NationStates | The East Pacific Board

Now we need IC Valsora history.

im probably not equipped to handle that, since i've forgotten most things and havent really paid attention to the rmb since 2021 rip

but that'd be cool if someone is willing to write it up!

Pakitsk, Republic Of Texas And Chihuhua, and Verisi

Devlon

1 year 38 days ago

Zukchiva wrote:

shifting between exisential lack of self worth and doing alright, lmao. glad you're going alright!

how long have you been back?

12 Days and going strong!

Republic Of Texas And Chihuhua wrote:

Now we need IC Valsora history.

You are more than welcome to try and write that all down

Pakitsk, Zukchiva, Republic Of Texas And Chihuhua, and Verisi

The Geordie o'er the hills of The Southern Dependencies

1 year 38 days ago

Hello everyone. Hru all?

Zukchiva, Devlon, and Verisi

The Goin' Silent of Zukchiva

1 year 38 days ago

Devlon wrote:

12 Days and going strong!

You are more than welcome to try and write that all down

oooh damn! glad to have you back ahhh ^-^

are you RPing or just vibing?

The Southern Dependencies wrote:

Hello everyone. Hru all?

doing oki hbu?

Devlon, Verisi, and The Southern Dependencies

The Geordie o'er the hills of The Southern Dependencies

1 year 38 days ago

Zukchiva wrote:

oooh damn! glad to have you back ahhh ^-^

are you RPing or just vibing?
doing oki hbu?

I'm doing great. Bit tired.

Zukchiva, Devlon, and Verisi

The Goin' Silent of Zukchiva

1 year 38 days ago

The Southern Dependencies wrote:

I'm doing great. Bit tired.

sending hugs and good vibes!

Devlon and Verisi

The Geordie o'er the hills of The Southern Dependencies

1 year 38 days ago

Zukchiva wrote:

sending hugs and good vibes!

Aw. Thanks.

Zukchiva, Devlon, and Verisi

Devlon

1 year 38 days ago

Zukchiva wrote:

oooh damn! glad to have you back ahhh ^-^

are you RPing or just vibing?
doing oki hbu?

Just vibing rn. I put in a map application so when I get on I will at least be doing some minor rp. Idk if it will be much of that multi paragraph stuff though. I'll at least be rping some diplomatic stuff and hopefully get back into the jig of things. Im on spring break now so I have the time to do so!

Zukchiva and The Southern Dependencies

The Goin' Silent of Zukchiva

1 year 38 days ago

Devlon wrote:

Just vibing rn. I put in a map application so when I get on I will at least be doing some minor rp. Idk if it will be much of that multi paragraph stuff though. I'll at least be rping some diplomatic stuff and hopefully get back into the jig of things. Im on spring break now so I have the time to do so!

sounds good! Personally i dont rp much, so its more than me ngl xD

Devlon and The Southern Dependencies

Verisi

1 year 38 days ago

I wanna do diplomatic rp. I haven’t touched it in a while since I CTE’d.

-cao wei

1 year 38 days ago

Zukchiva wrote:

RMB RP History (As remembered by Zukchiva)

by The Goin' Silent of Zukchiva

This is a short abbreviated history about the RMB. I've forgotten a lot of things, and will continue forgetting them, so setting down a record will help keep everything in its proper place.

So let's start. Apologies for any inaccuracies.

TAMDEG (2017-early 2018)

TAMDEG was probably not the first organized roleplay on the Regional Message Board. But given its proximity to RMB RP's beginnings, I feel it deserves a mention.

TAMDEG was the name of a science-fiction roleplay began in 2017, between the nations of Trukya, Talitoa, Astoria, Morolock, Davaron, Euricanis, Gaylanders, and Stellar Colonies.

It began with Stellar Colonies (roleplaying as a multi-galactical + dimenion-traversing empire known as the Confederacy) sending "care packages" to Earth. These care packages were actually bombs- leading to the aforementioned nations besides Stellar to form a new alliance, TAMDEG, to fight the Stellar menace.

Thus began a roleplay that was primarily godmoddy and hilarious, yet had a somewhat established lore (maintained by Stellar). The roleplay focused on these nations fighting ridiculous threats, such as Albert (RMB Chuck Norris), Jar Jar, and a Bee Movie Script Virus. TAMDEG was a fun roleplay for its participants, but ultimately it began to die off in early 2018 for unexplored reasons.

