[Discussion] New Themes

[New Rogernomics]

At the end of the day I don't really care what the theme is. Lazcorp is fun, though it feels to me like it works better as a meme and informal theme than an actual regional identity.

I generally think Lazarus has historically approached theming wrong. Stop trying to impose a strict theme from the top down where everything is already decided -- and let one evolve on its own from interactions within the community. Other regions have very loose theming -- while Laz tends to take it a bit too far.

Just my cents.

Theming is only an issue when it changes the government functions, and all the themes thus far have just changed the titles. LazCorp is only corporate imagery and a little bit of roleplay if people want to, which is why Lazarus can afford to be apathetic on LazCorp.  

Not sure I can agree with that. Theming isn't just a legal issue -- it's part of our regional identity, and it has strong potential for both spurring and stifling activity.

What I'm trying to say is -- to me anyway, it has always looked like Lazarus has been trying to adapt itself to a theme, rather than the other way around. I hope that makes some sense. 

If anything throughout the Humane Republic, Celestial Union, and before then, theming distracted from running the region, and the People's Republic which people have nostalgia about wasn't even native to Lazarus - given it was literally a project of NPO infiltrators that collapsed after the New Lazarene Order.

What I am trying to say is that right now Lazarus has no real theme, and more just corporate titles that have renamed generic titles like Delegate and Minister.

If you want an example of a in-depth themed region still functioning with a really expansive lore and theme going on, the closest to that would be 10k Islands or Unknown.

The Nationstates trend is really moving away from theme-based governments though, and more towards generic governments, with regions generally following the generic parliamentary or presidential models.

If you are looking to what a Lazarene theme could look like, then there have been quite a few attempts by regions over the years, with varying degrees of success to try different themed government styles. 

We know of these styles of course:

• The Celestial Union took inspiration from Unknown, and various religious regions including the Ascendancy.
  
• The Humane Republic was an earnest attempt to adopt a pre-PRL theme, which also went in sort of the Chinese direction near the end.
  
• The People's Republic made Lazarus into a communist ideological style, which is pretty much in quite a few UCRs these days. 
  
• 10k islands, which has regional houses, and a sort of political oligarchy built around them.
  
• Osiris, which has a Egyptian theme.
  
• Balder, which has a Nordic theme. 
  

As for a few honorable mentions:

• The New Revolution, which basically built a region around a post-revolutionary French Republic style.
  

Even if we were to theme, it would take months of lore creation, and if people aren't behind it, it would more die off like the Magical Realms, where plenty of room was given to create lore, but no one stepped up to do so, and no one was really invested or interested in doing the work to make it happen.