After almost nine months of morning sickness, ultrasound screenings, and weird cravings for ice cream with pickles, we've finally birthed you our long-awaited baby; look! It's an update!

Departure of the King



If you had not received a Letter of Affirmation from us previously, you may not have known about the departure of our beloved King Charles, with Queen Fairy being the sole monarch now in his departure. Much has already been said of his leaving, and if you had not been informed previously you may read the letter at our NationStates embassy here.

Cere was a true legend; a titan who played the NationStates game very well. He defined the very facets of the Imperialist sphere and was instrumental in the many reincarnations of the United Imperial Armed Forces. Though you may not have agreed with him politically, he was always cordial, inviting, and welcoming, to all in any sphere. From Europeia and Alexandria, TNI, LKE, and KGB, the Pacifics, Rejected Realms, and even the Sinkers, Cere had been received with positive remarks on how he was as a real person, and we can never forget that. Cere's legacy and memory will continue to push on ever onward, and we hope that Ph.D. in History also does him proud as well.

In happier news, our Queen finally married herself off to Seven Deaths Saxton, doting father to Knight Foreign Cadmus Saxton in the most touching and sweet wedding we've ever seen in recent memory, and this one's definitely a keeper! Apart from the usual drink, food, and revelry, it was a joyous occasion to be had by all involved! Perish the thought if they would ever separate, I'm sure you couldn't pry Cadmus off of Queen Fairy's arms regardless!

Look at this smexy graph!



We've had a bit of a few hiccups in recruitment this month when our API borked on us out of nowhere! The region at its lowest had gone down to ~230 nations up until our API had gone back up again, but we certainly thank some generous stamp donors for helping us continue our recruiting manually, and we have amassed over 300 nations again! Yay!

Our forum is also looking for new themes! The Queen decided to finally retire that horrid Pink theme and is still searching for new ones. Many were discussed, such as Doctor Who, Pandas, Tentacles, Harambe, and Unicorns & Rainbows. We're still trying to find more, so stay tuned!

Speaking of staying tuned, JOURNALISM has returned to Albion! le gasp! The Trusty Messenger has been revamped by none other than Seven Deaths, wishing to bring back our well-trusted and publicly endorsed state newspaper! Cranking out hits like little Weekend Games sessions such as Escape the Office with Tyras Calidan beating everyone in escaping in 7:04, and a silly caption contest before its first issue rolled off the presses! There's a great brewing guide inside if you ever want to make some bathtub gin or whatnot in your home!

Of course not everyone thinks our Trusty Messenger is at all Trusty... our favorite weird water knight Freddie, had declared war against the Trusty from his own private newspaper, Ask Freddie, believing that the Crown is scandalously corrupt due to Fairy and her cavorting with SD mainly, has been slandering the Trusty, and in return has made a stunning reply to Ask Freddie in return. The crazy dolt had even been bold to get an interview from the Queen herself to corroborate!

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Build that wall around Albion and have Alexandria pay for it!



We rewind you back four months ago to our previous Chief Knight Election, where TNI veteran and recent newcomer to Albion, Olde Delaware, won the CK seat handily to the surprise of, just him. Beating Quickzand, he endeavoured to add Evanei Riket-Saxton as Chief Bard, Bert as Knight Interior, and Freddie as Knight Culture. Much squacking was to be had behind the scenes and apart from Evanei having to vacate her position and Lynneiah taking her place, they had finally worked on finishing a beautiful Minecraft Festival (more on that later).

Apart from hiccups on his first term as Chief Knight, he maintained a great first run and we couldn't be more proud of his work, especially in a position that had seen previously with many absences and resignations. Our current Chief Knight saw Bert as the rising star here; he was so good at his job in Interior that virtually no one opposed his candidacy and won unopposed! We have seen on his Round Table Calvin Coolidge as Chief Bard, Tyras as Knight Culture, and Mysty Saxton as Knight Interior! Although his term is not finished yet, recruitment and reforming seems to be the focus of the RT currently.

It seems Shalefields this time has been going through the works on leadership lately. Previously Evanei had been Archduchess up until she had to vacate her position here as well, as Archduke Olde Delaware stepped in in turn. It wasn't long from that either that OD too had disappeared primarily for some medical emergency (we blame it on the village idiots spiking the mead again) and we saw Albion newcomer and TNI vet H_I take the reins as Regent up until the true Archduke returns, at least that's how the true story was told...