While TAMDEG and modern roleplay did intersect at a point, TAMDEG did not have a viable effect on modern roleplay besides the creation of the Eastern Union, an alliance created by a nation named Marrabuk to oppose TAMDEG. While TAMDEG eventually disbanded, the Eastern Union would transfer easily into modern roleplay, and become an alliance superpower. We also saw the formation of the Jaelurian Union during this time- another alliance that would migrate into modern RMB RP.

MODERN ROLEPLAY FORMS + DIBERGIA (early 2018-mid 2018)

So then modern roleplay began in earnest, as it always tends to do: nations began to attack each other. The most notable amongst these nations was the Kampf Empire, who would begin attacking various nations. One could argue that Kampf formed the push to move RMB RP into a cohesive roleplay.

Regardless, RMB RP experienced a small "rebirth", separate from TAMDEG (and indeed, most TAMDEG nations no longer roleplayed in this modern RP world). Nations began to wage war against each other, but not much in the way of politics occurred. The Jaelurian Union and the Eastern Union were recruiting and growing larger as defensive blocks for nations, but neither really mattered too much yet.

During this time of relative un-politicalness, the Dibergia map is introduced. It quickly becomes the regional map of RMB RP, although never gaining official status. And this map played an important role for two reasons: a) combined with other factors, led to RMB RP becoming a community instead of another failed RP and b) set up the precedent that cartographers maintain full power over their maps.

Anyways, RMB RP began in full swing. Nations began to engage in full-scale warfare with each other, and many thus joined the Eastern Union, the Jaelurian Union, or the (later founded) NWL (some long name I can't remember, those are the initials). Also during this time, we see an uprising of an "imperialist" faction: nations hell-bent on gaining as much land as possible.

This time is also when RMB RP established the concept of hegemons, or super-powered nations who were typically "evil" empires attempting to take over the world and establish influence.

All told, this combined to make the world a precarious place for new nations (often called fledglings). Especially considering that there were now fully fledged empires like the Kampf Empire or Osterreich und Ungarn, fledglings were often at risk of being conquered and turned into protectorates. Thus, they started to flock into the EU, JU, and NWL.

So many fledglings flocked to these alliances that eventually everyone was in one. And for the first time, RMB RP experienced political stagnation. No imperialists could declare war on fledglings, because then they either attacked their own alliance, or would bring the force of another alliance against them. It was a no-win situation for imperialists, and roleplay dwindled as a result. That is, of course, until imperialists began to ignore NWL orders, the EU began letting members fight each other in planned conflicts, and the JU withdrew from the spotlight.

It could be said that this stagnation eventually caused these alliances to break down. The NWL soon disbanded, as did the JU. The EU did keep going, but its activity slowly decreased.

By this point, more fantastical technologies were becoming the norm in RMB RP. Gone was the modern roleplay tank warfare (somewhat), and in its place came things like steam-punk mechs, gigantic sea creatures, and other various technologies. This all meshed in with RMB RP's common WW1 fighting style (which was how "modern" RMB RP functioned back then), and nations began building up on various technologies to increase regional power.

But then something happened that shook the fundamental pillars of the roleplay community...

THE MAPPING CRISIS, STAT-BASED ROLEPLAY(early 2018-late 2018)

Sometime in late 2018, following complaints about there being a lack of map space, the cartographer of Dibergia (me!) called together a small council of people to make a new RMB RP map, those people being Zukchiva, Nova-Columbia, Libertanny, Volkstkn (I can't spell their name), and Sarkis.

The group set out to create a new RMB RP map- one that was not stolen from a free wiki (like Dibergia was). And so they worked together. Libertanny designed the map, and the others helped to worldbuild it and prepare it for release. And after a month or two of hard work, it was ready.

But then the map was rejected by the community. Many didn't want to leave Dibergia, so they didn't go onto this new map (which is now called, as it was then, Valsora). This led to the Council abandoning the project, although some nations had already joined Valsora. This left the RMB in an awkward place, with no central mapping authority. While a new map was launched by some others (named Pacifica), it ultimately failed. What could one do without a map? And so RMB RP continued to roleplay, but activity dropped due to nothing being achieved. We also witness the abrupt death of imperialism during this time- with imperialism never able to make a comeback.

