). So here’s where you come in: we’re inviting you to join in on our CYOA Game written by yours truly, Glacikaldr, or Nequaldraok if you’re looking for a portmanteau. The concept was first inspired by this YouTube video by ShoddyCast, but I could list many more that would be best to keep hidden: otherwise I’d ruin some of the many surprises I have instore for you!

So far we’ve just done a few parts within Chapter 1, and you can catch up on the setting, story, and previous options chosen, as well as the character sheet we’ve made through both gameside and offsite polls that we will be developing together throughout the process with almost every decision we make, through the dispatch following dispatch: here.

Further, if you’re looking for a better to stay updated on when a new poll is made, look no further than the new subscription service for the game! You can learn how to subscribe, for either RMB mentions or Discord pings, here. Thank you for joining us on this journey if you choose to do so, and we look forward to seeing as many of you over on our polls as able and willing!

Written by Glacikaldr

Catalyse

By the way, just want to say I really love the look of the forum!

Uan-aa-Boa

Welcome. It's great to have such a distinguished embassy here.

Catalyse

Long time coming, to be honest. ?

Catalyse

Visit our Discord and our Forum

Diplomatic Announcement about the NPO

In the wake of allegations concerning the role of high-ranking members of the New Pacific Order in infiltrating and destabilising other game-created regions, and in hiding players shunned by the rest of the NationStates community, The Rejected Realms has closed its embassy with The Pacific.
The government statement on the topic can be found here. No further action is expected to be taken at this time.

An Islands TRReaty

Tourism from TRR to the 10000 Islands is expected to increase following the signature of their treaty.

Last month the Rejected Realms ratified the 10000 Islands – The Rejected Realms Treaty of Friendship, capping months of negotiations over the Treaty.

10000 Islands and The Rejected Realms have a long history of friendship and cooperation. On the military field, the regions had for years jointly participated in and coordinated joint defender operations through their respective militaries, and moreover regularly assisted each other in Delegate transitions and times of need. Cultural exchange and synergy between the regions has increased dramatically in recent times, setting the stage for a comprehensive treaty between the regions. This is not the first time a treaty is considered between the two regions – 10000 Islands participated in the negotiations of the XYZ Treaty, a multilateral treaty between defender regions, but ultimately did not sign it.

The Treaty thus sets in writing what the parties have already been doing for a long time, formally enshrining their close relations. It requires the parties to afford to each other diplomatic recognition, maintain diplomatic relations, provide military aid to each other, share relevant intelligence, cooperate in the World Assembly on certain proposals and undertake joint cultural initiatives.

In TRR, the treaty was ratified by a vote of 15-6, with six abstentions. While there was broad support for the treaty, an area of contention emerged relating to 10000 Islands’ policies on the participation of invaders in its community. An agreement was reached between the regions that all citizens be allowed to participate in joint cultural events irrespective of military alignment. This agreement was seen as insufficient by some members of TRR due to 10000 Islands’ general proscription on invader participation in the region.

TRR is confident that the treaty will see even closer links between our regions emerge, building on the existing strong bonds that have been formed over the past years. We congratulate our partners in 10000 Islands on this joint achievement, and we are excited to see what the future has in store for our regions.

Written by Guy

First RejectVision Edition Takes Place

Following the storied traditions of Eurovision and FRAvision, the Rejected Realms hosted its very own song competition: RejectVision. For the competition, Rejects and others were invited to enter any song they wanted to be judged by the other entrants. Unlike recent editions of FRAvision and Raidervision, they were not required - or even encouraged- to be original songs performed by the entrants.

RejectVision lasted two weeks from November 4th to November 18th with one week for entering and one week for voting. In all, there were an impressive 23 entries that ran the genre gamut from indie to metal to pop and even what has been dubbed “free form freak-out” a.k.a random noise. In order to aid participants in ranking the songs, a listening party was hosted on the TRR discord with the help of a music bot. Over those 2 hours, most everyone had a good time and bonded over music and conversation.

