Sovereignty
All roleplayers have the right to independently decide what happens in their own nation; no other roleplayer can force any fact upon another’s nation, or claim that they have some of the people of that nation. This principle is known as sovereignty. This includes (but is not limited to) any behaviors, feelings, or actions of a roleplayer’s citizens, stating there are spies or rebels within another’s nation, or that an event within one’s own nation influences the other nation. All involved roleplayers must agree explicitly if they decide to allow any other roleplayers to dictate facts about their own nation as described by this rule.

Roleplayers have sovereignty over the land territory which their nations own as shown on the map, or within approved claims they lodged which are going to be added to the map. Roleplayers do not have sovereignty over land they do not own, even if another roleplayer attempts to give them permission to do so.

If a war treaty has been agreed upon between roleplayers, the terms of the treaty are superior to this rule and cannot be voided without permission from the other involved roleplayers.

If an unclaimed area has been included in the lore of another nation, or if lore has been generally built for that region, a nation that claims the unclaimed land can then dictate the lore of that land and ignore any previous worldbuilding or roleplay done there.

Voiding
Individual roleplayers have the right to void any post or action of another roleplayer which violates their sovereignty, including during wars (assuming it was started by mutual agreement). Any actions one roleplayer performs which are then accepted in some way by the other roleplayers being affected (either by statement or by acknowledging them in a post) are then unvoidable unless both parties agree.

Any void regarding another’s roleplay post that a roleplayer wishes to make should first be discussed between the roleplayers in question. Only if an agreement cannot be met independently should the matter be forwarded to moderation.

Any other rule violation should be forwarded to moderation, who will then have the judgement over any voids.
Moderators make voids and statements regarding the upholding of these rules on a case-by-case basis; these rules are general guidelines and moderation can void or not void a post for any reason regardless of whether or not it explicitly violates these rules.

Multiple Nations
Roleplayers are allowed to possess multiple nations on the map (as outlined in the Cartography section), however they may not pretend to be multiple people as to claim on the map multiple times, or to otherwise gain any form of advantage.

A singular nation on the map may be considered to be multiple nations by the nation’s owner for the purposes of roleplay; cartography does not need to be consulted in this situation.

Roleplayers who are suspected of being alternates of other roleplayers (i.e. multiple people being acted by one person) may be declined from joining the map at a cartographer’s discretion, or removed from the map if they are already on it by a moderator’s discretion.

Canon
Only information which has been included in a roleplay post is considered canon to Strangereal. Other sources of information, including factbooks, the TNP RP Discord server, DMs, and idle chatter are not canon to the setting, but can be used as reference and made canon by being included in a roleplay post.

Worldbuilding done in factbooks and worldbuilding posts on the Discord is not canon until being included in a post; however, other roleplayers are allowed to regard it as canon if they seek permission and it does not violate another roleplayer’s sovereignty.

Maritime
A nation generally has sovereignty over all water within thirty pixels of their coast, except where specified to not have it below. International waters (waters not under the sovereignty of any nation) are only used for the passing of ships; structures may not be built there. Where two nations have overlapping maritime borders, the border shall be drawn down the middle of the intersection between them.

Any water route which must be traversed to allow access between two bodies of international water; be they a bay, gulf, or ocean; are international waters which no nation has sovereignty over. Additionally, any nation with territory that borders the ocean is guaranteed sovereignty over a section of water such that they can reach the open ocean without passing through another nation’s maritime borders.

A nation may have full control over a canal or icy route that their nation owns, imposing whatever restrictions they want, such as what ships are allowed to pass or how expensive the toll is. Small canals and routes may be freely constructed, however larger or major canals which go across a very significant section of land or create a significant land bypass need to be given a thorough explanation as to their construction, purpose, and intent, and must be approved by moderation.

You are permitted to roleplay in international waters (unlike unclaimed land). Within international waters, you have sovereignty over only your own ships and their crew, not necessarily the state of the ocean or other roleplayer’s ships. Any actions performed in international waters which interfere with other nation’s ships may lead to a casus belli being granted to the nation being interfered with.

Roleplay Permission
To roleplay a nation on the map, it must own some permanent land territory or be legally canon in some permanent land territory. Permanent land territory does not include water or any structures (such as ships or oil rigs).

Roleplayers may only roleplay without explicit permission within the territory they have sovereignty over or within international waters. Roleplayers are allowed to roleplay within other’s nations so long as they have permission to do so, or so long as they are fighting a war with that nation. Roleplayers may not roleplay in or travel through unclaimed land.

A roleplayer is only allowed to roleplay in the setting if they are on the map or are going to be added to the map as confirmed by cartography.

Disallowed And Restricted Topics
This roleplay, and the community as a whole, is and will remain PG-13. There are young children, sometimes younger than twelve, who both play NationStates and roleplay on the map. If you have a question regarding the limitations imposed by this, ask a moderator.

Sexual content and gore or shock content is prohibited.

Genocide, slavery, and labour camps must be treated with respect and roleplayed seriously. Moderation should be informed in advance, and trigger warnings should be given within the post.

Forms of discrimination, such as sexism, racism, and speciesism, must be respected and trigger warnings given where serious acts of such occur.

The age of consent within any nation, polity, region, or place must be 18+ both de jure and de facto, or stricter. Phaedophilia is totally prohibited. Any content of even a remotely sexual nature involving minors is totally prohibited.

Fascism is allowed, but it cannot be glorified in any way. Using any real-life representations of fascism, such as people, specific items, imagery, or slogans, is prohibited.

Being offensive or pushing these rules for the purpose of being edgy is looked down on.

Don’t skin nekos.
Competitive Behavior (Friendliness, Fairness)
While Strangereal is meant to be cooperative, we understand sometimes that competition occurs and has a limited place between roleplayers assuming it remains friendly and fair. Conduct between roleplayers in conflict should remain civil, and actions of spite or destruction within roleplays should remain reasonable and not be influenced by out-of-character actions or feelings. Additionally, unfair roleplay practices; including but not limited to godmoding, metagaming, and reset buttoning; are all prohibited.

Godmoding is defined as having abilities far beyond reasonability or preventing another from harming you mostly or completely.
Metagaming is defined as using out-of-character (OOC) information within the in-character (IC) roleplay, especially when it grants an unfair advantage.
Reset Buttoning is defined as resetting unreasonably the outcome of an event or war that another roleplayer performed to you, whether or not there is an IC explanation given. It includes both simply wiping it from the record, such as by voiding, or through godmodey IC actions, such as by using clones or time travel.

Originality
Technologies, brands, ships, and other physical things cannot be directly copied one-for-one from the real world. At least some creativity is expected, especially in regards to the name and circumstances under which it was developed. Names for nations (modern or historic), religions, people groups, capitals, large cities, and important people cannot be copied from the real world, whether rendered in English or the native language.

There is a lot more leniency when copying from a piece of fiction, such as a movie or game, however some iota of creativity is still expected in regards to its integration into your roleplay.

Appearances or visual references from the real world are totally fine, but take care to follow the remainder of this rule.

Taking inspiration — but not directly copying — from something, whether fictional or real, is acceptable and encouraged.

Concept Claiming
All roleplayers are allowed to individually use any concept from the real world, from any work of fiction, and from other roleplayers who were previously on the map. You cannot claim any one thing as your own, such as a specific culture, military equipment, song, or symbol, unless you yourself made it or you were given explicit permission on its exclusivity.

You are allowed to claim your version of a specific concept is distinct from another instance of that concept on the map (such as the map having multiple German ethnicities, all of which are not related), even if they are based on or are actually the same thing.

