Hello,

Currently the constitution provisions on Delegate voting is as follows:

Quote:

§3.7 The World Assembly Delegate is required to vote in the General Assembly, Security Council, or any other World Assembly body in a manner that reflects the region’s wishes. The World Assembly Delegate is required to post on the Regional Message Board at the time of their vote, and the manner of how they voted. The World Assembly Delegate may, from time to time, abstain from voting if they are of the belief the region is equally, or close to equally, divided.

§3.8 Notwithstanding the above provision, the World Assembly Delegate may vote on behalf of the region in the General Assembly, Security Council, or any other World Assembly body, according to their own beliefs and their own position provided that their vote at close of voting ultimately reflects the will of the region.

§3.9 The World Assembly Delegate shall have discretion to approve proposals made to the General Assembly, Security Council, or any other World Assembly body.

Quote:§3.7 The World Assembly Delegate is required to vote in the General Assembly, or any other body of the World Assembly with the exception of the Security Council, in a manner that reflects the region’s wishes.
§3.8 The World Assembly Delegate is required to vote in the Security Council of the World Assembly in a manner that reflects the region's wishes, with the exception of votes where the World Assembly Delegate is of the opinion that to do so would (i) harm the region's international standing and/or reputation, (ii) negatively impact the region's relationship with treaty allies, or (iii) alter the region's long-standing anti-malicious raiding position.
§3.9 The World Assembly Delegate is required to post on the Regional Message Board at the time of their vote, and the manner of how they voted; the World Assembly Delegate may, from time to time, abstain from voting if they are of the belief the region is equally, or close to equally, divided.
§3.10 During a period of voting, the World Assembly Delegate shall have the discretion to vote on behalf of the region in the General Assembly, Security Council, or any other World Assembly body, according to their own beliefs and their own position provided that their vote at the close of voting ultimately meets the requirements of the above provisions.
§3.11 The World Assembly Delegate shall have discretion to approve proposals made to the General Assembly, Security Council, or any other World Assembly body.

I would like to introduce myself as TNP's new ambassador to IDU, Meadowfields. If you have any questions or inquiries, post here or contact me through discord or TG in-game.

Discord: Meadowfields#6933
Nation: Meadowfields

Kerlile had, for decades, been attempting to create a functioning Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). So far, they have failed. They’d managed a Short-Range Ballistic Missile, but that really only helped them in wars with Lauchenoiria, Greater Acadia, Kvask, Zongongia, Comhar or - if the winds were right - maybe Bears Armed. Maybe. Kerlile had far more enemies than just their neighbours. In fact, everyone was an enemy except perhaps Xiomera and Huenya, ironically given how the two felt about each other.

Of course, if the Kerlians admitted it to themselves, even their short-range missiles weren’t up to scratch. The Matriarchy suffered from a lack of materials, and a lack of suitable scientific education given how much foreign textbooks were censored before they were allowed into the universities. Things had started to change on the latter front, recently, but they still had a lot of catching up to do in their weapon development.

So it was a clear morning when the Missile Development Force of Kerlile began preparations for their latest test. They would shoot one of their newly developed, and hopefully more reliable, missiles into the great lake they shared with Kvask and Greater Acadia. Their own side of the lake, of course. They certainly didn’t want to start a war when their military was ill-equipped and sanctions still meant food rationing was in force.

The test began as expected. They set up the missile launcher and the warhead-less missile. They checked their calculations. They sent up their camera drones to film the test for later analysis. They all nodded to each other. And then they launched the missile.

Something went wrong. At the time, nobody was quite sure what it was: it would take time and analysis to work it out. But what they did know, right from the outset, was that the missile was not sticking to its projected course. The women of the Missile Development Force watched in horror as their test missile curved away from their end of the lake, up towards the horizon, and down, down, down in the direction of Greater Acadia.

“Oh shit.”

Post written with input from Lauchenoiria

---

It had been shockingly easy to infiltrate WOE. The human element had been the key. That, and having an insider.

Gabriel Fleming had, once again, proven his value to Xiomera by providing the key elements of planning what would be known, in Imperial Intelligence, as Operation Treechoker. The name of the operation, a less than subtle pun on "tree hugger", conveyed the mission quite well. ImpInt was to capture members of WOE, and bring them to Xiomera for interrogation. The fact that they were in Lauchenoiria was of little relevance to the Xiomerans.

