Queen's Study, Aurus Palace, Lumière, Cape Auria
8:53 PM

Queen Sophie Laurent of Cape Auria rested in her study, reading a book in the light of her desk lamp. The moonlight peered in the window, bathing the Queen in a silver glow. She marked her page and closed her book, looking longingly out the window, into the big city that was Lumière. I wish I could go out there without a personal security detail. She thought, tracing her finger lightly across the glass. I miss being myself.

It hadn't always been that way for Sophie. She was born to a middle-class family in the suburbs of Lumière, and had worked hard to put herself through college, where she was studying Computer Engineering. There, at Dewarà College, she met Nicholas Laurent III, or Nick Lee, as he went by then. He looked different from the prince everyone saw, and no one ever thought he was the heir to the Laurent Throne. Hell, he had only told Sophie when he proposed to her.

She lived comfortably for a while as a princess, had four kids with Nicholas, and became queen when his mother, Thea, gave the family powers to him five years ago. But he wasn't in control for long. A few years after being crowned King, Nicholas Laurent III got into a car accident after a charity benefit and was put into a coma. Sophie survived, but has several long scars down her arms and back.

Now, watching the streetlights of Lumière glow with life, she felt so lost. Like she's been surviving, but not living. My Dear Nicholas. I so wish you were here. She blinked teary eyes, and moved over to her desk, where her crown glowed with the moonlight. It was silver, and bejeweled with Deep Purple and Blue Alexandrite gems. She gingerly lifted it to her head, and looked at her reflection in the window. It may fool the public, but she cannot fool herself. She was never meant to be a queen. And she may be the only one in Cape Auria who knows that Heavy is the Head that wears the crown.

The Europeian Wire: Edition One



Recruiting Contest Underway: Will HEM finally succeed at something?

By Sopo



Minister of Interior Rand announced a new 1v1 recruiting contest on January 5 to kick off the new year. With 12 initial participants including First Minister Calvin Coolidge and Chief of State HEM, one question remains: will HEM finally succeed at something? The Europeian founder and general meme-ified punching bag is thus far facing tough competition from his first week’s foe, Rachael. All eyes are on HEM to see if he can finally manage not to screw things up the way he screwed up our miraculously enduring 13-year old region.



The City-State of Arnhelm

By Prim



Over the past few months, Europeia has been working on its newest addition to the legislative arena, the City-State of Arnhelm. This new independent legislative body is a mix of legislative training ground and Real-Life political simulation. Every citizen of Europeia who joins the City Council can discuss real-life legislation, vote on bills and ordinances, propose a budget, elect the mayor, or even become the city manager through crafty legislative maneuvering. Arnhelm is open for creative role-players and serious policy wonks alike!



Invading Iran: Living the Trumpian Dream

By Sopo



Supporting our allies in The North Pacific, Europeia is proud to be engaged in a hold of Iran, liberated region and generally non-controversial vacation spot. While real-world drama surrounds the region’s namesake, Europeian sailors are enjoying their stay. This marks the second hold operation for Europeia since Chief of State HEM and Grand Admiral Bowzin took office, with Iran following a successful week-long Europeia-led hold of North Ustaynga.



A Yule Ball Yule Be Sad Yule Missed

By Xecrio/Nate



Europeians brought out the festivity in the weeks surrounding Christmas with the launch of the Yule Ball. A successor event to perhaps Europeia’s most successful festival of all time in 2014, Christmas again merged with Harry Potter, a favorite Europeian theme. Citizens spent time in their Hogwarts houses while playing a variety of festive games to truly get them in the Christmas mood. Hogwarts House Spam Points dominated the spam games, with Ravenclaw wiping the floor with the competition. After perhaps a bit too much holiday cheer, some people simply refused to leave the server…



Read the full event recap from the Europeian Broadcasting Corporation here.



Best of the EBC

• Former Minister of Communications Istillian explores returning to Europeia after a hiatus.
  
  
• Attorney General Prim examines the concept of Mens Rea after the conclusion of Europeia v. Bri Shakespeare.
  
  
• First Minister Calvin Coolidge summarizes the importance of Europeia’s radio efforts.

Containing the main site for this region's various international councils and agencies, this territory has been under international administration -- rather than a nation in its own right -- ever since the 'region' was formally founded as an organisation of nations. Versions of it exist on the maps of both 'Earths' that the region has occupied, apparently with at least one route between these alternative realities situated within its boundaries. It was more-or-less uninhabited by humans before that foundation, although the version on the IDU's original world might have had a few earlier settlers scattered here & there... and had an independent clan of Ursines in the mountainous area closest to 'Bears Armed'.
(That version also contained ruins from the 'Luvarian' human civilisation, which had wiped itself out -- in "The Wizards' War" -- during the 1st century AD.)

