7/8 timing from Hamilton? That's gotta be Meet Me Inside.
Ambassadors are reserved for regions with whom we have embassies, as they represent a formal liaison on behalf of the region to assist in communications with our formal allies. As we do not have embassies with any of the named regions, I must apologize and state that we are unable to use ambassadors to them.
If you've read over the dispatch and believe ambassadorship is something you would like to pursue, reach out to me via telegram with your interest, let me know why you'd be a good fit, and we can discuss possible assignments! An ambassador represents all of Forest and should always conduct themselves with utmost professionalism, acting in accordance with the standards of both Forest and the embassy region. I encourage all Forest nations who are interested in this fascinating gameplay role to read the dispatch and consider volunteering.
As quoted above, for others who might be interested, here's the dispatch:
Thank you for your interest in filling the role of Ambassador on behalf of Forest! As an Ambassador, you will fulfill a vital role, serving as the primary link and liaison between us and our friends in other regions. The duties of an Ambassador are assigned by the Forest Keeper and the designated Foreign Minister of Forest, and may change from time to time or in response to specific events, but the basics are fairly straightforward:
Duties of a Forest Ambassador
1) Regularly visit your embassy region's page, and keep current on any notable discussion in their RMB or forums.
2) Make sure to introduce yourself to the region on their RMB, and occasionally chime in to say hello, participate in their conversations where it's appropriate, and respond to any inquiries about Forest. If your assigned region has a foreign minister, make sure to directly contact them on your arrival to say hello and make yourself known.
3) Notify the region when Forest has an event that our allies are welcome to join, and notify Forest when the ally has an event we can join. This can often be readily accomplished by cross-posting the link to an event’s dispatch.
4) If something major goes down (positive, negative, or just especially interesting), pass along word to Forest's government so we are aware of what is going on. This might include things like elections for executive positions, major changes in laws, or dangerous events like raids.
5) Comply with the laws and rules of the embassy region where you are working! Remember that you are serving as a representative of all of Forest, so please act appropriately and in accordance with the guidelines of that region’s government. If a situation comes up where you do not feel like you can legitimately act in such a manner, please immediately notify Forest’s government for guidance and support.
6) Other minor tasks may come up, but generally speaking, an Ambassadorship is a social role focused on maintaining pleasant relationships with our friends in other regions, and ensuring easy two-way communications should the need arise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:Do I have to move there? A: No, you don’t have to move there. The nation we know you as should remain a resident of Forest. Many regions permit embassy allies to post to their RMB, so you should be able to communicate effectively in that manner, if you wish to use your primary Forest account as your Ambassador persona.
Q: Can I use or move there with an alt? A: Absolutely! This is encouraged, if the embassy region permits it, as it lets you fully immerse yourself in the embassy region’s culture and communications. It is polite to verify with the region’s government that they are ok with ambassadors in residence (smaller regions in particular may like to know everybody they have present), but generally speaking regions are very welcoming to ambassadors.
Q:How much should I participate? A: Some regions are happy to have resident ambassadors participate fully as citizens, while others will draw a distinction between “full time” residents and those who represent outside interests. Generally speaking, when you first introduce yourself would be a good time to ask how much they would like you to participate. If given no guidance, I would suggest that it is appropriate to be social and join discussions, but is probably best to refrain from voting on weighty matters of government in regional polls, unless specifically invited to do so. Ambassadors are there to communicate with regional governments, not change them.
Q:What if I don’t know how to respond to a query? A: Contact the Forest Keeper and Foreign Minister! You aren’t expected to know everything, have all the answers, or make policy decisions and commitments. You’re there to help make sure questions and answers move smoothly back and forth, and to facilitate the passage of information between governments.
Does being an ambassador sound like it might be for you? Contact Uan aa Boa about open opportunities with the Forest ambassador program!
The version of the dispatch I clicked to there seems to only have a definition for the first term... all the rest remains just an undefined list. Is that deliberate, or will it be fleshed out?
I was planning on fleshing it out. I was just wondering if there was any feedback on the first definition. If there isn't, Im gonna continue with the definition of green politics below it.