Any roleplayers who are currently on the map have exclusive rights to any concepts they created by themselves, in whole or in part. Once that roleplayer is no longer on the map, their concepts are not free to be used by other roleplayers without their permission. If a reasonable attempt is made to contact any previous roleplayer and no reply is received, or the roleplayer is simply unreachable, then you may use their worldbuilding as long as you appropriately describe it as not your own. If a roleplayer specifically requests for their worldbuilding to not be used, whether or not they are reachable, it cannot be used.

If a roleplayer is disgraced from the map when removed (such as by being banned), then their worldbuilding is immediately free to use regardless of their opinion, except where moderators indicate it should not be used.

Any roleplayer who forfeits their nation on Strangereal in TNP for Strangereal in SH forfeits their control over their worldbuilding in TNP so long as they remain not on the map in TNP, regardless of their opinion.

Any agreements regarding who gets to use what concept are entirely up to the agreement of individual roleplayers and they will not be directly enforced.

Species
Intelligent species other than humans are allowed, however you are also free to not include them within your nation or roleplays if you want. However, if another nation explicitly uses a species other than humans, you should not ignore that and act as if they are typical humans.

Other species may have abilities beyond that of normal humans, however this is expected to remain reasonable and balanced. For example, if there is a species of very strong and tall individuals, they might have some notable weakness that humans don’t have or could be not as densely populated as humans are. Refer to a moderator if you’re at all unsure about how far you can go with this rule.

Purely aesthetic changes are generally allowed.

If your species is humanoid, you must be careful to reasonably follow human decency with regards to clothing or covering of genitalia, as well as other content restricted by the setting being PG-13.
Aesthetics
In the case of purely aesthetical changes, any given appearance may be used for equipment, vehicles, aircraft, or other things being worldbuilt. Any changes which are not purely aesthetic must be realistic or accepted by any other affected roleplayers and a moderator, especially in the case of use during war.
Examples of unrealistic changes which would require approval:
Any magic;
Any biological advantages such as species (intelligent and humanoid or otherwise) having advantageous traits;
Special or one-off items with powerful abilities;
Hypothetical or imaginary technology or materials;
Artificial intelligence or future advanced robotics.
If in doubt whether or not a certain technology or weapon is allowed, talk to moderation.

Strangereal has always been a primarily realistic setting but there will always be room for some fantasy elements.

Origins and Scope (Space, Alternate Realities)
The actual origin of any people, technology, or thing within the roleplay must be Strangereal or (in rare and exceptional circumstances) the Heliosystem. Anything implying the existence of or derived from aliens or alternate realities is totally prohibited.

The scope of the roleplay must remain entirely on Strangereal and cannot include any parts of space or alternate realities. Roleplay within the Heliosystem (off of Strangereal) can only be oriented towards space exploration, other types of space roleplay — most notably and importantly war — is prohibited. Faster than light travel used for space roleplay or any travel outside of the Heliosystem is prohibited.

Elaborating on the restrictions on war in space, all of the following are prohibited:
Stationing or transporting troops through space;
Using orbital weapons;
Engaging in conventional warfare (such as gunfights) in space;
Using kinetic kill vehicles (KKVs), which are very fast moving objects that destroy anything they hit, in an aggressive manner towards another roleplayer no matter the IC justification.

The only extraterrestrial life is the sand worms on Arrakis.

Climate and Geographical Features
The climate and geographical features of a nation may be determined by the roleplayer regardless of latitude or location. The only non-changeable part of the geography is the boundary between major bodies of water and land.

Roleplayers may make changes to coastlines and borders are allowed so long as the resulting coastline does not deviate by a distance of more than two pixels from the original if scaled to the size of the Strangereal map.
Minor bodies of water and minor islands may be created by the roleplayer so long as they are smaller than two pixels (by area).

Any changes made by a roleplayer to the canonical shape and geography of their nation, following the above rules, are meant for ‘personal maps’; that is, maps that that roleplayer creates themselves, typically at a higher resolution to the actual map. These changes will not be reflected on the actual map.

Declaring Wars
Without a valid moderator-approved casus belli, a war between two roleplayers must occur by agreement. This means that the declaration of war, and the broad strokes and actions of the war, must be agreed upon by all involved roleplayers. If a roleplayer possesses a valid moderator-approved casus belli, they may declare a war against the target of the casus belli without the target’s permission, and may perform war actions against them without their permission within reason 1.

(1) within the reason of the moderators.

Casus Belli
Note: The plural form of ‘casus belli’ is ‘casus belli’.
A casus belli which can be used to declare an unvoidable war against another roleplayer may be granted by moderation for aggressive actions or baiting performed by one roleplayer towards another without being instigated.
Examples of aggressive actions which may lend to a casus belli against a nation:
Piracy or any form of interference against another’s ships in international waters;
Killing or kidnapping another’s citizens or attempting so;
Imposing restrictions over territory that you don’t own;
Any attacks made towards another nation.
Any of the actions which lend to a casus belli may either be voided or accepted by the recipient of the aggressive action. If the actions are voided there will be no casus belli, however if the actions are accepted they cannot be taken back by the aggressor and a casus belli may be granted.

Moderation will be much more inclined to grant a casus belli if one nation is aggressive towards another but voids retaliation from that other nation.

Ending Wars
Wars may be ended by the agreement of all participating roleplayers. The outcome of the war — known as the treaty — must be approved by a moderator, and is binding on all participants. Any changes to the treaty also have to be agreed upon by a moderator.

Wars may result in the exchange of pixels from some nations to other nations as one of their effects. In this case, a maximum of 50% of the total pixel size of a nation may be taken from that nation, and a roleplayer may only take as many pixels as they have written words for the roleplay of the war contained solely within valid roleplay posts.

Army Size
Armies are limited to a total of 3% of the population of a nation. Over a short timespan, any army personnel that are killed or incapacitated otherwise are counted towards this 3% limit; in other words you cannot refill your army with more troops if you other ones die to bypass this limit.

The 3% figure is considered an absolute maximum, no leeway is allowed. The expectation is that actual army sizes will fall significantly below the 3% figure.

Weapons of Mass Destruction
A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is defined as a weapon capable of causing the equivalent devastation of the nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, or any more powerful weapon.

WMDs cannot be used without consent of: 1) the party using the weapon, 2) any parties targeted by the weapon, 3) at least one moderator.

Overview
Roleplayers who are new to the map are defined as individuals who have never had any nation on the map before. Roleplayers who are returning to the map do not count as new roleplayers.

The timers for these restrictions start from the Saturday map cutoff (12:00 PM Eastern Time) of the map they first appear on.

Hostilities
New roleplayers will be prohibited from participating in war or hostilities with other roleplayers, whether instigated by themselves or the other roleplayer, for two weeks after joining the map.

Alliances
New roleplayers will be prohibited from joining any alliances for one week after joining the map.

Private Message Groups
It is forbidden to create groups (including Discord servers, DM groups, etc.) of three or more people with intent to discuss TNP RP or of members who you know solely through TNP RP. In the rare case this is authorised, a well-tenured moderator must be present within the group to ensure the community rules are being followed.
This rule is very strict and punishments are very harsh, up to and including permanent removal from the TNP RP community.

OOC/IC Boundary
The boundary between a nation and its actions, and the roleplayer controlling that nation, must be recognised and not violated. Roleplayers should never escalate in-character conflicts into real conflicts between the roleplayers, nor should conflicts between the roleplayers be allowed to bleed down into the roleplay.

It is understandably common practice for some roleplayers to go by or be addressed by the name of their roleplay nation. Where reasonable, however, this practice should be discouraged, and a distinction should be made between the roleplayer’s nation and the roleplayer themselves. This is easily broken during informal discussion between roleplayers; roleplayers should not be directly addressed using the second person (‘you’) when discussing actions that their nation will take or experience; rather, the third person (the nation’s name) should be used.