The territory's "capital" is called Democracity.
(The capital wasn't actually named, OOC, until the issue about naming capitals came into use. I suggested this name as seeming appropriate, there was a discussion in which several players -- including the last to leave of the region's five original creators, Mikitivity, whom I was able to reach by email -- agreed with the choice and none disagreed, and then I answered the issue accordingly. AFAIK the name's original use was for a model "city of the future" that was among the exhibits at the 1939 World's Fair in New York...)

In terms of position, and the presence of specific nations, this land-mass had no direct counterpart on the region’s earlier maps.
In terms of latitudes it seems roughly comparable to RL South America (less the southern end) & Central America, and so should probably have a similar basic range of climates to that continent as well although if we continue with my earlier presumptions that the IDU’s world is slightly more ‘temperate’ overall than RL Earth (due to an absence here of major icecaps) then broad-leafed forests would probably be more widespread than they are in S.A., while grasslands and deserts would be scarcer. There could still be grasslands at high altitudes, and grasslands and perhaps even deserts where the ‘rain-shadow’ of mountain ranges led to drier conditions, though, and looking at the continent’s basic shape (and considering my ideas about how the region’s land-masses have undergone continental drift) I wouldn’t be surprised to all to find out that the western side of this continent — like that of S.A. — contains some fairly major mountain ranges (like the RL Andes) that would “shade” the areas directly to their east… Also, areas surfaced with Precambrian rocks tend (at least outside the ‘tropical rainforest’ belt) to support “poorer” vegetation than do areas where the top strata are newer: looking at RL for examples, this factor contributes to the facts that northern Canada & much of Siberia are mostly covered by either coniferous forests or bogs or tundra while Africa’s Kalahari and much of Australia have deserts… Also, if some types of large herbivores become established in an area of not-too-dense woodland then they themselves might end up turning that area into open grassland instead…
I think that the region’s four continents were probably all part of a single supercontinent at the beginning of the Mesozoic Era (‘Age of Dinosaurs’) and that this broke up in a series of stages. The gap between this continent and the eastern pair is probably due to the earliest major split, but whether this continent remained attached to its own northern neighbour for long or whether that remained linked to the north-eastern one instead and its distance from this one has been narrowing over time is something that will obviously need to be discussed with the players who have nations on those other continents. The answers to these questions will obviously affect how easily species could have spread between the continents, too, although of course continents that were not in close contact here could both have acquired the same groups of animals through “immigration” from the same parts of a more RL-like Earth anyway…
If this continent has been quite separate from all of the region’s other ones since the late Mesozoic then its ecosystems could differ quite significantly from theirs: Depending on which parts of RL it has received species from since then, the additions to its older endemics could make its modern fauna look more like that of modern South America, prehistoric South America (with large marsupials and flightless birds, and perhaps terrestrial crocodiles, as the main predators; unique Ungulates; ground sloths, and gigantic armadillo-relatives; gigantic relatives of the Guinea Pig [maybe up to a ton in weight!]; gigantic ‘Teratornid’ birds of prey flying above the more open areas; and so on…); or even prehistoric Australia (from before that land dried out as much)… or either Africa or south-eastern Asia, if you want something more “standard”, I suppose… It could even have ecosystems like nowhere at all on RL Earth, maybe even with some surviving lineages [non-Avian] Dinosaurs, although if it does have any such Dinosaurs then the extra 65 million years that they would have had in which to evolve means that these probably wouldn’t bear close resemblances to any species known from RL prehistory…

Main Questions
1. Keep my basic presumptions about regional climate, and thus about likely climates here?
2. Were there prehistoric land-bridges to the North-Western continent?
3. Do the players with nations here have any shared preferences about which RL continent (if any…) significant elements of this continent’s flora & fauna might have come from?
4. Do your people have a name for this continent?
5. Do your people have names for any of the region’s other continents?
6. Is your ‘national animal’ native to at least part of the continent (or to at least one nearby island), introduced there, just symbolic, or what?