Brightwall had also been quiet up until Lord Mayor Seven-Five finally relayed a particular problem; Albion's bastion of democracy saw that 7-5's term had largely been up yet nobody bothered to say otherwise! So he took it upon himself to fix that; I hear they talk of democratic reform, we wonder how that would look for Brightwall democracy. Perhaps anarchy would be nice this time of year. Silverpine remains quiet and stable as always, hiding behind their walls with their fancy magic and lawyers and archaeologists, though it is said the Royal College of Magic may get another revamp soon.

As you may have heard previously from a separate personal notice, we have ourselves a new Knight Foreign! Our dear Olivia had decided to step down in her capacity of her role to continue forward, what with the dreaded *real life* striking up on us. However in her place, her deputy Esquire Cadmus has been appointed to her position as the new KF! We wish Cadmus the same diplomatic successes as his predecessors had before him.

Exciting happenings in the Grand Council are heating up lately as some important things are in discussion. No, it's not the Marriage Act that had finally been written after all these years (took them long enough to get that settled officially) but no; we're talking REFORM. That dreaded word. The GC is discussing Executive Restructuring at the moment. As it stands, the City-States have never been used effectively; now that's about to change. The current proposal sees elections to be a candidate for CK changed where there can only be three, one from each CS. Adding onto that, the other three Knights part of the RT will no longer be delegated any official role in the cabinet. Instead, three citizens will still be chosen, but the CK may delegate these to do whatever they wish them to handle, in an effort to get all Knights involved in projects without being stopped by their official roles. If passed, this may invoke a new and different age for governance in Albion, one that we hope will be better!

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This is a cat fountain.

...your logic is now irrelevant.



There was lots of pixelated blocky fun to be had when we had our Minecraft Festival four months ago, and it was on current version too! Oh the joys of starting on a brand new server, trying quickly not to die on the first night while looking for new things they've added, like polar bears existing! So let's recap the events that happened:

The crafting competition to see who can make the most of the best items was very productive, with some great turnout points!
Overall Point Count:
Moly - 25 Points.
Tullievo - 20 Points
Kuramia - 15 Points
Griffindor13 - 10 Points
Yaglaboth - 5 Points
Bert - 5 Points

Ah, Hunger Games; do I need to say more? There were three separate games, but it was clear that a certain Magical Panda had these in the bag all day!
Hunger Games 1
Tyras - 1st Place - 20 Points
MagentaFairy - 2nd Place - 15 Points
Tullievo - 3rd Place - 10 Points
Nik - 5 Points
Nethernoise - 5 Points
Maje - 5 Points
Bert - 5 Points
ProffessorHenn - 5 Points
Moly - 5 Points

Hunger Games 2
Moly - 1st Place - 20 Points
Bert - 2nd Place - 15 Points
Tullievo - 3rd Place - 10 Points
Nik - 5 Points
Nethernoise - 5 Points
Maje - 5 Points
MagentaFairy - 5 Points
ProffessorHenn - 5 Points

Hunger Games 3
Moly - 1st Place - 20 Points
MagentaFairy - 2nd Place - 15 Points
Tullievo - 3rd Place - 10 Points
Nik - 5 Points
Nethernoise - 5 Points
Maje - 5 Points
Bert - 5 Points

There was great fun to be had and we thank all those who participated from foreign regions! We should play again more often!



In RP, The Crucible has been pretty quiet lately, except for a notable couple roleplays from the brink! The first is Cassius' Horizons RP, something of his own design where your actions in the RP can lead you to some interesting consequences, and maybe not the ones you'd like...the first post is indeed intriguing.

Horizons

 

Your senses come to you slowly. At first, your whole world feelings like a headache, a terrible throbbing in the back of your mind. At least it reminds you you're alive. Of all things, your sense of smell returns first. You're almost immediately overwhelmed, the smell of the cryo liquids repulsing you. It might have been enough to make you throw up, but your body doesn't yet seem capable of anything, leaving you in a very uncomfortable state.

You finally will your eyes to open. Your body starts to respond. You remember your arms, and lash out in front of you. There is a wall of some kind, a screen. You're sealed in some kind of chamber. But before the panic of that reality can set in, your hearing returns, and alerts you to a sudden hissing. The door gives way, the chamber opens, and you suddenly fall forwards, out of the statis chamber. You hit the cold floor hard. With all your senses coming to life at once, the ability to vomit finally catches up with you, and so that's exactly what you do, all over the floor.