In terms of definitions, it might be nice not only to provide examples of governments that fit the descriptor, but to briefly explain what actually makes them examples of that principle. Why is Iceland considered an "Environmentalist" nation specifically? Has New Zealand passed a specific law or enacted some Constitutional mandate that compels it to act in an environmentalist manner? That sort of thing. I think that will help people understand what specific policies really qualify as fitting under that header, versus an entity that perhaps has some laws or regulations that seem suitable, but don't make the whole thing fit the bill.
Beyond that, minor note, "Primitivism" is spelled with all i's for vowels - no "a" in the middle.
I'm definitely interested to see the definitions provided for many of these terms, and which fall into recognizable policy platforms versus simply broad-based descriptors.
Just a little note regarding the vote: I had originally voted for the embassy, and then when some nations voiced concerns, I withdrew my vote altogether. However, I after thinking about it more, I have decided to indeed vote for the prospective embassy with Thaecia, and this is why:
Long Version: We do in fact have several embassy regions from which we hear very little. Yet, (and at the risk of appearing too gung-ho about it) that shouldn't be a reason to grow cold over every prospective region going forward. Maybe it seems a bit more transactional or cutthroat, but I'd rather be somewhat more open to new embassies and to also be a bit more aggressive about identifying and trimming away embassies that don't pan out. But if we are overly cautious and do nothing, and merely point to inactive/dead embassies as justification, that amounts to almost suspending the entire program. I would propose being more open and accepting of regions which are at least ready to launch a "charm offensive," and then to revisit whether or not that amounted to anything, say, a year hence. I don't really see what that would cost us. At worst, it's another name at the bottom of the list that becomes a prime candidate for pruning away, and at best, it becomes a functional relationship with camaraderie. And dissimilarity is not, in itself, a compelling argument against forming an embassy, or making a friend, or embarking on a relationship. In fact, I have yet to meet a single person who seemed like me in real life, but that doesn't stop me from communicating with new people.
Short version: So I'm voting for.
Disclaimer: I may not have delivered on my promise of magic or of world peace. But nobody remembers that promise anyway. But since you brought it up, I'll work on it for tomorrow. Stay tuned! ;-)
If we actually want to be serious about being "a bit more aggressive about identifying and trimming away embassies that don't pan out", I'd suggest we take a look at the following embassies:
Sunalaya We have had embassies with them for several years. In running at least three years of photo contests, I have reached out to them multiple times every year. I have barely ever heard a single reply -- not from a member of the regional leadership, nor from anyone on the RMB. I have never been able to get in contact with a single member of the region. Furthermore, they are completely focused on intra-regional RP and have never reached out to us in any way. They now have only 26 nations left.
Union of Free Nations UFN is a medium-sized region that does a mix of regional government and roleplay. Like Sunalaya, they have never responded to any of our outreach. No photo contest participation, no N-Day participation, nada. No replies, ever, to any Forestian ambassadors who have posted on their RMB. There's not much more to say than that I think neither we nor they really care about this embassy.
Force This is a relatively new embassy, and it's one that strikes me as substantially similar to Thaecia. A large, very active region, with a complex regional government and not such a strong regional theme. Like Thaecia (but perhaps even more so), they operate almost entirely on Discord. Just take a look at their RMB for comparison: as I write this, six of the ten most recent posts on their RMB are a single word long, and the average length is 2.2 words per post. To their credit, they have an active ambassador program and consistently post their "Force Flyer" updates here on the Forest RMB. But those are mass, pre-prepared templates that get sent off to all of their embassies, and don't especially strike me as evidence of our relationship amounting to much. For example, no Force resident submitted anything to the Photo Contest this year, if I recall correctly. While we were promised some environmental fluff and engagement, it just looks like Force's Discord-centric gameplay isn't really compatible with us.
