Hello! The announcement is a bit late, but Wintreath (the region that this region is a vassal of if you forgot :P) recently put out a regional update!
• Find out what we did to celebrate our Final Fantasy XIV Free Company, Winterkind's, three month anniversary! • Meet the new group who has made our Minecraft server their new home! • See even more summarized news! New guides, updated telegrams, foreign relations debates, the NationStates WA Secretariat election, Discord changes, and Minecraft updates. Oh my! • And check out some group photos!
You can read all about those things here! I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures!
I’m sorry that it’s been so long between updates. I started working on a new update back in June, but then I hit a wall of mental exhaustion that led me to take it easy for a while. It always seems like there’s so much to do and not enough energy to do it all, doesn’t it? Then my area was hit with a heatwave which drained me again, and I’ve spent the last few weeks recovering and then catching up on more urgent things. Is it any wonder that I much prefer winter?
But that doesn’t mean Wintreath has been lagging. Since our last update, both our Final Fantasy free company, Winterkind, and our Minecraft server have become home to new friends. For the first time in our history, our community is spread across three games. We have people who have never heard of NationStates before, much less played it. On one hand it’s very exciting, because Wintreath has always been more than a region and it’s thrilling to see who we are resonate with people in other games. On the other, it presents new challenges: how do you integrate people across three very different games? How do you bring people together as a single community instead of three separate communities with the same name?
But if one thing is true, it’s that our success is because of the many people who are putting their time and energy into Wintreath. We have Winterkind because of the time, persuasion, and effort that Chanku put into establishing it as part of Wintreath. From there, it’s grown thanks to everyone who has become a part of it: from decade-long Wintreath members to brand new folks who found us FFXIV’s community finder. Our minecraft server exploded because our server owner, taulover, invited a friend of his, who in turn invited a group of his friends who just happened to be looking for a new server. You will hear more about both stories in this update. But with so many people becoming part of our story and investing themselves into Wintreath, I’m sure we will successfully tackle these new challenges too.
I am grateful to everyone who is part of that story, and I look forward to sharing those successes with you in the future. But for now, I hope this update finds you well, and that you enjoy reading about what’s been going on in Wintreath over the past months.
PS: I haven't decided where to put a credits section yet, so I also want to thank Skelleftella once again for creating our update's lovely top banner! I continue to be deeply grateful.
Celebrating Three Months of Winterkind!
In our last update, we had just founded our Final Fantasy XIV free company, Winterkind. It doesn’t seem like that much time has passed, but last weekend we celebrated our 3-month anniversary with fun and games!
Each night began with games of Hide and Seek, where players hide on a particular map and one person tries to find them. This is possible because you can set the game client to not show usernames for other players or NPCs, which makes it a real challenge in a busy city. People hide in bushes, in nooks and crannies, among NPCs and other players, and anywhere else they think they won’t be found. Next, we did treasure hunts, which involved using treasure map items to find treasure chests. Opening it triggers hostile monsters, and once those are cleared you can retrieve the treasure! Treasure can include crafting items, equipment, and gil (currency). Afterwards, there were item giveaways for people who took part and people who were on, where prizes included a variety of mounts and minions!
We ended Friday night at the Senpan Tea House for light roleplay, bonding, and relaxation. Over delicious teas and pastries, we got to know each other better, delved into Winterkind/Wintreath’s prominent queer, furry, and neurodiverse communities for new members, and talked about our hopes for Winterkind in the future. Everybody wants to have a free company house in the future, and several players donated so that we can purchase one soon! Another hope is that we continue to have fun - and I’m sure we will! It was great connecting with and spending time together, but unfortunately we weren’t able to make a repeat visit on Saturday both because the treasure hunt ran much longer and some members had to leave.
Otherwise, what made each night special is that different people were able to join, giving each evening its own flavor. But both nights were fun and a pleasure to be part of! Thank you to everybody who was able to be part of this weekend’s celebration. You each helped make it special in your own way! And thank you to everybody who has been part of Winterkind's 3 month journey!
Be sure to check out the Wintreath Group Photos section at the end of this update for screenshots from the event!