The operation began with the simple expedient of gaining access to the non-secure online server that WOE members used to communicate casually. From there, ImpInt agents managed to convince one of the WOE members to trust them enough to let them into the more secure server where actual discussion and planning took place. Taking advantage of peoples' willingness to trust others was an ImpInt specialty.

After some time on that server, ImpInt agents were able to narrow down two likely candidates to start the operation. The first was a bombastic individual named Clay Moss. He was often the first, and last, and loudest person to speak at WOE events on the streets of Buttercity. The second was a much less outwardly noticeable person named Irene Ramos. Ramos was not prone to speeches or taking center stage at rallies. What she was prone to do was organize. Every event, gathering and meeting of WOE in Buttercity seemed to involve her in one fashion or another.

Between a big speaker and a big planner, ImpInt reasoned, enough useful intelligence should be able to be gathered to begin bringing WOE down.

---

Both of them were brought into the custody of ImpInt in a similar fashion. Moss was tricked easily enough by being told that a group of interested people wanted to hear him speak. When he arrived for his big speech, he was given a drink with enough knockout juice to put him to sleep for quite a while. Ramos was simply tracked to her home, and nabbed late at night. She was likewise given something to make her sleep through a very long trip.

When both of them woke up, they would be somewhere neither of them had ever expected, or wanted, to be - Xiomera.

Port Salad, March 26th

Captain Piper Drummond, the commander of the Salad Land Naval Patrol, tapped her fingers irritably on the arm of her command chair. The SLS Neversink, the pride of the fleet (and only thing even vaguely resembling a warship that it had), had been ordered out to sea to do a patrol around the islands of the Saladian Archipelago. This was done solely to appease the whim and fancy of the Marquis, Bastien de Salad. He liked to have "the big ship", as he called it, show the colors every once in a while. So, for absolutely no reason, the ancient destroyer was slowly chugging out of port.

Drummond was the captain of the flagship, and she absolutely hated the ship. Despised it, down to every rusty bolt and decaying piece of metal. In its first life, the ship had been the XIS Quetzalcoatl. A Xiomeran warship that had served in the Great War, it had been a decade old when that fight began. Now, it was well past its sixth decade sputtering and coughing over the waves. The ship was supposed to have been broken up at Port Salad after the Xiomerans got rid of it, but the father of the current Marquis had decided to make it the laughable flagship of a laughable fleet instead. And Drummond was the chief donkey, in her opinion, being in charge of the decrepit senior citizen of a vessel.

It was 7 am, entirely too early to be sailing around pointlessly in Drummond's opinion. But all she could do was sip coffee and grumble. As the ship entered open water outside the port, however, the captain noticed something. "Helm, why are we turning? I didn't order a course change."

"Um....no one did, ma'am," the helmsman replied sheepishly. "It seems like the rudders are stuck, I can't get it to go back on course. We're, um, going in a circle."

"Going. In. A. Circle." Drummond bit off each word as if it had personally insulted her parentage and habits.

The helmsman shrugged helplessly, turning back to his quite-stuck controls. Meanwhile, the crowds about their daily business in Port Salad had begun to point and laugh at the ship clearly going in circles.

"Get extra men down to engineering to figure out why the hell we can't turn the ship. And get Naval Command on the line, because I have had it with this ancient pile of rusted garbage. I swear, if the government doesn't cough up some money for new ships, I am going to see what guns aboard this floating wreck still work and blow up the damned Palace!" Drummond slapped the arm of her command chair for emphasis, causing the arm to fall off and hit the floor. The captain shouted in sheer misery, as the "mighty" Neversink continued to leisurely complete its lazy circles.

---

An hour later, Valentin Daucourt stood in the middle of a semi-circle of the islands' leaders. The Council of Custodians and the Marquis, in response to his urgent plea, had grudgingly come down to discuss the matter of the still-circling ship in the middle of their harbor. The commander of the Salad Land Defence Force, and Drummond's superior, tried to explain yet again. "The ship has jammed rudders. We would normally try to fix it, but they no longer make parts for a ship this old. Even the Xiomerans can't help, and they built the bloody thing. The Neversink is simply too obsolete and worn down to be a viable flagship any longer."

"Nonsense! It's a perfectly fine ship." Bastien de Salad leaned forward, chuckling. A young man with flowing black hair and a perpetually amused expression, the Marquis shook his head. "It's a big ship, surely it's tough enough to have some life left in it."