In terms of position, and the presence of certain nations, this land-mass is effectively the new map’s “successor” to the old map’s southern continent… except that it covers a wider range of latitudes.
The previous map’s two continents together were originally defined as stretching c. 20-55[sup]o[/sup] north of the equator, but were later expanded (while Sanctaria was cartographer) to cover either “the full range” (which was Sanctaria’s suggestion) or c. 16[sup]o[/sup]S-66[sup]o[/sup]N (my own suggestion, based on using the grid that overlay some copies of the map as a scale in degrees) instead. On the new map, however, it now extends over a ranged of latitudes roughly comparable to RL ‘Sub-Saharan’ Africa, but extending a bit further south, and so should probably have a similar basic range of climates to that continent as well although if we continue with my earlier presumptions that the IDU’s world is slightly more ‘temperate’ overall than RL Earth (due to an absence here of major icecaps) then broad-leafed forests would probably be more widespread than they are in Africa while grasslands and deserts would be scarcer. There could still be grasslands at high altitudes, and grasslands and perhaps even deserts where the ‘rain-shadow’ of mountain ranges led to drier conditions, though… Also, areas surfaced with Precambrian rocks tend (at least outside the ‘tropical rainforest’ belt) to support “poorer” vegetation than do areas where the top strata are newer: looking at RL for examples, this factor contributes to the facts that northern Canada & much of Siberia are mostly covered by either coniferous forests or bogs or tundra while Africa’s Kalahari and much of Australia have deserts… Also, if some types of large herbivores become established in an area of not-too-dense woodland then they themselves might end up turning that area into open grassland instead…
I think that the region’s four continents were probably all part of a single supercontinent at the beginning of the Mesozoic Era (‘Age of Dinosaurs’) and that this broke up in a series of stages. The gap between this continent and the south-western one is probably due to the earliest major split, with the split between this continent and its northern neighbour being a bit later (probably in the late Jurassic or early Cretaceous…) instead. For the old map, I was presuming that these two eastern continents have both been moving slowly northwards since then, but that their speeds had varied so that (with global changes in sea-level probably also playing a part) there were a few times when land-bridges formed and allowed species to pass more easily from one to the other. I think that it would make sense to continue with this explanation. Furthermore, it had been agreed that most of Malabra had originated as a fragment that broke off from the southern continent in the later Cretaceous and then moved northwards more rapidly so that collided with the northern one (pushing up mountains) around the end of the Eocene, which not only explained how some groups of species moved between the continents but also gave us a place where some of those groups could have developed & diversified in isolation before that spreading: If the players of any nations that are now in a suitable position to fill that role is willing to accept it then please let me know. (Or possibly the same role could now be filled by one or more nations on the northern edge of the southern continent, “left behind” after breaking off from that one, instead?).
When I helped to design the ecosystems for [nation]United New England[/nation], which is the only nation on this continent for which I’ve done much so far, I combined ‘old endemic’ elements (some of them taken as belonging to groups present here since the Mesozoic) with ones whose ancestors had come here from a RL-like Earth’s southern or south-western Asia (before those lands dried-out as much as is currently the case in RL, and before large animals there were over-hunted by Humans…) but with those arrivals from a RL-like Earth less frequent than in the Northern continent so that a higher proportion of the actual species present today are ones that had evolved locally: That actually ends up looking almost as much like modern RL Africa as it does like modern RL Asia (see: https://theidu.us/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2071)… Even if we take that as the basic pattern for this continent as a whole, now, the extension of the continent’s latitudinal range means that we could plausibly add some lineages from more tropical parts of RL-Earth if people want, although I’m also willing to diversify the already-listed groups still further instead (and, of course, you can put whatever you want in your own nations — although there would probably be some “leakage” around the edges — anyway…).


Main Questions
1. Keep my basic presumptions about regional climate, and thus about likely climates here?
2. Continue following my already-used ideas about the basic groups of animals present, although perhaps with “local” [i.e. ‘nation’-based] changes?
3. Add more stocks of species from RL, maybe from areas beyond those taken as the sources of the stocks already listed as present?
4. Were there prehistoric land-bridges to the North-Eastern continent? Did a large island “move” between the two continents?
5. Do your people have a name for this continent?
6. Do your people have names for any of the region’s other continents?