Over the weekend, Winterkind Chancellor Chanku made some remarks to mark the occasion, reviewing the past 3 months and also talking about our future:
And now an announcement Winterkind's Chancellor (Leader) for our 3 month anniversary
Hello Blossoms and Wildflowers, it has been three months since the founding of Winterkind, three months since we entered Final Fantasy XIV. Three months in which I have had the pleasure of serving as Chancellor. Given this I believe now is as good a time as any to review and revel in our accomplishments, and to set our sights onto the future.
First, within the three months of our existence we were able to achieve a Free Company Rank of 11, thanks to the work of our members, in particular @Tashiro and Calum (@Tanisthalasa). Tashiro put in a lot of effort to rank us up and to help us get established, and I do not think he has received nearly enough thanks for his work. It was because of his work that we hit rank 10 within our first month. That is not to say everyone else did not help, every bit has helped, but Tashiro put in a good effort to help level us up and get us FC Credits. Something that can be easily overlooked. He also put in a good bit of effort to make sure the appropriate buffs were running when necessary, and it is a pleasure to have him in the Free Company. I also wish to thank Calum as he spent an entire week grinding FATEs and the like to get us to Rank 11.
During this time we have also established Community Nights, where we get together in game and talk and hang out. These regular events have been relatively successful, if a bit irregular at times. These have been useful for getting everyone together to hang out and have a good time, in addition to the spontaneous gatherings we may hold in game. I plan to continue these going forward, and hopefully making them more regular.
Furthermore, we have started Recruitment in earnest, which has led to many new faces joining us, mostly through the CWLS. We are still a relatively small Free Company and our server is currently Congested, so no new characters are being made Lamia at this time, which makes FC recruitment a bit more difficult. While the timing of the congestion status was unfortunate, and has likely put a hamper on some aspects of recruitment, I hope that the status will be rescinded by next patch, which will likely lead to the FC growing as well. Given this, our CWLS recruitment has gone quite a bit better than anticipated, and shows little signs of stopping.
Now, let us talk about our future. One of my big goals over the next several months is to see us obtain Free Company Housing. Given the amount of gil, and the general competition of housing I expect this to take a bit of time and effort to put together and this is a goal I would like all of us to work towards as well. A House would give us a more regular meeting and hangout space, we could customize it, along with granting all members the ability to purchase Free Company Rooms that they can customize, and also gives us access to more gil through Submarine and Airship Missions. It would grant us several bonuses for our members, Stables and Gardening to name a few. The current plan I have for this is to get a Small house first, and then we can upgrade to a larger house later on. Regardless though, we will need at least 3,000,000 Gil in order to buy it, not including the cost of furnishings.
All that said though, I am proud of our success so far in our journey into Final Fantasy XIV. While it has been a bit slow going, it is through perseverance that we will grow. It is through a steady hand, and a clear mind that we can move towards the future and obtain success. I would also like to extend a thank-you to every single member of our Free Company and CWLS, and our wider community, for being here, for we would not be here without each and every one of you. Thank-you all for your time.
Meet the New Minecraft Neighbors: Hanan!
Sometimes a single small action has the most profound and wonderful effects.
Back in May, Minecraft server owner taulover invited his real-life friend, LightRuler, to join our Minecraft server. I feel like this alone is profound…you don’t invite your friends to a place you have no faith in. He in turn invited his group of Minecraft-playing friends to join too, and within days we had a massive influx of new players, both from the new group of players named Hanan and from the Northern Coalition, which is rooted in a group of players who established themselves on the server back in December.
But Hanan didn’t just bring new players to the server. They brought a new culture and way of doing things. Where in the past individuals built their bases mostly by themselves, Hanan is building a single base by dividing it into smaller districts led by a member based on their talents and preferences and guided by group discussion. Because of this Hanan is able to build huge, intricate buildings that are both functional and awe-inspiring. Despite never having been involved in NationStates, Hanan has a government as well, a constitutional monarchy with a queen and prime minister, which also makes decisions via direct democracy.
I had the pleasure of touring Hanan’s old server along with their Prime Minister, LightRuler, who was kind enough to answer some questions about Hanan for our update!