As for the final results, the tallies were done by the host, Deadeye Jack. In a not at all nefarious coincidence (honest!), Deadeye Jack’s entry ended up running away with RejectVision victory. Given the success of the event, it’s likely we will see future RejectVisions sometime soon. Below are the top three entries for reference:

1st Place: Deadeye Jack with 106 points Silver Lining by Mt Joy
2nd Place: Harmoneia with 83 points K by Cigarettes After Sex
3rd Place: Altasund with 69 points Old Fashioned by Panic! at the Disco

For a full view of all the entries and results you can read the RejectVision thread on the TRR forums: https://rejectedrealms.com/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=10029982

Written by Deadeye Jack

This is Halloween: Z-Day & More

Like every Z-Day, TRR gets plenty involved and still has time for Halloween festivities. This year we not only participated in Z-Day, we watched the cult classic horror film “Halloween”, held a zombie-themed flag contest, and a horror-themed short-story writing competition.

This Z-Day, we decided to embrace the horde. We themed ourselves after revenge-hungry Rejects furious about being banjected. Before you could say “BRAINS!”, almost all of TRR was zombified. In fact, we were #1 on the leaderboard for Most Infected and Most Dead. At first, there were quite a few residents attempting a cure, but we easily infected them!

In addition to participating in Z-Day, TRR watched “Halloween” to celebrate Halloween. For those who don't know, Halloween is a cult classic horror film about a serial killer named Michael Myers from Illinois who is constantly prowling for his next victim.

Lastly, TRR held two horror themed contests, one was a short-story contest, and one was a flag contest. Quite a few interesting pieces were entered for both contests, but only one person could win each one. Eventually, Glacikaldr/Nequedum/PowerPAOK was named the winner of the flag contest and Deadeye Jack the winner of the short-story contest.

Written by Marilyn Manson

Other news

Delegate Frattastan has challenged the LKE Emperor Emeritus to a bake-off, to finally settle the longstanding dispute between defenders and imperialists. We eagerly await his reply.
Harmoneia has started a book club for people with short attention spans. Reads so far have been The Outsider by H.P. Lovecraft, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin, and Carbon by Primo Levi.
General elections to elect the four government officers are ongoing at the time of this writing, and are scheduled to end on December 9. The candidates are Deadeye Jack, Marilyn Manson, Kyorgia, Vulturret, and Catalyse.

Catalyse

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And the new Vice Delegate is...

While the most recent debate about the Vice Delegacy goes back to October, when the discussion was restarted by Frattastan, then still recently elected Delegate, the debate on the role the Vice Delegate should have in The Rejected Realms, how they should be chosen and wether the Vice Delegate should become a formal position, by being legislated, had been a topic of discussion during most of the year of 2018. During February of 2018, then Delegate Catalyse introduced a constitutional amendment into the assembly for consideration, though it never received quite the same attention than the most recently introduced, voted and passed constitutional amendment on the issue.

The topic was brought again into the limelight during Zaolat's delegacy, with the appointment of Marilyn Manson Freaks as Vice Delegate, the first time a new Vice Delegate had been appointed in several years but not the first time that there'd be two Vice Delegates, though with the announcement that the long serving Zyonn, who had been Vice Delegate since 2011, would be resigning the co-existence of two Vice Delegates would be cut short. The position was embroiled in controversy during the election season in late September and early October, with Manson being dismissed, replaced with the Church of Satan and then reappointed, leading again, to there being two Vice Delegates.

With the discussion starting in the Assembly several ideas were brought up. How should the Vice Delegate be selected? Some argued for an election, others appointment or selection by the Citizenship Council, or a mix of these. And should the possibility of two or more Vice Delegates remain open? Others still wondered why it was worth discussing this when it was unnecessary and the current formula for regional security had worked. An initial proposal to have the Delegate appoint one, or more, candidates to be elected by the Assembly, to serve as Vice Delegate, one or several, was defeated but a second proposal to have the Citizenship Council select the Vice Delegate passed through the Assembly.

The then still Vice Delegates Marilyn Manson Freaks and the Church of Satan were dismissed upon the passage of the constitutional amendment, and so far little information has come from the shadowy halls of the Citizenship Council. Citizens place their bids on the most likely candidate to be selected by the Citizenship Council, though some have placed their bid on there being no Vice Delegate at all. So, for now, we wait until we hear the words "And the new Vice Delegate is..."

The uneventful election event

A call-back from when Assembly debate and elections seemed to be more lively.

Elections, the ever present topic in foreign updates. December and January were election months for The Rejected Realms, but really, which month isn't election month in The Rejected Realms? Maybe February, or is it May? I'm not sure.