In terms of position, and the presence of certain nations, this land-mass is effectively the new map’s “successor” to the old map’s southern continent… except that it covers a wider range of latitudes.
The previous map’s two continents together were originally defined as stretching c. 20-55[sup]o[/sup] north of the equator, but were later expanded (while Sanctaria was cartographer) to cover either “the full range” (which was Sanctaria’s suggestion) or c. 16[sup]o[/sup]S-66[sup]0[/sup]N (my own suggestion, based on using the grid that overlay some copies of the map as a scale in degrees) instead. On the new map, however, it now extends over a ranged of latitudes roughly comparable to RL ‘Sub-Saharan’ Africa, but extending a bit further south, and so should probably have a similar basic range of climates to that continent as well although if we continue with my earlier presumptions that the IDU’s world is slightly more ‘temperate’ overall than RL Earth (due to an absence here of major icecaps) then broad-leafed forests would probably be more widespread than they are in Africa while grasslands and deserts would be scarcer. There could still be grasslands at high altitudes, and grasslands and perhaps even deserts where the ‘rain-shadow’ of mountain ranges led to drier conditions, though… Also, areas surfaced with Precambrian rocks tend (at least outside the ‘tropical rainforest’ belt) to support “poorer” vegetation than do areas where the top strata are newer: looking at RL for examples, this factor contributes to the facts that northern Canada & much of Siberia are mostly covered by either coniferous forests or bogs or tundra while Africa’s Kalahari and much of Australia have deserts… Also, if some types of large herbivores become established in an area of not-too-dense woodland then they themselves might end up turning that area into open grassland instead…
I think that the region’s four continents were probably all part of a single supercontinent at the beginning of the Mesozoic Era (‘Age of Dinosaurs’) and that this broke up in a series of stages. The gap between this continent and the south-western one is probably due to the earliest major split, with the split between this continent and its northern neighbour being a bit later (probably in the late Jurassic or early Cretaceous…) instead. For the old map, I was presuming that these two eastern continents have both been moving slowly northwards since then, but that their speeds had varied so that (with global changes in sea-level probably also playing a part) there were a few times when land-bridges formed and allowed species to pass more easily from one to the other. I think that it would make sense to continue with this explanation. Furthermore, it had been agreed that most of Malabra had originated as a fragment that broke off from the southern continent in the later Cretaceous and then moved northwards more rapidly so that collided with the northern one (pushing up mountains) around the end of the Eocene, which not only explained how some groups of species moved between the continents but also gave us a place where some of those groups could have developed & diversified in isolation before that spreading: If the players of any nations that are now in a suitable position to fill that role is willing to accept it then please let me know. (Or possibly the same role could now be filled by one or more nations on the northern edge of the southern continent, “left behind” after breaking off from that one, instead?).
When I helped to design the ecosystems for [nation]United New England[/nation], which is the only nation on this continent for which I’ve done much so far, I combined ‘old endemic’ elements (some of them taken as belonging to groups present here since the Mesozoic) with ones whose ancestors had come here from a RL-like Earth’s southern or south-western Asia (before those lands dried-out as much as is currently the case in RL, and before large animals there were over-hunted by Humans…) but with those arrivals from a RL-like Earth less frequent than in the Northern continent so that a higher proportion of the actual species present today are ones that had evolved locally: That actually ends up looking almost as much like modern RL Africa as it does like modern RL Asia… Even if we take that as the basic pattern for this continent as a whole, now, the extension of the continent’s latitudinal range means that we could plausibly add some lineages from more tropical parts of RL-Earth if people want, although I’m also willing to diversify the already-listed groups still further instead (and, of course, you can put whatever you want in your own nations — although there would probably be some “leakage” around the edges — anyway…). 


Main Questions
1. Keep my basic presumptions about regional climate, and thus about likely climates here?
2. Continue following my already-used ideas about the basic groups of animals present, although perhaps with “local” [i.e. ‘nation’-based] changes?
3. Add more stocks of species from RL, maybe from areas beyond those taken as the sources of the stocks already listed as present?
4. Were there prehistoric land-bridges to the North-Eastern continent? Did a large island “move” between the two continents?
5. Do your people have a name for this continent?
6. Do your people have names for any of the region’s other continents?
7. 7. Is your ‘national animal’ native to at least part of the continent (or to at least one nearby island), introduced there, just symbolic, or what?

