Header Courtesy of Imki 

April 2018  

On Sinkerism: An Introduction
By Syberis

Recent philosophical thought on Sinkers and their rule has largely been thought of in terms of Feederdom, as if Sinkers are,
mechanically, identical to Feeders. While one of the core mechanics - the lack of founder - is shared by both the Sinkers and the
Feeders, treating Feeders and Sinkers as identical entities that require the same skills to rule is as foolish as comparing The East
Pacific to Warzone Australia. Such fundamentally flawed thinking ignores a large amount of the intricacies that make Sinkers a unique
challenge, both to live in and to rule.

To begin with, however, we must define the Sinkers. Surprisingly, this is actually an undertaking that allows for two distinct sets of
regions. For the sake of these writings, Sinkers are defined as the game-created regions in which nations are refounded after ceasing
to exist. These regions are Lazarus, Balder, and Osiris. While there is a case made by notable players and historians that Sinkers
should be defined as those regions given the Sinker tag, which would include The Rejected Realms, the inability to ban or eject nations
from The Rejected Realms leads me to define it differently for the purposes of these writings.
This is done in no small part because the nature of The Rejected Realms is fundamentally different from that of the Sinkers. While they
face many of the same problems, a lack of refounded nations and a lack of banning as a game mechanism makes the region different
enough from the other three that adding it to the list would prove not only troublesome, but would also fail to do The Rejected Realms
justice. They are the only region in which democracy can truly thrive as a matter of mechanics, instead of at the whim of the
government, and so a different approach is necessary.

Let us begin on the most basic facts of Sinkers in a bit more depth. While nations are born in any of the 5 Feeder regions, no nation
is born in a Sinker. For a nation to exist in a Sinker naturally, it must first die as a result of inaction. It must be left to rot, abandoned,
and then later remembered and returned to activity. As most Nations born are left to collapse, this does create a large potential pool
of nations who if they are remembered might be reborn in a Sinker. However, a nation who has already been forgotten once is not
likely to sustain any permanent activity. The Sinkers are at any time filled with reborn nations that themselves become abandoned or
neglected quickly, their rulers leaving them to die again and be forgotten.

The nature of Sinkers as a place of rebirth creates an interesting problem. While every single nation is born a Feederite, no nation is
born a Sinkerite. No nation is even inherently refounded as a Sinkerite. Every nation born in a Sinker has at one point had another
home. Thus, to become a Sinkerite, a refounded nation must look at the community in which it is reborn and embrace it, lest they fall
into inactivity or join another region.
Sinkers, when operating at peak efficiency, serve an important role within the world. A well-run and strong Sinker is itself critical to
the reintroduction of many players to the game. A strong community motivates rulers to maintain a grip on their nation, and maintain
basic activity which allows them to rejoin. When that does not happen, then the onus falls upon other regions to recruit rulers during
their brief spurt of re-activity, and hopefully retain any individual.

There is a danger, however. The lower community involvement and lower endorsement count of Sinkers put them in a prime
position to be hijacked by forces who seek to use this refounding nature for their own gain. While not as potentially profitable as
holding a Feeder, holding a Sinker allows a User-Created Region or Feeder to use these reborn nations as an additional pool of
recruits.

While, in theory, all regions have a chance of recruiting these nations, the propaganda of the holding region is thrust into the
forefront. While other recruitment tools are limited to Telegrams and Regional Message Boards, the propaganda of the holding region
can be kept front and center, and is the first thing a reborn nation will be exposed to when they begin to explore the outside world.
Because of this, it is imperative that a Sinker be held by a community that is both loyal to the Sinker first, and dedicated when it
comes to engagement and retention. A strong Sinker will nurture these reborn individuals, these newborn nations, and give them a
choice between exploring the outside world or joining them to nurture the next batch of refounded nations. To do anything else
critically weakens the world as a whole. Those that would hold a Sinker for the sake of conquering, or for prestige, are not only doing
the Sinker a disservice, but the world as a whole.
 That Sweet, 
Osiran Spotlight: Koth
By Altino

Koth is Osiris’ Root Admin both on the forum and on Discord. An old Osiran,
he’s stuck by Osiris through many governmental changes and assisted in the
region’s growth. Today he serves as a sounding board to Osiran leadership and
Sweet  
RMB Activity 
one of the biggest voices in Osiris administrative decisions.

What’s made you stay in Osiris all this time?

I suppose what's kept me around is a sense of loyalty to the thing I helped
create, and the desire to keep it stable in my small way as much as I can.