Osiris Likewise, I couldn't really be more disappointed in Osiris. They are one of the largest regions in the game, by virtue of their status as a sinker region. They have a massive government and a population nearly twenty times ours. Of course, as a sinker, they struggle with activity. But they're also a Gameplay region, for whom the expectation is generally that they care a lot about foreign affairs. Yet, I don't think we've ever gotten a single foreign update from them, no Osiran has ever submitted anything to the Photo Contest, and of course they never even considered joining us for N-Day. Like most sinkers, their active players are all concentrated on Discord -- and what's more, many don't often check the site itself. We expected Osiris to be a major relationship, but it's turned out to be completely invisible. Really nothing has ever developed between us.
Conch Kingdom Conch Kingdom is about the same size as us and by and large seems like a very nice region. But they're a part of the Augustin Alliance, a close network of several regions that all share a single off-site infrastructure, military, and other elements of their government. As a result, I think, they're very inwardly focused. Everything they do seems to be with the other AA members, never with their external embassies (consider N-Day, for instance). They do seem to have pretty active ambassadors who have posted on this RMB occasionally, which is nice. I think Canaltia was our ambassador to CK for a while, so he may have more thoughts. But overall, I can't say it feels like the embassy has really developed in the same way that our embassies with other similar-sized regions (e.g. TLA) have.
Winterfell They seem like fine people, but really the only substantial public interaction we've had with them is with the WA delegate, who interacted in a friendly manner with our ambassadors and some of our residents a few years ago. They're founderless and I think we may have voiced our support for them when they were raided a year or two ago, so I do feel a bit of sympathy. But, perhaps because they're so small, they've never really engaged with us much at all.
Thalassia Another relatively new embassy, and very Discord-heavy region, that just hasn't especially done much with us. I don't think it's necessarily worthy of closure, but it's one we should review.
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I'd like to re-up this post from a while ago, which outlines the philosophy I think we should take towards embassy review and closure:
I agree with you for most of these, except I feel keeping an embassy with Osiris is necessary. I admit that they have really no connection to Forest and are very spammy on their RMB, but considering the size and importance of the region on the world stage, I think keeping an embassy with them is necessary, just because nations may want to interact with them easily without needing to use the telegrams or the forums. They’re one of the biggest regions, and they have a clearly defined purpose unlike the others you mentioned, and I think we need to have some open method of communication. I don’t even think we need to rush to send them an ambassador, just keep the embassy open so that we can speak on each other’s RMBs and whatnot.
But for the rest of those, I definitely agree that we should look back on them and see if they’re still worthy.
It was a dark and stormy night. Or, it had been a few hours ago. Now it was just a sort of a dry but refreshing morning, with that uniquely clear crisp air that really makes the post-storm weather so pleasant. Perfect welly conditions on the ground too, and we can be sure that many a child was jumping into puddles getting their clothes all muddy.
Necromancer pirate lord Chan Island didn't have his wellies on today. Come to think of it, he didn't have to breathe either. He had ascended beyond that need a while ago, but ....liked to appreciate the sensation anyway, and couldn't wait for when he could get around to incinerating this pristine forest to replace it with an undead nightmare and pools of acid.
All of those living trees with adorable squirrels in them would in time all be replaced by gnarled dead things, while the rodents would remain adorable, if you could look past the fact that their heads would only be the skulls. The glorious blue sky would be replaced with an alternating palate of greys, nighttime and lightning storms.
Chan Island felt something stir in him. While this was clearly an inferior form of existence, a temporary blip compared to the everlasting glory of being undead, that didn't mean it deserved to be forgotten. Remember your roots, he thought. During the campaign he had bravely condemned a bigot who accused non-green having flags as being unfit for Forest Keeper, and surely what good did it mean now that he was the first Forest Keeper with no green in his flag if nobody remembered the barriers he had to cross? Would breaking that glass ceiling have any purpose if in time everyone forgot the hatred he had been subjected to?
The phone rang, and Chan Island picked up. It was Terrabod, one of the living lackeys he had appointed to be his patsy before he could get that whole constitution problem fixed. The necromancer lord spoke with a deep growl as he boomed into the device.
"Speak, foolish mortal."
Terrabod didn't skip a beat.
"I just got that flag contest underway, your lordship! Soon you might have a brand new banner for your future legions against the light to march under! I am so excited, it is such an honour to be -"
"OK, OK, I get it. Good work patsy. But, um, what about the old flag?"