Moderator vs. Cartographer
Moderators who are not cartographers do not have direct jurisdiction over the map; as a result they cannot make direct decisions about the map and should avoid butting in on the discussions of cartographers unless their input is requested. However, moderators may overrule a cartographer’s decision if it is a violation of the rules or otherwise clearly unjust.

Cartographers are not moderators and cannot make judgements on the rules; their actual jurisdiction is only what is defined within the section Cartography of this document. For examples, a cartographer cannot definitely tell you you can’t build a canal somewhere, and cannot resolve disagreements involving voiding or sovereignty.

Public Requests
Moderators and Cartographers should make their requests to cartography in public, not privately using a direct message or telegram, nor using a private moderation or cartography channel. This only applies to generic claims which any roleplayer may make; discussions which are solely the purview of cartographers may be discussed in private among the cartographers, and the same is true for moderators.

This is meant to maintain the accountability of these persons so that any decisions about their claims are made in front of the community, thus reducing the chances of preferential treatment or corruption.

Self-Service
Cartographers are prohibited from self-approving their own claims; this includes: adding a claim of their own to the update document, editing the map to add a claim which has not been processed, lodging a claim and considering it automatically accepted without another cartographer seeing it or commenting on it, or making a claim and then accepting your own claim.

Any claims made by a cartographer must be made according to the rule Public Requests, and must be handled and judged by another cartographer. If a dispute arises between the claimant cartographer and the handler cartographer, it may be brought to moderation for resolution.

After a claim is accepted, it may be added to the map by any cartographer like all other claims — including the one who made the claim. If the cartographer who originally made the claim is the one adding the claim, they should be careful to only add the claim as accepted by the other cartographer and not unduly modify it; do not underestimate the power of personal bias when working on your own claim, even for seemingly irrelevant details.

Making a First Claim
Identify Where You Want
Look at the most recent version of the map in one of the two official locations (the factbook or the Discord), and identify where you would like to be on the map. When determining where you’d like to be, keep in mind that your starting size at maximum will be around what most nations’ size is. You should identify at least the specific location where you are thinking by describing using other nations for reference or making a map showing roughly where you want to be.

Make an effort to identify where you would like to stay for some time. Please don’t request to move right after joining the map.

Make A Reasonable Claim
When you find the spot you want, please don’t request a very large amount of land. The maximum amount of land that you’ll be able to get is approximately the size of most other nations on the map.
Do not make a claim that is mostly along the coast — similar in appearance to Chile. This is known as yemeting.
Do not make several disconnected parts when making your claim.
Do not request to change or add land when you make your claim, it’s not going to happen.
Do not claim on water.

If you choose to give an image of where you are claiming, make sure enough detail of the surrounding map is given so cartographers can identify where on the map it is, and also make sure the image is reasonably sharp and not too blurry or vague.

If you can count pixels when creating your claim, the maximum size of a new claim is 40,000 px (which can be extended if needed to fill a small amount of land).

You can ask the cartographers to give you a picture of what your nation will look like as part of your claim to see if you like it, but please don’t do this too many times.

If you want to make an especially good image for your claim, you can follow the Claim Etiquette; however, we do not require new claimants to read it because it is very long.

Submit The Claim
Send the claim to cartography either by telegramming it to one cartographer (using links for any images), or through the #strangereal-cartography channel in the TNP RP Discord server, if you are in it. If you do not receive a response in about a day, you can message another cartographer.

Do not try to lodge a claim through another method, such as on the RMB or in a factbook. There is a high likelihood we will either miss it or ignore you; this is especially true for posting on the RMB.

If you choose to join the Discord server, the people there will help you find the cartography channel. State that you are trying to claim on Strangereal so they know which setting you’re trying to join.
Contacts
The cartographers and their contacts are:
Blobs (NS: Blob Regulators) (Discord: @comradeczechoslovakia)
B.B. (NS: British Bayonet) (Discord: @b.b.6438)
Doc (NS: Dronelig) (Discord: @doc8432)
Illusia (NS: Illusia and Neverendia) (Discord: @miraillusia)
Radicaster (NS: Radicaster) (Discord: @ab1359)

Claiming Methods
It is acceptable to make a claim publicly or privately. Public claims must be made in the #strangereal-cartography channel in the TNP RP Discord server; private claims can be made either in Discord DMs or by NationStates telegrams to any cartography member (read: not Vapia).

Claims are not accepted by any other mediums, including: factbooks, posts on the RMB, messages in public Discord channels (besides the carto channel), voice call, or TNP forums (Strangereal is not a forum setting).

Moderators and cartographers are not allowed to make private claims or claims in the private cartography channel in most cases; see Rules > MaCR > Public Requests.

Claim Order
Claims are always processed and accepted in the order they come in. Any claim which was lodged before another, whether or not it has been accepted yet, will be superior to any claims which come after it once it is approved.

Update Cutoff
The update cutoff is the time at which claims stop being accepted for the upcoming map update and begin being accepted for the following update. This occurs on posting day at noon in the eastern United States; five hours past UTC noon in winter and four past it during daylight savings.
Claims which are lodged before the cutoff but not yet accepted at the cutoff can be discussed, refined, and accepted for any length after the cutoff that cartography feels comfortable about.

The map is not posted at the update cutoff; there is typically a delay of up to a couple hours.

Territorial Integrity
Territorial integrity is the guarantee that any claim which has been accepted and added to the map may not be later undone or removed due to a fault of cartography or a change in the rules. Such a claim may be declared invalid and removed only if severe misconduct is found on the part of a relevant cartographer or cartography as a whole.

This rule does not prevent removal from the setting, only the integrity of specific claims which were lodged and accepted.
For example: if the recourse for some error is for a border to be changed, the change cannot be made. However, if the recourse for some error is complete removal from the map, then the change can be made.

This rule does not apply in cases where a correction results in an insignificant or unnoticeable change to a nation.

This rule only guarantees aspects of a nation which have a physical representation on the map. Aspects which are limited to clerical use, such as post validity or word counts, may be altered or rejected after being initially accepted.

Purge Clock
Every roleplayer has a purge clock (sometimes called a post timer) which counts up by one for every day that a roleplayer does not make a valid roleplay post. This clock is measured per roleplayer, not per nation nor per pool. It begins counting from zero on the first day that the roleplayer has any nation on the map, and resets when the roleplayer makes a valid roleplay post or adds another nation to the map.

Only valid roleplay posts will reset the clock; other types of activity such as worldbuilding, making factbooks, or invalid roleplay posts will not reset the clock. The roleplay post can be for any nation that roleplayer has on the map.

NPC nations do not have a post clock as they are owned by Cartography. They cannot be purged.

Hiatuses
Any roleplayer may request a hiatus, an official period over which that roleplayer is considered indisposed to the degree that they cannot roleplay. Hiatuses may be requested both immediately and in advance. Throughout the hiatus, the roleplayer’s purge clock is frozen and they cannot be purged, nor can they be removed for CTEing.
Hiatuses are requested per roleplayer, not per nation nor per pool.

Hiatus requests, like all types of map claims, may be made privately to the cartographer.

It is up to each cartographer to accept or decline any hiatus based on any fair reasoning that they believe.

Moderators can overrule cartographers in regard to hiatus requests without requiring extraordinary reasoning; hiatuses are not considered solely the ‘jurisdiction of cartography’ by Rules > MaCR > Moderator vs. Cartographer.

If a hiatus is being requested for a period greater than two weeks, a reason must be supplied for the hiatus. This reason can be directly stated to the cartographer, or stated to any moderator who can inform the cartographer of the reason’s validity while keeping the reasoning secret.
If a hiatus is being requested for a period greater than two months, a moderator must also approve the hiatus request.
Hiatuses have a maximum duration of one year, after which they need to be reviewed. They can be immediately renewed by moderation after this review.