Daucourt sighed, for what felt like the tenth time. "It is big, yes, my lord. But it is also older than anyone in this room and significantly more decrepit. It cannot be patched together any more. Oh, and Captain Drummond is threatening to blow up the Council Chambers and the Palace if she has to spend one more day aboard the thing."

"Hah! How's she going to blow us up, if she can't stop going in a circle?" de Salad replied smugly.

"You know Piper, my lord. Would you put it past her to find a way?" Daucourt replied with a raised eyebrow. 

"Oh, very well," de Salad replied after a moment with a deep sigh and a shrug. "If my fellow-citizens on the Council agree, we will find some money in the budget to buy some ships. I suppose it's cheaper than building a new palace or council chambers."

I’m pleased to announce that the 2023 IDU Olympic Games will be held this summer in Hanshui, Laeral, and adjacent cities. Sign-ups are now open and extended through May 14th for this third iteration of the popular IDU tradition!

In-character information

The 2023 Olympics will be held primarily in Hanshui, the historic and bustling metropolis often seen as the gateway to western Laeral. Located on the Zhongshui river, Hanshui offers numerous opportunities for exploration for the tourists expected to arrive for the Olympics. The majority of events will be held at sporting facilities in Hanshui and its environs, but certain winter events will be held in the neighboring city of Lushui, to the north, accessible by rail or highway. Sailing events will be held in the resort town of Cordeliers, in Corday province, to allow for the event to take place in the Albarine Sea.

Events will be held in the following locations:

Lo Kai Memorial Stadium (Hanshui)
- Basketball
- Handball
- Tennis

Hanshui Metropolitan Stadium (Hanshui)
- Athletics
- Cycling
- Equestrian
- Fencing
- Gymnastics

Langdon Zheng National Aquatic Center (Hanshui)
- Aquatics
- Surfing
- Water polo

Bertin-Leger Athletic Center at University of Nanhai (Hanshui)
- Archery
- Baseball/softball
- Table tennis

Hanshui Municipal Center for Winter Sports (Hanshui)
- Curling
- Figure skating
- Ice hockey
- Speed skating

René Gramont National Winter Resort (Lushui)
- Alpine skiing
- Bobsled
- Luge
- Ski jumping

Other locations
- Biathlon (West Jilan Resort, Lushui)
- Sailing (Cordeliers, Corday)
- Triathlon (Course extends along the Gaoming River)

As always, you’re welcome to develop RP plots however you like centering on the Olympics. Feel free to message me over Discord with any questions. Any plots involving substantial disruption to the Games (ie, a terror attack, a major crime, etc) must be cleared by me before being released.

Registration

You may register any number of nations to the Olympics by filling out the registration form and completing the registration spreadsheet.

Registration Form:

Nation Name:
Nation Trigram: *The trigram is a three-letter abbreviation used to denote your country: ie, LRL for Laeral*
Puppet? *Y/N; if the nation is a puppet, please designate the main nation it’s associated with.*
Link to Completed Registration Form:

Registration Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...sp=sharing

Complete this Google Sheets spreadsheet with names and skill rankings for each of your athletes by making a copy of the spreadsheet and filling it in. (Thanks to Eiria for creating the spreadsheet!). As was the case in previous Olympic signups, the calculation modifiers that help produce the results willl be rated individually per athlete or team, on a 100 point scale ranging from +50 to -50. A positive score will help your athlete, while a negative one will hinder them. Each country’s athletes must sum to 0 or below. To help you keep track of this, the Google Sheet will automatically sum up the numbers at the bottom. If you use another software to fill out the spreadsheet, make sure to confirm that the sum is 0 or below.

On the spreadsheet, you may enter one athlete per event, unless stated otherwise. The exceptions:
- Certain events tell you in parenthesis if they’re an exception, ie (Four Person, Mixed Gender). In events with multiple athletes, separate their names with slashes. (/)
- Certain events are marked with a tilde (~). This denotes a team sport: you can name it a generic name (Team Laeral), but many people enjoy giving it a more creative name: ie, “Laeral Herons” or “Huenyan Freedom Team.”

If you have any questions about the spreadsheet or how to submit it, don’t hesitate to message me over Discord for the swiftest response.

Deadline

Please try to submit your applications by the end of the first week of May  May 16th: the sooner the team rosters are all in, the sooner that event results can be calculated!