In late November, just a few weeks from the scheduled December elections, Officer Margiboof's resignation prompted Marilyn Manson Freaks to run for election, even if popular opinion seemed to be against having elections so close to the end of the term. Marilyn Manson Freaks was joined by John Laurens and Crazy Girl in these early elections, and Crazy Girl, the candidate that promised to act as if the election several would have wanted to avoid would have not happened at all, was the acclaimed victor.

December saw the election of four new, though not so new, Officers, with none of the elected in August, or from August until December, having chosen, or being able, to run, and also being the first general election under Frattastan. The only candidate from the most recent election to run again was Marilyn Manson Freaks, and none of the outgoing Officers chose to run again, and although it was not an highly contested election there were still several good candidates: Kyorgia, Catalyse, Vulturret and Deadeye Jack. The election ended in a tie between Kyorgia and Vulturret for the fourth officer seat, with the four officers eventually being revealed to be Deadeye Jack, Catalyse, Marilyn Manson Freaks and Kyorgia.

Then January came, and the Speaker elections came with it. Incumbent Vulturret faced returning citizen Altmoras, who after a long absence from The Rejected Realms chose to make his unannounced return. This election, much like the elections the month before, was poised to be pretty uneventful, though joke allegations about a TGW plot to take over The Rejected Realms, prompted by Deadeye Jack's recent election and Altmoras's candidacy, and Vulturret's reply to those allegations brought some controversy to the election. In the end, despite a successful term as Speaker, Vulturret had a cold reception in the elections and Altmoras succeeded him as Speaker.

More games, more events, more Deadeye Jack

While the December campaign was uneventful Deadeye Jack's first foray into office in The Rejected Realms was warmly received, being the preferred candidate in the elections and with his campaign, centring on new and more activities and activity for the role that he was eventually assigned, Culture, being well liked, though his campaign was not without ideas for other departments.

As Culture Officer Deadeye Jack has brought new events and renewed interest in participating in them. While regular events like avatar contests on the forum and the ever present werewolf games, be they held on discord or on the forums for Rejectmas or other festive occasions, have been joined by other events. Rejectvision was followed by a music pop quiz held, while "spyfall" has joined the vocabulary of The Rejected Realms event goer, accompanying Werewolf in 2018's Rejectmas festivities. Sadly intellectual pursuits such as reading and thinking have failed to take root in the region and the regional reading club was forced to declare bankruptcy after Harmoneia abandoned the Culture office.

Turbeaux

Speaking of events, we are ready to start the writing collaboration at any time.

Catalyse

Visit our Discord and our Forum!

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.

Catalyse

Visit our Discord and our Forum!

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 contrbutor to 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

Felis

Visit our Discord and our Forum!

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 [region]The Unicorn The Island and the Wardrobe[/region] 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:

Bowshot/Toerana
Nequedum/Glacikaldr/PowerPAOK
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

Felis

Visit our Discord and our Forum

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 [nation]The Church of Satan[/nation] 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 [nation]outboundstagnate[/nation] for becoming our 2019-2020 Rejectmas Chess Champion, usurping Delegate [nation]Dead I Jack[/nation]!

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 ([nation]Gorundu[/nation]) 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:

Bormiar wrote
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.

The_Grim_Reaper wrote
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.
>_>!

Felis

Visit our Discord and our Forum

Double election bonanza
By Kyorgia

Kyorgia being announced as the winner of his officer seat

On April 5st 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 and [url=https://rejectedrealms.com/viewtopic.php?f=83&t=10031358]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 [nation]Kyorgia[/nation] being announced the winner with the song “typisk Norsk”.
On March 12th another meme contest was held in the region with delegate [nation]Dead I Jack[/nation] winning with this meme
On March 15th a short story competition was held in the region with [nation]Nakarisaune[/nation] being declared the winner
The Reject Awards 2019 winners have been announced. Congratulations to all the winners!

Catalyse

Visit our Discord and our Forum

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.

makdon

Visit our Discord and our Forum

Birth of TRR’s Diplomatic Corps in earnest
By Nequedum

Neq holding a press conference after a long meeting with his secretary, Ann

Although our ambassadors have long been referred to internally as our Diplomatic Corps, our recent embassy assignment overhaul and adoption of new expectations have led to the birth of the Corps in earnest.

For you, this overhaul means either someone new has been assigned as your ambassador after preferencing your region highly or your continuing ambassador has had some of their prior ambassadorial duties divvied out and can now focus more time on our friendship with your region.