When a hiatus ends, the roleplayer’s purge clock resumes from its previous state; it does not correct for any of the days over which the roleplayer had a hiatus. Roleplayers may or may not be notified when their hiatus has ended, it is up to each cartographer.

If a roleplayer makes a roleplay post during their hiatus, the hiatus immediately ends.

Validity
A valid roleplay post is a roleplay post (i.e. it must be made on the RMB) which fulfills certain requirements for validity. The requirements are that it be not a one-liner, that it be not written with AI, and that it has not been voided in full.
Both valid and invalid (not valid) roleplay posts are considered acceptable, and both are regarded as canon.

For a post to be considered not a one-liner, it must fulfill certain criteria.
If the post is considered roleplay, it must either fulfill the length requirement, or partly fulfill the length requirement and fulfill the quality requirement.
If the post is considered worldbuilding, it must fulfill both the length and quality requirement.

A post fulfills the length requirement when it is written at a length at or greater than two standard paragraphs. A single standard paragraph is represented by the length of the below string of bars, when both it and the text being measured are the same font size and are both in the font Verdana.
A post partly fulfills the length requirement when it is larger than one but smaller than two standard paragraphs in length.

A post fulfills the quality requirement when it is judged to be of acceptable quality, measured inversely proportional to the post’s length; that is, a very long post will easily fulfill the requirement, but a very short one will need to be written exceptionally well to fulfill the requirement. It is judged by the cartographer who performs the post check, and may be appealed to the head cartographer, or higher-up to a head moderator.

For a post to be considered not written with AI, it must contain no text written directly by an AI. It is acceptable to adapt an overview given by AI, or use an AI for assistance in making the post better or to improve its wording; however, anything the AI generates cannot be copied one-for-one into the text of the post at any length exceeding two words.

One Standard Paragraph
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Post Check
A post check is performed by a cartographer to check the validity of all roleplay posts made after the post where the previous check ended. Any posts which are found to be valid by the checking cartographer are liked by the cartographer prior to making the post break associated with that check.

The post check only identifies roleplay posts using the string “SR RP”, referred to as the tag. A post without the tag will not even appear to a cartographer performing the check, therefore it is imperative that the tag is included in full in all roleplay posts.

A post check typically misses posts that were made very close to when the check is being performed; this is a result of the waiting period between when a post is lodged and when the NationStates search function has indexed it so that it can be searched. If the post is lodged but hasn’t yet been indexed during the check, it is checked during the next check. This is noted on the post check by a date and time indicating when the final post for that check was lodged.

A post break is an RMB post which marks the end of a post check so that cartographers can find where they left off easily and to inform roleplayers that a post check has occurred. Post breaks is linked in the #strangereal-post-board channel in the TNP RP Discord server for notification.

Inactivity Limit
A roleplayer’s inactivity limit is the number of days that a roleplayer can wait before being considered under threat of purge. This limit is different depending on the jobs of the roleplayer; the possible values of the limit and their requirements are described below.

Roleplayer: 30 days
Cartographer: 60 days
Cartographer Emeritus: no limit
Head Cartographer: 60 days
Moderator: 90 days
Head Moderator: no limit

Threat of Purge
A roleplayer is considered to be under threat of purge if their purge clock is higher than their inactivity limit and they are not on hiatus.

While the primary purpose of threat of purge is to compile the purge list, it may also be used for other determiners of activity, such as when cartographers consider a claim for a large expansion, a tertiary, or a union.
Being under threat of purge does not directly result in a roleplayer having their nations purged (removed from the map), that is covered by the rule The Purge.

The Purge
The Purge (DUN DUN DUN) is the name for a regularly carried out inactivity check which removes inactive roleplayers’ nations from the map. The Purge (DUN DUN DUN) is carried out for every map which is a multiple of ten. When the Purge (DUN DUN DUN) is about to take place, all roleplayers will receive notification at least six days in advance by way of a purge list.

The purge list is an official list containing all activity information about all nations on the map. It is posted only in advance of the Purge (DUN DUN DUN), and indicates to all roleplayers their activity statuses. The posting of the purge list serves as the official notification of an upcoming purge (dun dun dun), and also notifies all nations who are under threat of purge about their imminent removal. If a roleplayer is not notified at least six days before the Purge (DUN DUN DUN) that they are about to be removed, then they may contest being purged.

The Purge (DUN DUN DUN) removes all nations of a roleplayer from the map if they are inactive, as roleplayers’ activity is tracked over a combination of all of their nations.

War Rules
Read the header Rules > War Rules before considering beginning a war or claiming a nation’s territory as a result of war.

Treaty
At the conclusion of a war, the involved parties must agree together on the resulting outcome of the war; this is, all involved parties must approve the outcome. This collective decision is referred to as the Treaty. This decision must be fully completed before it is brought to a moderator for acceptance and implementation, anything left out of the original treaty will require further approval from all involved parties (if they still are available) and another moderator.

The treaty may have more or less any effect that all parties can agree on, so long as moderation believes that it is reasonable and does not violate any other rules. If the treaty results in the change of territory, it must follow the rule Conquering Territory.

In the case of a non-cooperatory war, where both parties cannot or will not decide to end the war or create a treaty, only the exchange of pixels can be forced. Other types of sovereignty-infringing arrangements, such as reparations, governmental replacements, or forced trade agreements, must be agreed on by both sides to be treatised.

Overriding Sovereignty
As a result of the war, the sovereignty a roleplayer has over certain aspects of their nation may be restricted as to ensure the canon of the war remains and that the treaty is upheld, for example: the fact that some amount of money must be paid, that a government was deposed, that certain individuals were killed during the war, or that the war actually happened, cannot be directly voided.

To agree to modify some aspect of the war, you must either agree with all other roleplayers who participated in it and get approval from a moderator, or be the only roleplayer remaining to have fought in that war.

Conquering Territory
If pixels from one nation are officially changing hands from one roleplayer to another, then the roleplayer who is conquering the pixels must have written at least as many words for the war as they are taking in pixels.

The maximum number of pixels that a roleplayer can take from one nation in a single war is half of that nation’s (not the pool’s) size in pixels.

Territory which has changed hands is permanently changed, the outcome of the war cannot be voided or changed as to change the amount of pixels the involved nations own, even if all parties agree.

Subordination
The government of a nation or a territory of that nation may be subordinated to the government of another nation; that is, one nation becomes controlled by the other. In this case, the subordinate government falls under the sovereignty of the nation that controls it, but the remainder of the nation remains under the sovereignty of the actual owner. If the arrangement begins to result in serious OOC disagreements, it can be broken by moderators; this will always result in the return of the sovereignty to the actual owner.

There can be conflict between the nation and the government of the nation, but this type of conflict is not war; no pixels will ever be exchanged, and the roleplay has to be agreed on by the involved parties.

Gaining control of land by subordination does not grant pixels; if the other nation moves or is removed, you will not keep any part of it unless you actually took pixels from it.

Reclaiming Below the Maximum
A roleplayer who reclaims for any reason other than intending to exploit this rule, such as requesting to be removed and returning, moving their nation, or being removed and later reclaiming, has their full original allocation of pixels returned to them (e.g. 40,000 px for the primary pool) if they were below that count as a result of war or other factors when they left.

If it is suspected that the only reason for a roleplayer to have reclaimed is to take advantage of this rule, then the return of the original pixels will not occur.

Overview
This section is particularly long, so when reading it, feel free to start skimming it after reading the first three rules: Read the Rules, Understand Pools, and Know Your Cartographers.

These rules are not strict, but rather are guidelines to help you in making good claims. When violating the etiquette, you may be directed to read specific rules out of this heading (and you will be expected to read them then), but it is better to avoid annoying cartographers in the first place.