Eventually you look around. You are not alone. There are... ten others, all apparently in the same situation. You're all wearing odd looking orange jumpsuits. Turning around you can see a name was written on your statis chamber... Presumably your name. You can't quite seem to remember... In fact you can't remember anything. Who you are. How you got here. What here even is. Nothing.

You are in a long rectangular room. Along one wall, behind you, are more statis chambers, not unlike the one you were in. The other wall, opposite you, is bare, aside from a few monitors displaying some kind of barely comprehensible information stream. One end of the room is a dead end, but at the other is an open door, leading out to a corridor.

Bit chilling huh? Oh but wait, it gets worse.



The second RP to open up quite recently is created out of the mind of our resident deviant of everything devious, the Plaguelord, and knowing how he always is, expect his RP's to be classically...tragic; The Demesne. The Demesne takes place in the gothic fantasy realm of Duniya, Duniya itself is not a world but an infinite plane where the Lunar and Solar spirits compete to reign over all, bringing night and day to eversprawling lands below them as the spirits of nature bring about the four seasons as they are known.
Duniya is the demesne of the spirits, connected by magical tethers known as the Igiya to the two realms Sama and Gidan Wuta, the realms of the Seelie (light spirits) and Unseelie (dark spirits) respectively, the various mortal races are the descendants of unions between nature spirits and the Seelie/Unseelie, their special lineage grants them certain 'yancin or rights to the lands of Duniya allowing them to live out their days in the realms as they see fit, many among the Unseelie were not pleased with this arrangement and have since travelled through the Igiya and entered Duniya, seeking to destroy the mortal races of the realm.


Players will take on the role of a member of the mortal races who has joined the fight against the Unseelie who have claimed vast domains of Duniya and perverted them into nightmare realms known as M Wuri from which monstrous beasts spill forth and foul magic emanates, it is up to the players, members of the Mai Tsaro, a force created to defend against the Unseelie, to venture into these lands and slay the Unseelie, ending their menace once and for all.

How are tigers like sergeants in the army?

...They both wear stripes!




The RAL has been going strong and active these past few months, starting off with our support of the Black Hawks occupation of Heroes Rise, which at the time we had at least 8 within the region supporting, a nice veritable sum. Lord High Constable Christopher Bishop has been starting to train some promising proteges known by Bert, H_I and Edward Leben to scout, setup triggers and hit targets, and with a veritably rough wedding present to Queen Fairy and her King Consort SD, they hit up three tiny regions as practice runs.

Leben wanted to travel NS a bit before the summer ended, so he brought a few friends along to 'visit' three small regions and say hi! Afterwards the RAL continued to show its stuff by successfully engaging in nine tag raids, excellent work! The North Pacific soon called and we helped greatly assist their occupation of The United Reddit Nations, we even got to be point this time! #narwhalbacon

Now to top it off for the update, we engaged ourselves in an occupation of our very own, the occupation of the Philippines! Tropical drinks and pork lechon were to be had while we subverted the native govt for a few days. Thank you to Europeia, Alexandria, LKE, and KGB for supporting our occupation of the archipelago!

Did you hear about the cat who drank 5 bowls of water?

...He set a new lap record.



Did you know that Albion was one of the first NS regions to invest in using a Discord Chat server? Good luck finding it and getting invited in though...

Rumour has it that Cadmus is up to nine husbands and counting! Where does he get all these random husbands from in greater NationStates and why or how does he rope them into his Husbocracy? No one may ever truly know.

Is Brightwall ever planning another Chicken Festival? Maybe bugger Lord Mayor Seven-Five instead.

In even stranger news, Cadmus is also apparently a child loomed from Detritus Saxton and Erebos Janmaren, of which Detritus is already Cadmus' uncle! So now he has three fathers and a mother, and there may be even more parents chiming in! Don't ask how any of this all works.

Seems during CK Bert's administration, the Ask Me Anything (AMA) trend started slightly returning to the Town Square. Of course, many scandalous questions were asked, usually involving complex mathematical hypotheses, potatoes, cats, and tentacles.

Can confirm our University is filled with dead people; might as well be utilized as a graveyard or a retirement village for academically-inclined zombies.

Recently we democratically voted to rename the Grand Citadel to the Heroes Guild instead; we also voted for Calvin to marry Cassius on the same poll. I'm pretty sure you know what option won out, but there hasn't been a yes or no to the big question yet..!

Edward Leben looks great in a yellow sundress. Inquire below for exclusive photos.

Ever wonder how those steampunk airships float? Veritable news sources confer to huge supplies of handwavium.

RIP Harambe ;(

...and now finally for something cute.

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Yours,

Albion