In terms of position, and the presence of specific nations, this land-mass had no direct counterpart on the region’s earlier maps.
In terms of latitudes and general shape it seems roughly comparable to RL North America, and so should probably have a similar basic range of climates to that continent as well although if we continue with my earlier presumptions that the IDU’s world is slightly more ‘temperate’ overall than RL Earth (due to an absence here of major icecaps) then broad-leafed forests would probably be more widespread than they are in N.A., while grasslands and deserts would be scarcer. There could still be grasslands at high altitudes, and grasslands and perhaps even deserts where the ‘rain-shadow’ of mountain ranges led to drier conditions, though, and looking at the continent’s basic shape (and considering my ideas about how the region’s land-masses have undergone continental drift) I wouldn’t be surprised to all to find out that the western side of this continent — like that of N.A. — contains some fairly major mountain ranges that would “shade” the areas directly to their east… Also, areas surfaced with Precambrian rocks tend (at least outside the ‘tropical rainforest’ belt) to support “poorer” vegetation than do areas where the top strata are newer: looking at RL for examples, this factor contributes to the facts that northern Canada & much of Siberia are mostly covered by either coniferous forests or bogs or tundra while Africa’s Kalahari and much of Australia have deserts… Also, if some types of large herbivores become established in an area of not-too-dense woodland then they themselves might end up turning that area into open grassland instead…
I think that the region’s four continents were probably all part of a single supercontinent at the beginning of the Mesozoic Era (‘Age of Dinosaurs’) and that this broke up in a series of stages. The gap between the south-western continent and the eastern pair is probably due to the earliest major split, but whether this continent remained attached to that one for long or whether it remained linked to the north-eastern one instead and the gap with its southern neighbour has been narrowing over time is something that will obviously need to be discussed with the players who have nations on those other continents. The answers to these questions will obviously affect how easily species could have spread between the continents, too, although of course continents that were not in close contact here could both have acquired the same groups of animals through “immigration” from the same parts of a more RL-like Earth anyway…
I suspect that most of its fauna’s closest relatives in RL would be in North America, although of course that’s a matter for the players of nations based here to discuss. If you do go for that option, then remember that the North American fauna included a much more diverse range of large mammals until only c. 10-12 thousand years ago (when over-hunting by the first Human peoples to arrive there, hitting stocks that hadn’t had any opportunity to evolve precautionary behaviour for this situation, might have led to the mass extinction…) and that this continent could have acquired & retained species from that selection as well… Lion, Sabre-Tooth, Dire Wolf, ‘Hunting Dog’ (a larger relative of the modern African species), Short-faced Bear, Cave Bear, a cheetah-like Hyaena, ‘giant’ Wolverine, Mammoth, Mastodon, Giant Ground Sloths, Pampatheres & Glyptodonts (herbivorous armadillos, very large and in the latter case VERY well-armoured), multiple species of Camelid, multiple species of Pronghorn (rather than just the one that survives today), multiple species of Wild Horse… Also, on the avian side, both Terror-Cranes (predatory flightless birds) and Teratornids (related to Condors, but larger and more predatory, possibly the source of Native American traditions about the ‘Thunderbird’…).

Main Questions
1. Keep my basic presumptions about regional climate, and thus about likely climates here?
2. Continue following my already-used ideas about the basic groups of animals present, although perhaps with “local” [i.e. ‘nation’-based] changes?
3. Were there prehistoric land-bridges to the North-Eastern continent?
4. Were there prehistoric land-bridges to the South-Western continent?
5. Do your people have a name for this continent?
6. Do your people have names for any of the region’s other continents?
7. Is your ‘national animal’ native to at least part of the continent (or to at least one nearby island), introduced there, just symbolic, or what?

The usefulness of a geologically recent land-bridge to the NE continent would obviously be affected by the terrain specified at their ends by relevant lands' current owners (at present Trive in the NW & nobody yet in the NE), but even if they fill their ends of the current gap with mountains there could have been a useful 'shelf' of plains along one or the other side of this -- or even on both sides -- exposed during a period of lower sea-levels.

The following story contains mature language, reader discretion is advised.

Turson, Tiralouse, Byzconia
12 January 2019
01:33

Seated at the desk in his study, President Charles Korvey finished reading the newest addition to his literary collection, The Rise and Fall of the Shen Empire. The room was dark, with only a desk lamp and the moonlight through the window illuminating its contents. It’s quite large, with the desk seated squarely in the middle of an open, circular area of the room and book shelves on all sides. It’s likely the greatest collection of literature in the country outside of a large university like Turson U.

Unlike most countries, Byzconia has no official manor for its head of state, a conscious decision by Korvey to avoid the appearance of decadence. The house is his own, though still quite enviable, if unimpressive by political standards. A quaint two-story cottage, it sits outside the city limits. Close enough to be a quick drive, yet far enough that there is little light or noise pollution. The perfect spot of tranquility.