Read the Rules
For any type of claim, you should initially read the header Prohibited Claims to see if what you are requesting is explicitly not allowed. If it is not prohibited, first read the header Nations to get a grasp for the basic rules. After that, if there is a header below which relates to the type of claim you are trying to make, read that header fully and completely before making a claim or request of that type. This will inform you as to some common questions and answers and give you a sense of how you should request it, what is allowed, and what is expected of you.

Understand Pools
Read the overview of the heading Pools. This will significantly increase your comprehension of how cartography keeps track of nations and what you should be aware of when requesting any type of claim.

Know Your Cartographers
Cartography is not a faceless institution, nor is it the job or obligation of any of its members. Do not expect to have your way with cartographers, do not rush them, and do not waste their time. If you can stomach it, reading through this entire heading (Claim Etiquette) and trying to remember at least its basic points will make the lives of your cartographers happier and easier.

All cartography staff are volunteers who give their own free time to help people. They owe you nothing.

Include Information
When making a claim, do not only give information when it is requested of you if that information is the main reason for the claim. For example, do not ask “Can I claim a nation” and give no details, nor say “Hey I’d like to expand” and not provide any direction or indication. Cartography will refuse to accept an overly vague or lazy claim; if you need to be asked to specify before the claim is even acceptable then you’re doing something wrong.

Ask Questions
Feel free to ask questions; the cartographers are meant to help, even when the answer might be locatable within this document. In certain cases you might be given the directions to a rule in this document if the answer is complex or repeated often, or you might receive an explanation directly if the cartographer is more available, or if the question is highly specific.

You should ask a question as specifically as you want it answered. If you are asking about a general policy, then you may ask very broad questions; however, if you are asking about a specific claim or action you plan to take, go into detail about the claim or action (potentially in DMs) so that it can be more accurately answered and avoid any possibility of misinterpretation.

Feel free to ask clarifying questions where these rules are unclear or missing an explanation. Not only will you receive a much clearer answer which may be personalised to your specific inquiry, but the general concept may be clarified or added in this document, and help others asking the same question.

It is acceptable to make specific inquiries about your cartographical information, such as: your size in pixels or kilometres, your age on the map, your purge clock number, or your last valid post; but avoid asking this information about other roleplayers unless you need it.
Ask questions about information that cartography does not know (geography, population) to the roleplayer directly, or consult the Information Document.

It is acceptable to ask questions about how to make certain types of claims, ask if certain types of claims are possible, or ask questions about if or when any new roleplayer restrictions are ending.

Be Specific...
Make very specific claims. Including as many details as possible, as to not leave them up to the cartographer, makes our lives a lot easier.

The largest part of making specific claims is claim drawing. When a claimant draws a claim, it is easier to put it on the map without a cartographer needing to adapt it when it is closer to the native resolution of the map, is sharp (as opposed to blurry), and lacks compression or artifacting. Additionally, the closer to native resolution the claim is drawn; the finer control that a claimant will have over their claim.

Cartographers will be glad to go back and forth with a claimant as to the specifics of their claim; however, this should be done over a single map update. Cartographers will inform you if any part of a claim is iffy or will be removed if added, and you can work back and forth with them based on descriptions. If you want finer control over your claim, you can also request the claim to be shown to you as it will appear on the map, and then work with the cartographer based on the drawing before it is committed to the map. Do not wait for a map update to complain about your claim.

The best possible type of claim is one that can be directly added to the map; such claims are in native resolution, have pleasing borders, have no compression (typically meaning they are PNG), use a border closely matching the correct pattern, and do not have a name on them. Most claimants will not be able to fulfill these recommendations, but they merely serve as guidelines to strive for or to achieve if you are able.

Specifications which can be made for map claims for new nations include:
Giving an exact nation name
Stating the NS nation for that nation (including when it matches that of other nations you may already own on the map)
Giving a colour by hex code
Giving an accurate pixel count

...But Don’t Be Pedantic
Avoid making claims about very minor map aspects, such as changing a couple pixels in a border, moving a name, or modifying a colour by a few hex values. These specifics should be specified before a claim is accepted and put on the map.

Especially avoid requesting impossible minor changes, such as changing a font, requesting a certain tag or removal of a tag, selecting a restricted or otherwise untenable colour, or

Avoid making requests about how your information is handled or what it should appear like, such as about pixel counts or tracking days. Cartography tracks no personal information; we only keep information on nations on the map, the names of their owners, and any wrongdoing they have committed against the RP rules or TNP. This information is also private to cartographers and solely the jurisdiction of cartographers, so it’s not a roleplayer’s business.

Do not request changes to the size of your map name. It is given at a fair size given the dimensions and aspect of the nation; we will not give you the largest size that fits or make it larger because you are larger than another nation with a larger name. Appropriate responses to this type of claim include replying solely with “Ok pedant” and ignoring further requests or making their name size smaller.

Feel free to point out any names violating the rule Map Specifics > Nation Names, including your own.

Give Reasoning
Cartography does not know the reason most people make their claims, and for that reason, we often rely heavily on policy and judgement when we are processing a claim. If you provide some degree of reasoning to your claim, it allows us to understand your goals and potentially offer either a better solution for what you are looking for or to work with you more effectively if the claim needs to be reworked. In some cases, reasoning can even make or break a claim if it’s closer to the line of acceptability.

Cartographers do have opinions of the claimants, not all of them positive nor justified. Going the extra mile to make yourself clear and human to cartography makes us feel for you and be more inclined to accept your claim based on your reasoning rather than the merits of the claim standing alone.
Respect Present Nations

It is common for some very particular land that a nation wants to be already claimed by another nation, whether in regards to initial placement or expansions. If possible, you can work these things out with the individual roleplayer, but do not harass or press any matter of wanting land another roleplayer already rightfully controls. You are free to desire and wait on land that you may want, but never pressure or mistreat the present roleplayer.

Claiming over a nation that is not yet removed from the map, especially if their removal is not yet certain, is considered exceptionally bad form. These claims are almost always denied. Only claim over a former nation if they have either given you permission or they are removed on the most recent version of the map.

Don’t Call Dibs
Don’t call dibs on any land on the map overtly, and don’t complain when land you don’t own is taken. You may desire to take land and state this intent openly, but do not actually claim you own any land before you actually own it, nor demand land that another nation owns should be yours.
This is closely related to respecting present nations.

Respect Claim Precedence
The map is only updated once a week, however claims are accepted and roleplayers are allowed to roleplay at any time. This means that the map can be up to a week behind on the latest additions.

If you are able, check all claims made since the posting of the latest map given in the #strangereal-cartography channel in the TNP RP Discord server. This will allow you to avoid accidentally claiming over people who have made a public claim in the channel.

It is also common for requests to come in by telegram, so anticipate the possibility of your claim being denied for another nation having lodged a claim prior to you. The earlier in the week a request comes in, the more likely it is to not have some or all of its land already claimed.

Claim Civil Wars
It is okay to claim a border division between different sides at the start or at major stages of a civil war if it is going to last several maps. However, do not request that the border drawn for the civil war be updated regularly. It will only be redrawn if a major chance occurs or if a long time has passed.
The different sides will not be differently coloured, but they may be differently named.

It is also acceptable to not claim such a border; it is the aesthetic choice of the roleplayer.

Don’t Make Incremental Changes
Don’t make many very small changes successively in order, and especially do not do this if you are planning out many small expansions in advance. This is a massive annoyance to cartography. Make one larger or maybe two larger expansions with a wide margin of time (several updates) between them. Cartography is not your personal mapping tool, ask them to simply fill out the final size and roleplay the expansion incrementally yourself.
Claiming the entirety of what you are intending or a significant amount at once also will prevent any frustration which may arise from other roleplayers claiming over where you were planning to expand.

Similarly, do not request a change and then immediately change your mind or ask that it be undone if it has already been added to the map. If this happens more than one time, cartography will stop taking your requests seriously.

