Greetings,

As a new member of the region and an intended future participant in the regional legislative efforts, the Free Land of DeBeeland would like to request official citizenship as a member of the International Democratic Union. If any further information or compliance is required in order to process this application please do not hesitate to contact us at your earliest convenience.

Yours Truly,
Aaron DeBee
President, The Free Land of DeBeeland

Our formal name is Mythical Fallacies
Hi! As a representative of the Mythical Fallacies, we would like to introduce ourselves to the IDU!
We came here mostly because of RPing. I have some experience in role playing with my friends.

Join us on our forum and on discord for some festive fun!

At the end of 2019, Empress Yauhmi of Xiomera departed on a three-nation tour as a way of introducing herself - and Xiomera - to the rest of the IDU. Later dubbed the Great Tour, the trip was meant to show the flag and bring Xiomera greater prominence on the international stage, as well as to strengthen Xiomera's position through trade and defense agreements. This is a chronicle of Yauhmi's trip.

(Joint post with [nation]Lauchenoiria[/nation])

Grapevale, Kerlile
December 10th

President Rebecca Arnott looked around the room as she waited for Empress Yauhmi to arrive. It was bright, with large windows overlooking the gardens outside. A bookcase stood in one corner full of colourful volumes. On the table next to her sat an assortment of cakes and a teapot, ready for the meeting. She was looking forward to it. So much of her job was stressful, but somehow her interactions with Xiomerans tended to go well. So when the door opened, she smiled and stood, ready to greet the Empress.

For her part, the Empress had been looking forward to the visit to Kerlile, and the trip abroad as a whole. State visits were rare for Xiomeran leaders, a fact Yauhmi was determined to change. Xiomera had been a relatively minor player on the world stage until now. Showing the flag, so to speak, was a way of making Xiomera more prominent.

It was also nice to just get out of the country on occasion; even leaders like to travel.

When she walked into the room, the Empress smiled in return and walked to where Arnott was standing with her usual confident stride. "President Arnott, thank you so much for having me," Yauhmi said, offering her hand to shake. "I have been most eager to make this visit."

Arnott shook Yauhmi's hand, smiling, and gestured for her to take a seat.

"I am very happy to have you here," Arnott said. "Would you like some tea, or a cake? I'd recommend the strawberry cake, it's delicious."

"I do believe I shall try both. I will take your suggestion, the cake does look quite appetizing," Yauhmi replied, taking a seat. "You're a very gracious host. That's something Xiomerans appreciate; being a good host is a very important thing in our culture. I do hope we can learn more about each others' cultures and societies during my visit. Both of our countries have the distinction of being a bit....mysterious to the outside world."

"I am sure you will find Kerlian culture a lot less horrifying than what the rumours say. We are far less frightening than nations like Lauchenoiria give us credit for," Arnott chuckled.

Yauhmi laughed pleasantly in response. "I don't tend to take much of what Lauchenoirians say seriously, so no need to worry there. Xiomerans can relate to that feeling - half the IDU seems to think that we're some frighteningly barbaric country that wants to steal their land and put them all on spikes, or something. It's all just silly, especially considering that we haven't done anything particularly hostile to anyone in decades. I rather think that undeserved reputation is a big reason why we're more sympathetic to Kerlians."

"Yes, I have seen some of the things certain nations have said about yours recently. They come up with lies to make nations like ours their enemies to distract from their domestic policy failings," she shook her head. "And they do not care who they hurt in the process. My government has made great leaps forward in reforming some of our... less savoury policies, and yet these democracies who claim they want that have only sanctioned us further!"

"Indeed, it is all political, and it is a shame that the people in those so-called democracies do not see that they are often misled by ambitious or greedy leaders. This is why Xiomera is grateful for its friendship with Kerlile. Nations like ours, who face these threats, do need to stick together in these troubled times," Yauhmi replied.

"I agree wholeheartedly," nodded Arnott. "We in Kerlile are so grateful for your friendship. Especially over this unfortunate Aurora incident. I am deeply sorry about that, I must say. Councillor Pierre is proving most reluctant to allow us to put this behind us."