The President lives alone here, no wife or husband or lover of any sort. In truth, he was never particularly interested in romance; he’s in love with politics. The only permanent company is the bodyguards posted around the house, but they never disturbed him unless it was urgent. Hence why he thought it was strange when he could hear movement in the den, just outside of the study. He opened the homescreen on his phone, which read 01:33.

Is someone in my house, he thought to himself. A fool might have asked that outloud, he knew better. He sat still, quiet. Listening. There was nothing.

Hmm, maybe it’s just late night paranoia. But, as if answering his thoughts, he heard more movement.

Someone is in here. Madison? No, he would come straight to my study. This person is sneaking, they’re trying to be quiet. And failing.

His eyes widened, How’d they get past the guards!? Shit. They wouldn’t let anyone in without letting me know. I need to move.

With careful movement, Korvey proceeds to stand up and move away from the desk, towards the shadows of the room. Luckily the floor is cement, rather than wood, so there are no creaking floorboards to betray his move--as was the intent.

My advisors thought I was being paranoid. Look at me now, assholes, he triumphantly thought as he moved. However, unfortunately he decided not to install a secret “door-behind-a-bookcase,” declaring it too trite. Thankfully he did see to it to install stairs leading straight to his bedroom, where he immediately moved next.

I have to get to the safe room, see the cameras. I need to text Madison, get the security here. He reached into his pocket as he reached the top of the stairs. Shit, it’s not there! Goddammit, I left it on the desk!

He had done that many times before, but this is the first time it could get him killed. He was about to consider going back when he heard the door of the study slam open. Well, hell, nevermind then.

He continued his journey to the safe room. He closed the door to his bedroom after leaving the stairway and moved for the wall. He opened the false door and moved into the safe room, locking the steel door behind him. The safe room, or panic room depending on your outlook, was spacious and clean. Stocked with guns, knives, a year’s supply of non-perishables, everything. But what Korvey wanted right now was the video cameras, each linked to spycams in every room of the house--even the bathrooms. Maybe he is just a tiny bit paranoid.

He turned them on. Yep, there’s someone here all right, he thought as he watched a dark clad figure move through the study, carrying a knife. He had turned on the light and was clearly looking for Korvey, but couldn’t find him. Korvey looked at the other cameras, rewinding the footage, he could see the figure move through the kitchen and then the den, checking every nook and cranny, before going in the study.

He began talking to himself, confident in the safe room’s soundproofing, “Who the hell are you? And how’d you get in?”

He moved to the cameras of the security guards’ positions. “Wait a minute, where are my guards!?”

The cameras showed their positions to be deserted, with no sign of anyone in sight. “One person took out my elitely-trained guard squad? No fucking way!”

The figure continued to move through the study, finishing its sweep, and finally moving towards the stairs in the back. It moved up the stairs, towards the bedroom. The door slammed open again. “Whoever they are, they clearly don’t know how to open a door like a civilized human,” Korvey quipped to himself.

The intruder moved through the bedroom, sweeping like they did the other rooms. They even looked under the bed, then moved to check the bathroom. Again, they found nothing. Though their face was covered, Korvey could see the confusion and frustration in their body language. Suddenly, they perked up, moving towards the wall. “Well, they’re clever, I’ll give ‘em that.”

They started moving pictures off the wall, likely assuming it would activate a secret door. In truth, the door was opened by knocking on the part of the wall without pictures, but since Korvey had locked it from the inside, there was virtually no way to open it. No way except a secret application on his phone, which the intruder had completely ignored on his way to the bedroom, not that he could get into the phone anyway, due to the fingerprint scan.

The intruder, whether out of frustration or desperation, or both punched the wall to no avail. “Shit,” the intruder said, which Korvey could hear through the camera’s microphone as the walls were far too thick. The voice was clearly masculine. “How’d he know I was coming,” the man asked aloud, apparently to himself. “Goddammit, this isn’t good, he knows I’m here.”

The man immediately turned and moved back out the door. Korvey watched on his cameras as the man started making his way down the stairs towards the den, likely trying to leave. Shit, I can’t let him leave, Korvey thought as he moved to grab a knife from the safe room’s supply. “Let’s hope I’ve still got it.”

He unlocked the door and moved out.

