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Written by Goddess Relief Office on the original Forum

A few people have asked what differentiates Valhalla from Yggdrasil and vice versa. I'll attempt to provide some background history here.

To use an analogy, Yggdrasil and Valhalla are like branches to the same tree. They share the same roots, that is, both have the same founder. Yggdrasil was founded first in December 2006, and Valhalla was founded later in October 2008. Both regions had a history prior to that, but I won't go into that here. When Valhalla was founded Yggdrasil was already well developed, so its initial members was made up mostly of nations who migrated from Yggdrasil.

Like most regions, Valhalla had a slow start. While it had the good fortune of drawing nations from Yggdrasil, this was a low number. In those early months Valhalla only had 5-6 nations -- insufficient even to elect a WA delegate. In December 2008, I received a strange telegram from Europeia's founder asking me to "give" Valhalla to a friend of his. This was a strange request to say the least. Europeia is one of the largest regions on NationStates, but as small as Valhalla and Yggdrasil are, we are no pushover. I asked him to provide a good reason for his request and asked him to get his 'friend' to contact me directly. No news was ever heard from him since.

Overtime, Valhalla attracted nations on its own. Most of them discovering the region through recruitment by me and a few joined on their own. It's population grew from about a dozen to stabilize at about 20 to 30 nations. The first delegate in Valhalla was Darkwood of Pangaea , who sat from early 2009 to May 2009. It is about this time that Valhalla made its first ally with the region of Sparta.

In May 2009, Valhalla attracted the attention of a group of nations who joined us. This group of nations seem to be friends in real life, and all of them were pro-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual/pansexual, and transgender). Their leader was Adrik , who within a week, proceeded to take the delegateship from Pangaea with the support of his friends. Needless to say the suddenly usurpation caused a lot of friction with the old Valhalla natives. The situation was not helped by the attitude of the new group, who were generally rude and disrespectful to the old nations. I tried to intervene, but being the founder, it was impossible for me to take sides.

The situation quickly became worse, when the two groups became openly hostile over a disagreement of a WA vote. At this point I chastised Adrik over his use of expletives (which was not only rude but against game rules), he protested and decided to move he and his friends to Gay Oz. While civil war was averted, the region also lost a third of its population.

Pangaea regained the delegateship with the help of old nations and the region became quiet once again. An effort was made to recruit nations and I quickly rebuilt the population. Valhalla has been peaceful and without incident ever since that time.

In September 2009, Valhalla exchanged relations with the region Kittens Sanctuary.

In March 2010, Pangaea decided to retire from the delegateship and concentrate on his nation in Yggdrasil. At this time several other nations also ceased to exist. With population dropping below its 20 nation threshold, recruitment was started once again and this brought a new wave of nations into Valhalla. The seat of the delegate underwent merry-go-round for a while as nations, willingly or unwillingly, became delegate. Some of the old nations like Chrilland, decided to resign from WA rather than get elected as the delegate. After a two week period of uncertainly, a new nation The Followers of Lugh became the delegate.

Nobody is quite sure when exactly Valhalla was founded, but Valhalla is first documented May 28, 2003, with a population of 32; It was, therefore, most likely created within the 5 month time frame after the game was created by Max Barry. It's creation sometime in the first 5 months of Nation States existence means that Valhalla is one of the oldest region names continually in use, first used 17 year ago. Although it was later refounded in 2008 it's recreation is both a cause and the effect of its original population; the refusal to appoint a founder meant the region was invaded and destroyed, and so it was refounded by a nation connected to it's original population who kept as much of it's culture alive that it could.

The time between it's creation and it's re-founding 5 years later is a story of survival; constant war leading to population loss, and eventual decline.

From May 28, 2003 the region of 32 population would dwindle to 9 over the course of 3 months after it's creation, and spend the next 3 years recovering; on 06/18/2006 the region was defended by Titanica of the Ten Thousand Islands Treaty Organization against an invasion force from an unknown party. 6 months later, on 12/10/2006 The New Inquisition invaded, and led by The incorruptible, took over the region, with the intent of making it a trophy.
The region was liberated, however, before the invaders could do so one month later, on 01/10/2007 by Big killer babys of The Founderless Regions Alliance. This would be a cursed blessing, as the region was handed over to Treutopia, a purported native, but turned out to be an sleeper cell from the invader group Children of the Grave.
Treutopia would go on to lock the region, and after evicting the natives, it remained as a trophy region from February 2007 onwards, being kept alive by two invader puppets indefinitely...

...Until it stopped. Starting first 07/14/2008, and one month later on 08/16/2008, the occupation finally ended after 22 months when both nations ceased to exist, purportedly by accident. The region of Valhalla, therefore, ceased to exist with them, and this did not go unnoticed by both Defenders and Invaders. The next day, Anime daisuki, a TITO member who had fought in the defense of Valhalla, re-founded the region before The New Inquisition could, and vowed to keep it out of invader hands. Valhalla became a sister of Yggdrasil, the two regions shared populations, as well as governments, and Valhalla fought under the larger and more established Yggdrasil Defense Service flag during liberation's. This golden period of cultural production would last until 2011-2013, when a long period of inactivity due to illness by the founder led to a population crisis, and members of the YDS had to move in after the region was twice invaded. After these invasions, and the fact that The New Inquisition was still asserting it's claims on Valhalla in the forums and decrying the loss of it's territory, as well as a previous invasion from The New Inquisition when the founder CTE'd in 2011, the region was locked by Vrolondia and Zybodia until Goddess Relief Office returned.

When Goddess Relief Office did return, the population did with him; but the damage was already done. The region now had upwards of 80 nations, but had become primarily puppet storage for defenders and opportunistic invaders waiting to steal the region, and a cycling of YDS members was established to watch over and prop up the delegate until 2016, when the last true native of Valhalla, The germanic european empire, gave up the delegacy to The elba, also known as Elk and elba, a YDS member and native of Yggdrasil who was appointed the office of Valhalla delegate due to the lack of suitable (WA) nations from the region to elect their own. This trend of Yggdrasil delegates propped up by YDS members would continue until 2018 where, due to a long stretch of illness by the founder resulting in their CTE, and a lack of support from Yggdrasil due to their own population crisis, the region was locked by the delegate Vrolondia, and would remain so until late 2019. Goddess Relief Office would eventually return, but continue to be plagued with real life health issues causing the founder to repeatedly CTE, and so the region declined until October of 2020 when Goddess Relief Office retired from their founder position. The delegate incumbent, Vrolondia, would inherit the region with a population of 7; the delegate, the founder, the founders puppet, 2 TITO security puppets, one former Yggdrasilian natives puppet who had long since CTE'd, and KittenHaven, the only other WA in the region, who sacrificed their gameplay opportunities for 4 years propping up Vrolondia without any real activity, except Issues, since 2017.

KittenHaven, if you ever return, know you are loved in the region of Valhalla.