Chan Island had to admit he had started to appreciate the thing. It wouldn't do for an undead empire, oh no, but he couldn't help but feel...
"The old flag will be a choice in the referendum, your lordship, just as you said."
"Excellent. But, just as a hypothetical, mortal. What if a glorious new design wins the day? What happens to that flag?"
"It will be burned just like all the other things, captain, as per your manifesto! I am so excited!"
Terrabod started babbling into the phone for a bit while Chan Island considered the mental image of the old flag burning. Somehow, it just didn't sit right. It would have to go into a museum. And, come to think of it, there was so much more that needed to be recorded, or updated. The previous Forest Keeper had had a policy of posting monthly transparency reports, and the pirate admitted he had liked that. His own government's achievements would need to be placed in the history record too.
Memory, he reckoned, was fallible, even among the undead. In fact, it was often worse for them, as all the ghouls and skeletons would lose their original personality in the process of murder and curses, thus losing all of that precious memory and tradition that had made Forest such a perfect target for converting to the half-way point between life and death in the first place! And with them all enslaved to his will, he would have to take up the entire burden of remembering it all by himself, which just would not do.
He needed a record. He needed... a stenographer. A dedicated historian who could not only keep aside files for safe keeping, for a later time in 500 years when he wanted to look back, but also bother to delve into the old archives and revise them. There was many a dispatch pinned to that front page that direly needed either updating or removal, and who but a stuffy historian could be asked to check?
So he asked down the phone.
"Hey, menial. I need a historian. Any ideas?"
Terrabod's overly chirpy voice came back quick as a flash.
"Mozworld's good, he did a bunch of history stuff for the Forest. I heard he was like a shaman or something."
Chan Island liked the sound of that. The shamans had been the first group to try and resist his journey into the living limbo, and it warmed his cold, dead heart that one of them could not only be alive but also be conscripted to work for this project.
"Good, mortal, good work. Tell Mozworld he is now the official Forest Memory, with powers over Communications and Appearance."
"OK, but I can't do that. You'd have to tell Ruinenlust that. He's the one who does that sort of thing."
Oh yeah, that guy, down in the hold in that spaceship he stole during the campaign. He had seemed important.
"Thank you, I will have Ruinenlust do the procedure immediately. And, um, thank you for the call."
Agreed - it definitely would be beneficial to review them. Just reading your post alone, I can dig the idea of culling ties with most of them.
That said, being a particularly inactive and non-region-oriented ex-GPer who has never heard of any of those regions (except Osiris) until now, my opinion is kind of moot.
Fire rejuvenates, clearing the underbrush and parasites, while leaving many of the trees to thrive, their seed pods opened. The clear ground permits the native wildlife to move back in, where once only invaders dared trod. It seems harsh to the human eye, but to nature, the inconveniences of a moment yield a bounty for the future.
When faced with a tough decision, the Government of Effazio typically does what most governments do: do nothing and pretend there is no issue and never was any issue and if there was an issue it was not our fault.
I think he would say that he has "no active memory of the issue ever being presented to him and that there certainly is no record of it being discussed but if it was that he was not personally responsible for dealing with it"
EDIT: This guy is one piece of work....nothing sticks. He may be the slickest politician in any of the western democracies in the last decades......and it looks we will be stuck with him for four more years cause there is no viable alternative. Don't get me wrong he ain't "bad bad" like Trump bad. I actually believe from his perspective he is trying to do the best for the country and his electorate but the stuff he gets away with is mind-boggling. He is the only politician I know that could start a semantic discussion about what it means "to lie". According to him wrongfully remembering things does not make you a liar....I understand that he wants to make the discussion about "intent" but a government becomes very hard to monitor when we have to start measuring "intent".
If you’re interested to hear some based, subjective but honest feedback on your flag – we’re here for you, just follow the instruction in the dispatch :)
Thanks. Technically keynote only (first it was PowerPoint which was a good option too). All the rest ingredients are experiments and a sort of irl designer employment