Hello, and welcome! I created this guide with the intention of welcoming you to Valsora, and helping you make your claim. Valsora is the greatest map NationStates has to offer, with over 6 years of history, we've seen thousands of nations stake their claim to be the best there is. From the legends of old, to the veterans and the newcomers of today, there's tens of thousands of characters, stories and wonders to unearth.

Valsora is the official map of The East Pacific's RMB, sharing its status as official regional map with Urth, our friends from the Forums. Valsora presents a relatively fast-paced roleplay environment, based on the regional message board (RMB). No matter what you're here for, something is always happening. Whether you're here to conquer your enemies, trade with partners, or simply chart your nation's story, there's something for everyone here.

So you're new to all this, and it sounds fun, and you'd like to join! Joining is easy, keep reading, and I'll walk you through everything you need to know.

So all of this sounds great, but how do you fit into this universe? What's your story, who are your people, where do they come from, what's life like over yonder? These are all the questions you'll need to ask yourself before sending in your claim. Before copying that claim template and getting to work, you need to get a good grasp of your nation.

The biggest question, of course, is where you want your nation to be. Valsora has seven continents to choose from, all based on different unique cultural backgrounds. Ensure you choose the continent that best matches your nation's culture and background. We wouldn't want the French in Orientalis or the Chinese in Usnistan.

Ok, now you've taken a look at this map, and you've glanced at the Political Map to see who's where, and what spaces are available. You've found your spot, now let's worldbuild your country. When submitting your claim, you'll need to give a brief introduction to your nation for the Cartographers, just so we know who and what you are. It doesn't need to be too in-depth yet, but so long as you've got an idea (i.e. russian nation ravaged by recent civil war, or thriving mongolian kingdom modernising into the 21st century). Once you've got this down, we can get into the fun stuff.

The first statistic you'll need to figure out before sending in your claim is your population! Most nations on Valsora start with 25k - 30k pixels, and the general starting population aims to be around 20-30 million people, we don't accept much higher than this. If you're a densely packed baby-making machine in Orientalis, then you're always allowed to bump this up a little, and equally if you're a group of Mongolian warriors roaming the steppes of Yastreovakia, maybe we can bump down that number a bunch. At the end of the day, you know what's a good fit for you.

A lot of people join the map thinking they need to max out their population and economic figures to get a good headstart, a lot of people want to be the biggest and the strongest very quickly. I'll tell you now, don't worry about that. Valsora is much more concerned with storytelling and writing as opposed to who has the biggest numbers. Your nation will grow gradually as you expand more and more, don't feel pressured to be the biggest from the start.

Once you have your population number in mind, let's move on to a part that scares a lot of people at first, the economy.

Coming up with your economic figures is a daunting task for many new arrivals, you're likely surprised we're asking for this when you've only just conceived your nation and its identity. Don't sweat it, while it seems complicated and difficult at first, we have tools (and this guide!) available to make the process super easy.

Let's firstly get the terminology explained. GDP stands for 'Gross Domestic Product', in a grossly oversimlified explanation, GDP essentially refers to the total value of the goods and services your country produces every year. Everything within your borders from tangible products like an apple or a video game, to services like a haircut or a doctor's appointment. It essentially tracks all the wealth created from these things and packages it into one big number. GDP is a big term a lot of countries use to measure how large their economy is. In Valsora, we collect that figure for a bunch of different reasons, and we write it down so both you and others can refer back to it.

The next figure is GDP per Capita, which sounds complicated, but is super easy to understand. All it involves is taking that GDP figure we just gathered, and dividing it by your population. GDP per Capita is your GDP divided by your population, essentially telling you the median (average) amount of money created by every individual person in your country. It is generally used in real life (and by us here on Valsora) as an indication of how wealthy your country is, the higher your GDP per Capita, the wealthier and better off your people are.

Another warning with these terms, you may feel inclined to make your numbers massive, to have a huge economy and an excellent standard of living to one-up your neighbours. Again, this is not necessary nor encouraged. Valsora is about storytelling, and not every country can be incredibly wealthy or populous. Being smaller and/or poorer opens up hundreds of opportunities for worldbuilding and lore, allowing for fun shared RP's, letting foreign companies invest in your country, roleplaying economic devastation after your country is torn apart by civil war or a devastating economic collapse. It is oftentimes these shortcomings which make for the most amazing stories to read. Only you can create an accurate figure for your nation, but try and be honest and reasonable, don't just pick big numbers for the hell of it.

So you've read all of this, and it's making sense, but how do you actually create these figures? Don't worry, this is where those tools and resources I mentioned earlier come in. The most handy tool we have available for this is the GDP Calculator, which allows you to create both a GDP and GDP per Capita figure at the same time! All you need to do is fill in your population figure you created earlier, and then add a GDP figure. You may be confused at first as to what an accurate GDP might be for you, where do you even start? That's where the next resource comes in. The Worldometer GDP per Capita rankings allow you to compare your figures with real-world countries. Say you're basing your nation off of Russia, it would then be best for you to check out this list, and have a look at Russia's GDP per capita. Currently, it's $36,485 USD. So all you need to do is tweak that GDP figure in the top box until your GDP per Capita is close-ish to Russia's. You can do the same for any nation, whether you're based on Spain, Monaco, Australia, Brazil or even Zimbabwe. When you have a GDP per Capita that works for you, tada, you also have an accurate GDP there to go with it!

Your figure doesn't need to exactly match your closest real-world relative, maybe in this example you're Russia, but a lot richer, maybe you're way poorer, edit your figure as you wish and keep comparing it with that list to see what nation your GDP per Capita closely resembles. War-torn nation plagued by conflict and collapse? Maybe your GDP per Capita is closer to Afghanistan. Are you a disgustingly wealthy tax haven? Maybe you're closer to Luxembourg or Monaco! Remember your GDP per Capita, in simple terms, shows how well-off your population are in terms of money.

If your number comes out smaller than your real-world closest relatives, don't be discouraged, remember you're only starting out and America's vast wealth wasn't simply handed to them immediately, it took expansion and centuries of work to reach those peaks. Thankfully we're on a fake online roleplaying map, so you should only need a few months, not centuries.

One important thing to remember is all our figures are done in USD! Don't use your own native currency as a reference when submitting this info, as us poor old Cartographers have no idea what your money is worth, or what the exchange rate is.

Alright, now you're ready to join the map! Joining is simple, all you need to do is scroll to the bottom of this dispatch and copy the 'New Claim Template'. Fill that template out with all the information required, and then you simply proceed to paste that filled-out template into a telegram to Valsora (this nation) and hit send! The Cartography Council doesn't have an exact schedule for when updates come out, we're volunteers after all, but the longest you should expect to wait is 7 days. So long as your claim and stats are reasonable, then you can get started on your worldbuilding while you wait to be added. While you're at it, join the RMB Cafeteria discord server, where you'll find dozens of community members chatting and playing games. If you've got any questions about the claims process, or really anything about Valsora, don't be afraid to @Cartographer and we'll get back to you much quicker than we can via TG.