What have you done in Osiris that you’ve been most proud of?
Banjecting Biyah during the founding coup, if I had to choose a specific
moment. The whole coup is something I'm proud of, I was just learning how to
 
The RMB is a vital resource of new citizenry in Osiris. Mike was
program at the time and I had used a little influence calculator that I built to
drawn to our region by people he met on the RMB. We’ve seen
judge how long it would take for all the involved nations to be able to banject
characters who’ve served our region as friends, citizens, Viziers,
who we needed to. Even though the coup was extracurricular in my career as a
and all sorts of things - like Rallori and Diaz! - come from the
raider, it helped me become a better tactician.
RMB. There are many more really cool people who speak there
every day but aren’t being reached out to in a way that makes
Do you feel like NS is a much different place than it was when you
them want to stay, but we can change that!
began playing?
Yeah. When I started, raiders were underdogs clinging to relevance and

 
Join the RMB Dream Team! Trick innocent nations into
Halcones had recently popularized tag raiding. Unibotian moralism was of
becoming a permanent part of Osiris!
course at an all-time high as the UDL dominated the defendersphere. IRC and
MSN were how everyone communicated, and raiders and defenders only met in
public IRC channels like, funnily enough, #osiris. The more things change,
though, the more some thigns just stay the same.

Are there things that you're happy to see aren't happening on NS

Minecraft Nations
anymore? Or things that you think were a mistake to leave behind? By Ophiuchus
Yes, but the things I'm happy to see left behind are mostly OOC-related drama
arcs I don't feel need to be put on blast here. Those things should be left in the
past, not glorified. As for things that were a mistake to leave behind, I'm not
really sure. Things tend to evolve for a reason, and there isn't much practical
value to anything from way back when that hasn't been improved on now.

What about in Osiris specifically?

Hello Citizens of Osiris! I would like you to all know that Osiris
nations is officially out!

Osiris is microcosm of what I mentioned in my last answer: what's in the past is
left there for a reason for the most part. Osiris has experimented with tons of
governmental forms and community organizations, and all too often it devolved
into petty backstabbing and power struggles through factionalization. Only at
certain parts of Osiran history can I say all Osirans were working together with
the same goals for the region.
If you don't know what it is, its a Minecraft world that functions with
world leaders enabling each world leader to have their own land
and the ability to rule it as they see fit. People joining the game in
progress are required to belong to a Nation for at least a month, or
be an active player in the world. All nations must have clearly
defined land. In order to be legitimate, it must be shown on a map,
and circled on that same map. Nations can't just claim whatever
land they want whenever they want and not use it though, the land
has to be used in some form or fashion.

Tell me a little bit about your greater NS career.
My Gameplay career started when I finally decided to look a little closer at the
region I'd been in for year or so, The Imperial Legion. It was pretty dead, but I
was just in time to be recruited to its successor region, Exshaw. This is where I
met Cormac.
We were both new to Gameplay and he decided to make his own region called
Asgard, and many of the active folk from Exshaw left to join us. This is where I
learned to raid for real, having only reason DEN guides from 2005 until that
point. Long story short that region got destroyed so me and my best friend
Venico founded The Brotherhood of Malice while Cormac hung around the UDL
and eventually Osiris.
I ended up in The Black Hawks to learn proper raiding, and then The Black
Riders, both of which I became high leadership in. Since this is the abridged
version, I'll just say that I ended up in Osiris as well and helped with some
interior design decisions :P
The world finally opened on March 4th, 2018 and has been talked
about and hyped up since the end of October 2017. The world is in
its hardest difficulty with no cheating, meaning that mobs can kill
you and destroy stuff you build, meaning that players will need to
properly light areas and it would be a good idea of them to build
walls to make their cities safer. The current Nation leaders are Ani
(Ophiuchus), Josh, Wym, Drac, and Overthinkers. Ani’s nation is
the most active nation, it currently has two members. Josh has the
most most members in the the game, currently having four
members including himself. Overthinkers is tied with second
place, having two members. The world population is currently at
10, with Rigel being the newest member to join.