"Ah, yes. I was afraid Councillor Pierre might prove to be......problematic on this matter," Yauhmi said calmly. "You need not apologize for the Aurora matter, though... it wasn't your idea, after all." The Empress paused for a moment. "I am confident that you can handle the recalcitrance of Councillor Pierre." The following but if you need help, Xiomera has its ways went unspoken. "In any event, we will continue to treat any Auroras in Xiomera in a civilized manner." Yauhmi took a sip of her tea. "I understand one of the Auroras recently decided to return to Kerlile. I hope she is doing well."

"I have not met with the individual in question, but I believe she has decided to attend university next year and is taking a sabbatical," said Arnott. "As for the matter with Pierre, Jennifer - Councillor Hale - tells me she has some method to rectify the situation. She has not told me what, but it will be interesting to see. She is still married to Josephine Alvarez, you know."

"Oh? Hopefully her method will not involve the birthday gift I gave her," Yauhmi said with a small laugh. "A mācuahuitl tends to be a permanent solution to a problem. In any event, it will be interesting to see how Councillor Hale resolves the matter. I must admit, I am surprised she is still married to Prime Minister Alvarez. I would have thought circumstances would have ended their relationship long ago."

"I have no doubt that Hale might want to end Pierre's life, but I highly doubt she would," Arnott chuckled. "And Jennifer is very much still in love with Alvarez. It is the motivations of the Prime Minister I find curious - she has yet to file for divorce."

"Most curious indeed. I won't pretend I understand the motivations of Alvarez even under normal circumstances, however. I have had my own interactions with her, and I am still not entirely sure what I think of her," the Empress said thoughtfully. "If she reciprocates Hale's love, however.....love is a powerful force. It can make people act in surprising ways," Yauhmi said. She recalled her decision to shut down an entire city's traffic grid, all in revenge for someone smearing the love she had for her husband. Love did make one act strangely, indeed, the Empress mused.

"I have never been a fan of the Lauchenoirians myself, I must say, but Hale has such an infatuation with their culture. It seems harmless however," Arnott said, helping herself to a cake from the assortment. "Before you meet with the Council later, I wish to give you a little advice about interacting with some of them. Councillor Chiu may be suspicious of you because of your known friendship with members of the Shen royal family. Her family has some kind of feud with them that I try my best not to understand: I would rather not be involved. And Councillor Pierre, of course, is bitter over the Aurora affair. The rest, I am sure, will be perfectly pleasant, though of course Councillors Greenwood and Georgiou are still out of the country so will not be present. Councillor Robinson will likely try and insult Councillor Pierre to you - take what she says with a pinch of salt, those two families are as bad as the Chiu and the Wu."

"Meetings with my advisors are so much easier.....they just do what I tell them," Yauhmi laughed. "I do appreciate the advice. And as pleasant as chatting and gossiping are, I suppose I should get down to business." Yauhmi set down her teacup and turned to face Arnott. "I should let you know what my agenda is for the visit. We would like to offer Kerlile a similar economic and defense package we offered to the Shen, albeit on a smaller scale simply because Kerlile is a smaller country. We propose to build several factories in Kerlile to produce goods and needed items locally - as well as defense materiel for the Kerlian defense forces. We are also prepared to offer substantial economic and material aid. Our goal is to help Kerlile recover more quickly from the damages of the Haven Accords so that it can resume an effective role in the world."

Arnott quickly adopted a more businesslike pose, nodding along to Yauhmi's words.

"We would be grateful for any aid you are willing to give us during this difficult time. Due to the radical restructuring of certain aspects of our society since I became President, and as a consequence of the economic downturn caused by certain countries policies towards us, we have a large number of people seeking work. Factories that could employ Kerlian citizens would be most appreciated. I am curious as to what you would like us to do for you, it must be said, however?" Arnott asked.

Yauhmi nodded at the expected question. "That is only fair to ask. For now, of course, we would only ask that Kerlile continue to support Xiomera publicly, and in particular on such matters as the nonsense taking place in the South Xiomeran Sea. We do not expect you to provide open military support, of course. We know Kerlile is not in a position to do that as things stand now. Being open to Xiomeran trade and investment is an ideal place to begin for now. Xiomera will benefit from the investment as well, of course, from increased trade with Kerlile. Now, once Kerlile is back on its feet economically and militarily, we might wish to revisit further defense cooperation then....but we're not trying to hold you hostage. We do not want to enter any deals in which you feel obligated to do anything in exchange for Xiomeran support. One of our foreign policy goals is to help struggling nations. This mission, for us, rises above any expectations of gain."