ELEMENTIA

Now, during the days of no maps until quite near Valsora's rebirth (more on that later), there existed a nation known as Elementia. While their name is often seen as something to be readily forgotten due to massive dramas that won't be retold here, to do so would be forgetting a small but substantial amount of history. And so I say their name.

Elementia was a gigantic space-faring empire spanning galaxies. They took over the title of "hegemon" from Kampf, and basically sat as an overseer watching the Earth. In a sense, RMB RP stagnated for a third time under this period, because roleplaying under a nation that could destroy yours wasn't the most fun thing to do. Politics lost a lot of meaning, and so the world turned to power-guaging and often world-building roleplays (political marriages and "shipping roleplays" becoming a norm).

An important bit to remember about Elementia is that they based their claims to power upon NationStates statistics- primarily the Scientific Advancement and Defense Forces stats. By using these, they argued, roleplayers could measure up against each other and see who would come out stronger in a war. There would also be technology limits, based upon one's SA.

This pretty much transformed RMB RP for a short period, creating a statistics-based roleplay. This put a check to the formerly fanatic technologies running around in Dibergia, as nations now had to have a specific SA to maintain a specific technology. This was patrolled by both Elementia and the community at large, and quite handily enforced. This led to RMB RP becoming a statistics-based roleplay for a short while. Alliances like the JU and NWL were gone by this point- all that remained was the omnipresent empire watching the world. Even the EU remained dormant.

But even empires fall eventually, as did Elementia, who left (due to the dramas mentioned before). But luckily, something else was in store for the RMB.

VALSORA'S REBIRTH, THE SANADAN AND CHARITIAN CRUSADES, MODERN RMB RP (late 2018 to mid-2019)

In late 2018, Nova-Columbia (with the permission of the former Council), took over Valsora. They were frustrated about their work being wasted, and thus wanted to use the map for something. But then, slowly but surely, Valsora began to dominate the landscape. Nations began to flock towards it, and establish themselves within it. It grew until one day, Valsora had replaced Dibergia as the de-facto RMB RP map. And so, Valsora was born.

Valsora was a post-modern roleplay from the get-go. While initially based upon statistics, statistic usage died out thanks to Elementia no longer enforcing them + community discontent. Of course, politics rebounded eventually, and nations were back in full swing, waging war, backstabbing each other, forming alliances (although none as powerful as the EU-JU-NWL monopoly), etc. As time went on, it became clear that Valsora was a map that would stay.

THE SANADAN CRUSADES

In the midst of this roleplay revival, another nation (named the Sanada Clan), entered the East Pacific. Having been involved elsewhere within TEP, they decided to bring their RMB RP from the North Pacific to the East, by bringing in "Lady Lala", an invader who utilized magical ice powers. (Good time to mention that Valsora, whilst banning most futuristic technologies, allows magic to a limited extent.)

This invader began what would be known as the Sanadan Crusades, with there being a First and Second Crusade. Both times saw a revival of intense politics as nations chose their side, siding with the invaders or with the East Pacific. Massive wars were fought, coalitions emerged, and the Sanada Clan established themselves as a hegemon well known to all.

Of course, this roleplay wasn't exactly the most popular. Especially during the Second Crusade, many nations simply didn't want to join in the roleplay. While this wish was respected, it represented a fundamental shift in roleplay thinking: no longer could one force another nation into war. This was a developing norm for some time, but the Sanada Crusades definitely reinforced this as a social rule, which still exists to this day.

Another effect of the Sanada Crusades was the emergence of text-wall roleplays. Most roleplays prior to Sanada's Crusades were typically short paragraph roleplays, but with the detailed textwalls of Sanada, others soon followed suit and led to textwalls becoming a more popular form of roleplay.

THE CHARITIAN CRUSADE

Of course, Crusades were always the best roleplay. The Angel of Charity, a long-term roleplayer by this point and a nation who proved their military worth during the Sanada Crusades, soon launched a Crusade of their own. Whilst not as big of a general "roleplay" in RMB history, it nonetheless saw substantial changes to how the RMB functioned.

The first was the establishment of Charity as the new hegemon, although in a manner different than previous ones. Previous hegemons typically took direct pieces of territories from those conquered, and eventually let the still-having-autonomy parts of the conquered nations let go. This let the old hegemons gain power, whilst letting many roleplays keep their nation's sovereignity.