How did Hanan form? The precursors of the Hanan community emerged in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic as an in-game Philippines. Dometha convinced me to join the viral ArksEarth Minecraft server after seeing it on TikTok - essentially, this was a Minecraft server of 150+ active people online playing on a scaled earth map split into different countries. We started as a revolutionary Philippines fighting against German occupation, eventually reclaiming our country and creating a Pacific Union to preserve a community of likeminded, quiet, and reasonable people in a loud, and more than occasionally toxic "international community." Traditions have built up over time, leading us to the current structure we have - a Queen who was initially elected as president, a Prime Minister, and a mostly consensus-based democracy. We’ve had our own attempts to live on our own server as a community but with varying success over the years as people got busy.
How did Hanan arrive on the Wintreath server? I’m friends with Tau in real life, and he mentioned he played on this server! The Hanan community had been wanting to play on larger servers for some time in the spirit of friendly competition. We were… less than pleased with our welcome onto the server, but we’re hoping to make up for lost time.
Your government-sort of structure, did that come about from being on the ArksEarth server, and if so why have you maintained it for so long afterwards? 100% comes from being on the ArksEarth server, and it wound up being a way to keep us rooted in where we came from as a community. It was a great way to keep us organised and focused back then, and it's come back to life a little bit now. Our Parliament went from elected members to direct democracy lately, giving our community a more direct say in what happens with us.
We'd like to think we're casual as well, but hanan (in the words of numberxiii) is a collection of people who are sweaty in different ways
Sweaty? Goodness xD Just lots of talent and hyperfixation with us! anything from redstone, to builds, to resource speedrunning and pvp, we've got it haha
Any future plans for Hanan in the Minecraft server or Wintreath at large? Future plans! We're still working these through, we want to focus on the development of our home islands and eventually connect to the rest of the world through rail, most likely starting with you since you're the closest geographically
Wintermoot’s response: That sounds exciting! Especially for me ^^
While I was touring, I asked LightRuler a question out of curiosity. I didn’t intend it for the newsletter, so I don’t have the exact quote, but it's something that's stuck with me ever since. I asked him, with all the time and effort they put into that server, why did they want to start from scratch on a different server? He replied (and this is from my memory) that it got boring just being by themselves and they wanted a new Minecraft home where there were other people. A home. As I said in my Pride Month announcement, Wintreath is “a place for anyone who knows that different does not mean wrong”. Wintreath is my online home, and it fills me with pride and satisfaction knowing that it’s an online home for others, too.
As LightRuler alluded to, Hanan’s arrival was initially met with trepidation by some. On a server that has rarely had more than 3 people on at one time, I suppose the arrival of a large group can feel intimidating. But on Hanan’s old server, among the numerous incredible buildings were small but meaningful gestures: a monument in the memory of a member’s pets who passed away, and another monument for the therapist who diagnosed another member with autism. I thought these were deeply touching expressions of care and humanity that have stuck with me. It was fascinating to hear how they actually used their Parliament building, including a chamber for discussion and votes, complete with seats and a desk for each member. And while our governments are slightly different, they operate on the same principle: that every person should have a say in what the group does.
So it seems to me that not only do our groups have a lot in common, but that a new group with different perspectives and ways of doing things can only enrich our own community. In the mid-2010s, the community of New Hyperion merged into Wintreath, which not only led to a golden age that lasted for years, but whose members are still part of what we do to this day. It's for Hanan to decide how involved with Wintreath they wish to be, but at the very least I'm excited to get to know new people who want to make our Minecraft server a home, not to mention seeing more of their breathtaking creations!
News in Briefs
For old times' sake... This image was used in Orendi IV, released on May 2nd, 2014
For those who were around over a decade ago, you might remember News in Briefs as a segment in the Orendi, Wintreath’s original update. There, additional news was briefly summarized, usually with a comedic picture of a pair of briefs. The fact is, over the course of 3 months much has happened and elaborating on all of it would turn this update into a book. So, here’s some news in briefs:
On May 18th, I released the Governance and Decision-Making in Wintreath guide, which explains the processes for in-character and out-of-character decisions. Namely, Wildflowers have full authority over in-character decisions, while out-of-character matters are advisory. These consultations are expected to happen, but the final decision rests with the relevant area leader. The guide also explains the discussion process and explains the role of the facilitator, or person responsible for discussions moving forward and that proposals, objections, and ideas are fairly considered.