In terms of position, and the presence of certain nations, this land-mass is effectively the new map’s “successor” to the old map’s main continent… except that it covers a wider range of latitudes. The previous map’s two continents together were originally defined as stretching c. 20-55[sup]o[/sup] north of the equator, but were later expanded (while Sanctaria was cartographer) to cover either “the full range” (which was Sanctaria’s suggestion) or c. 15[sup]o[/sup]S — 65[sup]o[/sup]N (my own suggestion, based on using the grid that overlay some copies of the map as a scale in degrees) instead. On the new map, however, this continent alone now stretches all of the way from the edge of the Artic into the northern edge of the Tropics…
On the original map this continent’s equivalent therefore had basically temperate climates, except that some parts of its northern coasts were cold enough for Polar Bears while [nation]Malabra[/nation] was anomalously — ‘Tropically’, even — hot. 
On the new map, with an extent closer to that of Eurasia it should probably now have a similar basic range of climates to that continent as well although if we continue with my earlier presumptions that the IDU’s world is slightly more ‘temperate’ overall than RL Earth (due to an absence here of major icecaps) then broad-leafed forests would probably be more widespread than they are in Eurasia, while grasslands and deserts would be scarcer. There could still be grasslands at high altitudes, and grasslands and perhaps even deserts where the ‘rain-shadow’ of mountain ranges led to drier conditions, though… Also, areas surfaced with Precambrian rocks tend (at least outside the ‘tropical rainforest’ belt) to support “poorer” vegetation than do areas where the top strata are newer: looking at RL for examples, this factor contributes to the facts that northern Canada & much of Siberia are mostly covered by either coniferous forests or bogs or tundra while Africa’s Kalahari and much of Australia have deserts… Also, if some types of large herbivores become established in an area of not-too-dense woodland then they themselves might end up turning that area into open grassland instead…

The ecosystems chosen for various nations here on the original version of the map were mainly derived from those of RL Europe or North America (i.e. the home continents of those nation’s players…) but with some endemic species added as well. Malabra was an exception, again, with an intrusion of ‘Amazon Rainforest’ ecosystems into its central districts and various species from both India and the non-rainforest parts of South America (including formerly-native species that are now extinct on the RL-Earth, such as Gompotheres, Glyptodonts, and Giant Ground Sloths…) in the drier-but-still-hot lands to the west of that… In more recent years, working with the players of various nations, I also oversaw the introduction of some species from eastern Asia (e.g. in [nation]Laeral[/nation]) as well. 
I suggest that we draw most species for the version of this continent on the new map from the same sources as those. If you look at RL India and southern China, or Mexico, you will see that various species (or, at least, genera) of large mammal which exist in Europe or further north in Asia or in the USA are also capable of doing well at those latitudes too — e.g. Tiger, Puma, Wolf, Golden Jackal, Coyote, Red Fox, Wild Boar, wild cattle [species differ), deer [species differ) — and the Pleistocene fauna of South America (before Humans arrived there) had even more in common with that of its northern neighbour… Endemic mammals would then be mostly smaller ones, which tend to have narrower geographical ranges anyway. I had designed an ‘Old IDU Tropical’ set of small-to-medium Mammals that I thought might still exist in parts of Malabra and nearby lands (as stocks surviving from a distant past in which the whole region was warmer…), and we could use elements from that in the more extensive tropics that the continent’s new version possesses. Also, some genera of the larger mammals that came to the old map from South America into Malabra had also spread into RL [prehistoric] North America as well and thus could have reached us from there instead.

For the old map, I was presuming that the two continents were on separate tectonic plates that had been united in a single supercontinent at the start of the Mesozoic Era (‘Age of Dinosaurs’) but had split apart during the later Jurassic or early Cretaceous and were now both moving slowly northwards but whose speeds had varied so that (with global changes in sea-level probably also playing a part) there were a few times when land-bridges formed and allowed species to pass more easily from one to the other. I think that it would make sense to continue with this explanation. Furthermore, it had been agreed that most of Malabra had originated as a fragment that broke off from the southern continent in the later Cretaceous and then moved northwards more rapidly so that collided with the northern one (pushing up mountains) around the end of the Eocene, which not only explained how some groups of species moved between the continents but also gave us a place where some of those groups could have developed & diversified in isolation before that spreading: If the players of any nations that are now in a suitable position to fill that role is willing to accept it then please let me know. (Or possibly the same role could now be filled by one or more nations on the northern edge of the southern continent, “left behind” after breaking off from this one, instead?).
The question of whether there have also been land-bridge connections to this continent’s western neighbour, with possible exchanges of species across those, is obviously one in which the players of nations on that other continent should also have a say… 


Main Questions
1. Keep my basic presumptions about regional climate, and thus about likely climates here?
2. Continue following my already-used ideas about the basic groups of animals present, although perhaps with “local” [i.e. ‘nation’-based] changes?
3. Were there prehistoric land-bridges to the South-Eastern continent, and is there perhaps even a large area that detached from one of these continents & then became attached to the other one?
4. Were there prehistoric land-bridges to the North-Western continent?
5. Do your people have a name for this continent?
6. Do your people have names for any of the region’s other continents?
7. Is your ‘national animal’ native to at least part of the continent (or to at least one nearby island), introduced there, just symbolic, or what?