List of Events

For your reference, the full list of events for the 2023 Olympics is provided below. Eiria and I are proud to include numerous new events this year:
- 1 new archery event, Team Archery
- 2 new cycling events: Individual Sprint, 50 km relay
- 1 new figure skating event, Ice Dance
And, most exciting of all: 3 entirely new sports, with all events for men and women: 
- Equestrian, with Dressage and Show Jumping events; Sailing, with Dinghy and Windsurfing events; and Surfing, with a single event.

Alpine Skiing: M/W Downhill, Combined, Slalom, Super G.

Archery: M/W/Team

Athletics: M/W; 100M, 800M, 1500M

Aquatics: 100M and 200M; Back, Breast, Butterfly, Free, 10M Dive

Baseball/Softball: M/W

Basketball: M/W

Biathlon: M/W; 15KM, 20KM

Bobsled: M/W 2P, 4P

Curling: M/W, Doubles

Cycling: M/W; Individual Sprint, 50 km Relay

Equestrian: Dressage, Show Jumping

Fencing: M/W/T of; Épée, Foil, Sabre

Figure Skating: M/W/P/Ice Dance

Gymnastics: M/W; Floor, Vault, Balance Beam, Rings

Handball: M/W

Hockey: M/W

Luge: Doubles

Sailing: M/W; Dinghy, Windsurfing

Speed Skating: M/W; 500M, 1000M, 1500M, 5000M

Ski Jumping: M/W Normal Hill

Surfing: M/W

Table Tennis: M/W/MT/WT

Tennis: M/W/MD/WD

Water Polo: M/W

The two groups arriving on Cyanth for discussions were both presenting a confident front. But behind the scenes, they could not have been more different.

The Xiomeran delegation arriving in Telefar, in the center of the Novella Islands, was in fact just as confident as they appeared. Empress Calhualyana knew she had the Manabí in an impossible situation. Unless some other power chose to intervene, Xiomera held all the cards. Thousands of them, in fact, in the form of the wave of Imperial troops waiting in southern Xiomera to pounce on Manabí Rive the second the order was given. The Imperial Navy had already blocked off the strait separating Manabí Rive from Xiomera, to secure an amphibious assault that the Manabí had zero chance of fending off. And if these talks failed, the Manabí would discover that fact in a most painful way.

In truth, though, Calhualyana was glad that the Novellans had decided to offer talks. She had a small admiration for the Novellans. She had judged them to be a most pragmatic, efficient and advanced people - definitely a peer state to Xiomera, and one worthy of negotiating with, unlike the Manabí. They were also offering her a potential chance to avoid having to invade Manabí Rive, and potentially kicking off a bigger conflict than she really wanted. But there was one non-negotiable...Manabí Rive could not, under any circumstances, join the Union of Caxcanan States. The UCS already represented a major security threat to the Empire, and having them on Xiomera's doorstep was not going to happen. One way, or another.

For the Manabí, their projection of determined sovereignty and confidence was a total front. They knew the cavalry weren't necessarily coming, and that Xiomera could re-occupy the entire country within days if they truly wanted to. There was always the option of waging an insurgency similar to the one which had driven Xiomera out during the civil war. But Calhualyana didn't seem like the type to care about casualties - her own, or others. It would be best, therefore, to secure some kind of deal which met everyone's goals. Giving up UCS membership, though, would require a lot to be offered to the Manabí to make it worth their while.

As the two delegations arrived at their respective arrival points, they waited to be greeted by the Novellans with those thoughts in their minds.

Proposal to amend the Nuclear and Zombie Safety Act in the following way:

In §1 clause 1, add in between "final day of" and "August" the following:

"January, and again the final day of"

After several weeks of well-attended film screenings at the Majestic and Castro Theatres, the time has come to recognize excellence in the achievements and contributions of the year's outstanding films from across the IDU. Nominations have now closed and it is time to cast your votes. All resident nations of the IDU are eligible to cast one vote per category. Nations who nominated a film (there are 3 of them) are eligible to cast one additional vote per category. Voting opens February 16th and will close Sunday March 5th at at 23:59 PST (UTC -7). Please vote early, vote often. May the best film win!

Category: Best Music

• Blue Rings (Eiria)
  

• Anita Ozola, Blue Rings (Eiria)
  
• Beth Hope, Little Betty (Ecclesiastical Dominions)
  
• Olimpia Pardo, Kalipso (Gardavasque)
  

• James Judins Blue Rings (Eiria)
  
• Timothee Cimino Kalipso (Gardavasque)
  

• Kalipso (Gardavasque)
  
• Blue Rings (Eiria)