Arnott relaxed upon hearing that open military support was not expected immediately, visibly relieved. Since the incident with the Zamastanian ships had first happened, she had been kept awake at night, worrying that her country would be dragged into another war that would weaken them enough to destroy them.

"I am glad to hear that. And of course we will continue to publicly support Xiomera, and provide what assistance we can given our situation. On the matter of the incident in the South Xiomeran Sea, I dearly hope it can be resolved peacefully, but should attempts fail, we will do what we can, given our situation, to support you. However, as you will likely see during your visit, there is little appetite for war here just now."

"There is no appetite for war in Xiomera either, I assure you. War is bad for business, bad for national development....I have plans for Xiomera, and getting into silly wars that disrupt our progress is not among those plans. So I can sympathize with that feeling among your people," Yauhmi replied. "So, we will do whatever we can to resolve matters in Catica peacefully, and move forward. I am a bit curious....are there those in Kerlile who would be opposed to closer ties with Xiomera?"

"I will be honest..." Arnott bit her lip, "there would be a few, but a minority. We have an isolationist faction, who wish for us to cut all ties with all countries. It has no support on the Council, but there are a number of cousins and distant relatives within our families who support their ideology. Nobody who subscribes to the isolationist argument has power at the moment, however. Then there is Councillor Pierre, but she is just bitter over the Aurora affair and that will pass with time. Councillor Chiu... really, she is just worried about Shen, she doesn't oppose Xiomera on principle and I'm sure once she has spoken with you her fears will dissipate. There shouldn't be too much trouble."

"That is good to hear. We will certainly do all we can to reassure anyone with doubts, of course." Yauhmi finished her cake and took another sip of tea. "Since we're discussing what will be brought before the Council, is there anything specific you had in mind to request from Xiomera?"

"Well, this is going to sound rather strange..." Arnott blushed slightly and gestured to the assortment of cakes, "but as you can see, we have been really struggling to get chocolate recently. The rationing of certain goods is becoming ridiculous, I don't suppose we could come to some arrangement for importing more?"

"Of course! If you draw up a list of rationed items, we can see which of them we can supply and add that to whatever agreement we can come to after I speak with the Council." The Empress smiled warmly. "I know I couldn't live without chocolate. Sweets are a personal weakness of mine."

"Well, I hope you've brought adequate supply," chuckled Arnott. "Rumour has it, a chocolate bar can be sold for several million Credits on the black market these days. Oh... and just as a heads up, because we haven't announced this yet..." Arnott trailed off into silence, wondering if she should finish her sentence.

Yauhmi smiled again. "What is it?"

"We are likely going to scrap our nuclear programme entirely. We can no longer justify the expense, we have had little success in getting things to work and all it serves to do is make people angry with us. Goddess help me if Pierre finds out I told you," she shook her head.

Yauhmi snorted at the mention of Pierre's name; the expression on her face made it clear she was not a fan. "If certain people knew I was telling you this, they would also be apoplectic. But one of the joys of being Empress is not having to answer to irritated men." Yauhmi leaned forward. "Xiomera is capable of assisting with a nuclear program....should such assistance be needed."

Arnott smiled but shook her head sadly. "I doubt the Council will change their minds on this matter now. Several of the Councillors are opposed to the program in general, and I do not believe we have the inclination to continue any longer. Councillor Georgiou, before departing for Shuell, gave a very impassioned argument in favour of diverting research from nuclear weaponry to nuclear energy - and given how difficult it has been for us to get our hands on oil, it is a compelling suggestion."

Yauhmi nodded. "Perhaps there is another way we can help then. Despite our rather checkered reputation when it comes to the environment, Xiomera does have green energy capabilities. Nuclear and solar power, along with wind power. That could help alleviate some of your energy issues."