The usefulness of a geologically recent land-bridge to the NE continent would obviously be affected by the terrain specified at their ends by relevant lands' current owners (at present Trive in the NW & nobody yet in the NE), but even if they fill their ends of the current gap with mountains there could have been a useful 'shelf' of plains along one or the other side of this -- or even on both sides -- exposed during a period of lower sea-levels.

Xiomeran "whitewash of history" movie banned

President Matōchmizalo signed an executive order today banning the showing of the Xiomeran movie Quiauhticue: Rise of an Empire anywhere in Milintica.

The movie, produced by the Xiomeran film studio Huallotli Studios, purports to show the "the life and rise to power of the first Xiomeran Emperor, Quiauhticue". The President denounced the movie, calling it a "blatant whitewash of the cruel history behind the creation of the Xiomeran Empire".

"This movie, which was privately viewed by myself and several other Milintican officials, is nothing more than lies wrapped in half-truths and buried under the glorification of a murderous tyrant," the President declared in a speech to the Representative Assembly. "The movie conveniently leaves out how Quiauhticue took advantage of a horrifying plague that devastated his neighbors, refused them aid, watched their people suffer and die, and then set about conquering them when they were at their weakest to build his Empire."

The President continued: "This ridiculous movie claims to be historically accurate, yet only portrays Quiauhticue as a 'great leader' who 'defeated barbarism' and 'laid the foundation for the Xiomeran Empire'. What a pack of lies this movie is! It doesn't show at all accurately how Quiauhticue built his Empire on the bones of those he conquered, how he nearly destroyed the other three tribes of Huenya, or how his actions led to the creation of the evil Empire that still exists and still represses the people of Huenya today. To allow such rank falsehoods to be displayed before the people of Milintica, the descendants of those who were forced to flee Quiauhticue's violent conquest, would be the greatest insult and we will not subject our people to such an indignity," the President said, to rousing applause from the Assembly.

The President was also highly critical of the portrayal of Shen involvement in the early days of the Empire's formation, specifically the portrayal of Cao Quin, the Shen general who aided Quiauhticue during his conquest of Huenya. The Shen Empire of the time provided Quiauhticue with troops and weapons to make his conquest even easier, in what President Matōchmizalo labeled "blatant foreign interference and intervention which devastated the Huenyan people, and changed the destiny of an entire land, just so the Shen could have a convenient vassal running the so-called Xiomeran Empire for the enrichment and benefit of an even more evil Empire." President Matōchmizalo declared that "Cao Quin was a colonialist and Quiauhticue was his opportunistic puppet."

In a non-binding resolution of support, the Assembly voted 125-3, with one abstention and one absence, to back the President's decision to ban the Xiomeran propaganda film.

Government denounces "intervention" in Vulkaria

The Representative Assembly also issued another non-binding resolution today, denouncing the intervention in Vulkaria by a so-called 'coalition' of foreign powers. "Foreign powers have been 'intervening' - but let's call it what it really is, interfering - in Vulkaria for decades now. Has it ended the violence? Has it brought lasting peace? Of course not, because you can't end a cycle of violence with yet more violence," Linpā, MPP Representative for Matōn District and the author of the resolution, said in her speech to the Assembly. "The best thing foreign powers could do is try to figure out why Vulkaria keeps becoming a cauldron of terrorism and violence seemingly every few years, and work to resolve those root causes, rather than just keep occupying other peoples' lands and killing people."

Representative Linpā added that "naturally we do not support terrorism, or terrorists, or violence," but added that "we also cannot forget that one country's terrorist is another country's desperate people left with no other means to fight for themselves in the face of overwhelming state power, and foreign power." The Representative added that Milinticans "should know what that is like, being once refugees ourselves from a repressive and violent regime."

The non-binding resolution declares that the Government of Milintica, and its people, will not support foreign interventions such as the one in Vulkaria, and will instead seek to encourage dialogue as a means of resolving conflicts around the IDU. The resolution passed by a vote of 119-10, with one absence and with all members of the PAP and MFR parties voting against the resolution, and all other parties voting in favor.