In contrast, Charity focused on building a large alliance, subservient to their nation. Utilizing both nation and alliance mechanics of the roleplay, this eventually gave Charity both IC influence (as their alliance expanded across the globe in ways not seen since the EU) and OOC influence. The way Charity came to victory was simple: they used modern war tactics. Remember that until this point, the RMB had treated war in a manner like WW1- a battle of attrition. By bringing modern war tactics and goals to the RMB, Charity singlehandedly changed the face of RMB warfare forever, as well as conquering nations in the process.

A big social effect of Charity's hegemony was the centralization of an active RMB RP Discord server. Formerly alliance headquarters, the server turned into a defacto place for the RMB to congregate on Discord. Angel's server is probably one of the longest running RMB servers, although its activity in today's times is much less than in the past. Regardless, Angel's server pushed RMB RP further from the intense, political, heated, totally IC roleplay of older times to a more calmer, planned, and less IC-intense roleplay common to today.

RULESET IS ESTABLISHED

Another big thing preformed by Charity is the formation of the RMB RP Ruleset, still in use today. The ruleset formed a cohesive guidelines for roleplay, and was enforced by "RMB Moderators", with their authority backed by the Cartographers of Valsora.

With these four elements in place (ruleset, war for story not for winning, modern war, textwalls), modern RMB RP was finally formed.

VALSORA DIES, NEW MAPS RISE, VALSORA RETURNS (Mid 2019 to 2021)

Eventually, Valsora began to stagnate for the next two years. This began when Charity themself went inactive, but had the empire still intact. Charity eventually dismantled their own empire on purpose, but the damage was done: due to the Empire's stifling presence, roleplay had fallen inactive.

Of course wars kept on happening, and newbies kept on joining, but overall there became a lull in activity that was different from the highly active periods of the past. Many nations were afraid that Valsora was dying, especially since often times it took a while for their claims to become accepted.

Regardless, Valsora still was highly political. Some most notable events was the Cold War (which was a stimulated Communist vs Capitalist fued) that tried to get roleplay on track. This fued eventually died, but it did see its revival of alliance-mechanics for a while, as well as a lot of wars. We also see the formation of notable alliances (like Safehaven and the Red Dragon Pact), and new political schemes conjured (such as Kampf's creation of a New World Order during the Cold War, which would've been a RP-changing event if it had succeeded). But the large-scale conflicts of the past were done.

RMB RP began experiencing a sort of "renaissance" in character roleplaying as a result, outside of the bounds of Valsora. Not the shipping roleplay of the past, but rather a roleplay where these characters represented the players, with unique powers and abilities.

Then in 2020, more maps began to emerge as Valsora's stagnation was becoming apparent. The first was Windsor- a map created by Volinovia- that focused on a more RTS-style roleplay with specific mechanics. The map ended up being cut off after issues arose with many nations having bludgeoning economies, and measures being taken to limit said economies. A revival was attempted, but it fell short and ultimately did not last that long.

Another notable map was Courisla, which was ran by Technocratic Tagalog. While it copied many of the mechanics of Windsor and had an active Discord community, it also eventually died into nothingness. However, (like Windsor), Courisla was important in that it helped retained many newer roleplayers in RMB RP, giving way to future community growth.

But roleplay on Valsora began to grow again. Wars became more common fought, politics re-emerged, and many older roleplayers (like Danelaw Scandinavia and Aivintis) returned to engage in worldbuilding. This small rebirth of Valsora led to the activity we see today: nothing like the past RMB RP, but definitely notable in terms of activity. A roleplay built by the players, RMB RP continues to thrive. Despite all odds! Isn't that cool?

And that's it! If you want to add to this history, feel free to reach out~

Read dispatch

I lied as apparently I gave the long version 2 years ago

but yeah if anyone liked my valsora writeup from yesterday maybe you'll like this more detailed one on RMB RP in general until 2021

TAMDEG...I wish I have never read this part.

Stellar Colonies, Zukchiva, and The Southern Dependencies

Devlon

1 year 38 days ago

Zukchiva wrote:

sounds good! Personally i dont rp much, so its more than me ngl xD

Hey, its still more than most of the people that have been on here that long. New Birblands has been hiding for years.