"That would be most appreciated," Arnott said, perking up a little. "And yes, I heard about the incidents with the Lauchenoirians. They really do enjoy causing trouble, don't they?"

"They do, indeed. For quite a while, they seemed to have a particular fondness for annoying Xiomerans. Thankfully, they seem to have moved on to other countries for the moment." Yauhmi seemed unusually pleased with that for some reason. "So....trade investment, new factories and consumer goods to deal with the pesky rationing and such, and some military aid and help with the energy sector. I think we have a good foundation to build on. Hopefully the Council will agree."

"I hope so too," Arnott nodded. "I have had such difficulty with them recently, more so than any of my predecessors. But I think this is one thing we can all agree on."

"I will do my best to help. I can be quite convincing, so I've been told," the Empress replied with another laugh. Exactly how the Empress could be convincing was possibly a subject best not touched on. "Will I be able to meet with the Council soon?"

"They will be in session all day. You can go to the Council chamber now, if you wish," Arnott said. "I can call ahead, I assure you they will meet with you immediately."

"Thank you, I think I shall do that. I've always been fond of striking while the iron is hot." Yauhmi paused before getting up. "Will you not be attending the Council meeting?"

Arnott stood as well and shook her head. "The President rarely attends Council meetings. I have other matters to attend to in the meantime. Well, I have enjoyed meeting with you and I am so grateful for your support for Kerlile. I hope you enjoy the rest of your visit, and I shall see you tomorrow at the ball."

"I look forward to that with great anticipation. Thank you for your gracious hospitality. I hope you have a good day, and we shall speak again soon," Yauhmi replied, shaking Arnott's hand again before walking out of the room. As she was led to the Council chamber, she mentally prepared herself. Even though Kerlile was, to a degree, dependent on Xiomera, the Empress knew she would have to prepare quite a pitch to accomplish Xiomera's goals for the meeting.

It seems there's no legislation on livestock welfare, so here's something I drafted and hope to post some day. What do you think? Some of my own thought regard whether I should add something about recognising the importance of animal agriculture and whether I should tone down some of the criticism towards unethical practices, so it doesn't seem too hostile towards farmers.

Category: ??? (Having some issues with this. Maybe moral decency or regulation?) Strength: Significant

The World Assembly;

Alarmed by the present lack of legislation on the treatment of livestock;

Concerned that such a vacuum of international legislation allows animals to be treated with absolute apathy or even outright antipathy;

Recognising that animals generally raised for food and commodity production, such as pigs, cattle, ducks, sheep, and poultry, are capable of feeling suffering and distress;

Noting that such animals, much like sapient beings, are intelligent and social beings also capable of positive feelings;

Saddened that the welfare of these creatures is too often overlooked in food and commodity production;

Highlighting that the overwhelming majority of livestock are subject to intensive farming methods, otherwise known as factory farming;

Regretting that especially in intensive farming, the efficiency of production and economic interests most often outweigh the wellbeing of these creatures, and as such, they are subject to severe distress and suffering, and their welfare is treated with apathy;

Lamenting that ethically questionable or outright immoral practices are commonplace in the livestock industry, such as: the slaughtering of animals without stunning and in view of other animals, the live plucking of feathers from birds without anesthesia, and the live skinning of animals;

Acknowledging that indifference towards animal suffering is extremely unethical;

Seeking to establish regulations on the treatment of livestock so that such indifference can no longer persist;

Hereby;

1. Defines for the purpose of this specific resolution;
   
   
   1. Animal as sentient, but not sapient creatures.
      
      
   2. Livestock as (a) animals raised for food consumption, such as cattle, pigs, fish and poultry, and (b) animals, such as sheep, minks and foxes, which are raised for other commodities, such as fur, wool and leather.
   
   
2. Decrees the following provisions, to ensure the wellbeing of livestock;
   
   
   1. Animals have a right to physical and mental wellbeing, as far as possible and practicable.
      
      
   2. Animals have a right to natural behaviour, as far as reasonable.
      
      
   3. Animals have a right to have their basic needs adequately fulfilled, as far as possible and practicable.
      
      
   4. Animals have a right to a decent living environment, free from overcrowding and untreated waste.
      
      
   5. Animals shall not be subject to suffering, unneeded distress, or malicious or antipathic treatment.
      
      
   6. Slaughtered animals have a right to a humane death, where they are not subject to suffering or unnecessary fear, and are to be rendered unconscious prior to being killed.
      