As for how our new expectations will play out, you are going to be seeing our ambassadors a lot more! Our ambassadors will continue to play their pivotal role of delivering our Foreign Updates, keeping you up-to-date on all things the Rejected Realms from upcoming events to the latest happenings, but they will also now be inviting you to our events in your RMB (and Discord servers) in a more consistent fashion. We want to build an enduring relationship with you that goes beyond posting infrequent updates!

We hope this more personalised experience will encourage more of our allies and friends to attend our regional holiday celebrations as well as participate in our interregional and invitational projects, such as The Rejected Times’ Outlander Program. We look forward to seeing much more of you as well!

Officer Elections Conclude in the Rejected Realms
By Aga (from The Rejected Times)

Speaker Dyl removing Minsk after he was eliminated

The Rejected Realms’ December 2020 Officer elections concluded on the 9th of December, with Nakari, Jamie, Robespierre, and Nequedum emerging victorious, in that order. Nakari was assigned the role of Officer of Culture, Nequedum made Officer of Foreign Affairs, Jamie given Officer of the World Assembly, and Robespierre assigned as “Officer without Portfolio”.

The elections were highly competitive, with Kral and Minskiev also running. You can read more, including coverage on each of the elected Officers’ campaigns, from The Rejected Times in Brief News III.

Your Invitation to Rejectmas 2020
By Nakari

Neq having a serious chat with Rejects about keeping AI Dungeon contributions PG this year

We invite you to celebrate another hairy and smooth Rejectmas with us!

Every year, from 26th December to 1st January, the Rejected Realms celebrates Rejectmas. This is a holiday to celebrate being a Reject! (Though non-Rejects are welcome to join in, of course.)

Activities will again be divided between gameside, discordside, and forumside (yes, discordside is a thing now, shush!).

Gameside we have the Lord of Misrule taking over our RMB, a Card scavenger hunt, and a flag contest where the winner will have their flag flown during New Year’s Day! Discordside we have a Home Alone movie night on the 29th and a game of Popmaster on the 26th! And last but not least, forumside we are yet again decorating the Rejectmas Tree, adventuring thanks to AI Dungeon, and running our 4th annual chess competition!

Show Rejectmas 2020 some love by upvoting our dispatch, and keep an eye on the dispatch as links and updates are added throughout the holiday.

Sneak Peek: Harry Potter and the Festival of Friends
By Nequedum

Harry Potter and the Festival of Friends, this year brought to you by the Rejected Realms, 10000 Islands, Greater Dienstad, The East Pacific, and The South Pacific, will be taking place once again. From the 30th of December to the 6th of January, there will be everything you have come to expect and much much more!

Activities will include art and writing competitions, Yule Ball roleplay, a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game, multiple movie nights (I bet you can guess what we’ll be watching), and a whole range of games!

The Discord server will be advertised on the 28th, allowing for sorting to commence—although Slytherin will no doubt win again.

In other news:

Updated embassy guidelines and an improved FAQ have been released.
The Discarded Card League, TRR’s regional card program, has launched with membership open to non-Rejects.
The Rejected Times’ Outlander Program welcomes article submissions from non-staff and even non-residents! You may also like to subscribe to The Rejected Times.

Minskiev

The Foreign Update XXXIV is out: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1539832

Minskiev

The Foreign Update XXXV is out: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1563372

Minskiev

* World Assembly Delegate: Minskiev * * Outreach Officer: Thepeopl * Culture Officer: Dakota * * Foreign Affairs Officer: Catalyse * WA Affairs Officer: Ereh *

Meet the Delegate - Interviewing the Walrus

Delegate Minskiev “Walrus” Tuskerson addresses Rejects live on radio.

Fresh Delegate elections, brought upon by the early resignation of Nakari, saw friendly neighbourhood walrus and outgoing WA Officer Minskiev, outgoing Speaker and veteran TRR politician Dyl, and perennial candidate Crazy Girl, pitted against each other, competing for the hearts and first preference votes of their constituents.

After a hectic final hour of voting Minskiev prevailed on March 30, being elected in the first round with 21 preference votes against Dyl’s 19. On the announcement of the results the walrus’s battle chant “Goo goo g’joob! Goo goo g’joob!” could be heard coming from his campaign HQ.

In order to ask some soft-hitting questions we travelled to the Delegate’s official residence to interview the new ruler of The Rejected Realms just as he was settling into his new office, and were warmly greeted by his tusks.

Interviewer: Let’s start with the easy questions and go right to the beginning. When did you join NS and what interested you in it?