What do you enjoy doing the most on NS?
People are supposed to enjoy NS? News to me. In all seriousness I like to meet
new people and talk about all of the weird shit we get up to on the R/D side of
things. I'm the kind of guy that watches the narratives play out and maybe
eggs them on from the sidelines but I'm not all about getting into the thick of
drama anymore.
Did you have a mentor?
I'm sure Halcones would like to make himself believe that he was my "mentor",
but I never was all about the dynamic he tried to establish between us. If I am
gonna call anyone a mentor, it would be SunRawr or Jakker. They helped me
understand the dynamics of the raider groups and what it means to be a
professional raider, not just a troll.
Mainly though, I taught myself a lot through reading old shit around the game
and dicking around with Cormac and the other Asgardians. If you're new to NS,
have fun being a noob, there's no rush to become the next big name in GP or
anything. Figure out who you are as a player before letting others "teach" you.
The world has been open quite a few times and in that time span,
a lot has happened. For Example, several of Josh's citizens have
been having trouble finding their way back to their nation, which is
pretty close to spawn. Just heading north of spawn and slightly to
the east will bring you to it. Ani and his one citizen have been
collecting resources from the nether and have a few farms, and
mob spawners. He ran into a glitch when a slime jumped on his
farm, causing thousands of potatoes to spawn until the crops were
broken. He also has started making potions. He is currently
planning a trip to The End to defeat the End Dragon before finally
settling.
This is the news for Osiris nations, tune in next time for more info!
 NationStates: The Gathering A Walk Through History: Part 2
​By Dragonian Alliance ​By Rigel

This year’s April Fools brought about much joy. In years past we have had a
feature involving bitcoin mining, zombie apocalypse, nuclear war, and even a
RA: The Sun God
dating service. This year we had Nation States: The Gathering. As a commentary
on card collecting, loot boxes, and microtransactions, we had this April Fools the
pointless task of gathering cards with pictures and summary of nations. Allowing The Sun is the most integral part of our lives. Our Crops live
for all the joy and love of gambling to be experienced, without the involvement of and die by it. Is it any surprise that the most important God in
real money. In total almost four million cards were found and nearly two million the Egyptian Pantheon is the Sun God Ra?
were promptly junked for value. Over fifty thousand nations participated in the
event exchanging cards over two hundred thousand times. This was truly a
RA
distinguished event to spend in the long hours between issues.
In the first few hours of the event, a question fell upon Osiris. What were we
to do with this task? We were given little direction, but many tools, cards to collect, God of the Sun and the God of Creation. Creator of the other
and the ability to revel in the jealousy of others. Altinsane was one of the first to Egyptian Gods
suggest gathering all Osiran cards. She was moderately successful. By my count
two hundred twenty one of her cards were from Osiris, perhaps more if the nations
Common Symbols: The Golden Sun Disk above the image of a
did not promptly cease to exist. In the end, our heiress apparent collected 3.4% of
Osiris into her deck. Tiparu managed to gather 15 Tiparu cards, driving up the Hawk with wings spread.
value of his card. The Imperium of Josh in a fanatical show of devotion, collected
11 copies of our Pharaoh Syberis, and made the card one of the most valuable in
the region to the few lucky enough to snipe the card when the Imperium of Josh
wasn’t looking or was low on deck value to liquidate. One of the highlights of the
region, however, was if you followed the story of Tethys 13. In a play that took
nearly all week, Tethys 13 ended with 13 Tethys 13 cards spending 13.33 monies,
with 13 Tethys 13 cards remaining in the world. Lastly, the Dragonian Alliance
collected all five pieces of the region’s version of Exodia, the nations of the three
Guardians, Heiress Apparent, and Pharaoh. Upon revealing the collection of
Exodia to Tethys 13, the Dragonian Alliance promptly obliterated Tethys 13, wiping
out his achievement of 13 Tethys 13 cards. As a side fact, the Exodia card set was
designed as a reference to Osiris in the show Yu-Gi-Oh.
As of April 7​th​, 2018 trading of the cards has ceased. Max Barry has
released news and promise of a new announcement, explaining how this gathering
of cards could be made a permanent feature on to the site. In the end the cards
were simple and pointless, making this one of the best April Fool’s Day features
given to us by Nation States in these 15 years. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem
delendam esse.

Common Description: Ra is typically represented as a being

with the body of a man but with the head of a Hawk, a glowing,
golden Sun Disk hovering above his head to show his status as
the Sun God.

Common ways of Honoring and Worshiping Ra: In the Fourth

Dynasty is when the Worship of Ra really picked up. From this
point forward, Pharaohs were thought of as Manifestations of Ra
and were worshiped as such. Pyramids and Obelisks and
Temples were built in his name. Kings and Pharaoh's would
send tithes to the Temples of Ra to gain the favor of the Sun
God so that he would bless them with long growing seasons.

Every morning, Ra the Sun God would begin his journey across
the sky in The Atet (The Sun Barge). As he journeyed across
the sky, he was met by twelve guardian deities. As he passed
them, it would mark a new hour. When sunset came, he would
then pass into the underworld where he would fight destructive
monsters as he kept the Atet safe. When he was successful the

 
next Dawn, he would appear on the Eastern Horizon to begin
the process again.