      
   7. Animals have a right to be humanely put down, if, due to untreatable illness or injury, keeping them alive would be evidently cruel.
   
   
3. Mandates that facilities raising livestock must comply with the provisions in section 2.
   
   
4. Establishes the World Assembly Livestock Welfare Bureau (WALWB), whose responsibilities are to concern:
   
   
   1. Overseeing that the treatment of livestock is carried out in accordance with the provisions in section 2.
      
      
   2. Reporting breaches of said provisions to local authorities.

The related thread for the OLD map is @ https://theidu.us/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2067 .

BASIC PRESUMPTIONS

Presumption #1: The Planet
Although our pattern of lands and waters differs from that of RL Earth, this still is an ‘Earth’ in all fundamental respects: Astronomical position, positions & sizes of the solar system’s other members, lengths of the day and the year, frequency of eclipses, age, basic chemical composition, types (and approximate ratios) of rocks & minerals present, basic atmospheric composition, basic biochemistry, and so on.

Presumption #1.B: Departures and Arrivals
When old nations CTE, and new nations arrive among us, this often involves history being retrospectively altered so that IC the current situation has “always” been the case. What I think has probably happened (sort-of-IC) in these cases is that the areas concerned have been “swapped” for ones from Parallel Earths with different histories. This involves a phenomenon, sometimes called ‘Fractal Reality’, that has already been evoked to explain some such changes not only elsewhere in NS (along with explaining the fact that many NS nations can claim to occupy the same RL nations’ locations...) but even by some of the earlier players in this very region. The accompanying changes to IC memories and histories would then be either an [inexplicable?] side-effect of the relocation or direct action through whoever or whatever had deliberately (whether using “sufficiently advanced science”, outright supernatural powers, or something else…)made the swap.
This phenomenon would also explain, obviously, the “movement” of various nations from our older map into the current one…

Presumption #2: Coordinates
We need to determine climates for the nations on our regional map. This is necessary not only for sorting-out “reasonable” ecosystems but also for determining their likely weather for use in role-plays, their agricultural possibilities, and even their basic habitability.
We need to know latitudes and scale to determine the nations’ ‘proper’ climates, and related details such the probable directions of ocean currents and the relative lengths of daylight & night locally through the year.
Modifying the suggestions that I made about the old map (and that were partly based on details already agreed by various other nations’ players) to fit the new one, and going with the Equator being along the line that our Cartographers have already designated, what I now suggest is:
(1) That we take the northern edge of the map currently shown as being a bit further north than the Arctic Circle, but not actually as the North Pole: 65[sup]o[/sup] or 70[sup]o[/sup] North, perhaps. (Would the Cartographers be willing to consider extensions if & when players of nations close to that line specifically request them?) Also, of course, that we treat the map as being symmetrical so that the north-south scale is the same on both sides of the equator.
(2) That we use degrees themselves for the map’s scale, rather than miles (either standard or nautical) or kilometres or leagues or whatever, which means that we don’t have to worry about using any ‘projection’ system — with the inherent inaccuracies over large distances which that would automatically entail — to depict the planet’s curved surface on a flat map.
People can find the lengths for degrees of latitude and longitude at any particular latitude, and thus the [OOC/“external”] dimensions for their nations sizes using either of two online calculators that I’ve already found ( http://www.csgnetwork.com/degreelenllavcalc.html and https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gccalc.shtml ) or alternative ones that they find for themselves or that other players have found and listed in this thread.