Minskiev: I joined NS because I was going through my edgy political phase :^) and watched Drew Durnil. Then he made a video on NS and, eager to spread my naivety, I joined. I chose Minskiev because (again, edgy political phase) I was browsing r/vexillology and found a Kievan Rus flag I liked just before discovering NS.

Interviewer: Where were you before joining TRR and how did you join? :^)

Minskiev: Before joining TRR, I was an XKI RMBer. And a dumb one at that. The details of my ban are foggy, but I think I used bold a lot, got an RMB ban for it, then broke that. So I was sent to TRR. Oops.

Interviewer: And where do you think your path would have taken you had you not been ejected into TRR? Would you have grown bored from NS otherwise?

Minskiev: I’m not sure if I would’ve been bored of NS, but I don’t think I’d play the same way or have the same ideals. I would likely still have been interested in cards or the WA, but a lot of regions have different regional images that shape the IC characters of those that participate in those regions. I might’ve remained in XKI, I might’ve moved out of TRR and gone to a different region, who knows.

Interviewer: A real rags to riches story. Or eject to delegate? Anyway, before we get sidetracked by awful puns. Do you think of being ejected as an embarrassment or just another stepping stone on your NS journey?

Minskiev: Who cares if I was ejected. I like TRR more than I liked being an XKI RMBer. Definitely a stepping stone.

Interviewer: Nonetheless, plenty of ejectees never make the jump you made into the offsite community, or even government at that, so what made you stay in TRR after being ejected? Is there anything special about the community or region that kept, and continues to keep, you here?

Minskiev: I don’t know, I liked the RMB and I didn’t see much point in leaving. Then I got discord, and I don’t think I would’ve left after that. I really like the community ^-^

Interviewer: I’m glad we have you with us. On to your delegacy, what are you looking most forward to in your term?

Minskiev: I’m looking forward to cultivating TRR’s culture with Diplomacy games and Popmaster, rejuvenating our FA in an turbulent international stage, and doing what I can to improve the region.

Interviewer: If there was just one thing your term could be remembered for what would it be?

Minskiev: Activity. I don’t think TRR is necessarily inactive, but it’s not the most active thing in the world. #diplomatic-corps hadn’t had a message posted in it since 2021. Culture under Manson was non-existent. Before the election, we didn’t have a dedicated Outreach Officer since Bow. And I was the last, completely new Reject to run for Office, as far as I’m aware. So yes, some more activity as expected by any other modern region is desirable.

Interviewer: And for last, do you have any post-delegacy plans? Would you run again in six months, should everything allow it?

Minskiev: I haven’t given much thought into post-Delegacy plans. Ideally I’d like to do R/D again, but I might run for another term if I feel like I should then.

Interviewer: I think that’s all the question for today, your blubberness. Thanks for having us.

New Delegate, New Cabinet

The election of a new Delegate was followed in short order by the scheduled elections for TRR’s government Officers and its Assembly’s Speaker. With just four candidates running for a place in Delegate Minskiev’s cabinet, Manson/Ereh, Salem, Catalyse and Thepeopl, and one candidate for Speaker, BowShot118, the elections were decided by a confirmation vote, with candidates required to reach a simple majority to be elected.

Elections closed on the April 9. Salem and Catalyse were elected with 18 affirmative votes, Thepeopl with 17, and Manson with 10 votes, while BowShot was elected as Speaker with 9 votes. Minskiev quickly assigned each new Officer to a place in his cabinet, with Culture going to Salem, Outreach going to Thepeopl, Foreign Affairs going to Catalyse and WA Affairs going to Manson.

In Other News

First Diplomacy game of the year, an occasional event in TRR, was inaugurated with a three-way victory shared by Germany (Visionary Union), Austria (Altasund) and France (Frattastan). Other participants were Russia (Hoffania), Italy (Minskiev), Turkey (AnelynS) and England (Bluie Gamer). Congratulations to the victorious powers of Europe.

TRR Awards were hosted, with regional favourite Salem winning three awards - Newcomer of the Year, RRA Newcomer and Outstanding Civil Servant - followed closely by both Minskiev, who won Oustanding Staff Member, and Aga, who won Reject of the Year, with Outstanding Officer being shared by both.

TRR voted against Repeal: “Condemn Reventus Koth” and Commend Llorens and voted for Condemn Gholgoth and Liberate EmbassyRegionia.

Written & Distributed by the TRR Diplomatic Staff