Around the same time, we came together to update our NationStates recruitment telegram, which had not been updated since 2023. The telegram was updated to include Winterkind, removed some forum and web games we no longer play, highlighted our neurodiverse community (the message already highlighted our LGBTQ+ and furry communities), and reworded the government section to include our consensus-based way of doing things. Beyond that, the telegram was overhauled to sound more casual and natural. Thanks to the numerous people who improved on the original draft and made suggestions!
We spent several weeks debating whether to establish relations with The Pacifica. The objections that were made were not specific to The Pacifica, but concerned establishing relations with new regions that haven’t had time to become established, set moderation policies, or have a history that we can look back on. However, those objections were withdrawn with the understanding that I would verify that there is no problematic content and that there would be a future discussion on policy concerning establishing relations with new and small communities.
There was an unexpected amount of interest over who Wintreath would support for the NationStates World Assembly Secretariat Elections, which would give five nations new powers to publicly recommend or not recommend World Assembly proposals at vote. We supported Ameroind, who is a Wildflower and an active member in our community. After Wintreath was lobbied to consider candidates with more votes, Wildflowers decided to only do so if needed to prevent a candidate from a fascist region from winning a seat, which never happened. Ultimately, Ameroind came in 11th place, which is a great standing for a relatively unknown candidate from a small region, and I am happy we could support a member of our community!
Over two rounds, our Discord received the first major overhaul since 2023 with the creation of new channels. The first round happened in late April with the establishment of the Blue Night category, with new channels for Wildflowers to chat, express more longform thoughts, and share pictures or screenshots from their lives. The vent channel was also moved to this area, and the content-warning channel was renamed to #politics, returning it to the name it originally had in 2020. The second round happened in early June and added new channels for Final Fantasy XIV and NationStates chat, while renaming the existing NationStates channel where posts from the RMB are relayed.
Over the past few months, taulover has added several new Minecraft server mods, introducing custom armor stand poses, support for Simple Voice Chat which allows for group DMs and voice chats, and custom records and goat horns for those with the Simple Voice Chat mod installed. Chunks that people had been on for less than 5 minutes were also pruned to keep the server running at peak performance - over time many inactive chunks had been created by people exploring across the server.
Wintreath Group Photos!
Meeting at the Limsa Lominsa Aftcastle before starting the first night's events! From left to right: Minda Foxgamergirl, Lunamaria Parfait (Nox), A'samih Khilo (Chanku), and Wyntren Muthyrn (Wintermoot) Screenshot by Chanku
At the end of the second night's event, with prize mounts being shown (yes, the gorilla and the chair are mounts)! From left to right: Wyntren Muthyrn (Wintermoot), A'samih Khilo (Chanku), Calum Thalasa, and Tashiro Kairo Screenshot by Chanku
The Galactic Autarchy of Magna Hyperion
The Galactic Autarchy of Magna Hyperion
The Custodianship of Esmerel
The Kingdom of Helios Isles
The Democratic Empire of Rationalist Science
The Aesir Empire of Aragonn
The Planetary reserve of Araminta Station
The Associate Custodianship of Esterlon
The Hyperian Protectorate of Empirical Science
The Loving Couple of I Ship It
The New Hyperion Autocracy of Genesis
The Shadow Proxy of Wintermoot II
The Democratic republic of Peopleschinese of the region China Home proposed constructing embassies.
The Republic of 2e Usine de Cartes departed this region for THE W0RLD.
The Secretariat of The Embassy 3 of the region The Embassy 3 proposed constructing embassies.
The Fdration of Australian rePublic of the region Regionless proposed constructing embassies.
The Confederacy of Atherosclerosis of the region New Hypertension agreed to construct embassies.
The Aesir Empire of Aragonn as Lord of Culture in New Hyperion.
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The Planetary reserve of Araminta Station
The Shadow Proxy of Wintermoot II
The Hyperian Protectorate of Empirical Science
The Cloud Cuckooland of Rhina
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