Presumption #3: Climatology
The fact that the waters around the North Pole on our world are not as enclosed as their counterparts on Earth-RL, combined with the plausible lack of either a land-mass or an enclosed (or, as in RL’s Arctic, almost-enclosed) sea centred over the South Pole, means that although there would still be zones of permanent snow on the highest mountain ranges — especially at higher latitudes — our world would probably lack any major icecaps. This would make the world moister and warmer, on average, than is Earth-RL. The wide expanses of open sea surrounding our continents, although now slightly more constrained than on the old map, would still allow currents to circulate quite freely and redistribute that higher warmth more evenly so that the high latitudes here would be warmer than those of Earth-RL while the tropics would be slightly cooler than the higher average temperature might otherwise suggest. These circumstances mean that temperate forests could exist closer to the polar regions, and also that they could stretch further inland so that — depending on the positions of major mountain ranges as well, of course — we have less desert or even steppe than would have been predictable for continents of these sizes at these latitudes with a more “Earth-like” situation. There could still have been some relatively minor glaciations, but we would not have had a major ‘Ice Age’ here during the Pleistocene epoch.
EDIT (30th January 2020; added sentence): This also means that seasonal migrations from north to south (or vice versa) by birds are likely to be less extensive than on RL Earth, but there will still be cases in which they occur and even intercontinental migration should still be considered a possibility.
(I’m currently thinking that we might have had a milder ‘Ice Age’ covering part of the rather earlier Oligocene epoch instead, here, to help explain some details in the evolution of the wildlife around then. Some geographical features caused by this might still be visible, in northern lands and mountain ranges (and now in those relatively close to the southern edges of the southern continents, as well…), although erosion would probably have softened them significantly during the intervening millions of years. If any player who runs any of these nations absolutely want their lands to have had more recent glaciation then I’d suggest that those lands’ actual geographical features might have been “swapped-in” at some point from other Earths with different geological/climatic histories…)


Presumption #4: Plate Tectonics
(The player who runs Malabra agreed to their parts of this when we discussed the situation a few years ago…)

There was a single large ‘supercontinent’ here at the start of the Mesozoic Era (or “Age of Dinosaurs”), but this broke up — and the central ocean, which probably began that period as a sea extending some way into the supercontinent from the south — opened up during the early stages of the Cretaceous period. Our four continents today are basically on four separate tectonic plates, with at least the eastern pair and probably the north-western one as well all moving slowly northwards but not necessarily always moving at the same speed as each other… The south-eastern continent has probably been disconnected from any of the others for longest, and might be moving in a different direction: These points — which would be likely to affect the patterns of mountain ranges, and the likelihoods of earthquakes & volcanos in different areas, as well as ecosystems — would [presumably] be a matter for the owners of nations now on it, as well as for cartographers, to consider.

I don’t know how much of this section’s remaining paragraphs would carry over onto the new map, but on the older one…
On the old map, much of the area that had become occupied by the nation called Malabra was actually on a sub-plate that broke away from the main southern one just after the middle of the Cretaceous period and began to collide with the northern plate during the earlier stages of the following Paleogene (the first of two periods into which the former ‘Tertiary’ is now split). The effects of this collision included a mountain-building process in the northern continent, which helped to explain the ranges now existing not only directly north of Malabra but also paralleling the continent’s southern coasts for some distance westwards from there, as well as some uplift and “buckling” elsewhere. They also “tipped” the continent slightly, raising coastlines in the south (cutting off a sea that had extended northwards and then eastwards with its inner end covering the northern parts of what is now Bears Armed’s main section and some other areas around that, which has long since drained away, and uniting some quite large islands that had formed an archipelago off of the south-western corner with the mainland) while lowering them in the north (and separating some areas from the mainland there to form the large islands that exist today). The main rivers in Malabra had previously flowed northwards, but the mountain-building dammed them up and created an inland sea until the waters cut through a ridge to establish the pattern of southwards drainage that exists today. (A similar phenomenon occurred on RL Earth, where the precursor of the River Amazon had originally flowed into the Pacific rather than the Atlantic but the flow of waters was re-directed by the creation of the Andes range…).
What is now the north-eastern corner of the South Continent was also a large island or even an archipelago at various times.

Land-bridges between north and south have existed temporarily at a few stages during the Cenozoic, at either one end or the other of the Iapetus Sea but never at both ends simultaneously. The first of them formed as a reaction to Malabra’s collision with the North Continent, which temporarily pushed upwards the bed of the shallow sea “behind” it. The latest bridge at the western end formed (during parts of the Miocene epoch) around a series of islands that had been thrown-up by a volcanic hotspot over which the two plates were passing on their slow journey north.