You may be claim banned for a substantial period of time if you regularly make very small claims, or change your mind constantly.

Don’t Loophole New Roleplayer Restrictions
Do not attempt to circumvent the new roleplayer restrictions, whether you are the roleplayer under those restrictions or another nation who wants to roleplay with a new nation. This includes committing to alliances before the alliance restriction is up, advertising for alliances to new roleplayers still under the restriction, or being overly hostile or planning a war with a new nation.

Don’t Ask Multiple Cartographers
Only go to one cartographer at a time when you make a claim. Do not add all, or even multiple cartographers as the recipients of a telegram, do not telegram multiple cartographers at the same time, and do not add cartographers to a group DM to make a claim. Additionally, please avoid pinging @RMB Cartography Staff unless the claim genuinely warrants all staff to look at it. Simply leave the claim in the channel and perhaps ping one cartographer, and ping them again or ping another cartographer if it gets ignored for about a day.

Once a cartographer is working with you, don’t seek out other cartographers, whether publicly or privately, unless that cartographer directly stops processing your claim or goes silent for about a day, even if they were not the cartographer you asked to help you. We all convene privately and have a shared information document, so we’ll know if you’re trying to play us against eachother or go around our backs to get the best response. The first response you get is generally what will reflect the actual decision unless a higher power overrules it.

Contest Reasonably
If you genuinely believe that your claim was mishandled, or that some part of it is blatantly wrong, you should speak up despite any etiquette recommendations given here. If a cartographer or several cartographers are refusing to cooperate, it can be taken higher up the chain to moderators.

This does not mean to harass a cartographer over a minor dispute. This recommendation is solely for instances where you genuinely believe you or your claim has been majorly wronged.

Strategic Claims
Claims which appear to offer an undue strategic advantage are to be declined, except where they result from a war. This encompasses any claims which are made or appear to be made for the primary purpose of offering some benefit to the nation (outside of gaining additional land) without another reasonable explanation.

Disjointed Claims
Claims which are disjointed into several parts (generally three or more) are looked down upon, and are likely to be declined.

Claiming distant territories is not allowed; however, the definition of ‘distant’ is heavily contextual based on the specific nation and the factors involved. The standard definition is more than 310 px from the nearest pixel of the nation’s mainland. Application of this rule is handled case-by-case.

Claiming landlocked exclaves in unclaimed land is prohibited.

Colonies
It is allowed to roleplay your nation as a colony or a former colony; however, claiming both a coloniser nation and a colony such that you control both ends of the relationship is prohibited. Being another nation’s colony or colonising another nation in the roleplay is allowed, whether as a roleplay or worldbuilding element, or by having both roleplayers be in a union together. Obtaining colonies by taking land in war is allowed.

Land Purchases
Any type of land purchase is prohibited. This includes any exchange of land which is reimbursed with roleplay assets, such as money, agreements, goods, or military protection.

Gifting land to another nation is also prohibited.

Balanced exchanges of land are allowed, please refer to the heading Exchanging Land.

Claiming over Another Nation
It is prohibited to claim any land owned by another roleplayer. This only counts for land which a roleplayer already has sovereignty; the nations as coloured on the map. Any land the roleplayer may intend to claim or has worldbuilding with but has not actually claimed is not owned by them and is free to be claimed.

Land which a nation has claimed and has been approved by cartography to be added to the next map is owned by that roleplayer the moment the claim is accepted.

Claiming on Glacea
Claims on Glacea (the southernmost continent) are prohibited.
Some islands which are near to Glacea are not considered part of the continent; refer to the continents map to identify what is and isn’t Glacea.

Claiming the Ocean
It is prohibited to own any pixel of water, only pixels of land can be owned. Your sovereignty extends 30 px into nearby water and completely into any body of water you completely surround. For further details, read Rules > GRR > Maritime.

Land Modification
It is prohibited to modify the boundary between land and water such that the change appears on the map; in other words, you can’t terraform. Any modification of an existing land–water boundary for use in roleplay or personal mapping must conform to Rules > GRR > Climate and Geographical Features.

It is prohibited to request new land be created or an expansion of the map. The scale of the map is fixed.

Territory
The territory of a nation is generally decided by the roleplayer except where the roleplayer does not provide a claim image. Where a claim is not given in native resolution, the cartographer will interpret the claim and adapt it to the map accordingly; cartographers may have a great deal of freedom in adapting such a claim. When a claim is given in native resolution, explicit permission is required to deviate from the claim.

‘Yemeting’, or the act of taking a large amount of coastline in relation to interior land accessible by that coast, is generally not allowed. As the rule can be vague, it’s often up to case-by-case interpretation of the handling cartographer or a group of cartographers. Violation of this clause is the most common issue the average claimant will experience.

Nations should be reasonably pleasing to the eye and not be border-gory. The enforcement of this clause is up to the whims of cartography.

The shape of a nation should not closely match any real life country or territory, with exception to the areas of the map which already appear similar to Earth.

Naming
Every individual nation requires a unique name. The name must consist of only latin characters, numbers, spaces, dashes, apostrophes, or ampersands. A name may be declined for being unreasonable, such as being blatant keyboard spam, using a very high number of diacritics, or being mostly symbols.

Nation names must follow the originality rule, except in cases where they were established prior to that rule’s existence.

Each name can be either black or white; the colour is typically chosen by the cartography team; however, where the colour of the nation does not require the name be a specific colour to be visible, the owner may request a specific colour.

The font, size, location, and line breaks used for the name are up to the style guide and the discretion of cartography.

Tag
A nation’s tag is the name of the NationStates nation associated with it. When the name of the nation doesn’t exactly match the name of the associated NationStates nation, the tag always appears in parentheses near to where the nation’s name or names are located.

Colour
Nations are generally coloured according to the wishes of the nation’s owner, and are given by the cartographer that adds them to the map otherwise. A nation’s colour may be changed at any time.

Colours must not exactly match any other nation’s colour on the map, nor be one of the restricted colours, nor be too close to either black or white. Nations should avoid being too similarly coloured if they are in close proximity to eachother; however, even a minor difference in colour is enough to be acceptable.

Any singular nation may only be one colour; nations cannot have several colours or use a gradient.

Borders
All nations are fully enclosed by a border on all sides, except for where that nation meets any body of water. The shape of the nation may be slightly modified by cartography to reflect their border drawing requirements.

Borders are always 1 px thick, and are drawn such that they form clear lines and curves, as to be aesthetically pleasing.

Overview
The concept of a pool is important to understanding many cartographical concepts, and it is greatly advised you familiarise yourself with it if you plan or are contemplating on having multiple nations, claiming a union nation, planning on moving your nation or parts of your nation, or are making any other type of complex claim.

A pool is a group of pixels and words, which together comprise one nation or a set of related nations. A nation is only ever part of one pool at a time. On the map, a pool is associated with only one colour, resulting in nations that are in a pool together sharing the same colour. A pool will always contain a single main nation, which uses the exact pool hex colour, is used as the name for the overall pool, may bear a tag, and is credited with any unused pixels and words or associated debts.

There are several categories of pools, each of which has different rules. These categories are familiarly known as primary, secondary, and tertiary ‘nations’. An individual roleplayer may own only one of each pool type. These pool types are covered in the heading Multiple Nations.

Note that a pool is not the same as a pool nation.

Pixels & Words
Every nation within a pool individually owns a certain number of pixels and words; the pool itself does not own them.

Pixels and words may be transferred between nations which are in the same pool, such that the total amount of pixels or words within the pool remains the same. This is done by cartography when it is called for (e.g. when an expansion is claimed); roleplayers do not need to worry about transferring any pixels or words themselves.

Except in certain cases where it is specifically outlined, pixels and words are never created nor destroyed. When a nation increases or decreases in size, the number of pixels and words it owns is the same before and after; when a nation is moved from one location to another, the pixels and words it has are the same pixels and words from its previous iteration.

Pixels can only be created and destroyed when a new pool is added or removed from the map, and an extant pool can only obtain or lose pixels through conquest.
Words can only be created through written expansions and cannot be lost.

Maintenance
The land that every nation has on the map, counted in pixels, requires a certain amount of owned pixels or owned words to possess. The pixels and words owned by a nation are used to fulfill this requirement for the entire size of the nation; this concept is known as maintenance.

Pixels and words which are used to maintain land are not removed or transformed in any way; they remain owned by the nation.

Deficit
When a nation has more land than it has pixels and words to maintain, the nation has a deficit; this can be in the form of either pixel debt or word debt.

The territory that a nation already owns on the map is secure; cartography is not allowed to revoke land to settle a deficit. The effects of the deficit may only come into effect when some change in territory is being made, such as: moving the nation, claiming an expansion, or leaving and later returning. In these cases, it is up to the handing cartographer to determine how the deficit will affect the claim or expansion.

Additional words may be tacked on to any expansions a roleplayer attempts to make to settle a deficit; however, this should only be done when it does not significantly change the magnitude of effort required to finish the expansion.

Expanding
When an expansion is claimed, the number of words or pixels required for the new nation’s size is recalculated.

If the nation already has enough pixels and words to maintain all its land at the new size, then no action needs to be taken to increase the amount of maintenance the nation can perform; no additional pixels or words are required. The result is a Natural Expansion.

If the nation at the new size does not have enough pixels and words to maintain all its land at the new size, then an agreement needs to be made with carto as to how the land which the nation cannot maintain will be covered. The result is a Written Expansion.

Expansion Loans
When a written expansion is claimed, the words required to maintain any land beyond the capability of the pixels and words the nation already owns are loaned to that nation by cartography. This allows that nation to expand before having written all the words for its expansion; however, it is expected that the nation’s roleplayer will write the expansion to completion, and that roleplayer will be penalised if they do not.

Upon the end of the expansion, the loan of words is removed and the words written for that expansion will be transferred to the relevant nation in a quantity determined by the expansion rules.

Claiming Expansions
When considering claiming an expansion, you should first discuss with cartography about the details, including where it will be, how large it will be, what you plan to roleplay with it, and an estimate about how many words the expansion will require. Written expansions are easily the most misunderstood type of claim, so clearing up the requirements before doing anything relating to the claim or committing is very important; additionally, expansions are also very often declined or require reworking in some way.

Do not ever write anything for an expansion with the intent for those words to count towards it before you claim the expansion. Words that are posted before an expansion are accepted are never counted, no exceptions. The expansion may also not require as many words or far more words than you were expecting; claim calculations regularly get very complex and obtuse.

Natural Expansions
A natural expansion utilises pixels or words that a pool already owns, for example when expanding from small to the default maximum size. Because the pool already meets the requirements for the expansion, it does not need to receive a deadline or a word requirement, the expansion is simply completed and finalised immediately.
Any expansion type which typically requires words (such as a black island expansion) may instead be considered a natural expansion if the roleplayer has enough spare words to complete it immediately.

Action Expansions
An action expansion is a type of written expansion, requiring some amount of words to be written in exchange for claiming land. When a roleplayer claims an action expansion, they will have twenty six updates — approximately six months — from the map the expansion appears on to complete all words required.

Action expansions utilise blocks to determine how many words need to be written to claim a certain amount of land; within each block, a certain ratio between words and pixels is used for this determination. As a pool goes through several action expansions, it will advance from one block to the next in order based on how many pixels it has already expanded by using action expansions. Once a pool has been expanded to the end of the final block, it will no longer be able to expand using action expansions.
Which block a pool is in is dependent on only any previous action expansions, not on the current size of the pool in pixels, or how many words it has written.

Pools begin at the bottom of the first block. Each block consists of 20,000 px.

Action Expansion Blocks
First Block 0: +1–20,000 px
0.5 words per 1 pixel (1:2)
Block 1: +20,001–40,000 px
1 word per 1 pixel (1:1)
Block 2: +40,001–60,000 px
1.2 words per 1 pixel (1.2:1)
Block 3: +60,001–80,000 px
1.5 words per 1 pixel (1.5:1)
Block 4: +80,001–100,000 px
1.8 words per 1 pixel (1.8:1)
Block 5: +100,001–120,000 px
2.1 words per 1 pixel (2.1:1)
Block 6: +120,001–140,000 px
2.4 words per 1 pixel (2.4:1)
Final Block 7: +140,001–160,000 px
2.7 words per 1 pixel (2.7:1)

Black Island Expansions
A black island expansion is a type of written expansion, requiring five words for every one pixel claimed. Black island expansions apply only to land which was added during New Trisone’s 2022 island additions; the land is collectively referred to as black islands due to how it is coloured on the reference map.
Note: ‘Black islands’ are an exclusively OOC name. I do not want to see any roleplayers referring to these islands ICly as ‘black islands’.

Black islands may not be claimed by using or moving pixels; they must be claimed as part of a black island expansion, as part of a pool’s initial claim, or as a result of war.

Black island expansions last for twenty six updates (six months).

Black island expansions are not limited, you may request as many as you like at any size; the claim itself will still be evaluated normally however, and may be declined for other reasons.

The map of all black islands is available here, or at request to cartography.

Overview
Words for an expansion may be paid off through three methods. The first method is the writing of roleplay posts which relate to the expansion; this is the primary method, and may be used to complete all of the words required to complete an expansion. The second method is the writing of worldbuilding relating to the expansion; this method can only account for a maximum of one quarter of the total amount of words required to complete the expansion. The third method involves non-textual worldbuilding relating to the expansion, such as maps, images, or videos; this can account for at most half of the worldbuilding words — one eighth overall.
The non-textual worldbuilding words are counted as part of the worldbuilding words, so less worldbuilding can be written for the expansion if some of it consists of non-textual worldbuilding.

The total amount of pixels which a roleplayer can be writing for at one time is 20,000 px; this is totalled for all active written expansions of that roleplayer.

Using Roleplay Posts
When writing for an expansion using roleplay posts, the posts must fulfil certain criteria to be counted (the act of totaling the number of words by the official method, and crediting the post and its words to the expansion). To be counted: a post must be valid (refer to Activity and the Purge > Validity), must state that it is for an expansion (and clarify which expansion it is for if the roleplayer has multiple expansions active), must not be voided in full, and must have been brought to a cartographer’s attention. Expansion posts may be edited after being posted, whether to make them compliant with the counting criteria or to augment the word count. If a post is edited, a cartographer also requires notification of the edit.

The post is counted using a reductory method, which removes: any text which does not relate to the events or context of the post directly (such as formatting or section titles), the majority of punctuation to reduce what might be counted as several words into one (such as hyphens, periods, and commas — not colons), and any parenthetical information which can be removed without reducing a reader’s understanding. Following the reduction, the post is then counted using Google Docs, and the count is added to the relevant expansion record.
The expansion record and the clerical document may not always agree on the words written for an expansion; the expansion record is always superior and the clerical document should be updated based on it.

You can notify any cartographer using any method of your choosing, so long as the notification is obvious in some way; obvious methods of notification include generating a notification they will later see (such as pinging on NationStates or Discord), telling them in a VC, texting them, or talking to them in person. The cartographer or cartographers you notify are who are responsible for counting that post, no other cartographers are responsible but those you notify.
If you fail to obviously notify a cartographer of your expansion, it will not be counted even if a cartographer sees it. Such posts can be later brought to a cartographer’s attention to be counted, such as during the customary two weeks advance notice period before an expansion fails.
It is solely the roleplayer’s responsibility to ensure cartography is aware of all of their posts and any other content which may count towards the expansion.
Not mentioned — not counted.
When notifying a cartographer, avoid editing in a ping in either NationStates or Discord as this will not actually cause a notification.

Using Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding may be performed in any textual format and in any online medium, including:
Factbooks
The #worldbuilding Channel
RMB Posts
Files
The worldbuilding only has to relate to the expansion in some way, and can otherwise be any type of content; for example: a description, wiki-style overview, song, dictionary, or list.
Using Non-Textual Worldbuilding
Non-textual worldbuilding is evaluated by cartography and converted into a number of words; this conversion is meant to represent the amount of effort that would otherwise be required to write the same amount of words on average. This evaluation should be done carefully and with regard to previous non-textual worldbuilding evaluations. Despite not being literal words, the words which are credited are treated as typical words in other contexts, such as when determining a pool’s word count.

Expansion Duration
An expansion’s duration is the time during which the roleplay is given to write for the expansion. It begins at the moment the claim is accepted, and ends at the cutoff of the update that expansion is due by.

Expansion durations can be extended at increments of an update at request of the roleplayer themselves or a moderator representing them, given that an acceptable reason is provided either to the cartographer or moderator.

A roleplayer choosing to stop their expansion after: having written words for it, during its duration, and before having finished it; is referred to as a default. When a roleplayer defaults, the expansion is considered cancelled.
A roleplayer may decide to cancel their expansion before having written any words for it, however the expansion is still considered to have been cancelled.
If the pool the expansion is for is removed from the map for any duration of time, including as a result of a purge (dun dun dun), the expansion is cancelled immediately.

If a roleplayer has not written all the words required for an expansion by the time it ends, the expansion is considered failed.

If a roleplayer writes all of the words required for an expansion prior to that expansion ending, the expansion is considered completed.
Completing an Expansion
When an expansion is completed, the total amount of words required to finish the expansion are credited to the relevant pool, and another expansion may be immediately claimed. Any words written over the requirement are ignored. A post notifying you of the completion will be sent by a cartographer; this notification guarantees the expansion is regarded as finished so you should save it in case of any disputes or errors.

Once an expansion is finished, you cannot have the territory stripped from you by cartography in the future if they made an error; however, they can note any resulting debts. This is a result of Claiming > Territorial Integrity.
Failing an Expansion
When a written expansion is failed or cancelled, a claim ban is imposed on the offender automatically for one month. They will retain all of the words they wrote for the expansion, but the associated expansion will be removed from the map.

Roleplayers must receive notification at least six days before their expansion is due to fail; if this notification is not given by cartography six days in advance, then the expansion cannot be failed until it is given and six days have passed.
It is customary for roleplayers to receive two weeks of notice before their expansion is about to fail and be asked to provide all of their expansion posts; however, this notice is not mandatory.

Claiming Another Nation
Before claiming another nation, you should identify the type of roleplay you want to engage in with the new nation and how it relates to other nations you own. After determining this, read Nations within the Same Pool and Nations within Different Pools below; evaluate whether to claim a nation within a pool you already own (a pool nation) or a different pool (a secondary or tertiary), and tell the cartographers which type of nation you are trying to claim. It may turn out that the specific details of the nation you are looking to claim are not possible under either option; in addition, certain types of relationships must be approved by moderation or are specifically disallowed.

All of the specifics and intentions of your new nation should be given at the time of the claim so that cartographers can make the most informed decision and so you are not later disappointed when you are told your intentions are not possible. Negotiating and making agreements with moderation can go a long way in allowing an otherwise unapproved claim, so do not be afraid to ask for special requests or make promises about your claim.

Remember to follow typical claim etiquette.

Nations within the Same Pool
Nations which share the same pool, with exception to the main nation itself, are referred to as ‘pool nations’.

All nations within the same pool may trade pixels and words between eachother with no penalty, and may freely engage in any form of conduct between eachother; this includes what is typically banned between nations, such as: land purchases, unfair tactics, and espionage; as well as what is typically banned between pools owned by the same roleplayer, such as: wars, extensive trade agreements, and being in alliances together.

As stated above, nations within the same pool are represented using the same colour. For cartographical reasons, this colour differs by a few hex values to differentiate between the different nations.

Different nations within the same pool may be represented by different NationStates accounts; however, only the main nation will bear a tag if the nation’s name is different from the NationStates account.

In case-by-case circumstances, a nation may be represented as multiple nations but only given one name. In this case, the different nations are treated as the same entity and go by the singular name and use a singular hex colour. The border between the individual parts is considered to be part of the nation’s pixels in this case.

Any borders between pool nations are not considered to be pixels owned by either nation.

Nations within Different Pools
Nations owned by the same roleplayer which do not share the same pool are restricted from engaging in relations with eachother where either side is tangibly affected by the other without the approval of a moderator. This includes, but is not limited to: having one nation control the other by any means, joining the same alliance, engaging in any form of hostility, engaging in significant amounts of trade, and exchanges of technology, resources, or funds.

Different pools owned by the same roleplayer are not allowed to border eachother; they must be a reasonable distance apart such that it would not be expected for them to engage in regional relations together.

Moderators may allow certain types of typically disallowed interactions between different pools of the same owner on a case-by-case basis if it can be demonstrated that neither side will benefit from the exchange, or that the interaction is otherwise reasonable.

If you have questions about what is and is not allowed, speak with a moderator.

Primary Pool
The primary pool is the default pool a roleplayer claims when they initially join the map. It has a starting pixel pool size of 40,000 px and utilises the standard expansion rules.

Secondary Pool
A secondary pool is the second pool a roleplayer may claim after they are allowed to claim additional pools. It has a starting pixel pool size of 20,000 px. It may only expand by +10,000 px through action expansions, using a 1:2 words–pixels rate. It may claim black islands expansions.

Tertiary Pool
A tertiary pool is the third and final pool a roleplayer may claim, after they are allowed to claim additional pools and after they have claimed a secondary. To claim a tertiary, the roleplayer must submit a clear intent to roleplay, typically through describing the roleplay that the nation will engage in or demonstrating roleplay plans with other roleplayers. A tertiary may not expand through writing.

NPC Pool
An NPC pool is a special type of pool which is owned by the Cartography Team. Depending on the way the NPC was established, it may vary widely in the number of pixels and words it contains; however, NPCs cannot expand through any typical method as they are generally considered to be ‘locked in’ after being established. NPCs are totally immune to being removed by any method other than consensus of the Cartography Team; this means they do not get purged, can CTE freely, and do not require an NationStates nation or tag.

NPCs may only be established by consensus of the Cartography Team and cannot be directly claimed. Any claims requesting an NPC for yourself are totally and utterly guaranteed to be denied. There are two primary methods of NPC establishment.
Establishment by conception of an NPC involves it being originally created with the intent of it being an NPC. This type of NPC is intended for opening up roleplay opportunities. And may be subject to removal at a later time if it is not interacted with.
Establishment by promotion of an NPC results from a roleplayer gaining the status immortal to the map, which is only bestowed in exceptional circumstances for exemplary and unignorable contributions to the setting upon their retirement or departure. Only two roleplayers have ever received this honour:
Puczovska, who founded the Strangereal setting on 1st July, 2017.
Kyoki Chudoku, who is an exceptional roleplayer, visually prominent and unique nation, and dear friend of the community.

NPCs are controlled by a singular roleplayer decided by Cartography, who is trusted with maintaining and roleplaying with the NPC. Each NPC’s controller is listed at the bottom of the SR Nations Factbook.

NPCs may be allowed to violate certain restrictions if allowed by Moderation and Cartography.

Roleplayer Record
Every individual roleplayer has information that applies to their person directly, instead of their individual pools or nations. This includes measures of activity: time since last post, hiatuses, time since you have joined the map; as well as restrictions placed on you.

Further details are given in the heading Cartographical Information.